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Egypt sets hottest June day in African history; historic heatwave hits Cyprus

Egypt sets hottest June day in African history; historic heatwave hits Cyprus

aswan egypt satellite image on june 8 2024 sentinel-2

Aswan in Egypt recorded 50.9 °C (123.6 °F) on June 7, 2024, setting the highest reliable temperature ever recorded in Egypt and the hottest June day in African history. On the same day, Cyprus experienced its hottest June day ever with temperatures hitting 44 °C (111 °F), breaking its record for the second time this month.

On June 7, 2024, Aswan in Egypt reached a staggering 50.9 °C (123.6 °F), setting the highest reliable temperature ever recorded in Egypt and marking the hottest June day in African history. Previously, Egypt recorded a temperature of 51 °C (123.8 °F) on July 4, 1918, also in Aswan, but it was taken without a Standard Stevenson Screen, which raises questions about its accuracy.

Additionally, Alula in Saudi Arabia set a new monthly record at 47 °C (116.6 °F) on June 7.

The same day saw Cyprus set its new national record for the hottest June day ever, with temperatures soaring to 44 °C (111 °F) — 10 °C (18 °F) above the usual peak June temperatures. This marked the second time in the same month that Cyprus broke its highest June temperature record, following a previous high of 43.7 °C (110.7 °F) set on June 5.

On June 11, Rhourd Nouss in Algeria experienced historic temperatures as high as 48.8 °C (119.8 °F) with a minimum of 35.9 °C (96.6 °F). The same day, El Borma in Tunisia registered 48 °C (118.4 °F), and Tripoli in Libya recorded 46.8 °C (116.2 °F), according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.

Other notable temperatures in the region included Rhourd Nouss, which on June 10 recorded a minimum of 34.2 °C (93.6 °F) and a maximum of 47.6 °C (117.7 °F), while El Borma reached 46.1 °C (115 °F) and Essbea near Tripoli hit 46.2 °C (115.2 °F). In Saudi Arabia, Gassim set new June records with a minimum of 34 °C (93.2 °F) and a maximum of 47 °C (116.6 °F), while Najran reached 43 °C (109.4 °F) on June 10.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Another Blowout Adds to Mystery of Permian Basin Water Pressure

Another Blowout Adds to Mystery of Permian Basin Water Pressure

Water is bursting from another West Texas oil well, continuing a troubling trend.

Water flows from an orphaned oil well on Schuyler Wight’s ranch in Pecos County, Texas. Credit: Courtesy of Schuyler Wight
Water flows from an orphaned oil well on Schuyler Wight’s ranch in Pecos County, Texas. Credit: Courtesy of Schuyler Wight

In recent years, Schuyler Wight has noticed a growing number of abandoned oil wells coming back to life, gurgling fluids to the surface of his West Texas ranch. Last week he found the biggest one yet.

Gassy water was gushing from the ground and down a quarter mile of roadway before it drained into a pasture on a remote corner of his land.

“It’s by far flowing more than any other,” Wight said. “It’s getting worse, there’s no question about that.”

It’s the latest in a string of mysterious water features in the arid Permian Basin, the nation’s top producing oil field, that regulators have been unable to explain.

Last year, an eruption of salty water swamped several acres on Wight’s cousin’s ranch, triggering a multi-million-dollar cleanup. In 2022, a geyser shot up from a well in Crane County, then another spouted on the Antina Cattle Ranch. Nearby, a large pond of gassy groundwater has become a permanent feature called Boehmer Lake.

Texas’ oilfield regulator, the Texas Railroad Commission, has yet to offer an explanation for what is driving so much water to the surface. After the massive cleanup effort in January, an agency press release said it was “continuing to investigate” the cause. The Railroad Commission did not immediately respond to a query.

Wight, a fourth generation West Texas rancher, has watched this problem grow for years. He said the RRC has plugged about ten old wells leaking onto the surface of his property. But each time they do, another one starts flowing.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Could We Do Civilization Better?

Could We Do Civilization Better?

There seems to be a persistent mental bug preventing us from building a sustainable civilization. So far I have been focusing on the cultural, technological and political aspects of how and why each and every technological civilization ended up in ruins, and why ours is no different. A recent revelation made me think, however, that behind all these issues there might be a major hardware failure… In our brains. Is there a way around that bug? Is it possible to prevent it from recurring?


