The Weekly Watch

Failed Systems

When people tell me they plan to visit Alabama, I suggest they remember to set their watch back fifty years. Seems the rest of the country has devolved with us, and the US is in a repressive Alabama state of mind. It isn't just the social fabric that is unraveling, but also (perhaps as a result) the ecosystem, capitalism, demockracy, and civility. This week let's look at the degradation of the system, and discuss strategies of dealing with the situation in order to create and retain meaningful, fulfilling lives.


(3 min Alabama State of Mind)

All these systems are intertwined and tied to one another. Climate catastrophe is created by the fossil fuel industry who owns the politicians who refuse to address our dire conditions and instead focus attention on fabricated foes like RUSSIA in order to perpetuate global conflict for profit and continue to pad their pockets and campaign coffers. We discuss one system at a time, but they all cause and are the result of one another in a seemingly amplifying feedback loop.

I would argue that this process of accelerating devolution is a direct result of journalistic malpractice. A profit driven press controlled by six corporations is as bad as profit driven health care or schools. Without data you can't reach correct conclusions. I've had young folks ask me why our generation protested the war, but today people are complacent. I think it was because the Vietnam war was in our living rooms every evening on the news. The only story you hear these days is how bad Assad is bombing his people with nary a word of the greatest global tragedy promoted by the US in Yemen. Every Friday Israelis shoot unarmed Palestinians protesting their open air prison, and the silence is deafening. They all remained silent during the Olympics when the Brazilian coup removed Dilma from office while the world played games.

The Main Stream Media (MSM) has become the propaganda arm of the corporate oligarchy. They misinform, misdirect, and simply neglect the important stories. They are the primary agents meddling in our elections. Isn't it interesting that they never discussed the content of the Clinton emails, and only focused on the myth that Russia hacked the DNC. Perhaps because those emails reveal the cozy relationship between the MSM, the DNC, and the Clinton campaign. It was Clinton that encouraged them to endlessly cover T-rump. Clearly Clinton is more to blame for Trump's election than Russia.

Jimmy and Jordan discuss the blatant repression of the Sanders campaign by CNN...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDcjOaAR3Sk (27 min)
...and there was pimplegate on Tulsi during the first debate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nci5lHt4z-8 (1.5 min)
...and surprise surprise it's Russiagate and Tulsi after this weeks debate...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djtXYdMDfE4 (4 min)
More from Jimmy and Stef on this week's debate...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G7RvBTIksI (18 min)
In that last clip Jimmy reveals Tapper's attempt to frame medicare for all as loss of personal/private insurance. Now he attacks Bernie for his cheaper drug policy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caMFD-bfCfk (8 min)

Our elections are the most corrupt in the western world...(15 min)

So the political carousel becomes ever more out of kilter. Meanwhile should we fiddle while the planet burns? (1 min)

The most striking news to me this week has been the melting in Greenland, fires across the arctic circle, and the general warming of the arctic. You often hear the term tipping point...and we are seeing it in action. It isn't just sea level rise, but the destabilization of the climate system. A warming Arctic means a weaker jet stream, it means an ice free Arctic sea (which can absorb more heat), it means massive release of once frozen methane (a very potent greenhouse gas), and it means rising sea levels. As Greta says, "Our house is on fire."

Weather models indicate Tuesday’s temperature may have surpassed 75 degrees Fahrenheit in some regions of Greenland, and a weather balloon launched near the capital Nuuk measured all-time record warmth just above the surface. That heat wave is still intensifying, and is expected to peak on Thursday with the biggest single-day melt ever recorded in Greenland. On August 1 alone, more than 12 billion tons of water will permanently melt away from the ice sheet and find its way down to the ocean, irreversibly raising sea levels globally.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/greenland-ice-sheet-...

Jason Box, professor and ice climatologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. (video or text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/2/greenland_melting_climate_crisis_j...
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/2/jason_box_greenland_melting_climat...

We’ve almost increased CO2 by 50% above preindustrial levels. It’s unequivocal that the observed climate warming is the direct result of this excess CO2 in the atmosphere. So, we shouldn’t be surprised to see record-warm temperatures, records being set year after year, going forward. And it’s actually intensifying. I think it’s no longer a subtle signal. And so, you know, the land ice, it definitely tells a story. It reacts to warming, but much more immediate consequences come from the continents, which are warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world. And that is a direct — directly undermines food systems and water security.

