Thursday, March 18, 2010

Drug-Resistant TB Spreads Across Globe; Newsweek: US in Terminal Decline

From Jenna Orkin

Headlines
U.S. schools in ‘category 5’ budget crisis
Drug-Resistant TB Spreads Across the Globe
Glaxo funded backers of 'danger' drug
Newsweek: US in Terminal Decline - from Rice Farmer

Economy
German leader says euro zone should consider expelling countries
Portugal Prepares To Sell $1 Billion Of Dollar Denominated Bonds In Goldman-Led Deal - from Rice Farmer
US stealth taxes creeping up
New pensions scandal
Young and poor will be the victims of 2012 pension reforms.
Lloyds accused of avoiding tax
Stimulus Runs Out, So States Beg Congress For More Money; Will They Get It?
Multi-Million Dollar UN Corruption Case
Clinton and Bush Head to Haiti Monday
That was some bonding that went on in that golf cart.
Obama, Clinton fundraiser admits $292 million fraud

Terror/Intelligence
Pentagon Sees a Threat From Online Muckrakers
Wikileaks
Defense Cites Entrapment in Terror Case
German Defense Ministry Sought to Obscure the Truth
Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely
Wachovia and US Settle Money Laundering Case
Secrets of the Secret Service: Old Computers, Problems Recruiting
Spies target speculators
New secret agent rules delayed
..."after falling foul of torture laws."
Neuromarketers get inside buyers' brains - from Rice Farmer
North Korean blamed for currency crash is executed
"Professor Yoon and other observers believe Mr Pak, who was seen on state TV by Mr Kim's side as late as January, was made a scapegoat for the policy, which was almost certainly authorised higher up the leadership chain."

Energy/Environment/Health
British movie blasts Alberta oil sands
New man-made species could solve energy problems
China: Success of Secret Two Child Policy
Saving the Oceans: Fish on the 14th Floor
Who would like to do the math on how many of these tanks would be required? Back of the envelope would indicate you'd have to cover the surface of the earth in a couple miles water, no?
Berkeley Scientist's Herbicide Studies Raise Corporate Hackles
Rising food prices may start with seeds
"Farmers say consolidation in the industry means they're forced to buy more costly seeds. But Monsanto, the world's largest seed firm, says competition 'is alive and flourishing.'"
How going green may make you mean
In other words, the CEOs don't shoplift so they get the Upright Citizens' award.
Fasting to Death
Smart Pill

Gold/Silver
Marc Faber: We Have a New Gold Standard - from Rice Farmer
Idaho's plan to downgrade the dollar - from Rice Farmer
"A bill to allow citizens to pay their taxes with silver medallions gains support. Goldbugs are watching closely."

And...
Left-wing Rome politicians drop trousers in budget protest - from Rice Farmer
"Alemanno has reduced us to our underwear," read one protester's poster, referring to the city's right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=Z55VBRSAWDT1&preview=article&linkid=18211880-1d1e-49e5-b3eb-b506ca5f3018&pdaffid=ZVFwBG5jk4Kvl9OaBJc5%2bg%3d%3d

...so it's true then.

I thought we just had the Swine Flu.

Here it goes again.
MediaMentions

agape wins said...

03,18,10; 10:53pm

ChuckP,

Find it here, the key is "Stopped looking" meaning, no longer
counted-still not working, but were at one time!
did you expect Honesty in Government?

"A total of 10.6 million people either did not have a job, or have
stopped looking for one, according to figures from the Office for
National Statistics,"

http://tinyurl.com/yadabzc

"Sopo learned the hard way: The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace,
LinkedIn and Twitter, too."

"It doesn't really discuss any mechanisms for accountability or ensuring that government agents use those tools responsibly,"

If it is being used by "Law enforcement", you know it is used for less honorable purposes!

http://tinyurl.com/yhbp2jw

When I was in 4th grade, the teacher(?) recruited me to be a snitch.
One time a kid was chewing gum, after making him an example, she SAID " If you want to chew gum bring enough for everyone."
Big mistake; I do not chew- but the next day I brought enough for the whole class, teacher put hers
in her desk! After school she told me, "Don't ever do that again."!!

Mean what you say, say only what you mean! How many of us do that?
I get nervous whenever someone agrees with me, is it BS, am I being set up, do they truly understand, are they thinking or just reacting, going with what sounds good?

Some times I find myself playing "The Devil's advocate", or feeling out my own position, an opposing opinion never hurt anyone, as long as it is not "mean spirited".

