2024: Actions Spoke Louder Than Words
A year that history will neither forget nor forgive.
“… intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”
— “The War of the Worlds,” H. G. Wells
History is a conversation between humanity and time. We write the record with our actions, not our words. Words lie; actions don’t.
History will remember this as an age of liars.
It was a year in which an American political party embraced wholesale violations of international law, defied international courts, and abetted genocide. And it was considered the lesser of two evils.
It was a year when the United States preached international law—while protecting a head of state from an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
I used to wonder how the people of Germany could rationalize away the horrors that perpetrated in their name. I will never wonder that again.
Big Tech continues to hypnotize, manipulate and addict us. Now, as Trump prepares to retake the White House, it will have more power than ever—and we’ll have even less. We don’t need a “war of the worlds.” We have met the aliens, and they are us:
“Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?”
I’m still processing the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson (who I met many years ago, if memory serves correctly) and the outpouring of support for his accused killer, Luigi Mangione. I’ve been expecting something like this since the financial crisis of 2008. It remains to be seen whether it’s an outlier or a sign of things to come.
We’re still hurtling toward global climate catastrophe, with 2024 the hottest year on record. Wildfires raged in South American forests. Deadly heat waves struck cities in India and the United States. Without dramatic (and increasingly unlikely) changes, the planet will heat up by almost 3 degrees Centigrade in this century with disastrous results.
In response, US climate policy will move from insufficiency to insanity when Trump takes office.
Jimmy Carter followed a misguided presidency with an inspired and selfless post-presidency. He showed great courage by calling the occupation of Palestine by its true name: apartheid. His death will undoubtedly come as a relief for the other Democratic ex-presidents. They can now continue their post-political lives of self-enrichment and self-glorification, freed from an exemplar that must have loomed over their consciences like Poe’s raven on its bust of Pallas (who, it’s worth noting, is the goddess of wisdom).
On a positive note, this year also saw a global awakening to the brutality of the US/Israel occupation and genocide in Palestine, with a worldwide movement that inspired millions (including the people of Gaza, I’m told). May that movement grow and evolve in the years to come.
The people of South Korea resisted martial law and fought to save their democracy, which they’ve done many times before. That country’s history of political protest is inspiring.
It was a hell of a year for me personally, especially with the death of my brother John—five years after the death of his son James. (If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, help is available.) I didn’t know John Mayall well, but I did know him and I liked him very much. I interviewed Kinky Friedman several times and liked him, too. And pet owners will understand how devastated I was to lose the cat who nursed me through months of illness.
The Zero Hour Report focused on several key issues in 2024.
Gaza/Palestine was at the top of the list—of course, given the horror and the urgency. It served as a moral X-ray of the Western hemisphere. Other Gaza coverage included:
Palestine Under Fire: Dr. Samah Jabr on Traumatic Stress — and Growth — Under Occupation.
A Palestinian psychiatrist on systematic brutality and mental health.
The slaughter in the Middle East reflects the global crisis of imperialism and runaway materialism, which was also addressed:
10 Reasons House Progressives Must Reject Biden’s Pro-War, Anti-Humanitarian Bill
It slashes humanitarian aid for Gaza and amplifies the death toll.
Idolatry, political or otherwise, is the opposite of independence.
Biden’s Theater of Cruelty – and Its Double, in Fire and Sacrifice
The global crisis struck the “homeland,” too. A case in point:
It takes a lot of media manipulation to keep a system like this in place. That was discussed in columns like these:
The World Central Kitchen Murders, As Told in Newspaper Clippings
False Accusation Also Proves Tapper and Bash Are Very Bad at Their Jobs
When the truth is under assault, our civil liberties are also threatened:
Butterflies and Batons: The Dog Star Rises Over American Campuses
The Fake “Antisemitism” Bill Threatens Our Civil Liberties. The Senate Must Reject It.
Politics was also a topic, of course:
Prophet Without Honor: Holiday Readings from the Trump Bible
Dems Are Afraid Gaza Will Cost Them the Election. They’re Not Afraid Enough.
One Nation Under Fire: Trump Resurgent, and washed in the blood of the Gun.
I’m writing and thinking about the future more and more, too, applying my old data analysis/information processing skills in a different context:
I’m gradually working up the courage to post more of my music, a process I began in 2023:
Lastly, I wrote about some (but not nearly all) of my and our losses in the past year:
We concluded our “State of the Media 2024” series of interviews; please give it a listen. All of the interviews from The Zero Hour radio and TV program are here.
May the new year be good to you and all those you care about. And may there be better times ahead for all the innocent and beautiful inhabitants of planet Earth.
Thank you for a year of must-see reporting! As for actions speaking louder, Bruce Cockburn made a song about that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geRyB2li7lo
Here's to many good surprises in the new year!
Thanks from the bottom of my heart for helping me through the experience of this year.
As I write, lightening and thunder, hail and rain surround me here in Philadelphia, a strange climate for New Years Eve: more appropriate than fireworks, and a real damper to any celebration. As if to say that La Naturaleza is on the move, to cancel and supplant human schemes.