RBG

 My industry, the now defunct entertainment industry has known RGB since the advent of color tee vee. Sadly, we lost a Supreme Court Justice who has become known as just three letters, RBG. The most cutting insult, FDR, JFK and MLK are just a few more to refresh your memory. I have never heard of RMN as a replacement for Richard Millhouse Nixon, or either Bush distilled down to just three letters. A lifetime of challenges met and to be reduced to three letters, it is almost laughable if it were not so sad. The fascist regime that has always existed just below the surface in our nation. Interestingly, the Kluxes were reduced to three letters, bu tin their supposed "anonymity" they thought themselves absolved of their transgressions. Heck, come to think of it, they didn't even see themselves as transgressors, oppressors never do. One thing that remains very strong in our culture is the concept of, don't speak ill of the dead. In Ruth Bader Ginsburg's case that surely makes sense. She served as a beacon to hundreds of millions of womyn, letting them know that their educated and compassionate opinions actually counted as much as their male counterparts. Instead of using three colors that blend in our eyes, she shined the bright light of prudent truth on more decisions of substance than many of us confront in a lifetime. Her contribution to our nation cannot be overstated.

It is insane to allow a new Justice to be seated when Senator "Moscow" Mitch McConnell refused to hold a vote on President Obama's nomination. Our racist and fascist power brokers are in the desperate death throes and are grasping at anything they can to prop up their decrepit lies. The majority understand that "All men are created equal" meant something completely different nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. The oligarchs are only using the racist network that exists, the institutionalized racism to continue their fight against the impoverished.

When we look to the future, we don't need more people who like beer and throw fits sitting on our august bodies in halls of justice. We need more people who behave respectably and whose credentials and ethics are beyond reproach. The fact is, any valuable traits to have as a judge, the current Administration hates. They want opinionated idiots who bought their way through law school and have, for the most part avoided prosecution for deceitful fraud and tax or draft dodging. We have a current President who pardons war criminals, accuses the innocent and defends the guilty. We need a full Court system of honest Judges, people who believe in our nation and the Constitutional Rights that so many have fought and died for, not conspiracy theorists, gun fetishists or religious zealots. If we let the current idiot-in-charge pick the next Justice, it will be like inviting homegrown terrorists to inflict their demented holy war on all of us. 293 days Obama's Supreme Court Justice Nominee sat on Moscow Mitch's desk. Racist did all he could to stop the Black man from doing good for our nation, but now that we have a dyed in the wool, genocidal racist doing the nominating? Let 'er roll!

The early reports have four Republican Senators saying that they will not vote for a replacement until the new President is sworn in. At least a portion of our leaders exhibit some level of morality and ethics.

The fire will burn tonight in honor of RBG!

Good Trouble

 As far back as I can remember, People called me many things, a handful, outspoken, rambunctious, inquisitive. All of these names had some affect on my future behavior. Many people who become stagehands (ie theatrical technicians) have spent their life trying to bend the limits of various rules and social "norms". Not necessarily because we want to, but because creatives almost always test limits, check out what is going on in the bowels as well as center stage. Monitoring and taking delight in the subtle contributions we can make to the whole performance. Because we literally hide giant things in plain sight, we also learn a lot about perception. When I was a younger man, there was a "groundbreaking" study that found eye-witness testimony is often unreliable and extremely subjective. It seems the often, we see what we want to see. Looking at each moment as a challenge, every rule as an opportunity to express a creative sidling up to limits, makes life more bearable for those who are often made to follow regimented protocols each night, day after day, often for years on end.

Good Trouble lets you stand out amongst your peers. Quick wit, paired with deft hands on the levers and knobs of the industry's tools can make or break whether you get called back or not. When you help express an emotion, or are the cue for the audiences response, it is extremely heady. My first pro-peace action was handing out literature about the Vietnam War and talking to Green Bay citizens Downtown, by Prange's about how important it was to bring the soldiers home. I got in some Good trouble when I announced to the children of my neighborhood, at age four or five, that calling Fat Mary, Fat Mary was mean and that they needed to call her by her real name. I didn't realize how good the trouble was for many, many years. I knew that part of that girl was hurting, but I wasn't sure what it was, but her name could have been it. Sadly when she said, "What's wrong with that? It's what my Mom and Dad call me." my blood ran cold and I remember running home almost as if I was outside my body, hovering over myself.

