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   

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.  

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.

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