Climate Change, Come on, there is and there is not; there are thousands of Scientists who believe in Creationism/Intelligent Design in one form or another, who are also shut out. To me it's Chevy, Ford, or Toyota;
They are all after your money.
The crops are moving north, the "frost line" is moving north, & the tree line has been moving higher in Colorado for the last 20 years, the "Never Summer Mountain range" snow is gone before June since 1975, The San Luis Valley has not had a "Deep Freeze" in 5 years, these are things I can feel & see. No matter what the cause!

Above all Think.

Amanzeru, The state of mind in which one acquiesces to whatever circumstances one happens to be in. (Living in the NOW.)

From p.16 of "Understanding Amae", 197 pages explaining the complex
issue of Amae

Japanese Verbs - Google Books Result

"Being Satisfied"

agape wins said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

RE: Wikilinks

"Perhaps the most amusing aspect of the Army’s report, to Mr. Assange, was its speculation that WikiLeaks is supported by the Central Intelligence Agency."

While I don't think that's true, consider the influence that a credentialed "leaker" has over the alternative community (vaguely, those who seek more than mainstream news). Knowing that it would be instantly leaked by a "credible source", the Army or other agency could allow a bogus report to "leak", creating a particular impression among the non-mainstream crowd. This could involve space aliens, an upcoming crackdown on dissent, fantastical weapons and spy tools (stuff that doesn't exist, but could be used to catch eco-defenders and internet dissenters, if it did), and so forth.

We need to be very careful what we BELIEVE and what we THINK we KNOW. Just because it is "leaked" does not mean it is true. "Information" is a battlefield to the Army, a branch of the spy business to ODNI. Data is not synonomous with Truth.

gamedog said...

MCR: I'm sorry to see this blog so far off track at such a critical moment too, but I respectfully suggest the comments are only a response the the links posted, if you want to keep it focused try balancing the AGW propaganda a little so those of us who have heavily researched the subject are not frustrated and turned off.

Some of the AGW links have been blatant propaganda, and therefore disappointing in comparison to the usually well researched collapse subjects posted.

I have been biting my tongue to avoid diversion.

MCR, please spend an hour watching this video. It is probably the most balanced civilised debate I've seen between an AGW proponent and a Sceptic, this will highlight exactly where the science is settled, exactly the state of the science today. The interviewees agree on 98% of it.

http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?71356252001

MCR: please do have the last word on it, once you've watched it. Thanks.

gamedog said...

Well looky here, it seems all our research has suddenly become moot, those wonderful scientists say it can be BAU!

"Texas university has eureka moment for coal-to-gas

Scientists in Texas say they have found a way to convert coal into gasoline at a cost of less than $30 (U.S.) a barrel - with zero release of pollutants"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/texas-university-has-eureka-moment-for-coal-to-gas/article1502823/

We're saved!

/sarcasm

Gustav said...

New GEAB No 43 is out:

The five steps of the global geopolitical dislocation phase

Sorry for not posting more often, but i read all your posts regulary.

Greetings to all.

Gustav.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

Re Terminal Decline:

When the MSM jumps on board the memes of collapse, Empire, decline, etc. it is merely a signal that we are well on the way. In other words, what has been common knowledge for some time in some circles, is now being squeezed into the public psyche. The motive? To lay the psychological groundwork for any and such "austerity measures" that the state will be forced to take. It is always better to dress up The Hammer in the PR guise of consideration for the public. A crock is a crock, but we're dealing with the NAmerican mob here. Political spoon-feeding is the order of the day.

Lifeboat Politics is easy to understand, much more difficult to accept. Once the good ship has gone down, the lifeboat is left bobbing in rough waters with no guidance technology. The lifeboat is overcrowded, with few and very scarce resources. There are always hangers-on, clutching at the sides, partly out but mostly submerged by the deep. They jeopardize the safety of an already overloaded craft. They must be let loose.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

gamedog re AGW:

Thank you for stepping out and voicing your concerns.

In light of Climategate, the AGW "movement", its related science, and its attendant, yappy political voice, i.e. Green parties, all are bleeding badly. This blog has always been skewed in support of the latter.