UN: World Hunger Increases for Third Straight Year due to Climate Change (12 min video)
https://therealnews.com/stories/un-world-hunger-increases-for-third-stra...

arcticwildfires2019_1024.jpg

The Arctic is suffering its worst wildfire season on record, with huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/26/unprecedented-more-than-10...

It isn't just confined to the arctic...

New Study Predicts Millions of Americans May Become Exposed to “Off the Charts” Heat. Climate scientist Michael Mann discusses the increasing frequency and severity of heat waves. (video or text)

If you want to have an idea of what we will be facing by the middle of this century absent concerted action on climate change, then what we think of today, what we perceive, what we describe as record heat or a record heat wave— in a few decades, we will simply call that summer

https://therealnews.com/stories/new-study-predicts-millions-of-americans...

How many flooded cities will we try to repair? Chris Hedges wades into the discussion.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-great-flood-2/

The debate in the 1970s about the possible use of state power to deal with pressing environmental concerns gave way in the 1980s and 1990s to the mania of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for an unfettered capitalism in which state planning would be a no-no (outside the Pentagon). Meanwhile, increased yields from industrial agriculture, modest environmental reforms by the major powers, and the technological advances that made globalization possible all seemed to diminish the urgency of the environmental crisis (except among environmentalists).

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/is-china-or-the-green-new-deal-the-ans...

earth SOS.jpg

Clearly this should be the reason to unify all the world to stop and reverse this catastrophe. To still be in denial is inexplicable, and falls squarely on the shoulders of the capitalist system. We are still providing fossil fuel companies with subsidies. There's a reason US gas is so inexpensive compared to the rest of the developed world. Fracked gas continues to be unprofitable. How does it survive?

Proliferation of plastics plants to capitalize on fracking: Industry experts project that the plastics industry will have added 28 million tons of plastic production between 2011 and 2020, and more than $202 billion is slated to be invested in 333 new facilities and expansions to take advantage of fracked gas, including 20 ethylene crackers to turn shale gas into feedstock for plastics manufacturing plants
Pushing natural gas exports to raise domestic prices: The industry and the Trump administration are promoting LNG exports to reduce the domestic gas supply and raise U.S. natural gas prices. In 2018, there were only three active LNG export facilities in the contiguous United States, but 22 more were either already being built or were approved for construction, and another 22 were pending federal review.
Wave of new fracked gas-fired power plants: The power industry has 364 new gas-fired power plants under development for 2018 to 2022, and gas deliveries to power plants rose 57 percent between 2006 (before the fracking boom) and 2017. The gas-fired generation capacity from plants added in 2017 and 2018 alone could power 24 million U.S. households, an expansion that is creating a power surplus in some areas.

U.S. exporters of fracked gas, the report points out, rely in part on political allies—both in Congress and the Trump administration.

https://popularresistance.org/fracked-gas-is-not-freedom-gas-as-trump-ad...

David Harvey tackles the issue of plastics this week. Prof. Harvey talks about the Plastics industry, its impact on the environment, and how the forces of capital accumulation work hard to keep plastics in use. (24 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVO5CJzQZ5U


The Broken Economy

Lee Camp just keeps getting better IMO. The first 15 minutes of his show this week almost echos the theme of this column. He places the blame squarely on capitalism and the profit motive.

deliberate policy choices at national and international level, beginning in the US with financial liberalization and banking deregulation from the 1980s. Interstate banking was allowed, and interest rate controls lifted, with commercial banks eventually allowed to underwrite and trade securities.

The US and other powerful financial interests successfully ‘globalized’ financial liberalization and financialization in the rest of the world, pressuring economies to lift exchange rate controls and open financial markets to foreign banks and investors, leading to Japan’s financial ‘big bang’ in 1990-1991 and the 1997-1998 East Asian financial crises.
The 1980s also saw the erosion of progressive taxation with more tax breaks for the rich, ostensibly to promote growth, and exaggeration of supposed funding crises for social security and public pensions.

Governments have favoured finance with generous tax breaks for interest income, with capital gains taxed much less than wages. These were invoked to legitimize the shift from future provisioning via the welfare state to self-provisioning via market investments.
Thus, investment risks have shifted from employers and governments to future pensioners investing individually via private pension funds, insurance companies and asset management corporations, i.e., changing from ‘defined benefits’ to ‘defined contributions’.

https://therealnews.com/driving-financialization

How do we treat our drug addicted citizens? Sentence them to work camps...