Last week I ended my post calling for a psychological transition versus a material one. Little did I know back then, that I would be writing about the same topic from a psychiatric viewpoint one week later. Such is life though: you never know what comes next. Before we delve into how our brains hijack societies (and vice verse), first let’s review the civilizational predicament we are in on the software level; i.e.: what’s apparently going wrong in our societies time after time when it comes to cajoling a bunch of apes into pulling in one direction.

The problem description goes something like this: As the civilizations we build mature, they increasingly become more rigid; not only when it comes to how they do things, but more importantly: how they think. They gradually lose their ability to recognize — let alone solve — problems, and become increasingly sclerotic and calcified. Problems initially resolvable by an adept leadership grow larger and larger until they become intractable, and burgeoning bureaucracies make even the simplest of adjustments mission impossible.

While enacting new institutions are often done to solve rational problems (like the need to collect taxes in an organized way), they almost invariably end up becoming the most irrational things humans have ever created…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Sparing vs Sharing: The Great Debate Over How to Protect Nature

Sparing vs Sharing: The Great Debate Over How to Protect Nature

What is the best way to save nature – to cordon off areas for parks and open space or to integrate conservation measures on working lands? Recent research makes a case for each of these approaches and has reignited a long-standing debate among scientists and conservationists.

It is one of the biggest questions in conservation: Should we be sharing our landscapes with nature by reviving small woodlands and adopting small-scale eco-friendly farming? Or should we instead be sparing large tracts of land for nature’s exclusive use – by creating more national parks and industrializing agriculture on existing farmland?

The argument between “sparing” and “sharing” as a conservation tool has been raging since researchers first coined the terms more than a decade ago. Arguably it began almost half a century before when Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution of high-yielding crop varieties, declared that “by producing more food per unit of cultivated area, more land would be available for other uses, including recreation and wildlife.”

E.O. Wilson’s 2016 book Half-Earth upped the ante by calling for us to extend protected areas from the current 15 percent of the earth’s land surface to 50 percent. Research studies and critiques have flourished on both sides.

So where do things stand today? It begins to look as if the sparers are winning the narrow scientific argument by showing that locally, and in the short term, more species are usually saved by segregating conservation from agriculture and other human land uses. But critics say that begs more questions than it answers, overlooking the issue of the long-term sustainability of such islands of biodiversity and failing to address whether we actually need to grow more food.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Hezbollah Rains Down 160 Rockets On Northern Israel As War Expands

Hezbollah Rains Down 160 Rockets On Northern Israel As War Expands

The Israel-Hezbollah war continues spreading and expanding along the border region, as on Wednesday the Shia paramilitary group backed by Iran fired some 160 missiles into Israel after the IDF killed a top Hezbollah commander, Taleb Sami Abdullah, in south Lebanon the day prior.

According to details from a regional war correspondent, Hezbollah “fired missiles and rockets at two Israeli military bases in retaliation for the Israeli strike on a house about six miles from Israel’s northern border, inside Lebanon, that killed Abdullah, 55, and three other Hezbollah officials who were meeting there.”

Illustrative, via NBC

The commander oversaw all of the group’s military operations in the central area of the Lebanon-Israel border, Hezbollah later confirmed. He was so senior in the organization that he been active in fighting Israel even going back to the 1990s.

An Israeli military statement had confirmed his identity: “Israeli Airforce aircraft eliminated Sami Taleb Abdullah, the commander of the Nasr Unit in the Hezbollah terrorist organization, last night,” the IDF announced Wednesday.

“This was part of a strike on a Hezbollah command and control center in the area of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon, which was used to direct terrorist attacks against Israel from southeastern Lebanon in recent months.”

The IDF and Israeli media pointed out, “Abdullah was one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon who planned, advanced, and carried out a large number of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.”

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the military is preparing an “extremely powerful” response to the continuing onslaught of Hezbollah attacks, which days ago resulted in dozens of fires across northern Israel.

Slain Hezbollah commander Sami Taleb Abdullah, source: Israel Hayom

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

De-Dollarization Just Accelerated… And You Might Not Even Know About It

De-Dollarization Just Accelerated… And You Might Not Even Know About It

BRICS in Nizhny Novgorod, Crickets’ Silence, Saudi Arabia, and Bridges (Away from the U.S. Dollar)

This past week has been a real turning point in the de-dollarization trend we’ve been talking about in these pages.

Funny enough, the media seems to be completely oblivious to most of it. Perhaps intentionally so.

As I told you earlier this week, the 50-year petrodollar agreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States is no more, with no new deal in place.

