Crossposted from Antemedius

"Our current way of life is unsustainable. We are the first species that will have to self-consciously impose limits on ourselves if we are to survive." -- Robert Jensen

In 2010 we watched, aghast, as British Petroleum' s Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico blew it's top and leaked umpteen millions of gallons of raw crude oil into the Gulf, poisoning and killing much of the sealife, ruining gulf coast ecosystems, and destroying a way of life for millions of south coast people.

We watched, as business and political leaders and mainstream media went into paroxysms of delusional denial to cover up the sheer unabashed criminality of the event, and tried to create a reality built of smoke and mirrors in which something approaching "normalcy" would once again reign and we could all just jump into our cars and drive off into the sunset as if nothing important or even noteworthy had happened,  while those business and political "leaders" operate in the delusion that military might, invasions and occupations, and wholesale oppression and killing of millions of people in "other" parts of the world - as if there is more than "one" world - all done using a military that paradoxically is the single largest consumer of energy in the world - will somehow secure a never ending supply of the energy required to keep our "advanced civilization" operating forever.

Remind you of a hampster wheel? Faster and faster to nowhere.

Jensen's quote opening this essay is from his 2008 article The Delusion Revolution: We're on the Road to Extinction and in Denial:

Crossposted from Antemedius

"Occupy LA has brought needed attention to the growing disparities in our country and I look forward to its ongoing efforts to build an economy that works for everyone," [Los Angeles Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa said at a press conference with police chief Charlie Beck.

"The City of Los Angeles cannot maintain the public safety of a long-term encampment," Villaraigosa explained almost two months after demonstrations started October 1.

It's obviously getting harder and harder in cities all across the country to keep sadistic rogue goon cops from attacking Americans exercising their constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.

These goons are becoming a major problem and could spark a revolution in the streets. And there are probably American companies supplying them with tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and clubs, too.

Something has to be done about this problem. It's beginning to look like there will need to be hundreds of thousands or millions of people in the streets by springtime to counter these attacks on peaceful Americans if civil authorities don't start arresting these troublemakers.

Let's see what their reaction is when there are millions of people in the streets.

Crossposted from Antemedius

It is not Obama's fault that even though he promised transparency there are still some people who are still unable to see through him.

Obama is not incompetent, nor is he stupid. He has a history of setting very high goals for himself and of achieving the goals he sets out to achieve.

He made it to President, after all. Incompetent and/or stupid people do not become President.

If he keeps on getting the kinds of results he keeps on getting, it's because those are the results he was aiming for.

Everything he's `accomplishing' he's accomplishing on purpose, because it's what he sets out to accomplish.

More than 250 protesters were arrested within the past 24 hours as Chilean students, now with support of some unions, continue their protests of government education policies. See representative news biteshere.  More on the flip

Two weeks of fun and excitement. Or maybe not. Two weeks of fighting the system, and, while not having success, at least not completely failing. At least Auburn University's 2-0...so maybe there is karmic justice somewhere. More on the flop.

British special forces are on the ground in Libya helping to spearhead the hunt for Col Muammar Gaddafi, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

As a £1 million bounty was placed on Gaddafi's head, soldiers from 22 SAS Regiment began guiding rebel soldiers after being ordered in by David Cameron.

For the first time, defence sources have confirmed that the SAS has been in Libya for several weeks, and played a key role in coordinating the fall of Tripoli.

With the majority of the capital now in rebel hands, the SAS soldiers, who have been dressed in Arab civilian clothing and carrying the same weapons as the rebels, have been ordered to switch their focus to the search for Gaddafi, who has been on the run since his fortified headquarters was captured on Tuesday.

-- The Telegraph, August 25, 2011, Libya: SAS leads hunt for Gaddafi

"When rebels ransacked Moammar Gadhafi's compound and paraded gleefully with his military hats and golf cart in Tripoli this week, the scenes sparked memories of the looting of Baghdad in 2003. It was a reminder that Libya could plunge into the same post-war anarchy that terrorized Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when thousands of civilians were killed" is the opening paragraph of Geoffrey York's Globe and Mail article Wednesday afternoon.

