THE OBAMA HONEYMOON IS OVER -- QUICK, ORDER MORE DECK CHAIRS

by Michael C. Ruppert
(C) Copyright 2009, All Rights reserved. Michael C. Ruppert

Feb 4, 2009, 12 Noon PST -- First, let me say thank you so much for all the great birthday wishes. It feels like my birthday started about a week ago as many surprising and affirming events started bringing old friends back, old wounds being healed, existing friendships deepening, and just buckets of affirming signs from everywhere. Jenna will tell you that I've always not mentioned my birthday. My new lesson and practice is that I accept love whenever it comes my way. And each day is an opportunity to pass it on. When I take Rags on a walk, the walk isn't over until I've seen him make ten people smile. When I want or need love I ask for it... I recorded a new track for you guys last night and we'll get it up soon.

In the meantime, yesterday was a pretty dark day for the country and the world. I want to offer some observations on what Tom Daschle's departure really signifies. It was a major body blow to the Obama administration which doesn't augur well for the ability of our government to function at all, regardless of which party's policies get signed into law. There is no question that this was a huge blunder for Mr. Obama and my initial reaction was, "Uh Oh, Uh Oh, Uh Oh."

THE PARADIGM TRAP

Coincidentally I am not surprised that Tim Geithner was confirmed inspite of his tax issues. I'm not surprised that Nancy Killefer withdrew because of hers. Look at the net result. Geithener is essential to both parties because his job is to maintain an economic paradigm that both parties are offspring of and enslaved to. Killefer, on the other hand, would likely have threatened the fundamental way that money works by exposing all those financial "crazy aunts" we keep locked up in the federal basement. I can picture someone like James Carville slapping the table and saying, "Look, all the American people are hearing is how many ways they've been lied to and cheated... by everybody! Now y'all want to create a powerful, public cabinet post to go and dig out all the thousands of stinking corpses and dirty, shameful secrets and make headlines with that. In your public announcement you imply that she'll be graded on how much shit she can dig up and expose... Are you guys TRYING to start a revolution?" I doubt that the CPO position will get filled soon, if at all. If it does, I suspect that other events will drive it from the headlines. I must admit that Killefer's departure may have been planned. If so, I can conclude only one of two things. Either Barack Obama was really dumb here, or really, really cynical.

The Repubs are using their ability to dig up dirt and play it, to control who the President's advisers are. We know this game all too well. Everyone is taking defensive positions and that's scary. It is the political paradigm.

The Chief Performance Mission (or whatever you call it) is vital. The task of going through government and figuring out how to shut it down and to identify mission-critical systems is an absolute imperative. I'm pretty sure it's been well underway and was handed off by Bush-Cheney to a stunned and disbelieving Barack Obama. "here Bro, here's a head start on what you're going to have to do." Obama's mistake was to make it a high-profile position. If he did not have a clue as to what waste there is in government, or what corruption is hidden there, he truly is naive. He was certainly naive to believe that he would actually be allowed to keep his starting backfield. You know, the ones who were supposed to block and catch passes. Still, for all those clinging to the notion that the ultimate castration of the Obama Administration is a part of some larger plan, I have to reply that in thirty years of unravelling actual and previously inconceivable conspiracies, I have never seen anything like this. None of this feels organized. Rather, it feels instinctive. Even with our abilities to understand Deep Politics and Deep Economics, all of this feels... slipshod, dirty, desperate, like Mike Tyson biting a chunk out of Evander's ear.

But Daschle? OMIGOD, he was a threat to everything. His dinosaur move was to cheerily believe he'd be allowed to slide through confirmation. Daschle was a threat because the corrupt, fraudulent, health-care industry is still a functioning part of a dying economy that is keeping many employed and some money circulating. The act of actually providing Americans with some form of equitable health care is a mortal threat to the paradigm and Daschle had to be stopped. Look, I'm just as sick and disillusioned as everybody else. There's no excuse for his behavior, or Geithner's or Killefer's. The rules they broke are commonly known and common sense for anybody who's ever filed taxes. But, as I've always said, when you are recruiting for a dinosaur paradigm one has to pick dinosaurs and dinosaurs tend to feel entitled. It was their world for a long time.

The opposition to the bailout package, the withdrawals of Richardson, Killefer and Daschle have been and are serious. But, for the legions of health care activists, aggrieved citizens, and all the people harboring totally unrealistic hopes of real reform/recovery, the loss of Daschle was a mortal wound. Tom Daschle had the gravitas, the experience and I believe the dedication to make some real changes, not just at HHS but as President Obama's Health Care Czar with an office in the West Wing. That post was created just for him. I don't see anyone who can fill that role and I don't think anyone else does either. A big promise made hours after the wedding is gone as a result of the actions of the groom. The biggest campaign promises are being abandoned at a moment when this administration most needs popular will behind it to establish any real momentum. Even more so, I can feel the popular and unwarranted faith that Obama can fix everything morphing into a question of whether he can fix... anything. Public perception is what we are all fighting over right now. I am still amazed that some people still flop back and forth between Republican andDemocratic leadership as if these are actually choices. They are merely two closing jaws of the same steel trap.

