Wednesday, February 04, 2009

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

***********************************************************************************

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

Air Force Drops Plan To Make Fuel From Coal in Montana

Among Top U.S. Fears: A Failed Mexican State

Maps of Projected East-West Upgrades to Connect NAFTA Superhighway
Deep Capture
The financial counterpart to deep politics

55 comments:

Unknown said...

Nafeez Ahmed on Obama:
http://nafeez.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-regime-rotation.html

Emanuel

Diaspora said...

All hands on deck of the sinking ship. Chalmers Johnson says the Empire's war machine is doing down with the rest of us.

"As has been documented for at least twenty years, patterns of repetitive habitual behavior in the Pentagon have created a self-destructive decision-making process. This process has produced a death spiral."

The Looming Crisis at the Pentagon
How Taxpayers Finance Fantasy Wars
By Chalmers Johnson

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175029

laura said...

Could this be the first sign of protectionism?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/4511451/China-outraged-after-India-bans-all-toy-imports.html

wxdude714 said...

I've been accumulating silver and gold coins ever since the gold and silver price fell roughly 20% when everyone thought the world was going to end in September. I've been purchasing the coins off ebay and began to think about a couple of things after I saw Mike's prediction of a $10k gold price. I noticed in the past two weeks a tremendous surge in the amount of available silver coins on ebay. The price didn't move at first but surged about $1.75-$2.25/1oz coin in the past week as Gold broke out last Friday. Silver too has had a significant run over the past 3 weeks.
My feelings are the same as Mike's, someone is hogging the gold out there. Another economist I listen to weekly, Jim Willie has been commenting on the same thing for a while and bringing to the light about a default in the COMEX. He also says Russia and the Gulf States are wanting to bring a new currency to purchase oil, backed by gold sometime towards the end of the year/early 2010. Maybe that's why Russia has spent it's US Dollar reserves and I'm willing to bet going to cash in it's $80Billion worth of US T-Bills to keep it's economy afloat. That would be the next logical economic step. Get your dollars while their still worth something and let the US workers in their 401K's take the hit from hyperinflation as they "cling" to recovery hope. My intution from Putin's speech at the World Economic Forum says the perfect revenge for bankrupting the Russian treasury by exorting their gold reserves in the 90's.
If there are many powers at be hogging and horading gold then there must be some real behind the scenes push for a currency backed in gold to purchase oil. What better way to announce the new currency and proclaim,"Hear ye,hear ye" the US Dollar is dead?"
But what really cranked my brain was from what I remember in my 6th grade US History class and the gold and silver struggles of the late 1800's. Gold was the symbol for the rich, the business class. Silver was the gateway for the farmers and the working class. What struck me as odd was the sudden surge in the silver price outstripping the increases in the gold price on ebay. As gold prices rise more and more people will be priced out of the Gold market and those at the lower end of the wealth spectrum will be more inclined to sell off any gold they may have. Meanwhile Silver will become the purchase of choice for those attempting to "salvage" whatever remains of their life savings from hyperinflation. Mike sees Gold @ $10k, I can easily see silver at it's peak around $150-$200.

Robert Paulsen said...

When the Keystone Cops put on a production of Hamlet, is it a tragedy or a comedy? I think the effect on the audience is the same as anyone of us waking up and turning on CNBC to watch the latest reports on the world economy. Just let your mouth hang wide open and wonder, "Are they kidding or do they just not get what this show is about?"

Obviously this bad production is not limited to economics but extends to politics as well. Now that Daschle is gone, the drama/comedy raises talk that the replacement will be Dr. Howard Dean. How about that? Just imagine the cabinet meetings with him and Obama's Chief of Staff. Maybe they'll film it as a new reality TV show: Rahm and the Doctor. Should be more entertaining than The Two Coreys.

agape wins said...

02,05,09
I know you don't need advice about reading, but everyone needs to prepare, even MCR;

Here is my review or a very important book.

"Five out of six people on earth depend on civilization to stay alive. Without eye doctors and corrective lenses, many of us wouldn't be able to see, let alone earn a living. without supermarkets, we wouldn't be able to feed ourselves. Without sewage systems and water treatment facilities, many of us would succumb to cholera and other diseases. "all of us are descendants of survivors," he says. "otherwise we wouldn't be here." But with modern society protecting and sustaining most of us, he continues, "we really know if we have that instinct for
survival anymore." Page 122, of The Survivors Club.

"In other words, perhaps the Nazis were less inclined to murder people who looked familiar." P. 167.

"Helmreich identified ten characteristics that accounted for their success in life: flexibility, assertiveness,
tenacity, optimism, intelligence, distancing ability, group consciousness, the ability to assimilate the knowledge of their survival, the capacity to find meaning in life, and courage. All of the Holocaust survivors shared some of these qualities, Helmreich tells me. Only some of the survivors possessed all of them." P.175.
Sounds like the posters on FTW!
Get the book, & join the club!

Amae.

wagelaborer said...

