Heading South to Costa Rica

It is our first trip to this central American country. The fact that they disbanded their military and created a network of parks is part of the appeal...along with their rich biological diversity. Costa Rica alone has 75% of the Central American Biodiversity. In 1970 the Costa Rican people wanted their beautiful country to be protected so future generations could share its natural flora and fauna. That year Costa Rica founded the Costa Rica national parks system that is admired around the world. Costa Rica has maintained a higher proportion of its land mass for national parks. Much more than any other country in the world- with 10.27 % protected as national parks by Costa Rican law. An additional 17 % set aside for reserves, wildlife refuges and protected zones. Almost one third of their country is protected. The Costa Rican government also protects areas of historic and archaeological interest. Pre-Columbian settlement areas and early battlefields are protected with the same fervor as the rainforests and wildlife preserves. Protecting the natural resources of Costa Rica has far-reaching implications because of its amazing biodiversity. https://www.costarica.org/national-parks/

Truth-tellers and Liars

What an upside down world. Journalists are jailed for telling us the truth about our governments, and liars are paid big bucks to read propaganda off their teleprompters. Chelsea, Julian, and now Glenn all punished for revealing the crimes committed by those in power.

MLK and the FBI

The mafia branches of the US government target people who threaten their power. The FBI began its persecution of Dr. King back in the fifties when he was involved with the Montgomery bus boycott. Hoover wanted to silence him calling MLK "the most notorious liar in the country."

Hoover, who headed the FBI for decades, obsessively despised King on a deeply personal level. He kept files on the civil rights leader in which he'd scribble hateful comments on memos he received about King, apparently for no purpose other than his own gratification and catharsis. On a memo about King receiving the St. Francis peace medal from the Catholic Church, he wrote "This is disgusting." On the news of King's meeting with the pope, he scribbled, "I am amazed that the Pope gave an audience to such a degenerate."

https://www.opednews.com/articles/MLK-and-the-FBI-by-Caitlin-Johnstone-A...
Not only did the FBI encourage him to commit suicide, but were also probably behind his assassination. Let's investigate the sordid story this week. (51 min)

The Insanity of Instigating War

What a week, sitting on the brink of WWIII. It is insane to attempt to be THE World Superpower. Stability comes from balance of power, but instead we want to be the sole world power. Adding to the insanity is this quest to dominate oil production (and consumption)...the very substance driving the extinction of lifeforms and the devastation of the climate. The situation in Australia should make this obvious to everyone. Winter is here though our temperatures are mild this year (not that I'm complaining mind you). Then we have the kabuki theater of the presidential election. The polls are not believable, and I'm not sure our votes are either. None the less the primary election is upon us. What sort of damage would Trump (Israel, Saudi Arabia, Et al.) cause in another four years? Not a pleasant thought. All is not doom and gloom. There are good people and beautiful places all around the world.

Choosing Survival?

How do we survive all the intersecting crises? There are strategies. A good starting point might be to stop creating wars and coups around the world, and follow up with the cessation of fossil fuel ASAP. We could perhaps manage to save our species, but it will take serious action. Can we overcome the powers who strive to maintain the status quo, and move forward toward sustainability, peace, and true prosperity? Will we even try? I don't know, but I do understand that there are ways to minimize our many impacts and increase the likelihood of human survival. Today let's look at promising practices and ways to create a stable future.

Will 2020 Bring Better Vision?

Here we go into the second decade of the third millennium (that is if you start counting time when they say we should). If I could define a clear yearly vision it would start with an end to the wars and coups the US perpetrates to enhance global corporate/capital power. Then with both the monies saved and return of our veterans, we rebuild and create a new paradigm. Imagine locally produced power, food, transportation, parks, ecosystem restoration, and water capture and purification. Imagine the end of the fracking industry, which has never been profitable except as a con. Use the last of current fossil fuel production to create a fossil fuel free world and then end it...no new wells nor coal mines. I can continue by dreaming of a new food production system not focused on grains and soy which are driving so much of our ill health, but focused on neighborhood market producers, and humane animal production using regenerative farming. Eating well (which would require an examination of current (mis)guidelines plus a re-education program) would reduce the chronic disease epidemic. We need universal health care for all, but first we need accurate health advice. The big problem of the future is said to be the loss of jobs to AI, but we will always need teachers, park rangers, librarians, ecologists, climatologists, hydrologists, solar specialists, electric car mechanics, restoration ecologists, farmers, herders, ranchers, welders, carpenters, plumbers, and on and on. There's plenty of work for all but we haven't developed a system of value for our ecosystem nor one another. It is time. It is past time.

The Longest Night

We are tied to the natural world in ways which we are unaware. Time is an odd concept constantly in flux....sunrise to sunset. As it passes the wheel of the year rolls ever faster...wearing ever smaller and gathering speed as it goes downhill. Perhaps it is our pagan past, but somehow this seems a time of year for reflection...like the god Janus looking forward and backward in time. For now the darkness passes and the light will grow. It is a time to celebrate across religions, cultures, and countries.

The Meat of the Matter

This week we'll try to take a substantive look at some of the week's news as well as discuss the health of meat production and consumption. Vegans and vegetarians will not be disparaged nor criticized, however I think meat consumption and production has been vilified by those who do not understand ecological farming nor health. I heard one scientist suggest that we did not evolve to eat meat, we evolved because we ate meat. We all have (or had) canine teeth. E. O. Wilson suggests our brains evolved when we learned to cooperate and we became truly social creatures which he calls eusocial (“eu-” meaning true). In our early development we were either running after something or running from something. Both activities benefited from some level of cooperation.

Creating the Corporate Coup

Chris Hedges often says "The corporate coup is complete". Sadly I think he is correct. So this week I thought it might be interesting to explore the techniques which are used here at home and abroad. The oligarchs' corporate control is global, but different strategies are employed in various scenarios. Just thinking about the recent regime changes promoted by the US in this hemisphere... Brazil's coup was a function of corrupt courts. The more recent Honduran coup was accomplished by falsifying the election. Bolivia's coup last month (as well as the Honduran coup of 2009) was the product of US trained military officers. The current attempts at the Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Cuban, and Iranian coups are primarily conducted using economic sanctions. The US doesn't even lie about past coups. They recently released a report about the 1953 CIA led coup against Iran detailing the strategies. Here at home it is a compliant media and a new array of corporate laws designed to protect and further enrich that spell the corporate capture of our culture and society.

Leftover Potluck

Another holiday come and gone. I hope yours was rewarding. Visiting with family can be a two edged sword - sometimes stressful and combative, other times pleasant and fulfilling. We see one another rarely these days so it tends to be pleasant. My Mom is 88, so I'm glad to spend some time with her while I can. Both my sisters were there this year, one having returned from a tour of teaching in China. They are close to the same age and they have had issues in the past, but all was well this year. This week I thought I would pull together several sources I've collected but not posted and serve a smorgasbord of ideas from food to politics to the economy. Let's begin by getting back to the garden...