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weekly watch

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 12/15/2019 - 8:16am

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.

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 12/08/2019 - 7:39am

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.

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The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 12/01/2019 - 8:08am

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...

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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)

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