THE AMBULANCE
by Michael C. Ruppert
Russia and China just signed a $25 billion energy deal. Uhhhhh.... all that money that CNBC says the Chinese are going to use to buy T-Bills and such... Well, in spite of the fact that there are around 29 million unemployed (many of them displaced) in China; in spite of the fact that China is having its worst drought in 50 years, threatening its wheat crop (also hit by a fungus); in spite of the fact that this guarantees a catastrophic famine; in spite of the fact that widespread civil unrest is the worst-kept secret in China... I don't think there's much chance China's going to be buying much of anything from us, let alone our very-questionable debt. And now by signing an energy deal with Russia, China is signalling where it's going to be spending its money.
Locally.
Well, that leaves Japan to finance our debt...
Doh!
GM is about to go under and gold is ready to rocket through $1,000 an ounce. Remember that last September I predicted that gold will be around $2,000 an ounce by March? Remember that I predicted that GM or Chrysler would be gone by the spring? We put all this solidly on the map at FTW and in "Rubicon". So many great writers and thinkers have been building this map from many directions in stark detail for so long. Why is it that TPTB can't see us? Why can't they see what's coming like we can? We're invisible to them... but only for a short while longer. And they can't see what we see (or even us) because we are out of their box and we have glimpsed over their ever-diminishing dinosaur horizons. We know where the paths lead... The dinosaurs are starting to become alarmed.
Europe is absolutely imploding economically, especially Eastern Europe... It won't be long now...
Bring it on. We're ready.
The beginning of the end indeed... Everybody in the PeakOil/Sustainability movement needs to start getting their tracks shoes on and their heads right. Hydrate and get your shit together. The world's being beaten to death and we're the ambulance.
*************************************************************************************
Jenna Orkin adds:
Warning for the West as Crisis Spills Onto the Streets
US Refinery Delays May Spur Supply Crunch
Mystery Deepens Around Ukrainian Gas Firm
"I think what matters most for the Ukrainian government is not the gas price," Putin said during a meeting with reporters, "but rather the opportunity to retain certain intermediaries to use the dividends for private purposes, to accumulate personal wealth and obtain financial resources for further political campaigns."
Russia in Latam Push with Bolivia Gas pipelines
Coordinated Inflation Could Bail Us All Out
A rising tide lifts all boats!
The influence of Dr. Gono shines forth from the pages of the Financial Times
World Heads For Water Bankruptcy
JP Morgan Employee Survived Six Floor Leap
CIA Helped Pakistan, India Share Info in Mumbai Case
UN Crime Chief Says Drug Money Flowed Into Banks
US Official Says Drones Use Pakistan Base
What about Cracking the Benazir Case?
[T]here are fears that giving unfettered access to international investigators could create complications of its own if they were to come across evidence that implicated Pakistan as a state in terrorist activities....
[Former Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokar] also expressed the concern that India would now put up a “laundry-list” of more demands for Pakistan to meet that could create more tensions between the two countries, especially as New Delhi had declared that in Pakistan, it did not see a distinction between non-State actors and the State.
Israel Now India's Top Defense Supplier
Iran Rethinks Gas Supply Security for India
Obama and the Afghan Narco State
US To Send Pirates to Kenya
With the arrival of Peak Oil, the curtain has closed on Act 1 of the drama Petroleum Man. What will happen in Act 2? Chekhov said, "If there's a gun on the wall at the beginning of the play, by the end it must go off." In the world's nuclear arsenal are many guns on the wall. If life copies art, will there be an Act 3 in which the players, having learned their lesson the hard way, live sustainably? To explore these and other questions... FTW's Act 2 Blog. Read, comment, take heart! Orkin
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79 comments:
MCR, JO:
What happened to MCR's open letter to Pres. Obama, and the 21 beautiful blog entries thereto? Did I miss something?
Peter J. of Minneapolis
P.S. I believe Thomas Jefferson called for a revolution every generation or every twenty years. I believe it was Peter Clemenza who said that an all-out war between the families was necessary every five years or every ten years. "It helps get rid of the bad blood," Clemenza said.
They're both right.
Mike
Why did you take down your letter to the president????
Clearest and most concise piece of writing I've read in a long time...
We are well along the road to the end so face the facts; the oligarchy does not give two shits what happens to the common person.
Anyone can see what is going on if they want to see, but then they are obligated to take action and we all know how strange that can make a person seem to his fellows..LOL.
Keep up the great work and don't quit...we are all "trudging the road to happy destiny with you."
Via con Dios,
WEL
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/business/worldbusiness/19ubs.html?_r=1&hp
Looks like the world is killing the system,in order to survive,good call mike.
Secret societies cannot survive exposure
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29265600
even Obama is in the lawsuit here.
Regarding gold, there was a news report about Eastern Europe countries dumping their gold on the market in order to try to bail themselves out.
Can somebody please explain what such an action will/can do to the price of gold?
Thanx.
Z.
P.S.: Our (Slovenian) National Bank said on Tuesday, that national gold reserves are at 2,5 tonnes, but that the amount of gold that is privately owned by citizens surpases this amount. I think that this is good for the people of Slovenia if/when the collapse comes. The local trade can/will continue, just based on gold/silver, and not Euro.
Oh no,this is desparation said with a smile.Obamas huge energy lie,get this,CLEAN TAR SANDS.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aCh8kEdlrPXE&refer=canada
Lucky I'm married to a nurse then!
Here's some good news from my country:
Land freed for 1,000 allotments
It may be too little too late but it is a step in the right direction and we're trying to stay positive.
A political notion that up to now had been smugly swept under the rug by liberal theorists and apologists as a thing of the past, as a quaint sidebar within the heralded "end of ideology" ideology, has re-surfaced. It has been uttered by none other than the Rockefeller globalist, Zbigniew Brzezinski. The skeleton-in-the-closet that Dr. Brzezinski has unleashed is class conflict:
"And if we don’t get some sort of voluntary National Solidarity Fund, at some point there’ll be such political pressure that Congress will start getting in the act, there’s going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots."
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu8Nd7xuix4]
The Empire is politically and morally bankrupt. Industrial civilization hacks in its death throes. The runaway freight teeters on the Post-Peak Oil plateau, any day to enter onto the uncontrolled depletion curve of scarcity and deprivation. The perception of "the condition" slowly sifts down to street level where it is lived and felt, though not necessarily understood. Why would it be understood? There is no political medium to teach it.
It would seem that Dr. Brzezinski has twigged on the rising States' Rights movement as impetus to his new-found philanthropy. Being no slouch of a geo-political analyst, he likely knows that the movement is the precursor of a full-fledged secessionist movement on the North American continent. He knows the game. He knows the drivers. He knows the stakes involved. Unfortunately, it would seem that he does not know that it is an impossibility to halt the runaway freight of full-blown entropy unleashed. It is a physical law, as true as is the law of gravity: the world rushes towards maximum disorder. Look about you. Pick up a newspaper. There it is, staring you right in the face.
