So many links, so much information, so many words. Couldn’t all this be said in a few sentences to be easily read in between the deluge of incoming emails and social media posts? Shall one select just a few articles to contemplate about particular issues?
Well, all the important things can be said in a few quintessential sentences and the many links and many words are only necessary if one communicates, argues, and discusses matters with relatives, friends, and anybody else via spoken or written language. Words are also not the real thing, they are only the vehicles, marks, and pointers of our moods, emotions, desires, motivations, and visions.
Words can be misunderstood and misinterpreted, semantics can evolve and drift. Basic assumptions (axioms, propositions) of author and reader may be different. Be aware of Lao Tse: “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.”
Here a try nevertheless:
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Make compassion, benevolence, humanity the purpose of your life.
Calm down, be kind, composed, sincere. Never be impatient, perturbed, or aggressive. Don’t get confused or discouraged, don’t panic, don’t despair. Live the most modest and humble life possible, use the least possible amount of energy and resources.
Give away all the fancy stuff, only keep the absolute essentials. Try to find a meaningful use for the fancy stuff. If only to present it as an example of conspicuous consumption, of how weird our digitized consumer life has become, that already would be something.
Be a role model, a healer, teacher, preacher, prophet, sage, or saint.
Love, peace, and happiness.
Feel it, live it!
————————
Laugh about it, ridicule it, lampoon it, but tell me please any better take that you know.
Feline news:
https://nypost.com/2021/09/18/lions-tigers-likely-infected-with-covid-19-at-smithsonian-national-zoo/
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/the-cat-is-back-wild-amur-tigers-rebound-in-china-thanks-to-govt-policies/
https://theconversation.com/why-the-pandemic-made-some-cats-sick-with-stress-and-how-we-can-help-them-167666
Against the odds:
Drawing Peace
By Kaya Kastanie Ankerbo Brown
Youth category (12 and under), first place Barbara Mandigo Peace Poetry Award.
War is so ugly that I refuse to even draw it
but peace I would love to draw
I draw children playing
I draw flowers blossoming
I draw birds chirping
If you are a child in a country at war you have to be careful
and you have to hide under the trees
can you draw from there I wonder?
Let’s draw a blossoming beautiful world
where nobody is fighting
where nobody envies what the others have
where we share what we have
let’s draw now!!!
https://www.localfutures.org/6-reasons-people-of-color-should-grow-their-own-food/
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/returning-600000-acres-to-nature-one-piece-at-a-time
https://civileats.com/2021/09/02/op-ed-the-ban-on-chlorpyrifos-and-the-power-of-community-organizing
https://civileats.com/2021/09/07/the-nations-first-regenerative-dairy-works-with-nature-to-heal-the-soil-at-scale
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/09/09/what-united-us-was-empathy-community-organizations-help-tackle-hunger-in-argentina/
https://www.ehn.org/climate-change-stories-2654955912/creative-writing-and-food-justice
https://www.alleghenyfront.org/doug-tallamy-your-lawn-is-an-ecological-deadzone-the-case-for-replacing-it-with-native-plants/
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-09-10/standing-rock-is-everywhere-the-indigenous-heart-of-the-climate-change-fight/
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/brief-un-food-systems-summit.pdf
https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15268
https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15280
https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15286
https://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/ecocide/the-only-long-range-solution-to-climate-change/
Important!
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/candiani-blue-jeans-denim-sustainable-fashion/
Some useful ideas how cloth could be more environmental friendly. My jeans are all from second hand shops or flea markets and I wear them for decades. I try to buy underwear and socks with the least amount of synthetic fibers (polyester, nylon, acrylic), but it becomes increasingly difficult, as 60 percent of clothes worldwide are plastic now.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2021/08/24/colorado-river-runs-again
https://civileats.com/2021/09/30/women-are-planting-a-life-and-a-future-after-prison-at-benevolence-farm/
Environmental news:
Leave it in the ground! Cheap energy from fossil fuels just leads to wasteful and unnecessary energy use. High energy prices and scarcity on the other hand will force scientists, decision makers, and consumers to search for the most energy efficient technologies and embrace a low energy economy and lifestyle.
