@ James 70
It’s a tremendous project, but we can make a start. What needs to happen during whatever transition is coming is for food production to be restored to its natural basis, which means predominantly growing food for human beings within the foodshed/watershed. That’s a skill we need to build for the coming hard times.
It may not have happened that way historically – the transitions from hunter-gatherer to hierarchical commodity agriculture aren’t always clear – but at any rate one of the few truly worthwhile accomplishments of modern science has been to develop the principles of agroecology. To sum up a huge body of knowledge, that means using knowledge, composting, and cover-cropping toward sustainable horticulture, growing food for people rather than commodities for any hierarchy. This then will accompany any resumed system of pastoralism and/or hunting-gathering. Humanity can live even better than it used to.
So what we need to do is work to build the community food movement, agroecology on the basis of food sovereignty. Build it and defend it from the constant incursions and attacks from the agribusiness system. I personally have done some market gardening and would like to move to more serious organic farming if I could find people to do it with me. I’ve worked at our farmers’ market, herbal medicine garden, and I’m director of two community gardens. And for years I’ve written about this at my blog. (I have far fewer readers, though, since I switched from writing about Wall Street to writing about food sovereignty.)

Posted by: Russ | Aug 28 2018 10:40 utc | 104

@85 Pft – can you please provide more details on the movie “28 years”? Can’t seem to find it by that title… thanks!

Posted by: xLemming | Aug 28 2018 11:54 utc | 106

@ Posted by: Pft | Aug 28, 2018 12:58:06 AM | 100
The link you posted refers to SAT scores, no IQ tests.
SAT scores are, and this everyone agrees, purely about education and memorization capacity. This is different from the IQ g — the single factor of the mythical entity we call “intelligence”.

Posted by: vk | Aug 28 2018 12:56 utc | 108

XLemming & Russ
My big thing is trees. Been devoted to that profeson all my life. Top of the list— Orchards am very evangelical on the subject ! That is my posative balence and contribution to the world !

Posted by: Mark2 | Aug 28 2018 14:26 utc | 110

Mark2 and xLemming, thank you!
I too focus on trees. Forests themselves generate their own rain via evapo-transpiration, and once enough of a forest has been destroyed the rest inexorably dies, the soil is washed and blown away, and desert follows. The Middle East used to have a range of forest habitats from temperate forest (the Fertile Crescent) through oak savannah (modern KSA). Civilization destroyed these. The artificially caused droughts played a big role setting up a revolutionary situation for Syria which the US could exploit. There’s similar history in Pakistan (the Harrapan) and elsewhere.
And to get back to the psychological, there’s a psychotic hatred of trees in America. The government hates the forests and wants them all clear-cut, right down to the average suburbanite who is far more likely gratuitously to murder a tree than to plant one.

Posted by: Russ | Aug 28 2018 15:35 utc | 112

@103 russ.. thanks for your additional comments..i like your website too and you appear to be a good writer!
acting locally is what i know.. when it comes to food/agriculture – we have a garden that is fairly big. it doesn’t supply all of our food by any means, but it might account for 10-20 percent.. it is more in the late summer! we have a number of fruit and nut trees, blueberries, raspberries on top of the basic garden that has a combo of vegetables and flowers.. i had to look up the word agroecology.. that was interesting what the wikipedia page said on it..
on another note – the book ‘the hidden life of trees’ is a book some of you might enjoy..i did..

Posted by: james | Aug 28 2018 15:47 utc | 114

THE TRAGEDY OF MACCAIN
https://youtu.be/qMvwH2_g9rQ

Posted by: Guerrero | Aug 28 2018 16:39 utc | 116

Alastair Crooke’s latest discusses the asymmetric financial war unfolding between the Outlaw US Empire and the world. While engaged with his essay, I trust barflies will keep in mind the current state of the global economy as outlined in the latest Hudson Report I linked to earlier, particularly the yield curve and state of the real economy.
One begins to wonder if Trump’s driving as fast as he possibly can toward a wall or an abyss and whether it’s planned or extemporaneous.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 28 2018 18:57 utc | 118

uncle tungsten @ 75
Jihad/Islam fighters were active in Myanmar long time ago. Manwar Ali, ex-Jihadists told BBC radio that he went to fight “holy war” around the world, incl. Myanmar, in 1980s/90s, and then came back to Britain without being questioned/asked, even though he told his employer BT that he’d go to fight abroad and showed them the photos in action.
Before 2000, it was not illegal in Britain for British muslims to go abroad fighting holy war.
The Rohingya issue suddenly attracts the international attention because US empire and its minions the Western MSM are now pre-conditioning us for their next “Humanitarian Regime Change” in Myanmar to contain China.
Same goes with the current disinformation in wide circulation in MSM about “1 million Uyghur in reeducation camps in Xin Jiang.” All about manufacturing consensus among ordinary people for the ruling class’ “grand asset/resource-stealing strategy.”

