nora's blog

Militarists/paramilitarists brutalize those who do not CONFORM. Corporatists attempt to seduce with advertising for their profiteering consumer Culture.

This is why Occupiers are such a bright light of hope: They continued to grasp their vision of something else, their willingness to hold creative thoughts and take actions in pursuit of something different, something their OWN.

ART is the expressive step in ordering/harnessing reality -- and it is a step humankind has taken since pre-history. Confronted with a chaos of surroundings (surroundings neither fathomed nor understood), people found artisitic expression with which to find order in their existence.

I think Americans need an Art Renaissance because only an Art Renaissance can restore order to our society that has been made chaotic by the profiteering/greed/exploitation of the corporatists. (I think this is true everywhere the corporatists have made inroads, everywhere they have convinced people that transnational corporate products are better than the peoples' own creations. Gandhi recognized this technique by the Elite regarding British Imperialists' undermining of India's own textile industry.)

Already the Occupiers have shown that there is still this imaginative power eager for expression -- and it is shown in their ready willingness to create alternative communities at occupier sites.

This MUST be pursued and expressed further in everyway possible, in and outside the Occupy movement.

Leap right over the prison of Conformity in which we are supposed to remain, if not willingly, then via the CHAOTIC Brutality/Repression of the Corporatist-supported Military/Paramilitary Industrial Complex. Leap right over this mess. Create a new expressive order that outshines any illusion the corporatists can attempt to P.R. finesse or advertise in their attempt to preserve their chaotic Corporatist Culture.

It can be done. It is in the very artistic/creative nature of every human being to create.

It is our time.

It can be our artistic renaissance that will inspire renewed creativity in every interest.

I'm going to put a copy of this in a plastic sheath and pin it to the back of my jacket and wear it around. I'm going to carry some extra copies in case anybody I meet wants one.

This message has spread around the world. Now for spreading it into some nooks and crannies....

From Occupy Wall Street ( http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-issues-first-official-dec... ) --

[quote]

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

[unquote]

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-issues-first-official-dec...

What is a JUSTICE SYSTEM?

For what purpose is a means to Justice devised?

Without Justice there can be no contentment. So Justice is a necessity for maintaining order, preventing upheaval from discontent, for providing the environment to maintain contentedness.

In ancient Egypt there was the promise of equal access to Justice for all concerned (in principle, anyone could PETITION the court, whether rich or poor). This indicates a conceptualization of equality before the Law.

It also seems an indicator that any court system is devised and exists mostly to serve the Masses, to keep them contented. The Ruling Elite could muddle along and handle disputes themselves using money, or bribery or other fixes like warring CityStates or whatever -- but that is the ruling class' concern and does not work to satisfy The People and their needs to be heard, to experience cooperation, to feel there is at least a chance for A Just Hearing of Grievances.

The right for any person to petition for a hearing of a grievance in a respectful systematic process -- that is special. That is a requirement to be classified as a CIVILIZED SOCIETY.

Is it possible in our nation TODAY to claim a civilized justice system? I don't know about you, but unless I have money enough for a lawyer and a sustained court battle , it is unlikely I could entertain any such step like taking my 'case' before a court.

So, are we "small people" (as we were called by that BP official last year), left out of the Justice System now? And is the Obama Administration's invitation to us to petition the White House an empty -- even ridiculing -- suggestion considering how the plain, un-Rich citizen has little access to the Justice system itself? Does the delivery of Justice serve us at all, since our grievances go unheard in our so-called Justice System?

THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT

It is so important it was included in the Constitution in the Fifth Amendment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Consti...

[excerpt]

...

Text [from the U.S. Constitution]

“

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.[1]

...

