Spring Forward

Today Georgia standard time became Alabama Daylight savings time. I leave most of our clocks at this setting year round. Here on the Eastern/Central time cusp you just ask is that fast time or slow time. So we're back on slow time here at the house. Nature doesn't have to ask about time, blooms are coming on strong.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

There's a wonderful film called "Spring Forward" Here's a short 2 min clip

This time of year is nice in many ways. This is the calm before the vegetative explosion. Now you can look through the forests with its grays and browns and see the lay of the land. I watched a group of dear browse their way through the forest edge the other day. Change is the constant, and the green man will emerge soon.

I've always been fascinated by the way pagan legends and traditions are maintained through time. Most folks, in our oblivious manner, have no idea. These seasonal changes (this time next week will be spring) are particularly steeped in paganism and reflected in modern day religion as well. Fertility is the theme...Easter eggs and rabbits. More than just birth, rebirth is another symbol of spring. It is miraculous to see the trees leaf out yet again in the turning of the wheel.

Ostara (named after the Goddess, Eostre/Ostara) is the day Christians borrowed from the Pagans, and renamed “Easter.” The Easter bunny was originally a hare; a nocturnal animal sacred to the Goddess, and a symbol for the moon. Each day, the moon and hare were said to die and be reborn, which led to the hare being a symbol of immortality. And because the hare can conceive while pregnant, it (along with eggs) became a symbol for fertility and abundance.

Ostara symbolises the sun getting stronger, and the earth warming up and becoming more fertile each day up to Summer Solstice. Flowers are sprouting up and blooming all over. Animals begin mating. New life is birthed. The whole world seems to now be fully awake; refreshed and full of child-like energy. The Maiden archetype is in full bloom.

So I hope you too are having a taste of spring. I know some of our friends in Colorado had a bad snow storm. We had the heaviest snow in my memory on March 13, 1993. We had 4 foot drifts here in the corner of Alabama, and 2 foot everywhere. Some folks went without power for weeks. So spring is full of surprises.

I wish I could be as positive about our nation as I am about nature...
I find myself in agreement with the assessment that we are not able to deal with a crisis.

Chris Hedges: Bandaging the Corpse

The established ruling elites know there is a crisis. They agreed, at least temporarily, to throw money at it with the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 bill known as American Rescue Plan (ARP). But the ARP will not alter the structural inequities, either by raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour or imposing taxes and regulations on corporations or the billionaire class that saw its wealth increase by a staggering $1.1 trillion since the start of the pandemic. The health system will remain privatized, meaning the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations will reap a windfall of tens of billions of dollars with the ARP, and this when they are already making record profits. The endless wars in the Middle East, and the bloated military budget that funds them, will remain sacrosanct. Wall Street and the predatory global speculators that profit from the massive levels of debt peonage imposed on an underpaid working class and loot the U.S. Treasury in our casino capitalism will continue to funnel money upwards into the hands of a tiny, oligarchic cabal. There will be no campaign finance reform to end our system of legalized bribery. The giant tech monopolies will remain intact. The fossil fuel companies will continue to ravage the ecosystem. The militarized police, censorship imposed by digital media platforms, vast prison system, harsher and harsher laws aimed at curbing domestic terrorism and dissent and wholesale government surveillance will be, as they were before, the primary instruments of state control.

This act will, at best, provide a momentary respite from the country’s death spiral, sending out one time checks of $1,400 to 280 million Americans, extending $300 weekly unemployment benefits until the end of August and distributing $3,600 through a tax credit for children under the age of 6 and $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17 starting on July 1. Much of this money will be instantly gobbled up by landlords, lenders, medical providers and credit card companies. The act does, to its credit, bail out some 1 million unionized workers poised to lose their pensions and hands $31.2 billion in aid to Native communities, some of the poorest in the nation.

This clip from the Gravel Institute continues the theme...
Why America Sucks...

This Country Constantly Fails Its Most Vulnerable

We certainly ought to do better. The United States places second in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s overall poverty index, which includes all 27 European Union countries plus the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as in its child-poverty-rate ranking.

But doing better won’t be easy — or perhaps even possible. American views on the government’s appropriate economic role differ substantially from those of Canadians and Europeans. Moreover, corporate money and that of the truly wealthy already massively influence our politics, a phenomenon intensified by recent Supreme Court decisions. Proposals to fortify the safety net will, therefore, provoke formidable resistance from armies of special interests, lobbyists, and plutocrats with the means to influence politicians. So if you’re impatient for a better safety net, don’t hold your breath.

