The Weekly Watch

Tumbling Toward the Tipping Points

Open Thread image.jpg

We sit at a convergence of tipping points. Climate chaos is already upon us, just ask the folks out west who are in a megadrought. Ecosystem collapse is evident in the disappearing insect and bird populations, as well as deforestation and environmental degradation. The US is on the verge of empire failure as China becomes the new world leader (empire). The US collapse is driven in part by the failure of our currency to have any real intrinsic value other than our military threat to those countries which try to circumvent the use of the USD. So on multiple levels and in many dimensions we are experiencing a cascade of change. We simply must prepare as best we can for the rapid changes ahead.

earth at tipping point.jpg

I read and heard Alvin Toffler speak about Future Shock. Here's a brief summary from the link.

1. Society is experiencing too much change too soon.

The author calls the feeling of being overwhelmed by change “Future Shock” and explores how to make the best out of it. He first published his book in 1970, when most people didn’t know that many familiar forms of commerce, discourse and technology would soon vanish.

Toffler established a new aspirational social norm by advocating for people to embrace change. He made predictions that sounded crazy at the time, such as the advent of the World Wide Web. However, his abstract examples turned out to be quite accurate descriptions of some of the cataclysmic changes brought about by Internet technology.

2. To deal with change, you must be adaptable.

Since Toffler’s book was written before the younger generation started demanding change in the 1970s, his support for change is unusual. The older generation at that time were against change and took reactionary positions. He advised them to be adaptable as this would help them deal with coming waves of changes. This shows his foresight as it’s now commonplace to hear people who are successful in Silicon Valley or other places say that “change is the new status quo.” Toffler prepared readers for a future where things will never be static and they should embrace it rather than try to fight it. He also wisely says that since we can’t predict everything perfectly, we shouldn’t worry about being right all the time but instead focus on being imaginative and insightful so we can make better decisions going forward

2. Expect to work in a “free-form world” of “kinetic organizations.”

While Alvin Toffler was not a visionary, he did discuss the future of work and society in his book “The Third Wave”. He predicted that technology would make it possible for people to work together regardless of where they are. In this way, their roles will shift and change constantly. Communication will be constant over many different media platforms. Overall, people must accept an unprecedented level of fluidity in their lives.

3. You’ll need to balance actual and vicarious experiences.

Toffler’s predictions might make you wonder how he could have possibly been so accurate. He asks a question that didn’t seem important until recently, but now dominates conversations about social media and identity. Toffler says we should balance vicarious experiences with real-life experiences. We should pay others for things like entertainment, while doing things ourselves as much as possible.

It’s amusing to read Toffler’s descriptions of three-network TV, pre-gigaplex movie theaters and the pre-Internet world of 1970. However, his points about finding a balance between personal and received experience are even more on target today. He poses a fundamental unanswered question that has grown only more relevant since he asked it. He wonders whether children who are subjected to an overwhelming, nonstop avalanche of information may become intellectually and socially precocious. This describes today’s work world precisely as children raised with the Internet now create and run major businesses.

4. Advanced technology will lead to product variety.

In the future, consumers will be faced with an abundance of choice. People want to stand out and express their individuality. They are no longer satisfied with mass-produced products that don’t fit them specifically. The market is segmented into many different types of customers who all have unique tastes and desires. Technology has advanced so much that it’s possible for businesses to produce customized goods for each customer without losing efficiency or cost effectiveness in production.

My big take away from this 70's vintage book is that the world is changing at an ever faster rate, and humans simply can't (won't?) react to the changes in a timely manner...for we are collectively a reactive species rather than a proactive one. Fortunately, as individuals we can look ahead and prepare as well as possible.

Climate
Is the issue which most illustrates (to me) human's future shock blindness. We're probably past the tipping points. Like dominoes, once one system tips, other co-reliant systems fall as well.

environmental tipping point.png

"Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene", a recent study co-authored by Will Steffen, noted chemist, climate systems analyst, and professor of Earth System Science at Australian National University, warns of catastrophic changes to the Earth climate if current emission trends are not immediately reversed.

