The Weekly Watch
Laboring to Understand
I just don't get it. How could any amount of money be more valuable than the life of your child or grandchild? Has the extinction of our species and destruction of our biosphere got a dollar value? Is the audacity of the powerful so extreme, they think they will be exempt from ecosystem collapse? I'm serious folks, I just don't understand. I can't imagine a rationale for releasing more methane and the promotion of pipelines and fossil fuels, allowing the rape of Alaska's temperate rainforests and the tropical forests (all over the planet)... as ice caps melt, the arctic and tropics burn, and species are disappearing faster than we can count them. It is truly madness. We have reached a cascade of tipping points... as the oligarchs accelerate the actions that got us here. They already have more money than God/dess, so what could be their real purpose? Is it simply the intoxication of power that drives them destroy the only habitable system we have? I'll say again, it is insanity.
based on current evidence the saying originated in one of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified by the many researchers who have explored the provenance of this adage. The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
We've destroyed ourselves and our civilization so many times we've lost our perspective ... Over and over and over again my fiends... as seen in Loudermilk's Conquest of the Land for 7000 years, and John Perlin's A Forest Journey both of which expose how the rise and fall of civilizations can be attributed to how they treat the environment upon which they depend. Today we have a global conquest of the environment, and it seems we want to rush to our extinction...perhaps it is our nature?
This week's storm of catastrophes...
President Trump once again signaled his ignorance towards the science of climate crisis and his indifference towards public health. The proposed elimination of critical national safeguards against oil and gas methane pollution is reckless, and it will impact millions of families living with oil and gas air pollution in their backyards. Despite the insistence from major oil and gas companies to preserve and strengthen methane rules, the President continues to choose pollution over people.
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/08/29/epa-dismantles-critical...
The latest science says that there’s actually 60% more methane being admitted by the oil and gas industry than the EPA even knows about. Most of this is self-reported. It’s the entire oil and gas production, fracking, transport, transmission. The methane is leaked, and not just leaked, but actually intentionally released throughout the entire process. (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-administration-proposes-methane-re...
As Brazil’s Amazon burns, President Donald Trump is taking aim at one of the largest expanses of temperate rainforest in Alaska. On Tuesday, the president instructed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to allow logging in the 16.7 million acre Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, the nation’s largest national forest. Together with British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, the Tongass encompasses the largest intact temperate rainforest on Earth.
https://patriotsandprogressives.com/index.php/2019/08/28/trump-moves-to-...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/28/amazon-flames-trump-moves-o...
The reason the Amazon is burning is because Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who followed Donald Trump’s populist, anti-establishment playbook to win election last year, wants it to. He thinks the Amazon should not be protected, and that lands reserved for indigenous peoples should not be recognized — all in the name of economic growth. That see-no-evil approach is another point Bolsonaro has in common with Trump, who has sought to make an alarming amount of public lands available for oil and gas drilling and other extractive industries, such as uranium mining — the health of the planet be damned.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-26/the-amazon-is-burning-a...
So should we still be concerned? Extremely. The fires are mostly illegal and they are degrading the world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink and most important home for biodiversity. They also contribute to a more important trend, which is an alarming rise in deforestation. Scientists say the Amazon is approaching a tipping point, after which it will irreversibly degrade into a dry savannah. At a time when the world needs billions more trees to absorb carbon and stabilise the climate, the planet is losing its biggest rainforest.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/23/amazon-fires-what-is...
How did Bolsonaro get elected? Glenn Greenwald tells Aaron Mate' the story
“When you combine [Bolsonaro’s] aggressive deforestation, with contempt for the indigenous, with the role that these agribusiness interests play in his government, there’s no question that the destruction of the Amazon — including by just sometimes lighting the Amazon on fire — there’s no question that ideology has played a key role in everything we’re seeing,” Greenwald says.
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/27/glenn-greenwald-on-the-amazon-fires-a...
Of course US oligarchs have played a role. Two Brazilian firms owned by a top donor to President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are significantly responsible for the ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest, carnage that has developed into raging fires that have captivated global attention.
https://theintercept.com/2019/08/27/amazon-rainforest-fire-blackstone
The arctic is burning and releasing methane too.
“Although my job as a scientist is to examine my data critically and in an unbiased way, I cannot help but be heartbroken at how quickly these changes are taking place… and to watch helplessly as the most magical place on Earth burns…. This is carbon that takes thousands of years to accumulate and… poof… it is gone.”
https://redd-monitor.org/2019/07/31/the-arctic-is-burning/
It is not just the Amazon rainforest that is burning. More than 21,000 square miles of forest caught on fire in Siberia this month. That means that Russia is on track for its worst year on record for wildfires. (Salon tries to blame Russia for the fires)
https://www.salon.com/2019/08/27/massive-siberian-forest-fire-could-melt...
