JHK’s Three-Act Play
That was a cute move by President Obama last week, calling out the “oil speculators” with a memo to his Attorney General, Eric Holder. The President proved a few weeks ago, in his energy speech to the nation, that he doesn’t understand how these resources are produced and traded. Consequently, the people he addressed remain clueless, but ticked off nonetheless. And the logic of politics now compels Mr. Obama to call out the dogs on… people who make money trading paper claims on oil?
Funny, he didn’t show any interest the past two-plus years in people who make money swindling taxpayers via booby-trapped Collateralized Debt Obligations and Credit Default Swaps. Maybe those things sound too abstruse to get excited about – but believe me, it was a heckuva lot more money. In fact, a case could be mounted by God’s attorney general – if he has one – that Mr. Obama abetted a gigantic conspiracy in fraudulent financial paper which makes the oil speculators look like shoplifters in a Kentucky WalMart.
For those of you interested in the reality side of things, here’s the scoop: The price of oil is going to go way up, and way down, and way up again, and way down again until everyone is too broke to ask for any, and companies are too ruined to go get it for them, and governments are too broken to interfere in the process.
The oil speculators are normal characters in a stressed market doing what needs to be done on the margins of “price discovery.” The trouble arises when price discovery occurs in turbulent times and places, for instance, when people in a part of the world called the Middle East & North Africa (MENA, for short), start rioting against their governments, which has been the case persistently for a couple of months now – a region that contains about half the world’s oil reserves. So interested observers conclude there’s a fair chance that oil production there might face impediments to normal operations.
And indeed that is already the case in Libya, where some of the world’s lightest, creamiest, sweetest crude oil has stopped flowing into pipelines and tanker ships. With protesters being slaughtered by the score in Syria, and Yemen’s president about to get a one-way ticket to Palookaville, and the Saud family cowering in their solid-gold senior housing facility, and affairs looking sketchy at best in other nations around that neighborhood, speculators at the margins have called for higher oil prices.
You will recall, perhaps, that hoary old concept, the “bumpy plateau” of the peak oil story. This was the idea that the actual tippy-top “peak” of peak oil, studied at close scale, would actually take the form of a raggedy line representing the interplay between supply, demand, and most importantly the frantic psychological response of humans operating in markets. It was clear that economies would stagger under the burden of high oil prices, and economic activity would contract, and people would use less oil and the price would go down. When prices were real low again, people would resume buying more oil (and other stuff) and economic activity would mount and oil prices would go up again. We knew this would happen for a couple-few cycles, and that then things would get… more interesting.
We also knew that this would occur with some “ratcheting side effects” – that with each cycle of up-and-down oil prices, against the background of permanent a decline in easy-to-get oil, there would be less money available to find, drill for, and produce future harder-to-get oil. What we did not know – at least in the morbid clerisies where academic economists spawn – was that the permanent decline in easy-to-get oil would introduce gross disorder into our money systems, nor that we would incessantly lie to ourselves about the health of our money systems, until their operations were so fatally compromised and impaired that their failure was likely to put us out-of-business even before worse imbalances came to pass in real oil supply and demand.
Of course, we also didn’t know that MENA would explode in political unrest in early 2011, or that the earth below the Japan Trench would shudder badly, and no doubt there are other things we can’t predict that will affect the global economic dynamic. But you do what you can with what you’ve got to work with, and here in the USA collective intelligence space, we’re not doing such a great job.
Tensions keep rising around the distortions and perversions now loose in the money system. You can get a headache thinking about inflation and deflation – but either way you stand to end up broke. Either you’ll be rolling in worthless money or you won’t have any money. The banana peel of destiny can send you flying in either direction, or first one and then the other.
We’ve done a poor job of managing contraction, which is the fate of societies that have piled up too much complexity. All of our schemes for grappling with this seem to boil down to one foolish obsession: how can we keep all the cars running? We’re not going to, of course, but we refuse to even think about anything else. President Obama is merely reflecting the foolish obsession of the public.
Whenever I give a talk at a meeting or a college, somebody gets up and censoriously asks we why I can’t present “solutions” to the problems of contraction we face. I do of course. The audience just doesn’t hear them because I don’t believe it is possible to keep all the cars running and I don’t pretend that any of the schemes currently circulating will avail. To go a step further, I’m convinced that we are committing cultural suicide by using all the cars the way we do, so I am not the one to look to for rescue remedies in this department. In fact, I am serenely persuaded that we would vastly improve our chances of remaining civilized if we gave up on mass motoring and deployed ourselves on the landscape differently.
By the way, that will be the eventual outcome anyway, whether we like it or not.
In the meantime, prepare for thrills and chills in the alternate universe of money. The phase of that story we’re approaching looks more and more like the final scenes of the old Todd Browning horror movie about the uprising in a freak show. America can have the role of the pinhead, grinning vacantly while the other freaks burn the joint down.
This blog is sponsored this week by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. To learn more visit:Kunstler.com/vaulted
New Paintings from the 2022 Season
Barrel Racers, Cambridge, NY
The Jeff Greenaway series of novellas. These rollicking, short books depict the misadventures of an eleven-year-old boy growing up in New York City in the early 1960s
Other Books by JHK
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First!
James, As illuminating and honest a voice as we have, it seems that the leadership of this fast collapsing country is following in the footsteps of its near-brethren theocracies and other fascist regimes around the world – bound and determined to shut us all up. See my latest offering:
http://wp.me/P1lJ1g-5U
Kunstler wrote:
Whenever I give a talk at a meeting or a college, somebody gets up and censoriously asks we why I can’t present “solutions”.
Yes, most people act like this. “Someone, somewhere, somehow will invent something so that I don’t have to do anything.”
Keeping all the cars running? I’m curious what we will have to run the cars on? Who or what will “pay” for fixing all the deterioating roads and bridges and with what will they pave them with? Just curious…
Of course there are solutions.
Everyone needs to be intelligent and well-informed and cooperative and self-sacrificing for the common good. Then we need to get together and figure out a way to manage our immense populations without oil and in a harmonious and sustainable way.
How hard could that be?
beautiful writing this morning…
“…the morbid clerisies where academic economists spawn…”
ick-tastic!
Today’s mystery word means “intelligentsia”.
Great one this week (almost as good as last week)!
As difficult as all this stuff is to deal with, it’s great to be able to count on insight into “peak oil” and capitalist shenanigans about debt money every Monday morning to focus on the real issues for the week ahead… Keep up the great work!
The next boondoggle? Natural Gas.
“We have enough natural gas to power America for the next hundred years.” All we have to do is open up the country to “fracking”, create a new infrastructure and accept the rise of CO-2 as a natural consequence of civilization.
America is rapidly become a sideshow on the world stage. The death knell of our dominance when everyone starts trading in something else for a reserve currency is being sung quietly in the back of the theater by several large ladies. What passes for a government in Washington is really just the police state goon squads ratcheting up for civil disobedience at home while proving the law of diminishing returns overseas.
Tipping points are always clear, in the rear view mirror. 25 years ago the Chernobyl explosion became the first shot across the bows of the dying Soviet empire. Perhaps the especially virulent twister season across the mid-West is another here at home. The people of St. Louis might be wondering that about now.
It takes a full generation for the effects of public policy to be fully realized. That is why today we enjoy what Ronald Reagan called the Welfare Queens so fully in charge of our destiny. Of course, the real Queens were not some poor dark-skinned mothers in an inner city slum. They were – and are – the corporate queens sucking off the last drops of noruisment left in the public teat.
The only likely effective solution entails a precipitous drop in the population curve. Let’s be real folks. No one in leadership is able to discuss that.
Music to my ears when I read a lib (JHK) lamenting the sorry state of Mommy Professor’s tape recorders (students).
Yes folks it is time to cut the pay of Mommy Prof and take away the gold plated pensions and put them out in the organic garden patch, for life.
My kid’s biology teacher is an H1-B Indian woman who rants incessantly about the coming apocalypse of global warming, then gets back in her Benz and roars back to her suburban house.
It’s true folks Marxism and its variants does work, on the subsidized American college campus.
And let us not forget the ever-evidenced American exceptionalism. Lots of things just don’t apply to us Americans. You know – things like natural limitations, the forces of nature and economic realities.
What I wonder is, if the price is based on the FEAR of what MAY happen, and not on strict supply/demand, isn’t that the very essence of SPECULATION???
I believe I have discovered the Pricing Mechanism behind higher gas prices. It is called a “Zip Changer”, and pictures may seen here:
http://www.cscoid.com/wagner.asp
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Common sense – it’s not so common! It’s a gift from God as it reveals the simplist form of natural preservation and rejuvination. Take time to smell the roses and you won’t have the time to create overburdensome beauracracy that criples free actions. Our society has become an impossible maze of rules and regulations that have benefited only those in the position of upholding those rules and regulations…just think about it folks!
I think we all know why President Obama is scapegoating the oil “speculators”. They make an easy, difficult to identify target. You made an excellent point distinguishing between his treatment of Wall Street and the nameless, faceless oil speculators. Wall Street has contributed millions of dollars to Obama and the Democratic party (Republicans as well). Wall Street owns Washington. What do you think of when you think oil? Arabs and Muslims – they are relatively easy to attack.
“The Long Emergency” should be required reading for school kids so we don’t suprise them later.
The real, only eventual solution is the abolition of money then that eliminates the whole facade of economics. All else is re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. “Oh whoa, we can’t do that.” everyone says … but it will happen anyway. we just need to get our heads round the idea. Jack
This April is on track to be the hottest month on record in England. That’s ominous.
James wrote: “In fact, I am serenely persuaded that we would vastly improve our chances of remaining civilized if we gave up on mass motoring and deployed ourselves on the landscape differently.”
