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Monday, February 21, 2011
Thoughts on current political/social reform efforts in Mideast
I am of course supportive of the current efforts to gain both political and social reform geared to the promotion,
growth, and introduction of democratic, freedom growing processes in the countries where above mentioned
reform efforts are currently underway.
The courage and sacrifice being demonstrated by the involved
populations is overwhelming.
While hoping for the best, my concerns about the countries involved that have
oil based economies is that their economic need, and the greed that can manifest itself in such situations
will hinder or halt these societies from being able to help promote the global environmental reforms that are
so desperately needed to come into full fruition.
On democratic reform and implementations of said
reforms...my concerns are simple
As in the creation of the United States, while the work done was truly impressive.
Our nations founding fathers left in place the institution of slavery, as well as a thought process that gave
rise to over one hundred years of genocidal warfare, murder, treaty violations.. that became known
as "Manifest Destiny" a horror of process if truthfully labeled by those victimized by the process.
So my concerns in what we are watching unfold today, is what may we expect to see from reform processes
taking place in social/political populations/entities in which so many glaring instances of wrong thinking or discriminatory processes are so prevalent?
I will hope for the best.
CSM
6:03 pm pst
Friday, February 18, 2011
Japan announces it will cancel this years whaling effort
Well here is a long overdue action...especially when one considers the highly sophisticated and very educated
status of the society involved.
We owe thanks to groups like the Sea Shepard Society, Green Peace
and so many others, individual activist/citizen efforts etc.. Just not enough space to thank, or give credit to
all the people, and their organizations who contributed to this anouncement being made.
Thank
you!
CSM
Update: the reason given for Japans decision has been stated to be their concern to protect
their whaling fleet.
Not exactly the enlightened rational we were hoping for, nor is it indicative
that they plan to permanently halt their whaling efforts.
9:19 am pst
Friday, February 11, 2011
Economics and the Environment
In the U.S. we continue to see high levels of unemployment.All available data indicates that the majority of
improvement in the reported unemployment figures is due to those that are unemployed running out of benefits,
and dropping from the reported roles.
The number of reported new jobs created is a small fraction of
the total reported improvement in the unemployment rate......
Home foreclosures increased by approximately
1% from December 2010 vs January 2011. As with the unemployment data.. most improvement in reported figures
can be seen to be the result of negative not positive indicators.. it is now known that the recent reported drop
in the national foreclosure rate appears to be due to a back log of unprocessed foreclosures waiting to hit the
pipeline and be processed. So many foreclosures hit the system, that when combined with the recent scandal
over the foreclosure process.. the number of foreclosures processed and thus reported...dropped.
In
the U.S. people are once again starting to buy with what appears to be unwise levels of credit usage.
Analysis
is grim.
So lets take a look at the environment...
The recent political/social upheavals we have seen in the Mideast all have ties to an increase in food prices..(Let us hope that these social/ political movements
remain a force for needed, over due, positive change.)
Update- 2/16/11 {These social/political movements
now appear to be spreading across the region without the need for any external accelerant such as rising food cost
etc..}
As to the rise in food costs....various reasons have been given, however, the primary reason is not being adequately reported..
It has to do with the disruption to various growing seasons.. due to recent
growing weather pattern changes/destabilization.
Things continue to get worse....at an ever increasing rate.
The Earth, if current trends are allowed to continue, will force a brutal process of population reduction.. that will only be exacerbated by the current global economic perceptions and control systems.
Once this
process begins in earnest.. and have no doubt the process has begun..
By the time things stabilize the earth
may not be able to support a human population of any size period.. and the sad fact is that it could get worse
than even that....We're talking Earth looking like a cross between Mars and Venus..dead, or almost.
What
needs to happen, what should be happening, is that all the governments and their people need to come together with
the same fervor that one would expect if the Earth and all of humanity was under an alien attack bent upon the
extinction of the human race and all life on the planet.
If that reality struck home we might as a species avoid the worst aspects of what is coming. and deal with the hardest of choices in a way that is humane and recognizes
the civil rights of all.
but this is not happening...
So I advise everyone to take some time, smell
the roses while they exist. take your loved ones out for fun excursions.. enjoy the blue sky, and sunny days.
These days look to be coming to an end.
If I had to give odds I would say that for the next few years,
odds are things should continue to look pretty 'normal". with continued signs of growing distress being
seen.
After that, odds are signs of real social unrest will begin to appear..
Thirty years out,
if that, odds are things will be looking like something out of a nightmare.
Colin Stuart McCoy
To
those who would comment that the above post is dark or overly blunt?..It is meant to be.. It is meant to get your
attention..make you take the time to look at current trends and data.