But, we mostly heard crickets from the Western mainstream media…

And just as I was writing about that, something else closely related was happening in Russia. This is from TASS, the Russian News Agency…

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, June 10. /TASS/. Delegates from 22 countries are expected to take part in the meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers in Nizhny Novgorod, the organizers told journalists.

According to the organizers, representatives from Russia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are taking part in sessions on Monday and representatives from Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belarus, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela, and Vietnam are expected to attend events on Tuesday, June 11.

The majority of the participating countries are represented by ministers.

Meanwhile, once again, awkward silence from the Western media. Here’s a screenshot I’ve taken of my Google results to illustrate. Not even one of these reports came from the West…

This is suspiciously odd given that….

  • BRICS collectively hold 32% of the world’s GDP, surpassing the 30% held by the G7 countries.
  • BRICS represent nearly half of the world’s population.
  • BRICS nations produce about 42% of global crude oil output.

Needless to say, it’s fair to say that BRICS isn’t just any bunch of countries. This makes it doubly weird how the mainstream media chose to ignore this.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Carbon Credits Are the Biggest Scam Since Indulgences—How You Can Avoid Being Fleeced

Carbon Credits Are the Biggest Scam Since Indulgences—How You Can Avoid Being Fleeced

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church convinced the commoners to buy indulgences to alleviate their sins. And they made a fortune in the process.

Similarly, today, our overlords—the mainstream media, central bankers, and their political allies—are working overtime to convince the commoners to pay for their alleged climate sins.

Enter carbon credits, government-issued permits that grant you the privilege to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide.

Although advocates promote them as a way to “save the environment,” in reality, carbon credits are nothing more than a devious mechanism to tax, regulate, and control you.

It’s not a coincidence that the most philosophically and ethically bent people are promoting them.

For example, at a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, participants revealed and touted an “individual carbon footprint tracker.” It will track where people travel, how they travel, what they eat, and what they consume.

Carbon accounting is already creeping into many places, like Google Flights.

A federal carbon tax is already a reality in Trudeau’s Canada, and it’s causing the price of food and other goods and services to soar. But Canadians haven’t seen anything yet—the federal carbon tax will triple by 2030.

In short, there’s a growing push to implement the carbon credit scam worldwide. And that’s not a coincidence.

Remember, central banks only exist to harvest wealth from the populace through inflation and redirect it to the politically connected, an insidious practice known as seigniorage.

Fiat currency is the usual mechanism central banks use to perpetuate this fraud. They get most people to run on a hamster wheel most of their lives chasing after confetti money they create with no effort.

However, there is a limit to this process.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

NewsGuard Co-CEO: Lack of Internet Gatekeepers Allows Dangerous Opinions

NewsGuard is fully a product of a particular era – co-founded in 2018 by Steven Brill, and there to provide “a rating system” for news websites.

Opponents of what NewsGuard, Brill, et al. stand for would say that era unfortunately continues. Critics sum it up as NewsGuard (a browser extension and app) turning censorship into a business model, with a clear political bias, while working with governments, intelligence communities, and corporations.

“Anti-misinformation” and “brand safety rating for advertisers” is the business NewsGuard insists it’s in, and just this week Brill had the opportunity to speak for C-SPAN and rail against anything from a lack of internet gatekeepers deciding who can become a publisher, to branding as “dangerous” people’s right to express different opinions on issues like health and election results.

Brill appears to like the idea of the internet providing unprecedented reach (and therefore influence) – but only when that power of publishing online is to his liking.

“Someone who has a crazy opinion about the Covid vaccine can reach as many people as Dr. Fauci can,” Brill lamented, as he and the C-SPAN host agreed about the need for internet gatekeepers who would decide who can, and must not, be allowed to become an online publisher.

Other statements made by Brill reek of elitism, and why wouldn’t they – his company counts former CIA, NATO, and DHS chiefs among its advisers.

And so Brill doesn’t like it at all that on the internet, (theoretically at least) everyone has the same chance to express opinion and be heard. That’s “dangerous,” he claims, using the issue of health-related information and expertise to “soften the blow” of the very idea that free speech represents danger.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The End Of The Petrodollar

The End Of The Petrodollar

The Saudis, New Chapter in Energy Economics, De-dollarization, and the American-Made Pressure Cooker

“Oil is too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.”
~ Henry Kissinger

Just last Sunday, one of the most significant economic deals of the century came to an end. The long-standing petrodollar agreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States officially expired on June 9th, 2024.