Dr. Brzezinski rightly identifies a gutted and alienated middle class as the source of his concerns. This is the political demographic, with responsible and mature co-ordination, that will push the secessionist movement into mainstream political discourse. The time approaches for NAmerican secessionists to begin knocking on the doors of chambers of commerce and rotary clubs.
MCR's & JO's need of keeping FTWers up to date with world developments obviously requires they provide regular to daily updated new postings. This, in turn, can require FTWers with running conversations to sometimes (re)post on more than one comments page; as below. (And all of us continuously appreciate you VERY much, Mr MCR & Ms JO.)
Tim--
It's very VERY good to hear you're "happy to continue this conversation... as long as J.O. does not close the door". With that concern being settled, quickly dispense with any ideas of needing to "help" or "save" anyone. Those are but impertinent concerns of the naive human mind and have no genuine value. Fulfillment of such empathic/humane objectives is the prerogative of T ultimate/actual PTB. Simply do not be unkind nor dishonest to anyone. Attempt being nothing more than your human self, and likewise accept everyone else for being who and what she and he is and for what she and he are doing, and that is enough. Nonetheless, also do keep ever foremost in heart & mind your feelings & thoughts of love for your fellow human beings, despite however much some, being themselves, may feel driven to spite you for being who and what or how you are.
Whether ideological friend or foe, looking one's fellow in the eye and standing one's ground while letting him/her have his/hers is ultimately what it's all about. All of us are in this together, being who we are, personally doing what we simultaneously "feel" and "think" our lives have commissioned us to do in accord with the physically embodied spirit-mind that causes each one of us to personally be. All of this, in the end, functions in service to the greatest good, even though only some of us have found or will find the way to know about such things.
As for the "ego", it is but everyone's perfectly natural and utterly necessary self-internalized sense of self-significance, self-value, and self-importance. No living soul (i.e., spirit-mind) can live well or long without a strong & healthy ego. It is thus an imperative of everyone's ego's self-preservation to fully consciously/mentally recognize the equality of all egos, and intelligently conduct ourselves accordingly but NEVER destructively -- if one wishes to not be destroyed. In other words: simply let your intellect be the master of your ego.
Moreover, I assure you there are a significant number of human beings that have absolutely no interest whatsoever in taking "merciless advantage" of anyone or anything, and they are the exclusive humankind ones who will not far to the future be found peacefully and intelligently occupying the Earth.
Indeed, "our spiritual [and intellectual] conversation is ok", and way more than just "ok", as well.
walter lawrence
it was only down for a short time and mcr didn't do it
If forced to choose the best American president, I guess I’d go for Jefferson. Obama would probably hold against him the statement that black people smell bad, or the fact that he held slaves. An Indian might note that his statements and actions led to the Trail of Tears and the wholesale dispossession of the Indians, which occurred mainly after his death.
I have a more serious critique of President Jefferson, though. He was a man of learning, acquainted with the Scientific Revolution of his day, but designed a governmental system ideally suited to the world of his grandfathers. At the time he wrote the founding documents, the age of gentry and yeomen was already doomed. Ironically, James Rumsey, a partner of George Washington, demonstrated his steamship on the Potomac in 1787, the same year that states ratified a new Constitution, one based on a stable and resilient cooperation between the gentry (Senate) and yeomen (House of Representatives).
Financial adventurism had already been demonstrated by the British East India Company. Yet Jefferson and Washington seem to have ignored the effect steam would have on economic life, and therefore political arrangements. Jefferson envisioned a three-tiered agricultural society (slaves, yeomen, gentry), enobled by education and enriched by peaceful commerce. That clever and ruthless entrepreneurs might harness the awesome power of steam, import ignorant and frightened refugees and make huge fortunes in just a few years, did not occur to the Founding Fathers, for some reason. But that undid the Republic.
The Age of Steel (or the Age of Coal) surged in during Jefferson’s lifetime and characterized the 19th century. The 20th century was the Age of Oil, and together they form a hyperbolic curve known as the Industrial Revolution. Industrial society never gave egalitarian politics an even break. Jeffersonian Democracy, for all the hype, ended up as the perfect disguise for manipulative oligarchy.
Flash ahead to Peak Oil and the decline of the Industrial Revolution. We are moving into a period two or three eras past the relevance of Thomas Jefferson. We do not need a Jefferson or a Lincoln or a Kennedy. We need to get together and do this ourselves.
There seems to be no way to avoid historical role-models and hero worship. But what that engenders is Straussian mythos, by which the ignorant are led. We who are able to penetrate the dense mythos of our history must do so decisively, and learn history’s lessons without worshipping one model or another. We do not need to “go back to the Spirit of ’76. We need to become the Spirit of ’09, which will not and cannot be the same.
MCR, that open letter to President Obama was a great piece of satire.
Wasn't it?
Puts an interesting light on Clintons visit to Japan.
I wanted to work out some ideas here, if I may, and open them up to some comments to help clarify things for myself. If you have something that can help me with this, please... by all means.
First of all, I really liked Mikes letter to Obama. But it raises an intersting question. We here are all familiar with that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It can be a brutal fealing, full of anxiety, almost paralyzing at its worst. When I hear things that put the moment when the SHTF in some distant point in the future (or not so distant), i assume, maybe wrongly, that there is a percieved difference between the die-off and the collapse. (whether or not my assumption is correct doesn't really matter too much, but it brings me to my question) Is the collapse that is now occuring fundamentally the same as the die off? In other words, does the die off have to happen ? If it does, then what we are talking about is ecological balance. If it is something that can be seperated and held distinctly from the collapse, then what we are talking about is a possibility of saving lives by way of a paradigm shift. Distilled further, the question comes down to does die-off=collapse? If it does, ok, this is the really important part and I think that it does, then what we are talking about is less about stemming the collapse and more about getting the things necessary to begin building a post-collapse a society, in which these massive inequalities that created the conditions for this event to take place are removed, set.
Secondly, that raises the question of what are the roots of the inequalities that got us here? What are the roots, how do we identify them, and how do we hack away at them so that they don't take hold in the soil post-upheavel?
I don't think the roots are in government, essentially. I feel that the root cause is itself capitalism. I think that this is the way that it has to be when you equate money to the resources necessary to survive. And if it is capitalism itself, then Obama's actions can be seen in another light. Obama is systematically bringing down the system that created most of the spoken of history for the last 600 years.
...
I'll leave it there and see what comes up. This may be all obvious to some of you, and that's great. For me it is one of those revelations that has not lost its zing yet. Every time I sit with it and see it clearly, I just melt in awe of what is happening.
Thanks guys
Mat
eyeballs
yes, re heroes. see
http://mikeruppert.blogspot.com/2008/06/moses-of-post-peak-oil-world.html
Der Spiegel Exposes the Brazilian Ethanol Madness
Why the Promise of Biofuels is a Lie
http://counterpunch.org/bryce02192009.html
Re: JP Morgan employee survived six-floor leap Police found blood on the bedroom floor, bathroom floor, and the bed of Nishesh L. Sing al and stab wounds in his body, but they still believed the incident was a suicide attempt.
