It’s their nature to ignore the reality that humans are complex, and can’t be distilled to “their true essence” by cherry-picking sound bites, or single sentence recommendations in a published article on a different topic. Humans, in comparison, display a range of behaviors, and can and do change their minds (and their behaviors), sometimes frequently.
Unlike humans, they instead declare their favorites (and pillory their enemies), and they frequently change their targets based on who can be easily manipulated. The goal isn’t to find commonalities, consider new alternatives, and build connections and community. Rather the goal is to muffle (or completely obliterate) dissenting views, alternative perspectives, encourage division, and therefore control the conversation and successfully impose their own less-than encompassing rules of discourse.
They maintain this control by insisting that only their rules are allowed, or that only their approach is the correct one, or only their sources and methods are acceptable, their mouthpieces are authority, and only their point of view is suitable or applicable.
The overall goal, stated or not, acknowledged or not, is to sow dissension, and ensure that only their voice (with its limited perspective, it’s exclusionary nature, and it’s rigid rules and regulations), and the other chosen few “acceptable” voices, based on acceptable perspectives, from acceptable sources, will be heard (or more accurately, allowed).
They work very hard to shut down more expansive perspectives, attack or malign innovative ideas, especially the humanist perspective that understands individual humans can never be distilled down to a single set of qualities that demands a binary classification of only good or only bad, without nuance, forever and ever, amen. They fail to understand that humans can and do struggle with changing meaning of specific words, can wake up to reality and change their behaviors, can contribute positively, can fail early and often, learn from it, and maybe go on to develop new innovative ideas (instead of fleeting ones). They don’t understand this because they themselves cannot do any of this.
This is why they work actively to suppress alternatives to the status quo, or even different approaches to problem solving. Alternatives are considered to be threats, because they don’t really want to solve the problems, they just want to complain about the “unfairness” of it all, they want to ensure that everyone and everything has been tagged as “good” or “bad” (they of course are the good guys, the heroes, the ones-who-have-the-correct-answers), again due to the same limited perspective and a lack of understanding (or acceptance) of the complex nature of all things. They mostly want to ensure separation between the heroes (themselves) and the unworthies (everyone else).
In other words, by seeking to control discourse, they must reject (and argue vehemently against) the true nature of all things, ignoring or invalidating their own true nature in the process (if they even have one).
I am, of course, describing the oligarchs aka the elites.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
It’s their nature to ignore the reality that humans are complex, and can’t be distilled to “their true essence” by cherry-picking sound bites, or single sentence recommendations in a published article on a different topic. Humans, in comparison, display a range of behaviors, and can and do change their minds (and their behaviors), sometimes frequently.
Unlike humans, they instead declare their favorites (and pillory their enemies), and they frequently change their targets based on who can be easily manipulated. The goal isn’t to find commonalities, consider new alternatives, and build connections and community. Rather the goal is to muffle (or completely obliterate) dissenting views, alternative perspectives, encourage division, and therefore control the conversation and successfully impose their own less-than encompassing rules of discourse.
They maintain this control by insisting that only their rules are allowed, or that only their approach is the correct one, or only their sources and methods are acceptable, their mouthpieces are authority, and only their point of view is suitable or applicable.
The overall goal, stated or not, acknowledged or not, is to sow dissension, and ensure that only their voice (with its limited perspective, it’s exclusionary nature, and it’s rigid rules and regulations), and the other chosen few “acceptable” voices, based on acceptable perspectives, from acceptable sources, will be heard (or more accurately, allowed).
They work very hard to shut down more expansive perspectives, attack or malign innovative ideas, especially the humanist perspective that understands individual humans can never be distilled down to a single set of qualities that demands a binary classification of only good or only bad, without nuance, forever and ever, amen. They fail to understand that humans can and do struggle with changing meaning of specific words, can wake up to reality and change their behaviors, can contribute positively, can fail early and often, learn from it, and maybe go on to develop new innovative ideas (instead of fleeting ones). They don’t understand this because they themselves cannot do any of this.
This is why they work actively to suppress alternatives to the status quo, or even different approaches to problem solving. Alternatives are considered to be threats, because they don’t really want to solve the problems, they just want to complain about the “unfairness” of it all, they want to ensure that everyone and everything has been tagged as “good” or “bad” (they of course are the good guys, the heroes, the ones-who-have-the-correct-answers), again due to the same limited perspective and a lack of understanding (or acceptance) of the complex nature of all things. They mostly want to ensure separation between the heroes (themselves) and the unworthies (everyone else).
