The John James Newsletter 117
7 May 2016
I am asked how can I bear to immerse myself in such news, and continue to do so for years.
To explain: the Newsletter is my personal spiritual journey, my sadhana.
I have learned that if I remain attached to an outcome, any outcome, I create personal suffering.
The Newsletter trains me every day to remain in the witness. I see the outline of our future, I am deeply involved in making it better with all my heart, yet I aim to be unattached to the outcome.
In this way, I do not burn out nor does my passion flag.
I believe the only way we will be able to effectively deal with the crises that are coming is to be deeply involved in the world while at the same time not holding on to any expectations.
Sharing reality without attachment is The Way.
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The only freedom which counts is the freedom to do what others think to be wrong. There is no point in demanding freedom to do that which all will applaud.
Lord Chief Justice Halisham
The system is based on paralyzing people with fear, so we stay stuck in the Death Economy. Instead we must replace that with a Life Economy of love and courage and the knowledge that we can change how corporations and politicians act.
John Perkins
Arctic Sea Ice is Falling off a Cliff and May Not Survive The Summer
The dreaded Blue Ocean Event appears more and more likely to happen during 2016. Arctic region ice loss exceeds the same day last year by 360,000 square kilometers and melting is now two and half weeks ahead of melt rates during the 2000s.
Global trail of murder and corruption dogs Australia’s newest defence contractor
Multiple allegations of corruption in jurisdictions across the globe, as well as murder in Malaysia and Taiwan.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/04/28/dcns-history-of-murder-and-corruption
Millennials Poll Shows Sanders’ Revolution Reshaping US Electorate
“He’s not moving a party to the left. He’s moving a generation to the left,” Sanders remains the most popular presidential candidate for so-called millennials between the ages of 18-29, 54% of whom view him favorably, compared to 31% against.
Young Bernie Sanders Supporters are a “Mobilized Force That Could Change the Country”
Are EU and Russia on the path to Normality?
Relations are on their way back to normal, slowly but surely. Neither the US nor certain East European states can halt the process
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/eu-and-russia-path-normality/ri14144
Researchers have stumbled upon a battery breakthrough that could change energy storage forever
The gel electrode went through 200,000 charge cycles over three months without losing any capacity or power. For reference, batteries typically die after 5,000 to 7,000 cycles.
http://www.techinsider.io/researchers-make-breakthrough-on-battery-storage-2016-5
New Record Set for World’s Cheapest Solar, Now Undercutting Coal
Developers bid as little as 2.99 cents a kilowatt-hour to develop 800 megawatts of solar-power projects. That’s 15% lower than the previous record set in Mexico last month.
Incumbents’ tariff war on rooftop solar accelerates “death spiral”
Low tariffs, and an absence of market signals rewarding the benefits of local generation, will encourage communities to quit the network. Will the incumbents ever learn?
The Race to End Fossil Fuel Based Vehicle Emissions is On
While Tesla Model 3 to hit 500,000 Preorders, Dutch Motions to Ban Petrol, and Shell’s Shilling for Biofuels. Shell and Volkswagon banded together to promote biofuels as a ‘bridge fuel’ to EVs in a rather obvious bid to kill the electric car.
The Largest Evaporation of Wealth in Modern History
The Chinese have among the highest savings rates in the world. But 75% of their wealth is in real estate. They’ve overinvested in one illiquid and bubbly asset that they wrongly believe can only go higher. But when prices break down, it will devastate consumer demand and reverberate around the world. Price to income ratios in the top cities are off the charts.
Ocean Freight Index Collapses to Record Low
The amount it costs to ship containers from China to ports around the world, a function of the quantity of goods to be shipped and the supply of vessels to ship them, just dropped to a new historic low.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/04/17/china-ocean-freight-index-collapses-to-record-low/
Perilous’: Bureau of Meteorology boss Rob Vertessy exits with climate warning
Australia faces a “perilous” water security future from climate change even as the Turnbull government eyes budget cuts to water programs and CSIRO. Reservoirs in the Murray-Darling basin are now close to their lowest levels since the Millennium Drought and Tasmania is facing “serious” issues”
Gripped By Climate Disruption, World On Brink Of Global Water Crisis
Unless action is taken soon, water will become scarce in regions where it is currently abundant—such as Central Africa and East Asia—and scarcity will greatly worsen in regions where water is already in short supply. The Middle East and North Africa could become uninhabitable.
http://www.countercurrents.org/fulton040516.htm
Global water shortages to deliver ‘severe hit’ to economies
By 2050 shortages could strip 14% off GDP in the Middle East, central Asia could lose close to 11% and east Asia about 7%.
Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels
A report from British intelligence of a secret agreement in 2012 between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade
http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse010516.htm
Two of the world’s top three insecticides harm bumblebees
TTIP Leaked Documents Show Obama Killing Paris Accord Against Climate Change
248 pages of leaked TTIP negotiating texts show that the American negotiating position allows “No place for climate protection” and, though “We have known that the EU position was bad, now we see the US position is even worse. The effects of TTIP would be initially subtle but ultimately devastating by disregarding environmental protection and public health concerns.”
http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse020516.htm
TTIP risks to health & environment, ‘US pressure on EU’ revealed in secret docs leaked by Greenpeace
The trade deal would badly affect public health, people’s rights, internet privacy and the environment. The TTIP is “about a huge transfer of power from people to big business,”
https://www.rt.com/news/341591-greenpeace-leak-ttip-deal/
US losing military edge to Russia, China
Russia and China have recently test-fired state-of-the-art intercontinental ballistic missiles with supersonic warheads that can evade even the most complex of missile defense systems. Beijing had successfully flight-tested its DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle which can fly at 5 times the speed of sound and deliver nuclear warheads around the world in less than an hour.
http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/05/01/463464/Russia-China-US-military-DFZF-ICBM/
In 1933 Zionists signed a deal with Hitler: The Transfer Agreement
The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine documents the agreement between Jews and Hitler to help create a Jewish state in Palestine, in return for an end of a global boycott of Nazi Germany that had threatened to bring it down in its first days of power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transfer_Agreement
Fires in Nepal
As of April 11, 1.3 million hectares of forest cover in Nepal has been destroyed by wild fires, with huge losses to property. “The fire situation is out of control. If prolonged dry conditions continue, we will have a state of emergency in the coming days.”
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/smoke-and-fires-in-nepal
China’s BYD, world’s biggest EV maker, takes on Tesla in Australia
The E6 is described as a “high-riding, all electric people mover”, with a battery pack of 75kWh, a range of 300kms, and a purchase price of around $80,000.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/chinese-50646
As Climate Disruption Advances, UN Warns: “The Future Is Happening Now”
Each month I shake my head in disbelief at the rapidity at which anthropogenic climate disruption is occurring. Each month I think, “It can’t possibly keep happening at this incredible pace.” But it is.
Baghdad state of emergency as protesters storm parliament
“This is an end to the political system put in place after 2003i. A big part of the blame for this is on America, which left Iraq without solving this crisis it created.”
Illusion Meets Reality in the Green Zone
The temporary takeover of the Iraqi parliament building in the fortified Green Zone by followers of Muqtada al-Sadr was a demonstration of current fractures in Iraqi politics and a recurring American misconception about the application of military force on behalf of political objectives.
http://lobelog.com/illusion-meets-reality-in-the-green-zone/#more-34068
“Nature Won’t Wait”: Break Free 2016 Begins with UK Coal Mine Occupation
The action in Wales marks the start of an international civil disobedience campaign spanning six continents. “Continuing to dig up coal is a red line for the climate that we won’t allow governments and corporations to cross,”
Turnbull’s first budget ignores climate change, dumps clean energy
Climate change, prime minister Malcom Turnbull once said, is the ultimate long-term problem that needs to be acted on urgently. But in his first budget as government leader, the issue does not exist.
Solar-powered drones will stay in the air for weeks, track whole populations – Snowden
“The goal is to deploy solar-powered drones that can loiter in the air for weeks without coming down. Once you can do that you monitor, unblinkingly, the emanations of every laptop, smartphone, and iPod, you know where a particular device is in what city, what apartment each device lives in, where it goes at any particular time, and by what route,”
https://www.rt.com/news/341712-snowden-us-drones-surveillance/
Nuclear Waste Leaking at ‘American Fukushima’ in Northwest
Nine reactors operated at Hanford, and though they are now decommissioned, the reactors have left behind 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. That a place so tainted with radioactive material could become parkland was at one time a positive sign.
http://www.newsweek.com/hanford-nuclear-reservation-radioactive-waste-454808
Hoverboards Are Finally Here. Are ‘Flying Soldiers’ Next?
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/02/hoverboards-are-finally-here-are-flying-soldiers-next/
What is Closed Loop Agriculture?
A farming practice that recycles all nutrients and organic matter back to the soil that it grew in. This preserves the nutrient and carbon levels within the soil and allows farming to be carried out on a sustainable basis.
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-04-26/what-is-closed-loop-agriculture
Dry farming in California
Irrigation has even been banned in parts of Europe to preserve the quality of certain grape varieties. But in California, where irrigation is now the norm, dry farming has become a forgotten art.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/05/dry-farming-california-drought-wine-crops
Chernobyl: Thirty Years Later
Chernobyl’s radionuclides will decay to insignificant amounts after 10 half-lives. For strontium-90, this amounts to about 290 years, for cesium-129 some 300 years. Some of the highly toxic and carcinogenic radionuclides will take an eternity to degrade. The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, of plutonium-239 some 24,000 years, and of iodine-129 15 million years.
http://lobelog.com/chernobyl-thirty-years-later/#more-34083