Monday, December 01, 2008

IS THE MAP GETTING CLEARER YET?
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4B08KU20081201

The next victim in the game of musical chairs?

What do you think?

P.S. -- Unlike the aftermath of 9-11 where it was the trees that made all the difference, we need now focus on the forrests. For those with questions about specific individuals and groups please know that I am 99% unconercned about them and will not respond to questions about them. I have never heard of the one Pakistani gent that someone asked about and I refuse to waste time looking him up. I think that you should not be focusing on trees either. Things are happening much too fast for that. The painstaking work that we did at FTW told us that tectonic plates would soon be realigning violently and that a new paradigm would emerge. That is happening now, and I am absolutely unconcerned now about which trees fall where, or what role a specific tree might have had in the tectonic shift. (The trees couldn't have had a role in causation, could they?) I feel the same about anyone who thinks some thirty or fourty year-old analysis and prediction leading to "the destruction of capitalism is (Aha!) the explanation. The reason for that is clear. None of those anlyses even conceived of an end to cheap energy or acknowledged overpopulation. Peak Oil trumps everything. Sure, the Club of Rome paper demonstrated that there was an awareness of the problems. But it did not (as far as I am recall) artuclate a new economic model or a plan to get there. I encourage active participants to not get sidetracked by either distraction. These are absolute dead ends. We are in uncharted territory. Our eyes need to be focused on where the next blows of collapse will land. We need to prepare for them as much as possible, and to warn and teach our ever-expanding audience....

We are the mapmakers.

AS I WAS SAYING BEFORE I WAS SO "RUDELY" INTERRUPED...

Check out this wuote from about two-thirds of the way down this CNN story. -- "The sources said the e-mail was created using voice-recognition software and it has been traced to a computer with an Internet protocol (IP) address in Pakistan, using a server in Russia."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/01/india.attacks2/index.html

MCR

P.S: - For Ruiz. I didn't know it was you my friend. No harm done, a great group lesson was learned. For the readers "Ruiz" saved my life in Venezuela and he is one smart, young mf.

MCR
************************************************************************************

Site Concerning Russian Intelligence
In Russian. Any blog readers who feel moved to translate relevant or revealing portions will be rewarded with eternal gratitude.

Profile (in English) of Andrei Soldatov, journalist who set up the above website.
Plans For The World's Biggest Wind Farm
Brain-child of Matt Simmons in collaboration with George Hart, physicist who consults for the Pentagon.

General Jones and The Chamber of Commerce Energy Plan

Potentially scary stuff here, especially considering the following clause, purporting to accede to the public's need for transparency:

"... researchers who receive federal support should be required to disclose their data, models, and other relevant material, subject to protections for confidential business information, so that results can be assessed and reproduced."

Those "protections for confidential business information" are the carpet under which multitudes of sins get swept.

Insights on the eternal Editing Vs. Censorship debate
From the ever enlightening Oilempire.us

Billion$ Fund to Reimburse Sick 9/11 Heroes Loses 32 Million$ on Stock Market, Spends 172 Million$ In Legal Fees and Has Paid Out a Total of $330.000 to Five Workers
Peak Imperialism

JO

50 comments:

Howlin_Dog said...

I checked the cnn link and could not find the quote. The web page said it had been recently updated. However, I did fine the same information on a couple of Time of India web pages.

the links are:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Terror_mail_routed_through_Pakistans_Lahore/articleshow/3781555.cms
and
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jihadis_used_anonymous_service_to_send_email/articleshow/3774115.cms

I downloaded those pages should that information also disappear.

in_the_light said...

Mike,

Doesn't a look at the forest reveal more post peak lifestyles than "where the next blows of collapse will land" ?? Excuse me sir, those blows are mere trees falling in the wind

Our problem is this: We don't know what a post peak oil Earth looks like because the entire universe has never seen one. It is our challenge to create this thing we have never seen.

Can you address more about the changing paradigm and what you see as ways of living sustainably not just as individuals but as communities in a post peak world?

What is your new economic model, for example? If not neoliberalism, then what?

Come on, mike. We're plants turning light into food here. Shine, brother!!!

Mat

brell said...

that quotation if it ever was on cnnn is no longer there. as of 0020PST

3rd world order said...

hey mike ruppert, i run http://polytricks.wordpress.com

you mentioned translating that russian intel site in your post. I assume you tried this?

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.agentura.ru/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.agentura.ru/%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3Dvc6%26pwst%3D1

Google has a built-in translator which seems to get the jist of the articles.

Big Gav said...

Sure, the Club of Rome paper demonstrated that there was an awareness of the problems. But it did not (as far as I am recall) artuclate a new economic model or a plan to get there.

Actually the Limits To Growth did propose a plan.

Following the scenarios (the bit most people focus on, usually the gloomiest ones) is a section entitled "Transitions to a sustainable system", which recommends a wide range of practices to be implemented in order to make scenario 9 the one which eventuates (which presumably is the one most people would choose if given the option).

