COMMENTING ON SOME TERRIFIC COMMENTS

You guys bring some good stuff out of me. Wow. Thanks guys, we seem to be feeding each other well.

I wondered if anyone would object to the preaching. That's a line I never cross. If someone asks what I believe, I tell them. If someone asks for what I have, I give it. But -- and this is definitely a line I DID NOT originate. Spirituality "is a program of attraction, rather than promotion."

Some pretty good insights lately. RanD, you are a breath of fresh air. Keep chiming in. Actually, all of you are working very hard at this and I think we are all tasting the fruits thereof. You all have my respect and I am glad to be in your company.

We are discussing serious topics. I just don't think a lot of you understand how serious or imminent they are yet. By this time next year, few will recognize the United States of America. Sure, old Bob Gates is staying on for a year or two. Yeah, he was Iran-Contra and a lot else. He and I even exchanged emails once, way back in 1998 when I broke FTW's first major expose on Sarin gas in Laos (thanks to CNN's April Oliver). -- He tried to mislead me then. But I was raised in a military and intelligence family and this will far and away not be the FIRST time a SECDEF has straddled two administrations for a year or two in wartime. Check it out. It is a regular occurrence and established in tradition. The military needs that kind of continuity during war and this is the most unstable period in American history since the Civil War. It is inevitable that the Imperial Forces will retrench and return home en masse. We will not pull completely out of Iraq, of course. But we have known that for at least four years, haven't we? Don't expect me to get excited about it. The United States is going out of business and not even Bob Gates can prevent it.

You guys who whine about these jerks assume that the US will be operating like you knew it in five or eight years. I think we all agree that it will not. What I am saying -- that about half of you will not comprehend -- is that the life game for mankind has changed. You are like the French in September, 1939. You are perfectly prepared to fight the First World War.

The military power vacuums being created all over the world by American collapse are terrifying and I can say this: If I were President I would be in command and I would also have Gates stay for a year or two, at most. I would make sure that he followed my policies or else. I have followed Gates for decades. From the federal bench to the FBI to CIA. He's a manager and an order executor, a very good one. He is not a policy architect and has no aspirations in that arena. He was a judge. His life is following rules, written and unwritten. Under him, I would know that the Chain of Command was functioning effectively to all parts of the military. If I wanted to replace Gates I would first stabilize my administration and get as good a handle on the domestic issues and cabinet as possible. Because if there is ANYTHING that will prevent Barack Obama from ever having a chance it would be Pakistan's nukes getting loose... like next Wednesday. Or it might be India and Pakistan exchanging a few over Kashimir. It might be pirates from any of four countries shutting down the Straits of Malacca. No, maybe a massive civil uprising in Saudi Arabia when falling oil prices collide with the corruption and when it's finally acknowledged that Saudi has passed peak. Or how about those Somali pirates? What about Russia? Russia is going to push and test because that is the Russian nature. Remember Kruschev and Kennedy? I have to admit that I enjoyed Russia and I think I understand a lot of the Russian soul. When she worked for the ASA/NSA my mother worked on Russian codes which tracked their nuclear physicists. She was iinvolved n the Teheran conference of 1943. Army Security Agency advance teams travelled to Moscow before that. She told me a lot right before she died. I would like to go back and visit one day. But my hard travels have taught me that I am an American first, last and always. Even when I went to Venezuela, furious with my government, I was fighting for America and not against it. I guess the reason I did all that was because I care about her and her stupid, lazy, indolent, spoiled, belligerently-naive people who have forgotten that they were once strong, resilient, caring, fearless pioneers who went boldly into the unknown, convinced that with freedom and fair shot they could handle anything. Isn't that a spirit we need now? Right now?

The dialectic underway here is between those who believe that every step of this is a plan being executed by-the-numbers by TPTB -- and those who believe that the TPTB are losing control and vulnerable. I am absolutely in the latter camp. All the big banks are going down in rapid-fire succession. Hey dudes, those ARE the elites! That's just one HINT that the same people many of you call the TPTB are taking big hits. You guys who are so obsessed with the cabinet on the one hand, argue that it doesn't matter who's there, it all be the same result. Then you all turn around and start obsessing about who's there and what you can read from the entrails of each new appointee's name. You guys go back and look at any empire that ever collapsed: Rome, Persia, Sumeria, The Incas, The Aztecs, The Mayans, Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Napoleon's France, Victoria's Britain, The Ottomans, Tha Hapsburgs in Austria, Nikolas II's Russia, the USSR... I defy any of you to historically demonstrate that the collapse of any of those empires and civilizations was some kind of a planned conspiracy carried out by the people who benefited most from the empire they were destroying. Those empires existed to support the elites!

