[Biofuel] Sea Shepherd leader suspects Japan behind Germany arrest

[Keith Addison]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20120524b5.html

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sea Shepherd leader suspects Japan behind Germany arrest

AFP-Jiji

SYDNEY - Paul Watson, leader of the Sea Shepherd environmental group, 
has accused Japan of being behind his recent arrest in Germany.

Watson is out on bail while authorities decide whether to extradite 
him to Costa Rica on charges of "putting a ship's crew in danger" 
during a 2002 confrontation over shark-finning.

"I find it very interesting that the extradition order was put out in 
October 2011 - at exactly the same time that the Japanese brought 
civil charges against us in a Seattle court," Watson told Australia's 
Channel 7 on Tuesday.

"You know, Japan is spending a lot of money to try and stop us 
intervening against their illegal whaling activities in the 
(Antarctic) Ocean, and I wouldn't be surprised if (Tokyo) was a part 
of this."

The Japan Coast Guard said it has tried to "locate, identify or 
obtain information" on Watson through Interpol but would not comment 
on the specific case.

"The government of Japan has not received any official information 
about Watson's arrest or release," a coast guard spokeswoman said in 
Tokyo.

Sea Shepherd activists led by Watson have repeatedly harassed the 
Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean in recent years and 
adopted increasingly militant tactics, significantly reducing their 
catch. Watson's arrest May 13 in Frankfurt on a Costa Rican warrant 
stems from an incident in Guatemalan waters in 2002, when Sea 
Shepherd activists stopped an illegal shark-finning operation run by 
a Costa Rican vessel, the Varadero, according to the hardline group.

Sea Shepherd claims that a Guatemalan gunboat was dispatched to 
intercept it as it escorted the Varadero back to port, after its crew 
accused the group's members of trying to kill them - a charge it 
strenuously denies.

"I'm under house arrest in Germany so will have to wait and see 
whether there is a political or legal solution to this and we will 
fight the extradition to Costa Rica," Watson said. "But I think it 
can be resolved. Either way, our campaigns will continue with or 
without me so our ships will again go back to the (Antarctic Ocean) 
in December to once again obstruct the Japanese whaling operations."

During this winter's hunt, Sea Shepherd activists hurled stink bombs 
at whaling vessels in the frigid waters off Antarctica and used ropes 
to tangle their propellers in a series of exchanges that saw the 
whalers retaliate with water cannon.


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[Biofuel] 'Biggest Act of Civil Disobedience in Canadian History'

[Keith Addison]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-5

Published on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 by Common Dreams

'Biggest Act of Civil Disobedience in Canadian History'

Marchers defy Bill 78; Neighborhoods fill with sound of banging pots and pans

- Common Dreams staff

"The single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history."

That's how yesterday's Montreal protest is being described today. 
Hundreds of thousands red-shirted demonstrators defied Quebec's new 
"anti-protest" law and marched through the streets of downtown 
Montreal filling the city with "rivers of red."

Tuesday marked the 100th day of the growing student protests against 
austerity measures and tuition increases. In response to the 
spreading protests, the conservative Charest government passed a new 
"emergency" law last Friday - Bill 78.

Bill 78 mandates:

Fines of between $1,000 and $5,000 for any individual 
who prevents someone from entering an educational institution or who 
participate in an illegal demonstration.

Penalties climb to between $7,000 and $35,000 for 
protest leaders and to between $25,000 and $125,000 for unions or 
student federations.

All fines DOUBLE for repeat offenders

Public demonstrations involving more than 50 people 
have to be flagged to authorities eight hours in advance, include 
itinerary, duration and time at which they are being held. The police 
may alter any of these elements and non-compliance would render the 
protest illegal.

Offering encouragement for someone to protest at a 
school, either tacitly or otherwise, is subject to punishment. The 
Minister of Education has said that this would include things like 
'tweeting', 'facebooking', and has she has implied that wearing the 
student protest insignia (a red flag-pin) could also be subject to 
punishment.

No demonstration can be held within 50 meters of any 
school campus

Bill 78 not only "enraged civil libertarians and legal experts but 
also seems to have galvanized ordinary Quebecers." Since the law 
passed Friday, people in Montreal neighborhoods have appeared on 
their balconies and in front of their houses to defiantly bang pots 
and pans in a clanging protest every night at 8 p.m.

* * *

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reports:

CLASSE spearheaded Tuesday's march, aided by Quebec's largest labor 
federations. The province's two other main student groups, FEUQ and 
FECQ, also rallied their supporters.

CLASSE said Monday it would direct members to defy Bill 78, Quebec's 
emergency legislation.

The special law was adopted last Friday, suspending the winter 
semester and imposing strict limits on student protests. Organizers 
have to submit their itinerary to authorities in advance, or face 
heavy fines.

CLASSE spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said the special legislation 
goes beyond students and their tuition-hike conflict.

