Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 12.21.23

KILLING DEMOCRACY IN FL & OH; DIGITAL DERANGEMENT; POEMS FROM THE HEART

 

 

GREEP zoom #161 begins with WENDI LEDERMAN & CAROLINA AMPUDIA reporting on the Florida “Democratic” Party decision to cancel its presidential primary.  

 

This astounding, unprecedented attack on electoral democracy accompanies a concerted attempt by the Republican Party to kill a popular referendum meant to preserve the right to abortion.  Despite having gathered more than 1.4 million signatures, Florida’s right wing is working overtime to deny the public the right to decide.

 

From Ohio, STEVE CARUSO reports that $4.3 million in fossil/nuclear bribes have found their way to the Chair of the Public Utilities Commission, now indicted and on trial.  E-mails between CPUC Chair Sam Randazzo and nuclear reactor owner FirstEnergy show an astonishing line of corruption aimed at bailing out Ohio’s decrepit fossil/nuke burners.

 

CAMILLA REES then introduces DR. NICHOLAS KARDERAS, author of Glow Kids and Digital Madness as well as a wide range of medical and professional studies on the impacts of algorithms on our brains.

 

Dr. Kardaras gives us a terrifying tour of the devastating impacts of digital addiction—especially when it comes to our children.  Among other things, we are exposed to the horrifying impacts sedentary hours in front of a screen can have on us and our kids.  These assaults range from depression, anxiety, OCD, psychosis and much much more.  The epidemic of social media with zero nuance has ravaged the mental wellness of an entire generation.

 

This “weakening of the American mind” means the demise of critical thinking, creating an emotional brittleness and a “Stockholm Syndrome” that makes us love the tech oligarchs who imprison our narrowing minds by deliberately spreading dark chaos, the essential ingredient for fascism.

 

MIKE HERSH, LYNN FEINERMAN, DR. NANCY NIPARKO, JUSTIN LEBLANC, STEPHEN KAISER, DONALD SMITH, DAVID SALTMAN, ERIC LAZARUS, MYLA RESON add to our fond farewell to 2023.

 

As that happens, RON LEONARD helps us dedicate ourselves to preventing fascism in 2024.  

We end with the brilliant, moving poems of Mimi German, hoping she’ll become our very own poet laureate.

See you then!!