Mato's Blog

About Brexit: The British citizens made the right decision for all the wrong reasons or for no reasons at all, because reasoning is impossible if all what one is constantly told by the political leaders and their media minions is misinformation and lies. Lets say it was a gut decision.

The punishers and enforcers are on the way now, they will teach the unruly Brits and all other prospective Exiters a lesson they may behold for a long time. Yet the damage is done already and mayhem may ensue, resulting in short-term personal inconveniences with the vague hope that the inconveniences may be outweighed by long-term improvements.

Please let me explain:

After reading several informative, thoughtful, and well formulated articles about Brexit and “voter revolt,” I have to agree with most what is written, and yet, from my point of view there are several fundamental things missing and the most crucial questions are unaddressed.

I agree with the observation that the elites unashamed, politically incorrect, but refreshingly candid displayed their utter contempt for the disobedient populace.

“It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses” (James Traub in Foreigh Policy). “The referendum should never have happened in the first place” (Dan O’Sullivan. Author of “Simply… the EU – a guide for the bewildered”). Victoria Nuland may have said: “F*ck democracy!”

We know, that democratic elections are considered a nuisance, but as long as purposefully misinformed and around the clock brainwashed citizens keep voting for carefully preselected candidates of the establishment, they are regarded as a system stabilizing tradition and a useful tool to allow venting anger and conceal the true power structures (as one can easily guess, its not the people who hold power).

Did the Brits vote for direct democracy, local autonomy, transparent and accountable local governance? (Maybe to some extent, though this was not widely discussed.)

Did the Brits vote against the EU or against the dismembering of the NHS (National Health Service), the privatization of public services (railroad), the cut of social programs in favor of military spending? (Probably not or only in insignificant numbers.)

The Brits clearly voted against globalization and outsourcing, though they forgot that with the outsourcing of industrial production not only the jobs, but also the pollution moved to Asia. Did they really wanted to have unbearable smog, polluted water and soil, dying forests like they are common in China, India, Indonesia? Don’t they like the cheap stuff only possible by the cheap labor of exploited Asian worker bees?

Don’t they understand, that in spite of all grievances and injustices, they are still a privileged minority of humans, benefitting from and participating in the neocolonial exploitation of other countries?

Don’t they care about hunger and malnutrition in drought stricken Africa, about 65 million refugees, about growing social unrest, lawlessness, violence all around the world?

Do they understand that their consumption of energy and resources is still above global average, is unsustainable in the face of ecological devastation and shortages of clean water, clean air, intact and uncontaminated soil?

Acknowledged, even in an affluent nation like Britain there are the homeless, dropouts, the utterly marginalized, but they surely didn’t vote, they gave up on the system long time ago and they are not concerned about the EU. The EU bureaucracy likewise is not concerned about them and would’t have helped them anyway, the EU is about dismantling the social security net, not about fixing it.

So, the Brits didn’t heed the warnings about trade barriers, slow economic growth, and dangers for the global financial system.

Less trade means less pollution by trucks and container ships, means more homegrown food and other locally produced essentials, means less unnecessary gadgets from Far East Asia.

Less growth or no growth or negative growth (sane minds would call this “economic contraction”) means less industrial production and less resource consumption, which would give nature a break.

A crash of the global financial system would severely impede wealth accumulation by the billionaire class and also hinder the financing of the gargantuan US military machine (only the US$ reserve currency status makes the 19 trillion US$ debt possible).

All of this appears positive to me, but neither the pre-Brexit political discussions nor the thoughtful commentaries after-Brexit didn’t include any of these considerations.

The commentators instead write about a perceived “apocalyptic scenario,” ignoring the apocalypse that is happening right now. They ignore lead and arsenic polluted drinking water, ocean acidification, algae blooms, dead zones, coral bleaching, mass extinctions (amphibians, bees, birds, bats, big cats, elephants), dying forests, growing deserts, extreme weather events (droughts, storms, floods).

They ignore the merciless war which humans fight against nature and which humans are about to win resoundingly.

But what has that to do with Brexit? Isn’t the Brexit dispute all about securing the amenities and conveniences of Western life and keeping our familiar consumerist lifestyle intact?

Unfortunately yes — and that is the reason why I wrote this text!

