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My Forum Input this Month

At home, sheltering in place, I’ve got some work done. Garden, new roof over firewood, new roof shunting rain water onto garden, new floor in the bath – that kind of stuff. Best of all was a five hour hike into the mountains behind town where son Tobias and I saw lots of pretty views and trees, and we came on a big black mother bear and two chubby black cubs. While out, I accidentally snapped the photo with this blog entry.

At the last minutes before the end of the month (when this newsletter is set to automatically go out) I finally put some content up. Like the Easter video for Nonbelievers and others and this hodge-podge of my contributions on a few forums.

Here’s what I had to say. (The order is chronological and I try to add where it went and in response to which article or other forum entry.)

Brad on CT (Cleantechnica)

4-6-20 to Steve Hanley on Cleantechnica re relation people and pollution, as seen in Himalayas and Milky Way.

ByronBradley • a few seconds ago

“…stop being such arrogant jerks and start planning to preserve the only home we will ever have.”

Thanks for your clear, strong writing, Steve, here and in your other posts on CT.

We here know the urgent need for Clean energy (and living) and a sensible economy of jobs providing it, but in much of our society, it is ignorantly and arrogantly mocked. Worse, despite surging Corona troubles, plans proceed to overtake oil-rich Venezuela and provide oil-rich Saudi Arabia with more weapons to lock up oil-rich Iran in competition with oil-rich Russia and push through pipelines for oil/gas-rich America/Canada. Our “only home” is being ruled by psychopaths empowered by profits and mobs.

As seen in renewed views of mountains and our Milky Way, we are born of and for an astonishing universe – and that’s just the parts we can see so far, both the vast reaches and the infinitely small, all interwoven into our wonderful lives. It bugs me how so many can ignore, exploit and abandon this given world, pining for imaginary supposed ones, be they heavens or fantasy multiverses. Would that those who praise a Creator, protect and promote this precious, precarious Creation.

I’m for religiously and practically saving and savoring our Eden. The Green New Deal is just part of an historic shift for humanity towards clean, healthy, happy living for all of us. Our economies and technologies and spiritualities will be part of this. I write and speak towards this at my site earthly religion (one word), where CT readers are most welcome.

4-9-20 to Kos on Breathing

Byrd on KOS

niemann

Apr 09, 2020 at 11:43:18 AM

Breathing out longer than in will slow the breath and allow your parasympathetic nervous system (horribly-named; it means your calm and restorative side, as balanced by the active side, badly called the sympathetic, but having nothing to do with sympathy).  Using belly breathing (fill the bottom of your lungs before you fill the top) with a ratio of 4 counts in, 4 counts hold, 4 counts out (or longer) and 4 counts hold, will slow and refresh your entire system.  Extending the counts ever further takes me into a much deeper meditative space.

Byrd on KOS

Nightowl223

Apr 09, 2020 at 12:05:44 PM

I used CPR a few times when I drove or attended ambulance back in the early 60s (for a local funeral home whose hearse doubled for ambulance in an otherwise unserved area).  Brought back a thin, old woman, her cartilages snapping.  But she then revived enough (with added oxygen) to see her family at the hospital before dying the next morning.  

In another case, by the time we got there, a man was already gone and had turned cyanotic (blue, stagnant blood).  But the family wanted us to try anyway, so we did, and, though dead, he turned pink again!  He didn’t live, but it was visual evidence that it worked.  

I don’t get the rationale for the new guidelines that breathing into the person’s mouth is no longer used.  Chest compression on the heart may also move air in and out sufficiently for a short period.  But if it were a long time of keeping someone going, I’d favor a good, full breath pushed in at some point.  (It used to be 5 compressions per 1 breath.)

Byrd on KOS

Apr 09, 2020 at 12:22:00 PM

I value the shared experiences on this forum.  Just sitting a person up who is suffering from pneumonia, as related in the article is, potentially, life-saving advice.  I did not know that.  Other treatment advice is offered here that I also didn’t know.  

Rather than share what works or seems to work in our experience, I’ve noticed a “don’t you dare offer unproven ideas” in other media.  Some such wondering out loud has been taken down by FaceBook.  

An example of such forced ignorance has to do with heat.  I was chided for reposting an article wondering if heat can degrade the virus, a plausible idea based on similar treatments of similar viruses.  In refute, others offered the “proof” that it doesn’t apply, referencing a WHO study that measured mere weather temperatures in various regions and seasons, not addressing whether and at what temperature the virus is affected by more deliberate heat.  If heat is involved at all, seems it would be handy to say “wash your hands with warm or hot water rather than cold,” and similar accessible and practical advice.

