Convergence
We're in a state of unprecedented polycrisis. The fight is now.
I've got wild staring eyes
And I've got a strong urge to fly, but I got nowhere to fly to— Pink Floyd, The Wall, Nobody Home
My eyes aren’t wild and staring yet, but they could get there the way things are rolling.
First, an update to my post Banking on Disaster. A kind reader sent me a link to a tool to help us find fossil fuel free banks. I updated the article, but the link can be found right here as well, BankGreen. Thank you to It’s that Deaf Guy over on Mastodon.
Since then, Lynn U. researched New Zealand Banks. Thank you, Lynn! Apparently, the tool was confused about a New Zealand bank, Taranaki Savings Bank (TSB), claiming it’s owned by a Banco Sabadell. It mistook New Zealand’s TSB with a UK bank, also abbreviated to TSB, so this tool might not be perfect. I had to research my bank independently, too little information was available.
Humanity is in a polycrisis without historic comparison. We face political, economic, and environmental crises at a scale never seen before. When I started writing three years ago with a focus on climate change, it’s because the planet is everything to us. Its health determines our health, and social and economic prosperity. The breakdown of the biosphere is now actively killing people and forcing climate migration. Its continued breakdown guarantees shattered economies, world-wide unrest, and violent police and military governmental crackdowns. This is occurring at the same time fascism and religious fundamentalism are forming an unholy alliance to enact an authoritarian takeover of government, that destroys civil liberties, declares war on anyone who is “different,” and dismantles environmental regulation, and public education. It’s openly planned and detailed in Project 2025 which turns the president into a king, and installs sycophants loyal to the agenda. There will be no checks and balances, no due process. We will live in a dystopian state, and the words I write now at that point could get me killed. Trump is merely the spearhead for an agenda that will put the final bullet in democracy.
People are dropping dead world over from record heat. Dozens died in India going to the polls a few weeks ago, and in Mexico at least 112 succumbed to record heat in recent weeks. The annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia resulted in over 900 fatalities so far. Without a doubt, these numbers will go up as many thousands more who experienced heat stroke die and autopsies are performed. In 2023, at least 15,000 people died in heat related deaths in Africa, and that grim process is under way again, but hold on, there’s good news. The reapers of death have found abundant oil drilling potential in Namibia, where not just one, not just two, but THREE oil discoveries have been made. Hearty congratulations to Shell, who’s clever plan is to power new rigs with dead black people, very efficient, thereby increasing value to shareholders. Some think Namibia could be a top oil producer by 2035 if there are enough bodies to fuel the operation and the entire planet isn’t on fire.
Meanwhile in America, convicted felon, sex offender, and senile, gibberish spouting Donald Trump who roams free, travel limited only by Secret Service diaper changes every ten miles, held a Mar-a-Lago dinner party for twenty top US oil bosses. He pledged if they donate just one billion dollars to his election campaign, he will enact policies to increase oil drilling and reverse pollution rules.
In further good news, Phoenix in the swing state of Arizona has solved last year’s annoying problem of 645 people dying from temperatures rivaling hell. They’ve put up an internet page with a body count dashboard. If you can’t beat them, count them. Also, silver lining, nearly half the people who died were homeless, killing two birds with one stone. Since we’re on birds now, don’t look up, they’re falling out of the sky from avian flu, H5N1, which has jumped to cows and a few humans now in the cattle industry. House mice, too.
Speaking of things falling, back in Mexico at least 147 howler monkeys fell out of the trees dead from heat in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, as well as parrots, bats, and toucans. In a related fun fact, back to cows again, our penchant for global warming beef has resulted in the bovines having nine times the biomass of all the wild creatures on Earth we haven’t managed to kill yet. IMO, that figure HAS to be improved on. When I interviewed Milton Friedman from his grave, he was shocked we haven’t killed everything yet, and wondered what happened to the lofty neocapitalist standards he pioneered.
In other news, the plastics industry continues to prosper and has found a novel way to reduce islands of plastic the size of Texas floating in oceans. Feed it to whales. The most recent Heroic Whale of the Month recipient sponsored by top plastic producer ExxonMobil ingested a respectable 88 pounds of the polymers, including dozens of rare and highly collectible Pez dispensers that attracted hundreds of aficionados to pick diligently through the carcass. I myself have set on Craigslist, a Bugs Bunny, Herman Munster, and exceedingly rare Kermit the Frog that I expect to fetch upwards of $25,000 because capitalism is well, just fucking stupid. Let me know if you want a link to this rare opportunity. When asked how she felt about being a monthly winner, the whale named Wanda responded, “I planned to do so much more, but now I’m dead. I hope humanity will forgive me.” Other dead whales chimed in with the same sentiment.
