The Weekly Watch
The Complete Capture
Neofuedalism looms as the corporate overlords try to control our food, environment, economy, wages, and so much more.
...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
http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/LongFoodMovementEN.pdf
In 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies to some degree on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems.
Who will have a seat at the Table? The big corporations, that's who. However, the spin has a whole different vibe. (2 min)
Mega-corporations are all set to walk away with the keys to global governance of food and agriculture at the UN Food Systems Summit later this year. Pat Mooney talks about what is at stake and The Long Food Movement counterstrategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnxpb5lSY8U (47 min)
A bit boring but important to be aware of the corporate take over.
One means of control is the corporate control of seeds. In a previous essay we looked at this issue in some detail.
In the first half of the 20th century, seeds were overwhelmingly in the hands of farmers and public-sector plant breeders. In the decades since then, Gene Giants have used intellectual property laws to commodify the world seed supply – a strategy that aims to control plant germplasm and maximize profits by eliminating Farmers' Rights.
Today, the proprietary seed market accounts for a staggering share of the world's commercial seed supply. In less than three decades, a handful of multinational corporations have engineered a fast and furious corporate enclosure of the first link in the food chain.
According to Context Network, the proprietary seed market (that is, brand-name seed that is subject to exclusive monopoly – i.e., intellectual property), now accounts for 82% of the commercial seed market worldwide.
The top 10 seed companies account for $14,785 million – or two-thirds (67%) of the global proprietary seed market.
The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, accounts for almost one-quarter (23%) of the global proprietary seed market.
The top 3 companies (Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta) together account for $10,282 million, or 47% of the worldwide proprietary seed market.
https://www.gmwatch.org/en/gm-firms/10558-the-worlds-top-ten-seed-compan...
https://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-owns-nature
It isn't just seed, TPTB are working to control food from farm to fork.
A handful of corporations control our food from farm to fork. Their unbridled power grants them increasing political influence over the rules that govern our food system and allows them to manipulate the marketplace – pushing down the prices paid to family farmers and driving them out of business. For eaters, extreme consolidation leaves fewer choices in the grocery aisle and higher prices, while corporate-written policies are sparking growing food safety concerns and less transparency in the marketplace. In sum, our corporate controlled food system damages rural communities, local economies, public health and the soil and water needed to sustain food production.
“Our food system belongs in the hands of many family farmers, not under the control of a handful of corporations.” – Willie Nelson, Farm Aid Founder and President
Most sectors of the U.S. economy have concentration ratios around 40%, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40% of the market. If the concentration ratio is above 40%, economists believe competition is threatened and market abuses are more likely to occur: the higher the number, the bigger the threat. Almost every sector in agriculture is well above these levels.
For all of us who eat, unchecked corporate power means higher prices and less choice. Despite the concept of cheap food and “feeding the world” that the industrial food system promises (and uses to justify the damage the system inflicts upon farmers, rural communities and our soil and water), their extreme market power means corporations can push down the prices paid to farmers without passing on their savings to consumers. What’s more, the farmer’s share of the retail food dollar plummeted by fifty percent.
https://www.farmaid.org/issues/corporate-power/corporate-power-in-ag/
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE_Bfiiy6fc]
Farmers and ranchers receive just 14.6* cents of the consumer food dollar.
Visit your local farmers market to connect with growers in your area. Yes, it will cost a bit more, but it is a better product. What is the value of your health after all? I discovered several farms in my area at the following link: https://www.localharvest.org/organic-farms/
Enter your location to do the same.
Mark Hyman speaks with an organic farmer about nutrient density in organically grown foods.
I was fascinated to talk to Dan Kittredge about intentionally eating for nutrient density on this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy. Dan Kittredge has been an organic farmer for more than 30 years and is the founder and executive director of the Bionutrient Food Association, a non-profit whose mission is to “increase quality in the food supply.” Known as one of the leading proponents of “nutrient density,” Dan works to demonstrate the connections between soil health, plant health, and human health. Out of these efforts was born the Real Food Campaign which has engineered a prototype of a hand-held consumer spectrometer designed to test nutrient density at point of purchase. Via the Bionutrient Meter, the goal is to empower consumers to choose for nutrient quality and thereby leverage economic incentives to drive full system regeneration.
