March 6, 2010 -- I am really looking forward to Martha's Vineyard next week. I just gave this interview four days ago. It's just thrilling to see other writers whose top priority it to never report something inaccurately or unfairly. I'd really love to see this one get wide circulation... Yep, that's the way it is.
Enjoy, my fellow mapmakers!
http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?24631
MCR
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From Jenna Orkin
US
Obama Is Underestimating His Deficits By $1.2 Trillion
Obama's Spending Plan Underestimates Deficit Figures, Budget Office Says
Regulators close banks in four states
Commentary: Should the United States Annex Haiti?
China ready to end dollar peg (from Rice Farmer)
America, the Fragile Empire
U.S. Stocks Rise as Jobs Report, Takeovers Bolster Confidence in Recovery
Let Me Tell You What I Really Think About Fanny And Freddie
Rep. Barney Frank
Missouri Budget Overstates Revenues By Up To $1 billion; Indiana Revenue Falls Short; Budget Battles In Washington; Budget Gaps In Kansas
Credit Union Pays Savers to Close Their Accounts
'Rail crisis looms'
World
Landslide vote in Iceland renounces debt repayment
Iranian president calls Sept. 11 attacks a ‘big lie’
Ahmedinejad shoots himself (and by association, the rest of us) in the foot; makes you wonder which side of the looking glass we're on:
"He has also questioned the Sept. 11 death toll of around 3,000, claiming the Americans never published the victims' names."
China sees bank risks in local-government financing
Dictator’s son declared winner in Togolese election
“So many times we went and voted in elections we knew we had won, only for the opposite result to be declared. So people have become tired. They don’t believe their vote counts anymore,” he said.
Colombia’s Constitutional Court to review US-Colombia military agreement
State should 'take back' North Sea oil
Troops seize £150m Afghan heroin haul
Billions in US public money 'spent in Iran' Playing the Fear Card (from Vantage Point)
Russians, Chinese eye new Arctic oil route
Intelligence
FBI director warns of growing cyber threat
Cyberwar declared as China hunts for secrets'The Payback Scheme Is Blackmail'
How Hitler Youth targeted the Scouts
Environment/Health
Arctic melt to cost up to $24 trillion by 2050: report
Drought in Southeast Asia impacting millions, costing billions
How the Mafia Helped Send Italy's Trash to Germany
FDA orders widespread food recall
China to explore combustible ice
37 comments:
The link to "America, the fragile empire" should be http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ferguson28-2010feb28,0,7706980.story
Regarding Hotspringswizard's 11:00 PM & 12:26 PM posts on FTW's Wednesday, March 03, 2010 - "January Job Losses Triple What Was Thought" - comments page about RanD and "The Little Book of Life":
Although the spirit of Hotspringswizard's posts is clearly hostile & condemnatory toward RanD, Hotspringswizard is accurate when stating: "RanD is [in effect] preaching the Gospel...to all 'un[en]lightened' ones" [and to all already enlightened ones too, of course]. It is also true, as Hotspringswizard quotes from "The Little Book of Life", that the "...Universal Principle whereof all organizational subsets of the Universal whole make their distinctive contributions to the Universal whole’s integrity is now able to begin humanly manifesting through humanly-embodied progressively SELF-Self-self-conscious spirits—directly with reality itself—on into reality’s own eternal future." However it is not, as Hotspringswizard states: "RanD's mission to move [everyone] to become believers!"
People understand what they can and choose to, and believe and do what they can and choose to. RanD's "mission" is no different than Hotspringswizard's or Mike Ruppert's, which is to share information with those who are interested in information. Period.
It is also true -- from RanD's perspective -- that, as Hotspringswizard also quotes from "The Little Book of Life": "Christ has returned, to completely be received and interminably be in all who consciously—fully and peacefully and simply—live their lives constantly and exclusively in recognition of and service to GOD.
