Media cahoots

8:30 AM  This is a time sensitive post; I'm sure the links here will look differently in a few hours.

But right now we've got a spectacular example of how the Mainstream Media is indeed in cahoots with the "financial sector"- they're not just reporting the news- they do tweak it, a bit.

Right now their action is perhaps admirable- so they think, anyway.  They are trying to fight off a real full-blown PANIC in the stock markets.

Take a look here; at the NY Times Business section-

It's all about how the two huge quasi-governmental mortgage corporations, known as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; crashed so hard on the stock market yesterday that the US federal government was hours away from "nationalizing" them- (though we don't call it that here, of course).  And trumpeting how this disaster was avoided.  (Teresa, you'll find more than you want to know about Fannie and Freddie there.)

Do you see, anywhere, any mention of another huge mortgage company; Indy Mac?

Shortly after the stock markets closed on Friday - it WAS "seized" by the government, as being completely insolvent and dysfunctional- 

According to Reuters, "The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said."

Golly, that sounds like a headline to me.  But it's totally buried under the constant reassurances that "all is well!  don't panic!  NO REALLY!! DON'T PANIC!!"

Maybe we should panic?  

But you can't find a trace of this story on the front pages of the major US newspapers- yet.  Though it happened last night.

(And, sure enough; shortly after I posted this; if you really dig, you now CAN find the story on the front page of the NYT - in the tiniest font they use, a link elsewhere, not a story.)

(ah, and now, 15 minutes later, the Washington Post; likewise, tiny font link on front page; to a nice reassuring story: "But John M. Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, said IndyMac's failure was a 'unique' incident that 'does not signal a direction for the industry as a whole.' ")

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1:30PM (CDT) - the BBC has finally put the story up as an "Other Top Stories"; in middle font; still following "Pope to apologize for sex scandal", though.  

The whole story has now disappeared from the NYT front page- it's not only inobvious, but if you search for "indy" the result is - 0; it's not there at all.  It's barely visible in Business; tiniest font, very obscure, as "mortgage lender seized"; which is also the language of The Washington Post.

The Google News compiler has been varying all day- right this second- the story is NOT findable; but it was a half hour ago.

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2PM - FINALLY!  CNN- headlines it in the Business section, though still not screaming on the main front page- "may be the most expensive bank failure ever..."    nah, what story?

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4PM - Story is now gone from BBC front page, though the Pope is still apologizing for Australian pedophile priests in exactly the same place; the collapse of Indymac is now only to be found on the Business page; replaced in "Other Top Stories" by: "France Rejects Veiled Muslim Wife".  Cute eyes.

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Next day- CNN wins the spin prize!  NOW, it's the top front page feature; big photgraph- "Back in Business: IndyMac Reopens Monday!"  No, it's not back in business, it's still in collapse.  Yes, the doors will reopen, but it's mostly going to be for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to start paying newly printed money to depositors- since IndyMac was broke.  The FDIC wants to find a buyer for IndyMac within 90 days- but at the moment, no one is offering a dime for it.

BBC now has "Key US mortgage lender collapses" as a subheading under Business.

NYT - no mention at all on front page; no mention at all on Business, to my astonishment; but if you go to the "whole paper" Most Popular page; under Most Blogged - it's #1 - and I don't think that's my fault.  :-)

Progress

It seems to be a day for head-shaking over human foolishness- what with Wall Street and Fannie-Freddie on greased skids and all- so this just really seems totally appropriate to add to the soup-

New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

At last!  :-)

Garden Triage

A couple weeks ago Sharon generously exposed herself in public- as a backslider in the garden.  She had let her weeds get out of control...  again...

Any old-time food gardener got a good chuckle out of that piece.  Yes, indeed, we all do it.  Pretty much every year.  There are plenty of gardeners out there who do have weedless, spotless, picture perfect gardens- but I will guarantee those folks either don't really need the food; or they have secret help sneaking in by moonlight; or they're just not doing anything else with their life; at all.

What do you do when the weeds have taken over?  That's not a trick question- you can, easily, do the wrong thing, and lose even more time and energy.

When my boys were small Spouse and I ran a garden every year that consisted of 7 blocks, each one 50 feet square.  One would be all corn; one all potatoes, one tomatoes/peppers, one all vines; etc.  And we rotated plantings each year, to decrease disease, etc.  Plans in the computer, year by year.

My point being- I've killed a LOT of weeds in my life; I'm good at it, and know how.