Sending people home to ride out the disease without handy self-help mechanisms is a weakness in our media.  Medical knowledge is humanity’s, not to be controlled and doled out for fees as our privatized medical system does. 

4-10-20 to NY Times Charts on Economic losses, in response to Austin Ouellette of Denver, (pending)

@Austin Ouellette I share your concern, Austin.  Trump’s buddy Steve Bannon helped right-wing upheaval in Europe and Brazil, using the media to rouse up anger and seize power. 

Now he sits near Rome in efforts to undercut Pope Francis, one of the few religious leaders brave and principled enough to preach against economic and environmental ruin.

Bolsonoro, Dutarte, Erdowan, Mohammed ben Salman, Putin – all praised by Trump.  Fascistic rulers are taking over world-wide.  Tragic irony is The Greatest Generation, who fought this earlier, now are said to support Trump.  Worse, evangelicals pray for this obvious anti-Christ.

Yet the fear is that we’re going “too far left.”  To what?  With whom? 

Is Putin a socialist or filthy-rich oligarch?  He laughs at climate change, as does  with those companies and trans-national corporations profiting from this slow-motion global suicidal ruination. 

There are passionate, intelligent persons, companies, agencies and governments trying to slow and repair this political and environmental madness, but mostly, the “global terror network” you warn us of is in power, increasingly so.

America, born mostly of the Enlightenment and founding a humanistic democratic republic, is at the point of losing and defiling our once precious inheritance.  These sad and angering graphs show a part of the tragic ruin we have allowed.  Dumping Trump would only be the start of fixing this deplorable tragedy.  Are Americans heroic or hideous?

4-11-20 to KOS forum on Trump’s Wall Street Journal criticism:

In eastern Oregon, 5 candidates for an opening congressional seat all compete by backing Trump’s wall, guns, deportations, anti-sanctuary cities, and the ever-non-defined “job-killing regulations.”  An assured Republican district might be led by an even worse Republican than the bland-but-obedient one we’ve had.  KOS readers may not have realized how persistently popular the Orange Menace is in areas where Republicans have gone all-in on nothing-other-than Trump.  Decent Republicans are outcast and doomed in the primaries.

Dems better go past their non-stop dwelling on women, gays, blacks, and cities and start giving ranchers, cowboys and others fed up on Trump something to identify with and vote for.  Otherwise, who do these silenced majority liberal-minded people of rural, small-town, supposedly Red State people have?  

Same day to article on Trump promoting his stakes with religious fervor. 

Freedom of religion also meant freedom from it.  We don’t have to be ruled by stubbornly stupid blow-hards or pompous fanatics.  I especially bemoan lately the sort that praises Trump and then gets used by him to inflict the craziest, worst sort of religious policies on us and our world.  Like backing Netanyahu and Israel while taunting reactions that could lead to WW III while also attacking our government and ecosystem.  Such theocratic moves defile both Christianity and our flag.

Sailor Jo

Apr 11, 2020 at 11:45:50 AM

tRump and Pence use God and religion like other folks use ad agencies. They use God to appeal to certain groups, to advertise themselves. I might add, and this is just my opinion, that religion should have no place in our politics. We have a constitutional right to practice religion as we see fit but not to foist our beliefs or to judge to others because they do not believe as we do. I think your contention about underprivileged people is misplaced. There are many people who are of faith(many kinds) who truly believe that religion enriches their lives but not necessarily a “personal opium” to deal with problems. It is my deeply held opinion that tRump and Pence would use anything and anybody to get what they want. If that means using God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit they will do that. Unfortunately there are folks out there that buy into the highjacking of religion and think that it means tRump is some sort of instrument of God. I find that to be a delusion, but that is just my thought. Like P.T.Barnum said “there is a sucker born every minute”  and Barnum, like tRump knew how to take advantage of those people.

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Byrd on KOS

fishyrn

Apr 11, 2020 at 01:21:30 PM

Freedom of religion also meant freedom from it.  We don’t have to be ruled by stubbornly stupid blow-hards or pompous fanatics.  I especially bemoan lately the sort that praises Trump and then gets used by him to inflict the craziest, worst sort of religious policies on us and our world.  Like backing Netanyahu and Israel while taunting reactions that could lead to WW III while also attacking our government and ecosystem.  Such theocratic moves defile both Christianity and our flag.  

