Time is a Circle ...

Medicine Wheel, a Native American sacred site and National Historic Landmark in Wyoming

Time is a circle.

We come from so far into the future, that it seems like we come from the past.

We come from so far in the past, that it seems like we come from the future.

Ignorance is journeying the circumference of the circle in search of a destination.

Wisdom is understanding the true relationship of the circumference and its center.

Time is a circle; and that circle is a wheel.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

The Silence Deepens ...

Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy Silence Has Settled (1890

Odilon Redon, Christ in Silence (1895)

The silence deepens.

Not the silence of isolation; but the silence that absorbs the cacophony of civilization and transmutes it into the music of the spheres.

It travels with you, harder to shake then your shadow, harder to hide from than your conscience.

It is where everything precious that you have forgotten awaits remembrance. It is yours even in the roar of the crowd.

It does not answer questions; it dissolves them.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

If You Don't Shift the Power, You are Going to Get the Shaft

Georgia O'Keefe, Blue and Green Music, 1921

"The case for acknowledging the Rights of Nature cannot be understated”, says Maude Barlow ... “Every now and then in history, the human race takes a collective step forward in its evolution. Such a time is upon us now as we begin to understand the urgent need to protect the Earth ..." One Year After BP Oil Disaster, UN General Assembly to Debate Whether Nature Has Rights, Global Exchange/Council of Canadians, 4-18-11

The hard truth is that there are no shortcuts to correcting the imbalance that now exists in the U.S. political/media system ... But the consequences of the Right’s strategy – and the Left’s miscalculations – are apparent in the audacity of today’s congressional and statehouse Republicans in proposing the virtual repeal of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and even Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive era. Robert Parry, How I View thew American Crisis, Consortium News, 4-17-11

If You Don't Shift the Power, You are Going to Get the Shaft

By Richard Power

Mother Earth is close to turning hostile toward us, the climate that human "civilization" has based itself on for two millennia is collapsing, the most fundamental resources (i.e., fresh water, soil, forests and oceans teeming with biodiversity) are all being stressed to their breaking points; and the U.S.A., which was supposed to be the beacon of "liberty AND justice" for all is on the verge of losing itself in a madness it is not likely to emerge from whole.

The fact that neither the political establishment, nor the US mainstream news media, expend any hot air on either of these millennium-shaping crises, should be of great concern to the body politic. Unfortunately, hypnotized by the false memes of infotainmentstan and Beltwayistan, and traumatized by the thousand and one unnatural shocks that has been unleashed upon it, the body politic appears to be incapable of acting with any clarity or purpose. (Witness the 2010 mid-terms elections.)

Meanwhile, gangs of sociopaths and their Renfields are looting and pillaging, and terrorizing across the nation and the planet seemingly without the least accountability.

Here is some vital context and continuity on our circumstances.

Natural Born Killers

The U.S.A. is not in the throes of a struggle between two political ideologies, it is in the throes of a mental health crisis

One reason most countries don't find the time to embrace Ayn Rand's thinking is that she is a textbook sociopath. In her notebooks Ayn Rand worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of "ideal man" she promoted in her more famous books. These ideas were later picked up on and put into play by major right-wing figures of the past half decade, including the key architects of America's most recent economic catastrophe -- former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox -- along with other notable right-wing Republicans such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Mark Ames, AlterNet, 2-26-11

Contours of the Global Order

In a brilliant analysis for Tom Dispatch, Noam Chomsky offers insight on the big picture.

I do not want to end without mentioning another externality that is dismissed in market systems: the fate of the species. Systemic risk in the financial system can be remedied by the taxpayer, but no one will come to the rescue if the environment is destroyed. That it must be destroyed is close to an institutional imperative ... If such things were happening in some small and remote country, we might laugh. Not when they are happening in the richest and most powerful country in the world. And before we laugh, we might also bear in mind that the current economic crisis is traceable in no small measure to the fanatic faith in such dogmas as the efficient market hypothesis, and in general to what Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 15 years ago, called the "religion" that markets know best -- which prevented the central bank and the economics profession from taking notice of an $8 trillion housing bubble that had no basis at all in economic fundamentals, and that devastated the economy when it burst ... As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please Noam Chomsky, Is the World Too Big to Fail, Tom Dispatch, 4-21-11

"Shift the Power," Van Jones declared, "Shift the Conversation."

