The Weekly Watch

Blooming Idiots

Spring has sprung in Alabama. It's the deep flush of sudden color...an orgy of botanical porn. Amidst this explosion of life is the insanity of our government, economic system, and environmental degradation. It is the nature and power of life to be hopeful...positive about ourselves and our future. But I don't see how we manage the transition to a sustainable global system. However, I thought it would be a worthwhile topic and I hope you will share your views.

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Trout Lillies

I've just returned home this week and I've been slow to get back into the news cycle. In a holiday discussion with friends I brought up the idea the CIA engineered the JFK assassination and possibly the 911 attacks. These educated thinking people couldn't go there. It seems it is too difficult to imagine your own country as so nefarious. So I guess I would like to begin with my (idiotic?) perception of our current predicament. The oligarchs print our money (and charge us to do so). They either serve as or own our politicians. They operate the CIA, NSA (et al.) as their own private mafia to promote global violence and corporate interests. They own mercenary troops which can be deployed at home or abroad. They control the corporate media mouthpiece. Sure looks like checkmate.

Bob Sheer talks with Joel Whitney about how the CIA secretly funded the Congress [for] Cultural Freedom and lots of other organizations, and got involved right after World War II and continued right through the Cold War, basically manipulating publications and movies, everything else, to so-called “win the battle of ideas” with the Soviets, and ended up in the process adopting some of their more nefarious means. (transcript)
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/331-robert-scheer/35...

Along those same lines...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/msnbc-continues-to-inform-american-peo...

Jeremy Scahill talks about Eric Prince and his mercenary army
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/14/congresswoman_confirms_erik_princ...

The news is much like the line in John Prine's song...
pretty good, not bad, I can't complain, but actually everything is about the same...
Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times foreign correspondent, who writes about world affairs for The Boston Globe discusses the many way the US interferes in other countries elections
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/12/100_years_of_us_interference_regime

Helping-Hand-1000-420x378.jpg

People come and go...
Stephen Hawking left us. Ben Norton talks about his life (5 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21376:Stephen-Hawking%3A-Fighter-for-Pro...

Rexxon Tillerson was demoted from his position as secretary of the corporate state.
Jeremy Scahill explains...(video or text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/15/jeremy_scahill_on_trump_s_cabinet

He was replaced by Koch Bro poster boy Mike Pompous as the secretary of the state of perpetual war. (video and text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21364:Does-Pompeo-at-State-Mean-War-on-I...
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21362:Newly-Tapped-Sec-of-State-Mike-Pom...

That leaves us with torturer in chief at the helm of the CIA (video or text)
Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou personally knew CIA director nominee Gina Haspel https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/14/she_tortured_just_for_the_sake
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21363:The-CIA%27s-New-Torturer-in-Chief
Jeremy Scahill weighs in too
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/14/jeremy_scahill_gina_haspel_should_be

New measures added to the financial deregulation bill include the deregulation of commercial real estate, which threatens to re-create the conditions that led to the 2008 financial crisis, says Bill Black (11 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21354:Senate-Expands-%27Lobbyist-Bill%27...

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Middle East is still erupting thanks to our efforts...
Vijay reports from Lebanon about the situation in Syria
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/132-more-blog-posts-...

Syria is a losing proposition for the US
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/trump-losing-syria-nikki-haley-posturing/

Efforts to thwart our Yemen involvement are being challenged. Senators introduced legislation that would undermine the Sanders-Lee resolution to stop US support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. "They're trying to provide cover for just a handful of senators so they can vote for this instead of the Sanders Lee bill," says CEPR's Mark Weisbrot http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21378:Sanders-Resolution-Against-War-in-...

A majority of United Nations members support a just resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but U.S. political cowardice and the influential Israel Lobby thwart it, says veteran UN correspondent Ian Williams (13 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21275:US-Cowardice-Prevents-Middle-East-...

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North Korea is still in T-rump's sights. Col. Wilkerson explains (19 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21340:Wilkerson%3A-Trump-Won%27t-Make-Pe...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/south-korean-report-on-summit-discredi...

Go along with the Russia narrative or you're a Putin puppet. Stephen F. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University and Princeton discusses how Corbyn is being smeared. (video or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

It is spring and maybe there are signs of hope.
Just when it seems hopeless, there's the high school kids...

As part of #Enough, the National School Walkout, hundreds of Baltimore high school students marched to demand gun control, increased accountability for the police force, and more funding for the school system (4 min with text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21372:Students-Demand-Leaders-Address-th...

and the West Virginia teachers.
https://socialistproject.ca/2018/03/west-virginia-teachers-strike/

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is facing new criticism after she struggled Sunday to explain why schools in her home state of Michigan are faring poorly under the policies she has championed. (video and text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/13/charterize_privatize_christianize...

In what may become the 'Standing Rock of the North', thousands protest Kinder Morgan's Trans-Mountain Pipeline expansion, which would carry more toxic tar sands through First Nation territories (4 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21366:Anti-Pipeline-Indigenous-%27Mass-M...