Posted by: lulu | Aug 28 2018 19:33 utc | 120

@ Russ
Great blog, and you’ve covered so much… from GMO abolitionism, the criminal bailout of Wall St, the health care racket, the Permanent War….there’s a lot of good stuff to read…thanks!
Are you familiar with Seth Holzer’s permaculture blog?
http://www.holzerpermaculture.us/

Posted by: László | Aug 28 2018 19:50 utc | 122

Lulu @ 121
Thanks lulu lovely comment of your’s to ! You can imagine it was very hard work, but those trees have repaid me a hundred fold in contentment. I was a profesonal tree climber for 50 years ( the big ones !) gave that up at 62 !!! And would do it all again.
And on that note— How do we define wealth ? Is it greed and trampling over one another, for to have the whole cake ? Or is true wealth the good people around us, sharing the cake ! Sharing our buitiful world. But I’m sure you know already ! I’m a good judge. Much respect.

Posted by: Mark2 | Aug 28 2018 20:06 utc | 124

Brand new $38 Billion To Israel Package Now Before Congress. This DOUBLES the amount of US Taxpayer blood money to be gifted to the genocidal colonial racial supremacists. Tell them to VOTE NO before it’s too late!
https://iak.salsalabs.org/no-38-billion/index.html

Posted by: Daniel | Aug 28 2018 23:59 utc | 126

Karlof1. You may recall that I concurred with you that the US was established to be an empire from the start. I was specifically challenging the meme that the Spanish/American War was the first Imperialistic War. But I see the geopolitical situation of today as different from that of the 18th century in certain very important ways.
So, please explain, who do you believe is the Emperor of the Outlaw US Empire? Or, really who makes up the Imperial Court since I don’t assume you believe it has a single dictator?
Who benefits from his/her/their actions?

Posted by: Daniel | Aug 29 2018 0:38 utc | 128

Karlof@119
Not an expert on the situation there But I can smell propaganda from 10,000 miles away
“Security is tight; vigilance is efficient and more effective because the physical, financial and moral well-being of the citizens is being guarded. ”
Use your imagination on the control measures being utilized there. China does not hesitate to use tough measures in the face of resistance. Obviously exercising control on the religion like they do with catholic churches is important to them
Western MSM does not have a monopoly on propaganda

Posted by: Pft | Aug 29 2018 1:05 utc | 130

Pft, the IQ tests administered by the Army were specifically designed to compensate for varying educational levels. You may know that there are IQ tests designed for completely illiterate people, and even toddlers.
But regardless, the concept that something as complex as human intelligence can be narrowed down to a single number is just plain bizarre.
IQ tests are ‘fundamentally flawed’ and using them alone to measure intelligence is a ‘fallacy’, study finds
However, they are used to excuse all sorts of horrible ideologies, so one should tread carefully even if one believes they have some tangible benefit. In fact, they were originally invented as a way to help educate people, with the knowledge that IQ is malleable.
To your original point, I agree that, especially in the US, something we’d probably agree is a trait of intelligence, namely critical thinking, has been dropping for many years. And as George Carlin famously noted, this is deliberate.

Posted by: Daniel | Aug 29 2018 6:14 utc | 132

Craig Murray got banned from Facebook.
Facebook Censorship, Mad Ben Nimmo and the Atlantic Council
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/08/facebook-censorship-mad-ben-nimmo-and-the-atlantic-council/

Posted by: Zanon | Aug 29 2018 8:39 utc | 134

Pft @130–
Yes, critical reading tools must always be used with any source.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 29 2018 16:49 utc | 136

David Swanson’s article published today by CounterPunch provides an excellent insight into some very important history airbrushed from most everything. A tempting excerpt:
“Most importantly, and in part because of these other factors, there was in the 1920s a peace movement the likes of which we have not seen since. It was not huge like in the 1960s. It was closer to all-encompassing. It had the four biggest political parties in the country backing the criminalization of war, including the Socialists and the Progressives — five with the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. It was led, not by college students, but by university presidents, and bankers, and lawyers. The Outlawry Movement — the drive to outlaw war — was backed by the National League of Women Voters, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the National Association of Parents and Teachers, the American Legion, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, the Methodists, the Baptists. If you can find an organization that existed in the 1920s it is likely on record for banning war and has almost certainly never retracted that position but simply forgotten it….
“It was an explicitly moralistic movement opposed to the mass killing of foreign and American soldiers alike.”
Yes, once upon a time, the USA actually held excellent moral values, even during an age described as the debauchery drenched Roaring ’20s. Imagine the campaign to have citizens only allowed to vote on going to war! What does that say about the state of, not just society within the Outlaw US Empire, global society that no such comparable movement currently exists? How would the US public of the 1920s react to the president having a Kill List, or the EOs listed by Daniel above? How did Conservatism become synonymous with War Making when it once had everything to do with keeping the Peace?

