oh yeah, it's totally an economic recovery..

..if your in banking, med-pharma, or defence/intelligence services- plus there's always the wealthy to cater to. the top 1% is worth more than the bottom 90% combined- and control 84% of the wealth here in the U.S.

that relationship hasn't been so out of whack since the 20's.

austerity protests in brussels.

mortgages upside down & failing in the U.S.

china just passes the U.S. as the world's biggest polluter

[since they make everything we use].

here's a similarly stilted report by Linh Dinh that would seem maybe a little over the top if he didn't back up his stories with up close & right there photography- very heavy duty:

Welcome to the Recovery

enjoy exploring your neighborhood.

practice expanding empathy as planetary survival skill

philosophically of course this only applies to survival of a human-friendly biosphere on this planet. all kinds of life will flourish on earth [as it is called now] long after humans may have made it untenable for themselves- so the survival i'm talking about concerns all of the life forms we currently recognize & haven't yet discovered- at this point in time here on this remote blue dot.

that's us in the big sense of the word. is there a chance that we [the collective global] will be able to recognize our extended family, take it to heart, and work for all of our best interests?

how do you relate to this to this premise? are you hopeful, skeptical, cynical? will bigger walls & indomitable war machines be the answer instead? are you somewhere inbetween?

is there a way forward for the united states as it consumes proportionally 5x the energy that the rest of the world uses- with dwindling resources like energy & food & water- with huge pollution issues growing larger still- with wealth disparity increasing, middle class evaporating, human rights slipping?

is there a way forward we're not really thinking about yet? in my opinion, the U.S.- with the best & the brightest & the plenty for the short term at least, does not lead from the heart nearly enough to call itself leader of the free world:

The Empathetic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin

sure, i know, i've been called a crackpot before- but what would your utopia resemble? what kind of personal transformation would be required for you to really love your neighbor however distant?

Very Cool Homes for Bats, Birds & Insects

Another Super-Cool Small Animal Habitat

how do we divest ourselves of corporate self-interest enough to see what's really important here? to see who we really are and what we could be doing?