My colleague, who chooses to go by AA Guy, refers to Mother
Earth as MOM. Do you think maybe when
Harvey hit Houston, the Petro Metro center of the U.S. fossil fuel industry,
with an unprecedented 51 inches of rain, do you think maybe it’s a sign it’s
not nice to fool with Mother Nature? At a time when no official U.S. government
document or publication is allowed to mention the CC word (Climate Change in
case you’re not use to seeing two caps) do you think MOM might be hitting back? If the voices claiming global warming is
caused by human activity (anthropogenic climate disruption – ACD) on earth
cannot make themselves heard against the clamor of the Kochs, the meretricious
media, and the
U.S. government’s official policy, do you think that maybe Mother Earth is making
her last stand?
This hurricane/wildfire season has seen damage on an
unprecedented scale. As the administration’s mouthpiece has trumpeted: “You
have no idea.” Unless you have been ordered to evacuate (whether or not you’re either
too poor, or too without gas to do so), you can have absolutely no idea what
it’s like to live in a zone impacted by a
fire so savage and uncontrolled that it can leap the Columbia river; no
idea what it’s like to drown
in 51 inches of rain, no idea what it’s like to find 90% of the housing on your
island no longer habitable, with everything in ruins.
There are issues threatening not just human life, but all
life on the planet: the emergent (that is instant) issue of nuclear war; and
the slow destruction by climate collapse. Now more than ever, concerted
pushback, by applying appropriate technology is called for. Which is why this
week’s Roses focus almost entirely on
technological solutions; and why our feature article, #Unrig focuses on a human-based
pushback tactic.
#Unrig (which stands for unrigging a rigged system) is an
idea whose time may have come. It’s here in this week’s newsletter for your
consideration. The idea itself, above and beyond its proponents merits careful
consideration.
Its proponents: Cynthia McKinney, Black former member of
congress who was gerrymandered out of office by vested interests because of her
unwillingness to bow to AIPAC, and corporate donors, and Robert David Steele, a
former Marines Intelligence Officer, CIA case manager, libertarian, and
self-avowed right of center person, and the only one from that sector who seems
to be calling for the shut down of the nearly one thousand US military bases
worldwide. He wears a black polo shirt
emblazoned with their logo #unrig; and she wears a white polo with the same
logo (in black of course.) In the video from
time to time you will see him staring into space; you will see Ms. McKinney
engaging with eye contact.
But these two, strange bed fellow as they appear, are not
Black Spy, White Spy next generation escapees from Mad Comix. They are
proposing a solution to the collapse of the American political system: As
background they point to the need by power elites throughout history to use
divide and conquer as their fix-all strategy for remaining in control. To unrig
that control, they propose a coalition of Right and Left anchored on points
both hold in common.
Their field of operation is narrowed, as those of us know who
may have paid attention to the U.S. constitution and to U.S. political practice,
by the confines of a winner-take-all system as opposed to a parliamentary
system of proportional representation. But within those narrow confines, they
are waging a bet that enough maneuverability may be had to unrig a rigged
political system.
It is important to listen to them critically. The image they
present alone acts as a powerful educational model. Beyond the TV based
politics of image, their ideas tend to range all over the map from open source technology,
to the culture
of the deep state., and the embrace of a Summer of Peace. Steele basically
wants to concentrate of Election reform legislation; McKinney wants to go even
deeper by awakening popular engagement the other 1459 days between election
cycles. But their main talking points stress how an example of opposites coming
together for the common good may have the power to spark a national
conversation at a time when the country has been polarized as never before.
By curious coincidence illustrating the potentials of
negotiation, with a by-partisan assemblage of congress people in the Oval
Office, Trump
hosed his base with cold water, going with a Democrat proposal to reduce the
debt limit to three months (not 18 as his base had hoped, timed to fall
just past the 2018 election cycle) with the emergency funding to deal with Harvey’s
devastation in the balance.
#Unrig’s approach is based on their study of action research,
its goal to put people of all stripes and belief systems at the same table.
Will they succeed? Yes, with citizen support, which is what their debut tour is
designed to engage, but a number of their references allude to persons whose
backgrounds are seriously questionable, such as John McAfee, and Martin Armstrong.
The more important question, divorced from the cult of
personality, is WILL THE IDEA SUCCEED?
It needs to succeed and to find the traction that critical mass alone can lend
it if the moribund corpse of US politics is to be resurrected. And that depends
on us.
For more information Cynthia McKinney’s web
site
or contact@unrig.net
A Parade Float of Roses This Week
Senate
subcommittee puts monkey wrench in DeVos (Mrs, Eric Prince) efforts to
privatize education, and promote her voucher scheme.
The
Lotofen Declaration signed by 220 organizations in 55 countries projects an
immediate end to new oil, gas, and coal development, and a managed decline of
fossil fuel production.
IKEA
sells solar panels and batteries in the UK and teamed
up with the UN to power a Syrian refugee camp with solar energy.
Tesla
is providing grid stability in South Australia with a wind farm and
partnering with Neoen to deliver its lithium ion battery. Its massive
solar battery plant will power Kauai. and Ta’u
in American Samoa.
In
Scotland wind has supplied 57% of total energy needs, in part from the
world’s first floating wind farm.
In every US state, clean
energy employs more people than fossil fuels. with solar
the top employer in the electric power sector.
Something for social scientists to grapple with: why
do most Americans now agree that climate change will harm Americans, but it
won’t happen personally to them. (Risk perception is what distinguishes
between elites and minorities.)
Seven
American cities (out of 35,000) have achieved 100% renewable electricity.
In denial states in fly-over America, authorities have to
frame the need for renewables as not based on climate change, but as “energy
savings, smart growth, and natural resource management.” (Like calling birth
control family planning).
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