In other words, by seeking to control discourse, they must reject (and argue vehemently against) the true nature of all things, ignoring or invalidating their own true nature in the process (if they even have one).
I am, of course, describing the oligarchs aka the elites.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
I used to imagine (rationalize) that everybody is just trying to do their best with whatever they’ve got and if they do evil things, it’s probably because of some educational or experiential glitch. And so we try to teach them so they can learn to do better next time.
I later figured out that this was projection.
Some people know damned well what they’re doing. They just don’t care. The trick for them is come across as regular guys, or honest leaders, or actual experts, or caring ideological whateverthfucks, so they can camouflage themselves and their true intentions, and after causing their damage, to maintain plausible deniability despite the obvious evidence.
The hard part for me is that I seem to have to relearn this lesson over and over again, especially if some time has passed since the last time I had to learn that lesson. One’s basic nature can be a tough thing to keep disciplined.
I assume that this is the way of things for almost everybody else, in whatever way it floats their own particular boat. And so here we all are.
As I mentioned in the comments section for the Saudi Arabia Iran peace deal, the German government is now prosecuting people for telling the truth about the NATO Ukraine war against Russia. Democracy is now stone cold dead in Germany, if not Europe.
This gross attempt to shepherd the European Population in one direction leads me to believe that US has decided that now is the time to bring Russian and China to heel. We are figuratively speaking now fighting the war of Armageddon if not the battle of Armageddon. I can not see how a good faith peace deal could ever be reached between the two sides. Maybe there could be something called a peace deal. But in reality it will only be a temporary truce.
I guess winning will be defined as which national leaders are still alive and free after those of the other side have either been killed or imprisoned. This war could continue until the one world global industrial system collapses due to environmental changes and resource depletion. Or, one side or the other, most likely the US side IMHO,
destroys the capability of the other to resist its dictates.
Which ever side technically gets to call itself the winner because they can declare themselves the winners in the NY Times and on BBC and on ARD will be in charge of a dead planet, even if there is no nuclear war. How many more El Nino cycles can the world go through before industrial agriculture no longer functions?
We may have as many as 20 years left before the world’s agricultural system collapses.
We may have only 2 years left. What do you the readers here think that we should do in the mean time?
I do not know about the British or the Canadians, or other native English speaking inhabitants of the old British Empire. But real Americans do not surrender just because they get their ass kicked over and over again. Even the fake confederate Americans that pass for Americans now days do not give up just because they have been defeated. That is how the south rose again. After the civil war they adapted new strategies and tactics which lead to America and most Americans being possessed by the confederate spirit.
But real Americans can give up when resistance is futile. Because continuing to resist at that point will just lead to a needless loss of lives and further suffering. When to give up is an integral part of the just war doctrine established by that Catholic Church hundreds of years ago which is part of the western historical culture. Even the best doctors can not save a patient that has become terminally ill.
This last paragraph is not meant to say that real leftists in the USA, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the west indies, and Europe and Japan and Israel should actually surrender just yet. We are embedded in a larger world conflict. But we should lay low.
There is little that we can do to influence events at this point. Right now peaceful political activities have little positive effect. We are not capable of mounting effective violent political action. There is just to little straight wood that is not rotten, in the western world, to be able to build a stable useful political structure.
We can contribute small acts of kindness to others, and keep each other company, while we wait.
Either the Russians and Chinese will emerge victorious in which case our efforts would not have really been needed. Or the Americans will emerge victorious in which case our efforts will have been in vain anyways. The Russians and the Chinese will not be able to say that we were free riders on their victory, should that unexpectedly happen. I am sure that they are aware of the life time of efforts most of have made to prevent world history from having reached this point. We failed to prevent this tragedy. But we tried. Could we have tried harder?
The Buddha has an answer to that question.
seriously, if you have to work you have to be engaged in the system of doing horrible things to other people somewhere (or the planet everywhere) for horrible reasons, one of the worst being you’ll starve in the streets and those who may rely on you will starve too.
unless you’re so wealthy you don’t have to work, in which case you’re exploiting everyone else in the system by living off of them, no matter which NGO you go to work for.
man cannot serve two masters, but he sure can convince himself that his hands are clean while he serves the evil masters. none of our hands are clean as long as we contribute the work to keep this system standing. even if we are coerced by economic necessity.
