Is Mother Nature Taking Her Last Bow?

Have you noticed that our neighborhood bushes and flower gardens are all growing like gangbusters? From sidewalk groundcover, to backyard gardens, we're seeing more leaves, brighter flowers, taller plants, quicker growth. The backyard milkweed plants that were shoulder-high last year are now close to topping six feet.

It shouldn't come as a surprise—especially since the increase in plant growth is part of something called "The Greenhouse Effect." Plants grown inside a greenhouse thrive because of the added warmth.

It's happening all over the world, wherever plants are growing. Climatologists have been tracking the phenomenon for years. In 2002, NASA noted plant growth serves a stabilizing response as new plant growth cools the atmosphere by stimulating rainfall and capturing carbon from polluted skies. In 2007, the journal of the American Meteorological Association noted our warming atmosphere "can extend the growing season." A 2020 Boston University study confirmed that the unprecedented "boom of vegetation"—prompted by CO2-hungry bushes, plants, trees and flowers—is "slowing global warming. 

But there are downsides. Larger plants need to draw more water from the drought-desiccated soils. Ultimately, if human-caused warming continues, we'll reach a point where vegetation is no longer able to capture and retain atmospheric carbon. When temperatures reach the point that vegetation begins to wither, the dead and dying plants will begin to release massive amounts of stored CO2 back into the atmosphere, accelerating massive shifts in the planet's habitability. 

So the bright beauty of a year that's seen an abundance of larger-than-life vegetation may actually be a foreshadowing of a much darker future. 

In short, we may be watching Mother Nature taking her last bow. The mass extinction that is claiming creatures large and small—from whales and polar bears to bees and butterflies—may be closer than we think. 

If we fail to replace carbon fuels with solar power, halt chemical and plastic pollution, renounce overconsumption, end wars, and a learn to live within nature's limits, our days are numbered. 

Perhaps there's some small solace in the lines of a doomsday poem that advises: 

"Let there be no crying at the dying of the Light 

For the sun's most brilliant, in the hour it sets." 

Rise of the Ed-bots 

With fall classes about to begin, teachers at Berkeley City College and Oakland's Laney campus were surprised to see a surprising last-minute surge in student registrations. But a few instructors began to suspect something was awry. Many of the names of prospective enrollees looked peculiar and many of the applicants appeared to be residents of other states. 

Across the US, thousands of colleges have reported being besieged by a similar torrent of bogus, last-minute applications. Some instructors saw classes that were about to be cancelled for under-enrollment suddenly jump from 15 students to 60 in the course of a single day. 

The explanation came as a shock. The wannabe students were bad actors trying to defraud the community college system. As one campus official told EdSource, the scammers were likely after financial aid, pandemic relief grants, and even .edu email addresses "to get discounts on various products." 

San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton identified 425 phantom students and determined that 275 had been accepted. One Delta College instructor was startled to learn that a scheduled class consisted of "four actual students and 40 bots." 

California's 115 in-person community colleges have been swarmed by "phantom students." In August, the State's 73 school districts discovered that 65,000 enrollment requests—20% of all fall applications—were "malicious and bot-related." Beating the system is made easier by an online enrollment system that does not require a home address, a driver's license, nor a social security number. Many phone numbers and emails were found to be phony, varying by a single letter or a single digit. 

The US Department of Education is investigating. 

Pentagon Millions 'Flushed Down the Toilet' 

A few weeks back, Progressive Memes posted an animated message designed to portray the Defense Department's waste of taxpayer money. The animated meme showed a steady stream of bundled bills falling through the open center of a floating Pentagon and falling into an open toilet. The message was: "The Military-Industrial Complex is flushing billions down the toilet." 

It was a powerful message, but some people in-the-know claimed it was misleading. 

As Tarak Kauff, an activist with the New York City chapter of Veterans For Peace, pointed out: 

"The money did not disappear down the toilet. It went directly into the pockets of the military-industrial-complex and that is an important distinction. Billions of dollars were made by CEOs and weapons manufacturers.
"The money did not just disappear down toilets, it paid for luxurious and obscene mansions, jet planes, pleasure boats, etc. for the already obscenely wealthy. People need to be reminded constantly who profited from these wars."  

Tarak's tough talk left me wondering if the cliché of government money being "flushed down the toilet" might have been intentionally created as a media manipulation designed to obfuscate the real flow of war-machine riches. If the CIA could come up with the phrase "conspiracy theorists" to undercut its whistleblowers and critics, might the image of "flushed money" also have been crafted as an intentional distraction? 

After listening to the critiques, Progressive Meme's Donald Smith spent several days working to create a new design that turned the focus directly toward the Masters of the Military-Industrial Complex. The new, revised meme can be seen here. 

Meet Mr. & Mrs. Warbucks  

Has anyone compiled a list profiling the top US corporate war profiteers? Who are today's Daddy Warbucks? 

There was a long spell when few people had heard of Charles and David Koch, (let alone seen a photo of the secretive siblings). The Koch Brothers were worth an estimated $40 billion. Koch Industries operation included energy, chemicals, agriculture, finance and electronics, producing, in the words of the BBC, "everything from toilet paper to steak." The Kochs wielded their wealth to steer legislation and pour hundred of thousands of dollars into conservative programs that benefited their libertarian leanings. 

But, at a certain point, the Kochs lost their anonymity. Their photos began to appear online and on air. There faces started to appear in magazines and memes. And The Koch Brothers became a matter of public debate. 

I'd like to see the same thing happen to the Masters of War. I'd like to see their faces on the telly and see them caricatured in editorial cartoons. I'd like to know their names, see their mugshots, divine their net worth, assess their number of mansions, armies of lobbyists, inventories of executive aircraft, and fleets of luxury yachts. 

There are many potential candidates for this Warbuck's Rogue's Gallery. Here's a start: 

The Big Winners from the Afghan War:
America's Leading Weapons Profiteers
Greg Hayes, CEO of Raytheon
Conrad Chun, CEO of Boeing
Jim Taiclet, CEO of Lockheed-Martin
Kathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman
David E. Constable, CEO of Fluor Corporation
Phebe Novakovic, CEO of General Dynamics 

I'd like to see posters of these Kriegsmeisters matching their photos with stats on personal income, corporate profit, lobbying expenses, federal taxes paid, profits received from federal contracts, etc. And, speaking of Federal contracts: it turns out that the Pentagon is required-by-law to publish a daily list of its corporate handouts (not all, just the ones that are "really" costly). 

According to the Pentagon website: "US Department of Defense contracts valued at $7.5 million or more are announced each business day at 5 p.m." Here's just one snippet from August 30, 2021: "Lockheed-Martin awarded a $53,100,635 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract…" 

Biblical Slavery: The Old Testament Lays Out the Rules 

Human slavery condoned in the Holy Bible? Yes, it's codified and demarcated right there in Exodus 21: 20-21: 

“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.  

Here are some more rules for God-fearing, would-be slave-masters. 

“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 

If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. . . . 

“If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do . . . . 

The Old Testament also offers guidance on the practice of homicide, as follows: 

“Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death. . . . 

“Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. 

“If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist and the victim does not die but is confined to bed, the one who struck the blow will not be held liable if the other can get up and walk around outside with a staff; however, the guilty party must pay the injured person for any loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed. 

“Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property. 

“An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth." 

Tooning Out the News: Keep Wars Alive!