British Court Approves Julian Assange Extradition to the US

File:Julian Assange - 9060712888 (cropped).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

The British court’s ruling to extradite Julian Assange to the United States to face charges there, boosts fascism and state secrecy, sending a chilling message to the practice of journalism everywhere. The vendetta against Julian, pursued by deranged actors inside the US government seeking revenge for his exposing their ‘secrets’, is being carried out.

Today is a low point in the history of press freedom and democracy. Without a free press reporting on state actions, government can perpetrate atrocities in our name, without our consent, undermining our safety and security.

Once regarded as a paragon of  press freedom supporting democracy in the world, with this act, the United States government is following in the tradition of the worst of fascist states in their destruction of a free press. Long live the free and unfettered press!

COP26 “Greenwashing Festival” Ended – Now What?

 

Our world has become too politicized and economized. Everyone’s an expert. Thankfully there are scientists who remain undaunted by our pathetic state of affairs and are doing the hard work of providing sound guidance as to what must be done at this time. The time has come where the people must force their governments to do what’s necessary to save earth systems that support life. That translates into disaster declarations globally and instituting emergency actions across the board as cited in this report.

Militarism vs Climate Chaos Readiness

US military budget growth

The military industrial complex is a Frankenstein’s monster that must be reigned in. How? By replacing elected ignorant automaton representatives who pander to the monster with people of vision and intelligence. Sounds simple doesn’t it? It’s not. Both parties pander to the military. We must replace militarism with a reasonable level of defense only, redirecting the resources now being squandered on militaristic imperial forays towards more pressing matters, like climate chaos. The window is closing on the time remaining for the state to be proactive to address climate chaos. Soon the state will be overwhelmed responding to emergencies and disasters resulting from anthropogenic climate chaos. The money currently being wasted on militarism should be redirected towards mitigation and adaptation activities now.

 

Localization is the Appropriate Response to Climate Chaos

ACLO lecture advertisement

Touring Bolivia giving lectures about localization expressed as ‘ecopueblos’ as a response to climate chaos in an effort to cease migration to the cities. Working with UNDP, the private sector, government, academia and civil society groups. We all need to be on the same page in this effort! #climatechange #environment #climate #climateemergency #globalwarming #climatechaosmitigation #climatechaosadaptation #climatechaosresilience

Drone Program Whistleblower Receives Harsh Sentence

I personally wrote the judge about whistleblower Daniel Hale’s case requesting leniency in his sentencing. In my letter I stated “…how could a person of conscience not speak out? The impact of carrying out orders, carrying the burden of responsibility, would certainly wear a person down, questioning right from wrong, whether the ends justify the means, etc. Drone pilots are traumatized, with drug abuse, domestic violence and even suicide being the end result.” and “This young man strikes me as being an upstanding person of conscience who has suffered the ill effects of serving as a UAV pilot for targeted assassinations. I can well imagine Daniel obviously grappled with his conscience and decided to act on what in his estimation was the right, moral and just thing to do. I ask you to drop all charges against Daniel and not punish a young man for turning humane and for his actions of attempting to cease further harm.”

Daniel is a hero having provided the public with irrefutable proof that 90% of the victims of the US military drone strike program are innocents, striking wedding, funeral parties, agricultural workers, etc. e.g.  Loved ones buried after US drone strike kills 30 pine nut pickers in Afghanistan. We now know that the claims for precision are outright lies. The program is slaughtering innocents including women and children. In addition to being illegal and immoral, the US military drone program makes US citizens less safe as it foments anger and hate and the desire to strike back at the US for their slaughtering of innocents (another 911 anyone?). This is just simple common sense. Only the out-of-control heartless, evil, and immoral military industrial complex benefits.

Future historians will look back at our species and these times as being not only parasitic (killing our host), but infinitely (and fatally) distracted by our amusements. That in our cleverness, we separated ourselves so completely from nature that we were incapable of responding to the warning signs that were all around us telling us that we were literally killing the earth’s life support systems.

DIY Solar PV Array

solar PV array

It’s been awhile since I last undertook a significant construction project (years actually). Building this superstructure for a 2.9Kw solar photovoltaic array out of simple materials for my off-grid house was a personal challenge. The design is a replica of one my neighbor up the road devised. Except for a little help from my son in the beginning (digging the shelf into the hillside and placing 4 of the 6 steel pipe columns), I did the entire project myself. With this array charging a 595 amp hour battery in sunny California weather, I expect to rarely, if ever, need to use the back up generator!

The Mystery Behind a Photo of a Logged Old-Growth Tree

Cutting an ancestral tree like this should be a crime, not only in British Columbia, but worldwide. We know that old growth forests sequester more carbon than young forests. These ancient giants dwarf our cleverness and can be relied upon to maintain the Earth’s carbon cycle, if only we would let them.

‘Vegan spider silk’ provides sustainable alternative to single-use plastics

It is high time that benign substitutes for petroleum-based plastics be researched and developed. We’re poisoning the living earth, especially the oceans, and ourselves, with plastics pollution. Green chemistry and biomimicry hold great promise for homo sapiens most vexing challenges. Now if we can shift the funding from nuclear weapons modernization to life giving R&D producing products like this, we can leave our descendants a livable Earth. #materials #plastics #biomimicry #spiders #silk #petroleum #pollutionprevention #innovation #ecology #greenchemistry