Recently, 10,000 young activists traveled to Beltwayistan to commit themselves to a profound Power Shift in the U.S. economic and political order; and strong, articulate leaders roused them with powerful, hard-hitting speeches. The event was a poignant convergence of generational passions.

While they’re stuck on stupid in DC," Jones went on, "your generation is rising. Brad Johnson, Think Progress, 4-17-11

But the US mainstream media chose instead to take you to Madison, WI. where Sarah Palin and Andrew Brietbart addressed a few hundred Teabaggers at a rally, a paltry gathering which was outnumbered and drowned out by thousands of pro-democracy, pro-union activists. And, of course, the corporatist coverage did not mention the overwhelming numerical superiority of the progressive counter-protesters.

Meanwhile, here is what you missed if you weren't tuned into to the alternative media:

Al Gore: It’s true that governments by and large have been politically paralyzed because the energy companies ... There are four anti-climate lobbyists ... for every single member of the House and ... Senate ... What is the answer for this? ... It has to come from you. It has to come at the grassroots level. It has to come from young people ... Gore to Young Advocates: Battle Industry Lobbyists to Turn the Tide on Climate, The Hill, 4-16-11

Van Jones: You have to make a decision not to wait your turn. Dr. King was 25 years old in Montgomery. The Freedom Riders were 19 and 20 years old. The founders themselves were in their twenties and in their thirties. You have to make a decision not to wait your turn. Don’t let anybody tell you you’re going to be the leaders of tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised. You must be the leaders of today, Generation Power Shift. You’ve got to be the leaders today. Shift the power. Democracy Now, 4-22-11

Bill McKibben: Even the White House—two weeks ago, the Interior Secretary, who spoke here two years ago, Ken Salazar, signed a piece of paper opening 750 million tons of coal under federal land in Wyoming to mining. That’s like opening 300 new coal-fired power plants and running them for a year. That’s a disgrace. Democracy Now! 4-22-11

For insightful coverage of both the UN General Assembly debate on the Rights of Mother Earth and the Power Shift 2011 conference, I refer you to 4-22-11 edition of Democracy Now! (And as you view this real-world journalism, consider for a moment how much Amy Goodman and her team do with so little, and how little CNN does with so much.)

Here are embedded videos of Bill McKibben and Van Jones speeches.

Bill McKibben, Power Shift 2011 Keynote


"Hold Both Parties to High Standards": Van Jones, Obama’s Ex-Green Jobs Czar


Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Regret & Grief Are Processes, Not Closed Loops.

Nicholas Roerich, Northern Midnight (1940)

Let go of the carcass that hangs around your neck. Cut it loose

Regret & grief are processes, not closed loops.

If you have dragged it this far, then you have completed half of the process.

You did not choose denial. You were willing to look, so willing that now it haunts you.

Time to cut it loose.

Not by pushing it away; but by embracing it, liberating it into a fire of tenderness that consumes all, even you.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Hard Rain Late Night: Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

Hard Rain Late Night: Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

Joy is Not An Effect for Which There is a Cause

Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly (or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi)

Joy is not an effect for which there is a cause.

Joy is a dimension of your being.

It is like the ocean. It surges ceaselessly.

But you have to remember to visit it. You have to surrender to it.

You have to listen. You have to inhale.
You have to take your shoes off.

You have to get into it.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

The Divine Reality Permeates Human Incarnation

Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram ... The Divine Reality permeates human incarnation, the experience offers itself with every breath, it is ever present in the space between this thought and the next ... Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram ...

