We had a lot of Optimism growing up in the Sixties. There was Hope for the Future. President Kennedy Challenged us to Land a Man on the Moon and the school systems started training us all to become engineers, rocket scientists.

 In the late sixties Millions of people ate LSD and that opened up an entirely new way to look at life. Maybe we could build a better world... Sadly, some people did not "Drink the Kool Aid."

Corporate Greed Freaks took over most businesses in the USA and used their Wealth to Buy Politicians who would do what they were told to do. Bribery became Totally Legal... Laws were passed to help the Super Rich Get More Money. More, More, More... More, More, More... More, More, More... Insanity... It's Called the Compulsive Hoarding of Money Syndrome. 




Peace and Love: 
Not Just a Good Idea but 
a Practical Way of Life...
Peace Sign Two-Tone Coffee Mug

by gregvan

I see that the rate of Americans having Children has gone down recently. I understand. Why would anyone want to curse a child with the type of world we are going to experience in the coming years. It's pretty obvious that we will have MORE forest fires, MORE Hurricanes, MORE Tornadoes and MORE FLOODS and DROUGHTS... More plastics Polluting the Ocean, More Toxic Waste in our water and air... More Poverty, Starvation and more Billionaires... There will come a point when JUST TURNING UP THE AIR CONDITIONER WILL NOT SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING. Sure, everyone can Move to Canada, Alaska and Siberia but... that plan only works for about twenty years. 

Currently New York City is building DIKES all around Lower Manhattan to prevent the Ocean from Flooding Wall Street... The Big "U" goes from Harlem to Battery Park... But that does nothing for Queens, The Bronx or Brooklyn... Or New Jersey... Even the Super Rich were "Inconvenienced" when Hurricane Sandy flooded the Subways and the Underground Telephone lines... Computers could not communicate and that REALLY screwed up the Stock Market. You can't be "Limo Man" on a Flooded Street... 


Vision Quest Poster (29" x 32") For Sale...
Plenty of room to write a Slogan, Poem, Joke, Mantra or Manifesto! GO WILD!
Vision Quest Poster

by gregvan

New Orleans is Flooded again... 5/17/2019 It's Underwater because it rained really hard in the Middle of the USA. The Mississippi drains land a Thousand Miles Wide and Two thousand Miles Tall. 

Yep, it looks pretty bleak for people living in the future. Thankfully, I'm 65 years old and will be dead soon. There is NO real effort to stop driving cars all over everywhere polluting the air. What will life be like after a few billion people starve to death? We already see thousands of People fleeing Central America and Walking North... and Boat people crossing the Mediterranian... and Migration North from Iran and Syria... 


~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~
and then a friend posted this rant on Facebook. 
~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~

I’m sorry but the following has turned into a rant (and was a reply I made to another post from a Facebook friend), “but hey, this is America”.....
I remember in high school and coming of age in the 60’s and 70’s, the feeling that the United States was progressively overcoming inherit problems like the lack of equal rights, the rights of all minorities, the rights of workers, the rights of women, the rights of all Americans and the hard working middle class realizing the dream of economic freedom. The rising of the American middle class was the awakening of free people everywhere. 
There were no handouts!
We Americans earned this freedom and progressed, through our taxes, the retirement benefits of Social Security and Medicare and, through a joint commitment of our whole society, realized the benefits of these and other programs that inspired other free democratic peoples to enact similar programs & in many cases surpass them in their own countries. The problem in this country was we didn’t keep going, we didn’t keep working on problems that still existed, that we can always keep improving. 
I am so disillusioned at our present state in this country. I have grandkids that will soon have to learn how to handle shootings in their own schools, a place of refuge & hope and learning for Christ’s sake!
Our Founding Fathers created a system that would enable future members of our society to always progress further to take on future problems and to become even more free while maintaining a strong vibrant country. Who the hell wants to return to some imaginary paradise time span? What would that be the 50’s, the 60’s, 1812, 1920, 1944 ad nauseum....
I’m sorry, but Newt Gingrich FU, Mitch McConnell FU, Paul Ryan FU, Donald Trump FU, people like you FU....
The American people are inherently good people, the polls on almost every issue show that Americans want to keep progressing to more equality, that we value diversity, that we want the best for each and every one of us, that we are compassionate towards our fellow Americans and people of other countries, that we value the natural beauty and wonder of the world we live in. It’s time we got back to the dreams of our Founders and continue to realize our potential!

Whew, sorry for the rant, “but hey, this is America”!!

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LINKS TO MY BEST BLOG POSTS!
*The Violet Overgrow - An Eco-Warrior's Journey by Gregory Vanderlaan - FICTION

*Trump Confesses to Adultery! "Hey, Moses Was JUST JOKING When He Wrote those Ten Commandments...

*Generate Electricity and Clean Drinking Water AT THE SAME TIME. A Solar Powered Desalinization Plant Would Convert Seawater into Energy, Pure H2O and NaCl.

*Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42 - UFO and Alien Hieroglyphics

*Tree Sitters Protest Lignite Coal Mine in Hambach Forest, Germany

*The Passage of Roe v Wade Led to Fewer Unwanted Babies Being Born... and 20 Years Later, Less Violent Crime... Because Unwanted Babies Grow Up to Become Violent Criminals...

*FREE COLORING BOOK: Print The Drawings and Color Using Felt Pens, Pencils or Potatoshop... American Indian

*HEADLINE: Deadline for "Real ID" for Air Travel Postponed AGAIN Until May 7, 2025... WONDERFUL!

