this may be why so many seious thinkers no longer bother even visiting this site..it hasbecome worse than IRRELEVANT..

it has become warped by the repeat repeat repeat commentators taking up space because they Think their repeated views Should rule or predominate here ?

see crazyinventor
see nobody
seethe same names proliferating and thus contaminating what was
said to be a populist popular folk freespeech site
not just the Few, rich or poor, running their words over every topic !

INDY site: please monitor and take back control
or you are swarmed into extinction or irrelevance

this has repeated for more than a yearor two or more and
no one even cares ?

some of us who previously did care Re now gone
forever
even if noone else cares
typical
L A

sad

I added a new comment system that exists alongside the current comments. This is called "babcom" and is based around Sone and Freenet. It's an experiment.

Freenet is a network of computers that pass encrypted files around. All requests are anonymized, as are all identities. So when you read comments through babcom, not only does IMC not know you're reading them, most of Freenet is not aware that you're reading it, including the computer that sends the comments to you.

The integration is a bit ugly, but it's experimental.

Freenet is full of many pages and blogs and sites created by smart people interested in politics. It also contains a lot of horrible garbage as well - but you won't get any of that unless you seek it out.

Additionally, this comment system has a "trust" system, so if someone posts a comment you dislike, you can click the red "X" and their posts will vanish from your pages. Not only that, but people may also automatically follow your lead and drop the person.

To read these comments, you need to install and run Freenet, then get the Web of Trust and Sone plugins. Look through the pages under the "Discussion" menu, and you'll find a link to Sone that explains how to install it.

of course this does nothing to address those that keep changing pseudonyms..

I asked for a way to register on here years ago and have repeated that request several times over a 12 year period on here.

I've only changed my pseudonym once during that time (used to be 'hex')

If the OP does a search, "site: la.indymedia.org hex" along with "site: la.indymedia.org crazy_inventor"
the OP will become aware that _I've always been here_, far beyond 'more than a yearor two'


the site had been over-run with shills, hasbara agents, freepers and 'special needs' OP's for well over 10 years.

the continued mere comments (which can already be ignored) of FACTS and DATA has helped reduce their spam, but really IMC's decline I attribute to two things:

1.) blogs, which have rendered this kind of venue obsolete

2.) failure to syndicate issues that matter. soft-peddling, fluff pieces, establishment media echo chambering, foundation values & goals, which, as more & more people are becoming poor, has less & less relevance to thier life.

IMC's are dying everywhere - many in the left margin listing, aren't even there anymore - they're dead links..

the issues we're dealing with today are drought without end, migration/evacuation of the west coast, rising seas/coastal flooding, climate chaos and collapse of industrial civilization, the 6'th great extinction.


NONE of these issues are given ANY exposure here EXCEPT in the comments


..the real world is leaving IMC behind - the 'special needs' OP's whining notwithstanding

....right up your alley...so to speak...

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/10/17/Lawsuit-Man-awoke-from-surgery-in-pink-panties/4271413554893/?spt=sec&or=on

hey why don't you install freenet and comment only through it, so we can click X, and miss out on your wonderful, fabulous, spectacular, enchanting, entrancing, stellar, tubular, informative, earth shattering, leading edge, ahead of the times, groundbreaking, sublime, astute observations -

..like _other_ grown men in pink panties, you were drawn to like flies on shit

"drought without end, migration/evacuation of the west coast, rising seas/coastal flooding, climate chaos "

and it's the job of our dedicated spook, hex, to gatekeep, highjack and load uncomfortable threads with off topic side Bull Shit.
Like global climate 'change' or 'warming' bullshit...

there ^ it is

If you look at the long-term trend, it's been toward allowing more anonymity or at least instant posting, and away from registration. We discussed registration for a few years - it seemed like the magic bullet - but what happened was registration started to go away. So we dropped the registration idea.

The latest innovation is "burner" which creates an account that doesn't need to be kept.

