In this series (which I suspect has been seen as hyperbole by those who are infected with the "it can't happen here cognitive virus") the issue of the effects of disobeying or ignoring the wisdom and understanding of our founders has been considered.
One post in the series went so far as to list vast amounts of military war equipment that was being sent to every state and county around the country (Will The Military Become The Police? - 10, September 9, 2014).
All that was missing, in terms of using that equipment against protestors, was the good judgment of officials in states, counties, the military, and the White House.
That may no longer be the case:
"He specifically called on governors across the country to deploy the National Guard and vowed to deploy the U.S. military if states refused to comply. 'Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence ['domination'] until the violence has been quelled,' Trump said."
The military's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff marched along behind the president, together with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Read up on The Reichstag Fire metaphor and some words from the inside:
"We spend more on national security than the rest of the world combined ..."
"The Military is the lead federal agency on climate change ... and that is ... extremely dangerous ... we may lose the republic ..." - Professor Wilkerson (video)
Even without considering sea level change (SLC) problems, seaports currently have a plethora of challenges.
Here are a few indications of the types of challenges they face today:
"Ports play a critical role in the development of many countries. They represent a country’s national heritage, culture, and local commercial attitudes. Simply put, ports are the gate ways for trade. Unfortunately, despite the rapid globalization and modernization, most ports are not as efficient as they should be and are becoming barriers to international trade. If you are a keen follower of emerging trends, you will note that most ports are plagued with problems like clearance delays, inadequate investments, captivity issues, increased freight rates, lack of effective strategies, and inappropriate international mandates. What is causing all these challenges?" (Challenges Facing Ports).
"Containerization has consequently become a fundamental function of global port operations and has changed the structure and configuration of port terminals that tend to occupy more space." ... "As terminals, ports handle the largest amounts of freight, more than any other types of terminals combined. To handle this freight, port infrastructures jointly have to accommodate transshipment activities both on ships and inland and thus facilitate convergence between land transport and maritime systems. In many parts of the world, ports are the points of convergence from which inland transport systems, particularly rail, were laid. Most ports, especially those that are ancient, owe their initial emergence to their site as the great majority of harbors are taking advantage of a natural coastline or a natural site along a river. Many port sites are constrained by: Maritime access, which refers to the physical capacity of the site to accommodate ship operations. It includes the tidal range, which is the difference between the high and low tide, as normal ship operations cannot handle variations [between high and low tide] of more than 3 meters. ... Maritime interface. Indicates the amount of space that is available to support maritime access, namely the amount of shoreline that has good maritime access. This attribute is very important since ports are linear entities. Even if a port site has an excellent maritime access, namely deep water waterways, there may not be enough land available to guarantee its future development and expansion. ... Infrastructures and equipment. The site, to be efficiently used, must have infrastructures such as piers, basins, stacking or storage areas, warehouses, and equipment such as cranes, all of which involving high levels of capital investment. In turn, these infrastructures consume land which must be available to insure port expansion. Keeping up with the investment requirements of modern port operations has become a challenge for many ports, particularly in light of containerization which requires substantial amounts of terminal space to operate. Modern container terminals rely on an unique array of infrastructure, including portainers, stacking yards serviced by gantry cranes and the vehicles used to move containers around the terminal, such as straddle carriers. ... Land access. Access from the port to industrial complexes and markets insure its growth and importance. This requires efficient inland distribution systems, such as fluvial, rail (mainly for containers) and road transportation. The land access to ports located in densely populated areas is facing increasing congestion." (The Geography of Transport Systems).