I used a similar medical analogy recently.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Futile Resusitation
My hospital made everyone participate in a Skills Day on Thursday, a day to make sure that everyone knows how to work all the equipment and such.
When my friend and I got to the station on resusitation, our cynicism showed. We were in a group of 2 ER nurses (us), 2 ICU nurses and some OB nurses and others. Only the ER and ICU nurses are used to participating in Code Blues. So when the instructor held up the lidocaine and amiodarone and asked "Which drug leads to more people surviving their hospital stay" and I said "Neither", they were shocked. The instructor just laughed. She admitted that both drugs were usually futile, but said that research showed that amiodarone was better. I wonder who funded the research? I know that amiodarone is much more expensive.
Here's the situation. When Grandpa keels over, Grandma freaks out and calls 911. The paramedics aren't about to tell Grandma that her loved one is gone, so they start CPR and the ALS protocols and bring him to the ER. We certainly aren't going to negate all their efforts by pronouncing him dead on arrival, so we continue the quest. We use shock and drugs and CPR. By the time Grandpa is pronounced dead, he has run up quite a bill!
Sometimes, though, we bring him back. He gets a heartbeat and a blood pressure, although he's on a ventilator and isn't responding to anyone. Then he goes to ICU, probably on multiple drugs, and dies later, with a much bigger bill.
No one wants to be the one to tell the family that it's all futile. They are upset and don't want their loved one to die. They don't want to live without him or her. They want their lives to be the same as always. They want everything done. So we keep the drugs flowing and the ventilator pumping until all systems fail, and Grandpa dies.
You see where I'm going with this?
Here's the USA economy, dead. The whole system of exploiting the Earth and its people in order to provide money for the rich is collapsing. It would have died years ago, but they kept it going with artifical life support - credit, pumping dollars into the invalid to keep it producing.
So now we're in the CPR stage. Interestingly, the rich get the Amiodarone. The bankers are like 300 pound gluttons, with very limited heart function, who have gorged themselves for years, (along with snorting the expensive cocaine), and now are being showered with billions to keep them going.
The automakers get the lidocaine. They are the ones who have been smoking heavily for years, polluting the air for all around them, and getting drunk and trashing the place, sprawling and crashing around with broken lives and barren landscapes to show for their time on Earth.
The rest of us watch. Abused though we are, they're the only family we know, and most Americans are hoping that they can be reususitated, so that our lives can continue without change.
It's time to accept the things we can't change and have the courage to change what we can. (And I'm quoting AA, not Obama, who can't let go either). The drunken abusive system we call "capitalism" has failed us, and we need to move to a sustainable system that provides for the entire human family without destroying the planet we live on.
Let the banking system die. Let the automakers die. Let capitalism die. Quit the resusitative efforts. Move on.
Posted by wagelaborer at 7:41 AM 2 comments
It's true that we all depend on one another for our civilization, agape.
The belief that we can survive with enough gold if our entire civilization collapses reminds me of the book "With Enough Shovels" by Robert Scheer, talking about the Reagan belief that we could survive nuclear war and then pop back up and carry on, albeit with address change cards.
I agree with those who are trying to form community. We need each other.
We're tribal people, after all.

Robert Paulsen said...

Here's the latest from our Peak Oil Aware Interior Secretary. Where the environment is concerned, he just might succeed in bringing real change to the Dinosaur Paradigm. Once again, you called it right, MCR.

Salazar Voids Drilling Leases On Public Lands in Utah
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020401785.html

pstajk said...

Evander's Ear, ha! Great analogy.

And I thought Kunstler's metaphors were humorous.

Keep 'em comin!

Unknown said...

Classic MCR:

“all of this feels... slipshod, dirty, desperate, like Mike Tyson biting a chunk out of Evander's ear.”

“Go ahead, buy some salmonella tainted peanut butter for comfort food”

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mike & Jenna. After searching the public record for about five years, I came upon a reference to FTW, right after 9-11. Your "map" has proven to crystallize all the pieces (both sane & frightening) I had dug up (after growing tired of the MSM). Your journey has been a major inspiration to me.

On the morning of 9-11, a couple of Portland OR Police Officers came in late to our regular coffee drinking establishment. When I commented on their haggard looks, they told me of the morning's events, of which I was unaware (as I am not a TV watcher or Radio listener). The younger officer said something to the effect, "Of course this comes as no surprise to you, as you have been telling us that something of this order would occur". For the ensuing years, most of my friends have simply written me off as 'the village idiot'. These days, many are returning, asking for direction. It is an honor to share your sites & "Crossing the Rubicon" with them, among the other grand available resources.

Your current blog struck some real chords with me. "Quick, Order More Deck Chairs...Dinosaurs...and...two closing jaws of the same steel trap" says it all. I come from an ultra-con, christian "pound-the-world-for-Jesus" Republican background. Talk about oxymoron!? The saddest part of my past is that the bulk of the "church people", who preach & teach that there is a Creator who is all about Love & Hope, either back the Hegemony & Kleptocracy that is the US or sit quietly & refuse to "confront" (saying, "we cannot be judgmental"). By the way, my deepest Joy is found in my relationship with this Loving, Hope-filled Creator, who asks me not to be silent. Simply put, our country remains the most racist & violent land in existence & I will not be silent about it. Today's combined words speak volumes of our society, that is so free yet so bound in chosen blindness. Yet, we have a big world, filled with precious & wonderful people just waiting for a better life. Together, we can make this happen!

Sharon in Mississippi said...

MCR said:

Tom Daschle had the gravitas, the experience and I believe the dedication to make some real changes...

So true ... All he lacked was integrity, something that seems to be missing entirely from this present political system and paradigm.

And speaking of integrity...of course we know that we should always do what our doctor says, right?