"And it is hereby in this recognition and service—of and to the SPIRIT which is SOURCE and MEANS of everything that exists—that our human species, itself, both instates and begins experiencing its residency in GOD’s Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and throughout the Universe."
As to the closing comment of Hotspringswizard's 12:26 PM post, which goes: "It appears RanD thinks they are the Pastor, and FTW is their church, within which they will continue to dispense 'their' word of God ( oops, I mean The Source )" [sic] -- the truth is:
We, Ruthie & David, consider the entire field of existence to be our "church", and we're always happy to share our perspective wherever there are people with a potential to, as "The Little Book of Life" says: "...consciously—fully and peacefully and simply—live their lives constantly and exclusively in recognition of and service to the SOURCE and MEANS of everything that exists", i.e., meaning: "in recognition of and service to" The Great SPIRIT which is LIFE, ITSELF, which we also refer to as "GOD".
As we also read, understand, and personally perceive it to be, it's eventually onto the metaphoric 'trash heap smoldering with brimstone' (i.e., 'gehenna', which is where the residents of ancient Jerusalem tossed their refuse) with everything that proves itself incorrigibly incongruous with the will of GOD.
Sincerely, RanD
"Prophet of Doom Finds Joy as Film Stirs Efforts to Survive Oil Crisis - By MIKE SECCOMBE", indeed:
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT! Congrats to the max,
Mr. Michael C. Ruppert!
is alex jones a disinfo agent? if peak oil is the most important issue of our time...why does he speak out against it? or not even mention it at all? he's doing a great job. maybe his sole purpous is to build a fanbase of millions to steer them away from the most critical issue of our time. i'm just wondering what anyone else might know. is alex jones a disinfo agent? i googled bill cooper, but it's not enough.
'Arctic melt to cost up to $24 trillion by 2050: report' article does not exist.
Joel,
Nicest possible take on Alex Jones is that he's a professional scare-monger and rabble rouser with a totally different agenda than Mike's. He enjoys shaking his fist at the government buildings, with a dozen or two hangers on behind him, and releasing anti-government "revalations" such as abiotic oil and secret New World Order weapons that caused the Haiti quake and mass depopulation (going on RIGHT NOW!) using chemtrails worldwide.
He sells this stuff on a regular "be verrrry afraid" basis, to people who already know the government lies, and who are afraid of what might be true. He fills in the blanks for them. It's a cult for those who want to worry about stuff they can't really do anything about.
Is he deliberately misleading people? I think so, but don't know for sure. And if he is, it may be simply out of meglomania, the desire to be a Big Pundit. Or his aim may be to move people away from real issues. How could we be sure?
To me, he's a kind of filter: he removes, from the more serious discussions, anyone without enough critical thinking to question his highly questionable claims. It's kind of like fundamentalist Christianity in the sense that it bells the cat. If someone is constantly sending you stuff from Uncle Alex, you know they're not up to serious critical thinking.
So in that sense he's doing us a favor.
Stick with Mike. He has his deep-end moments, but the man's motives are truly decent. And his mapmaking has allowed vital paths to be laid out, which may lead a few of us away from the center of the catastrophe, out where, de good lawd willin, we can make a good Life and help others.
I'm curious about the title of the link "Billions in US public money 'spent in Iran' Playing the Fear Card"
I read the article and I don't see how it relates to "playing the fear card".
Arctic melt to cost up to $24 trillion by 2050: report
Here is a link that works, took me 1 minute to find!
http://tinyurl.com/y9ze7wz
Joel,
Alex Jones is in the entertainment industry. He has brought attention to important issues in the past, but his show is largely driven by a need to excite.
If you have a firm grasp of what the map looks like here at FTW, then you can observe Alex Jones' show and make your own assesments about his reporting.
This blog is one of the few places that does not seem to be pushing a certain agenda or blaming a specific evil for what is happening. Cause and effect of/for the collapse is so varied and evolving that placing blame on any one thing blinds the eye to the bigger issue at hand, which is survival.