However, the oligarchs have a plan...Wyoming is the third state, along with Iowa and Ohio, to introduce a bill that would criminalize peaceful pipeline protesters as 'eco-terrorism'. Investigative journalist, Steve Horn discusses how the bill is modeled by the conservative, corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council which is funded by oil billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch (12 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21299:Are-Oil-Billionaires-Trying-to-Und...

This conversation with Paul Jay and Leo Panitch asks if another world is possible. Panitch says a first step towards democratizing the economy is to make finance a public utility.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21338:Is-Another-World-Possible%3F---Leo...

The other parts of their conversation are here...
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&I...

George Lakey discuss building a movement in a divided country.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-to-build-a-progressive-movement-in...

Ellsberg discusses ways to minimize war...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/daniels-ellsbergs-advice-stop-current-...

In the natural world there are microclimates that promote diversity and productivity. The pocket is a wildflower treat that evolves as spring unfolds. I had a friend who used to describe certain plants as rare except where abundant. I hope you enjoy this visit with me to the pocket on the north side of Pigeon Mountain in NW Georgia. Here's a small sampling of what is in flower....it changes as the season progresses. Maybe we are all blooming idiots...

bluebells (2).jpg

Virginia Bluebells (h/t theothermaven)
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Celandine poppy and hepatica

celandine poppies and hepatica.jpg

Hepatica and toothwort
hepatica, toothwort, and trillium.jpg

Dutchman's breeches
dutchman's breeches (1).jpg


Foam Flower

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Spring Beauties

spring beauties (1).jpg


White Trillium about to bloom

trilliums (1).jpg


Phacelia

phacelia (2).jpg


and the bellwort just to show you a few...

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...and closer to home a few ornamentals currently in my world.

The native redbud...a legume against a local pond...
around the house (5).jpg
Daffodils announce spring
around the house (4).jpg


The big cherry is already past its prime...

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The more redbud, cherry, daffodils with forsythia and spirea in the back ground

around the house (1).jpg

So my friends, select a microclimate for yourself. Try to get back to the garden. Be kind. Find hope in flowers, the future seeds of life. Youth springs eternal. No one can steal your dreams, nor own your ideas.

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Lookout's picture

Sorry to present such a skimpy weekly news review. As you can see I've spent my time outside and wanted to share some of that beauty with you this week.

I do think discussing strategies for creating a better world is a worthwhile conversation, but I also wanted to suggest the idea of microclimates as a way to protect yourself in the coming climate chaos. So I look forward to your ideas, stories, and thoughts.

Have a nice Sunday!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

mhagle's picture

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Lookout's picture

@mhagle

Another hopeful technology is salt water batteries which are much less toxic, long lasting, and inexpensive. Due for re-release next month!
http://blog.aquionenergy.com/aquion-energy-return-to-production-in-2018

Always nice to see you Marilyn!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The pics are indeed lovely.

For me, this is the most hopeful and promising time of the year while the fall and winter holidays are the most fun time of year.

On a less cheerful note: Does anyone have an accurate count of how many wars were are engaged in, causing, extending or "meddling" in at the moment?

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Lookout's picture

@HenryAWallace

...but that doesn't cover our covert operations. So...Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Ukraine are our current hot wars in my view...you may know others? I think our covert wars are too numerous to review but Venezuela, Honduras, Cuba, Brazil...come quickly to mind.

We're hot to trot with N. Korea and Russia too. What a foolish way to squander our nation's wealth.

Good question. I hope others will add or subtract?

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

shouldn't it? Foreign press offices have been closed; and foreign correspondents are few.

I've been thinking lately about why I write more about Democrats and the msm than I do Trump. I haven't sorted it all out yet, but maybe it has to do with betrayal versus the one from whom I never expected anything good. Maybe it also has something to do with Trump being an obvious villain vs. Democrats and media posting as good guys. Maybe it also has something to do with preaching to the choir or playing Captain Obvious when point out Trump and Republicans aren't benefiting the 99%.

Anyway, I haven't had the desire or the patience to point out to the left that Trump isn't a great President. (Duh.) As to Trump, I just feel the US has finally jumped the shark. https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/jumping-the-shark-happy-days-lite...

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Lookout's picture

@HenryAWallace

...focusing on the democraps and the lame stream media. Perhaps it is in the effort to awaken thinking people to an awareness of their corporate owners?

When I first started this column, I quickly realized how the stories you cover carry your slant...no matter your effort at rationality and fairness. We all come from our own unique ever changing positions.

We do what we can. I carry my own bags to the grocery...not because it will solve the problem of plastic islands in the ocean, but because I'm not going to add to that island.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@HenryAWallace

for helping to counter the 'vote CorpoDem' propaganda to help us all keep in mind that they are two faces of the same corporate/military evil.

Much of the publicized outrage over specifically Trump - rather than the overall long-plotted, globally inflicted disaster he's symptomatic of - is intended to have Americans alternately running back and forth between the dual corporate cats-paws and exhausting themselves while having even the concepts of their inherent human/Constitutional rights and any remaining scraps of wealth torn away without ever escaping the Two-Party-Trap and we do need to keep this in mind.