"The start of 2019 is sending signals that we may have slower trade growth than anticipated, presenting challenges to all. The National Retail Federation says it expects a decline in year-over-year growth, and the World Bank is sending signals that the global economy is slowing, with China leading the way. This isn’t great news for any sector of global trade. Carriers are already smarting from a less-than-spectacular 2018 and face increased capacity being delivered in 2019. Shippers, some of whom felt the sting of unusually high spot market rates during the last couple of months of 2018, face what could be increased tariffs after March 1 when the US and China end their trade talks. Carriers also are seeking increased rates and anticipate a jump in fuel costs related to the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) low-sulfur fuel mandate that will take effect Jan. 1, 2020. Balancing these conditions will be a challenge to all involved in ocean shipping, with shippers and carriers working on plans to keep their economic equilibrium, trying to meet budgets most set months ago before the unfavorable news of recent events. Some of the drama started playing out in December as carriers met with larger shippers to begin the 2019-2020 contract negotiations. Carriers must get back on track to make money as they did in 2017 after six years of losses, having failed to do so in 2018 because of decisions made early in the year, decisions that will impact them through April. By managing capacity, they were able to recover a bit in the spot market late in 2018. Carriers also caught a break with oil prices declining in late 2018. But the larger shippers have a deal in hand lasting almost four more months, and while they recognize conditions better than most, they aren’t in a mood to just accept increases because carriers aren’t making money. So negotiations for the 2019-2020 contracts will be difficult. Carriers were able to get spot rates up by more than double some of the service contract levels. But facing the large service contract shippers who have low rates and asking for increases has never been an easy task for carriers; volumes available seem to bring out a gift-giving reaction." (Container challenges of 2019 to echo years past)
(emphasis added). The day to day economic, legal, contract negotiation, and geographical problems alone are substantial, but adding the existential problem of SLC is likely to be overwhelming.
The problems that arise when engineers contemplate elevating seaports several meters while trying to do business as usual is only exceeded by the problems that arise if they do not respond to the existential threat of SLC.
The scientific research has not been adequate enough to support robust engineering efforts or robust engineering solutions:
"This reality means society needs to think about climate change in different ways than the past, by focusing on reducing the risk of negative effects. And speaking as a climate scientist, I recognize that climate science research, too, has to change. Historically, climate science has been primarily curiosity-driven – scientists seeking fundamental understanding of the way our planet works because of the inherent interest in the problem. Now it’s time for the climate science research enterprise to adopt an expanded approach, one that focuses heavily on integrating fundamental science inquiry with risk management. ... This long-term, iterative process is a break with current practices. It requires sustained relationships that are not a good fit for much of the academic scientific enterprise, which is driven by curious individuals and funded by short-term grants. There are signs, though, that climate scientists are getting out of the ivory tower and taking a different approach to research."
Thus, the U.S. presstitutes (In the Fog of The Presstitutes, 2, 3, 4) are operating like the third world media: "Overall, we find that about 40 percent of adults worldwide have never heard of climate change. This rises to more than 65 percent in some developing countries, like Egypt, Bangladesh and India" (Climate Change Awareness and Concern in 119 Countries, Yale Univ.).
Meanwhile, the hear-no-climate change, see-no-climate-change, and say-no-climate-change ideology has landed its first U.S.eh? government (voted in by a minority - right-wing voters).
So, now the Administrative and Legislative branches of American government are controlled by climate deniers.
For the better part of a decade Dredd Blog has been pointing out that the military sees global warming induced climate change as the greatest threat to the security of Americans:
A recent report will catch the attention of anyone who can focus enough to see down the road further than their nose:
"We spend more on national security than the rest of the world combined ..."
"The Military is the lead federal agency on climate change ... and that is ... extremely dangerous ... we may lose the republic ..."
(Professor / Colonel Wilkerson, quoted from video below). The increase in military spending on conventional squabbles, while cutting environmental spending, is madness of the criminal sort (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).
III. Civilization's Trance
The civilization meme complex is a product of the darkest and oldest of trances:
"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown." - A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee
In the previous post in this series I wondered about the problem the military is going to have with the climate change denier triumph in the elections (assuming the one with the least popular votes wins the recount).
The video of Professor Wilkerson at the end of this post points out that it is possible that a military coup could take place considering the dire national security ramifications of denying the greatest threat to national security.
What is not clear to me, at this time, is why the republicans in the Senate and the House are so happy with General Mattis as the nominated candidate for Secretary of Defense.
