"This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation"

(View Original)

Kathleen Dunn's guest says America is in trouble... the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is an endangered species. Guest: Barbara Ehrenreich, author, "This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation" (Metropolitan Books).

Listen: "This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation"

Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nickel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for “one book” initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage America—the story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associate—has become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse.

Now, in a new afterword, Ehrenreich shows that the plight of the underpaid has in no way eased: with fewer jobs available, deteriorating work conditions, and no pay increase in sight, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.

"Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Perfect Drug: What will end our oil addiction?

Nobody remembers when Bush said we need to kick our "oil addiction" - not even Bush. But he did say it, and, even if he didn't mean it, it is true. We're jonesin' for a fix and like a crackhead without enough junk we're hurting others along with ourselves in search for another taste of Texas Tea.

A solution the President offered during that speech was biomass cultivated from switch grass, willow and sugarcane. We are lead to believe corn-based ethanol is the cleanest alternative to fossil fuels, however, if implemented today we'd only be trading one devil for another. Ethanol yields less energy than it takes to produce and would result in catastrophic depletion of American top soil.

So the solution is evident. If not biomass then nuclear power would be the best alternative. Not so. Just think of all the waste left behind, who wants a three-legged baby or radioactive breast milk? No clear-thinking person wants a Three Mile Island or Chernobyl in their backyard. Not even the greatest salesman alive could sell someone on that. And an energy shift big enough to power America would generate massive amounts of waste which wouldn't be dumped in Trump's neighborhood. Instead, the unused radioactive material would most likely be buried in primarily Black and Hispanic communities. Never mind the enfeebling diseases to follow, you can still vote by absentee ballot.

Now you're calling me a defeatocrat, aren't you? I won't let you have your coal, oil, uranium or your switch grass...what could possibly be left? Hydrogen - that's what. Although automotive companies are trying to place a monopoly on this technology, there are soon to be relatively inexpensive kits available which have been tested and proven to work in most late model cars. There are two primary components: a tank and a refueling generator. When you store your vehicle you connect the hydride tanks to the refueling generator, Hydrogen is then chemically bonded to the hydride which clings to the hydrogen until it's heated. When I say cling I'm talking Bruce Lee, kung-fu grip type of clinging. For example, if the tank is cracked open or even split in two none of the hydrogen will escape or explode. The only way to release the chemically bonded hydrogen once absorbed by the hydride is through heat. This makes it even safer than the gas tank you have in your car right now. The waste emitted from a hydrogen fuel system is water vapor and nitrogen oxides. It doesn't get much cleaner than that. And because the hydrogen fuel system is solar power based the total maintenance cost is much cheaper than filling up every five days and should pay for itself, depending upon your driving habits, within a few years. Here's some in-depth information on how the hydrogen system works.

Special thanks to Eben for bringing this technology to my attention. Kudos!

A brief history of oil propaganda