Western Rich have coopted NATO:
“MEET NATO, THE DANGEROUS “DEFENSIVE” ALLIANCE TRYING TO RUN THE WORLD
Monday’s summit showed how the “North Atlantic” Treaty Organization has decided it has an extremely expansive global mission.”
“Oddly, it turns out that the NATO’s “Atlantic security” now is largely about China, a country famously located on the Pacific, writes Jon Schwarz.”
Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis)
Driftless Area South Central Wisconsin, Dane County USA
2020 6/29 _F2A9447aaa2
“U.S. Southwest, Already Parched, Sees ‘Virtual Water’ Drain Abroad”
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“‘One can’t underestimate the significance of this victory’: How Bay Area activists Blocked the Boat”
“A win in every direction.
“At the time the Israeli ship was docking there every weekend and we successfully blockaded it for five consecutive days and then three months and since then it had not returned until this year.
Talk about ZIM, the Israeli shipping company you’re targeting. What’s their history in all this, what do their ships offload?
ZIM was actually an instrument used in the settler colonial project of the state of Israel. It brought over European settlers to Palestine in 1948. It also historically has exported weaponry from the state of Israel to various parts of the global south, but also to the United States. And in 2014, when we were blockading the ship, the same shipping line was bringing weaponry to ports across the United States to be used against black and brown communities.””
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“Young clownfish on coastal reefs dying faster due to exposure to artificial light, study finds
Researchers say species exposed for long periods to light pollution near the shore were less likely to survive than those living farther away”
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“State of the Planet”
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“How rigged is our system towards the ultra-rich?
In 2019, the 25 richest Americans – who were worth 1.1 trillion – paid a combined $1.9 billion in taxes.
It would take 14.3 million ordinary wage earners to reach their level of wealth. And they paid $143 billion. Tax the rich.”
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“Senator Feinstein‘s mansion sure looks lush for a state in the middle of a catastrophic drought.
Maybe when she’s done bullying 6 year-olds in her office she can explain to her constituents why she still refuses to support a Green New Deal.”
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America is descending deeper into raw depravity:
“NATURALLY, PLUTOCRATS AND THEIR CONGRESSIONAL MINIONS DON’T WANT TO RAISE THE SOCIAL SECURITY CAP. THEY’D RATHER STARVE THE ENTITLEMENT BEAST AND BLAME POSSIBLE SHORTFALLS ON GREEDY BOOMERS WHO GREW UP ADDICTED TO GOVERNMENT HANDOUTS. UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, WE, AND SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS, HAD BETTER HOPE THAT SOCIAL SECURITY REMAINS, AS IT WAS IN 1981, THE THIRD RAIL IN AMERICAN POLITICS.
WELFARE FOR WEAPONS MAKERS
Of course, there’s a second high-voltage, untouchable rail in American politics and that’s funding for the military and weapons manufacturers. It takes a brave politician indeed to suggest even the most minor of reductions in Pentagon spending, which has for years been the single largest item of discretionary spending in the federal budget.
It’s notoriously difficult to identify how much money the government actually spends annually on the military. President Trump’s last Pentagon budget, for the fiscal year ending on September 30th, offered about $740 billion to the armed services (not including outlays for veteran services and pensions). Or maybe it was only $705.4 billion. Or perhaps, including Department of Energy outlays involving nuclear weapons, $753.5 billion. (And none of those figures even faintly reflected full national-security spending, which is certainly well over a trillion dollars annually.)
Most estimates put President Biden’s 2022 military budget at $753 billion — about the same as Trump’s for the previous year. As former Senator Everett Dirksen is once supposed to have said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.””
“Is the Social Security system finally in trouble? It could be, thanks to the third-rail political issue of military spending.”
“Social Security Versus National Security”
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Republicans, like Democrats, offer death and destruction. And yes, Delta can mutate and yes, it is possible that it will mutate into something that makes all American’s getting vaccinated worthless:
“Undervaccinated red states are nowhere near herd immunity as dangerous Delta variant spreads”
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“Small streams in agricultural ecosystems are heavily polluted with pesticides”
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“It doesn’t take too long once you’ve left the greater Los Angeles area, away from all the lush lawns, water features, green parkways, and manicured foliage to see that California is in the midsts of a very real, potentially deadly water crisis. Acres and acres of abandoned farms, dry lake beds, empty reservoirs—the water is simply no longer there and likely won’t ever be back.
What’s happening here in California is far more than a ‘severe drought’ as the media labels the situation. The word ‘drought’ gives the impression that this is all short-lived, an inconvenience we have to deal with for a little while.”
“The Truth About the California Water Crisis”
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