The Elemental Powers of Sat-Chit-Ananda are Your Essential Nature

The Goddess Gayatri

Consider putting aside the term "meditation." Give it a rest.

Instead of conceiving "meditation" as something you do, allow yourself to embrace Sat-Chit-Ananda as something you are.

Clarity of mind is like the Sun, it only appears to come and go; it is us who turn away, but we cannot escape it.

Joy is like the ocean, it is ceaselessly surging and swelling. Swim and fish in that ocean.

Forgiveness is like the rain. It is vital to the roots. Welcome it when it comes, encourage others to step into it with you. If they are afraid, cup it in your hands and bring it to them.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Will Gaia Turn on the Human Race? For Her Survival, Yes. Will US Body Politic Turn on Beltwayistan & Infotainmentstan for Its Survival? Maybe, But ...

Max Ernst - Totem & Tabu (1941)

The few creatures that remained alive, such as the crabs, were too listless to flee ... Her conclusion? "I think it is not beyond the imagination that 50% of the oil is still floating around out there." Guardian, Has BP Really Cleaned Up the Gulf Oil Spill?, 4-13-11

Radiation above the legal limit has been detected in fish and vegetables in the Fukushima Prefecture, according to Japan’s health ministry. Radiation 25 times the limit of radioactive cesium was found in lances, a small fish ... The health ministry detected high levels of radiation in 11 kinds of vegetables. Raw Story, High levels of radiation detected in Japanese fish, vegetables, 4-14-11

Young penguins in the Antarctic may be dying because they are having a tougher time finding food, as melting sea ice cuts back on the tiny fish they eat, US researchers suggested on Monday. Agence France Press, Young penguins dying due to lack of food: study, 4-11-11

Cities worldwide are failing to take necessary steps to protect residents from the likely impacts of climate change, even though billions of urban dwellers are vulnerable to heat waves, sea level rise and other changes associated with warming temperatures. Terra Daily, Climate Change Poses Major Risks For Unprepared Cities, 4-11-11

Will Gaia Turn on the Human Race? For Her Survival, Yes. Will US Body Politic Turn on Beltwayistan & Infotainmentstan for Its Survival? Maybe, But ...

By Richard Power

The spiritual verities of our species do not belong to any particular religious tradition, and, indeed, more often than not, they survive in spite of these traditions, not because of them: The macrocosm is within the microcosm. All life is a oneness. Everything, and everyone, everywhere, is connected. The harm you inflict on another you inflict on yourself. Cultivate a quiet mind and an open heart. Laughter heals. Love liberates.

Cherish these verities, you will have great need of them, as we go deeper and deeper into the second decade of the 21st Century ...

Will Gaia Turn on the Human Race?

For Her own survival, yes.

It’s not enough to think of Eaarth as an impotent casualty of humanity’s predations. It is also a complex organic system with many potent defenses against alien intervention -- defenses it is already wielding to devastating effect when it comes to human societies. And keep this in mind: we are only at the beginning of this process. Michael Klare, The Planet Strikes Back!, Tom Dispatch, 4-14-11

She is already is turning on us, in numerous ways, some seen, some unseen, some acknowledged, some denied, some only now being openly considered.

For example, I was asking about the relationship between the Climate Crisis and intensified seismic activity as far back as a decade ago. The scientific corroboration is emerging slowly, and deliberately (as it should); but from the shamanic perspective, this link is already known to exist.

Scientists have for the first time shown a link between intensifying climate events and tectonic plate movement in findings that could provide a valuable insight into why huge tremors occur. Agence France Press, Climate change affects tectonic plate movement, causing earthquakes: study, 4-13-11

The Climate Crisis continues to be ignored in Beltwayistan and Infotainmentstan.

It is not being ignored in La Paz.