I’m facing that very difficulty of deploying “ourselves on the landscape differently” this summer. I’ve been posted to Ottawa and am looking at rural properties where I can grow vegetables and install renewable energy sources. My problem is that what I can afford is an hour’s commute from downtown. There are commuter coach buses available at already shocking prices. My other option is a place in the city close to work and take the city bus. But then there isn’t enough space to grow food, although I can still install RE.
So far I’m leaning towards the country option with the proviso that I’d have to work hard at an alternative way to meet the mortgage and switch to that real soon. But I’m open to advice.
gerrit
Sustainable Living Blog
http://www.gerritbotha.com
“Whenever I give a talk at a meeting or a college, somebody gets up and censoriously asks we why I can’t present “solutions” to the problems of contraction we face.”
Correct Jim – they don’t hear your solution, because it is a non-solution for them. They are enthralled in the Spectacle and just want some way for it to continue… forever. And you should see what is happening here in Siberia. They are paving new roads and buying more SUVs and Hummers than you can line up around the globe. They were excluded from the Big Show for toooo many years, and now they want their share of the American Pie. And the Chinese and the Indians are right there with them, marching to the same drummer, as our beguiling president continues to do the new POTUS shuffle: filling our heads with lollipops and cotton candy. The constant lying, dissimulation, and even forceful redirection of the public discussion is criminal and censoring. See my contribution today:
http://wp.me/P1lJ1g-5U
article about the takeover off the Sierra Club by Communist hacks like Move On and Soros by a woman who was actually in the fight.
Goldbaum explains that he’s in favor of immigration becuase his family were immigrants – there you have it – nothing more need be said! He may actually believe it too, but if so he’s obviously in denial about his own hatred of Whites.
If Whites survive the fall of the West, the Jews will no doubt claim that they warned us about massive immigration and tried to save us – just like they deny all culpability in the genesis of Russian Communism.
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2011/04/the_sierra_club.php
this is a repost from last column, courtesy of Vlad
So Neworld,
Re your kids’ Indian Biology teacher that roars home in her ‘Benz…
Is there effective mass transit for your kids red dot Indian to take home? Or, is she left to the car as the only alternative?
She rants about global warming because she’s trained in a field that sees the immediate effects of it.
Do you live in such a depressed place that no one wants to apply for jobs there? Maybe if you paid your teachers a living wage there would be more White men applying for jobs as teachers?
Things best said by others: courtesy of the Link section on Naked Capitalism today:
Instead what happened is that Obama bailed out the rich and the financial industry, who were bankrupt, then refused to prosecute them for systemic fraud. He did so in a way which left, by and large, the exact same class of people in charge of the financial industry, made the remaining banks bigger and more powerful, restored the wealth of the rich to pre-crisis levels and restored their profits. Meanwhile employment has still not recovered (ignore the unemployment rate, it is a lie), wages are flat or declining, real inflation is through the roof, the price of oil is skyrocketing and the current discussion in DC is how much the poor and middle class should get screwed out of their Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, in order to keep the rich filthy rich. Oh, and how much tax cuts the rich should get.
America is in terminal decline. There may be a lot of ruin in a nation, as Keynes said, but that amount is not infinite. The next chance you get to turn this around you will be starting from a much worse position. A lot more pain will be unavoidable.
Obama is not turning things around, what he is doing is negotiating with Republicans how fast the decline will be, and how much and how fast it is necessary to fuck ordinary Americans in order to keep the rich rich. If Obama wins another term, he will continue to negotiate the decline, then, odds are very high, a Republican will get in, and slam his foot on the accelerator of collapse.
This is why Obama must lose in 2012. I would prefer that he lose to a Democrat in a primary, then that Democrat wins, but he must lose regardless. If he loses to a Republican, then 2016 you get a chance to put someone in charge who might do the right things (or even just some of them.)
No, those odds aren’t good. They suck. Every part of them sucks. And even if you get a Dem in 2016, you’ll probably choose the right most candidate, just like you did last time, and he’ll go back to negotiating with Republicans over what parts of the corpse of America’s middle class they should dine on next. “No, no, eat one kidney first, they only need one to survive, so that’s not too cruel.”
But it is still your best chance. Otherwise you’re looking at full, Russian-style collapse. What comes out the other end, I don’t know, but you really won’t enjoy getting there.
And yes, if a Republican gets in in 2012, that’ll be awful. Just awful. But it’s not like a Republican is never going to be president ever again. That’s not on the agenda, that’s not possible. It will happen, and he will substantially cater to the Teabaggers. He will trash your country. That’s baked into the cake now, all you can choose is how soon it happens, and work to replace him with someone who might do the right thing.
Remember, the question is not “if” this will happen, it is when. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you have another chance to get it right, and the less decline the US will have suffered. If President Teabag gets in after 4 years of Obama, the US will be in better shape at the start of his wrecking than it will be if he gets in after 8 years of Obama. Obama is a disaster, who is making things worse, not better. He’s just making it worse more slowly than a Republican.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Original article: http://www.ianwelsh.net/a-blast-from-the-past-and-a-reminder-about-the-future/
Unfortunately, in this faux Democracy, the People debate the current problems (as defined by mass media) and propose solutions even more damaging than the problem itself. In this tower of Babel, everything is reduced to confusion and noise. The signal that emerges from the chaos (such as Austerity in the face of Collapse) is re-broadcast on all channels. The result is a feedback loop of increasing stupidity. In this way, every problem that the society faces is met by an eventual consensus that affords politicians the opportunity to advance ever more simplistic solutions to satisfy their dumbed-down constituents. Hence, Obama chases shadows while the country is pulverized by the slow motion Tsunami of Peak Oil.
The “solution” to peak oil being offered is electric cars. They are also considered the green solution. Drive up in ur EV and you will be considered as environmentally enlightened. Virtually no one anywhere is pushing back at this as the solution. I would suggest that sometime you address this issue because we are even subsidizing this “solution” when perhaps the money could be spent elsewhere to achieve walkable,bikable cities with light rail and buses thrown in. There is still our obsession with the “convenience” factor. EVs will be pushed mightily so that we can continue motoring as usual without changing patterns of land use and human settlement one iota.
EVs are considered green because they can operate on wind power and solar power. The problem is that they will divert the juice from what little solar and wind power we have. The more EVs we have, the less we will be able to cut into the grid for the critical uses like lighting and powering our computers.
As you have pointed out,there is the cultural issue. Having lived in Europe in a city that valued public spaces without autos and effective alternatives to autos, I get that. But I don’t see that catching on in most parts of the U.S.A. any time soon.
There are just to many People who want their cake and eat it too. They want changes for the better, but they are not willing to change themselves, someone else yes, them No.
Over the course of several years I have cut my water use from the tap, most weeks I use what most people use in a day. I have set up rain catchment systems in my yard, and though not all that I would like them to be, I can store almost all the water I need for my small garden space.
Amoung other things I came up with a term called BioWebScape which helps me think about how I’d want to design a living arrangement for myself and others if they’d be willing to try to grow edible yards instead of lawns full of grasses you can’t eat. It needs work but everything needs work, you have to keep pluggin away at things when you find yourself needing to do something different than what you have been doing in the past.
Thanks for the Monday Morning reads.
Charles.
Have you read Sowell? ‘Visions of The Anointed’
and ‘Economic Facts’?
If not seek and you will find.
Sri Prof is one of the Anointed, as are the City Council here in Soviet Monica.
Got their free newspaper this weekend…all 26 pages, unwanted and unasked for.
Printed on new paper
IT INFORMED ME SANTA MONICA IS MAKING NEW
PAPER BAGS ILLEGALFROM NOW ON, WE, THE LITTLE PEOPLE WILL BUY USED BAGS [40% recycled fiber].
Anything to be more business unfriendly.
If you call city hall [310 393 9975]
You can hear that ‘in interest of having less traffic on the streets we take Fridays off’..
or at least 2 or 3 fridays a month…to lighten the carbon footprint.
“…makes the oil speculators look like shoplifters in a Kentucky WalMart.”
Hey, douche-boy, both the oil speculators and the paper-boy kleptoes hail from your fine state…New Yahaaak. I’m guessing NY also has shoplifters at the local Walmart. Keep the fuckin’ South, out of your prejudiced, damn mouth. Got it?
No, its that shes from such a depressed place
[billion living on 1$ a day]…
In Illinois or Indiana a HS Teacher with a Masters can make 180K a year.
Wake UP! the US has added 100 M peeps in the last 40 years.
There is likely a motto from some wise sage who must have said something like; “the less one knows about the past, the more one presumes to know about the future” —- your deficiency Jim, is glaring.
Isn’t there a solution for every problem? And shouldn’t everyone who understands the problem also have a solution for them? Two ideas that make zero sense. If you think the first one is wrong then go ahead and prove that the second is wrong as well. Here’s the problem: What’s the formula for generating prime numbers? And if you imagine that this is just a theoretical question be dissuaded; I’ll buy the answer from you for more money than any lottery has ever paid.
Back in the 70’s under the Nixon White House, we had what was called ‘stagflation,’ meaning the economy was slow, but prices kept going up. The saying was “If it’s not selling at 10 dollars, it may as well not sell at 20,” and so it went. In response to high food and gas prices, Nixon remarked, “But at least food and gas are AVAILABLE!” And he was right.
Americans, famous for not understanding economics or politics, spend their younger days just trying to succeed, and by the time they become older and far far wiser, well, they age out of the system and decide I’m guessing, to hang it up and not try to educate others or to foment change based upon what they’ve learned.
Thus, we go through the same stuff over and over, presidents say the same things, the economy runs off the road, then back on, leaves people behind on a regular basis, and this just is how it is in the United States, a capitalist society above all else.
Obama’s no different. It’s just that on the campain trail, he voiced his teleprompter, and his message was so clearly progressive, we believed him. But the only truthful utterances were on that teleprompter screen—Obama was part of the marketing campaign to sell his vision and to get in. He did and he did. But it was just the teleprompter, not the man, the reader.
