DOCTOR MY EYES
My good friend Doug Lewis is typing this for me. Today, as I was switching my computer screen between the end of the world, book publishing issues, a minor legal problem, and chatting with a really hot woman, the retina in my left eye tore. After emergency laser surgery I am under strict orders not to read or work on the computer for five days.
This is so fucking rich. You guys are going to have a field day with it. God just told me to take a break. It'll all be here when I get back. Please do not send me any get-well emails for five days!
Rock on!
--
MCR
************************************************************************************
Jenna Orkin adds:
Pakistan acknowledges Mumbai Attack Link
Russian, US Satellites Collide
The old alliances are dead.....
Japan Should Scrap U.S. Debt as Dollar May Plummet
Manufacturers' Optimism Plunges in BRIC Countries
"So much for the decoupling" of the emerging markets from the has-beens.
Long live the new alliances.
European Firm Seeks Indian Counterpart for Fun and Partnership in Building Military Vessels
US to Enlist Iran in Targeting Afghan Drug Trade
Are Cyber-Militias Attacking Kyrgzstan?
US Considers Uzbekistan as Backup Base
Head of Azerbaijan's Air Force Shot Dead
Before the revolt of his retina, MCR responded to the above news, "My intial reaction is that Russia is moving raoidly to reassert control over its back yard. You can tell the list I said so.
Not surprising at all."
JO adds:
And speaking of Russian assertion:
Russia: Record Arms Sales in 2008
India, Russia, Nuclear Deal Signed
India, Russia Complete Naval War Games
Bloomberg: Gold May Double Soon
New Mexico Man Charged in White Powder Mailings
Quote of the day:
The typical recession is nothing more than the economy taking a little breather after a brisk walk. A depression, on the other hand, occurs after a long, uphill sprint – when the economy clutches its chest and falls down dead.
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
Book - Collapse
Book Release
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The critically acclaimed new film featuring Michael Ruppert.
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50 comments:
well, let's see; do we have any songbirds here that would consider sending Mike a 'listening' get well soon, on we bloggers behalf ? :-) I haven't a clue how to do it or i'd do it myself :-(
Following on from some comments on yesterday's posting re where to relocate to survive the coming crisis.
Prof James Lovelock of Gaia fame has some predictions from a global warming viewpoint (ie. not taking into account peak oil - which from my point of view - and most on this blog - only gives part of the picture!)
His article - although quite long - is worth a read. Living in the UK - it is reassuring to a point. His view is that the UK - and other islands - will be less bad than more continental areas....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5682887.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Get well soon Mike! Take a well earned rest and come back to the battle reinvigorated!
regards
P
My goodness, you guys move fast, bolting retinas and all. Haven't read in two days so will have to catch up.
I really enjoyed the seed saver article. Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been gardening now for five years and saving seeds of things we like. But hadn't thought of all the things like GMO's hybrids etc. Now I have a project for this week end!
Sending thoughts of retinal healing to Mike.
One of the best bloggers on preparing to grow your own, form community, live without fossil fuels is Sharon Astyk. Her archives are rich with how-tos on almost every aspect of self-sufficiency in the garden and the home. She also posted this at The Oil Drum: Adapting In Place: Whether, Why and Wherefore Ought Thou
Another post at The Oil Drum: From Cubicle Nerd to Cucumber Vendor: Learning Small Scale Farming in Mid-life
Suzanne Ashworth's Seed to Seed, mentioned in the comments of the last post, is IMO the best book on seed-saving, with complete instructions. For example, check out the tomato seed-saving method: you cut the tomato in half and squeeze the juice, and seed-filled gel sacs into a container and let it get moldy. The mold breaks down the gel, which prevented sprouting in the fruit. The mold also kills various viruses that would otherwise infect next years' tomato plants.
Seed Savers Exchange has only open-pollinated heirloom seed, and of high quality.
For protein it's simple to grow dried beans in enough quantity for a family.
............
I found these documents linked at another blog a couple of days ago and haven't finished reading yet. They may explain what's behind the subprime/economic crisis....or it may be bs.
Collateral Damage: U.S. Covert Operations and the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001
Collateral Damage (Part 2): The Subprime Crisis and the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001
Mike: Enjoy listening and singing while your eye rests.
I want to share a story of preparation. By saying this I mean no disrespect to permaculture or rational preparation. I am more prepared than probably 95% of FTW bloggers. I live in N.W. ohio in a village of less than 5000 people surrounded by farms, many still family. Amish are 10 miles away. 1 of 3 homes have vegetable gardens. I chop 2 cords of firewood a year and have a nice fireplace. Water wells with hand pumps are common.This is the Black Swamp with some of the best soil in the world. We have a river. In august, 2007, we got 9" of rain overnight over 7 counties of the Blanchard watershead. Everyone's garden was ruined. My firewood floated away. I had 18" of water in my house for 4 days. I felt like a prepared Frenchman in 1940.