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 29 2018 18:39 utc | 138

karlof1. Yes, I’m well aware of those characters/organizations, and have read those sources (years ago).
What about organizations like the IMF/World Bank or Dutch Shell Oil or British Petroleum (BP)? What do you think of meetings/organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg or the Bank of International Settlements? CFR has many non-US citizen members, and a minority of the members, attendees of the other are US Citizens.
My point remains that the loci of power in the world are no longer nation-states (if they ever really were). This is why I use the term AZ Empire, which is still limiting, but at least acknowledges all Five Eyes and Zionists. When one looks at global finance, one should really include the Vatican.
I recommend some more up-to-date reading:
CIA As Organized Crime by Douglass Valentine
Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia by Paul L. Williams
Please check them out and let me know if you find a more global view of the octopus more helpful in understanding the enemies of the people of earth.

Posted by: Daniel | Aug 29 2018 20:50 utc | 140

Daniel @140&141–
Thanks for your replies.
I have Gladio, have read exerpts of Valentine’s book and linked to them here and elsewhere. The actions of the public between the world wars were mind-blowing from today’s standpoint, and at the state-level there were well more than the 5 political parties Swanson mentions. One of the reasons why I decided to concentrate on those years during my studies is precisely because citizens exercised so much power then after WW2 it was as if that power was gelded–both wars were used to concentrate corporate power within the federal government while trying to limit public power.
Returning to your initial question: Who pulls the strings in today’s world? Using Cui Bono, I arrive at the Financial Capitalists primarily in New York and London, so there’s more of a global aspect now versus nation-state and plenty of justification for the Anglo part of the cabal. Zionists have benefitted politically but not so much financially. In contrast, Military and Energy Corps have greatly benefitted monetarily but also politically to an extent. As I mentioned above, interlocking board membership is rife to the point where Korten’s warning about Corporations ruling the world is correct to a degree, but not yet totally. When we look at Hudson’s research and viewpoint, the Creditors are in control while the Debtors try to fight back in an epic battle that’s been ongoing for over 3,000 years.
But if the Empire’s really an Anglo-Zionist one, why the spectacular failure to expand the Empire’s alleged homeland when the power differential between the opposing forces was so damned lopsided in the Empire’s favor? Why the very obvious unwillingness to directly use extensive US military power at a time of little to no political resistance and almost total media control? Is it because of International pushback or because those in control don’t want to arouse the drugged masses to protest? Political costs stopped Obama from Serbiaizing Syria, so perhaps we overestimate the power of those in control? Perhaps their World is Not Enough mindset isn’t universally shared any longer with most having their greed sated?
As usual, more questions than answers. It was once charged that International Communism existed as the #1 threat to the USA–the International Communist Conspiracy–but that was a chimera contrived to hoodwink the public. An International Financial Cabal working at the behest of the CIA is possible, but I don’t see the relationship being reversed–the CIA working for the Cabal. Need more research and thinking followed by further discussion.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 29 2018 22:37 utc | 142

Pft @133, perhaps my skepticism about the merits of the IQ Test as a useful measure for most anything prevented you from noting that I closed by concurring with you that aspects of what you and I might call intelligence have been plummeting in the US.
In fact, I’d say that a drop from 100 to 96 does not come close to measuring how precipitous has been this drop.
Critical thinking. Attention span. Logic. Vocabulary. I’ve read reports that each of those have dropped significantly in the past several decades. Not by a couple of percentage points, but by double-digits.
Then there are the “EQ” metrics where things like empathy, compassion and generosity – attributes I’d argue are more important to a society than whatever IQ tests measure – also seem to be in steep decline.
And I do not believe these changes in character/traits have been accidental. Even if some might be explained as results of pollution or food additives or work-load, those, too are neither accidental nor natural.
I see all of these deleterious changes as the results of deliberate actions taken by people with the power to affect the masses of regular people. And they each cause great harm, not just to the individuals tested/assessed, but to the entire society, and – due to US power – the world.
Do you barflies outside of the US see these same changes in your societies?

Posted by: Daniel | Aug 29 2018 23:22 utc | 144

@ 143
In his book, (Other Losses: an Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the Americans and the French after World War Two), James Bacque estimated that between 9 to 15 million ethnic Germans were killed, mainly civilians, from 1945 to 1953
General George Patton (who released all his German prisoners) wrote in 1945 that Eisenhower was using “practically Gestapo methods” in torturing and killing German POWs.
But as Walter Benjamin said: “History is written by the victors”, and so almost no one has heard of these German losses, we’ve only heard the official World War II narrative that the victors wanted us to hear.