Also, blog software came out, and energy went toward that. For the average person, facebook and twitter have consumed more time, leaving less time for things like indymedia. For the more professional journalist, the ground has shifted considerably because 1. wages have declined, 2. the number of progressive news venues has increased, and 3. the big players are being decimated.

So, the payoff of using IMC has declined: access to the mainstream has broadened a little bit more, and the opportunities to publish have increased. Established nonprofits use Huffington Post, which gets more readers, pays nothing, and appears legit.

Writers seeking to be established have new venues ranging from Think Progress, TruthDig, Truth Out, Daily Koz, and FDL... all the way to the Gawker sites, and Vice sites... and now Buzzfeed.

Not surprisingly, these slick multi-million dollar operations try to pay peanuts, but some do pay.

What's missing is tools to do real street-level organizing. This is a whole other thing - the news matters, but organizing is about making new relationships and creating organizations and projects. That's a big gap. (The original IMC software actually did more along those lines, with calendars and a directory of organizations.)

There are real deficits in today's organizing culture as well. The country is "hot" - ready to organize and fight - but it hasn't pushed much beyond Occupy Wall Street.

You *can* organize on the corporate social media - but you have to really put yourself out there as an activist, and take risks, and have a clear vision, which I don't really have.

At the same time, it's critical to also build parallel lists via email and other venues to preserve autonomy.

Thoughts?

It's hard to monitor and moderate. That's what makes the big sites successful - good moderation to keep out the loonies. But it's inherently hard to do this because it costs money.

The thing that makes this IMC work is that the LA community posts things, even if it's just sporadically. We also have great collective members who go to events and photograph and write.

BTW - I forgot to mention the other big competitor is LA Progressive. Of all the venues out there, that's one of the better ones. There's also Random Lengths and the Free Association of Anarchists zine, both interesting.

The model that is emerging and working is the politicized local community paper and website that's a group blog. It's not "emerging" so much as re-emerging, the way it did when the offset press emerged. The money is lousy, but it seems to exist.

The Freenet box below is like a portal to a different community of commenters. I'm hoping some of them come here, and some of the people reading here try Freenet.

Freenet has identities.

It has "web of trust" so people tend to have to be friendly to each other, or lose trust.

Freenet has a whole system of "flogs" to publish articles, and a file sharing system to trade files.

the real concern are shills and hasbara operatives along with corporate apologists, hopium peddlers, business-as-usual cranks, and status quo loonies

from this perspective the entire landing page is nothing but these types of stories. every media venue you mentioned are all establishment, foundation funded and push the framing and values of the billionaires who bankroll them, while ignoring real issues I've already mentioned

on the blog THESE are the things we talk about :

drought without end, migration/evacuation of the west coast, rising seas/coastal flooding, climate chaos and collapse of industrial civilization, the 6'th great extinction.

(in reverse order)

there's an on-going struggle between people saying everyone's to blame so don't single anyone out, and people like me who want to see the banksters / 'masters of the universe', war criminals, CEO's, billionaires, fossil fools and PR people's heads on pikes.

We're pelted with posts trying to distract from holding these people accountable, in various ways, but there's a good percentage of regulars who's sentiments are with the heads on pikes side of the issue

such thoughts and talk frightens all the venues you mentioned (including this one) and is either ignored or actively suppressed. and this is where moderation rears it's ugly head - the classic troll is inconsequential, it's radical thoughts and talk that represents a threat to TPTB

so we're missing both exposure and dialogue of real issues AND the actual sentiments of the working class

since the rich are conducting unprecedented class warfare on us, to have this vital paradigm MIA in so-called progressive media spaces is disempowering of the very people, and of the very concerns that need addressing the most

likewise with the complete lack of environmental awareness, examples of which are 'protesting' for 'solutions' to water which isn't coming, because of the larger core issue of AGW, which is also being ignored.

these venues get more out of touch with the real world everyday

people are already dealing with impacts of climate chaos even locally in LA, so more & more of their time & energy is being spent on these physical realities, while the content and selection of stories keeps drifting further & further away from the problems in actual people's lives.