Take a look at this real TV commercial from the early 1950's. It will give you a laugh and perhaps some pause for serious reflection:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/552.html

Here's an "epidemic" under the new paradigm that I'd love to help spread:

http://sustainable-gardening.subto.us/tip/epidemic.html

Love more. Fear Less!
Sharon in Mississippi :)

Jenna Orkin said...

John wrote in part:

Is the Entire Bailout Strategy Flawed? Let's Rethink This Before It's Too Late
by Joseph Stiglitz

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12180
------------------------

Andrew_The_Fox said...

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-01-28/news/what-
cooked-the-world-s-economy/

James Lieber

Thought this was pretty interesting /horrifying

Unknown said...

Hey Mike!

The machine ate my birthday greetings- but Live Long and Prosper anyway.

Thanks for great prose and many incisive observations.

However, I feel the Daschle event may have been planned. You assume that the man was a dinosaur, feeling immune from paying taxes. In all due respect (and in your case that's not prefunctory) I suggest that the man was steeped in government proceedure, had participated in many congressional confirmation hearings, and was well-advised. By August it was pretty obvious he was going to be asked to join the government. Not asking him would have seemed strange, just like not asking Richardson.

In Richardson's case, though, there was no fixing the problem, which just has to run its course. But with Daschle, a pitchfork full of money in the right direction and voila, problem solved. Why wasn't that done?

My suggestion, which follows your alusion about Killefer, is that it was a cynical move in the first place. Reformatting the Health Care system would be messy, expensive, and time-consuming. True, it would be a valuable palative as long as The People really believed they were going to get full coverage even after they lose their jobs. But I think the incoming team (either voluntarily, or after being informed of its duty) deliberately scuttled a campaign promise ahead of the election, by telling Daschle to sit on his non-payment.

The last time National Health went down, it was the Republicans' fault. As you say, the two parties are just two jaws tightening around our necks. But Mr. Clean had to have a reason for not delivering comprehensive health care reform...and I think that's the best they could do.

Jes m' humble opinion, sir.

ATL said...

"Counties in California say they've had enough – and they aren't going to take it anymore."

"In what amounts to a Boston Tea Party-style revolt against the state Capitol, they're threatening to withhold money."

"We didn't vote on it, because I don't think anybody wants to go to jail,".........

"Riverside County is looking at a similar lawsuit but plans to go one step further. It authorized going to court to relieve it from having to provide state-mandated services without state funding."

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1600656.html

Unknown said...

Wall Street Journal concurs with you Mike:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123388103125654861.html

Emanuel

pstajk said...

Evander's Ear, ha! Great analogy.

And I thought Kunstler's metaphors were humorous.

Keep 'em comin!

pstajk said...

Wow - i just read the rest of this post ... i've got chills down my back.

I just started watching a great movie that parallels perfectly with this whole fuckin mess - Apocalypto.

Even the movie's opening quote by W. Durant struck true - "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

I knew from that quote the movie was going to match on a perfect allegorical level with the dinosaurs.

Near the beginning of the movie, I felt empowered by the father who lectured his son about the infectious nature of fear after they had seen a separate tribe extremely frightened natives. He further told his son that he didn't raise him to be controlled by fear. I said to myself, wow, that is so simple - brush it off, pick your head up, live your life.

Of course, a ferocious death tribe comes across the father and son's tribe's campgrounds in the following scene. They ambush and destroy the camp and the father is murdered directly in front of his son. Before he dies, he says to his son, "Don't be afraid."

I could only shake my head in confused understanding.

Even when the father was about to meet his own death though he was not afraid. I like that; I like that a lot. That's the warrior mentality. I just hope the enemy doesn't become my next door neighbor too quickly.

Man, what I would have given to be a Native American before the Europeans showed up!

Jenna - the image of the snake eating itself has consumed me ever since the first time I laid eyes on it. I immediately said to myself - that's it - that's what it means to be human.

pstajk said...

Hey, one more thing - I can't get enough of Woodstock and the 70s ... but there's just something about being 26 and growing up with the underground bands nowadays.

Can you blame any of us for wanting to get on a mic and scream our lungs out?!

Most of it is horrific noise and ignorance, but not all of it.

- Thursday's Albums -
Full Collapse
War All the Time
A City By The Light Divided

Lyrics to:

"Autobiography Of A Nation"

Write these words back down inside
We have burned their villages and all the people in them died
We adopt their customs and everything they say we steal
All the dreams they had we kill
Still we all sleep sound tonight
Is this what you wanted to hear?
We erased all their images and dance
And replaced them with borders and flags

At the top of this timeline you'll remember
This is the lipstick on the collar
And in my own life I've seen it in the mirror
sometimes at the cost of others hopes

So write these words back down inside
That's where you need it the most
and without conviction of heart you will never feel it at all
Yeah, we all dance to the same beat when we we're marching
Yeah, the TV tells us everythign we need to know
And this scene is painting in all the fashions of the moment
And history is all the same

Everything you say you stole
Every dream you dream you bought
___________________________________

agape wins said...

02,06,09

We have the best blog anywhere, with input from around the world, offering many viewpoints, most of which are constructive, with just a little confusion over what is expressed.
We have to remember that there are many differing thought patterns, and emotional forms of expression involved.
That is what Agape, & Amae are about, seeking to understand our common search for a future without the contention we have had in the past, where MY point of view is what everyone should agree with, because theirs is wrong.
that was my objective in including the link about being part of a group, without feeling like a fifth wheel (there are no more "spare tires"), it takes work to break bad habits.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070515-000008.html

There are 2 pages, no one should feel rejected, not at FTW!