(44 min)
The Land Rush...
100 wealthy families own 42 million acres of land across the US, and the amount of land owned by these lords of land has spiked 50% since 2007.
https://thehustle.co/09162019-land-billionaires/
Bill Gates leads the way claiming to be working toward sustainable agriculture.
So why is he pushing the impossible burger? I wouldn't eat one.
You’d think Impossible Foods would focus on the horrors of factory farming. Instead, Gates and Brown take aim at regenerative organic agriculture and grass-fed beef. According to Fortune.com: “Gates and Brown believe that genetically modified seeds and chemical herbicides, in the right doses––and not land-intensive organic farming––are crucial to curbing carbon emissions.”
That old lie about organic farming has been thoroughly debunked, and real climate activists know “It’s not the cow, it’s the how.”
https://winewaterwatch.org/2021/03/reject-bill-gates-impossible-burger/
Regeneratively raised grazing ruminants are the key to sustainable farming and ranching.
Here's three excellent examples of farming while improving the environment...
Young farmers crushing it in the High Desert | Regenerative Agriculture | Grassfed Beef
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4OJc8-z6i0 (24 min)
Jake Takiff gives us a tour of his farm and all the regenerative agriculture practices he does on 40 acres. Jake runs grass fed cattle, pasture pigs, and planted over 10,000 trees in a silvopasture setup. He planted Japanese plum, honey locust, Korean pine, Antonovka apples, walnut, willows, and many more.
Silvopasture - How raising beef cattle and trees together can help the planet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OInXB92lSik (7 min)
Meet Daniel Wolf, a beef rancher in Brazil who raises cattle using a silvopasture system. By using this practice, carbon emissions from cattle are sequestered by trees, leading to a negative carbon footprint, and increased biodiversity.
Richard Perkins, a Brit farming in Sweden, who blends animal production and market gardening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_RDihV4FeM (20 min)
5 Keys to success with No Dig Market Gardening - The Ridgedale No-Dig method
So we have regenerative farming out west, in Brazil, and Sweden. Let's finish up in Vermont with a couple who builds soil and community. (10 min)
These four examples of many illustrate one way to live happily and healthy in the evolving neofuedal world.
WATER
If we think the take over of food production is bad, what about the oligarchs buying up water supplies?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/wall-street-spends...
Crown Columbia Water Resources since 2017 has targeted the water rights of farms on tributaries of the mighty Columbia River. This March, the company sealed a $340,000 deal for Douglas County water. The same day, it paid $1.69 million for a farming partnership’s water in Columbia County. Two months later, the company spent nearly $1.61 million near Walla Walla...
Worldwide, as temperatures rise and aquifers dry, investors are increasingly bullish on water, and buying vineyards, farms and ranches for what’s underneath or flowing through.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/corporations-grabbing-land-an...
The “water grabbing” by corporations amounts to 454 billion cubic meters per year globally, according to a new study by environmental scientists. That’s about 5 percent of the water the world uses annually.
Investors from seven countries – the United States, United Arab Emirates, India, United Kingdom, Egypt, China and Israel – accounted for 60 percent of the water acquired under these deals.
Most purchasers are agricultural, biofuel and timber investors. Some of the more active buyers in the United States, which leads the pack in number of deals, include multinational investors Nile Trading and Development, BHP Billiton, Unitech and media magnate Ted Turner, according to the study published last month.
Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones) feat. Taj Mahal | Playing For Change | Song Around The World
SHELTER
So we've got the take over of food and water. What's next? How about shelter.
https://www.dailyveracity.com/2021/06/11/corporations-are-buying-up-thou...
According to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, roughly 200 investment firms are buying tens of thousands of homes — and sometimes entire neighborhoods — raising prices, and competing with middle-class Americans looking to take advantage of low-interest rates and buy their first home.
This is being funded with our tax dollars as well as pension funds primarily through the Fed. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/05/blackrock-is-bailing-out-its-etf...