and this trend is accelerating exponentially

in a year the water situation will be so severe you'll no longer be able to pretend it's not happening or that you can protest your way to a solution

then there's the condition of the ocean and sealife. We're seeing alarming reports of millions of dead animals, huge declines in populations, including increasing radioactive contamination of the water, but not a whisper of any of this is seen on the landing page nor in the syndication feeds..

more head-in-the-sand out-of-touch faux progressivism..

the real problems that shall not be named

this is the core reason for IMC's decline - it's simply so out of touch with the real world, and getting more so everyday

On the blog we've gone past even being surprised anymore about the latest reports, to the acceptance and hospice stage - quite some time ago

but here, you're not even in the "aware there's a problem" stage yet

even some of the venues you listed are further along the awareness curve than here - at least some of them are somewhat tracking the latest developments on the climate front, some even starting to address the methane bomb..

but here there's essentially no climate awareness at all - the closest I've seen so far is protesting over who gets water _which isn't coming anyway_

we've gone past looking at the data, measurements and projections, and are discussing the best ways to adapt to this erer-worsening adverse future

while you haven't even acknowledged the data, measurements and projections yet

and the west coast is the first area to be severely impacted! with Miami following, then the east coast, including NYC, then all of south florida

all within a few decades

I get the strong impression you people think that if you just wait it out a little longer, rains will return and everything will go back to normal

it's not going to happen - the data shows the drought will just keep getting worse & worse, without end

the entire southwest, then here in the midwest too. eventually the entire country. and the process is accelerating

waiting & ignoring will NOT make it go away

this issue should be the first thing people see on the front page in huge banner letters

with 'start migrating now' right under it

this is already happening, and it's the working class that it's starting with. so they're packing their possessions and moving away. they check la-imc one last time before they go -

"nope still nothing about it..

what good are they?"

and THERES your declining web traffic

Our resident troll, crazy_inventor, continues to extol the danger of an operation designed to produce climate havoc.
Look up
Operation Cloverleaf
This pompous asshole then denies the very instrument of these weather wars.
And will pound a thread with every sort of phoney science to assail discussion to the contrary.
With a little help from a certain IMC collaborator.

yeah see that drought chart is fake too, as was the methane hot spot right above that

- but Operation Doubt Merchant is doing fine


Clean Energy Under Siege

The oil industry has spent millions working to discredit renewable energy.

"The fossil fuel industry is not only waging an attack on renewable energy in the political sphere through immense financial contributions to elected officials, but they are also funding a "concerted, covert misinformation campaign." Through faux “think tanks,” phony intellectuals, and industry-backed front groups masquerading as “concerned citizens,” the industry is seeking to shift public opinion and discredit renewable energy."


Fossil fuel interests are working through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to repeal state clean energy mandates, called Renewable Portfolio Standards.

New Report Follows Money Trail Behind Attacks on Clean Energy


http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/downloads/SierraClub-CleanEnergyUnderSiege.pdf

"Over the past decade, renewable energy's strong growth and success has made it a target for unprecedented new attacks from oil, coal, and gas interests.

Iowa and South Dakota generate 20 percent of their electricity from wind power

In their book, Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway describe a methodology that has grown alongside controversial public policy issues designed to influence public opinion and policymakers in favor of a certain conclusion.

The method they describe in detail was largely funded by corporate interests and right-wing think tanks with financial ties to the issues in question.

Growing from its infancy amid the 1950s and ‘60s cigarette debates, through the legislative process on acid rain resulting in the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, the international agreement on stratospheric ozone depletion in the Montreal Protocol, and reaching new heights during the consideration of global warming legislation, the “Merchants of Doubt” strategy sought to achieve its goals by undermining the credibility of traditional scientific research, substituting its own scientific conclusions — valid or not — and aggressively discrediting government action in almost all of its forms.

Further, it often articulated its arguments through entities that disguised the true nature of who was making the argument and why .