Bolivia is preparing to pass a new law that could lead to citizens challenging environmental destruction in court. A Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra (The Law of Mother Earth) would grant nature the same rights as humans, according to The Guardian.
The country will establish 11 new rights for nature, including: the right to exist, the right to continue natural cycles, the right to clean water and air, the right to be free of pollution, and the right not to have cellular structures altered or genetically modified. The law will also give nature the right "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities." Raw Story, Bolivia to ‘make world history’ by granting rights to Mother Nature, 4-12-11

Among the developed nations, in those circles that do entertain serious talk of Climate Crisis, the emphasis has shifted from mitigation to adaptation. That translates into "we missed the window to mitigate radical climate change in any significant, now we must re-focus on adapting to radical climate change." What are the chances that they will heed this urgency and drastic nature of this imperative to adapt anymore than they heeded the urgency and drastic nature of the imperative to mitigate? Not good. And even if they do, remember what the rich call "adaptation" translates into "abandonment" for the poor, i.e., we have abandoned them, so they must abandon their humble homes, their meager livelihoods and their age-old communities. (See Bolivia: Where adaptation equals abandonment, Climate Progress, 4-13-11)

Will the US Body Politic Turn on Beltwayistan & Infotainmentstan for Its Survival? Maybe, But ...

If it does, will it turn right to embrace death or left to embrace life?

And if it turns left, will it be reported? And if it isn't reported, will it still have happened?

How woefully under-reported was the extraordinary non-violent siege of the State Capitol by democratic forces in Madison. How quickly did it disappear from your TV screens only to be replaced dog-wagging war in Libya.

And no, I have nothing to say about POTUS' deficit speech, except that he did not mention Madison in it, and although he went after Ayn Rand poster boy Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which is good, he should have also gone after the Koch Brothers love child Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), and tied it all together.

But those who rail against POTUS as no better than Bush, etc., are acting foolishly, and so are those who defy reason in their blind defense of POTUS' indefensible compromises. (Of course, I still know the difference between Sonia Sotomayor and John Roberts, and between Elena Kagan and Samuel Alito. And that, if nothing else, is what will matter in 2012.)

The simple awful truth is that there is something very, very wrong in America, and unfortunately there is very little that one man (even wrapped as he is in the myth that he is the most powerful man in the world) can do about it, that is if he wants to live a long life.

Where should your strength be applied?

Fighting for the People's Budget, as proposed by the Progressive Caucus.

After all, the Progressive Caucus is larger than the Blue Dog Caucus was before it was decimated in 2010; and larger than the Teabaggers Caucus ever will be. Furthermore, the Progressive Caucus represents many more citizens (and therefore far more of the tax base) than both the Blue Dogs and the Teabaggers combined. But you will not hear the details of its budget proposals discussed seriously by Bob Schieffer or David Gergen or David Brooks or Juan Williams or David Gregory or any of the other Hollow Men whose false punditry frames the political debate on the air waves of Infotainmentstan.

[The Progressive Caucus'] simple solution: pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, install a public option for health care, raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations and voila, America is fixed. Talking Points Memo, House Progressives: End The Wars, Save The Economy, 4-13-11

It is painfully poignant that a mere three years after the Grant Park celebration in November 2008, tens of thousand citizens have been compelled to take up the one of the most radical acts of principled dissent, i.e., fasting.

So far, over 30,000 people are participating in a rolling fast to protest the immoral budget cuts Republicans are pushing in Washington. With some help from Grammy-nominated recording artist Moby, MoveOn.org Political Action has put together a short, powerful video about this fast. Please check it out and then help spread the message by passing it on ... MoveOn.org, Why 30,000 People Are Fasting, 4-12-11

Corporations are not persons. Money is not speech. Hand-counted paper ballots are the gold standard of democracies. Universal health care is a human right. Going true green (i.e., wind & solar) is our greatest national security imperative. War is a racket. We were not meant to be a government of the top 1% by the top 1% for the top 1%.