"We want to make the point that there are tens of thousands of 
citizens who are against this law who think that protesting without 
asking for a permit is a fundamental right," he said, walking side by 
side with other protesters behind a large purple banner.

"If the government wants to apply its law, it will have a lot of work 
to do. That is part of the objective of the protest today, to 
underline the fact that this law is absurd and inapplicable."

* * *

Time lapse video of Tuesday's protest:

* * *

The Montreal Gazette reports:

A protest organizers described as the single biggest act of civil 
disobedience in Canadian history choked the streets of downtown 
Montreal in the middle of Tuesday's afternoon rush hour as tens of 
thousands of demonstrators expressed outrage over a provincial law 
aimed at containing the very sort of march they staged.

Ostensibly Tuesday's march was to commemorate the 100th day of a 
strike by Quebec college and university students over the issue of 
tuition increases. But a decision last Friday by the Charest 
government to pass Bill 78 - emergency legislation requiring protest 
organizers to provide police with an itinerary of their march eight 
hours in advance - not only enraged civil libertarians and legal 
experts but also seems to have galvanized ordinary Quebecers into 
marching through the streets of a city that has seen protests staged 
here nightly for the past seven weeks.

"I didn't really have a stand when it came to the tuition hikes," 
said Montrealer Gilles Marcotte, a 32-year-old office worker who used 
a vacation day to attend the event. "But when I saw what the law 
does, not just to students but to everybody, I felt I had to do 
something. This is all going too far."

Tuesday's march was billed as being two demonstrations taking place 
at the same time. One, organized by the federations representing 
Quebec college and university students and attended by contingents 
from the province's labor movement, abided by the provisions of the 
law and 

[Biofuel] Congress 'Un-Declares' War with Iran

[Keith Addison]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/23

Published on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 by Common Dreams

Congress 'Un-Declares' War with Iran

by Kate Gould

All 535 members of Congress are now on the record declaring that they 
have not authorized the use of military force against Iran in the 
latest round of legislation passed in the House and the Senate. This 
unanimous 'un-declaration' of war by Congress is a crucial victory, 
with particular significance given its passage on the eve of the 
U.S.-Iran talks in Baghdad.

The House was the first chamber to 'un-declare war', with its 
inclusion of a proviso in the National Defense Authorization Act 
(NDAA) that this legislation does not authorize war with Iran. This 
stipulation that "nothing in this Act shall be construed as 
authorizing the use of force against Iran" is a remarkably sober note 
of caution and common sense in an otherwise dangerous and reckless 
piece of legislation. The NDAA allocates billions of dollars of 
weapons that could be used for an attack on Iran and requires the 
administration to prepare for war and dramatically escalate the U.S. 
militarization of the Middle East. Notably, the NDAA exceeds the 
limitations on Pentagon spending that Congress agreed to in the 
Budget Control Act by about $8 billion--much of which is allotted for 
the anti-Iran weaponry.

Rep. John Conyers (MI) championed this amendment to 'un-declare' war 
with Iran with a bipartisan group of representatives: Rep. Ron Paul 
(TX), Rep. Keith Ellison (MN), and Rep. Walter Jones (NC). In less 
than a week, Congress received more than 1,000 calls through FCNL's 
toll-free number from grassroots activists across the country who 
support this and other anti-war, pro-peace amendments that FCNL was 
working on. Partly as a result of your advocacy against war with 
Iran, the Conyers/Paul/Ellison/Jones amendment was considered so 
uncontroversial that it made its way into the NDAA as part of a 
package (called 'en bloc amendments') of non-controversial 
amendments, rather than going to the House floor for a separate vote.

'Un-declaration' is 'Uncontroversial' in House, Hotly Contested in the Senate

Anti-Iran provisions are routinely given this special shortcut into 
"must-pass legislation" like the NDAA, but legislation containing the 
word "Iran" that is not agitating for either military or economic 
warfare rarely qualifies as "uncontroversial."

In fact, on the same day that the House unanimously approved Rep. 
Conyers' amendment, senators fiercely debated the same sort of 
provision offered by Sen. Rand Paul (KY) clarifying that the Senate 
sanctions bill is not an authorization of the use of force against 
Iran. Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC) and Joe Lieberman (CT) blasted this 
'un-declaration' of war, insisting that it be taken out and new 
provisions added that emphasized the "military option". These 
objections blocked the bill from passage until a compromise was 
reached that retained Sen. Paul's language but also stated that the 
military option is still on the table.

Why an 'Un-Declaration' of War Matters

While the legislation passed in both chambers of Congress has 
troubling implications for U.S.-Iran relations, the fact that 
Congress is now on record affirming that the legislation does not 
authorize war is a major achievement for the campaign against another 
war of choice. This 'un-declaration' of war sets a historic precedent 
that could be used to tone down the implications of future 
saber-rattling legislation.

And saber-rattling legislation is very much what this is all about.