#TippingPoints lead to #TippingCascades, and the resulting failure of inter-twined systems leading to systemic collapse. While it is already too late to fully reverse the impact of the humanity's Anthropocene foolishness and greed, the current geological age characterized by human activity, it is still possible to 'guide' the climate trajectory toward a new stabilized Earth system. But the window of opportunity to reach this goal is closing fast. Achieving it will require huge and pro-active changes to human economy, culture and politics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgEYfZDK1Qk (30 min)

climate tipping point.png

Rick Wolff on What Will it Take to Tackle the Climate Crisis?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elOi6cljx0I (35 min)

It is another 70's book (I'm dating myself) which I think holds an answer to a way to tackle climate and many other problems we face...
https://www.supersummary.com/small-is-beautiful/summary/

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered is a political nonfiction book by Ernst F. Schumacher. Published in 1973 by Harper, the book centers on the premise that economics should serve us, the people, as opposed to the other way around.

First, in “The Modern World,” Schumacher challenges our understanding of nature and our place within it. We see ourselves as seemingly above nature, and our goal is to conquer and control it. The irony is that, if we do conquer nature, it will be the end of us all.
For Schumacher, we currently have one overarching belief—universal prosperity is not only possible, but also the only way to ensure peace. This is a contradiction because we can’t achieve prosperity in the modern sense other than through greed and ill actions. We base our entire theory of economics on contradictions like this. What we need, instead, are smaller-scale methods which can be accessed by everyone, allowing us to be ourselves and to work in tandem with nature.
...
If rural workers have little to no employment, they move into urban areas. This creates a mass shift in population to an area that can’t sustain them all. Trying to “urbanize” a country cannot work in even the wealthiest nation because there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around. Our entire philosophy is causing the problem to only get worse.
...
The problem comes down to our own natures—we are greedy and envious and stop at nothing to ensure our materialistic growth. Our desires are at odds with our finite natural environment. It’s on us, then, to find a new system that supports our environment before we destroy it. Capitalism will, eventually, ruin us.

What we should be focusing on, according to Schumacher, is small-scale private enterprise and local sufficiency. If enterprise takes place on a far more manageable scale, then we can improve employment, sustain the economy, and place far fewer demands on the environment. This structure will not generate a lot of wealth, but that’s precisely the point.

It is also the Bucky Fuller concept...

think act.jpg

We need communities that are designed for the needs of the local people. We are basically tribal creatures. I think we could be happy back in a tribe (or community by today's standard). Even folks I know in the big city of Atlanta have a neighborhood (little five points) where they spend most of their time. In small communities we could walk and bike without the need of gas burning cars.

The future of gas and fossil fuels doesn't look promising. Chris suggests future oil shortages.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/oil-and-gas-development

Many of the planet’s most diverse and ecologically important areas—including the Arctic and Virunga National Park in the Congo Basin—also happen to hold large underground deposits of oil and gas. Extracting these oil and gas deposits can result in lasting damage to the environment. Specifically, oil and gas exploration and development causes disruption of migratory pathways, degradation of important animal habitats, and oil spills—which can be devastating to the animals and humans who depend on these ecosystems.

Most easily accessible oil has already been developed. Today, oil and gas exploration is probing the Earth’s most remote and inhospitable places. It employs new and often unproven technologies to extract hydrocarbons from deep within the earth. Oil spills can occur from blowouts, pipeline leaks or failures, or shipping accidents. These spills pose a serious threat to ecosystems—whether they happen in the Congo Basin, the Timor Sea, or in the Arctic. Furthermore, in the Arctic, there is no proven, effective method to clean up oil in ice.

arctic tipping point.jpg

https://amazonwatch.org/news/2013/0107-oil-extraction-how-oil-production...

The extraction of oil is responsible for the deforestation, degradation, and environmental devastation of lands across the globe. The oil extraction process results in the release of toxic drilling by-products into local rivers, while broken pipelines and leakage result in persistent oil spillage. In addition, the construction of roads for accessing remote oil sites opens remote lands to colonists and land developers.

Some of the world's most promising oil and gas deposits lie deep in tropical rainforests, especially in the Western Amazon. With oil at historically high prices, the incentive to develop oil resources has never been greater.

While hydrocarbons can be extracted at a relatively low direct cost to tropical rainforests, governments and oil companies have traditionally opted for expediency over consideration for the environment or the interests of local people most affected by production. One of the most egregious examples of this comes from eastern Ecuador, where U.S. oil giant Texaco (owned by Chevron since 2001) laid waste to an area of rainforest renowned for its wildlife. The firm's operations also affected the lives of thousands of Indigenous people and settlers.

Amazon oil spills.jpg

You may remember, that is the case Steven Donziger is being punished for winning.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawyer-steven-do...

There are consequences for our greed and misuse of resources that WILL come back to haunt us.

deforestation_0.jpg

Forests are disappearing...
https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/The-green-is-disappearing-from-th...