It’s not all bad. Since I got whacked from my career, I found a new one being my own boss. Don’t make squat but two customers today told me they greatly appreciated my efforts. Now if I could just make it less of a “young man’s game”.
Anyhow… I’ve been in a mood. Aging and all. So I looked at some girly photos I took of the wife from 30 years ago. I was thinking, damn… back when she was young and slim she wasn’t half bad. A hottie actually. Especially in mini and heels.
But my blissful little nostalgia turned to dismay. I saw what was behind her in all the pics. My yard plants looked like something from another world. The ferns were huge. The tall salal patches all fat and full. The leaves on my church sized rhodies (came with the house) didn’t have a hint of bug damage or sunburn on them at all.
I remembered our little long dog. He once got injured and had to wear one of those elizabethan collars. Way too big but the only size they had. He insisted on going out and I followed him to the viewpoint in the woods. I assumed he’d stop before he got to the ferns but nope, he just fought through them in spite of that gigantic cone of shame and kept right on going. He was gonna do his usual morning rounds no matter what. I remember standing there watching, or actually listening since he was completely hidden by all the ferns, chuckling to myself about how comical it was.
Today I was working back there. Managing the vinca, mahonia, ajuga and whatever the hell else I think can survive our now-annual severe summertime droughts and temperatures. Yeah, 30 years ago I assumed I would’ve hired all that out by now. But life didn’t turn out that way. I couldn’t imagine I’d be living in poverty, along with other elderly neighbors in our once desirable forest neighborhood. Today we lay low and let the newbies carry on with their new cars and techy gadgets and whatnot. Turnover is fierce around here and there’s always a new crop of newbies. Seems like yesterday that people aspired to this place then stayed for decades. Today 3 years is a good run, unless you’re old with nowhere you can go.
But not to worry. My ferns all died long ago. Today if little long dog and collar had to make the rounds, he could run. Plus all the young hemlocks. Gone. The salal is almost done and the big rhodies are becoming a real pain to maintain during our record setting summers. So I might let them go too. But at least I get to experience how biomes change with the climate. Plus I got customers who like me.
Finished this comment at 7:20 PM PDT when the last comment showing on my outdated browser was Willie’s It’s not all bad … comment. My reading (and actually absorbing it) time is truly limited, so I’ll just note this: I’m all aboard with striving to do no harm to those who are as humane as they can be—be as kind as one is allowed to be without committing suicide, which no one should expect of someone. A huge embrace to those reading and commenting who actively strive to be as beneficent as they can; particularly if they are largely suffering.
********************************************
Gertrudis Rubio stepped into the darkness, pushing through the rushing water that slung rocks against her shins. There wasn’t enough time to grab essentials or documents – rapidly rising waters were already waist-high and surging through the small community in Monterey county. Rubio and her family of eight had little time to lose.
“It has felt traumatic,” she said. “The water came and destroyed our house. It destroyed everything.”
Just after midnight on Friday, sirens wailed through the town of Pajaro, warning residents it was time to leave. Engorged by unrelenting rains, the river that snakes alongside the community had escaped its banks and ageing levees ruptured against the weight of the furious waterway. Parts of the town were quickly steeped in brown-tinged water deep enough to submerge cars, inundate key infrastructure and soak homes, leaving thousands displaced.
Further:
The task is a daunting one. Three water systems have been identified as potentially contaminated, according to county officials. Eleven schools have had to close, and hundreds of people are being housed in shelters where beds are mostly full. County officials are bracing for more evacuations and new impacts from the next big rain.
The levee breach, which tripled in size between Friday and Monday is now 400ft wide. There is ongoing work to secure and stabilize it with rocks and sandbags but the damage is significant. And this isn’t the first time the levee has failed.
For decades it has been clear that the levee was vulnerable. There was catastrophic flooding here three times in the 1990s, including one breach that left two dead and caused up to $95m in damage. Waters rose again in 2017 and evacuations were ordered just this past January, when the state was pummeled by a series of severe storms.
Despite the known dangers, needed repairs hadn’t been done.
Further
Roughly 3,000 people call Pajaro home and 92% of them are Hispanic, according to census records. Just over 18% fall below the poverty line and per capita income – $15,018 – is about a third of what it is statewide.
