STRAIGHT TALK
It seems to me that we have very clear priorities to attend to if we are to survive on planet earth very much longer.
First and foremost is climate change. We either admit the problem and deal with it, stopping all practices that work against that end, by force, if necessary, or we perish. Society should triumph over individuals in this regard. Personal profit is totally unimportant against survival. What happened to the buggy whip manufacturers when the automobile replaced the horse? They retooled or died. Whatever. Get a damned clue.
Second, we cannot sustain the present form of huge international corporate mega-capitalism. It is an out of control monster: a willful environmental vampire and oppressor of human rights. Its rulers and masters make sociopathic decisions on a daily basis. As they control costs both quality and choice disappear from the marketplace. They tend to baronies, monopolies, and mini-kingdoms serving the pissant egos of self-styled “giants of commerce.” They are moribund, sucking ghouls, parasites on the planet and body politic. They are the great corrupters of mankind and despoilers of the earth.
Third, put religion in its rightful place, not in the government. If the marching morons of the western religious traditions stopped momentarily to exercise even the barest minimum of individual thought, they would immediately realize that in structure, purpose and results, the forces they support fulfill the mission of the Anti-Christ or its sectarian apocalyptic equivalent. The marching morons are the people prophesied who follow the WRONG master, necessitating and aiding the Arch Fiend’s attack on all virtue and goodness in the world. They are the armies of Satan, Shaitan, the bad guy. The marching morons are ignorant superstitious dupes who hurt other people at the direction of their sick as hell masters.
Fourth, if we wish to progress in a positive and healthful manner, we must liberate the females of our species and educate the children to a rational, scientific and progressive frame of mind. We do not want to crowd young impressionable minds with superstitions, myths or self-destructive and debasing philosophies. This will do more to eliminate the physical, mental and emotional abuse that has characterized our species’ formation and created the corrupt and destructive society we inhabit today than any other measure. We can do so much better, and it begins with free self-directing women and smart well-loved children.
There is more, but this is a fair start. Just wanted to put these four points out for consideration and possible personal ACTION. We really don’t have any more time to waste. KOKO, j
Obama Quietly Backs Patriot Act Provisions by William Fisher Inter Press Service
NEW YORK – With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA Patriot Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms.
And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some prominent Democrats.
When a panicky Congress passed the act 45 days after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, three contentious parts of the law were scheduled to expire at the end of next month, and opponents of these sections have been pushing Congress to substitute new provisions with substantially strengthened civil liberties protections.
But with the apparent approval of the Obama White House and a number of Republicans – and over the objections of liberal Senate Democrats including Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois – the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to extend the three provisions with only minor changes.
Those provisions would leave unaltered the power of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to seize records and to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mail in the course of counterterrorism investigations. READ MORE:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23-6
Antarctic Ice Loss Vaster, Faster Than Thought: Study The Independent/UK
The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study.
Published Sunday in Nature Geoscience, the same study shows that the smaller but less stable West Antarctic icesheet is also shedding significant mass.
Scientists worry that rising global temperatures could trigger a rapid disintegration of West Antarctica, which holds enough frozen water to push up the global ocean watermark by about five metres (16 feet).
In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels would rise 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, but this estimate did not factor in the potential impact of crumbling icesheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
Today many of the same scientist say that even if heat-trapping CO2 emissions are curtailed, the ocean watermark is more likely to go up by nearly a metre, enough to render several small island nations unlivable and damage fertile deltas home to hundreds of millions. READ MORE:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23-0
Climate Change Sceptics and Lobbyists Put World at Risk, says Top Adviser by David Adam The Guardian/UK
Chance to limit warming squandered, says scientist. World needs to prepare to cope with at least 3-4C rise.
Climate change sceptics and fossil fuel companies that have lobbied against action on greenhouse gas emissions have squandered the world’s chance to avoid dangerous global warming, a key adviser to the government has said.
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientist at the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs, said a decade of inaction on climate change meant it was now virtually impossible to limit global temperature rise to 2C. He said the delay meant the world would now do well to stabilise warming between 3C and 4C.
His comments come ahead of key UN negotiations on a new global climate treaty in Copenhagen next month that the UK government insists should still aim for a 2C goal, despite doubts over whether a meaningful deal can be sealed.
In an interview with the Guardian, Watson said: “Those that have opposed a deal on climate, which would include elements of the fossil fuel industry, have clearly made making a 2C target much, much harder, if not impossible. They’ve clearly put the world at risk of far more adverse effects of climate change.” READ MORE:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23
Bernie Sanders Pushes Back On Public Option by Ryan Grim Huffington Post
While conservative members of the Democratic caucus threaten to block passage of health care reform if it includes a public health insurance option, a growing chorus of liberal lawmakers are making similar threats if the bill doesn’t have one.
Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement on Sunday that the bill must have a strong public option to win his vote.
“I strongly suspect that there are a number of senators, including myself, who would not support final passage without a strong public option,” he said. Not supporting final passage, however, is different than vowing to filibuster it and prevent it from even getting to a vote on final passage, as independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is now doing, hoping to strip the public option.
But Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said on Saturday night that if the bill bends toward the conservatives, “You’ll lose people on the left.”
One of those could be Roland Burris (D-Ill.), who said Saturday he’d oppose any bill without a public option. “I won’t vote for it,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Saturday night, after the health care bill passed a major legislative hurdle by a party-line, landslide 60-39 vote, that Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) are working on crafting a public option compromise that could garner 60 votes.
On Sunday, Schumer predicted that the public option would survive and wind up in the final bill that goes to the president’s desk. READ MORE:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23-1
Taking Care of Business: How Big Business Has Hijacked Climate Talks by Oscar Reyes The New Internationalist
A new realism has emerged. Climate change is no longer rejected as a bogus theory the economy can ill afford. Instead, it’s a business opportunity.
A flower blooms under a floodlight. It is projected on to a huge screen, behind a panel of expensively suited executives. A CNN business correspondent struts up and down a catwalk, excitedly thanking UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the ubiquitous Al Gore. The scene of this corporate love-in? The World Business Summit on Climate Change.
‘The fact that I flew here to sit on a panel for one and a half hours, then I´m flying straight back to the US, is an example of our commitment to environmental sustainability,’ boasts Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, blissfully unaware of the irony of her statement. Her fellow industry representatives make similar claims about just how energetically they are saving the planet.
This is the new face of the climate business.
Until recently, many of the globe’s biggest corporations were firmly in the climate change denial camp – and funding spurious research to back up their claims. Now a new realism has emerged. Climate change is no longer rejected as a bogus theory the economy can ill afford. Instead, it’s a business opportunity.
Back in the days of George W Bush, the ostrich-headed faction of US industry held sway. Companies like ExxonMobil saw no profits in ‘climate solutions’, so opposed any climate legislation. Now, carbon markets – the buying and selling of the right to pollute – are at the heart of proposals for a new global deal at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen this December, and the ‘progressive’ wing of big business, backed by large US-based NGOs, argues that this market-driven approach is the only way to secure an international emissions reductions deal.
The problem is, critics say, that carbon markets are delaying genuine action on climate change, and shifting attention away from the fundamental task of rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. How did it come to this? READ MORE:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/24-3
CHIEF SEALTH: It matters little where we pass the remnant of our days. They will not be many. A few more moons; a few more winters – and not one of the descendents of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the white man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see. – Chief Sealth, addressing a treaty negotiating party, 1855.
Is it time yet? Keep on keepin’ on. j



