The House's orders for drones, fighter jets, rockets, machine guns 
for mounting on warships, and heavy artillery systems designed to 
'counter the Iranian threat' would escalate brinksmanship in the 
Persian Gulf, pushing the United States perilously close to the edge 
of war.

The Senate sanctions bill doesn't help matters either. The bill will 
further erode the President's flexibility, both technically and 
politically.  Negotiations require compromise from both sides, and 
the key concession that Iran has sought is a significant easing of 
the U.S. sanctions regime against the Iranian economy. The 
"Negotiator in Chief's" ability to lift sanctions in exchange for 
Iranian cooperation on its nuclear program is already severely 
compromised.

Congress' assertion that neither the NDAA, nor a far-reaching 
sanctions bill, authorize the use of military force against Iran 
demonstrates progress.

Any progress in cooling down Congress' all-too common infliction with 
Iran war fever improves the broader political climate that will play 
into the U.S.-Iran talks on Wednesday. Given the fragility of 
U.S.-Iran relations, even slight progress can make the difference 
between a stand-off and a war.

Urge Congress to take the next step to prevent war, by supporting 
diplomacy with Iran.
http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=61091296

Kate Gould is the Legislative Associate for M

[Biofuel] Busting the carbon and cost myths of Germany's nuclear exit

[Keith Addison]

Busting the carbon and cost myths of Germany's nuclear exit

Critics of the atomic phase-out said energy emissions, costs and 
imports would all rise. They were wrong

Posted by

Damian Carrington, Berlin

Wednesday 23 May 2012

With the UK taking another step towards supporting new nuclear power 
on Tuesday - at either no extra cost to the consumer if you believe 
ministers, or substantial cost if you believe most others - it's 
worth taking a look at what actually happens when you phase out 
nuclear power in a large, industrial nation.

That is what Germany chose to do after the Fukushima nuclear 
disaster, closing eight plants immediately - 7GW - and another nine 
by 2022. The shrillest critics predicted blackouts, which was always 
daft and did not happen.

But more serious critics worried that the three things at the heart 
of the energy and climate change debate - carbon, cost and security 
of supply - would all head in the wrong direction. Here in Berlin, I 
have found they were wrong on every count.

On security of supply, critics predicted that Germany would have to 
import energy to make up that lost by the closure of the nuclear 
plants. It's an important issue for a nation that imports 70% of its 
energy. But what actually happened is that Germany simply exported 
less in 2011: 7TWh instead of 70TWh. "We are still a net exporter," 
says Franzjosef Schafhausen, a senior civil servant.

This was helped by a large decrease in energy consumption of 5.3% in 
2011, delivered by big increases in energy efficiency in buildings, 
homes and industry, as well as in part a milder winter. Aha, I hear 
you say, but Germany's economy must have shrunk as well: it grew by 
3%, in rather stark contrast to double-dip Britain.

Cutting energy use naturally cuts the carbon dioxide emissions that 
drive climate change, as did the increased deployment of renewable 
energy. In 2011, Germany's emissions fell by 2%, confounding those 
who predicted a rise if nuclear was replaced by coal. Some was, but 
60% of the lost nuclear capacity was replaced by renewable energy in 
a single year. And remember, even if carbon emissions had risen a 
little in Germany, the total emissions in Europe - capped by the 
emissions trading scheme - would remain the same. Germany also 
remains well on track for its 40% emissions cut by 2020.

If security of supply and carbon emissions did not suffer as the 
reactors cooled, surely the cost of electricity must have gone up? 
And it did, with wholesale spot prices rising 10-15% in the weeks 
following the Fukushima catastrophe. But a year on, they are now 
below pre-Fukushima prices by about 10-15%. That is due to fast 
increasing renewables - now 20% of electricity supply - which cut 
peak costs. Bärbel Höhn, a Green party MP and former state 
environment minister, says Germany industry now has lower power 
prices than the UK, France, Spain and Italy.

Schafhausen remains realistic about the future: "There is no doubt 
that the power price to the consumer will increase, but we will 
implement our energy transformation step-by-step and therefore have 
only a small increase."

Germany had been planning its nuclear exit since 2002 and is now 
showing it can be done without hitches. In the UK, the possibility of 
no nuclear power is not even on the government's table. But with big 
utilities one by one turning their backs on UK atomic energy, the 
question is can a forced exit be done without harming cost, carbon 
and security of supply?


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[Biofuel] 35,948 Arrested Yesterday

[Keith Addison]

One arrest every 2.4 seconds.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9333-yesterday-35948-arrested

35,948 Arrested Yesterday

Wednesday, 23 May 2012 11:16

By Maya Schenwar, Truthout | Op-Ed

Last Friday, the day the NATO 3 were arrested, approximately 35,948 
people were arrested across the United States. On Sunday, when at 
least 45 protesters were arrested at Chicago's NATO summit protests, 
approximately 35,948 Americans - the number arrested on a daily basis 
in the US, according to FBI statistics - were handcuffed, read their 
Miranda rights (maybe), carted off to jail and booked. The plurality 
of those people were arrested for nonviolent drug crimes. Some of 
these people will be charged, convicted, prosecuted and jailed.

