What city-wide #freepublictransport would mean

more bus and tram riders
more demand for buses and trams
better frequency of service
fewer cars
more room in the city
people move to town, sell car
people see education, not children, as security
birth rate falls
shift in living to walkable areas
bicycling becomes safe
habits shift to walking and cycling
falling birth rate virtuous cycle
oil wars end
Islamophobia ends

Too much punditry?

Social media has absorbed a lot of ad dollars. Print media is struggling, and multiweek investigative assignments are practically extinct.

The style of propaganda has changed, but the essence remains.

To support oneself by donations, a pundit must be very well known. If known to the public, then known to empire.

Since loved ones are always hostages, these pundits are not going to stray from the false narratives.

Don't expect much from them.

Misguided war on ISIS

The US has been bombing ISIS for a few years now.

In spite of declarations to the contrary, bombing has resulted in creating more supporters.

There is a better way.

Get off oil and stop the war on Islam.

There is an easy path to do this. For only $30B/year, the US could make urban buses fare-free. Free buses would lead to more buses, which would lead to better service frequency. The grip of subsidized autosprawl would be broken.

Estonia - whole country goes to fare-free #publictransport

Euronews : "Estonia is set to implement free transport for its residents across much of the country as of July 1. The free fare zone will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

No country has ever before looked to abolish fares all day, every day, across such a large area."

Peak drinkable water

Resource Insights:: "But affordable desalination is all premised on cheap energy. And, cheap energy may not be a given far into the future in a world where 80 percent of society's energy comes from finite fossil fuels. (One needs also to consider that the burning of fossil fuels to run a desalination plant contributes to the very climate change that is making droughts longer and more devastating—creating the need for more such plants.)"

This adds heat, and does not reduce emissions

Shouldn't every parking lot get a #solar upgrade like this one? https://t.co/JJxrN7Ccbz

We want panels not pipelines. RT if you agree.#ActOnClimate #cdnpoli #bcpoli #StopKM #renewables pic.twitter.com/32lUvfozy1

— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) May 19, 2018

Free public transport and falling birth rates

It's becoming clear to people that capitalism and it's push for growth are a threat to the biosphere.

But who can stop such a power?

Common people can, and common people are.

People just can no longer afford the wasteful sprawl-and-baby system. As more cities have fare-free buses and trams, people urbanize and find they need education and healthcare more than farm hands.

Instead of the leafy suburb, we can offer the carfree, permaculture city.

Estonia Will Roll Out Free Public Transit Nationwide

CityLab: "On July 1, the entire country of Estonia will create the largest 24/7 free public transit zone in the world, one that will stretch across its entire territory. That will make it feasibly possible (if complicated) to travel by bus from one end of this 1.3 million-strong Baltic nation to the other without paying a cent."

Civilization is a heat engine, regardless of fuel used

Economics: "This is a testable hypothesis, one that is motivated by physics, and is supported by historical observations of the global economy. Summing wealth over all the world’s nations, 7.1 Watts is required to maintain every one thousand inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars of historically accumulated economic wealth. 

To be clear, this relationship is not between energy and yearly economic output or GDP, nor is it to the more restrictive view of wealth as physical capital that can be found in traditional economic models. Instead, the constant relates current energy consumption to the summation of production not just over one year -- the GDP -- but over all of time. This quantity has a fixed relationship to current energy consumption that is independent of the year that is considered. As of 2010, civilization was powered by about 17 trillion Watts of power which supported about 2352 trillion dollars of collective global wealth. In 1970, civilization was younger, and both quantities were smaller by more than half. In the interim, energy consumption and wealth grew in tandem, but at variable rates that increased slowly from 1.4% per year to 2.2% per year. "

US in #autosprawlmeltdown. Has to spend $trillions protecting access to oil.

Narrative of fake left falling apart

Russia and US play games with propagandists. The game of empire vs resistance.

Lately a big coup for Russia has been the fake left coming out in support of the Syria regime.

Now Russia has to pull back on Iran's leash. This will reduce Syria regime cannon fodder and speed up the partitioning of Syria among Turkey, Russia, and US. All three are busy looking for a replacement for Assad that keeps the murderous "security" structure in place.

Fake left will have to rewrite their theses.

Corporate media full of filler

The secret to success in corporate media, which includes TV and movies, is to capture attention without addressing anything of substance. Here is what is missed.

• Physics is bigger than economics.
• Economic growth is destroying the biosphere.
• There are two main classes of people.
• The wealthy are rivals of each other, not enemies.
• The automobile and sprawl are the engine of overshoot.

Earth to humans: You've gone too far

Absolutely insane video out of Leilani Estates, HI.

Watch a wall of lava engulf a car. pic.twitter.com/PIlpxpYZsT

— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) May 7, 2018

Iran deal distraction

The oil reserve in Kirkuk, Iraq, is huge, and who ever controls it has a lot of power over the world economy.

The US has allied with every thug imaginable to get control of it.

They tried to use Iran for "boots on the ground." As with every other plan, this has not worked, and has created more problems for the US.

Will there be war with Iran? No. Will there be a US - Russia war? No.

Proxy fighting will continue.

Massacre of civilians, especially Muslims, will continue.

Reality check for people who think #renewables will fix #climate

For people who believe that capitalism will "keep-it-in-the-ground" or that renewables will fix climate, they should take a minute and read the oil industry press.

Oil industry trade group

Don't let your enemy choose your leaders

Kingdoms that provide an outlet for their opponents last longer. This one of the major lessons reserved for the crown prince and selected scholars.

Capitalism provides us with "opposition" leaders that they control. On this blog, we try to expose them and their tricks.

One sign of a fake radical is the use of the word "white" as in "white privilege, white supremacy," etc.
This reinforces the idea of race. First, it implies that there is such a thing as race. [There is no such thing.] Second, it implies that people believe things because of their color [race]. Third, it pushes poor white people to the right.

By allowing this wording, we set ourselves up to be fooled. It also is a capitulation to oppression, by implying that if the oppressor were a different color, all would be well. Racism is a strong tool of capitalist oppression. Fake radicals are trying to keep it strong by using word trickery.