The permafrost – up until now, permanently frozen land and soil – is thawing out, and revealing its hidden secrets. Alongside Pleistocene fossils are massive carbon and methane emissions, toxic mercury, and ancient diseases.
https://theextinctionchronicles.wordpress.com/2019/08/22/the-poisons-rel...
Arctic heating is accelerating and this could make global temperatures skyrocket in a matter of years. Where Arctic sea ice disappears, hot water emerges due to albedo changes and loss of the buffer that has until now been consuming heat as part of the melting process.
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/cyclone-over-arctic-ocean-augus...
The flip side of burning is flooding. There is plenty of that too as hurricane Dorian reaches the northern Bahama's today as a Cat. 5, and is forecast to ride up the southeast coast producing significant storm surge.
https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2019/tropical-storm-Dori...
Extreme weather events are occurring all over the planet.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/extreme-weather
The evidence is clear... just look at carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Not to mention shrinking ice, rising oceans, extreme weather events, temperature increases, and on and on...
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
(12 min)
Join the rebellion: https://Rebellion.Earth/
1. #TellTheTruth
2. #ActNow
3. #BeyondPolitics
In the UK, Extinction Rebellion’s third demand is that government must create and be led by the decisions of a citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Decades of inadequate political action have led to a climate and ecological emergency that poses an unprecedented existential threat to humanity and all life on Earth — “politics as usual” will not meet the challenge we face.
In at least 31 states, lawmakers and governors have introduced bills and orders since Standing Rock that target protests, particularly opposition to pipelines. Environmentalists and free speech advocates say the new bills are part of a broader effort to recast environmental activists as criminals, even terrorists.
"I think there is a very worrying trend—and the trend is on both sides of the political aisle to be perfectly frank and candid—a trend of trying to suppress political speech that you don't agree with," said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22082018/pipeline-protest-laws-felony...
Therein lies the conundrum. It is obvious our ecosystem is in danger of collapse. The oligarchs know it too, and in fact do everything possible to keep you from knowing it.
Michael Mann, who was the target of a Koch-funded smear, explains how the Koch Brothers "almost single-handedly stymied climate action for decades." (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/david-koch-is-dead-but-his-legacy-of-cli...
These oligarchs live in the same biosphere that we inhabit. Why do they want to destroy it? Is the greed for money more powerful than the desire to live? Evidently, but it defies logic. There is much more I also find puzzling...like John Bolton's relentless desire for war for example. So I continue to labor to understand.
Here's hoping you all have a thoughtful and relaxing holiday weekend!
Comments
There IS NO
understanding needed, These fools Are insane and killing us all. The remedy is obvious and in a Sane world would've already been addressed.
Ergo, we Don't live in a sane world.
Stay safe, my friend.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
the puzzle is they are killing themselves too
It is indeed insane. All the best my friend.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I assume that I am telling you something that you already know.
But many of the culpable idiots involved have never been held accountable for anything they do wrong for their entire lives. My opinion is that deep down they believe (irrationally) that they can buy or lie their way out of this situation too.
It's too bad that they'll destroy the rest of us too, but it'll be a tiny bit of a consolation to see the rich privileged assholes wetting themselves and jumping out of windows when they realize they won't have time to spend their $10 billion dollars.
Perhaps that's it....
Always have and always will - works in some cases but not in this one. Their blindness and arrogance is staggering.
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
More on the myth of America
Just caught this today.
about 30 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iO_c3KAKZI]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It's the tragedy of the commons
and the hyperbole of environmentalists. Worldwide forest cover has remained almost the same for a quarter century at around 32% of land cover. http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/ people burn during the dry season. That's how sustainable small scale farming is done worldwide. Some years the Amazon has more burning some years less, this year is somewhere in the middle. Must have been a slow news month.
Wealthy people use tons of fossil fuels. It was heartening to see that young girl cross the ocean on a sailboat. I realize her sailing crew did fly back, etc etc but most environmentalists don't think their personal carbon footprint is relevant. I've had very progressive friends try to tell me how much better flying is for the environment. Currently there's a big huff over tariffs, the idea of manufacturing on another continent then shipping stuff across the Pacific is entirely crazy. When an environmentalist flies to a climate conference to give a speech they are destroying the planet, likewise when they fly to Churchill to "witness" polar bears. The Sierra Club sells an international travel program for goodness sake.