When bond is posted, some of these people will have relatives or 
friends who are able and willing to bail them out. Many will not. For 
most, there's no grassroots bail fund, no jail support team waiting 
on the other side of the razor wire fence.

Unlike the NATO 3 (or the Chicago Seven, or the Haymarket Eight), 
these people will go on to become part of a vast, near-voiceless 
crowd of 2.3 million incarcerated Americans, most of whom are visible 
only in the somber mugshots posted to their state's Department of 
Corrections web site. On this site, friends and relatives who know to 
look can view their loved ones' height, weight, race, tattoos, scars, 
offense, sentence length and inmate number. No phone number is 
listed, because these people - let's call them the US 2.3 Million - 
no longer have a phone number (or email address, or blog, or Facebook 
message box or Twitter account) that can be reached.

In stating these facts, I in no way aim to belittle the significant 
civil abuses that anti-NATO activists have experienced over the past 
week. Both the NATO 3 and the US 2.3 Million deserve civil liberties, 
human rights and fair treatment. And I cannot overstate my support 
and admiration for the veterans and peace groups that - in the face 
of Rahmian threats and media scare tactics - brought thousands of 
people into the streets to resist the NATO doctrine of endless war. 
Moreover, I know that civil disobedience and a willingness to 
strategically risk arrest are crucial tools for the success of 
nonviolent movements. (My consciousness as both a journalist and 
activist was formed through my involvement with the direct action 
group Voices for Creative Nonviolence.)

However, I wonder if these moments in the wake of mass activist 
arrests - specifically, when vocal activists (some of them white and 
middle class) are arrested by the dozen and thrust into the public 
eye - might be an apt time to spread awareness of the stark 
injustices perpetrated every minute, across the country, in the name 
of "criminal justice." When folks who aren't usually arrested (and 
whose friends, allies and civil liberties attorneys are enfranchised 
and outspoken) are subjected to civil liberties violations, 
institutionalized brutality, dehumanizing jail conditions and the 
sickening prevalence of moldy baloney sandwiches behind bars, a 
unique point of contact is sparked. It's an opportunity for true 
empathy and empathy is the mother - or, at least, the cousin - of 
action.

In the interest of outing truth: I can't claim even remote 
journalistic "objectivity" when it comes to this topic. I've had two 
close loved ones sent to prison in the past few years, one of whom is 
currently incarcerated. When I worked as a reporter, I covered prison 
policy and developed ongoing pen-pal friendships with prisoners, two 
of whom were serving life sentences and would be forever relegated to 
pen-pal status. I dream about the prison system. (Dream? This is one 
of those times that I wish "to nightmare" were a verb.) When I pass 
the boloney shelf in the supermarket, my stomach turns, even when its 
labels feature expiration dates well in the future.

But maybe all this is part of the point - if empathy is critical for 
action, mass arrests provide the action-oriented among us with a 
personally resonant jumping-off point to advocate for systemic 
transformation. When our friends or high-profile activists are thrown 
in jail, we're struck with hard questions: what does jail do, for the 
inmate and for society? What do people do in order to end up there? 
How do other people who do those things avoid incarceration? Are 
there new, out-of-the-box ways of accomplishing the societal goals 
that jail's supposed to achieve?

There's a precedent for this kind of eye-opening-turned-advocacy. 
Kathy Kelly - co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, 
three-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, probable saint-in-waiting and 
my hero - was sent to prison for three months for her nonviolent 
resistance at School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. Kathy 
took the opportunity to write a detailed account of her experience, 
sharing the stories of her fellow prisoners and her insights into 
possible alternative

Re: [Biofuel] The Plan to Kick Greece Out of the Eurozone

[Keith Addison]

Hi James

Thanks for this. I think it's an alternative, but I also have 
reservations about Ms Fitt. I'm not sure you can start from there, if 
you see what I mean. Also I'm not persuaded that she'd be likely to 
know anything much about food and health, as claimed.

I prefer Mondragon. There are quite a lot of Mondragon-style coops in 
the US (and they do seem to know something about food and health).

A World Without Bosses?
July 2, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/23201/

Quite a number of local biodiesel initiatives are coops. In a broader 
sense, CSAs and local farmers' markets might also be seen cooperative 
ventures.

There's also another kind of cooperative. It's called society. 
Despite widespread allegations to the contrary, it's what most of us 
do most of the time, cooperate with each other. We always have done, 
it's our nature.