But Ghahafi, or Gaddafi, or Quaddafi, or whatever his name is, is gone and Freedom and Democracy has been delivered to Libyans by western humanitarian bombers, without "boots on the ground" - except CIA spook boots that aren't really there, right? Hasn't it?

Well, almost, but things are never quite as clearcut and simple as they're made out to be.

York goes on to explain that, in order to assure that only true Humanitarian Brand(TM)Freedom and Democracy is delivered to Libyans, the coalition of opportunists, sorry I mean coalition of the willing, have decided that it ain't over until the Libyan population is pacified, I mean happy and secure with their newfound 'self-determination', and the only way to accomplish self-determination for them since they aren't really capable of self-determination themselves of course (but it sounded good when it was needed), is to is to send in the police to protect them from each other.

This is all part of the no-fly resolution of course - it's just the baggage that wouldn't fit in the luggage compartments of the bombers dropping freedom bombs - the fine print, as it were.

Call it "Mission Yet To Be Accomplished", for short.

Results are in. Every portion of the prostate, lymph nodes around it, and possibly more spreading.

Looks like the aggressive type. Woohoo! I don't do anything half way.

Instead of an 8-12 week wait, I head up possibly Monday for the CAT scan and bone scan, then meet with the doctor Wednesday.

[UPDATE: edited for clarity and to follow site rules. If your comments have disappeared, sole responsibility lies with the author, who expresses sincere apologies.]

Good news on one small front. No more Cipro until Tuesday, 2 hours before the biopsy. Nasty infection cured.

But one immediate obstacle down doesn't take away the uncertainty of my condition. That's why I am planning to live.

Bureaucracy exists in every field, from government to medicine to education. Yet medicine will be at least the point of the spear in this diary.

Sounds like an odd title, but without a doubt, plenty of folks have the same problems that I face. A diagnosis of cancer, dwindling benefits, and fear.

I thought I'd diary today on what I'm thinking, feeling, and going through today, maybe a follow-up tonight. Who knows? I'm in a state of not knowing, and I want to know!

As you know from my TL name, I'm Jeffinalabama. I'm a baby boomer, and like many boomers, been married and divorced, with a child. I decided to re-introduce myself in this, my inaugural diary here at TalkLeft.

First and foremost, let me state again much gratitude to Jeralyn for letting me become a diarist here. I will do my best to not let the history or principals of this site down.

Secondly, you get to read all about me, me, me, in the full text.

Crossposted from Antemedius

...............

In 2010, American voters foolishly aided and abetted the Republicans by giving them control of Congress.

We now enter a very dangerous period in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election.

If Obama is not re-elected, and people don't work towards returning workable majorities in the House and the Senate to the Democrats, then the country only continues its decline, and all will be lost.

It may be the end of a two century great social experiment unequaled in human history.

Warning! I'm about to vent some frustration with Chris Matthews. No profanity, Jeralyn! I honor the protocol of the TalkLeft blog.

My annoyance with Matthews focuses on two of his behaviors. First, he sucks up and drops names. Maybe he sucks-up because he worships power regardless of character (Tom DeLay, Fred Thompson, etc.? Sheesh!); he drops names almost certainly because he's more or less subconsciously emulating the nursery rhyme character Little Jack Horner:

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner

Eating his Christmas pie,

He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum

And said "What a good boy am I!

"Look whom I know! Look whom I party with! Look whom I can call a `friend'! How cool is that?  See what a good boy I am?"

Time to pause and gather the threads of the argument.

Just above, I was talking about two manifestations of one aspect of my annoyance with Chris Matthews: namely, his strange hero worship and his pride in being a cocktail-circuit, prideful Washington insider. My second annoyance is that he rarely actually listens to what his "guests" are saying; instead he looks for (or forces) wedges to allow him to interrupt and pontificate.

