This is what a forest often looks like. In a cultivated forests, trees get felled once they reach maturity, but new forest grows or is planted to take their place.
Last year, I visited Finland twice. Once in the winter, another time at the time at the turn of late spring to summer. I took many video clips during those trips, in hopes of turning them into backdrops for commentary videos, politics, phenomena and such, material for creative works by what would become PlanktonPunkt Designs. At that point, I was not yet certain what my business would be, whether it was social media creation, print on demand, artist/author, or some hybrid of some or all of this, or more. I still have not processed most of my material from Finland, but here are a couple of clips, unstabilized but trimmed and muted.
This video material is of Finnish forest in February. These particular clips are from when I visited my forest plot to plan sale of timber and to get photographic and video material for PlanktonPunkt Designs. Some of the photos taken that day have since made it onto print on demand products. Hopefully, there will be many sales in the future, once folks find my designs online. Or when my trees have grown into sale size without getting killed by moose, insects, fungi, or bad weather.
Maybe I will one of these years even find time to do a voice over for some short presentation and even post the results on YouTube. Meanwhile, I am planning on taking screenshots so as to get more raw material for print on demand designs. I think there might be something in some of these or the rest of the February videos that could be processed for a Christmas season. If not for this year, maybe for next year.
1990s were interesting times. Soviet Union collapsed and so did European Exchange Rate Mechanism. These events together ushered a massive economic slump for Finland (and presumably many other countries), 25% official unemployment and breadlines, wave of bankruptcies (many unnecessary if nicer policies were followed, but the banksters and politicians, eager to please EU and BIS, see Koiviston Konklaavi, smelled blood on water and mass looting of SMEs and even bigger corporations ensued), and uptick in mortality as heart attacks and suicides increased among the formerly stable bourgeoisie.
The ERM collapse was caused by years of fiscal mismanagement, which gave Soros Quantum Fund an opening to make massive profits by killing national economies. Third world countries had been a prey for decades, but now Soros and Druckenmiller attacked first world countries. The Global Trap had an exciting description what happened on European scale, and after reading in in Finnish, I was not surprised when Euro followed, as an attempt to create a currency that could not be shaken by some passing Soros (plot spoiler: they failed, as proven by EU debt crisis in early 2010s). Having followed popular economics since 1990s, it was therefore a slightly alarming news, when Bessent was named our Secretary of Treasury. But I was willing to give him a benefit of doubt, maybe we needed the killer of British Pound to fight the US economy, or at least the US Treasury, out of death spiral.
It seems that the coming death of US dollar will be the crowning achievement of Bessent, maybe to the joy of his former boss, but if the analysis in this post is correct, it will come with a twist. I would not have imagined a looting on such breathtaking scale, but if the premise is correct and the current administration manages to privatize international dollars flows, or even a substantial fraction of them onto privately held stable coin issuer platform, I’d call it the heist of the century.
The heist of the previous century being the founding of Federal Reserve bank, and their notes, which the supplanted gold and silver by Roosevelt’s orders and lost gold backing by Nixon’s orders, when USD moved to petrodollar standard. Which is now cracking, because US military and economy can no longer enforce dollar trade of oil, up to 20% of which anyways is stuck in Strait of Hormuz, for reasons that may or may not be related to the economic collapse of US of A, while flows from Russia are being constrained by war in Eurasia. And even if there were sudden outbreak of peace on Earth and goodwill between people, so much of the processing and transport infrastructure has been destroyed that refined products would be in shortage for years (I’m pessimist and believe that repairs will take longer than advertised.)
Backed by full faith and credit of U.S. government. Although cents are no longer minted. And with inflation progressing I expect nickels to follow some years later.
Used to belong to my father. On another continent. Out of registry, since it would not have passed government inspection. And by the time I took my photos last year, definitely immobile, at least without a tow truck.
This is a short and silent art video I had been planning to make for a while, based on one photo.
