This Week: Spend Better, Trippin', Brazil News & Snowden Watch

 

High Speed Levitating Trains.  Yeah!

 Sounds great, right? Not so fast Gilligan.

They are building one in Japan. It's super fast, super cool, probably clean-ish energy.
I don't know exactly, but the cost is very high and it's budget is spiraling out of control as we speak.

They could conceivably not even finish the thing.
Imagine the fraud and political manipulations that have gone on and that will need to, to make this happen.

Another project doomed to be obsolete before it's even finished.

Maybe have another look at this idea, would 'ya fellas?
Read the story here:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/19/5120334/japan-wants-to-sell-maglev-trains-to-the-us

 

 

Seriously?

The UN's drug enforcement agency doesn't like Uruguay's plans to legalize marijuana.

They claim they weren't informed (they seem to be aware now though) lamenting that no one from the ROU has attended any recent INBC meetings, according to a statement from president Raymond Yans.
The new law would “would go against that which is established in the 1961 convention regarding narcotics, which was adopted by 186 countries, including Uruguay” says Yans.
Do 'ya think it might be time to uh, update the International Narcotics Control Board's table of drug guidelines? Even wonks like this should be able to recognize that the old Maryjane has few public health repercussions especially compared to the legal drugs out there.
The report warns against "potential effects on dependency" I  bet they'll be no dependency issues when states gain the public support to legalize and then tax said 'narcotics'.
These guys are grasping at 50 year old straws.
Meanwhile Uruguay breaks the mold and makes history as the 'First World' looks on dumbly.
Weekly Report has the story.
http://columnistas.montevideo.com.uy/uc_300308_1.html 

Uruguay is just ahead of the curve here. 
Now it appears that former US officials are ready to go from enforcers to enablers. Yeah.
Here's a story about a former DEA agent who is putting together a company to advise and invest in companies that trade in, you guessed it - weed.
Of course it's a private-equity investment group or whatever. Like most business thinking these days it makes nothing, but will talk, spend and shuffle money around so the rich and connected can become more so.
At least they've caught a whiff of what's already cooking.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/this-former-dea-agent-is-going-to-work-in-the-marijuana-business/282197/

BRAZIL NEWS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The riots have subsided for now, but the mood is far from tranquil.  According to an in depth look at he mood in Brazil by ESPN. Yeah, I know, but read the piece, it's significant. This last movement; sparked by a bus fare increase scheme to help pay for the World Cup. People were out in mass during the WC pre-games (Federation Cup) and it got messy. 

Are there more and more 'tinder kegs' out there or is it my imagination? Read this piece and have a look at the future. It's dark.

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/10079392/generation-june

Our Hero

Edward Snowden, the reluctant messiah. What ever he is (and he is something different to everyone). 
he's in a tight spot, make no mistake.
Whatever you may think you know, the bald fact is that he leaked the biggest embarrassment of Uncle Sam in a good long while and with it the horrific if not somewhat expected news that governments lie, cheat us and spy on us and then lie about that, at his very great peril, no less. 
I'm following whatever I can about this bell-weather margin call on humanity. What are we anyway?
New Yorker blogger John Cassidy gives a good sum up why he's the person of the year or some crap.
Person of the Year, oye vey. It's good that people are still writing about this, but the slavish devotion to failed institutions and misplaced loyalties sickens me a bit.
Why does every writer have to praise the glory of the empire while only meekly criticizing it. They all lament the turn from upstanding world leader as if it just happened. Hardly anyone is thumping their forehead and realizing this has been happening all along and we willingly (although unknowingly) assist the whole way.
Ambition, success, growth. To what end friends, to what end?

That's all for this edition. Opinions welcome.

 

Uruguay Weed Watch

This just in.

Officials report that pharmacies in Uruguay will not be distributing legalized marijuana when the new law is put into effect. That's a relief as far as I'm concerned.
All of the models for distributing pot so far have sounded like they are being conceived by people who have never bought or even smoked the stuff.
Here's what legalized weed will not do;

• Curb the use or spread of Cocaine and it's evil stepsister, pasta base.
• Encourage people who don't smoke to start.
• Render the population stupefied most of the time.
• Increase the drug trade.
• Discourage uppity 'first world' countries to shun the R.O.U.