Yes, I know. This is S.O.P. for the major media. But that doesn't mitigate its annoyance, let alone make it positive, constructive, or right. Indeed, it's exactly the opposite. Tonight's example? The guests came from opposing ideological perspectives, but they agreed that what matters most for Obama's re-election chances is whether the unemployment percentage is perceived to be falling, idling, or rising.

So how did Matthews respond? "Yeah, yeah. But the unemployment rate right now is...." (Memory, not transcript. But I'm confident that's fair.)

From a generous perspective, Matthews seems deaf, dismissive, and/or disrespectful here. From a less generous perspective, he seems rude, dismissive, close-minded, and ... well, my point's no doubt obvious.

And not just Micronesia -- all of us, everywhere in the world.

I'm interested in whether the Micronesian States' claims about Transboundary Environmental Impact might provide one more way to bring public awareness and (dare one hope?) pressure to bear on the global warming crisis.

Yeah, I know. Very few persons in U.S. government seem to pay much attention to law or justice these days - especially international law. Still, one can dream. The environmental effects of global warming are evident right now in the U.S., causing immense human and economic destruction. And the carbon emissions right here in the U.S. are causing even more destruction to other nations. Any of the lawyers reading this blog have a thought how accountability might be attached?

And do any of the artists reading this have a complementary thought: We need another version of Al Gore's film, this time with fewer charts and more dramatic juxtaposition and dot-connecting.

A Micronesian island nation is quite literally being eroded to nothingness by tides. Same with an island community in northern Alaska. Worst drought in who knows how long in China. Same with the U.S. Southwest - worse than the "Dust Bowl." Countless numbers of persons die in Pakistan because of flooding. The U.S. is struck by the worst tornadoes in memory.

And it's not just carbon emissions. Nuclear reactors in the Ukraine and in Japan destroy themselves, and the results affect food and radiation all around the planet.

Morally, you have the right to swing your fist as much as you want. But that right ends at the tip of my nose. You have a right to throw stones. But that right ends when one of those stones hits my wife, even if you threw it from across the border separating your yard from mine.

It's one planet. Whatever any of us does affects all of us. (No, I won't quote Donne's sermon, though I can't help thinking about it.)

I'm watching the Rachel Maddow Show right now, 9:41, May 23, EST. She just issued a call for help for the tornado victims in Missouri. Of course I'll chip in to help! Sheesh! Who wouldn't, if she or he were able? Book that ... but read on.

Start by considering any of the real-time online maps showing severe weather conditions. Example? Accuweather. (No particular endorsement, just an exemplar.) http://www.accuweather.com/severe-weather.asp This particular map is restricted to the U.S., but similar maps show conditions for the entire world. Think about it.

Severe weather "events" (as they're officially designated) occur every minute of every day, somewhere on the planet. Many simultaneously. Same with earthquakes, floods, etc. Who decides which is severe enough to justify appeals for help on network TV? On what basis is the decision made? Has anyone ever articulated the principles determining which people, where, victimized by which "event," with what human and economic cost, etc. should be made the focus of media coverage in the U.S., and of media fundraising?

It seems likely that hundreds of persons will have been killed in Missouri. That's terrible. Still, not long ago tens of thousands - probably hundreds of thousands - of persons were killed by the floods in Pakistan. That's so far beyond terrible as to be beyond my ability to express it. (Suggestions more than welcome.)

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Think about this, though. I've been talking about how we decide which effects deserve focus and private financial support. But who says we have to blinder ourselves in such a way as to think only about effects and never about causes?

Let's dip our noggins in ice water, and emerge with a new perspective. Let's think about causes rather than effects. What's causing the record levels of severe weather? Doesn't it make more sense to deal with the hydra's head than to keep jumping hither and yon in trying to deal with its geometrically multiplying tentacles?

My suggestion? We have to deal with global warming. Period. Local, national, regional advantage might be subject to conflict and negotiation. But the survival of homo sapiens depends on our dealing with global warming.