COVERUP!
Given that he worked for the notorious-for-a-century JP Morgan Chase Bank in Manhattan one has to wonder what he knows that they would try to off him and then lean on the cops to so blatantly cover it up. Too bad They missed out on the blocking the stabbing news.
UNITED NATIONS: Iran holds enough uranium for bomb
I pray to god that Israel or the US aren't stupid enough to invade IRan during this crisis.
V(incent)
"Some experts are concerned that economic difficulties in the Baltic states will spill over into Sweden, Denmark and Norway."
I wonder if this is going to be Muslim related violence. I've read a lot of story how the Scandavanian countries have taken on a lot of muslim immigrants in the past 10-15 years. Sweden has a huge issue with 12-16 y/o's girls being raped in public places by Muslim teenagers whose parents view it as getting back at the 'infedels'. Many governments around the world are experiencing the reactions to this economic fall out, so a move from a liberal society and government to a more conservative government would appear likely(at least from US citizen stand point). I could see that reaction ushering in anti-terrorism efforts in many of the Western European countries as these populations uprise and cause problems,espically France. This could get ugly in Europe...
"Puts an interesting light on Clintons visit to Japan.
I wanted to work out some ideas here, if I may, and open them up to some comments to help clarify things for myself. If you have something that can help me with this, please... by all means."
I posted a link to an article in the Washington Post last week regarding the only plan for the US "bailout" is for Japan to buy our debt. There isn't any other option, so why not send your Sec. of State to beg for money? The only other option once the T-Bills are issued and not bought from existing currency is to print,print,print. With Japan contracting at 12%/yr, how would they have the money to bail us out. It would be a last desparate measure that would most likely fail and trigger backlash amongst the Japanese against the US. The Clinton's were about inflation control and with Hillary on his cabinet I'm sure Obama taking his advice from Bill, at least for now and lets be honest, why wouldn't he?
I just read this off of AP. Maybe Chu instead of Obama is the person's ear we need to obtain first. His remarks are calling out to us and this quote says it all.
"He predicted oil will become more expensive to produce because of the decline in conventional sources and, he said, "that drives the price up..."We desperately need a national transmission overlay" to be able to tap a wide range of power-generating sources including wind and solar energy, said Chu, although acknowledging there has to be "a balance" of local, state and national interests.
"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/chu_energy
Z: regarding gold sales - it will take much more than two or three tons to affect the gold price. Under the Washington agreement, ECB banks have been selling up to 500 tons of gold a year, since 1999. The sales have been a drag on the price, but have not kept gold from rising each of the last eight years. With the present safe haven demand, it's not likely that any organized gold sale will have a long-lasting effect on price.
in_the_light...I think the root of the problem you've mentioned is the fact that some people want to rule and control others, have power over them, have more money than them, and feel far superior to them. And it's these people who fight their way to the top to make sure they accomplish this. It happens in capitalism, socialism, and communism.
To the management:
Thank you for
http://mikeruppert.blogspot.com/2008/06/moses-of-post-peak-oil-world.html
which I had missed.
I know you know about the mycelium approach, in which a network spreads out underground and fruits opportunistically in clusters and colonies, rather than as imposing individuals.
Just giving a hedzup over the tendency to live by outdated myths and drape them over very fallible contemporary "leaders".
Here's a year-old link sent me today about the anti-mycelium, Facebook:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook/print
Another odd networking monster is LinkedIn. All of Obama's appointees seem to have a LinkedIn page, and sometimes it's nearly the only place their complete bios are posted. You have to register to get their resumes, and I won't go there. So I still don't know what flavor of frozen latte some of them like.
Uncovered Israeli spy related to 9/11 hijacker pilot
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/world/middleeast/19lebanon.html?th&emc=th
Ali al-Jarrah and his brother Yusuf were arrested in Lebanon on the charges of spying for Israel since 1983. They were cousins of Ziad al-Jarrah, who was one of 9/11 hijacker pilots. It's interesting to compare the similarities between Ali and Ziad. Both of them were perceived by their friends and neighbors as dedicated supporters of the Palestinian cause, both of them received unexplained cash from mysterious sources, and both of them took a number of disguised trips. I recommend using Paul Thompson's 9/11 timeline and the NYT article to compare the information on two cousins.
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. 3 RESPONSES HAVE BEEN SENT IN THE LAST 7 DAYS AND NONE OF THEM HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED. HAVE YOU RECEIVED IT?
MCR, JO:
Wayne Madsen contributed much to FTW.
What do you think of this article --
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12370
Peter J. of Minneapolis
Jim Willie's latest
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/willie021909.html
Discusses plans by Russia and China to establish a new multi-polar financial system founded on fair prices for energy resources. He also touches on population reduction.
Shiner...
We all have our own belief systems, and ALL of us have the inaliable human rights to believe what we want... kind of like you believing Mike needs singing lessons;-)
Like RanD, and many others on this blog (including MCR, I suspect), I have a sense of spirituality, but more importantly - I have unequivocal respect (not just tolerance) for my brothers and sisters who have divergent beliefs than those I hold to.
Shiner wrote:
"Belief in nonsense we can neither see nor hear is part of what allowed us to be lulled into this position. It is time for it to stop."
I don't know about any of the rest of you, but I can't see the wind - but I can feel it...
Authentic spiritual knowledge (not the scaremongering we’re programmed with by society), like the wind, can be subtly felt – or can blow us down with the full might of its Universal truth and perfection.
The only “nonsense” that continues to get us into mess after mess is – ego!
RanD...
I’m quietly enjoying reading your thoughts, especially as I understand that this is your way of being in service to humanity during these interesting times.
To Your Magnificence
Todd
This article by Dmitry Orlov has been making the rounds in my community:
http://www.organicconsumers.org:80/articles/article_16876.cfm
Enjoy!
Shiner;
Do you believe in microwaves? Can you see electricity?
So much for our transportation secretary. Replace gas tax with miles driven tax using GPS tech.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-lahood-vehicle-mileage-tax,0,6754105,print.story
Businessman,
You're right. That is a bit clrifying because as its been said here so many times and as it is true, its roots are in the way money works. Anytime money is substituted for the resources necessary to survive, a heirarchical structure develops. i.e. I no longer need my hands, soil, and seed to survive, I now need cash which is only available to me if I play in a game that has certain rules most of which, if I'm black, currently poor, a woman, or anyone not white and male, are written to keep me with as little as possible. I know that.
I'll chew on the idea that the way money works isn't necessarily tied to capitalism as opposed to other economic models. Though as of yet, I'm not too sure that rings true. One thing I do know is that socialism in and of itself certainly doesn't change the way money works. But its a start. When you gauruntee people a basic standard of living, the threats that are present in a capitalistic society of not getting what you need if you don't play by the rules no longer hold any water.