Peak oil is a major factor, but ultimately, the collapse is the result of basic human nature.
The Internet is not going Away.
Government and big business rely on the Internet every bit as much as we do, probably more. The lines of communication will be here for a long time.
However, be certain that tighter controls and much more monitoring is on the way. Expect a major cyber-terror event at some point in the future. Probably the near future judging by the volume of news reports and warnings coming from the gov and media lately.
It's kind of a funny subject for me. It's my job to analyse risks and secure a very large network. Every new mobile technology is being embraced and social networking is being roundly endorsed as well. All of these things make securing networks impossible, but they also make the Telephone companies huge profits. When fear and greed collide, greed seems to win out almost every time. Especially since there has not been a significant event related to Cyber-whatever-ism yet to properly scare us.
The Internet is a goldmine of profits and information, both for folks like us and for TPTB. It will be here with us until it poses a bigger threat than it provides a benefit.
Lastly, when the Cyber event does occur, and security measures are put in place to protect everyone, they will only impact honest people like you and me. And the result will be to limit what we can learn, share, and do.
Coming soon....
Patriot Act 2 the Cyber Edition!!!
Thanks agape wins.
I'm always amazed by the continual discussions about spirituality here on this blog and elsewhere. I recognize how important it is for many of you, but to me, spirituality is THE most personal aspect of my being.
Nothing anyone says or does is EVER going to change my beliefs. I have no intention of trying to explain my beliefs or get others to believe the same as me.
I think spirituality should be handled like underwear. Everbody gets their own, you keep them close to you and share them only with those for which such high intimacy is appropriate.
I'm not advocating censorship or condeming spiritual discussion. I just find it as pointless as debating your favorite color.
My best to you all....
Hi all!
I've been following this blog for about 2 months now and all I can say is Thank you all! I'm slowly starting to learn how to watch the news and distinguish the important news from the junk. But I still have a long way to go... I'm looking forward to CollapseNet and I think it could make a difference between life and death. I have one question for everybody reading this blog: What do you think about Gerald Celente. I've been following him for 1 year now and his predictions have been very accurate and very similar to the ones MCR is making. Is he a good mapmaker?
PeakedOut,
Well said. Plus, if you don't wash your underwear from time to time, it really starts to stink.
I would also add that those who go permanently commando are no less spiritual than those wearing silk boxers.
Oh and Christianity and any formal religion might be equated to wearing a diaper, no offense.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_bi_ge/us_commodities_review
Well RanD, so now we can dispense with " The Source " bit, and you can now use " God " in place of it. Its what your really getting at anyways. No sense beating around the proverbial Bush eh!
Oh, and I love this:
"The existential paradigm out of which the mere human physiological organisms in which "we" are embodied and "do our things" is utterly and absolutely and inexorably subordinate to the SOURCE ( GOD ) of our -- and absolutely everything else's -- existence. Those who don't know this or reject this or defy this are stupid: stupid ones will NOT be found beyond the consummation of the process in which we ALL currently find ourselves. "
Which succintly put ( which I know really runs counter to RanD's taste ) says, " If you defy GOD your are stupid, and as such, you will NOT be part of our special club at the consummation! ". Your either in, or your out, no middle ground BUB ( reminds me of something Bush said once, the other one )!
And you reinforce this outlook of yours in this:
" it's eventually onto the metaphoric 'trash heap smoldering with brimstone' (i.e., 'gehenna', which is where the residents of ancient Jerusalem tossed their refuse) with everything that proves itself incorrigibly incongruous with the will of GOD. "
And regarding what your trying to accomplish here at FTW you write:
" is to share information with those who are interested in information. Period. "
But damn, if you don't agree with RanD you get this:
" You're both heading toward where we're ( meaning RanD ) at and we proffer no apologies; to whomever is pissed off: fuck you ". Ahh, such a spiritual and benevolent a response eh RanD, one that GOD I'm sure would be proud of!