I myself was supportive, but the first whiff of "something-terribly-wrong-here" came with the attendance of Cem Ozdemir, Co-Leader of the German Green Party, at last year's Bilderberg meeting. The more layers that got removed, the worse the smell became: secret Rockefeller meddling going back to the 80's; the cooking of the agenda at Rio by Maurice Strong, a known globalist; the questionable financial positions taken by the Goracle re cap-and-trade; the blatant lobbying for a global tax at Copenhagen. It became somewhat obvious that the Green movement had been pocketed lock-stock-and-barrel by the NWO globalists with fairly obvious motives and for fairly obvious purposes.

MCR is tight with Cynthia McKinney. A friendship is a frienship. A political obligation is quite something else. Green philosophy is the apex of liberal thought; it ain't gonna happen. With each passing day, the credibility and none do-ability of Green thinking becomes more exposed, most of which is delivered by the realities of the pending Post-Peak Oil condition.

I consider MCR to be an ally and a cyber-friend. However, he has never had to subject his actions to a "council of war." Had such an hypothetical council ever existed and, had I sat on such council, the suck-holing up to Greens is not the only thing I would have challenged. I would also have challenged the tactically empty pitch to the Obama Administration via the original publication of the 25 Points.

Liberalism dies hard. It clutches frantically at a way of life that can never again be. It is over; it is finished.

businessman said...

Thanks for that post, gamedog. Posting articles supporting global warming, and not expecting to get opposing responses from people who have both researched it and don't believe in it, is like posting articles supporting one political party, and not expecting to hear opposing responses from others who support the opposition party.

Unknown said...

I dislike the whole lifeboat analogy. It suggests that something will cease to exist altogether, and that some will escape destruction in tiny boats with a few provisions, and wait a short time till they are rescued and returned to civilization. Those who were not smart or fast enough to get on the boats in time will be lost.

First, I do not see Life as We Knew It just disappearing beneath the waves. In ten years, there will still be movies and TV, and most of the crap they show will still suck. There will still be tiny cameras that produce digital images and radios and even cars. There will still be painfully aggressive politicians and rich people and poor people, and there will be some libraries left and a lot of schools (of varying quality, probably significantly more modest, by and large). There will still be a (possibly more detestable) national government, probably calling itself the United States (though there's room to fantasize about regions and independent Texas, etc.).

Second, one needn't be either in or out. Networking is a fuzzy thing, and who you know will be even more important in ten years than it is now. Getting with a good tribe or club or affinity group will help a lot, but exclusive groups that freeze out everyone else will not be the most adaptable model. Giving and sharing, though it might seem to "swamp your boat", could be exactly the strategy to prevent insane mobs of needy people.

And third, whereas a lifeboat merely has to bob around till another steamer comes along, we need to look at long-term Life (not mere survival), increasingly deprived of the delicious energy we grew up with in the 20th century. So instead of merely fighting for a place in the boat, and kicking everyone else out, we need to foster situations that will produce long-term desirability and invest through hard work and sacrifice today, for long-term gains all round.

Of course, you and your family and your friends will come first, but seeing "the others" as enemies or doomed zombies might produce relationships and momentums that would actually be counterproductive.

Paul said...

@gamedog

Excellent video - thank you for posting. If only all such discussions were carried out in such a rational and civilised way.

Off track? To my mind no - deliberate AGW confusion and "Carbon Trading" seem to be major plays of TPTB in my opinion.

But I don't run this blog - for which I am eternally grateful. So if I want to continue playing in the game, then I must accept the referees decision.

Namaste.

Elmo said...

Well, Mike wants us all to get back on-track, so here goes...

When and IF collapse ever happens, my immediate plans for survival include: eating the rich and making clothes out of their hides!

Y'all can look for a technological solution if you want to... But I believe you would end-up a lot better off if you learned how to regenerate topsoil... then maybe actually went outside and did it; as opposed to sitting here discussing things you are powerless to affect!

While we're all sitting here clicking our keyboards and sipping on our Pepsi's, the rest of the world is steadily grinding our planet into dust! (((well, the ones who still have jobs are, anyway...))) You should be doing whatever is physically in your power to deal with that; because all the free energy in the world isn't going to help you if you can't grow anything but weeds.

Find places to create gardens. Steal the land, if you have to... They did! Go around to some of these abandoned "properties", which I'm sure your neighborhood is filling up with; rip up some weeds and pop in a pumpkin... You might be glad you did!

Never mind that you're trespassing... They are too! Usually, the most people will ever do is laugh at you. Some may spray your crops with weed-killer if they're feeling exceptionally self-righteous. The cops rarely do anything. I have first-hand knowledge on all of that. Last year I had more free food than I knew what to do with!