So what is next? We clearly have a corrupt, non responsive political and economic system that is leaving more and more Americans behind, while locking down individual rights, while continuing to operate so as to incent job off shoring (check the IBM job listings to see where the jobs are).
But the people remain in a trance. Many of us ask day and night, ‘what will it take?’ I have heard all that ‘American Idol’ talk and criticism, but until recently I did not know anyone who only could talk about who was on AI and what they did and how they scored—but I met someone who is poorly informed, BUT can tell you all about American Idol, and each week, I’m begged to watch it so we can compare notes the next day. This is what people mean—its like observing a parallel universe. These are the Americans who will never be reached until they find themselves broke and hungry. In the case I cite here, the person mentioned is a city government employee, in law enforcement.
Good Luck to us all.
EVY, Wake up!!!!
CFR openly discusses it and has for 20 or 30 years…JBS warned me about CFR and LA Times published the piece.. ‘CFR sees 1 Billion as
‘good number’ “.
I cannot find my source now, but I read some time ago that during the Great Depression, Americans were statistically more likely to give up mattresses bought “on time,” as they quaintly used to say, than to give up the family car.
Well, maybe some of the foreclosed-upon are living in their cars at this very instant.
Jim’s right: car culture will never go down easy and the results will be ugly.
Yes, But JHK warned us UK might be like Alaska…
so I wonder how much longer till the next Ice Age?
The ‘”bumpy plateau” of the peak oil story”‘ could well be what is going on, but it also could be a hedge which allows Jim to save face in light of his unfulfilled prophesies of doom and gloom.
Yes, I was mentioning this a few days ago to Wage!
SUV’s and tar in Siberia, wonder when the roads will buckle.
As always Jim, a great comment. I want to stand back a minute and ask the question, do elections really matter? Has the center become so corrupt, and the web of special interest so complete that regardless of who we elect, any meaningful change is impossible?
Obama brought back into the government the very people who set the stage for this fiasco. didn’t see any cgange there, but maybe there wasn’t supposed to be. Now Holder is going after the oil speculators to divert us from the real problem, which still festers.
With a budget of $3.5 trillion, Congress agonized over a $38 billion budget cut. This was just a tad over 1% of the proposed budget. Certainly there must be some program that is useless, or could be slimmed back, but no, you got the impression that any cut would bring untold suffering for millions of Americans. What happens when we have to get serious?
With the deficit increasing daily by about that amount, you get a better picture of what the problem is. This is all about trying to sustain the unsustainable, or as our former veep said, “the American way of life is not negotiable.” He’s right, in the final analysis it won’t be negotiated, it will just collape.
Time is our most important asset, and we have squandered it. When it hits the fan, it will be too late to think about all the things we should have done.
“And let us not forget the ever-evidenced American exceptionalism. Lots of things just don’t apply to us Americans. You know – things like natural limitations, the forces of nature and economic realities.”
Hey Al, STFU. American exceptionalism has nothing to do with natural resources or with the fact that American citizens are in any way special. It has to do with our form of government established at out founding. Try not to be such a fucking dope.
Asia, sober up!
He isn’t in leadership.
“This April is on track to be the hottest month on record in England. That’s ominous.”
Ooooooh. I quake for you. (MORON)
Gates recently went [with buffett]?
To India to ask the Billionaires there to do some charity [recently an Indian built a Billion Dollar Home for himself]…
I assume the Chinese Czars do no charity as well.
JHK’s recent posts hit on one real fact- the great disappointment one feels in the Obama presidency. I remember the glory days. 🙂 I recall his promise to even be willing to be a “one term” president, if necessary, to make the changes that need to be made. He, imho, has become a big business stooge, live every other POTUS in the last century. The White House has become the great Clusterfuck. As JHK has written the last few weeks, either Obama just doesn’t get it- OR he is told NOT to get it. Very sad. It’s like waiting for the barbarians at the gate.
Who Isnt?
Asia – they buckle and burst all the time!!
Just curious, did my first comment get trashed because I put in a href links? I’ll repost without if that’s the case.
To realistically face the problems we have a President would have to openly profess to be a doomer. Surely all of you doomers here must have a pretty idea to what extent your own doomerism brands you as a whack job amongst you own social circle. I doubt very many among you have more than a smattering of friends who wouldn’t look askance at you sitting at your computers so incessantly fixated on the inevitable doom you see coming. The time to really shit your pants will be the day you are no longer perceived as odd for your apocalyptic outlook. Most people have an unnamed sense of dread about the future but hope is the greatest falsifier of the truth. What Obama et al know, they ain’t telling. It wouldn’t be received well by the masses. Reminds me of how they wouldn’t let on to my grandma she was dying of stomach cancer.
Wishing for a Reality-Based National Narrative?
http://www.gwabert.com/
“In Illinois or Indiana a HS Teacher with a Masters can make 180K a year.
Wake UP! the US has added 100 M peeps in the last 40 years.”
100 million new peeps are coming across the Mexican border, not coming in with H1-Bs.
Is that teacher’s salary real? Thinking of packing my bags now…could someone from there confirm that?
My favorite Transition Town principle is: Don’t campaign AGAINST things. I interpret it simply as “Stop complaining.”
If you want to prepare yourself for economic contraction and energy scarcity, there are many things you can do. Drive less. Walk or bicycle more (which will improve your health and increase your physical fitness for free). Shop locally. Work locally. Hire locally. Plant a garden, or help your neighbors with theirs, and share the harvest. Learn a practical skill such as how to preserve food or make clothes or weld metal or fix appliances or build furniture using local materials. Forge friendships with neighbors, and share your knowledge with community groups.
In other words: do things that make a difference. You’ll be happier and you’ll also feel less inclined to bitch about things you can’t control.
In America, we like to have good guys and bad guys. Blaming the speculators is politically palatable, because you get to have bad guys (i.e. the oil speculators).
The *real* causes of oil price increases such as:
1) A rapidly falling dollar
2) The Saudis can no longer raise production to match demand.
may be true, but give nobody any political capital. These facts would/should cause panic in the general populace if the general populac thought about them enough.
So, I guess we’re safe then.
Here’s a link to a podcast by Joe Baegant. I haven’t listened yet, but I know a lot of CFNers like podcasts.
http://financialsurvivalradio.com/joe-bageant-1946-2011/
Asia – I really know nothing about the Chinese and their wealth. But it is surely the case that the rest of the world, those who have been excluded from the DREAM, are hungry to get their fair share of the pie. It will be fun to watch it unwind…
Read what I wrote in this post three weeks ago
http://wp.me/P1lJ1g-5n
Don’t pack yet.
http://teacherportal.com/district/illinois/murphysboro-cusd-186
James, of course the audiences don’t hear the wisdom of what you’re saying! Most Americans, in particular, are totally invested in their automobiles as an extension — a projection — of who they are and as a manifestation of their power.
They want to believe in their New Religion — Technology! When you bring the message of returning to mass transit and walkable/bikeable communities, you’re as popular as a Jehovah’s Witness at the door to the Playboy Mansion.
What they are forgetting in their love affair with motorized conveyances is that, when they stop running for lack of fuel, they are not very impressive.
I posted something on my blog that is relevant to this today. It’s about what we lose physically as we let the technology do all the heavy lifting:
http://www.healthyplanetdiet.com
It’s interesting that again we are talking about increased demand from China and India driving up cost of gas as we did last time this happened two years ago. Then gas prices went down, and no one said boo about rapid developing nations…. did the Chineindians take a break from Happy Motoring? We’re surrounded by so many lies these days we may as well believe whatever we want. And if it makes us laugh, bonus points.
http://schwerpunkter.wordpress.com/
tstreet said:
=========
LOL! That is one of the funniest lines I have ever read on CFN. Thanks for the laugh!
What I have noticed is that lighting has been provided on a diurnal schedule for some hundreds of thousands of years without any sort of grid.
Likewise, “powering our computers” is a “critical use” of the grid? Oh, sweet Jesus, I can die and go to heaven now!
There is nothing “critical” about “powering our computers” … which will become evident in the coming world made by hand. The banana peel of destiny will teach you what is “critical”
@SqueekyFromm
And why should you be believed…..you couldn’t even shoot Pres. Ford from just across the street.
signed,
The Cereal Killer
A whole Lotta hurt ahead
Thanks JHK for the clarification of where we are right about now in the Long emergency. I just think of Obama as the presider over the American Weimar at this point it’s all he’s proven to be. The comments made by both Tarpley and Taibbi is that we had a moment in 2008 that Obama could have turned this ship around, but instead took the path of least resistance in all issues from healthcare reform to the bailouts.
The big 6 TBTF untouchables have their lobbyists and the middle class has no representation anymore as elected officials are beholden to them for money and as you ight have heard, Obama has a war chest worth $1Billion–the electoral casino is yet another crazy part of this story
.
OK, but one issue that I found interesting in “Griftopia” is that is in the chapter “Blowout” which discusses the breakdown of FDR’s law called the Commodity Exchange Act that was designed to stop wild speculation on everyday necessities, ie corn, soybeans oil and gas. As in all the other protections against market gouging, the casino game has gone unchecked and there might just be some merit in what Obama said. Taibbi, who interviews many insiders blames the high oil prices in the 2008 to manipulated price hikes.
With these new hike, Obama is reacting. At the moment Obama is saying there is enough supply to meet global needs. After checking with The OIL Drum last week, they said that the Saudi’s are not making up for Libya’s dysfunction, so it’s a matter of time till the real effects of supply and demand scenario will be felt.
No matter how you interpret this, it’s not going going in a good direction.