There is a whole lot of good that can come of laws that are more in concert with how people actually live and regard smoking MaryJane. They are:

• Home growers and cooperatives could take a large enough market share to drive the cartels to greener pastures.
• Like prostitution (legal here) it would further demystify and thereby likely lower the chances of kids being desperate to try it.\
• Other countries may be emboldened to make similar laws which could be the beginning of a landslide of common sense.
• Once weed comes out of the shadows and is no longer associated with drugs like heroine, it might be easier to fund research for the many other possible uses.

The world is changing and fast. The time to see things as they really are and take some positive action is now.
I have a grave feeling next year is gonna be a doosie.
Here's the story.
http://columnistas.montevideo.com.uy/uc_300288_1.html

Don't give up

A beautiful future.

Why not?   

If you find the current spate of OUR-FUTURE-GONE-WRONG narratives kind of depressing, I found someone with a different angle.

If it's not Zombies, Evil Robots or our Cyber-Selves wreaking havoc, the planet itself has gone haywire; Mother Earth finally having had just enough from her smartest inhabitants.

It's a plausible theme, seeing as how we are destroying our own environment and wildly can't stop! Check this Motherboard story about Alex McKay's book "The World We Made" which looks forward to 2050.  It could give a brother hope.

The World We Made: Alex McKay's Story from 2050

If nothing else it names the climate disaster genre 'cli-fi', which is pretty funny.

The Higher the Fewer 

Legalization of The Devil's Lettuce here in the Southern Cone is still up in the air, so to speak.
There's been much written, but with few specifics of how the new laws will work. My guess is no one knows.
Sure, drips and drabs come to light every so often to us 'on the verge' of knowing something. The latest news is that a gram will cost around $100 pesos (US $5.00).
I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't worked out for a few years. Even if it is people may just gravitate back to familiar ways.
Seeing as how this is all under the control of our faithful servants in government I'm confident nothing less than a clusterfuck will result.


It's a mess, but at least we've begun discussing it. A long-overdue problem that most nations haven't even started talking about.

Snowden Watch:

In case you haven't been keeping up our hero is enjoying the hospitality of Russia at the present. This may or may not turn out to be a kind fate, but it certainly works for the time being and it sure beat the hell out of his rapidly diminishing options.
The rest of us carry on; either blithely unaware of any such wrinkles in the smooth fabric that is life or victims of our overlords last desperate attempts to control EVERYTHING.
I have some related material dutifully submitted to those of us in the latter category as Edward Snowden attempts to lay low, punished, persecuted and maligned for doing what only one in several million of us would be even willing to do.

Read this.......

Britain defends detaining the partner of Edward Snowden journalist

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-britain-edward-snowden-journalist-partner-detention-20130820,0,7319621.story#axzz2j86AXC8R

and...

James Howard Kunstler is a torrent of bad news you need to hear. I hardily recommend his rants as required reading, with a dose of salt please. He's on a roll, but possibly rolling nowhere except to his next book. You be the judge.
This excerpt is from a recent piece and mentions Snowden. It gives a good glimpse of JHK. Think you can handle it?

The diminishing returns of computer technology applied to intelligence gathering are that it produces more mountains of data than any team of professionals can make sense of, and it prompts said professionals to make mischief with the information that is easiest to sort out: the financial records of ordinary citizens. Nothing will create political resistance more surely than messing with people’s money. The NSA apparatus is now a self-reinforcing monster that will strive for ever more control ineffectively, creating a debris path of ever more embarrassment and resentment. A lone true patriot like Snowden does more to oppose this monster than all the “freedom” and “liberty” spouting, flag-lapel-pin-wearing cowards in either political party.

Thanks for keeping up.
Peace bitches.

links: James Howard Kunstler

Prisons, profits and public funds.

I haven't rooted this much for the inmates since The Shawshank Redemption. The taxpayers are really getting the hard shower too. Every time there is waste we all pay. Some must be locked up, it's unavoidable. Something stinks about this though.
Let's list the obvious possible abuses;

1. Privatizing prisons could give incentive to lock people up more often and for less reason.
2. Crime is a hot button issue and people want to believe in the law and feel safe. Therefor criticism of the system might collide directly with concern for the aforementioned law & safety thing.
3. Corporate rules (talk about an oxymoron) have never been weaker (and less enforced). Who thinks running a corporate prison system that runs afoul of laws and rights, but that's highly profitable is a good idea?