Here's a couple of good articles:
1. Fed commits to heavier monetizattion...was the Fed the anonymous "indirect" bidder in last weeks Treasury auction?
"U.S. Debt Default, Dollar Collapse Altogether Likely"
http://seekingalpha.com/article/118103-u-s-debt-default-dollar-collapse-altogether-likely
2. Unemployment updates.
"Will Obama Exploit the Unemployed as Recruits for a Ramped Up War in Afghanistan?" by Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/126319/the_real_jobless_rate_is_18_percent/?page=entire
A Spiritual Solution~
The Rainbow Bridge To Peace On Earth
Enjoy!!!
~Sincerely~
~Mark Eloheim~
The money sentences on the Russian satellite take down:
“The orbital altitude where the collision took place is among the most crowded in low Earth orbit, but statistically speaking, the enormous scale of space makes the chance that this kind of direct collision would occur completely by accident infinitesimal.
This unlikelihood is compounded by the fact that the U.S. Air Force Space Surveillance Network provides space situational awareness and tracks some 18,000 satellites, orbital debris and other objects orbiting the earth. Though the network’s tracking of each of these objects is not constant, all objects of a certain size or larger are catalogued; potential collisions or near misses are generally spotted, and satellites can usually be maneuvered to avoid them.”
The unasked question: if it was near impossible for them to "collide" by accident and it was the US satellite that entered the established orbit of the Russian satellite, then WHY?
This connects right into the Russian / US asia turf war you have been writing about.
is this what happened?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterior_vitreous_detachment
To Bonnie, wherever you are:
About five and a half weeks back you kindly responded to the description I (David) related to FTWers of a remarkable event I'd experienced a number of years ago. You suggested researching Tielhard de Chardin (whose name I recognized but of whose work I knew not) and what he had to say about "tuning into" the "noosphere", i.e. an "energy field" where the collective consciousness of the entirety of humankind prevailed, "something which at some point in our evolution" everyone would be able to access (and something which "the church" -- quite understandably -- apparently soundly condemned him for espousing, btw). First off I want to apologize for not having right away responded to your interest in my story... please forgive me. Secondly, I did go to Wikipedia and read what was there on de Chardin and his work. And yes, what de Chardin refers to sounds very much like what I experienced; and I also fully agree that his "noosphere" is something which at some point in our evolution (like beginning right now)
everyone will be consciously accessing/experiencing.
I would like to emphasize, however, that I choose to define my "experience" as having been one of full-blown visitation & physio-telepathic interactive-communication with the "Mind and SPIRIT of GOD" -- with Ruthie's and my (RanD's) perception of "GOD" being the sum total whole of everything that exists, at all times, everywhere -- and is something that since that/my first epiphanic "experience" (in 1973) I progressively find is actually the constant and routine state of everyone's overall daily life, whether all of us equally recognize it as such notwithstanding. Also, btw, with both of us (RanD) in this sense being thoroughly "religious persons" (in the sense of knowing full well that something fundamentally greater than ourselves is at the root of our human existence) we generally eschew humankind's up-till-now traditional so-called "religious organizations", having found them at best being little more than perhaps well-meaning but invariably/ultimately misleading to dictatorial ideo-political fountains of misinformation and often deceptive/misdirecting instruments which actually imprison the minds of the masses by effectively/'vicar'iously positioning themselves in place of GOD's Actual -- True & Intrinsically Perfect -- Creation. Ah yes, Satan is indeed the wiliest beast of them all! And from RanD's perspective, all of that sort of stuff is headed straight into the dipsty dumpster of humankind's developmental past.
And so it is with this information that we finally very much thank you for your much appreciated words to us, Bonnie; sincerely, RanD
Mike, I had a birthday at the end of January and turned 58 too. This past weekend, I had some weird eye symptoms, and ended up in the ER on Sunday. They diagnosed possible retinal detachment. But I was luckier than you, and it turned out to be just a vitreous separation, which needed no surgery. 58th birthday presents, huh?
I'm reminded of a Jackson Browne song...must resist...
Get better Michael!
Lots of people seem surprised at the prospect of US government default and dollar collapse, but it seems inevitable. Federal government debt alone is higher than all the world's circulating currencies plus all the gold in the world. Of course it's impossible to pay it back, even if the growth economy were to continue, which it won't. But that's just the start. There is also state government debt, the debt of municipalities, corporate debt, and consumer debt. Absolutely every entity is in debt up to the eyeballs. Now add to that all the debt in other countries. Do you know that Japan's government debt is near 180% of its GDP? That's why the minister of finance here is nicknamed "King of Debt." So what we're watching is the world economic system strangling itself on its own debt. Roll out the hearse!