It is a testament to the growth and development of both energy efficiency and renewable-energy industries that the riflescope of the “Merchants of Doubt” strategy is now focused on clean energy.


The attacks on clean energy have come in a variety of venues.

Some House Republicans took a poor decision to grant a single loan guarantee to Solyndra and used it to indict clean energy broadly as a reckless investment.

Conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity have tried to rally Tea Party activists against wind power and energy efficiency.

Corporate advocacy groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council have targeted state renewable-electricity standards for repeal.

Many of these entities are attacking incentives such as the highly successful renewable-energy Production Tax Credit for wind energy as an unwarranted government subsidy at the same time as they defend giveaways for oil and gas, stay silent about them, or support deceptive bills that purport to end all energy subsidies but fail to attack entrenched benefits for fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Are these connected?

By following the money trail and the energy interests behind it, we have to conclude that the answer is yes."



And now following the talking points:

(the Brookings Institution is the source (so lets check them out first), which also starts out by saying "less Americans are concerned about global warming than 5 years ago")

The Brookings Institution, whose predecessor was founded in 1918 by Robert Brookings, was probably the first think tank in the USA.

Enjoying close ties with Rockerfeller and Carnegie, Brookings played an important role in the emergence of the political-lobbyist strand of philanthropy which funds much of the right-wing think-thank ecosystem today."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brookings_Institution

Funding:

Exxon Mobil Corporation
Chevron Corporation
Shell Oil Company
BP America Inc.
ConocoPhillips
Marathon Oil Company Foundation
Honda North America, Inc.
Ford Motor Company Fund
GE Foundation


and now the Brookings Institution sourced talking points:

"some green initiatives have turned out to be more damaging to the environment than the status quo. For example, ethanol is seen as a renewable fuel; and thus, those involved in its manufacture have green jobs. But refining ethanol can actually emit more greenhouse gases than gasoline."

catch the slight-of-hand in that talking point? "emit more greenhouse gases than gasoline" - we're looking at all FOSSIL CARBON with gasoline, and the talking point also ignores the purpose behind adding ethanol to motor fuel - for them to run cleaner and generate less pollution including nitrous oxide, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, and that the alternative additives are all much more expensive and toxic.


Brookings found “the vast majority of clean economy jobs produce goods or services that protect the environment or reduce pollution in ways that have little to do with [renewable] energy or energy efficiency.”

As a result, jobs in low-carbon industries, like nuclear power or clean coal are considered “clean"

..and notice the slight-of-hands here: trying to dilute & poison what "clean" means, while also re-framing nuclear & coal "clean" by calling them "low-carbon" while again failing to acknowledge it's FOSSIL carbon that matters.


the rest of the report rales about jobs but this came up:

"using green power may displace the use of coal, oil, and other “dirty” fuels, green jobs will also displace those currently working in the fossil fuel industry."

see what did I tell you - first the think tanks say there isn't really any 'clean' energy, then turn around and say dirty energy isn't really dirty!


"..job losses resulting from the crowding out of less expensive, conventional forms of energy, i.e., replacing a coal plant with a wind farm."


Wind power the cheapest source of energy.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/wind-power-is-actually-cheaper-than-coal-says-leaked-government-report

"for every megawatt hour (MW/h) of electricity generated, onshore wind costs roughly $130 USD per MW/h, compared to gas and coal which can cost up to around $208 and $295 per MW/h, respectively."

(and this takes into account mining, pollution, and the additional adverse health impacts of coal and gas)


ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Nick Sibilla is a research associate at Cascade. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Todd Wynn is Vice President at Cascade Policy Institute. Formerly climate change and energy policy analyst at Cascade, Mr. Wynn received his bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from California State University Long Beach and his master’s in International and Developmental Economics from the University of San Francisco.