...if there’s a treatment shortage, where are these defendants being sent? And what we found is that judges all over the country are oftentimes sending people who face very low-level charges and crimes to these long-term residential treatment programs that claim to provide rehabilitation, but in reality all they are are work camps for private companies and industries.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/america-has-gulags-in-its-own-backyard/

Michael Hudson says Trump's claim that China is paying for the tariffs is completely false and basically serves to redirect income from his poor supporters to his wealthy supporters. Not only that, the policy will have the consequence of further isolating the United States
https://therealnews.com/stories/trumps-new-tariffs-on-china-help-pay-for...

Max and Stacy discuss how the Cantillon Effect has doubled the wealth of the landed gentry in the United Kingdom since the financial crisis while the debt serfs have suffered austerity and worse. They debate the merits of free money for one group of non-productive members of the economy (landed gentry) who already have more money than they can spend in a lifetime versus another group of non-productive members (those unable to work) who, by necessity, spend every penny they receive. In the second half, Max talks to financial activist, Joel Benjamin, about the ballooning costs of HS2, yet another Private Finance Initiative (PFI) turned boondoggle. They discuss what Prime Minister Boris Johnson might do with these PFI deals and what the future is for austerity policies and Brexit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRGEmm6IRNI (26 min)

Jonathon Pie has a rant about the HS2 high speed UK train project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQUglnEmhOc (9 min)

One more clip from the hilarious Jonathon Pie on Boris' new cabinet (3.5 min)

So we could go on and on looking at examples of the degradation of the system(s), but the important question is: What can we do about it?
It is important to recognize using many different approaches is a good way to solve problems. The first step to solving any problem is to recognize it. So I've laid out evidence of several issues and it seems to me it all boils down to - the system is rigged....for the rich and powerful.

I can imagine building a sustainable society focused on the care and well being of ALL people and the planet. I just don't see a way to get there. The oligarchs and their jackbooted thugs have got the bases covered. Personal gain trumps survival evidently.

I wish we could vote our way out of this mess, but the road blocks are in place. I wish we could protest to cause real change. XR has conducted various actions around the world and has met with some success. Many EU leaders have declared a climate emergency, but most are still owned by the fossil fuel corporations. I wish the US would stop its global aggression and coups and promote peace, but the politicians are beholden to the MIC and want the wealth of other nation's natural resources. Every turn I can imagine ends up checkmate. So that leads to individual actions and choices as our option.

knot_0.jpg

https://www.history.com/news/what-was-the-gordian-knot

As individuals all we can do is work toward walking a path of peace and prosperity. I think we need to have honest conversations with young folks about the severity of our present course. I'm recommending heading to higher ground to coastal dwellers. Sell while you can. Consider underground or heavily bermed homes to buffer temperature extremes. Start growing some of your food and expand as you learn. Invest in alternative sustainable power systems while the dollar holds its value. Cycles of floods and droughts seem to be our future. Consider water catchment systems for liquid and ground water. Look into the safety of your public water system and use filtration if necessary. Think about mastering a trade which can't be out sourced (electrician, plumber, welder, carpenter, and so on). Try to locate to a place where you can walk and ride a bike (bus or public transport) for basic transportation. Build community and spread good will. We will need each other!

So I don't mean to be Debbie Downer today, but we need to go into the future with our eyes open. Someone may solve the puzzle of our current Gordian knot, but we better not depend on it. Instead let's prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I look forward to your ideas and comments below.

But what about the garden????

Well its been the tomato marathon in our garden the last couple of weeks. I bought a new insta-pot at Trade Day and we've been using it on the porch. Here's our easy peasy tomato sauce technique. Chop about 4 onions. I use a bulb of garlic breaking the cloves apart. I microwave the cloves for 7-8 seconds for easy peeling and mince them all in the minichop. Pour a quarter to a half a cup of olive oil in the pot and put in saute mode. I like to get the onions almost done before adding the garlic. In the meantime cut your tomatoes into chunks until you've got 3-4 quarts. Add them to your sauteed onions and garlic, close the lid, and put into pressure cook mode. It takes a while to build temperature and pressure, and to cool and lose pressure, but in about an hour or so you're ready to pour your sauce into jars. You can open the lid and put it into slow cook mode to thicken the sauce if you prefer. Spice it up as salsa, spread it on your piza, use in soups and stews, and savor the taste of summer all year long.