I say that because General Mattis understands military doctrine on climate change:
Retired US Marine Corps brigadier general Stephen Cheney said the willingness of Donald Trump’s head of defence to resist ideological pressure to reject climate science could have a profound effect on the nation’s security.
“There’s a fair percentage of conflicts today that have a linkage to climate change that was not previously there,” he said. These include the Arab Spring and Syrian civil war – two insurrections that define world politics and security today.
Global warming also plays a part in long-term military planning and identification of future risks areas. For almost a decade, US defence department reports have recognised climate change as a “threat multiplier for instability”. As such, it is now routinely addressed in military strategy. ...
Cheney, who had a 30-year career in the military, said he did not know of a single top general – those who might have access to the White House or defence secretary – who did not understand and accept the risks of climate change.
“I don’t know anybody who fits that paradigm, I don’t. But being candid. I’m sure there are some there. And maybe there are some who kept their mouth shut not to go against administration policy, who now will feel I don’t have to toe their line anymore. I can’t come out and say I don’t believe in this stuff,” he said.
A new directive says forces need to undertake joint training exercises with allies to “enhance capacity” and “improve tactics” for tackling impacts linked to global warming.
“Mission planning and execution must include identification and assessment of the effects of climate change on the DoD [department of defence] mission,” it reads.
Under DOD DIRECTIVE 4715.21 chiefs of staff, equipment buyers and health advisers will need to integrate climate change into any new purchases, missions or infrastructure plans.
The document, which is signed off by Robert Work, deputy secretary of Defense, calls for greater work with climate scientists to “reduce risk and promote mission execution.”
Planners must “integrate climate change considerations into mission area analyses and acquisition strategies across the life cycle of weapons systems, platforms, and equipment.”
Medical staff will need to update training to “address effects on personnel, including changes in extreme temperatures, precipitation patterns, and disease vector distribution.”
Despite stiff opposition from many Republicans, the Pentagon has released a stream of climate-related warnings, research and adopted new clean energy policies in the past eight years.
In 2014 chiefs of staff said it was “overwhelmingly clear” that climate change posed a security risk to the country.
Last year the NATO military alliance war-gamed the use of wind and solar energy systems, while the US Navy recently launched a ‘Green Fleet’ partly powered by biofuels.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
"We spend more on national security than the rest of the world combined ..."
"The Military is the lead federal agency on climate change ... and that is ... extremely dangerous ... we may lose the republic ..." - Professor Wilkerson (video)
ONE. About six years ago, in the first post of this series, I asked the question presented in the title.
The question tends to conjure up the notion that for every cure there is a disease (or is it the other way around?).
Historically, as concerns civilization cures, that has not been the case.
Civilizations have all gone down due to murder or suicide, the latter holding the lead at this time ("In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown." - A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee).
We sometimes wonder if our nuclear civilization is above all that:
As time goes on in the USA, fewer and fewer people think that election time is a time to bring some cure to the governing process.
It is more often than not a time to express anger.
A time to throw some bums out in anger, not really contemplating the consequences of simply venting anger so much that worse candidates replace the current losers.
Is this a symptom of something?
If I were to say that ... more U.S. citizens will begin to lose their minds than will lose homes, jobs, or health care, would you believe it?
(Will Elections Cure The Disease?). Remember that one of the technical characteristics of cultural dementia, like individual dementia, is being unaware of one's location (You Are Here).
The current election aftermath season supercharges the notion that entire cultures and even civilizations can become demented to the point of being lost in space (in the sense of not even knowing which planet one inhabits):
The greatest threat to national security (in the thinking of the military and the scientific community) is global warming induced climate change:
Every branch of the United States Military is worried about climate change. They have been since well before it became controversial. ...
At a time when Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush 41, and even British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, called for binding international protocols to control greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. Military was seriously studying global warming in order to determine what actions they could take to prepare for the change in threats that our military will face in the future.