My crawl though murkier parts of internet brought me to the subject of Water Wars, that is: who gets to decide who gets water?
While the subject has been surfacing my feeds in waves as new item or old opinion makes splashes, I thought the post behind the link above to be a nice summary of many of he main points.
One of the voices for monitoring and monetizing the access to water is WEF. On private sector, the role of Nestle in various water related controversies in Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe have been reported. But surely privatization will work this time, right? People joke about communism, as in “but this time it will be different”, but I have noticed exactly the same issues with capitalism. In the end, it does not matter whether the central command is the Chairman of the Politburo or the Chairman of the Board, access to resources will become a dialogue between the oppressor and the oppressed. By inference, the only way to prevent the water distribution from becoming a tool of dictatorship is to maintain local control over access.
AI, of course, is now part of the mix, and it does not give me warm and fuzzy feelings that they are often prioritized over people. I suspect many of the local water crises only happened once a data center was added to the drinkers. But every crisis will be exploited to justify control, not only locally but globally. Just last month we were told that world is entering water bankruptcy. We know water is scarce in Sahara, Arizona and Mongolia. However, Canada and Sweden have plenty of water, and most countries should have reasonable rainfall levels, though politicians may do their best to worsen the situation. For example, despite nearly double snowpack on Sierras 2019, political decisions were made and California told residents not to water lawns. So even though UN acknowledges water scarcity is unevenly distributed, and even locally, like in UK, I think the shortfall is due to bad politics and mismanagement, possibly even profiteering, rather than actual environment, I suspect the control grid will be global.
At which point, I would extrapolate from central command to the dangers of central command at hands of anti-humanist ideologies of WEF, technocratic dreams of Club of Rome and John Maynard-Keynes (and his followers), not to mention the trans-humanist tendencies of technocracy (some of who are prioritizing AI not as a tool for wealth but as a stepping stone for a manmade god to rule the stupid biological masses in their controlled hives). The publicly allowed zeitgeist seems to clearly wish there were fewer of us and people are without censorship and overtly talking what should be done about it, calling for ‘sustainable development’.
Helped by the swarms of opportunists rushing to exploit the chaos caused by the disruption, the technocrats hope to push their anti-human control and wealth extraction agendas through (regardless of the consequences to environment, environmentalism being just pretext.)
Lil’ PlanktonPunkt needs water to survive. Lil’ PlanktonPunkt does not like that another vital resource is taken over by the wealthy and the powerful behind paywall. Lil’ PlanktonPunkt remembers years ago in a faraway land everybody had access to water and swimming and fishing (angling was mostly free, nets required fishing license.) If you wanted water piped into your home and then out of it, you had to pay for municipal water authorities. Water bills were not really an issue, or maybe Lil’ PlanktonPunkt just does not remember. Some supermarkets had free well water for customers to refill their containers if they did not like the chemical taste of municipal pipe water. City slickers, of course, were obligate users of municipal water and sewer services. Today, on another continent, authorities decide if you are allowed to drill a well on land you own and if you are allowed to water your fields from that well, and there are places where storing rain water that fell on your roof for watering your garden into too many barrels requires a permit. But then there are fights over whether you are allowed to grow a garden, on land you own. And that is not even including laws requiring registered seeds. PlanktonPunkt worries about food. And access to water.
Running water and bird song, 2025 May 30th, Muhos, Finland
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I wandered into a video about why Finland sucks. Some I agree, some I don’t, but I put a longish comment there and decided to republish it with some modifications and additions.
The downward turn of Finland became a point of no return at EU membership.
The money circulating in economy now goes to Brussels and multinational corporations operating under international rules, while Finnish economy is being strangled by EU directives designed to favor the looting of peripheral provinces like Finland. Everything else is downstream symptoms of this colonialism.
Including chopping state services like electric grid, elder care, and soon common water resources, for sale to international bidders (which I suspect to happen because the administrative and tax structures are heavily stacked against those domestic enterprises that do not use tax sandwiches and cheap foreign labor.)