And more about those that do not hold RanD's beliefs:
" but, those of us who are not incorrigible fools are inclined to say you should address exclusively the proverbial mirror when condemning that which only unfortunate genuine 'stupids' refuse to understand. "
The " stupids " or interchangbly " uncorrigible fools " being unbelievers of course.
RanD needs to start a church, really, with a big sign above the door saying " THE SOURCE TEACHINGS ", ( because it appears you two are little apprehensive about using that " GOD " word ). You could make up a bunch of copies of your Gospel Book " The Little Book Of Life " for everyone to read while you sing songs about the coming consummation and the doom of all the stupid and incorrigible ones!
All I can say to your followers is beware my good bretheren, with RanD, its all black and white, because in their world, your either an unfortunate genuine stupid ( incorrigible one ) who refuses to understand, or your saved and headed for the Good Times! And ye faithful ones seeking to interpret RanD's vision of " what is ", better get your migraine meds ready when trying to understand their message ( and wisdom? ) by reading what they write :-)
Isn't this Blog and comment section supposed to be about peak oil, the growing worldwide collapse, geo-political realities, thoughts about Jenna's ( and other contributors ) articles, considerations of Mikes occasional musings, thoughts on the preperations we could make for whats coming, stuff like that? Oh well, thank GOD for the scroll feature :-)
It continues to amaze (and dismay) me that people still choose to believe all is good and well. Plenty of oil, food, water ...
Reminds me of that operator at Three Mile Island "There's nothing wrong with my reactor! That pump is working just fine ...."
Close your mind ... close off all your options ... until there aren't any left.
Awesome review Mike. More are "getting it" all the time. There is hope for some, not for others.
Coming to Utah any time soon?
namaste
namaste
"Should the US annex Haiti?"...wull, duh...if a fish swims up on the beach are you going to pick it up or are you going to leave it for the seagulls????
yuh, I know, its costing way too much to annex Iraq...and Afghanistan...oye, geez, can't anyone balance a checkbook??
But c'mon, this Haiti thing is just laying there flapping its tail. And they're all BLACK...how much can that cost, anyway??
Please, god, if you care as much about white people as I know you do, ...I mean times are tough, dude...we need to annex some niggers.
Nothing personal. Kinda like when I was in boot and a young southern guy said to me, "I ain't got nuthin against black people, but somebody's got to pick my daddy's oranges". Git them oranges picked. Git er done.
@joel: "is alex jones a disinfo agent?"
To add to what eyeballs and PeakedOut said...
Alex Jones would have been arrested, shot, or otherwise 'disappeared' long agoif he were anything like the person he pretends to be. That is to say: if the right people thought he were anything more than a "funny little monkey-boy". That fact should make anyone suspicious of those who stand behind microphones and claim to be telling us "the real story" (sorry Mike).
So you're coming to the Vineyard soon? Ken Salazar rules on the Cape Windfarm project very soon. Hope you're able to weigh in on the importance of this landmark ruling while you're here. It's become quite the drama in this region, as the conservatives have nowalluded to the native Americans' tribal ceremonies here in order to stop the green initiative. Irony. If people only knew the truth here, the Cape Cod windfarm could be a model for the entire country.
I read the Vineyard Gazette article and its comments. One comment said that Mike has no ulterior motive. I disagree. His ulterior motive is to be accurate, and that makes all the difference.
Nice talking to you the other night on the radio-- my guitars, banjo & cello will stay on the shelf for a while, it's getting toward the spring gardening time.
Peaked,
Dyno analogy on the spirituality. There's a lot of people out there with dirty Sponge-Bob undies, and I really don't wanna get invovled. Also, when it comes to getting intimate, it kinda matters more what's going on inside the "spirituality", so to speak, rather than the fancy design.
