Once upon a time in far away places, or maybe close to home, politics were often conducted in coffee shops. Sometimes, coffee and coffee shops were banned as hotbeds of revolution. Turkish coffee "Gastrodiplomacy" is currently a thing, or so I've read. As a Conservative Believer in my youth, the slippery slope toward my undoing probably took place during the "Great Folk Music Scare" (fear that it would catch on) as I frequented Philadelphia's coffee shops and listened (and sometimes sang along with) the folkies, whom everyone knew were doper Commies.

The Easternmost Fred site is not intended to be a "no-politics" zone. Politics permeates all aspects of our lives, whether we engage actively or passively allow others to decide our fates. If we are to govern ourselves, a questionable assumption, then we have to learn how to do that. Social media are a form of virtual coffee shop, one could argue. Although they can be time-wasting fruitless venting, many online discussions are worth the bother as we help each other form our thoughts, opinions, views, and understanding of this incredibly complex civilization and society we've built. By "we" I mean all 8+ billion of us. No worries. Projections indicate we'll level out at 10 billion. If we last that long.

So - I hope to eventually add a forum here. I hesitate to even put a "contact" form on the menu because, even when people behave well, communication can quickly get out of hand. I will first add the contact thing and see what happens next. In the meantime, I am adding a link to the web site of a group with whom I'm working that I believe offers some hope of mitigating the unpleasant events we keep encountering. I hope you'll have a look and join us if you agree. 

More plots and conspiracies, of the most benign nature, are underway.

Shift the Country - Vanessa Burnett and a band of do-gooders charting a way to cope, fix, improve, and maybe survive our own folly. The probability of success (or being killed by a duck) might be small, but not zero. Unless attributed otherwise, the words written here may be presumed to be my own, and should not reflect negatively on sane, intelligent people.