I'll let this one percolate...
Thanks
Mat
Shiner - I believe there is an energy (an awareness, a one power, what ever you want to call it) that is omnipresent everywhere at once. At times while at rest or meditating I can feel it, hear it, sense it ... I don't don't really have to believe in it for it to be there and for it to work, it just is.
What about the air we breathe? It's everywhere all at once is it not? Albeit you sometimes can hear it and it's getting harder and harder to find that which we can't see.
You don't see any animal on this planet worrying about the economy, who's getting whose money for what do you? It's strictly a human trait to cause and be affected by such fear and anxiety over monetary issues.
We've all caused this and we'll all have to deal with it one way or another whether we want to or not.
No standing on the sidelines and watching and blaming others for our plight (although the multitude are still doing just that!).
namaste
in_the_light...This is something I wrestle with all the time. I believe that models like capitalism and socialism can both work in their own way, but once you have people who are unethical and want to take unfair advantage of others inside of both systems we have problems that will develop. And those people who crave power over everything else and are unethical at the same time will do anything they can to control everyone and the entire system. So we then have these kinds of people running things throughout the world.
There are times when I object to these people doing this, and then I realize that in my own opinion, these people are all here as part of God's plan, too...just like me. And we're all just acting out our own karma together. So my objection to what really exists just gets in the way of my own life, and aggravates me more.
When you look at the true spiritual people throughout history, they don't object to the evil they see in others and try to fight it. They just live their lives as shining examples of spirituality manifesting along with humanity.
The best action I can take from my own perspective is to do the best I can for myself and my family, to make a contribution to others' lives in the process, and to take a stand for what I believe in whenever I feel it's appropriate. But I constantly deal with the anger and objection I feel towards people doing evil in the world, and I constantly work on letting go of it. Because my anger towards the evil I see in other people doesn't do anything to eliminate the evil...It just creates more anger inside of me.
Gold hit $1000 today.
At the same time talk of nationalizing Citi and BoA.
Mike, my hat is off to you sir.
Russia in Latam Push with Bolivia Gas pipelines
Where do these pipelines GO? The gas is located in the (virulently anti-Morales) East, and the pipelines are supposed to go over the Andes to the Pacific, or down to the jungles of Paraguay? Or to heat the hovels of Andean peasants, maybe. That would be nice. Are Russian troops planning to join the Gasprom picnic?
Obama and the Afghan Narco State
Gotta laugh, or else cry. This is Plan Columbia, packaged for the WOT. Who is “our enemy” again? (Someone just told me that Osama has been spotted in Western Pakistan. I think he was carrying a weapon of mass idiocy at the time. Attack!)
@MCR
Really enjoyed the composition of your piece. A joy to read.
Regarding nationalizing Citi and BofA...in terms of minimizing any interruption in service because of a banking transition...isn't it better to have one's banking accounts with one of the big major banks nowadays? Isn't the government much less likely to let one of those banks fail than one of the smaller ones?
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51J5DA20090220
defending the money masters.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=anyXBvUCQa_M&refer=home
natural gas cliff indeed,see the decline rate of 30% a year and half the rig count.Who turned out the lights.
in spite of the fact that China is having its worst drought in 50 years, threatening its wheat crop (also hit by a fungus);
You're damn right (again) about this one MCR. China is doomed, they will have billions starving soon due to their failed wheat crop. They have no way of fixing this, really. I expect the drought to hit really hard next week and the remaining wheat crops to fail. You're right again MCR, keep it up.
GM is about to go under and gold is ready to rocket through $1,000 an ounce. Remember that last September I predicted that gold will be around $2,000 an ounce by March?
Gold broke 1,000 today, 2,000 by March isn't too far off by any means. GM is going to fail too, you're right. GM couldn't turn their company around in the 2 months they had.
More commodity buys from China, see below:
“Beijing said on Friday that one of its big state-owned banks, the China Development Bank, agreed to lend the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras $10 billion in exchange for sending China a long-term supply of oil.
Venezuela received a $6 billion loan from China and agreed to increase its oil exports to China, bringing China’s total investment in the country to $12 billion. In Brazil, China signed a $10 billion “loan-for-oil” deal that guarantees the country up to 160,000 barrels a day at market prices….”
In Brazil, the $10 billion loan is to be used to finance a deep water oil reserve that the government hopes will help turn the country into a major oil producer. “ NYT, 2/20
Putin: Post-US World Blueprint
Behind the scenes a new world currency basket is in the works sponsored by Berlin-Moscow-Beijing-Tokyo-Riyadh that will bypass the banks. To be implemented in 2010 as the world is in chaos.
JO, MCR:
Here is an article by Jim Willie that echoes MCR's take on Putin's performance at Davos.
He also identifies competing forces, one side that favors equitable distribution of energy and trade and the other that favors population reduction and the status quo of energy and finance.
http://www.kitco.com/ind/willie/feb202009.html
Peter J. of Minneapolis
Mike - "teach your children well..."
And you have taught us "children" well, as evidenced by comments over the last many weeks. I had to smile today when I saw that trevbus, Peter J. Nickitas, and myself each found the same article of interest (re: a basket of currencies to replace the dollar).
Shows we are all following the same map and noticing the same landmarks thanks to you.
Namaste.
02,21,09
My how this Blog has evolved in the past 2 years, so much meat, such insight, so much to think about!
With my lack of time, & 2 finger typing I am getting way behind, I'll try and make this short.
First off I think all the recent posts are great!
Someone hinted that MCR didn't like to learn/did not learn, this makes no sense. Mike's writing has been evolving since before 2000, he sees more clearly than most of
us, AND can communicate in a manner which is not overbearing.
When you read his history, slowly & thoughtfully, you understand that his life has been nothing but one lesson after another, which have all been taken to heart.
About the best way to reach TPTB, Mike has mentioned his connections, knows who is spreading his views, and is writing to ALL of us, not just one man who is still an unknown,
He still has to show us the metal he is molded from!
Now a few comments:
Nothing is by chance, Just this morning I was reading "The Survivors Club", on page 139 is "How Religion Helps You To Live Longer", on p. 140 we find a reply to;
"Shiner
Belief in nonsense we can neither see nor hear is part of what allowed us to be lulled into this position. It is time for it to stop."
Quote " They would work whether God exists or not as long as people behaved like and believed that God existed," He says.
It is not clear weather the particular religion matters, Dr.Koenig adds."
The next par. states, " Dr. Koenig replies that belief is the most powerful survival tool in the world. Faith gives you hope that no matter what you're going through, something good can come of it."
To me this says, " You have to Believe in something, be it God, Family, Music, Art, your Dog, OR whatever someone else may see as NONSENSE." If you think I am miss quoting, read the book, or at least the Chap. it could save your
life!
History;
"GhostofSpartacus
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they
Are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…"
A crock, Proposals were made to exclude Slaves, women, Indians, & those regarded as "uneducated". If you look at how the war "Of Independence" was fought, and how politics were conducted afterward, you can see this was written with a wink and an elbow jab!