BlackRock is Bailing Out Its ETFs with Fed Money and Taxpayers Eating Losses; It’s Also the Sole Manager for $335 Billion of Federal Employees’ Retirement Funds...
No bid contracts and buying up your own products, what could possibly be wrong with that? To make matters even more egregious, the stimulus bill known as the CARES Act set aside $454 billion of taxpayers’ money to eat the losses in the bail out programs set up by the Fed. A total of $75 billion has been allocated to eat losses in the corporate bond-buying programs being managed by BlackRock. Since BlackRock is allowed to buy up its own ETFs, this means that taxpayers will be eating losses that might otherwise accrue to billionaire Larry Fink’s company and investors.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-sell-a-house-these-days-the-buyer-mi...
A bidding war broke out this winter at a new subdivision north of Houston. But the prize this time was the entire subdivision, not just a single suburban house, illustrating the rise of big investors as a potent new force in the U.S. housing market.
...
Home-rental firms, including Invitation Homes Inc. INVH -0.63% and American Homes 4 Rent, AMH 0.03% thrived. Renting suburban homes proved so profitable that landlords hit the open market and added properties at full price once foreclosures dried up. Many now build houses explicitly to rent.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/corporations-are-buying-houses-robbing-fam...
Corporate homeownership can not only subject tenants to higher living costs, but often destroys their ability to buy these homes themselves, as companies pay top dollar to take them off the market. As a result, America is quickly becoming a renter nation.
“Between 2006 and 2016, when the homeownership rate fell to its lowest level in fifty years, the number of renters grew by about a quarter,” Dezember writes.
Meet your new landlord: Wall Street (9 min)
A dangerous trend is rapidly underway and that is the purchase of single family rental properties by large financial institutions. This threatens to send home prices ever higher and to reduce the ability of the middle class to build wealth through home equity.
Historically the path toward the middle class and wealth has been home ownership. Is this yet another fading dream? It certainly is another step down the road to neofuedalism.
How about HEALTH?
Well that's controlled by big Pharma, Big Ag, Insurance, and the Medical Industrial complex. Here's a few examples using COVID to illustrate the points.
Censorship of medical information and intellectual authoritarianism (Pierre Kory & Bret Weinstein) a 15 min clip from the loger 2.5 hour piece in last weeks column.
Ivrmectin will not be allowed to be an effective treatment (Pierre Kory & Bret Weinstein)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Q9X9vkzm8 (10 min)
And if anyone still thinks IVM is ineffective for COVID - Mexico and India data on IVM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1KTs0XIL20&t=90s (14 min)
Chris Martenson on bad faith Falsie, a broken health system and the failure of science. (39 min)
and Chris covers the cover up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNMmPw9_Iec (30 min)
Silencing those who illuminate and prosecute the corruption.
The people must not be told...
Chris Hedges talks to Steven Donziger, the human rights environmental justice attorney about the grim reality when we confront the real centers of power. Donziger has been fighting polluting American oil companies for nearly three decades on behalf of indigenous communities and peasant farmers in Ecuador, and has been under house arrest in Manhattan for nearly two years. He went on trial in federal court in New York two weeks ago on contempt of court charges, which could see him jailed for six months, for appealing the demand to hand over his computer, cellphone, and other electronic devices to the court, a violation he argues of attorney-client privilege. No attorney without a criminal record in federal court has ever before been detained pretrial for a misdemeanor offense.
https://scheerpost.com/2020/08/25/how-corporate-tyranny-works/
Jimmy also talked with Steve this week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6kMtNjoR28 (19 min)
Not to mention the torture of Julian for revealing our war crimes
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/6/11/julian_assange_extradition
So, where Julian’s case is at, at the moment, you know, as you said, his extradition was rejected on the 4th of January, and his bail was refused on the 6th of January. So, the U.S. has appealed the extradition rejection, and it’s been six months now since Julian — since that extradition rejection, and we still don’t know when there will be an appeal date. So Julian has just been sitting in Belmarsh Prison for six months, not knowing when there will be an appeal heard.
So, really, what I think we’re seeing is an abuse of process to keep Julian imprisoned. And, you know, he hasn’t had any visits since October. The prison is in a COVID lockdown. So, the situation there is really dire, and Julian is suffering inside that prison, for basically just — he’s on remand. He has no sentence. So, why is he in that prison? I just don’t understand.
