The Post-Partisan Emporium

  Saudi Water Battle in Arizona A prelude to future resource conflicts? JOHN KLAR (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) An ongoing kerfuffle over alleged Saudi water withdrawals from Arizona to grow alfalfa highlights the complexity of competition for increasingly scarce – and thus valuable – water for crops and residential uses. Revelations about gargantuan volumes of water withdrawn at little cost by a Saudi company to grow hay for export have sparked a passionate dispute that extends outside America’s third-driest state to California and other water-pressed jurisdictions. Water for Saudi Arabia The  Saudi  connection stems from a company named Fondomonte, which reputedly has been withdrawing unlimited amounts of water from lands it leases for merely $25 per acre: The value of the water extracted far exceeds the rent paid. Fondomonte is allegedly growing alfalfa year-round on its 3,500 Arizona acres to ship off to other countries – like China. Outcries of foul play have re...

  Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius John Michael Greer These days I hear a lot of people talking about whether it’s possible to change the world, and if so, how to go about it. It’s understandable that this should be so, since the world around us is such a steaming mess.  Nor, despite the bleatings of true believers in progress, is it getting better.  Quite the contrary, for most people in the modern industrial world—and especially here in the United States—conditions have been getting worse for decades. “Under the red, white, and blue” used to mean something else Yes, I know this is a controversial thing to say just now, at least in some circles. It’s not just that the Biden administration has been shouting at the top of its collective lungs that the economy is doing just fine—Biden’s rich friends are raking in big bucks, after all, so what’s your problem?—and brandishing carefully massaged statistics to suit.  It’s not even that corporate media flacks are mindlessly mouth...

  THE U.S. NAVY IS UNPREPARED FOR A PROLONGED WAR WITH YEMEN by  Larry Johnson   Aegis Missile Defense System It looks like the United States, along with 9 allies — Great Britain, Italy, Bahrain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain — are on the verge of entangling itself in a new Middle East quagmire as an international armada assembles in the international waters around Yemen. The mission? Stop Yemen from threatening cargo and oil tankers headed to Israel. Tiny Yemen has surprised the West with its tenacity and ferocity in attacking ships trying to ferry containers and fuel to Israel. Yes, this is a violation of international law and the West is fully justified in trying to thwart Yemen. On paper it would appear that Yemen is outnumbered and seriously outgunned. A sure loser? Not so fast. The U.S. Navy, which constitutes the majority of the fleet sailing against Yemen, has some real vulnerabilities that will limit its actions. Before explaining ...

Corona, climate narrative and opportunity costs After the first vaccination campaigns in the corona pandemic, it was reasonable to assume that people would ask themselves questions after the third, fourth or, at the latest, after the fifth vaccination. But this rational assumption cannot be applied when we are dealing with a faith-based model. In fact, the opposite is true. Anyone who got Covid after the initial double vaccination could have told themselves the vaccination doesn’t work, so I can go without it in future. However, after three years, many vaccinations, lockdowns and countless masks, it is now very difficult to ‘opt out’. The opportunity costs are high because you would then have to admit that you had been fooled for years. The climate narrative is very similar. We had the naïve assumption that the appeal “Eat bugs to avoid emissions” would cause believers to pause a moment and ask questions. But it didn’t happen. Many people have internalized the new end-of-the-world prop...