Posted by: László | Aug 29 2018 23:41 utc | 146

karlof1 et al. Did you read Mother Jones’s thought-provoking:
“Lead: America’s Real Criminal Element
“The hidden villain behind violent crime, lower IQs, and even the ADHD epidemic.”?

Posted by: Daniel | Aug 30 2018 0:04 utc | 148

Pft @149–
Sorry, should’ve been more specific and written Americans or US citizens instead of USA. I’m very much aware of the USA’s current and historical moral failures.
Daniel @147&148–
Your scenario needs additional flesh, but it works for me. I was referring to more recent times, after the New World Order declaration. Wish I had a near-by university library to access as I’d really like to read what Hudson and his Harvard team wrote in those very pricy books they published about Bronze Age political-economy. The bits and pieces alluded to in his essays and interviews have me motivated.
No, I’ve not read that article. My info on lead comes from The Secret History of Lead, which I once provided to students at the beginning of every semester in the classes I taught.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2018 0:53 utc | 150

Fully quoted without comment
”
BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) — A national-level platform to alert the public about online rumors and refute slander was launched in Beijing Wednesday.
The platform is hosted by the Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center under the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and operated by xinhuanet.com.
The platform operates under the guidance of 27 units, such as the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission.
The platform allows the public to quickly discover and debunk rumors floating around online, while at the same time throwing light on pseudoscientific theories.
So far, more than 40 rumor-refuting platforms have been integrated into the national one. Cutting-edge technology is also utilized to improve performance at tackling online rumors.
While the internet has become a vital source for the public to acquire daily information and express opinions, a number of problems including spreading rumors and illegal information, continue to exist and disturb social order.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 30 2018 5:03 utc | 152

Psychohistorian @152
We should keep in mind that there are numerous Western lawmakers, MPs, Congressmen and members of governments – Left and Right – who have praised the way China deals with the internet and are on the record saying it is a model their country should follow.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Aug 30 2018 10:50 utc | 154

Ort @ 14.
The ‘soft progressive liberal set’ – just as ‘Dems’ and ‘Reps’ – don’t really present a political ideology, framework, view-point, or even low-level adherence and/or claims. They are cover for an underlying hidden structure: informal tribes/circuits and sections in an oligarchic corporatist régime, or even something different, which I won’t go into now.
Obama ran on a non-interventionist stance and a ‘re-set’ with Russia-relations platform, for which he was awarded the Peace Prize (not a recommendation.) Trump did the same in a more loudmouthed vulgar pointed way and was vilified and is despised ‘to the death’ for it – while impeachment and a nasty accident seem out of reach, as wildly imprudent – he is prevented from acting. Btw Bush Junior did the same which garnered him the Muslim vote which probably won him the election, yes, study the numbers.. (setting aside hanging chads and the Supreme Court…Bush still needed a pile of votes..) The question is, what is the aim of the resurgent hate-Russia meme, now boiling-over and turned crazed hysterical? Is it at heart contra-Trump or contra-Russia? Of course one could answer ‘both’ but that doesn’t explain ‘russiagate’ and the self-harm the US is trapped in.
Another sign that the pol. divisions are ‘pretend’ is that the ‘Dems’, the ostensive losers re. Trump have not behaved like a pol. party who loses. These generally disband, retire, fold, or make efforts at reform, re-orientation etc. Renewal may be tough but they often try (as did the Repubs. after Obama’s election, though the effort was incredibly weak.) Nothing like that is going on, because the fight is not political. It is based on tribal desperate angst at the ‘surprise’ election of an outsider who holds cards in his hands nobody can speak about.
Ort @ 24. Oc.-Cortez is merely a willing actress poster-babe (she will earn a LOT), the role is not different from prancing about in lovely swish skirts on some MSM-TV series. She was selected for her looks / background (not the best re. the background, but there aren’t many candidates, which is very hopeful imho), her naiveté, ignorance, and submissive stance. Some ‘fake’ younger figures – only women and M. gays – girls are more acceptable to the gen. public – have to be pictured as up-n-coming Dems, in a kind of sketchy and unconvincing parade of ‘diversity’ and so on.

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 30 2018 13:41 utc | 156

Noirette:
For some reason, you still believe that “outsider” Trump was democratically elected. This misunderstanding forces you into another: that his election has agitated a “tribal” deep-state.
Despite your ability to see political divisions as “pretend” and Oc.-Cortez as “a willing actress poster-babe”, you (and many others!) just can’t bring yourself to the logical conclusion that Trump was installed as President by a permanent Deep-State. Maybe it is just too frightening.
Here is my understanding (which I have expressed several times at MoA and elsewhere):

1) The 2016 elections were a complete farce. Trump was meant to win from the start. Sanders was a sheepdog to Hillary and Hillary threw the race to Trump via ‘campaign mistakes’ that no experienced politician would make and by making herself so vile/’unfit’ that she lost the ‘grass roots’ support she needed. She:

– pissed-off Sanders supporters by colluding with DNC;
– she called non-urban white people “deplorables”;
– she took the black vote for granted (after getting Obama’s endorsement);
– she stopped campaigning in certain crucial states;
– Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch were discovered having a meeting “on the tarmac” of Phoenix airport; and
– rumors of Hillary’s ill health were conveniently proven via a video that was taken by a mysterious eastern-european that the media was never cared to learn more about (despite it’s affect on their beloved candidate).