I find most of what you write informative, & correct. But no one of us has all the facts, and we all write with a Bias especially me!
Reaching back to Tim, & others worried, or those who should be, about where they live.
When I mention "Flood plain" I am talking about anywhere below "water level"!
I was raised in Michigan, which has a lot of "Swamp", you can find "reclaimed" property anywhere.
I lived in an apartment in Colorado which was flooded out along with about 1000 homes during a 50 yr. rain storm, afterward it was revealed that "upstream" there was a "Irrigation Diversion Ditch", which was buried
underground for over 30 miles, for " Urban Development"! Who plans ahead 50 years?
We are entering an uncharted Era, when things erode you can expect to be carried back over 150 yrs. to a different time, places which because of oil are now "high & Dry" will revert to what our fore fathers contended with. Look around, inquire, read some history. Could you live where you are, IF you woke up and found that a Time machine had removed 100 or more yrs? For a look at The Black Swamp's history, & what it will feel like after Oil; http://www.blackswamp.org/swamp%20history/swamp_history.html
Amae, Love you all.
MCR and JO:
Post-Peak Oil analyses, articles and links are excellent. My only concern is that they tend to be somewhat generic and focused on global dynamics and events. Yes, we are confronted by a global meltdown and, yes, we do need to be informed. However, those situations are somewhat removed from the immediate NAmerican environment and related, unfolding events. The fledgling NAmerican secessionist movement is but one example, and at this time a fairly soft one.
A more concrete example is the political brush fire of the States' Rights movement. Via either article or link, there is no mention made of it in this blog by those who control the blog's content.
Currently, there are 11 States that have introduced States' Rights legislation, revolving to one degree or another around the recognition of Article X of the Constitution. These 11 States have sent a clear signal to the United States Government: STAND DOWN. The 11 States are:
Arizona
California
Georgia
Michigan
Missouri
Montana
New Hampshire
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Washington
A further 13 States are in process of introducing States' Rights legislation. These States are:
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Colorado
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Maine
Nevada
Ohio
Pennsylvania
The States' Rights movement is in play. It is a bottom-up, grassroots initiative. It directly challenges the over-reach of a criminal and philosophically bankrupt federal state. Courageous legislators are putting their balls on the line. And what mention is made of this historic development herein? Nothing.
To my eyeballs there is something terribly wrong with this picture. We cannot not communicate, i.e. human communication has no negative. By virtue of dangling liberal overtures to said criminal and bankrupt state, and not bringing into discourse the States' Rights movement, what signal is actually being sent? Whose agenda is possibly being endorsed through a back door? Who might be playing whom? Are the days of liberal hand-wringing not a thing of the past to be replaced with concrete political action? These are questions and concerns that could reasonably float into one's political imagination.
Harold Thomas over at The Ohio Republic blog offers as good an overview on the States' Rights movement as anyone:
http://ohiorepublic.blogspot.com/
Must read.
Note that 80,000 want to turn up to Santelli's Tea Party.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/813-Examples-Confidence-Destroyed.html
States' Rights Movement, Comment Addendum: Minnesota is the most recent State to introduce States' Rights legislation. HF997 was introduced on February 19 by Rep. Marty Seifert and supported by 16 State Representatives.
The numbers now are: 12 States that have introduced and 13 that are pending. That makes for 25. I'd say that a tipping point has been arrived at.
Tim--I just finished familiarizing myself with Adam Trombly via Ask.com; I'd not known of him before you. His and my scopes of knowledge are almost duplicates. At the same time, however, Trombly and I in certain respects also produce significantly differing conclusions concerning humankind's future as a consequence of certain fundamentally differing understandings of reality. For example: Trombly's vision is imprisoned by his failure to see beyond the psychological constraints all human minds impose upon themselves by "believing" (a practice Trombly claims to eschew, btw) that material reality is something more than what it actually is (an issue elaborated, again, below). Ultimately, every one provides oneself immeasurable good towards elevating and expanding one's consciousness (mind) by weighing and articulating one's thoughts most carefully and succinctly while directing them straight at oneself -- first -- before anyone else.
Thanks for providing background sources on your spiritual-mental development. It is also good that we explain our respective usages of such critical terms as "ego" when necessary. When using critical word-terms (such as 'ego', 'God', 'god', 'GOD', 'psyche', 'existence', 'universe') in ways that vary from common dictionary-defined usage, I usually find it necessary to explain, or provide synonyms for, what I'm talking about. For instance, dictionary definitions' common "meaning" for "egoism" acceptably matches with "love of [one's]self to the exclusion of others", whereas the word "ego" does not. Use of critical words that departs from dictionary-stabilized meaning seriously disrupts the object-flow of communication, and ultimately inclines to destroy the purpose of language. Much of what is not good about the world in which we live today is merely the consequence of misused language. Some North American peoples of pre-Columbian heritage experienced and described the problem as: "white man speaks with forked tongue." And so the situation continues today.
As for maintaining and thus living with "a pessimistic slant on survival", that experience belongs to those who, as Trombly above, have not yet "see[n] beyond the psychological constraints all human minds impose upon themselves by 'believing' that material reality is something more than what it actually is". RanD regularly states: there are three fundamental component-phenomena at the foundation of this currently manifesting physically alive self-conscious Universe. One is "physical matter" -- i.e., the Universe's and thus also one's own physical "body", each/both of which are comprised of the various chemical elements, all of which are intrinsically both viably inert and incapable of mental awareness of themselves. Another is "mind", which is intrinsically capable of being conscious and thus all-knowing of everything that exists, whenever it self-willingly freely so chooses. The third is "spirit", which is in fact also the progenitive source of physical matter and mind as well as itself, and is thus the singular source of everything that exists, being life, itself.
Once one has lived her/his personal requisite span of developmental time/experiences with the information given above, he/she will understand exactly both how why humankind will not far to the future be peacefully and intelligently occupying the Earth -- despite whatever cataclysmic physical and psychologically challenging eventualities that may and will occur between now and "then". And, if before "then" one just absolutely can't any longer bear what she/he is experiencing, one but needs -- emphatically and utmost sincerely -- demand from that grand old Spirit in the sky what he/she wants (more 'knowledge' is always a good one) and you'll damn sure get exactly what you need. From there on out it remains up to you, as always. Guaranteed.
SUNRNR said:
"We've all caused this and we'll all have to deal with it one way or another whether we want to or not. No standing on the sidelines and watching and blaming others for our plight (although the multitude are still doing just that!)."
Yes well maybe in the micro, collectively, U.S. consumers are not exempt. But in the Macro, in the past 30-40 years, a select, elite group, a mere 1 or 2 percent of the world, has blatantly planned, plotted and unregulated their way to manipulating all of us, (including the NOT federal, Federal Reserve group of bankers, the SEC, et al.) to believing in the "American Dream" of home ownership at any cost here and abroad and the crap collection of stuff we can't live without.
