THE GREAT TURNING [and] JUST SAY NO!

Are the spreading uprisings, revolts, and revolutions enveloping the Middle East/North Africa, part of a "shift in global consciousness"? Some people think so, this comment, written about the link for global uprising coverage, http://www.commondreams.org/uprising demonstrates what some "new-age" type people are thinking lately:

Posted by lucidpanther

Feb 18 2011 - 11:36pm

"What is happening in the Arab world is part of a worldwide revolution of consciousness - the old paradigms of hierarchy, authoritarianism, corporatism, oligarchy, parasitic capitalism, materialism, etc. are breaking down .

America , being part of the world, will also undergo turmoil, chaos, revolt against the system.
The Wisconsin and Arab protests are intricately connected at a deep level. On the surface they appear isolated from each other, but they are both part of a morphogenetic field http://www.experiencefestival.com/morphogenetic_fields - a phrase coined by Rupert Sheldrake -sweeping across the world.

These upheavals will increase and spread worldwide and they are representative of a kind of awakening and a tectonic shift in human consciousness.

American philosopher Ken Wilber outlined how these memes of collective consciousness evolve in his 'Integral Politics" theory.

The monetary system, which is a house of cards designed to protect the few powerful corporate entities and the international banking system, will collapse and America will experience the same kind of unrest, riots, and upheaval as we are seeing around the world.

The thieves, the capitalists, the corrupt parasites have reached the end of the line . Their time is up. They will use deadly force to retain power but, in the end, their time is simply up because the old paradigms are fast becoming obsolete.

These events will move rapidly and probably accelerate over the next two years."

We do here at A.P.R certainly feel that some sort of shift is occurring, globally, and often do ponder the possibility that all humans and beings are linked on some level, and exchange information. That perhaps the way technology has developed over the last several decades with the "Information Revolution", and continues to, is to mimic what occurs in the other realities, before/after death, and during our dream states. Which is to say, having instantaneous communication with anyone, at any time, when we desire it, and instant manifestation of our desires and fears.

Irregardless of all that, we recognise and accept that most of the successful uprisings and revolutions that bettered living conditions in many countries, across the world, over the last 200 years, had strong spiritual components to them. That there must be a spiritual awakening, in a general sense, among a great many people, for a successful, peaceful change to occur. Because we all have to really realise, and act in the beliefs, that all people are truly equal, and worthy of life, liberty, and the ability to make a good living in a sustainable manner that is helpful to one's society, and the environment. And to empathise and aid those people who are struggling for their dignity with aspirations to live  healthy and happy lives, free from grinding poverty, insecurity, and repression. Because we know that their suffering diminishes us all. That the economic and political policies of the "developed world", not just the U.S., are at least partly, if not mostly, to blame for the misery of poverty for more than half of the globe's population. 
http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/capitalisms-dirty-warssecrets.html

We have been greatly inspired by the events of the last six weeks across the Middle East/North Africa, which seems to have taken the World by surprise, much as did the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

Or did it? http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-easy-to-forget.html

But these events were based on years of quiet, but increasingly large, collaboration of thousands, and then millions of people. And, like then, it is spreading now:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/21-11

From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity are Alive

by Medea Benjamin

Here in Madison, Wisconsin, where protesters have occupied the State Capitol Building to stop the pending bill that would eliminate workers’ right to collective bargaining, echoes of Cairo are everywhere. Protesters here were elated by the photo of an Egyptian engineer named Muhammad Saladin Nusair holding a sign in Tahrir Square saying “Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers—One World, One Pain.” The signs by protesters in Madison include “Welcome to Wiscairo”, “From Egypt to Wisconsin: We Rise Up”, and “Government Walker: Our Mubarak.” The banner I brought directly from Tahrir Square saying “Solidarity with Egyptian Workers” has been hanging from the balcony of the Capitol alongside solidarity messages from around the country.

My travels from Cairo to Madison seem like one seamless web. After camping out with the students and workers in the Capitol Building, I gave an early morning seminar on what it was like to be an eyewitness to the Egyptian revolution, and the struggles that are taking place right now in places like Libya, Bahrain and Yemen. Folks told me all day how inspiring it was to hear about the uprisings in the Arab world.

Some took the lessons from Cairo literally. Looking around at the capitol building that was starting to show the wear and tear from housing thousands of protesters, I had mentioned that in Cairo the activists were constantly scrubbing the square, determined to show how much they loved the space they had liberated. A few hours later, in Madison’s rotunda, people were on their hands and knees scrubbing the marble floor. “We’re quick learners,” one of the high school students told me, smiling as she picked at the remains of oreo cookies sticking to the floor.

I heard echoes of Cairo in the Capitol hearing room where a nonstop line of people had gathered all week to give testimonies. The Democratic Assemblymembers have been giving folks a chance to voice their concerns about the governor’s pending bill. In this endless stream of heartfelt testimonies, people talk about the impact this bill will have on their own families—their take-home pay, their healthcare, their pensions. They talk about the governor manufacturing the budget crisis to break the unions. They talk about the history of workers’ struggles to earn living wages and have decent benefits. And time and again, I heard people say “I saw how the Egyptian people were able to rise up and overthrow a 30-year dictatorship, and that inspired me to rise up and fight this bill.”

Solidarity is, indeed, a beautiful thing. It is a way we show our oneness with all of humanity; it is a way to reaffirm our own humanity. CODEPINK sent flowers to the people in Tahrir Square—a gesture that was received with kisses, hugs and tears from the Egyptians. The campers in Madison erupted in cheer when they heard that an Egyptian had called the local pizza place, Ians Pizza, and placed a huge order to feed the protesters. “Pizza never tasted so good,” a Wisconsin fireman commented when he was told that the garlic pizza he was eating had come from supporters in Cairo.

Egyptian engineer Muhammad Saladin Nusair, the one whose photo supporting Wisconsin workers went viral, now has thousands of new American Facebook friends. He wrote in his blog that many of his new friends were surprised by his gesture of solidarity, but he was taught that “we live in ONE world and under the same sky.”

“If a human being doesn’t feel the pain of his fellow human beings, then everything we’ve created and established since the very beginning of existence is in great danger,” Muhammad wrote. “We shouldn’t let borders and differences separate us. We were made different to complete each other, to integrate and live together. One world, one pain, one humanity, one hope.”

