INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE FROM MIKE RUPPERT
Welcome to FTW’s new blog. Things are happening fast, almost too fast. But for those who have been FTW subscribers for even just a few months, it is difficult not to have the feeling that we have a major head start on events.
This blog is intended to serve as an information-sharing resource as we enter some very tough times. I strongly recommend that those who participate have at least some familiarity with the following: Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil; Denial Stops Here, The Truth and Lies of 9/11, and Wall Street’s War for Drug Money.
There are also many back stories from our archives that will make your participation in this important message board more rewarding. Three of the many I would recommend are Eating Fossil Fuels, Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century and Globalcorp.
The world situation is deteriorating rapidly—we all can see that. What is important is that we accelerate and empower our collective work in the recognition that answers and solutions are not going to be coming from the government, and the only thing we can expect from big business is more of the same inertia that is leading the human race towards the collapse of civilization and the precipice of extinction.
But the better-than-expected good news is that individuals and communities all over the world, especially inside America, are not only waking up but taking action. However, many of these developments, and the knowledge that is emerging as many communities strive to relocalize with a renewed sense of urgency, are well below our radar screens.
The information and predictions contained in Denial Stops Here are coming true in spades and at warp speed. What has been so deeply gratifying for me personally has been all the feedback I have received from many places telling me that people have not only been taking FTW’s message and information to heart, but that they have also been acting on it as well.
As Catherine Austin Fitts says, “No one is as smart as all of us.”
Tell us what you have learned. Tell each other what you think (in the spirit of cooperation and helpfulness). Share and discuss with only one prime directive, “What can we share here that will save lives by providing people with choices, experience, strength and hope”? This is the place for it.
This list is going to be moderated by one of the most wonderful human beings in the world, Jenna Orkin. Jenna is an activist and someone who is thoroughly familiar with FTW’s body of work. She—with my full backing—will decide what goes up and what does not. Needless to say ad hominem attacks on anyone and excessive profanity are out. (Although occasional profanity might undoubtedly be called for and appropriate.)
This blog is here so that people who care can help each other, and I hope that this blog will provide more evidence of what all of us at FTW have accomplished and of what people armed with a good map can do.
My most special gratitude to Jamey Hecht, Stan Goff, Dale Allen Pfeiffer, Michael Kane, Carolyn Baker, Lindsay Gerken, Dmitry Orlov, and every writer who put FTW on the map over these last eight years.
Michael C. Ruppert
Publisher/Editor
May 1, 2006
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18 comments:
This comment is an experiment to get the ball rolling, in other words to lure you to this page. Greetings from cyberspace where we eagerly await your comments. (J.O.)
Greetings to all from Australia, land of past-peak-oil and home to Halliburton's overseas headquarters.
The economic looneys are savouring our uranium reserves, and I get the creepy feeling that we are going to make the same mistakes all over again.
Hopefully, peak gasoline and diesel will knock the pieces off the Grand Chessboard.
Look out! She-who-must-be-obeyed (Mrs Thermodynamics) is coming with her vacuum cleaner.
Chris Shaw, feral metallurgist
Hi Greg
Thanks to you and our other fellow- members of the great Greek chorus which is cyberspace.
Traditionally, moderators keep a low profile but I'll be posting articles as will others, including Mike.
I live in New York and don't know how the folks in Oregon got their jobs but I imagine it was via the usual channels.