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/novel-entities-are-we-sleepwalking-through-a-planetary-boundary/
A very well researched article about toxic substances which humans release into the environment, threatening all life on earth. A long read with more information than one can absorb in one session, but it is essential. Please read it attentively!
https://grist.org/equity/air-pollution-billions-years-life-expectancy-who-guidelines
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-ditch-90-of-worlds-coal-and-60-of-oil-and-gas-to-limit-warming-to-1-5-c-experts-167494
The gas-stations who are masquerading as countries (Senator John McCain) will beg to differ and will insist on their national sovereignty.
https://www.ehn.org/wildfire-smoke-2654940604/far-reaching-impacts-of-wildfires
https://www.treehugger.com/world-climate-change-famine-madagascar-5200161
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic-lng-climate-crisis/2021/09/novateks-new-arctic-license-areas-are-located-protected-nature
Natural gas project in a nature reserve of the Russian Arctic.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/earths-tipping-points-closer-current-climate-plans-wont-work-global-heating
In other words: we are doomed, and with us all other life on this planet. Is this a coded call for population control? Hoping for another pandemic, much deadlier than COVID-19 and greatly reducing the number of energy wasting and poison dispersing humans?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/10/the-gritty-reality-of-solar-power/
https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/outrage/outrage-the-hidden-cost-of-solar-panels
https://www.ehn.org/india-and-bangladesh-water-dispute-2654841011/drought-floods-and-misallocations
https://meta.eeb.org/2021/09/16/coalympics-a-race-to-the-bottom-where-polluters-win/
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/15/drought-puts-21-million-kenyans-at-risk-of-starvation
https://mronline.org/2021/09/25/time-is-running-out-for-a-new-agricultural-model-for-the-global-south/
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/09/23/corporations-bill-gates-un-food-summit/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/14/outcry-over-killing-of-almost-1500-dolphins-on-faroe-islands
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/16/larger-than-usual-ozone-layer-hole-bigger-than-antarctica
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2290435-the-ozone-hole-over-the-south-pole-is-now-bigger-than-antarctica/
Did you really ever believe the problem of ozone layer depletion has been finally solved with the Montreal Protocol? Meaningless promises and protocols will not stop humanity’s war against nature.
https://www.rt.com/news/536069-blah-blah-blah-greta-thunberg
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/17/are-we-eating-ourselves-to-extinction
https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/blueberries-for-europe-portugal-mortgages-its-future-for-present-day-agricultural-profits-a-907d26ec-b69e-4e9d-98f1-85bf7b4b4687
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/24/the-record-breaking-failures-of-nuclear-power/
Economic news:
Economic sanctions don’t work if you sanction too many countries, it just leads to strengthened ties among those that are also being sanctioned. We’ve already been seeing this for the last decade or so. Sanctioning just means Chinese investment and Russian/Iranian trade.
Sanctions caused Russia to bring home all of its supply chain. The investment has cost a lot, but 20 years later it has left the country with increased economic capacity, a much broader and diverse economy, increasing blue collar jobs that take home steady wages and greater sovereignty. Russia now looks eastward to Eurasia for its economic growth, and has left Western Europe out in the cold as Western nations are unreliable customers.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/09/14/our-gods-have-no-heads/
https://www.rt.com/business/533991-yuan-trade-settlements-hainan-asean
https://www.rt.com/russia/534126-unite-eurasia-us-supremacy-end
Geopolitical ruminations which in the end may just be idle talk, as environmental disasters and pandemics pose unforeseen challenges.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/13/the-vocabulary-of-neoliberal-diplomacy-in-todays-new-cold-war/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Excessive-Working-Hours-Kill-Nearly-2-Million-People-Each-Year-20210917-0022.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/22/gbps-s22.html
Appalling numbers about rising inequality and poverty.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/22/food-s22.html
Rising food prices increase global hunger.
https://theconversation.com/why-global-food-prices-are-higher-today-than-for-most-of-modern-history-168210
https://www.globalresearch.ca/eurasia-takes-shape-how-sco-just-flipped-world-order/5756560
Cheerful and most likely overly optimistic, but let us dream…
https://carnegieendowment.org/chinafinancialmarkets/56856
Perfectly logical, but I’m not completely convinced, because this model is an abbreviation of the real world. That the USA always can print money to avoid default, pressure allies and depending nations to buy US government bonds, and continue to trade cheap commodities for overpriced services, is not factored in. Resource scarcity (water, minerals) and natural disasters (storms, droughts, heatwaves) are not mentioned. US military and economic pressure to let US corporations make windfall profits (Pfizer vaccine) is not mentioned.