The recommendations included:

* improved monitoring of our impact on the environment and the resource base
* improved response times to signals from the monitoring described above
* extending planning horizons
* increased use of renewable resource (such as clean energy sources)
* aiming for maximum efficiency in use of resources
* closed loop industrial techniques (commonly known as "cradle to cradle" manufacturing)
* regenerative agricultural practices
* poverty reduction
* nonviolent conflict resolution
* accurate/unbiased media
* “decentralisation of economic power, political influence and scientific expertise”
* “stable populations” and “low birth rates” by “individual choice”

http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/3572

Jeff said...

Great work Mike,I try and tell people about the coming events and like another person stated "they look at me as if I have two heads"
That makes me think of your comment on you will not be able to help everybody,forgive yourself and do it now.
I live in alaska,I think we are sustainable here more than anywhere else,but the signs of shortages are allready here,nat.gas going up 22% along with electric on the new year,the natural gas pipeline has had alot of setbacks so far,gov.palin has done alot to purge the system of the old paradigm here contrary to the media spin put on her.
I am your eyes and ears of alaska if you need something from this increasingly stretegic state.

jspofford said...

Hi Jenna -
babelfish.yahoo.com does an apt job at transulating the page. I'm still looking through the site for anything of interest and will let you know, but to check it out yourself go to babelfish, type in www.agentura.ru and select Russian to English.
J.

Unknown said...

pls see

http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/englands-eternal-debts/

nosuchthingasshould said...

sorry to rise my head again, but was the article in the itexaminer that i sent the link to somehow insufficient or invalid? it was about the russian server too. the link was http://www.itexaminer.com/terrorists-used-gmail-id-to-claim-responsibility.aspx

or did you just not have time to check it? i should have put in a quote, to get your attention.

i fully accept if you decided 'i'm not to be trusted'. but i don't want to think that, because i would be giving myself too much importance/credit.i think i did learn my lesson you know. but in such a case, if you think i have screwed up my chance to contribute, please simply don't post my message.

Unknown said...

Hi Mike et al.

A couple of questions if you would be so kind to answer

An article from the Irish times

"November saw a further sharp drop in the business climate for manufacturing industry, with new surveys out yesterday showing dramatic declines in factory output in the United States, Europe and China".

From Reuters

The U.S. credit-card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.

From Reuters

Britain, the euro zone and New Zealand will almost certainly cut interest rates later this week. In addition to more rate cuts, the U.S. Federal Reserve is weighing other responses with its benchmark rate nearing zero.

My question is

Interest rates are falling out of the sky and will be hitting the ground (0% soon), The Printing presses are running at full throttle through the FED "loan windows" and the ECB. Ben has already started his "quantative easing" or helicopter drops of FIAT paper, at the same time credit lines are being cut to main street so this narrow money never becomes broad money, strangling joe six pack and main street business while recapitalizing the elite banks all the while physical production and shipping implodes.

After this de-leveraging has run its course and physical production and shipping most likely have completely imploded at the same time (see Baltic Dry Index), - and finally main street has been completely starved of credit and bankrupt - even if the banks are sitting on this vast sea of FIAT paper and consolidated banking assets - what will be left of the real economy any where in the World. China is already making noises about the country destabilizing and the chance of serious civil unrest is increasing and their growth is still at 8 to 9% if growth in China dropped by another 7 or 8%, would China survive that type of growth collapse (I am not sure that China is in a more stable situation or better poised to meet the current challenges then the West), would the US survive without the peoples republic purchasing USTBs, would the EU survive as an entity with the complete collapse of the US economy ?

where is the escape route for the elites, the current strategy just seems like Harri Kari for all?


I know the story of the scorpion but this just does not add up for me there must be an exit strategy.

Unknown said...

Regarding translating the Russia site.
Bablefish has a rough translation program where you type in the url and it shows you the page translated. Here is the translation for the page linked by MCR.
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.agentura.ru%2F&lp=ru_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

gaelicgirl said...

Re: the wind farm story: I wonder if these giant wind-farms have a future? And at what cost? IMHO, it would be far better to focus on smaller, dispersed, local wind-farms (mini-mini farms) than these behemoths, which are very expensive,have a far greater environmental impact, and then have the problems of long-distance transmission. A similar project, formally labled the "largest in the world" up in the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, has been facing stiff opposition from local residents. Meanwhile, unreported on, the tiny island of South Uist (also in Scotland) has institued small, local wind projects that are doing very well.

Jenna Orkin said...

thank you jspofford.

i've consulted babelfish (as well as other free computer translation services) in the past and found the result to sound more or less like what was promised: babelfish. maybe the software has improved...

Jenna Orkin said...

3rd world order

please see my response to jspofford.

jenna orkin (not mike ruppert, as it was not he posted the link about the russian intelligence website.)

Jenna Orkin said...

green2to:

please see my responses to jspofford and 3rd world order.

jenna orkin (not mike ruppert, as it was not he posted the link about the russian intelligence website.)