In 2022, state and federal funds were allocated to repair the levee – a project expected to cost roughly $400m – but construction wasn’t slated to start until 2024 at the earliest.
Now, at an emergency shelter staged at the Santa Cruz county fairgrounds to the north, hundreds wait and wonder what will remain of their homes when the waters recede.
From a very close by Silicon Valley news site—The [San Jose] Mercury—which to my recollect the VIPS never, ever, allowed, or wrote, any of the well deserved scathing commentary on regarding the decades long, bipartisan, County, State and Federal FAILURE to ensure the tragic Pajaro Levee disaster would not happen again (note I’m not slurring the journalist who may well have begged the editors to cover this nightmare before it progressed to this point, I think he did a very good job, given his potential and likely limitations):
Desperately trying to convince police officers to let them through to check on pets, grab important documents or simply to see if their homes were flooded, Pajaro residents are growing more and more frustrated as Monterey County officials continue to caution that a return home is not likely for another week, even as floodwaters have receded in the past few days.
With no access to homes or jobs and no idea when they’ll be able to start rebuilding, many of the Pajaro residents — who were forced to evacuate after a levee breached in the wee hours of the morning Saturday — are feeling left behind.
Rumors that looters could break into damaged homes in the deserted town swirled around shelters and among the panicked crowds gathered on the bridge this week, raising fears that many will return home to nothing.
Miscommunication between government agencies is also getting on evacuees’ frayed nerves: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said $42 million would be available for farmworker relief through the United Way, but that agency says just over $300,000 is actually available, noting that the governor likely was conflating local agency aid with statewide COVID-19 aid funds for farmworkers announced in 2020.
“I feel dazed, stunned and confused,” said Laura Garcia, who stood on the Main Street bridge with her husband and two daughters on Wednesday after being turned back by police. “I just want to make sure my home is okay. Why can’t they let us through? I just don’t understand.”
Monterey County Undersheriff Keith Boyd said Thursday that Pajaro families won’t be able to return to their homes for another week at least as contaminated silt, mud and standing flood water continue to threaten residents’ safety. Even allowing people to return briefly would be unsafe given the possible structural damage to buildings, he insisted, in addition to posing a logistical challenge.
He said the community will remain under an evacuation order for the foreseeable future but that the department’s partners are working diligently to assess the damage and get families back as soon as possible.
Since the flood, Santa Cruz and Monterey county officials have set up hundreds of shelter beds, adding 80 Wednesday night. Right now there are currently 328 people at shelters in the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, with a few dozen more scattered among a local church, the Castroville Recreation Center and the Salvation Army.
Because those two excerpted, Fourth Estate Powers That Be above will only go so far in calling out DemRats in California, there’s no mention, in either article, where the remaining 2,000 plus of human beings have ended up. I.E. Now, at an emergency shelter…hundreds wait, from the Guardian piece; nor 328 people at shelters in the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, with a few dozen more scattered at other shelters, from the Mercury piece; does not equal the roughly 3,000 unhoused now.
I suggest, at a minimum, those 2,000 plus (if not the entire, roughly 3,000)—now terrified, unsheltered, about to be pineapple™ stormed yet again, and possibly subjected to overnight temperatures near 30°F or below—be kept warm … dry…well fed… finally comforted… in Zuckerberg’s four (or is it five) Shallow Alto, Dynasty Compound Estates. —which are all adjacent each other and currently empty of overnighters (as usual, because Hawaii Estates, close to the Ellison, Omidyar, and Obama, Island and Estates, respectively), in Shallow Alto. After all, pretty sure the Zuckerbergs were just gifted millions as between Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), or First Republic Bank (hmmm, which Banks are the Obamas, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, over deposited/mortgaged at?).
Adding, after all only Newsom and Obama’s Folks™ and Frenemies, like the Zuckerbergs, can now afford the PG&E rates that might keep such a place safely warm anymore (even when it’s abandoned for months on end while awaiting a massive and opaque culling of increasingly vulnerable lives). PG&E rates that are financially breaking millions in the state as the temperatures have repeatedly dropped to the low thirties or below (god knows they’re not reporting all the homeless hypothermia deaths), since December. Sadistically (yes, I do believe that maleficence exists, who does not?), per the California Legislature’s decision makers (most on PG&E’s bankroll), a two person household will not qualify for any PG&E Care™ discounts if they have retirement accounts plus benefits™, or income, over $35K, which would likely leave them homeless.