Here's a nifty info graphic with some good points to help you get your mind right.




Apparently what we have here is a lack of communication.

Thanks for reading.

Worlds

The World is a Vampire

If you contend that no one has made any sense out of what is clearly a world gone mad, I have your man. Not all the answers by a far site, but it's a good start.
This idea that there is much and more wrong with the world is as old as the world, but I don't think I'm going too far out on a ledge to say that many people feel like something something big is going to happen.


Maybe soon too.

I recommend here a piece about the coming collapse and how 'funny' it is that we are all just letting it happen. It's lengthy, so if the average fb comment has your mind wandering mid-way through you shouldn't bother.
Well written, specific with verifiable facts. You can choose to dismiss the sources as corrupt, biased or outright lies, (all three if you like) but it's hard to deny the state of things. And it's getting harder every day.
The focus on exactly what constitutes sanity is not exactly new either, but talking about it and spreading it one person at a time until the tipping point is reached sounds actually attainable.


This series by Tyler Durden recommended from Dangerous Dave Ellis who follows zerohedge.com.
The first installment of this series (here) . Scroll down for the links proper.

A World of Pain

Even with a world of information at our hands, the combined wisdom of the daytime soap/talk show mavens, the millions of self-help books sold or even that knot in your stomach when we see (or participate in) the corporal punishment of a child or youth, still many people rely heavily on the vicious cycle of punishment-shame-guilt-repeat with nothing  more substantial backing it up other than "worked for my folks, works for me".

  

Someone who's studied this stuff connects it with a world out of control. 

The roots of Violence.

According to Alice Miller, violence has its the roots in the fact that children are beaten all over the world, especially during their first years of life, when their brains become structured. She said that the damage caused by this practice is devastating, but unfortunately hardly noticed by society. She argued that as children are forbidden to defend themselves against the violence inflicted on them, they must suppress the natural reactions like rage and fear, and they discharge these strong emotions later as adults against their own children or whole peoples: "child abuse like beating and humiliating not only produces unhappy and confused children, not only destructive teenagers and abusive parents, but thus also a confused, irrationally functioning society." Miller stated that only through becoming aware of this dynamic can we break the chain of violence.

It's a bit tough to agree on improving something that not enough people will admit is wrong in the first place. When you are hard wired to accept whatever treatment you got as 'good enough' because it came from your family/life support, just taking a peek at another way to view it can be very scary.
Information on this important topic is available here and elswhere.
We progress by sharing with one person at a time.

A World at War

1. Privates

Pvt. Chelsea 'Gertrude' Manning (Gertrude is my addition and why not?) was sentenced to 35 years in Levinworth for being the first well publicized whistle-blower to take it all the way.
That sounded bad. It's not an easy topic to deal with straight laced. Damn.
This dude, er broad is committed. I am awed.
Who knows how much time it'll mean, but any is too much of course.
I get it that stealing, even from stealers, even if the stuff is illicit or illegal (stolen even ) is a crime. The message is clear: If the gatekeepers catch you tampering with their shit, they slap you. Hard.
My sympathies and my solidarity are with the friends, the supporters and with Ms. Manning.
You go private.

2. Syria-slee?

Amerika says the Syrian gov't. gassed it's people and the US must strike them down. It must.
World reacts skeptically to this assertion.
Opposition to this latest war gambit grows.
US says limited strikes may do it.
Obama asks congress to decide. Nothing happens (It's Congress, duh).
I think these guys will get their war one way or another.

3. It's tiresome to read yet another batch of geopolitical bellyaching, but there's so much wrong and so little interest I feel I must point out a thing or two. I do drone on don't I?

Thanks for reading

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-23/guest-post-trying-stay-sane-insane-world-part-1
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-05/guest-post-trying-stay-sane-insane-world-part-2

Beautify me

Saints 2, Science 0

This is at least a week old, but just in case you hadn't heard.
While I am personally charmed by the myriad of rules and regulations contained within Catholicism, I must be fair and paint those guys with the same brush everyone else gets.
In this story  from MercoPress, the new Pope decides two other Popes are to get sainthood, including John Paul II (from just a few years ago).
Kind of quick don't you think?
These things have traditionally taken years, centuries I imagine, in past cases.
I would think it is easier these days, with all the technology and such to er, verify the required miracles.
I always assumed they attempted to asses and vote on cases from ancient history precisely because nobody had much proof of anything other than what they were saying.
But no, now this previously rare vestige is being handed out as easily as some silly science or literary prize.