Rgds

Keith


>Keith,
>
>You may want to check out .  This was Catherine
>Austin Fitt's brain child.  Where she discusses the concept of a Solari.
>Briefly, its a < 100k coop that agrees to do business exclusively
>internally (where goods and services permit).  It's what's called placed
>based economics.  Where the goal of the coop is to keep as much $ in the
>community as possible.  This includes going after Gummint contracts,
>etc. You can sell to anyone.  However, your purchases have to be as
>close to home as possible.
>
>After Catherine was chased out of DC by FedGov.Inc (note domain suffix)
>for busting big Bush and Clinton supporters for Soprano's style HUD
>fraud.  She returned to her family home in Happy Valley, TN.  Her
>neighbors asked if she could help them.  They had a lot of unemployment
>and city services were expensive.  They first thing she recommended is
>to start there one sanitation co.  This  employed people internally and
>reduced the cost of garbage pickup to everyone in the community.
>
>The pipe dream of Globalization (thanks to Bubba and Newt) is like a
>direct economic short.  Where the money is siphoned out of your place at
>the expense of child and prison labor.
>
>This model has a totally open accounting system.  Where all members are
>encouraged to keep track of all transactions posted on a private solari
>server.  The model is quite open to fit the needs of the members. It
>includes issuing A and B stock shares.  Where A shares can only be sold
>to the solari members.  B shares can be sold to anyone. 
>
>This much akin to the Mondragon Society in Spain.
>
>If just 10% of us shifted our purchases away from the Tape Worm economic
>model (WalMart, MSM, McDonalds, etc), it would effect FedGov.Inc's
>profits by 30%.  Because, they count their profits thrice like Enron.
>Couple that by the sustainable community business / coop model and we
>have an extremely effective  Gandhi style boycott.  
>
>Regards,
>JQ
>(First Solari Member)
>
>On Wed, 2012-05-23 at 20:55 +0200, Keith Addison wrote:
>
>>  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/22-2
>>
>>  Published on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 by Alternet
>>
>  > The Rise of the New Economy Movement
>>



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Re: [Biofuel] The Rise of Reuse

[Keith Addison]

Hi Darryl

Yes, as I said.

Thanks, I forgot about ETC. I've been following Pat Mooney and his 
friends since 1982, when they were still called RAFI. Wider ranging 
now.

>Thanks Keith, that's likely what I'm after (Information Clearing House).
>   I'll give it a look.

and...

>So, next such issue that comes before me, I will test the Information
>Clearing House and see how that works.

ICH is a newsletter, it won't answer your questions, or not directly.

Ask here. That's what it's for, these days, it seems.

>Internet searches are
>time-consuming and tedious, and tend to pull up the pretenders first, so
>it becomes a research project.

Case rests.

Sometimes the pretenders come up first, but I wouldn't say it's a 
general rule, probably it depends what you're looking for. For 
instance, a search at Google for "Quebec Bill 78" comes up with this: 
"News Canada: Quebec Bill 78 echoes Russia's anti-protest idea: is it 
Jean or Vladimir Charest? 2012-05-21. Quebec's legislation, which 
passed Friday, also ..."


That's wrong. ICH filed a piece at the time featuring a YouTube of 
so-called protester leaders dutifully filing into a US Embassy 
building in Moscow for their instructions. Same old same old, 
business as usual. There were numerous previous reports of this. Not 
only in Moscow, also in Cairo, when US "NGOs" were kicked out for 
interfering with the presidential elections. But News Canada lumps 
the genuine protesters in with the agents provocateurs. Not to be 
trusted. Putin won anyway. No wonder Obama doesn't like him.


