I just don't get it. How could any amount of money be more valuable than the life of your child or grandchild? Has the extinction of our species and destruction of our biosphere got a dollar value? Is the audacity of the powerful so extreme, they think they will be exempt from ecosystem collapse? I'm serious folks, I just don't understand. I can't imagine a rationale for releasing more methane and the promotion of pipelines and fossil fuels, allowing the rape of Alaska's temperate rainforests and the tropical forests (all over the planet)... as ice caps melt, the arctic and tropics burn, and species are disappearing faster than we can count them. It is truly madness. We have reached a cascade of tipping points... as the oligarchs accelerate the actions that got us here. They already have more money than God/dess, so what could be their real purpose? Is it simply the intoxication of power that drives them destroy the only habitable system we have? I'll say again, it is insanity.

Fall for Gardens

Many people think gardening season is winding down, and it is true the summer crops are playing out. However, fall is a great gardening season in my corner of the world. It is the best time for some of the healthiest garden produce...leafy greens. Those of you in more northern locations can still put in young plants. Most garden centers offer plants or sets. So, it is still hot and dry here and it makes it difficult to think about cool fall season crops, but it is time...past time. After we get the fall garden going today we'll take a glance around the world to see what's happening...

Hope or Despair?

There are several approaches to address our ecological disaster, but the rub is in the adoption of these practices. This week we'll look at ways in which we can green the planet and absorb more carbon. I don't know how we get TPTB (the powers that be) to stop and limit emissions and extraction. Perhaps the Climate Strike on September 20 will have some impact here? I continue to use gas...in my tractor, car, weed eater and chain saw...but I'm trying to minimize...biking into town, walking when possible, buying less and growing more. However, there are large scale ecosystem level ways to restore environments. Many are counter intuitive. Others more obvious.

What You Say?

I heard several interesting interviews over the last couple of weeks and thought I would feature a few of them for your listening pleasure in today's column. There will also be plenty of articles to read as well. As a homesteader, I lead an active life, so I use a couple of tricks to listen to these sorts of conversations. If I'm working around the house I put them on the stereo that includes outside (on the porch) speakers. That way I can do my chores and be informed at the same time. My other trick is to use an audio conversion program (like https://online-audio-converter.com/ ) to create a MP3 file which I put on my little player (most people use their smart phone, but I don't have one). Then I can listen while I mow or travel (my truck radio has an auxiliary plug). So like most of you I love to learn from people, but we need to be active to stay healthy. I try to do both.

Failed Systems

When people tell me they plan to visit Alabama, I suggest they remember to set their watch back fifty years. Seems the rest of the country has devolved with us, and the US is in a repressive Alabama state of mind. It isn't just the social fabric that is unraveling, but also (perhaps as a result) the ecosystem, capitalism, demockracy, and civility. This week let's look at the degradation of the system, and discuss strategies of dealing with the situation in order to create and retain meaningful, fulfilling lives.

The Color is Green

Coretta Scott King is credited with the comment, "The color isn't white or black, the color is green" (meaning money). Last week we looked at food and discussed using leafy greens as the base of the diet. This week let's look at small and large greens producers. I can imagine small farmers in every region growing food for their community. This is a way to ensure everyone has access to fresh greens. I also want to look at the nature of money (the other green) and how we might transition toward socialism with worker coops.

The Politics of Diet and Health

You are what you eat, digest, and absorb. Our bodies are an ecosystem...a condominium of critters on our skin and through our digestive tracts. We are like a doughnut covered with little denizens. What we eat determines what critters live within us. This is one of the reasons our health outcomes are so bad. We've been told to eat the wrong things. We grow those foods in the wrong way. Big ag, the medical industry and big Pharma all profit off our ill health. However, you can change that by improving your diet, modifying when you eat, and perhaps adding vitamin and mineral supplements. People are using diet to cure Type 2 diabetes, heart issues, and various inflammation diseases from arthritis to crones. You can use diet to radically reduce your likelihood of cancer, heart attacks, Alzheimer's, and strokes.

Seeing the Trees and the Forest

Corporate media are expert at focusing attention on individual trees or items of their choice and ignoring the forests. Climate chaos is a good example. Lots of weather reports, but no focus on the real existential crisis because the fossil fuel corporations and the MIC is in bed with and funds the MSM. All the wars are another excellent example of the nature of the media's effective propaganda. How is it Americans can consider Assad and Maduro so bad, but not the Saudis who beheaded 37 dissidents in April with nary a whisper on US news. The idea that Iran is the world's biggest terrorist ignores the global role of the US. America is the primary terrorist nation provoking war and violence. Or what about the weekly murder of Palestinians protesting their open air prison? Israelis shot a child in the head last week. Another effective media technique is to ignore positive beneficial moves like Medicare for all as benefiting everyone. Rather their focus is "you will lose your private coverage and your taxes will go up!" We are being scammed by these corporate tools driving us ever closer to extinction for more profit. It is a sickness, and I don't see a way out.

I've Got the Blues

Blueberries that is. They need picking every morning these days. Blueberries are such a good crop. Our bushes are thirty years old and still bear strong. They are largely disease resistant. The deer don't browse them, although birds will eat the berries. I've seen young turkey chicks fly into the bushes and chow down. This year there's a Thrasher nesting in one of the bushes. She hollers at us every morning as we pick. Today I also want to look at various approaches to avoiding the blues and living your dream. Of course we'll also hit this weeks headline stories. Last Sunday I was MIA because my modem was fried and I had to order a new one to connect again. A week without internet was unusual, but may have caused me to be more productive in other ways.

Insanity to the nth Degree

Summer arrived this week bringing more heat with both the weather and arrogant American aggression. We refuse to learn, and so march ever quicker toward our own extinction. In part, I refer to global heating and the US refusal to even admit it is a problem...as we continue to market "Freedom" gas and crisscross our nation with poisonous pipelines. Even worse, we promote coups and war in Central and South America, the middle East, the Ukraine, and all around the world. All promoted by the corporate greed of fossil fuel, finance, arms manufacture, and all our covert mafia like secret agencies. The facade of democracy peeled away long ago. We are trapped in a corporate oligarchy...victims of a run away profit motive which over rides all sensible approaches toward a peaceful, productive planet which treats people with respect, equality, and justice.