This system, which has been in place for 50 years, is now gone.

Despite what the mainstream media might have you believe, yes, it does point to a big change in global economics, and yes, it could seriously affect every American’s life.

So this week, I want to break down exactly what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how it will impact us and generations to come.

But first, let’s set the stage with some context, because it’s crucial…

"Rise" of the Dollar

You’ve probably heard the saying, “The one with the gold makes the rules,” right?

This was the position the U.S. was in after World War II.

The U.S. had won the war and boasted the world’s largest gold reserves. This allowed it to reshape the global monetary system around the dollar.

The new system, created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, tied almost every nation’s currency to the U.S. dollar at a fixed rate. It also pegged the U.S. dollar to gold at a fixed rate of $35 an ounce.

This arrangement made the U.S. dollar the world’s premier reserve currency, effectively forcing other countries to hold dollars for trade or redeem them with the U.S. for gold.

But, by the late ’60s, splurging on welfare and the Vietnam War, along with printing money to cover the deficit, pumped tons more dollars into circulation compared to the gold reserves backing them.


…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Covid, Economy & Election: QTR On Peak Prosperity

Covid, Economy & Election: QTR On Peak Prosperity

Last week I was interviewed by the great Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity in a wide ranging interview that covered topics like Covid, the economy and the political future of the country.

Chris was one of the only people during the onset of Covid who was looking through the mainstream media’s narrative and was doing his own research. He has a PhD in neurotoxicology from Duke University, and an MBA from Cornell University.

Video of our full 2 hour interview is at the bottom of this article.

Martenson (Source: Real Vision)

“Without necessary guardrails and consequences the failed leadership of DC and the Fed have taken us down a paths that had a binary outcome; bad and worse,” Chris writes on his site describing our interview.

First we covered the suppression of ivermectin and other drugs during the beginning of Covid. Chris asked me about whether or not blackballing these drugs had to do with getting the vaccines to market.

I told him: “That was a conspiracy theory back in 2021: they needed to shut you up about hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin so that they could utilize the EUA.”

“Now, looking back, it’s not a conspiracy theory; it’s the leading cause. I mean, applying Occam’s Razor 99 times out of 100, that’s the answer you’re going to arrive at—not that anybody on your channel doesn’t already know this. You’re a grown adult; you probably know to some degree the answer is pretty much always ‘follow the money.’,” I told him.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article….

California Wants Higher Gas Prices and EVs, Virginia Did, But Changed Its Mind

Common sense returns to Virginia as California Governor Gavin Newsom Struggles to defend inane policy. Let’s start with Newsom and gasoline prices.

In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Newsom says “What people pay at the pump isn’t simple supply and demand but the result of a highly concentrated and opaque market.

Here are the facts. Price spikes—like the $6.42 a gallon in June 2022 that sparked our new price-gouging law—happened when California taxes and fees remained unchanged, and crude prices had actually decreased. What drove up prices were increases in industry profits.

California’s new law provides us with tools to investigate profit spiking by Big Oil, helping us to prevent supply disruptions and take legal action when necessary. Another potential tool to encourage the oil industry to do right by Californians is a price-gouging penalty that will be developed through a public process.

What people pay at the pump isn’t simple supply and demand but the result of a highly concentrated and opaque market that lets a handful of mega-profitable oil companies upcharge tens of millions of people. In California, four companies control 90% of the gasoline refining capacity.

Factors such as refinery maintenance and lack of planning have been shown to reduce supply and increase refinery margins by upward of 200% at a time. California has also found that traders on the open “spot market” drive up prices, benefiting oil companies.

A Concentrated and Opaque Market

OK, why is the market in California concentrated and opaque?

  • California has the most regulations of any state
  • Refiners tired of California nonsense have left the state
  • California seasonal blend requirements have costs. But there’s not just one summer blend. Refineries make more than 14 kinds due to different state regulations.

Two California Refiners Shut Down

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXI–The Politics of Dancing: The politicians are now dj’s…

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXI

Tulum, Mexico (1986). Photo by author.

The Politics of Dancing: The politicians are now dj’s…

It seems nowadays we’re always trapped in the silly season of election campaigning. Perhaps my memory is foggy but where it used to be a short window of inane proclamations and ever-grander promises (that never actually happen as declared), this period of electioneering now appears to carry on everyday, 24/7/365. If it’s not related directly to an upcoming election, it’s about extolling the great work of those in office and the shortcomings of those in opposition parties (or, gasp, wanting to dismantle ‘democracy’)–the bankrolling of which is via that theft mechanism of taxes or, even worse, perpetual debt (I just love that the narrative management/control and surveillance of domestic citizens being carried out by the ruling caste is paid for by the masses themselves that the ‘elite’ are marketing their beneficence to). 