Unknown said...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2008/1117/1226700658116.html



leaf in a beaker technology developed by Prof Daniel Nocera from MIT

taking a different perspective to renewable energy solutions efficiency issues

some quotes from the article

But to hit that target of each person, family or company generating and storing their own environmentally-friendly power supply we have to address a nagging problem with renewable energy sources - their variability. "What happens when the sun goes down? You are out of energy. Now think about your life and think you can only live when the sun is shining. That's not how we built our society," he says.

"If I had to choose one word to describe what's stopping renewables from being implemented, to explain the most important issue, I would say storage. Without storage you are never going to implement renewables on a large scale."

"Here's the big problem in energy: everybody's always designing to efficiency, and this can get really expensive. Alternatively, if I can give up something in efficiency, meaning I don't do it as fast - but I have all day when the sun is out to do this - I do it just well enough to take care of energy storage at night. Now let me design to cost, which is different than designing to efficiency.

But now there's a possible solution to that chestnut. Enter Prof Nocera's discovery, unveiled earlier this year, of a catalyst that can use the electricity generated by wind or sun to split water and release hydrogen, which can in turn be stored in a fuel cell.

Unknown said...

Hi M&J

I used to get political international correspondence translated by my congressman. It was fast and free plus it kept the congressman’s office up to date on the international Nuclear Free Zone movement I was involved in. Perhaps you know a sympathetic person in office?

Thanks for the great reporting and insights.

whistling grizzlybear said...

in response to Mat's first post in this thread, the "Monday December 1" thread -

"We don't know what a post peak oil Earth looks like" - yes we do.

i dare say, per capita energy consumption in the US in the 1960's was lower than it was in 2007.

as recently as the 1980's, even Silicon Valley had a booming manufacturing industry, before accounting considerations persuaded people they could make more money manufacturing offshore.

of course, with one major exception - the US economy of the '60's & '80's was dependent on "growth" to assure an ample supply of jobs.

we can take some major clues from the recent past about what Post Peak will look like - domestically.

mix in War (also in abundance in the '60's) and state-sponsored terrorism (9-11-01, 7-7-05, & Mumbai), sprinkle a few fast computers and some iPods around, and the outlines of our future take shape.

Jenna Orkin said...

whistlinggrizzlybear

you left out the die off

Jenna Orkin said...

brian

sympathetic, yes. able, no.

thx

kiki said...

I don’t think it matters a whit what the exit strategy is, if there is one; with all the missing money there may be a huge complex somewhere approaching nirvana for the ‘stealers’ ie. If it’s well stocked, the light or danger of day wouldn’t have to be seen for several years. Our (the masses; specifically the ‘awakened’) more immediate problem is how do we survive what’s coming and stay alive. Then, what’s left of the world population can address rebuilding in full force. And, hopefully, this country can regain what’s been stolen from us re: our constitution. So what each of us and more specifically, MCR and Jenna provide to this blog is an up-to-date view to better our chances; that’s it. jmo - I must admit, I enjoy conjecture as much as anyone; it’s a pleasant diversion at times.

sunrnr said...

Re: Wind farm

The power of wind increases exponentially (by a power of three) to wind speed. Most turbines cannot handle "gale force winds" and have to be feathered or shut down.

Another potential problem would be the massive array of cables needed to transmit the electricity to an on-shore distribution system. This would pose a considerable problem to marine life and those nuclear submarines (ours and theirs) that routinely ply those waters.

Materials would also be a problem as everything would need to be designed for a very demanding and corrosive environment.

Wind is not a base load energy source. So far storage of electrical energy has been a huge problem. Batteries you say? Well, the sources of lithium, cadmium and nickel are very limited and occur in areas not really friendly to us. We'd be trading one dependency for another. Disposal of used batteries is another ecological nightmare that has not been considered enough. Everyone's worried about nuclear wastes, but not about the millions of people being affected by the toxic wastes in electrical components, batteris, etc.

Possibly the power generated could be used to create hydrogen as posed by others. Again storage and transmission of the hydrogen would be a problem as would the greatly reduced salinity water should it be dumped back into the ocean on-site.

Remember, for every action there is a reaction. We make be solving one problem, but creating another wholly unknown one.

They thought using corn was a good idea for ethanol, remember? No one thought out the consequences very well on that one.

There are no easy or quick answers to the energy crisis looming, but we need to be doing some real critical thinking real soon.

namaste

in_the_light said...

Whistling grizzly,

FTW admin (i guess jenna right?) hit it on the head. Post peak does not look like pre industrial. We're going to have to navigate the rubble of the collapse of the largest civilization that we know of in existance.

1960 U.S. does not look like post peak world anywhere. It can't. in 1960, we were headed toward, our ship was directly pointed at, the cliff of peak oil. Sure, we were consuming less oil, but the game plan was to continue growing expotentially. That was exactly why oil was picked up as "the" resource. Now, as we enter post peak-oil society, we have to figure out not just how to live without oil, but in what direction we actually want to point our ship.