Since we only are able to write our articles weekly, or semi-weekly here, we can't keep you instantly abreast of all the latest developments, in this amazingly rapid transformation, in so many areas. But we will do our best to put them all in perspective, and talk to others, so they can help provide us and you with insightful information.

To that end, we have a special feature coming soon, an exclusive A.P.R. interview that occurred two weeks ago with an internationally-known progressive figure, who has written many amazing books, and is involved with many important causes. Stay tuned, and we will have that out as soon as we can. It takes some time to professionally edit, and transcribe a studio-recorded interview, so bare with us. Cheers. 

p.s. I just came across this interesting chart today. It shows how low the US rates in many measures of quality of life, of the "industrialised" nations. Clearly, there is alot of work to be done. Only Hong Kong and Singapore outrank the US in terms of wealth inequality, and as mentioned before here, thanks to sentencing disparities for possession of different kinds of drugs in the senseless and useless "war on drugs", we have far and away, the highest per capita and actual number of prisoners, than any other of these nations. 

This is why it is so imperative, that we "Just Say No" to the sociopaths in both political parties, but especially of course, the Republicans, who want to turn back the clock to the year 1900. 

This article below, by Ms. DeMoro, the head of the largest professional nurses union, puts everything in great perspective, about just what working people are up against, and what needs to be done. Spread it around!                http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/22-13

Just Say No – No More Cuts for Workers

by Rose Ann DeMoro

There should be two lasting lessons to emerge from the heroic labor-led protests in Wisconsin.

First, working people, with our many allies, students, seniors, women’s organizations, and many more, are inspired and ready to fight.

Second, we need to send a clear and unequivocal message to the rightwing politicians and those in the media suggesting further concessions from working people.

Working people did not create the recession or the budgetary crisis facing Washington or state or local governments, and there can be no more concessions, period.

What should be very apparent is that the right wants to scapegoat workers and their unions, and are trying to exploit the economic crisis for an all out assault on unions, public employees, and all working people in a campaign that is funded by far right, corporate billionaires like the Koch Brothers.

Their goal is no less than to break unions and silence the voice of all working people who fight for better working conditions and improved standards for all working people.

For example, while demanding major cuts in public pensions, the right also wants to make sweeping cuts in Social Security, even though Social Security is in sound economic shape.

What all working families should know:

1. Who caused the economic crisis? Banks, Wall Street speculators, mortgage lenders, global corporations shifting jobs from the U.S. overseas.

2. Who is profiting in the recession? Corporate profits, 3rd quarter of 2010, were $1.6 trillion, 28 percent higher than the year before, the biggest one year jump in history. Meanwhile, average wages and total wages have fallen for all incomes, except the wealthiest Americans whose income grew five-fold.

3. Who is not paying their fair share? In U.S. states facing a budget shortfall, revenues from corporate taxes have declined $2.5 billion in the last year. In Wisconsin, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes, and the share of state revenue from corporate taxes has fallen in half since 1981. Nationally, according to a General Accountability Study out today, 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005

4. Are public employees overpaid? State workers typically earn 11 percent less, local public workers 12 percent less than private employees with comparable education and experience. Nationally, cutting the federal payroll in half would reduce spending by less than 3 percent.

5. Would pay and benefit concessions by public employees stop the demands? The right has made it clear it wants A- cuts in public pay, pensions, and health benefits, followed by B- restricting collective bargaining for public sector workers, followed by C- prohibiting public sector unions.

6. Will the right be troubled if cuts in working standards make it harder to recruit teachers and other public servants? No. Take public teachers many of whom have accepted wage freezes and other cuts in recent years. Many in the right have a fairly open goal of privatizing education and destabilizing public schools to make it harder for them to function serves this purpose. The right also salutes the shredding of government workforce, part of its overall goal to gut all government service and make it harder to crack down on corporate abuses or implement other public protections and services.

7. Will the right stop at curbing public workers rights? Employers across the U.S. are demanding major concessions from private sector workers, and breaking unions. Rightwing governors and state legislators are seeking new laws to restrict union rights for all private and public employees.

8. Does everyone have a stake in this fight? Yes. It’s an old axiom that the rise in living standards for the middle class in the 1950s was the direct result of a record rate of unionization in America. It is of course unions that won the eight-hour day, weekends off, and many other standards all Americans take for granted that are now often threatened with the three-decade long attack on unions spurred by that rightwing icon Ronald Reagan. The corollary is that increased wages and guaranteed pensions put money into the economy, with a ripple effect that creates jobs and spurs the economy for all.

So it’s time for all of us to say it loud:

• No More Cuts in Public Sector Pay, Pensions, or Health Benefits
• Balance Budgets By Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes, Restoring Fair Share Taxes on Corporations and Wealthy Individuals
• Guarantee Retirement Security and Healthcare for All

Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the 160,000-member National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of nurses, and a national vice president of the AFL-CIO.

FROM THE BOTTOM UP [and] 1000 METRES OF LIFE

                                                   FROM THE BOTTOM UP

The now essentially complete corporate control and dominance of US government has brought, and will continue to bring increasing poverty and suffering, around the World, and in this country, unless it can be changed. We've run many articles about this here, and will continue to, from time to time. Of course, it is essential to understand a problem, before it can be fixed, but if there is to be any hope for a more just and sustainable society, here and abroad, we need to identify and share any possible solutions. One such glimmer of hope was given recently, by this article, describing how local governments are getting involved by passing ordinances to put citizens rights and environmental protections, ahead of corporate interests. It's a slow, and fragmented process, but these are hopeful steps, and if enough of us can support them, they will expand. See what you think:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/07-1

Corporate Control? Not in These Communities

Can local laws have a real effect on the power of giant corporations?

by Allen D. Kanner

Mt. Shasta, a small northern California town of 3,500 residents nestled in the foothills of magnificent Mount Shasta, is taking on corporate power through an unusual process-democracy.

The citizens of Mt. Shasta have developed an extraordinary ordinance, set to be voted on in the next special or general election, that would prohibit corporations such as Nestle and Coca-Cola from extracting water from the local aquifer. But this is only the beginning. The ordinance would also ban energy giant PG&E, and any other corporation, from regional cloud seeding, a process that disrupts weather patterns through the use of toxic chemicals such as silver iodide. More generally, it would refuse to recognize corporate personhood, explicitly place the rights of community and local government above the economic interests of multinational corporations, and recognize the rights of nature to exist, flourish, and evolve. 