*My Music Video: FREE ALL THE CANNABIS PRISONERS - A Mockery of Nancy Ray Gun... Jest Say KNOW

*Bubble UP! Economics. Raise the Minimum Wage, Social Security and LOWER Taxes on 99% of Americans. Actually Collect Taxes on the Top 1%... We The People Will Spend that Extra Money in Our Paychecks and it will BUBBLE UP! Throughout The Entire Economy...

*How to Escape the Cult of Trump: Deprogramming by Family Members of the MAGA MORON is Essential... If Someone you Know has been Brainwashed... RESCUE THEM!

*The Best Five Restaurants Near Eureka, California - Eat a Fish, Watch the Boats...

*Trump: "The Art of the Failed Deal" Book. Every Deal in that book LOST MONEY. That's why He declared Bankruptcy SO MANY TIMES. Will his Business Stupidity cause the ENTIRE COUNTRY to Go Bankrupt?

*Photographs of a Journey to the Headwaters Forest - Now a State Reserve... Near Eureka, CA - Plus The Story of How It Came To Be!

*Rainbow Gathering July 1-7, 2024 Will Be In CALIFORNIA... Exact Location To Be Revealed June 15th... and As Soon as I Know, I'll Post Driving Directions and Maps Here... What IS The Rainbow Gathering? For Me, It's Woodstock with Amateur Musicians and I'm in the Band... It's a Week Long Backpack Trip for Thousands of People...


*Add THIS to Your Bucket List: Swimming at Bear Hole in Upper Bidwell Park, Chico California. Crystallized Black Lava Rocks - Basalt from the Eruption of Mount Lassen.

*Numbers have Cultural Meanings... A list from Zero to Infinity and Beyond... For example: 007 Means James Bond. 420 Means Marijuana. 5150 means Insane... and... 420 + 5150 = REEFER MADNESS!

*"Conspiracy Theories" that are ACTUALLY TRUE. MKULTRA, Cointelpro, CIA-Contra-Cocaine, Donald Rumsfeld Selling Weapons to Saddam Hussein, UFOs are Real... Sometimes people dismiss Truth as "Just a Conspiracy Theory" because they Don't LIKE THE TRUTH.

1967: The Summer of Love... San Francisco, Hippies, Flower Power, Peace, The Diggers, Haight Ashbury, LSD and the Grateful Dead. It certainly has been a Long Strange Trip. Congratulations to all those of us who have survived... One thing is for certain...The culture of the United States was radically different After the 1960's...



*American History: "The Thunder Machine" was a Giant Sheet Metal Sculpture that you Got Inside and Played like a Drum. Made by Ron Boise and used at Ken Kesey's Acid Tests.

For Maximum Effect, Don't Read This Book. Write Your Own! --- "Lessons Learned" by Gregory Vanderlaan. A Lifetime of Trial, Error and Survival Yielded These Words of Wisdom...

My Biff Rose Trip: Driving To a Cabin in the Woods - down The Coast of California from Arcata thru Ft Bragg to Mendocino... An Excellent Adventure!

How To Remove Smoke from Indoor Air. Tape a Filter to a Box Fan. During Wildfire Season the Air Indoors is Bad to Breathe...


Pretty Soon the Filter Turns Brown
from Smoke, Pollen and Dust.

Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. (LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Peyote) Then He went to India Looking for Enlightenment and Met a Guru. Changed His Name and Published a Great Book... "Remember: Be Here Now" - It Has His Autobiography and then Many ART Drawings Explaining Eastern Religion. Real Name: Dr. Richard Alpert...


Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. (LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Peyote)


My Autobiography: Growing Up in Los Gatos, California in the 1960s by Gregory Vanderlaan - and Living in San Jose, Washington DC, Chico, Eureka and Orangevale, CA.

I Was Born in 1954. We lived Near the San Jose Airport until they Started Landing Jet Airplanes and We had to move... We went to Los Gatos in 1960. I lived there until graduation from Los Gatos High School in 1972... an Ideal Childhood... FYI: Los Gatos is about 50 miles South of San Francisco on the edge of the mountains between San Jose and Santa Cruz.

I Went to West Valley Jr. College, learned electronics drafting and got a job at System Industries in Santa Clara... I feel blessed that not only did I grow up in a great location but I also grew up at a great time. I missed the Vietnam War by ONE Year and Silicon Valley Was Hiring Like Crazy When I Needed a Job.
Peace Sign Pie Chart
History of the Vietnam War. 58,000 Americans Died for Nothing... Something They Don't Teach in School Now... "Too Controversial" -

During the 1950s Americans went into a Mad Panic about Communists taking over the world. We built thousands of Nuclear Missiles and Fallout Shelters. The US Congress had witch hunts (Joe McCarthy-HUAC) to expose "Commies" who worked in The Hollywood Movie business and blacklisted folksingers that were leading our young people astray with Labor Union Organizing songs.


During the height of this hysteria Vice President Richard Nixon went on Television and explained "The Domino Principle" while pointing to a map of Asia. His theory was...

READ MORE: https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-vietnam-war-58000.html

Who Won the War? DOW CHEMICAL AND HUGHES AIRCRAFT. Selling Napalm, Agent Orange and Helicopters...

Military Death Chart USA

AMERICA'S BOGUS WARS - Since 1945, The US Military Has Never Defended The USA, Not Even Once.

Ever since Victory in Japan, All of Our Wars have been Marketing to Sell Weapons for the Military Industrial Complex.







Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42 - UFO and Alien Hieroglyphics