Hi RanD
Glad you found Tielhard de Chardin and the noosphere interesting. Yes, the church did frown upon him, but hey! they frowned on lots of others too who thought outside their box.
The idea of the noosphere and synchronicity resonate with me. Sync moments seem to be increasing for me and others. Synching with God...well I dunno. If I ever did I think I would disintegrate.
The multiple crises we are having are a necessary part of what we have to traverse to get to the next level on the evolutionary ladder. There does seem to be a mysterious, unbiased power leading the way.
Best regards,
Bonnie
So she was so hot your retina tore? I feel another ballad coming...
Re "So she was so hot your retina tore?" Good one, ProGo!
Eyeballs extension of brain + torn retina = neuro circuit break? =;-D
Jenna, re your quote of day. From my daily morning reading prep comes this one. It is an Indian proverb. I thought it appropriate for the Obama administration:
"I would rather serve under a vulture as king surrounded by swans, than under a swan surrounded by vultures."
Don Hynes - To further your remarks concerning the recent satellite collision and a possible Russian / US asia turf war:
"Iridium Satellite is pleased to announce that Alvin B. ("Buzzy") Krongard has joined its Board of Directors. Buzzy Krongard is the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Alex.Brown Incorporated, the nation's oldest investment banking firm. In addition, Krongard served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust, in addition to holding other financial industry posts. He also served as Counselor to the Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), then as Executive Director of the CIA from 2001 to 2004..."
Alvin B. ("Buzzy") Krongard, Former Investment Banking and CIA Veteran, Joins Iridium Satellite Board Of Directors
I am continually amazed at the constant support the US military gets. Yes, Russia's 2008 arms sales were up 10% and total 8.35 billion. That sounds agressive and like they are making massive moves until one reads that US 2008 sales were 36.4 billion increasing to 40 billion in 2009. But we must keep our list of enemies long and constantly remind the public of them. A frightened people are an easily controlled people.
Querry for Rice Farmer:
You said: "Federal government debt alone is higher than all the world's circulating currencies plus all the gold in the world. Of course it's impossible to pay it back, even if the growth economy were to continue, which it won't."
Do you have some firm figures on that? I instinctively believe it, but that's not much to go on. Also, isn't gold worth one hundred, or one thousand or one million dollars an ounce, depending on the currency value? Certainly all the debt can be paid by merely printing money. In hyperinflation, gold could be worth truckloads of paper.
Still, I think I'll take Scott McGuire's cue and buy seeds.
I worry about one other thing (as if all this weren't suffiently bothersome...): When the WTO "restructures" a third world country, they often make the government sell off assets. Are Alaska, the National Parks and our aircraft carriers potential collateral? In a bankruptcy they usually only let the broke individual keep one house, a car and his tools.
Sebastion--
From my/our perspective it's impossible for anyone to tell another what his/her faith should be and how and why it should be that way. Faith is unsubstantiated confidence or trust in a person or thing, something that RanD can only suggest the faithful might juxtapose with and measure against knowledge gained from substantial first hand direct experience(s). When short of such experience(s) and knowledge, however, having faith in nothing more complex than 'existence exists in service to an ultimate good rather than an ultimate bad' served Ruthie and me well through lots of thick and thin.
As for Ronin the movie... oh my... we found it more bubblegummy than fluffy.
For Jenna, in case you missed it.
Beverly Eckert and 911 and Buffalo plane crash...
http://cryptogon.com/?p=6890
More on NH resolution HCR 0006:
It's running into trouble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilpi4mk4_fs
Mike, Jenna, I take it you have heard about the death of Beverly Eckert.
I understand that apart from her major anti-war efforts she had also engaged in legal action against Saudi Elites who had connections to 9/11 and the Bush Family?
Amazing how many prominent people who threaten the Bush family end up dying in plane crashes isn't it?
Eyeballs -- I did not make that up. I'll see if I can dig up the source for that. The price of gold I assume is the current market price.
And that is just the US federal government. (Check out the Debt Clock here: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/). Few people on the planet understand the magnitude of the debt problem.
This is a link to a list that gives you an idea about what kind of stuff you may want to stock up on:
100 Items to Disappear First:
http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/items_disappearfirst.htm
Mike & Jenna,
Good on ya for posting the Scott McGuire post here. I had asked you your opinion about GM seeds/Svaalbard.
My offerings are not so much about the world map, but rather about the map of building local community that can survive and thrive amidst the chaos that may ensue. War lords in Afghanistan seems like a possible template in this context.