Jenna
Wow.Hey everybody.Can hardly think where to begin.I guess I'll introduce myself.I'm Chris from Illinois.Like allbetsroff's my discovery of this blog is ironic.I was on the famous MySpace reading posts in a chat group after first making my mandatory check of FTW for updates,and someone provided a link to the website of Daryl Bradford Smith called the "The French Connection" www.iamthewitness.com.It appears to be a smear site similar to your good buddys' at WingTV.He attacks Jenna Orkin for her investigation into the WTC dust complaining that she didn't aknowledge the dust was a result of a demolition.That right there led me to believe the man is ridiculous.I've done enough research at FTW and Mark Robinowitz's OilEmpire to know where discussion of demolition theories lead.He also made the claim that at Jimmy Walter's 9-11 event in New York City on September 11, 2004 you Jenna concluded your talk implying that Osama masterminded the attacks.I then remembered a link to your website in Jamey Hetch's comments on FTW's posting of the Village Voice article "Open and Shut:Four Years Later..." so I decided to check it out for evidence of that claim(of course there was none)and I found the pleasant suprise that is this blog.I have to warn everybody.I am going to be posting as much as possible in this blog,and I hope I don't come off as some sort of blog hog.Thats considering my comments make it past the moderator,Jenna.=)
"A peon" wrote:
Ok,I have a couple of questions that I hope will not be viewed as an attack of any kind.I was checking out Carolyn Baker's website,and as mentioned in my previous comment Jenna Orkin's,and I noticed that both provide links to 9/11truth.org which I and other subscribers to FTW have recently read is the promoter of the conference that more or less set itself up to be spun by that NY Times article.It just seems to me that providing a link to a website whose credability has been tarnished in the same list as a link to FTW might not be such a good idea.I hate to sound accusatory to you or Carolyn,but I know two things that compell me to ask.One thing FTW has been infultrated in the past and that it resulted in a legal battle that FTW won.Second that it seems like those who have been associated with FTW in the past appear to have wavered here and there in their stances on certain issues i.e. Tom Flocco,Dale Allen Pfeifer(glad to see it appears he and Mike have settled their differences),and a few others who have contributed to Mike's website,but Mike himself has remained firm in his stances concerning 9/11.
I want to address another comment made by thetalkingowl in here.It seems like your list of priorities is in the right order.Getting out of debt is on top.Learning Chinese could be useful in exchanging ideas with those who only speak Chinese.I noticed on the website of a local private college prep. school I attended my Freshman-Junior year in highschool that they have hired a Chinese language instructor.The headmaster there is pretty perceptive and has noticed the volume of China's investiment in valuable commodities and feels it would be a valuable business skill.I have considered going there and suggesting that some of the issues addressed by FTW be added to their curiculum.I'm curious as to what staff members of FTW think of that idea.
As far as sunscreen,from what I have read(see my comment in Carolyn Baker's Blog)studies have shown that sunscreens and tan lotions can actually cause skin cancer,and that the sun can be healthy and cure disease.You should just take care not to get burned by wearing a hat and light clothing.For example,I have read that there is no skin cancer in Africa,and that people there stay in the sun all day with no sunscreen.And,that it is not the pigment of the skin as some suggest,that people with African heritige living in America have the highest rate of skin cancer,and stay in the sun the least.
These websiteswww.solarheating.com and www.sungazing.com are given as resources for researching the subject in the book I mentioned in that other blog.
Carolyn Baker responds to A Peon:
I HAVE REMAINED AS FIRM IN MY STANCE AS MIKE HAS REGARDING 9-11. WHILE THE 911truth.org FOLKS MAY HAVE SET THEMSELVES UP, AND I'M NOT SURE IF THEY ACTUALLY DID, I DO NOT WAVER IN MY POSITION THAT 9-11 IS THE KEY WATERSHED OF 21st CENTURY HISTORY. TO NOT UNDERSTAND IT, TO NOT HAVE ANALYZED IT IN DEPTH AS MIKE HAS IN CROSSING THE RUBICON, IS TO BE WOEFULLY IGNORANT OF THE SO-CALLED WAR ON TERROR AND THE PURSUIT OF THE LAST REMAINING DROPS OF OIL ON EARTH BY THIS EMPIRE. WHILE I NO LONGER SPEND A GREAT DEAL OF TIME TRYING TO CONVINCE FOLKS THAT IT WAS AN INSIDE JOB, I KNOW IT WAS, AND I KNOW WHY, AND I WILL NOT WAFFLE ON THAT. IF I DID, I WOULD LOSE CREDIBILITY AS AN HISTORIAN AND AS A INTEGRAL HUMAN BEING.
Hi Rob - It's late but I wanted to be sure to acknowledge your question.
