Bets Rise on Rich Countries Defaulting

From Jenna Orkin:

Bets rise on rich countries defaulting
Britain is out of money
Dump the Dollar! Buy Gold!
CNN!
Sovereign Debt Could Be The Next Subprime
Greece tests the limit of sovereign debt
U.S. faces surge in interest payments
Interest on U.S. debt at $4.8 trillion
Peter Costa: "The US Government Will Be Totally Bankrupt In A Year And A Half" (from Rice Farmer)
Treasury yields plunge sends warning
Don't say we didn't warn you this time -- a new crash is dead ahead (from Rice Farmer)
Dollar slump continues as top analysts see no bottom
Russia Diversifying Into Canadian Dollars
Report: Almost 1 in 4 homeowners underwater on their mortgages
Why the US, China are about to get divorced‎
Congress is losing its patience with the Fed
House panel votes to audit Federal Reserve
Economists Opposing Fed Audit Are On Fed Payroll
Ron Paul: Fed will self destruct when it destroys the dollar
Should we cheer?
Fed Will Destroy Itself and Gold Price is Rigged: Paul video
Bank Regulators "Reign of Terror" on Small Business Loans
Freefall In Small Business Loans
Housing Starts Green Shoots Wither On Vine
California Students Protest 32% Tuition Hike; State Budget Gridlock II Coming; Massive Deficits In San Francisco
Gulf Single Currency Delayed
...beyond the beginning of 2010. Is everyone sighing with relief?
Markets Take Off as Dollar Weakens
US Credit Shrinking More than Since 1930's
Commercial and Industrial Lending Drop 17% Since October '08
World Oil Demand Growth to Outpace Supply in 2010: Poll
Civil war risk of climate change
In his gloomiest prediction yet, Marc Faber sees big financial bust leading to war (from Rice Farmer)
JO Comment: And then we have the IMF head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn warning of war. So that's three on the same day. Gee.
Clean coal 'just a blueprint'
E.ON chief Paul Golby warns clean coal plans may never be viable.
As Sewers Fill, Waste Poisons Waterways
US: Three Mile Island Radiation "Not Significant"
A Chinese-owned GM?
The Rise of the Chinese Automotive Industry and Its Impact on the US Automotive Industry Lou Dobbs Might Run for Senate, White House
NYT: Anti-terror air defense reviewed
The commander of military forces protecting North America has ordered a review of the costly air defenses intended to prevent another Sept. 11-style attack.
Investors finally seeing the nonsense in efficient market theory
Study: Wall St. execs cashed in before collapse
GE May Be Closer to Selling Control of NBC to Comcast as Immelt, Levy Meet

UK/Europe/Big Brother
UK Police Routinely Arresting People to Obtain DNA, Report Claims
UK risks 'debt spiral'
Fuel bills blamed for 50% rise in winter deaths
Banks given £62bn were within hours of collapse
Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS received secret bridging loans last year when facing far greater peril than first thought.
Bank of England tells of loan to save RBS and HBOS
Bank secretly lent ailing institutions £62bn to save them from failing.
RBS may need more cash after £33.5bn fillip
Britain rejected Iraq 'regime change' in 2001
British officials heard war 'drum beats' before 9/11
Uproar over Italian Town's Foreigner Registration Drive

Energy/Climate Change
Gas shortage lingers in cities‎
Pakistan's Natural Gas Shortage to Widen in 2010
Shell favours gas for future production
Gas will be at the heart of Royal Dutch Shell's production strategy 'mistake'.
China Industries Face a Hard Winter on Gas Shortage
New report says world on threshold of irreversible climate change
1.5 billion people have no electricity
Greenhouse gas levels 'reach record high'

Middle East/Asia
Report Starts an Uproar in India
21 politicians and journalists shot dead in Philippines
Philippines declares state of emergency after 46 are killed in election bloodbath
Iran begins war games to protect nuclear sites
Ahmedinejad Heads For Brazil and West Africa
US employing Blackwater for Pakistan assassinations
Dubai World’s debt freeze was carefully planned
Dubai Debt Rattles Confidence in Persian Gulf Borrowers
Stocks Slump, Bonds Rise as Dubai Roils Markets; Credit-Default Swaps Soar
Europe's VStoxx Index Jumps Most in Year on Concern About Dubai Debt Delay
Goldman Sachs's Hong Kong-Based Michael Evans Sells $12 Million of Stock
Dubai Surrenders Autonomy as Crisis Bolsters Oil-Rich Emirate of Abu Dhabi
CHINA'S NAVY MAKES "IMPRESSIVE" STRIDES, SAYS ONI
An ongoing modernization effort has provided China with an increasingly sophisticated and proficient naval force, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) said in a new assessment (large pdf).
China’s New Missile May Create a 'No-Go Zone' for U.S. Fleet

New Song at New White Trash Site Co-Written by and featuring MCR

"We Can't Escape From" -- This was the first song I shared co-writing credits on with Andy and Doug. This song somehow makes my last post easier to deal with... It comes from a place of acceptance which is the only place to start from if one hopes to "hold it together". It let's us all recognize what we so obviously share -- our humanity. I came up with the chorus and the Native American chant partly as a result of inspiration provided by Carolyn Baker in her great book "Sacred Demise". I also added a few of the words but most of the work was done by Doug. Collapse must be approached spiritually and emotionally if one expects to survive. My influence in this song was to make it a lament, connected to struggle and inexplicable loss. A lesson I have learned through many years is that we are never stronger than when we are most vulnerable. The female voice is the incredible Kristen Vigard. And don't miss the new NWT song "Don't Dig Too Deep" which Kris just smokes. She came up with the vocals in just three takes -- off the top of her head.

