Save paper and plastic, and some troubling thoughts

 Paper use:

We use 6 billion paper coffee cups (not even thinking of the styrofoam ones still being used) a year. If just 1% of us used reusable mugs, we'd save 65 thousand trees per year.

Whenever I go to lunch where single-use plastic ware is offered, as well as paper napkins, I just pull out my own set, and my own napkin for my lap. (Unfortunately I use enough Kleenex to offset this, due to my allergies! Sorry about that) As my son reminded me, our individual efforts are just to remind us that there are much larger forces that need to be addressed to limit the damages from climate change.

One day last week I met friends at a pizza place and had a ham and cheese sub sandwich with kettle chips...it was delicious. Other days I went to the Lakeview Senior Center. Here's one of their servings.

I ate the sweet potato, corn bread, apple pie (without crust part) and half the roast pork...didn't like butter beans. But I'm so glad the Council on Aging is using these cardboard plates now! They used to be Styrofoam. I declined the little carton of skim milk, as it doesn't help my mucous. They provided a tiny tub of fake-butter which I chose to put on the potato, because the cornbread was moist enough to eat straight.

Not bad for $1.50 if you're a senior (over 60? I think).

I had also taken part in chair yoga class before lunch. I just do the stretches slowly and usually hold onto the back of my chair for the balancing poses. But when I walked back down the stairs to the parking lot, I noticed my hips were moving differently as I walked. Wow. I need to do this more!

I've got Katharine Hayhoe's newsletter to publish too, as to the good and bad news on climate change. But for now, I'll just say, this is one thing I can do. I try to eat plant-based meals at home, and sometimes will just give away the meat portion of these senior meals. Meatloaf is a favorite of a lot of people, but I give mine away.

And yesterday I saw this disturbing video...a carry through from my post yesterday!

Remember I'm a pacifist when it comes to war/military actions between countries, and using guns to kill any humans (and maybe even animals unless for food). 

But I can also be an activist who tells my opinions to anyone who will listen.

So, you also have this to consider from Robert Reich on Mon. 1.8.24 regarding the Secretary of Defense missing for 3 days:

"Earlier this year, Trump said at a rally in Iowa that he’d unilaterally send the military into Democratic-run cities. “You look at any Democrat-run state, and it’s just not the same — it doesn’t work,” he said, referring to cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco as crime dens. “We cannot let it happen any longer. And one of the other things I’ll do — because you’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in — the next time, I’m not waiting.”

If you think Congress or the federal courts would stop him, think again. As head of the executive branch of government, Trump could theoretically ignore whatever the other two branches told him to do or not to do, because a president is the only one with power to “execute” the laws.

And the core of that power is a president’s command over the military.

I don’t want to alarm you, but if Trump is reelected, everything could come down to whom Trump appoints as his secretary of defense, and the top generals whom that secretary appoints. (The secretary of Homeland Security could also play a key role.)

Might doesn’t make right, of course — which is exactly why it’s important to be aware of Trump’s potential for using the military to get his way.

Throughout history, the only real check on dictators has been the military. Dictators rely on their militaries. Militaries enable dictatorships. Militaries are behind most coups d’état."

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PS, as my last comment on my post yesterday said, I finally caught up with Barry and gave him a good thank you.