Peter Ziehan has a short but very interesting video analyzing population growth and decline in the Arab world, correlating it to oil income and the expansion of their food supply that it fueled, and what might happen if the oil income and/or food supply are impinged. It's worth your time to watch it.
Food for thought, particularly for Israel and Iran, neither of which is part of the Arab world but both of which will be directly and immediately affected by developments there.
Peter
Following on from Wednesday's discussion about crops, technology and our food supply, Off-Guardian provides this overview of the worldwide food crisis that's currently unfolding. Follow the links in the article for more information.
Today, a fifth (278 million) of the African population are undernourished, and 55 million of that continent’s children under the age of five are stunted due to severe malnutrition.
In 2021, an Oxfam review of IMF COVID-19 loans showed that 33 African countries were encouraged to pursue austerity policies. Oxfam and Development Finance International also revealed that 43 out of 55 African Union member states face public expenditure cuts totalling $183 billion over the next few years.
As a result, almost three-quarters of Africa’s governments have reduced their agricultural budgets since 2019, and more than 20 million people have been pushed into severe hunger. In addition, the world’s poorest countries were due to pay $43 billion in debt repayments in 2022, which could otherwise cover the costs of their food imports.
Last year, Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher stated that there was a terrifying prospect that in excess of a quarter of a billion more people would fall into extreme levels of poverty in 2022 alone. That year, food inflation rose by double digits in most African countries.
By September 2022, some 345 million people across the world were experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019. Moreover, one person is dying of hunger every four seconds. From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by 150 million.
Billions of dollars’ worth of arms continue to pour into Ukraine from the NATO countries as US neocons pursue their goal of regime change in Russia and balkanisation of that country.
Yet people in those NATO countries are experiencing increasing levels of hardship. The US has sent almost 80 billion dollars to Ukraine, while 30 million low-income people across the US are on the edge of a ‘hunger cliff’ as a portion of their federal food assistance is taken away. In 2021, it was estimated that one in eight children were going hungry in the US. In England, 100,000 children have been frozen out of free school meals.
Due to the disruptive supply chain effects of the conflict in Ukraine, speculative trading that drives up food prices, the impact of closing down the global economy under the guise of COVID and the inflationary impacts of pumping trillions of dollars into the financial system between September 2019 and March 2020, people are being driven into poverty and denied access to sufficient food.
Matters are not helped by issues that have long plagued the global food system: cutbacks in public subsidies to agriculture, WTO rules that facilitate cheap, subsidised imports which undermine or wipe out indigenous agriculture in poorer countries and loan conditionalities, resulting in countries ‘structurally adjusting’ their agri sectors thereby eradicating food security and self-sufficiency – consider that Africa has been transformed from a net food exporter in the 1960s to a net food importer today.
Great game food geopolitics continue and result in elite interests playing with the lives of hundreds of millions who are regarded as collateral damage. Policies, underpinned by neoliberal dogma masquerading as economic science and necessity, which are designed to create dependency and benefit a handful of multi-billionaires and global agribusiness corporations who, ably assisted by the World Bank, IMF and WTO, now preside over an increasingly centralised food regime.
. . .
As a paper in the journal Frontiers noted in 2021, these corporations form part of a powerful alliance of multinational corporations, philanthropies and export-oriented countries who are subverting multilateral institutions of food governance. Many who are involved in this alliance are co-opting the narrative of ‘food systems transformation’ as they anticipate new investment opportunities and seek total control of the global food system.
This type of ‘transformation’ is more of the same wrapped in a climate emergency narrative in an attempt to move food and farming further towards an ecomodernist techno-dystopia controlled by big agribusiness and big tech, as described in the article The Netherlands: Template for Ecomodernism’s Brave New World.
There's more at the link.
Of course, all these problems combine to produce much wider consequences. A shortage of a staple crop in Country A will lead it to buy as much as it can of that crop on the open market; but that, in turn, will reduce the available supply of that staple crop, meaning that Country B can no longer get enough. In its efforts to make up for the shortfall, Country B will bid up the price, which means that (poorer) Country C can no longer afford to buy it, even if supplies were available. Thus, the starvation problem is transferred from Country A, through Country B, to Country C. As Country C becomes politically and socially destabilized through hunger, its citizens will flee to neighboring countries in an attempt to get enough to eat, thereby destabilizing even more countries . . . and so the process continues.