 

Mt. Shasta is not alone. Rather, it is part of a (so far) quiet municipal movement making its way across the United States in which communities are directly defying corporate rule and affirming the sovereignty of local government.

Since 1998, more than 125 municipalities have passed ordinances that explicitly put their citizens' rights ahead of corporate interests, despite the existence of state and federal laws to the contrary. These communities have banned corporations from dumping toxic sludge, building factory farms, mining, and extracting water for bottling. Many have explicitly refused to recognize corporate personhood. Over a dozen townships in Pennsylvania, Maine, and New Hampshire have recognized the right of nature to exist and flourish (as Ecuador just did in its new national constitution). Four municipalities, including Halifax in Virginia, and Mahoney, Shrewsbury, and Packer in Pennsylvania, have passed laws imposing penalties on corporations for chemical trespass, the involuntary introduction of toxic chemicals into the human body.

These communities are beginning to band together. When the attorney general of Pennsylvania threatened to sue Packer Township this year for banning sewage sludge within its boundaries, six other Pennsylvania towns adopted similar ordinances and twenty-three others passed resolutions in support of their neighboring community. Many people were outraged when the attorney general proclaimed, "there is no inalienable right to local self-government."

Bigger cities are joining the fray. In November, Pittsburg's city council voted to ban corporations in the city from drilling for natural gas as a result of local concern about an environmentally devastating practice known as "fracking." As city councilman Doug Shields stated in a press release, "Many people think that this is only about gas drilling. It's not-it's about our authority as a municipal community to say 'no' to corporations that will cause damage to our community. It's about our right to community, [to] local self-government."

What has driven these communities to such radical action? The typical story involves a handful of local citizens deciding to oppose a corporate practice, such as toxic sludge dumping, which has taken a huge toll on the health, economy, and natural surroundings of their town. After years of fighting for regulatory change, these citizens discover a bitter truth: the U.S. environmental regulatory system consists of a set of interlocking state and federal laws designed by industry to serve corporate interests. With the deck utterly stacked against them, communities are powerless to prevent corporations from destroying the local environment for the sake of profit.

Enter the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit public interest law firm that champions a different approach. The firm helps communities draft local ordinances that place the rights of municipalities to govern themselves above corporate rights. Through its Democracy School, which offers seminars across the United States, it provides a detailed analysis of the history of corporate law and environmental regulation that shows a need for a complete overhaul of the system. Armed with this knowledge and with their well-crafted ordinances, citizens are able to return to their communities to begin organizing for the passage of laws such as Mt. Shasta's proposed ordinance.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is collaborating with Global Exchange, an international environmental and workers' rights organization, to help supporters of the Mt. Shasta ordinance organize. In an interview for this article, I asked Shannon Biggs, who directs Global Exchange's Community Rights Program, if she expected ordinances of this type to be upheld in court. Biggs was dubious about judges "seeing the error of their ways" and reversing a centuries-old trend in which courts grant corporations increased power. Rather, she sees these ordinances as powerful educational and organizing tools that can lead to the major changes necessary to reduce corporate power, put decision-making back in the hands of real people rather than corporate "persons," and open up whole new areas of rights, such as those of ecosystems and natural communities. Biggs connects the current municipal defiance of existing state and federal law to a long tradition of civil disobedience in the United States, harkening back to Susan B. Anthony illegally casting her ballot, the Underground Railroad flouting slave laws, and civil rights protesters purposely breaking segregation laws.

But the nascent municipal rights movement offers something new in the way of political action. These communities are adopting laws that, taken together, are forming an alternative structure to the global corporate economy. The principles behind these laws can be applied broadly to any area where corporate rights override local self-government or the well-being of the local ecology. The best place to start, I would suggest, is with banning corporations from making campaign contributions to local elections.

The municipal movement could provide one of the most effective routes to building nationwide support for an Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the movement is already expanding. In Pennsylvania, people are now organizing on the state level and similar stirrings have been reported in New Hampshire.

What about your community?

 

Allen D. Kanner, Ph.D., is a cofounder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, co-editor of Psychology and Consumer Culture and Ecopsychology, and a Berkeley, California child, family, and adult psychologist. 

These are very inspiring developments, and show how often it is, that beneficial changes start, "from the bottom up", by average people, banding together, and working for change. Let's all get behind these movements in our local communities!

                                                     1000 METRES OF LIFE

That's all the vertical room we have here on the mainland of Alaska, from the Brooks Range south, for life to exist. In fact, by the time you ascend just 750 metres (2500 feet), here in South-Central Alaska, you approach tree-line. This is because, in these high latitudes, even in summer, temperatures are quite often just too cold to support the growth of plants. More than just above 0C temperatures are needed, there has to be a certain number of hours above 10C (50F) for any shrubs or trees to grow, as well.

But by the time you get just up to 1000 metres, summer temperatures are quite often below that, for long periods, when low pressure systems with strong winds, and driving rain move through And during the rest of the year? Well, you can just imagine, if it's -10C (14F) down on the floor of the "Anchorage Bowl" with a light northeast breeze, it might will be -20 to -30C over the higher terrain, with gale and storm force , or even stronger winds.

I'm always reminded of this when venturing into our high country, which surrounds Anchorage, but also protects it. The "Anchorage Bowl" and Susitna valley, to the north, as well as the western side of the Kenai Peninsula, to the south, are probably the most favourable climatic areas in Alaska for human habitation and agriculture (such as it is in AK). Mountains on all sides generally limit strong winds from occurring, except during certain rare weather patterns.  Annual precipitation in Anchorage is only 38-51 cm (15-20 inches), depending on how close to the Chugach Front you are. Just around the corner, to the east up Turnagain Arm, this increases rapidly to two and three times that, and all along the outer coast of the Gulf of Alaska, it is many times what we get in Anchorage, and much windier. And of course, to our north, on the other side of the Alaska Range, winters are much, much colder, dimmer with lower sun angles, and a little longer.

So we always make sure to check the weather situation before venturing into our high country, because it can be quite vicious there, and change rapidly.

