wildlife corridors

“Of all the decisions any society must make, perhaps the most fundamental ones concern the natural world, for it is upon the earth’s biota – its plants, animals, waters, and other living substances – that all human existence ultimately depends.” 
    -- Karl Jacoby, Crimes against Nature, 2001.

The County of Ventura, in Southern California, squeezed between the Counties of Los Angeles to the southeast, Santa Barbara to the west and Kern to the north, has made a fundamental, life-affirming decision: its plans for wildlife connectivity, if approved by the County Board of Supervisors early in March, will be the most far-reaching provisions of their kind in California. But, just like high-speed rail, they face a panoply of reactionary forces arrayed against them. But it now appears, that of the two projects, wildlife corridors are the more likely to transcend this opposition.
    -- John Davis

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belly up

Zepp

thanx and a tip of the shark fin to Tom

slower food

"Consider biodiversity as a global puzzle. Losing too many pieces makes the picture incomplete. Thus, biodiversity loss for food and agriculture represents a big risk for food security."
    -- Bernard Lehmann, Switzerland, secretary of state for agriculture
global-food-supplies-risk-irreversible

experienced?

naveed

all aboard the music bus

“There is another way of perceiving music which many cultures, including earlier European cultures, share: that music is in the middle of all life, a basic element of being human, one that plays a continuous role in the life of the community and of every person in it. Inherent in this understanding of music is that, just like the capacity for language, music is part of our DNA and ‘doing’ music is part of human existence. It is what we do as we work, play, love, celebrate, suffer, mourn. You might say that we are music: from the rhythm of our heartbeat, our breath or our walking or dancing step, to the perception of tone everywhere in our lives, to the melody of our voices: music is in our bodies and in our spirits. . . . Music is a universally shared human trait, and all people have it in them.”
    -- Laura Hassler, Musicians Without Borders

the-music-thats-in-all-of-us

musicianswithoutborders

shakes

the terrestrial

.....globalization, the populist reaction to it, an ever-widening chasm of wealth disparity, and climate change are inextricably linked....the conjoined global elites from the worlds of politics, commerce and celebrity....are, by now, fully aware of the limits to the earth’s resources, and have concluded that there is no longer room for both them and everybody else to fully satiate their material desires.
    -- John Davis

are-we-moderns-or-terrestrials?

68 and counting

In his masterpiece, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II, William Blum, who died in December 2018, wrote chapter-length accounts of 55 U.S. regime change operations against countries around the world, from China (1945-1960s) to Haiti (1986-1994).  

Since Killing Hope was published in 1995, the U.S. has conducted at least 13 more regime change operations, several of which are still active: Yugoslavia; Afghanistan; Iraq; the 3rd U.S. invasion of Haiti since WWII; Somalia; Honduras; Libya; Syria; Ukraine; Yemen; Iran; Nicaragua; and now Venezuela.

venezuela-the-68th-regime-change-disaster?

12 steps

Step Twelve: Go to War. 

US National Security Advisor John Bolton held a yellow pad with the words 5,000 troops in Colombia written on it. These are US troops, already deployed in Venezuela’s neighbour. The US Southern Command is ready. They are egging on Colombia and Brazil to do their bit. As the coup climate is created, a nudge will be necessary. They will go to war.

12-step-method-of-regime-change

no pretense

The Deep State is reacting with shock at how this right-wing real estate grifter has been able to drive other countries to defend themselves by dismantling the U.S.-centered world order. To rub it in, he is using Bush and Reagan-era Neocon arsonists, John Bolton and now Elliott Abrams, to fan the flames in Venezuela. It is almost like a black political comedy. The world of international diplomacy is being turned inside-out. A world where there is no longer even a pretense that we might adhere to international norms, let alone laws or treaties.

trumps-brilliant-strategy

trust no one

This is the age of marketing. Only that age began forty years ago, more or less, so this is now the age of hyper marketing or ultra marketing. And that all topics and concerns, literally everything, from education to policing to surveillance to nuclear disarmament, to green or ecological concerns, to politics, to gender and race, are all in service to further a total indoctrination of the populace (meaning mostly, but not exclusively the West) and a way to protect capital and solidify the power of the ruling elite. And perhaps it’s not exactly to protect Capital so much as to set the stage for a post- capitalist new feudalism.

    - John Steppling

trust-nothing

the Homeland Anthropological Institute for Racial Security

“Although we psychotherapists continue to encourage healthy self-concepts in our patients, we now feel that a healthy self-concept for an American citizen should be an advanced state of megalomania. Mere narcissism just won’t cut it.”
    -- Dr. Ziggy Schadenfreude

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