Here in the USA, we're largely sheltered from most of those consequences, apart from the higher prices we'll have to pay at our supermarkets. However, we're still importing a lot of our food, because we can afford to; and that's causing problems for other countries that aren't as rich as we are, and have to compete with us for a reduced supply of foodstuffs. It's a never-ending ripple effect, and it's going to cause us harm as well.
The article cited above inclines towards an acroecological solution, which I find unconvincing; I see more moonbats than pragmatists in that field, and I don't trust their methodology. Nevertheless, it's clear that the world food production model, as presently implemented, is unbalanced. We have to find a better way. The question is, what is it? Right now, nobody seems to be offering a practical, pragmatic, efficient, effective solution. There are plenty of ideological suggestions, but all fail when tested in practice. We need new and better ideas.
Peter
I've always enjoyed the clash of "foodie" cultures, and the topics about which argument rages.
The list is probably endless.
Nevertheless, I was a bit mindblown by this BBC article about sushi and its accompanying rituals. Here's an excerpt.
On the fine-dining end of sushi consumption, there's Sukiyabashi Jiro, the impossible-to-get-into restaurant made famous from the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. On their website, they have a list of 12 rules that range from how to use your chopsticks and cleanse your palate to timing on when to eat the fish that's splayed out in front of you. This writer has eaten there and has been admonished for taking too much time between bites.
According to Kazunori Nozawa, the co-founder of the famed SUGARFISH sushi restaurants and veritable Sushi Shokunin (Master), there are a handful of dos and don'ts in the world of sushi. First, Nozawa says, "Don't rub your chopsticks together after you split them apart, that is seen as inconsiderate." He continues with a surprising note that, "eating with your chopsticks is preferred, but eating with your hands is also acceptable. If you need a fork, it's ok, just ask for one."
Additional etiquette rules from Nozawa include:
"Eat your sushi when it arrives, it's best right away. This is especially true so the nori does not lose its texture for hand rolls or gunkan style (gunkan means "battleship" in English and is similar to a handroll that's shaped more like a boat and usually topped with roe)."
"Eat nigiri in one bite."
"If you are adding wasabi, it's okay to add it to your soy sauce, but you should have another soy sauce that does not have wasabi. Not all dishes are best with wasabi."
"Don't add ginger on top of your sushi. It's meant as palate cleanser between dishes."
"If sushi is sauced, don't dip it in soy sauce. When dipping nigiri in soy sauce, I believe you should lightly dip the rice side, not the fish side, although many others believe differently. Try it and you will taste a difference."
"Not an etiquette rule, but when eating a hand roll, take a bite, flip the hand roll, and take a bite from the other side. This helps keep the hand roll intact."
Nozawa and Jiro would probably have a very long conversation about whether to dip the rice in soy sauce or not, as it's number six on Jiro's "don't" list.
But continuing in the world of super fine-dining sushi, unspoken rules abound. Andrea Fazzari, the James Beard Award-winning photographer and author of Sushi Shokunin as well as an upcoming book on Japanese culture, says, "when dining at a fine sushiya (sushi restaurant), it is essential to respect the sushi master, the ingredients and everything about where you are. If you are dining with someone else, conversation should be muted and hushed; the sushi master and what you are eating should be the focus."
She also explains that you "do not ask for extra anything: shoyu (soy sauce), wasabi, ginger. You will not be given a small saucer for extra shoyu in which to submerge your nigiri. The nigiri are already perfect as they are, prepared the way the master intends."
There's more at the link.
I like sushi, but I've never heard of most of those rituals, and I don't think I'll bother to follow them. Not only am I unlikely to ever end up in a true Japanese sushi master's domain, I probably wouldn't be able to afford it if I did! (Although it's a tempting thought . . . I have a yen to try it!)
I guess I'll carry on enjoying my gaijin-oriented sushi at local restaurants, and dispense with the cultural formalities. Hmmm . . . we have a rather good sushi restaurant near us. I must ask the chef whether he thinks adding mustard, ketchup, onions and sauerkraut to sushi would make it more American!
Peter
Today's award goes to the organisers of the North Canterbury Hunting Competition in New Zealand. The BBC reports:
A children's cat-hunting competition in New Zealand has been cancelled following backlash against the event.
Organisers of an annual hunt were criticised after announcing a new category for those aged 14 and under to hunt feral cats.
The animals are considered a pest and a risk to the country's biosecurity.
Youngsters were told to not kill pets, but they were otherwise encouraged to kill as many feral cats as possible for a prize.
The child who killed the most between mid-April and the end of June would have won NZ$250 (£124; $155).
. . .