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smiley7's picture

Spot on: how does one qualify to be a talking head on MSM? Lose an election; loser's talking points combined with biased or timid and untrained 'hosts.' The death of journalism costs our society in dear ways.

Thank you for pointing this out today.

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Lookout's picture

@smiley7

Somehow I managed to get this essay out of place. I did my early morning last edit and forgot to save it. I hit publish and lost my morning work and it published as though it was yesterday instead of Sunday. Oh well live and learn.

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

Lookout's picture

...and straightened out my misplaced essay. Thanks buddy!

I appreciate all you do to keep the ship upright and moving. I hope your garden is doing well this year.

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

@Lookout
in today's OT, I changed the timestamp to get the WW in the right spot.

My garden is doing fairly well considering the circumstances from the extremely wet and cool spring. Sweetcorn is firing because of the inability for the plants to take up nitrogen due to the wet conditions. The yield is way down too (not to mention the ravenous raccoons). Green beans yield is down also. Tomato yield is down. Bell peppers, cucumbers, onions, broccoli and brussel sprouts have done well though.

It was so wet this spring that I had to mud the plants and seed to get them in. The plants did very well with all the subsequent rain but the ultimate result is the harvest and all in all the rain hindered some of the main crops. You just don't know until the harvest comes in.

On top of all of that we've now gone into a drought, it hasn't rained for a few weeks. That isn't helping at all. We (my gardening buds) all knew and predicted that the excessive rain will just shut off at some point and that it did. I'm happy to get whatever I can pull from the the ground this year, this growing season was one for the books.

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Lookout's picture

@JtC

Should I send you a couple of quarts of tomato sauce? Or I could pick some slightly green to box and send you to ripen on your window sill. We have an abundance of tomatoes this year. Though we've turned dry too we do have the cistern to provide water.

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

@Lookout
of tomatoes to can and eat but we lack the over abundance that we usually see. Friends, family and neighbors wont be enjoying the surplus this year as a result of that.

The erratic harvest is reflected in the higher prices at the farmer's markets as well.

Thanks for the offer my friend, I greatly appreciate it.

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So I just admire them from afar in the produce aisle. What is the cost of organic tomatoes where you live, anyone? How much to grow a pound if that's what ya do? kill my curiosity

I blew seven bucks on a jar of 'organic' sweet pickles instead, knowing none would go to waste. Grilling on the deck is fun, I have a cheap little electric panini thingy that makes the best grilled cheese and pickle sandwiches on earth. lol so many ways to burn things, and melt stuff. good times Who knew I'd be on the forefront of California's latest electrification movement(tm)? Nobody. heh

PEACE

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Lookout's picture

@eyo

I'll box some slightly green ones and send to you, pm me your address if you would like me to do that. The price would be right...nonexistent.

Grilled cheese and pickle sandwich sounds good. I like to add sweet onions to them too.

Edit to add -
We buy or use saved seed to grow our plants. Mulch and manure are our primary cost of production. So I can't say exactly what they cost, but in a productive year like this not much.

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

@Lookout if you send a return address with the night shades, I'll send back a small bright serigraph made by this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Anuszkiewicz
He was a dear friend of my uncle Ben and aunt Patsy, and I inherited a few art objects from their estate. Let's trade! Wait... aren't you in Alabama? lol

How ironic, my neighbor across the street, the one I walk with, she has tons of gorgeous tomatoes growing and never offered me one yet. It's kinda like watching people pull up the ladder as I slip further under, sorta. Thank you for being kind and generous, I'm sorry we have to burn the planet just to share some fresh veggies. oh well
THANKS

PEACE and gratitude
it's the only way to go

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@eyo @eyo Organic tomatoes avg. about 5 bucks a pound. If you or anyone else is interested my wife found a great and reasonably priced place to buy fruits and vegetables called Imperfect produce, they sell reg. and organic produce that is considered to ugly to be sold at stores and they deliver to your front door. Their website is www.imperfectproduce.com

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detroitmechworks's picture

Just in a really great mood right now. Had a great practice last night, getting things done, and overall just happy.

The current state of the world may be dismal, but that's when artists and writers are most needed, IMHO. Which is why it makes me sad to see no great art movements and no great works being done. Merely random representation of shattered identity so far removed from daily life so as to be nonsensical to one without the shared experience. It is the duty of the artist to convey their experience to the audience, not the responsibility of the audience to do homework.