Pandemic news:
Singapore, Vietnam, Israel are not anymore examples of successful pandemic policies, China and New Zealand still hold.
Pictures from USA show most people wearing surgical masks, cloth masks, or no masks at all. Surgical and cloth masks provide insufficient protection against aerosol transmission of COVID-19.
In May the EU (European Union) signed a third contract for Pfizer CO:VID-19 vaccines. The EU agreed to pay 19.5 Euros for each of the 1.8 billion doses, up from 15.5 Euros per dose under two initial supply contracts for a total of 600 million vaccines.
Mainstream media has failed to remind us that in 2009 Pfizer Inc. pleaded guilty to criminal charges. With a 2,3 billion US$ fine this was the largest health care fraud settlement in US history.
Crime pays off, at least in the pharmaceutical industry.
Delta has diminished the efficacy of current vaccines, particularly with respect to low-level infections, so that the virus continues to spread. While vaccines mean milder symptoms for most, even asymptomatic people carry the same amount of the virus in their respiratory tract and can easily spread it.
Nasal vaccines are under development, and they have the potential to be game-changers, since they could achieve near-sterilizing-immunity-level reductions in contagion. But the earliest they would be ready to launch is late 2022.
The pandemic is likely to weigh more heavily on skill formation than standard recessions. The enormous number of education hours lost through school and university closures will significantly reduce human-capital accumulation. While there is scope for catch-up learning among younger children, older children and adults on the cusp of entering the workplace may have permanently missed out on learning.
Periods of unemployment are associated with skills erosion, loss of contact with the labour market, stigmatism, and a willingness to take unsuitable employment opportunities.
https://bestlifeonline.com/news-cloth-masks-protective-study/
https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/4/we-are-not-doing-enough-prevent-spread-covid-19-and-other-respiratory-viruses
https://nursingnotes.co.uk/news/surgical-masks-may-not-be-sufficient-to-protect-healthcare-workers-admits-sage/#.YTsxUi2B0UQ
——————
https://theconversation.com/how-will-the-covid-pandemic-end-167244
There will be more and more articles like this, telling that COVID-19 will stay and become part of our life, that it will be manageable and a return to our old routines will be possible. The authors will further admit, that vaccine protection wanes over time but will insist that vaccines are still highly effective at preventing severe disease. What such articles omit, is that infections, even asymptomatic ones, can cause lasting organ damage, that virus mutations may evade immune system responses, and that a confluence of crises (covid, climate change, chemical contamination, eco-system collapse) will make adaptation impossible.
Such articles are written for the broad public. Clever people and most at the upper end of the social hierarchy will still try to avoid COVID-19 at all costs, while the worker bees have to ignore the pandemic and continue being cogs in the profit machine.
https://neuburger.substack.com/p/our-two-covid-problems
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/06/econ-s06.html
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Peru-to-Install-a-Sputnik-V-Vaccine-Production-Plant-20210907-0002.html
https://theconversation.com/israel-was-a-leader-in-the-covid-vaccination-race-so-why-are-cases-spiralling-there-166945
Trying to explain, why Israel, a nation with one of the highest vaccination rates, now experiences a surge in COVID-19 infections. The article tries to convey the message, that vaccines make a difference and are absolutely necessary, but the purpose of the article is so obvious, that nobody will be convinced.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/29/sing-s29.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/09/12/1036356773/i-got-a-mild-breakthrough-case-heres-what-i-wish-id-known
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/15/big-pharma-secrets-revealed-group-uncovers-portion-pfizer-vaccine-recipe
https://theconversation.com/covid-in-schools-how-ventilation-can-help-to-combat-spread-of-virus-165434
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09-droplets-coronaviruses-longer-previously-thought.html
https://www.voanews.com/a/in-3-covid-patients-report-long-term-symptoms-study-finds/6235376.html
https://theconversation.com/preliminary-research-finds-that-even-mild-cases-of-covid-19-leave-a-mark-on-the-brain-but-its-not-yet-clear-how-long-it-lasts-166145
https://www.globalresearch.ca/owner-diagnostic-lab-reports-20-times-increase-cancer-vaccinated-patients/5756399
Warnings about dangerous side-effects of vaccines are usually censored and discussions about the merits of these warnings are suppressed.