Self-incrimination

The Fifth Amendment protects witnesses from being forced to incriminate themselves. To "plead the Fifth" is to refuse to answer a question because the response could provide self-incriminating evidence of an illegal act punishable by fines, penalties or forfeiture.[13]

Historically, the legal protection against self-incrimination was directly related to the question of torture for extracting information and confessions.[14][15]

The legal shift away from widespread use of torture and forced confession dates to turmoil of the late 16th and early 17th century in England.[16] Anyone refusing to take the oath ex officio mero (confessions or swearing of innocence, usually before hearing any charges) was considered guilty.[16] Suspected Puritans were pressed to take the oath and then reveal names of other Puritans. Coercion and torture were commonly used to compel "cooperation." Puritans, who were at the time fleeing to the New World, began a practice of refusing to cooperate with interrogations. In the most famous case John Lilburne refused to take the oath in 1637. His case and his call for "freeborn rights" were rallying points for reforms against forced oaths, forced self-incrimination, and other kinds of coercion. Oliver Cromwell's revolution overturned the practice and incorporated protections, in response to a popular group of English citizens known as the Levellers. The Levellers presented The Humble Petition of Many Thousands to Parliament in 1647 with 13 demands, third of which was the right against self-incrimination in criminal cases. These protections were brought to America by Puritans, and were later incorporated into the United States Constitution through the Bill of Rights.

Protection against self-incrimination is implicit in the Miranda rights statement, which protects the "right to remain silent." This amendment is also similar to Section 13 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In other Commonwealth of Nations countries like Australia and New Zealand, the right to silence of the accused both during questioning and at trial is regarded as an important right inherited from common law, and is protected in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and in Australia through various federal and state acts and codes governing the criminal justice system.

The Supreme Court has held that "a witness may have a reasonable fear of prosecution and yet be innocent of any wrongdoing. The privilege serves to protect the innocent who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances."[17]

[end excerpt]

===================================

How did Bush II and Crew sidestep the human right to remain silent?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/tort-a20.shtml

[excerpt]

A threadbare legal defense

The first three memos signed by OLC lawyers Jay Bybee and Steven G. Bradbury—one was written on August 1, 2002, and two are dated May 10, 2005—deal primarily with the potential legal consequences of violating Section 2340A of title 18 of the United States Code, which defines torture and outlaws it.

The fourth memo, written on May 30, 2005, addresses the potential bearing of international law on the CIA’s methods—specifically Article 16 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (hereafter “UN Convention”), to which the US is a signatory, and the relationship of that law to the US Constitution.

Any objective analysis of Section 2340A would leave no doubt that the CIA’s methods violated US statutes. The law reads, in part,

‘torture’ means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering... upon another person within his custody or physical control; ‘severe mental pain or suffering’ means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering... (C) the threat of imminent death.

The memos analyze, in nauseating detail, each particular form of torture, and conclude time and again that these methods do not inflict suffering “severe” enough to meet the US Code’s definition of torture.

More astounding still, the memos claim that since it was not the specific intention of the torturers to inflict pain and suffering, but to gather intelligence, no interrogator has violated the law. Using this rationale, ripping out teeth, nails, or dismembering a body would also fall outside the scope of the law—so long as these forms of torture were means to an end, rather than an end in and of themselves.

The pseudo-legal claims attempting to free torturers from the constraints of international law and the Constitution are equally dubious.

The central argument of the fourth memo is that since the UN Convention applies to territories under US jurisdiction, it cannot apply to the US prison black sites where torture took place, as these were in the territory of other sovereign states such as Afghanistan, Poland, Morocco and Thailand. Therefore, according to the Bush administration, the laws agreed to by the US in the UN Convention have no bearing.

This is a lie. The secret US military prisons were entirely under the control of the US. However, the local ruling elites, by virtue of allowing the US to torture on their territories, are a party to the crime and should also face investigation.

In a parallel argument, the memo claims that as the “war on terror” is not a typical war, it is not covered by the prohibitions against torture spelled out in the Geneva Conventions.