Ahh, random ranting. Counting down till I can get to work. I agreed on certain working times because this is a residential area. (I'm doing this RIGHT if I'm going to do it. Last thing I need is the cops screaming at me about fire hazards. Fortunately, my landlord is a former firefighter, and he fully approved of my setup, including the heat stops, so we're good there.)

Unfortunately, disaster may be inevitable in the wider world, but in the personal world, things are good. While the world screams about how the current world is doomed I prefer to dream of another one and do what I can to create it.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm-upHSP9KU]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Lookout's picture

@detroitmechworks

...and is my point. The system is broken so create your own happy lifestyle. And that sounds like that's what you're doing.

Congrats on the forge set up and cooperative landlord. Happy smithing my friend!

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

detroitmechworks's picture

@Lookout Have my shop journal filled with current household requests and various tools I'm going to need to make. Pretty soon here I'm going to try to make a trade stamp, and I figure that nobody will mind if I use this one as an inspiration. I mean, heck with it, might as well ask for a little creative chaos since none of my ideas are really "By the Book". I may be slightly insane by current capitalist and materialist standards, but at least it's productive and safe insane.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aIMjuURsV0]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Lookout's picture

@detroitmechworks

would make a great stamp/logo. Pretty interesting goddess too
https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/eris/

...and bigger than Pluto as well.

All the best to you and the kids!

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

karl pearson's picture

Alabama is a state where income inequality was prevalent almost from the beginning, although it was originally settled by yeoman farmers who "were noted for a spirit of frontier democracy and egalitarianism, but this declined after the slave society developed." This is true of many of the other Southern states, as well. The combination of income inequality and an economic system based on slavery produced awful actions by politicians such as George Wallace and Bull Connor, 100 years after the Civil War. It will be interesting to see if Doug Jones is re-elected to the Senate in 2020. IMO change is slower for states such as Alabama due to their origins and large rural presence. I don't think Alabama had much of a middle class to begin with and that explains a lot to me. Now we are seeing the "Southernization" of parts of the Midwest, since its industrial base and unions have declined, resulting in more income inequality.

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Lookout's picture

@karl pearson

...and our last constitution (we've had 6) from 1901 enshrined the landed oligarchs.

You also echo my point the nation is becoming more like Alabama than Alabama is becoming more like the rest of the country.

Terrible politics, but a great diverse ecosystem here in Alabama. Good and bad everywhere I reckon.

Glad you came by. Thanks for the comment.

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

magiamma's picture

and everyone

Thanks for all the info. "Good lord, show me the way." Right, like nobody cares enough? How is this possible. Well, tomatoes love heat. At night. Even more than sun in the day. Less heat, less tomatoes. My driveway is a heat sink and my garden loves it even thought it only gets afternoon sun. The only good tomatoes are at the Farmer's Market. The ones in the store are hard and pithy. Of course they are, how can they ship' em in semis. Okay then, have a good one everyone. Thanks for all you do lo.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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Lookout's picture

@magiamma

Yes indeed tomatoes love heat. We thickly manured the garden last winter and it really has made the tomatoes prolific. We probably planted too many. My fave is the Cherokee Purple. Usually ugly and misformed, but not this year. They have that funky purple to red to green coloring still but are lovely otherwise. So tasty and the seed can be saved. The other heritage varieties we grow are Brandywine and German pinks. We also plant a few hybrids in case of fungus issues like better boys.

Keep ringing the fire bell may be folks will arise and we will change?

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

ggersh's picture

how about changing the term "neo-liberalism" to
what is should be "neo-corruptionism" maybe the masses
might understand it's not the liberals then

just sayin

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Lookout's picture

@ggersh
neoliberal and say corporate capture or something like that because people misunderstand the term.

I've been hearing neo-fuedalism a lot lately too. Seem pretty appropriate.

Well thanks for the comment and thought.

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

mimi's picture

@Lookout
sorry misplaced.

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@mimi thanks, it's not that bad I still have choices. But I gained five pounds when the healthy market opened only a few blocks away. The other grocery is a three mile round trip so the calorie math went negative a lot. It's probably too hot to be shipping tomatoes around here anyway, gonna talk more to Lookout about that.

Another probability; could be my state of mind but more tragedy is happening in Sonoma County then ever, the mental health system has almost entirely collapsed and every problem is now blamed on "the fires". It's a mess and there's another big recession coming or I'll eat my hat. $2200/month luxury apartments is what they are building in Cloverdale, and the winos are still trying to get their resort built, as if.