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fishyrn

Byrd on KOS

Apr 11, 2020 at 03:34:22 PM

Agreed and  I might add that tRump seems to cozy up to the worst of those religious leaders(think Falwell here lately) OR is it that they cozy up to tRump. In the end it does not matter who cozies to whom but as far as freedom FROM religion I would like to distance myself from those who think tRump is the savior of our nation and will bring on the end of times so they can have their rapture. They can have their rapture without me, Thanks. I do not believe in the end of times, I do not believe that God would destroy his creation, humans are doing a fine job of that.

Byrd on KOS

fishyrn

Apr 11, 2020 at 03:48:17 PM

Well-put, fishyrn.  Sometimes I wish that those who pine for heaven while wreaking havoc on Earth would just go there now and leave we meek here.  

Not really.  I’d rather that even those I utterly dislike and resent have as happy and healthy lives as possible.  Even them, along with the rest of us.  

(But do-so in ways that synergistically cycles the good things of life back into us and life, not systematically exploits and exhausts them.)

fishyrn

Byrd on KOS

Apr 11, 2020 at 03:56:38 PM

Agreed, I do not wish anyone evil but if anyone is going to royally screw things up leave me out of it. I take care of myself thank you. I’ll stay here with you, we may be the only 2 here but then who cares.

Byrd on KOS

fishyrn

Apr 12, 2020 at 07:57:12 AM

Too lonely.  We fear distopias when better futures are also feasible.  As Emerson put it, “the secret of fortune is joy in our hands.”

What bountiful, beautiful, fun clean-energy, just and kind sort of future might we all have?  

I’ll be livestreaming “Easter for Unbelievers and the Rest of Us” on Easter at noon, pacific time, at my website www.earthlyreligion.com, for any who are interested.  

4-14-20 to Cleantechnica article on 30 million solarized homes.

ByronBradley  Electricity Electricity • a few seconds ago

Not only would such innovative states keep their energy local, it would keep their money local. Consider how much money every city and state now exports for gas and electricity. Much of our money now just goes away, be it Houston or Saudi Arabia. Imagine if it stayed local every day, all year, year after year. This (and other Green New Deal-such technologies like wind, insulation, etc.) is an investment in better future energy and local economies.

4-17-20 reply to Senator Jeff Merkley on how to get the rescue money:

Thank you, Jeff.  I dreaded cashing in any check that came with Donald Trump’s name on it.  

He’s a fascist monster, an enemy of our government, society, and environment.  He’s the most prominent of the world’s growing list of fascist monsters.  

Thank you for not being him or of his party, you know, the one’s who campaign on “government is the problem,” then make it so with shameless vengeance. 

Instead of cynicism and apathy and resentment towards politicians, I’m proud of you and trust you. 

Byrd on KOS

Apr 17, 2020 at 10:24:56 AM

Trump could hold huge rallies with his rabid supporters, all hugging and kissing, showing their superior defiance against this fake virus.

Byrd on KOS

the underground

Apr 19, 2020 at 12:11:44 PM

They could hold huge pro-Trump rallies, complete with guest Republican dignitaries and celebrities, everyone hugging and kissing, showing the world their arrogant, self-righteous defiance of of our common government and the fake fear of the Corona virus.  (Too bad for those innocents who have to live or work with them.)

Byrd on KOS

u4riah

Apr 19, 2020 at 12:24:09 PM

Is Putin smiling at his minion and us?

Is Trump’s egging them on treason?

4-21-20 to CT on Elon Musk day on 4-20

ByronBradley • a few seconds ago

I’m not ashamed to admire Elon.

Would that I and we live up to ourselves as fully and well.

I like how he remains affable while advancing human conditions and possibilities.

To CT on Musk

ByronBradley • a few seconds ago

Insightful writing and appropriately laudable, Zach.

I agree. He’s real and he cares. Both while being successful.

In a corporate and political world peopled with anti-heros, he incarnates heroic hope.

Same day on FB in response to ad by Nik Heuretz, Dem for 2nd Dist.

Byron Bradley Byrd Carrier

Finally – a decent, bold Democrat! Just what we need to counter the dismal array on TV of Trump-backin’ candidates seeking to make Walden’s district worse. Nik could get lots of Republican cross-over votes. Such mostly decent people are getting duped and used by the current supposed “party of Lincoln.” You’d think Americans of the Greatest Generation who once fought Hitler wouldn’t help back a budding new one. Oregon’s rural ranchers have a sensible candidate here in Nik.