What's she saying? -- Don't dig too deep.

NWT now has 25 songs mastered and we're making selections for a CD. Check out the site and give a listen. http://www.newwhitetrash.com. More coming soon.

MCR

THIS IS HOT

Look, the IMF's books are almost certainly as cooked as IEA's have been shown to be. If they suggest it might happen in four or five years I'd say that we would be very lucky to have just one. Critics can continue to scoff but with each passing day our predictions are coming true. This is not dot connecting or analysis anymore. They're telling us exactly what's going to happen in the Times of London.

Let them that have eyes, see.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6928147.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=1185799

MCR

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post-Peak Oil World -- by Michael C. Ruppert – I don’t have enough good words to say about Chelsea Green Publishing. I’m told we should have books at the San Francisco and Berkeley screenings coming up and I’m going to be only too happy to be there to autograph them. They should be in bookstores by December 15th.

It’s even up on Amazon already too. This will be a little fresher than the first version in many ways. If the movie moved you to look deeper, this is where you must go next – without delay. Please read on…

AND THE SCARIEST NEWS STORY I'VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-builds-up-its-bases-in-oilrich-south-america-1825398.html

I know I said I was through with this but there must be exceptions. This story shows that our map was even better than we thought. Just before the attacks of 9-11 both I and others like Peter Dale Scott were looking hard at Colombia and Venezuela. We were calling it the next Vietnam. This British story tells us that what was "postponed" by 9-11 has picked up far ahead of where it left off. Somebody just turned the burner up a notch. I also read today that Chavez's government had seized 48,000 acres of farmland that was unused and neglected. He's putting people to work growing food.... Good for him. That's what we should be doing here -- right now.

The United States imports half of its oil from Latin America.

We made a map.

MCR

The Mission of CoLLapse

Jenna Orkin


"Only be interesting," the writer Charles Simmons once said. In the temporal arts, in other words - literature, music, dance or drama - considerations of beauty, balance or unity are all outweighed by the bottom line: If you're boring, the operation may be a success but the patient will die.

By this measure CoLLapse is a triumph. It never lags, even for those of us who have heard its message a hundred times. (I was glad to be reminded about the thousand monkeys, however;) It is, if anything, all too interesting in the way that approaching headlights are all too interesting to a deer.

I had wondered, particularly hearing advance reactions to the film, whether it was biased one way or the other, pro or con Mike and his ideas. It is not. It is wysiwyg Mike. He does not play to the camera, at least any more than he would to a gathering of friends over dinner. In an important way, however subconsciously, he has been waiting for this moment most of his adult life. For I am not the only person to have mused with him about who should play him when the movie was made of his career. (I said Anthony Hopkins if he wasn't so old. Mike preferred William Hurt.)

That day may yet come. Meanwhile, Mike does a superb job of playing himself. His role as prophet of the collapse of civilization is the one for which he was cut out as he surely realized when Chris came calling with a camera and a notion of throwing Mike's findings about the CIA up on Youtube.

"He had other ideas," reads the slug line in the movie's introduction. And how. For anyone who has followed Mike's work closely, there's something so fitting about this project that one marvels. For how often does life fulfill one's fantasies more or less exactly as one had imagined them? And an indie movie with the commercial possibilities of a theatrical release coupled with VOD is just that deus ex machina, and not a moment too soon.

As one of those most closely associated with Mike's work, I won't even try to be an impartial judge of this movie. Besides, I am at least as interested in people's reactions to it as I am in the film itself. For this movie is not simply a work of art to be appreciated; it has a mission whose success is the most important measure of the film itself.

On that score, so far so great. Media such as the New York Times which studiously ignored the Peak Oil conferences held here in 2005 and 2006 are now respectfully acknowledging the most controversial of Peak Oil advocates. (The Times sent a researcher, though not a reporter, to Petrocollapse in 2005; presumably his main research function was to count the house and report back to The Powers That Be on how big the movement was in NYC and how much they had to worry.)

I also wasn't sure how the onslaught of information in the movie would go over with a general audience. It has aspects of the lecture however jazzed up with cartoons and archive footage. But one of my students who saw it in New York said it was easily comprehensible. Given that she's new to the topic as well as to the English language, this is a relief. And most of the reviews of the "scariest movie ever" genre indicate that people are getting the message.

So what's the down side?

The movie needed more definition. Was it an exposee of Peak Oil, a portrait of Mike or both? If the first, it needed at least a shot of the plethora of books, reports and conferences on the subject, thereby revealing the impressive array of experts from various disciplines who are 'concerned.'

But according to interviews of the director, Chris Smith, with Laura Flanders, among others, it was intended to be the second, a portrait of Mike the man.

In that case too, it needed some fleshing out. Not a lot; the great thing about movies is that a picture is worth a thousand words and when you have words as well, you can really cover ground. There's a clear effort to explicate this doomsday prophet. Who is he to be telling us all this? Where does he come from? What are his credentials?

These questions are dutifully addressed but others are skirted and not, I think, out of discretion. Anyone concerned with niceties wouldn't have conducted the interview in a meatpacking warehouse to create the atmosphere of an interrogation. (I can only imagine how Mike reacted to that. Let's just say that cold isn't his favorite environment.) His personal life is alluded to in the person of Rags. But surely, the director might have asked, that's not the whole story, but only the latest chapter.

On that score, the Rosetta Stone is a throw-away line where Mike is talking about how early in his career, people would ask him why he didn't give up his crusade and get a more balanced life. He answers to the effect that he tried but looking around, he saw that there was, in fact, nothing else in his life. So he had no choice but to go on with his investigative work.