Oh yeah, and we are not broke.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

The Day -- Moby and MoveOn Protest Budget Cuts on the Poor


Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Welcome to the Machine. Meanwhile, the Hands in the Cave Paintings are Reaching Out to Us; Their Touch Transmits a Message

50,000 year old Abo cave paintings in Mutawintji National Park (130 km N.W. of Broken Hill, on the road to Tibooburra)

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time ...
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream?
It's alright we told you what to dream. -- Roger Waters, Pink Floyd, 1975

The death toll from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill goes far beyond the animal corpses washing ashore, says a report that warns that whale and dolphin deaths may be 50 times higher than believed. Post Media News, 3-30-11

Following our first monitoring team’s radiation findings, we called on the Japanese government to evacuate the contaminated areas outside the official zone ... Staying in Iitate for just a few days could mean exposure to the annual allowable dose of radiation ... The government has yet to call for an evacuation. Greenpeace, 4-4-11

Welcome to the Machine. Meanwhile, the Hands in the Cave Paintings are Reaching Out to Us; Their Touch Transmits a Message

By Richard Power

The cave paintings are the most powerful of paintings, and the most powerful cave paintings are the hands. They appear in many places, notably in Australia and in Argentina. Even across ten millennia, even across fifty millennia, the meaning of the symbol is no mystery. "We were here. You are here. We are you. You were us. When we were afraid you are afraid, when you are hungry we were hungry. Time is a whirling hoop. Touch is the greatest power of this world, and second only to Mind to Mind, which is of course beyond this world. Feel the power of love in your hands. Touch informs, touch heals. It was given to us from the beginning, we celebrate it, we touch you in dream-time ..."

These hands touch us. For tens of thousands of years they have been open, for tens of thousands of years they have been reaching out, for tens of thousands of years they have been welcoming, for tens of thousands of years they have been feeling for the throbbing life of the universe. They are your hands. Feel them, use them. We need that contact now, we need the information that those hands can transmit to us; we need to understand somatically what we have otherwise failed to understand.

Welcome to the Anthropocene

Welcome to the Antropocene. That's what scientists are calling this cheap knock-off of "Brave New World."

350.org's Bill McKibben explains.

The Holocene – the 10,000 years through which we have just come – was by all accounts a period of calm and stability on Earth ... We're now moving into a new geological epoch, one scientists are calling the Anthropocene – a world remade by man, most obvious in his emissions of carbon dioxide ... We still have plenty of purely natural disasters – though scientists can posit reasons climate change might make the world more seismically active, tectonic and volcanic forces seem beyond our reach; the great wave that broke over Sendai really did come out of the blue. But even in Japan, of course, the disaster was not entirely "natural". The subsequent fallout was… fallout, the invisible plume streaming from one of our highest-tech marvels, a complex reduced in minutes into something almost elemental, a kind of utility-owned volcano Bill McKibben, Natural Disasters?, Guardian, 4-2-11

It's not going too well.

The Amazon has been hit by its second 'once in a century' drought in five years, scientists say. Daily Mail, 2-4-11

More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit ... Agence France Press, 3-29-11

Yes, welcome to the machine. Madness embracing madness; is this the new norm? Sadly, yes.

Remember, oceans are the life of this planet, right?

Now consider this latest evidence from the ongoing narrative of the the Gulf Ecocide:

The offshore drilling firm responsible for running the Deepwater Horizon rig has given its top executives bonuses for its "best year" for safety. BBC, 4-3-11

Oil giant BP plans to restart deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, just a year after an explosion on one of its rigs sparked the worst spill in history. The group hopes to start work on 10 wells in the Gulf after being granted permission by U.S. regulators to continue work ... Daily Mail, 4-3-11

Now consider this latest evidence from the developing story of the Fukushima Multiple Meltdown:

Workers tried Sunday to block the leakage of highly radioactive water into the sea from the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant by injecting polymeric water absorbent that can soak up 50 times its volume, but the water flow remains unaffected ... Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, meanwhile, told a press conference that it could take several months before radiation stops leaking from the plant ... Kyodo News, 4-3-11

The operator of the crippled Fukushima complex begins releasing 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific to make room in storage tanks for even more highly contaminated water. Los Angeles Times, 4-4-11

Yes, you read it correctly. They are desperately trying to plug a leak of highly radioactive water into the ocean; at the same time, they are dumping highly radioactive water into the ocean. And they have no choice. Madness embracing madness.