The Center for Naval Analysis has had its Military Advisory Board examining the national security implications of climate change for many years. Lead by Army General Paul Kern, the Military Advisory Board is a group of 16 retired flag-level officers from all branches of the Service.
This is not a group normally considered to be liberal activists and fear-mongers. ...
[the article quotes Eugene Skolnikoff:] "The central problem is that outside the security sector, policy processes confronting issues with substantial uncertainty do not normally yield policy that has high economic or political costs. This is especially true when the uncertainty extends not only to the issues themselves, but also to the measures to avert them or deal with their consequences.
The climate change issue illustrates – in fact exaggerates – all the elements of this central problem. Indeed, no major action is likely to be taken until those uncertainties are substantially reduced, and probably not before evidence of warming and its effects are actually visible. Unfortunately, any increase in temperature will be irreversible by the time the danger becomes obvious enough to permit political action."
So, today let's talk about the ~three feet or ~1 meter aspect of the situation, which is the point at which the Sun Tzu kind of coup may have to take place.
Fig. 3 220.7 mm (1.07 mm yr) & counting
THREE. Feet ... yes, ~three feet (~a meter) is the degree of sea level rise that will cause the beginning serious malfunctions of international and national infrastructure organs of international trade / intercourse (Why Sea Level Rise May Be The Greatest Threat To Civilization - 3).
That 3 foot quantity of sea level rise is only about 1% to 1.14% of the total ice of the ice sheets of the Cryosphere (Fig. 1); the percentage depending on whether or not one includes ghost-water in the calculation (The Ghost-Water Constant, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
Fig. 4 ice loss: ~88,813.5 km3
The Cryosphere is composed of the ice on Greenland, Antarctica, and land glaciers.
That is the same one and only Cryosphere that is and has been melting for a long time (Humble Oil-Qaeda).
Those are the WOD zones in which the "Golden 23" tide gauge stations are located.
Fig. 5 ~0.28% approaching 1% to 1.14%
In the sea level realm of science those tide gauge station records provide a global indication and useful view of sea level change.
Those tide gauge stations obviously do not directly measure the highest sea levels.
That is because those highest sea levels take place out in the deep ocean far away from coasts of the large land masses where those tide gauges must be placed (The Bathtub Model Doesn't Hold Water - 3).
Nevertheless, they provide a platform of data from which to calculate the highest sea levels (think formulas for arcs, hemispheres, and spheres).
The results of those calculations are also helpful for calculating the amount of ice lost from the Cryosphere from 1807-2014 (Fig. 5).
The graph of ice loss percentages per year is shown on Fig. 5, which totals to about 0.28%, which means that we not quite a third of the way to the 1% to 1.14% threshold yet.
But, even with that seemingly small amount, right now military installations in some locations are beginning to flood, and to be abandoned at other locations, according to Professor Wilkerson (second video below).
FOUR.Elections will not solve this problem, so, we must ponder whether or not the military will "step into the vacuum" caused by what they consider to be a clueless civil government.
"Gentlemen, he said
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards
Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords"
There has been talk for many years about degenerating U.S. infrastructure.
It came up in the presidential election and in comments from a bi-partisan list of Senate and House members.
Infrastructure upgrade is a good thing they say, but once again Dredd Blog wonders about and asks "what is infrastructure?" that they keep talking about like they do with other dog whistles.
II. What Is Infrastructure?
Is it just the great anti-immigrant wall that middle class workers are going to build and Mexico is allegedly going to pay for?
Fig. 2 Trend?
Does it include repairing the global warming induced climate change damage, caused by past catastrophe after catastrophe which insurance companies worriedly talk about (The Evolution and Extinction of Affordable Insurance) ?
The graphs at Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show that the Arctic sea ice is still losing extent even in the middle of November, which means that Greenland will also lose more of its ice sheet, and thereby cause even more sea level change (The Evolution and Migration of Sea Level Hinge Points - 2).