YouTube is taking down video channels associated with high-profile anti-vaccine activists, including Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as part of a set of policies aimed at cutting down on anti-vaccine content on the Google-owned site.
https://www.rt.com/news/536174-youtube-bans-anti-vax/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/tougher-terms-why-eu-is-paying-more-new-covid-shots-2021-08-03/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/18/braz-s18.html
About Brazil.
https://cepr.net/evil-doers-the-pharmaceutical-industry-and-the-pandemic
https://mronline.org/2021/09/24/new-york-times-advises-china-on-covid-19-abandon-success-try-failure/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/28/life-s28.html
Record decline of life expectancy.
Media, technology, and propaganda news:
Caitlin Johnstone:
Politicians of a certain level understand that as far as the media are concerned it doesn't matter so much how you answer as that you answer. If it's a difficult question you just keep your mouth moving without actually saying anything until the question goes away.
This is why it always feels like you're being lied to when you watch presidential debates. Candidates understand how to keep their mouths moving and word salad about freedom and American democracy and whatever without actually giving a concrete answer to a difficult question.
They do it because they know it works. And they know it works because they know the plutocrat-controlled media are driven by empire apologia first, ratings second, advertisers third, and holding the powerful to account somewhere near the bottom of the list.
Propaganda causes us to misperceive reality in a way that benefits establishment power structures, so we don't rise up and use the power of our numbers to put an end to the status quo which oppresses and exploits us.
https://fair.org/home/nyt-china-needs-to-rethink-its-not-letting-people-die-from-covid-policy/
Valuable advice from the nation which managed to make the biggest profit (Pfizer) from the pandemic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58441662
The use of comment sections for propaganda has been going on since years, with the US and Israel as main actors. It is inevitable, that Western propagandists accuse Russia of organized comment campaigns to deflect from their own use of this method.
https://www.rt.com/russia/534073-durov-tiktok-degrading-app/
https://www.rt.com/news/536174-youtube-bans-anti-vax/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/YouTubes-Blocking-Russia-Today-Channels-is-Censorship-Kremlin-20210929-0005.html
https://www.rt.com/news/534753-pegasus-malware-iphone-spyware/
https://www.rt.com/news/535762-france-ministers-pegasus-spyware/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/09/22/the-u-s-may-have-lost-the-military-war-in-syria-but-has-won-the-propaganda-war-at-home-by-portraying-its-murderous-invasion-as-a-moral-crusade/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/09/20/dutch-socialist-condemns-her-partys-shameful-dumb-monkey-response-to-the-syrian-war-sadly-echoed-not-only-by-corporate-media-but-also-left-wing-media/
This report may sound exaggerated, pretentious, and over-sentimental to some readers, but it corresponds perfectly with the experience of other visitors to Syria who wanted to tell their stories. The Ministry of Truth doesn’t take any chances and the censorship in Western media is airtight.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/21/iran-s21.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58572385
Cryptocurrencies should be banned.
https://www.medialens.org/2021/gaslighting-the-public-serial-deceptions-by-the-state-corporate-media/
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/new-proof-emerges-of-the-biden-family
https://www.rt.com/usa/535871-cia-war-assange-yahoo/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/27/assa-s27.html
About CIA plots to to kidnap or assassinate Julian Assange.
https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-dark-web-design-how-sites-manipulate-you-into-clicking-168347
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-africa-china-uganda-5462f03bbd75bf9724a26623295fbf0e
https://fair.org/home/hbos-anti-maduro-propaganda-is-cruder-than-venezuelan-oil/
Imperial news:
https://gowans.blog/2021/09/17/what-makes-the-united-states-richer-than-its-g7-partners-imperialism-not-lower-taxes/
https://scheerpost.com/2021/09/07/how-chevron-used-the-legal-system-and-the-fbi-to-target-whistle-blowing-lawyer-steven-donziger/
Corporate law and order.
https://tomdispatch.com/the-dixie-fire-disaster-and-me/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/08/38-million-facing-food-insecurity-hunger-us-soared-nearly-9-2020
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-health-pandemics-coronavirus-pandemic-north-carolina-b9012bd212ef28dcceec583eb3ca7612
https://tomdispatch.com/the-land-of-the-free-where-so-many-of-the-brave-are-homeless/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/austerity-and-mass-murder-american-pastime
https://www.rt.com/usa/535981-murders-us-2020-fbi/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/30/sickening-indeed-the-horrors-of-big-pharma/
Imperial conquest news:
Caitlin Johnstone: Are soldiers working under the US empire the worst people in the world? No. But in terms of moral standing you'd have to rank someone who murders foreigners on behalf of imperialists and war profiteers below most of the people in your average prison.