Do progressives really need a 5500 square foot brand new house to empty nest in while protesting the fracking being done 2800 feet beyond their housing development? Here in Colorado they do. Any idea how much energy it costs to run a hot tub 24/7? or the AC while you are vacationing in Tortuga to keep the plants alive and so the cleaning lady doesn't have to work in the heat?
And that's just America. How can we deny air conditioning to people in India, or
South East Asia. Or an e bike? Climate change is a daunting problem, and mostly we point fingers at the easy scapegoats, as if Exon Mobile forces us to put gasoline in the tanks of the SUVs our servants drive to take care of our McMansions. As if oil from Mexico or Canada or Venezuela doesn't have the same carbon footprint as that of the Julesburg basin or the Bakken.
We need to consume at a fraction of our existing rate, and that restraint needs to be worldwide, instead we keep on flying and buying status symbol Teslas to park in front of our houses with solar arrays attop where Santa and reindeer should go. We point fingers in every direction except at ourselves.
you are so right!
The idea that we can maintain our current lifestyle and mitigate climate chaos is naive at best.
I also think XR is correct in saying...
So in the next decade we must change everything? How likely is that when we refuse to even admit we have a existential crisis? Well that's a question for another day. My big question in this essay is why are the oligarchs pushing this when they KNOW it means the death of their children etc. That is what I find almost unbelievable.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Talk about hyperbole
There are very few "progressives" such as the ones of whom you speak. You make it sound like they are the rule rather than the exception.
You ignore the relative importance of the Amazon rainforests. You ignore the problem of tipping points.
The problem is that there are not enough "
progressives" (A am sick of that word) socialistsAnd ignoring politics and/or thinking protest alone will achieve anything doesn't help either. And as you seem to recognize, most people aren't going to be environmentally conscious in their own daily lives simply on their own volition.
The bottom line re holding off immminent climate catastrophe is that something has to be done immediately on the political plane to limit the greed and rapaciousnous of the 100 companies that produce 71% of the world's carbon emissions:
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-...
not to mention the DoD...
...which is the 5th largest polluter in the world, and a major contributor to climate chaos.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/19/climate-change-catch-22-its-offi...
According to Dr. Carter, the Pentagon uses 0.3 million barrels a day of oil, about 1.5 percent of the U.S. total usage of 21 million barrels a day. The U.S. accounts for about twenty five percent of total world consumption, which is approximately 86 million barrels a day. https://www.qsenergy.com/news/detail/783/u-s-military-is-the-worlds-numb...
I like your comment about socialism. As Trumpolini declares war on socialism, we need to step up and say as citizens we are socialists.
I would also add deforestation is a problem...more than half of the world’s tropical forests have been destroyed since the 1960s.
https://theleaderassumpta.com/2019/08/30/amazon-fire-blamed-on-deforesta...
Hope you're having a good holiday weekend. Thanks for the visit.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You make an important distinction about tropical forests
The relative importance of tropical forests needs to be emphasized.
Interesting, too, how that article you link points at deforestation as a causative factor in the proliferation of the Amazon fires.
Yet that's precisely the point.
We are trying to power 21st century comforts with 19th century technology.
Of course that's ridiculously inefficient.
Of course that's stupidly expensive.
Of course that's horribly destructive.
But the answer is not blame people for wanting a 21st century lifestyle. The answer is to build a modern 21st century energy grid that can efficiently, inexpensively, and cleanly handle the loads.
Spare me the Limousine Liberal schtick.
Blaming people who are trying to solve the problem for the problem is an old trick used by people who are simply looking for an excuse not to deal with the problem at all.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
I agree that structural change is the issue...
However, we are over consuming. Do we need the hot tub 24/7...hell I don't have a hot tub, and I bet you don't either.
I'm not suggesting blaming individuals... it's a corporate/societal issue. But I think you have to admit US citizens need to throttle back their wants and desires....less is best. Desire is driven in part by corporate ads tell you that you want more. You know the adage REDUCE, reuse, recycle.
If I did have a hot tub would be wood fired cause it is the resource I have for free...but it still liberates CO2 into the ATM and isn't on my to do list.
Good to "see" you NHK.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It's an addiction.
They're addicts, lost in addiction. They can't control it and they can't stop. Even though it means their own destruction, they cannot stop themselves. And they are working overtime to suppress all attempts at an intervention meant to get them to change. That's how addictions operate.
