Today the Snow Moon goes dark at 7:45pm. Tomorrow is the new Sap Moon, which is the first moon of spring. Most years. Spring is nowhere in evidence here in central Vermont… but it has to be soon…
Tomorrow is also the Economic Blackout, organized by the People’s Union USA. What’s that? Here is how they describe this action:
WHAT HAPPENS ON FEBRUARY 28TH?
• No purchases. No Amazon. No Walmart. No Starbucks. No unnecessary gas fill-ups. No online orders.
• No engagement. Skip the big-brand entertainment, the news cycles designed to distract and divide.
• Absolute focus. This is about unity, discipline, and demonstrating collective will.
This is not a protest. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a warning shot.
Because if they ignore this one-day blackout?
We escalate. We go longer. We go deeper. And they will have to listen.
This is only the beginning.
Obviously, this is right up my tree… I would like to go one further. Don’t even turn on the screens for anything that isn’t absolutely obligatory. Certainly, don’t do Twix or Faceplant. So, to encourage that, tomorrow there will be no posting despite it being the new moon. I will make up for that on Saturday, which is also St David’s Day…
Media fasting for Lent and Ramadan (which partially overlaps with Lent this year, starting tomorrow at sundown), is almost eclipsing dietary fasting these days. Faith leaders all over the map are using the idea of a fast to give people a goal, a reason to turn off the screens. At the end of the fasting period, some people never go back, and for those that do, the habitual nature of “feeding” is gone. (In fact, if you go without for 40 days, it’s rather hard to convince yourself to start again. You can’t help but see that it’s just annoying and disgusting and so much wasted time… with absolutely no reward.)
This is obviously a personal choice, not a mass action, but if you feel at all compelled toward media fasting, do it now while Islamic and Christian leaders are telling their millions to turn off the screen. The impact of your personal choice will be multiplied.
If you are interested in fasting from spending — and who isn’t, given how none of us have any money and everything costs too much anyway — there are more boycotts and blackouts planned, and not just from the People’s Union USA.
Next week is the beginning of Lent, and Black faith leaders are calling for a 40-day fast from Target beginning on Ash Wednesday because the company quickly bent to current pressures and rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. (One gets the feeling Target was waiting for any excuse…)
There are also specific boycotts of Amazon (March 7-14) and Walmart (April 7-13). And there are two more general economic blackout days planned — Friday, March 28th and Friday, April 18th.
And in case you are thinking that this doesn’t apply to you if you don’t live in the US, note that all these box stores and online shopping venues are global. Hence the problem with them… So, please, stand in solidarity with those of us in this benighted country and do not shop tomorrow.
Or if you do, make it local.
And then… make that permanent!
©Elizabeth Anker 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 
I am interested to learn whether or not this action has a real impact on the businesses concerned. Won’t people just ‘double’ buy afterwards?
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First of all, look! I figured out how to respond finally!!!
But as to your question, I think not. Most people, if they have the income for discretionary spending and put those impulses on hold for a day or so, usually decide to skip whatever it was. Or they forget. Which sort of proves to them how little they needed to spend that money.
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True – people with the means are prone to impulse buying.
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The un-elected people who are now running the U.S. shadow government are incapable of empathy. They are nihilists without morals and values, except the pursuit of their personal money and power. In short, they could care less about protests, petitions and letters to Congress, which is a do nothing, codependent in their cruelty. Many people want to resist but do not know what would be effective. They also want to take actions that are non-violent. The general strike is the best way to accomplish both. Like hungry ghosts the one thing that they care about is money and the bottom lines of their corporate businesses.
P.S. Where I live many people, including my neighbors, are seriously impacted by the decimation of the federal work force. Some have replaced flying the U.S. flag with the state flag of Virginia whose motto is prominently displayed, “Sic Semper Tyrannis.”
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