You cannot do it. What was ubiquitous in all cases was a paradigm of infinite growth, plus resource scarcity, and coupled with a decline in moral and intellectual standards, parochialism, and the fetid, intellectual inbreeding of uninterrupted opulence, laziness, privilege and power. I must give credit to Fitts for this one, "THOSE WHO WIN IN A RIGGED GAME GET STUPID." I submit that our elites are talking stupidly, acting stupidly, making stupid decisions, and that this is apparent to the entire world. But now, what is at stake is not just one empire, or one civilization. It is the entire human race. Your asses and mine.

The American people, perhaps many of you, are going to be scrambling just to eat and stay warm by this time next year. What are WE going to do about that? Screw Robert Gates! Whether he is at DoD or not, regardless of who is SECDEF, that is the future we face. And -- for the sake of new readers who are trying to figure out what's going on and what to do to take care of themselves and their children -- I don't care about Robert Gates! Him staying for one or two years is fairly common when changing administrations. We know his moves when he's in his element. BUT THE WORLD IS NO LONGER ENTIRELY HIS ELEMENT IS IT? -- Get that!

Brarack Obama is THE PRESIDENT-ELECT. He will be Gates' CINC. He will have control, or not, in varying degrees. We mapped this out a long time ago. We mapped out Russian ships going to Venezuela and just about everything that's happening. But chaos and the law of unintended consequences is solidly in play now. It is giving us openings as the Empire's vulnerability becomes daily more apparent. Another term for "opening" is POWER VACUUM.

That being said... Man do I love you guys. Keep it up. These dialogues help clarify things quickly. But please focus on that which will probably change your lives first. It will not be Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton, or even Tim Geithner. It will be THE COLLAPSE. The collapse is a fait accompli. We must let the ever-diminishing Powers That Be show us their intent, their ability to execute it, their strengths,...and their weaknesses.

Now let's try to find knowledge and share thoughts that will help all of us with collapse. The fight for influence in Washington and NY is just beginning and I believe some serious inroads are being made. Nothing will tell me as much about the Obama administration as its actions in its first 100 days. We do not know how the President's cabinet is going to act yet. They are after all, politicians and politicians have a rep for changing with the winds. What we need to do is start blowing.

My bet is that there will be many surprises, both good and bad. Remember, that we have already had a few early Christmas presents. So shut up until they ACT. That will tell us in an instant a hundred times more than than dead-end speculation. The first 100 days of the Barack Obama administration will give us real and trustworthy, "eyeball" intelligence so that we can decide where and how to blow.

Am I getting clearer?


MCR
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The above from the guy who wrote the book, literally, that defies the Bush administration's contention that 9/11 was the result of a mindboggling series of mishaps, missteps, mistakes and missed opportunities because no one had ever flown a plane into a building before.

Some of you feel betrayed. What happened to our favorite "conspiracy theorist?" Or, since Mike has accurately stated that he doesn't deal in conspiracy theories but in conspiracy facts, our favorite conspiracy chronicler? You mean the wizards behind the curtain, those 'masters of the universe,' are losing control? Now who can we hate? Where shall we direct our rage? At each other? Who else is there?

The question of how TPTB will behave during the chaos of collapse comes down to the tragedy of the commons.

In the 'parable,' which was published in 1968, a group of herders graze their separate herds on commonly held ground. Each will reap personal benefit from increasing the number of cows he puts on the commons. However the more cows that use the commons, the greater the degradation and the sooner the commons will be destroyed.

Thus the short term benefit will be to the individual farmer. But if each herder, or perhaps if even one herder opts for maximum short term gains, then over the long term, the commons will become useless and everyone will suffer, including him.

It is this Yin-Yang balance between the individual and the group, between short and long-term benefits, that is the sword of Damocles dangling over our heads right now. What TPTB choose will depend not on their seeing the light and converting to altruism but on their perception of their own best interests. And like King Midas, they may come to understand that ultimately, for their own sake as well as their children's, even they have to care about something other than personal profit.

Switching metaphors, the ship is heading towards the iceberg. Will the captain change course enough to steer it away from total destruction?

It seems to be moving too slowly for some. That's the way ships move, say others.

The problem with that metaphor is that the people on board get a say too only most of them don't know it.

And while we're on the subject of ships:

Citi's Saviour Found: Somali Pirates
On the subway yesterday I also saw the headline: Citi of Fools, an allusion to Katherine Anne Porter's classic, Ship of Fools, about an ocean liner c. 1938 bearing passengers from various walks of life and with varying understanding or lack thereof of where the larger ship of fate was leading them.


JO