So if anyone influenced the election (for Trump) surreptitiously, it was CIA (via MI6), FBI, Israel – not the Russians.
2) Trump is a faux populist President – the Republican Obama. Trump is NOT unable to act, he is unwilling. He is a “team player”, a willing participant/member of the Deep State. The pretense that he is restrained by the Deep State is easily maintained via the media focus on party and personality.
Trump has governed along the same lines as Clinton-Bush-Obama. The continuity is uncanny. There were all pro-MIC, pro-security services, pro-Israel, pro-oligarch. Each cut taxes. Each conducted wars to expand the Empire.
3) Trump was selected because of his 1) communication ability; 2) psychology (social climber, narcisst, money-motivated); and 3) name recognition (from the “Apprentice”).
And his relationship with the Clintons.
4) Trump is NOT pro-Russia. He is merely playing “good cop” to the Deep-State “bad cop”. This is simply a negotiating ploy.
5) Trump has very effectively distracted the public from the fact that:

>> USA conspired with other countries to wage a proxy war using an army of terrorists. AND USA CONTINUES TO PROSECUTE THAT WAR! Albeit in a more overt way.
Elite stupidity and greed have caused USA to align with thuggish states and sparked a new Cold War.

Some will read this and reel. “There is no PROOF”, they will cry, “that Trump was ‘selected'”. To which I offer Kissingers August 2014 WSJ Op-Ed, which he wrote after the Donbas rebels beat back the Ukrainian govt:

Even as the lessons of challenging decades are examined, the affirmation of America’s exceptional nature must be sustained. History offers no respite to countries that set aside their sense of identity in favor of a seemingly less arduous course. But nor does it assure success for the most elevated convictions in the absence of a comprehensive geopolitical strategy.

These words (in bold) presaged MAGA. And Trump was just what the doctor ordered.
The Clinton’s are fans/acolytes of Kissinger and were also close to Trump. Why would oligarch Trump have traded his friendship with the powerful Clintons for an uncertain campaign for the Presidency?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 30 2018 17:40 utc | 158

@karlof1 157
I don’t share Benjamin’s vision either. The intensity of his description above indicates that he experienced the condition from which the Angel of History cannot escape as not only a political impasse but a personal one as well.
Maybe one reason Benjamin was so affected by his political surroundings (Germany in the 1920s) is that he was either unable or unwilling to make those conventional compromises that shelter the middle class from the fate of the poor and the working class who are directly exposed to the cruelties of the class system.

Posted by: László | Aug 30 2018 21:18 utc | 160

@ 146
“History is written by the victors” – Walter Benjamin
A Red Army War Memorial in Berlin became known as the “tomb of the unknown rapist”.
It is believed that as many as 2 million German women were raped by Red army officers, many of them several times over. Many had to have abortions or be treated for syphilis they caught from being raped by different men. Children born out of these abuses were called Russenbabies and many were abandoned and left to die.
Stalin’s Chief Propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg explicitly condoned rape as a method of rewarding the soldiers and terrorising German civilians, and this helped the Red Army perpetrate the largest gynocide and mass rape in recorded history.
Commissar Ehrenburg’s pamphlet, “KILL” — distributed in the millions among Red Army troops on the front lines of battle who were already intoxicated with hate and vengefulness as a result of over two decades of Bolshevik oppression, mass murder of their families and mass collectivization — urged Soviet troops to plunder, rape and KILL.
The reason almost no one has heard about this mass rape of German women is because winners write history, and this doesn’t fit the official narrative of World War II as “the good war”

Posted by: László | Aug 30 2018 23:01 utc | 162

Her Majesty’s soldiers scorned us, frustrated by inaction their hands on the triggers of their 30-millimeter guns, perched on top of their Warriors painted white, ice-cream trucks they were called in Croatia
what possible use could they serve? they collected the corpses and negotiated cease-fires so they could go on leave to Split, where they swam, danced, drank whisky before returning to count the shots in Travnik, through binoculars at their windows, or to jog around the stadium
Eduardo Che Rózsa ex-secret agent ex-journalist ex-commander of one of the best-organized brigades in eastern Slavonia writer poet screenwriter turned Muslim and activist for Iraq and Palestine, in Budapest in his suburban house, is he thinking about the Chetniks he killed? about his first two dead, torn to pieces by a grenade in a barn by the Drava River, about his comrades fallen like mine
is he still thinking about the war, about Croatia, he a Catholic by his mother a communist by his father, a murderer by the grace of God, does he remember the freezing rain of the winter of 1991 in the outskirts of Osijek?