The speed at which both the domestic and global scenes are deteriorating is being matched by the speed with which political parties are adopting CYA, it-wasn't-my-fault positions that inherently bring with them the need to ensure the failure of the other side. It's also clearer than ever that anything proposing to address economic issues is not only going to be -- but look like -- panicky desperation. That s--t is contagious. We have passed Peak Spin. Government impotence to address an entirely new conceptual set of life-threatening issues runs the risk of being seen for what it is; not lipstick on a pig, but lipstick on an uncooked sausage out of its skin.

Some great observations have been made on this blog lately. One of the best was that "The European Bilderbergers are separating from the American Bilderbergers." Using "Bilderbergers" as a metaphor, this observation is absolutely correct. The global elites are indeed fragmenting. At the same time, the EU object lesson is taking on great significance for us all. As quickly as we see the relocalization imperative emerging, comes what I perceive as near begging by world leaders to do everything possible to avoid protectionism, whether over jobs or imports. I have seen several European stories telling EU citizens how much they truly understand that they (especially in theUK) can't kick out the foreigners without hurting themselves. Global demographics are entirely changed when hundreds of millions are scattered far from their homelands. When protectionism last took its death-dealing toll in the 1930s everybody was already in their home country.

The longevity of the old infinite-growth paradigm depends upon avoiding protectionism. Perhaps the elites view this demographic stew as insurance. That's like needing a liquid to cool down an overheating cauldron and pouring gasoline around it to lower the temperature a few degrees... for a few seconds. The old paradigm is, of course, doomed anyway by Peak Oil and universally diminishing resources. The dinosaurs refuse to admit their imminent death and that is the one thing (the only thing) that has to happen for the rest of us to have a real shot at surviving. The dinosaurs must let go. About a week ago I wrote about how all major economies seemed to be free-falling at the same speed, waiting to open their protectionist chutes. When the first one opens, all will break formation. I cannot be the first to say it that in an economic collapse, protectionism is the absolute last-ditch measure of desperation before a real bottom, capitulation, and surrender to the abyss (a relative term). A lot of us have been alarmed by the speed of the meltdown. I have to tell you that yesterday drove me to look for some new superlatives... I don't have any more.

Everything that happens now, whether in Washington or around the world, is nothing more than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. What's worse, the new plan by the dinosaurs, is to order more deck chairs, paint them different colors, call them different names, and show them to a public that, with the Obama honeymoon disintegrating into domestic violence, just won't accept. Go ahead, buy some salmonella tainted peanut butter for comfort food.

The Democratic and Republican parties will kill their children (us) in order to save their dysfunctional marriage of convenience, in order to protect their parent: the global monetary system. It just doesn't get much sicker than that. And it is now clear that the rest of the world is seeing that it will have to kill that system -- especially the dollar as the world's reserve currency -- in order to survive. So, a few days ago I wrote that it was good to be here. Now, I write how dangerous it is to be here and, of course, I've known that for a long time. At least I know the value of being indigenous.

ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE BRIGHT SIDE

The government of Kyrgyzstan has abruptly ordered the closure of the U.S. Air Force Base at Manas, opened with lighting speed and pre-planning just after 9-11. Manas has been a key and secure transit point for U.S. materiel shipments to support ops in Afghanistan. Some have said that this is a sign that the empire is collapsing rapidly. I don't see that in this case. A deeper reading of international stories pretty much makes it clear that the U.S. and Russia have reached what appears to be a sensible and rational accord. The U.S. will remove its military presence from Russia's back yard and Russia -- which also has an inherent stake in regional stability -- will allow U.S. military supplies to reach Afghanistan through Russia. It is in Russia's best interest to let the U.S. bear the brunt of that war. Not only does the U.S. bear the cost, it benefits Russia. The U.S. fights to save its own lying ass and now must fight that war as a proxy for Russia. (There's poetry there.) It's exactly the same rationale that motivated Russia to thwart all those proposed pipelines that would have bypassed its territory. Russia will now have control of the pipeline keeping the U.S. military alive in Afghanistan.

If I were a dinosaur -- and even if I wasn't -- I would say that was the right pragmatic choice for the U.S., Russia, and the world. I'd bet my bottom dollar that the U.S. signed off on the base closure announcement before it happened. Remember, there's all those damned nukes in India and Pakistan. I'm not surprised that Hillary Clinton's having urgent, direct talks with India about Afghanistan while this is happening with Russia and Kyrgyzstan. It is a massive and appropriate realignment given the imperative of geographic gravity and Peak Oil.