Another possible option, since the Billionaires, ex Mrs. Gates and ex Mrs. Bezos, proclaim to be do-gooders, perhaps they can step in and save lives, while keeping their damn mouths shut about it since their fortunes were subsidized by the public at large, with no returns to the public at large.
Impermanence in its diverse manifestations.
Plant, animal and human friends come and go and we suffer the loss.
Trauma ensues.
Look it in the face.
What are we fighting for?
Look that in the face.
Rich man wins, poor man loses
On the face of it
Look it in the face and what do you see when the light goes out?
Rich or poor, from the mountain top to the landfill, we have to face it.
The life force runs out and the consequences of our actions come home.
Unless you’re nihilistic in which case nothing matters outside of your delusions.
An empathetic person would have compassion for that ignorance.
One less caring would say welcome to your self created hell, too bad you spread it all around.
Whatcha gonna do when the light goes out?
As the Dylan bard said: it’s all right, ma. I’m only dying . . .
Trinity
It’s their nature to ignore the reality that humans are complex, and can’t be distilled to “their true essence” by cherry-picking sound bites, or single sentence recommendations in a published article on a different topic. Humans, in comparison, display a range of behaviors, and can and do change their minds (and their behaviors), sometimes frequently.
Unlike humans, they instead declare their favorites (and pillory their enemies), and they frequently change their targets based on who can be easily manipulated. The goal isn’t to find commonalities, consider new alternatives, and build connections and community. Rather the goal is to muffle (or completely obliterate) dissenting views, alternative perspectives, encourage division, and therefore control the conversation and successfully impose their own less-than encompassing rules of discourse.
They maintain this control by insisting that only their rules are allowed, or that only their approach is the correct one, or only their sources and methods are acceptable, their mouthpieces are authority, and only their point of view is suitable or applicable.
The overall goal, stated or not, acknowledged or not, is to sow dissension, and ensure that only their voice (with its limited perspective, it’s exclusionary nature, and it’s rigid rules and regulations), and the other chosen few “acceptable” voices, based on acceptable perspectives, from acceptable sources, will be heard (or more accurately, allowed).
They work very hard to shut down more expansive perspectives, attack or malign innovative ideas, especially the humanist perspective that understands individual humans can never be distilled down to a single set of qualities that demands a binary classification of only good or only bad, without nuance, forever and ever, amen. They fail to understand that humans can and do struggle with changing meaning of specific words, can wake up to reality and change their behaviors, can contribute positively, can fail early and often, learn from it, and maybe go on to develop new innovative ideas (instead of fleeting ones). They don’t understand this because they themselves cannot do any of this.
This is why they work actively to suppress alternatives to the status quo, or even different approaches to problem solving. Alternatives are considered to be threats, because they don’t really want to solve the problems, they just want to complain about the “unfairness” of it all, they want to ensure that everyone and everything has been tagged as “good” or “bad” (they of course are the good guys, the heroes, the ones-who-have-the-correct-answers), again due to the same limited perspective and a lack of understanding (or acceptance) of the complex nature of all things. They mostly want to ensure separation between the heroes (themselves) and the unworthies (everyone else).
In other words, by seeking to control discourse, they must reject (and argue vehemently against) the true nature of all things, ignoring or invalidating their own true nature in the process (if they even have one).
I am, of course, describing the oligarchs aka the elites.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Trinity
It’s their nature to ignore the reality that humans are complex, and can’t be distilled to “their true essence” by cherry-picking sound bites, or single sentence recommendations in a published article on a different topic. Humans, in comparison, display a range of behaviors, and can and do change their minds (and their behaviors), sometimes frequently.
Unlike humans, they instead declare their favorites (and pillory their enemies), and they frequently change their targets based on who can be easily manipulated. The goal isn’t to find commonalities, consider new alternatives, and build connections and community. Rather the goal is to muffle (or completely obliterate) dissenting views, alternative perspectives, encourage division, and therefore control the conversation and successfully impose their own less-than encompassing rules of discourse.
They maintain this control by insisting that only their rules are allowed, or that only their approach is the correct one, or only their sources and methods are acceptable, their mouthpieces are authority, and only their point of view is suitable or applicable.