The event had been announced as part of a June fundraiser hunt for a local school in North Canterbury in the South Island, a largely rural area of New Zealand where hunting is popular.
The competition each year typically sees hundreds - including children - compete to kill wild pigs, deer and hares.
There's more at the link.
I know that feral cats pose a grave risk to small indigenous animals and birds, and that their population needs to be controlled, if not eradicated (the latter almost impossible in practical terms). However, to ask children to kill cats is dubious on several grounds.
Peter
And magazine points out the reality of the illegal alien invasion. It's being organized, sponsored and facilitated by the US government - which now expects us to accommodate the invaders.
With great fanfare, the State Department has now kicked off the Welcome Corps.
“The Department of State, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to announce the creation of the Welcome Corps, a new private sponsorship program that empowers everyday Americans to play a leading role in welcoming refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and supporting their resettlement and integration as they build new lives in the United States. Over the past year, the American people have extended an extraordinarily welcoming hand to our Afghan allies, Ukrainians displaced by war, and Venezuelans and others fleeing violence and oppression. The Welcome Corps will build on Americans’ generosity of spirit by creating a durable program for Americans in communities across the country to privately sponsor refugees from around the world. The Welcome Corps is the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades.”
“In the first phase of the program, private sponsors participating in the Welcome Corps will be matched with refugees whose cases are already approved for resettlement under the USRAP. The Department of State will begin facilitating matches between private sponsors and refugees arriving within the first six months of 2023.”
. . .
The average American believes and expects that our government is at least nominally attempting to control the flow of migrants into this country. That is not even arguably true. In fact, it is now the explicit, formal policy of the United States government to ensure the orderly movement of huge numbers of people into this country. We are not trying to stop them and failing. We are bringing them here.
. . .
That is now the formal policy of the United States government. We are focused on making sure that migration into this country occurs, and we are providing the necessary resources to make sure that it is as efficient as possible.
To this end, the United States via the United Nations has established what amounts to a conveyor belt of camps across Central America to allow migrants to move north in large numbers to our southern border. This is happening with the direct involvement of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Secretary Mayorkas just visited camps in Panama as part of an ongoing effort by the Biden administration to double the capacity of the existing infrastructure.
Biden does not want to stop the flow of migrants. He wants to increase it.
The migrants are not wandering north only on foot. They are being moved in luxury buses like you might take on a tour. They are bused from camp to camp in vast numbers. Again, the bill for this is paid by United Nations outfits financed by the United States government.
Just to ensure migrants don’t get lost the Red Cross hands out maps and guides. They show the routes to take. They show where all the camps are located. They provide detailed instructions on how to get across the U.S. border.
You are paying for those too.
In two short years, we have gone from securing our border to using the resources of the American people to move literally millions of undocumented individuals into this country in clear violation of our laws and contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of Americans. We are flooding this country with illegal immigrants not just from Central America but from at least 140 nations around the globe.
And, now when all these millions of people get here, Joe wants you to take them in and support them. You might need bunk beds in that spare bedroom.
There's more at the link.
Since illegal aliens start their lives in the USA by disrespecting and disobeying our laws regarding immigration, I don't have much any confidence that they'll uphold other laws. That being the case, and since I have all too much experience of dealing with criminals, my home will remain firmly closed to them, thank you very much! (On the other hand, progressive leftists and their ilk are invited - indeed, encouraged - to participate in the "Welcome Corps". It'll probably be an education in reality for them!)
The real danger of this "voluntary" initiative is that it may not remain "voluntary". In many nations, where housing under emergency circumstances became limited (e.g. the evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Blitz in World War II, or the housing of displaced refugees in some European nations after that war), governments stepped in with mandatory housing schemes. A householder might find him- or herself told that they would be accommodating a certain number of people, whether they liked it or not. Friction between "guests" and "host" was often blamed on the host, too. (My parents experienced that in Britain during the war.)
What's the betting that we may see something similar in this country, too, when the powers that be have brought in too many illegal aliens to easily accommodate them? If you think that's far-fetched, consider the United Nations' "Pinheiro Principles" on "Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons". Principle 7 reads:
7. The right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions
7.1 Everyone has the right to the peaceful enjoyment of his or her possessions.
7.2 States shall only subordinate the use and enjoyment of possessions in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law. Whenever possible, the “interest of society” should be read restrictively, so as to mean only a temporary or limited interference with the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions.