A shot of his article, "New Year's at Bellevue," would have thrown into relief that history as well as the emotional moments he is both generous and helpless enough to share with the world. It would also have conveyed the putative personal collapse alluded to in the title.

The movie will doubtless usher in a whole new chapter of his life. My foreign student was moved to want to comfort "that man" who seemed so lonely with only his loping dog for companionship. And the New York Times reviewer seemed to want to protect him from the "cruel" director interrogating him with his "predatory" camera and "[un]sympathetic... embrace."

It also ushers in the next chapter for us all.

REMEMBER THIS

One of the best things I ever did at FTW was to bring up good writers and thinkers. FTW was the first to publish Dmitry Orlov who has done so much to prepare us. He desribes what we can expect.

The Five Stages of Collapse

1. Stage one: Financial Collapse
2. Commercial Collapse
3. Political Collapse
4. Social Collapse
5. Cultural Collapse

I think everybody needs to break out their Dmitry Orlove reader right about now. We are just entering the second stage. We can expect to be able to function as something resembling normal until the end of Stage Three. That means there will be warning signs and time to prepare. We will not get caught flat-footed. How could we? We're the ones who made the map. Trust this. As to how long each stage lasts... that's anybody's guess right now.

Another rule of thumb is that with each new stage, things get less and less predictable/reliable.

What a horse race this is to get our message out as quickly as possible. The winds are now behind us.

MCR

Russia Grows Physically; Voters Downsize

From Jenna Orkin:

“An ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction.” — Simón Bolívar

Collapse
New Greenpeace head says human existence 'under threat'
Societe Generale tells clients how to prepare for global collapse
China – Biggest Risk to the World Economy
U.N.: One billion Worldwide Face Starvation (from Rice Farmer)
From the Department of Misleading Headlines: Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High
The headline implies that the levels were the same fourteen years ago. No. They only started measuring fourteen years ago.

"One figure that drew officials’ attention was the number of households, 506,000, in which children faced “very low food security”: up from 323,000 the previous year."

That's an increase of over 50% in one year. - JO
The worst is yet to come for jobs
Worst Is Yet To Come For Insurance Companies
Half of UK companies plan to freeze wages another year (from Rice Farmer)
FDIC Sells Most Real Estate Since 1994 as U.S. Agency Closes Failed Banks
Private Equity Funding Drops 62% as Biggest U.S. Pension Plan Reviews Fees
Freefall In Small Business Loans
Bernanke Lunches With Wall Street as Jobless Prosperity Buoys Stock Market
'Political downsizing' is latest weapon for voters (from Rice Farmer)
Manhattan Institute Says "New York must declare a financial emergency"
NJ Faces Catastrophic Fiscal Crisis, According to Pew Center Study (from Rice Farmer)
Mexico border city groups call for UN peacekeepers (from Vantage point)
Conventions Say Good Riddance to Chicago Over Costs and Union Work Rules
Deutsche Bank Is Drowning in Las Vegas With Wall Street's Costliest Casino
Anatomy of casino capitalism (from Vantage Point)
China turns to Adam Smith
Asia embraces Scottish economist as the West turns to Marx.
BlackRock Says Central Banks Will Be Net Buyers of Gold
Here to Save the Day, SuperTaxpayer
The Worst Christmas Present Ever?
Donation in your name to reduce the national debt.
US treasury wants donations to pay off national debt
Bair: "Bank Bailout NOT a good thing"; Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC) Bailout Coming FHA Bailout By Taxpayers On The Way
Bob Herbert on Infrastructure
Well-meaning but attributes the current failures to a lack of imagination. If only.

America’s infrastructure, once the finest in the world, has been neglected for decades, and it shows. Felix Rohatyn’s book on the subject, “Bold Endeavors,” opens with: “The nation is falling apart — literally.
Grim for government
Tax rises, spending cuts and social unrest ahead, says report.

Big Brother/Military
T-Mobile staff sold millions of phone records
Army tells its soldiers to 'bribe' the Taleban
New manual tells UK forces to buy off extremists with 'bags of gold' and talk to insurgents with 'blood on their hands'
U.S. Ship Repels Pirates with Sonic Blaster, Bullets
Osama bin Laden's son would like UN job
In Russia, Space Exploration Takes Back Seat to GPS
New York Times drives home the "no-plane-at-the-Pentagon" argument
From a review of a book which purports to criticize the 9/11 Commission:

On seeing the Pentagon in flames, the lead fighter pilot later explained, “I reverted to the Russian threat. . . . I’m thinking cruise missile threat from the sea. You know, you look down and see the Pentagon burning, and I thought the bastards snuck one by us. . . . You couldn’t see any airplanes, and no one told us anything.”
New York Terrorist Detention Centers Eyeball
Coalition on Political Assassinations
The Frankenfood that improves you
Makes you smarter, thinner.
Robot shop assistants

Energy/Food/Science
Too Fearful to Publicize Peak Oil Reality
One thing depleting faster than oil itself is the credibility of those who measure it
USDA Declares Half Of Midwest As Agricultural Disaster Area (from Vantage Point)
Farmers Scramble to Finish Harvest From Hell
New Asian Oil Export Route Expected in December
No Transition Fuels (from the NYC Peak Oil Meetup)
Food Security and Climate Change Are Deeply Interconnected, UN Secretary Says (from Vantage Point)
Copenhagen climate agreement is impossible
U.S. and China Forge Climate, Clean Energy Partnership (from Vantage Point who comments:) I’d like to be upbeat about this “partnership” but even this main stream media story is riddled with notes like: “an agreement by Missouri-based Peabody Energy to invest participate in GreenGen, a project of several major Chinese energy companies to develop a near-zero emissions coal-fired power plant.” Peabody Energy is it, as in Peabody Coal, who gets a public green wash, a “near zero” (as in almost pregnant) coal plant, while stripping the remaining Allegheny Mountains back in the old USA. The lack of journalistic scrutiny on these supposed agreements really makes me miss the old FTW analysis.