To those who would say "there is
nothing I/we can do," or "I'm sure the government will take care of things," or "30 years
is a long way off."
Please look at current trends and the collective efforts to date to address the realities
of the environmental strain being exerted against the global eco-system.
Even if all you do is educate yourself
on the issue.. that's doing something.
Evaluate the current efforts/focus, and then add a projected
2 billion additional people to the equation.
What do you come up with?
Try saying any of the
above mentioned rationals while looking into the faces of your children.
This exercise should aid in helping
you focus... if needed.
10:48 am pst
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Portland and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force
Portland has once again taken up the issue of whether or not it should rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Portland opted out of the JTTF back in 2005 for a number of very valid reasons.
The main reasons being
a lack of needed transparency and oversite that the citizens and portland city government expected and required
to exist in order to enter into such a relationship. There were also serious issues raised concerning the
different rules, regulations, and operation protocols that govern portland police operations in ways that
are meant to help protect important civil rights/liberties of the citizens.
Rules, that a real concern existed
as to whether or not the FBI would be similarly respectful of, with a secondary concern in this area
being...that if the FBI did not need to follow these regulations.. that neither would the portland police officers
assigned to the JTTF..and this created an unacceptable conflict of values.
When Portland opted out of
the JTTF it sent a much needed value statement to the rest of our country, as well as the global community.
Nothing has changed between 2005 and today. Many think that in many ways things have gotten worse.
As raised in 2005, the truth is that the FBI has a troubling history, that cannot be reconciled with important
values upon which our nation was supposedly founded.
Just a few such issues being.. the 1970's co-intelpro..The
1990's interactions in such events as The car bombing incident in northern California with Victims Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.."Redwood Summer".
The 2002 affidavits filed in support of the FBI's desire
to monitor activist groups, an affidavit that upon investigation was found to have been erroneously constructed,
and discredited.
More recently Sept, 2010 it was reported a large number of FBI agents, and supervisors
when taking a test designed to gauge their ability to conduct operations in our communities, and to do so without
violating the civil rights/liberties of the general population...Were found to have engaged in conduct labled
"cheating".
Implications...troubling.
last month, January 2011 The FBI admitted to close
to 800 violations, many were very serious.
My personal opinion is that the majority of FBI agents
etc.. are pretty solid people. My concerns reside in the "bad apple" category, supported, or not being
adequately addressed by a failed? failing? agency culture. A culture that fails in both it's training/education
departments as well as it's hiring protocols.
The other hard truth about the FBI is that it does not exist in a vacuum..problems within this agency could not go on unchecked without a similar and related
failure of process coming from our elected officials, and as of today we continue to see coming from varied
editorial content providers indications that the level of profound ignorance of the general population continues to grow and reach dangerous and unsupportable levels for a society that wishes to remain or regain true freedom.
(Should the FBI get points for making available/ reporting it's own failed behavior/mistakes. Yes, absolutely..however
this is what I expect from a U.S. Government organizations, nor should the self reporting, slow or diminish the
effectiveness of any needed corrective steps.)
I reject the argument that we are better off than many
other societies..we are.. however that has never been an acceptable yard stick for the United States..nor
is it reflective of a society that understands that if the U.S. is to survive we must embrace a culture of
excellence in all things...our mandate has always been to strive to become the best that can be imagined,
understood and physically created.
To those that wish to try and justify failed behaviors because of
the need to be safe..
I reply in two ways, one the current risk to the survival of our country is not even
remotely close to that which would even potentially justify our failure to defend and abide by those principles
that have given the United States it's proudest moments historically.
Two I remind people of a historical
event that took place in England around the time of the "Battle of Britain" Apparently Winston Churchill was approached about how far investigators could go in order to try and glean information that could help England
survive the Nazi attack.
A threat that was absolutely profound..England was fighting for it very existence,
the outcome was far from certain to have a positive ending.
The issue was "torture"... Churchill,
I believe, replied along the lines of...WE WILL NOT TORTURE, IF WE DO WE WILL BE AS BAD AS THOSE WE
STAND AGAINST.
Being the "good guys" comes with risk and tremendous responsibility.. A hard truth
of this is that it means that in order to protect those most valued of social principles..Sometimes the "bad
guys" will get in the first, or a cheap shot.
Any society that forgets these hard won truths will
not be or remain free and will devolve into something fundamentally despicable.
Fail that society will, the
more powerful the entity the longer it may be perceived to stand. ..but fail it will.
I believe the
greatest threat to the survival of the United States remains letting unacceptable levels of corruption or incompetence
gain a too strong hold on our important control or management surfaces/systems.
"That being if environmental
collapse does not take us out first.. a very real possibility."
Colin Stuart McCoy
9:25 am pst
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