Eyeing Unstable State of Things Warily

If I were not going through such personal upheavals just now, I would be posting much more on recent events as they’ve unfolded over the last 3 to 4 months. Things are beginning to get interesting– in the Chinese curse sense of the word…

Politically, all over the world, tensions are rising and look more and more capable of torrential outpourings of release– which is not a good thing. The massive migrant crisis in Europe seems destined to lead to an over-burdening of Europe’s capacity to hold and care for its population– which is already very dense and under pressure. A rise in fascism seems likely and signs of this are already manifesting. Not good. You can’t blame the migrants for wanting out from their hellish wartorn and/or poverty-stricken lives, but its understandable that Europeans don’t necessarily want to take on yet more of a burden when the social systems they have in place are already beginning to crumble, given resource limits and high expectations for their standard of living.

In America, we’ve seen 2 candidates gaining popularity that would normally never get even a slight notice, let alone draw massive crowds. Trump, the billionaire buffoon, with his odious stupidity– took an early and distressingly long lead over more ‘conventional’ Republican counterparts. Why are right wing types even taking this guy seriously? Because they’re frustrated! When that many within a party lurch to the crazy side like that– something is incredibly wrong.

Meanwhile, on the left, we have a self-labeled socialist vying successfully without PAC money against the obvious favorite, Hilary Clinton. Bernie ‘FEEL THE BURN‘ Sanders is drawing unprecedented crowds from both the liberal well-off whites and from many poor and working class types. Again– he would have been a fringe candidate in most campaigns, but frustration with politicians who are now bought and paid for by corporations and billionaires has driven the mainstream to embrace an obvious eccentric. (Not that I can blame them and confess to cheering for the guy myself.)

Meteorologically, the weather is increasingly chaotic and extreme– and much more quickly and harshly than even worse-case scenarios forecast by climate scientists. Too dry, too wet, too hot, too cold, too stormy, too much and for too long. Every year its not only worse, its much worse. Just the last year here where I live with an extra warm and dry winter, spring, and summer made for explosive forest and wild fires like we haven’t seen in …. uh, since white people lived here? You know its bad when people are praying for an extra powerful El Nino to save them– which would mean extreme rains and flooding and mudslides. Anything’s better then hot temperatures and drought, though!

Financially– some of the nuts holding the wheels to the lurching vehicles we collectively refer to as ‘the economy’ are getting repeatedly loosened and re-tightened as markets get nervous looking at signs of problems (fraud, war, and especially the bust of the shale oil/fracked gas industry). Stocks have been bouncing around as propaganda wars with truth and the superfast skimming computer programs try to keep that extra advantaged edge for the already extra-advantaged.

Unemployment is only held down because more and more people are giving up on even getting jobs, and the number of new jobs is not keeping up with population growth. Yet there are signs layoffs are coming soon across the board. Lots of signs…

Now is not a good time to make a massive life change. It would be better to batten down the hatches, stock the pantries, touch base with friends and family, and brace for impact.

Sadly, sometimes we don’t have much of a choice…