Many earlier civilizations, including Middle East, New Mexico, and Easter Island precipitated their own decline through deforestation. Currently, we are destroying our forests faster, and on a larger scale than ever before. Earlier in this century forests covered around 40% of the earth's total land but now it has decreased and till the end of the century, it will stand at about 25%. Its destruction causes the greenhouse effect, irreversible loss of many thousands of species of flora and fauna also a lot more animals, landslides, soil erosion, siltation of rivers and dams, droughts, and weather extremes. If it continues then it will hamper the ability of the biosphere to sustain life.

https://www.sustainability-times.com/environmental-protection/continued-...

Earth’s forest cover is at slightly over 4 billion hectares and continues to decrease, according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rampant deforestation has led to the loss of 420 million hectares in just four decades, mainly in Africa and South America.

“The top countries for average annual net losses of forest area over the last 10 years are Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Angola, Tanzania, Paraguay, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bolivia and Mozambique,” FAO notes.

https://gizmodo.com/humans-have-destroyed-97-of-earths-ecosystems-184669...

Only 3% of land on Earth still qualifies as “ecologically intact,” with undisturbed habitats and healthy populations of its original animal species, grim new research shows.

That’s a much bleaker picture than the one painted by previous assessments, which pegged that number much higher, estimating that 20% to 40% of land is still intact. But those analyses, focused specifically on habitat intactness, were mostly based on satellite imagery, which doesn’t provide much detail about what’s happening on the ground.

“Field work by many people clearly shows there are species that have been lost from these areas of intact habitat—large and medium carnivores and large and medium herbivores in particular,” Andrew Plumptre, who heads the Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat and was the lead author of the study, wrote in an email. “Some have been lost or reduced in number because of hunting by people, some lost because of the introduction of invasive species, such as cats and dogs, and some due to disease.”

Ecosystem collapse leads to species collapse. Though we are a top predator, our day will come sooner rather than later if we don't redesign our approach.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-nu...

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

It doesn't stop with insects...
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/three-billion-north-american-bir...

North America's birds are disappearing from the skies at a rate that's shocking even to ornithologists. Since the 1970s, the continent has lost 3 billion birds, nearly 30% of the total, and even common birds such as sparrows and blackbirds are in decline, U.S. and Canadian researchers report this week online in Science. "It's staggering," says first author Ken Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. The findings raise fears that some familiar species could go the way of the passenger pigeon, a species once so abundant that its extinction in the early 1900s seemed unthinkable.

The declines are rippling. Like dominoes. the web of life is in collapse...
https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/68-average-decline-in-speci...

Globally, monitored population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Living Planet Report 2020. Populations in Latin America and the Caribbean have fared worst, with an average decline of 94%. Global freshwater species have also been disproportionately impacted, declining 84% on average. As an important indicator of planetary health, these drastic species population trends signal a fundamentally broken relationship between humans and the natural world, the consequences of which—as demonstrated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—can be catastrophic.

tipping point of war.jpg

Are we on the verge of WWIII? (I sure hope not). To my mind this is the second most threatening scenario after climate chaos and mass extinction, and will indeed accelerate environmental degradation.

TPTB are doing their best to crank up more profitable war. Max Blumenthal explains how US reporters at the G7 are little more than CIA mouthpieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w2Fz7ts60U (45 min)

The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity sent Biden a letter before the summit

With your meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Geneva just three days away, mainstream media are barely reporting – and at times distorting – olive-branch remarks by Putin, and are at pains to "accentuate the negative". We are particularly concerned over the incessant media commentary on "Russian hacking", which seems to be aimed at mousetrapping you into an ill-advised confrontation with Putin. Revelations since the last summit in July 2018 – including testimony under oath to Congress – give President Putin some very high cards. Should things get acrimonious, he might decide to put them into play.

Max had his work cut out in this discussion of the Biden Putin conference with a NATO Atlantic Council advisor, American University prof (and CIA?), as well as a China proponent. About 5-10 min covers the difference between Max and the others.

Leave it to Caity to find the humor in the situation...
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/06/17/americas-soup-brained-president-...

America’s Soup-Brained President Says The US Never Interferes In Other Countries’ Elections

During an astonishingly sycophantic press conference after the Geneva summit with Vladimir Putin, President Biden posited an entirely hypothetical scenario about what the world would think of the United States if it were interfering in foreign elections and everybody knew it.