Just watched these, might as well throw them in in case anyone hasn't seen them and might be interested.

Just love this guy for the additional shot of sanity he brings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PV95IJH9Vo

ISIS Used Chemical Weapons 52 Times In Syria/Iraq; Govs Lie To Create Pretext For War, Be Skeptical!
Jamarl Thomas

Streamed live 6 hours ago

ISIS Used Chemical Weapons 52 Times In Syria /Iraq; Gov Lie To Create Pretext For War, Be Skeptical!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp2SczxupZg

RESISTANCE! Bernie Sanders Delegates Secret Plot To Stop TPP & Protest Rigging At DNC Convention
Jamarl Thomas

Streamed live 7 hours ago

RESISTANCE! Bernie Sanders Delegates Secret Plot To Stop TPP & Protest Rigging At DNC Convention

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

TheOtherMaven's picture

(Mertensia virginica), natives of Eastern woodlands. There are other flowers called "bluebells" by various people:

* genus Hyacinthoides (European)
Common bluebell (H. non-scripta)
Spanish bluebell (H. hispanica)
Italian bluebell (H. italica)
* genus Muscari (perhaps more commonly known as grape hyacinth)
* Scottish bluebell (harebell) (Campanula rotundifolia)
* Australian royal bluebell (Wahlenbergia gloriosa)
* Texas bluebell (Eustoma russellianum)
* Desert or California bluebell (Phacelia campanularia)

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Lookout's picture

@TheOtherMaven

I tend to be a botanical lumper. The more taxonomy you know, the more you are a spliter.

Thanks for parsing the bluebells!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Meteor Man's picture

That's a terrific idea from your Real News video Lookout. Prof. Panitch suggests making water, utilities and energy public services. Water and utilities are already public services at the municipal and state level in most states. I would add broadband services as well.

Another problem brought up is the educational process of changing The narrative:

Marx said, "The first task of the communist party is to turn the proletariat into a class." That was an educational process, right.

That's an idea who's time has come:

Working Americans Need Independent Politics

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Lookout's picture

@Meteor Man

Here's a cleaner link
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/16/100571/

In addition to pubic banking and so on, I really like Wolff's concepts of worker owned business too.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Meteor Man's picture

@Lookout
I got sloppy and forgot to check my link. As an afterthought, Prof. Panitch mentions the Ontario Liquor Board for selling liquor. Iowa has a state Liquor Control board and maybe other states as well. Grocery stores can only sell beer.

State banks are a positive step in making finance a public utility and why did Prof. Panitch forget Healthcare? Adding Medicare For All to nationalized Social Security is the first big step to an American Socialist revolution.

Greed is our enemy and compassion for our fellow citizens is the solution.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Lookout's picture

@Meteor Man

Greed is our enemy and compassion for our fellow citizens is the solution.

Thanks.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

GreyWolf's picture

@Meteor Man
ND has the Bank of ND, the only state bank, though other states have been proposing it for years.

(FYI: ND cleaned up its balance sheet by loaning its own state departments their operating money, rather than having the various departments of the state borrow from the wall street banks ... by being a socialist state ND became profitable; the state bank was created nearly 100 years ago by just breaking free from the leeches of wall street. All other states, [and probably even ND in this modern age,] are too servile, they have been trained to be oppressed, and have internalized their subservient status, in my view. To me, that's also the problem with an "anti-capitalist" point-of-view. Anti-capitalists have internalized the views of "capitalism," rather than being supra-capitalists, i.e. beyond capitalists, and not even stooping to being categorized by the capitalist vernacular. -- Sorry, I'm re-reading the "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," where Paulo Freire writes of the oppressed, meaning the employees, at first only envisioning becoming the oppressors, meaning the bosses, rather than dreaming of being free of the exploited/exploiter duality. Same with the D/R crap, the D's just dreamed of being more corrupt than the R's, not of actual human growth. To be just as slimy, if not more so, than the old bosses, is the "new American Dream." But both masters and servants have become dehumanized, and only by moving beyond the roles of masters and servants can the humans achieve actual humanity.)

PS: Thanks for the weekly update, Lookout

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Lookout's picture

@GreyWolf

...and thanks for he ND banking info!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I think the deregulation bill must have a specific, planned angle to it. Somehow there is going to be a huge screwing over of poor and vulnerable people for the profit of billionaire crooks and this bill is part of that plan...again.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Lookout's picture

@Timmethy2.0

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

boriscleto's picture

Before we see Trout lilies in upstate NY...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

Lookout's picture

@boriscleto

Thanks for dropping by!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Wink's picture

here in NY-21 where the current temp is 16º F and going down, snow blanketing the entire district. (sigh) But there is this...

Screenshot 2018-03-18_23-26-55.jpg

Not that any Orange fans are expecting any more miracles, but after being the very last team chosen (and deservedly so) for the field of 68 teams, and needing a win just to crack the regular field of 64 teams, it is So sweeeet to be going to the Sweeet 16! (teams that still remain alive). I'm sure Duke will crush the Orange Fri. night, but this week, winning three straight games, has been sweeet. Smile

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.