Our latest outing drove this home very well. We just did a six-hour, 24 km snowshoe from the Glen Alps Trailhead, on the hillside in South Anchorage, up to a pass between two aptly named peaks in the Chugach Mtns., "the Wedge", and "the Ramp", 1450, and 1600 metres high, respectively, yesterday.

The first 6 km just follows the Powerline Trail, in the valley of the South Fork of Campbell Creek. This valley is already around 800 metres elevation, so only small groves of wind-swept mountain hemlock are present, our highest-elevation tree species here. The small Hidden Lake trail then goes north, up a slope, then divides, one branch to Hidden Lake, the other, here, up this narrow valley between the Wedge, on the right, and the Ramp, on the left, in the far distance.

You can see already, at only 850 metres elevation here, that only a few very small hemlocks are able to make it, and how wind-swept the landscape is. Fortunately, on this day, it was only about -10C the whole time, with just a light northeast breeze.

Just before the pass between the two peaks, here at about 1150 metres elevation (3800 feet), all signs of life are gone. Not a blade of grass, shrub, or anything, sticking up through the snow and ice. This pass must get exceedingly strong winds from the north through east, judging by the huge drifts we saw in the lee of ridges, and how on many slopes, the snow was blown clean away, leaving an ice crust, or bare rock. And there were even small rocks on some slopes, that had been blown there, in previous storms. This would happen when there is a strong low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska, and cold, Arctic air present, over the interior. Not the time to be here, or anywhere in our high country then!

We only got up to about 1350 metres on the Wedge before turning back. My snowshoes had good grip on the ice, but Homer's back legs kept slipping, he has some arthritis there. So we turned back, and it was getting on toward 3 pm. 

But not before savouring the view, on the other side of the pass! A Shangri-La of alpine terrain, surrounding the deep valley of Ship Creek, at the bottom of which, small trees re-appear.

Mattie was just as captivated as I was by this alpine panorama. 

A seemingly endless expanse of sharp, snowy, and glaciated peaks. But there are non-technical routes through all these areas, which we will be traversing, as time allows, winter and summer. Winter allows faster travel, when skiing is possible, without the possible complications of stream crossings. 

But, of course, the longer, warmer days, and greenery in the lower reaches of this alpine expanse, can't be beat. 

I'm not even sure which peak this was, shining in the distance. But it quite possibly could be one of the 3000-4000 metre highest peaks in the Chugach Range, which are at least 80 KM to the east. It takes elevations of over 2300 metres (7500 ft) to see that much snow/ice cover on the peaks.

The view back, toward the Anchorage Bowl, as we headed down from the pass, shows our route. We started at the base of the smallest hump, there in the middle of the valley, where it seemingly drops off. It's always amazing how small Anchorage looks from these heights, you'd never guess there's a big city (at least by our standards!), with all it's attendant activity, down there.

And even though we always wish we had more time to spend in these places, we at least are rewarded at the end, with our view of Denali and Foraker, shining in the evening sun, across the Susitna Valley. Why would we want to be anywhere else? Cheers.

IT CAN HAPPEN HERE?

Three cheers for the valiant people of Egypt, struggling to overthrow the corrupt dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, who has been "president" there for 31 years. Events there are unfolding so quickly, that by the time you read this, quite a bit will have changed, since our writing.

The Mubarak regime in Egypt, actively supported by the US government with billions of dollars in aid over the past 31 years, has a history of jailing and torturing any individuals or groups opposing it's policies. Corruption of the police force there is endemic and has been worsening over the past 20 years especially. And, the policies they follow, under the dictates of the World Bank, and the global (but mostly US) financial/corporate sectors, has guaranteed that little would change for the masses of poor people in that country, with extremely high unemployment, rising prices, and little opportunity for any improvements in their low standards of living. It took the inspiration of the popular uprising in Tunisia last month to act as a catalyst for their actions.

Now, the global elites in all the "developed" countries, and especially the US, are quite uneasy, because there are signs that masses of people in other countries are waking up to the injustice of the current socio-political and economic system. Where goverments prop up corrupt financial and corporate sectors that swindle their populations and perpetuate policies guaranteeing massive unemployment and poverty, which keeps wages and benefits low, and people afraid. Countries ripe for popular uprisings like Tunisia had, and Egypt now undergoing, are these: In the middle east /Africa- Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, in Asia - Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and in the Western Hemisphere - Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and Colombia.

All these countries are controlled by corrupt, despotic, oligarchical governments that rely on torture and intimidation to stay in power and prevent any real change in living standards to occur in the masses of the people's lives there, in support of  multi-national corporate profit. Most supported by the US government and corporatocracy (really, one and the same thing).

 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/01-4

A good summation of the situation in Egypt, and it's ramifications, can be found in this article, off of Common Dreams. We'd like to quote the first several paragraphs, as they are very astute:

Tunisia's Spark & Egypt's Flame: The Middle East Is Rising

by Phyllis Bennis

Is this how empires end, with people flooding the streets, demanding the resignation of their leaders and forcing local dictators out? Maybe not entirely, but the breadth and depth of the spreading protests, the helplessness of the U.S.-backed governments to stop them, and the rapidly diminishing ability of the United States to protect its long-time clients, are certainly resulting in a level of revolutionary fervor not visible in the Middle East in a generation. The legacy of U.S.-dominated governments across the region will never be the same. The U.S. empire's reach in the resource-rich and strategically vital Middle East has been shaken to its core.

There's a domino effect underway in the Arab world. Tunisia was the spark, not only because its uprising came first but because the people of Tunisia won and the dictator fled. Egypt remains for the United States the most important strategic Arab ally.

The fall of Hosni Mubarak, the U.S.-backed dictator in power for more than three decades, would mean an end to Washington's ability to rely on Cairo to stave off Arab nationalism and independence and an end to Egypt's role as a collaborator in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Whatever happens, what's likely, though not inevitable, is that never again will Tunisia be used as a transit point or Egypt as a "black site" secret prison for U.S. agents engaged in the "extraordinary rendition" of detainees for interrogation and torture.

Stirrings of popular dissent are already underway in Yemen and Jordan too. All the other U.S.-backed monarchies and pseudo-democracies across the region are feeling the heat. The U.S. empire in the region is crumbling.

Tipping Points

The alliances of the last half century are being shattered, the old order is ending. What's next? As is always the case when revolutionary processes erupt, it's still too soon to tell. Things move slowly until a sudden tipping point, and then it's all too quick, too sudden to keep up.

