Coup, Coup, Cachoo

The world is engulfed with U.S. led coups. There's Venezuela, Iran, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Cuba, and too many other African and Asian nations to list. In a comment this week Joe suggested there may not be more ongoing coups today than in the past, but they've never been so blatant and obvious. There's also an on going coup against truth tellers. To paraphrase Julian, "Since lies bring us wars, perhaps truth can bring peace." Concurrently, we have a corporate coup against the ecosystem. May 5, Cinco de Mayo, is a celebration of a coup when the Mexican Army defeated the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862 (at least temporarily). However, Mexico celebrates independence day on September 16, commemorating the Cry of Dolores, which initiated the war of Mexican independence from Spain. Stretching the theme this week, let's also look at coops and chicken coops.

Rep. Ilhan Omar is in trouble again for telling the truth.

Just as in interventions past, those who oppose war are labeled supporters of dictators and haters of “freedom.”

We saw this playbook in Iraq.

Juan Guaido's U.S.-backed coup failed pitifully yesterday.

From Venezuelanalysis:

Caracas, April 30, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) - A military coup attempt is underway in Venezuela on Tuesday, April 30, with imprisoned right wing leader Leopoldo Lopez, and self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido and some members of the armed forces blocking a highway in Caracas and calling on the military to rise up

To Be(d) or Not to Be(d)

Garden beds, bedfellows, and bedlam are today's topics. We've been planting this week. We use garden beds. There's no right or wrong we just find it makes the garden easier to manage and maintain. As I thought about beds I wandered into thinking about who are the US bedfellows compared to those we call our enemy. To paraphrase Pogo, "We have met the evil empire and it is U.S.". We do spread bedlam far and wide.

I like to read Bloomberg. It offers such interesting opinions for why we can't possibly tax the rich or regulate corporations, while lamenting the mysterious and unsolvable tragedy of wealth inequality.
However, Bloomberg also publishes enlightening articles such as this one.

Growth

The world around me is greening. Trees are budding, blooming, and leafing. Last year's sugars stored in the roots return to the growing tips and are converted into green leaves - solar powered carbon fixers. Creating sugar from air and water is the nature of plant growth. The sugars are used to build more plant tissue as they reach for the sun. I guess we have to strive toward a goal ourselves to experience growth - the human equivalent of reaching for the sun. We could use more of the sensibility and sustainability of cyclic plant growth, relying on the sun and water for our power and energy. Perhaps we could grow to be a sane and functional society focused on the needs of people and the natural system rather than the cancerous growth of profit hungry war mongers in the US and around the world.

Daniel Larison's writing on Venezuela may have been discussed here previously and I may have missed the discussion, but I just want to point to the humane nature of conservative communities we can relate to.

From our friends at The American Conservative:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/our-venezuela-policy-tos...

Fixating on Nitrogen and Spreading Manure

Nitrogen is the most common substance in the atmosphere, existing mostly as two atoms held together by a triple bond. Nitrogen enters the system through the activity of various bacteria (some associated with plants but others free living). Nitrogen in natural systems also falls with rain... lightening will fuse nitrogen and oxygen together in several water soluble configurations (also fusing oxygen to itself forming ozone, O3). Ever noticed how green things look after a thunderstorm? In part because there was a dose of N added.

In this past week, Tulsi has been spending a lot of time in Washington DC and she has some appearances in mainstream media coming up.