As wonderful as it is to find virtual companionship on the web, most of us will be making do in our physical communities. Most of us on this blog probably feel disconnected from our neighbors due to the information chasm. As stimulating as it is to forage the web for understanding of the global momentum of collapse, it is also necessary NOW to be creating community survival networks.
So it's heartening to read here a post that encourages us to acquire the seeds and skills to feed ourselves, rather than merely talking about it, and assuming that any old fool can become a dirt farmer at the last minute, if they really have to. It's not that simple, especially in our depleted landscape. It takes years to learn how to plan one's planting to hedge for potential weather and predator outcomes, in order to be assured of enough food to last until the next spring.
The web is a wonderful place to share such knowledge and experience. I posted the link to Sharon Astyk's blog a few days a go. She really is the best blogger for the nitty gritty details. Yet even she does not post about how to actually grow specific foods.
Gene Logsdon's website organictobe.org posts growing info. His book 'Small-Scale Grain Raising' is on pre-order now, a god-send for those of us who feel the urgency now to learn to grow 'the staff of life', which seems daunting without mechanization.
So I urge y'all to start planning now. Right now. Make your lists and use your savings now. Even Kevin and Becky of Farmlet and Cryptogon are preparing now for the barter economy.
Like the flu, once a war gets rolling it's very hard to stop, and it just runs its course. An ounce of preventative medicine is worth a pound of cure. We don't need a war in Pakistan.
One thing Mike has talked about is finding the rifts between factions in TPTB. I ran across this in the Taipei Times:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2009/02/12/2003435871
In the first significant military judgment of his presidency, US President Barack Obama will likely decide in “the next few days” on US troop deployments to Afghanistan, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.
If Obama is going to deploy more troops to the country over the next few months, as US commanders have requested, he will need to act before a review of US policy for Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan is complete, Gates said.
Earlier the president named former CIA official Bruce Riedel as chair of the broad review, with instructions to have it ready by the time of a NATO summit in April, the White House said.
I was surprised to read of Riedel’s involvement. Here is the recent announcement:
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/defence/Ex-CIA_official_to_chair_Afghanistan-Pakistan_review30017088.php
US President Barack Obama has named a former CIA official to chair a review of US policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan before a NATO summit in April, the White House said Tuesday.
Bruce Riedel, an expert who is now a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, will lead the inter-agency review of policy for a turbulent region that Obama has called the "central front" against Al-Qaeda.
…Riedel, who will report to Obama and National Security Adviser Jim Jones, is supposed to complete the review before a NATO summit April 3-4 in Strasbourg, France and Khel, Germany.
Riedel is bad news. Gates wants 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan to hold against a spring insurgency and make a strong U.S. presence for the upcoming election there. But Riedel wants Pakistan. He has reported on the rapprochement between Israel and India (and resulting huge trade), plus the importance of U.S. – India trade, as well as the need to pacify Pakistan.
In terms of business opportunity in South Asia for the American military-industrial complex, India is a goldmine of possible contracts.
Pakistan on the other hand represents small potatoes – unless you count the money to be made attacking it, “rebuilding it” and attacking it again. In the interim there is money to be made bribing Pakistan’s government in various ways, such as Biden’s huge fund to influence its military and ISI. We, the people, pay the bribes, which go through American defense contractors, to political and military figures in Pakistan. Everybody wins (everyone who matters).
For Reidel, it’s all about fighting al Qaeda, because it hates Israel, and Pakistan is the main front against al Qaeda:
http://www.brookings.edu/interviews/2008/0910_terrorism_riedel.aspx
Interview with Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
Those who do not know who founded the Saban Center should look up Haim Saban and find out what his “one issue” is.
The wedding of elite profit with the security of Israel potentially offers wide support for the dismemberment of Pakistan. Riedel suggests as much in several articles. My hope is that Gates is not into Pakistan, and that Obama, by making his decision early, is going to move in a different direction from Riedel’s obvious interest.
This from the L.A. Times last December:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-usafghan23-2008dec23,0,3844919.story
Many military officials think a short-term troop increase would help, but they believe it should be paired with improved efforts to train local militias, strengthen provincial governments, coordinate U.S. policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and make better use of U.S. civilian expertise.
Others are concerned that the extra troops could strain the military's logistics system. Gates would oppose larger numbers of extra troops as counterproductive, said a senior Pentagon official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The secretary believes that 'how much is too much' is a legitimate question," the Pentagon official said. "He does worry about the U.S. footprint getting too large."
Too many U.S. troops could weaken the Afghan government's will to build up its armed forces and take more responsibility, Gates is said to believe.