As for the evil preditory lending, we opted to stay renters, intuitively cringing away from the pressure to buy, offered up even from friends in real estate; we knew better because we were fortunate and searching enough to have "Crossing the Rubicon".
We may all be in the movie but we all didn't write this script. But I have no worries that the "villians" will eventually get their Karma, in this life or the next. It is what it is and we will pass through it like a bad case of the flu the best way we know how. You know the drill. Water, tea, rest, laughter, a little whiskey gargle. Collect seeds, grow your garden. mrsp
I cannot see electricity but If I touch it I will know its there. I cannot see the air but I can blow it into a balloon and therefore proove it is there. Any other easy to refute comparisons out there? I also believe that people have energy in them that they can transfer to others. That is why I keep stepping onto stages and making music. I want people's energy. I truly believe that this is one of the reasons preachers preach. They feed off the crowd.
My theory on religion is that smart lazy people figured out people are afraid of death. So they invented the afterlife. they then told the people they had to shake a bag of chicken bones over their head and they will live forever. Of course the people had to bring the guy the chicken so he could get the bones...
I have no intention of standing on the sidelines. I have learned as many of the skills needed to help get through this as possible. Spiritual "leaders" will try to play this same game they have always played. Lazy fucks need to get to work.
As far as Mike "needing" singing lessons thats just a straw argument. If Mike is interested in singing he probably want to do it as best he can. I am sure a vocal course that included voice control excercizes will help him improve. It sure helped me. As I said I am sure I could not be a great investigative reporter without training.
How did you guys see my post? I don't see it. I figured Jenna declined to post it because of the vitriol in it. That happens to my internet posts a lot because I am PISSED OFF.
I will not pretend to understand how feeling the wind without seeing it has anything to do with spirituality. As for the electricity and microwaves I can prove they exist without a shadow of a doubt.
Claiming some seperation of religion and true spirituality does not register with me. They are the same and come from the same place in the human brain. Spirituality is what allowed religion to take root. From the times of the first shamens. I believe lazy smart people invented spirituality so others would do their labor. Fear of the unknown is what allowed it to fester.
I really don't care what people believe but when spiritual people act as if they have all the answers and the rest of us don't know shit it bugs me. Expecially since you have to take everything they say on faith. Also religions track record for greed and abuse is way to long to overlook.
If spirituality was anything like the wind or electricity (proovable)I would have no problem believing in it.
How did you guys see my post? I don't see it. I figured Jenna tossed it because of the vitriol.
As far as mike "needing" singing lessons I don't believe I wrote that. Mike does not seem like a slouch or a primadona to me so I figured he probably wants to be as good a singer as possible. He is obviously not afraid of a little work and a vocal course that includes vocal excercizes will pay off. I sang for years without proper tech and not only did I damage my voice but I was nowhere near my potential.
Oops. I fired up a new Blogger blog yesterday (since Jan. 1 my active blog has been http://novacadia.wordpress.com/) and was doing some tweaking. Rest assured, the face is still associated with the name, Sebastian Ronin. Arrowcloud is a handy aka that is kept behind the curtains.
You don't have to print this JO...but could you comment on the "Ghetto Scriptures" that now appears on fromthewilderness.com?
When I was younger, I engaged in debates about god and religion. I can be a strong debater. After one such debate, I asked a friend if she thought I'd won.
She asked me what I had to win? Was breaking someone's belief system a victory? What did I gain from that persons loss of self? I no longer debate religion. I don't discuss my belief system with anyone as a way of protecting it. If there is something a person can hold dear as a way of making it through life, let them. If some of the long posts here are beyond a readers tolerances, scroll down to the next post. I sometimes read the longs ones just for the benifit of seeing someone's genuine feelings articulated so beautifully. i read this blog for all of it's content, some of which enlightens, educates, or amuses. There are no points awarded to the content posted here. Each of us draws from this well what we want, and it is differnet for each of us.
Sovereignty Resolutions
I'll preface this with a caveat that I have not researched this topic as exhaustively as I will.
Many of the states making sovereignty resolutions did so in the 1990's in response to Clinton directives which ended up costing the states money. Many are doing so for the same reasons now. Real ID is a cost to the state imposed by the Fed. There are other policy platforms from the Obama administration that will place a burden on State budgets. Sovereignty resolutions are telling the Feds that the States want money to implement policy, not just edicts. California's new budget relies on federal dollars. A part of the reason for California's budget delay was waiting to see how the Stimulus package unfolded. There are States with an electorate that is growing furious with the way the country is being run. So far, however, most of the older sovereignty resolutions are strategic efforts to get the Feds to give more money to the States. I hope the attention these new resolutions are getting raises awareness, but I think these will fizzle soon. State governments are just as full of cowards and crooks as the Feds. When I see an independent public movement, then I will grow encouraged. If anyone has good resources to follw up on, please post them. thanks.
S R, I wonder what 'arrangements' will be made regarding those bills, should those states need 'bail out' monies...............I'm watching the developments with interest.
nihil matters
i googled for it, then searched the ftw site. no dice. no clue
Nihil and Jenna - mine came through as an email with text attributed to MCR within the body of the email, with link to ftw for purchase of the book - the email it was sent from is as follows:
"Michael C. Ruppert"
< info@nwdigitalinc .com >
I added the space so the post would go through
thx kiki.
ok nihil matters, now i see what you're talking about. d'uh. mcr will write about that in due time.
kiki:
It is my understanding that 44 states are running on the red line and beyond re their state finances. In Canada, a provincial government can run a surplus just like the federal government can. In the U.S. that is not the case. By law, states cannot run deficit budgets, only the federal government can. And, as we all know, that budget ($1.2 trillion and counting) is a deficit on steroids!
As PeakedOut pointed out (no pun intended =;-D), the older resolutions were aimed at squeezing $$$ from the Feds. That still may be the case, i.e. "Follow the money" with the emphasis on Article Ten being merely smoke. But the urgency of the wording of the current resolutions leads me to believe that there is some serious positioning going on, not only vis-a-vis money transfers, but calling into question the legitimacy of acts undertaken by the Federal government. IMO, these states are signaling that they do not want to be taken down by the financial idiocy of the Feds. As noted in the previous comment, 25 states have now signed on, a tipping point has been arrived at, this strikes me as some very serious shit...and it hasn't even hit the mainstream corporate media yet.
To come full circle, in a blog dedicated to Post-Peak Oil, much of this comes down to energy flow through, or lack thereof. The implosion/devolution of the nation state, as discussed previously in hypothetical terms, becomes concrete, visible, staring one in the face. In discussions with secessionist colleagues, an opinion is forming that the sovereignty resolutions movement is a precursor to the secessionist movement. Which will be the first state to declare, to remove itself from the house of cards?
The worm has turned.
