NOW IS THE TIME – THERE IS HOPE

by Michael C. Ruppert

Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 7 P.M. PDT –

Let me paraphrase something I once saw George H.W. Bush say: "Everything I am; everything I have accomplished; and everything I hope to accomplish I owe to David Rockefeller." Today I saw some thing I never thought possible. I saw a Rothschild endorse a fundamentally Rockefeller candidate – John McCain. DNC Platform Committee Member Lynn Forester de Rothschild quit her post to endorse McCain as she also ended her longstanding role as a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. The Clintons also have strong Rockefeller "lineage" so I'm guessing that Hillary understands the move perfectly with a wink and a nod.

I'll give you the punch line now, without making you read further.

If Rothschilds and Rockefellers are taking the same side it is because the entire economic paradigm is threatened. There is good reason to believe it. The Dow has lost almost 10% in just two days. The bailouts are lining up at the door before the Fed goes bankrupt; before our government goes bankrupt. Lehman was ten times bigger than Enron. AIG was much bigger than Lehman. Still to come are Washington Mutual, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, the automakers and the airlines, to name a few. Not all are going to be saved.

There is only one run on the bank taking place. This time it's the Federal Reserve and we know who will get screwed. The Fed and our Treasury are being looted at the one moment in time when we most need them to be full.

All of this has everything to do with Peak Oil. For those of you who have followed my work – and the work of everyone who was FTW – this is exactly what we said would happen, and were trying to prevent. The fact that we are going to have a fast crash now is the best possible outcome because it has given us a unique and perhaps fleeting moment –a window – to change things. There is plenty left to salvage.

There are other signs of a fast crash. For months now the prices of oil and gold have been ruthlessly suppressed. Oil reached $147 a barrel and broke demand so badly there was not even a dead cat bounce in demand at $100 a barrel. Energy is the economy. Money is useless without energy. There is no credit available to finance renewed demand and get some cash circulating. It is interesting to note that narcotics seizures are at all time highs. Cocaine shipments in the thousands of tons are being seized on almost a daily basis. That is taking enormous amounts of cash out of the system. There's just one problem with that cash. It must circulate through many hands to multiply before Wall Street gets it. That takes time and they don'thave time.

One would think that illegal drugs would be cheap now to lubricate the wheels of a nation in panic. But this is beyond that. Enron was in drugs. It operated several hundred subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands. Its bankruptcy was $63 billion. Lehman all by itself was $632 billion. The last time I estimated the total amount of cash generated by the drug trade it was only $600 billion a year. Lehman was just one bankruptcy. Add in Fannie and Freddie and Bear Stearns; soon Washington Mutual (which I suspect may be allowed to fail) plus all the rest – and anything the drug trade could do is vastly overwhelmed.

This is the derivatives bubble popping. That bubble is now in excess of $450 trillion dollars. I warned about it when I returned from Moscow in 2001 and again in our first-ever economic alert on September 9, 2001. There isn't enough cash in the world to cover the "monthly minimum payments" on $450 trillion. If I had to speculate, my guess would be that Wall Street wants people to pay their bills right now. All of Wall Street needs quick cash flow. That's what put AIG in a bind because AIG was so deeply connected to money laundering. That's how desperate they are; just as desperate as the United States is for energy. When people don't spend money on drugs they pay their bills instead, is the government's hope. The U.S. is now seizing a lot of drug cash and other properties through asset forfeiture. So my guess is that the U.S. government is acting like a drowning man.

If I had serious debts to major banks and credit companies now I would be seriously thinking about not paying them at all. I might decide to put my money into gold or things that might help me endure the crises that are coming. A lot of those walking carcasses won't be around soon and why should I give them money that may save my life? I am already in the right position. Although it was a monumental effort I did what I was begging people to do back in 2005. I got out of debt.

This is exactly what I spent all these years trying to warn people about.

What we are watching being taken away, right in front of our eyes, is the money – the wherewithal – to prepare for the now-certain energy shortages that are coming very quickly. Today gold saw its biggest one-day price jump ($70) in history. And it's still the best bargain in town… although CNBC won't tell you that.

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike were remembrances from the planet that there are some things the markets cannot control. This is what I warned about in New York in May of 2006 and I am not at all surprised by how sparse the reporting has been on oil and gas infrastructure damage since they struck. I am only seeing unsupported cliff notes. What is very clear is that the populations of Houston and Galveston are devastated and in dire need of help.