JIm
Good article this week, discussing the criminality that is rampant at all higher income levels in the country. We the people need to remember the incomes of the “elected” congress critters- they are all at very high income levels, or will be shortly after they arrive in Washington ( just as soon as they can get a look around and make a deal for themselves ) . So it is hardly surprising to find that those congress critters vote in their own monetary interest. And it is hardly surprising that we see few if any prosecutions occurring of big income bank fraudsters. Some like Anthony Mozzilo of Capital One may have to pay a fine, but rest assured the fine is trivial compared with the loot he snagged.
Meanwhile as it was noted above by Common Cents the little guy is kept busy running through regulatory mazes that eat up large portions of his small income. Also this sort of thing keeps the public distracted from the real issues of corruption, simply because the population has to work so hard just to make ends meet.
One huge fix for this problem is to end politics as a career track, that is only 2 year terms for all elected offices, no chance for reelection to that office, no automatic lifetime pension or golden health insurance plan. No campaign donations from anyone ( person or corporation ) over 20 dollars, period no exceptions loopholes or secret money. Public service needs to go back to really being public service. But of course this is a pipe dream, but wouldn’t it be nice.
take care gang,
loveday
Hot Dang! Palm trees in Liverpool. I can’t wait.
“The banana peel of destiny can send you flying in either direction, or first one and then the other.”
Speaking of which, I found this interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMXvpWoHzeE&feature=player_embedded
“Hey Al, STFU. American exceptionalism has nothing to do with natural resources or with the fact that American citizens are in any way special. It has to do with our form of government established at out founding.”
I would contend that is part of it but not the whole story. The US system of govt was indeed a breakthrough that provided a template for freedom and prosperity unprecedented in human history.
However, a great deal of the American Exceptionalism that is touted these days I would argue is grounded in our recent prosperity, not the principles of our founding. The fundamental right to cheap gas, for example. so that we can be free to ride on a two ton hunk of steel to wherever we wish to go. Not exactly something that can trace its origins to the Magna Carta.
“The fundamental right to cheap gas…”
So because you declare this as not merely a right but a “fundamental” right that makes it so? I don’t believe this is a right and from your snarky delivery I don’t believe you think it is either. But let me guess. You have insights into what the “little people” believe. So you assign this false-belief, belief to them. Brilliant! (Not. Not even remotely.)
And now it is your turn to STFU.
I admit I’m an asshole.
In July, 1979 President Carter made an address to the nation entitled, “A crisis of confidence”
Not only did he talk about the growing lack of confidence in the federal government to solve anything, he also made the point that energy was getting more expensive and more scarce. Then he did something that took alot of courage that I have not seen any president since even address. He called for all americans to start cutting back on consumption and energy usage, and even made you think that this was a patriotic act and was good for america in the long run.
No matter what failures he had as a president, he showed extaordinary leadership in trying to warn us what was ahead. Even though it was over thirty years ago, we didn’t listen. We cannot say we weren’t warned. Here is the link to the you tube video containing his speech. Listen and weep for future generations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCOd-qWZB_g&feature=related
A pearl of wisdom in a sea of impossible solutions. I have and my pseudonym have been screaming, yelling, shouting the words of overpopulation for years and very few understand the consequences of more people more overwhelming problems.
I am thinking of Lemmings in Cars ala Thelma and Louise.
I was in Vegas last week and could not help remarking that cars are the most inefficient mode of transportation in a place like that. They are lined up 10 deep outside of hotels and you have to take a cab everywhere. There is a monorail, but it was empty.
Aimlow Joe was here
http://www.aimlow.com
For Evelyn Victor: It’s risky to be a “doomer” in public. I’m pretty sure I lost a promotion due to my unguarded speech, even though I have always referred to it by the less offputting phrase of “prepping”. Our office doesn’t care for those who are “downers” since we’re such a happy, happy, cheerful little place! Watch what you say!
Some of us are “sort of”, in certain ways, looking forward to life as Mr. Kunstler portrays it in his books. I’m a nurse and a highly capable gardener, my husband’s hobby, at which he’s extremely proficient, is carpentry and metalurgy. We have enough land to sustain ourselves and our kids, but bought at the expense of a long commute back and forth to work to pay for it all. Sound familiar?
Obama is our first “Affirmative Action” president and must have salved the conscience of many people afflicted with White Guilt. He had an arrogant and overbearing wife to siphon off some of the feminist vote from Hillary (for whom I voted) and has two presentable children. That’s all he has to offer. No political or practical skills, (Can you imagine Obama hanging a picture, unclogging a toliet or jumping a dead battery???) except alleged charm, and a gift for spewing bullshit in a politically acceptable fashion. He’s been bought and paid for by the usual power people and will do nothing except prattle on and offer platitudes while he suggests that someone else hold the lid on this whole simmering, stinking mess. And by the way, Stagflation was a pehnomenon of the Carter Administration.
Thanks, Wage. I hope the anti-immigration folks listen to this podcast.
Imagine, in this podcast Joe Bageant says that there are no lines on the globe: borders are artificial constructs created by armed thugs that keep people apart.
Stand for freedom. Stand for freedom of movement. Stand for freedom of movement anywhere you want to go on planet.
Poor Syria, 34th in oil production isn’t Tomahawk worthy. Good luck with that…hope the sanctions help.
Last night, I forecast what you’d write about today in Karnak predicts what Kunstler will blog about this week on Crazy Eddie’s Motie News. I got the first two predictions right–calling Obama’s address insufficient and reiterating your point about how we should get serious about the business of managing contraction instead of hoping for growth.
I should have stopped there while I was ahead, as I also predicted you’d have something nice to say about Steve Hallett and John Wright’s article in the Washington Post “Imagining a world without oil” (you can read excerpts and find a link to it in my blog entry above). You didn’t. Pity. It’s a rare pleasure to read anything laudatory from you about something having to do with energy in the mainstream media.
I also made a bonus prediction that you’d make fun of holiday gluttony. You didn’t, but I don’t feel sad about missing that one. Instead, you went one better by calling America a pinhead at a freak show. That showed more style and imagination.
So newworld thinks the states and the Federal Treasury are going broke paying professors? Cops too? Maybe it’s the firefighters?
Could the problem possibly be tax cuts for billionaires, wars in countries that never threatened us, and the world’s most extravagant and expensive weapons systems?
You know we won the cold war by forcing the Soviets to spend themselves into oblivion right? The crazy thing is, once the cold war ended we never stopped spending. We’re marching right over the same damn cliff matching the Soviets footstep for footstep.
But newworld says it’s because “My kid’s biology teacher is an H1-B Indian woman….”
newworld, TURN OFF FOX NEWS. They are selling a product. They are not helping you understand the world you live in.
This reminds me of a book the author of Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach, wrote a while ago: the House should be run like jury duty. I the book is available online: A Citizen Legislature.
Callenbach’s Homepage
-AK
Hey, man, I apologize. I forgot to take my meds today.
Jim, that last line about pinheads grinning wile freaks burn the place down … I just burst out laughing. I love a little humor served up with my doomsday scenarios.
It reminds back in the day reading Celines’ “Death on the Installment Plan”, laughing like a son-of-a-bitch, then, after realizing the horror of it all, wondering what the hell I found so funny.
-Marlin
CFNation YD Post 1
New England Chapter
Good point, schwerpunkt.
Interesting how those damn Indians and Chinese keep messing with our gas prices!
Personally, after going through major storms in the last week, which flooded everything, including my newly planted potatoes, and with 5 more inches predicted, I’ll be fine with expensive gas and less driving.
Screw trying to appeal to people’s better nature.
Raise the gas prices! Then you’ll see some behavior modification.
So Tootsie is from the South… well su-prize, su-prize, su-prize!
Honey… the war is over, and the NORTH won, and the funny thing is, no matter how many times you idiots go out and recreate it your still gonna loose.
How do you circumcise someone from the South? Kick his sister in the mouth.
No wonder your sole comeback is “fucktard”, it’s because you are from the part of the nation whose primary export is fucktards.
Oh the deep south… filled with people so lazy that they had to steal an entire race to do their work for them… then they complained endlessly about the quality and quantity of the work done…. then when they were no longer able to keep slaves because they got their asses kicked by the North, what then? Call the people that did all their work for a century for free ‘lazy’, and not worthy of good treatment…. while sitting on the porches they built.
The reason “New Yawk” has all the oil traders??
Because “New Yawk” doesn’t have creation museums where we are told that “the Flintstones” is historical fact for a start.
Keep commenting sweetheart… you are doing justice and adding authenticity to the worlds image of the South… that it is filled with retarded inbreds.
Jim, that last line about pinheads grinning while freaks burn the place down … I just burst out laughing. I love a little humor served up with my doomsday scenarios.
It reminds back in the day reading Celines’ “Death on the Installment Plan”, laughing like a son-of-a-bitch, then, after realizing the horror of it all, wondering what the hell I found so funny.
-Marlin
CFNation YD Post 1
New England Chapter
Greetings,
Back when I still taught history, I would begin the first class of the year with a very simple exercise to help my students get an understanding as to the importance of history.
I began by asking my students if anyone in the room could fabricate microprocessors? After all, microprocessors are pretty much in everything so knowing how to make them must be important. Of course, no one ever had any idea as to how they were made. I went on to ask if anyone could fabricate an automobile, train or even a bicycle. Could anyone make wool into thread? Anything?
It didn’t take long to get to the actual point which was the collective survival knowledge in a room full of young adults was less than that of a cave man.
We depend on the specialized knowledge of an entire global village for our very survival and if that communal knowledge swap ever breaks down then we would all take a trip back in time.
It was a lesson I had a very hard time delivering as no teenager ever wants to admit that they are more useless than the most primitive of men.
I wonder if any of them will think back to my lesson when it begins to happen for real.
You’re right. I apologize.
You forgot pregnant teenagers.
My daughter completely floored me yesterday when she admitted we needed to get off the oil. I also noticed a homeless family huddled at a gas station in her middle-middle-class suburban neighborhood. Denial has gotten hard.