When AP’s Jonathan Lemire asked the president of the most powerful government in the world what “consequences” he’d threatened the Russian leader with should the Kremlin interfere in US elections going forward, Biden meandered his way through one of his signature not-quite-lucid word salads, and then said the following:

“Let’s get this straight: How would it be if the United States were viewed by the rest of the world as interfering with the elections directly of other countries, and everybody knew it? What would it be like if we engaged in activities that he is engaged in? It diminishes the standing of a country that is desperately trying to make sure it maintains its standing as a major world power.”

Why would any country believe the US? We make treaties to break them. Ask the first nation's peoples. Ask Iran. Ask Russia about the promise not to expand NATO. The US simply does not act in good faith. So despite the words of good will, look at US actions.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/06/18/biden-to-reduce-us-troops-in-middle-...

President Biden intends to reduce the number of US troops in the Middle East by several hundred. This includes removing antimissile batteries, and personnel assigned to them, as well as reducing the number of troops assigned to jets in the area. The largest number are to be removed from Saudi Arabia.

Officials say that the plan is to redeploy the troops away from the region and to operations focused on Russia and China. These sorts of pivots have been reportedly planned by the Pentagon for multiple administrations.

China seems well aware of the US lack of sincerity.
https://archive.vn/wC0YS#selection-2323.0-2339.1

Relations may be too tense for Xi-Biden talks
•White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has suggested direct talks may be on the cards
•But Chinese observers say Beijing might not be keen and there is little room for compromise on key issues

Chinese observers said while a Xi-Biden meeting could help to control military risks it may be difficult to make progress given the current tensions
and following fractious US-China talks in Alaska in March. The world’s two largest economies are at loggerheads over everything from trade and human rights to the South China Sea.

What is driving US aggression? I feature this all the time, but if you look at US goals, you can understand our actions

1992-Draft-Defense-Policy-Guidance_3.jpg

The goal isn't peace and cooperation, it is world domination...
and TPTB don't even try to hide it.

Why War
To prop up the US failing economic system.

dollar tipping point.jpg

One reason the US has the ass at Russia...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS5dwtsD66Y (17 min)

...the recent move by Russia to diversify its wealth fund away from US dollars and into other currencies and gold, and what it means for the US dollar financial system.
The world is slowly moving away from the US dollar as the primary reserve asset, and the yuan and euro are the two chief competitors.
That being said, fiat currencies will continue to be devalued and stores of value like gold and Bitcoin will continue to see inflows.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/17/pers-j17.html

The world’s major central bank has indicated it will do nothing that could be construed as withdrawing support from the mountain of debt and fictitious capital its policies have created in the US and worldwide and will continue the flow of ultra-cheap money that has enabled the enrichment of a financial oligarchy to levels never before seen in history.

The US can't allow another approach...
World Bank rejects El Salvador request for help on bitcoin implementation
https://www.reuters.com/business/el-salvador-keep-dollar-legal-tender-se...

The World Bank said on Wednesday it could not assist El Salvador's bitcoin implementation given environmental and transparency drawbacks.

"While the government did approach us for assistance on bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings."

https://www.dummies.com/software/other-software/the-transparency-of-bitc...

The biggest advantage presented by bitcoin — or to be more precise, the underlying blockchain technology — comes in the form of creating a completely transparent trading system.

So how did the FBI find the Colonial pipeline ransom money? Because all the blockchain transfers are a matter of public record. Bitcoin is much more transparent than dollars.

And as to energy, the question is compared to what...

banking gold and bitcoin.png

https://www.securities.io/bitcoin-energy-consumption-compared-to-gold-in...

The IMF is a US economic control tool just as is NATO is a war arm of the US.

As a final tipping point discussion today, let's look at media suppression, propaganda, and the tech giants control of the narrative.

julian_0.png

No story carries more power of suppression than Julian's, who is imprisoned and tortured as warning to any journalist who reveals US war crimes and dirty tricks.
https://scheerpost.com/2021/06/11/chris-hedges-julian-assange-and-the-co...

Chris Hedges gave this talk at a rally Thursday night in New York City in support of Julian Assange. John and Gabriel Shipton, Julian’s father and brother, also spoke at the event, which was held at The People’s Forum.

Tyrannies invert the rule of law. They turn the law into an instrument of injustice. They cloak their crimes in a faux legality. They use the decorum of the courts and trials, to mask their criminality. Those, such as Julian, who expose that criminality to the public are dangerous, for without the pretext of legitimacy the tyranny loses credibility and has nothing left in its arsenal but fear, coercion and violence.

