Pittsburgh Police Use “Nazi Style”Tactics

Videos of G20 protests in Pittsburgh, like this one below, certainly seem to be doing the rounds and causing a great deal of interest. This sort – and similar – behaviour is the inevitable consequence of a country that operates to a lesser or greater degree (depending on the musical chairs of periodic Presidential elections) as a two-headed, one-party, pro-corporate state. Hence the parallels with Germany under National Socialism, and the Soviet Union, who both operated one-party systems. In terms of human rights abuses and state oppression there is indeed also, regretably, a degree of parallel in the US (albeit perhaps not a large one) with present day China.

The video title itself is a bit misleading in that it encourages people to forget who gave police the orders – branches of the US government, either state or federal. Not that I am making excuses that at least some officers didn’t opt to be the ‘knot in the wood’, question what they were doing and the tactics, and stand up for what is right, but anyone familar with police culture will be familar that it is very difficult for police to refuse to follow orders, the sanctions used against them are notoriously severe.

It is right to highlight these issues, as they act as an important safeguard. An even better safeguard against state oppressiveness, highhandedness, the danger of totalitarianism and even new dictatorships in a multi-polar world of, for the most part, technologically advanced tribalised societies, is to have a large, open and freely accessible multi-party system with a growing upswell in the independent candidate movement. American’s need to get their finger out and bandy together to form a new, alternative and united third party. It will be interesting to see it unfold. When it does, it will be a broad church coalition, but there may well be breaking/sticking points between the right libertarian, liberal and left libertarian contingents.

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=91&task=videodirectlink&id=4195

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJxEmUl8Qh4&amp

Debate on civilisation

An interesting and thought provoking debate (see link below between George Monbiot and Paul Kingsnorth. Likewise, the purpose and foundation of the Dark Mountain Project that is mentioned.

In popular culture in a Judaeo-Christian society, the idea of a final apocalypse is often seen as a single event, but any ending of a culture or a civilisation is generally a process spread over a period of time, whether it be caused by resource scarcity, war, geopolitical upheaval, geological or meteorological disaster or some other calamity.

The chances are pretty high that human civilisation, agriculture, fresh water, energy supply and many animal and plant species and the various interconnected, highly networked globalised systems that western culture has come to depend on are on the cusp of entering a somewhat monumental series of crises and unavoidable realities of an unparalled nature.

The main issue I would see with campaigning regarding climate change, peak oil and the global economic crisis is the slow pace in which individual and community behaviours are changing to facilitate a sense of ownership, empowerment and survival preparedness.

There does come a point when people all seem to ‘get it’ all at the same time. Human beings, alongside much of the animal and even plant kingdom, have an incredible capacity towards mimicing the broad behaviour patterns of their friends, family and neighbours. So just as doing nothing and sticking the head in the sand ostrich like, can be the fashion and the norm, all the activities necessary to promote survivability and regeneration in a world of emerging global climatic, energy and economic turbulence and tumult, can often over quite a relatively short period of time become the new norm.

This type of organic growth is perhaps as it should be. If DMP helps promote that and promote change-makers then that is all to the good.

People should just go ahead and do what they know to be right. We can teach almost without realising it by example and the fruits that are borne. People will follow. We need good shepherds and able gardeners to create such praxis. This is as it should be.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/08/436697.html

http://www.dark-mountain.net/

The economy: is the fastest period of shrinkage over?

Paul Mason of BBC’s Newsnight (see link below) thinks while “the recession is not over, the fastest period of shrinkage is over”. Paul is displaying the perennial problem of the expert and specialist; they are so self-absorbed with statistics, working at the coal face of their trade, they fail to see the overall picture. If you take a macroscopic view of all the important factors that you need to take into account this century in economic prediction:

- climate change
- peak oil/energy supply issues and energy mix re-adjustments
- fresh water depletion
- crop stress
- pollinator (honey bee) die-off and disease

and the whole panoply of violent crime, robbery, civil commotion, riots, tribalism/nationalism and resource wars that are likely to kick off as people and a globalised world in globalised recession adjusts to one level of living, co-operation and understanding to another – then you will see that it wouldn’t take a great deal in terms of converging forces and factors for one fast period of shrinkage which is now slowing, to double dip, like a rollercoaster into another.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2009/08/the_recoverys_coming_but_the_u.html

Wobble Time

“What the nation — including President Obama — can’t seem to get through its head is that the USA has entered a period of epochal economic contraction. Instead of growth, as measured in conventional econometrics, we can only expect (in the best case) transformation to a different economy within the limits of real contraction…We have to inhabit the landscape differently, move around it differently, generate food out of it differently, and make things on it again. Whatever remaining real capital there is in the system can’t be squandered on cash bonuses for Wall Street employees.”

http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/07/wobble-time.html

Boiling the Frog – Creeping Disaster for the Economy and the Planet

by Paul Krugman
New York Times
12 July 2009

“Now that the free fall is over, all sense of urgency seems to have vanished. This will probably change once the reality of the jobless recovery becomes all too apparent. But by then it will be too late to avoid a slow-motion human and social disaster. Still, the boiled-frog problem on the economy is nothing compared with the problem of getting action on climate change. Put it this way: if the consensus of the economic experts is grim, the consensus of the climate experts is utterly terrifying. At this point, the central forecast of leading climate models — not the worst-case scenario but the most likely outcome — is utter catastrophe, a rise in temperatures that will totally disrupt life as we know it, if we continue along our present path. How to head off that catastrophe should be the dominant policy issue of our time.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

The planet’s future: Climate change ‘will cause civilisation to collapse’

Authoritative new study sets out a grim vision of shortages and violence – but amid all the gloom, there is some hope too
By Jonathan Owen
Independent on Sunday
12 July 2009

“An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of surviving the ravages of climate change. The stakes are high, as, without sustainable growth, “billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilisation will collapse”.

Article continues below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-planets-future-climate-change-will-cause-civilisation-to-collapse-1742759.html

Glasgow, City of Refuge

Glasgow, City of Refuge

A kaleidoscope of cultures ventures forth,
finding sanctuary…
in this dear, green place.

From the war-torn ruins of Iraq,
the ethnic cleansed ghettoes of Palestine
to the fields of slaughter in Darfur
- and a myriad million more -
stretching thru the mists of time.
They have come.

Suffering shadows.
Reborn within Scotland’s light.
A psychedelic explosion
of people, colour, clothes and tongues.

The sun that shone there
shines here.

Glasgow – the democratising, healing latitude.
City of futuristic homes in the sky.
Of communities and exotic castles in the air
Towering heights
enveloped
by the heady aroma
of shared haggis
refugee curry
and kindly church baking.

Glasgow – city of the jeely piece song,
red Clydeside,
and low flying planes,
filled with cargoes of tears
that are cleansed, wiped clean
within the bosom of asylum,
welcoming embraces,
new beginnings,
and friends.

It is a diverse gathering.
Of peace and sharing.

It is an ancient lullaby.
A tribal song of compassion, mutual recognition.

From the Highland clearances,
to potato blight
- the mass starvations and emigrations of Shamrock -
to polarised, war-ravaged geographies,
…the mini-Hiroshimas of today.

There is no price
nor boundary
on the door of love
and care, here.

The American Empire Is Bankrupt

by Chris Hedges

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090614_the_american_empire_is_bankrupt/

War-Time Fungus Joins Elephant Dung to Make Biofuels

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=au.WwhVzyBBs

Glacier melt changes Italian border

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8110551.stm