Putin’s war in Ukraine has shown up the weaknesses in the Western alliance: Russia provides a significant share of the world’s energy and food supply and has now redirected those supplies to friendly powers who can chose to consume or re-sell them at a big profit.
The resulting inflation in prices of goods and services across the world are causing internal stresses within nations weakening the integrity of the Western alliance.
Putin knew this would happen right from the get-go in Ukraine, as did his opportunistic colleague, Xi Jinping in China. They are dealing with a geriatric President in the US, a divided ruling party in Britain, a German state that is scrambling to avoid energy rationing, etc.
And least of all a prancing song and dance man called Prince Justin of Canada, half of which population hates his guts.
So, the Western Empire is not really an empire at all, even if the folks in New York kid themselves into that belief. Rather, it is a wobbly conglomeration of states whose loyalties depends entirely on their perception of the power of the US.
Thinks Xi Jinping: “Is this a good time to grab Taiwan?” Can’t blame him for doing so.
Sunday, June 26, 2022
More war?
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Food security
In spite of the war in Ukraine, the people in that country have fewer concerns over food shortages than many folks elsewhere in the world.
Closed supermarkets and empty shelves in war torn regions do not force them to flee their homes because of their food preserving habits with ample supplies of all kinds of fruits and vegetables and protein foods stored in glass jars in their basements.
As well as root cellars for volume produce such as potatoes, carrots and beets.
During the last 30 years here in my 20 acre wood, I have been following the same practices with a large root cellar containing home grown potatoes, beets and carrots year round and lately preserving batches of same for convenient access when whipping up a meal.
In addition, I have always had backyard chickens that provide an ample supply of very healthy eggs during the warmer months of the year.
Just for fun, this summer I have been catching rain water from the roofs of my cabins and storing it in 50 gallon drums as backup for my water well supply. About 2000 litres in storage at this time.
Here in the ‘affluent’ (for some) West, we have fallen into the trap of relying on “somebody else” to provide for our basic needs. That habit may come home to bite us down the road with galloping inflation in prices and availability issues as well.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Telling stories
Our media, be it mainstream or sidestream, like to present their stories as “The News”, when covering events that take place.
That should immediately alert us to look for bias because the headline itself is a distortion of reality. This was brought home to me as I was growing up and being exposed to the allied side of WWII event coverage.
And then seeing the German version of the same events posted on the internet in later years. The coverage presented the ‘news’ from two entirely different wars, or so it seemed.
Today is no different as two empires clash in Ukraine, pouring weapons and bodies into the fray, both sides making out that it is a conflict between good and evil.
It is really about power and territory for the ‘elites’, using humanity as pawns on their chessboard. Nothing has changed. History is repeating itself.
Sunday, June 19, 2022
Interesting incident
At about 1:30am last night I woke up by what sounded like gunshots to the west of my rural yard. (I live in an area with several acreages in that locale)
Didn't initially react but more apparent shots followed at various multi minute intervals, so I got up and went out to investigate, and heard several more shots, some louder than others. My dogs were getting excited as well.
So I set up shop in a dark spot with a good view of my yard and my dogs ready to alert me of a possible intruder, the idea being of having the advantage in case of an intrusion. Thankfully, nothing happened.
Some of the folks that come out to the acreages are fond of letting fireworks go at night, so that is a possibility, but there was no crackling usually associated with these.
These days, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Gun control
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Power of chemicals
Why do we like chocolate? I found out the hard way some months ago. For health reasons, having made the decision to forego the pleasures of alcohol and caffeine on a regular basis, I turned to a harmless substitute for my coffee habit in the form of a cocoa drink.
I decided on pure cocoa powder used in baking and readily available in grocery stores. The rationale used was to avoid the sugar laden chocolate drinks where the sugar can be quite addictive.
And it worked. I used a teaspoon of cocoa powder in my hot drinks on a regular basis during the day and had no craving for coffee.
Over a period of months, this seemed to be a good way of getting around caffeine, but something happened: I began to wake up in the early morning hours with vague feelings of undefined anxieties
It got worse over time and I finally began to ask myself why people, including me, are so fond of chocolate?.
Some quick online research provided the answer: “Theobromine” (food of the gods) is the primary alkaloid in the cocoa bean and present at ten times the concentration of that in a typical chocolate product.