The staffer behind ALEC’s energy task force is Todd Wynn . Wynn’s resume is a journeyman’s travelogue through the world of ultra-conservative advocacy .
Wynn’s opposition to wind energy is well documented from his time with the Cascade Policy Institute. Cascade is another example of the “free-market” libertarian groups (much like ALEC) that have popped up across the country . While with Cascade, Wynn wrote reports with titles like, “The Dirty Secret Behind Clean Jobs”

ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force features national and international powerhouses like Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, and the American Petroleum Institute.

NOT IN MY — OR ANYONE ELSE’S — BACKYARD
There is no energy source that can be implemented on a large scale completely free of any environmental impact.

The Sierra Club is fully acquainted with the trade-offs between sources — whether they be water quality, carbon emissions warming the climate, the management of dangerous nuclear waste, or the effect of poorly-sited renewable-energy facilities on avian populations or desert ecosystems.

Similarly, the Sierra Club would always try to distinguish between legitimate conservation and economic concerns about a specific project or site and an across-the-board opposition to wind power.

That separates the conscientious activist from the individual who functions as a paid hatchet man whose intent is to damage renewable energy without regard for its documented economic and environmental benefits


“wind warriors”

The “Merchants of Doubt” strategy keys on the nearly constant generation of misinformation in order to change the terms of the debate.

[Using tactics such as] constantly pushing out tired and inaccurate lines about clean energy being too expensive, unworkable because of intermittency, and the like.

actively working to slow or stop the adoption of renewable energy and efficiency.

spinmeisters who attempt to embed anti-renewable stereotypes in the public mind , and misinformation targeting renewable-energy.

The “Merchants of Doubt” strategy lost — on tobacco, on acid rain, on ozone depletion — and it will ultimately lose on energy that enables us to live modern lives, but which does not carry the destructive costs with which coal and oil use have saddled our planet."


"22 % of the world's power now comes from renewable sources"

The way the front page is created is by getting stories from the newswire, and then making a story for the front page.

The prerequisite is getting someone to write a story for the newswire that is relevant to los angeles.

The only contacts I have who are involved with the issue are Chris from the radio show who does a lot of media about climate, and the folks at Converging Storms action network, which do a class on the issue. They aren't writing stories. I'm sure there are others out there, but I don't know them or of them.

So, hex, maybe you should email some of these people and do some writing for them.

300 words is about what makes a story.

perhaps this might be a solution after-all.
Maybe hex should take its self promotion, pompous attitude of ersatz superiority and phoney science which opportunely promotes the climate fear ad campaign with HUGE amounts of BW and thread space, idiotic cartoons and shit that's just plain made up, to another venue to which it can be generally edited.
Great idea.

climate is a wide scale issue over time, what your talking about are local weather events

by focusing so narrowly you're automaticly excluding climate and framing it as only reacting to weather events already in progress or have happened

which is exactly what the corporate media does - they report on discrete events, after-the-fact, disconnected from eachother and climate in general, without ever looking at the 'big picture'

here are sources that talk about what I would have on the landing page along with suggestions/examples:


http://enenews.com/

04:02 PM EST on October 17th, 2014 | 355 comments
Fukushima nuclear waste detected off U.S. West Coast, from California to Canada — “There is definitely offshore Fukushima cesium now” — Test results will not be revealed to public for several weeks (VIDEO)

09:52 AM EST on October 17th, 2014 | 979 comments
Gov’t: US, Canada hit with “high concentrations” of Fukushima nuclear material; Tremendous impact all over world, enormous public health consequences — West Coast plume was 500% of level requiring NRC be notified — UC Berkeley Prof.: “We did indeed see high… fairly… I mean… some… level of radiation” (AUDIO)

06:22 PM EST on October 15th, 2014 | 556 comments
PBS: Plague along West Coast has biologists fearing extinction of species — Experts: Take your kids to beach and see them before they’re gone; Worst outbreak ever known in the oceans; Catastrophic losses nearly everywhere we’ve been (VIDEO)

07:56 PM EST on October 8th, 2014 | 244 comments
Professors: Fukushima has emerged as global threat — Major health concerns along west coast — Bioaccumulation expected to keep rising for decades — Gov’t failing to inform public of looming long-term radioactive hazard… Instead, official gives tips on how to disguise radiation levels from public (PHOTO)