Professor, and Colonel, Wilkerson points out in the video below that the top Naval installation in Norfolk, VA and the Air Force headquarters airport runway near there, both flood due to sea level rise.
The word Dredd Blog has been spreading all these years is getting around:
Based on these calculations, the report says a three-foot sea level rise would threaten 128 U.S. military bases, valued at roughly $100 billion.
Nine of those bases are major hubs for the Navy: In addition to Norfolk, flooding threatens Naval Station Mayport, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia and the Naval Academy in Maryland, where 2003's Hurricane Isabel flooded classrooms, dormitories and athletic facilities.
It's not just the Navy. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is at risk of being completely underwater. All told, three Marine Corps installations, two joint bases, an Air Force base and a Coast Guard Station are also at risk of daily flooding, the report said.
(The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports - 9, quoting Navy Times). The dangers that Professor Wilkerson talks about in today's video are, in his words, "extremely dangerous".
He sees the brain-lock in congress and in the approaching presidency, concerning the global climate change national security threat, as a "complete vacuum" where the military has always stepped in to take over.
IV. Ghost Infrastructure?
Or is "infrastructure" the ghost-infrastructure Dredd Blog has been asking about for years now:
We are talking about "the most expensive public works legislation in US history" having creative billions reserved as special earmarking to the tune of "$24 billion for a staggering 6,376 pet projects, spread among virtually every congressional district in the land".
"The enormous bill -- 1,752 pages long" costing "$286.4 BILLION" known as "the highway bill" was the republican congress and republican president's bill passed in late 2005.
But it did not stop the Minnesota bridge from collapsing and killing American citizens, nor did it stop the great recession that is still ongoing.
So how is the next most expensive public works legislation in US history going to be any different?
The answer is that nothing is going to work until we stop destroying wealth with the stupid wars, the stupid military spending gone pork barrel wild, and the stupid military propaganda deciding our fate.
Read this following quote slowly, remembering that it was done while the exorbitant costs of war were not being included in the budget a few years back, while everyone was smitten with bubbleosis, that economic disease which says this economic universe is expanding forever baby, and while we were in the love of war daze:
AT $286.4 BILLION, the highway bill just passed by Congress is the most expensive public works legislation in US history. In addition to funding the interstate highway system and other federal transportation programs, it sets a new record for pork-barrel spending, earmarking $24 billion for a staggering 6,376 pet projects, spread among virtually every congressional district in the land. The enormous bill -- 1,752 pages long -- wasn't made public until just before it was brought to a vote, and so, as The New York Times noted, ''it is safe to bet that none of the lawmakers, not even the main authors, had read the entire package."
That didn't stop them from voting for it. It passed 412 to 8 in the House, 91 to 4 in the Senate.
(Boston Globe, August 2005, emphasis added, see also PBS Transcript). Once again, why didn't the greatest infrastructure spending in fiscal history not help the economy?
How hard engineering concepts can become "political" is only understood completely by a trip down along Highway 61 (War is the Highway 61 of the 1%).
Here is the current rap on trumpfrastructure:
It was supposed to be a big, beautiful infrastructure bill. But President-elect Donald Trump’s pitch for a $1 trillion upgrade of the nation’s roads, bridges, tunnels and airports is already running into potholes as it meets reality in Washington.
The overwhelming sticking point, as always, is how to pay for it.
(Infrastructure according to Trump, "plan hits D.C. speed bumps"). The situation seems to be that everything everywhere is now "politically controversial," which is not the essence of a stable country.
A well known then, but probably forgotten now, song of the 1960's was Highway 61.
It was a song with lyrics that described, among other things, a seemingly mythical place.
A seemingly mythical place where strange financial goings on and warfare machinations could take place.
Those types of events could take place there even though such events were unlikely to take place elsewhere:
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61” ...
Now the rovin’ gambler he was very bored
He was tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61
That place, Highway 61, has been the main thoroughfare running through the middle of Washington, D.C. during the Glory Daze, then continuing alongside the green river, which flows all the way to a place where the accounting of the Pentagon, Enron, and GE is done (which could not be done legally elsewhere except on that branch of Highway 61 at a place called Wall Street).