These two stories make it plain that TPTB will not allow dissension, and anyone who dares to expose the crimes of corporations or the government will be dealt with harshly.
Of course there's no need to silence the news when they are owned and act as mouthpiece for the corporate oligarchs.
How Hedge Funds Took Over America's Struggling Newspaper Industry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7ouoONAIE (14 min)
Even more shameful is the US control of foreign news outlets designed to promote corporate propaganda to insure US control of other countries resources.
How US govt-funded media fueled a violent coup in Nicaragua (13 min) excellent summary
The Economy
As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, the US is desparate to maintain the world's unit of standard exchange, the US dollar. Perhaps China's rise can happen without a war?
Chinese DE DOLLARIZATION strategy : From petroyuan to the de-dollarization of Asia and the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65IeJM9QzL8 (11 min)
Deutsche Bank recently stated that the United States is on path towards one of the worst instances of runaway inflation in history as government spending skyrockets and relaxed fiscal policy wanes. The warning is that the inflation which is being sold as ‘transitory’ will actually have far more serious consequences for the American economy...
The bank also stated that they do not agree with the belief that rising inflation is going to be temporary, stating that we are currently seeing the “most important shift” in 40 years regarding global macro policy. Financial injection is soaring at the same time that the Federal Reserve has decided to accept higher inflation. “Never before,” says Deutsch Bank, has such “expansionary” monetary and fiscal policy been tried.
https://thecontinentaldaily.com/foreign-bank-warns-us-on-brink-of-financ...
For example, without a steady flow of computer chips, our society as it is formulated today simply could not function. We need computer chips for our vehicles, for the trucks that transport all of our goods, for the farm equipment that produces our food, for the extremely sophisticated equipment in our hospitals and for the millions upon millions of electronic devices that connect to the Internet.
The global chip shortage has been a very painful reminder of how exceedingly dependent we have become on technology, and it has also shown us how unwise it was to outsource production of most of our chips to Asia.
Back in 1990, the United States produced 37 percent of all computer chips in the world.
Today, that number has fallen to just 12 percent.
Soon the rent and mortgage moratorium comes to an end
https://www.benzinga.com/government/21/06/21434166/with-junes-rent-morat...
The current foreclosure moratorium for homeowners is set to expire June 30, where borrowers who wish to request forbearance have until then to do so...
Today, 1 in 5 renters is behind on rent and over 10 million homeowners behind on mortgage payments, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), while more than 4 million adults who were behind feared imminent eviction, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).As of the date of this article, the CBPP reports that “joblessness remains high and millions report that their households did not get enough to eat or are not caught up on rent payments,” tracking the extent of this hardship with real-time data from several sources on the ongoing economic crisis...
With June 30 rapidly approaching, some believe there to be an incoming wave of foreclosures that would hit millions of low-income homeowners, according to Bloomberg, after forbearance provisions and the foreclosure moratorium ended.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/takeover-the-u-s-is-staring-at-a-dol...
The “seemingly crazed idea” that the US dollar will collapse against other major currencies in the post-pandemic global economy is not so crazy anymore, the economist Stephen Roach told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Wednesday. –Business Insider
Some sites (not those in the mainstream) have been warning that the dollar will crash for years. This is all a part of the plan. In order to convince the public to accept a digital dollar and fully tracked and traced centralized monetary system, the slaves have to experience a well-thought-out collapse of the current monetary system.
The central banks will attempt a “non-military take over of the entire world.” If we want a permanent system of slavery set up globally, we could simply roll over and allow this digital dollar to actually happen. Instead, I ask that you wake up and realize what’s going on. They have propagated people into the system using the left vs. right paradigm lie, and I admit, I used to fall for it too.
We talked precious metals last week, what about escaping to Bitcoin?
First a nice introduction into how to get into gold and silver.
How To Buy And Store Gold & Silver | Adam Taggart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdeZUlMVfeE (22 min)
Bitcoin was in the news this week. The FBI retrieved most of the Colonial Pipeline ransom. (Sure makes me suspicious about the hack. Was it a false flag to drive oil higher?) Also, in a world first, El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-approves-first-law-bi...