European Monetary Fund being considered by Brussels
European Monetary Fund idea wins support in Germany
Methane bubbles in Arctic seas - more questions, fewer answers
'US running intl. network of secret detentions'
Next terrorist attack in Europe likely to come from Pakistani Group - not al Qaeda
Portugal follows Greece down austerity path
I wonder, which country after Iceland, Greece and Portugal will be next.....
GrTz,
V
And so it is at FTW and everywhere else:
On the one hand we have RanD's church, which is directly linked to (and is in fact an extension of) classic Judaean-Christian religious literature. On the other hand we have Hotspringswizard's church, which is... well... actually... fundamentally nothing more than an anti-RanD and thus anti-Judaean-Christian rant.
If so inclined, let the reader behold and choose for himself... or just think Yakkity Yuk Yuk and throw all of it onto the smoldering heap.
Everyone's life is one's own.
@PeakedOut: "The Internet is not going Away"
True enough... it's just that WE won't be using it anymore. Just like FOOD will still exist, only it won't be on the shelves at Safeway. It all goes to the guy in the Armani suit! :-)
@David: "times are tough, dude...we need to annex some niggers."
Well... I suppose it would help us recapture some of our National Heritage! :-)
well thanks everybody. i don't trust the guy, alex jones. katherine austin fitts was on his show not long ago...i know ruppert is close with fitts, didn't she write the intro to 'crossing the rubicon'?
i have noticed that alex jones has written articles debunking peak oil. if peak oil is so obvious then why is alex jones speaking out against it. he seems to be right about everything else, when this is a no-brainer. the history channel even had a two hour 'Life Without Oil' show last night. IS Peak Oil and the end of the modern, industrial society what we should all be focusing on or is the SINGULARITY really near?
I don't trust alex jones. Thank you for the feedback everyone.
Alex Jones seems to be a peddler in conspiracy theories. He gives them all equal weight.
He doesn't bother to examine conspiracy theories that can be validated or rejected using a little research using basic facts and high school math.
So he's left calling Peak Oil a nutcase conspiracy theory, because after all, rational people believe that the oil in the Earth is infinite, and exceeds the mass and volume of the known universe.
Scott, there were actually two articles linked in that line.
The second one discusses using fear to get campaign donations.
The Eric Alterman article that is linked, is written in a muddled fashion. But Eric links the source article (better written) at:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=25812D01-18FE-70B2-A811B1EBD2A3A5EF
Part of my previous comment didn't seem to come through.
A quote from that link that pertains to the 'Fear' is, The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”
Anyone have a link to the actual document?
celente is the darling of fox news and alex jones.
remember peter dale scott's admonition: to be successful, disinformation must be 95% truthful.
Joel -
A possibly way-too-abstruse rant here.
I love your apposition of Peak Oil to THE SINGULARITY. Anyone who has not been introduced to this concept should go
here. They seem to be two opposing views of the future, but relate to a common pemonition in mankind, which is real and prescient.
I want to point out that people freaked out about Y1K the same way they freaked out about Y2K: "The world can't go on like this, something big's gonna pop!" A lot of medievals figured Jesus would come down exactly a thousand years after his birth and save humans from their violence and other social ills (and when that didn't happen, after his death, and then, maybe not exactly, maybe a few years later...) A major prophecy of the 12th century (do a search of Joachim of Fiore) was that Good and Evil would grapple and the whole fate of mankind would be decided by 1260 (and when it didn't all finish by then, again, they went for "approximately", i.e. soon, it still might happen). This was the time of the flagelants, beating themselves bloody in anticipation of the second coming.
And, in fact, the medievals were right, because big things WERE happening, and Life was never the same after immense, one-time-only changes occurred. In 1049 the Church declared its independence from the Emperor, and began its ascent toward the papal monarchy over all Latin Europe. The Crusades followed not long after, and that certainly changed Europe forever.