The breadth of public participation is key for understanding the implications of these uprisings. In Tunisia, the protests involved workers and middle class professionals, but were composed at the core by disenfranchised, disempowered, and educated unemployed people. Mohammed Bouazizi, a young man in the impoverished town of Sidi Bouzid, symbolized these demonstrators by setting himself ablaze to protest not only unemployment and poverty, but also the humiliation and degradation he faced.

Among the hundreds of thousands across Tunisia who marched, chanted, demanded, and won the abdication of their longstanding dictator, thousands are the young men and women whose college degrees have provided no security, whose lives were constrained by the lack of jobs, lack of opportunities, and lack of hope.

In Egypt, participation was even broader. The thousands and hundreds of thousands filling the streets, occupying Cairo's famed Tahrir (Liberation) Square, include not only the most impoverished of Egypt's urban slums and rural farmers and peasants. They also include the educated, the middle classes, even many of the wealthy, all finally saying no to the paucity dignity and freedom of their lives. Their demand was clear: not just reform, not just new elections, but an end to the Mubarak regime.

It is also important to recognize what the demands in Tunisia and most essentially in Egypt were not about. They were not about opposition to the United States; we have not seen the U.S. flag burning or crowds attacking the U.S. embassy. They were not even about Egypt's thirty years of collaboration with Israel's occupation, especially its role in maintaining the siege of Gaza – opposition to which is arguably the greatest point of political unity in the country. People have been very clear – and very public in the media – about their awareness of and outrage towards the U.S. history of arming Mubarak with the very weapons killing protesters in the streets; the "Made in USA" tear gas canisters from Jonestown, PA are featured all over the media. But the demands of this mobilization are directed to domestic, internal issues, aimed at changing the very nature of the ruling structures of the country and its impact on the people who live there. Foreign policy will come just a little bit later.

It's very telling that today in Jordan, King Abdullah sacked the current government cabinet, and appointed a new prime minister, as popular unrest there grows.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12336960

But will that be enough to satisfy the demands of the people of that country for political and economic justice? Probably not, with the active inspiration now being provided by the people of Egypt. So Jordan may be next in line to finally see a more democratic government. Isn't it amazing and inspiring, how quickly and suddenly positive changes like this can occur, that seemingly come out of the blue. These events are reminiscent of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as East Germans finally were able to achieve their dream of reunification with the West. 

But we here at A.P.R. view these events in Tunisia and Egypt, as even more hopeful. As they are so inspirational, showing that the aspirations of long-suffering impoverished peoples can be achieved, when they come together in solidarity, and stand up to the forces of oppression. It does almost seem like a wildfire, or even, conflagration, is beginning, of uprising against the global corporate oligarchy. 

Major ramifications of these events for the U.S. empire are many. For one thing, whatever new government Egypt ends up with, and other countries (and there will be others), will be less likely to follow the unjust economic policies that kept most of their population in poverty. They will demand more control, and more just compensation, for their resources, which are usually extracted by US and European corporations. Of course, oil springs instantly to mind here, so the major oil companies will probably have to make concessions to these new governments. Oil prices will most certainly rise greatly in the US and Europe, over the next few years, leading to inflation, and an even worse economic situation for most people. With the already high unemployment levels, significant inflation and even worsening job creation prospects, we think it will only be a matter of time, before significant pressure begins to develop in this country. For things like jobs programmes, and universal health care. The US corporate media so far hasn't really been able to demonise the Egyptian protestors, and have even (some of them, not Faux News of course) shown rather thorough coverage of the situation there. 

This will only help to embolden people in the US, and we must, all of us, when we talk with people about what is happening in Egypt, and other countries, spread the word, that yes, positive change, can happen here! 

In spite of the billionaire-supported ravings of racist fringe people like Glenn Beck:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/30-1

Frances Fox Piven Defies Death Threats After Taunts by Anchorman Glenn Beck

by Paul Harris in New York 

Frances Fox Piven is not going into hiding. Not yet.

Frances Fox Piven

The 78-year-old leftwing academic is the latest hate figure for Fox News host Glenn Beck and his legion of fans. While she has decided to shrug off the inevitable death threats that have followed, she is well aware of the problem. "I don't know if I am scared, but I am worried," she told the Observer as she sat in a bar on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

"At the start I thought it was funny, but now I know that is dangerous... their paranoia works better when they can imagine a devil. Now that devil is me."

For the past three weeks Beck has relentlessly targeted Piven via his television and radio shows as a threat to the American way of life, seizing on an essay that she and her late husband wrote in 1966 as a sort of blueprint for bringing down the American economy.

Called The Weight of the Poor, it advocated signing up so many poor people for welfare payments that the cost would force the government to bring in a policy of a guaranteed income. For Piven, a committed voice of the left, known in academic circles but little recognized outside them, it was just one publication in a lifetime dedicated to political activism and theorizing.

For Beck, however, Piven is a direct threat to the US. In show after show, the rightwing commentator has demonized Piven and framed her as part of a decades-old conspiracy to take over the country that culminated in the election of President Barack Obama. Beck's heated language has provoked a tidal wave of death threats against both Piven and her academic colleagues at the City University of New York.

The threats are blunt and - in light of the recent shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords - truly frightening. Many appear on Beck's news website, The Blaze. "One shot... one kill," wrote one. Others are sent directly to her email address or those of her colleagues. There are so many that she has contacted the police and this week will ask her college to make a formal complaint to the FBI.

Despite that real security fear, she refuses to back down. Indeed, for someone portrayed as a revolutionary communist, Piven's choice of a meeting place with the Observer was a sly poke back at her critics: a Cuban hangout called Havana Central.

It is typical of Piven. The spry, twinkle-eyed academic pulls no punches when talking of Beck. "He is a very neurotic and peculiar type of person. I don't think he is capable of sane discussion," she said. And his supporters? "They creep me out."

One thing to remember, the numbers of the mainly aging, white, male, racist people in the US are dwindling. So even though the corporatocracy/oligarchy are using/supporting people like the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, to continually scapegoat and demonise progressives and minorities, their influence will continue to decline. Especially now, in light of current events. Amen to that!

So, again, here's to the valiant people of Tunisia and Egypt, and the other countries to come! Thank you for your courage and inspiration, lighting the way for people all over the World, in their quest for sane and just political and economic systems! Cheers.