The long campaign against Julian and WikiLeaks is a window into the collapse of the rule of law, the rise of what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of inverted totalitarianism, a form of totalitarianism that maintains the fictions of the old capitalist democracy, including its institutions, iconography, patriotic symbols and rhetoric, but internally has surrendered total control to the dictates of global corporations.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-escalates-pressure-on-tech

House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert control over the content on these online platforms. “Industry self-regulation has failed,” they said, and therefore “we must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation.” In other words, they intend to use state power to influence and coerce these companies to change which content they do and do not allow to be published.
...
Instead, the key point raised by these last threats from House Democrats is an often-overlooked one: while the First Amendment does not apply to voluntary choices made by a private company about what speech to allow or prohibit, it does bar the U.S. Government from coercing or threatening such companies to censor. In other words, Congress violates the First Amendment when it attempts to require private companies to impose viewpoint-based speech restrictions which the government itself would be constitutionally barred from imposing.

tipping point.jpg

And so we as a world system sit upon an array of tipping points...climatic, environmental, economic, and military conflict among them. The media outlets are not honest brokers and most people are ill informed. I don't know the numbers, but I dare say a majority of Americans still view the US as the best nation on Earth. Despite the surrounding chaos, we as individuals can select a more sustainable path. I've been busy in the garden. Got in the last of the summer seed and plants yesterday before the over 6.5" rain from tropical storm Claudette yesterday and last night. We need to walk open eyed into the future, not shying away from the many challenges. I know today's column wasn't a cheery topic. None to less we can't wallow in ignorance. We need to be realistic about the future and help the young folks in their journey. The road ahead looks rocky. It is time to prepare in whatever ways we can. My thought turned to Ranting Rooster and his recent lifestyle change toward a more sustainable future. I wish him and all of us the best of luck as we plow onward through the fog.

Hope you all have a good day and I look forward to your thoughts and comments below.

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Lookout's picture

In the north, it is our longest day and shortest night. Welcome to summer. Those like Janis south of the equator enter winter with the longest night of the year.
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-ju...

The ancients were highly in tune with these changes. Today they pass with little to no recognition. So the entry into summer is yet another tipping point.

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

mimi's picture

and in my usual way to not self censor myself (I should do it more, learned that from On the Cusp) I can only post a joke over all those sad state of affairs.

So much tipping points, I got tipsy. I fell flat on my head and hope I will find a way to get up again.

Thank you so much for your work. So much appreciated and to be grateful for.

PS. I have too much bamboo in my garden (planted by my sister to make her husband feel at home - him having been raised in Goa, India), I have to find a way to kill the bamboo - humanely. Can you kill a plant humanely?

Have a wonderful remainder of the Sunday and some pleasure doing whatever you do right now.

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-get-rid-of-bamboo-naturally-2132939

My choice would be:

Smothering Bamboo With Tarps

Another method for ridding your yard of bamboo is smothering the plant with tarps. This typically takes around two months. However, the bamboo might be able to spread beyond the covered perimeter, so you have to closely monitor the situation.

Cut Bamboo

Using pruners or a handsaw, cut the bamboo to ground level.
Cover With Tarps or Garbage Bags

Cover the entire area with dark plastic tarps or garbage bags. Secure them with landscaping pins, or place rocks on top of the tarps.
Wait

Wait several weeks or months until the contents below the tarps have suffocated.

If the covered bamboo patch sends out rhizomes beyond the tarps, creating new sprouts, cut and cover the sprouts immediately. Alternatively, plant other proliferating perennials around the border to create a natural barrier that will crowd out new bamboo shoots.

I recommend a heavy dark tarp or plastic.

If it spreads beyond the tarps...
https://lewisbamboo.com/pages/natural-control-methods/

  • New shoots are easiest to remove after they have reached 6-12″ tall. This is when they are the most fragile.
  • They can be removed with a lawn mower but some areas maybe difficult to mow.
  • String trimmer works great for removing bamboo shoots.
  • You can also use a swift kick to remove them.

Bamboo is easy to get out of control. The clumping varieties are easier.

Have a great day!

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

mimi's picture

@Lookout
thank you so much for the explanation and link.

While you were searching for the link you just posted, I got distracted and found this:

As it is an Open Thread, I allow myself to post it: It is about Putin. Sigh.

