Stop the immigration raids

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AKA slavery.

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“U.S. military officials here increasingly envision a ‘post-occupation’ troop presence in Iraq” by cutting down to a mere 50,000 troops.

Let’s look up “occupation” in Websters Dictionary.

3 a : the act or process of taking possession of a place or area
b : the holding and control of an area by a foreign military force
c : the military force occupying a country or the policies carried out by it

This strongly suggests that 50,000 troops would still be an occupation, not a “post-occupation” (whatever that is.) This is just another attempt by the Pentagon to twist the meanings of words to serve their propaganda needs.

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Thus, the US is unwilling to condemn Dafur too harshly for killing tens of thousands civilians, just like they don’t want to recognize the Armenian Genocide because they need Turkey as an ally, like maybe to invade Iraq and kill Kurds.

The US strongly favors human rights and will loudly condemn any country that abuses them, except of course, when they want that country as an ally. Then all is silence from D.C. as the abuses continue.

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This is the first of a number of posts on Ian Angus’ seminal “Confronting the Climate Change Crisis” on his blog, Climate and Capitalism.

His primary point is that capitalism, due to its inherent structure, can not and will not be able to solve global warming.

Why? One reason is because greenhouse gas emissions are an externality. They do not affect the businesses that produce them, nor do businesses have to pay for the damage they cause. Instead, that get foisted on the public to pay. Plus, under capitalism, there is little reason for companies to cut down on GHG emission. Worse, especially in the US, a company could conceivably be sued by stockholders for spending money on remediating global warming because it would cut into profits. Short-term greed and self-interest should not be allowed to trump the long-term good, yet under capitalism, that’s precisely what happens - all the time too.

Sure, there are an increasing number of companies trying to do the right thing and be green. But there are also millions of companies that aren’t. They will go to another country that lets them pollute if they need to. Also, to do all this in a coherent manner will require massive planning and the ability to mandate that those changes occur.

That’s why the solutions to global warming need to be worldwide and top down. That can’t happen in the hugely atomized and chaotic system that is capitalism.

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(We recently moved to Connecticut from Los Angeles and here’s some of the differences)

The cats bring in chipmunks, not lizards.

Politics is more openly corrupt, with multitudes of news stories about politicians linked to organized crime. (I’m not saying politics here actually is more corrupt than in L.A., just that it’s more obvious and the politicians seem stupider and more venal. At least politicians in L.A. have the savvy not to dress and look like mafioso.)

You need to watch out for poison ivy rather than black widow spiders.

Supermarkets sell mild and medium but not hot salsa. On the odd chance that you might actually find hot salsa, it will be tepid and nothing approaching the Habanero Death Rattle variety available in most any L.A. supermarket.

Schools do not resemble prisons. There are no high fences, security gates, or warning signs. You can walk in without fear of being tasered.

They don’t know what traffic is here. Or road rage.

There’s plenty of water, even if the electrical power situation is at least as dysfunctional as in California.

Maple syrup is $40 a gallon, bought from the local farmer who made it. You can’t buy it by the gallon anywhere in L.A.

Waiters are just that, waiters. Not wannabe actors.

Dunkin’ Donuts has hegemony, not Starbucks. And they don’t burn their coffee beans either.

Fall is spectacular.

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