You've hit on the best thing to be doing these days which is keeping up with FTW. My personal belief is that doing so may convince you that Peak Oil all by itself is a disaster of such magnitude, it behooves you to leave D.C. anyway. Please don't take this as a suggestion. I am no expert in the matters of where collapse is expected to hit first and how fast it will be.
If, after you continue studying and absorbing the lessons of FTW, the question still gnaws, I'm sure you'll find the right venue in which to get it addressed. (I also don't know what that venue is.)
Good evening fellow bloggers.Just curious is anyone else has this problem.My wife wants to leave me because I want to invest $600 in physical gold at Goldline.I'm seriously considering waving goodbye to her.I would really appreciate feedback of any kind right now.
Chris.
hi chris
first of all, i'm not sure most dealers would sell you any amount of gold for 600 even though gold is around 581 per ounce right now. i think they require that you invest in a couple of thousand dollars' worth. (obviously, you should check this out.) you could get silver, though.
but from what i understand, investing in physical gold or silver is considered a smart, indeed a crucial move by those who take seriously peak oil and associated disasters such as the collapse of the dollar.
so financially speaking, i believe your wife is on solid ground. (btw i'm not an economist. but in the last two years i've become a peak oil junkey. those are my bona fides most relevant to the problem at hand.)
maritally speaking, well, you sound pretty shaken as who wouldn't be? the stresses of peak oil are beginning to take their toll. decisions which had previously been matters of preference have become or are perceived as being matters of life and death.
sorry chris - i just reread your comment. don't know how i could have gotten it backwards as to who wants to invest in gold and who is considering leaving whom.
the basic arguments of my previouis comment remain the same. i sympathize with your belief in physical gold and presumably, silver.
FTW admin,
Thank you very much for your response to my earlier comment.I don't think I've expressed yet my gratitude that this blog exists.I can now talk to like minded people and get some positive feedback.I pretty much have no one else I can talk to about the issues we're faced with.Any information I try to provide to those I love is ignored and denied.I think it scares my wife,and she doesn't want me to talk about it.
My parents voted for you know who(like it mattered)and their response is similar to my wife's.I have one or two friends that are convinced that something isn't quite right.One of them just kind of nods politely then changes the subject to how the Cards are doing this year,or what kind of Mustang he wants to get.Neither of those subjects concern me very much.My other friend believes,but is skeptical about the advice I try to relay to him given at FTW claiming that Mike is just in it for the money.Having done research at FTW since late 2004 and since then at affiliated sites I am convinced Mike and company just want to tell the truth,and that Mike just wants to do the job he dreamed of doing and was denied in the past:Protecting people.
I kind of feel bad about that last post,and I'm kind of suprised it got published.I know this isn't a blog for marriage counseling.I just got kind of frazzled.Anyways,moving right along...
I did follow the link at FTW to Goldlines website.I don't recall seeing anything about a minimum amount required to invest.I believe you can make purchases under $1000 dollars if purchasing individual coins,which from what I understand is reccomended as it is hard to get change for a 1 oz. bar of gold.However if I want to get that free 100 year old silver dollar I would be required to make a purchase of $1000 or more.
Geeze,just think if I had said $1000 instead of just $600.The missus would have really went through the roof.
I guess I was a little shaken.Looking back over that post I see the second sentence "...is anyone else has this problem." Ha ha.Yeah.
numismatic coins, which are probably the kind you're allowed to buy for smaller amounts of money, are a whole different ballgame from bullion coins. you're betting not only on the price of gold which we peak oil folk think is going way up, but also on the numismatic value which requires expertise and seems unrelated to the price of gold, the reason we're making the investment in the first place. translated this means, BEWARE numismatics.
re your other issue: a lot of p.o. people express the same sense that you have of isolation, being shunned by people in our lives who don't want to hear our doom-and-gloom prognostications. this blog functions as a refuge for all of us. thanks for contributing.
No need to appologize.I stopped for a second when it said "financially speaking...wife on solid ground." and said huh?