Putin's Real Face

Sigh, i am too tired to continue reading and posting. I literally had an accident and fell on my head badly. They want to do a lot of stuff with me, those neurosurgeons. So, I say bye for a while. Have a good one and keep on going with the Weekly Watch.

Thank you so much.
Give rose

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

it is better to trust myself (and my research skills) rather than our doctors. I'm sure your mileage varies there in Germany.

All the best in your health journey. Please take care and heal quickly.

EDIT to add:
upon reading your article, I see Germany is pushing conflict and domination as much as the US. All the Navalny talk but nothing about Julian. This sounds like propaganda to me:
His prejudice is obvious...

As the author of this article, I am not a friend of Russia. I just state what is. The Eastern Europe expert Wilfried Jilge recently wrote: Russia is approaching the NATO borders with its armed forces and military exercises. That could only have been meant as a joke. Conversely, it is correct: with the admission of new member states, NATO has pushed its borders further and further towards Russia. Putin has no intention of invading Baltic countries, Poland or Ukraine. He said that. But because the West believes that they have recognized that he is an imperialist dictator, his speeches are not believed. We don't know what Putin and his advisors are planning, it's just reading the coffee grounds.In fact, over the past few years and up to the present day, Russia has repeatedly made advances towards the West, and has offered itself. In the absence of a reaction, Putin has tried to establish contacts elsewhere, with China. Because China is perceived as a much greater threat in the West than Russia, this also has a negative impact on Putin's account.

I enjoyed the read, but I found it much like the conversation Max had with the NATO and CIA folks...helpful to hear the warmongers rationale.

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

mimi's picture

@Lookout
than the physicians I had in the US (pretty much I had only two). Both excellent in their diagnosis.

As for the article from the "Spiegel International" is concerned, I just can tell, that what was "Der Spiegel" as a more left leaning publication in the sixties and seventies, isn't anymore. But I like to listen to a couple of writers of them. They are pretty thorough in what they say.

There is no socialist left anywhere, it's all mostly neo-liberal. And more I can't say, because I have missed out on all things German for the last forty years. Sahra Wagenknecht is an honest voice and I wish her the best.

I study npw the bamboo link. Thanks again for that.

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

All the best!

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

studentofearth's picture

growers and participating in food cultivation as one of the methods of preventing the consolidation of a Global Power structure over nation states via a shift from UN multilateral system to multistakeholderism. There is hope and possibilities.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnxpb5lSY8U]

Full transcript at nakedcapitalism.com. (my bold)

And I think the world is much, much safer if we have a system where the innovation comes from the 350 million labs that are farms around the world and the hundreds of millions more of scientists who are the producers around the world, who can really be innovative with 7,000 different crops, not with the 12 crops that the companies work with; with 38 different livestock species, not the five that the companies work with. To get us through the problems of climate change and the threats of new pests and diseases and so on and biodiversity loss to have a decentralized system of short supply chains. To me, that’s what makes sense for the future.
....
It was even a bit of a surprise for us as well. We knew that it was a lot. We didn’t realize how much it was. But conservatively speaking again peasant production, small holder production and that’s fisheries as well as livestock keepers as well as farmers together, urban and rural production (as a lot is being produced in urban areas as well), if you put that all together then about 70% at least of the world’s people depend upon that small holder production to stay alive, to feed themselves. And that also comes out to roughly the same percentage in terms of the amount of food, not just the number of people, but also the amount of calories and so on that are being produced.

Which really begs the question of what are the other guys doing? What’s agribusiness doing? The answer’s they’re not doing very much. They’re feeding perhaps 30% of the world’s people. They’re doing that with more than 75% of the world’s land and resources, water, et cetera that food would use. They’re causing tremendous environmental damages and they’re creating an amount of overconsumption of food. Because so much of the food in the industrialized world at least goes to overconsumption which causes health and environmental damages.
...
Our conversation today is not so much to talk about the nitty gritty of the “dystopian future for food, people and the planet” mapped out in the report as about how to prevent it. In other words, prevent the corporate takeover of global governance of the world food system by means of the multistakeholder model.

So in the time we have, talk to us about immediate threats of this. You point to three big agribusiness plays on structures of global governance of food and agriculture being pursued right now in 2021. Those being the 2021 UN Food System Summit a play to get the summit and so the UN to mandate an embrace of the multistakeholder model for governance of food and agriculture. And two other fronts, one, a play on global governance on Big Data in food and agriculture and thirdly, agricultural research. So let’s take them one by one in reverse order.
....
They’re doing that but they are still stuck with a legal structure which is grounded in about fourteen different countries around the world. That any one of those countries can treat what’s happening as a kind of merger as they would any other merger and acquisition and could stop it.