The US economy has recovered only a little over one-half of the 22 million jobs lost during the pandemic. The official unemployment rate is 6.2 percent, but the real rate is closer to 10 percent when the 4 million people who have dropped out of the labor force, so-called discouraged workers, are counted. There are still over 20 million workers receiving jobless relief of some kind, including 4 million receiving traditional state unemployment benefits and others on emergency pandemic aid authorized by Congress.

New claims for unemployment benefits fell to 712,000 for the week ending March 6, a drop of 42,000 from the previous week, but still a very high number compared to a typical week in 2019 when between 200,000 and 300,000 would apply.

For the past year new weekly unemployment claims have exceeded the high point of the Great Recession of 2008–2009. In addition, there were also 478,000 new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for the week, a increase of 42,000 over the previous week. PUA was an emergency program enacted by Congress to help the self-employed and others not covered by regular state unemployment benefits.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/13/jobs-m13.html

We have become the victims of the violence we have exported around he world, and now the empire has come home to roost.
Pentagon approves extending Guard deployment at Capitol

In a statement late Tuesday, the Capitol Police force said it is “extremely grateful for the Department of Defense’s continued commitment to support our critical mission to protect Congress.”

U.S. military officials have said the cost of deploying about 26,000 Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol from shortly after the Jan. 6 riot to this Friday is close to $500 million. No cost estimate for the next two months has been released.

Glenn Greenwald has an interview this week which well illustrates US violence.

Mohamedou Slahi is an extraordinary person with a harrowing past and a remarkable, still-unfolding story. The interview I conducted with him on Saturday is one I sincerely hope you will watch. He has much to say that the world should hear, and, with a new War on Terror likely to be launched in the U.S., his story is particularly timely now...
But particularly now, with Democrats and their neocon allies who spawned the first War on Terror explicitly plotting how to launch a second one, this time with a domestic focus, it is more important than ever to understand in the most visceral ways possible how arbitrary power of this kind ends up at least as dangerous and destructive as the enemy invoked to justify their adoption in the first place.

https://scheerpost.com/2021/03/10/with-a-second-war-on-terror-looming-th...

It is US militarism and aggression that I see as the primary problem... (4 min)

The US, a failing empire, challenges China, the rising empire, in a pattern humanity can't seem to escape.

US convenes the “Quad”—a quasi-military alliance against China

US President Joe Biden yesterday held the first-ever summit of the top-level leaders of the so-called “Quad” comprising the United States, Japan, Australia and India. While the virtual meeting was presented publicly as concerned with COVID-19 and climate change, its real purpose was unmistakable: to strengthen military and strategic ties to confront China throughout the Indo-Pacific and prepare for war.

Since coming to office, Biden has made clear that he will not only continue, but intensify, Washington’s aggressive stance toward Beijing that began with the “pivot to Asia” of the Obama administration, of which he was part, and was ratcheted up under Trump. Biden’s focus on China was underscored by the fact that the Quad dialogue was the first multilateral meeting he has hosted.

It isn't just powerful countries we challenge but basically any country whose resources we desire. Africa is an excellent example...

... U.S. Army Majors Kyle Atwell and Dan Collini don’t pull punches – and are just a bit too on the neocolonial nose – off-handedly asserting: "Like it or not, a twenty-first century "scramble for Africa" is underway." Allow me to translate that into late 19th century apologism for the unfamiliar:

Look, we Westerners didn’t WANT to seize and exploit all of Africa besides Liberia and Ethiopia. You see, like it or not, we had no choice, ultimately…it was for their own good…they were kinda asking for it, even…

https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2021/03/10/the-militarys-afri...

And of course there's our ongoing coups all over the world.
Why The War In Ukraine May Soon Resume

A war against the eastern separatist could be a Hail Mary attempt by Zelensky to regain some national and international support.

But nothing will happen on the frontline without the consent or even encouragement from Washington DC. The Biden administration is filled with the same delusional people who managed the 2014 coup in Kiev. They may believe that the NATO training the Ukrainian army received and the weapons the U.S. delivered are sufficient to defeat the separatist. But the state of the Ukrainian military is worse than one might think and the separatist will have Russia's full backing. There is no question who would win in such a fight.

