Oldest North American feathered friends,
Bigger than ducks, longer, thicker necks than grebes,
Splendiferous sculpted aquatic bodies,
Land walking nah,
Lifetime in water, save mating, nesting ashore.
Part submarine, part fighter jet,
Long open water runways,
Pattering into wind across watery faces,
Head down, hunched back, nose of jet.
Powerful wingbeats, impressive 112kph aeronautics.
What is “vengeful taxation”? That seems to be the sticking point now for my senator Joe Manchin from supporting some version of the Democratic social safety net spending program. Note how over the years, the emphasis in discussion has changed from describing the objective of the bills, to strictly focus on the overall cost of the programs. But back to “vengeful taxation”, according to Manchin it is not vengeful to seek the correction of the 2017 tax cut bill, as long as the tax rate for corporations keeps them globally competitive. Whatever that means.
Look, we in West Virginia have benefitted from the attention paid to this small, land-locked state lacking in so much of what is valued in the US these days. Having a Senator at the fulcrum of power is useful. And I am reminded of how small this state really is when I recall we encountered Senator Manchin at a local restaurant as he came in, bereft of staff and entourage, to join a party at another table. He gave us a couple of minutes as my wife pressed a couple of points home to him, and he was able to respond in the way many politicians have mastered – clasping hands, literally backslapping, and saying nothing that could not be interpreted in many different ways.
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With 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border, Vladimir Putin (whatever his title) is playing a very dangerous game. Putin wants the Ukraine. His Russia is not enough for him. Like any power-hungry autocrat, the largest country on the globe is not enough. Putin doesn’t want to “liberate” Ukraine; he wants to enslave it, although he will put any conflict in terms of a “liberation.” He will also explain any conflict as being Ukraine started by the Ukraine, even though the Ukraine has no interest in attacking Russia.
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Not too long ago, after watching my neighbor’s FUCK BIDEN flag proudly flutter in the afternoon breeze, I wondered if there wasn’t something that we could / I could / you could do to make things better instead of even more divisive, and I got the seed of an idea. Not a complete idea, just a thought: Maybe I/we could sponsor some sort of contest to encourage people to write songs or poems about unity or the goodness of our nation.
I emailed a couple buddies and my favorite college professor – the only person with the possible exception of Vince Lombardi that I have ever idolized or revered – to see what they thought of my notion. The response I got from my professor was quick and clear, and the caps are his: I HATE THE LEFT.
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Credulity, naiveté, vanity, confidence,
Irresponsibility, greed, planet-killing.
Men, money, power, immortalise,
The long game, high stakes, illusions.
Name your price? More!
Unctuous fossil fuel conmen seep assuredly,
Mustn’t leave anyone without,
Such slithery goop duplicity bathed.
Asphyxiating pollution, black gold drying up,
Price ever-rising, people alert.
Oppressive deathful hideous heat,
Combusting subsidised fossil fuels, wood pellets,
palm oil be damned.
Fire Age dire, so strange, past irrelevant,
No-narrative, no-analogue tomorrow.
So immense unimaginable coming upheavals,
Inherited knowledge arc, past to future, broken.
No precedent forthcoming,
Impossible to triangulate accumulated wisdom.
A future never known.
Hale diminutive warm-blooded hummingbirds,
Joyful, bathing, fearless, 80kph speedsters,
Heard before seen, iridescent metallics.
Brush-tipped tongues French kiss flowers,
One thousand to two thousand sexy daily osculations.
Rolling shoulder joints, wingtip figure eights,
Two hundred beats per second, the perfect hoverer.
Altering wing angle, forward, backward, sideways,
Enthralling upside-down airborne acrobatics, finesse.
Practise. Forty million years. Stupendous!
Highest animal oxygen requirements,
Nine thin-walled air sacs,
Supreme lung gas volume.
Three hundred breaths per minute rest,
Five hundred breaths per minute flight.
Copious nectar rich water, 160 per cent body weight, daily.
Gnats, flies, aphids, beetles,
Delectable spider silk-wrapped prey, proteinaceous insects!
Overnight food cache, crop satiates caloric needs,
Autumn gorge doubles body weight.
Sailing a twenty-seven hundred kilometre-migration!
Fulltime Pacific Northwest residents, Anna’s.
Unexampled Arctic climate storms frostbiting, deadly.
Lifeless looking miraculously still alive!
Urban rescuers warm feeders thrice daily,
Recipe in hand: one thumb sugar, four fingers water.
Blest be ye fine feathered friends!
#UnearthlyWails
#ZeroCombustionEconomy2030
#GoVegan
#RefuseStuff
#BoycottChineseGoods
#RefusePlastics
#WalkMore
#ForestBathing
#LoveNature
#LoveIsTheSolution
#GenZEmergency
Reese Halter is a bees/trees/seas defender.
His latest book is GenZ Emergency.
Email: HalterBooks@gmail.com for your autographed copy.
In Australia, order from the Bob Brown Foundation by emailing: Contact@BobBrown.org.au
New Year’s Day 2022, 6 AM
Another new January 1st:; another new year to look forward to; another old year to look back on. A fleeting moment of reflection, resolution and recalibrating. A flash of a lifetime to ponder what is working and what is not, what makes us happy and what does not, what is important and what simply is not.
It is easy to declare that personal health is the most important thing in life, for without that we are without our power. It is easy to surmise that family is the most important thing, as our loved ones help us feel grounded and connected and loved. Financial stability, education, professional success and societal status are all things that may top your list of ‘most important’, and to each his own. Conversely, perhaps the most important thing is one that we usually don’t even consider: being human.
What sets us apart form the other creatures of Earth is that we are self-aware; capable of introspection, imagination, reasoning, and morality. These higher-level skills separate us from the beasts and form the basis of our global culture as a species. So, what’s going on? Because more and more we seem to be a nation and a people of non-thinking, non-reasoning, non-rational creatures.
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If you’re like me and was coming of age when the first Matrix dropped in 1999, this was more than just a film. It was a paradigm shifting experience. From the storyline – a reality bending what-if, to special effects never before seen on the big screen, and a theme that would later lead me to question the very existence I knew which – is still evident today, in my adult career as a journalist. It was complete with the perfect pairing of angry, thought-proving, tracks from Rage Against the Machine.
SPOILER ALERTS!
By now, most of you have probably seen at least the first of the original Matrix trilogy. But if you haven’t – I suggest you stop reading now.
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