Note the two sections highlighted in orange. Who defines what's "in the public interest"? The authorities. Who makes the laws that establish the conditions to "subordinate the use and enjoyment of possessions" (for example, your home)? Again, the authorities. They can change definitions and the law at their own whim - and if it's more convenient to them to override private property rights in the interests of certain groups, don't think for a moment that they won't do so. The Biden administration is already trying to legislate and regulate some consumer goods out of existence, such as fossil-fuel-powered vehicles or gas stoves, whether or not the public wants such regulation. Given such massive and contemptuous disregard for public opinion, what makes you think they won't try to force Americans to accommodate the invaders they're bringing across our border for their own purposes?
The same goes for those who own "extra" property (such as a holiday home, investment property that they rent out to others, travel trailers or RV's that they use on vacation, etc.). I'm willing to bet that officious bureaucrats may try to commandeer such properties "in the public interest" to accommodate illegal aliens. It'll be disguised as compassionate concern for the less fortunate . . . but in reality, it'll be a land and power grab. Expect those who resist the confiscation of their property/ies to be stigmatized as "greedy" or "uncaring" or "the rich who refuse to contribute their fair share".
Don't rely on the "Takings Clause" or the "Rule of Law" to protect you from that. Those who make the laws may have other ideas. By the time the issue gets to the Supreme Court (that is, assuming SCOTUS will act to uphold the original meaning of the constitution), it may be too late. You may not get your property/ies back in even usable condition, let alone its original condition - and good luck suing for compensation.
Peter
From author Kit Sun Cheah on Gab this morning:
It is 420 day during a partial solar eclipse, so I am absolutely confident that today will be totally peaceful and absolutely nothing weird will happen at all, especially in Florida.
Yeah, riiiiiight!!!
Peter
Underlining the vulnerability of the world's food supply is this news from Australia. A tip o' the hat to Andrew for the link.
Tractors have ground to a halt in paddocks across Australia and New Zealand because of a signal failure in the satellite farmers use to guide their GPS-enabled machinery, stopping them from planting their winter crop.
The satellite failure on Monday was a bolt from the blue for farmers in NSW and Victoria, who were busy taking advantage of optimal planting conditions for crops including wheat, canola, oats, barley and legumes.
“You couldn’t have picked a worse time for it,” said Justin Everitt, a grain grower in the Riverina who heads NSW Farmers’ grains committee.
. . .
Tractors that pull seed-planting machinery, as well as the massive combine harvesters that reap Australia’s vast grain crops, are high-tech beasts that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They are enabled with GPS tracking and can be guided to an accuracy within two centimetres, enabling seed-planting equipment to sow crops with precision to drive up efficiency, prevent wastage and boost environmental sustainability.
All that went out the window when the Inmarsat-41 satellite signal failed.
Katie McRobert, general manager at the Australia Farm Institute, said Australian farmers sourced their GPS signal from one satellite, which was a critical risk to rural industries.
“Having all your GPS eggs in one basket is a vulnerability on a good day, and a fatal weakness on a bad one,” McRobert said.
. . .
“This is crippling for the farm community,” Groves said ... “GPS is our guidance system that eliminates overlapping [in rows of seeds] and over-application of chemicals, and when that system is down, the machine is literally down.
“My planter is 32 rows wide; if I overlap by just two rows, that is 4 per cent I am losing out on. When you’re paying $1300 [a tonne] for fertiliser, that really adds up very quickly.
“My crop sprayer relies on the GPS signal to tell the spray unit how much chemical to put on, where it is in the paddock and how many nozzles it needs working.”
There is no indication when the problem will be fixed.
There's more at the link.
Australia and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand are critical agricultural suppliers to the rest of the world. If their planting is impacted, so will be their harvest, and the availability of food for export.
Couple that news with the the latest on the world rice harvest.
From China to the U.S. to the European Union, rice production is falling and driving up prices for more than 3.5 billion people across the globe, particularly in Asia-Pacific – which consumes 90% of the world’s rice.
The global rice market is set to log its largest shortfall in two decades in 2023, according to Fitch Solutions.
And a deficit of this magnitude for one of the world’s most cultivated grains will hurt major importers, analysts told CNBC.
“At the global level, the most evident impact of the global rice deficit has been, and still is, decade-high rice prices,” Fitch Solutions’ commodities analyst Charles Hart said.
. . .
There’s a short supply of rice as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as bad weather in rice-producing economies like China and Pakistan.
In the second half of last year, swaths of farmland in the world’s largest rice producer China were plagued by heavy summer monsoon rains and floods.