Rgds

Keith


>Thanks Keith, that's likely what I'm after (Information Clearing House).
>   I'll give it a look.
>
>I am aware of several of the others (Common Dreams, TruthOut, GRAIN,
>Anti-Empire Report, ETC, Council of Canadians, OpenMedia.ca and many
>more) and they are great.  They focus on specific issues, and strength
>to them all.  But the fact that there are dozens of sources just
>compounds my essential problem.
>
>I don't even try to keep up with the information flood - let alone the
>disinformation deluges.  Issues find their way to me.  (yesterday's:
>http://www.econogics.com/ev/evblog.htm#2012.05.23)
>
>Some I can dispense with quickly because I know someone better qualified
>is already on it, or I don't agree with the matter, or ...  However,
>some fall into the category of something needs to be done, and I don't
>know who (if anyone) is working the issue.  Internet searches are
>time-consuming and tedious, and tend to pull up the pretenders first, so
>it becomes a research project.  I don't need more projects (something
>akin to my son's yak-shaving story - per urbandictionary.com:  yak
>shaving - Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary
>to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of
>recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on).
>
>The trust aspect is important, because it is one more winnowing tool.
>If the current Canadian federal government (allegedly elected as opposed
>to the public servants being purged) says 'X' is the answer, I'll assume
>it is not until convinced otherwise.  If ETC says 'Y' is the answer, I'm
>much more likely to believe it, again, until convinced otherwise.
>
>There are news sites and campaign sites, and I think each has its place.
>   Oversimplifying, I know, but news sources let me know that an issue
>exists, and something about the underlying facts.  The campaign sites
>are one means, in some cases, of trying to do something about it.
>
>So, next such issue that comes before me, I will test the Information
>Clearing House and see how that works.
>
>Thanks for this.  This list is indeed an information clearinghouse -
>likely why I find it to be so valuable.  I am definitely following the
>Quebec Bill 78 story, partly because Montreal is just under 200 km away,
>partly because I was born in Quebec, but mostly because it is such an
>absurd response to a symptom and not addressing underlying fundamental
>issues.
>
>Darryl
>
>On 24/05/2012 2:05 PM, Keith Addison wrote:
>>  Hi Darryl
>>
>>  I still don't see the problem. It IS divvied up rather effectively.
>>  One of the most useful resources is actually called just that,
>>  "Information Clearing House", run by the excellent Tom Feeley, who
>>  seldom puts a foot wrong. It's very difficult to put one over on Tom,
>>  he's unerring, and, necessarily, he has a good sense of history, as
>>  well as, obviously, the resources to check it. So do I. There are
>>  other such clearing houses, such as Common Dreams, Truthout, Sam
>>  Smith's Progressive Review, Bill Blum's Anti-Empire Report and quite
>>  a few more, all found over the long term to be rather reliable, as
>>  well as many more that specialise, such as GRAIN, for instance.
>>  Information Clearing House, especially, will 

Re: [Biofuel] The Rise of Reuse

[Darryl McMahon]

Thanks Keith, that's likely what I'm after (Information Clearing House). 
  I'll give it a look.

I am aware of several of the others (Common Dreams, TruthOut, GRAIN, 
Anti-Empire Report, ETC, Council of Canadians, OpenMedia.ca and many 
more) and they are great.  They focus on specific issues, and strength 
to them all.  But the fact that there are dozens of sources just 
compounds my essential problem.

I don't even try to keep up with the information flood - let alone the 
disinformation deluges.  Issues find their way to me.  (yesterday's: 
http://www.econogics.com/ev/evblog.htm#2012.05.23)

Some I can dispense with quickly because I know someone better qualified 
is already on it, or I don't agree with the matter, or ...  However, 
some fall into the category of something needs to be done, and I don't 
know who (if anyone) is working the issue.  Internet searches are 
time-consuming and tedious, and tend to pull up the pretenders first, so 
it becomes a research project.  I don't need more projects (something 
akin to my son's yak-shaving story - per urbandictionary.com:  yak 
shaving - Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary 
to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of 
recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on).

The trust aspect is important, because it is one more winnowing tool. 
If the current Canadian federal government (allegedly elected as opposed 
to the public servants being purged) says 'X' is the answer, I'll assume 
it is not until convinced otherwise.  If ETC says 'Y' is the answer, I'm 
much more likely to believe it, again, until convinced otherwise.

There are news sites and campaign sites, and I think each has its place. 
  Oversimplifying, I know, but news sources let me know that an issue 
exists, and something about the underlying facts.  The campaign sites 
are one means, in some cases, of trying to do something about it.

So, next such issue that comes before me, I will test the Information 
Clearing House and see how that works.

Thanks for this.  This list is indeed an information clearinghouse - 
likely why I find it to be so valuable.  I am definitely following the 
Quebec Bill 78 story, partly because Montreal is just under 200 km away, 
partly because I was born in Quebec, but mostly because it is such an 
absurd response to a symptom and not addressing underlying fundamental 
issues.

Darryl

On 24/05/2012 2:05 PM, Keith Addison wrote:
> Hi Darryl
>
> I still don't see the problem. It IS divvied up rather effectively.
> One of the most useful resources is actually called just that,
> "Information Clearing House", run by the excellent Tom Feeley, who
> seldom puts a foot wrong. It's very difficult to put one over on Tom,
> he's unerring, and, necessarily, he has a good sense of history, as
> well as, obviously, the resources to check it. So do I. There are
> other such clearing houses, such as Common Dreams, Truthout, Sam
> Smith's Progressive Review, Bill Blum's Anti-Empire Report and quite
> a few more, all found over the long term to be rather reliable, as
> well as many more that specialise, such as GRAIN, for instance.
> Information Clearing House, especially, will send you to many
> different websites, at least some of which might not be very
> reliable, or indeed are biased, but Tom knows the difference, he's
> sceptical, and incisive. He's not the only one. It's worth going to
> his website and having a look at the sources he checks every day
> (about 200 of them).
>
> This list is an information clearing house. I closed it because it's
> supposed to be a discussion list, but the amount of discussion had
> been dwindling to just about zero, leaving just me, more or less,
> posting news items of note, filtered through several processes which
> left just the cream. But I'm quite a shy person, if I'm the only one
> talking I tend to get embarrassed and shut up. So I closed it down.
> And got a whole bunch of protests and pleas to open it again, because
> people really appreciated the news updates. So here we are, with a
> discussion group called the Biofuel list where there's very little
> discussion and even less information about biofuels, but people like
> it anyway.
>
> Now, why would you want to trust the people who run these clearing
> houses, including me? Sure, we all make mistakes, me included, but
> not very many, and I've found that when I do make them here there's a
> bunch of very sharp list members who'll set me straight. (Deep bow.)
>
> Let's put it this way... For some time, in a low-key sort of way,
> I've been asking people I know, who'd be regarded as intelligent and
> well-informed citizens, how many news articles they read/see/hear per
> day, and the answers vary from about 10 to about 25. After all, life
> is complicated, high-pressured, fast, much faster than it was 50
> years ago, who's got the time to waste on every little detail of
> events far away involving people you don't know 