Around 1260 there was a great row brewing between the Spirituals and the more materialistic elements of society, and especially between these two camps in the Church. The materialists won, hands down, by around 1320, again changing Europe forever. Since then there have been many sudden, immense changes that have forever bent the world in an unpredicted and totally changing way. The discovery of the Americas was one. The invention of steam engines was another.
The perception that "we will totally change" characterizes these pent-up premonitions of a SINGULARITY, and they are predictive of _something_ but never what they thought they were predicting.
Vernor Vinge saw technology booming along and predicted, in 1993, that it would make a quantum leap and begin reproducing machines smarter than people, which could then take over the evolution of thought -- without need of fallible, fleshy, carbon and water based life-forms.
What Vinge failed to note was the limits of growth. Because more and more had always been spent and more and more had always become available and more and more progress was being made, he assumed that this trend would continue without limits. We on this blog know that our limits have been reached, even overshot. Yet he is right that a singularity (a one-time, immense change) is on the way.
Some say that this is going to be a human die-off. Others claim the Aquarian Age is coming, when a gentler, kinder human race will radically improve on its violent past and learn to live with the Earth in harmony. Others predict a crap-storm followed by pockets of post-industrial civilization living somewhere between the stone age and Mad Max. The main point is that we ARE headed for a singularity.
The past we see as relatively constant is melting under our feet. What I urge all my fellow blog commenters and lurkers to remember is that we DO have an influence in the creation of the future, if we choose to. Of course, if you give up and just cry or distract yourself for the next few years, your influence will be lost -- and to some extent, any lack of joy on the other side of the singularity will be your fault.
Do the right thing, and fear not.
RanD, Ruthie and David, your arrogance is quite typical of so many in this world who think their little small lives have given them the means and knowledge to actually decipher in finite terms what the implications and meaning really is, of the truly and ultimately indescribable infinity that we are imersed in.
When you boil it all down to its essence, your just another set of people who are pushing on others that " your religion " is the truth and the only truth, period, and all you others that are not on the same page with RanD are gonna burn!
I've got no worries whatsoever about people judging what you say, against what I say. Your the ones who have stated quite clearly that if your not in the RanD " Little Book Of Life " religious camp, then you are stupid and incorrigible. How many people do you think really respect that kind of thinking?
You know its one thing, to throw out a spiritual idea here and there as it relates to the subject matter of this blog and to peoples various feelings about all the myriad issues related to the collapse conditions that are unfolding.
But you RanD push this religious theme of yours way beyond resonable dimensions. Much of it is just the same thing, over and over. And like Sebastian Ronin said, there is very much a self centered quality to what you do here, overly imposing your own particular religious ideas upon this blog comment space.
I'm all for people being allowed to share diverse thoughts on a wide range of subjects, but your really beating a dead horse here. From what I can see the vast majority of people who come here are looking for understanding of of the growing crisis conditions of our world, and not for RanD's religion.
In the meantime, you don't need to hide behind " The Source " reference anymore. It will be interesting to see if in your ( inevitable it appears ) future sermons here at FTW you can bring yourself to just use the word " GOD ", which is what you really mean anyway. Don't be afraid RanD, you can do it!
And please do continue to reference those that don't hold your veiws as " stupids ", which really reinforces for all who read your thoughts, of the un-questioned superiority of such magnificent minds as those of Ruthie, and David!
Hotspringswizard:
From your 10:43 AM words to RanD we now know you, and shake the dust from our shoes as we depart your church.
RanD 5:57Pm says, " we now know you, and shake the dust from our shoes as we depart your church ".
Just more signs of your arrogance. I don't need artificial constructs ( like a church and all its man created dogma ) and made up stories that religions like yours like to impose on people. You must have picked up all that dust from someone elses church.
Hotspringswizard,
Although I too have been referenced as one of the "stupids", I honestly regard it as a compliment after reading through several paragraphs of The Little Book of Life.
Yes, the invention of the scroll wheel is without doubt one of the most useful tools of the digital age. ;)
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