"He supports the additional combat brigades and aviation brigade," the official said. "Beyond that, it will start to look less like an Afghan operation and more like an occupation."
A prolonged Vietnam-style conflict, bleeding money, human energy and political focus away from more important matters could put the last nail in the coffin of collective security for North America. That would suit Sebastian Ronin, whom I respect. But, given a catastrophic loss of prestige for the U.S., I fear that his neat regions would break up into a seething morass of competing powers, as per my recent post. Orderly devolution to regions requires confidence and coordination.
The U.S. could ill-afford Vietnam, but this time, ill-considered military adventurism could prove fatal.
Tim,
As below, I have to get down & dirty!
tim said...
I want to share a story of preparation. By saying this I mean no disrespect to permaculture or rational preparation. I am more prepared than probably 95% of FTW bloggers.
You were not in the least prepared.
You live near a river, take a lesson from the third world natives, insure that your reserves are well above "flood stage"!
You call it a "Black swamp", why do you expect the soil is "the best"?
Your land is now contaminated, & may not produce next year, as were thousands of acres by Katrina, and last years flooding,
which is part of why we are coming up short of crops. Were you prepared for a Tornado, how about a Toxic spill "up river",
You need to read "The Survivors Club", prepare those around you to Survive "Your Local" disaster not one from the dust bowl.
Remember you are not preparing for the "imposable" but the possible!
I am not trying to kick you when you are down, I am trying to save your life by getting you to act!!
Amae.
Hey Sebastian. Perhaps you're familiar with the made-for-TV series "Law and Order". If not, and are into top drawer anti-criminality drama and perchance do DVDs, I cannot but imagine you'd love this now DVD-ed series. We started right from the beginning about a month ago and just finished watching the 45 min seg titled "Limitations" (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: the First year: Disc 4). We've never seen anything of this genre more honest, geniously put together, and psychologically/intellectually powerful. The movie "Crash" is a comparably dynamite piece of work. (All of this from our perspective(s), of course.) Cheers
Diaspora wrote in part: (the excised sections are long quotes from the articles.) readers: pls just send links
Colliding Satellites
(Parts of this overlap what Don Hynes posted)
Some real fishy stuff going on with the "accidental" collision of Iridium and Russian satellites Four items below "...the chance that this kind of direct collision would occur completely by accident infinitesimal." Alvin B (Buzzy) Krongard "...former Executive Director of the CIA" joins Iridium Board of Directors. "Iridium provides services to the Dept of Defense..." "This satellite loss may result in very limited service disruption in the form of brief, occasional outages..."
Former NASA consultant Richard C. Hoagland told George Noory on C2C last night that this is much more than meets the eye as in addition to everything else, the ability to track some electronic funds transfers off shore may be disabled.
(Aug 2008) Iridium Satellite is pleased to announce that Alvin B. ("Buzzy") Krongard has joined its Board of Directors. Buzzy Krongard is the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Alex.Brown Incorporated, the nation's oldest investment banking firm. In addition, Krongard served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust, in addition to holding other financial industry posts. He also served as Counselor to the Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), then as Executive Director of the CIA from 2001 to 2004..."
(Thanks Don) Alvin B. ("Buzzy") Krongard, Former Investment Banking and CIA Veteran, Joins Iridium Satellite Board Of Directors
About Iridium Satellite:
Iridium Satellite LLC (http://www.iridium.com/)
U.S., Russia: A Mysterious Satellite Collision
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20090211_u_s_russia
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29147679/
Bring it down, and then pick up the pieces and own it all.
Who is Pulling Geithner’s Strings?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21984.htm
Bubble Economy 2.0: The Financial Recovery Plan from Hell
by Michael Hudson
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12265
Hi Mike and Jenna; Longtime follower. Thanks for all your work. Sorry to hear about the retinal tear. I suffered a retinal tear in 2005 and am in the "light at the end of the tunnel" phase. I've come out pretty well considering what I've heard from other's with similar problems. I've been through 13 opthalmic surgeons in the LA area and would be happy to share any info/experience I've learned through the process.
All the Best
David
eyeballs, re "A prolonged Vietnam-style conflict, bleeding money, human energy and political focus away from more important matters could put the last nail in the coffin of collective security for North America. That would suit Sebastian Ronin, whom I respect. But, given a catastrophic loss of prestige for the U.S., I fear that his neat regions would break up into a seething morass of competing powers, as per my recent post. Orderly devolution to regions requires confidence and coordination."