We all have a talent, no one of us knows everything, or possibly could, it's more than fair to clear up a point, but without being negative, sometimes it takes time to make things clear for someone who thinks differently.

MCR has written many times about how we are all going down, and a fast crash is to be desired, yet there was confusion about this from MCR:

"And the very last sentence of the story gives us very good reason to be grateful we're here in the U.S. if you ponder on it for a while."

I understood, & he cleared it up fairly well, but I have to include some information, which those of you in Europe may be forgetting; We in USA have no advantage over
you, in fact I expect we will suffer more than you!

From Guns, Germs, And Steel, P. 281, in per. 3.
"But there are two other potential advantages inherent in chiefdoms and states. First, a centralized decision maker has the advantage at concentrating troops and resources. Second, the official religions and patriotic fervor of many states make their troops willing to fight suicidally.
The latter willingness is one so strongly programmed into us citizens of modern states, by our schools and churches and governments, that we forget what a
radical break it marks with previous human history. Every state has its slogan urging its citizens to be prepared to die if necessary for the state: Britain's "for King and Country," Spain's "Por Dios y Espana," and so on."

Ponder that this was written before 9-11, 1997 to be exact, how does it reflect on the European Union, the United States, Russia and the Islamic states?
What dedication holds You, Us and Them together?
Who comes apart fastest, more painfully & most completely?
If you could choose, where would you want to be, at any point in time?
I wish suffering on no one, it's been years since I have been Proud of America, but I still call it home.

"It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
Oh what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise-- depths unplumbable!

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
"I thought he died a while ago."

For life's a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur."
John Updike
From "Endpoint and Other Poems"

Jamey Hecht said...

"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." ...Orkin, that is brilliant.

Pandabonium said...

MCR - this post reminds me of points Cynthia McKinney made during her Presidential Campaign about focusing on the work that needs to be done as the dinosaurs die off. Not in the same words, but expressing the same concept.

Jenna - excellent links!

So many great links and ideas in the comments already. What a treasure this blog is. If I thanked each contributor individually, my comment would be a blogapotamus.

The post also reminded me of another vessel's demise, that of the Giant Step - an 98,000 ton iron ore freighter - which broke up in a storm off the coast of my hometown, Kashima City, Japan, in 2006. I wrote of it on my blog and because I wrote in English, I became a reluctant conduit of information for the families of many of the crew, some of whom perished, most of whom were from India. I still correspond with a few of the families. In a follow up, I posted pictures of the wreck which I had taken at the behest of a Colonel in the Indian Army who is the father-in-law of a missing crewman. The incident moved me deeply. It still brings me to tears.

My posts, if anyone is interested, were Dit Dit Dit Dah Dah Dah Dit Dit Dit and Wreck of the Giant Step

Looking at the wreck, I was reminded of Joseph Conrad's "The Mirror of the Sea" in which he wrote, "The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power."

So if we are to use the metaphor of the Titanic, we can expect no quarter from the "sea". All we have is our wits and each other.

And if it comes down to it, what will you will say to the four year old who has lost his mother?

Namaste.

sambahdi said...

Further to HCR0006.

Other states are, have, followed suit, including, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, California, Georgia.

Futher, Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Alaska, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Illinois are considering similar resolutions.

I remember a posting regarding an article by a Russian academic who foresaw the break up the the USA.

While I don't think that's the intention of these bills
it's interesting.

Also, if the bills did pass, how does a state, enforce/assert it's will against say, imposed martial law enforced by the federal government?

RanD said...

Note to FTWers, particularly Tim and Todd--

The is RanD's response to Tim's and Todd's final readers' comments on FTW's Feb 2, 2009 post, where the following is also posted:

Tim:

I heartily commend you for your words, which clearly evince the Universal Process whereby your 'body's' purely physical 'brain' is being developed by your 'personal Divine spirit's' entirely incorporeal 'mind' to bring into focus the whole of reality's picture. You (Tim) and I (D of RanD, as in David) share this exact same 'contextual paradigm' (i.e., 'same path'), along with all other comparably physically-mentally-spiritually comprised living beings, whether all of us are comparably conscious of such facts notwithstanding. Moreover, regarding 'this path', please do know that RanD implements no attitude of condescension or imperiousness whatsoever when stating that RanD (i.e., the two persons team of very common human messenger-laborers which is Ruthie & David) are significantly (but not by a whole lot) further along 'the path' than you and most others are. The Universal Process' rate of acceleration at this time is progressively exponential: as we should expect, reality is concerned with harvesting the best and nothing less, and keeping up to pace until 'the end' determines whether one's personal 'mind' remains part of humankind's evolutionary continuum). RanD's reply to your words follows:

You say "[e]vil does not exist"; RanD says that's not true. Read again -- as many times as you need to -- to see how RanD defined "evil" in the post from which you generated your response. Then, after developing due understanding of what RanD refers exclusively to when using the term "evil" (meaning simply that which is "not good"), tell me what word you would prefer using to generally characterize such common human practices as theft, murder, lying, warfare, rape, environmental destruction, slavery, torture, deception, child abuse, wife abuse, husband abuse, girlfriend/boyfriend abuse, trespass etc. You also say that "God has no 'enemies'."; RanD heartily agrees: such a thing is of course the one thing that is definitively impossible with GOD. You also say that "[t]he Divine Reality is the process of infinite possibilities."; RanD's words express very nearly the same thing: "...EVERYTHING is capable of existing." You also say that "[e]vil or the Devil is just a childish personification of apparent disappearance."; RanD says that that's a linguistically confused and ultimately worthless sentence -- i.e., a linguistic/conceptual 'solecism'. You also say "[t]he more spiritually advanced you are ['one is' would be a better choice of words], the less reactive you are [one is] to the death process."; RanD says your message here is exactly the same as RanD's. You also say "[a]ll of us, me, you, the blades of grass, the kitty-cats, MCR's dawg, the stars, none of us is exempt from this process."; RanD totally agrees. You also say "[t]he higher your [one's]consciousness, the less "evil" [didn't you just tell us above that "[e]vil does not exist"? -- which is it, does or does not "evil" exist?] manifests in your [one's] world" (which it truly doesn't in RanD's, btw); whereas RanD says "...upon humankind's realization -- as announced via fulfillment of their own fully conscious articulation -- of themselves in relation to their means and purpose for existing, all evil [meaning, in RanD's words, specifically all of humankind's clearly 'not [and obviously never] good' subversive mentalities/behaviors/practices] will imminently be removed from the entirety of GOD's Creation."

On particularly such matters as these, read very carefully and write very carefully, my friend. Otherwise you will surely only variously keep both yourself wronged and mislead them who would want to believe everything you say is good. Humankind's world is already filled with minds whose bodies will readily put on uniforms and murder their brothers and sisters believing they are free to do so as long as it is in the name of 'their god' and 'their country', who go to church at least once in a while if not regularly and practice whatever form of mere empty ritual which has no relationship to the actualities of the real world nor their own essentially mindless behaviors.

Tim, it is absolutely necessary to state oneself accurately, clearly, and consistently if one desires experiencing one's highest potential for understanding reality. And it is only possible to do that by becoming fully consciously one with the words one expresses; which is what RanD's exclusive mentor -- i.e., the Ultimate Mental and SPIRITual Force which both underpins and overarches this current Universe -- who 30+ yrs ago intimately and thoroughly informed me was and always is the case for anyone with an interest in personally remaining part of humankind's evolutionary continuum via giving her/his life in service to the Universal Common Good..

We wish you well, and very much look forward to perhaps meeting you one day. Sincerely, RanD

*******.

Todd:

RanD's mentor emphasized to Ruthie and me that the three fundamental existential phenomena which constitute the foundation of our current Universe are 1.) physical matter/energy, 2.) the Mind (i.e., consciousness of SELF-Self-self), and 3.) the SPIRIT of LIFE (GOD). Of these three, physical matter and the mind are ever ultimately ephemeral and thus subject to genuine "death"; whereas the SPIRIT -- which is the ONE exclusive living GOD that is LIFE, it-SELF -- is therefore reality's own, ultimate, and truly singular never-changing, never-dying, eternal and infinite existential foundation. If you should find knowledge greater than this, please advise us so we can all be disabused of our folly :)!

Here's also looking forward to perhaps seeing you as well as Tim -- along with all you other FTW kinda heads-&-hearts-together folks -- in the future too! Sincerely, RanD

John said...

Just curious, why wouldn't you post the reference to Engdahl's article?

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

Diaspora et. al. re "As has been documented for at least twenty years, patterns of repetitive habitual behavior in the Pentagon have created a self-destructive decision-making process. This process has produced a death spiral."

I had the oddest thought on falling asleep last night. Taking the above quote into consideration, further mixing into the context 60 years or so of MIC social determination, MIC awareness of Peak Oil dating back to the 70's, the 9/11 coup, and now the financial meltdown, is it possible that it is all a well thought out, coordinated and synchronized scorched earth policy?

Palooka's Revenge said...

"A big promise made hours after the wedding is gone as a result of the actions of the groom."

and unlike clinton, it didn't even have anything to do with the most unoriginal sin!

the phrase is not original. i stole it from john hiatt. the whole song's well worth a listen. since your talkin the works of real cool music artists here as soul salve in the midst of a dieing paradigm ya otta check him out. i couldn't find a link to "the most unoriginal sin" but another of my favs of his is "dust down a country road"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbhcXxW4y2U

it struck me in the context of listening to that as i write this that every song can be made into a metaphor of one sort or another. and in the case of dust, "she" could easily be interpreted to be the great love affair we've had with the american dream. and the old dog? well how 'bout the always scary unknown?

hiatt most certainly didn't write it as such. but in the end, to steal more words... this time from john prine, another great iconic writer,... "it means whatever you want it to mean" eh? call it poetic pilferage.

the dream's turned to a nightmare anyway so i say good ridance. but the pilferage of an entire country and her peoples? now thats a real sin. not original. but real.

MCR said...

Eyeballs -- Talk about cynicism! But you know what, I can't say it's wrong. The dots don't go back that far. You could be right.

The qulity of heart-to-heart discourse here is just breathtaking.

MCR

Palooka's Revenge said...

norm lowery, the "village idiot" said... "or sit quietly & refuse to "confront" (saying, "we cannot be judgmental")."

its called guilt! and love and guilt cannot occupy the same space at the same time because of vibrational differences. or so i feel.

thus what is being presented as love by certain self-proclaimed perveyors of the word and what was once your roots has nothing to do with love! you already know that. but many don't eh?

Anonymous said...

MCR: A couple of questions.