Feline news:
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2016/07/01/Feral-cat-wanders-into-zoo-becomes-best-friends-with-bear/7681467392280/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3641386/Cats-understand-physics-Cats-use-noise-cues-cause-effect-understanding-detect-hidden-prey.html I could have told them without an expensive scientific study.
http://www.salisburypost.com/2016/07/03/kids-read-to-cats-during-librarys-summer-program/
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/02/484111751/library-cats-job-is-saved Reminds me of Dewey ReadMore Books.

Environmental news:
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/15/dupont-may-dodge-toxic-lawsuits-by-pulling-a-disappearing-act/
http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/06/soil-degradation-threatens-nutrition-in-latin-america/
https://www.grain.org/article/entries/5492-the-global-farmland-grab-in-2016-how-big-how-bad
https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/18482/On_Dangerous_Ground.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/21/berta-caceres-name-honduran-military-hitlist-former-soldier
https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/health-officials-in-peru-oil-spill-cleanup-workers-risk-poisoning-and-burns/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/23/why-climate-scientists-predict-more-blazing-heat-drought-fires-and-scores-of-dead-trees-in-the-west/
http://ensia.com/features/the-developing-world-is-awash-in-pesticides-does-it-have-to-be/

Economic news:
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/imf-deutsche-bank-poses-greatest-risk-global-financial-system/
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2016/cr16189.pdf

Imperial news:
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2087
http://theduran.com/obama-gun-sales-smith-wesson-soared-200-chart/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/28/lead-drinking-water-level-nrdc-report-flint-crisis

Imperial conquest news:
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/27/europeans-contest-us-anti-russian-hype/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/united-states-bombings-of-other-countries-americas-bombing-list/5533371
http://www.unz.com/ishamir/victory-is-possible/
http://www.alternet.org/world/brain-dead-diplomats-why-did-51-american-state-dept-officials-dissent-against-obama-and-call Prepare for WWIII and a nuclear winter.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/if-you-value-life-wake-up-great-danger-us-nato-missiles-threatening-russia/5532041 Unfortunately this is no hysterical exaggeration.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/denmark-cuts-welfare-buys-new-us-fighter-jets/
http://chuckspinney.blogspot.co.at/2016/06/update-on-palestinian-water-crisis.html
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/severe-venezuelas-crisis/ This is not counter propaganda, but an informative situation report, including government failures and grassroots initiatives.
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/on-canada-day-what-does-humanity-have-to-look-forward-to-not-what-canada-represents/ Great reading!

Uncategorized news:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Police-Kill-3-in-Clashes-with-Striking-Oaxaca-Teachers-20160619-0024.html
http://www.workers.org/2016/06/30/bloody-attack-on-teachers-union-leads-to-uprising-in-mexico/#.V3fX5Cgg-Wg Teachers are dangerous people — they know too much.
http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=821:the-fairy-tale-of-the-self-questioning-bbc&catid=54:alerts-2016&Itemid=248
http://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/colonialism/indonesia-tribe-attacked-palm-oil-plantation/

News from cat land:

The cats are fine, but it is raining and raining, which means that they often are confined to the house where they get bored and have all kind of strange ideas. I braced myself for a dry summer with the need of constant irrigating to keep the plants alive, yet this is the wettest summer I’ve ever seen.

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” (Yogi Berra)

My sweet little Lucia lady turned out to be a proficient hunter. Just recently she brought home a huge mouse, I’m not sure if it was not even a vole. Fortunately she had killed the mouse already, I hate the painful squeaking and squealing of the hapless mice.

The smallest cat catches the biggest mouse (this is not from Lao Tse’s Tao Te Ching).

Little Lucia is also a heinous bird baby murderer. An enthusiastic and trusting bird mother built her artful nest in the grapevine trellis but Lucia found out about it, climbed up one of the posts and fetched all eggs from the nest. The terrified bird mother chirped and flapped her wings to distract Lucia, but to no avail.

Poor bird, I hope she will try again at a better place.

Nature is cruel, unjust, merciless. My beloved cat companions are brutal mass murderers. Just as I am a brutal mass murderer of slugs and snails.

It is all a matter of perspective and definition.

It’s a good reason not to be self righteous.