Re: [Biofuel] The Rise of Reuse

[Keith Addison]

Hi Darryl

I still don't see the problem. It IS divvied up rather effectively. 
One of the most useful resources is actually called just that, 
"Information Clearing House", run by the excellent Tom Feeley, who 
seldom puts a foot wrong. It's very difficult to put one over on Tom, 
he's unerring, and, necessarily, he has a good sense of history, as 
well as, obviously, the resources to check it. So do I. There are 
other such clearing houses, such as Common Dreams, Truthout, Sam 
Smith's Progressive Review, Bill Blum's Anti-Empire Report and quite 
a few more, all found over the long term to be rather reliable, as 
well as many more that specialise, such as GRAIN, for instance. 
Information Clearing House, especially, will send you to many 
different websites, at least some of which might not be very 
reliable, or indeed are biased, but Tom knows the difference, he's 
sceptical, and incisive. He's not the only one. It's worth going to 
his website and having a look at the sources he checks every day 
(about 200 of them).

This list is an information clearing house. I closed it because it's 
supposed to be a discussion list, but the amount of discussion had 
been dwindling to just about zero, leaving just me, more or less, 
posting news items of note, filtered through several processes which 
left just the cream. But I'm quite a shy person, if I'm the only one 
talking I tend to get embarrassed and shut up. So I closed it down. 
And got a whole bunch of protests and pleas to open it again, because 
people really appreciated the news updates. So here we are, with a 
discussion group called the Biofuel list where there's very little 
discussion and even less information about biofuels, but people like 
it anyway.

Now, why would you want to trust the people who run these clearing 
houses, including me? Sure, we all make mistakes, me included, but 
not very many, and I've found that when I do make them here there's a 
bunch of very sharp list members who'll set me straight. (Deep bow.)

Let's put it this way... For some time, in a low-key sort of way, 
I've been asking people I know, who'd be regarded as intelligent and 
well-informed citizens, how many news articles they read/see/hear per 
day, and the answers vary from about 10 to about 25. After all, life 
is complicated, high-pressured, fast, much faster than it was 50 
years ago, who's got the time to waste on every little detail of 
events far away involving people you don't know and never will? So 
you don't, you rely on other people to do it for you, specialists.

Some background. In 1977 I went to work at a daily newspaper in Hong 
Kong, very interesting newspaper, a news tabloid with a (main) 
morning and evening edition and a Chinese co-edition, owned by its 
editor, Graham Jenkins, who'd been running newspapers up and down the 
East for more than three decades. Graham was always short of staff, 
staff who could keep up with him, that is. He was a demon to work 
for, very demanding, but it was worth it. He and I produced the whole 
newspaper every night. Lots of foreign news, and that was my job (not 
for the first time). There were five telex lines, Reuters, UPI, AP, 
AFP and Xinhua, pumping out foreign copy all the time, and I read it 
all, something like, not 10 to 25, but 5,000 stories per day. Quite 
quickly you found yourself seeing the world as a revolving globe made 
up not of countries but of news, ever-shifting patterns of news. You 
could see things building, often you could tell what was coming so 
when it arrived you were ready for it, and BS just didn't make it. 
Very addictive, what a buzz, wow.

Now it's different, there's more news now, but it arrives in a 
different way, already filtered (much as I was doing in Hong Kong) by 
people like Tom Feeley et al. It's not difficult to sort the wheat 
from the chaff, not only with sources but also with individual 
writers. And I do have the history to hand, it's easy to check: my 
computer told me there are 1,600,000 files on its hard-disk, and that 
includes about 15 gigabytes of news and news background, going back a 
long way. I think that's equivalent to about 15,000 books are more. 
That plus Google. So that's what I do, whether I'm forwarding it 
anywhere or not. Best movie I've ever seen, I can't tear my eyes away.

By the way, I don't find Avaaz.org that useful for my purposes. It's 
more a campaigning site than a news site - strength to their elbow, 
but it's not much use to me.