Other times I got in good trouble, my voice quaked with emotion, when I spoke. I have held many a protest sign and walked many miles to call attention to crucial issues that have been put on hold for decades. When we lost the fight against the Rocky Flats nuclear reprocessing facility, whose radioactive plume can be seen here:

Even though we organized and gave dozens of presentations about what the potential risks were, we never really took our work to the Good Trouble level.

This top image shows the radioactive plume that left the site and continues to spread, nearly fifty years later. Just a reminder, these images are post seven-billion dollar Superfund clean up. The bottom map is from 2005 but, not to worry, the half life of plutonium is only 24,000 years. This second map was created from soil sampling, so the surface is contaminated and some decision-makers are pushing to develop even closer to the site than has already been done, moving more people into closer proximity to an invisible threat to their health.  

I have long felt the need to share more about my experiences, if anyone has questions about my experiences in Denver, or what I knew about Rocky Flats in the mid-Seventies, I would be happy to share more. If you are one of the people who saw the presentation, or are continuing to protest for healthier and more efficient technologies than the nuclear fallacy of fossil free energy, let me know, I would love to continue to have open discussions. Getting in Good Trouble requires that we continue to do what we can to spread truth instead of lies!

Beginning 90-day Challenge

 As we continue past second harvest and into winter's grasp, I am striking out, anew working to spread the knowledge our ancient ancestors taught one another before the advent of written language. I recently made a campaign device that helps spread the inner philosophy behind my campaign for Congress. This may not have happened without joining many others in their commitment to projects of their own. In my tradition of using as much obtanium, as possible, cast off items that were corporate throughput or made to eventually garbage that results from planned obsolescence. This is but a wrinkle in the fabric of the net that captures larger fish. Upon a Popsicle stick, perhaps the ultimate obtanium, (you can't have a Popsicle without it, but from the start it is doomed to be waste, just like the packaging.) I made a saddle, like a tent sign of paper and I made a re-useable business card for my campaign. People can pass them on, and on, and on. Since my platform has been the same since age seven, many truths have come to light. A large number of my posts are speaking to those issues, but upon this tiny note reads:Saladino 4 District 8 True Security Debt-free Education and Healthcare End Corporate Welfare!
The back side reads:the URL for this page and my phone number. I have stood on the front porches of several hundred thousand people across Northeast Wisconsin, talking about Environmental issues mostly but also, working on get out the vote campaigns or campaigns of local interest. Using an item that would normally be trash, but that has been wrought by human effort begins the process of catching those bigger fish. Instantly, the recipient can be informed of the source. You don't do that typically with business cards. I have made thousands by hand, but each one is a one off and it shows. All share the same messages. If they could each fit my platform, they would be at least the size of a postcard, but rather small print, but to understand it, you must read and understand the Earth Charter. 

The Earth Charter is a document that lays out the basic strategy to which we must all lean to create hope for the future being tenable for our species. I do not like gloom and doomers preaching so I won't either, but when we know the score, but refuse to admit time is running out on the clock, I scream FOUL! It is a crime against humanity to either throw up our hands and say, "We're fucked, it's gonna happen no matter what." especially when we know what works. We need to do everything we can to make the best of what we've got and in our world. We've got more of virtually everything than anyone who ever existed for most of human history had before. What we have today, all the world's knowledge at our fingertips, running water, fossil fueled slave machines, these are all new to humanity. Stretching back over nine thousand years ago, there were guys teaching others to grow twice as much produce from their soil, sequestering carbon and improving soil quality for millennea. Before the advent of written language, human beings taught one another how to do this. I teach the old ways, using modern technology.

                                                                    Campaign patches!

My three months, which two weeks has passed already, is turning into a bigger deal than I ever imagined. Not only did I commit to making ten kilos of char, but recording the process of all the steps required to make top quality biochar. With the intent to make a video series of short steps to take to get the best results. My motivation is that I have watched dozens of online biochar videos, spent dozens of hours watching the ways people try to teach about it, and in each one there were several things that were not covered, incompletely expliained or just glossed over. Potentially fatal flaws if someone has not yet understood the goal. My videos will showcase the need for understanding the idea of strength through diversity and that the best biochar fulfills the needs of the greatest number and more importantly the greatest variety, types and kinds of microbes. This in turn boosts the CEC of the soil, making nutrients and minerals available to plants, but also mediates and moderates extremes, which is essential in destabilized climates. This has implications depending on how many local sources of nutrients you can find, or produce onsite. Locally available technologies, feedstocks and nutrients are literally money in the bank. I want to get across the importance of emulating soil in as many ways as possible. 

A am putting together a team for getting the film done and my book is nearly ready to publish!