In a second major argument, the fourth memo cites a US Senate reservation to the UN Convention that stipulated that for the US, the Convention’s prohibition on “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” would be defined by those actions prohibited by the 5th, 8th, and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

Unsurprisingly, Bradbury’s memo finds that none of these amendments prohibit any of the actions in question. In other words, neither international nor domestic law prohibiting torture applied to prisoners in “the war on terror.”

However, just to be safe, the memo notes that the CIA has “asked whether the interrogation techniques at issue would violate” the UN Convention if the sweeping claims made by the Justice Department failed to stand up to judicial scrutiny. Obligingly, the Justice Department attorney found, once again, that none of the specific instance of torture actually violate the UN Convention prohibiting torture.

Regarding the 5th Amendment, the Justice Department claimed that the methods deployed on terror suspects could not possibly “shock the conscience”—the traditional legal standard for determining violations of due process—as they were necessary to avert the potential of a terrorist attack.

Notwithstanding the fact that Washington has never provided a shred of credible evidence that its violations of law and human rights have prevented any terrorist attack, it should be noted that, in modern history, every regime that has ever carried out systematic torture—including Nazi Germany—has always claimed that it was necessary to do so for national security reasons.

[end excerpt]

================================

Guantanamo is still in operation. And a recent report from Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now! indicates that the U.S. government is providing covert, monetary, and political support for secret torture prisons in Somalia.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/13/jeremy_scahill_reveals_cia_facilit...

[excerpt]

...

then I also met a man who claimed that he had been held in an underground prison in the basement of the National Security Agency, which is one of the facilities where the CIA has its personnel, and it’s literally behind the presidential palace in Villa Somalia, which is the semi-fortified area where Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, the U.S.-backed government, is based. And he described to me that he had seen prisoners inside of this and talked to prisoners inside of this basement dungeon who had been there for 18 months or more. There were people that he described as young boys inside the prison, old men, described infestation of bedbugs and mosquitoes, no windows. Prisoners are never allowed to see the light of day, and people are literally going crazy in the basement of this prison. And he said that he had seen both U.S. and French agents, white men, interrogating prisoners, and that some of the prisoners claimed that they had been snatched in neighboring Kenya and brought, rendered, to Somalia. And so, I started that investigation, and more sources came forward when I was in Mogadishu to describe this and confirmed that CIA personnel and possibly U.S. military intelligence personnel are interrogating prisoners held in that basement facility.

We found one man, in particular, the case of one man, in particular, named Ahmed Abdullahi Hassan, who was a 25- or 26-year-old Kenyan of Somali descent, but he’s a Kenyan citizen, who was snatched from his home in July of 2009. And his lawyers allege that he was rendered to Somalia, and they said that it had all the hallmarks of a U.S. rendition....

As far as the interrogations go inside of this basement prison, the U.S. official that was made available to me for this story said that the U.S. does not directly interrogate prisoners, we jointly "debrief" suspects with Somali agents present—again, it’s all a semantic game—and insisted that it’s only happened a few times in the past year.

...

[end excerpt]

====================================

When there exist interrogation and 'detainment'/imprisonment for the purpose of interrogation in violation of the recognized and code-ified right to remain silent in law for centuries, is this not an indication of the continued presence of rogue elements in our government who hold their actions and themselves above the law?

Nassim Haramein very cheerfully shares his version of a unified field theory...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y5bXdx5UrE

Geoengineering -- there is more than Establishment investment and promotion information. This is a very impressive overview by cool heads.

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/5202

ETC Group Briefing for CBD COP 10 in Nagoya: Geoengineering

Briefing and recommendations for Delegates to CBD COP10 in Nagoya

Geoengineering is the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s systems by artificially changing oceans, soils and the atmosphere. More than a set of technologies, however, it is a political strategy. Rather than nurturing and protecting biodiversity, geoengineering aims to create conditions that will allow us to sustain the excesses that brought on the current ecological and social crisis. It also allows the governments responsible for almost all historic greenhouse gas emissions to sidestep compensating the global South, which is not culpable in climate change but suffering its effects. In other words, geoengineering offers a technological “fix” to the same governments and industries that both created the climate crisis and failed to adopt policies that would mitigate its damage.