Using regulatory capture via EU is a modified version of standard globalist modus operandi, sending economic hitmen to subvert national governments to facilitate their countries looting. Here it is a supranational structure operating under severe democracy deficit that functions as a middleman and a fig leaf of legitimacy to borderless looting. After quick googling, I got the impression EU itself seems to consider the political legitimacy a perception issue, i.e., the system may get (cosmetic?) changes and the EU subjects might be probagandized more, if the issue becomes more relevant to the powers that be.
Among other economic issues, the video mentioned refugees, which in case of Finland was a GDP Ponzi scheme coordinated at EU level. In general, the whole multiculturalism is just a marketing term used by elites pushing for their ‘remedies’ to economies that are already underperforming because of the epic looting that has been going for a long time.
The real original reason for the refugee business was at first ‘tax payers are not breeding, let’s import more labor’ (and charge the public purse cost plus for integration services by well-connected providers, which, surprisingly, have zero incentives to run out of people to provide integration services for). If nobody paid for the great social benefits to them (AKA the immigration industrial complex) the immigrants would go somewhere else. As would the integration service providers siphoning this money.
In California, we have a massive homeless industrial complex, with more and more tax money collected to subsidize more and more homeless services serving more and more homeless. Now people have began asking evaluation of results, even audits to find where 20 billion dollars (20 * 10^9 $$$) paid over 5 years went.
Then, when the newcomers did not get employed (the economy was still sick due to looting, and using the ‘integration services’ rather than job opportunities as a bait attracts different cohorts of immigrants), the rationale began to shift towards consumer headcount method of economy – more consumers mean more economic activity.
Except to pay for the new army of unemployed, the successive Finnish governments needed to borrow more money, cut other services and pay taxes. Which did not increase economic productivity but increased money in circulation while shifting it from pocket to pocket. Which means inflation and rising unemployment. But at least the economic numbers were manipulated to the EU standards using approved methodologies.
I don’t know what the next phase of immigration will be, but I would be surprised if it worked better than the previous two phases. Finland, I think, is still in the first phase but beginning to have doubts about it (I might be wrong because I don’t follow Finnish media that much any more.)
Slightly expanding on the subject, I think NATO’s current whining for war is just the grand finale in the leveraged buyout of nation states like Finland. The EU cash cows have been milked out of all the profits a peacetime economy can provide, let’s sell them to meatpackers. The military industrial complex, the war bond markets (large parts of Ukraine have been put as collateral for the loans required to continue the war against Russia), the reconstruction contracts, the overall firesale of the desperate (or dead) people’s resources for cheap to multinational investors. Finland is, of course, eager to go against traditional enemy, thinking that NATO will help them or that they will help NATO, or something.
TLDR: Finland is just a case example what happens to once stable and prosperous countries once EU gets to rule them. I suspect that once looting Finland with just current methodology is no longer cost effective, it will be one of the assets to be liquidated in the war against Russia.
Economic low pressure over remaining small businesses, a metaphor.
Checking photos of Finland to best illustrate the situation, I think this is better than one of the runners up, a dead tree full of concs.
Here is a sky darkened by rain clouds and a thin line of trees, cosmetically around a road rest spot, but no trees behind them. To the right was a rain drenched bog with sparse, stunted pines.
It could be that the line of trees surrounds a farm (those are also usually under heavy regulatory and financial burdens), but thin lines of trees can be seen standing between roads and clear cut openings all over Finland. Such a line could be easily considered a metaphor for cosmetic ‘Happiest Country Statistics’ masking over the remnants of Finland’s economy, while behind spread ploughed through clear cut openings, that would be the real state of Finlands economy. And the dark clouds of global economic collapse and war are looming.