El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender after Congress on Wednesday approved President Nayib Bukele’s proposal to embrace the cryptocurrency, a move that delighted the currency’s supporters.
Here's a great explanation of how the FBI captured the hackers bitcoin ransom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHaJfIKoStU (11 min)
If you think TPTB can't control bitcoin, you need to watch this 28 minute explanation of how the big funds can manipulate its price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwIeCCYIgq8 (28 min)
As we've seen this week, the oligarchs are after control of our basic needs, food, water, shelter, and they already control our media (actually propaganda machines) as well as the creation and distribution of US currency.
So fellow serfs, what to do? Here's what I think -
- Plant a garden even if it is in pots on your patio (h/t NYCVG)
- Get to know your local farmers and producers.
- Invest in real goods that improve your quality of life...cars, house repairs, tools, and other functional products
- Avoid debt and settle the accounts you can afford.
- My bias is to keep some cash on hand in case the banks collapse.
- Build your local community. You don't have to agree politically to help one another with projects and tasks.
Learn or perfect a trade, wood working, welding, sewing, plumbing, etc.
What else do you recommend as we slide deeper and deeper into serfdom?
I'm happy and have acheived more than I dreamed as a young person. I'm wealthy (not in currency, but) in my satisfaction with my homestead and lifestyle...better off than most oligarchs I believe. My buddy would often say, We're richer than royality. We have the thing they lack. TIME.
As I often say, treasure every day. Live your life as you please, not as directed. Have a great day, and I look forward to your ideas on whatever is on your mind below.
Comments
Great WW LO, soup to nuts
Paying down debt, investing in tangible mechanisms
honing a trade with necessary tools and materials all
gives one a chance to play outside the rulers game.
And as a hedge against paper dollar implosion, consider
silver coinage. Have watched the value almost double in
the last couple of years.
Good luck!
Playing outside the system...
...is my approach. However, I did my requisite 20 years in the classroom in order to be free. However, during my career I learned to explain to each new principal that my job was to work for the students and their job was to work for me. Always felt like what I did had at least some meaning.
Anyway, now I reap the rewards and enjoy my life. I wish that same sense of freedom for everyone.
I'm a fair carpenter, but a lousy mechanic. Having skills as we go forward will pay rewards IMO.
Take care and have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, Lookout
and friends.
Thanks for the shoutout. My garden is an endless source of learning and happiness for me and a potential source of good things for anyone inclined to give it a try.
This years obsession is Calibrachoa, which looks like a mini-petunia but requires different care. I have it in an array of colors and am busy tending them and watching videos on how to maximize their wellbeing. Next year the plan is for an herb garden and climbing plants like morning glories and clematis in wooden buckets with trellises.
On the world news front---I am noticing that DK, which I never participated in, but have always checked the front page weekly for what are their topics, now, that there is important change in Israel DK has gone silent.
For years they had people who knew little screaming at others who also understood very little about I/P doing endless senseless dialogs. "Pie Fights" I think they called them.
Now, as reality shows us what has happened, it no longer is worth mentioning?
Change has come. Not the immediate opening and liberation of Gaza, true, but significant change nonetheless.
There are 10 Arab votes in Knesset now and that is more than the only RW religious religious party in the coalition has which has 7.
This will be a secular war-mongering US ally. Some change right?
A bit of comic relief: US Evangelical Leaders are threatening to leave now that their guy, Bibi is gone.
Threatening? hahahaha. Let me show you the door. Please leave. Good-bye Felicia, as the street slang of a few years ago says.
NYCVG
ignorance of Israel and Gaza in the US
is pretty standard because US media is bias toward Israel. Israelis burn the 500+ YO mosque in Jerusalem and gather round dancing and singing death to the Palestinians. When Hamas fires rockets "Israel has a right to defend itself" by killing children, women, reporters, and so on.
For any who doubt the apartheid approach to Palestinians watch Abby's film
https://gazafightsforfreedom.com/
or Max's
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/05/18/killing-gaza-documentary-cohen-blumen...
