Ever get a surprise cold shower? No fun but a real wake up.

November 5th made clear that, high-jinks and voter suppression aside, 31.2% of the eligible voters in the USA, the oldest democratic republic in the world, voted to burn it all down.

How did this happen in a liberal democracy? This country has survived slavery, civil war, public corruption of all sorts, domination by monopolies, regular market manipulation, Savings and Loan corruption, and 14 years ago a banking scandal so severe it threatened to take down the world economy.

Bailing out the banks was probably the last straw for many citizens and not just the millions who lost their homes but the hundreds of millions who watched it all go down under the Hope and Change president. It hurt to watch. By this time Politicians apparently believed the BS they fed to potential voters, Even after a 2014 study(1) found that “lobbyist’s issues” created more laws than citizen needs did.

Meanwhile the powerful business interests were implementing the Powell Memorandum (2), their manifesto to take power back from consumers. It was written by Supreme Court justice Louis Powell shortly before Nixon was ousted and his resignation probably energized the project .

Nixon’s advisors, including Dick Cheney, Roger Ailes, Donald Rumsfeld, and Roger Stone all went on to provide cover and excuses for boondoggles and politicians . In the last 50 years, guided by the Powell Memorandum, businesses across the US economy have shifted over 50 billion dollars(3) from the middle class to the now bloated top 10%. It is a shame these folks aren’t on team USA.

Nixon may have been a crook but he was also a leader with vision (China, the EPA, etc, 4) who cared about the USA. He knew the golden rule of crooks that is lost on common thugs: Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Watching this house-of-cards of captured agencies, stock trading officials, science deniers and oath breakers, Donald realized that he’d be a good fit and he was for four years.

And though democracy got a break, 50 years of a shrinking middle class, pointless wars and most critically, violated trust by both parties, could not be reversed in 4 years and Donald came back to finish the job.

Let’s not be naïve, Trump doesn’t want to run the USA: he wants to own it.

And apparently our justice system is not interested in dealing with his crimes; insurrection, retained documents, or violated oaths. The real question is: Who is running the USA and What Is Their game plan?

Now that the “dog” did catch the “car”, what can it do? while a democratic republic runs smoothly on laws and public trust, Politicians traded those off years ago to win elections and feather their nests. That leaves us, the citizens, to reactivate the system. And we will not do it with more BS. We will need to build genuine community and trust based on results.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. We all have to get informed, learn the ropes, understand the strategies and tactics of the opposition, and take time to exercise citizenship.

Just as “True the vote” organized racists to suppress and eliminate tens of thousands of voters across the country, we will have to empower those Same voters and More, turning them into staunch and informed citizens. We have plenty of work ahead of us. We have been sleep-walking: now we are awake.

And it is not enough to vote in elections. Every act we do should create the world we want. Don’t waste any energy on the endless nonsense from “social media.” It is just there to distract you.

Citizens need current, in-depth information about issues and politicians. At The Work FM we will provide you with informative content that puts the news of human failings in context so we can stop doing and allowing stupid stuff.

WRWK tells you about the world where society and the USA work. We know that a livable society is possible. We promise to keep you updated, and along with the issues, we will review solutions.

You can be part of it. Let’s be resilient and strong, leaving ‘fragile” behind. Fixing the world is not for dilettantes. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

We value your input. Listen in, tell us your concerns, and send your ideas to:

how at theworkfm dot org

Ron Skinner

Theworkfm WRWK FM 93.9

Stream our audio from here

Notes

1. https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/the-influence-of-elites-interest-groups-and-average-voters-on-american-politics/
2. https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/
3. https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
4. https://guides.hoover.org/nixon-administration-watergate-50

debate?  It was a charade.  Cnn pretended to have a debate, two journalists pretended to moderate, Trump pretended to debate while ignoring most questions and repeating his most popular fabrications, while the President, apparently amazed at the betrayal by CNN attempted to answer the debate questions.

We know Trump’s record, we know what the President has actually done. What surprised me was how profit seeking has reduced cnn to pandering.  There is little left of their credibility.

The following quotes describe our path to this point.

    “When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”  (Alexander Hamilton)

      “We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end.It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . .

It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.” [The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.]

  “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 “If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.” ~Noam Chomsky

On our collective birthday in 2024 we find our government under a cloud of dark money, creating confusion among participants and apathy among bystanders. Its no wonder the crazies seem to reign, they feed on mayhen while rational people avoid it.

My birthday wish is that we arrest the popular criminals, label media according to Accuracy only make voting easier, ban or label any dark money and require that the oath of office be at the end of a civics course that explains that government is in the business of growing an educated and involved middle class, repelling attempts by business to dominate and keeping all citizens engaged in making the USA live up to its original Declaration of Independence, made into a world where None of it was true at the time, and now some of it is.

That’s our job.

Happy Birthday United States of America!

or Actions speak louder than words.

In February 2024, We look back on several years when illusions ruled. I suggest that we look to the leader who guided us through our last great challenge, the Civil War (oxymoron intended).
Hopefully it will not be as unpleasant as it was in his time.