That's why I am asking Mike to take us beyond the colliding tectonic plates and the Great Collapse and into a new wind:


Where are we going?

NB Patton said...

nosuchthingasshould;
Just my silly thoughts,...

Don't cower or submit just because someone points out something THEY think you did wrong. Analyze the criticism with an open mind and all the perspective you can muster, learn from it and move on.

I truly admire your willingness to accept the idea that you may have been "incorrect" about something, its actually an extremely hard thing for most people to do, and in that regard you seem to be a HUGE step ahead of the game. However, upon reception of criticism, don't give up or rollover! We all put our pants on the same way and we all make mistakes, but we DON'T ALL learn and mature from them! On that path to enlightenment, realizing them and admitting them is the hardest part! I have to kick myself in the ass everyday to remind myself!
I for one appreciate your input on this blog, and hope you continue to speak up and contribute.

_____________________________


whistlingGrizzlyBear:

You said;
"We don't know what a post peak oil Earth looks like" - yes we do.

Can i have a ride in your time machine too?

I.E. impossible, hasn't happened yet. Closest analog is maybe Cuba, but it still has had support from a cheap oil world. And even if it didn't it is FAR from the reality of the absolute SHIT storm on the horizon.

_____________________________

Regarding wind farms;

Because of my love for physics I have ALWAYS been at odds with wind power as a solution to all our energy problems. Has anybody thought about the conservation of energy?
Here is what I mean;
A wind turbine converts the kinetic energy of air in motion into heat and electricity. Thus slowing the air down, however incrementally.
Well, if you apply "superfluidity does not vitiate" here you can easily see that enough turbines have the potential to take MASSIVE amounts of energy from the air. (slow it down A LOT) Now think of what that might mean to plants and animals "downstream" of that water laden air? Those clouds might have required that energy to reach an area in the mountain ranges, valleys and plains beyond the coast that now might hardly ever get rain because you are using it to run your toaster and charge your plugin hybrid.
By by little ecosystem on the fringe, including any people relying on the aquifer it was supposed to replenish.

You can argue that the scale of windfarms humans could potentially create would never adversely effect weather that much, but I don't think you can deny the physics of my hypothesis. A turbine TAKES energy from whatever spins it. Extrapolate that and you cannot deny the LAST raindrop will fall exactly that much closer to shore. Whether it is 1 millimeter or 100 kilometers depends on how much energy you take.

Maybe I'm wrong, these are really just the ramblings of my minds free time.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, Mike. Most of us do our own digging for trees - we know that it's critical to know whose involved if we want to understand the motives.

Of course we'll also be watching the forest, but if we aren't monitoring those who are lighting the fires - and learning about them - then we risk significant misunderstanding when the fires ultimately clear and a new power structure presents itself. Was it a controlled burn? Are the new players actually part of the old paradigm? Without examining the trees, we will never know.

So far, in the case of Mumbai, we see the Indians placing blame on the ISI. Yet they're asking for US and Brit investigative support. So, knowing that Pakistan's ISI is a CIA proxy, and that MI% is heavily invovled in covert Pakistani operations, we know immediately that somewhere below the forset canopy, something is afoot.

Why would India place blame on a US/Brit supported organization, and then turn around and ask the US and the Brits for investigative support?

Additionally, we have video evidence of Bhuddist gunmen. And we have numerous eye witness testimonies describing the gunmen as speaking in native Indian languages. We also have warning in October from the US to India that Mumbai was facing an imminent terror attack from the sea.

From the looks of things, there seems to be cooperation between India and the US in placing blame on a Pakistani security organization with deep ties to US and Brit intelligence. the attacks were anticipated and the blame game was established long in advance.

In the meantime, the Pakistani's are claiming innocence. Which explains the Indian attackers, and the reports of fair haired white attackers.

We know that the Brzezinski doctrine is to divide and conquer - by letting your adversaries destroy each other. It looks to me like the Indian population has just been delivered justification to support an attack on Pakistan. And it also looks as though NATO forces have just been provided with a door into Pakistan along the Afgan border.

Some will attempt to pin the attacks on other power players, but this is another case where we need to understand the players involved, understand their regional objectives, and then ask ourselves Mike's famous question regarding 9/11: Cui bono?

In the case of the Mumbai attacks, the winners are India, the US, and the EU.

mrs p said...

Nothing like the Sun, magnets, crystals, wind, rain, sea water, chicken poop, horsecrap. Remember that old saying: (necessity is the mother of invention). Communities need to create think tanks on what their own bare bones resources are right now. Inspiration won't come soon enough though or will it? Maybe small scale local solutions will be all we can get. It's sad money has been diverted and wasted on side alley psuedo energy solutions that benefit only a few while the facts of reality aren't dealt with.

So many JOBS could be available if the PTB had a different mindset. Seems like a thankless job for green pioneers or citizens trying to jump start their community into acceptance of what's comming.
(Pass out Rubicon for starters!)