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/09/06/pathology-of-gop-is-frighteningly-evident-in-its-lionization-of-navy-seal-killer-eddie-gallagher/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_(Navy_SEAL)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/22/ex-prisoners-recall-us-torture-afghanistans-abu-ghraib
https://abeautifulresistance.org/site/2021/8/18/feminism-as-veiled-islamophobia
https://apnews.com/article/business-afghanistan-taliban-803457fb69e6092967f5e9538cef53b0
https://www.rt.com/news/535163-kabul-drone-strike-killed-civilians/
And no Western newspaper writes about this atrocity!
https://tomdispatch.com/the-names-youll-never-know
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/09/02/afghanistan-ashraf-ghani-corrupt/
https://tomdispatch.com/the-winner-in-afghanistan-china/
——————
https://tomdispatch.com/the-u-s-military-post-afghanistan
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/534936-profits-war-us-defense-contractors
https://theconversation.com/five-myths-about-drone-warfare-busted-133660
https://www.blackagendareport.com/american-liberals-praise-biden-expense-true-peace
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/09/09/covid-19-the-money-that-never-arrives-in-cuba/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Syria-US-Blockade--Sanctions-Hinder-Economic-Social-Recovery-20210917-0015.html
https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-the-climate-bakes-turkey-faces-a-future-without-water
Turkey will use more and more water of Euphrates and Tigris, leaving the littoral states Syria and Iraq to dry and die. It has invaded northern Syria and northern Iraq to position itself for the inevitably coming great water war in the Middle East.
https://mronline.org/2021/09/20/un-expert-releases-full-report-on-impact-of-u-s-led-sanctions-against-venezuela
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-To-Ask-the-Opposition-To-Defend-the-Essequibo-Region-20210905-0011.html
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Free-Peru-Calls-for-Removal-of-the-Congress-President-20210906-0004.html
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/09/15/racist-stereotypes-about-africa-in-the-u-s-media-have-long-driven-the-rape-and-plunder-of-the-continent-but-where-is-the-outcry/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/10/rwandas-military-is-the-french-proxy-on-african-soil/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/biden-threatens-sweeping-sanctions-ethiopia-prime-minister-abiy-ahmed-responds
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/27/mali-s27.html
https://tomdispatch.com/the-profits-of-war/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/26/assad-the-outcast-being-sold-to-the-west-as-key-to-peace-in-middle-east
A collection of misinformation and propaganda tropes of the last ten years, dripping of odium and loathing. Western geostrategic planners and their journalistic cohort will never forget that they were not able to topple “butcher Assad” despite using every trick out of the book and depleting the slush funds of Western intelligence agencies.
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/10/01/a-company-family-the-untold-history-of-obama-and-the-cia/
China news:
https://mronline.org/2021/08/28/analysis-xis-leftward-shift-to-a-socialist-china-is-for-real/
https://theconversation.com/how-special-soil-observatories-in-china-are-helping-to-create-more-sustainable-agriculture-167162
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/534074-jinping-china-reforms-cultural-revolution/
A rather fawning opinion piece about Xi Jinping, but it is nonetheless well worth considering.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/07/chip-war-can-the-u-s-really-gain-from-chinas-pain/
https://apnews.com/article/technology-lifestyle-asia-beijing-xi-jinping-1a03a0ad19397face74b2e2dd2130d33
A prime example how to put a negative spin on everything what happens in China. Be prepared for an accelerating defamation campaign.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/09/chin-s09.html
Xi Jinping has to deal with reality, which often stands in the way of noble goals and visions.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/10/ever-s10.html
Property market speculation, looming Evergrande default.
https://www.leftvoice.org/chinas-evergrande-a-serious-crisis-but-hardly-an-asian-lehman-brothers/
https://theconversation.com/chinas-problem-with-property-the-domino-effect-of-evergrandes-huge-debts-168601
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02459-w
Desperate attempts to keep the high energy economy and lifestyle going.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/534991-geopolitical-shift-france-us-australia/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58592613
AUKUS — preparing for war to destroy China.
https://mronline.org/2021/09/22/the-revenge-of-white-colonialism-motivates-the-aukus-alliance-against-china/
https://mronline.org/2021/09/17/chinas-mass-line-moves-online
Too good to be true and probably more aspirational than real, but a worthy goal nevertheless.