Byrd on KOS Joined in 2019

Reply to Hugh Jim Bissell

Apr 22, 2020 at 10:40:10 AM

Projection is attributing to the other what one cannot admit about one’s self.  But this is more sinister.  It is a part of what I call “attacking with defensiveness.”  

In Iraq, we created “No Fly Zones” that we then flew in, defending ourselves from their radar stations watching.  So we attacked them with massive and multiple weapons while claiming to be defending ourselves from their supposed “weapons of mass destruction.”  

We then invaded with massive, multiple weapons, shooting any there who might dare to defend their homeland, calling them “insurgents,” or “terrorists.” We then attack more in order to defend ourselves from their retribution. 

(Remnants of our defensiveness lay buried still in Vietnam, still killing those distant villagers.  They were dominoes falling on us a half a world away, or so we were told.)

Our government and society is being attacked with the accusation that liberal media has waged a “culture war.”  Angry “patriots” armed with military-level murder weapons surround and try to intimidate state centers, claiming they’re “taking their government back.”  From who?  For whom?  To do what? 

More prisons?  More walls?  More armaments to attack Iran or Venezuela, claiming we’re “defending ourselves”?  Less regulation of our poisonous attacks on Mother Earth?  More permission and power to marginalize and antagonize foreigners, brown-skinned people, and Liberals? 

Just who is waging this culture war?  Who has the weapons and the eagerness to use them? 

4.22.20 to Cleantechnica Steve Hanley article on windows as electricity collectors.

Sure, use the windows as cost-effective. But don’t forget the rest of all south-facing (north-facing in Australia) walls. When the sun is low in the sky, it isn’t just the windows getting the light, but all the wall space around them. It may be easier to convert into a collector than the windows. If feasible and cost-effective, should some-day be standard on any structure with sunny walls.

4-23-20 on CT to Barry A.F. on Conservatives, Covid, and Climate

ByronBradley • a few seconds ago

Thanks, Barry, for telling it like it is.

Conservatives of the mindset you describe have beset our society with their mean-minded, world-exploiting, civility-bashing religion and politics since our country was founded. From the genocide on the original inhabitants to the hapless victims in Vietnam (theirs and ours) to the ecocidal stupidity of continuing to spew millions of years of fossil-era carbon suddenly back into our vulnerable skies instead of intelligently welcoming the daily gifts of free, clean, sunshine and wind to the lying mind-twisting of our news and political discourse – conservatives have ruined any hope of our’s being a decent and ethical nation.

They are a persistent menace, only now they’ve brought out their guns to, in their minds, liberate us (perhaps much as we once helped liberate Iran and Chile). Guns, cages, privatized prisons, industrial-scale farts in the face of Mother Nature and the rest of us (silent and invisible, but deadly for decades and centuries to come) – yet they blame others and admit no wrongs as the so-called liberal media portrays them as patriotic.

If more Americans were to read perspectives such as yours here we wouldn’t be such gullible victims and unwitting, unwilling victimizers. We’d embark on a national mobilization to create and install a Green New Deal as a first step in rescuing, repairing, restoring and reinvigorating our society, economy and environment.

Same day to CT Steve Hanley on potential 800% return on Green Investing

ByronBradley • a few seconds ago

I like what you write, here, Steve, but disagree with the last sentence for saying, “No one in Washington cares…” It seems so, but there are many who do care and are trying. We should praise and promote them, not cynically sully them with the fools mostly in charge. Partial, random, intermittent positive reinforcement sways behaviors.

We in Oregon have lots of representatives I like, from senators to local reps. We also have an upcoming primary where a half-dozen self-described conservatives trip over each other to back Trump and guns. While the latter can seem to predominate, decent people in red zones need exceptions to their rule. Rural Americans need Green leaders, rationale, and jobs.

Byrd on KOS

Reply to SmartEnough on defending Jim Baker’s promoting silver solution

Apr 24, 2020 at 09:27:56 AM

Unproven but feasible ideas should be discussed, not dismissed.  

I don’t like Jim Baker, but I am interested to know just what effect silver and/or heat, etc., has on the virus.  Ridiculing such inquiries isn’t science; measuring and reporting is.  All ideas start out as unproven; some of them turn out to be helpful.

Should the ridiculing of someone drinking bleach dismiss bleach for wiping down surfaces?  Ridiculing some for suggesting the virus is susceptible to heat forestalls knowing at what temperature it is degraded.  If pertinent, wouldn’t it then be better to suggest we wash our hands in warmed soapy water instead of just soapy water?