How do you feel Canada will end up after all this?

May be a vague question, but how much gold do you feel one should accumulate in oz to stay "safe", whatever form that takes.

Is Silver/Platinum worth accumulating or is Gold the way to go?

thanks in advance.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

Palooka's Revenge: It would seem to me that a few chosen ones have taken it upon themselves to be the blog mother hens, cluck, cluck, clucking here and there. I certainly don't remember a vote being taken. One of the major problems with fixer personality types is that they don't seem to realize that every time they point one finger out, there are three pointing back.

It doesn't seem to dawn on these types that I wouldn't be caught on the same side of the street with some of the cyber-personalities that show up here, let alone trust them to cover my back. That's just life. Likely the feeling is mutual. I don't lose any sleep over it.

Bottom line is, IMO, likely 70-80 percent of contributors and lurkers will go down. I might be one of them. It's a numbers game. The wheat from the chaff is always separated. Many come; few stay. We do what we must do, not what we would like to do.

no1hears said...

For Sabastian Ronin---

Is this an coordinated and orchestrated Scorched Earth policy?

I was thinking of orchestrations, too...

If the Obama administration Trillion dollar bailout will do no good (and let's assume for second that Obama and his advisers know this), is the Obama bailout "intended to fail"?

Jenna Orkin said...

biff

silver's supposed to get a bigger bang for the buck but if you're planning on moving, it's harder to take w. you.

jo (not mcr)

Unknown said...

Sebastian, I like you.

Mike's right, I'm sure, that there is panic and confusion even among the highest of the Dark Forces. But the whole thing looks to me like a deliberate attempt to atrophe the institutions and plunder the resources of those who might interfere with their fiendish retreat.

The last quarter century has been a setup. They knew what NAFTA and WTO would do. They knew what deregulating derivatives would do. They knew what sending in a tiny force to hold a country like Iraq would do. They had USAPatriot together before 9/11. There is a series of moves too pat to accept the subsequent "Oh, that went funny...darn" excuse. If we look at what inflation and big box stores and the loss of employee benefits have done to our Main Street economy, how the trade in powders has sucked cash out of the workers' pockets, into unreachable corners of the Wall Street economy, how offshore accounts have taken the rapacious gains of both "legitimate" and "criminal" tycoons out of the reach of taxation and investigation, and on and on, we can watch the collective power of the people sift away into the hands of a few, methodically and apace.

Scorched Earth indeed! A horrible metaphore, but apt. It describes what an army does to deny its enemy sustinance to continue the fight. It's also useful in retreat, "burning one's bridges" and also the fields that might give forage to pursuers. It's hard to follow an enemy that is burning everything as it goes.

Now people are going to be so busy looking for bread that they will not be able to even make a reasonable attempt to intervene in the real government, to launch protests or run election campaigns or recalls or initiatitves. How can we do the long hard work of establishing co-ops and neighborhood organizations when food is scarce, crime swells, governments and mafias (but I repeat myself) put the crimps on everyone competing with their scams?

A key strategy to oppose scorched Earth is to quietly preserve as many resourcs as possible. The most important resources are sanity and human cooperation. If we can preserve enough to keep ourselves capable, the Dark Ones may just scorch themselves right out of their own citadel.

tim said...

RanD;
Thanks for your response. You are very correct about words, and it is sometimes difficult for me to express exactly what I mean. Evil (capital E) as God's enemy, does not exist. evil (small e) can be considered a human destructive trait. Destructive is the correct word. Meaning: all those terrible traits you listed are destructive, and may be considered evil. But the Divine Reality has no enemies and the Divine Reality is all there Is. It has a destructive aspect. Nothing is ultimately destroyed, it just constantly changes form. Perpetual Change. For example, we consider Hitler and Stalin to be evil. But natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc. have killed many more people. The natural disasters are not considered evil, but have caused more suffering than Hitler. Mother Nature eats Her children. That is not evil, it is the destructive aspect of God. Creation (birth), Life (change), and Death (destruction) is the Reality of God. To call any aspect of that Evil (not evil) is to judge God. Does this make more sense?

NewMatrix said...

Uh oh! The natives are getting restless now!

http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,37757.0.html

Could this be the beginning of the end?

kiki said...

i've never purported to be brilliant but one thing i do understand: getting along in the world translates into: understanding human nature supercedes intellect any day

so when someone speaks beyond what i understand, i seek what i need to know in order to understand when it is obvious i can do so through study and time

when it is not obvious i can do so through study and time, i resolve to evolve at my own rate of perception and understanding

if someone offers nurturing, i accept because being cared for and about feels good and strengthens inner resolve

as agape said: there is a place for everyone here and i appreciate all whether i understand them or not - jmo

ATL said...

"Henry Kissinger, the pioneer of Cold War detente during the Nixon era, has made a return to frontline politics after President Barack Obama reportedly sent him to Moscow to win backing from Vladimir Putin's government for a nuclear disarmament initiative. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4530042/Cold-warrior-Henry-Kissinger-woos-Russia-for-Barack-Obama.html

sunrnr said...

Here's a bit of a would be humerous parable if it wasn't so close to the truth about where we are and how we got here ...

http://georgerdavis.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/06/2400247-the-pig-the-pachyderm-and-the-jackass-a-parable

Nothing seems to be working for the administration and congress in fixing a problem which is really a result, not a cause and which no one really understands anyway.