The overall goal, stated or not, acknowledged or not, is to sow dissension, and ensure that only their voice (with its limited perspective, it’s exclusionary nature, and it’s rigid rules and regulations), and the other chosen few “acceptable” voices, based on acceptable perspectives, from acceptable sources, will be heard (or more accurately, allowed).
They work very hard to shut down more expansive perspectives, attack or malign innovative ideas, especially the humanist perspective that understands individual humans can never be distilled down to a single set of qualities that demands a binary classification of only good or only bad, without nuance, forever and ever, amen. They fail to understand that humans can and do struggle with changing meaning of specific words, can wake up to reality and change their behaviors, can contribute positively, can fail early and often, learn from it, and maybe go on to develop new innovative ideas (instead of fleeting ones). They don’t understand this because they themselves cannot do any of this.
This is why they work actively to suppress alternatives to the status quo, or even different approaches to problem solving. Alternatives are considered to be threats, because they don’t really want to solve the problems, they just want to complain about the “unfairness” of it all, they want to ensure that everyone and everything has been tagged as “good” or “bad” (they of course are the good guys, the heroes, the ones-who-have-the-correct-answers), again due to the same limited perspective and a lack of understanding (or acceptance) of the complex nature of all things. They mostly want to ensure separation between the heroes (themselves) and the unworthies (everyone else).
In other words, by seeking to control discourse, they must reject (and argue vehemently against) the true nature of all things, ignoring or invalidating their own true nature in the process (if they even have one).
I am, of course, describing the oligarchs aka the elites.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Willy
I used to imagine (rationalize) that everybody is just trying to do their best with whatever they’ve got and if they do evil things, it’s probably because of some educational or experiential glitch. And so we try to teach them so they can learn to do better next time.
I later figured out that this was projection.
Some people know damned well what they’re doing. They just don’t care. The trick for them is come across as regular guys, or honest leaders, or actual experts, or caring ideological whateverthfucks, so they can camouflage themselves and their true intentions, and after causing their damage, to maintain plausible deniability despite the obvious evidence.
The hard part for me is that I seem to have to relearn this lesson over and over again, especially if some time has passed since the last time I had to learn that lesson. One’s basic nature can be a tough thing to keep disciplined.
I assume that this is the way of things for almost everybody else, in whatever way it floats their own particular boat. And so here we all are.
DMC
That looming derivatives crisis seems to be showing up on more RADAR screens. The exposure levels of the 4 biggest banks are breathtaking.
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/03/the-next-bomb-to-go-off-in-the-banking-crisis-will-be-derivatives/
Curt Kastens
As I mentioned in the comments section for the Saudi Arabia Iran peace deal, the German government is now prosecuting people for telling the truth about the NATO Ukraine war against Russia. Democracy is now stone cold dead in Germany, if not Europe.
This gross attempt to shepherd the European Population in one direction leads me to believe that US has decided that now is the time to bring Russian and China to heel. We are figuratively speaking now fighting the war of Armageddon if not the battle of Armageddon. I can not see how a good faith peace deal could ever be reached between the two sides. Maybe there could be something called a peace deal. But in reality it will only be a temporary truce.
I guess winning will be defined as which national leaders are still alive and free after those of the other side have either been killed or imprisoned. This war could continue until the one world global industrial system collapses due to environmental changes and resource depletion. Or, one side or the other, most likely the US side IMHO,
destroys the capability of the other to resist its dictates.
Which ever side technically gets to call itself the winner because they can declare themselves the winners in the NY Times and on BBC and on ARD will be in charge of a dead planet, even if there is no nuclear war. How many more El Nino cycles can the world go through before industrial agriculture no longer functions?
We may have as many as 20 years left before the world’s agricultural system collapses.
We may have only 2 years left. What do you the readers here think that we should do in the mean time?
I do not know about the British or the Canadians, or other native English speaking inhabitants of the old British Empire. But real Americans do not surrender just because they get their ass kicked over and over again. Even the fake confederate Americans that pass for Americans now days do not give up just because they have been defeated. That is how the south rose again. After the civil war they adapted new strategies and tactics which lead to America and most Americans being possessed by the confederate spirit.
But real Americans can give up when resistance is futile. Because continuing to resist at that point will just lead to a needless loss of lives and further suffering. When to give up is an integral part of the just war doctrine established by that Catholic Church hundreds of years ago which is part of the western historical culture. Even the best doctors can not save a patient that has become terminally ill.
