In the Weekend Reader: Boldly go to the polls; more questions on Question D; the dog that didn't bark in MoCo; corporate power outweighs national wealth; the grim logic of climate change; and more.

The Weekend Reader for October 1… only about a month left until the 2016 election (well, 38 days if you’re being precise). Are you registered to vote? Are your family and friends? Oct. 8 is the deadline in Maryland; much closer. You are being asked to doublecheck on your immediate circle’s power to vote by no less than the entire cast (almost) of all the Star Trek TV shows and movies in the franchise’s 50-plus year history, and they have a few links for those who still need to sign up. (They are also urging you to vote against Trump, not much of a surprise, but the logic of Spock will help you see that you can’t vote for anybody unless you are registered – so act soon to preserve your choice later).

Remember, too, that voter suppression is still going on in states all over the US in spite of the fact that courts are striking down voter ID and other GOP-pushed regulations meant to hobble poor and working people and minorities in exercising their rights. So talk to your friends out of state and make sure they are good to vote, too.

Other goodies for your weekend reading…

The Diamondback, student newspaper at the College Park UM campus, covered Prince George’s County’s  Question D controversy this past week… http://www.dbknews.com/2016/09/29/at-large-council-prince-georges-county/

Josh Kurtz, who manages the excellent aggregator Center Maryland, sometimes writes under his own name, and his long view of Maryland politics is always an awakening. Here he looks at Robin Ficker’s attempt to impose term limits on Montgomery elected officials through a ballot measure, and how the usual pushback from the establishment is just not very visible. http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2FtRZifvhbpSXnRLXTf8knlrt%2Fu5fi%2BlN

One of our far-flung correspondents in upstate New York sent this alarming report from CommonDreams on the urgency of switching to renewable energy sources. Now we have to figure out how to do it in a way that increases, not decreases, good skilled jobs. Funny, people know how to do that too… see Bill McKibben’s call for a war-footing type mobilization, linked in this article… http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/30/forget-paris-scientists-say-radical-change-only-way-stay-below-2-degrees?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=printfriendly&utm_source=tool

And another CommonDreams article, passed along via Sam Smith’s Undernews. Remember Sam Smith? He used to expose the underside of money-driven local politics in DC with the Progressive Review. Now based in Maine, his reach is broader and maybe a little elegiac. In this item we are reminded what we are really up against: the economies of some major countries are not as large as that flaunted by some of the multinational corporations – and the ratio is getting worse. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/12/be-afraid-largest-corporations-wealthier-most-countries