Food Security

I read an Opinion piece this morning regarding Open Borders and the heavy migration of people from South and Central America up through Mexico that focused on the New World Screwworm (NWS).  Southern Mexico has been the focus of containing the NWS since its eradication in regions north many years ago.  The column indicated that the barrier was broken by the Cartels who moved both people and livestock northward through that barrier as authorities "looked the other way" due to potential violence and many bribes.

The cattle carrying the NWS were "legitimized" by being placed in Feedyards and on ranches in Mexico.  It was a way of laundering money for the Cartels.  The barrier holding back the NWS was destroyed through that illegal movement of livestock.

The result was that new reservoirs of the NWS were created across northern Mexico which is home to millions of cattle.  Summer winds, wildlife movement and other factors pushed the NWS across the border into Texas.

We will be unable to stop the spread of NWS unless we can stop the Cartels from laundering money through illegal movement of cattle and other livestock into northern Mexico.  Until that is eliminated, reservoirs of the fly will remain just across the border, providing the source of movement despite closing the border to the entry of live cattle into the U.S.

Food Security is National Security.  The NWS threatens a highly pressured segment of our food supply in the impact it has on cattle production.  The opinion expressed by the Columnist was that Border Security, elimination of the Cartels which engage in drug and human trafficking and elimination of their ability to launder money through illegal movement of livestock is a critical component of securing the U.S. against further spread of NWS.

Food Security has been an issue for humans since the beginning of time.  It can be at the individual, family, community or country level.  It was a serious issue for early pioneers as they founded homesteads and towns in their westward movement across the North American Continent.  An interesting example of one solution was to turn the corn and grapes that they raised into alcoholic products that wouldn't spoil.  Those could then be traded to others for food.

Whiskey was a primary way to store corn produced in the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee and Wine provided a way to capture the proteins and carbohydrates from grapes harvested wild in those same environments.  Human ingenuity at its finest.

We have wild Muscadine Grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) growing in the woods on our place.  I doubt that I will be making any wine from them, but I am happy to see them thriving.  With the way things look in this old world, food security might again become a primary issue to individuals.

 AI-driven Dreaming

This morning I awoke from a dream that seemed to be lengthy and intense.  It was as though I was having a long conversation with an expert who was explaining something to me.  He was explaining that we are in a state of electronic warfare on a global scale and went on to describe the various ways that it was playing out and affecting all of us.

We discussed things like isolation from the Internet, shielding of sensitive computer hardware and we talked about AI data centers.  I got the sense that those AI data centers are the weapons of the next phase of the war.  Some will be defensive and some offensive in nature.  They are mostly being located in rural areas due to the threat of conventional or nuclear weapons against them.  Those locations expose smaller segments of the population to the potential collateral damage.

It was just a dream.  It was my mind attempting to make sense of the random information with which we are daily bombarded.  It was a dream that makes sense in the light of day.  Many dreams don't.

As I have mentioned many times, I enjoy dreams and look forward to them.  I believe our minds often do their best work while we dream.  I believe we all dream but some are more tuned to those dreams than others.  Even our dog dreams as he lies down in some of the strangest places.  I wish I could go to sleep and dream as easily as he does.

Telemarketers and Politics

Do you ever have one of those days when you want to go completely off grid?  Yep, I do too.  It's the constant bombardment from telemarketers.  It's "open enrollment" time and the telemarketers are calling 3 or 4 times a day.  Now, they are even sending text messages.  I wonder if the companies funding all of the unsolicited calls will ever figure out that they are wasting their time on me!  There must be enough gullible souls out there that make it worth their while.

It is extremely difficult to be anonymous anymore.  You can't even pay cash for something without them asking for a phone number or, e-mail address.  Society is just a small step away from requiring your fingerprint, or some other form of permanent identification in order to do anything.  It seems there is something in the book of Revelation about that.

Some would argue that "if you have nothing to hide, what difference does it make?"  My response is that it is a matter of freedom.  If your every movement is tracked, you are not free, merely an animal in a cage to be exploited by your masters.  I suppose there are enough people who prefer a state of dependence to the risks of freedom; that's why the voters keep sending the same people back to Washington.

Personally, I would prefer to take my chances without their "nanny state" control.  Let me make my own choices with how I spend my money and my time.  I'm willing to take some physical risks if it means not being subjected to "police state-like" conditions at airports and courthouses.  Have you noticed that the heaviest security measures are in place to protect the lawmakers?  Think about that for a minute.  Why are they so concerned for their own security?  Perhaps they think "their subjects" will be upset when they eventually become wise to the fact they are "subjects" and not free citizens.

So, how did I get from telemarketers to security around the lawmakers?  Do you really think your Senators and Representatives get bombarded with telemarketers all day long?  I feel certain their phone numbers are kept out of the lists they sell to the companies that are making the calls.  Come to think of it, most of the telemarketers are selling insurance.  Now, I wonder whose pocket the lawmakers are in....