As to no one wanting to talk about overpopulaiton,who wants to talk about the massive famines and outbreaks of disease that accompanies these population downturns.
@Steve Knox
A study of history shows that hierarchal systems funnel psychopaths to the top. I’m in the middle of reading ‘The Vermont Papers’ by Frank Bryan were he speaks of different vision of government that speaks to the way most of us truly wish to live. Of course, this system is specifically designed for The Second Vermont Republic and the conditions and people there. Bryan’s “Real Democracy: the New England town meeting and how it works” is a fasinating read on real life-real democracy.” I found it interesting is the town with the “most democracy” was also a small town with a population of about a thousand and a blue collar population.
Jill in Berkeley
Taibbi, who interviews many insiders blames the high oil prices in the 2008 to manipulated price hikes.
With these new hike, Obama is reacting. At the moment Obama is saying there is enough supply to meet global needs. -LB
*********
You’re damn straight, “a whole lotta hurt” is coming.
Can “folks” imagine WHY our POTUS might be making these grumpy proclamations about evil speculators, right about now? (‘Cause the folks need somebody to blame that they can’t “get at”, as JHK implies. Who are these mysterious speculators? Perhaps we’ll never know, but don’t worry, “YOUR GUMMINT” is on the case! Soooo, keep those rifles in the house; we’ll take care of the proper punishment.)
While we’re waiting around to see arrests and prosecutions, the behind-the-scenes looting will continue, and all this publick blather is simply a lullaby for the thumb/teat-suckers. “Back to sleepy now; that’s a good “citizen”; nighty-night.”
Make your own solutions as ye may, wealth and power are only going to breed more wealth and power; and as you say, that ain’t too good for us peons. We’ve got to stop giving this system any legitimacy by our tacit participation.
And people complain that JHK trashes the South!
You’re making him look mellow.
Not that I disagree.
“For those of you interested in the reality side of things, here’s the scoop: The price of oil is going to go way up, and way down, and way up again, and way down again until everyone is too broke to ask for any, and companies are too ruined to go get it for them, and governments are too broken to interfere in the process.”
Jim, you’re so right.
“China Proposes To Cut Two Thirds Of Its $3 Trillion In USD Holdings”
…”China appears to be getting ready to cut its USD reserves by roughly the amount of dollars that was recently printed by the Fed, or $2 trilion or so.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china-proposes-cut-two-thirds-its-3-trillion-usd-holdings
Anyone heard anything else about this?
See also:
“IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end”
“According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.”
antimatter | April 25, 2011 10:22 AM | Reply
Powerfully, eloquently and truthfully said.
Thanks for the link, very interesting site. It’s an alternative to current govt for sure.
One other point I would like to make to Jim, he seems to think the general public is clueless about what is happening in the country. Well as I said earlier some are, because they have to put their nose to the grindstone for so long and so hard that they have no energy left to worry about current events. But I think most everyone realizes something is rotten in the good old US, but most simply have no way to effect the course of events. Considering that Diebold controls most of the elections in the country, what else is left except protest movements and they take lots of expenditures of mental and physical energy. Something hard to come by after working 2 to 3 jobs a week. Even so, movements are sprouting, like US Uncut and others. It will be interesting to see what develops.
Yes, indeed, so why the deliberate deconstruction of communal knowledge AND social safety nets?
All to benefit the very few at the top.
It seems wrong.
“[American exceptionalism] has to do with our form of government established at our founding”.
Huh ???
Please ignore my earlier comment. I hadn’t taken my meds yet. I apologize.
Last week I ran across a 2006 interview JHK had with David Misialowski. It cleared up for me why this blog has so astutely ignored the ulcerating planet sore at Fukushima. In his interview Jim touts nukes as part of the remedy for the LE. tsk, tsk, tsk.
Silly, I’m not that one!!! I wasn’t even born then. But I do watch the “news” on TV and read on the internet, and people just glide by saying stuff, “based on fears the Libyan unrest will spread, oil prices rose. . .”
Sooo, like where’s the lessening of supply in that statement??? We had huge price increases with no decrease in supply??? And then we have to wonder if speculation is involved??? Why is there is a Goldman Sachs and JPM between me and Saudi Arabia??? Most of the people who work there couldn’t change their own car oil.
Of course, there is also the Mad Fed Pumping, and the scramble to commodities to keep the old portfolio performing. Why is this sort of crap even legal???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
To paraphrase Charlton Heston, “I’ll give you my car when you pry my cold, dead hands off the steering wheel.”
Here’s the latest in the recent madness: Grist.org reports that the new Mitsubishi i-MiEV is button-cute and will be the “post-fossil fuels equivalent of the ‘post-PC’ iPad.”
That’s right! Our cars will soon ferry us about thanks to the post-fossil fuel magic of electricity, which comes from…hey, can somebody check Wikipedia to find out where electricity comes from?
But don’t despair. Inventors at secret locations around the country are even now developing technologies that will allow us to continue driving until our hands are cold and dead. One such solution even uses CO2 for power!:
http://youtu.be/EmjW-0Y2ESY
The price of oil is going to go way up, and way down, and way up again, and way down again…
I’ve been saying this on CFN for years: we are not linearly headed toward a cliff, we experience cycles: in prices of gold, in monetary inflation, in everything.
Things go up and things come down and there is nothing apocalyptic about cyclical processes.
What we did not know… Of course, what we also didn’t know…
JHK repeats this phrase “we did not know” several times this week, much to my delight.
Though retrospective, this agnosticism is refreshing, because it opens the door to positive future outcomes.
Once you admit that the future is unknown, you have to admit the possibility of positive developments as well as negative ones. We just don’t know what they will be… yet.
The preponderance of commentary is negative, on the doom side: “we are so fucked” and few are willing to admit the possibility that we are not fucked.
For pointing this out I expect incoming… and I can handle it.
I think intellectual honesty in an agnostic environment (“we didn’t know…” “we also didn’t know”) demands openness to the possibility of a positive outcome.
Maybe statements in the future like:
We didn’t know would a hard landing could be prevented by a combination of X (e.g., conservation) and Y (e.g., alternative energy development) or even Z (the CFN-hated “techno-miracle” yet to come)
We didn’t know… we thought we were fucked… because week after week that’s what we read on the trusted intertubes.
CORRECTION
We didn’t know that a hard landing could be prevented by a combination of X…
Good point. Indeed, if you don’t at least acknowledge that things might not end up as bad as so many CFNers foresee, you’re being as stupid as someone who refuses to acknowledge that things might turn out even worse than anyone can imagine. Nothing sexy or hipster-edgy about such a middle-of-the-road stance, though. You’re just left with the old adage “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” And you carry on.
Apparently, within the current evolutionary state of the human genome, impossible in anything more than the smallest, briefest doses, in the historical time-frame, not even worthy of being called an eyeblink in a geologic time-frame.
That apparently, is The Awful Truth, once again running it’s predictable cycle and course down through the ages and right up until the last moment when the Human Aristocracy and the Human Peasantry, as well represented metaphorically by the Looney Tunes character Yosemite Sam and his horse, as Sam rides the horse over the cliff, whipping and cursing all the way until the very last second both go a-splat on the far canyon floor below.
Sam is screaming and whipping the horse (or dragon – in one old toon he was riding a dragon) screaming, “You stupid idjit horse (or dragon)! Faster! Faster! Faster! Ya mule! Ya! Ya!”
All the way down, up until the very last second, will the Aristocracy whip the confused, exhausted and terrified horse. Make book on it.
The only possibility that this doesn’t come to pass in some form or another, in some time frame or another – I would guess no more than 5,000 years tops, is that this is one of those “it’s always darkest before the dawn”, like when the German Right Wing took over their own country and almost took over the rest of the world back in the 1930s and 40s.
If you are curious as to why I would use a Loony Tunes metaphor to illustrate such a significant topic, it is the appropriate level of seriousness for the current mass psychological state of the Global Aristocratic Elite, their Pet Horse or Dragon (that’s all of us) and, to riff on JHKs quote, the near-impossibly massive proliferation of false narratives currently available off-the-rack from the False Reality Store (also known as the American Media, and to a lesser degree, the Free World’s media, too).
If there’s even still an actual Free World left, not a Potemkin Village of one, that is.
As always, the usual disclaimer: I hope I am wrong about all this, but the evidence mounts daily while very little, if any contradictory evidence is available. But human beings have a complex and nuanced relationship with hope, as I am sure the Obama Marketing Team fully understands, the easier to exploit.
==============================================
One last question, Wage? I don’t know just how much of Marxism you embrace. It’s certainly hard to tell from your conversations with Vlad-Cartman, who distorts most everything he touches, so no info there.
Because I would ask if you really believed Marxism is any more viable in the real world application than Crony Capitalism (or any capitalism, in the end) is turning out to be, in terms of our species long-term survival?
Because from where I am sitting, in the last 100 years, awful and brutal as large-state capitalism has been, it has not nearly been as bad overall as Marxism in practice in large analagous nations like Mao’s China and the old USSR.
And at least the capitslist pigs, for whatever reason, let some actual freedom and even some economic and political power briefly “trickle-down” to a few commoners like all of us, even if they are taking it all back again now.
I saw no such even marginal temporary concessions to commoners like us from the aforementioned Marxist states.
Therefore I ask how, if you accept the premise of my assertions above, Marxism is any different, in the end, from “democratic” (now Inverted Totalitarian) capitalism or any “ism” yet invented that won’t eventually disinitegrate into “The Strong do what they will, the Weak suffer as they must.”