All best

Keith


>Let's take Freecycle as an example.  Let's say we have 1,000
>participants in a local group.  Each is a donor, a recipient, or both,
>for different transactions.  The 'forum' (an e-mail list in my case) is
>a 'clearinghouse' for physical items connecting multiple donors and
>multiple recipients.  A donor can donate multiple items and a recipient
>can receive multiple items.  The objective is to keep physical items out
>of landfill by associating them with a recipient that wants them.
>
>

Re: [Biofuel] Catherine Austin Fitts/solari/place based economics

[Dawie Coetzee]

I've seen that before. Some ideas worthy of contemplation there; but somehow, 
try as I might, I just don't seem to be able to trust La Fitt further than I 
can bodily move her by telekinesis.-Dawie



>
> From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org 
>Sent: Thursday, 24 May 2012, 13:17
>Subject: [Biofuel] Catherine Austin Fitts/solari/place based economics
> 
>James Quaid  wrote
>
>Keith,
>
>You may want to check out
><http://solari.com> .  This was Catherine
>Austin Fitt's brain child.  Where she discusses the concept of a Solari.
>Briefly, its a < 100k coop that agrees to do business exclusively
>internally (where goods and services permit).  It's what's called placed
>based economics.  Where the goal of the coop is to keep as much $ in the
>community as possible.  This includes going after Gummint contracts,
>etc. You can sell to anyone.  However, your purchases have to be as
>close to home as possible.
>
>After Catherine was chased out of DC by FedGov.Inc (note domain suffix)
>for busting big Bush and Clinton supporters for Soprano's style HUD
>fraud.  She returned to her family home in Happy Valley, TN.  Her
>neighbors asked if she could help them.  They had a lot of unemployment
>and city services were expensive.  They first thing she recommended is
>to start there one sanitation co.  This  employed people internally and
>reduced the cost of garbage pickup to everyone in the community.
>
>The pipe dream of Globalization (thanks to Bubba and Newt) is like a
>direct economic short.  Where the money is siphoned out of your place at
>the expense of child and prison labor.
>
>This model has a totally open accounting system.  Where all members are
>encouraged to keep track of all transactions posted on a private solari
>server.  The model is quite open to fit the needs of the members. It
>includes issuing A and B stock shares.  Where A shares can only be sold
>to the solari members.  B shares can be sold to anyone.
>
>This much akin to the Mondragon Society in Spain.
>
>If just 10% of us shifted our purchases away from the Tape Worm economic
>model (WalMart, MSM, McDonalds, etc), it would effect FedGov.Inc's
>profits by 30%.  Because, they count their profits thrice like Enron.
>Couple that by the sustainable community business / coop model and we
>have an extremely effective  Gandhi style boycott.
>
>Regards,
>JQ
>(First Solari Member)
>
>On Wed, 2012-05-23 at 20:55 +0200, Keith Addison wrote:
>
><http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/22-2>
>
><http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel>
>
>
>___
>Biofuel mailing list
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>http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel
>
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>http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
>
>Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages):
>http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
>
>
>
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[Biofuel] Catherine Austin Fitts/solari/place based economics

[dwoodard]

James Quaid  wrote

Keith,

You may want to check out
 .  This was Catherine
Austin Fitt's brain child.  Where she discusses the concept of a Solari.
Briefly, its a < 100k coop that agrees to do business exclusively
internally (where goods and services permit).  It's what's called placed
based economics.  Where the goal of the coop is to keep as much $ in the
community as possible.  This includes going after Gummint contracts,
etc. You can sell to anyone.  However, your purchases have to be as
close to home as possible.

After Catherine was chased out of DC by FedGov.Inc (note domain suffix)
for busting big Bush and Clinton supporters for Soprano's style HUD
fraud.  She returned to her family home in Happy Valley, TN.  Her
neighbors asked if she could help them.  They had a lot of unemployment
and city services were expensive.  They first thing she recommended is
to start there one sanitation co.  This  employed people internally and
reduced the cost of garbage pickup to everyone in the community.

The pipe dream of Globalization (thanks to Bubba and Newt) is like a
direct economic short.  Where the money is siphoned out of your place at
the expense of child and prison labor.

This model has a totally open accounting system.  Where all members are
encouraged to keep track of all transactions posted on a private solari
server.  The model is quite open to fit the needs of the members. It
includes issuing A and B stock shares.  Where A shares can only be sold
to the solari members.  B shares can be sold to anyone.

This much akin to the Mondragon Society in Spain.

If just 10% of us shifted our purchases away from the Tape Worm economic
model (WalMart, MSM, McDonalds, etc), it would effect FedGov.Inc's
profits by 30%.  Because, they count their profits thrice like Enron.
Couple that by the sustainable community business / coop model and we
have an extremely effective  Gandhi style boycott.

Regards,
JQ
(First Solari Member)

On Wed, 2012-05-23 at 20:55 +0200, Keith Addison wrote:






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Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages):
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