The clock ticks, the dangers mount and that window for us to get on the stage and change a few things is about to open wider. The wider it opens two things become apparent. First, the amount of time the window will be open shortens. Second, the violence with which it will close increases.

The dinosaurs believe that their death will be the death of all life. That's what they want us to believe. That's how they make us obey. That's they way they have taken the human soul hostage. In the meantime it seems that all of life is slowly realizing that the only thing that must happen is that the dinosaurs must themselves pass from dominance. That is the only thing that will give everything else a chance to live.

POST SOVIET NATIONS TO FORM COLLECTIVE MILITARY FORCE

Here's a quote: "On Wednesday, the Collective Security Treaty Organization -- made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- decided on the rapid-reaction force at a Kremlin summit, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported."

OK, the map we made is dead-bang accurate. Although the speed at which this is happening is just breathtaking. So, I am beginning to suspect that either all major world leaders have read Rubicon and planned accordingly (I'm not that self-centered), OR... That intelligent men and women, dinosaur or not, have taken a set of known facts (some well hidden or concealed), evaluated options and come to the same conclusions I have, right along with the rest of us. I believe the trends and flows we've outlined were seen by many. I've seen evidence via Chavez's actions in South America. South America has been making preparations for years. Now we see this... I wasn't expecting this for a year to eighteen months. In some respects I made a new map, but in others I just recreated a map others had already made and shared it.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/04/russia.collective.military/index.html

You know, H5N1 is breaking out in China and now erupting in Canada with three dozen poultry farms shut down. In China, however, there has been bird-to-human transmission with at least five deaths. Ecologically the carnage is devastating everywhere. Australia is melting under record heat and drought. The American Southeast is freezing. And now Geography is starting to act like gravity unleashed. Mother Earth is joining the game.

Shit, I had to turn everything off tonight and just sit and be still.

MCR

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FROM THE "IF IT ISN'T ONE THING, IT'S ANOTHER" DEPARTMENT

Jenna Orkin

There we were placing bets on whether the U.S, Europe or China would be the first to cave to economic collapse when all the while it was Australia. dying of drought on the one hand and floods on the other even as Ireland succumbs to Peak Oil.

About the couple who kill the child (us) to save the parent (the economic system): Psychologists have observed that a baby, instinctively knowing that it can't survive without its mother, may, however paradoxically, die in order to allow its mother to live.

This innate biological response at least allows the mother to have other babies, thereby ensuring the survival of the species. But as a social policy, it's a tad cart-before-the-horse or snake-eating-its-own-tail.

Speaking of which, have you caught a gander of those 42-foot megasnakes that have been turning up not just among fossils but even as live specimens? In Florida, no less, where people bought them as cute, or at least manageable pets. Then along comes a particularly virulent hurricane, courtesy of climate change, and the snake's out of the bag, thriving in the moist heat and slithering into the outer suburbs.

This is what passes for distraction these days: horror stories to remind us that we're still snug at home. But there's nothing like a snake to suggest how insidiously unpleasant realities can slink in through the cracks.

American optimism dies hard, however. Along with the monetary system, it may be the last remnant of us to go, like the Cheshire cat's grin, after we ourselves have been lulled into oblivion by CNN anchors crooning, "When the economy recovers..."

If you think there's a snowball's chance in Hell of saving anyone, you grab them by the lapels, treat them like adults and tell them what they need to do. If you don't think there's a snowball's chance, you treat them like children and try to make the inevitable as painless as possible.

Thus I'm reminded often these days of the final scene in the Barbara Stanwyck version of "The Titanic" - A Night To Remember.

Everyone who hasn't gotten into a lifeboat is on deck as the ocean rises around them.

The only person who doesn't understand what's going on is a four-year-old boy who's lost his mother.

An old man takes him by the hand saying, "We'll find her." He repeats the soothing bromide while staring into the last horizon he'll ever see.

We who are older than four might not be so easily taken in by the old man with the haunted eyes. How much more effective, then, of TPTB to use news anchors who are as clueless as we are.

Yet the truth seeps in, brimming on the other side of the porthole, soon to overwhelm us all.


Quote of the Day:

(Another iatrocentric metaphor for the economy:)

The low 1 % central bank rates created another bubble, a bubble more dangerous than the 2000 dot.com bubble. The bankers’ cheap credit created the 2002- 2006 US real estate bubble; and the collapse of that bubble was to result in the severe credit contraction of August 2007 and the return of the patient to the central bank emergency room just five years after his previous visit.

This time, the patient was in far worse shape than in 2000/2001. This time, heavily sedated, breathing only in short gasps, the economy has been kept alive only by constant and artificial infusions of even more credit in the attempt to keep systems functioning until a solution can be found...

After the central bank emergency room, hospice is next. The current frantic attempts of central banks and governments to reverse what they set in motion is analogous to the application of pain medication given in the hopes of calming those whose lives they have destroyed.
Darryl Robert Schoon

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