So, I had simply substituted one alkaloid (Theobromine) for another (Caffeine) with a slow buildup in my tissues. And it literally created a threatening world around me.
The symptoms disappeared two days after I quit the cocoa drink routine and used hot water instead.
Friday, June 17, 2022
Democracy illusion
There are still those that get excited about which politician to support when a bunch of people throw their names in a hat, vying for votes.
It gives people a feeling of having some kind of influence on policies that affect their lives. That’s the theory behind democracy: Rule by the people by way of elected representatives.
In practice those elected are merely front stage actors for vested interests in the background. They soon find out that they have to “tow the line” in order to pursue a career in politics.
The practice of ‘democracy’ works extremely well for the establishment. Elected officials are roped in, used and retired or discarded, all the while serving the interests of the few, pretending to serve the many.
Politics, as practiced in ‘democracies’, is essentially a form of entertainment for the people and a form of sport with financial rewards for the participants.
Everybody is happy, or unhappy, as the case may be, living in the illusion of having an influence on what their government of the day does.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Cannon fodder
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Canada, fur trade vs settler culture
Plant logic
Sunday, June 5, 2022
Nature's intelligence
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Imperium
“Imperium Romanum” is what the Romans called their empire. And theirs was one that lasted for a very long time, among dozens and dozens of others that have come and gone over time.
What is the glue that creates an empire anyway, and keeps it together? That is a very important question today, in light of what is happening in Ukraine right now.
Military might and financial clout are characteristic of a successful empire, as is productive capacity. Put the three together and challenges to the empire tend to be short lived unless another empire of similar stature is the contender.
But there is more to it than that. A set of common beliefs are essential to the internal well being of the empire as well. Pride in the empire and its mission being one component: “Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves!” and “The sun never sets on the British Empire!”.
Members of empire, be it British, American or Russian see themselves as somehow superior to their cousins elsewhere, and are taught to believe that from the cradle and on.
Unfortunately, that involves glorifying one's own beliefs and demonizing those of the other. That is where we are now at in the Ukraine conflict where two contradictory world views have clashed, where the Russian Empire under Putin and his backroom boys has chosen to take on the Western Empire whose stated aim it is to topple Putin.
The two empires are like continental plates grinding against each other in a physical location called “Ukraine”. For that reason expect an escalating conflict with no end in sight.
Monday, May 30, 2022
The Greenland saga
“In 982 the Norwegian Erik the Red, who had been banished from Iceland for manslaughter, settled on the island today known as Greenland. Returning to Iceland about 985, he described the merits of the newly discovered land, which he called Greenland, and in 986 he organized an expedition to the island that resulted in the development of two main settlements: the East Settlement, near present-day Qaqortoq (JulianehÃ¥b), and the West Settlement, near present-day Nuuk (GodthÃ¥b).
These settlements may have reached a population of 3,000–6,000 on about 280 farms, suggesting that temperatures at that time may have been as warm or warmer than they are today.
But in the 14th century the Norse settlements declined, perhaps as a result of a cooling in Greenland’s climate. In the 15th century they ceased to be inhabited. “ (Britannica.com)
Meanwhile Inuit clans had lived in the arctic for thousands of years and interacted with the newcomers in less than a friendly manner, but could do little to disrupt the farm based settlements of the Norsemen.
The result was some 500 years of continuous settlements until the climate changed and farming was no longer possible. The Black Death also ravaged Europe and would have likely been imported into Greenland by travellers.
There is a lesson here: Nature is the Grand Master and all we can do is to adapt or die.
Saturday, May 28, 2022
Tide of war in Ukraine
After all the hot air in the world media following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the war is settling into a steady grind where the Russians are gaining the upper hand after adjusting their strategy.
They are sticking to their narrative of a “special operation”, rather than all out war, and they are succeeding in the east and south of Ukraine with Crimea now being connected by a Russian controlled land bridge to Russia itself.
Much has been made of Western support for Ukraine’s military but this has not translated into actual gains on the front lines for the Ukrainian army, other than what early shipments of shoulder mounted anti tank missiles managed to do, mostly.
Meanwhile the Russians have adapted to this deadly threat by using long range weapons to reach their targets, instead of tanks and such.
And as far as the Ukrainians bringing long range guns supplied by the West to the front lines, the Russians have total air superiority in Ukraine and can interrupt the supply lines for these weapons at will, on land or at sea.