When Spice got here, she was eager, frothing, fulminating, to have a garden.  Totally in love with the idea; days spent with seed catalogs, compiling lists; computer diagrams; seed packets, 15 kinds of tomatoes...  and no real experience.

Spice grew up at high altitude in Colorado; family runs a big ranch.  Her mom had a garden there, when she was growing up.  I took her aside, as gently as I could and told her- "My dear, I love gardens too, but you really need to understand something.  I'm serious; very very serious.  Are you listening?"  She assured me she was.

"We have two things here in Minnesota that you do not have in Colorado; that make running a garden very different. 

" We have soil.  And we have rain."

Ha ha ha, I hear you laughing, but believe me, it's caused a lot of tears over the years, and still does.  Don't turn your back on the quack grass- it will eat you.

Part of this is the curse of good soil.  Really good soil.  Those of you suffering with poor soils, I recommend you do NOT google "Fayette silt loam" and get the technical aspects; it will break your heart.  I've got some of the very best agricultural soils in the world here; which is not an accident; that was the deciding factor when Spouse and I bought the place.

So our weeds really tend to take off; and take over, if you give them any chance at all.  Every year, year after year, they DO get that chance, one way or another.  Maybe it will rain for a week straight, making it impossible to work the soil.  Maybe you'll break your little toe; making it nearly impossible to spend any real time on your knees.  Etc.

Now- "How To Garden" - is a topic that people write whole books about.  Really!  You didn't know that?  I'm not going to shoot for covering the entire topic in this post; I want to make ONE point; just one.

Many beginners, faced with a garden section buried in weeds, will do exactly the wrong thing; partly out of guilt; partly out of ignorance.  They'll try to weed it.

And where will they start weeding?  Obviously- where the crop is smallest, weakest, and needs the most help.

Poor wittle potato plants; they're buried under the foxtail and pigweed; totally stunted.  You need my love, more than those big potato plants over there..

Wrong, wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Are you putting in all this hard work because you need the food?  Yes?  Harden your heart- and put your work into making your very strongest plants stronger.  Weed the best of the patch first.

Look- the fact that you've got a big chunk of garden out of control is pretty definite proof that you've bitten off more than you can currently chew; fantasies and intentions aside.  You have not been able to keep up.

The overwhelming probability is that you're not going to be able to keep up next week, either.

If you put your work into boosting your best plants- they should make food for your family; the better you care for them, the more food.

If you start trying to rehabilitate your puniest plants- a) they're puny right now; it may well be too late for them to produce anything this year, even if you get them cleared; b) the shock of getting full sun after weeks of all that nice shade from the lambsquarters may set them back; c) their root systems are so tiny that pulling all those healthy weeds nearby is quite likely to harm your crop plants significantly; d) chances are you're going to be interrupted in this chore before you get around to weeding the good parts of the patch, good intentions notwithstanding-

So the upshot is, you will sweat like the dickens, release a few plants which cannot respond, and the good plants will get buried deeper as they struggle along with no help- so you'll lose any crop they might have had, too.  And all your sweat.

Here's the rule: Save the best first.  

IF if if you find yourself with lots of time available, you can try to save some of the weaker stuff.  As soon as possible, though- you will benefit from facing reality; and plowing under the lost parts; either replanting to a fall crop, or cover crop, or whatever you do to keep those weeds from going to seed.

Tender hearts are good in lettuce, cabbage, and artichokes; but pity for puny vegetables is a waste.  Plow 'em under.

(And so why am I writing about this just now?  Spice, it turns out, has good tender maternal instincts...)

:-)

The Future of The World... Illustrated.

Today and recently the blogosphere is dripping with blog producers and blog consumers lathering about - The Future.  And if there is one.

This is entirely understandable, and believe me, I'm not smirking at all those silly people.

We are, indeed, standing on the edge of the cliff here.  Read Sharon; read Ilargi and Stoneleigh.  

The thing is, I've known this for a long long time.  I do believe in physics, I do, I do.  And if you do- this collapse of industrial insanity has been inevitable for a very long time.

But how, forsooth, to explain that?  Lucidly, and convincingly, to folks who have not spent decades looking and listening, and studying.  What we are all taught, growing up, is that "progress" is glorious, inevitable, and endless- and good.  They pound that in hard.  It's not easy getting folks to the point where they can see it's a dogma based on fallacies and illusions.  And it's not fun. 

Luckily for us, California has produced several years of completely clear data.  It isn't necessary for you to understand "the science of economics" (ROTFL!); or physics, or the chemistry of global warming.  You just need 4th grade arithmatic.