If LW command-communism sucks…and capitalism sucks…and democracy sucks becuase liberal wimps can’t stop the sociopaths eventually leading the morons into dragging everyone over a cliff, and fascism sucks worst of all combining the ugliest aspets of all systems into a RW junkyard mongrel of hate, the question is is there ANY ‘ism’ that won’t end up the same way or is the canyon floor fast approaching while Yosemite Sam whips us ever more angrily to finally reach our destination faster.
The splat on the hard canyon floor. Stupid Sam. Stupid Idjit Dragon.
@Asoka
If you could point to a technology that has been introduced to this point that has truly alleviated problems created by previous technologies, that would be helpful. Mostly it’s just a cluster fuck.
And ultimately, it’s really not about technology, is it? If there were 1 million or even a billion people on earth, we could all drive cars to our hearts’ content.
When I was a teenager I went to work on the green chain at the local sawmill. The first day on the job, one of the guys asked me and my friend to go find the “board stretcher.”
When we come up with that technology (along with a “population contractor”) we’ll be sittin’ pretty. Otherwise we’ll continue our mad dash through this minefield of banana peels.
Tell them the dream truns to a nitemare!
And wheres my ecstacy???
‘According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now’
Their QOL is s.h.i.t…..
I take it youve not been there.
Yes, indeed, so why the deliberate deconstruction of communal knowledge AND social safety nets?
All to benefit the very few at the top.
It seems wrong.
Greed.
First, what kind of sick society charges their own children for the “knowledge” needed to survive? Of course, I’m referring to post secondary education.
Seriously, can you imagine, say, Native Americans charging money in exchange for teaching their children to hunt, track and farm?
We no longer interact in this society because everything is a transaction and, as I learned, history doesn’t offer much to the person looking to make a few bucks.
We tell our children that their education is necessary in order for them to earn money (good luck without it) so we keep them in “school” until the they are well into their mid 20’s. Yet these young adults, with 17+ years of education, wouldn’t make it two weeks alone in a forest.
I’m not sure who, in our new world made by hand, will actually be making anything. No young person I’ve ever met.
WC…are you fluent in Spanish, hindi or mandarin?
if so apply!
suburbanempire replied to comment from larrymoecurley | April 25, 2011 12:48 PM | Reply
This post above is hereby named as Excellent and True Ruthless Rip of the Week
============================================
Ruthless Rip of the Week is brought to you by Archer Daniels Midland Biofuels Division, who’s motto has been,
“Shove the Corn Up your Gas Ass and Don’t Feed Poor People With It or They’ll Only Reproduce”
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What does it profit a man (or woman) to gain the world and lose their sole? Jeez, what a dumb question! Ask Dick and Lynn Cheney, with their billions of dollars of stolen loot, their legions of servants, personal security and hitmen, fine wines, foods and cigars, not to their stable full of genetically-compatible young children they keep in the basement as future organ donors like calves in a veal pen.
They’re going to live to a 150 and 148 years old resepctively – just you wait and see! :p
What a truly dim thing to say. It could only be true IF the “Bumpy Plateau” was a concept invented and used by him and him alone (or a very small group of people), rather than being a longstanding, commonly accepted term of Peak Oil Conversation.
Unless you are extending those nasty motivational aspersions that you cast on to the entire Peak Oil community, like Hitler and Goebbels did to all the Liberals last century and Jews or Palin and Beck do to all the Liberals this century.
If THAT is what you are saying, then you are an idiot, plain and simple, and not worth talking to by anyone conversant with a knowledge of 5th grade History or higher.
Hate globalization? Then you might hate one of my suppliers here: http://www.stetron.com
“Established in 1965, Stetron pioneered the concept of delivering “value” by utilizing Asian based manufacturing complimented by North American product engineering”
Mighty bold claim!
@Gerrit – I think the country option with a reduced lifestyle is the way to go… I grew up in NYC and now live 2.5 hrs away (an hour SW of Albany) but we’ve got a fully paid off ex-dairy on 125 acres. I’m trying to get into the RE biz part time – my main job is power engineering. I’ve gone for a career switch that leaves me working for less money at a crucial facility that’s in the country (if this place goes dark the grid for NYS goes dark.) While the money is less, it’s good training on self-sufficiency – having your own well, garden, biodiesel and woodlot may end up being key depending on how bad things get. Also, your neighbors in a more rural environment are a) less in number and b) more self sufficient and able to help themselves and possibly you. The part that’s hard to give up is the urban amenities, and I still make trips to NYC for a weekend but even with a reasonably close Amtrak stop I’m thinking that’s not in the cards in the future depending on how things go.
Oh so that’s why so many people here like “Joe” – just another Anti-White, Anti-West, Anti-American. He’s a Southerner who apologizes for the South to Liberal Northerners – and they eat it up like the vomit it is. What were people like him called – a scalawag?
Most Southerners never had slaves – they fought to protect their States from the Northern Aggression. Once the brutality of Reconstruction began, many who had surrendered regretted their decison and took up arms again. The rest is History. They had lost the war but they won the “Peace”.
“…I’ll buy the answer from you for more money than any lottery has ever paid.”
Send bullion.
http://www.calculateprimes.com/
So in other words, everyone has to change their paradigm but you get to keep your Marxism – a totally out of touch belief system for what is approaching.
Along with creation museums, don’t forget the Shroud of Turin… Seems a coterie of physicists have discovered evidence of some sort of “Singularity” in the confines of the shroud when it was in folded position. The universal flood is also apparently gaining substantial geophysical evidence around the world, largely from closer analysis of sedimentation, -revised estimates of time between layers.
The above is included to remind all comers the US South is not the only region with Bible believing people. Saying that, let’s get back to the subject of preserving the Union of States through the Oil Interregnum…
Reformed US Army/Guard Railroad Operating and Maintenance Battalions will be tasked with prioritizing and commencing rebuild of dormant rail branch corridor to de-minumus freight operating standards. This military railway logistics unit program will probably be initiated state by state, lacking coherent policy on rail rebuild from the Federal level.
Mainline Railroad companies like the BNSF (Warren Buffett) and the Union Pacific are Mormon controlled, and it is a given they are well versed in likely hardships including famine, in store for America. Controlling the mega-railroads and multiple trucking companies puts the Mormon Church in enviable position to manage victuals distribution, agreed?
It is curious, the lack of powers of observation and or discernment, the pure cognitive dissonance exhibited in the rest of America’s wealthy class on need for & strategic value of comprehensive railway matrix. Glenn Beck’s work list on food storage and Gold gathering is simply a carbon copy of the Mormon mantra going back a century! GB is a Mormon, and if he stuck to the preparation more and the political sensationalism less, we all would be better off.
As for the Gold & Silver, the Bible in James 5 is not really supportive of the precious metal angle, and we don’t see James 5 mentioned much in Mormon circles. Railway capacity enhancement and expanded reach might be inferred in Daniel 4 v-15, but that only apparent to railway people, escaping notice even among the average biblical scholar.
The precious metal will certainly be called in by the Feds as the US struggles to maintain oil purchase from OPEC, soon demanding metals backing! Poetic justice, the Tea Patriot gold bugs sticking to their cars, forcing the issue on monetary collapse & call back of precious metals… Any RR/logistics savvy people there?
“Return on Investment” will be wealthy America’s death gurgle even as decisions are made to ignore infrastructure in efforts to hedge wealth. It’s about “Societal & Commercial Cohesion”, boys and girls… Maybe, local investment clubs, the widows who meet weekly to talk about their stocks and bonds might put their thinking caps on and look at ways and means of creating plant/equipment trusts for railway features rebuild, and likewise for water system upgrades (NAWAPA).
US Savings Bonds series “I”; “Energy Independence Bonds” are mentioned in ASPO Newsletter 42, article 374. Feedback for the gallery, JHK?
Well, of course, Marx can’t be held responsible for events that happened after his death.
Marx was a product of his time, a time when industrial capitalism was wreaking havoc on the lives of the former peasants of Europe, now packed into horrid slums, working long hours at dangerous jobs for low wages.
Kind of like China now.
But, as I’ve pointed out about Unitarians, http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2008/07/unitarians-and-rush-limbaugh.html, the 19th century was full of hope of human possibility.
They were influenced by Darwin, and the belief that humans could be ever improved. Marx read Henry Morgan, who investigated the Native Americans (who were being slaughtered at that time), and the communal tribal life they had, which was so appealing, that many “white” people joined Indian tribes and didn’t want to return.
Marx was influenced by Liebig, and developed his theories that people needed to conserve their soil, as I’ve pointed out to Tripp, who ignored it. And he pointed out that flushing human waste into the Thames was a waste of fertility, which I’ve pointed out to Tripp and Asoka, both of whom have ignored it.
Anyway, yes, Marx had a lot to say about the evils of capitalism, and the potential of humans to live communally in a peaceful, cooperative way.
He was wrong about that. Along came Freud, and later scientists, working on the human subconscious, and how to manipulate it. Who, in the heady days of revolutionary possibility would have guessed that liberty, fraternity and justice could so easily be done in by irrational fears and mindless distractions?
EVERY attempt by communists or socialists to create a more peaceful society has been attacked by the capitalists, including the infant USSR, reeling from war and revolution, invaded in 1918 by multiple countries, including the US.
So, do I think that humans can create a better society?
In theory, yes. And that is our only hope.
In reality, not so much.
I think that we will destroy our ecosystem, our societies, and a whole lot of humans before the remnants end up scratching through radioactive ruins, searching for insects to eat.
You seem, and I emphasize seem, the internet being what it is, like a nice, if clueles person, so I think it’s a shame that, like the Good Germans, you are once again playing history’s dirty diaper to some of the worst socipaths in history and dragging the rest of us with you.
Yeah yeah yeah, I know Obama sucks and on that we agree. Problem is, thanks to the most sophisticated propaganda machine in human history, you are as bass-ackwards as the 1933 Germans into what the cause ofthat red-hot poker up you ass and who’s hand is doing the jamming.
(Hint: It’s not the Jews, it’s the German Industrialists and their Nazi Helpers…ahem…I mean Hint: It’s not the Liberals, it’s the American Corporatists and their Republican Helpers.)
What is the greatest propaganda machine in human history? The American Right Wing Lie Machine which now encompasses most of the media and has created a psychologically brutal new form of political correctness, far worse and more ominously totalitarian than any Liberal attempts to assuage hurt feelings of minorities.
I mean, it’s not even “RW politically correct” for me to point out the fact that you couldn’t pass an 11th Grade World or American History test, and may have trouble with the 5th grade version, but you can repeat Glenn Beck’s Nazi lies with the efficiency and intelligence of a parrot or a tape recorder.
Even though it’s true, and one hour with a contemporary (or even better an early 1980s version) of an 11th Grade American History or World History test would prove it conclusively, I’d bet. You’d probably wind up muttering afterward how it was probably because the Evil Lib’ruls wrote the test with lies and sandbagged your noble and brilliant self, as you clutched your “F” in your sweaty hands.
You deserve the future that awaits you, frankly, and you SHOULD feel insulted when JHK refers to morons and the future followers of future Corn Pone Hitler, because he is most definitely talking about YOU. Make no mistake.
And he is right, I am sorry to say…sorry for all of us you are dragging down into the black pit of medievalism, ignorance and want.
Just like when people like you and people like me were having this conversation in the early 1930s in Germany, I could fill a page with how contemptibly wimpy the Liberal-Leftie German Social Democratic Party was in their dealings with the RW Nazis, but why bother? I might as well try and travel back in time to 1932 Weimar Germany and try to convince the German version of you that the Jews were human beings, too, not intrinsically evil devils.
(even now I bet you’re thinking how you don’t hate Jews and you have Jewish friends and… way to miss the point, my little NASCAR Cheez Doodle)
Yes, the RW Nazis, so proud and absolutely convinced of their super-patriotism (like you) and convinced liberals were evil (like you) who used to say “The TRUE Socialism is on the Right! National Socialism, not Leftist Marxist Socialism!” Look it up, if you dare. Hear the long-dead voices of your spritual antecedents, the Good Germans who bought Hitler’s lies and that of his RW Lie Machine.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/journailleluegt.htm
Feel free to peruse Weimar-era Nazi propaganda on that Calvin.edu site and hear from their own mouths how much they sound like you and Fox “News”. It’s quite uncanny.
Plus, you may get a preview of Glenn Beck’s next week’s show before they even start writing it! How cool will you be then to all your Fox News pals, lookin’ like some slick fortuneteller! Just like late at night on Ghosthunters and Psychic Hotline! Just don’t tell them how you know what topics Glenn will cover before he covers them, then you will blow your mystique, and won’t look cool and smart anymore to all the other weak-minded Beckerheads and Hannidiots anymore.
I would like to see all of our so-called ‘leaders’ – Obama, Bernanke, Geithner, Boehner, etc. etc. – hooked up to electric chair lie detectors. Then, force them to testify under oath with the following provisio:
One lie and you fry!
“Stand for freedom of movement. ”
Hey fucktard, only you would want to “stand” for fucking movement. Is there somewhere you can borrow a fucking brain? Just for the day.
Jill in Berkeley,
I live in a small town, 745 people, in New Hamphire, and have been both a selectman (6 1/2 years) and town moderator (16 years). The selectmen are the town administrators, and the moderator runs the town meeting. I agree that nothing comes closer to real democracy than a town meeting. In New Hampshire, the town meeting is called the legislative body. Every item on the town warrant (the budget) is discussed, line by line, and voted upon. The selectmen also have other issues on the warrant, which are also discussed and voted upon. The selectmen are authorized to spend only the monies approved at the town meeting. Unless there are contracutal committments, any monies unspent by December 31st, go back into the general fund.There is complete transparency.
Come on Jim, say it ain’t so…summers here and the time is right for dancing in the streets. May be, just maybe, we can crank the windows down a little while longer, up the stereo, feel the cool evening wind as it ruffels through her long silky hair…feel the curves as we want to make them our own…accelerate just to hear her race, at full song…
0
I got so carried away with your question that I didn’t say that I actually liked your Looney Tunes analogy.
And, my original post had a touch of sarcasm that you may have missed.
I do live in reality and I know that most humans are not intelligent, well-read or good-intentioned.
It was kind of a joke.
“…they age out of the system and decide I’m guessing, to hang it up and not try to educate others or to foment change based upon what they’ve learned…These are the Americans who will never be reached until they find themselves broke and hungry.”
Maybe they haven’t “hung it up” at all, but are just waiting for someone with “ears to hear and eyes to see”.
“Could the problem possibly be tax cuts for billionaires…”
Ah, actually, NO. There are not enough billionaires even if you took every-fucking-thin-dime, every fucking billionaire possessed. So, turn off CNN and MSNBC, they are selling a product (Marxism). Try and develop your brain.
Sorry, man, my Tourette’s is acting up. I’m a fucktard.
I don’t think Wikipedia will help. It is an unreliable, anonymous, virtual source. But in the real world clean, renewable, perpetual, zero-emission electricity might come from wave energy:
“The SeaRay is performing beyond our expectations and tracking well with modeling predictions,” said Reenst Lesemann, CEO of Columbia Power Technologies. “Our task is to demonstrate to utilities and independent power producers that we can help them deliver power predictably, reliably, and at a cost that is competitive. At this stage, we are making this happen in a very rapid and capital-efficient manner.”
“Obama is our first “Affirmative Action” president and must have salved the conscience of many people afflicted with White Guilt.”
Yep and look where that moronic sentiment got us? I wonder, do the White Guilt crowd now suffer guilt for having had the guilt that may have brought us to our knees? And if so, will their next Presidential candidate of choice be based on cleansing that guilt in some way or will the simple bastards, for once in their life, be guided by their heads rather than their hearts?
Not only does this society charge its children for its knowledge, it encourages them to go into debt to pay for it!
Student loan debt has now surpassed credit card debt in terms of amount owed.
What kind of people would allow a society in which only the educated are considered worthy of a decent living? And then tell its children to go into debt to become “worthy”, and not mention that only a small percentage of the educated actually obtain decent paying jobs?
As for college educated people being without skills though, that depends.
I have a guy who does odd jobs for me. We’ve actually argued about what to call him. He reads my blog, and once I referred to him as a “roofer”, because at the time he was re-roofing my house. He was highly insulted. He wanted to be called a contractor, but I don’t like that term, because it makes me think of Blackwater.
So, finally, I forwarded him E.F Schumacher’s article on Buddhist economics, and we call him a “craftsman”. http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/buddecon.html
Anyway, he has a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts. He can do roofing, carpentry, plumbing, car repair, lawnmower maintainance, electrical work, he fixed my satellite TV and my phones,(which went out everytime it rained). He also helped me hang bluebird houses and collect my goats.
A college education does not interfere with a well-rounded person.
Thank you, Jim, for sharing your cleverly crafted turns of phrase. I always enjoy the quick chuckle that comes when I read your pot shots at our inconsistencies.
Some of your observations, however, are less trenchant than others. Bowdlerizing the the Fed and the Feds is often little more than pointing out the obvious. If we agree that the Dems and the GOP can never be more than part of the problem, it seems pointless to take them to task.
But we, the well informed and the well-paid, make perfect targets for pointed deprecations. Our own inconsistencies, trepidations, and self-absorption seem perfect targets for your rapier wit. There is nothing like a clever dig that draws a little blood along with that snort of self-recognition.
More power to ya!
No, you were correct. I should not have said “Stand for freedom of movement” when want I want is for every person on this planet to have the freedom to walk to any other place on the planet on their own two feet without being stopped at borders and asked “Papers, please.”
I know you are a supporter of basic human freedom of movement. As Nancy Reagan might have said: “Just say NO! to checkpoints”
You should have let me know earlier that you have Tourette’s. Now my bleeding liberal heart will be even more tolerant of your hostile remarks.
Oh, and he also laid tile on my kitchen floor, and my countertop.
And the guy who was working on my house earlier had a master’s degree in philosophy.
He was also very talented.
Most of the planet is covered with oceans and they can produce power.
“Honey… the war is over, and the NORTH won, and the funny thing is, no matter how many times you idiots go out and recreate it your still gonna loose.”
Guess what FUCKTARD? I’m not from the South. But your statements prove you to be the same type of regionalist hate monger that is Jimbo.
Take your following line:
“How do you circumcise someone from the South? Kick his sister in the mouth.”
Well now, someone from the South would include everyone from the South. So everyone from the South (including the African Americans you pretend to champion in your little rant) diddles his sister? And of course this would include all of the righteous liberated sisters from which SUBMORONICEMPIRE shares the pulpit of progressivism?
Yikes, SUBMORONICEMPIRE doesn’t limit her/its hating to a single race or ethnic group or gender. She/it hates everyone South of the Mason-Dixon line. Dat der am a ho’ lotta hatin’. (Fucking phony, MORON.)
Soak, thanks for the update on the adobe house. I’m actually thinking about doing something like that as a summer kitchen out in the middle of the garden. Fairly small structure, as I’m sure it’s crazy labor intensive, but something that can be enjoyed by us and our visitors regularly. Living roof is a must for down here in the sultry south.
“And people complain that JHK trashes the South!
You’re making him look mellow.
Not that I disagree.”
So you agree with Suburban? Well you are a fucktarded hater as well. A big fucking phony of the first order. (Now there is a surprise!)
“Now my bleeding liberal heart will be even more tolerant of your hostile remarks.”
You’re welcome.
You say, “Most people have an unnamed sense of dread about the future but hope is the greatest falsifier of the truth.”
Yes, I say, “a beast so terrible that none can say its name, TEOTWAWKI”.