Just organizing research & science at a communiy level is a job in itself. 8 years of going backwards with our heads up our wazoo sure put us in a dark hole. Now we have to climb out and once at ground level what will we find? Total chaos? Fighting over food would be a bit more serious than electronics on black friday.

I'd like to think there's a lot more going on in our own backyards where people are getting together to deal with Peak Oil and Peak Everything at a civic level.(At least in the larger coastal areas of the U.S.) They could have a real influence if the Federal PTB would raise immediate incentive for States and Cities to do this. This would be the best so called Homeland Security not the hoo-haw that passes for it now. I've always thought people (the hungry masses) need to be inspired more by their leaders. (Starvation would certainly inpire us.) Give us a job to do, tell us about the coming crisis, curb the lone nuts by opening up everyone to the same reality facts and show us all the map.<--(MCR has already done this)

Toss in a manual on how to survive the mess and give rewards for group accomplishments. Volunteers could submit suggestions for the model of surviving peak oil for our communities, states, and the world. Talk about, talk about it, talk about. Obama should wear the words Peak Oil on his lapel. Powering down now is difficult but when the lights go out it will not be a choice. And where is my solar flashlight? mrsp

mrs p said...

Sorry for my wordy speculative off topic last post. I have a naive question at the moment re Mumbai

Doesn't Cheney still, (and may always have), his fingers in the pie? Wasn't he instumental in footsying around with Georgia & pushing for their agression to ramp up things in Ossetia? Don't throw the book at me.
mrsp

Grimus said...

In The Economy of The Heart, You Are Both Producer and Consumer.
*Disclaimer: Largely editorial contribution


I’m a fan of the tree/forest metaphor myself. The image conjured through your latest was that of an accountant forced to enter a war zone. Hand that pencil pusher an AK and see how he does.

In my mini-phantasm, he did pretty well and after a few bouts of exchanging small arms fire, retreating, panicking and shivering in the cold and finally climbing to high ground he collected the scenery.

He cut for sign and generally got his shit back together.

So along these lines, what my accountant gathers is less a list of trees and more an account of the abnormalities within the visual gloss of the forest.

That patch there is a little more yellow. There’s movement just beyond it. Looks like that one’s on fire and spreading to the next stand of pines.

Examples include (ubiquitous invitation to add your own here as we are all that quaking accountant on the cold ground):

-Pakistan vs. India critical potentialities.
-Peak Oil reality kicking off extreme feedback loops, awareness thereof suppressed.
-Generalized and near complete financial looting at all national levels.
-Two region wars generating terrorists in the Middle East. Proxy attacks abound.
-Troves of missing heroin. Switzerland legalizes the use.
-U.S transitional government flirting (heavy petting involved) with socialism. Even Sean Penn (who I like a great deal) is hooking people up.
-American Christmas is taking on a distinctively Bosnian flavor, retailers in death’s grip.
-Chavez barreling ahead (another guy it’s hard not to like)
-Mexico drowning in its own spilled blood
-California is still hoarding all the good movies and going bankrupt
-China, still hoarding all the good construction commodities and looking hard at tranche dumping
-And Africa, well I guess it’s not an abnormality that Africa just continues to be the world’s bitch but hell it’s tough not to mention modern day piracy emboldened by the surrounding chaos.
-Terrorist group monikers multiply
-What did I miss….Canada, NZ, Australia still hemming and hawing I guess.
-Oh yes, Mother Russia. Corrupt, socially/economically stratified and well armed.
-The old freak on lost retirements….the ultimate goal in life and the young weigh reality against the ever-platitudinous refrain “you can do anything you want.”

But this is like post game talk and so, the accountant with his greasy Kalishnikov and muddy boots digs deep, doubles focus. There’s talk of NBC attacks in the next presidency. Scranton-speak insider and Waco-implicated Biden warns of immediate Obama tests-in January. Hmmm. Oil and gold, viciously suppressed. Bernanke tells Ron Paul the shiny shit has not, I repeat not, been considered as a viable alternative reserve currency. Jobs are disappearing like cupcakes at the Old Country Buffet. And speaking of Buffets….and Soros, the accountant having been trained to follow the money, draws a bead on the overall picture and wonders.

If globalization is dead, our better angels localize and the demons read The Prince. Does feudalism localize? Or is the world still the stage? How would a secessionist Oregon deal with Taiwanese pirates exactly?

The accountant, unaware of dramatic theory, Chekhov or the efficacy of virulent flu strains as might regard their contribution to demand destruction sees instead of inevitability, certain opportunities with returns arriving on varying levels of abstraction.

Now while this accountant does indeed lack romanticism he carries among his character certain provisions toward the apprehension of reality. He sees Cheney walk for instance and asks again, in this forest what may not be dark at its roots?

People, we love them. Small animals perhaps are nice. The system of nature as a whole, this is rather pleasant and awesome. Yet, these people--narcotized ignorant debt slaves that they are--where is their Chavez? Where is the Chavisimo in say…Orange County or a few miles outside St. Petersburg where in both places flesh and money collide in great heaps of human rubble so as to stagger the mind and heart where it once searched for the good.