California is burning, yes?  Badly.  Happened last year; and the year before.  And what are they doing about it all?

Not planning, that's for sure.  Here it is: the reaction to the entire state burning down- the reaction of the wealthiest, most forward looking people on the planet.

Cost of firefighting in California; by year:

Can you say "impotent"?

The fact is; our world governments are all in this state at the moment; utterly unable to cope with reality.  The various forces at work are able, time and again, to prevent action.

Manifestly- California needs to agree- fires are more costly than they used to be; we must budget more for dealing with them.

Manifestly- the state of California has failed to do anything about the problem, year after year.

Reality, physics, will prevail; every time.  Which is why California is on fire again.

Another litany of years of inaction is here; NYT: Asleep At The Spigot.

This is perhaps the largest problem I see for humanity at the moment- regardless of how or why we got here- our joint decision making processes are universally paralyzed.

Yes?

Universally paralyzed.

Pick a disaster; any disaster- as the pundits are sifting through the rubble, you will find this phrase, over and over: "repeated warnings were ignored..."

How we got here; why; and what happens next- is tome material; cannot be crammed into a blog.

What do you need to do about this?  Realize- you're on your own.

Technology will not save us.  Because any truly revolutionary technology will be fought tooth and nail; and subverted, and co-opted; by the same forces that have paralyzed our states.

Policy will not save us.  Ditto.  They'll be holding policy discussions at our funerals.

What might save us is- us.

Communities, working to stick together, and face realities.  

The best initiative I know of there is Rob Hopkins' "Transition Towns" - 

Tons more on his website; and in video/audio.  

There's hope there; if you're willing to roll up your sleeves.

Python wisdom

I know I've been remiss here in the past days; please stick with me, I'll be back.

The problem is a lack of time, and personal energy (got plenty of electricity, since the sun is shining daily just now) - and my personal curse, which my sister the shrink calls an "educated disability"; i.e., the inability to give a short version - of anything.

There's no shortage of stuff to write about; the problem is that when I start thinking about a post; it gets longer, and longer,- can't leave THAT aspect out... oh, and , it connects over here...  

Just currently stuck in that rut.  I'll work it out.

Meanwhile; here is nice story, relevant in many many ways to today's changing world- about the floods- and dead fish.

Tsk, tsk; all that flooding and now there are tons of fish rotting on the lawns.  Hard not to giggle.

As the article points out- "Carp are rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, so they also can be buried in gardens or used in composting if you can stand the smell."

It's a free resource, folks!  La Crunchella DeSpill  has been subverting the masses to get folks to hoard the family pee- and recycle it through the tomatoes- obviously, in this changing world, we can't afford to just toss away all that fertilizer.  And it's obviously, also, a gift, for heaven's sakes, from the Universal powers, that we shouldn't spurn.  Obviously.

I have this trick brain that sometimes just fills in the blanks for me; way ahead of where I'm asking it for input, and in this case, it flashed here, to the brilliant bit in "Monty Python And The Holy Grail".

It's perfect.  "Bring out your carp!"

Clang.

Man, somebody in Janesville Wisconsin really needs to DO this.  

Counterweight-

Can't go work on the soddy just this second; intense little thunderstorm passing just north at the moment, with wet edges- so I was poking around on the news, and found this.  An encyclopedia for simple living.

I haven't dug through it all yet- but so far, I really really like these people and what they're doing.  You can buy the books; or get a CD - or- it's all available for free download.  Hm.  I don't think they're in it for the money.

And they seem very careful about checking and re-checking their information; and about having actually tried everything they write about (so it seems).

And the section of potties has a couple versions that look like the THWASPCO; a little, though mine would be the rolls royce version.

Where did I find it?  A tiny note in the New York Times science section, right beside the huge, noisy thing on "are undersea volcanoes REALLY melting the arctic ice!!??".  (The answer, astonishingly, is , duh, no.)

So here in the midst of the crumbling world- there are still some good folks- and they're still doing good things- for you and me.

I feel a little better.  :-)  Just a little; but it helps.

Hank- you're in Berkeley; are these folks as wonderful as they look to be?

More gallows humor

I've been out and down for a few days, hence the long dry spell.  Going to be working hard in the next few days on the soddy- which actually makes it more likely I'll get a good meaty post up here soon.

Meanwhile, for your amusement: $47,000,000.00 for...?

Cripes, I wish somebody would pay me for MY bellyflops.  Not that I've ever had any as big as his.

Why is this even legal?

sigh.  Ah, well, incredulity is more fun than mourning, so that's the reaction I recommend.