Denial is a river in Egypt

Have We the People reached the point at which “real” reality begins to inform our day-to-day actions?
A range of powerful and complex emotions - such as desire, need to be right, greed, pride, revenge, need for status, shame, humiliation - exert a strong influence over humans’ ability to interpret facts.
The worsening coronavirus pandemic highlights the reality that:

… fact-based decision-making hasn’t made as much progress in society as it deserves because many decisions are overwhelmed by emotions. Our overall progress as a society, however, is predicated on our learning how to control emotions and make decisions based on “real” facts [as opposed to “alternative facts]. Add in other psychological dynamics such as ideology (which substitutes belief for facts), inertia (change requires significant energy), momentum (the desire to will obstacles out of our way), impulsiveness (wanting it now!) and stubbornness (no one will change my mind), and we can easily relegate facts to a far, obscure corner [of our minds].  

News blues…

The three Ws: Watch your distance; wash your hands; wear a mask. Informative updates on coronavirus from an European perspective.  (11:50 mins) 

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Canadian Premier's harsh holiday message, “If you don’t think Covid’s real, you’re an idiot!“ (3:33 mins)

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Powerful reality check by MSNBC’s Stephanie Rhule on her COVID-19 Diagnosis: I Did All the Right Things, But I Still Got the Virus  (6:20 mins)

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Donald Trump’s ever-widening reign of inhumanity continues. His finals acts in office include pardons for his crooked cronies (Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Joe Arpaio, et al), decidedly questionable pardons among a long list and, now, an execution spree (“killed more death row prisoners than the U.S. government has done in the last five decades”) that are also super spreader events.

The decision by the U.S. government to move full steam ahead with federal executions in the face of a raging pandemic has attracted scant attention, despite the fact that it is dramatically out of step with state prison practices and opposed by a growing number of law enforcement officials and advocates for incarcerated individuals.
Since coronavirus lockdowns began in mid-March, executions by state governments have essentially come to a halt because of the health risks involved. Only two people on state death rows have been executed, Walter Barton in Missouri on May 19 and Billy Wardlow in Texas on July 8.
In contrast, the federal government has executed eight people, with five more people scheduled to die before President Donald Trump leaves office. Brandon Bernard is set to be executed on Dec. 10, Alfred Bourgeois on Dec. 11, Lisa Montgomery on Jan. 12, Cory Johnson on Jan. 14 and Dustin Higgs on Jan. 15.
Since it reinstated capital punishment at the federal level this summer, the Trump administration has killed more death row prisoners than the U.S. government has done in the last five decades combined. 

Donald Trump spectacular and brazen vindictiveness is so apparent that humans cannot directly cope. We appear, so far, stumped, opting for denial over evidence.
How much longer will We the People allow Trump, his cronies, and the Republicans that enable him to continue on this path?

Healthy planet, anyone?

A change of pace: celebrate our ancestors and an example of “what you do today matters tomorrow”: Astonishing rock paintings discovered in Colombia hold a lesson for today’s rainforest. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Spending more time in South Africa this year than I’ve done in the last 40 years has advantages. One advantage is an unfolding awareness of seasonal change.
These days, for example, neighborhood monkeys invade this garden – balancing precariously on overhead cable, scaling garden walls and fences, and squeezing through the security gate - before our security system disables at 5:30am. This means, instead of my usual monkey-deterrent behavior – running outside wielding a stick and yelling, “go home, monkeys! Scoot monkeys!”, I yell from behind the burglar guards. Hardly incentive for monkeys to abandon the chance to snack on green onions, tender zucchini, crunchy new potatoes….
Moreover, “go home monkeys”? 

This IS their home. They’ve as much right to snack on Earth’s bounty as I do, perhaps more since no grocery stores cater to their culinary needs.