[continued below]

Quotes regarding censorship via book burning from
http://archive.ifla.org/faife/litter/subject/bookfire.htm

"The paper burns, but the words fly away."

Ben Joseph AKIBA
Jewish Palestinian religious leader (A.D. C. 50- C.135)

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."

Ray BRADBURY
U.S. science-fiction writer (1920-)

[continued below]

Regarding your list of questions, Nobody:

This seemed worth taking some time on, worth analyzing. So here goes:

Q."Do you believe we should implement absolute caps on carbon emissions?"

Do I "believe..."? Well, I consider belief in the realm of religious dogma and faith in that dogma, so I will not use that word -- especially since I do not consider science to be a religion (and you often say things that indicate you do consider modern Science an infallible 'something', a powerful force akin to a religious God, a perspective with which I do not agree).

Science is just a tool (and I introduce here the observation that science is a tool that can be manipulated by greedy profiteering capitalists, imperialists, etc.).

I am committed to choosing the best, most sensible solutions (rather than merely scientific solutions) available. From my perspective, such solutions should be based on results of past experiences (past successes and failures, including those in historical records), moral guidance, observation (including scientific, but not limited to scientific).

Has the carbon emissions model been developed by those using the best science input available or using that input the best way, or is it the product of the limited perspective of a small (even elite) group? I think this article helps address this concern:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9763

Then what follows is -- if carbon emissions are not the whole picture but only part, is it worth creating a single economic response based primarily on carbon emissions? I'd say don't put all your eggs in one basket.

But let's just say for this moment, we are dealing with this limited scope method of looking at pollution called "carbon is our evil enemy". Are caps, cap&trade, and carbon credits the best or only possibility in handling the issue?

Here's and a very interesting analysis over at the site of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) that indicates an outright TAX ON POLLUTERS (which creates a fund -- like any other fund (ie, gas tax for road repair, etc.) -- would do the trick without creating another either another Wall Street-like trading apparatus or another Federal Reserve Bank-like Central Banking System -- although in this case it would be a system for the valuation and traffic of "carbon credits". (If anyone reads this paper a different way, let me know.)--

http://cantwell.senate.gov/issues/Economic%20Policy%20Risks%20-%20Mason....

The paper acknowledges that the cap&trade system in Europe is dominated by special interests. And I like this quote:

A firm’s incentives to invest significantly in
newer, cleaner technologies for the long-term are
undermined when prices of emissions credits are
extremely volatile and therefore cloud long-term
price signals in the short-term.

Ewww. Carbon trading could actually undermine the green economy through market manipulation? Doesn't sound like WE THE PEOPLE or THE PLANET EARTH would benefit from that!

Nobody, is your intent in this "debate" to ask us questions to make us all USE AND ADAPT ourselves to the VOCABULARY and METHODOLOGY of the POLLUTERS THEMSELVES who have devised this cap&trade system? I really don't want to go along with that, because it is my view that an outright tax on polluters -- that is making the polluters pay for their own pollution -- is a valid approach. I'm thinking an outright tax could be coupled with a HUGE low-interest loan system or tax credit system and new green construction requirements for converting to solar or other technologies. The richest businesses can afford the tax; the green incentives could help the less rich and entrepreneurs.

I'd like to see limits devised on pollution that are not allowed to be fudged on (the 'trade' in 'cap&trade is a fudging device from my perspective). Are these limits synonymous with your word "caps"? I'm not sure. Can a tax alone do that? No, probably not, so I think we will also need a structure of fines on the polluters. Are some of the biggest polluters our own utilites? Yes. Will the costs be passed on to us? Yes, unless we devise programs to fasttrack green energy sources and local solutions.

I think communities can solve these local problems. Surely the Elites and Globalists don't want to let us take charge; they want control, and they want us to pay no matter what. If we pay anyway, let's pay for what benefits us, not just what benefits the special interests and their profit curve.