TOP TO BOTTOM [and] LET'S NOT FORGET

South-Central Alaska experienced a massive chinook/warm-up beginning New Year's day, for four days. Well-above freezing temperatures of 5-8C (41-47F) were accompanied by strong southeast winds and rain in some areas, and so here around Anchorage, half the snowpack melted, and our nordic skiing trails were reduced to slabs of dirty, wet ice, which then  re-froze into treacherous sheets. 

With conditions like these, skiing became less attractive and so running and hiking were going to have to substitute. So last sunday the 9th, we decided to summit Konoya Point, behind the Chugach Front Research Centre, a very prominent point visible right out our windows.

The trail ascends quickly up the drainage of the North Fork of Campbell Creek, reaching the tree-line of 760 metres (2500 ft) in about 5 KM. It was a mild sunny day, about -5C (23F) at the start, just a 100 metres or so above sea level, thanks to high pressure ridging still dominating the area. In fact, a very unusual pattern was occurring, an exceedingly strong, record-breaking high pressure ridge was in place over western Alaska (more on this later). 

Since I wasn't sure how much snow would be on the route, and in what condition, I wore my Katoola shoe chains over my boots, which are like mini-crampons, and brought my snowshoes in my pack, in case we had to go through deep, loose snow. But the strong winds (probably well in excess of 100 kph or 60 mph) the week before had blown off much of it above tree-line, and what was left was packed brick-hard. I never ended up using my snowshoes, and with the Katoola's, felt like a fly climbing a wall, on the steep, sometimes icy sections. 

Just above the first bench, above tree line, around 1000 metres (3300 ft.), we could see 5315 metre (17,450 ft) Foraker shining in the distance. Denali is just beside it, behind the slope. We often get more clearing and nice sun in the winter, when we have offshore flow from the interior.

Anchorage was bathed in fog below, and colder, under it's valley temperature inversion. Probably around -12C (10F).  The downtown skyscrapers (such as they are...not much by lower 48 big city standards!) were just visible poking through.

Our objective was visible above, the 1433 metre (4700 ft.) summit of Konoya. It's mostly just a steep walk, very steep in some sections, but there are some rocks to clamber over at the very top.

Since we didn't get started until just after 1030, we had lunch about halfway in, around 1400, on  a nice little ledge, not far beneath the summit. Once we got above 1220 metres (4000 ft.), a northeast breeze, probably just 10-20 kph, combined with the temperatures around -7C, made it feel cooler. 

Homer and Mattie both were having a great time exploring the icy, rocky, snowy expanse. Homer still can walk about anywhere, but his back legs are weaker now, since he's 14. Just below the summit, the trail gives out, and the rest of the way is finding the best way, with some rock scrambling. 

Homer actually chose to stay behind for the summit "push", I think due to his weaker back legs. Mattie of course, is unstoppable, and so she chose to appear in my self-timed picture there. It was a little windier, probably around 20-30 kph, so we didn't stay up too long, and it would be getting dark in a few hours. The part of the trail down in the canyon near the start was exceedingly icy, and we wanted daylight for that.

Heading back down, the Anchorage "bowl" began to be bathed in the gentle rays of the late afternoon winter sun. Denali and Foraker, being fully visible, as well. The Chugach Front Research Centre is right at the base of these slopes, but we have to take a circuitous route on different trails, to reach this area. 

More of the city began to appear, as the fog burned off a little. Sure is a beautiful place we live in. I can't think of any cities with terrain like this, so close at hand, except maybe Salt Lake City. The pack ice in Cook Inlet had been pushed to the west side and had melted substantially, by the New Year's warm-up. The inlet never freezes solid, our 8 metre daily tidal range prevents that from happening, no matter how cold it ever gets. 

There are certain times when Homer's wolfiness becomes more apparent. I always love it when he is walking in settings like this, and that really comes out. As far as I know, he is at least one-quarter wolf, though I know very little of his background, what his parents were like. I'd like to find out. Wolf hybrids have gotten a bad rap, Nimbus, the gentle wolf/husky giant I had for six months in 2006, was the sweetest, kindest, most timid large dog I had ever met.
http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/alaska-sled-dogs-edge-of-wild.html

As we got lower, and the lighting more orange and subdued, the "fata morgana" mirages began appearing more prominent in the mountains across the inlet. These are caused by strong temperature inversions in the atmosphere, the density gradients in the different layers act as lenses, distorting distant features. These little mountain-tops near Redoubt (the larger volcano, with just a bit of steam issuing forth) were looking rather interesting, so we had to stop and get a picture. By this time we were back below tree line.

We finished up around 1700, just as darkness descended. What a fantastic day for an outing like this. When the days get longer, we'll be able to do 30-50 km traverses across even higher ridges from this area. Looking forward to it!

Since this was the top of the terrain, around the Anchorage Bowl, our next outing several days later, was to hopefully explore the bottom. Specifically, to ski part of the Iditarod trail in the beautiful 2000-2300 metre (6500-7500 ft) deep canyon of the Eagle River, about 25 km north of the Anchorage bowl. This deep canyon receives no direct solar radiation for at least three months in winter, and is usually the coldest spot in the entire area. We were hoping it hadn't warmed up as much in there with the New Year's chinook, so that the skiing would be better, than here in town. 

Sure enough, when we arrived there on 1/13, it was -26C (-15F), but the ranger working at the Nature Centre, told us it was unski-able. They had four days of temperatures starting 1/01, of 5-8C (40-46F), with rain and strong east winds funneling through the deep canyon.  Yep, the trail was just a solid slab of dirty ice, totally unski-able. I just kept walking in my ski boots, hoping that the further I went in, the better it might get, but it was getting worse! In some places, the snow was just in patches of ice, looking like late April or early May! So we only walked about 4 km in, then came back out. What a disappointment. We headed back to Hillside Park in Anchorage, where I classic skied with Homer and Mattie running along-side, for a few hours.

Speaking of warm-ups, chinooks, and high pressure ridging, the pattern we had in Alaska 7-10 days ago was very unusual, and worth commenting on. 