Well,after some consideration I've decided to compromise and see if I can't start with a lesser amount than $600. I received a voice mail just yesterday from a representative from Goldline telling me to call them, and that they have good news.They've been calling me periodically ever since I filled out the form at the page the link at FTW leads to so I could get their free info packet a little over a year ago.
I can kind of see how that could be considered harassment as was addressed in a past FTW report,but I really do think it is more a service to the potential customer rather than a greedy desire to get your money for their gold.I realize thinking about it now that they have only called me maybe 3 times in a little over a year,and two of those times were when the price of gold was about to go up and it would have been adviseable to invest.I still haven't called them back yet,but presumably they are calling this time to tell me about the recent dip in gold prices I read about today,and that it would again be a good idea to invest.Another thing,it isn't really as if they demand you purchase gold from them either.Just that it is a good time to regardless of where you go.
Thank you again for the heads up about numismatic coins.I will avoid them at all cost.Run its a numismatic coin!Sorry,I'm in a goofy mood.I guess I'm trying to lighten myself up,it was an intense argument.I guess I panicked a little.I wanted to buy as big amount as I thought she would let me get away with(considering her state of unbelief)before the price goes back up,and I guess I might have overplayed my hand.I had recently read that 4th economic alert(well most of it;enough,I plan on reading the rest later after my head stops pounding),and like I said I panicked and dropped my football for a sec.Something I need to get control of if I want to be effective when the real emergency knocks our doors.I don't want her to leave.It wouldn't really be worth surviving whats ahead without her.I wouldn't be able to look after her and return the favors(shes more organized than me and helped get my rear in gear in the past)shes done for my scatterbrain.
I went back to their website and clicked on bullion coins.I then clicked on the maple leaf and pricing information was available for orders under $1000.Booya for the bullions! =)
Whats really sad to me about the people who can't get past their denial of the ever present doom and gloom never get to make it to the good part.The sollutions/options for jumping off of that train as safely as possible.
Howdy, Mike.
From a 'mechanical' point of view, I see 2 main problems with our 'democracy'. They are a corrupted media, and corrupted, electronic voting processes.
(The big 'non-mechanical' problem is a lack of concern and backbone, which, I confess, I have little idea how to address en masse. I can and do check the health of my own spine, from time to time, however.)
For ways to help address the voting problem, see uscountvotes.org. Also, I had posted a (somewhat sketchy) proposal for an online exit poll on the Randi Rhodes forum, but apparently it was deleted when their system crashed. I haven't been able to find a copy, but you can get a notion (I hope) from :
http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php?showtopic=89810&st=0&p=888351&#entry888351
Regarding the "media mess", another proposal, more fleshed out, still exists there. My boilerplate:
>> Putting the NY Times Out of Business <<
Proposal to replace ALL corrupt media
I have posted a proposal on the Randi Rhodes show forum for replacing our current media with a new, sustainable media that facilitates the selection of "filtering agents". You can think of these as honest gatekeepers that YOU trust - and that keep out trivial information, rather than very important information that groups with economic and other hidden agendas prefer to hide from you.
The thread is entitled: "Putting the NY Times Out of Business"
The thread is subtitled: "Proposal to replace ALL corrupt media"
Link:
http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php?showtopic=76406
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYBODY WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED
"Second Dimension Surface Transport Logistics Platform"- Special to Jenna, Jan, Jim & Julian-
Long term substitution of the rubber tire economy with the tried & true predecessor, the railway- this is requisite. In 1838 the US Congress designated All Railroads to be "Post Roads", guarantors of SOCIETAL & COMMERCIAL COHESION.
Railways offer at-hand technology suited to direct power by renewable source electricity. USA branchline and electric interurban railway footprint is still visible, and maps, i,e., Thomas Bros. City & County maps of the 1950's can be found, to help see what has been obliterated.
Locale by locale, the interested parties concerned with their future ability to access victuals and maintain regional mobility will independently determine & prioritize for rehab & replacement of former railway footprint. The old City maps will help inform the locale planning bureaus as to the track geometry serving the downtown warehousing.