The accumulated rainfall in the country’s Guangxi and Guangdong province, China’s major hubs of rice production, was the second highest in at least 20 years, according to agriculture analytics company Gro Intelligence.
Similarly, Pakistan — which represents 7.6% of global rice trade — saw annual production plunge 31% year-on-year due to severe flooding last year, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), labeling the impact as “even worse than initially expected.”
Again, more at the link.
The world's food supply is under dire threat due to all sorts of circumstances, as has been pointed out by national and international organizations for the past couple of years. These latest developments make the food security situation all the more difficult, particularly for Asian nations that are utterly dependent on rice as the staple food for their populations. They're going to bid up the price of any food they can get their hands on to ridiculously high levels, rather than have their people starving and rising in revolt against their governments. That, in turn, means exports of food to the USA will be under extreme stress.
Got preps?
Peter
Here's a wonderful example of a generous, loving family. The report is from 2019, but that doesn't diminish its impact.
A set of seven brothers and sisters were just adopted together after being separated for over a year in foster care.
Emerson, 12, Autumn, 11, Jaxon, 9, Journey, 8, Jace, 7, Piper, 5, and Sawyer, 3, found their forever home on Wednesday thanks to their new adoptive parents , Lisa and Gary Fulbright.
"Everyone was ecstatic, it was a full courtroom," Lisa Fulbright of Derby, Kansas, told "Good Morning America," about the adoption day. "Autumn, she woke up this morning, stretched and her first words were, 'I'm adopted!'"
Lisa and Gary Fulbright already had a combined seven children from their previous marriages. The couple also share a biological son together, Logan, 17.
Siblings Piper, 5 and Sawyer, 3, got their forever home on Wednesday thanks to their new parents, Lisa and Gary Fulbright of Derby, Kan.
Since all of their children except Logan had moved out, the Fulbrights decided to become foster parents. Three years ago, they adopted a pair of siblings -- Hannah, 10, and Levi, 8.
Then, in Feb. 2017, three brothers, Jaxon, Journey and Jace, came into their care. The Fulbrights would often invite their other siblings over for holidays so that Emerson, Autumn, Jaxon, Journey, Jace, Piper and Sawyer could all be together.
June of that same year, Emerson and Autumn joined their brothers at the Fulbright's home. Piper and Sawyer followed in February 2018.
Emerson, 12, Autumn, 11, Jaxon, 9, Journey, 8, Jace, 7, Piper, 5 and Sawyer 3, had been in foster care in the state of Kansas for 734 days.
Lisa Fulbright said she and her husband fell in love with all seven kids, who came from a neglectful family and were into care by the state of Kansas. Saint Francis Ministries, an organization that provides foster care and adoption services to children in state custody, asked the Fulbrights if they would consider adopting all of the siblings.
. . .
The Fulbrights immediately agreed to adopt the children, and on April 10, they made it official at the Juvenile District Court in Wichita. The family even worse custom jerseys to honor their favorite football team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
. . .
Lisa Fulbright said all seven of her children are kind-hearted and a whole lot of fun.
"It's kind of chaos but it's a fun type of chaos because we just love them," she added.
There's more at the link, including photographs.
In this day and age, when so much pressure is being exerted on and against traditional families, it's heartwarming to see a couple care so much about keeping siblings together that they expanded their family to include them. There are few who'd have been willing to take on that responsibility - or so many extra kids! Kudos to them, and to the agencies that made the arrangements.
We need more families like this.
Peter
From Not The Bee:
Yes, that's really their complaint. Follow the link to see Twitter video and commentary.
Residents of Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and other cities where the mob has become accustomed to stealing what they like, when they like, and getting away with it, are now discovering the consequences of allowing that to happen. What store can afford to stay in business when every day that it does so costs it more money than it makes? (Not to mention the consequences to its staff, who are imperiled by criminal thugs and looters!)
The trouble is, those who've grown used to taking what they want aren't going to mend their ways when their local stores shut down. No - they're going to spread their net wider, and try to do the same in more distant suburbs and neighboring towns. I don't foresee much of a problem with that in my area: our cops (and the vast majority of our citizens) will have no trouble stopping such miscreants in their tracks (if necessary, the hard way). However, in many larger cities it's going to be a problem. Public transport is more or less available, cars can be stolen or hijacked at gunpoint for a quick ride, and fresh loot isn't far away; and police are so overloaded (not to mention underfunded) that they can't deal with the crimes they've got right now, never mind increased shoplifting and looting in future.