I say: this good, it must erupt it seems. It must prevail as it were in the face of more tangible, potential eruptions all over the face of this great earth.

The beauty of the economy of the heart is that it is not a speculative enterprise, but rather a perfect system where the only component exterior to it is the catalyst to begin the engine. That component is generally necessity, sometimes reason. The pricing mechanism is based entirely on personal attachment to fear paradigms.

There is an excess inventory in the hearts of men today and thus his good doppelganger, hungry for his own well being must buy now as the price drops. As prices always must when surplus meets the market.

And now the accountant on that lonely scarp sees the forest smoldering here and there, yet green mostly in the round of his purview and asks what my friend will be this heart’s catalyst.

Now before I’m tossed overboard with Deepak Chopra, let me say: I’m serious. As the unspoken element of this margin between tyrannous present reality and complicated, perhaps revolutionary future, this tenuous ground we now map, it is charged with people of two kinds: the miniscule group armed with code sheets and ghastly red push buttons and the corresponding vast, oceanic group armed largely with ideas and hope.

I believe in the philosophical good as a reification of choice. That is to say, I hope that there is something better down the road. This is your pilgrim’s way.

So I ask, in this metaphorical forest and on this real time journey that we map even as it sweeps us forward, where lies the component exterior to men’s hearts which will ignite the strange, wonderful substances in there and light the way through this collapse?

First maybe we avoid the falling, flaming trees. Okay, then…can organically produced, worldwide liberty be cultivated out from the char? Ash is a pretty good fertilizer.

What tree shall we grow and partake of this time?

I preempt any call for the education found in pamphlets, emails to state officials or treaties which may be signed yet not enforced. Something deeper must be unearthed from the whole of us and there is no time for red tape in wars small or large and because if the son of God were really on his way, well I kinda doubt he’d be 8 years late.


Andy Edwards

whistling grizzlybear said...

you guys are making me out to be a cornucopian.

i didn't say that Gilligan & company were going to get off their desert island.

how many war & disaster references do you need in a post to be a proper doomer ?

to counter-balance my other post, here are some doomer images

http://images.google.com/images?q=depleted%20uranium

Unknown said...

Absolutely amazing … stunning you could say, what we are witnessing today.

An amazing display of financial markets piro-techniques with the most amazing controlled demolition since 9/11.

For people who read Crossing The Rubiccon I just hope that they took corrective action and at least saved something on a personal level.

I remember Mike’s famous words on youtube… “GET OUT OF DEBT”

Amazingly the SYSTEM is still encouraging the masses to keep reinvesting back in the SYSTEM.

The bait is even lower interest rates and even more fiat currency.

Trouble is the dream is over and the cheese has officially moved.

I can not add to the great work people are doing here and I certainly would not want to detract from the research and analysis that now needs to take place in order to locate fresh supplies of cheese.

I realise and accept that this exercise will require FOCUS.

But in case anyone here is interested in looking past the forests and the trees as symptoms and would like to also entertain the possible roots and foundations of the problem I would not look past the work already accomplished by the late Bill Cooper.

He certainly made some big mistakes in his life as most human beings clearly do, but certain things he has left us with in his Mystery Babylon Series of broadcasts make sense.

Will be reading your work with interest.

mrs p said...

This persons web site has a few Russian TV (you tube)videos on Mumbai.
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/category/nations/russia/

Michiel said...

Any comments on this analysis by Webster G. Tarpley (I found he also features in some articles on FWT)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ex0aZt886M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbaGCA1IhF0

Synopsis:
===
U.S. and Britain want to see Pakistan balkanized so China loses support.

U.S. wants to drive China out of Africa and surround and drain it of oil.

This should lead China to look at the Russian resources as it last resort, playing those against each other.

Obama is a mascotte to sway the world and Europe in particular. For the rest: it is normal CFR behaviour with Brezinski (sorry for any mispelling) calling the shots.

The Neo-cons were just picking on those with no real ability to strike back; the Democrats are speeding up the game bigtime.
===

I feel this is a very convincing story...

I conclude from this we can expect some more "interresting activity" taking place up until Obama takes his seat. Until then the political powerhouses wil try to look pretty and docile.

Some time after Obama settles in I expect a massive international false flag event, one that might break the U.N., or parts of it.

Sorry if I'm speculating to wildly but maybe one of you can get some clearvoyance from this.

I sadly don't have the room, wealth or social-enabledness to go sustainable here in The Netherlands. My only option is political; try to get people too wake up...

DarkNetz said...

Here's a great article discussing the topic of social networks, forums, blogs, etc:

A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Don Hynes said...

More "forest" on Mumbai. This Kissinger led Obama economic group was in Mumbai on 11/22/08; not sure if they were there during the assualt.

Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline a natural thing to do: Kissinger
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=182992

Don Hynes said...

US official: India attack may have Pakistani roots
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/12/us_official_india_attack_may_h.php

"Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that U.S. and British citizens were the targets of the violent siege, although most of those killed in the city, the nation's financial capital, were Indians."