1. Respect reciprocated.
2. The U.S. suffers from several symptoms of empire collapse, one of these being military over-extension. The standard work these days on societal collapse is Joseph Tainter's work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Tainter
3. The latent collapse of industrial institutions, the industrial nation-state inclusive, is a historical dynamic beyond anything that would "suit" me personally. IMO, political responsibility revolves around perceiving a situation for what it is, analyzing same based on those perceptions, and then acting accordingly. It is the age-old political challenge: What needs to be done? For me, and others of like mind, what needs to be done is the kick-starting of the NAmerican secessionist movement. I reiterate what I have written in this blog before: the collapse of a civilization is exactly that. It is what it is. Any attempt to tart it up with how we would like it to be misses the point and is politically counter-productive. Some basics are pulled into play more and more, i.e. fight or flight, adapt or perish, snooze or lose.
4. The offering of "neat regions" is merely a template to work towards. Never have I proclaimed that the process to get there would be neat. As a matter of fact, if you have read the paper "Post-Peak Oil and NAmerican Regional Secession" then you will know that I am on record with claiming the exact opposite. We are in for a "century of hurt."
How it will all shake out is anyone's guess. However, as per above, we scope the horizon, make best guesstimates, and proceed. There are no guarantees and there most certainly are no freebies.
5. Lastly, re "Orderly devolution to regions requires confidence and coordination." Agreed totally. Towards this end, there is an initiative underway to found the North American Secessionist Congress (NASC). An NASC Steering Committee has been struck. If you wish, see my post, "NAmerican Secessionist Movement Asleep-At-The-Wheel:"
http://novacadia.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/namerican-secessionist-movement-asleep-at-the-wheel/
Tim--
Yesterday afternoon I'd all but put the finishing touches on my response to your post to me of 12:31 PM Feb 11. Lo and behold, after a night's sleep and some excellent lucid dream work I was given a much better way to, in effect, paint a picture for you to look at and see where RanD is coming from than the one I'd just all but completed. (Ha to me!) And so it frequently goes. So, just keep checking in and you'll see in a day or so what I'll be sending you (and whomever else might want to take a peek) from these quarters . Cheers, RanD
Wow. you all continue to inform, inspire and amaze.
Saw this today and thought it worthy of sharing:
http://freep.com/article/20090215/BUSINESS01/902150465/Chrysler++GM+fix-it+plans+due+in+days
I thought perhaps the most telling part of the article was this:
"The president has appointed neither a car czar to oversee the loans, nor a team of advisers expected to work for the czar. So far, the oversight for the industry has been split between Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council.
Why the delay?
"Beats the heck out of me," Levin said. "We've raised it over and over again. ... It seems to me it will be more difficult to have this kind of plan in the absence of a car czar.""
Is this indication that the ugly hunch many have had for months now is more than just a hunch?
And get well MCR. I'm not posting any of my original music here (yet), but I'd love to share one of my dj mixes I and others have found highly enjoyable in times of pain (physical and otherwise)...So, for your listening pleasure, I offer "Heavy (up)Lifting".
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1jetm13jdbt/Heavy (up)Lifting.mp3
I'm happy to give a tracklisting if anyone is interested.
Be well, all. and Thank You.
This is what I just sent to A Lady who Had A Birthday Sunday! 100 Years, I hope she receives millions,she deserves every one!
Here is where to send yours:
http://www.miepgies.nl/en/
Happy Birthday!
I am not much for celebrating BD's, except for milestones which yours truly is! You did what you had to instead of looking the other way, the spirit of what you did; the Spirit within you, is what makes you a HERO. If I were to ignore you and your behavior, it would be empowering the negative forces which we must resist daily. You have my best wishes, gratitude, our Higher Powers Blessing, may your remaining years be healthful & joyful.
Namaste,& Amae!
Judging by Obama's action this weekend in regard for missile defense. I'd say that the US has offically given up on Ukraine and the Russians will be greatly influencing the nation.
Will Ukraine follow Iceland into financial meltdown?
"There's no hope," said Petro Romanuk, a minibus driver, who said that the number of passengers coming to the city and looking for work had plummeted in the past few months as people had given up. "The politicians don't care about us. Each day it gets worse; each day we trust them less and less. There may be another revolution."
Then when the Kiev mayor was pressed about solutions to the problems plauging Kiev, he gave a response that would play well in the Bible Belt of the US. Ukraine looks doomed.
"Asked about shortages of gas to schools, city doctors who hadn't been paid for months and a threatened strike by local bus drivers, Chernovetsky responded with mumbles and stream-of-consciousness riffs about the local zoo and his affection for elephants, the need for more trees and flowers in the city, his propensity to dry off naked on a balcony after showering and the importance of the Bible.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/61606.html
Here were a couple of cracks I thought we should watch as the dam's slowly crumbling:
Interesting take on the Stimulus Bill and what was slipped inside (doesn't this whole episode strike you as Patriot Act, except this time the pig's dressed up in a Financial costume - still utilizing the terror motif, though):
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs
I could see that one further stoking the revolutionary fire that's building.