Posted by: László | Aug 31 2018 0:09 utc | 164

Pft 130
‘Not an expert on the situation there’
Yet you can ‘smell a Chinese propaganda 1000 miles away’ ?
‘Use your imagination’
I think thats how the WSJ wrote that ‘UIghurs gulags’
story !
HHHHHHH

Posted by: denk | Aug 31 2018 1:52 utc | 166

145
I met for a long business strategy yesterday with another teaching associate. We have both been forced by Creeping Capitalism back into the classroom, to the daily dreaded Four Preps, to the Poitier-esque Rumble Classrooms run amok, smartphones and shaming and online gaming.
For the brief period of two years as CCSS-STEM took hold, we held First Mover Advantage as CS consultants, teaching the teachers in after-school camps the principle of effective CS pre-development. But nothing stays the same. Private corporations, working through ESDs in a ‘public-private partnership’ vertically-integrated STEM purchasing, and from that point forward, a tsunami of $100 to $200 Chinese-manufactured robotics projects flooded in, robotics, I reminded my young associate, that we had 50 years ago when I was a kid, along with hula hoops, rollerblades and skateboards.
Now our unique CS curriculum has been stolen by administrators, and their Purchasers are no longer calling, in thrall to LEGO and Ozibot and Anki.
So we’ll go back to the salary and pension, to Drill and Kill and Teach to the Test for DeVos Dollares, in classrooms no,more attentive than the 1950s. I pointed out to my associate only 16% of students ever ‘get’ STEM, and of those 16%, fewer than 16% graduate with a CS degree (0.4% for girls), and of those, fewer than half get a low-end customer-service or server-maintenance CS job. 1.5% of all students.
The rest of CS is farmed out to India. It’s a Good Life.

Posted by: Chipnik | Aug 31 2018 13:43 utc | 168

@ László 162
More forgotten victims…..In his final book “200 Years Together” (banned in English) Alexander Solzhenitsyn related that some sixty-six million “ethnic Russians” were murdered during the Bolshevik Revolution.
Solzhenitsyn made it very clear that the killers were not Russian and that they hated Russians, and he went to great length to document these mass murders in meticulous detail, names, dates, times….
But paraphrasing Stalin: “A single death is a tragedy; a sixty-six million deaths is a statistic”

Posted by: Juan | Aug 31 2018 16:27 utc | 170

@ Juan 170
Baudrillard was right when he said there’s too much information, but not enough meaning.
You’ve found maybe 66 million forgotten victims of the Bolshevik Revolution and I found 9 to perhaps as high as 25 million forgotten Germans and collaborators killed AFTER World War II officially ended.
But what can we do with this information that no one wants to hear about?
Too much information, not enough meaning…
Here is one effort to give meaning to the senseless wars of the 20th century:
“the English soldiers were returning to Basra, to the same place where their grandfathers had been stationed in 1919, after the Dardanelles, after the Hejaz and Syria, the ex­­hausted Tommies rested their legs in the country of palm trees and dried lemons, by the edge of the swamps and meanderings of the Shatt al-Arab, they stuffed their faces with dates and lambs stolen from native shepherds
wondering how much longer the war would last, it lasts forever, almost a century after Gavrilo Princip’s Balkan gunshot, the referee’s pistol shot in a long-distance race, all the participants are already at the starting line, ready to dash forward into the world of Ares great eater of warriors, hoping to return loaded with treasure and glory:
Che Rózsa commander covered in medals from the great patriotic Croatian war, Vlaho or me decorated with the order of the grateful nation, Andrija with a fine black marble tombstone with no corpse
To our brother the Hero, he no longer has a body, Andrija, no bones beneath his slab, no gold pin on his jacket he’s a name a phrase a brother and a hero
I was thinking of him in Baghdad conquered humiliated subjected and pillaged as I passed Rózsa the Hungarian from Bolivia a convert to Islam and to international aid, president of the Muslim community of Budapest, or something like that, after having been a fervent defender of Opus Dei, was he informing for the Hungarians, or the Russians, or the English
were we still colleagues, colleagues of the shadows-in the night of war, of the Zone, of memories of the dead, we were living together, without seeing each other, we were sharing the same life, passing each other by the edge of the Tigris, that Styx like the Tiber like the Jordan the Nile or the Danube like all those deadly rivers running into the sea”
(excerpt from ZONE by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell)

