Colombia Is Considering Legalizing Its Massive Cocaine Industry
Colombia Is Considering Legalizing Its Massive Cocaine Industry; There are 200k coca growing farmers. The state would buy coca at market prices. The programs for coca eradication each year cost $1 billion. Buying the entire coca harvest each year would cost$680M. It costs less to buy it all.
#Comment: Makes alot of sense, given the enormous dimensions of the global Illegal drug trade.
International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction (The Guardian)
Plan to draw up legal definition of ‘ecocide’ attracts support from European countries and small island nations.
Mariana Mazzucato: We may need climate lockdowns to halt climate change
We are approaching a tipping point on climate change, when protecting the future of civilization will require dramatic interventions
#Comment: While such ideas might sounds appealing and progressive on first sight, on deeper reflection they are rather crazy and twisted: It is a play-book for eco-fascism. Large scale cooperation is obviously the key to solving the climate and biodiversity crisis - its been the driving force of humanity since the beginning. Yet even more centralisation of power is in my opinion not necessary nor helpful to foster more cooperation - on the contrary, it is what got us into these crisis in the first place. On closer introspection, massive power centralisation is precisely the defining characteristic of these"global climate regime" proposals made exclusively by WEIRD People ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic"). Plus, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes and who gets to decide what is "ecologically sound"? Lawyers, economists, politicians, bankers and military leaders (the likely arbiters of this regime) certainly strike me as far from ideal.
#Regenerative #Economics #Military #ClimateChange #Cryptocracy
"This defeat has multiple elements. First, the shale oil gamble is over. Drilling rates have collapsed, many shale oil companies are bankrupt, and US oil production is set to plummet from over 12 million barrels per day at its peak to around 5 million by next June. After that point the US will once again become a major oil importer, and since no other swing producers are available this will drive up oil prices, perhaps beyond the previous all-time record of $150/barrel, resulting in a US oil import bill of half a trillion dollars a year. But it is doubtful whether that much extra oil can be produced at almost any price."
China bans all imports of solid waste (2020)
The Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment last week announced details about the country’s upcoming ban on all materials it classifies as “solid waste,” including recovered fiber. The new announcement puts the new ban details in writing, but industry insiders have anticipated the policy for over a year. And shipping companies have moved away from accepting shipments of recyclables bound for China.
Through September of this year, the U.S. exported 1.86 million short tons of recovered fiber to China, suggesting potential challenges in 2021 for brokers looking to move this material to alternative markets.
China’s ban on imported waste to have huge impact on global recycling industry (2018)
China has officially banned its four-decade long practice of importing foreign garbage in 2018, a move experts believe will promote more sustainable ways to dispose of and recycle waste worldwide. “This ban will send shockwaves around the world, and force many countries to tackle the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude we’ve developed towards waste,” said Liu Hua, Greenpeace East Asia plastic campaigner.
Writing Manifestos is fun. Here is one:
But in the end, it is much easier to write manifestos, than to exercise the art of peace every day.
14,600,000 bolivars, the amount of money you need to buy a 5 pound chicken in Venezuela
Bitcoin mining and green energy
bitcoin’s BIG PROBLEM is that it uses a country’s worth of electricity to run the most inefficient payment network in human history. people don’t seem to know this! and i tell them, and they get angry. because a bunch of nerds killing each other for e-pennies is one thing, but that much CO2 is quite another. you could say “it’s their money, they can spend it how they like”, and that’s how things work, sure. but it’s still a massive externality, and this is a big problem.
First, it was a "technical issue" in Europe which back on July 1 caused European stock markets to suffer a 3 hour outage. Then, in August, New Zealand’s stock market was forced to halt trading over four days in August after distributed-denial-of-service attacks overwhelmed its website. Then on October 1, another "technical issue" hit the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which resulted in an unprecedented all-day trading halt. And just a few weeks later, in late October, trading in all stocks and derivatives on Euronext NV markets was shut down for three hours affecting activity in countries including France and Belgium. The problem was traced to due to a software issue. Now, about a month later, the "glitching" rolling market blackout struck again, this time in Australia whose stock exchange opened for less than half an hour before a software issue forced it to close for the rest of Monday’s session, just as the country rolled out an "updated" trading system.