With my understanding of societal change through time, one of the aspects of our complex societies that I’ve come to hold as true is that our polities are ‘governed’ by people focused on improving/maintaining their personal/familial/influential benefactor prestige, power, and wealth. It is not, as they crow on about and market repeatedly, a yearning to benefit society-at-large and others–that’s the narrative they want us all to believe in and support. It is about maintenance/expansion of the wealth-generation/-extraction systems from which the ruling caste mostly and extraordinarily benefits. 

In this vein, I have lost complete faith in our governing systems to do anything but leverage situations to this end. And a lot of the time this has to do with putting in place monetisation schemes in the form of a racket whereby–as U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler argued about war–a small group benefits greatly at the expense of the many, and then, via mass marketing/propaganda/legislation, coercing society to support the scheme (and call out anyone, usually via the media, who criticises/challenges it). And our conditioning and those psychological mechanisms that strive to reduce anxiety-provoking/stressful thoughts/beliefs lead us to believe the narratives weaved by our ruling caste. It’s the water we swim in and don’t even realise it’s there.

“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”
-Smedley Butler, War Is A Racket (1935).

As I’ve written and argued before, our globalised, industrial societies can be characterised as full of such rackets that funnel national treasuries/wealth from the masses to the few that sit atop the power and wealth structures that develop as a society becomes larger and more complex. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s simply the epiphenomena of societal adaptations to increased organisational needs as the population grows and society problem-solves via greater complexity–thanks, surplus net energy and the technologies that have helped to produce these surpluses. That those who hold positions of power and influence conspire to maintain/expand these should be self-evident to anyone peering beyond the veneer of mainstream social stories. 

What follows is another one of those difficult conversations I had with another following a Facebook post that popped up in my feed recently. 


[NB: I saw Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in concert at the London Gardens (London, Ontario) on November 5, 1980. My friends of the time and I were frequently listening to his music so a few of us had to see him when he performed in our home town.]

JK: You all had better get a handle on our USA 2 party system. If you contribute to the election of Republicans you ain’t seen NOTHING yet.

Steve Bull: JK, Right. Left. Center. Blue. Red. Green. Doesn’t matter. ‘Government’ protects the minority ruling caste, not the masses. Been that way for millennia. Elections are theatre to give the impression of choice and agency in a rigged and corrupt system.

TH: Steve Bull, I have a badge: “If voting changed anything, it would be illegal!” Let the jesters speak! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjJLTslWp_Q

JK: Steve Bull, So 2016 made no difference? Trump/ Hillary, same same? Stupid. Clueless. The parties are not the same, not even close. You just need someone to blame for your failures, might as well be everyone.

TH, It’s easy to move to a better country. Do it!!

Steve Bull: JK, I think you need to read a bit of pre/history—especially as it pertains to how ruling systems developed and changed as large, complex societies arose (pay particular attention to the sociological/anthropological concepts of integrationist and conflict theories as to how hierarchical systems came about—the ruling elite want us to believe in the integrationist perspective but the evidence more broadly aligns with the conflict one).

And, yes, most every politician and political party is essentially the same—especially when it comes to ‘big ticket’ items. Some marginal differences may exist but in most ways there is little difference. Massive debt continues to accumulate. Various rackets expand and/or new ones arise (think military-security complex, big energy, financial institutions, media, big pharma, etc). Wars continue. Domestic surveillance expands. Inequality grows. Price inflation increases. Narrative management/control enlarges. Ecological systems continue to be destroyed in order to pursue the infinite growth chalice. Etc. Etc.

The most significant change that occurs after an election are the stories we tell ourselves and others. My team wins and all is right or improving in the world (and if it doesn’t it’s because the other team is interfering in our ability to get things done); the other team wins and everything continues to or will soon go to hell in a hand basket. And much, if not everything, that occurs after the election is interpreted through these lenses. We see differences in order to reduce the stress of cognitive dissonance that would occur if we recognize that we’re being bamboozled by those few sitting atop society’s wealth and power structures.