Yep, the world - the planet and everything on it, including all humans - is in the hands of a bunch of out-of-control addicts.
That is a terrifying fact. No wonder so many people are clinging desperately to denial, to avoid facing it.
This includes many self-proclaimed "liberals". They rant angrily about Trump being "anti-science", but the truth is, they themselves don't really believe the scientists who are warning us that time is short. They say they do believe it, but at the very same time, they insist that we have to be patient, that radical change is not feasible, and that we must work "incrementally" so as not to upset anyone.
As I've mentioned before, in my opinion, the American psyche is suffering from a major case of PTSD and trauma bonding, aka Stockholm syndrome, including a deep sense of learned helplessness and the reflexive reaction to protect their abusers.
In order for the human race to survive, enough of us will have to wake up, clear our minds, and wrest control of the world from the addicts. No more intervention attempts, no more asking and begging and pleading, and no more enabling.
I'm not talking about violent revolution here. I'm talking about evolution. Caity Johnstone calls our present moment "evolve or die" time. That's what this is about.
Most of the time, the human race plods along, and evolution happens gradually. However, at certain points throughout history, there are times of rapid progress and radical shifts. That's what we're at the point of now. We don't really have much of a choice if we are to survive.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
excellent comment...
Yes indeed...just like an addict who knows they should stop but can't.
I agree about the collective PTSD as well.
Thanks.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Have you met their kids?
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
not really, but...
I have played at their garden party....
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHR7_VZdRw]
If Trumpolini's kids are a typical example, you're probably correct ...the oligarchs don't even like their own kids.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
If we can agree
Greed is myopic, it is not a stretch to recognize the failed thinking behind 'burn the present' and 'future be damned'. The entitlement disconnect is about hoarding short term wealth, not about saving in the long term. It's madness. Sociopaths' disregard for other's well being is a capitalist disease. Helping others, rather than practicing insatiable selfishness, may inoculate us a bit.
Whoa nilly bell.
It's time to rein it in.
question everything
E. O. Wilson's book...
The Meaning of Human Existence
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4524553/edward-wilson-the-meaning-human-e...
...theorizes what made us human is our ability to be altruistic which caused our brains to grow larger.
Too bad that quality of humans isn't better developed.
Whoa nelly belle is right! Good to "see" you around. Hope your travels are going well!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
humans influenced the earth for thousands of years
article has several graphics showing changes in many areas over the centuries
interesting to be reminded about the fertile crescent as the earliest source of change
Crowdsourced archaeology shows how humans have influenced Earth for thousands of years
money go round
Get back Loretta.
question everything
You might be interested in this link...
....hidden early in the essay -
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1043789.pdf
Thanks for your link...nice reminder of the cycles isn't it?
Good to see you this week. Hope all is well with you and yours.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
anything more solid than a mountain?
Hunger for concrete eats away at mountains
We have a limestone quarry on the other side of the mountain
We continue to extract fast as we can. I'm part of it too. My gravel road was hauled from that very quarry.
It takes lots of energy to burn limestone into cement too
https://www.geoplastglobal.com/en/insights/energy-consumption-production...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Buenos morning amigos ...
Here's some good stuff to watch, if you haven't already seen them.
Aaron Maté on the end of Russiagate: YouTube, 15 min. & YouTube, 7 min.
Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss "intelligence" creeps in the media: YouTube, 5 min.
This one may be important in the 2020 presidential race, from The Duran: YouTube, 32 min.
Finally, this one is a must-see.
Comedy Gold from Jimmy Dore, Deranged Clinton Centrists Hate On Susan Sarandon Escalates!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0nf02Gsnk&t=1180s width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I love Aaron's new podcast "push back"
Glad you linked it. The Jimmy clip is indeed a good one. I'll check out Pap and Farron's piece as well as the Duran link.
Always appreciate your contribution to the WW! Hope all is well in your world.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Things are OK here, I guess,
except for this, which sucks, and this which sucks ever worse. We put in an orange tree and a section of ocotillo "living" fence this spring with the certain knowledge that the monsoon would water them in and get them off to a good start.
Other than that ...
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
floods and droughts
Didn't realize how dry y'all are....really across your entire state. Too bad we don't have a way to shift at least some of the foot or so of rain forecast for Florida to you. RA says they are dry in NM too.