Nearly slipped by me – apparently it is no longer 24th of June (6 months from Christmas Eve, on St. John’s Day) but by government edict on Saturday closest to Summer Solstice. So, this year Friday, 19th of June is Juhannusaatto, a Midsummer Eve’s celebration in that peculiar country.
An example of June 19th flowers in Berkeley, CA
National traditions of Midsummer Eve include retreat to country cottage, preferably along lake or sea shore, having a barbeque (hot dogs and chicken are popular, pork and fish, and more rarely beef work, too), having a communal bonfire party and/or more private sauna are also typical, as is getting drunk. Government typically publishes PSAs warning about traffic accidents (due to the massive exodus emptying cities to summer cottages, some drivers already under influence) and boating accidents or other forms of drowning (don’t drink and boat, or drink and swim.)
My photos today are from urban California, so the Finnish lake video with swaying birch branches and sunlight glimmering on water (taken on late May, not on Midsummer Eve) is from last year.
I have been trying to make long neglected video and GIF media, and spring birches are a very typical Finnish subject, young leaves, sunshine and long branches swaying in wind. And in case of my videos, in artefacts caused by the stabilization program in my phone. I don’t own a gimbal and walking around with tripod seems an imperfect solution, so my videos tend to be wonky.
2026, March 14th, Berkeley, CA
The leaves here are much more mature than they would be in March in Finland (which usually still has snow on the ground around this time of year, though beginning to melt away – the Finnish word for March is Maaliskuu, indicating that this would be the month for bare ground after the winter.)
I have been out of synch for a while, but today I realized that it is Shrove Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras. In Finland, this day is known as laskiaistiistai, and people used to go on laskiainen downhill sledding (alternatively on laskiaissunnuntai, February 15th this year) and eat laskiaispulla which is sweet wheat bun cut like a burger but filled with whipped cream and marzipan or berry jam. Then begins lent and after that it is again Easter.
Being unprepared, did not eat laskiaispulla, and would not have time for a day of downhill sledding, even if Berkeley weather would have allowed it (hint, there is no snow, though it was hailing a bit.) But I have a number of video clips, some maybe presentable, waiting to be processed and their fates decided, and last weekend I discovered an October 19th, 2025 squirrel eating ginkgo fruit that would be fun to post. While not exactly topical to this religious celebration, here it is, anyways.
I was surprised last year that ginkgo fruits are yellow.
Maybe that should not have been surprising, as their autumn leaves are also yellow.
Too drained to work on long posts, I’d like to comment that purple magnolias have began to bloom, as have fruit trees (of plum, cherry, etc. variety – nispero blooms I have seen weeks ago, and citruses seem to flower year around.) Maybe I’ll post a photo or two, but here is a gif of sunlight flickering against redwood trunk, December 06th, 2025.
December 6th is the Finnish Independence Day, though they have amended their constitution so that they are members of EU.
Moreover, soon after the war in Ukraine flared up in 2022, and Finland also joined NATO. I don’t know what the current stance of the Finnish government is, but lately the Finnish media seemed to be on Denmark’s side against USA over Greenland despite NATO (US) having full use of Finnish military bases, at least as far as I could tell. The two officers Finland sent to Greenland returned back, mission over. Finnish news feeds are back to Russia and Ukraine, though recent headlines are mentioning possible peace negotiations. Hopefully, there will be peace soon, though I would not quite optimistic yet.
What may have motivated the peace negotiations is the parlous shape of Western economies, meaning our ability to finance wars is becoming limited. I would prefer a peace treaty over total economic collapse as a method for ending that dreadful war, though.
Long time no write. I got employed (at will, contract until the end of November) and have been working since last week’s Monday. Still learning the ropes, enough of that.