As I've said so often before (most recently yesterday), get out of Big Blue Cities now. If you stay, you're laying yourself wide open to the consequences of such attitudes and actions.
Peter
Advocates of the "gay lifestyle" are often infuriated by accusations that the philosophy they espouse (you should pardon the expression) is also strongly supportive of pedophilia. However, the links are clear and unarguable.
I've just come across an excerpt from a talk given by an ecological and environmental activist, Derrick Jensen, in Eugene, Oregon in 2018. In it, he makes the connections very clear. If you have any interest at all in this subject, and particularly in protecting your children against "drag queen story hours" and other related trash, you need to hear this.
You'll find a news report about his talk here. Interestingly, the report doesn't say anything about Prof. Jensen's views - only about the controversy caused by his presence. One wonders why it didn't go into more detail . . . possibly to avoid offending the "gay mafia" in that city?
You might want to bookmark that video clip on YouTube, and trot it out whenever activists and supporters of gay theory try to argue that pedophilia is something completely different and unrelated. In fact, it might be worth downloading your own copy, in case political correctness rears its ugly head and YouTube removes it.
As for the wider implications of this linkage, James Kunstler makes a trenchant observation.
The political Left these days is determined to promote sexual confusion as a crucial component of the common good. Politicians, agency officials, corporate executives, the chiefs of NGOs and public interest organizations all support public demonstrations of ignoble and sinister sexual acts, often involving the inversion of sexual roles between male and female ...
If you object to this behavior, you may be subject to extreme punishment (loss of career) for “transphobia.” The Left is taunting America with exhibitions like this ... Is it not clear that this is some sort of insult to decency? The Left wants the non-Left to respond with acts of violence so that the Left can proceed to disarm the non-Left and prevent any opposition to the Left’s more serious plans to abolish personal liberty, such as a Central Bank Digital Currency that can monitor all your spending, punish you for your economic choices, and confiscate your earnings. The Left does these things in the name, they say, of “our democracy.” It’s a lie, of course. Democracy is the last thing they really care about. They do it in the name of pushing everybody around because all they really care about is coercion and punishment (applied with maximum sadism).
There's more at the link.
It's hard to argue with him.
Peter
It looks like feral youths are increasingly out of control in many left-wing-dominated (i.e. "blue") large cities and towns. Just in the past week, we've seen these reports:
‘Teen Takeover’ terrorizes Chicago as hundreds of teenagers destroy property, attack tourists
Some teens in the group began jumping up and down on cars, smashing windows and attacking people inside. One woman told Fox 32 her husband was attacked from the driver side of his vehicle and beaten after a group of teens jumped up and down on the couple's windshield. The man was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Hundreds of police officers assisted by SWAT teams descended on downtown in an attempt to restore order as gunfire was reported multiple times amid the unfolding scene.
Police were seen escorting frightened tourists back to their cars or hotels to escape the chaos, and traffic on Chicago's Michigan Avenue ground to a halt as police attempted to restore order.
Huge mob ransacks California gas station; police 'outnumbered': video
A video recorded a mob of California youth breaking into a gas station convenience store and then stealing what police say were thousands of dollars of products.
The incident happened early Sunday morning in Compton, California, after a large group of people blocked an intersection as part of a street takeover, with video footage showing cars drifting in circles and screeching around 2:30 a.m., according to KLTA.
. . .
Deputies at the Compton station were responding to incidents throughout the night, but police said that since they are "currently limited with their staffed personnel," they "couldn't intervene with the giant takeover groups for safety concerns" and being "outnumbered," according to ABC7.
‘We cannot protect our public’: Riverside County District Attorney
Pointing to a rise in crime, officials said offenders are released from jail too frequently. In the city of Riverside alone, police said commercial burglaries are up 31% compared to this time last year.
“All of us up here on stage have had enough,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said at the press conference. “We cannot protect our public. We’re getting no help from Sacramento.”
Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward used the example of 31-year-old Timothy Bethell of Winchester, who has 39 felony convictions ranging from burglary to vandalism. Ward said the 31-year-old began terrorizing businesses in 2021. Bethell pleaded no contest to 14 felony charges and was sentenced to four years suspended state prison time, but that’s not what happened.
“He was convicted, as I said, in Tulare County and was released, as is so common, to a residential treatment program at which he immediately absconded from,” Ward said. “Within days, he is captured in Tulare County breaking into yet another business and he’s convicted of that additional felony count as well.”