My friend says the capitalists will game ANY system devised, and it is just a matter of time before they dominate even the best system devised. His examples: We gave them the railroads and they ran them to the ground; we did everything their way for the airlines and it's a mess; they self govern Wall Street and we have to bail them out. How about this time we do it OUR way and tell them we are in charge and they can't turn this pollution 'crisis' into another Wall Street Gambling Casino?! If they eventually get the upper hand by hook and crook and graft and bribe as capitalists do, well we bought some time. But to let them call the shots from the git-go? NOT THIS TIME. Don't you agree -- the PLANETARY problem is too great to play more casino investment games?

Q."Do you believe that we should penalise companies that emit more than they should be?"

Forget the belief stuff. As I wrote above, I think polluter corporations should be charged for their pollution and fined for breaking laws regarding limits. If they are provided methods (incentives based on their profits/wealth) to become green/clean, they should not have anything to cry about. (And if they make crap like styrofoam coffee cups, let them die painfully, maybe?)

Q."Do you believe that we should invest the money from those penalties into green technology?"

Forget the belief. If our government could tell toy makers to retool to become arms producers during WWII, why shouldn't we be able to make equally drastic orders and more to force companies to go green? Take over the styrofoam cup company and make them build solar panels!

Q."Do you believe that global warming is occuring?"

Is it REALLY a matter of belief? Something is messing with the environment. Our frogs are gone, our oak trees are dying. It was so hazy and cool last year, my veggie garden fizzled. If the Twin Towers can be dropped into their footprints FASTER than a demolition, and Americans can be told/sold it was a couple planes that did it and Iraq was part of it and needed to be occupied and its oil fields de-nationalized as a result -- hey, what other smoke and mirrors can occur? I want investigations on 9/11 and the Iraq War Lies AND what the causes are for our increasingly bizarre weather non-patterns. I want some scientific investigations here. Not just cap and trade programs devised by the usual group of capitalist profiteer opportunists.

Q."What do you think will happen with the present rate of warming?"

I gather you mean the "rate of warming" you are quoting, and those figures -- are they based strictly on the carbon model again?

I've no idea what will happen. I'm not even sure the data so far meets any criteria for dependability. I'm not privy to collection protocols or who gets to decide what numbers are included and so on. I don't know if the figures we are given are fault free. They certainly are high enough to induce FRIGHT, aren't they? They are the type of figures that indicate "emergency!" and "we have to do something quick, so make a decision now!" (Sort of like the bank bail-out emergency -- and now it seems we could have let the Too Big To Fail Banks just flop down and cry "I've fallen and I can't get up" and that might have been better. Let them fail and give the bail out to the mortgagees who were scammed.) What I don't like happening is people who survive a mega-tornado being told our pool of tax dollars cannot be used to help them survive the post-storm trauma. We've got tremendous problems, and I think they are made worse by the lack of moral fiber of those in power, by the horrible corruption of disaster capitalism that is stepping in after every disaster of any kind. Is global heating a money maker? I think an answer to this question needs to be sought -- the money made from disasters needs to followed. Equally needed is an answer to "What will happen with the present rate of moral decline?" Is it the crux of the reason polluters keep polluting for profit, maybe?)

Q."Do you believe that humans are the most significant single contributing factor to global warming?"

Belief, again. Since I am not omniscient, it certainly would be a matter of forming an opinion based on belief alone, imo.

In looking at history/anthropology and the cause of migrations/collapse of populations, it is clear humans have a great deal of experience with ruining their chances for keeping-on-keeping-on because they over-irrigate, over-graze, deforest, pollute water sources, overcrowd living conditions (leading to stress and disease), and are unwilling to share their environs with other species. So far, we've always had another patch of Earth to which to immigrate. But now we're everywhere at the very time our elites/ruling class have devised ways to get super rich loading the atmosphere with (what looks to be) near full capacity industrial pollution.