Posted by: László | Aug 31 2018 20:12 utc | 172

I’m not banned yet, so here’s one for the road
In his final book, 200 Years Together, Solzhenitsyn didn’t pull any punches. He placed Soviet Jews centre place in perpetrating the worst mass murders of the 20th century. While acknowledging that some Jews also suffered under this Bolshevik tyranny he clarified that it was not as Jews per se, rather that they were in the wrong faction at the wrong time. Solzhenitsyn’s own estimate for the number of Christians (his word) who died was between 60 and 66 million.
And as I mentioned above, he documented all of this in meticulous detail…. names, dates, times.
But he did something else, something more insidious and dangerous. Something that had strategic international consequences for the Tribe. For a start he shone a light on the extraordinary Jewish capacity to magic themselves into the position of victimhood irrespective of their actual accountability.
This in turn depended on – as he pointedly noted – their uncanny ability to seize control of media outlets.
Solzhenitsyn: “There are pages of this history which one does not open without trembling. And these are the pages that are systematically and purposefully eradicated from the consciousness of the Jews.”
He meticulously debunked Jewish writers who sought to portray Soviet Jews as having no choice in what they did. ‘Just following orders’ How ironic is that? He carefully traces the ways in which Jews, both within the USSR and internationally, favoured and supported Jewish interests under the cloak of universalistic altruism.
Sound familiar?
As for the book getting banned in English…
Well you might think that Solzhenitsyn’s legendary status and guarantee of vast sales would in normal circumstances have had international publishers slavering at the prospect of getting their hands on the rights. But none did. None wanted it.
It was never published in the West. In fact, incredible as it seems it has never been formally translated into English! Given that English translations exist for almost every half-assed writing in the most obscure of languages the disappearance of 200 Years Together is mind-blowing.
The author himself became a non-person just as he had in the USSR.
Okay, so at least I got this in, now you can go ahead and censor or delete the comment, then block me
I understand you have no choice because this blog is based in Germany, where they put 80 year old women in cages (Ursula Haverbeck, Monika Schaefer, etc) merely for asking questions about the Holocaust, so anyone who thinks you can have free speech on a blog based in Germany is delusional

Posted by: Juan | Aug 31 2018 21:38 utc | 174

ID Card
(by Mahmoud Darwish)
Write it down! I’m an Arab
My card number is 50000
My children number eight
And after this summer, a ninth on his way.
Does this make you rage?
I am an Arab.
With my quarry comrades I labor hard
My children number eight
I tug their bread, their clothes
And their notebooks
From within the rock
I don’t beg at your door
I don’t cower on your threshold
So does this make you rage?
Write it down!
I am an Arab.
I am a name with no honorific.
Patient in a land
Where everything lives in bursting rage
My roots were planted before time was born
Before history began
Before the cypress and the olive trees
Before grass sprouted
My father is from the plough clan
Not from the noble class
My grandfather was a peasant farmer
Had no pedigree
Taught me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me to read
A shack to guard groves is my home,
Made of branches and reeds
Are you pleased with my status?
I am a name with no honorific.
Write it down!
I am an Arab.
Hair color: charcoal
Eye color: brown
Attributes:
A cord around the quffiyeh on my head
My hand as hard as rock
That scratches if you touch it
My address:
I am from a forgotten abandoned village
Its streets nameless
All its men in the fields and quarries
Does this make you rage?
Write it down!
I am an Arab.
You have stolen my ancestors’ groves
And the land we cultivated
I and all my children
Leaving nothing for us and all my grandchildren
Except these rocks
Will your government take them
Like people say?
Therefore,
Write down on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
And I do not steal from anyone
But if I starve
I will eat my oppressor’s flesh
Beware, beware of my starving
And my rage.
(1964. Translated from Arabic by Salman Masalha and Vivian Eden)

Posted by: Mona Ahmed Zaki | Sep 1 2018 17:00 utc | 176

In two weeks will be the 36th anniversary of the Sabra Chatila massacre of Palestinians in West Beirut
On September 14 1982 the Israeli army proceeded to invade and occupy West Beirut.
Israeli troops surrounded the camps to prevent the refugees from leaving and allowed entry of the Phalange, a known enemy of the Palestinians.
The Israelis fired flares throughout the night to light up the killing field – thus allowing the militiamen to see their way through the narrow alleys of the camps. The massacre went on for two days. As the bloodbath concluded, Israel supplied the bulldozers to dig mass graves.
The link below has the complete version of Jean Genet’s masterpiece Four Hours in Chatila. Those sentences which were shamelessly deleted by the cowardly editors of the Revue d’Etudes palestiniennes in Paris, in its number 6 published in 1983, have been restored here
Jean Genet: “For me, as for what remained of the population, walking through Chatila and Sabra resembled a game of hopscotch. Sometimes a dead child blocked the streets: they were so small, so narrow, and the dead so numerous. The smell is probably familiar to old people; it didn’t bother me. But there were so many flies.”
“Did the Chatila massacre take place in hushed tones or in total silence, if the Israelis, both soldiers and officers, claim to have heard nothing, to have suspected nothing whereas they had been occupying this building since Wednesday afternoon?”
https://yrakha.com/2011/09/17/four-hours-in-chatila/