And there are many good reasons why, for example, Peru or the Philippines or Mexico who have these institutes in their own territory to step in and say: no, no, no. We’re not allowing this merger to happen. And under the headquarters agreements which exist now and have existed for some time, those countries could literally take over those institutes and make them national property, bring them entirely into the public sector of that country. So all you need to break, stop this takeover of agricultural research is to have two or three countries just say no to it. And that I think is what we need to be pursuing in the discussions leading up to this food summit. We need to say to governments recognize you have power here. Exercise that power, or you’ll never have it again. You’ll lose control.
...
I am worried that the [UN] Secretary-General in New York has created this wider Digital Body that’s looking at use of digital information in every sector of economy, outside of agriculture as well. And they’ve surrendered that process to a multi-stakeholder group led by the biggest companies. But there still is a subsector around food and agriculture that’s being negotiated. And there’s still some hope that we can protect the interests of the food insecure and the food producers.

Thanks for the overview on all the moving pieces in today's OT.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Lookout's picture

@studentofearth

...both market gardeners and regenerative livestock production. Unfortunately all the financial incentives are gamed to large agribusinesses.

Thanks for the video and link! I forgot to save my comment to your essay yesterday where I wrote that I had just cooked a chicken in my instant pot and then used the stock to make soup and the chicken to make salad.

Though food is getting more expensive, we in the US spend far less on food than most countries.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-coun...

There are only eight countries in the world that spend less than 10% of their household income on food. Four of these are in Europe: the UK is third at 8.2%, followed by Switzerland at 8.7%; Ireland spends 9.6% and Austria 9.9%.

The remaining four countries are spread across the globe. The US spends the least at 6.4%, Singapore spends the second lowest amount at 6.7%. Canada spends 9.1% on food, while Australia spends 9.8%.

food costs.png

Sadly US production is powered by fossil fuels and soil mining. Local more expensive food is a better option IMO. Find producers in your area...
https://www.localharvest.org/organic-farms/

Thanks for the visit and link. Hope all is well on your homestead. I've got to pull my road back up hill later today when it dries a bit. My rain gauge filled and ran over at 6.5". Quite the storm system last night.

All the best!

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

Lookout's picture

@studentofearth

http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/LongFoodMovementEN.pdf

...the locus of power in food systems and the broader global economy is shifting at dizzying speed. In 2008, the world’s most powerful corporations drilled oil wells and traded stocks. Twelve years later, the world’s five corporate titans all deal in intangible data and have a market valuation that exceeds the GDP of entire continents. The new biodigital giants are now primed for the next step: unleashing big data and digital DNA into the world's pharmacies, food markets, and financial systems. ‘Multi-stakeholderism’ is everywhere as corporations –sensing the social and environmental tipping points ahead – seek to draw governments,scientists and a handful of civil society organizations into an artificial new multilateralism

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

Raggedy Ann's picture

HAPPY SOLSTICE!!!!!

I'm really happy Max in on that discussion on Russia. He didn't back down and challenged the others. It was great!

Hot and dry in New Mexico with no rain in sight. I'm melting but that's okay - I look forward to the heat, as I barely tolerate the cold. Today we start moving the other way - the sun moving back toward the darkness.

Enjoy the day! Pleasantry

Edited to add this link: https://scheerpost.com/2021/06/18/margaret-david-talbot-the-second-ameri...
The American People need to reorganize and bring about the third american revolution. It will come - stay tuned.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

@Raggedy Ann

time for a new direction.

Hope all is well in your world and you're enjoying your new digs!

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

He got the AZ jab 3 days ago, has flu symptoms, fatigue, aches and pains, and it has made him argumentative to the point of irrationality.
My description of a Walmart shopping trip where I avoided buying fresh meat that doesn't bear a USDA approval, he went off on a rant about how I am accusing the Waltons of price fixing and poisoning people. And he asked who the oligarchs were and how can I prove my assertions.
Luckily, this well-written and sourced article popped up on a google search, so I thought I would share it with you. It definitely names the oligarchs, and describes their influence.
https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/06/19/report-silver-spoon-oligarchs-...

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

As it states, they manage not to pay taxes as well.