Did Gates slip or is this more disinfo?

Rice Farmer said...

I am a translator by profession, and the only reason I ever go to a machine translation service is for a good laugh. Results may sometimes sound like the "gist" of the original, but could actually be highly misleading. But mostly you get gibberish. In short, get a human.

What is the "exit strategy"? I believe that a short time ago I expressed it this way: Imagine a burning building full of our money. Elites see it's too late to put out the fire, so they are stuffing their pockets and designer bags with money and heading for the exits. That's the exit strategy.

Let me expand on MCR's forest metaphor (I am not speaking for MCR here). When an ecological community undergoes a change from one state to another (grassland to forest, or one type of forest to another) that is called "transition." We are watching a massive transition taking place as industrial civilization totters. Though individual trees in the forest might try to stop the transition, they are helpless to do so. Sure, they could shake their limbs and try to spread their seeds farther afield, but such efforts are for naught because huge and inexorable forces are at work. 9/11 was an abortive attempt by the Imperial American Tree to thwart the transition. We can all see how poorly it succeeded. We need to put incidents like Mumbai into the context of transition. The same goes for pirates, who are doing what comes naturally by exploiting the nascent power vacuum on the world's oceans. Pirates can already see the chinks in the armor. Hence, watch for growing disorder and outright chaos. At the same time, various forces will be stepping into power vacuums as they occur around the globe.

So the "exit strategy" is "grab what you can while the grabbing is good" because the times they are a changin'.

Unrepentantcowboy said...

There were a few sounding the alarm about peak oil long before any of us was on the scene.

Admiral Rickover, for one. From 1957:

Oil drum

Kim said...

I love reading Mike’s blog, and the insights it gives me into the “Real deal” of what’s going on in the World, and I think I understand where he’s coming from (possibly). What I see is a number of “Elites” (for want of a better term), that are jockeying for power and control (read access to energy primarily, but other key resources too), using varying and shifting degrees of persuasion, lies, deception, violence, fear and bribery. I also think these “Elites” are not homogenous, and run the gamut from the completely delusional (“I/we can control anything and everything at all times”), to those with perfect insight, who must feel (I assume), like frightened rabbits caught in the headlights. Added to this volatile mix is a historical system that demands infinite growth in a finite World, just at the point where the keystone ingredient (energy), is about to take an even steeper swan dive. Interesting times. But we have power, more than we currently know or understand, and I have learnt this from my own personal experience. For instance (just a tiny example here), when myself and just another “Mum” (like me), campaigned for increased school bus safety (with zero official backing or resources), I managed to annoy the relevant Minister so much that he personally left a message on my friend’s mobile phone, banning me from speaking to his whole department. Of course, the aforesaid message ended up on prime time news. But the moral of this tale is/was that I was completely amazed that I MATTERED enough to such “Big” man to create such waves, and that I had obviously caught his attention, and got under his skin. And in another example, when I was bullied at work (and I’m at the lowest end of the hierarchy), The-Powers-That-Be initially treated me like shit, but I won through sheer bloody minded (and strategic), persistence. I gave them hell, and wouldn’t stop. In the end they settled my issues just to make me go away, and cease making life so uncomfortable for them. I don’t know where it came from, but I did and said things that (maybe), other would have been afraid of – and rather than eat me for breakfast, the “Gods” turned out to be toothless paper tigers that shivered when I roared. So, in summary, “The Elites” need us more than we need them, because they are completely dependent on a complex society that currently provides everything from their open heart surgery to their shoe laces. They are not controlling events (even though it may look like that on the surface), rather they are at the mercy of events.

Jenna Orkin said...

John has left a new comment on your post "IS THE MAP GETTING CLEARER YET? http://www.reuters...":

Special Reports
More evidence of CIA-backed syndicate involvement in Mumbai attacks
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4075.shtml

pagun said...

Isn't it ironic that in ancient times, our ancestors worshipped trees, and now, as we are just about out of trees to cut, our civilization is collapsing, as so many other kingdoms have fallen throughout history when the forests got used up. And don't forget that the oil isn't dinosaur bones, it is forests from long ago. When you put your foot down on the pedals in the car, remember the heads of the third world children you are stepping on, and when you pick up the pump, right under where it says "SELF," think of it as a weapon gunning down not just your fellow men, but all life on Earth, poisoning the water and the air.

Rice Farmer said...

Top Japan steel makers may idle furnaces

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Top-Japanese-steel-makers-poised/story.aspx?guid=%7BACAB5595%2D7BC8%2D4FB4%2DA61C%2DC6BAA35616E8%7D

agape wins said...