Federal government
Secretary of War, Hegseth, had called all generals, 1-star and up for an all hands meeting. This includes those who have ‘active situations’ going. Very unusual. The rumors online ranged from imminent intensification of WWIII, invasion of Venezuela, an alien arrival, a complete reorganization of US military, or mass lay offs to clean out our top heavy military organization chart. The official explanation was pep talks telling the armed forces to merit base up, go on diet, and concentrate on learning how to efficiently win wars rather than having rainbow events and PC talk. It is generally thought that the pep talks were a cover for something else, though what that might be is unknown to public.
The mass lay offs in military would have dovetail nicely with the threatened imminent mass lay offs of Federal bureaucracy in general, due to government shutdown, because congress cannot (again) pass a budget, or as the case has been for quite a few years, a continuing resolution. Trump has been itching to take a machete or a flamethrower at our bureaucratic jungle and to cut our budget deficit (our current Federal debt has ballooned since the summer 36 trillion to today’s over 37.5 trillion and keeps rising)or at least the funding to his political opponents. Instead of putting the Federal workers on furlough with back pay when the continuing resolution has been passed, the president proposes to simply fire the non-essentials (or a fraction of them) to reduce Federal complexity and expenses. Considering the recent increase in debt levels, methinks, this is an opportunity for a political purge, any savings would be incidental.
This is, of course, ‘to combat the illegal immigration’ (much encouraged by successive Labour and Tory governments alike.) Exactly how the UK government believes forcing digital ID on people who do not use even paper IDs is going to help, but I think the digital ID for legitimate, as in taxable, work and other economic activity will collapse what is left of UK finances. Or the people will revolt (though at this point I think that less likely than finding metabolically active extraterrestrial life.) In any case, immigrants without ID could presumably still access welfare and healthcare, even if they cannot work legally.
While I unfortunately did not find a reference, I recall that during COVID, Sweden discussed banning cash, but the government retreated when they realized that large enough fraction of of their economy functioned on informal basis to sink the rest of the economy(sarskillt utsetta omraden would have exploded or become even less governable than currently. While the White Hall may know their people better than I and are banking on them being hopelessly obedient (rebels having left during 17th and 18th century), lots of White Hall mandarins are clueless elites that live separate from normal life and consequences of their actions.
In South Korea, there was a big fire in a government data center, which crippled many of the government services, including things requiring digital ID. The fire started from a lithium battery (the batteries were being replaced because they were getting old) and it is unknown how much actual data the South Korean government lost.
While I was anticipating hackers having a fiesta with people’s IDs online, and rolling blackouts and other such infrastructure misery making them unpracticable (the Indian Aadhar system has reportedly led to deaths by starvation due to lack of access to government social security), I had forgotten about the vulnerability of the data centers. TietoEVRY, which is a major PPP contractor for various data base services to Finnish government (including the election vote results, at least once in collaboration with Scytl when still known as TietoEnator) managed to years ago (when it was known just as Tieto) totally mess up multiple Swedish databases. Considering this and the South Korean example, I expect any digital ID to result in Kafkaesque nightmare for the subjects and massive confusion and potentially paralyzing dysfunction to the governments. But perhaps that is not a bug but a feature – maybe it will allow greater variety for financial oppression while reducing the citizens’ ability to defend themselves against the governmental predators, the profits of which are then calculated to outweigh the cost of national collapses.
Local news
California has on November 4th special elections about redistricting. The cost estimates range from 250+ to 280+ million dollars, that is over quarter of billion dollars to invest on Democrats (maybe) taking Congress (and US budget.) Nevertheless, as a California tax payer, I am annoyed. I have gotten two mailings of official election information. I suppose that is my tax dollars at work.
War and Troubles
Drone attacks and air space violations of NATO countries are intensifying. Involved parties: at least Poland, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, and, of course, Russia and Ukraine. I probably have missed countries – these days the news come too fast for me to follow. Also who did what to whom is unclear, including to many of the targets. Meanwhile, I am more worried about cyber attacks and domestic terrorists.
There are many other items I could write about, but there is no time.
Butterfly on a flower, flew away. Life does not need to be so grim all the time.
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