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-technology-business-health-games-ba88276e6f9089a3b9bc65fc19cc0880
https://theconversation.com/china-dont-mistake-xi-jinpings-crackdowns-for-a-second-cultural-revolution-167483
Xi Jinping’s latest moves construed from a Western point of view. Many questionable assumptions, but the last paragraph is spot on.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58625934
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/09/15/what-a-collapse-of-chinas-evergrande-would-mean/
https://exiledonline.com/the-war-nerd-taiwan-the-thucydides-trapper-who-cried-woof/
An alternative view
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58579831
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58417234
Western commentators are scratching their heads.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/09/is-hsbc-beginning-to-regret-betting-the-bank-on-china.html
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/535755-quad-summit-biden-china/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/25/subs-s25.html
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1235254.shtml
Meng Wanzhou is back in China, igniting a surge of national pride.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1235270.shtml
Electricity shortages, power rationing.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/what-is-behind-chinas-power-crunch-2021-09-27/
https://socialistchina.org/2021/09/20/danny-haiphong-the-revenge-of-white-colonialism-motivates-the-aukus-alliance-against-china/
Armageddon news:
https://www.rt.com/russia/534794-war-china-destroy-world/
https://www.konstantakopoulos.gr/17101/nuclear-instability-russia-china-and-the-ussr-ii-scenario
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/20/dangerous-war-scares-of-1974-1983-and-2021-what-needs-to-be-done/
Uncategorized news:
https://aeon.co/essays/machine-writing-is-closer-to-literatures-history-than-you-know
https://aeon.co/essays/animals-wrestle-with-the-concept-of-death-and-mortality
https://apnews.com/article/europe-religion-russia-elections-violence-83c6446d2d7813c4f2900c852e4bf08b
https://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/ecocide/agriculture/robbing-the-soil-1-commons-and-classes-before-capitalism/
https://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/ecocide/agriculture/robbing-the-soil-2-systematic-theft-of-communal-property/
https://mronline.org/2021/09/20/food-and-the-struggle-for-africas-sovereignty
https://theconversation.com/the-music-industry-is-booming-and-can-afford-to-give-artists-a-fairer-deal-168587
https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/beyond-industrial-medicine
Another summer has ended, but mild weather is letting the cats still enjoy time in the garden and forest. My ailing cat companions Princess Min Ki and Wendy are doing reasonably well, though they are clearly less active than before the onset of their sickness.
When Princess Min Ki abdicated from her long and undisputed leadership of the family, there was no obvious successor. Rita perplexed her fellow cats with abundant energy and speed. She is an excellent tree climber and hunter, three years old, healthy, and at the top of her game.
Rita likes to hunt and play, lurking in the chaparral to ambush prey, but also pouncing on passing fellow cats. She things that is great fun. Rita is small and lacks life experience, yet, for a short time it really seemed possible that she would become the new leader of the family.
It all changed in the last weeks, when Rita had an encounter with Linda, who taught her a lesson and showed her unmistakably that she shouldn’t push above her weight. Linda is six years old and with 6 kg the biggest cat of the family. 6 kg for a female cat is quite good.
By reigning in Rita, Linda has gained much respect from the other family members. There will be no official ceremony, no coronation, but everybody knows now: She is the boss.
The cats just annoyed me quite a bit, though, as I’m writing these last sentences of the blog post I have already forgiven them. There was a shrew in the living room, most likely brought in and let loose by Rita sometimes in the night. I was just reading the news when unexpectedly I looked into the tiny eyes of the shrew which innocently had climbed up the computer table.
Lucia, Wendy, Gandhi, Min Ki were there and I called them to make short process of the shrew. Lucia and Min Ki were interested but too slow, Gandhi and Wendy didn’t even bother. In the end I had to catch the shrew with my bare hands, which is risky because shrews bite and can cause severe infections. But this shrew did not fight, it kept perfectly still. It was probably exhausted from being chased around by the cats.
Shrews are useful in the garden, because the eat small snails, wood lice, and other pests. I sight and thought: “You are also one of my babies now.” Then I carried her out and let her free near the garden fence.
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