My best guess is that the Russians will proceed to consolidate their position in the east and south of Ukraine and have a ‘vote’ on whether the locals will remain with Russia. Along the same pattern used in Crimea which has a sizable Russian population, as does Eastern Ukraine.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Complex problem
On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik dresses in a police uniform, loads a van with home-made explosives, and drives to Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter in Oslo, Norway. He leaves the van outside the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Moments later, it explodes, causing several casualties.
On the island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud, teenagers have arrived for Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp, organized by the ruling Labour Party. When they learn of the bombing, one student, Viljar Hanssen, calls his parents to make sure they are unhurt.
Breivik arrives at the ferry landing and informs staff that he is a police officer, sent to secure the island following the attack in Oslo. The camp director transports him to the island by boat. Breivik instructs the staff to gather the children in one location. When the head of security asks for ID, Breivik shoots him and the director dead. The children flee as Breivik opens fire, murdering dozens.
On May 24, 2022 nineteen children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County on Tuesday, making the massacre the deadliest school shooting in Texas’ history.
Apart from the guns used being similar in these two mass murder events, the perpetrators had a lot in common as well: Young men alienated from society over a long period before turning violent.
The gun regulations in the US and Norway are vastly different, but neither perpetrator had any difficulty in acquiring the hardware needed for their enterprises.
And the signs were there for a long time before the mass murders took place. So maybe we need to take more interest in our fellow human beings in order to minimize explosive events like these?
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Gun control
The recent shooting of school children in Uvalde, Texas, has once again raised the ire of gun control advocates. It happens every time a high profile mass murder takes place.
Why are Americans so reluctant to implement gun control legislation?
For the same reason that many Canadians are opposed to it as well:
Americans don’t trust their government of the day. Neither do we.
And there is recent evidence for our case. In the face of a peaceful demonstration in Ottawa last winter, Prince Justin and his buddies used the Emergencies Act, based on their own paranoia and need to massage their egos, to crack down on their political opponents.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland publicly gloated about her new found power to close selected citizens’ bank accounts, based on her own whims as to who might be an undesirable character.
The result? A bank run started when people, desperately wanting to protect themselves from this idiocy, wanted to withdraw their money from bank accounts.
Under Prince Justin and his Idiocracy, Canada is a banana kingdom where restrictive gun legislation is only serving the interests of the establishment.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Drought
Living close to the prairies in Central Alberta, Canada, for 30+ years,
I have been a keen observer of weather. Over the last three years I have served on the board of the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance.
This non-profit society serve as the designated Watershed Planning and Advisory Council for the Red Deer River watershed comprising some 50,000 square kilometres, under the Government of Alberta’s Water for Life Strategy.
And now things are coming to a head where we are entering into a second summer of severe drought, which is happening in the North Western United States as well.
At this time water flow rates in our rivers in Central/South Alberta are well below normal for this time of year, indicating depleted shallow ground water reserves.
Thankfully, the snowpack in the mountains is reported as being petty well normal which should ensure that our water reservoirs (Like Gleniffer Lake where I live) will be filled up over the summer.
Periods of drought are not new on the Canadian prairies, the last major one being in the 1930ies, during the Great Depression, also called the “dirty thirties” when dry topsoil was blown around by great winds and into peoples’ homes and literally moved from one farm to another some times by the wind.
Sad to say, but the only time we really appreciate the value of something is when we lose it. And that goes for water as well.
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Violent weather
We are now heading into the Northern summer and early high temperature events have already been reported from southern Europe and Eastern Turtle Island (North America). Associated with them are severe thunderstorms as cold dry air masses collide with warm and humid ones.
At the same time we are building massive solar and wind farms in order to generate renewable energy in places all over the world, including offshore wind farms.
The question arises: How vulnerable are these structures to violent weather events that are now increasing on an annual basis? Picture those rows and rows of solar panels just being peeled off a field like pieces of paper by a passing tornado.
Or windmills being twisted and blades shredded by same?
In contrast, nuclear plants can be placed in “geosafe” (non seismic) locations with minimal exposure to wind and weather.
And if the sun doesn’t shine and the wind declines to blow, they are still merrily working away, keeping us warm or cool as the case may be.
That is exactly what we would do if we were to set up shop on an alien planet with violent unpredictable weather. Which is what our Earth is beginning to look like.