But it is China that is mistreating Muslims. What a propaganda state in which we live.
DK is a waste of time IMO, but I guess it does allow for a temperature reading of CIA talking points.
Congrats on the plants. So much joy in watching things grow.
Glad you came by. Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
"Threatening? hahahaha. Let me show you the door."
Need an extra escort to help them through the door, please call me.
Thanks for all your thoughts and info
As usual lots to read and ponder and wish things were not the way they seem to be heading but there are choices we can still make in our lives and our futures.
I have been doing a lot of Ben Franklin lists of what my future should be like in relation to the properties in Texas and New Mexico. I am leaning toward selling my property in New Mexico because the climate forecasts seem to be pointing to more and more prolonged drought conditions as well as wildfires. As for the Texas property, the house is over 100 years old and issues are beginning to manifest major problems like leaking roof which mean potentially major repairs. When Divine Order was still alive, we would be doing the repairs ourselves or helping someone do them. Not anymore for me and so am thinking seriously about replacing the old house with some sort of smaller house on the same property. Like you have pointed out, land is a valuable commodity to own and seems to be foolish to get rid of the land.
At that point staying in one place could allow me to try to grow plants that I could give continual attention to. Of course, you have given lots of ideas of what would be the best for me!
Thanks for allowing me to just put some of my thoughts down on paper in a safe space without instant, Oh you should not do that or this is what you need to do. Have a good week and like was mentioned by you and others am starting to look into hedges against the paper dollar.
Like you I do feel I am rich in experiences other than material or monetary ones. Spending some time in nature today will be another way to get outside this system.
Have a good week!
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
All your world travels are something to treasure too!
Here's a trick we did for our leaking roof, something often ignored - spray foam.
https://westroofingsystems.com/ultimate-guide-to-spray-foam-roofing/
It has stood the test of time on the Astrodome and the Guggenheim Art Museum.
We are considering building a small house here too as a caretaker home. Looking down the road we realize we'll need help keeping our place going as we age (even more).
Your thinking about long term climate out west is spot on. Real Estate is currently at a premium, and it is a good time to sell.
Good luck with your pondering and plans. Wishing you all the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hola jb - there's a Costa Rican bird feeding platform video
posted - check recents and then kill the sidebar. Might bring back a few memories for ya.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Hi JB, know what you mean about making choices, especially
in future accommodations as i'm going through the same process, where and what and damn this seller's market if you are looking for a home.
Wish i was there to look at your roof, sometimes, fixes can be made that are not so expensive and a possibility of course is to build a new one and rent the old, but sure you have contemplated that. Been looking for a duplex in three geographical ares, the Shenandoah near my son, Here in the high country ad on the coast for 10 months and no luck so far.
So much to consider, want to be secluded, but with health as it is, that's not wise, for me; anything needing lots of work won't fit either and there is little on the market suitable for one person as i don't need much; lately been including condos in searches, but not thrilled by HOA's, etc: really want a new cute place with high ceilings and windows galore and expansive views and good decking with a small garden spot in the sun.
Appears, i'll have to wait out this market and supply-side covid inflation in building costs. Don't really wish to sink extra capital in a market 35% over-priced.
Could write on and on about the multiple other consideration which come to mind daily, but suffice to say again, i feel you and know you will find the best solution in time.
Great to see you and all the best in everything.
The Last Supper
Enjoy....
That is too good!
The last G7 painting is classic!
I found it laughable when I heard the G7 infrastructure plan to show up China's Belt Road initiative. Let's see how many high speed trains do we have in the US? How many new hospitals did we build in answer to the pandemic?
Capitalist nations are dysfunctional because all their efforts go to profit for a few and nothing is built but consultants rewarded. And the G7 global corportists are going to compete with China? Give me a break. It is laughable.
Thanks again for the artwork!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
IMHO
This is the Best Comment of the Day, Weeek, maybe the Year.
NYCVG
Thanks!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Morning farmer Lookout,
Hope your crops are singing to you and you are back doing gigs.
Matter of fact...
Got a gig in August 1st one since the pandemic. We did gather and play with friends a few weeks ago, and been getting together with my local buddies. So finding my way back.