A Chinese defense contractor recently test-launched a swarm of loitering munitions from a light tactical vehicle, and there's a video of the system in action. Loitering munitions, more commonly known as suicide drones, fill a capability gap between cruise missiles and traditional fixed-wing combat drones by lingering over the battlefield. China is not alone in exploring swarm drone capabilities, but it has made significant strides in recent years.
Dragon flies, eagle crashes at geoeconomic summits - by Pepe Escobar
XI made his case for multilateralism, international cooperation and Global South representation while Trump was absent or golfing
Macron Accuses Russia, Turkey of Promoting Anti-French Sentiment in Africa
President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia and Turkey of seeking to promote anti-French sentiment in Africa by funding people who whip up resentment against France in the media, in an interview published Friday. "We must not be naive on this subject: many of those who speak, who make videos, who are present in the French-speaking media are funded by Russia or Turkey," he told Jeune Afrique magazine, accusing Moscow and Ankara of trying "to play on post-colonial resentment." 🤪🤪🤪
An heiress, a judge and a job: France's Sarkozy goes on trial for corruption
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday accused of trying to bribe a judge and of influence-peddling, one of several criminal investigations that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career.
Mexico says it wants its ex-officials tried in Mexico
Mexico’s foreign secretary said Thursday the country no longer wants officials accused of corruption to be put on trial in the United States, a move that could scale back a tradition that saw most of Mexico’s corruption cases tried north of the border.
Mexico Threatened All U.S. Cooperation Over General’s Arrest
Mexico threatened to cut cooperation with the U.S. after the surprise arrest of its former defense minister in Los Angeles, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday. The U.S. violated a 1992 pact that all investigations on Mexican soil must be shared with the Latin American nation, Ebrard said at a press conference alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “There are two paths. Either this violation of the accord that exists between us is repaired, or we put all cooperation off the table,” Ebrard said. “We just want mutual respect,” Lopez Obrador added.
Some of Switzerland's carbon dioxide emissions are to be offset through projects in Ghana, the Swiss government announced, after concluding a similar deal last month with Peru.
US sidelined as China, Korea and Japan unite (asiatimes)
RCEP may lack clarity but the China-centric trade pact ties three of Asia's four biggest economies closer together than ever.
Xi says China will consider joining TPP (nikkei)
Beijing eyes greater influence in Asia-Pacific through economic integration
The post-national world is quickly coming more into focus (image from "Regional organization")
Obey
"That [we] do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach." — Aldous Huxley
#Culture #History #Economics #Politics #Health #Comedy #Cryptocracy
McMindfulness: “Media Star Monk” Haemin Sunim to Return to Monastic Life in Korea
The well-known South Korean Seon (Zen) monk and best-selling author, Venerable Haemin Sunim, 46, has stated that he will step back from public life after his appearance on a reality TV program led to a public outcry. The strongest criticism of Haemin came from Krocadile Choi, singer for a South Korean heavy metal band: “He is the greediest person that I’ve ever known,” said Choi.
“His meditation app requires in-app purchases. He is making money by ripping off those who are emotionally hurt with sugarcoated words that are far from supportive. All the content in the app is very low quality.” Haemin’s mobile app, Kokkiri, was launched in August 2019 and quickly gained more than 330,000 subscribers.
Hyon Gak, an American monk who lived and studied in South Korea for a number of years before returning to the United States, said of Haemin that “He is merely an actor . . . a parasite who will end up in hell for selling Buddha’s teachings for profits.”
Related: Teaching Mindfulness to McDonalds, The Latest in Military Strategy: Mindfulness
What Ozark Gets Wrong: The Latest Tricks in International Money Laundering
"Running a casino to launder illegal cash is so 1940s."
Global criminal activities generate trillions of dollars in profits. Estimates range from $2 trillion to $11 trillion (about 2-12% of the global GDP), but nobody really knows, since crooks don’t report their incomes. It’s safe to say that counterfeiting, drug sales, gun running, human trafficking and even illegal trade in wildlife generate a massive mountain of cash.
Trouble is, all that cash isn’t really fungible. Illegal cash has to be laundered before it can be used, that is, its illicit origin has to be hidden. And for that you need an accountant.