If silver solution degrades similar viruses what is its effect on Covid-19?   We don’t know yet for sure.  But that doesn’t mean don’t wonder, discuss or investigate.   

Byrd on KOS

SmartEnough

Apr 27, 2020 at 10:23:12 AM

Appreciating your plausible query.  I used to make my own silver solution with two 9 volt batteries and a silver anode (cathode?), but used it sparingly and rarely.  A guy around town turned blue; perhaps he was ingesting silver too much.  

Of what medical use are steamy water, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, soap, and sunlight.  Not, “These have not been approved by the industry-compromised FDA,” for the vinegar industry isn’t financing the politicians who stuff such regulatory agencies with lobbyists and shills.  Consider St. John’s Wart (affordable and available) instead of expensive alternatives doled out by doctors and paid by insurance. 

Doctors and pharmaceuticals don’t own medical knowledge — humanity does.  We need an end-run around those stingy, profit-driven systems.  We need a Wiki-Med site where our own contributions and editing will eventually result in free, reliable ways to understand our conditions and what to do about them. 

Byrd on KOS

Byrd on KOS

Apr 27, 2020 at 10:29:41 AM

This was also in reply to SmartEnough (but it kept bouncing away when I tried to access it).  We need to be smart enough to think past the industry-driven, bossy demand for obedience to a narrow set of approved ideas.  Non-approved ideas may be just what we need to study and approve.  I lament how simple, feasible solutions are knocked down rather than evaluated and disseminated.  

ByronBradley  Steve Hanley • a few seconds ago

McConnel’s flippant comment that the states could go bankrupt fits in with his selfish party’s privatizing the commons. Change it from ‘we the people’ to ‘exploit the people for private profit.’ Theirs is a war on us, and, as Warren Buffet frankly put it – “They’re winning.”

4-30-20 to Kos on Slight decrease in Trump support in older white men

I once made my own bumper sticker: “Yet Another Older White Male for Obama”.  In my mid 70s, I don’t know anyone my age, older, or younger, who likes Trump. 

Missing from Democratic ads are images of older white men, or construction workers, or guys with pick-up trucks.  Their ads offer nothing for us to identify with.  They act like we don’t exist or by assumption are only Trump voters.  They seem to not notice or care that older and younger white men perceive no welcome other than in right-wing rallies. 

Same for small-town and rural identities.  Does the Democratic agenda include any other than women, people of color and gays?  Does it have any memory of or passion for the FDR era?  Is it too polite or wimpy to get angry at how Republicans have taken over ever since then, systematically resenting Social Security while promoting Anti-Social In-security?  Should the Greatest Generation who helped stop Hitler be assumed and abandoned to vote for a new budding one? 

Are there any decent Republicans-by-heritage ready to question their party (once called The Party of Lincoln) and vote out of it this time, especially if deliberately invited in Democratic ads as a new trend?  

Where are the Democratic ads that tap into any of this?  

revm3up

Byrd on KOS

Apr 30, 2020 at 03:23:39 PM

I so agree with you that we are so unsophisticated with our messaging. It’s pretty simple to me that this should be obvious to paid professional advertising/messaging people. I don’t get it.

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revm3up

Apr 30, 2020 at 10:01:47 PM

Such paid professionals could sink our hopes in this election.  They’re stodgy, stuck in the past.  Local ads for a new Republican congressperson (in a district bound to go Republican as usual — all the candidates are proud to be solid Trump supporters) are slick, colorful, entertaining, sneaky with slogans, and unfortunately, probably effective.  Lots of money behind some.  

I’m for mounting a video ad contest, where home-made directors can put it their way, the best being upvoted for prizes and to get money to publish them.  While I’m proud of the behind-the-scenes tenacity of Democrats in the House and Senate, the telling of their tale is being blotched by boring, predictable ads.  Teens with camera phones could do better.  

Byron has been using his writing and public speaking to engage, challenge and inspire audiences for over 40 years. Reverend Carrier's mission is to rescue and revive our earthly Eden, including our human worth and potential. If you enjoy his work, consider supporting him with Patreon.

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StarFire Teja
StarFire Teja
3 years ago

Hello Byron Bradley!

I don’t have the mental fortitude to read the forums right now, but I wanted to comment on your note at the top…

I love it that you went for the 5 hour hike, and how amazing that you saw the Bears!!!

I’m glad you’re getting things done too, that feels good, eh?

Stay safe and healthy, and keep up all your good works!

I love the photo too!

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