Columnists

Saturday is America's favorite summer holiday, Independence Day. In normal times, we celebrate the fourth of July with backyard barbecues or ballpark outings or beach parties. This year, because of the pandemic, most of us will "celebrate" by sheltering in place. Fortunately, on the third of July, Donald Trump will inaugurate a new national holiday, "Lemming Day." -more-

The mental health treatment system, composed of the people being treated for a psychiatric condition and those treating us, could be seen as a sub-society; it would be a small segment of society that can be distinguished from the mainstream of those who work at professional and/or union jobs, as well as the affluent, as well as undocumented workers.

Within this sub-society of mentally ill people and their practitioners, the often-unspoken rules of behavior and the expectations are substantially different from the rules and expectations in other areas of life.

Mentally ill people are taught helplessness. Psychotherapists have a great deal of verbal agility, and they use it to steer the thinking of the consumer toward beliefs of generalized impotence. Medication plays a role in this. Psych meds do a lot to make clients' minds malleable. Many mentally ill people do not have the same level of psychological defenses as the average person. The therapists know how to take advantage of gaps in our defenses, whether they are produced by being medicated, or whether they arise from other causes.

When we are taught helplessness, we become easier to supervise, easier to keep corralled, and less a potential source of problems for the greater society. Most of us are not potentially a threat to people. Yet people do not want us showing up at Starbuck's during the morning busy hours and dancing shirtless. (This scenario is not intended to ostracize mentally ill people. I have heard of a man who got into trouble for doing just that, at a business.) -more-

In April 2020, The Harvard Kennedy School published a research article, The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US. The Article shows that Americans who relied on right-wing sources like Fox News, Breitbart News, One, America News, The Drudge Report or Rush Limbaugh, received misinformation about the pandemic, entertained conspiracy theories and discouraged them from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others from the virus. -more-

Six Months Left?

The Chronicle's biggest story of the week (if not the Millennium) was buried at the bottom of the Sporting Green.

The lead item in the June 28 edition of the Earthweek column read: "The International Energy Agency in Paris has warned that world leaders have only six months to take measures to control carbon emissions before a post-shutdown recovery brings a surge in greenhouse gasses that may be impossible to curb."

With wildfires (fed by 100-plus-degree temperatures) devouring Siberia, we're running out of time. Al Gore once asked: "Can't you hear what Mother Nature is screaming at you?" Well, today, Mother Nature isn't just screaming, she's shrieking in terror. We need a Green New Deal to replace the Grim Old Deal and its unsustainable addictions to carbon combustion, resource consumption, poisonous pollution, and endless war.

A 'Green Stimulus' Bill: Pelosi to the Rescue

According to a Pew Research Center poll, two-thirds of Americans want the government to do more to address the climate catastrophe. A Data for Progress poll in May found that 58% of Americans want to abandon coal, gas, and oil for 100% clean energy. (The breakdown is 76% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and $38% of Republicans.)

The Democrats are listening—and it's no longer just the Green New Deal Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has unveiled a 500-page proposal that has been called the "most detailed climate plan in US political history." A letter signed by 59 House Democrats is calling for a host of Green Deal provisions in a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill and Pelosi has committed to eliminating all planet-cooking emissions by 2050.

City Scofflaws Unmasked -more-