U.S. President Joe Biden continues Donald Trump's regime change policy towards Venezuela. From yesterday's press briefing by the State Department:

QUESTION: Staying in Latin America, is it fair to say that the Biden administration is pursuing regime change in Venezuela?

MR PRICE: It is fair to say that the Biden administration supports the democratic aspirations of the people of Venezuela. Our overriding goal is to support a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela through free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, and to help the Venezuelan people rebuild their lives and their country.

We know at the root of much of the misery and the suffering of the people of Venezuela stands one individual, and we have been very clear that Nicolas Maduro is a dictator. His actions have not been in the best interests of the people of Venezuela. It hasn’t just been the United States that has been saying that. It has been the United States and many of our closest partners both in the region and well beyond.

QUESTION: So it’s basically – it’s basically a nicer way of saying Maduro must go?

MR PRICE: We believe and we support the democratic aspirations of the people of Venezuela. That is why we are committed to supporting the people through humanitarian measures and also targeting regime officials and their cronies involved in human rights abuses and corruption.

Yes.

The New York Times is, as usual, supportive of such illegal policies. It continues to disinform its readers about economic problems caused by these.

Blinken Speaks With Venezuela’s Guaido

Media is a big part of the problem

Australia has come up with a way to control social media. Coming soon to America? (3 min)

Israel is constantly stirring the ME waters...
Oil Spill Caused By Israeli Attacks On Iranian Oil Bound for Syria

The Wall Street Journal reports today:

Israel has targeted at least a dozen vessels bound for Syria and mostly carrying Iranian oil out of concern that petroleum profits are funding extremism in the Middle East, U.S. and regional officials say, in a new front in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Since late 2019, Israel has used weaponry including water mines to strike Iranian vessels or those carrying Iranian cargo as they navigate toward Syria in the Red Sea and in other areas of the region. Iran has continued its oil trade with Syria, shipping millions of barrels and contravening U.S. sanctions against Iran and international sanctions against Syria.

Some of the naval attacks also have targeted Iranian efforts to move other cargo including weaponry through the region, according to U.S. officials.

The attacks on the tankers carrying Iranian oil haven’t been previously disclosed. Iranian officials have reported some of the attacks earlier and have said they suspect Israeli involvement.

The 'exclusive' leak to the WSJ, by U.S. officials(!), is designed to damage the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahoo.

It explains a number of recent incidents which Israel had claimed to be 'Iranian aggressions' but which were caused by Israel itself or were in obvious retaliation for Israeli deeds.

“There was always a deep and relatively undisguised element of racism in Israel,” says Gross. “There was a component of racism against Arabs, [but racism] was also manifest, undisguisedly, if anyone was paying attention, in the way the Jews from Arab countries–the Mizrahi Jews, the Sephardic Jews–were treated.

“Israel, on the one hand, actively undermined the circumstances that Jews were experiencing in Egypt, in Morocco, in Algeria, in Tunisia, in Iraq, in order to motivate them to come to Israel. [These Jews] were being brought in in order to raise the population of Israel, but there, they were unambiguously second-class citizens. They were not treated remotely the same way as were immigrants from Europe or from the United States, from Western countries, who were given much better treatment in terms of housing, in terms of employment and conditions.”

In 1967, after the Six Day War with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, Israel took another step away from democracy as it occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. More than half a century later, Israel has been labeled an apartheid nation, as extremist settlers occupy more and more of the West Bank, and Gaza, which has been described as an “open air concentration camp” is routinely subjected to violent attacks by Israeli forces.

https://scheerpost.com/2021/03/12/larry-gross-israel-has-always-been-a-c...

George Galloway describes Israel's arrest of Palestinian children this week. (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWkCbJJtGus

So much for the horrors of war, politics, and power. Let's go to the garden...
It is time to get plants started, or begin shopping for plants.
Charles Dowding, raising plants from seed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmyD2iyB-FU (18 min)

Here's an overgrown yard about to be transformed into a new productive space.

Happy March of 2021! This is a brief teaser and sneak peak of a brand new project we started in Brandon, Florida! Phase 1 of this project is turning that large front yard into an edible and ecological landscape!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6ijgI0rflI (4.5 min)

Look at what this young couple has accomplished in 2 years.
From Grass To THIS | Our 2 Year Old Market Garden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8pEPr6PEDk (25 min)

Journey through a blooming garden of dancing flowers in this four-minute short film.

Enjoy the last week of winter. This is an open thread, post anything on your mind in the comments below!