The healthy market owners are already trying to sell out and move to Washington, they have young kids. California is no place for young kids, despite all the millionaire Newsom kabuki. Half the citizens are not rich at all, and some are so destitute they die in a tent surrounded by garbage, all ages. bright future

PEACE

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mimi's picture

@Lookout
I remember when Meteor Blades from TOP mentioned that the German Magazine "Der Spiegel" is neo-liberal and I asked myself what he meant by that. Apparently I understood back then that it was a bad judgement for the magazine, but then I wondered what the magazine was supposed to be so bad about?

And to believe that most of the 99percent understand what neo-liberalism means lives in a bubble imho.

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Azazello's picture

@ggersh
Every Left movement in the world understands what it means even if US-ians don't.
It's just a matter of educating people.
Here's a good article from Robert Kuttner: Neoliberalism: Political success, economic failure

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

@Azazello the term and have to educate the masses of the 99 percent, I don't want to be educated by them. As if 'left movements' have still a meaning today. Use clear language that is understandable unambiguously. That's all, inmo - hmm doesn't sound that humble, but what the heck.

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Azazello's picture

@mimi
if we are not allowed to utter its name ?

Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is?

George Monbiot
I don't care what Ralph Nader says, I will continue to use the term and to try to educate others about Neoliberalism. It's really not that difficult. Here is my definition.

Neoliberalism 101

Neoliberalism – A political ideology based on “free market” economics. Neoliberals support deregulation, privatization, tax cuts and austerity. Neoliberal politicians and propagandists can be recognized by the use of such phrases as: “the role of government”, “big government”, “small government”, “burdensome regulation”, “free trade”, “public-private partnership” and “market-based solutions” among others.

History -
Based on the theories of crackpot “Chicago school” economists Friedrich Hayek (The Road to Serfdom, 1944) and Milton Friedman (Capitalism and Freedom, 1962), neoliberalism was first tried out on a large scale in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship. The election, in 1980, of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US brought neoliberal policies to both of these countries. With the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 neoliberalism became the governing ideology of both major political parties in the United States. Neoliberalism has led to the same results wherever it has been tried: grotesque income and wealth inequality, the degradation of public services and infrastructure and a lower standard of living for the majority of citizens.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

@Azazello
may be I misunderstood you or you misunderstood me. Whatever it may be, the reason for my comment was the following:

Imagine you are a politically and historically undereducated US immigrant, who has never known any ideology other than in general Capitalism and Communism, so general, that you wouldn't even be able to explain what it is in words. You just knew, because you knew how people lived under Capitalism and Communism, So in my understanding I believed that all Russians and East Germans knew everything about Communism and Marxism. Didn't they have to learn and read 'Das Kapital'? And how about Mao's 'Red Bible'? The Chinese population did not know ideologically what Mao's ideology was?

As a young student in the late sixties I became aware a little bit about Sociaism. It was the Vietnam War era. Not much, but enough to like it.

So, we started to pretend to know something politically and marched on the streets, some with 'Das Kapital' and others with the 'Red Bible' in their backpacks. I had both and never read a word in it. But I became aware of the Vietnam War and started to oppose that war. I didn't oppose it on the basis of the ideology 'capitalism'. I don't think that skepticism againt the US war activity was ideology based. I was not against capitalism per se, but started to like Socialism. BAsically, I was against the war. That was it.

Fast forward 13 years the winds blew me into the US. I had no knowledge about the US political system or history aside from the fact that there was slavery. So, I remember Reagan and the later Bill Clinton. At that time I had never heard the term neo-liberalism. I was not even aware about specifics of Bill Clinton's ideology (if he had one).

All I remember that I couldn't quite understand why the Americans voted an actor and sleazy guy into office. (that was my own ignorant arrogance, for which I am a bit ashamed, but heh, the US press couldn't let juicy stories of their Presidents pass by) I didn't associate it to any ideology, rather to both Presidents' personalities.

Then we are confronted with GWBush and 9/11 happened. That was the wake up moment for me. I think the term neo-liberal I learned through Meteor Blades mentioning it on TOP. I had no idea what it meant, nor that it was a specific ideology. Should I be ashamed that I didn't know what it meant? I admit, it's not great, to be a undereducated, but burdened with different educational pathways, but I refuse to be ashamed about it.