I have to start this with my story, but it's not really about me, but about our past and
what I see as our most positive future:

I was born in Michigan, USA, in 1935, in the heart of the Great Depression.
Mich. didn't recover until 1947!
I have vivid memories of before I was 6 mo. old; when I was 4 Yrs. old, we were homeless, & unemployed. My father collected Scrap, along with many others, plus some part time jobs for income. A friend donated a Tent, another, a Farmer, let us pitch it in a pasture, I remember snow in the spring, and again in the fall, Mom said we were
there from April until October, when Child Welfare, moved us into a house.
I was a wild Boy that Summer because my Mom was busy taking care of my 2 Yr. old brother, & gathering food! I remember eating Dandelion greens, Watercress, Skunks Cabbage, Crawdads, Frog Legs, & Shiners, a small fish, which is eaten whole without
cleaning, Rabbit, & Squirrel, we had Elderberries, Mulberries, wild Strawberries, Cherries.
I am sure we had Potatoes, Fish, & other "normal food", but the mind locks on the unusual; I vividly remember the "Can Bread", baked under the campfire--primitive Bread Machine!
Sometimes good, but mostly not so good, the "Pan Cakes" (Cornbread) was much better!

Now to the point of this Rant, Some posters assume that things will be like the 50s, 60s,
or maybe like the 1930s; well think again, try the 1860s.

We are about to loose not only Oil, but clean water, sanitation (Think super dome in New
Orleans), our taken for granted food supply, our Natural Gas, our electricity (think lines down
after the first Storm), our Fire Departments, Hospitals, & our Police ( think New Orleans again)!!

I demand that every one of you get a copy of "Our Daily Bread" a film put together from 1934 to
1940; Netflix has it: https://www.netflix.com/Register

Please watch it carefully, ignore the politics, this is not major studio computer "ART",
where are the others of My generation? Look them up, find out what Tough is, I lived when a
day was ruled by the Sun, when things had to be done by hand, OR not at all.
Where will your internet be when the lines are down, your cellphone, when the satellites come down, when the towers fall? Where are the Horses, & horse drown equipment, where is the technology to put this together? Can you survive alone among the Savages we will become?
If you have not started a local network, START NOW!

tim said...

NB Patton - excellent point about wind farms. Do you know about the work of Adam Trombly or Peter Lindemann? Google Adam Trombly and read the first article and tell us what you think. Do you think this is really bullshit?

gildone84 said...

>>>MCR: "Sure, the Club of Rome paper demonstrated that there was an awareness of the problems. But it did not (as far as I am recall) artuclate a new economic model or a plan to get there."<<<

I agree it's a waste of time to look backwards at this kind of stuff. Especially since a new economic model IS emerging. You only need to follow the Transition Towns Movement: http://www.transitiontowns.org/,
Follow the work of David Korten, read Yes! Magazine (www.yesmagazine.org), read up on the permaculture movement, etc. The links on the home page of this blog are a good place to start too.

Understanding what's going on and connecting the dots is one thing. After all, you can't plan your route if you don't have a map and understand how to read it, but getting ourselves bogged down in the intellectual end of things isn't a luxury that we have the time for anymore. We need to spend our energy and the dwindling amount of time we have adapting.

Remember two things:

1. The new economic model won't emerge unless we build it ourselves. There are plenty of people and groups working on it, but we all have to be a part of it.

2. Don't let this stuff consume you either. The late Edward Abbey once said: "When the situation is desperate, it's too late to be serious, be playful". He had a point. Not that you ignore what's going on, only that you don't let it consume you to the point of despair and inaction.

sudeep bhaumick said...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_sets_stage_for_strikes_if_Pak_does_not_act/articleshow/3789520.cms

is this a tree or the forests... maybe a desert...

Anonymous said...

Sudeep,

Thanks for the link. This is what I suspected from the moment I heard about the attacks. This is confirmation.

Agape,

Thank you for your post. It's an extremely important example.

Jenna Orkin said...

John has left a new comment on your post "IS THE MAP GETTING CLEARER YET? http://www.reuters...":

http://ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/welcome-to-the-worlds-new-crisis-zone_1.aspx

WELCOME TO THE WORLD’S NEW CRISIS ZONE

December 01, 2008

Jenna Orkin said...

John has left a new comment on your post "IS THE MAP GETTING CLEARER YET? http://www.reuters...":

http://ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/welcome-to-the-worlds-new-crisis-zone_1.aspx

WELCOME TO THE WORLD’S NEW CRISIS ZONE

December 01, 2008

trobador said...

To Darknetz, thank you for the reference, you are right on.

As for the other members of this blog, I strongly suggest you watch or read the Grapes of wrath...so much related to what is happening now...

Remember, the current context is either a downhill to despair...or to opportunities...opportunities to be the best of what we can be...it depends of the angle of approach...

We'll get back to you with some tools we are developing to deal with the exchanges of services between people.

Peace on all of you.

esteb

fusion_is_fundamental said...

Rice Farmer said
"What is the "exit strategy"? I believe that a short time ago I expressed it this way: Imagine a burning building full of our money. Elites see it's too late to put out the fire, so they are stuffing their pockets and designer bags with money and heading for the exits. That's the exit strategy."

I think people want to know where on earth are they running to that the angry tourch carrying villagers won't find them?