(peakoil.net) article 374 is boilerplate for group discussion, and is suggested reading for political action groups wishing to hitch a ride on the Parallel Bars. Generalities, vague reference to "rebuilding the railroad network" has been OK as long as we could afford lip service.
The time for action is at hand; Barry Commoner, in his important 1979 book, "The Politics Of Energy", makes reference to solar (renewable)powered railways, vastly expanded in capacity & reach. Railways whether run on precious fossil fuels, or electricity from whatever generation source are the most efficient way to convert energy to commercially viable transport of people & goods.
The current emphasis on the village model is not complete without viable transport on a larger than personal scale. Issues of security, down to the neighborhood level, were rationalized with the federal statutes still on the books regarding railway/interstate commerce.
It is true that if you have it, a truck brought it. In fact, trucks or carts or wagons have partnered with the railways thru warehouses, station platforms, and sidings. Some readers are aware of US Mail pick-up and drop-off from moving trains, using "mail cranes", or hooks for mailbags at the edge of the main tracks.
This mention of trucking's role is to allay the all-or nothing aspect of human nature in discussion- obviously, an equilibrium of rail and all complementary modes is our goal. Energy efficiency & sustainability is the obvious determinant going forward.
A word of warning is this: difficulty in advancing the railway renaissance at the local level will center around this period of fossils rollover, or Oil Interregnum. While fuel is generally available even into a rationing syndrome, it will take great political will to proceed with the railway matrix before the need for same is demonstrated. The sad fact is we will become less able to reconnect many of our smaller towns & suburbs, the ones that delay too long into the
"Long Emergency"!
As oil is obtained from wilderness areas like Alaska, wiser political heads must bargain for a large portion of energy obtained from these senitive areas to be dedicated to alternative transport and renewable infrastruture! As for you smug ones doing/thinking Do-It-Yourself Energy Independence, consider the idea of living within a mile or two of the railway platform or siding or spur. Camelot required walls and weapons...
This approach allows for individual effort to locate the nearby rail route legacy of the past, up to larger regional rail network re-connects at the State or Federal level. Are your ears up, MoveOn??
larabraveheart has left a new comment on your post "Introductory Message from Mike Ruppert":
Mr. Pfeiffer, and bloggers, I just read Eating Fossil Fuels
Perhaps I am emotionally retarded, but my perspective on the issue is as follows, and I hope you can accept my view as an opposing duality, to consider. In the event you consider it nonsense… I shall not be offended, I hope that you won’t be offended that I consider parts of your conclusions to be based on false myths:--
Remember that old quote about insanity being doing something over and over and expecting a different result?
If you put your hand on a hotplate, it’s going to burn. Cause and effect. If you kick a dog enough times, he is going to bite back. Cause and Effect. If you jump out of an airplane, within the ‘atmosphere’ you are going to come screaming down to earth. Cause and Effect. If you attempt to lead the earth on a path they are not yet emotionally ready for, they are going to call you mad and insane… Cause and Effect..
Man-made Laws of Cause and Effect can be broken or bent:
We – as mankind with language, -- have made many laws, for which we have created consequences for breaking them. Example: Effect of murder in CA is execution, or in South Africa: 15 to 20 years, and so on. Cause and Effect of Man made laws vary from region to region… Got enough money, you can buy yourself less ‘effect’, or even no effect….. Problem is if you get so used to buying yourself out of effect you start thinking that you are a ‘god’ and that as ‘The Crooked E’ movie about Enron says ‘the only law is that there are no laws’.. applies to you… Sorry to say, but it appears that is what America and ‘civilisation’ have come to!
Mother Earth’s and Universal Existential Laws of Cause and Effect cannot be broken or bent:
It doesn’t matter how fervently you ‘believe’ that there is an eternal heaven, IF the truth is that there is no such thing, and ‘you’ are simply one of the redundant beings in the revolving food chain, then it does not matter how much you wish, pretend, dream, hope or pray that you are going to be ‘special’ ‘superior to other planetary beings’ or whatever… You are going to feed the worms. Cause and Effect.
