weekly watch

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 8:03am

Big Fat Lies

Today I want to feature three one hour long movies to watch during the week. The first, Cereal Killers, is about a young Irishman going to South Africa to work with Dr. Tim Noakes on a low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet for a month. The film follows what he eats, and his results. The next movie is Cereal Killers 2. It looks at endurance athletes improving performance on a LCHF, and features a couple rowing from California to Hawaii. The last film is The Big Fat Fix which focuses on Dr Aseem Malhotra's health journey in Italy. My idea is to provide food for thought... as Aseem suggests, the foods we eat are killing us. We'll also look at some other big fat lies in addition to diet misinformation.

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/17/2019 - 8:07am

Reformation, Reclamation, and Restoration

The three R's that need to be taught

We sit at the intersection of multiple related crises. Climate chaos, environmental degradation, economic instability, social disintegration, political corruption, public protests, declining health and lifespan and more. Can we find opportunity in the midst of this changing landscape? Is it darkest before the dawn or is it the middle of a long night? Perhaps this chaos does provide an opportunity to reform, reclaim, and restore our natural and social systems. People seem ready for something to change, but the oligarchs are playing every trick in the book to maintain the status quo. These questions came to me after I listened to Jimmy and Dylan Ratigan ...watch about 8-10 minutes to hear the debate about crisis versus opportunity. For some reason the time code isn't embedding but a click (or copy and paste) should take you to the cued portion at 1 hour 28 min and 40 sec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Dc2ZfpKmo&t=1h28m40s

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/10/2019 - 8:21am

Escaping Capitalism?

Human survival requires escaping capitalism according the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report … “The world’s top scientists just gave rigorous backing to systematically dismantle capitalism as a key requirement to maintaining civilization and a habitable planet.” Capitalism has never factored in the environmental costs of our activities. It has one goal - profit. It is past time for a broader look at priorities. Not only do we need to stop the degradation of our ecosystems, but we must begin the long term task of restoration. We have much to do, and that's one reason I support Bernie's guaranteed jobs program over Yang's UBI. Today I want to touch on the role agriculture can play in reversing our climate catastrophe, and touch on the insanity of a capitalist health care (or better stated -disease and perscription) system. We'll also take a stroll through some of this weeks news cycle.

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/03/2019 - 7:46am

Going Undercover and other Cover-ups

As we turn the corner (Halloween is the midway point of fall) it is time to think of covering your fall crops during freezes and heavy frosts. We'll look at some different approaches to protecting garden crops. Depending on the severity of the winter we often over winter lettuce and other leafy greens. Today we'll also look at some of the stories that are covered up and ignored. I loved Noam's explanation of COINTELLPRO to a smug BBC reporter several years ago...I've got it cued up and it last about 3 min (but the entire 30 min clip is great if you've not seen it)

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 10/27/2019 - 7:53am

Systemic Corporate Cons

I've been thinking this week about the spectrum of corporate deceit, propaganda, and misinformation. Among my pondering includes the poor reasoning for war and coups...profits for arms manufacturers and fossil fuel. Name one of our dirty little wars that benefited people. The denial of our climate disaster and business as usual promotion of fossil fuels. The wholesale devastation of ecosystems like tropical forests and the polar regions. The lousy state of our health and health care system promoted by big ag, big pharma, and some doctors. I understand much of the manipulation is a function of corporate media spewing misinformation, but it is much wider in scope. Research in all domains is largely funded by corporations. I spent time in the publish or perish world of hustling research monies and climbing the academic ladder....something I'm glad I escaped. Universities like politicians are purchased by the oligarchs. There is some push back, but we have a systemic problem across the spectrum.
Remember this example? The seven CEOs steadfastly refused to budge under stringent questioning that they knew cigarettes were addictive. Each stated under oath that they did not believe nicotine was addictive. (1.5 min)

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 8:19am

Fertile Soils and Fertile Minds

The YouTube algorithm has delivered some interesting comments/statements by teachers on my feed. I want to share a few of those. I'm so glad my teaching career was in a smaller rural school with quite a different environment. At any rate those interviews make it obvious why we don't have a thinking, civil population. My original notion for today's column was to focus on soil fertility. This is really the time of year to address that, so when its time for spring planting the soil is already prepared. Then I started putting these two concepts together in my mind...we can use agricultural practices to make soil fertile and we can use educational techniques to create healthy fertile minds capable of independent thought. Both touch the future in profound ways.

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 10/13/2019 - 7:40am

Variety, Varmints, and Victims

It's been a week of protest around the world. Do any of you remember such a global protest movement? Thousands of people have been arrested world wide.
I've been struggling with a groundhog all week. The varmint mowed down my broccoli in one night. Its groundhog day all over again.
We're losing diversity and variety of our food plants. This week we'll examine some attempts to maintain and grow many types food producing plants.
This first clip is dedicated to 'The Voice In the Wilderness' our resident tree grafter (11 min)

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 10/06/2019 - 7:41am

Whistling with a Mouthful of Crackers

How ironic to talk of whistleblowers and never mention Chelsea, nor Julian, nor Ed Snowden who are all being persecuted by the very people hollering about protecting whistleblowers. Not to mention it was a CIA agent within the white house spying on Trumpilini....and he worked his way through channels? Let's see how did that work out for John Kiriakou or Tom Drake or Jeffrey Sterling? They all served time. Like Russiagate, Ukrainegate looks like a CIA propaganda tool. Now instead of discussing real issues we'll be observing the circus of clowns dancing around and around and getting nowhere. Meanwhile there are real things happening like:

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 7:57am

Gut Feelings

There really is something to a gut feeling. Seems our gut biome influences not only our brain but also the expression of our DNA. Before we get into the biology, let's use our gut feelings to examine and speculate about our politics, economy, and militarism. Then we'll listen to some doctors views on how we can improve our microbiome. Whether that improves our thinking or not I'll leave up to you.

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 09/22/2019 - 7:56am

Summer's Striking End

Let's see...drone strikes, climate strikes, and autoworkers strike...three strikes and summer is out! But is the game lost? Well it ain't over till it's over. Tomorrow morning at 2:50 AM Central, the sun will shine directly on the equator and summer will be over and fall will begin. The weather here seems anything but fall like. It's been hot and dry for weeks now. We are watering the fall veggies. Tomorrow they are attempting to shut down DC, and next Friday another massive global climate strike. Millions participated in the global climate strike last Friday. The UAW strike is the largest US strike in over a decade. Do these actions give you hope?

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