A recent photo shows The Spirit of Saint 1% travelling down Highway 61 to make another "free market" killing. Highway 61: the lyrics of this song are here:
So, I made it a standalone post for now, but later on it may eventually become the first post in a new series detailing additional dynamics of the corruption of power (About Toxins Of Power).
What gave me pause was that the individual who is the subject of today's post has been featured in Dredd Blog posts in the past.
That is because he described "a coup" and "a policy coup" that took place in the U.S.eh? following 9/11 (e.g. A Tale of Coup Cities - 8).
At any rate, he has evidently joined the coup that he previously spoke of unfavorably.
The video at the bottom of the post presents the picture.
The real rub here comes because General Clark would have "lawyers and politicians" decide who is "radicalized" and "against the U.S." at a time when there are no valid legal definitions for those concepts (Rethinking Radicalization, PDF).
So, the general seems to have lost his marbles since being claimed by Blackstone (Our People).
Blackstone is one cog in the private empire's labyrinth of gears (Our Offices).
See you in the camps:
"The greatest reaction from government officials, who certainly know that disruption and upheaval are coming, is to spy on the citizens now as they prepare to triage them in detention camps in the future ..." (Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 32)
"A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.
“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.
The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S." (The 1% May Face The Wrath of Sea Level Rise First).
The overall concern pointed out in Dredd Blog posts mentioned above was economic, which has turned out to have been a realistic view:
“The 21st century will be a contest for supremacy in the Pacific because that’s where the growth will be,” Lee said. U.S. President Barack Obama, he said, must understand this.
“If you do not hold your ground in the Pacific you cannot be a world leader,” Lee said, “That’s number one.”
“Number two, to hold ground in the Pacific, you must not let your fiscal deficits and dollar come to grief,” he said.
(Economic War Of The Pacific, 2009). That may have been ignored, because the results expected were confirmed:
Hang on to your hats, America.
And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.
There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just
overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet.
It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.
The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.
As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.
To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.
This latest economic earthquake follows the development last year when China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of global trade.
(Economic War Of The Pacific - 5, 2015). That eventuality sets the stage for the next concern, the "reserve currency" used by international commerce and intercourse.
Here is what Dredd Blog posted concerning that issue:
China’s central bank governor has issued a bold proposal to overhaul the global monetary system and one day replace the dollar as the world’s main reserve currency with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Drawing Right
One of the concerns of US financial experts is the removal of the dollar as the "reserve currency" of the world:
The United States of America, if we didn't have the dollar as the de facto reserve currency of the world, we'd be Greece. I mean, we are broke, bankrupt. Really bankrupt.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Monday of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets.
"They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin told a Kremlin youth group while touring its summer camp north of Moscow.
"They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar."
...
"If over there (in America) there is a systemic malfunction, this will affect everyone," Putin told the young Russians.
"Countries like Russia and China hold a significant part of their reserves in American securities ... There should be other reserve currencies."
The group of emerging economies signed the long-anticipated document to create the $100 bn BRICS Development Bank and a reserve currency pool worth over another $100 bn. Both will counter the influence of Western-based lending institutions and the dollar. ...
“BRICS Bank will be one of the major multilateral development finance institutions in this world,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at the 6th BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The big launch of the BRICS bank is seen as a first step to break the dominance of the US dollar in global trade, as well as dollar-backed institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, both US-based institutions BRICS countries have little influence within.
(BRICS vs Western dominance). It could be that the secret, classified TPP is a reaction to the ongoing success of BRICS nations.
It is sometimes called "the pivot to Asia" which one documentary journalist sees as part of the preliminary dynamics of The Coming War Between America and China.
Surrounded
Another concern of mine, in this international trading scene, is sea level rise (SLR), even though it is mostly ignored.
Thus, the gunboat diplomacy of recent decades has been a waste of "blood and treasure" (the warmonger description).