Garden is doing well. Some things better than others as is the way of things.
So nice to "see" you this AM. My niece and her husband are looking for a place to buy, but as you suggest, the timing is bad. House sitting might be a temporary fix?
I don't know any of these companies but as an example:
https://www.housesittersamerica.com/
https://www.mindmyhouse.com/sitters/search_assignments
https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/house-and-pet-sitting-assignments/
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Who is the real enemy that is preventing help for the 99%
not China nor Manchin nor Biden
...are the root of our problem -
all are just symptoms of a sick system.
Why do we have the ass at China? 'cause they produce real and useful things while we produce weapons, death, and destruction. First we off shore manufacturing there and they learn/steal the technology and now are more advanced than us...and its China's fault?
Biden and Manchin are both just corporate tools...what can you say?
Thanks for the cartoon!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
All of the above
The Establishment Machine
Rich people and those who serve the rich
NYCVG
The 99 percent in China
...already have food security. Housing. Guaranteed employment.
Meanwhile, the Cares Act, the US multi-trillion giveaway to corporations and the super-rich for Covid relief has pushed up dollar inflation up all over the world. This is some of the inflation that impacts American consumers.
The rest comes from US trade tariffs, on China that add a 25 percent cost increase on supply-chain imports from China. China doesn't pay these tariffs, US importers do. Then, they raise the price that American consumers pay for a wide array of products and materials. The $60 billion or so in tariffs collected by customs disappears into the Treasury, where increased military costs are already draining a trillion dollar deficit each year. That $60 billion came from an extra hidden tax on US consumers.
Tariffs on China trade hurt only the American people. They certainly have no impact on China. In 2020, China's export machine was mending the coronavirus-fractured global supply chains — despite intermittent threats and hostile moves notably by the US and Australia. So, despite the tariffs and other adversities, China's exports in US dollars grew by 18.1 percent year-on-year to $281.93 billion in December 2020. For all of 2020, exports gained 3.6 percent to $2.59 trillion.
China became the only economy in the world to achieve positive commodity trade growth in 2020. 2021 looks even stronger.
Pulling all their people out of poverty has improved China's economy in unexpected ways. Modernizing tens of thousands of small family farms in places like Xinjiang, lifted China's small farmers out of poverty and enriched China's food diversity and food supply at the same time.
Great comment!
The anti-China propaganda is full throated these days. Sadly most people no longer think critically for themselves and buy the narrative without question.
Thanks for your balanced response!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning LO. Thanks for the WW, OT, and deep dive into
neofeudalism. Since food insecurity is a reality for huge numbers already, the future looks very much not so good barring some redistribution, but nothing sets off the bourgeoisie like land reform, and not just at home for wherever their home is, but land reform anywhere sets off every single one of them world wide. That alone tells us something very, very significant about their perpetual long game.
be well and have a good one
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 --
I have a feeling that evolution is going to catch up...
rather quickly, spoiling the oligarchs long term plans...at least that is my suspicion.
The canary is choking in the mine.
first the insects
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-nu...
then the birds
https://www.stateofthebirds.org/2019/steep-declines/
then....
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Now it is time to throw Bibi into a jail cell.
I am dancing with joy
and yes, I understand that the war/weapons US/Israel Machine surges on unchanged.
Benny Gantz was Bibi's War (Defense) Minister and Gantz remains in place.
ICYMI, Gantz was in DC this week solidifying Arms sales
NYCVG
Kinda like electing Biden
Puts a better face on the warmongers.
They will arrest Bibi just like we did Cheney/Bush/Obummer/etc.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Perfect credentials to be an ambassador in South America.
This also applies to Latin America.
She wants to Coup Operate
Thanks for the update!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Gah!
What a hideous resumé! A confirmed sociopath. She’s probably a big fan of Kissinger.
I guess that Biden didn't want to offend Manchin.
As long as India and china burn coal unrestricted
anything the West does is futile.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
China has put severe restrictions on new coal fired plants
The US has been responsible for almost double glabal CO2 emissions compared to China since 1750.
excellent comment
The US is throwing everything at the wall to discredit China in order to gin up a war. Thanks for you rational description of their accomplishments.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
So why won't they sign the accords?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Why doesn't the US sign on to the Paris accords?
