weekly watch

The Weekly Watch

Documentary Day

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documentary: a presentation expressing or dealing with factual events

Documentary Film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. Knowledge comes in different ways through our five senses. Hearing, watching, touching, smelling and tasting are the only doorways to the outer world. The wise men say that if something is not truly experienced with all our five senses, the experience will be partial, not total. Therefore in a way almost all our gained knowledge through life is partial.

So all the films below the fold offer a partial look at: first our problems, and then some possible solutions. Hope you find one or more of interest and value.

The Weekly Watch

Cooking and Eating Edition

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The summer and fall crops are harvested and with the holidays looming we've been planning meals. We ate the first of this years sweet potatoes this week. We have some butternut squash waiting to become soup. A turkey and a variety of local meats from the mountain are stored in the freezer. Fresh lettuce and parsley in the garden, with cabbage, broccoli, and greens coming on strong. This is a good time of year to celebrate the Earth's bounty.

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The Weekly Watch

The US Doesn't Honor the Armistice nor Peace

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No America Just Heaps Arrogant Aggression Toward Any Country That Isn't Its Corporate Tool.

This week alone, when we were supposed to celebrate the end of the war to end all wars, the US instead threatens China, and Russia, and intends to nullify Nicaragua's election. As someone here recently wrote, Nicaragua appears to be Venezuela 2.0. The US claims Ortega arrested his challengers. Funny how that was quite acceptable when Lula was imprisoned while running against CIA favorite Bolsonaro in Brazil. The arrogance and absurdity of declaring our puppets as presidents of other countries is amazing. But perhaps more amazing is the way our colonial powers agree. Over twenty countries recognized Guido as Venezuela's president because the US told them to do so. The US stole (and is stealing) all of Venezuela's profits from their US based company Citgo, and the UK stole their gold holdings banked in London...because we don't recognize their election results despite Jimmy Carter declaring them some of the fairest elections in the world.

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The Weekly Watch

The Climate Cop Out

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COP26 has been engineered from the start to be an ineffective theatrical production of hollow promises and empty resolutions. First off if climate was the issue why isn't the meeting digital and inclusive? The global South has largely been prevented from attending because of vaccination requirements. No, COP26 is more like the Davos gathering with private jets, motorcades, and the elite telling the people what they must do. Why won't they even try? Because they can't allow capitalism to be impacted, and to prevent massive extinction requires a new economic system that values natural systems and various lifeforms. The purpose of the COP is really to protect capitalist profits of the elite and their corporations.

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The Weekly Watch

You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone

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Appreciating things like our natural systems, friends, family, and perhaps most important, our health isn't a talent I (we?) often exercise. I had an episode last weekend where I damaged a leg muscle, I think by lifting a log, but I also climbed on two different roofs the same day. I normally have such good health, that I fail to count my lucky stars. This week has been a different experience. I woke last Sunday with a painful leg and back and it hurt to walk. I'm on the mend and everyday I have become more mobile and agile, but it put me on this train of thought that we need to practice more gratitude for all our gifts and good fortune...big and small. So today let's appreciate our situation and look for some good.

The Weekly Watch

A Bull in a China Shop:

a person who breaks things or who often makes mistakes or causes damage in situations that require careful thinking or behavior

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Creating a China Conflict

Is it WMD deja vu all over again? There is a steady drum beat trying to create a major conflict with China. Some how it is China which is the aggressor, but it is western powers sailing war fleets up and down China's coast. Today we'll hear a number of voices describe this foolish rush to war instead of working cooperatively toward the survival of the species.

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The Weekly Watch

The Fiasco of Finacialization

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Financialization is a term used to describe the development of financial capitalism during the period from 1980 to present, in which debt-to-equity ratios increased and financial services accounted for an increasing share of national income relative to other sectors.

In other words, we quit making things except currency (and weapons to enforce global USD use). We sent our industrial economy to China and the third world, hollowing out labor and the middle class in the process. Profits became god, people pawns...and the rich became obscenely rich and completed the purchase of the government lock, stock, and barrel.

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The Weekly Watch

Surf, Sand, Sun, and Fun...

Loving Our Beaches...to Death
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We went to the beach this past work week...to Grayton Beach State Park in Florida. We hadn't been there since our college days when we would pile a bunch of us in a cabin, cut up and carry on as young folks do. Every coast holds its own beauty and attributes, but the gulf coast along the panhandle, the red neck riviera, is one of the prettiest we've experienced. A few years ago we visited the Alabama and Mississippi coast, which I wrote about back at issue 65 of the WW... it has some pretty good photos which were fun to review. I noticed this week's edition is the 250th, so it was time for another beach vacation. We scored on weather, and it was a great trip. Come along on a photo journey this Sunday.

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The Weekly Watch

Fit for Survival?

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As individuals and as a species we don't seem fit. Perhaps we've arrived at our evolutionary dead end, but who knows, our species is very adaptable. Now as individuals, we all know we'll reach an end point. To my mind, the question is with what quality of life. My partner often asks, "Why are we so lucky?". There has been some luck and tricks of fate, but some of our quality of life is due to planning...doing without so that now we have enough to be comfortable. We also had the foresight to buy property when it was fairly inexpensive. Taking care of our health has paid dividends... we have no big medical issues. Others in the US are not so fortunate. The health of so many is poor and is one reason US COVID outcomes have been the world's worse. Now, we can go forward making better choices as individuals. I wish we could do the same for the society, but so many road blocks impede real progress. So are we fit to survive? Will we evolve?

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