But there's a run on the Fed and their money's going out the door too.There is no victory until the paradigm is broken. Until we change the way money works, we change nothing. Right now, the entire economic paradigm of infinite growth is vulnerable, weak, and exposed. The dribble being offered by Obama and McCain only exposes the fact that everything is broken; that the system itself is the enemy.

Now, we who have labored so long and paid such prices to warn have a real shot at breaking public consciousness.

Now, we who understood all this and who have been marginalized, have authority to stand up and command the floor.

Now, we who cried as voices in the wilderness, have a chance to actually reach the minds of those we love but who have refused to listen.

We can do all this because the elephant in the living room has started to trample people.

Now, it is clear that under the current economic paradigm, people themselves will and must become the disposable resources to keep corporations alive.

Now, is the time that we can force the mainstream media to choose between its audience and its sponsors; between corporate masters and neighbors and families.

So many in the Peak Oil movement have burned out, given up.

Now is the time to get off your asses and get back in the fight. People are listening. Quit goofing off!

I am just finishing my second book. It's title: "A Presidential EnergyPolicy". It will be a short book, maybe 130 pages or so. That's all that is needed to make the case now. In writing this book and in sticking my head up on the blog I have broken an unspoken, but very real agreement that I would not be harassed anymore by the government if I stayed retired. I paid a serious price to get Pat Tillman's story researched, written, edited and published but we did it. And we took down nine general officers and a Secretary of Defense in the process.

It is no coincidence then that a two-and-a-half year old sexual harassment claim against me in Oregon was just reactivated and scheduled for a hearing in November. It was just lying fallow. I have wanted this hearing from the start. I did nothing wrong. I was set up. I can prove that in a fair hearing, but the State of Oregon's political machine has not played fair since Day One. The Ashland Police Departments has apologized to me and my attorney for grossly mishandling the investigation of the burglary of our office in June 2006. I have accepted that apology.

But the Oregon State Labor Department has made many procedural errors and treated me from the start as if I were a criminal, a lunatic and a nutcase. It has demonstrated bias on the part of the complainant and treated me in a personally demeaning manner when all I have ever done is to respond quickly to anything they ask for. I'm tired of apologizing for what I believe in.

I am not afraid of the outcome if I get a fair hearing. But given everything I have documented over many years that may not be likely.

It doesn't make any difference. Now is the moment to go for it. Tostand up and stop being defensive. For all of you who remained so loyal for all these years; for all of you who continue to send the letters and emails of support -- if I can get a fair hearing in Oregon we will all be vindicated.

Just this week a two--and-a-half year old sales tax bill turned up; a sales tax bill that was inflated by about 60% with interest and penalties and had supposedly been handled by the same employee who we know smashed our computers. I'm taking that one on too. California now admits they didn't count one of two full quarters that was paid two years ago.

So I am standing up again and that's what I ask you to do as well.

Now is the time to start talking again about Peak Oil.

Now is the time for everyone who knows the map to dust off their copy of Rubicon or back issues of FTW. Take the risk and start talking again.

Now is the time to buy a copy of "Rubicon" and send it to someone you love or want to teach. Tell them, "It's not about 9-11. It's about what's happening today, right now. It's the story of how we got here."

Now is the time to start pointing again at all of our great leaders: the Colin Campbells, the Richard Heinbergs the Matt Simmonses, the Julian Darleys, the Ken Deffeyeses, the Jim Kunstlers, the Matt Savinars, the Jenna Orkins, the Megan Quinn-Bachmans, the Mike Kanes, the Mark Robinowitzes, the Dmitri Orlovs, the Barry Silverthorns, and so many more. Mention their names. Shout their names.

Start now to organize meetings and seminars. As you "market" them tell people that this is the explanation for everything that is happening around them. Show the record. Show our predictions. It is certain to make sense and resonate – if for no other reason than because nothing else anybody is saying is.

Now is the time when we can break the back of infinite growth and stumble our way to a steady-state economy that we can use to help prepare for Peak Oil. We can do this before the moment in time comes when (as I wrote in "Global Corp") the last CFO of the last corporation, after the last merger, says to himself, 'Hooray we did it!" – as he turns out the last light on all of us.

Today a Rothschild sided with a Rockefeller… They are scared. And John McCain will loot the Fed faster than Barack Obama will. The old paradigm is trying to cash out with our money. Neither candidate will do a damn thing for us. We must do it for ourselves.

"It is a good day to die."