Officials said Bethell was eventually transferred back where he continued his siege on businesses in the southwestern portion of Riverside County, which resulted in thousands of dollars in losses and damages.
I could have selected many more such reports, including this Twitter account of hundreds of riders of illegal ATV's and dirt bikes defying the law by riding through Philadelphia in broad daylight - and not a cop in sight. Such problems are not found in just a few cities or states - they're nationwide.
If the rule of law breaks down - as seems to be happening in such cities - then we have no protection under the law. We're left to our own devices. If we defend ourselves against the lawless, it's increasingly obvious that progressive left-wing forces - the same forces that are trying to (and often succeeding in) "defund the police" efforts will turn their attention to us, and try to haul us in front of the court for doing what the forces of law and order cannot and will not do. They want us to be terrorized by criminals, cowering in our homes. Why? I can only guess . . . but it's pretty clear that when law and order is destroyed, those most willing to be violent will rule the streets, and the cities. Draw your own conclusions.
If you still live in a large city with such problems (and that includes most US cities today), you need to very, very seriously reconsider your options. Sure, there may be good reasons for you to stay there . . . but what's your life worth? What are the lives of your family and loved ones worth? If your teenaged daughter is raped, or your son brutalized, what will the rest of their lives be like after such an experience?
The authorities either cannot or will not do anything effective to stop this. In many cases, they can't. The police have been defunded to the point where in many places, they no longer respond to "minor" crimes at all; and when confronted by mob violence and disobedience, as in the examples cited above, they're basically helpless. They cannot and will not protect you.
Get out of big blue cities while you still can. If you don't . . . you'll have to live with the consequences.
Peter
One of Karl Marx's dictums was "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". It's never worked in practice, of course, because in every culture individuals have proved to be motivated more by self-interest than by altruism. It seems people work better on a "What's in it for me?" basis than any other. (Witness the Pilgrim colony in Massachusetts for a very good example.)
Unfortunately, it seems that the barking moonbats in California have failed to learn from history.
Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric submitted a joint proposal to the state’s Public Utilities Commission last week that outlines the new rate structure. It follows last year’s passage of Assembly Bill 205 which requires a fixed rate and generally simpler power bills.
Under the proposal, households will see a fixed rate covering basic electricity services and the utility company’s operating costs on a scale based on their household income.
- Households with annual income from $28,000 – $69,000 would pay $20 a month in Edison territory, $34 a month in SDG&E territory and $30 a month in PG&E territory.
- Households earning from $69,000 – $180,000 would pay $51 a month in Edison and PG&E territories and $73 a month in SDG&E territory.
- Those with incomes above $180,000 would pay $85 a month in Edison territory, $128 a month in SDG&E territory and $92 a month in PG&E territory.
The utilities say customers should expect to also see lower costs for their kilowatt-hour usage.
. . .
“We have listened to and heard from our customers that fundamental change is needed to provide bill relief,” SDG&E CEO Caroline Winn said in a statement. “When we were putting together the reform proposal, front and center in our mind were customers who live paycheck to paycheck, who struggle to pay for essentials such as energy, housing and food.”
There's more at the link.
So the utilities' richer customers are going to be forced to subsidize its poorer ones, whether they like it or not, and regardless of whether the former are struggling to make ends meet as much as the latter. Marx would be very pleased, I'm sure - but I'm not sure about the customers . . .
I used to dismiss it as hyperbole when people spoke of California as "Commiefornia". Not any more.
Peter
Eaton Rapids Joe looks at farmland prices and wonders . . . what can justify them?
In a rational world, it should be possible to estimate the cost of an acre of land from the price of corn. Assuming 200 bushels of corn to the acre and $3 a bushel for variable production costs, the Net Present Value of (Corn Price-$3) over 20 years at 6% discounting should yield a decent first-order approximation of the price of corn ground.
. . .
Iowa is corn country. They grow corn and do it as well as anybody in the world.
But even the most optimistic economists were stunned when a "corn farm" in Iowa sold for $30,000 an acre.
There are only two scenarios where that makes any kind of sense:
- Corn selling between $15 and $20 a bushel
- "Real" interest rates (i.e. interest rates minus inflation rate) going VERY negative.
The market isn't always right. It can remain irrational longer than most short-sellers can stay solvent.
But for me it is eye-opening that there are a couple of bidders out there who are willing to bet very big money that food and fuel prices will triple ($18/$6.5) in nominal prices in the near term (i.e. five year horizon).
There's more at the link. Go read. (His blog is worth following for interesting vignettes of rural and semi-rural life, and some thoughtful insights.)