We should have been addressing the unstoppable threats, which no international agreement can resist successfully (unless it is a comprehensive international agreement to halt civilization's burning of fossil fuels as a source of energy).
Regular readers know that I have been writing about sea level rise (SLR) a lot lately, which means reading a lot of research material.
In this post I want to point out, based upon that recent research, what I see written and spoken often.
It is a misunderstanding frequently printed and spoken by social and corporate media.
That misunderstanding is the notion that life-threatening SLR will first be tilted against the world's poorest people:
"As the coastal cities of Africa and Asia expand, many of their poorest residents are being pushed to the edges of livable land and into the most dangerous zones for climate change. Their informal settlements cling to riverbanks and cluster in low-lying areas with poor drainage, few public services, and no protection from storm surges, sea-level rise, and flooding. These communities – the poor in coastal cities and on low-lying islands – are among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change and the least able to marshal the resources to adapt, a new report finds."
A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.
“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.
The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S.
I am not sure that they contemplated unrest caused by SLR, but they do expect that unrest is coming, thus, they have been training and preparing for it:
This lesson is designed to describe the nature and causes of disaffection and social unrest; define the potential for social unrest in the United States; identify the types of confrontations; define crowd behavioral and psychological influences; identify patterns of disorder. …
2. Application of Force.
a. General.
(1) Civil disturbance operations by federal forces will not be authorized until
the President is advised by the highest officials of the state that the situation cannot be controlled with nonfederal resources available. The mission of the control force is to help restore law and order and to help maintain it until such time as state and local forces can control the situation without federal help. In performing this mission, the control force may have to actively participate, not only in subduing the disturbance, but also in helping to detain those responsible for it. Control force commanders are authorized and directed to provide such active participation, subject to restraints on the use of force.
(2) Prior to committing any federal forces in the quailing of civil disturbance whether in CONUS or OCONUS commanders should train and continually brief the control force on the rule of engagement (ROE). The commander is responsible for drafting, interpreting, disseminating, and training the control force on the ROE. The staff Judge Advocate (SJA) should be included in the ROE development to ensure that it will not improperly constrain actions, but still will remain consistent with domestic and international laws, polices, and orders of the chain of command.
For quite a while now, the gist of that writing has been about what happens once the "put them all in camps to protect and care for them policy" degrades into an operation of killer-cop types:
“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance.”
(Thomas Jefferson, emphasis added). The current nationwide policy, of giving used-battle-gear and equipment to local police forces, shows that "there are many here among us" who are not human-rights, civil-rights, constitutional-rights, or democratic-rights oriented.
There have always been, and will continue be, those who chose to push the limit way past those concepts, and on into tyranny:
Recall what the breakdown of International Commerce and Intercourse due to SLR damage to ports causes:
"By volume, more than 95 percent of U.S. international trade moves through the nation's ports and harbors, with about 50 percent of these goods being hazardous materials."
(Will This Float Your Boat - 8). Obviously the camps will have to be activated, and the policies mentioned above will be implemented (think Japanese Interment Camps of the 1940's, but on a much more massive scale).
I hope you can envision the reality that SLR is a big-time game changers (at only ~1m / 3 ft.), because it is a trigger for causing a mega-domino cascade (Will This Float Your Boat - 10).
All of the international trading nations of this civilization will be impacted.
Don't forget to compute those damages as if they were choreographed at an ongoing Groundhog Day movie set, because the SLR is not going to stop just because we become uncomfortable (Will This Float Your Boat - 9).
The maximum stopping point is 263.5 feet of SLR.
I could go on, but I am sure you get the gist of it, so let's get back to the dynamics of SLR.
I have written, along with many others, about the dynamics of a warming Arctic that are now impacting the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the resulting danger to the U.S. North East coastal population areas and ports.
The next post in this series is here. HBO Vice: "Our Rising Oceans", with Dr. Eric Rignot:
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2:43 - "One meter [of SLR] would be a global catastrophic event, 3 meters would remap the world as we know it?"
