CNN’s own polls show Bernie Sanders won the Democratic presidential debate last night, Tuesday, October 13, 2015, hands down. When CNN polled, and asked “Who won the debate?” 83% of people said Bernie Sanders. 83%. Yet, CNN headlines are splashing the big, bold message, Hillary wins debate by landslide. Can
Continue readingAuthor: jtoddring
Writings of J. Todd Ring: Holidays and holy days – and the dross and drivel which confuses and clouds over them
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter…Yom Kippur, Hunakkah, Passover… Ramadan: these symbolic expressions of union, communion, gratitude, faith and love – what do they matter? Except that they do. As a naturally reclusive and largely solitary being, I often avoid such communal social gatherings, even though I honour and respect them, and value
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Agony Amidst the Ecstasy
I think of my greatest heroes, the people I admire and respect the most – Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Thoreau, Emerson, Walt Whitman, Blake, Dickens, Shakespeare, Spinoza (who has been called, “The prince of philosophers”, and rightly so), Jesus, the Buddha, Shankara and Lao
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: A sinking world, and sane responses to it
My country is sinking like a rock (for reasons of corporate oligarchy, neoliberalism, corporate rights agreements, and an addiction to oil revenues and the politics of a resource extraction-based economy, and the thorough corporate domination of the political process), though the great majority of my fellow citizens do not realize
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Conservatives in Canada swing further to the far right – the other two major parties are little better
The Conservative party of Canada is clearly playing into fear, xenophobia and racism as a way to win votes, as its “War on Terror” narrative, its racial baiting and its new snitch line show. This is sickening. Mind you, the Liberals and NDP have eerily similar agendas to the Conservatives
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: ISIS and Terrorism – A Reality Check
“The responsibility of intellectuals is to speak the truth and expose lies.” – Noam Chomsky “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell According to a February 2015 Gallup poll, Americans consider the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — abbreviated as
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: A few thoughts on empathy in human beings, and other living creatures
Empathy is natural in human beings, as Jeremy Rifkin has pointed out – and with strong backing by recent scientific findings. Some human beings have more and some less; and some are sociopaths – roughly 1% (and usually, the ones who gravitate to positions of wealth and power, unsurprisingly) –
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Bernie Sanders? This man deserves to win – and he just might.
Bernie Sanders? This man deserves to win – and he just might. He should also read my book, Enlightened Democracy: Visions For A New Millennium. We’re very much on the same page, in most regards, except that I tend to contextualize things with a broader and longer term vision, and a
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Bernie Sanders would win – if US elections weren’t controlled by big money….. But he just might win anyway, and he is well on his way
The Independent Senator from Vermont, and US Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, is riding a fast-growing wave of popular support across the United States. Sanders is getting ten times the turn-out for rallies as any other candidate, and the momentum continues to build. Bernie Sanders is getting higher turn-outs to rallies
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Free Trade, CETA, TPP, and the US and Canadian Federal Elections: Some Critical Perspective
The following is critical to understand – for the people of Canada, the US, Europe and the world: “free trade” deals such those already signed (NAFTA), and those being pushed through with great secrecy now (CETA, TTIP and TPP), are agreements which grant supra-national powers to transnational corporations, powers over
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: On Civil Obedience
“Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.” – Mark Twain Never be obedient. Obedience is for dogs. No offence to dogs – I love dogs, and dogs are very admirable, as well as lovable, and there is much that we can learn from dogs. But we
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Climate Change Deniers
The scientific community is in near unanimous agreement on the issue of human-caused climate change: so much so, that there is not a single serious scientific journal which will now publish a paper denying human-caused climate change, since it is viewed by the scientific community that the debate is over,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Danger and Delusion: From ISIS to Ebola
There are very real dangers in the world, but let’s not lose all perspective. Perspective is everything. Don’t believe the hype. It must be stated directly: the majority of people have wildly irrational, and frankly delusional modes of thinking when it comes to risk assessment. And of course, pre-formed, unreflective
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Moby Dick, The Manufactured Man, and the Fate of Humankind
“The permanent constitutional condition of the manufactured man … is sordidness.” So says Captain Ahab of Moby Dick. And Melville was right. This is what we are fighting. We are fighting the manufactured condition of man, and attempting to regain our true nature. That is not romanticism by the way,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Scotland, Crimea and the Right To Self-Determination
Do the people of Scotland have the right to vote in a referendum to determine their own future? Of course they do. Just as the people of Greece had, and have, the right to vote in a referendum as to whether or not to stay in the EU. And do
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What do I want? Revolutionary change – nothing less will do at this critical time in our history
I want nothing short of revolutionary change, a radical change, a renaissance. I think it is needed – urgently needed: and I do not think that human beings are going to survive at all without it. We have, inadvertently, pressed our backs against a wall. I think we need to
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Referendum On Scottish Independence: Why it matters to us all – no matter who we are or where we live
An excellent overview of the Scottish referendum on independence, which is happening today, was just pointed out to me by a friend – and, we should note that the referendum has great significance all around the world, and not only for the Scots. The article is well worth two minutes of
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Scottish Independence: A few thoughts
I hope the people of Scotland vote yes in the referendum on independence. And I further hope that they will avoid the fate of other countries that won independence politically, only to be subjugated by economic means – for example, South Africa and Poland, after Apartheid and Communism, respectively, where
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Raise the minimum wage
$21/hour should be the minimum wage – as it is in Denmark – if there is universal public health care, adequate pensions, subsidized child care and free universal education from pre-school through graduate school, as there exists in the Nordic countries. If these things are lacking, then the minimum wage needs
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: ISIS and The Real Terrorist Powers
The biggest terrorist powers in the world are located in Washington and London, as Chomsky and others have pointed out repeatedly. Millions were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan alone, to say nothing of the even more massive global death toll from the intensifying economic apartheid that is being imposed
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