In this image, a standard 500 millibar analysis for the 11th of January, something really stands out. 500 millibar analyses are a standard reference level meteorologists use in weather forecasting. Millibars are an atmospheric pressure unit, sea level pressure is usually around 1000 millibars. The height at which the pressure equals a certain value is a function of the air-mass temperature. The warmer the air-mass, the higher these heights will be for a given pressure, since warmer air is less dense, and will occupy more volume. Thus, the 500 millibar charts, are a contour map, showing forecasters the flow pattern (parallel to the contours) and features at this level, around 4800 to 6000 metres (depending on the temperature, 15,700 to 20,000 ft). 

Well, on this map, above, what looks like a bubble, over Alaska, is an exceptionally strong high pressure ridge, a mass of warm air. 500 mb heights reached 5830 metres in the centre of it, over 600 metres higher than average for this time of year. Free-air freezing levels were as high as 3050 metres (10,000 ft) in western Alaska inside it. Think about that, there in arctic Alaska, in early January, except for shallow surface-based temperature inversions (because of no solar heating), the temperature was above freezing all the way up to 3050 metres! These heights are measured by radiosonde balloons twice daily world-wide, and the database extends back to 1948. This ridge is the strongest one to ever have occurred over Alaska in winter, since the beginning of the measurement database. And the second strongest ever recorded, period, in this part of Alaska! The colour shading on the map is the temperature at the 850 millibar pressure level, also temperature-dependent, but generally, around 1250 to 1500 metres (4100-5100 ft.)  What this shows, is that the air at 850 mb in this high pressure ridge, is of the same temperature of that in most areas around 30-38 degrees north, the subtropics. That warm subtropical air was brought north to the Arctic by a south flow ahead of lows much further south. This always, and has always been occurring. Just in the past few decades, this pattern is stronger, more persistent, and more frequent. This would have been exceptional in June or July, but in January, what gives?

Transport of warmer air poleward by the jet stream, is how the global energy balance between the tropics and poles is maintained. Again, since the Earth's atmosphere is warming due to the increasing levels of CO2 and methane from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, these ridging patterns are therefore becoming stronger, more frequent, and more persistent. It is actually fortunate this one occurred in January here. Had it been in summer, a strong warm spell and drought would have led to high fire danger in the Alaska Interior. The extreme drought, heat, and wildfires in Russia last summer, as well as in Australia two years ago, were caused by excessively strong, record-breaking, high pressure ridging. Something we'll be writing more about in the coming months. 

                                  LET'S NOT FORGET

Today, of course, is the 82nd anniversary of the birth of America's most prominent spokesman for peace, civil rights, and political and economic justice. Dr. Martin Luther King. Rather than write a new tribute to this great man, who was murdered by the corporatocracy on the 4th of April, 1968 (exactly one year to the day after his landmark speech where he spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War and US militarism in general), we think this one from a year ago speaks quite well. 

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/01/remembering-what-he-died-for.html

His murder was a great loss to the world. He was just beginning to gather momentum in his push for social and economic justice in the US, after his civil rights work. Which was why he was murdered. We often wonder, what things would be like, had this not happened. Would the Vietnam War have ended sooner? Would the US have become less militaristic? Would we have a more sane and just political and economic system here, more in line with the rest of the "developed" countries, with things like universal health care and jobs programmes? Let's all remember, just exactly why it was that he was murdered, and not let what he was working for go unfulfilled. Cheers.

SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN? [and] THE BAD WITH THE GOOD

                        SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN?

We came across this article on the BBC News web-site week before last. It is about a new technology under research that is very interesting, and potentially, could go a long way, if developed fully, to meeting much of the World's energy needs. Take a look, then we'll give you our view on this interesting research. 

23 December 2010 Last updated at 14:11 ET

New solar fuel machine 'mimics plant life'

By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News

 

In the prototype, sunlight heats a ceria cylinder which breaks down water or carbon dioxide

 

A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel.

The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported. 

Conventional photovoltaic panels must use the electricity they generate in situ, and cannot deliver power at night.  Details are published in the journal Science.

The prototype, which was devised by researchers in the US and Switzerland, uses a quartz window and cavity to concentrate sunlight into a cylinder lined with cerium oxide, also known as ceria.

Ceria has a natural propensity to exhale oxygen as it heats up and inhale it as it cools down.

If as in the prototype, carbon dioxide and/or water are pumped into the vessel, the ceria will rapidly strip the oxygen from them as it cools, creating hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide.

Hydrogen produced could be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells in cars, for example, while a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used to create "syngas" for fuel. It is this harnessing of ceria's properties in the solar reactor which represents the major breakthrough, say the inventors of the device. They also say the metal is readily available, being the most abundant of the "rare-earth" metals. Methane can be produced using the same machine, they say. 

Refinements needed:

The prototype is grossly inefficient, the fuel created harnessing only between 0.7% and 0.8% of the solar energy taken into the vessel. Most of the energy is lost through heat loss through the reactor's wall or through the re-radiation of sunlight back through the device's aperture. But the researchers are confident that efficiency rates of up to 19% can be achieved through better insulation and smaller apertures. Such efficiency rates, they say, could make for a viable commercial device.

"The chemistry of the material is really well suited to this process," says Professor Sossina Haile of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). "This is the first demonstration of doing the full shebang, running it under (light) photons in a reactor." She says the reactor could be used to create transportation fuels or be adopted in large-scale energy plants, where solar-sourced power could be available throughout the day and night. However, she admits the fate of this and other devices in development is tied to whether states adopt a low-carbon policy. "It's very much tied to policy. If we had a carbon policy, something like this would move forward a lot more quickly," she told the BBC. It has been suggested that the device mimics plants, which also use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to create energy as part of the process of photosynthesis. But Professor Haile thinks the analogy is over-simplistic.

"Yes, the reactor takes in sunlight, we take in carbon dioxide and water and we produce a chemical compound, so in the most generic sense there are these similarities, but I think that's pretty much where the analogy ends."

The PS10 solar tower plant near Seville, Spain. Mirrors concentrate the sun's power on to a central tower, driving a steam turbine

 

Daniel Davies, chief technology officer at the British photovoltaic company Solar Century, said the research was "very exciting".  "I guess the question is where you locate it - would you put your solar collector on a roof or would it be better off as a big industrial concern in the Sahara and then shipping the liquid fuel?" he said.

Solar technology is moving forward apace but the overriding challenges remain ones of efficiency, economy and storage.