You explained it wonderfully in your comment. Neither in the Reagan era, nor in the Clinton era was I aware that they brought us a new ideology, that neo-liberalims. So, now I know. For me they both were simply Capitalists. I remember having heard about some Economic terms and schools. Fancy, but it didn't interest me much. I just was a bystander picking up this and that. I was basically just an uprooted science-leaning displaced person in the US. But I am still a frigging member of the 99 percent and therefore I am here, uneducated and with pimples (not anymore).

I didn't say one should not utter the word neo-liberal. But may be some more educated person than me, could politely ask to be sure, if those who want to educate about that ideological label, that it is known what it means by those they want to educate. For that reason I think it would be nice to make sure also the bottom dummies of the 99 percent know what it means and use easy words to describe it.

Well, Sir, you educated me quite nicely. Thank you for that.

Oh, one question, is there still a state or country in the world that is not ideologically a neo-liberal one?

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Azazello's picture

@mimi
The EU is a neoliberal project and there are revolts against it in many places, Brexit and the Yellow Vests are examples. Similarly, the World Bank and the IMF have been converted to neoliberal institutions with NATO as enforcer. The success of this pernicious ideology has been global but so is resistance to it.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

@Azazello
will turn their flags according to from where the winds blow, when needed and time comes. I just lost all hope.

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about tomatoes: Should always be organic, ripened on the vine, never store-ripened. Picking before ripe can actually cause harm to the body (Edgar Cayce). Better to buy locally-produced ones.

Best served cooked, as that process greatly enhances the lycopene (anti-cancer) factor.

As we don't have our own garden here, we try to buy only from farmer's markets locally, where we can carefully inspect and gently interrogate the grower.

Congrats to all who have their own gardens. Next lifetime I hope to have a little more patience for undertakings like that.

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Lookout's picture

@wokkamile

It is never too late to start gardening. You could always grow in a container if you don't have access to a plot. Of course supporting your local organic producers is also a good idea. Though we don't buy tomatoes from our local organic producers we do buy their pasture raised eggs and forest grazed pork.

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

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

Azazello's picture

Here's another outstanding Keiser Report. Both halves are good. They talk about two related issues that I've been concerned about for years, ZIRP and Private Equity.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9gmxaQcMWM width:500 height:300]
Have a nice day.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

I look forward to hearing Max and Stacy. That's the sort of show I like to put on and busy around the house doing stuff cause the only visuals are of articles or them. Jimmy's clips are the same way.

Cohen and Mate have a good conversation up too
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/04/mueller-time-is-over-russia-hate-is-h...

All the best and thanks again!

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

enhydra lutris's picture

the problem is the press, or lack thereof. People talk about having a free press, but we don't. The people have to become the press, and quickly, and that will be very difficult to bring about, especially with such a big percentage of the populace being true believers in various and sundry non-realities and ergo likely to simply spew yet more propaganda and BS narratives. I've found that Caitlin, though often repetitive, keeps this problem pretty much front and center with a serious focus on narrative control by all the wrong parties, the need and techniques for resisting it and the need to develop our own, reality based narrative.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

Jimmy has a pretty good on going press critique, and you're right Caity is typically so right there.

Joe's EB is my favorite single source of news anywhere.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mimi's picture

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Lookout's picture

Give this episode of Chris Hedges show this week a listen (27 min)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_K-j6a9ETI]

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

It is a good link to share with Russiagaters who believe that the Russians violated the pure uncorrupted election system to install Donald Trump.

Back in the day I worked elections for a faction of a democratic party machined controlled city. Worked outside polling places and inside one as an official. One thing becomes clear: the only people capable of defrauding, cheating, and gaming the system are inside the system. It is Americans cheating other Americans.

When Black voters were massively disenfranchised in Georgia this last election--not a Russian in sight. In Brooklyn 2016 an election official changed party affliation of new voters to keep them from voting for Bernie--not a Russian in sight. (It was pretty well estabished that Bernie was bringing in new voters into the democratic primaries.) Of course I could go on endlessly.

It seems the new hot take of democrats is calling Mitch McConnell "Moscow Mitch" because he refuses to allow a vote on an "election integerity" bill. I tried to find details about it and not much. But did read that the ACLU was against it on 1st Amendment grounds. Off hand, it seemed to be more an anti-Trump bill (all candidates must show fed taxes for example) than any real attempt at reform. For example, not sure if it outlawed various voter database purges using things like caging, multi-state compares, etc.