And this one: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/breakingviewscom/4611408/China-is-right-to-have-doubts-about-who-will-buy-all-Americas-debt.html
I laughed out loud when I saw that one. One of the largest buyers expressing this isn't a good sign for the fiat currency's reign.
Rice Farmer - any suggestions on buying seeds in Japan?
Anton V:
"Yu is right to worry."
I laughed too. Another good conclusion would have been:
"Yu is right to get up off yu dam butt and start taking care of yu-self, instead of waiting for the government to decide yu fate."
Bifurcation has left a new comment on your post "DOCTOR MY EYES My good friend Doug Lewis is typin...":
I think we're starting to see those parachutes open.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/euro-f14.shtml
Mike, here's hoping for a quick recovery.
Here's a spoken word verse from one of my favorite albums I was listening to the other day for the first time in a while. I had always enjoyed it but it struck me square in the chest and I have a new appreciation for it.
CL - America Loves Gangsters
Tim Means
It's 6pm again
And I'm tuning into CNN watchin marines mow down crowds with machine guns///
[FTW admin adds: please google for the rest of the lyrics. readers, please send links instead of long quotes.]
lol, Agape and Tim, do you know about the bamboo chinampas over wetlands? There floating islands of raised bed gardens. So no matter how high the water level of your land gets the 6 feet square bamboo garden beds are rising with the level of water.
New technology I want to share. Permaculture tech is not about the John Todd Living Machine, because its too expensive. I can teach you to do the same thing for less than 500 dollars. Get an old bath tub, and build a reed bed garden and put a poly dome over it. Well, there are more things inside the tub to do, but you get the drift. ITs like the new 15 dollar lap top, or the new and incredible. Aqua ponics garden. www.growfish.com S99 system. The garden greenhouse heats and regulates the Malaysian fresh water prawn aquaponic tanks.
Its a 20 grand cost that produces 60 grand of product a year. And they can be stacked. The number one non profit permaculture in America www.quailsprings.org, is seeking donations to build the demonstration with permaculture interface design. The director is Warren Brush you can see his center on www.ecosutra.tv.
I cant wait to demonstrate that.
So then there is this perspective.
A book, Do as I say not as I do exposes Noam Chomsky and Barbra Streisand for being hypocrites.
http://www.amazon.com/Do-As-Say-Not-Hypocrisy/dp/0385513496
We are all saying but not doing. Well, there are some in here who are on there way.
I dont think anyone in the modern world has the courage to migrate to permaculture. They will walk to their pianos and chandeliers. Like in the movie " Empire of the sun", a British POW camp is freed and the POW elite Brits walk to the stadium full of their possessions and starve to death.
I want to lead a nomadic permaculture group that travels up and down a river and swale and food forest them like a rib cage. From off the river we create the sustainable spinal cord for all to live.
Doctor My Eyes"...that was a song, was it Van Morrison? (sp)?
Maybe "Dear Mr. Fantasy"...play us a tune, something to make us all happy"...(Steve Winwood) could help. I burnt my eyes once with a sunlamp. The E.R. at Kaiser patched both eyes closed to let them heal. It was burning bad once the liquid they put in wore off. The docs told me, your eyes are "THE MOST SENSITIVE" spot on your whole body! It was ruff having both eyes taped shut and being temporarily blind so to speak. I hope you're being a good boy Mike and letting them heal. Nothing like a time out ordained from upon high. Best wishes for speady recovery.
For the crew in here, different subject, peak oil, thought you might enjoy reading this:
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/587901
Love and looking at you kid, mrsp
Dairy cows are starting to pay the price for the tanking of milk prices -
http://www.newsmax.com/us/cow_slaughter_milk_price/2009/02/16/182295.html
I think Mike and others have said this was coming.
There's also alarm being raised that health reform slipped into the stimulus bill will result in the nation's old, sick and poor suffering the same fate because "it costs too much to take care of them ..."
namaste
Tim, here we go--
It is evident from your last post to me that you're not yet fully connected with where RanD is basically coming from. Don't feel the least bit disappointed by that; I (David) know of only two people that fully comprehend (most don't because they don't want to, not because they can't) what RanD is talking about. One who does fully comprehend is my current wife and constant companion, Ruthie (who I am, btw, especially, genuinely, and absolutely blessed to have sharing my life); another is my daughter, who is literally afraid of the overall message that continuously pours into me (Ha!). Indeed, the life of a prophet of my genre is not an easy one; nonetheless, it is also the most rewarding job available to the human species. (Ask Mike Ruppert what it's like to devote oneself to humankind's purpose for existing.)