With respect to precipitation, 2019 to-date is a year of extremes in parts of the West. As monsoon rains continue to fail and heat continues to build, impacts, including wildfire risk, are growing in the Southwest. After emerging from nearly a decade of drought conditions on June 11, moderate drought (D1) returned to both the eastern and western parts of Arizona this week, and abnormally dry (D0) conditions spread across much of the rest of the state, save for part of the south. Locally, many areas are experiencing one of their 10 driest monsoon seasons on record. Phoenix is also on track to have its third or fourth hottest June-August period on record and Tucson its second hottest. The D1 that spread to eastern Arizona also spread over the remainder of northwestern New Mexico into southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah at the Four Corners. In New Mexico, D1 in the south expanded eastward from Sierra County to the D1 area at the Texas border. Abnormally dry conditions also spread outward across the southwestern states, including across Imperial County, California, to join with the long-lasting D0 area in San Diego, Orange, and Riverside Counties. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
Wishing you the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Wonderful essay, Lookout,
It's Teddy Roosevelt baron breaking time writ large. We 've strayed so for from the initial intent of granting corporations charters for the public good that we may never return; but we must try and taming the corporate beast and its present short-term greed model, as suggested above, if a paramount and good place to start.
Viva la revolución.
Beautiful day, and much of the game traffic is gone, thankfully; out to see Mom and maybe a friend, later.
Thanks for this excellent piece.
Enjoy your visit...
...I'm going down to the 'ham to visit my mom in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for the song. I like Mike Cross. Here's one along the same line by Pete...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-o3CJytIPE]
Glad you came by. Have a lovely Sunday.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
More from Jimmy on the Climate Strike
Jimmy talks with Nick Branna of the people's party
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQElBOeF6_0]
https://www.strikedc.org/
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Not Einstein and not THE definition of insanity.
https://www.history.com/news/here-are-6-things-albert-einstein-never-said
It is ONE definition of insanity and a glib, lay definition at that. Not that there's anything wrong with that for some purposes.
I understand that the environment is an infinitely more important issue. However, I am already doing everything about that that I can reasonably do and I don't know how to stop the bigger sources of hastening environmental destruction or how to make government make them stop.
As noted in the citation under the picture
I used the adage because I'm trying to say humans destroy their environment again and again. As a teacher once told a buddy of mine...you can't learn. I'm suggesting we as a species "can't learn" to protect our habitat and that may just be part of our biology.
No guilt nor environmental shame intended if that was the vibe you took away from today's column. We are all (or at least most of us) trying to do what we can as individuals ... we need structural change as Jimmy and Nick discuss.
Hope your holiday weekend is going well.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You might be right.
I keep saying, you can teach people but you can't make them listen or give a shit.
I don't get it either.
This shit is bananas.
seems like the "instinct of survival"...
....would kick in, but I think the corporate coup is complete and corporations ONLY care about profit. We have become a fascist nation.
The Godfather of Fascism, Benito Mussolini, once summed it up: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
Hope you're having a nice holiday weekend!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Using the adage is fine, but for the word "the."
As my prior post said, describing it as a definition of insanity or one definition of insanity is okay under certain circumstances. Describing it as THE definition on insanity, however, is ridiculous on its face. A
nd, of course, associating it with Einstein can only perpetuate a myth.
The quote has so often been misattributed to Einstein that depicting it as part of his likeness doesn't help, IMO, even with a disclaimer.
As far as the self help groups, IMO, that is also a spurious "origin story." Elsewhere, I've seen the explanation that no one knows the origin and I believe that to be the reality. The internet abounds with quotes misattributed to famous people like Einstein and Gandhi and no one knows who started them or under what circumstances. But that is the last of the three errors.
Thank you for the explanation about why you used the adage was clear to me when I first read it. My objections had nothing to do with any confusion on my part about why you used it.
I took no personal shame or guilt away from your essay. As stated, I'm already doing as much I can (and have been for a long time.) The internet being what it is, I thought people might think my commenting on the quote meant that I'd missed the importance of the environmental issues or that my priorities were way out whack. So, I simply explained why I had focused on a one-line saying.
Candidly, I'm not sure why my first post may have seemed so unclear on these points, but I hope this one clarifies it.
no biggie
Just seemed you missed the citation under the pic.
No worries friend.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I have decided that STEM may be our terminal
religion. The idea seems to be that we birth as many kids as possible and expose them to a STEM education and one or more of them will reward us by coming up with inventions that solve all the problems we have created for ourselves. I think this religion of salvation through technology largely resides with the 1%, although the 99% may be drawn in with the promise of bettering themselves.
