Economic, ethical and ecological collapse, according to Chris Hedges

Very sobering piece from Chris Hedges (author of American Fascists, among other things) about what happens when empires go sclerotic.

Re Japan: spare a moment for Rev. Paperboy and family

Links from the Galloping Beaver and the Dawg.

Class warfare and the corporate media

In a comment on the preceding post, JJ (is she returning to the blogosphere? Be still, my beating heart!) observes the near-total blackout on coverage of the situation in Michigan.

Michigan and the shredding of government of, by and for the people

Wisconsin we all know about. Rachel Maddow had a stomach-churning segment recently about Michigan. I urge you to watch it. I'm trying mobile blogging so I can't post the video just yet, but you can find it easily.
Full-blown corporate feudalism, fascism, whatever you want to call it. It's on the march. Democratic governance is on the endangered-species list down south, and you'd have to be on Fantasy Island not to think it's in the crosshairs up here as well.
More to come.

Harper's contribution to the energy debate

The disaster in Japan is, even now, putting a spotlight on the question of nuclear power and whether it's a good idea to emphasize it in the planning of energy policy.

I'd like to say something sensible, perhaps suggesting that if we're going to talk about less expensive ways of producing energy, then we also need to find ways to ensure that the costs of production don't fall disproportionately upon people who are already disadvantaged.

And that's a policy objective for any context – local, provincial, federal or international.

The Japanese earthquake and the nuclear energy question

The Fukushima nuclear plant, about 150 miles north of Tokyo:

The Chara hit on Pacioretty and the NHL's feckless response

  

By now we all know what happened, of course, but what's really telling is the sequence of events in the aftermath.