New-generation "solar tower" plants have been built in Spain and the United States which use an array of mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto tower-mounted receivers which drive steam turbines.A new Spanish project will use molten salts to store heat from the Sun for up to 15 hours, so that the plant could potentially operate through the night. 

This is really exciting. Think about it, CO2, the greenhouse gas pollutant that is building up inexorably in our atmosphere, from fossil-fuel combustion, and that is poised to reach 550-600 ppm concentration by mid-century (it is now about 392ppm), could actually be converted with sunlight, back into fuel. A cycle that would add no net CO2 into the atmospheric system, if developed and implemented on an emergency, mass scale, world-wide. The 550-600 ppm CO2 concentration expected to be reached in mid-century, is one not seen by humanity, ever. Global climate-change modeling suggests world-wide average temperature increases of 3-5C with this. Which may not seem cause for alarm, but we've already had about a 1C increase since 1900. And we've documented what has, and is occurring here. The Arctic Ocean summer-ice shrinkage, which is happening far faster than modeling had been suggesting. Increasing forest-fire severity and longer fire season duration in Australia, North America, and Russia/Siberia. A stunning 40 percent loss in the production of phytoplankton in the oceans, since 1950, which is the base of the marine food chain, due to warmer seawater. Droughts and floods on every continent, more frequent, and more severe. 

So do we think this research will receive the funding and emphasis it deserves, by the US, and other developed countries? Unfortunately, no. Because we know who really dictates policy to the US and to different extents, the other industrialised countries.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/capitalisms-dirty-warssecrets.html

Which is to say, producing hydrogen, or natural gas this way, would not be as profitable, as oil extraction/use currently is, for the large corporations. So, there will have to be concerted pressure on politicians by the populace in the US and all the other industrialised nations, to shift resources and attention to alternative energy research and development, before global sea-level rises of up to ten metres, from Greenland, and northern Canadian island rapid ice sheet melting occurs. How much longer do we have, before this could happen? 30-40 years, at best. 

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-seems-likely-based-on-what-weve.html

The US defense budget is now almost a trillion dollars annually, after factoring in the costs of the Iraqi and Afghani occupations. More than all the rest of the World combined, and at least six or more times that of China, the next biggest spender. And what is there to show for it?

You aren't seeing these kind of images on the US corporate media, but this is what is occurring, and has been, in Iraq and Afghanistan, on a daily basis, for many years now. Afghanistani military operations have now gone on longer than any other US war? Why?The UN has estimated that for 47 billion USD, all the people in the World, who need clean water, could be provided it. Think about that. One-twentieth of the annual US defense/offense outlay. Which do you think would bring greater global good-will and safety?

"...A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." (4 April, 1967)

But it is corporate profit that drives our military spending, operations, and governmental policy, in general. Which is why the new solar technology we just presented, will have a tough time expanding, unless big changes occur in our system of government. We'll leave it to you to judge for yourselves, about where the US is, as a nation, spiritually speaking, according to MLK's guidelines. 

                         THE BAD WITH THE GOOD

We often scan the BBC News web-site, just for quick updates on fast-moving global events, such as natural disasters, political upheaval, etc.. The A.P.R. understands that although it is from a European country, and hence, less likely to be corrupted by the usual US corporate media's sports/celebrity/fluff bread-and-circus pulp for the masses, it still is an entity of the U.K. government. And hence, not to be fully trusted for some categories of news and events. But when we came across this, yesterday, we were appalled! This is blatant propaganda, and for us, totally untrustworthy. So much so, we are even going to seek a second opinion on this, more on that to come, in the weeks ahead. But for now, give this a look, supposed Peruvian Shamans, in a ceremony.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12091748

There are so many things wrong with this, it's hard to know where to begin. Firstly, any shamanic practitioner world-wide, who knew the truth about Wiki-leaks exposes of how the global elite works, and it's courageous head, Julian Assange's travails as he faces possible extradition, to the US, followed by torture and murder or a long prison sentence, would never behave in this way. 

Second, most shamanic practitioners, world-wide, don't engage in behaviours like that anyway, cursing and demonising actual people. They are healers, who access alternate levels of reality to gain information and energy to heal their people, and bring beneficial things like rains for the crops, or locations of animals to hunt for their food supply. 

It's frankly disgusting, that these people were put up this way, probably by the Peruvian government, with some help from the US/UK. To soften up the populaces of both these countries, for Julian Assange's likely deportation and torture. 

As Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, in the Reagan Administration, astutely puts it: 

http://counterpunch.org/roberts12302010.html

"Today the press is a propaganda ministry for the government. Any member who departs from his duty to lie and spin the news is expelled from the fraternity.  A public increasingly unemployed, broke and homeless is told that they have vast enemies plotting to destroy them in the absence of annual trillion dollar expenditures for the military/security complex, wars lasting decades, no-fly lists, unlimited spying and collecting of dossiers on citizens supplemented by neighbors reporting on neighbors, full body scanners at airports, shopping centers, metro and train stations, traffic checks, and the equivalence of treason with the uttering of a truth. 

     

Two years ago when he came into office President Obama admitted that no one knew what the military mission was in Afghanistan, including the president himself, but that he would find a mission and define it. On his recent trip to Afghanistan, Obama came up with the mission: to make the families of the troops safe in America, his version of Bush’s “we have to kill them over there before they kill us over here.”

No one snorted with derision or even mildly giggled. Neither the New York Times nor Fox News dared to wonder if perhaps, maybe, murdering and displacing large numbers of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen and US support for Israel’s similar treatment of Lebanese and Palestinians might be creating a hostile environment that could breed terrorists. If there still is such a thing as the Newspaper Publishers Association, its members are incapable of such an unpatriotic thought.

Today no one believes that our country’s success depends on an informed public and a free press. America’s success depends on its financial and military hegemony over the world. Any information inconsistent with the indispensable people’s god-given right to dominate the world must be suppressed and the messenger discredited and destroyed.

Now that the press has voluntarily shed its First Amendment rights, the government is working to redefine free speech as a privilege limited to the media, not a right of citizens. Thus, the insistence that WikiLeaks is not a media organization and Fox News turning in a citizen for exercising free speech. Washington’s assault on Assange and WikiLeaks is an assault on what remains of the US Constitution. When we cheer for WikiLeaks’ demise, we are cheering for our own."  Cheers.