I started hearing about problems with electronic based machines in the 2000 election. Of course all to the advantage of gopers. And what did the democrats do in 2000? They blamed Nader, and from what I saw never did anything about election integerity. I came to conclusion that democrats not serious about election integerity as that it would prevent them from cheating, especially in the primaries to knock out anti-establishment insurgents.

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Lookout's picture

@MrWebster

The dim primary exit polls were 15% off from the results (cheating Bernie), as the video you referred to shows in the chart.

Venezuela has more reliable and fair elections, but we want to invade them to restore demockracy. The hypocrisy is so obvious. Saudi Arabia as an ally is another good example.

I wish I could see a way out of the mess.

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

@Lookout Whao...15% now that is some talented vote rigging.

In terms of the total environment, there are just too roadblocks. About the melting ice in Greenland--I remember some speculation that because it is fresh water it could depress the major ocean currents (salt water) giving Europe relatively moderate weather--depress those currents and enter a new ice age.

As for voting many people think paper ballots is a panacea. The people I used to work for (I was a foot soldier) would figure out a way. Weren't paper ballots used in FL with Canova? Looks like they were thrown away, and then there is the matter that I believe that "voting counting machines" (optical scanners with built-in micro/software) are used to get all the counts.

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Lookout's picture

@MrWebster

...and we ain't got the sense to see the problem given the misinformation the masses are fed. Quite the dilemma.

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

lotlizard's picture

@MrWebster  
Can’t leave out the “hand counted in public” part.

To enable a large crowd to keep an eye on the process, perhaps the counting table could be something like those setups they use to televise professional poker games.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

saying that anyone who runs for president must release their taxes if they want to be on the ballot. And Lindsay Graham is being called Leningrad Lindsay, but he has been one of the biggest pushers of Russia interfering with the election BS so I'm okay with it. You mess with the bull you get the horns..

If democrats were serious about election safety they would ask for paper ballots. And they would be doing everything in their power to stop what the republicans do to keep people from voting. But it's just so damn silly that they keep saying that Russia interfered with the election after what they did to Bernie.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg LOL Newsom is so useless... are you sure you ever want to come back here to Sonoma County? better hurry

You are talking about the current governator, and also your favorite cop seems to be my senator too. Oh, how ya likin' Feinstein's votes lately? Sheesh this is so awful I want to cut my own head off. And you know I didn't vote for any one of them right? I had to leave a blank box so who knows maybe the poll counter filled it in when Nobody was looking. heh I am really down with Nobody lately. thanks a lot

PEACE
rub it in

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snoopydawg's picture

@eyo

From what I've read it won't survive its first lawsuit. Newsom had all kinds of great ideas back when he was in no position to get them passed. He was yang to Brown's ying who didn't do jack for people of California. Just like Awnorld who ran on work compensation reform and saying that he was going to make it easier for injured workers to get treatment. Once in office he screwed workers and gave everything to the corporations who could then go on to screw people much harder and deeper. I voted against him because it was a manufactured crisis against Gray Davis, but my friends were so excited to vote for the terminator...

And yeah I really want to come back to the Sonoma coast. In my dreams I'm filthy rich and can afford it. Smile I have my house all planned out too. In my dreams.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

Misleading and misinforming. How can we combat that? All I can think is my lifetime effort....educate, educate , educate...as you regularly do here at c99.

That is what I love about being part of this community. Learning form all of you ...in your essays and comments. We try to educate each other, and that is our weapon...our path toward a sane course forward.

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

election integerity as that it would prevent them from cheating, especially in the primaries to knock out anti-establishment insurgents."

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Lookout's picture

@entrepreneur

Candidates must meet polling requirements (polls the party condones) to make the debate stage. The dims are so obviously corrupt, but the focus is T-rump horrors and RUSSIA. Sad state of affairs.

Pardon the extraneous clip of brother Cornel explaining the dilemma...
Here's a link with a partial transcript
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/1/it_wasnt_a_golden_age_cornel
and the complete clip I like...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9rNFI--sWk]

thanks for dropping by!

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

@Lookout
of that Cornel West segment.

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lotlizard's picture

and occasionally holds meetups for regular readers in Birmingham:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/05/reminder-birmingham-meetup-tonig...

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Lookout's picture

@lotlizard

I still go to the "ham" to visit my almost 90 YO Mom, and my partner has family to visit there as well. Where do you find advance notice?

thanks for the tip!

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

lotlizard's picture

@Lookout  
Notices of NC reader meetups are posted here:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/notices

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