We are messing with the Earth is disgusting ways -- from 500 pounds of airborne plutonium from Fukushima, to nuclear dead zones, to abandoned, leaking copper mines, to smog-smothered cities, to water supplies full of dissolved pharmaceuticals, to stagnant manmade mega-lakes behind the Three Gorges MegaDam, and on and on. Why not guess we are the main cause of global heating?

AND I'll go further and say I also wonder if it is not limited to a case of messy humans repeating past behavior another time. I wonder if there is purposeful tinkering going on in pursuit of further disaster capitalism profits, consolidation of property/real estate during a time of man-made chaos, and if we are to take David Rockefeller's autobiography at its word (I'll look for the quote), a plan by the Ruling Elite to depopulate the riff-raff so there's more for the Ruling Elite.

My recent 'trips' into Ancient Egyptian history brought me up against the amazing truth that these ancient Africans conducted the longest sustained continuous culture we know of, and I keep looking for the why of that in my 'trips'. What creates cultural homeostasis? Well, it sure isn't pollution for profit. (We must never forget that in modern times the reason people pollute is it makes them more profit (at least short term).)

Q."Do you understand the concept of "runaway global warming"?"

Hmmm. I see you use the word "concept" instead of reality. It is a theory.

In my cyber wanderings here and there I've noticed that there are critics of the carbon proponents computer-generated models and selective programs. The criticism includes the observation that the computer model does not account for variables and unpredicted developments and so on. "Runaway global warming" is a very scary concept, a situation as inescapable for humans as is a forest fire for baby animals. It makes me nauseous just contemplating it.

Q."If the planet was dying because of too much heat would you try and save it any way that you could?"

A Planet is not like a person who has a fever and the caregiver puts cool wet cloth on them to draw out the heat so his/her brain doesn't fry.

You aren't asking me to do what I'm already doing: vegan lifestyle, no car, lawn-free, no air-conditioning, no vacation travel, plant trees, live simply...

So what are you asking of me, Nobody? Are you asking me to take a political stand and apply political pressure on The Authorities so they will have the public support they need to promote, fund, institute cap&trade and geoengineering (the big geoengineering package that coopts the REforestation I DO approve of despite the fact that it contains the nasty geoengineering I DON'T approve of)? Should I start agitating to save the Planet via the items in this list of questions you ask?

Be more clear with this question of yours, Nobody, because, as it is, it is a question sticky with a lot of STUFF like fear and GUILT and EMERGENCY and imminent death throes and situation ethics. So crowded with that stuff that it doesn't allow room for any reasoning about the who and what of the solutions available -- like just WHO are the GATEKEEPERS of those solutions -- like, are the GATEKEEPERS of your solutions Exxon, Beoing, Massey Coal & the Clean Coal Guys, et al?

Q."Do you want people to not remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it?"

Here is the link for a position paper from the Union of Concerned Scientists on CO2 storage. Very interesting.

http://www.earthdaycoalition.org/documents/geo_carbon_seq_for_web.pdf

They indicate it is not necessarily cost effective. The pros and cons seem thorough in this paper. They indicate CO2 storage is in no way a stand-alone solution.

I certainly wouldn't want to live near a CO2 storage sinkhole, because a leak would prove deadly. These storage pits are just dumps afterall. I'd rather look at a beautiful rainforest of carbon storage.

I want to see the Earth's own systems deal with the CO2 -- the plant world, the oceans.

Reforest. Everywhere. Along roadways. Require deep hedgerows with tall trees included on all farmland (pesticide companies hate this because it cuts down on spread of pests and the need for pesticides). Tax incentives for all property owners FOR EACH TREE they grow, increasing the incentive as the tree gets larger.

Q."Would you like to see the biggest polluters financing tree planting projects?"