EM: Steve, it really is a shame that more people don’t have the comprehensive understanding how these systems work, who actually benefits (the most), and what the eventual outcome is. Too many people like J are out there telling people to move to a better country when they can’t see that they’re the ones being owned and bamboozled, especially here in the US.

TH: JK, Luckily I don’t live in the US…! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiuA6Tfy-pM

We have our own problems fighting off 5 Eyes, NATO associate membership, and being a very close friend of the US….Empire stretches down here, and a lot of uber wealthy Americans have bolt holes here….

We live with the illusion of democracy, while living under a government of occupation on behalf of Empire. The political classes are owned, and their owners pass down agendas that are all about dividing and conquering any communities of resistance, and continuing to open up the country to rape/pillage/extraction. The owners are the corporations/banksters/elites. We are being farmed.

JK: EM, nobody owns me. I’m doing fine. I work hard and have a great life.
Our tool is the ballot box. Standing on a street, holding signs, protesting doesn’t do shit. Get involved, complaining won’t get you anywhere. Run for office, be psrt of the change. Revolution at this point is not in the cards.

Steve Bull, how do you propose fixing it? Complaining on Facebook? You aren’t going to change the Constitution and feeble little protests do nothing. Americans can run for office and if you look at Congress you’ll see Reps from the poorest of families. Get off your butt and run for office. Bitching Facebook won’t cut it. Going to take a lot of work.

EM: J, first of all, what we suffer from is a predicament, not a problem. Predicaments have outcomes, not solutions. So, you aren’t going to fix squat with politics, period. Vote for whoever you want, we and they lack agency to solve anything because it isn’t a problem we face.

As for Steve, he is Canadian, so he won’t be running for office here in the US.

Steve Bull: JK, Sure, just like this image suggests:

And, I wasn’t complaining. I was making a statement based on my understanding of pre/history.

JK: Steve Bull the mafia? B. S.

The hate I see on these posts and some MAGA cult people are very similar. Lot of whining, victimhood and makes me sick. Blaming Biden and Jews for genocide while HAMAS cowers behind civilians, does NOTHING except kill Jews.”Degrowth” while pretending to be off grid. I’ll give y’all another 30 days. Maybe you’ll figure out Tammy Baldwin is different than Ron Johnson. Biden is different than Trump. Makes me sick.

If I thought the USA and the mafia were the same I would ABSOLUTELY get out of the USA as fast as I could. No question. I sure as hell wouldn’t whine about it. I’d take action.

Steve Bull: JK, Perhaps you can take solace in the fact that this is not simply a US phenomena; it is an epiphenomena of large, complex societies. It pervades virtually every level of government across the entire globe and has been with humanity for some 12,000 or more years. We, in the West, just wrap it up in a cloak called ‘representative democracy’ and hold theatrical performances to give the masses the impression they have choice and agency in societal decisions and actions. All the while, a relatively small group of well-connected and influential power brokers continue to raid national treasuries (especially in terms of natural resources) and siphon wealth from the masses.

JK: Steve Bull, What do you mean “pre history?” Sounded like complaining. Hey, I have no problem with complaining —that’s what I’m doing. I’m complaining about the anti-semitism I see, hypocrisy, misunderstanding our political system, thinking the 2 parties are the same, whining without acting, and misinformation. For example, I saw an interview of an LGBQ woman holding a pro-Palestine sign without understanding that HAMAS would kill her if she were there. It’s insane. I’ve never seen an anti-Hamas word in these posts.

Steve Bull: JK, Prehistory is simply human history prior to written documentation. It begins a couple of million years ago up until about 5000 years ago with the introduction of writing systems. Most of our knowledge of those times is determined via physical anthropology and archaeology–the latter an area of study that I concentrated on for a few years and received my Master of Arts in. As far as a misunderstanding of our political systems, most people ‘misunderstand’ them because it is in the interests of the few that benefit (power and wealth wise) from them to keep the masses ignorant, mollified, and complacent…so they craft narratives that these systems provide agency and choice to the masses and that they are ‘representative’, and ultimately serve as a net benefit while hiding their true intent: the control and expansion of the wealth-generating and -extraction systems that provide their power, influence, and prestige. Quite frankly, sociopolitical systems are in place to protect the ruling caste of a society; they are not there to protect and serve the masses apart from throwing them a few bones occasionally. And there is about 12-15,000 years of evidence to support this assertion.

JK: Steve Bull So is your point that little has changed in all those years?

Steve Bull: JK, No, much has changed. But not the general tendency of a ruling elite to leverage as much as possible to their advantage.