And you should be taking any-and-all steps imaginable to convince yourselves, your family, your neighbors, and anyone else you find wandering around, to STOP HAVING CHILDREN, because you're not going to be able to feed the little phuckers!

There you go, Mike... That's about as "on-track" as I can get!

Unknown said...

Elmo, you rock!

That's the spirit. Go out an plant some doggon food because that's what people EAT. Duh.

In Eugene there's a Victory Gardens group that's planting gardens for people on a volunteer, pay-it-forward basis. I can't wait to get back and help. Vacant lots, other people's backyards, laundry tubs, river banks, rooftops...

Aint that hard to do. And if you mess up this time, at least you got that outta the way, and next time you'll be better. Not much time, looks like.

It's SPRING !

"In the field of opportunity, it's ploughing time again."

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

@ eyeballs,

The lifeboat metaphor doesn’t suggest “something will cease to exist altogether.” Yes, the ship that goes down ceases to exist. The implication is that there is a new land to be rowed towards.

In ten years time things may still be somewhat as you describe them. Personally, I think things will be much worse. It is the 2030 crisis however towards which all points. This has not changed since the first Club of Rome Report came out in ’74 to the current exceptional work of Chris Martenson. Simply overlap a descent graph onto a population graph, or China-US oil supply-demand graphs over each other. As for the “fantasizing” about secessionist regions, MCR has recently (and finally!) gotten onto the program with his editorial endorsement. This leaves you as the outlier. It is kindergarten Post-Peak Oil, i.e. basic Second Law, to deduce that once the physical infrastructure tanks, the institutional infrastructure also must tank. One need stop thinking and perceiving as an imperialist to appreciate this, i.e. one need stop thinking as an American.

Yes, networking is very fuzzy...at the bottom rung level of networking. But at the meta-level of serious decision-making things always come down to black/white. Yes or no? What is it to be? Giving and sharing is called for within one’s own tribe. The “insane mobs” who do not prepare will suffer the consequences of their non-preparedness. Why should they not? Why would they not? If they swamp the boat or not will be determined by yes/no decisions on the part of those who defend the respective boats. If one is not prepared to chop at hands, metaphorically speaking, then one jeopardizes the survival of not only those who have built the boat, but those who man it and have the skills and knowledge to navigate it.

“Mere” survival, as you so quaintly put it, trumps long-term “Life.” If the former does not precede the latter, then the latter just ain’t gonna happen, is it? There’s always a spot open at the Kumbaya campfire, I suppose.

Friends are friends; enemies are enemies. To not recognize an enemy for an enemy is what is counterproductive. They will not care for the welfare of you or your family. They will not have bothered to learn skills of survival, cooperation, merit...and many principles of martial valour that need not go down at this time. Why should you concern yourself with their spiritual and intellectual ineptitude?

Our civilization (industrial and Occidental) is finally about to break free from its liberal straight jacket of the past 100 years. It would seem to me that your outlook onto a Post-Peak Oil world will result in many wrong decisions, based on a false and tragic conditioning of liberal values, that will carry like consequences for your family and for your community. It is time pull up the famous maxim of Talleyrand for political decision-making: “It was worse than a crime; it was a mistake.”

Elmo said...

@eyeballs

"Elmo, you rock! That's the spirit. Go out an plant some doggon food because that's what people EAT. Duh."

Thanks! I never was much for the "lifeboat theory" either. :-)

And I apologize to anyone who night actually be doing something real to make this world more livable, instead of just talking about it. I know I come off accusatory at times (most times). But, like the saying goes: "I ain't talking to you... unless I am!"

pagun said...

Re: The Fish-
http://www.crystalinks.com/amphibiousgods.html
When you see the pictures of the ancient priests from Persia wearing fish suits, and read about the earliest civilizations like Babylon claiming that civilization was brought to them by fish men, like OANNES, or see that the hat on the earth mother goddess CYBELE is just like the bishops mitre that the pope still wears today, you realize why the first thing we did over there was loot the museums.
Also, re: the Idaho silver coins
My grandpa often told me about driving in the Chalmers from WI to CA in the early 20's, and that there was a hill in Idaho too steep for some cars, even in reverse, and there was a team of horses that would pull the cars over the top. After hearing this story 20 times, I thought to ask him how much they charged him to pull the car. He said he couldn't remember, but he did remember that THEY WOULD NOT TAKE PAPER MONEY!