I think financing REforestation and financing sustained forested areas should be DUES for Planetary habitation for all the Moneybags -- the polluters, the banks, the investor class by their swimming pools, the inheritance class, et al. The Rich have been freeloaders long enough. Some of them even got rich off the forests -- like forests felled on public lands leased at $5 an acre. Sheesh. But it can be an outright tax; it doesn't have to be a new investment casino game for them to play -- called Cap&Trade. It can happen without Cap&Trade.

(But will we get them to share the load? Do they care to play a major role in reempowering the Earth's biosphere if we can't even get them to pay their share of the taxes for upkeep of normal services? Reversal of the Reagan Tax Cuts for the Richest is imperative; tag these anti-pollution charges on to.)

Many humans have already died in this unusual weather. I'm thinking of those in Europe during the freak heatwave some years back, and many more died in the extreme temperatures in India I read about. What a horrible death dying in relentless heat. I'd rather freeze. And then each additional disaster. Deeper floods. Bigger storm systems. Do the poorest suffer the most?

If The Establishment can convince the majority that Iraq was in on the 9/11 attack and motivate backing for the Iraq invasion, they can motivate Americans to do anything. Too bad they don't let out all the stops for motivating this country to simplify lifestyle and relinquish our demand on 25 percent of the Earth's resources.

The Power Elite's operatic subtext

Wagner's "Ring", no less!

Must the Power Elite be SO OBVIOUS? So in-your-face? So full of themselves, yet again neverending?

While over 2,500 Americans lose their homes DAILY, the Power Elite will be sipping champagne and showing off their jewelry and pricely evening clothes both at the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera which are staging the MOST EXPENSIVE opera in existence, Wagner's "Ring" of four operas.

Now why is that? Is it because the Power Elite are celebrating the success of consolidating into their Have More Swiss bank accounts nearly all The Peoples' wealth (real estate, investments, debt scam payments, overpriced healthcare scalping, gaspump gouging, public subsidies for nuclear power and oil DESPITE a Planet-killing inability to control the technology's disasters the costs of which The Public also will pay in attempts to correct or contain them)?

The Power Elite LOVES The Ring with its symbolism of Gods (Have Mores?) and and Demi-Gods (Haves?) and their battles for control and domination.

And to have two Ring productions going on both coasts this year wreaks of pure gloating party-time for the Obscenely Rich Have Mores and their hanger on Haves. BOTH COASTS. This is a coast-to-coast Victory Celebration of the Power Elite worth noting! (And I won't even go into the importance of Wagnerian symbolism for the Nazi-set, because I think the fact that homelessness is sky-rocketing while the Power Elite enjoy the most expensive operas on Earth is quite an adequate argument for exposing Power Elite concerns and priorities.)

Art is not just pretty stuff. It is SYMBOLISM. It can be propaganda at its best and worst. The Power Elite, even evident from Egyptian times, realize that Art wows and sells their notions ("Don't I look amazing on this golden diaz covered in jewels -- I must be a God or God's chosen ruler, don't you agree?") and makes for mesmerizing theatre; fastforward to our time and the Power Elite still love to flaunt it (and I notice the Pope doesn't wear a nice tweed sportcoat, ever). They even have figured out MORE ways to get the public to play a role in securing the value of their kind of art; museums and exhibitions and university study endowments assure art is catalogued and displayed to The Public not so much to share it with you and me, but to make sure the cultural value is secured and prices of their artistic holdings will increase and be a dependable investment and mesmerizing force in their bag of tricks ("And, WOW, here we are in the sitting room of CEO Blah-Blah with part of his Picasso collection!"). And operas and symphonies -- well The Public helps subsidize them, but who of us can afford to go, as even standing-room-only costs more than a week's worth of FOOD!

Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-Art. I am pro-Art, when one keeps one's eyes open and sees it in context, and from the standpoint that Art can be used for many things. And, in the case of the Ring mania, it can be used by the Ruthless and Greedy Power Elite to symbolize their recent triumph over the rest of us.

Think on this when you next hear that Ride Of the Valkyries!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aKAH_t0aXA&playnext=1&list=PLD9528ED0958...