He has a point. It's simply not rational, in terms of an economic return on investment, to pay that much for farmland . . . unless there are factors unknown to the rest of us, but known to the buyer, that justify it. The question is, what are they? And are they "educated guesses", or based on knowledge, certainty, guarantees?
Makes you think, doesn't it?
Peter
Gathered from around the Internet over the past week. Click any image for a larger view.
As I mentioned earlier, Old NFO's private, invitation-only "Foolzcon" kicks off today (well, yesterday actually, since a lot of people arrived early, bearing bottles and sundry other goodies, to kick off the festivities ahead of time). My wife and I will have company in our guest room, and we'll all be spending time at the rendezvous site, a nearby campground (complete with petting zoo, if any of the guests become a little too inebriated for human company). To add to the fun, there's a gun show in town this weekend, so I suspect some of those attending Foolzcon may head thataway for a little light diversion here and there.
As a result, I don't think I'll have free time to blog this weekend. Please amuse yourselves with the folks in the sidebar (those that aren't also at Foolzcon, anyway!). Regular blogging will resume on Monday.
Peter
From The Free Press. Click the image for a larger view.
I like puns, and I've been guilty of more than my fair share of them: but I have to admit, that one's a groaner!
Peter
From Stephan Pastis yesterday. Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.
We're going to be experiencing something like that this weekend, with Old NFO's private, invitation-only "Foolzcon" convention on the go at a local camp site. Almost all the North Texas Troublemakers will be in town, plus several dozen friends from around the country. Unlike most cons, this one has no program and no panels or speakers - just a whole lot of good friends socializing, batting the breeze, and unwinding in mutually agreeable company. The story-telling should be epic!
Peter
I was highly amused to read of New York City's new policing program for surveillance patrols.
The New York City Police Department and Mayor Eric Adams reintroduced the robotic police dog Tuesday after it was dismissed by the previous administration, and they rolled out two newer safety technologies as well.
Digidog, the $74,000 robot made by Boston Dynamics and previewed exclusively by Eyewitness News back in December 2020, fell victim to calls by civil rights advocates to cut police department funding.
Digidog first appeared in 2021 when the NYPD touted its ability to use its cameras, lights and communication system to help police in dangerous situations. Critics believed it emblematic of aggressive policing.
"A few loud people were opposed to it and we took a step back. That is not how I operate," Adams said during a news conference. "We are scanning the globe to find technology that will assure this city is safe."
There's more at the link.
I see two problems with this plan. First off, New York City is famous for its graffiti artists. How long do you think these robot cops (one is shown above) will remain "untagged"? I expect them to look something like this before long:
The second problem is that visitors from more... er... practically-oriented states are likely to see these robots as an intrusion, and may want to do something about it. At a local gun store this morning, the proprietor was talking to a Texas man who's about to visit NYC. He offered him a roll of stick-on high-visibility targets, encouraging him to apply them to every police robot he saw. He reckoned the local gang-bangers would get the idea in no time, and apply themselves to dealing with the matter. Looking at the increase in crimes involving firearms in NYC, it's hard to disagree...
Peter
We've met Massad Ayoob in these pages before on many occasions. I've taken three week-long courses from him (back in the day they were known as LFI-1, -2 and -3; today they're labeled MAG40, MAG80 and MAG120) on what he calls "managing the self-defense environment", involving both shooting skills and legal and other considerations. He's one of the seminal figures in this country in terms of developing the skills of armed civilians, and I have the highest respect for him.
In the light of this morning's previous article, concerning the conviction for murder of Sgt. Daniel Perry following a confrontation with Black Lives Matter demonstrators, I'd like to recommend a video series by Massad Ayoob very highly. He produces it in conjunction with Wilson Combat, a premier pistol manufacturer that's been on the scene almost as long as Mas himself. They call the series "Critical Mas". You'll find a complete listing of all the videos at this link. Scroll through them, and see what interests you. I suggest all of them are worth viewing.
In particular, two videos address the sort of situation in which Sgt. Perry found himself, and in which we might find ourselves at any time in this divided, polarized, partisan society of ours. I'll embed them both below. The first, IMHO, is essential viewing for those who might run into a demonstration on the road; the second offers thoughts for defending our homes and loved ones if the riots come to us.
I highly recommend that you take the time to watch those videos, then scroll through the others in the "Critical Mas" series. They're very educational, and may help us avoid going through what Sgt. Perry did - both during the riot, and in a court of law some years later.
Peter