Excellent article,send this to everyone you know.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40059
Oops, minor brain fart up there. Should read, "In Canada, a provincial government can run a deficit just like the federal government can." (not "surplus")
Shiner --
First off, I have been watching for someone with the self-confidence and strength of character to come along and challenge RanD in the manner you command and are able to display. Already I consider you a potential friend and ally in pursuit of the truth, not an adversary -- hoping you will one day come to see Ruthie and David in the same way.
What one chooses to think, believe, do and say is of course always one's own to determine -- and we are no more nor less 'condescending' than you or anyone else who is up for expressing their convictions with utmost sincerety. Whether always comfortable with it or not, many of us, at this juncture of great potential for significant change from humankind's eons-running consciousness-developing paradigm into one never previously experienced, are working both independently and collaboratively toward fulfilling a common and singular objective; namely, a future that is equally good for everyone. And as for those who would work to subvert that objective? It is a given that T Ultimate PTB are -- just as they always have been -- directly if subtly involved in removing obsolete to subversive reasoning from the human condition via the Universe's methodical, natural and requisite process of generally elevating and expanding humankind's consciousness of reality. This process, as we see, has entailed much time, effort, gnashing of teeth, spilling of blood and shedding of tears.
I fully appreciate and understand where you're coming from regarding your attitude toward so-called "spirituality" -- a term which I, personally, generally do not use. On the other hand, I regularly use the word "spirit" in terms of being synonymous with life, itself, and consider life, itself -- rather than physical matter -- to be the actual source and foundation of everything that exists. And this of course speaks to the issue that generates much of your anger. Whereas you and those of your ideological ilk choose to believe that in some miraculous and physically inexplicable way life somehow sprung out of physical matter, it is perfectly self-evincing to RanD and those of our ideological ilk that life, itself -- and certainly not intrinsically insentient mere physical matter -- is fundamental to existence.
From here there is little left to be gained by arguing these points against each other; besides, in the end the truth is what prevails, and we're comfortable with that. Moreover, RanD knows it is impossible for anyone to with perfect confidence possess perfect knowledge of such matters before having personally experienced his/her requisite(s) to understanding such things. This is the nature of the Universe in which we find ourselves; and why we find ourselves emotionally compelled to articulate ourselves to each other as best we can. Such is the exclusive means whereby we take ourselves into a future that is fundamentally removed from our past.
Sincerely, RanD
100,000 Protest Irish Government Over Recession
Wow - the chutzpah of these people.
http://overruledblog.com/2009/02/17/banks-spend-tarp-funds-on-anti-consumer-lobbying-campaign/
I also wanted to share a personal anecdote in terms of people's awareness. I've always kind of been known as the "conspiracy theory" guy around the office, the one who would interject something in the conversation and people would roll their eyes at me, thinking, "here he goes again." (I'm sure most everyone here's familiar with this.)
Well, that's starting to change. People are no longer looking at me like I'm crazy. In fact, I had a conversation with our comptroller, and we started discussing the global situation, and she practically was begging me for more information. She described the situation as "Scary."
The answers people are getting from the talking heads aren't soothing people. The magic elixir of American Idol and Survivor are starting to wear off. We just have to be willing, and able, to keep articulating our points at the individual level.
From my earlier analogy about the dam bursting; there aren't enough fingers to keep putting into the holes that are now appearing exponentially. And in this situation, we're like water, feeling our way over this edifice, searching for the weak spots and the cracks, finding commonalities with each other as we coalesce into an ever larger and larger force.
Then watch out! The dam's going to burst!
Here's an interesting twist, re: "...urgent debate in parliament on ways to protect Swiss banking secrecy from "further foreign blackmail"
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTHO15017420090221
Hi Everyone,
I found a great little video explaining the global credit crisis in a simple, visual manner. I found it on Rob Paterson's weblog. You can watch it here:
www.alienworld.typepad.com
Take Care,
Michael Pinilla
RanD;
Do you know of the Celestine Prophecy? Your words are very similar. Synchronicity.
Shiner;
I know exactly what you mean about lazy, smart people getting others to do their work. Not all spiritual people try to manipulate like that. RanD, Todd and I are just sharing and I personally like learning from them. Todd put it perfectly on his last post, but believe whatever feels right to you.
EYEBALLS ROCK ON BROTHA!
Watching the Dow today... Feels like all the muscle of the market manipulators has now gone over seas away from the prying eyes of the SEC. Though It'll get really interesting if Credit Suisse are forced to hand over the names on their books that the SEC is investigating.
And it seems now that the muscle is gone the dow is returning to where it should've been years ago, but with all the big companies on the Dow about to go under...finally... Looks like it's going to go down fast.
Mike you said the ship was being abandoned. Well to me looks like it's empty and free to sink under it's own dead weight.
Peace.
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/1463790.html
Hey folks, check this out. I haven't read this thread, sorry to barge in; this is an article from my local papers web site. It has an interactive database of ALL layoffs in the past 2 years, and about 1 year into the future. for California.
First of all, just going through the pages and looking at the projected layoffs for California is a butthole clencher on its own(and these are just the layoffs that have been lawfully reported).
However if you select statewide and sort by time (make the future most come to the top)- You will find the list FLOODED with layoffs from JP Morgan Chase. Starting in March and growing in subsequent months. Food for thought, pins in the cork...
Now a brief comment on the "letter to the president"; What a pathetic waste of time. Obama is old paradigm, ANYBODY in that office since Wilson is either ignorant, a "Manchurian candidate", or both. That won't change until the whole "change how money works" happens. Will that be achieved democratically or will it be achieved through turmoil and chaos? So we actually have two MASSIVE epochal transitions we must endure, NOW.
Eliminating the fractional reserve banking system and returning the responsibilities of coin to Congress (and NOT a proxy or contractor thereof!) is one transition. The other is establishing a functional society that can contract in every regard, without collapsing. Localization, in a nutshell. And it is simple physics that mandates all of this.
Anyway, stop showing your ridiculous party bias. It was forgivable at first, but now its just annoying. Get your head out of your ass! Both parties are sideshows in the same circus. Puppets for The United Corporations of America...
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in the Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." - John Adams
I want to thank you for your vigilance that you keep. Without this vigilance we would not be able to read the truth. I do have a question though, everyday folks do not understand the national debt.
Their question always is well what would happen if we do not pay it back? How will this affect us?
Someone please explain this to me,
Thank you
M. Pinilla, cute video. But don't be fooled into thinking the global crisis is a result of subprime mortgages. That's like saying someone has heart disease because of that cheeseburger they ate last Thursday. Subprime mortgages account for only a tiny fraction of the international derivatives scam. It was merely the most directly visible type for the average American. After all, our homes are where we and our family and friends live (the need for shelter comes right after food, right?). The financial fraudsters with the help of their Washington enablers, have derivativized (is that a word?) everything you can think of and more - all so that we could be led to this point of "Gee, it looks like you'll have to fork over to us a huge chunk of what you have and are going to earn - for the good of the economy. We're all in this together." Yeah, right.