We at TheWorkFM will be working to Raise the Bar, to Return to a better normal, maybe getting closer to greatness.

Very Few People really liked the orange guy, but many joined his call to trash the government that unlimited money has created.

And since Capital is our de-facto bottom line and the economy where we all meet, maybe we could take an idea from the New Testament and Drive the money-changers from our money temple.

That means dealing with the Money in the Supreme Court, and every other compromised government entity from the Post Office to the FDA .

If capital is our bottom line and the government is the ref, let’s make it a fair game.

Capitalism may be a lousy religion, moral code and ethics system but it has rules and we are not holding the Captains of Capital to the rules of their own game.

One major example is Externalized cost:

. Externalized costs are how companies make profit. They minimize their spending by cost externalizing, which is basically a fancy term for the company offloading “indirect costs” on the public or the environment. We pay for the clean-up or for the social progams needed by underpaid employees.

How we chose and evaluate politicians is also lacking.

Elected leaders should promise to improve the lives of their constituents not their donors – or resign. Period.

And taking an oath to a historical document doesn’t help elected officials get better results. We should add some measure of competency.

Politicians can be separated into two camps. Those who see a problem and look for solutions until it is solved, and those who see in every problem a chance for profit, or can be sold on someone else’s scheme to profit.

In fact there are so many flaws in our government in 2024 that it overwhelms the average citizen and either paralyzes them or makes them cynical. People who like the game of politics as played are probably in it for the wrong reasons.

So at WRWK we will be working to find and bring you the stories of average heroes who could live among you. People who decided to be a part of the solution.

If you already follow us you know that our content is full of genuine problem solvers. This spring we will also work to bring you more of the playbook side.

The Bottom line is still that in our 50 to 100 years here, we can either help improve things or do nothing, or get in the way.

At WRWK we choose to be useful.

My motto is to “vote early and often”.

We can also vote for the world we want with every dollar we spend and everything we do. At least the world around us will get a little better.

Ron

TheWorkFM

https://geography101.blogs.bucknell.edu/2018/12/09/externalized-costs-a-capitalism-crisis

Following the lead of Jack Schuler, we could all take the Lincoln Pledge:

THE LINCOLN PLEDGE​

With malice toward none

With an open mind and an open heart

I pledge to follow the better angel of my nature

In order to secure a lasting American future

To deeply listen to the other side

To do all that I can to bridge

The current political divide

I seek not to persuade

I seek only to share

How much I care

you will find the Lincoln Pledge here

https://www.jackschuler.com/about-1-1

Or

Let’s make the Holidays Great again by not passing the debt on to our kids.

The holidays we think of at this time of year , were actually celebrated thousands of years before any religions claimed them. Even to primitive life forms, sunlight means warmth and food. And just as surely, early humans noticed the sun’s motion and prepared for days with less sun, and looked forward to longer days when life re-emerged.

Civilization has made astounding progress in the last few hundred years, by capturing and using millions of years of stored sunlight. It has made us materially powerful but not any wiser.

In fact we are headed back into the climate that millions of years of capturing carbon took us out of. While many of us understand what is happening, the habits of extravagant energy consumption run deep in our lives, and in our built environment. Those habits even affect our responses to the changes we know are needed. This makes all of us passive bystanders as our civilization collides with the “climate tax”, climate refugees and the usual crisis carpet baggers.

As we face the changes ahead, we recall the stages of Grief (https://health.clevelandclinic.org/5-stages-of-grief):

Denial.

Anger.

Bargaining.

Depression.

Acceptance.

Whatever stage you find yourself on at any moment, realize that everyone else was on that energy binge and will be in one of those stages too. We were all victims and perpetrators, and we need to reach deep into our holiday spirit to help each other make it through the post-binge slump.

No wonder MAGA resonated with so many people: the era of “Great” came out of our children’s inheritance. This also explains the popularity of Jewish, Moslem and Christian Death Cults in these “Last Days” of our energy binge.

It will get easier as the deniers lose credibility but distractors and carpet-baggers are always there to turn social losses into personal profit.

Be generous but avoid the “Great Again” myth. We all had a good time, now we can clean up our mess, move on, and make way for the solutions of 2024 . The solutions must include care for the generations that will inherit what we leave behind.

It’s a great time to practice the holiday spirit that helps us all get through the lean times.

Happy Holidays!

(from https://terikanefield.com/can-democracy-work-in-america-part-1-there-are-no-yankees-here/

“The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle, Part 1: “There are no Yankees here!”

Plato argued that democracy was inferior to other forms of government, including monarchy, aristocracy, and oligarchy because democracy—by its very nature—undermines the expertise necessary for good governance. This is summary of Plato’s thoughts is from the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy:

Most people do not have the kinds of intellectual talents that enable them to think well about the difficult issues that politics involves. But in order to win office or get a piece of legislation passed, politicians must appeal to these people’s sense of what is right or not right. Hence, the state will be guided by very poorly worked out ideas that experts in manipulation and mass appeal use to help themselves win office.

Democracy requires an educated population able to analyze the implications of government policies. It requires voters to look beyond their own interests and consider the interests of society as a whole. It requires people who are aware of the appeal of a demagogue and can withstand that appeal.