I could of course be ‘wrong’… but I have not yet come across some ‘higher being’ sitting up there in ‘heaven’. My view on god is similar to that of Frankl Lloyd Wright… Nature is ‘god’.. and if I am correct, then God is sure speaking loud and clear! If not.. I am not too attached to going to hell, or feeding the worms, I sure as hell don’t want to go and spend some time in some eternal place with harps and hypocrites for ever.. That to me sounds like hell! But back to the issue:
The ‘reality’ facing us (in South Africa), and quite frankly, living in a developing nation where we currently pay $5 a gallon for petrol, have unemployment statistics of about 40-50%, plenty crime, terrible service… on ‘African time’…. Rolling blackouts due to problems with our nuclear reactor needing refuelling and other problems… about a million people with AIDS…… and yet… no panic has occurred here! Shit we are so lacksadaisical, we don’t even know what ‘panic’ means! I’m not joking! It’s funny and it’s what shall make coping with peak oil, simply a gradual slightly exaggerated reality of what we face daily… no big deal! Some of us probably won’t even notice… Who cares…. This is Africa, this is what is expected.. It’s funny, we laugh, have a coffee, if we can afford it… if not.. we enjoy the sunshine… and keep going.
If I was in America, facing the following two options:---
Life without Peak Oil crises… and continued Overconsumption, continued overpopulation, paradise becomes parking lot nightmare.. with 13 point facial recognition cards… and all the shit that goes with Overpopulation and it’s threats to Democracy (See Asimov’s Democracy of Toilet Theory at http://www.energybulletin.net/15480.html)
OR
Peak Oil arriving to even the score, cause die off, and remove 2/3 of the population factor… reduce pollution, and what not else…
I prefer the latter option…. In fact the latter option seems to me to be a saving grace… It seems to me to be Earth (God) hearing the call from the oppressed deep ecologists, saying we need to stop this nightmare of overpopulation and Overconsumption.. Please Help Us… and She’s saying, Okay… NO MORE OIL!
I say THANK YOU MOTHER NATURE!
Because some people need to WAKE UP AND REALISE CAUSE AND EFFECT:
If people – due to ignorance or attachment to their outmoded cultural belief --- choose, consciously or unconsciously, to breed like rabbits, then they have to take the consequences for their actions..
If alienated people choose to feed their alienated personalities an endless supply of materialistic products, to ‘feel’ superior and better about themselves, as somewhat a ‘superior’ culture or who the hell knows what, then they have to take the consequences for their choices….
I – for one – am definitely not bemoaning the suicide of ‘western culture’ or ‘civilisation’….. I, quite frankly am thanking mother nature daily for joining me and my eco-[Editor has removed word] buddies, as a force which scares the bejeeses out of George Bush and the Pentagon! Damn…..
I don’t care if I die…. Hey, I’m happy to go feed the worms… I consider it an honour!
It appears that there are a great number of people afraid of physical death…. My friends, why do you wish to extend your desperate lives, if you aren’t living each and every minute, hour and day to the maximum?
There was no ‘western civilisation’ for over 15 billion years and the universe survived quite fine without it… what’s all this fuss about whether it dies or lives…?
Perhaps there would be survivors who would suffer the trauma of living through the death of their ‘civlisation’, but if I survive, that type of trauma I shall not be afflicted with.. I shall be just too happy to be rid of the cancer of ‘civilisation’…. Death of my friends, families… Please… we all have to die. I never fail to understand how people who allegedly frantically believe in ‘God’ and an ‘afterlife’ seem to think everything ends when they physically die! Please can someone explain this oxymoronic thinking to me. Either God-in-heaven exists and they will meet again in heaven, or not! And, if so, the ‘dying’ party simply left early on their journey to heaven!
If I survive, I will see my world begin anew… I will see my ‘mother’ earth relieved of a cancerous virus so insidious and so pernicious and so greedy and gluttonous and fake and pretentious and deathlike, and it’s death is nothing short of a miracle for the affirmation of life thereafter!
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