Ponder what the Gulf Ecocide story looks like a year out from the flashpoint, and ask yourself what the Fukushima Multiple Meltdown story will look like a year out?

Hands at the Cuevas de las Manos upon Río Pinturas, near the town of Perito Moreno in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Meanwhile, as I have written again and again over this last decade, the Climate Crisis is our greatest existential threat, on both the national and global levels; it trumps everything except the nuclear threat, with which it ends in a dead heat (no pun intended). And as I have also said over and over again, Darfur is our greatest test of conscience; simply because we have lived with it now, in plain sight, pregnant with another genocide, for almost a decade.

How are we doing in overcoming these two great challenges?

The Climate Crisis

Given control of the White House, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, with an opportunity to make up for a lost eight years under Bush-Cheney, the leadership of the Democratic Party tragically cowered and hide on the greatest challenge of our time, avoiding even the mention of it; and they did not have to do so.

Joe Romm of Climate Progress elucidates.

Some of the best pollsters have known for years that progressives can and should talk about climate change ... Ironically, many people think the failure of the climate bill proves that talking about climate change doesn’t work — because they don’t realize that the messaging campaign built around the climate bill was based on not talking about climate change! ... Nearly $200 million was spent by environmental, progressive, and business groups in 2009 and 2010 to sell a climate bill. The vast majority (but not all) of that messaging was built around ignoring the climate message and instead talking about clean energy jobs, energy security, and the threat from China. Worse, the progressive political leadership (again with exceptions, such as Sen. John Kerry) also generally either refused to talk about climate change or they seriously downplayed the subject. That includes, most importantly, President Obama and the entire White House communications team [see "The unbearable lameness of being (Rahm and Axelrod)"]. Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 4-3-11

Crisis in Darfur

No, I am not oblivious to the slaughter in Cote d'Ivoire and elsewhere; but I remain fixed laser-like on Darfur, because it has been with us for the most part of a decade now, ample time for the great nations to come to grips with the situation, especially if you consider POTUS' 2008 campaign rhetoric about U.S. Darfur policy.

But the truth is that the people of Darfur are in greater danger today than they were two years ago, and it did not have to be this way, as Eric Reeve's Open Letter to President Obama articulates:

General Gration is soon to leave his position, though I believe his appointment to be ambassador to Kenya is deeply mistaken, especially given the important challenges facing our diplomatic leadership in Nairobi. But the damage he leaves behind, the threats he leaves unaddressed, the dangers he has allowed to fester—all oblige on your part, Mr. President, a sober recognition of General Gration’s destructive legacy, and a near-term commitment to ensure that officials from the highest levels of your administration conduct an urgent review of the consequences of the past two years of our Sudan policy. It is far past time to re-set the U.S. course of action vis-à-vis Khartoum ... A strong and unambiguous signal is required, given the immediacy of dangers faced by many Sudanese populations—in the South, in Darfur, in the Nuba Mountains, and in southern Blue Nile. I believe you personally should send that signal, Mr. President. If your administration simply continues on the course set by General Gration, your administration will bear increasing moral responsibility for the many hundreds of thousands of lives presently acutely endangered by his actions and decisions of the past two years. Eric Reeves, An Open Letter to President Obama, 3-27-11

Welcome to the Machine.

To follow events in Darfur and Sudan, go to Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Hard Rain Late Night: Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine (Moscow, 1989)

Hard Rain Late Night: Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine (Moscow, 1989)