At the same time, always consider yourself a very special person, Tim, no different than humankind's every member is a special instrument of this currently manifesting Universe. As for you in particular, it has for almost two thousand years now been both an instrument and standard of humankind's existential protocol that no man is a prophet in his own land -- then suddenly here you are: an instrument to your fellow humankind which is breaking that standard by being open to RanD for information you have diligently sought concerning the foundation of existence. Top drawer workmanship, my friend; congratulations -- spirit-minds such as yours open doors for us all. As a direct consequence of your work, we have all been given freedom to access crucial information whereby however many more of us as will, can begin answering for ourselves those questions we all should be working to answer regarding our species' and thus our personal relationship to our currently manifesting Universe, and to the whole of existence as well; as follows:
The primal/eternal foundation of existence is spirit, specifically The Great Spirit, which Spirit is the exact same thing as life, itself. Everything that exists -- whether an idea, a stone, a tree, water, space, male, female, cloud or galaxy, universe, bird or molecule, human being or amoeba, planet, chunk of ice or summer day, whether something ephemeral, substantial, etheric, merely imagined or a fully physically actualized lump of genuine and pure solid gold, grain of flour mill dust or utter trash in a trash can -- is ultimately a product of The Great Spirit. Only small-minded habituated egocentrists insist on keeping themselves blind to the fact that life -- not physical matter -- is the foundation of existence.
It is therefore both good and necessary that we also recognize this Great Spirit as being the one eternally living "GOD"-- which is merely a traditional all-encompassing three character linguistic/literary term of reference for all existence; whose living essence manifests both as the myriad of independent living essences (i.e., souls) that are distributed throughout the Universe in the form of physicalized living beings and is simultaneously the very matrix by which our Universe systemically interconnects and sustains its myriad of living & non-living self-diversifications.
Finally, it is hereby this message to humankind that the mind of any spirit of humankind's myriad of organisms that cannot bear such information as given here is already being removed from this Universe via a progressive, natural, and requisite general species-wide elevation in humankind's consciousness of reality. Ours is an intrinsically alive Universe, not one that gets stuck in a rut and dies.
*******
Occasionally read and live with the above for a while, Tim; this genre of information requires time to fully assimilate and personally/internally self-actualize. Still relatively quite rare right now are those who possess comprehensive fully functioning knowledge/consciousness of the fact that the Bible's, the Upanishads', the Tao Te Ching's, the US Declaration of Independence's, A People's History of the United States', and all the ongoing living chatter here at this FTW blogsite's has been and/or is still being produced from, by, for and via the exact same ultimate source, for instance. Everything throughout our Universe's entire existential paradigm is intimately connected and ultimately serves the Universal Common Good, which is a both paramount and irrefutable existential fact that all humankind will know and thereby be able to fully appreciate not far into the future.
If, after satisfying yourself with what you deem sufficient patient personal thought with this information, and would then still like to have a sentence by sentence answer to your FTW Feb 11 12:31 PM post, let me/us know and I'll/we'll be very pleased to send it to you.
RanD
Mike mentioned a "billion dollar business" opportunity, soil restoration, and looking into this, it seems there are a few places to study this professionally....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_ecology#Educational_opportunities
and it seems in Part 2 of this podcast that mushrooms are the real key to the business:
http://www.archive.org/details/AgroinnovationsPodcastPaulStametsAndMyceliumRunning
From the New York Times:
Job Losses Pose a Threat to Stability Worldwide
Agape Wins;
I don't live in the flood plain;there was so much water the river went beyond the flood plain and huge puddles formed far beyond the flood plain and could not drain. The "Black Swamp" is the name for all of Northwest Ohio and is excellent farmland. The point is that the Earth changes are going to be so profound that the Hopi don't have a safe place.
Sunrnr;
Is namaste Sanskrit for "deep respect"?
hey Rice Farner and Eyeballs...
linked is the article which seems to be feeding most of the internet stories relating to the US dept exceeding global GDP. I have not looked in detail at the figures touted here but from a quick read the story seems to make sense. The Government report highlights a doubling of Federal debts between 2007 and 2008. It appears that dept obligations are growing exponentially or worse.... in other words hold onto your hats folks!
kind regards,
Mack.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88851
Tim - "namaste" translates more literally to "I bow to you". It's more correctly done with palms together in front of the heart center and a slight bow.
To me it means "the beauty and energy in me bows to the beauty and energy in you".
For me it's a highly ego free gesture of deep respect for all of who (not what) you are and who you have yet to become.
I deeply respect all who post here whether I fully understand or agree or not.
namaste
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