JK: I do realize the power of big money, millionaires and billionaires, but smart voting will go a very long way toward fixing things. I guarantee you that if Hillary had won in ‘16 the world would be better. If Biden loses this year things will even worse than we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes. There is a gigantic difference between the parties now. Anyone with integrity who doesn’t vote or votes 3rd party is supporting Republicans. The danger is real.

Steve Bull: JK, We have to agree to disagree. And your comment aligns with what I said above: “The most significant change that occurs after an election are the stories we tell ourselves and others. My team wins and all is right or improving in the world (and if it doesn’t it’s because the other team is interfering in our ability to get things done); the other team wins and everything continues to or will soon go to hell in a hand basket. And much, if not everything, that occurs after the election is interpreted through these lenses. We see differences in order to reduce the stress of cognitive dissonance that would occur if we recognize that we’re being bamboozled by those few sitting atop society’s wealth and power structures.”


I also wanted to share this piece of writing from my late step-grandfather, Jack Flynn, written some 40+ years ago but that could have been penned today. I miss the long conversations/debates we used to have over any number of social and political issues of the day. He was one of, if not the most important influences in my thinking during my formative years.

Can This Be Our World?

As we waste and squander finite natural resources,
that are our children’s heritage.
As we watch their future disappear.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end?

As I view the waste and squander,
one thing comes to mind.
“Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise.”
Seems to be the universal trend.

How did a species such as ours,
with the ability to reason, and think,
who certainly knows wrong from right.
Allow such a magnificent planet
to fall into such plight?

Truth and wisdom are lost in a barrage of words,
Which emit from mass media, twenty-four hours a day.
Endless innuendo, rhetoric and cliches,
We are expected to understand and obey.

In our modern world a few powerful nations
dominate the whole planet.
Co-operation is considered, passe.
They use and abuse, threaten and gesture,
invade smaller nations, and no one can tell them nay!

Inevitably there must come the time,
when the “immovable object, meets the irresistible force”,
then things should become more clear.
Being powerful nations, afraid to lose face,
they will probably try something Nu-clear.


This post was named after Re-Flex’s 1983 pop song based upon people’s expressive nature displayed during dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht-S4YQpteg. I love the music of the 1980s. I spent some years as a ‘disc jockey’ including a brief stint at Western University’s radio station and some paid party gigs. I also continue to hold a rather large album collection, with the very recent addition of a signed Men Without Hats disc cover that I purchased at a concert they performed at our town’s annual music festival and around the corner from our house–what was not to love? Free. Close by. And, mid-afternoon so I didn’t have a late night and mess up my early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine…


If you’ve made it to the end of this Contemplation and have got something out of my writing, please consider ordering the trilogy of my ‘fictional’ novel series, Olduvai (PDF files; only $9.99 Canadian), via my websiteor the link below — the ‘profits’ of which help me to keep my internet presence alive and first book available in print (and is available via various online retailers).

Attempting a new payment system as I am contemplating shutting down my site in the future (given the ever-increasing costs to keep it running).

If you are interested in purchasing any of the 3 books individually or the trilogy, please try the link below indicating which book(s) you are purchasing.

Costs (Canadian dollars):
Book 1: $2.99
Book 2: $3.89
Book 3: $3.89
Trilogy: $9.99

Feel free to throw in a ‘tip’ on top of the base cost if you wish; perhaps by paying in U.S. dollars instead of Canadian. Every few cents/dollars helps…

https://paypal.me/olduvaitrilogy?country.x=CA&locale.x=en_US

If you do not hear from me within 48 hours or you are having trouble with the system, please email me: olduvaitrilogy@gmail.com.

You can also find a variety of resources, particularly my summary notes for a handful of texts, especially Catton’s Overshoot and Tainter’s Collapse: see here.


It Bears Repeating: Best Of…Volume 1

A compilation of writers focused on the nexus of limits to growth, energy, and ecological overshoot.

With a Foreword and Afterword by Michael Dowd, authors include: Max Wilbert; Tim Watkins; Mike Stasse; Dr. Bill Rees; Dr. Tim Morgan; Rob Mielcarski; Dr. Simon Michaux; Erik Michaels; Just Collapse’s Tristan Sykes & Dr. Kate Booth; Kevin Hester; Alice Friedemann; David Casey; and, Steve Bull.

