Mato's Blog

Feline news:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/01/larry-loses-collar-in-most-brutal-fight-yet-with-palmerston/ As I mentioned before, cats are very similar to humans in their social behavior, that is why they have become our favorite pets.
http://www.itv.com/news/central/2016-08-04/hero-shropshire-feline-handed-cat-of-the-year-award/
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/05/wild-about-hank-cat-tim-kaine-senate-virginia-documentary

Environmental news:
http://www.flassbeck-economics.com/how-climate-change-is-rapidly-taking-the-planet-apart/
https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/heavy-toll-for-green-and-indigenous-activists-among-colombian-killings/
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-climate-change-economic-effects-jobs-too-hot-to-work-india-china-a7143406.html It could become uncomfortably hot — unless nuclear winter after WWIII brings a few weeks of relief before it gets uncomfortably cold.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-drought-idUSKCN1071LA
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-shipping-idUSKCN0ZY1TC This will change when the Western financial system collapses and globalization comes to an end.
http://civileats.com/2016/07/20/this-study-could-help-us-numbers-on-the-true-cost-of-food/
http://www.dw.com/en/bakery-venture-feeds-german-appetite-for-pesticide-free-food/a-19228954 Even some supermarkets here offer organic bread. It costs two to three times more and sales nevertheless have outstripped that of “normal” bread. Healthy food for the affluent, cheap contaminated food for the poor.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsantos-sugar-coated-lies-how-the-food-lobby-destroys-health-in-the-eu/5538619
http://www.dw.com/en/pests-and-drought-hit-nigerias-tomato-farms/a-19420515
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/19/as-the-world-grows-hotter-some-workers-are-becoming-less-productive/?wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/eastern-hemispheres-alltime-temperature-record-kuwait-fries-in-54 The Arab Peninsula will become unlivable soon.
Besides temperatures too high for humans to endure, climate change increases the risk of persistent droughts, alternating with increasingly heavy rain, devastating storms, floods, mudslides, ocean acidification, toxic algae blooms, dead zones, a decline in air quality caused by forest fires and dust storms; catastrophic forest die-offs, crop failures, and resulting famine.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/pilcomayo-river-paraguay-caiman-capybara-fish-drought-death-water/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-29/forget-tornadoes-rain-bombs-are-coming-for-your-town This article caught my eye because a nearby town was struck by torrential rain, seven people drowned, two dozen houses were damaged, some so severely that they have to be torn down and completely rebuilt, more than 30 cars were destroyed, and a 500 meter stretch of road has to be made new.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-Iowa-The-Next-Nigeria-Arson-Suspected-in-Pipeline-Fire.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-02/bottled-water-to-outsell-soda-for-first-time-with-nod-to-flint

Imperial news:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176169/
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/21/arms-air-unarmed-black-caregiver-shot-police
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2093 One wouldn’t expect such a dark and apocalyptic picture from the normally disciplined and levelheaded analyst James Petras. The outlook must be really bleak.
Donald Trump is a despicable egoist and a con-man, but he is apparently less delusional and with more common sense than the Washington establishment clique.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trump-us-politics-poor-whites/
Donald Trump in an interview about the US reaction to the failed coup in Turkey:
“I think right now when it comes to civil liberties, our country has a lot of problems, and I think it’s very hard for us to get involved in other countries when we don’t know what we are doing and we can’t see straight in our own country. We have tremendous problems when you have policemen being shot in the streets, when you have riots, when you have Ferguson. When you have Baltimore. When you have all of the things that are happening in this country — we have other problems, and I think we have to focus on those problems. When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger.”
Roling Stone Matt Taibbi’s comment: “The maddening thing about the Democrats is that they refuse to see how easy they could have it. If the party threw its weight behind a truly populist platform, if it stood behind unions and prosecuted Wall Street criminals and stopped taking giant gobs of cash from every crooked transnational bank and job-exporting manufacturer in the world, they would win every election season in a landslide.”
Taibbi has an excellent style and is highly intelligent, but he’s nevertheless often missing the point, because he is not calling into question the basic structure of the political system and society in general.
My personal comment: I would pray for Trump to win if I would be religious, I would knock on wood if I would be superstitious, I would lough about hoping that a narcissist con-man gets the most prominent job in the world, if I would be cynical.
I would vote for Jill Stein if I would be a US citizen.
Anyway, Trump is sinking in the polls and a concerted massive campaign by US media for Hillary Rodham Clinton will most likely ensure her election. Frightening prospects!
From the comment section of an “alternative media” site:
Corporate bodies work together to guarantee maximum profits and power. Government’s job is to ensure that opposition to them is defeated. It is called Fascism, and you can see how it works, today, right here.
When you read of war or impending war anywhere in the world, you are reading a huge profit report for the MIC [Military Industrial Complex], as it will be selling weapons to both sides.
NEVER EVER trust anything that a neocon/neoliberal tells you except for when he finally admits that they will do everything they can to screw you over.
The DINO scum are now secure (they think) with Clinton nominated and continued service for the rich and powerful assured (they think) — they may have a big surprise in store. Problem is, Trump is a psychopath himself and Jill Stein and the Greens don’t have a snowballs chance, given the controlled media and overt corruption of our political system!
And so the national farce and international scandal — the “election” — continues.

Imperial conquest news:
http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2016/07/despite-objections-pentagon-takes-step-toward-buying-new-nuclear-weapons/130355/
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/making-a-killing-the-1-2-billion-euros-arms-pipeline-to-middle-east-07-26-2016

Uncategorized news:
http://qz.com/740401/instead-of-asking-are-robots-becoming-more-human-we-need-to-ask-are-humans-becoming-more-robotic/ Technology driven “improvement” of human behavior. Article misses a main point: Humans increasingly interact with computers, media devices, robots, and lose their ability to interact with other humans.
http://nautil.us/issue/38/noise/this-is-your-brain-on-silence-rp
http://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/repression/civilization-definition/ This is a great essay and one can leave it as it is or use it as starting point of a discussion about possible visions, strategies, and personal consequences like lifestyle changes and social/political activities.
Such discussions have happened before and though many were exhausting and fruitless, some helped the participants to change or redefine their values and attitudes.

News from cat paradise

It is raining and the cats are in the house, sleeping on the windowsills and in other comfortable places. Only Wendy is missing and I am worried about her. If she comes in she will be dripping wet.

All the cats except Gandhi Jr. got their deworming pills and it went rather smoothly. I do it by just lifting them by the scruff for a moment and pushing the pill into their little snout with my index finger. Most times it is over before they even realize what is going on, but the last time I tried this method with Gandhi he bit me in my finger and I had a wound and a bandage for a few days. After this experience I have to prepare myself mentally to try it again with him and I’m not ready yet.

I still spend too much time on the computer and at the moment I’m anxiously scanning reports about the Islamist’s ongoing offensive in southwest Aleppo. I’m following the Syrian war closely and should explain to the many new subscribers of the blog why I’m interested, even compassionate about this and why I strongly sympathize with the Syrian government, a government led by Dr. Bashar al-Assad, who is commonly referred to as “butcher Assad,” while the government is called “Assad regime.”

I will do this in one of the next blog posts.

Fortunately the cats and I live in one of the remaining peace-zones of the world, though the latest terror attacks in Germany were uncomfortably near our location. I cannot put the blame on “savage Islamists” alone, because, undeniably, we Westerners bombed them first. This is the “blowback” which was predicted, augured, warned about by many sensible people.

The warnings and predictions were ignored, discounted, rejected, ridiculed. Well, who would ever have thought that children who experience dire poverty, exploitation, oppression, violence, destruction, and death will seldom grow up to become serene, gracious, accommodating, peaceful adults.

As the next generation of children in the war-zones of the Middle East are growing up to take bloody revenge on the invaders, colonizers, occupiers, there’s more to come, I fear — far more.

Will our little paradise be spared from the carnage?

P.S.: Wendy just came in from the rain and she looks like she has taken a bath. Otherwise she is ok and just eating. I feel again more optimistic about the future.