Sorry about your friend's adverse vaccine reaction. Treatment options continue to be suppressed, as are adverse vaccine reactions.

https://trialsitenews.com/should-you-get-vaccinated/

The CDC, FDA, and NIH aren’t disclosing how many people have been killed or disabled from the COVID vaccines. The mainstream media isn’t asking any questions; they are playing along. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and others are all censoring content that goes against the “perfectly safe” narrative so nobody is the wiser. Tony Fauci, the “father of COVID,” is still in his job even though all of this is his fault. Cliff Lane, who reports to Tony, is still sandbagging early treatments so that people will falsely believe that the vaccine is the only option. The Democrats are still asleep at the wheel by refusing to request Fauci’s unredacted emails from the NIH which will prove he covered up the fact he created the virus in the first place. Biden is clueless urging Americans to vaccinate their kids with a deadly vaccine that has likely killed more than 25,000 Americans so far. Academics in the medical community are nearly all clueless, urging people to get the safe and effective vaccine. When I tried to bring this to the attention of leading academics they told me I was wrong and not to contact them ever again. Sound too hard to believe? I don’t blame you. But there is a reason that this article is the most popular article that has ever been on TrialSiteNews with over 1M views so far. It’s because everything I’ve said is true. And nobody will debate me live about it. They all refuse.

Hope both A & B are doing well!

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

@Lookout A is sitting on the porch with a fan blowing, observing B weeding and watering flowers, soaked with sweat, and offering B moral support.
Thanks for the OT, as always!
Take good care!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

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

@Lookout And making suggestions for future projects just for B!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

I've got to face up in another hour or so and start in on grading my road, Sisyphus way. Rain washes road down hill. Tractor pulls road uphill in a seemingly endless loop.

Have a nice Sunday afternoon and evening!

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3 users have voted.

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

@Lookout for the same reasons. I had some dirt and rock put on it.
In a few years, it will have to be done again.
I am shopping for a used tractor with a box blade and brush hog. Sooner or later, someone will turn one loose.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

when the season is over. Couldn't manage my place without my 1964 Ford 4000. Every few years it requires a repair of two, but what machine (even a new one) doesn't.

I would love to have a 4 wheel drive tractor with a bucket, but can't really justify it when my tractor functions so well for most of my needs.

Stay cool as summer comes on!

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3 users have voted.

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

It appears that Navalny was being overshadowed by the Belarusian blogger.

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

...or Chelsea Manning or Ed Snowden or Tom Drake and other whistleblowers.

No one, unfortunately.
Aren't we hypocrites?

Thanks for the sanction update!

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6 users have voted.

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

in my humble opinion.
And we just put into effect a policy that will classify US citizens as domestic terrorist for organizing against the status quo, presumably subjecting the new terrorists to criminal charges.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

You better not support Palestinians instead of Israel.

I'm in total agreement about sanction being the new siege. Supports the neofuedalism argument from last week's column.

Heard this today illustrating how China's economy based on 10 year plans involving the belt and road initiative will overtake the US economy "for profit" only plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPj58zdlGSw&t=60s (10 0r 15 mins provides the big idea)

All the best!

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4 users have voted.

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

@Lookout about the criminalization of exercising our first amendment and fourth amendment rights.
And shouldn't the government post a list of foreign governments we must bite our tongues about, or is the list composed of Israel, only. And government now dictates our investment buys and sells because...why? What if I decided to divest from my stock holdings in a company doing business with Israel in favor of investing in a more lucrative deal? Do I have to justify my divestment as pure and totally unrelated to Palestine? Who are the purity police?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

Since I'm faceless and tweetless, I can't be disappeared from them...cause I never engaged with them. None the less we all experience permissible and unacceptable topics. Jimmy does a nice routine about Jon Stewart proposing the lab leak hypothesis and Colbert's effort to silence him. (26 min)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QynoJjm2lU]

Unusual not to have a Jimmy clip in the WW, so glad I got him in here.

And yes, we have lost many of our rights. Most bizarre is the courts upholding those losses.

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4 users have voted.

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

@Lookout Then Colbert got that lucrative gig...

I am glad you nabbed it, will watch it while I eat dinner tonight!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

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3 users have voted.

@humphrey Why aren't we the people screaming for that USAID to be spent here?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@humphrey

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton investigate how the United States funded violent far-right groups and media outlets that published fake news to fuel a 2018 coup attempt against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/06/12/coup-nicaragua-cpj-100-noticias/

I noticed youtube is trying to throttle alternate voices with "Age Restricted, You must sign-in". However there's a transcript at the link.

Thanks for info on the ever expanding US coups!

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