To create problems for which we have no solutions is nuts, as you pointed out, Lookout. The meek may inherit the Earth, but the won’t be anything left after the greedy are done with it.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
As science teacher...
...I saw many fads, several imposed upon us teachers - STEM among them. I taught in my own way and had enough success (with my student's test scores) that they let me do as I pleased for the most part.
Greed is a driving force and corporate entities have no morals.
Hope you have a nice weekend. I feel fortunate to be out of the way of Dorian...noticed Atlanta is going to be fine too. Have a good one.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Open classrooms, Assertive Discipline. Humans
are prone to fads. People who aren’t are sometimes considered dangerous. Lucky for your students that you weren’t.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Laboring to Understand - Don't we try all the time?
and it feels like we never succeed.
Such a great Weekly Watch again. Thank You. I listen to Hedges interview with Danny Haiphong. It is very worthwhile to listen to it.
Well the poor labor (work) on Labor Day. Doesn't that alone tells the whole story?
Hope you find happiness in your garden. I have seen people giving up on it and it scares me.
Good to see you every Sunday.
PS. Whoever can go to DC on the 23rd, shut it down.They deserve it.Nick Brana in the Jimy Dore video is great. Thanks for that too.
https://www.euronews.com/live
So nice to hear from you too
The garden fence is up and only lacks gates. I hope to build and install them in a week or so.
Indeed it is the poor who will labor on Labor Day...which was moved from May (when most of the world celebrates) cause we don't want any remembrance of the Haymarket riot
https://www.britannica.com/event/Haymarket-Riot
I think XR plans a shut down of Berlin in early October. I'm playing with the idea of taking the train or bus to DC for the shutdown on the 23rd. https://www.strikedc.org/
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Oh, good reason to go to Berlin then, thanks for
mentioning it.
https://www.euronews.com/live
this link should have some info...
https://extinctionrebellion.de/
It is the time of day when my intertube connection loses air and I sink into a slow crawl to do anything digital.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
James Lovelock, the Gaia guy, says will collapse
this came up when I was wandering around the web
this 10 min interview is from 2009, a decade ago
Doomsday Pending? James Lovelock on The Hour
Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis is now well accepted
Except they don't use the term to describe it.
Thanks for the link.
He shaped my views decades ago, however I don't agree with all his positions...like nuclear power. I found one interview where he suggested using diesel fuel in airplanes to place sulfur high in the atmosphere in order to cool the planet. He is an outside the box thinker.
Thanks again.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I agree on dangers of nuclear power
Also, leading scientist James Hansen also advocates nuclear power.
They are both space scientists and from space, the nuclear sun does not seem dangerous.
The oligarchs are not normal
As Entrepeneur said, they have been able to buy whatever they wanted their whole lives.
My opinion is that they believe they will be fine in the safe places they have bought. They think the locals who survive will work for them, growing food and serving them.
It doesn't matter to them what happens to the rest of us. They think they are special, superior and only they and their descendants matter. My guess is they think that with the rest of us gone, the planet will recover and life for them will go on pleasantly.
It makes no sense, but again, I don't think they are normal.
As I've thought about it today....
I continue to understand/grok the total corporate capture of our entire culture and society. The corporate dictate of profit rules the world...not people, after all corporations are now people...even the oligarchs operate for the benefit of the corporations.
We talk about rugged individualism, but the individual has been consumed by a corporate culture....or as Bernie says...it's socialism for the corporations and rugged individualism for the working poor.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It's the Picture-Box.
The total corporate capture of our entire culture and society is almost entirely due to the influence of television. The Picture-Box is, and has been for 50 years, the most powerful propaganda machine known to man. The TV networks are owned by corporations and their customers are other corporations. Little wonder we live in a corporate culture.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
you are so right...
MSM now 6 corporations... with more consolidation on the way...
https://tennesseestar.com/2019/08/07/gannett-sells-out-to-competitor-gat...
Not to mention Sinclair...
https://www.bleachernation.com/2019/08/30/tv-notes-sinclair-completes-fo...
No wonder we're a nation of idiots...cause we're fed BS.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
good evening lo
Got most of the way through the Hedges interview and life interrupted. Thanks for a great ot. Right on. The day flew by. I now have three caterpillars. Found another on the outside bush and brought it in. So exciting. I will take them over to the Monarch center and have them tested for something, maybe parasites, that they can spread to others once the are butterflies. Up close and personal they are eating machines. The climate, she is unfolding so fast now. Like you say, appreciate life and loved ones every moment. Guess I will wish you a good one for tomorrow...
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