This cannot happen if people do not have accurate information.

The British philosopher A.N. Whitehead famously commented that the history of Western thought “consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

This brings us to the question: Will America prove Plato wrong? Or will America’s experiment in self-governance prove to be another footnote to Plato?”

Link to Teri’s site, the rest of this article and all her work:

I intend to make the most aspirational idea in Human History Work.

That’s why I am at TheWorkFM.

Ron

2023 is the year for change, not that anyone wants change but that we need to change or we’ll destroy the place and each other.

The second world war demonstrated how much damage a few anti-social types in powerful positions can create.

At that time there were reasons for chosing powerful uncaring people. As my dad used to say Hitler was a german solution to run-away inflation. Desparate people do desparate things, and once you get used to collateral damage, genocide is just around the corner.

Humans are social animals, we work well in groups covering for each other in more and more complex ways, one the next thing you know we have created computers, airplanes, medicine, art, websites about almost anything.

Our Mirror Neurons make civilization possible just as our reptilian hindbrain keep us a few bad days away from the next conflict.

No two ways about it, War is out of style, no longer useful. Like the gold rush and the rush to bitcoin, converting or killing for your man-in-the-sky.

Life is about life, we are either helping or we are not. That is how humans need to keep score.

In 20, 30, 40,90 years we will all yield back our physical forms and leave behind only what we have worked for.

Let’s try to be useful.

Ron

the work fm

WRWK is like so many good ideas that are passed over for the more exciting but passing fads and thrills.
WRWK is not a fad. It is about life as the only unique thing that separates us from the dumb animals, plants, bacteria, rocks and planets that we share our existence with. I mean Dumb in the sense that other animals do not speak. Humans can be very dumb in that they don’t seem to listen or speak rationally. Humans in spite of their larger brains often stay in the emotional section of their brain and only use the reasoning ability to conjure up “reasons” for what they have already done, or want to do, or want to get someone else to do for them.
At WRWK, the work fm we want you to remember what life is about: life; and help find ways to enjoy it, each other and skip the noisy thrill seekers digging holes we will all have to dig our way out of.
Life is a miracle, It should not exist as far as our scientist can figure. So while you’re here, enjoy the miracle, yourself, each other and how clever we can be, but above all, try to be useful.
Stay tuned to WRWK, we will help as we can.

Join us on the 24th 4 to 7 PM

He has dedicated it to WRWK- Progressive Community Radio so this will be a combined event. Alan has been waging Peace since he first encountered unfairness and he has not taken many breaks.

WRWK is humbled by Alan’s example and has pledged to persist just as he has in finding, understanding and sharing solutions in stories of people who have dealt with similar problems in their areas.\

The future will come from learning how to deal with the present. We can’t pretend that things have not changed when change is the only constant in human civilization, Today’s solutions become tomorrows problems after moving us ahead but changing entire game. That’s how progress works.

This video and web-page attempt to explain the present situation we find ourselves in driven by the engines of progress that have grown too big to manage.

https://www.humanetech.com/key-issues

Happy Birthday Alan! We can do this!

Ron

(Stay tuned for the online auction)

We had a wonderful afternoon.

We brought in 80 to 100 people, signed up 40 to get our newsletter and collected $450.

We had music from Bluegrass to punk and 2 great vocal acts that conveyed powerfull stories in their own songs and a few covers.

We had red, white and blue hot buttered popcorn, a petting zoo, lots of progressive conversations and no divisive politics.

Our theme here at wrwk is to make ourselves useful in our time here, and not get drawn into the schemes that people create to distract and divide us.

The planet was working fine when we got here .

We broke it! We have to fix it!

Really it can be fun, besides, what’s the alternative?

Join us, or Donate via Square to our NonProfit, Synergy Project!

Ron

Wrwk

theworkfm

Folks are coming to it, sending donations if they cannot;
donating money, equipment, or just coming to enjoy the company.
Most sentient beings work to change their world, shape it to their needs, make it better and safer for their family and friends.
This is called being human.
Most folks take care of things around them and even extend their care to others. That is where community comes from.
We have nice things and we work to create nice things for our communities, we plant trees we may never sit under, for the next generations.
It’s not always easy and we aren’t always rewarded for helping out but others before us made our way easier and so we pass it on.

Life is a gift, we only get 80 to 100 years here, let’s all try to be useful.

The volunteers at WRWK AKA TheWorkFM spend hours looking for content that helps citizens improve the world they live in.
We do this by bringing out the issues that we need to deal with, in a context so that we can see our role in them;
by telling the stories of folks that are going beyond problems and solutions to create self correcting communities;
By helping to celebrate lots of cool things that humans when they get life right. It’s not about things; It’s about people.
Things people do because they are meaningful.
From good music by musicians that feel their music and aim to tell stories of lives lived by humans doing what humans do, with feeling.
Popcorn, petting zoo, history of WRWK, speaking to volunteers and community members all tell the same story:
We intend to make the world a little better or at least make a good effort, and if you can help us we’ll all get more done.

Thanks for caring,