I like what I heard Tina Brown say on Bill Maher's HBO show the other night (and I'm paraphrasing here):
"We need to have a kind of Nuremberg Trials for all the people who have gotten us into this financial mess."
NB Patton
RE: Both parties are sideshows in the same circus. Puppets for The United Corporations of America...
This goes without saying. The management and most of the commenters here know that. However, although on one level these guys are all plumbers, covertly manipulating a phony Republic to enrich and empower their small group, it's also true that all governors, even totalitarian ones (and we're not there yet, praise de lawd!) have to keep an ear to the people.
There have been tremendous advances in surveilance, weaponry and legal structure that have worried us all a great deal. However, governments DO differ, and if you have a look at the composition of this Justice Department you will find that it is not aimed at the living rooms of America in the same way that the Ashcroft and Gonzales DoJ were. It's true that all the devices for totalitarian control are still at their fingertips, but their fingers seem to be busy with other things.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that input has been solicited and registered with the new administration, which is in a tremendous pickle trying just to keep its company in business. This gives Americans a rare chance to insist on the things that matter most, and we may actually get some of them.
With Obama on the threshold of moving into 'Clean Coal', we need to back up his Energy Secretary, Chu, who is not a sock puppet at all. The man is a scientist who knows there is no magic bullet, knows there is no such thing as clean coal, and has told everyone that energy use has to decline considerably, no matter what. But with the coal companies on the other side, and everyone clamoring for Uncle Barack to make things good again, he is likely to ignore the scientist and go the easy way. He needs to be told that WE KNOW AND WE CARE.
The really big one is the economy, though. For a couple of decades now (yes, through "republican" and "democrat" administrations) the wealth of American -- and let's not forget the wealth of the Third World -- has been aggressively moved to the offshore accounts of the wealthiest Wall-Streeters. When the bubbles burst they want more money.
Where does this theft stop? It stops when the government faces a credible threat of mass rejection. And that happens when people know what's going on and they TELL THE MAN: "WE KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON AND WE DON'T FREAKIN LIKE IT."
Poplular discontent is only one pressure that governments feel, but even the strongest governments need to take that into account. It's really all we have to manipulate, since they have all the serious weapons, the laws and cops, the databases to mine and the corporate structure to provide seemingly limitless ammo for whatever they choose to do. All we have is US.
I thought the Jefferson reference a bit mushy, m'self. But it's time for everyone to do what he or she can. Petitioning the president is not always a reasonable strategy, but for this brief time, I agree with Mike that it is.
The seawater is up to the gunwales. If you have a better plan or a big bucket of some kind, please do what you can, too. I have kids on this boat.
Eyeballs,
Damnit you weren't supposed to bait me into commenting in this den of hypocrisy again, so I'll try to keep it short. ;)
I very much enjoyed your post and I really do hope you are right.
My pessimistic (beat dog maybe) take on things are a bit different but the end result of this transition must be the same. Which is the "priority influence" on the government will no longer be the corporations, it will be the people.
The way you see it, we will achieve this pressure politically. The way I see it, the ONLY reason we have the potential to exert real political pressure is because we have the ability to effect change at the business end of a rifle... Or the perceived threat thereof. History has taught me the ONLY way a free people can remain free is if the established government FEARS them. Respect would be grand, but fear is an acceptable alternative at this stage of our evolution. Hell, even WITH arms a free people are at constant jeopardy of loosing that freedom. If you ask me, we have been quasi slaves in "Slavery 2.0" interest and debt based money, for a century!
However I actively work at keeping an open mind and caging the fascist little bastard in my mind from dictating my thoughts down one unbending track. I do acknowledge that either way is a possibility in the wave function of realities and we shouldn't totally abandon the preparation, and will, for either approach. So joined in the common goal, you guys do what you do. And if that wave function collapses on a reality that doesn't work out, God help us, I will be ready.
One thing you surely would agree on, anything remotely close to this in recorded history has ended in massive bloodshed. And we are all still the same ridiculous creatures we were before we discovered how to forsake the Sun God and his "meager" energy allowance.
From a more immediate, carnal perspective;
In act one, "the gun on the wall" in my opinion was not WMDs or anything like that. I think the gun on the wall is simple math. The ratio of people to the amount of energy needed to feed said people practically guarantees chaos!
So much for keeping it short.
Live long and prosper.
NBPatton:
You seem stressed, and of course it's hard to blame you. But a deep breath and a moment to recall our inevitable mortality and the value of Life... ahhhhh .....
Now, it may be a very good idea to keep personal armaments if you are trained in their use and comfortable using them. However, they will be valuable primarily against roving bandits and individual thugs. You will not defeat the government with any number of assault rifles, since they have attack helicopters, poison gas bombs, tactical nukes, tanks, white phosphorus and many other nasty articles that pretty much trump your average survivalist.
What the government needs to fear is not the AK47s of the Ozarks, but the wholesale rejection of its paradigm. A government that cannot tax effectively or catch and prosecute lawbreakers, a government which finds itself ignored and reviled, cannot continue to do much at all. And it really takes an effective government to make Wall Street exist.
If the currency is useless, the stock certificates are not going to get anyone anywhere. If the people won't work in the factories then the company is not in business. If people don't need what they sell, they not only have no profit, they are sitting on an expensive and useless pile of decaying capital that they can't sell anywhere.
It is the largely unconscious complicity of ordinary people ("of course, I am not ordinary, no no," sayeth everyone, but I mean ALL OF US) which provides the viablility for this slavery scam you speak of. And most of us haven't a clue how to withdraw from complicity.
The best of this blog has been instructions on how to opt out: grow your own food, store food and other kinds of capital that will outweather the dissolution of paper money, group together and care for one another, develop realistic talents and live in realistic conditions, produce your own energy, etc. etc.
We are saving our own butts -- not by building a wall and poking our assault rifles out of little slits, but by talking sense to those around us, finding ways that our friends, neighbors and townspeople can survive without Industrial Consumerism, which is an insane beast in its death throes.
You're gonna die anyway. Put down your rifle and grab a shovel. (Remember where you put the rifle.) Share tea with someone who has a brain, and listen to their relationship to this mess, then share yours. Help the kids around you to be smart and not too silly. Let em know there's a pretty serious world out here that's gonna need their attention before the typical middle-class "coming of age" (what, about 22 or something?). Learn to gift your community with stuff it needs, lend a hand, share stories and be a part of Life.
For all the Doomers, here's one guy who thinks SOMETHING WILL LAST. I want that something to be as good as it can be. No time to make the government my enemy, and maybe they'll even do something right. If you don't want to mess with them, fine. But please don't dis others for trying.
I know that you're trying too.
I spent a regrettable amount of time on a post that was censored. That's what I get for forgetting the sting in reason why I left in the first place.
However Jenna was ever so kind as to send me a copy of the missive, so that at least not all was lost.
Eyeballs, or anybody else, if you are so inclined, just email me and I'll send it to you. Or you can view it on my blog. (access through my profile).
Laters haters! ;)
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