Posted by: Mona Ahmed Zaki | Sep 1 2018 19:52 utc | 178

Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak gave the order to kill 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, with 344 children dead.
During Operation Cast Lead, the Jewish State’s bloody 2008-2009 assault on Gaza, Barak declared the siege on Gaza, limiting food, medicine and water.
And in 2010, as prime minister, Barak launched a deadly attack against a group of international human rights activists heading to Gaza on a Freedom Flotilla that was meant to punch a hole in the punishing Israeli maritime blockade, and to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The flotilla was attacked by Israeli Security Forces and 10 of the unarmed human rights advocates were murdered by Israeli military gunfire.
An Israeli Jewish rabbi recently described the Palestinians as “monsters,” calling for slaughtering them to “get closer to God.”
Chief Rabbi of Safed and Member of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate Council Shmuel Eliyahu said: “The Palestinians are monsters and killing them is a religious duty.”
Speaking to the Israeli TV Channel 7, Eliyahu added: “Slaughtering the Palestinians is getting us [Jews] closer to God.”
He said that slaughtering the Palestinians is a “biblical duty and implementing it is as important as respecting Saturdays.”
Eliyahu called on the “state of Israel to work on carrying out this duty.”

Posted by: Mona Ahmed Zaki | Sep 2 2018 0:03 utc | 180

I need to say something about John McCain. Some may not like it, so too bad, I speak the truth. Now I know he was a Neocon and hung out with disgusting characters like Lieberman and Graham and resorted to Neocon crazy talk like B…mb Iran and we are all Georgians, but I don’t want to talk ill of the dead so I’ll say this: He did 3 things that I like. He stood up against torture, although, he should have been more forceful. He delivered that great thumb’s down on Trumpcare AND he made memorial arrangements for himself that rivaled any President’s and in so doing delivered a grand coup de gras on Trump from the beyond vindicating Trump’s comment, that he wasn’t a hero because he was captured, with the most spectacular blow to Trump’s ego. If I didn’t despise his foreign policy so much; I’d say good on him; he went out in a blaze of glory, I can’t. So I’m just glad Trump had a very bad day alone in front of his fs tv…he-he. Oh may be that other low-life Stephen Miller was there to keep him company. No doubt Melania made herself scarce.
Today Trump was the fly on the wall in that cathedral. Literally that small. Thank you John McCain for this moment. My faith in justice may yet be restored.

Posted by: Circe | Sep 2 2018 4:21 utc | 182

Here are two links from ChinaNet that are data points showing the growing influence of China internationally
Statue of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius installed in Ukrainian capital
German scientists find Chinese medicine ingredient potential treatment for obesity
The Sci-Fi dreamer in me has a story about how the science folk of the world, tired of the circus we see ourselves faced with, take control of governance, similar to Costa Rica, and humanity strides into the future with reason as the priority instead of faith/religion.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 2 2018 5:24 utc | 184

Under the heading of throwing folks under the bus there is this posting from Reuters
Trump, Sessions approved of Putin meeting proposal: former campaign adviser
The circus goes on, and on ,and on….until it doesn’t anymore

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 2 2018 5:40 utc | 186

John McCain, and the entire U.S. political and military establishment, also supported the wholesale bombing of Iraq’s water purification plants during the first Gulf War.
And this was no ordinary war crime, it was a planned genocide. Documents released in 2000 revealed that the U.S. had studied in detail all aspects of Iraq’s water system, had planned a strategy for preventing Iraq from reconstructing that system (via sanctions), and knew in advance that “this could lead to increased incidences, if not epidemics of disease.”
Indeed it did, with more than half a million Iraqi children dead as a result, one of the greatest war crimes in history, carried out by the next generation of U.S. pilots who followed John McCain, and with John McCain’s full-throated support.
And here is a mostly forgotten exchange between Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright on “60 Minutes” back on May 12, 1996 that is not getting much play lately during McCain Holy Week.
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price – we think the price is worth it.”

Posted by: Mona Ahmed Zaki | Sep 2 2018 11:18 utc | 188

Mona @188. FRUKUS did the same thing in Libya. We destroyed the “Great Manmade River” irrigation project that had turned vast swaths of the Sahara Desert into verdant farmland that was feeding, not just Libyans, but exporting huge amounts of cheap food to “sub-Saharan” Africa.
And then, just to ensure that the famine lasted for decades, and not just years, we bombed the factories that made replacement parts for the irrigation system.

Posted by: Daniel | Sep 2 2018 20:38 utc | 190