Cause our politicians have been bought lock stock and barrel by the fuel companies.
It really is all moot. We are past the tipping point headed toward catastrophe regardless of our efforts at this point. I'm sad to say.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
China pledges carbon neutrality and peak CO2
President Xi Jinping surprised the world in September 2020, when he announced that China would aim to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. Climate scientists have called for countries to hit that goal by 2050, but it was still a significant step forward for China — the first time the country made any formal commitment to zeroing out its emissions.
,
Since the US pulled out of the Paris Accord, any pledges made by the US are not counted in the CAT estimate. The hope now is that the Big Three — China, the European Union, and the United States — pledge to mid-century net zero emissions. These three, together, account for roughly half of the world's CO2 emissions. Throttling those emissions could bring the 1.5C temperature limit within reach.
Fast forward six months to April 16, 2021
Just ahead of the Leaders' Climate Summit on Earth Day — convened by the United States — Chinese President Xi Jinping, held a virtual meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, where he reaffirmed that China would achieve a peak in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030. If China could reach that goal even sooner, it would have a great effect on limiting the temperature rise in the long term.
.
A few days later, at the April 22 Earth Day Summit, President Biden re-asserted US leadership in climate change, and pledged the US to a 2030 target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared to 2005 levels – which is more than twice as ambitious as Obama’s target of 28% in 2014. Other nations might rightfully ponder whether the US pledge will be honored when 'exceptional' Americans elect the next Republican President.
Meanwhile, China's newly unveiled 14th Five-Year Plan indicated that China's energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 13.5 percent and 18 percent, respectively, between 2021 and 2025. China also aims to increase the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption to around 20 percent.
The European Union has already pledged to reduce its net emissions of all greenhouse gases to zero by 2050, and plans to set a more ambitious 2030 climate target by the end of the year.
During his the 2020 Presidential elections, Joe Biden said he will commit the country to net zero emissions by 2050, if he wins the presidential election in November. This key pledge was not mentioned at the Summit.
Another major cause of global warming is methane
The only thing green...
...about Biden is his cash. His history makes it plain that all his "green" talk is just that.
Anybody want to see how the tipping points are amplifying one another might enjoy this discussion...hot house Earth
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgEYfZDK1Qk&t=22s]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
So...decades of activism, for NOTHING?
You may have gotten to have a life, but I never did; I could have worked to advance myself doing things I ENJOYED; instead I chose (or rather, was FORCED to choose by the crippling OCD that has defined my life since I was 5) selfless, relentless, near-monomaniacal pursuit of fighting the Religious Right, Big Business, the MIC, and now, the supreme salt in the wound, counterfeit liberals. I've spent the entirety of my life since turning 18 obsessively focused on saving the world from this fate...now I have nothing. All this time trying to help the needy has reduced me to one of them, all while Idiocracy has methodically ruined everything I ever valued: My home, my hobbies, my ambitions, my vision for what the future could be, EVEN MY IMAGINATION AND SENSE OF HUMOR, which was all I ever really had in the world.
WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!?
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
What about joining a non-profit working for the poor?
Some provide housing and a small stipend.
Let me know where you're located and I'll try to find some options.
It is never a waste helping those less fortunate. Don't undervalue your accomplishments.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You don't understand
That's not what I want to do with my life; never was. I don't enjoy any of this, and I wouldn't find that the least bit fulfilling; I'm not cut out for it. It's a criminal waste of my real talents. For me, this is all a compulsion, a pathology with deep, deep roots I am still trying to disentangle and determine. My life story thus far reads too much like A Christmas Carol in reverse; a tragedy that vindicates the likes of Ayn Rand and Anton LaVey.
I'm all in favor of some taking the Mahayana approach, but the world needs its Theravadans, too - and I think it is a dearth of the latter, rather than the former, that has brought us to this point; when the cats are away, the mice will play.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Liberal moonbat,
The odds are that you have been amazing in how you have helped people along the way, throughout your life.
No need to stop now.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981