11:28 PM EST on October 2nd, 2014 | 245 comments
MSNBC: Largest epidemic ever seen in world’s oceans hits West Coast — Emergency legislation proposed in US Congress — Newsweek: Millions dead, researchers have lost count — Experts: It’s beyond anything I ever imagined… Disintegrating before our eyes… Never been an event so dramatic… Shorelines losing biodiversity, blanketed in barnacles (VIDEO)


----------------------------------------------------------

http://arctic-news.blogspot.fr/


Friday, October 17, 2014
U.S. hit by numerous earthquakes

Of the 1495 earthquakes that hit the world over a period of seven days up to October 17, 2014, 05:04:30, UTC, 1404 occured in the map area of the image below.

(the map shows hundreds along the west coast)


- Uplift and seismicity driven by groundwater depletion in central California
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7501/full/nature13275.html


This was the warmest August on record, primarily due to very high Sea Surface Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere."

There is no El Nino event in this period, but some sort of event - hopefully an event not a climate shift - is taking place. If this is an event, the situation will become more normal when it ends, which will be in less than a years time at worst. If it is a climate shift, we are in desperate trouble, though I think it is an event.

It is worth noting that these very high Sea Surface Temperatures are likely to lead to high land temperatures soon, as normally land temperatures in the Northern hemisphere can be expected to exceed Sea Surface Temperatures.

The drought affecting California and the whole of the west of North America, Central America, and large parts of the Brazilian rainforest, though preceding this event was almost certainly down to changes which started before this event but ultimately caused it.

Despite the record high combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for August, the global economy will continue as normal and no specific action can be expected to be taken to curb emissions. This will change, if global temperatures continue to rise. Temperatures are high enough to cause global concern, however."


- EL NIÑO/SOUTHERN OSCILLATION (ENSO) DIAGNOSTIC DISCUSSION, issued by:
Climate Prediction Center/NCEP/NWS and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, 4 September 2014
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.pdf


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https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/


100,000 Wells About to Go Dry? NASA Finds California Drought Removing 4 Trillion Gallons of Water Each Year

Human Hothouse Found to Be California Drought Culprit

NASA Satellites Put California Drought into Shocking Perspective

Crunch Time for California Drought

Drought Cuts California’s Food Exports Sharply

Not One Drop: How Long Will California Survive Without Water?

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the stories I would run here (if we still had an IMC here - which we don't) is "we've been getting almost TOO MUCH rain" the ground in the yard was actually soggy and we're up high on a hill.

about how we have no drought here, ect. which isn't newsworthy, but could be used in a drought story to tell people to migrate here..

Due to the complaints from crazy_inventor, I added a feature to the site that fulfills one of the functions of "user registration" which is to allow people to have a consistent identity. It's called "ID verification", and it appears as a long hex string after your name, like this:

imc-volunteer idVer:324659533317de05378c76587

That hex string is computed from the "author" and "secret" fields.

By using the same author and secret for each post, you'll produce the same idVer value. That verifies you.

It works because someone else won't know your secret. You should pick a secret that isn't a password for any other website. Even though the secret is not stored anywhere, it may be intercepted as it's sent up to the server.

The formula for the secret is like md5(md5(md5(author+secret+salt))).

The salt is an additional value that helps to make it harder to reverse the calculation.

An obvious hack is to paste the author along with the idVer value included. This will result in the author being altered to indicate that you're attempting to spoof the author. See the linked article's comments for an example.

"due to the complaints of hex"

aww that's a mighty negative way of putting it.

really though we haven't seen having much spoofing going on here lately. but it's nice to check out new ways of increasing security, though MD5 is a bit dated..

if I had CUDA you'd be in for a challenge ;)

Ahh, that's a nice trick. I didn't think about using unicode characters that look like the letters in idVer.

I already forgot my secret. Damn.