( Tomdispatch.com ) – Recently, I’ve been turning off my iPhone — all the way off! — for 10 to 30 minutes at a time. I leave it somewhere in the house, while I try to live IRL (“in real life”), washing dishes, hanging up laundry, or even going for a walk, phoneless. In this hyper-connected […]
Living in Red-Card America: From Fear to Action
( Tomdispatch.com ) – “It is pretty wild how you can make someone mad by just holding a sign,” my 18-year-old Ro told me, as an irate driver peeled out of the intersection, shaking both his middle fingers at us but managing not to hit us. Phew! Ro was right. It didn’t take much to […]
A Final Speech from the Great Disruptor (If only in my Dreams)
( Tomdispatch.com ) – My inbox is full of lament (and encouragement). My Instagram feed is full of anger and “the arc of the moral universe bends slow but…” My Facebook brims with exhortations to focus on the positive, on what we can control, on the next fight. I live in a poor Democratic stronghold […]
Militarism Abuse Disorder: A Very American Malaise
( Tomdispatch.com ) – My name is Frida and my community is military dependent. (I feel, by the way, like I’m introducing myself at a very strange AA-like meeting with lousy coffee.) As with people who have substance abuse disorders, I’m part of a very large club. After all, there are weapons manufacturers and subcontractors in […]
The Art of the Submarine: Or 5,824 Hiroshima’s per Sub
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Walk through any art museum and you’re likely to see a mix of the classical and contemporary, impressionist and surrealist, refined and raw, beautiful, eerie, and provocative. Looking at art allows me at least a few moments of relief from the “that’s just the way it is” attitude of our hyper-consumerist, […]
Grappling with Nuclear Dangers at 90 Seconds to Midnight
( Tomdispatch.com ) – What’s in your basement? Mine is full of things I’ve mostly forgotten about — tools I bought for projects I never completed, long abandoned sports equipment, furniture I planned on refinishing ages ago, and unused cans of paint I thought I wanted when someone was giving them away. We’ve owned this […]
When we Drive Gasoline Cars & Run Air Conditioning off Coal, We’re declaring a Hot War on Ourselves
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Too hot. Too dry. Too many weapons. This world needs changing. But that’s too vague. After all, this world is already changing, just not in ways that are good for you and me. You know the facts. July 2023 was the hottest month on record — ever — since we humans […]
90 Seconds to Midnight: The Doomsday Clock and Me
(Tomdispatch.com ) – I’m not a TikTok person. I’m too old. But when I finally ventured onto that popular but much-maligned app, which traffics in short videos and hot takes, I was surprised to find many videos about the Doomsday Clock. It’s nothing like a conventional timepiece, of course. It’s meant to show how close […]
The Day After: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow on a Broiling Planet
( Tomdispatch.com ) – When I was growing up, there was a parody of an old-fashioned public announcement tacked to the wall of our kitchen that I vividly remember. It had step-by-step instructions for what to do “in case of a nuclear bomb attack.” Step 6 was “bend over and place your head firmly between […]
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