This last paragraph is not meant to say that real leftists in the USA, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the west indies, and Europe and Japan and Israel should actually surrender just yet. We are embedded in a larger world conflict. But we should lay low.
There is little that we can do to influence events at this point. Right now peaceful political activities have little positive effect. We are not capable of mounting effective violent political action. There is just to little straight wood that is not rotten, in the western world, to be able to build a stable useful political structure.
We can contribute small acts of kindness to others, and keep each other company, while we wait.
Either the Russians and Chinese will emerge victorious in which case our efforts would not have really been needed. Or the Americans will emerge victorious in which case our efforts will have been in vain anyways. The Russians and the Chinese will not be able to say that we were free riders on their victory, should that unexpectedly happen. I am sure that they are aware of the life time of efforts most of have made to prevent world history from having reached this point. We failed to prevent this tragedy. But we tried. Could we have tried harder?
The Buddha has an answer to that question.
anon y'mouse
Willy–everyone is bought.
seriously, if you have to work you have to be engaged in the system of doing horrible things to other people somewhere (or the planet everywhere) for horrible reasons, one of the worst being you’ll starve in the streets and those who may rely on you will starve too.
unless you’re so wealthy you don’t have to work, in which case you’re exploiting everyone else in the system by living off of them, no matter which NGO you go to work for.
man cannot serve two masters, but he sure can convince himself that his hands are clean while he serves the evil masters. none of our hands are clean as long as we contribute the work to keep this system standing. even if we are coerced by economic necessity.
Willy
It’s not all bad. Since I got whacked from my career, I found a new one being my own boss. Don’t make squat but two customers today told me they greatly appreciated my efforts. Now if I could just make it less of a “young man’s game”.
Anyhow… I’ve been in a mood. Aging and all. So I looked at some girly photos I took of the wife from 30 years ago. I was thinking, damn… back when she was young and slim she wasn’t half bad. A hottie actually. Especially in mini and heels.
But my blissful little nostalgia turned to dismay. I saw what was behind her in all the pics. My yard plants looked like something from another world. The ferns were huge. The tall salal patches all fat and full. The leaves on my church sized rhodies (came with the house) didn’t have a hint of bug damage or sunburn on them at all.
I remembered our little long dog. He once got injured and had to wear one of those elizabethan collars. Way too big but the only size they had. He insisted on going out and I followed him to the viewpoint in the woods. I assumed he’d stop before he got to the ferns but nope, he just fought through them in spite of that gigantic cone of shame and kept right on going. He was gonna do his usual morning rounds no matter what. I remember standing there watching, or actually listening since he was completely hidden by all the ferns, chuckling to myself about how comical it was.
Today I was working back there. Managing the vinca, mahonia, ajuga and whatever the hell else I think can survive our now-annual severe summertime droughts and temperatures. Yeah, 30 years ago I assumed I would’ve hired all that out by now. But life didn’t turn out that way. I couldn’t imagine I’d be living in poverty, along with other elderly neighbors in our once desirable forest neighborhood. Today we lay low and let the newbies carry on with their new cars and techy gadgets and whatnot. Turnover is fierce around here and there’s always a new crop of newbies. Seems like yesterday that people aspired to this place then stayed for decades. Today 3 years is a good run, unless you’re old with nowhere you can go.
But not to worry. My ferns all died long ago. Today if little long dog and collar had to make the rounds, he could run. Plus all the young hemlocks. Gone. The salal is almost done and the big rhodies are becoming a real pain to maintain during our record setting summers. So I might let them go too. But at least I get to experience how biomes change with the climate. Plus I got customers who like me.
multitude of poors
Finished this comment at 7:20 PM PDT when the last comment showing on my outdated browser was Willie’s It’s not all bad … comment. My reading (and actually absorbing it) time is truly limited, so I’ll just note this: I’m all aboard with striving to do no harm to those who are as humane as they can be—be as kind as one is allowed to be without committing suicide, which no one should expect of someone. A huge embrace to those reading and commenting who actively strive to be as beneficent as they can; particularly if they are largely suffering.