Ps: Your blog posts are excellent and I keep referring FTW Peak on to friends and mailing lists.
Gas Shortage Could Leave Anchorage in the Dark (from Jeff)
Limitless energy: Algae photosynthesis creates hydrogen fuel
First Marijuana Cafe in US Opens in Portland
Should gardeners urinate outdoors?
Anti-smoking vaccine could soon be available
A new UN report suggests that slowing population growth could help combat climate change
Nuclear Fallout: Nevada Takes Hard Look at Contaminated Groundwater From Historic Testing Grounds (from Vantage Point)

Russia/Israel
Russia is getting bigger, physically
Russian Criminals Linked to Swine Flu Scam
Russian Orthodox and Catholic church may end 950-year rift
Pro-Israel group 'bankrolling Tories'
Israeli Troops Into Schools to Boost Conscription

Awash in Melting Ice Caps and Dollars

From Jenna Orkin:

Collapse (US)
Budget Deficits Soar Out of Control in Eurozone, Germany, US, UK, Japan; Yen's Last Hurrah Dollar Overwhelms Central Banks from Brazil to Korea
Which Big Country Will Default First? (from Rice Farmer)
Apocalypse everywhere: run for the hills!
And these are just the fictional movies; they don't even talk about CoLLapse.
CNBC - Dollar Will be Utterly Destroyed, Global Currency, New World Order (from Rice Farmer)
10 States In Deep Fiscal Trouble
U.S. Treasury Confident Congress Will Increase $12.1 Trillion Debt Ceiling
Economists see Fed raising rates near mid-term elections
Surge in the price of oil is a fresh threat to recovery
And vice versa.
Gazprom's American Ambitions
Saudi Arabia Pursues New Oil Trade Opportunities: Implications for the US (from Rice Farmer) JO comment: Another cut of the thousand by which the dollar dies.
Housing Agency Says Cash Reserves Are Down Sharply
Might need bailout.
Financial stocks tumble on housing market fears
Inside Trade 'Systemic' at Hedge Funds, Khuzami Says (from Vantage Point)
Americans Bypass Banks In Favor of Peer to Peer Lending
Commercial Real Estate ‘Crisis’ Looming for U.S.: Chart of Day (from Rice Farmer)
On a New Form of Indentured Servitude If you thought the housing meltdown was bad...
Reluctant Partners: Global Crisis Makes US More Dependent on China than Ever
China Signals It May Allow Its Currency to Rise Against the Dollar
Inflation Report is useless
Lieberman Shills for Big Pharma (from Vantage Point)
Lou Dobbs is Leaving CNN

America Abroad
Obama's advisers at war over Afghan conflict
Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan (from Vantage point)
How the US Funds the Taliban (from Vantage Point)
What Goldstone Says About the US (from Vantage Point)
U.S. Starves Children in Somali War (from Rice Farmer)
Navy watched helpless as pirates seized couple

Panic in Germany as Swine Flu Spreads

Climate Change
Greenland's Ice Sheet Melting Faster than Ever
Giant iceberg spotted off Australia Hurricane force winds to hit UK
Global Warming Brightens the Outlook for British Wine
I'll drink to that.
Keeping Warm Without Costing the Earth

Big Brother
Behavior Detection Officers Covertly Watch Travelers' Conduct
The Big Question: Why is Britain's DNA database the biggest in the world, and is it effective?
Top Scientists Fear Brain-Modified Foes
Murdoch Could Block Google Searches Entirely
Could Soldiers Be Prosecuted for Thought Crime?
Israel Mulls Viagra-Style Drugs to Keep Pilots Up
Insect Drones ‘Spotted’ on US Streets
Cyborg Flying Rats Invade China
The Pentagon Goes Into Show Business
Lockheed Whistle-Blower Over F-22

Gold
Gold supply running out
World's top gold producer, Barrick Gold, shuts its hedge book.
Barrick shuts hedge book as world gold supply runs out
gold won’t drop below $1,000 an ounce again

New White Trash Posts Three Songs Co-Written and Performed by Mike Ruppert in the band New White Trash

The New White Trash (NWT) has just posted three new, original songs co-written and performed by me. "Girl's Got", "Train to Paris", and "Take These" were all written and recorded in June and July. Co-writers include multi-Grammy winner Andy Kravitz and veteren writer, producer, performer Doug Lewis. Which voice am I? -- Baby I'm on my way! We have more than 30 songs now and will be posting maybe one a week from here on out. What do we want? We want to sing for all the people who have lost everything in the last two years. We're the exact opposite of the old white trash, and you certainly don't have to be white to be a member. But you needed to have had aspirations to it in your lifestyle (house, two cars, lots of toys, rampant consumption). No one in the arts seems to see the New White Trash yet, but we do; like Woodie Guthrie saw all those forgotten in the Great Depression. We're also looking for someone with a little loose change to help produce our first CD and maybe a couple of videos.

Special thanks to veteran bassist and composer Arthur Barrow (Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention) for a killer bass track in "Take These".

And what makes me happy beyond belief is that I don't have to argue or debate about these songs. They either sound good or they don't. Your ears will tell you and all we ask is that you listen.

See you at the Laemmle 5 on Sunset this weekend! Laughter and music are going to be indispensible as we face the challenges ahead. And I'll never be able to express my gratitude to Andy Kravitz and Doug Lewis who founded the band, and who believe I bring something strong to the mix... Judge for yourself.

MCR

http://www.newwhitetrash.com

The Canary in the Coal Mine Just Died

I almost puked when I read this. This is so on the map we made. You see, Cuba started preparing for Peak, like every nation should have, in 1991. They got a taste of it when the Soviet Union collapsed. They decided they were not going back there again. The short version of what the linked story means is that the canary in the coal mine just died. We're a lot further down the road than I thought we were.

The Collapse screenings in LA this weekend are taking on a new significance.

MCR

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11371755.htm
*************************************************************************************
From Jenna Orkin:

CoLLapse (Movie)
LA Times Review
Honor in the breach. Although the reviewer tries to be negative, the effort it takes is the greatest of backhanded compliments. - JO

Energy
Key Oil Figures Were Distorted by US Pressure, Says Whistle-Blower (from everyone and his uncle)
IEA "Downplaying" Oil Crisis
"U.S. Fossil Fuel Resources: Terminology, Reporting, and Summary,"
"U.S. proved reserves of oil total 21.3 billion barrels and reserves of natural gas are 237.7 trillioncubic feet... Whether the vast deposits of oil shale that are lower on the pyramid will be produced depends on the price of oil, the cost of production (including environmental cost), and the availability oftechnology to produce it. Although this example is for oil, similar relationships exist for naturalgas and coal..."

(Bakken)
"...estimates of 271 to 503 billion barrels of oil attracted the attention of the oil industry.However, those estimates, while huge, represented “in place” oil. Subsequently, the USGS has conducted a more detailed and thorough estimate of the technicallyrecoverable resources using modern directional drilling techniques and estimate that the Bakken Formation contains 3.65 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil..."

(Shale)
"...production of shale oil is not yet commercially viable."

Coal
"...in Wyoming, 47% of the in-place coal is technically recoverable, but the available, economically recoverable coal is only about 6% of the in-place coal."
'Oil and Gas Is Our Drug'
Interview with Medvedev.
Gazprom’s First Half Profit Falls 48%
Fast-track nuclear plan (from Rice Farmer)
Nuclear strategy threatens Kalahari
US 'wants to guard Pakistan's nuclear arsenal' (from Rice Farmer)
"Unconventional Gas Shales: Development, Technology, and Policy Issues,"
The Halliburton Loophole
Guess who's behind the 'trade secrets' of hydraulic fracking.
On Nord Stream Pipeline, 'Germany Must Take a Selfish Stand
Interview with Matt Simmons

Economy
The Dollar Meltdown: Book Review
Dollar Will be "Utterly Destroyed": Strategist (from Rice Farmer)
As investors race to stocks, dollar weakens
The dollar is a funding currency
Fannie Mae May Write Down $5.2 Billion in Tax Credits as U.S. Rejects Deal
Record Bonuses Return to Wall Street as Big Three May Award $29.7 Billion
Heckuva job, guys.
Emerging stocks may rally 25%, Morgan Stanley says
Note the key word, "emerging." That's not us. - JO
Recovery looks like “L” without jobs growth
Living Wages, Sheep, and Grocery Store Strikes
Financial Transaction Taxes Would Cause Stock Market Crash
Jobs Contract 22nd Straight Month; Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%
A Canadian Says "Short Canada" (from Rice Farmer)
"Wells Fargo Madness" a Reader Reply to Fear and Shame Tactics
BofA Board in ‘Civil War’ Over Chief, Gasparino Says: CNBC Link
Conservative Property Index Predicts We Are Less Than Half Way Through Fall (from Rice Farmer)
N.J. Governor-Elect May Declare Financial Emergency
Inside the global gold frenzy
SEC Internal Whistleblowers Could Get $50,000 Rewards Under Dodd Proposal
Call to cap the euro
European industry blasts China over weak Yen as euro surges.

Quote of the day:
China will add more people in 15 years than the entire population of the United States. "There will be up to 50,000 new skyscrapers," the company notes, "the equivalent of building 10 New Yorks. There could be up to 170 new mass transit systems. There are only about 70 in Europe today."

Americas
Chavez tells troops to ready for war with Colombia (from Rice Farmer)
Texas Army Killer Linked to September 11 Terrorists
Brazil crime wars: Spiderman's story of drugs and Jesus in Rio's slums (from Vantage Point)
Bloodless President Barack Obama makes Americans wistful for George W Bush
Reality check for anyone who thought Americans were wising up. - JO
Scientific American's Path to Sustainability: Let's Think about the Details (from Rice Farmer)
Bloggers' Right to Free Speech and Use Anonymous Sources Questioned in New Hampshire Supreme Court

MIddle East/Africa/Asia
'Why Africa Welcomes the New Colonialism
There is a widespread perception that saintly Britain had adopted this poor little girl called Africa and was busy saving her from hunger, war, disease and poverty. Suddenly big, greedy China, flashing huge deals and cheap goods, has seduced the girl and is leading her astray, even raping her. And to make it worse for Britain, ungrateful Africa sometimes feels that although Chinese intentions may not be entirely honourable, China at least treats her like a grown up.

African leaders do not necessarily love China, but its ambassadors do not lecture them about elections, corruption, transparency and human rights.
UAE, Saudi among US's top arms buyers in 2009 (from Rice Farmer)
UN chief to pass Goldstone report to Security Council (from Vantage Point)
Mass Arrests Reported Around Pakistani Capital (from Rice Farmer)
Matthew Hoh Letter of Resignation, DOS in Afghanistan (from Vantage Point)
What You Didn't Know About The War (from Vantage Point)

Big Brother
Every phone call, email and internet click stored by 'state spying' databases
'Big Brother' database cancelled
Military Personnel Banned From Viewing H1N1 Vaccine Websites (from Rice Farmer)

Who Said This Blog Was a Downer?
Engineered Rabbit Penises Raise Human Hopes

FTW Files Petition For Judicial Review of BOLI Decision

Yesterday I filed the Petition For Judicial Review of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries administrative order against FTW, Inc. This officially starts FTW’s (and by implication, Mike’s) appeal against the biased, wrong-headed and faulty BOLI decision that attempted to tarnish Mike Ruppert.

I’m only at the beginning of my research and preparation of this appeal, but I am already comfortable in saying that we will have a challenging time condensing all of the appellate issues. Make no mistake, however. This will be an uphill battle. And if we win, we can immediately expect a further appeal from BOLI to the State Supreme Court. Your donations have helped us make it this far, and I ask that you continue to help us see this through by donating to the FTW Legal Defense Fund.

All Mike Ruppert has ever asked for was a fair day in court; whether it be in the court of public opinion, or a court of law. We hope this appeal will get him that after three and a half years and more than $40,000.

Wesley T. Miller
Attorney for FTW, Inc.

Mike Ruppert to Take Collapse Questions at LA Screenings Nov 13TH and 14TH

Nov. 9, 2009 -- Mike will be making his first public appearance since June 2006 to do Q&A with the audience at the first evening screening of CoLLapse this Friday and Saturday. Director Chris Smith will not be in attendance. Show times for the screenings at Laemmle's Sunset 5 theaters have not been announced but should be up today or tomorrow at the Collapse web site.

He will also take Q&As for the two evening screenings in San Francisco on December 4th.

JO

We Only Have Months, Not Years, to Save Civilization from Climate Change

From Jenna Orkin:

CoLLapse (Movie)
New York Times Review
MovieMaker interview with director of "Collapse" (from Rice Farmer)

Collapse (Global)
We Only Have Months, Not Years, to Save Civilization from Climate Change
Frigid Antarctica is loaded with viruses
Amid shortage, big NYC firms get swine vaccine
Some of New York City's largest employers — including Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup — have started receiving some doses of swine flu vaccine.
Energy Returned of Water Invested (from Rice Farmer)
New Ocean Could Emerge in Ethiopia
A Sea Change (from NYC Peak Oil Meetup)
Film about a world without fish

US
Broader U-6 Unemployment Rate Hits 17.5%
Energy production adding $120 billion in hidden costs to the nation (from Rice Farmer)
This is a bear market rally
The Government Will Default on Its Debts (from Rice Farmer)
Commerical real estate yet to hit bottom
Chicago Metro Area Sales-Tax Receipts Plunge, Property Taxes Rise
Prichard Alabama Files Bankruptcy Over Pensions; Wildcat Strike In Philadelphia; Oregon's Financial Gamble
Fannie Mae Seeks Another $15 Billion in US Aid
Janet Tavakoli Is Kicking Ass (It's Good To See Someone Do It)
John Reed Says `I'm Sorry' for Glass-Steagall Repeal, Building Citigroup
JPMorgan paying $700M to settle SEC charges
Decline of the Empire — Now What? (from Rice Farmer)
What is Money and How Does One Measure It?
75% of Potential Recruits Too Fat, Too Sickly, Too Dumb to Serve

Intelligence
Rendition: We broke the law, admits CIA agent
Court says gov't may torture innocent people with impunity (from Rice Farmer)
JO Comment: Reminds one of the decision allowing the government to lie, thereby exposing countless thousands to deadly contamination. For if we did not allow them to lie, they might be too inhibited to say anything at all and we can't have that, can we?
U.S. agrees to settle lawsuit in which CIA officials are accused of misconduct, fraud (from Vantage Point)
CIA agents convicted of kidnapping
"National Manhunting Agency" To Go After Enemies of the State
A recent report from the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations University argues that the CIA didn’t go far enough (.pdf). Instead, it suggests the American government should set up something like a “National Manhunting Agency” to go after jihadists, drug dealers, pirates and other enemies of the state.
Psychic Spies, Acid Guinea Pigs, New Age Soldiers: the True Men Who Stare at Goats
Psychic Computer Shows Your Thoughts On Screen
Cyber chaos: Commuters get a glimpse of the future (from Rice Farmer)
"The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA"
DNA barcodes make their mark (from Rice Farmer)

Europe
Quantitative easing swells to £200bn
When bad banks sink good ones
‘Bad bank’ will trap thousands of borrowers
Northern Rock borrowers whose home loans will be transferred to the bad bank will be left unable to remortgage elsewhere
Pandora’s Box of New Taxes (and the Tale of Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose)
Wales: Health Minister Rejects Compulsory MMR Vaccine
Fury on the streets as axe hovers over German workers
Czech President Klaus says will not block Lisbon Treaty any more ‎

Middle East/Asia
Fighting in Yemen spills over into Saudi Arabia
High-Tech Companies Face Shortages as China Hoards Metals
Iran looks to Argentina for nuclear fuel
U.S. House backs resolution to condemn Goldstone Gaza report (from Vantage point)
Former Israeli double agent shot dead near Putin's office
India on brink of Maoist offensive
'Keep us safe or we'll leave Afghanistan'
UN chief threatens complete pullout after removing 600 of 1,100 foreign staff following a guesthouse attack in October.
Canada preparing to pull out of Afghanistan
The Japanese Bond Market May Really Be Ready To Collapse (from Rice Farmer)

Gold
India’s $6.7 billion taste for gold sends gold price soaring
RBI may've sold US T-bills to buy gold (from Vantage Point)
How India's 200 Ton Purchase of IMF Gold Affects You (from Vantage Point)
Gold at $1350, Oil at $100 in Six Months, Kang Says

And...
Giving up hope makes you happy
Shot Fired at Lou Dobbs' Home

Mike Ruppert Interview in the Wall Street Journal

I firmly believe that the Peak Oil/Sustainability Movement, and actual events, have backed Wall Street into a corner where it has no option but to let it out now. We did this; all of us together. I'm just the front man for a minute until I hand it off where it belongs. Truly, I never imagined that I would live to see this moment... several times.

Thank you all so much. This is what you kept me alive for. Now please go and see the movie. My job is almost done and I can get back to making music with the New White Trash. We'll have many songs up soon. Keep watching the site.

MCR

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703932904574511942676683258.html

Mike

Russia 'Simulates' Nuclear Attack on Poland

From Jenna Orkin:

Collapse
Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland
Dollar Will go to a Value of Exactly Zero Eventually (from Vantage Point)
Roubini: Mother of all carry trades faces inevitable bust
Washington Beats U.S. Housing Slump as Obama's Budget Hits $3.5 Trillion
British Nuclear Scientist's 17th Floor UN Death Plunge "Not Suicide" (from Vantage Point)
It has been suggested that Mr Hampton may have been involved in talks discussing nuclear testing in Iran. The UN has strongly denied the claims...

Under a year ago, an American died at the IAEA in strikingly similar circumstances, his body being found at the bottom of a stairwell.
Debt Slave Bait and Audit the Fed Bill Gutted: What You Can Do
Ron Paul on Forbes: Be Prepared For The Worst; On Larry King Discussing Michael Moore
Government and Lender Policies of Fear and Shame Help Keep Homeowners Debt Slaves
It is Japan we should be worrying about, not America
There will be a fiscal shutdown, a pension haircut, and bank failures that will rock the world. It is criminally negligent that rating agencies are not blowing the whistle on this." The true message of the article: QE was too little, too late, and this is the lesson for the West. We must cut borrowing drastically over the next decade, and offset this with ultra-easy monetary policy. Does Downing Street understand this? Does the White House? Does the European Central Bank? Clearly not.
Painful death of the American dream
The End Of Electricity (from Rice Farmer)
Bank Of America CEO Poll - Incredible Result
Estimate: Half of U.S. kids will get food stamps (from Rice Farmer)

Quote of the day:

To understand why the GDP numbers could be so good when the economy all around looks so bad, it is necessary to understand a few pertinent details of the GDP calculation. It is necessary to see just what meat and meat by-products go into this economic sausage. For one thing, GDP includes government spending...but does not SUBTRACT any of the borrowing the government does to fund its spending. And obviously, government spending is in no way a reflection of private sector economic activity. http://www.dailyreckoning.com/

Stimulus fueled much of the expansion
Is Debt-Deflation Just Beginning?
Before Walking Away Consult An Attorney
Obama creates 640,329 jobs at a cost of $323,739.83 per job
400,000 Names on FBI Terror Watch List (from Rice Farmer)
"The Washington Post reported that during a 12-month period ending in March of this year, 1,600 people were nominated daily by the U.S. intelligence community to be put on the list due to 'reasonable suspicion.'
Nine banks go bust in one day (from Rice Farmer)
How Bloomberg Fabricates U.S. Housing Numbers (from Rice Farmer)
How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash (from Rice Farmer)
Mystery: Why did Goldman stop scrutinizing loans it bought?
How Moody's sold its ratings - and sold out investors
One couple stands up to Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs' secret bets
State-by-state data on troubled mortgages (from Rice Farmer)
Buffett's Big Rail Buy: What It Means

Europe
Eurozone Unemployment At Record Highs; Private Sector Lending Drops First Time Ever
RBS, Lloyds Banking Get $51 Billion From U.K. Taxpayers in Second Bailout
The great British bank sell-off begins
£4,350 per family needed to bail out Britain's banks
Tory economic tightening plans could be a disaster, warns survey
Brown to tackle chaotic families
"A lot of the residents find it prison-like to begin with," Wood admits. "I imagine initially they find it quite intrusive."

Comment: Like the rounding up of older men with child brides in the US a few years ago, this program sounds virtuous and positive. But what does it usher in? - JO
Darling prepares to unveil bank shake-up
UK needs ‘£350bn tax rises and spending cuts’
Roger Bootle, of Deloitte, will say that Britain’s public finances are in the ‘worst shape for at least half a century’
Worry about lack of growth, not more QE
There's too much spare capacity in the economy for QE to pose any near-term inflationary danger.

Middle East/Australasia
Margrit Kennedy Inspires New Zealand Groups To Establish Regional Money Systems
A Different Dubai (from F. Kamilov)

Energy/Climate Change/Science
Winter crisis could see UK 'run out of gas in hours' (from Rice Farmer)
Governments fail to acknowledge imminent oil supply crunch, says UK’s Global Witness (from NYC Peak Oil Meetup)
Climate change could kill 250,000 children in 2010
Review: James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia; A Final Warning
Kissing Was Developed to Spread Germs
What lies beneath the rainforest
You want the Amazon to survive? Then pay us not to pump the oil, says Ecuador.
The unwanted equation: poverty vs climate change
One in five mammal species on extinction 'red list'
Many reptiles and amphibians also critically endangered, while up to 70% of plants could be wiped out, say conservationists

DON’T PAINT ME WITH THE 9-11 TRUTH BRUSH

Official Statement on 9-11

by

Michael C. Ruppert

November 2, 2009 – We have all seen the amazing progress of CoLLapse. The film has exceeded all of my expectations thanks to Chris Smith and Kate Noble of Bluemark Films. It is making people hungry for answers to all the right questions. And starting this Thursday CoLLapse opens for one-week runs in 12 cities in the US and Canada.

There is something important that needs to be addressed now and I am the only one to do it.

More than five years ago I completely and unequivocally divorced myself from the 9-11 Truth Movement. I did that because it had been co-opted and hijacked by people offering arguments and theories about 9-11 that were deeply flawed and absolutely inadmissible in a court of law. I addressed those flaws specifically in a 2003 essay about why physical evidence claims would go nowhere and would be used to discredit anyone who challenged the official Bush Administration version of events.

In many radio interviews and lectures throughout 2004-2006 I also said unequivocally that I was no longer affiliated with the 9-11 Truth movement because I saw that it would be publicly discredited as it has deservedly been. The current 9-11 Truth movement is indeed a circus. “Crossing the Rubicon” IS admissible in court and it has nothing to do with flawed, self-destructing and unnecessary arguments that are the tent poles of the 9-11 “movement”. I left that tent a long time ago.

I also divorced myself from the 9-11 as an issue because the window to achieve political and legal change had closed. The collapse of industrial civilization trumps 9-11. 9-11 is a dead issue. -- I cannot say it more clearly than this. Our limited energy must be focused on the future. One of my trademark lines has always been, “Nothing matters to me except for change in the political landscape.” – We can achieve that with CoLLapse.

FOR THE RECORD, Although I have discussed it I have never endorsed or used the building demolition theory as an argument. I have put this in writing too many times. There was/is no physical evidence (however compelling) that would be admissible in a court of law; and what reported evidence exists is useless because a legal chain of custody is not provable. Chain of custody is one of the first tests of admissibility. Some of the work done on building collapse – especially as it pertains to WTC7 -- is both compelling and well-founded. Some is not. But what is credible would never pass the admissibility test; and that’s on the assumption that a court with jurisdiction would ever try the case.

FOR THE RECORD Although at first I was very skeptical based on the energy around certain books that became popular in 2002-2003, I later found out that there were hundreds of independent eyewitnesses on I-395 who saw an airliner hit the Pentagon. In a court of law their testimony could never be overcome by videotapes or interpretations that have no proof of authenticity. That testimony could never be negated by speculation or expert opinion. And I have been convinced for a long time now that an airliner did, in fact, strike the building.

“Crossing the Rubicon” and its unanswered questions about 9-11 has never been remotely examined or discussed by mainstream media or the United States government. While the United States government has spent a lot of time and money easily debunking the claims of the so-called 9-11 Truth movement; and while the History Channel and Popular Mechanics went to great effort to debunk the 9-11 Truth movement; all that the press and the government have done with “Crossing the Rubicon” is to ignore it.

I stepped away from the Babel of 9-11 Truth more than five years ago. If the mainstream press wants to take me on over a book I wrote and which remains unchallenged after five years then I am and always have been prepared (and eager) for that. That book has sold around 100,000 copies and is in the Harvard Business School library. It has 1,000 footnotes; none of which have ever been challenged..

NOTE TO THE NY TIMES AND ALL MAINSTREAM PRESS: In a recent review of CoLLapse by the Times, the reviewer made reference to a negative article written about me by David Corn for “The Nation” magazine in 2003. In that article Corn maliciously libeled me by writing that I had been fired by LAPD as a mental case. That was untrue. At the time of my resignation in late 1978 I was both certified for promotion to Detective and earning the highest rating reports possible. I had no disciplinary actions (pending or prior) of any kind. That was only one of the lies that David Corn wrote and The Nation published.

The next question the press will ask is “Why didn’t you sue?” The record shows that from 2004 until the present day I have been constantly involved in legal battles on top of the work of book-writing and running From The Wilderness until its demise in 2006. I have never lost. The Oregon appeal is far from over. Does anyone ever consider the toll such legal battles take? The money, the time, the energy? I can only fight so many fights at a time and the reason why small and unethical people like David Corn get away with things like this is because they know that. But the great brutality of mainstream media is that it will dredge up inaccurate stories without checking and refer to them as truth in order to discredit anyone who opposes corporate-controlled press in this country.

Any journalist is required to do fact-checking before going to press. I left a record of between two and three million words. It is indexed, catalogued and out there for anyone to read. Sooner or later someone is going to have to read it.

And for all who cannot tell the difference between me and Alex Jones I heartily encourage you to stay with him and not associate yourself with me or my work in any way. That is where you belong.

Michael C. Ruppert

All Openings of CoLLapse Are For One Week Runs

PAT TILLMAN RETURNING TO MAJOR STORY

This is the scandal that FTW broke. This came from the 2006 seven-part Tillman series written by the great Stan Goff (Special Forces, ret.). I put everything on the line to edit and publish this story. This was when our computers were smashed and people started making allegations about sexual harassment. Congressman Henry Waxman who chaired the Tillman hearings will confirm that FTW broke the story. Mary Tillman will tell you the same thing. Every handout given to congress was from the FTW series. Stan Goff walked with the Tillman family throughout the whole fight... while I hid in Venezuela to stay alive so that the series couldn't be stopped. -- And yet no one in the mainstream ever mentions FTW's name. They could cut and paste our story under bylines like the AP and Washington Post though.

These dots are so close together and yet the mainstream still refuses to connect them. -- But CoLLapse does! This is Meet The Press from today. GO TO 44:50. General McCrystal's chickens are coming home to roost in spades. He fell on his sword to save Rumsfeld... and that didn't work either, did it? And how well is the war in Afghanistan going?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/#33573604

MCR

[I just put this up on Facebook CoLLapse. I've made a couple of other nice comments and links there today. Many things are converging and I don't believe that to be entirely coincidental.]