Seems the level of hysteria is raising exponentially! Seems the ship is about ready to head bow down at an ever increasing rate.

The trick will be to get far enough away before it goes under so as not to be pulled into the hole with it.

namaste

pstajk said...

Sorry that one comment keeps popping up - i just disabled the single sign on function on my comp.

many apologies

MCR said...

Sebastian Ronin -- You know, "Ronin" is perhaps my favorite action-adventure movie of all time. Sure, the firearms were directed properly. But RONIN is a movie that is all about making high-stress decisions quickly and efficiently.

There is a clear warrior mentality in Ronin and there is Bushido. No one can possibly describe the joy when true great warrior meets and befriends true great warrior(forget gender and forget requirements for bloodshed).

It was a great script. And... as someone's who's done a lot of driving... an Audi 8* was a fantasy for me in the old paradigm.

RONIN isn't a movie about guns and bullets. It's a movie about decision making.

MCR

Dave said...

As a 30 year old who gets more worried by the weak from our ballooning deficits and coming peak oil I'm glad I came across your blog.

Does anyone have recommendations for reputable dealers where I can buy gold and/or silver? I hope that's not a stupid question, but I didn't know if it's better to buy them from individuals or dealers or what exactly. I'm currently located in Orlando, FL if it makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

MCR, as you know, the masterless samurai (the wave men, in some translations) became hermits, poets, teachers...some became bandits. Such were the ties of duty and loyalty, words that have become obscenities in our kulture; it was not an option to go and work for the other guy/corporation.

The movie was okay, but relative to the true history, mere Hollywood fluff. I released a sigh of relief when it did not become a blockbuster.

Twenty-five years or so ago it became abruptly apparent to me that my "Lord" was dead. The appropriate, obvious and legal identity transition was as clear to me as is the nose on my face. And anyway, there were more consonants than vowels in my Austrian birth name. =:-D There was a great deal to learn and, once learnt, to be applied. One must demonstrate where and how one stands.

For anyone who has even read the first few pages of Rubicon, the "attitude" is right there. If taking fire from the tree line, the best way to avoid it is to run straight into it. My own interpretation of same is: when about to enter combat go in as if though already dead. No ego, ergo no vanity nor fear. Hagakure.

Wakarimasu ka.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

BTW, I was partial to old Z's...240's and 260's. Took one up the backbone of Cascadia in the summer of 91 in search of Wilson Sr's old home in the Kootenays. I found it.

anton v said...

Sebastian (responding to your earlier post)-
I've had that same thought, but like MCR's been saying in several of his posts, at this point in time, they're riding the reins of run-away train; they're all victims of their own hubris for thinking they could control it. Once the MIC path was begun, it had to be followed to its logical conclusion, and people like Cheney and Rumsfeld (just the easiest and most obvious), sprouted up naturally to fill the roles of the system. (BTW - I keep seeing that image from Dr. Strangelove of the pilot riding the bomb out the door, screaming "Yee-haa!" as I write this.)

It seems that the evolutionary path we've been bearing on has been one ultimately about control: Control over nature, over our fellow humans and over our selves. Look at how well our attempts at control have worked out, too! As Yeats said, "The centre cannot hold..."

Oh, and Jenna - Your post this time absolutely kicked ass! Personally, it really resonated with me, and brought some memories into new focus.

Almost 13 years ago, after graduating college, I took an Outward Bound course. I was with a wide cross section of people from around the country (ages ranged from me, the youngest at 23, to a 'grandma' of 56), comprised of 8 unique individuals and two amazing guides. We were outside in the wilderness of the Joshua Tree, and I was challenged mentally, physically and spiritually.

Among the group, there was a beautiful soul named Hadley who confronted my sense of entitlement as a white male American (looking back - I had it damn good, a Charlie Brown-esque childhood of farms and empty fields, outside Eugene, OR, where you RARELY saw a non-white face). At the time, I remember having so much animosity towards her and feeling so mad at her for challenging me like that, but it had a profound, lasting effect and started a process of broadening my own narrow view-point. It was like she pushed a domino in my brain, and this cascade of questions just started to ripple from one to the next.

Physically, it was the greatest experience of my life, too. Being outside like that, carrying an 80 lb pack (you have to haul all your own water, and as I was one of the youngest, biggest and strongest, I got to "help" more), I just got stronger and stronger as the course went on. Not only that, but I sprained my ankle on the first day. I plowed through the pain, though, which was huge for me. And I learned that you're intimately responsible for yourself and your own well-being. You can't offer assistance to anyone else if you can't first take care of yourself.

And lastly, that experience showed me that I was the most alive, most in touch with my reality and my surroundings when so directly confronted by the outside world, naked, so to speak. At the end of the session, we got to spend 24 hours by ourselves, nothing but a tarp, 32 oz of water, a sleeping bag and a pencil and paper. The clarity that that event rendered was sublime, and helped me reach this particular vantage point.

With events unfolding like they are, now, can't you feel your heart start to race as you look at the collapse of this bull-shit edifice that has been built up around us?! The electricity in the moment is palpably building. We're finally seeing this corrupt, debasing culture be consumed by its own profligate, constantly devouring character. The hypocrisy can no longer be covered up or denied.

It feels like we're in the back eddies of a dam, a dam that's rapidly deteriorating, with holes springing up at a quickening pace. We're all about to drop, plop, into the raging current. Stay on top, float, relax and don't struggle too hard or you'll be pulled under by the current.