The document is not a guided narrative towards a singular or overarching message; except, perhaps, that we are in a predicament of our own making with a far more chaotic future ahead of us than most imagine–and most certainly than what mainstream media/politics would have us believe.

Click hereto access the document as a PDF file, free to download.

When All Crimes Are Those Against the State

When All Crimes Are Those Against the State
“Do not encroach against others or their property.”

The above principle is a simple one, yet it’s the basis for all criminal law. In turn, criminal law is the basis for Common Law, the legal system for English-speaking peoples and much of the rest of the world.

The idea is a simple one: If party A aggresses against party B, party B is entitled under the law to restitution or compensation to be paid by party A to party B.

Well, that seems straightforward enough. But at some point along the way, two fundamental changes have been made that don’t reflect the original principle.

First, convicted offenders started to be ordered by the court to pay the court as punishment. Of course, the offense was not against the court, but the government of the day wanted to get in on the action. Surely, if a crime against a given party had been committed, the state was entitled to dip its beak, so to speak.

Over time, fines payable to the state became the norm. And for those who couldn’t pay the state, jail time.

Along the way, another extension to the concept came into use: victimless crimes. Increasingly, laws were passed by governments to make actions unlawful when there was no harm to an individual or his property.

To wit: Recently, the State of Michigan passed law HB4474, against “hate crime” – any perceived slight against another person, verbal or otherwise. The law recognizes such disparate slurs as those critical of gender identity, religion, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or even affiliation with a group. Incredibly, the law extends as far as the outlawing of unacceptable pronouns.

The punishment is imprisonment of up to two years, a fine of $5,000, or both.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Science Snippets: Water Disappears as Earth Warms

Science Snippets: Water Disappears as Earth Warms

Draft script:

The title of this video makes an obvious statement. As Earth or any part of Earth warms, evaporation accelerates. As a result, surface water evaporates and goes into the atmosphere. Considering Earth is in the midst of the most rapid environmental change in planetary history, we must accept evaporation to be at an all-time high. This short video describes examples of our rapidly drying planet.

From CNN comes a story titled The world’s highest navigable lake is drying out. The story was published 3 September 2023. Here’s the lede: “Water levels at Lake Titicaca – the highest navigable lake in the world and South America’s largest – are dropping precipitously after an unprecedented winter heat wave.” The first paragraph concludes with this sentence: “The shocking decline is affecting tourism, fishing and agriculture, which locals rely on to make a living.”

The article published by CNN goes on: “Visitors have long been attracted to the blue waters and open skies of South America’s largest lake, which straddles more than 3,200 square miles across the border of Peru and Bolivia.

Sometimes described as an ‘inland sea,’ it is home to Aymara, Quechua, and Uros indigenous communities and sits at an altitude of around 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) in the central Andes mountain range, making it the highest navigable lake in the world. The extreme altitude also exposes the lake to high levels of solar radiation, which enhances evaporation and constitutes most of its water losses.

More than three million people live around the lake, relying on its waters to fish, farm and attract tourists who boost the economy of an otherwise marginalized region.

Now the lake is at risk of losing some of that magic.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Cautious US Escalation Against Russia Is Developing Not Necessarily to US Advantage

The Cautious US Escalation Against Russia Is Developing Not Necessarily to US Advantage

The feebleness of the US response to a Russian incursion into Kharviv, which was to prevent further strikes on civilian targets in the border city of Belgorod, and the quick Russian counter-moves, confirms how the Collective West has no good options, even if its leaders can’t yet admit that to themselves and come up with better alternatives than punching into air or a wall, as the case may be. Obama warned that Russia would have escalatory dominance with respect to Ukraine, and we are seeing that play out now.

The short version of what follows is that the Biden Administration may have made a tiny gain against its big objective of not losing in Ukraine before the November election, since Russia may slightly delay an expected next move, of entering Sumy oblast. An advance into Sumy would further lengthen the line of contact, increase the degree of over-extension of Ukraine forces, and thus accelerate the process of attrition, which is Russia’s big goal. But even if the US policy change did produce this effect (and since none of us have Russian plans, we can’t know if any change occurred), it is coming at considerable geopolitical cost, that of Putin suggesting, and deputy chair of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev confirming, that Russia will arm third countries in conflicts with the United States.

To recap the recent state of play: earlier this week, the US described a policy change regarding the use of US weapons by Ukraine On a superficial level it seemed simply to give permission for what Ukraine had been doing already, as in using Western (here US) missiles to hit Russian territory, as in pre-the-2014-dispute Russia.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress