Notes on the Varieties of Resistance

On November 6, 2024, and after, it became clear to me that a lot of organizations addressing climate and human rights had made plans for what to do if Trump won, and of course Daniel Hunter had already published his soon-to-go viral article on what to do if Trump wins.

Staying with the Trouble (Is Not Necessarily About Geography)

I've always been annoyed by those people who, when they didn't like the outcome of a presidential election, announced they were moving to Canada. Those declarations seemed to be about comfortable people prioritizing remaining comfortable and not wanting to stick around the discomfort of an administration

"I'm the Problem; It's Me": On the Confession the Mainstream Media Won't Make

An unnamed source says that at an earlier point in time it was thought that a octogenarian might come to need to use a wheelchair at a future date, but the person in question has as of press time not reached that point, but continues to walk and bike, and

Some Rob You with a Six-Gun/ Some With a Fountain Pen: On Civil War By Other Means

Imagine if we were at war with a foreign power that bombed most of the federal buildings in Washington, destroying the records and functions of those departments and killing millions of federal workers – bombs falling on Health and Human Services, on the Justice Department, the Department of Interior, Veterans Affairs,

The Art of Arrival

I published this in Orion Magazine in 2014, about the environmental activist Jo Anne Garrett of Baker, NV, who would've turned 100 on April 30th. I wanted to pay tribute to her by republishing this (slightly shortened) essay about her. The Las Vegas Water Grab mentioned in it--the

Not Mayday but May Day: Trump Craters, the Public Rises to the Occasion

There's an old saying that March came in like a lion and left like a lamb. April came in a bit sheepishly and is leaving roaring and baring its teeth, and tomorrow is May Day. Not Mayday as the distress signal,. May Day the historic red-green celebration of

We Are Firefighters: A Talk About the Climate and the Trees

This is a slightly edited version of a talk I gave at last Saturday's benefit concert by the adventurous and world-renowned Kronos Quartet for Oil Change International, a climate group on whose board I've served since 2017. It was at the Oakland studio of the dance

When Hope and History Rhyme

In the summer of 2011, I went to a protest against economic injustice in New York City. I've gone to a lot of demonstrations over the decades, and this one was as forgettable as most of them are--they're good, they contribute, they aren't landmark

Stupid Coup Month Three: Two Plus Two Is Still Four

Imagine you were on a ship, and reports kept coming to you that the new captain and his crew had done a series of strange things--jettisoned the anchor, blew some holes in the hull, shredded the sails, thrown some of the old crew overboard. But also imagine that the person

Millions Stood Up: April 5 Hands Off Day of Action

I was the closing speaker at the ebullient San Francisco Hands Off rally, and when I got home later I scoured the news for  reports on the more than one thousand other rallies. Of course people would show up in the big cities and the bluest places, but what really

People Have the Power: Week Whatever of the Stupid Coup and the Pushback

I wrote the following early yesterday before the big news of the Wisconsin election in which Elon Musk's estimated $20 million and illicit bribes to voters did not net a win for his candidate and may have done the opposite and before Cory Booker's filibuster entered

It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence

The new Netflix mini-series Adolescence is not about teenagers so much as it's about how adults perceive and fail to perceive teenagers. They're presented in the first two episodes as an alien life form, leading lives adults fail to see or comprehend. I've joined