Double Happiness

Starting tonight, and all weekend, including Monday, on the anniversary of its publication, as a gift to all the great people I’ve met this year and as a celebration of human potential and possibility, the book will be free in all formats: e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.

(While supplies last, and with a tiny shipping cost for the paperback and hardcover since those will be physically mailed to you).

How to Get Double Happiness

Simply click this link after midnight on December 30 to get the book:

>> Get Double Happiness <<
(All formats still available.)

Next week, as a celebration of the anniversary of its publication, and as a gift to all the great people I’ve met this year as part of the peaceful political revolution, Double Happiness will be free in all formats: e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.

(While supplies last of course, and there will be a nominal shipping cost for the paperback and hardcover since those will be physically mailed to you).

Double Happiness is my life-changing story of teaching and traveling in China, of exploring a foreign world and discovering my own heart and mind. The messages are adventure, international understanding, and personal discovery. My hope is that this story and these message will be useful and welcome for you or those in your community as we move on from this troubling election season and into the work that we need to do to create a world of peace and prosperity for all.

Consider this a small token of my appreciation.

If you’re taking part in the Peaceful Revolution here in the United States and around the world, thank you for your beautiful work this year, for inspiring me to do more, and for the promise of what we can do together.

Logistics on getting the book will be straightforward, and I’ll post here next week, as well as on facebook and twitter. UPDATE: See below.

How to Get Double Happiness

To get the book, simply go to this page at Torchpost, after midnight on December 30, and all weekend:

Double Happiness 
(This page will have all formats.)

Next week, as a celebration of the anniversary of its publication, and as a gift to all the great people I’ve met this year as part of this peaceful political revolution, Double Happiness will be free in all formats: e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.

(While supplies last of course, and there will be a nominal shipping cost for the paperback and hardcover since those will be physically mailed to you).

Double Happiness is my life-changing story of teaching and traveling in China, of exploring a foreign world and discovering my own heart and mind. The messages are adventure, international understanding, and personal discovery. My hope is that this story and these message will be useful and welcome for you or those in your community as we move on from this troubling election season and into the work that we need to do to create a world of peace and prosperity for all.

Logistics on getting the book will be straightforward, and I’ll post details next week here, on my blog, on facebook, and on twitter.

Consider this a small token of my appreciation.

If you’re taking part in the Peaceful Revolution here in the United States and around the world, thank you for your beautiful work this year, for inspiring me to do more, and for the promise of what we can do together.

The historic gathering of over two hundred Native American tribes and thousands of their allies at Standing Rock in North Dakota has put on stark display the state of this country’s corporate media and its nominally left-leaning party.

This is a massive movement that brings together virtually all the biggest issues of our day — from environmental justice and racial justice to climate change and corporate control of natural resources. Its treatment by the media and by our political parties is as instructive as any recent political event.

To begin, the media coverage of Standing Rock provides a nearly perfect picture of the current state of today’s media world, which is comprised of the “corporate media” and the “independent media.” There are those who trust “corporate media” more, and there are those who trust “independent media” more, but the balance has steadily been shifting in favor of “independent media” over the last 20 years. The term “corporate media,” refers to the big media news channels and publications funded and run by large corporations. “Independent media” essentially refers to everyone else: smaller publications, bloggers, and independent social media journalists.

The New York Times is the nation’s largest daily newspaper, the “paper of record,” and it is the corporate media publication trusted by many. The Times doesn’t actually have a single reporter in Standing Rock.

When one young woman, Sophia Wilansky, had her arm blown off by a police grenade, all the independent media and all the eye witnesses there in North Dakota confirmed that this (more…)

Beyond the media spin, the four reasons for this defeat.

As the aphorism goes, if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. While the corporate media continues to peddle hysteria, the most important thing right now is to rationally understand why Clinton and the Democrats lost this eminently winnable 2016 race for the White House.

Having taken some time to look back over the past six months, I list below what I believe are the four main underlying reasons for this defeat. As it turns out, none of the reasons is particularly complicated, but each will require consideration and systemic change by the party over the next two years.

1. The DNC subverted democracy. This was an anti-establishment year in politics, and there was an anti-establishment candidate running in both major parties. Trump was (barely) allowed to win the primary on the Republican side. On the Democratic side, despite Bernie’s obvious strength and the clear preference of the grassroots, the primary was rigged to put the less popular, establishment candidate forward. It was a colossal risk to take, but the party (more…)

Democracy is not an exact science. There are countless things one might wish to say with a vote, but a single vote for one candidate or another communicates with little precision. In 2016, this wild presidential election, given everything we’ve seen from leaks to gropes to voting purges to visiting Popes, examining what the candidates have done and what they verbally stand for is about all we can do in determining what our one vote will say.

To many voters, given the chicanery and the poor choices, the election is an illegitimate exercise at this point. More on that in a minute.

For now, since by all accounts the election will go forward on Tuesday, let’s consider what a vote for each candidate says to the ruling establishment and our representatives. Since there isn’t a perfect candidate for most of us, our vote says in essence what we’re OK with, what we can tolerate:

• A vote for Donald Trump says: I’m OK with racism, homophobia, and religious scapegoating, with bullying, sexism, and mocking the political system, with global corporate rule, and ignoring climate change, and with voting for a candidate who doesn’t have elective political experience, so long as the candidate has a strong chance of winning, isn’t Hillary Clinton, and is from the nominally conservative major party.

(more…)