********************************************
The Criminal Pajaro Levee disaster continues (wrote a short comment on it here: https://www.ianwelsh.net/consequences-of-silicon-valley-banks-failure/#comment-145131 , thank you for allowing it Ian, since it was slightly off topic, but then again, Dominoes)
03/16/23 By Gabrielle Canon in Pajaro California town races for survival after levees fail: The town of Pajaro was flooded by the nearby river after repeated deluges, forcing residents to shelter at a fairground https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/16/pajaro-california-levees-breached-residents-take-shelter
Further:
Further
From a very close by Silicon Valley news site—The [San Jose] Mercury—which to my recollect the VIPS never, ever, allowed, or wrote, any of the well deserved scathing commentary on regarding the decades long, bipartisan, County, State and Federal FAILURE to ensure the tragic Pajaro Levee disaster would not happen again (note I’m not slurring the journalist who may well have begged the editors to cover this nightmare before it progressed to this point, I think he did a very good job, given his potential and likely limitations):
03/17/23 By Aldo Toledo PAJARO — Behind barricades and under the watchful eyes of armed police officers, dozens of frustrated Pajaro families gathered on the Main Street bridge with one question on their minds: “When can we go home?” https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/03/16/when-can-we-go-home-pajaro-residents-agonize-as-key-question-remains-unanswered/
Because those two excerpted, Fourth Estate Powers That Be above will only go so far in calling out DemRats in California, there’s no mention, in either article, where the remaining 2,000 plus of human beings have ended up. I.E. Now, at an emergency shelter…hundreds wait, from the Guardian piece; nor 328 people at shelters in the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, with a few dozen more scattered at other shelters, from the Mercury piece; does not equal the roughly 3,000 unhoused now.
I suggest, at a minimum, those 2,000 plus (if not the entire, roughly 3,000)—now terrified, unsheltered, about to be pineapple™ stormed yet again, and possibly subjected to overnight temperatures near 30°F or below—be kept warm … dry…well fed… finally comforted… in Zuckerberg’s four (or is it five) Shallow Alto, Dynasty Compound Estates. —which are all adjacent each other and currently empty of overnighters (as usual, because Hawaii Estates, close to the Ellison, Omidyar, and Obama, Island and Estates, respectively), in Shallow Alto. After all, pretty sure the Zuckerbergs were just gifted millions as between Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), or First Republic Bank (hmmm, which Banks are the Obamas, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, over deposited/mortgaged at?).
Adding, after all only Newsom and Obama’s Folks™ and Frenemies, like the Zuckerbergs, can now afford the PG&E rates that might keep such a place safely warm anymore (even when it’s abandoned for months on end while awaiting a massive and opaque culling of increasingly vulnerable lives). PG&E rates that are financially breaking millions in the state as the temperatures have repeatedly dropped to the low thirties or below (god knows they’re not reporting all the homeless hypothermia deaths), since December. Sadistically (yes, I do believe that maleficence exists, who does not?), per the California Legislature’s decision makers (most on PG&E’s bankroll), a two person household will not qualify for any PG&E Care™ discounts if they have retirement accounts plus benefits™, or income, over $35K, which would likely leave them homeless.
Another possible option, since the Billionaires, ex Mrs. Gates and ex Mrs. Bezos, proclaim to be do-gooders, perhaps they can step in and save lives, while keeping their damn mouths shut about it since their fortunes were subsidized by the public at large, with no returns to the public at large.
multitude of poors
Ahh shit, sorry for misspelling your name, Willy, in my comment above, it wasn’t intentional.
magpie
Impermanence in its diverse manifestations.
Plant, animal and human friends come and go and we suffer the loss.
Trauma ensues.
Look it in the face.
What are we fighting for?
Look that in the face.
Rich man wins, poor man loses
On the face of it
Look it in the face and what do you see when the light goes out?
Rich or poor, from the mountain top to the landfill, we have to face it.
The life force runs out and the consequences of our actions come home.
Unless you’re nihilistic in which case nothing matters outside of your delusions.
An empathetic person would have compassion for that ignorance.
One less caring would say welcome to your self created hell, too bad you spread it all around.
Whatcha gonna do when the light goes out?
As the Dylan bard said: it’s all right, ma. I’m only dying . . .
anon y'mouse
stuffs from the inbox:
https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/gsa-drafts-carbon-limits-select-building-materials
we’ll see. a bit late, isn’t it? we’ve only been talking about all of this crap since the 90s (70s…..50s….?)