"I heard one was a kind of card trick"

Read up on one of my favorite religions (voted most conflicting rules and most confusing rules two centuries in a row ! - Heaven and Hell Magazine )

What we appear to have is an ever increasing level of absurdity in religious belief that gives cover to everyone. There's always some crazier, more extreme group than the one you're in. "Please, whatever you do, don't lump me in with those people."That nearly universal human characteristic of admitting to be a part of it while also saying you are apart from it.

You are your thing.

I know, you think you have a 'get out of hell free' card, so if the rest don't make it, well you warned us right?
Not cool and BTW not true.
No soul searching necessary just cut out the fantasy stuff and do good, as much as possible.
Pretty simple.
http://en.mercopress.com/2013/07/05/john-paul-ii-and-john-xxiii-will-be-made-saints-announced-the-vatican

What do we do now?

Well that's what the State Dept. must have been muttering once they learned that Orange County California Sheriff's Dept. prosecutors were preparing to bring a case against a Saudi Arabian princess who had a slave, oh I mean servant, eh maid, yeah a maid escape the house and take a bus to find freedom and some while she and her family were staying in Irvine, Ca.

This story from The Los Angelis Times is sad and a bit hillarious.
I imagine the top brass are pretty cozy with those particular A-rabs, with as much secrecy as possible of course. Now the forces of the US justice system were about to collide with the 'special relationship' that exists between the world's biggest oil producer and it's best customer.
Disaster averted, phew!
The Saudi Arabian Consulate posted the 5 million dollar bail. I'm sure the princes and the rest of her property were whisked away to the safety of their nearest villa. Hopefully in a country that doesn't forget who's paying the bills around here, sheesh!
Try to read up on this foul and GROWING trend in crime and entitlement.
Still thinking to vacation in Dubai?

You will loose 1 child for every hour I spend here, do you hear me?

I call those rednecks in Irvine righteous dudes. And brave!                                                                It looks like it might have been a hassle to arrest this broad, check out her eyes.

Now that's inappropriate!

So this guy, sends some pictures of his 'package' to a woman he wants to impress? It doesn't work, but does get him kicked out of congress. Now he's running for Mayor of New York and not doing too badly either. No judgement, just reporting the facts.

How you like me now?

Read about this latest failure of the main stream press (New York Times in this case) to inform and educate the populace from one of our heroes, Greg Palast Investigative Reporter.
http://www.gregpalast.com/

You-all have a good day.

"I object"

 Read No Evil

You can read what I say you can read.

 
Just in case I'm called upon to co-council Bradley Manning at his trial, that's what I'll lead with;
"I object!"
Then something like "this whole court is out of order". I'll probably be screaming "you can't handle the truth" as they drag me out.
Don't let's forget a hero of the Free-the-Information era. Read this Motherboard story and join your energy to your indignation.

Down Low Dead

We are fortunate here in the Southern Cone, downloading torrent files is the norm. Without making a case against the Mega Music Corps that have ripped off consumers repeatedly, people simply don't have $25 bucks for a plastic disc with music on it. It's widely agreed that if prices had been or even become reasonable and more of the money would go to the artist, we'd pay for music. Many of us consider it indispensable. But alas, the music is out of the bag. There will be no putting the toothpaste back in the tube. Here's a cute image to help with your guilt.
http://imgur.com/ZEB27Rb

SEC? LOL!

Remember Bernie Madoff? I know, the people that lost big with this guy deserved to, but the bigger story is that people are still trying to 'alert' the US Federal Government to various illegal schemes, fraud and waste and are astonished that no one cares. Imagine!
News Flash: Those guys are usually running the scams.
What flim-flamery they're not directly in charge of is either sanctioned or ignored. Keep those wheels turning. Until they fall off I suppose.

It's heart warming to see people becoming aware....as they go broke. Snif.
Here's the story from NPR.