Rejoice and reflect on the fact that we're all here, at this precise moment in space and time, for a reason, which is up to each of us individually to interpret and understand. Take some responsibility for yourself and remember that we chose to be here, at the end of times, symbolically speaking, because we wanted to witness and to bear our own testimony on its demise, and to offer up seeds for the next generation.

Peace and joy to all!

BTW - I'm writing this fueled by that mystical poet, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Survival.

One last note, after seeing the latest posts: Mike, Sebastian - If you haven't seen Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog, I highly recommend it (I'd be amazed if it didn't really resonate with you, Sebastian). "The way of the Samurai is one of immediacy..." (also, Dead Man, is another gem)

MCR said...

Anton -- That was fucking beautiful.

NCR

Velobwoy said...

New Changes Leave Consumers in the Dark About Credit Scoring: new FICO '08 system went into effect Feb. 5th : http://is.gd/iGn6

So here's what we're looking at today: a crapped out economy with extremely tight lending standards, a shrinking credit market where open lines of credit and home equity are being dramatically reduced, and now a secret revised FICO scoring model that takes away your ability to judge how creditworthy you are.

And, just this morning comes the news that one of the big three bureaus, Experian, is going to stop offering FICO score access to consumers

Todd said...

Tim...

Again, well said.

Velobwoy said...

Anton V, LOVED your post. That is the attitude, alright. Not retreating into fear & selfishness, as pstajk touched upon. The edifices are crumbling, and it's about time. Are any of you actually sad to see it all go down? Facing what comes with joy and wonder will carry us all a long way... Half the battle is already won for us - we recognize what is going on and won't lapse into panic & denial like the vast majority of our brethren. Give thanks...

Todd said...

RanD said...

"If you should find knowledge greater than this, please advise us so we can all be disabused of our folly :)!"

The knowledge I've discovered through my inner exploration has humbled me... I now know, how much I don't know, about what there is to know;-)

The Creative Energies of the Universe are VERY playful:-)

Be Magnificent!

Todd

wagelaborer said...

I'm scared to see it all go down.
Yes, I recognize that unrestrained capitalism has been romping through the planet, destroying all it contacts, especially for the last 30 years.
But my sweet, secure, comfortable life is about to change, and I don't like that.
It's like a forest fire. It may be necessary to regenerate the forest, but I feel like Bambi.

businessman said...

Since the subject of the Titanic was mentioned in this thread, has anyone besides me become suspicious of the story we've always been told around the sinking of the ship? There are a number of different events I've researched around this, but among the most striking are the following:

1) The ship went down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in springtime, at a latitude roughly equivalent to that of New York City. It's almost non-existent to have icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean even just south of Greenland, so having one almost 2200 miles further south in warmer waters would be next to impossible.

Here's a map showing where the ship went down:

http://tinyurl.com/awbfmq

2) Three major opponents of creating The Federal Reserve System, John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isa Strauss, were all passengers who died in the disaster. J.P. Morgan, who was supposed to join them on the voyage, changed his mind at the last minute and decided not to board the ship. The White Star Line, one of the companies owned by J.P. Morgan, was the company that also owned the Titanic. And J.P. Morgan was a huge proponent of wanting to create The Federal Reserve System.

3) In the following year in 1913, The Federal Reserve Act passed, and The Federal Reserve System was created.

I definitely don't have all the answers around this one, but the three items I've just mentioned above certainly make me suspicious.

Diaspora said...

Adding to cj’s contribution, limited financial means doesn’t change the fact we were all given a brain with the ability to use our imagination. Those of us lacking dollars or gold will have to work ours that much harder. Worse case scenario brain storming is what I’ve been doing and it all boils down to the basics. How will I get food and water, where will I shelter, how will I stay warm and protect myself from invaders and illness? We are fast running out of time to work these equations out. Do as much as you can to cover those needs now. I won’t bore you with what I have done but suffice to say if all of the tradition means of getting what we need to survive are gone, bartering will become the name of the game.

What will people need? If you have a couple of years worth of seeds (heirloom not hybrid) but no land and another guy has land but can’t perform manual labor and a third guy has nothing but a strong back, you barter so everyone has food. Beginning today devote a portion of each paycheck to buy things Americans take for granted like soap, aspirin, etc, after the supply chain breaks there will be no Tide for washing clothes and in many cases not even water to drink never mind to do laundry. Go to second hand stores or yard sales and buy basic tools, shovels, picks and the like. Start saving things like the 10 gal Tidy Cat litter buckets in case you have to go to a stream or lake for your water. You get the idea. Although it would be nice to have precious metals to cushion the blow, it comes with no guarantees.
"Only when the last tree has withered, and the last fish caught, and the last river been poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money."
— Cree wisdom

Jena and Mike constantly remind us as we drive off the cliff to monitor not just the view to the front but to also check out the side and rear view mirrors. Tom Englehardt has done a nice bit of work for the futures file on the Empire’s obituary. It dovetails neatly with Dmitry Orlov’s wisdom.

Whistling past the Afghan graveyard
By Tom Engelhardt
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KB07Df03.html

Anonymous said...

"This innate biological response at least allows the mother to have other babies, thereby ensuring the survival of the species."

Not just the species, but the baby's own genes. The baby is sure to share about 1/4 of the genes as any of the mother's other children, and likely to share about 1/2 (if they have the same father). (a la Dawkins "Selfish Gene")