Dolphins were pissed, however. After decades of mass beaching themselves in acts of peaceful civil disobedience to call attention to their hemorrhaged ear drums from military sonar up to 215 decibels loud, they felt disrespected. Former TV star Flipper commented, “You know, Taylor Swift concerts are half as loud as what we endure, and because we have fins we’re unable to stuff cotton balls in our ears. It’s kind of inconsiderate.” Famous for saving human beings because dolphins value life unlike Homo sapiens, and exhibit tolerance for those different from themselves, he also lamented they couldn’t save the young woman who died of heat complications at Swift’s concert in Brazil last winter. He said, “You know, it’s stupid, but we love saving humans. That tragedy made me wish we were still land animals.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, was confused about dolphins at one time being land animals. I tried to explain I learned that in third grade to no avail, as she was engrossed in a Creationism Museum pamphlet. She only moved her lips a little bit as she read.
Let me thank Big Oil for this post, without which I could not write this merriment. If those rascally pranksters had fessed up to knowing the climate disaster was coming, I wouldn’t have been able to write this article. I am so grateful for the opportunity and sure hope the government continues to give y’all subsidies, so I can do this some more.
Bullies
I got elastic bands keepin' my shoes on
Got those swollen hand blues
I got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from
I've got electric light
And I've got second sight
I got amazing powers of observation
And that is how I know, when I try to get through
On the telephone to you, there'll be nobody home
I was a weird kid. My dad was a weird dad. He had a rare commodity, integrity. Because of my father’s integrity, we moved. And moved again. And moved again. And again. Integrity comes at a high price in this world. It cost the whole family. I was undersized and frequently the new kid on the block, a poor combination. I was bullied, which gave me a wicked temper that I didn’t overcome until decades later. That anger hurt me and others for a long time. Big sad lesson.
Kids who are bullied and neglected, especially by their parents, become adult bullies. From what I understand, in part that’s Trump’s story. I’m not going to research it, so correct me if I’m wrong. I’d rather eat a bucket of worms.
At the lowest point, I spent three summers in my basement between about ages nine and twelve building model cars. There was a bigger, older kid, Joe Kowalski, who would show up at the neighborhood baseball and football games and threaten and humiliate me. At the lowest point I did something shameful, beat up another kid, smaller than myself, because I wanted to know what it felt like. It didn’t feel good.
Up the street in the other direction were Kevin and Marty Houlihan, big unpredictable kids, twice my size, non-identical twins from a broken home, who I witnessed hang a kitten on a clothesline. They also fooled me into putting my face in a laundry chute and dropping spit in my eye. I remember it was painful, but mostly I remember the humiliation. Looking back at Kevin and Marty, I realize they were broken, too, if not full-fledged bullies, like Joe.
Books were always part of my life, I vividly remember the thrill of learning to read, the worlds that opened up. When Joe Kowalski was making my life miserable at age eight, I had probably already read a hundred books or more. The first ones I remember were a series of biographies of early American patriots, and the one I will never forget was the story of Nathan Hale, the school teacher who spied on the British whose last words before he was hung were, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” I was moved by that courage.
We live in a time when bullies have taken over most of the system. They’re not satisfied to have what they have and let you have what you have because, they’re insecure.
Growing up in fear of bullies, I learned to act tough and walk with a swagger. That didn’t always work. I still got victimized and sometimes had to fight until my junior year of high school. There was no other choice. Sometimes I won, sometimes I took a pounding.
My last scuffle came in college. I had a job in a taco and sub shop, most unfortunately located next to a sports bar. From 10 until closing, the drunk jocks would come in. One night, a big guy hit a much smaller kid minding his own business in the head with a sealed can of Coke, essentially a brick. I ran out from behind the counter to tie him up, ending up going for a ride on his back, knocking over tables and chairs as he tried to throw me off, wondering if I was going through the huge plate glass window. The crew I worked with who I thought I could count on stayed behind the counter, cowards, every single one of them.
Fortunately, the cops were timely.
We are living in a time when we need extraordinary courage. We are living in a time when we can’t cede an inch. You can never give a bully ground, because their goal is to take everything. We’re living at a time when each one of us has to fight in whatever way we can. I can’t jump on some dipshit football player’s back anymore, so I fight with my words, which come November could become mortally dangerous depending on the election outcome. We must risk everything now, because everything is at risk.
Thank you, Robin. My writing isn't very premeditated. I start with something on my mind (preferably fired up) and let it take me where it will. I wonder what happened to the lives of those kids I encountered. No fear.
One of your best (and maybe most heartfelt) posts. Keep 'em coming till they come for you. Living where I do they'll probably come for me, too.