Fuck! Fuck! Fucktard!
sorry tourette’s acting up
“Jim’s right: car culture will never go down easy and the results will be ugly.”
Yes he is. I see it in some of my family members. Their “wheels” appear to be their most-precious possession.
And the next generation is following suit: a 16-yo nephew drives a 4WD diesel pickup 25+ (mostly highway) miles to school and back every day even though there’s a school bus stop about 1/4 mile from his home.
The parents are spending #100/mo to teach the kid stupidity.
“I have a guy who does odd jobs for me. We’ve actually argued about what to call him”
Ah, you are going to argue with someone about what they wish to be called? And that is not being an asshole? Only in your head.
The key word in JHK’s screed this week is “complexity”. Yeah, we got too much of it. It has come to pass that the average middle-class guy/gal now has to hire a tax attorney/CPA (at least once a year), and a health care advisor/agent, and god only knows else.
Legislators exist to pass laws, not to unpass them. People who work for bankers exist to use their spread sheets to complicate personal finance, and gain a few pennies from each saver. Megabucks when multiplied.
People who work for cell phone travesties exist to make their subscription plans so complicated that you have to hire a CPA to figure out which one offers “the best deal”. And on and on it goes.
We need a czar of decomplexification, with autocratic powers, in our government.
VegasBob,
I like your idea!
And we know how that would turn out…’cause if their lips are movin’, well…..
Tim S,
I do our taxes (to the best of my ability). I refuse to pay a preparer to do them. Our situation is not a complicated one currently.
If I make a mistake, tough shit, they can bill me for it.
I agree, we are complex by design. That is the joke. People always say, “We’re screwed. Things are so complex. There’s nothing we can do.” Yeah there is. We created the beast now its time to kill it.
CHICAGO (CBS) — The price for a gallon of gasoline in Chicago is now the highest in the nation.
Isn’t it just too beautiful? The corrupt city-state that is Chicago and gave us Dear Leader, has the highest gas prices. Proof there is a God and He is just.
I have long been of the opinion that what the world needs is a simple book called “Epistemology for Dummies”. Well, it seems that some publishing company has trademarked that kind of tag, but you get the idea. Nonetheless, what we know, and what we think we know, and what we think that we thought that we knew, is a fascinating topic for endless speculation.
YALE turned down 20,000,000$ because the string attached was ‘use it to teach western culture’!
Now its liberalism bites it on the ass…
the feminists are after them [I cant blame em]..
On March 31, 2011, the Office of Civil Rights announced an investigation of Yale University for possible violation of Title IX. Sixteen Yale students submitted the complaint two weeks before, arguing that Yale is a sexually hostile environment, which prevents women from participating in campus life as fully as men. If the university is found to violate Title IX, and fails to come into compliance, its federal funding will be revoked. Last year, Yale’s federal funding was $510.4 million.
Under Title IX, no educational institution that receives federal money can discriminate on the basis of sex. This discrimination can take many forms, from unequal pay and athletic funding to sexual harassment.
‘A college education does not interfere with a well-rounded person’
See the post at 9.49 this morning…then say that!
asia,
This can not possibly be. Yale is a school in the North that has given us a multitude of honest, able leaders. This is a lie, plain and simple.
Thanks Tim for your advice. I’ve also received input from others at my website – my thanks to them also. It really helps to get some perspective from others. What you’re doing makes a lot of sense. My present wage slavery will get the land (mostly) paid off and me a pension in ten years. My question is whether society slips on the banana peel of destiny before or after that. In your situation, you’re set come what may – you have a local job, woodlot, paid-off land, bio-fuels. My dilemma is to find the best path to reach the self-sufficient point where you are. If I take the rural route, I’ll have the land to grow a lot of food and renewable energy for energy independence. The key then, like you say, is reducing living standards to realistic levels. That I can do. My main problem will be paying the mortgage and taxes. I’m going to have to search high and low for a local income: self-employment or more wage slavery. Others tell me I shouldn’t underestimate how much one can grow in the city (see http://urbanhomestead.org/). I guess I’ll have to determine where I can best find local income: city or rural.
I really appreciate hearing from you on this.
gerrit
http://www.gerritbotha.com
“My main problem will be paying the mortgage and taxes.”
If your main problem is paying a mortgage, you may want to consider renting. There are a lot of rural property owners looking for renters. That plus the fact that the old “house as investment” theory is crumbling. And if you don’t own, you don’t have to worry about property taxes.
Got the Electric Bikes yesterday! They actually look more like scooters. Silly how these things put such a big smile on my face. PV+EV
You may not agree with me,but the solution and answer to most of our “big”problems are, …potholes”,yes you heard right,the bigger the potholes get(without having any funds to fill them)the more we will all yearn for commuter trains and street cars.
“You may not agree with me,but the solution and answer to most of our “big”problems are…”
I
Yeah, but it’s a double-edged sword in our culture. We farm cooperatively with the landowners, who pay the farm expenses and the taxes, and the simplicity for us IS nice, but their say-so carries more weight than ours does, no matter how hard they try to make it all seem equal. It’s their place. Even planting one fruit tree is a leap of faith on our part, faith that we’ll get along even long enough to reap a tiny harvest 3 years from now. And I planted 40 this spring, everything from figs, plums, and pomegranates, to olives, walnuts and pecans.
Obviously we’re all getting comfortable with each other pretty quickly, but our situation has got to be weird. I know it is for us. Although there seems to be some baseline supply of older folks with land interested in young families that want to farm. I hope people are open to some new ideas, because we aren’t going to get it done the way we’ve been doing it for the last 60 years or so.
I hear Yale has a problem with its fraternities. They should rid themselves of such vermin.
SJmom
I get the pot hole idea but I think its more encompassing. The thing that will solve our “big problems” are even bigger problems. We ain’t there yet. Things will have to get so dire and so ominous that even the FUCKTARDS on this site (for instance) will get it.
As a nation, after a disastrous start, we “got” slavery and its attendant horrors. We “got” Hitler and Hirohito and Mussolini. Once we (US) “get” an issue our historic DNA has enabled us to wrestle the problem to the ground.
My hunch is, once again, we’ll “get” our economic/energy dilema and rise to the task. But the fucktards in DC in their efforts to delay the pain are preventing the inevitable “bigger problems” from happening. For that it can only be wished that these bastards will rot in hell in a lake of fucking fire.
This is the reply that effectively ends discussion. You are almost certainly right, but if so, what else is there to yammer on about?
“It’s not right to fool Mother Nature!”
I was wondering about all that – sounds like sharecropping or peasantry. JHK is proving prophetic again. He talks about such neo-medevialism in his first novel. Any chance you could get part of it in the will or do they have kids? Hope it works out but you deserve better. The eternal problem: people with vision have no money and they have to go hat in hand to those who do.
Maybe over time new mores will develop. The old peasants of Western Europe could not be thrown off the land. They had few rights but they had that. Later of course during the “Enlightenment” this right was taken away – without giving them any new rights. Thus they became “eyeless in gaza, at the mill with the slaves”.
Dr. Michio Kaku, Physicist, can see the cost curve of renewable energy becoming cheaper than using fossil fuels for that energy. When this occurs, there will be a dramatic increase in converting over to the cheaper sources.
Combine this with a concerted effort and emphasis by citizens worldwide to conserve, reduce family size & make sustainable living a real goal. Maybe it isn’t too late? I don’t know.
Nice. Do you charge ’em by peddling?
No wonder Dick Cheney dropped out of Yale.
Dick Cheney: a life in public service By Elaine Andrews
Did Elton John go to Yale, too?
“Someone shaved my wife tonight….sugar bear..”
signed,
The Cereal Killer
Tripp said: “I planted 40 this spring, everything from figs, plums, and pomegranates, to olives, walnuts and pecans.”
=====
Does the owner provide the seedlings? Buying all that to plant seems like it could get real expensive real quick… with no guarantee of harvest in three years. Quite an investment.
And close down the so called “women’s center” and “women’s studies” – they teach hatred of Men, America, the West, and of course do all they can to inculcate Dykeism.
Btw, I saw a special about the Fraternities at Yale – some very creepy stuff going on: the freshmen girls are rated during an orientation week and this is posted online. So this rating (along with personal background) is the first thing that faces them in the fall. So much for new beginings, and feelings of joy at a new school and coming adulthood. It’s not right and someone should have a word with these overgrown boys. And if they don’t knock it off they should be closed. With guys like this no wonder so many girls go wrong.
Giant makes an electrical, power assist bicycle for around $1,000. Way cheaper than owning a car and it uses about 1/4 of a cent of electricity per mile. Not hard to hook a trailer to the back to haul goods.
LMC said: “Once we (US) “get” an issue our historic DNA has enabled us to wrestle the problem to the ground.”
==========
I have heard the USA got outwrestled in the war on poverty (wider income spread now than ever), the war on drugs (now spread to rural and urban populations), and the global war on terrorism (AQ has now spread to 60 countries).
Has the USA successfully wrestled any “issues” in the 21st century?
Glad to see that you’re continuing to put out the word about liberal ‘do-gooders’ and mass immigration enthusiasts.
No, but we don’t have to pay any rent either. They’re basically sponsoring our permaculture demonstration site. 7 acres to start with, 300 by the end. I’m not going to complain.
“Maybe it isn’t too late? I don’t know.”
======
As soon as the alternative sources become cheaper there will be a surge driven by market forces. And we all know how powerful that “invisible hand” is!
Obviously I don’t know either… but that means I cannot say it is too late, and I cannot say it is not too late.
If the invisible hand is all it’s cracked up to be, then we do have a fighting chance.
What I believe is that by embracing permaculture you win — which ever way it goes on the macroeconomic scale — local permaculture is a win-win situation.
Vlad, they are childless…
Where do you get figs, plums, and pomegranates, olives, walnuts and pecans for planting. I don’t think they sell the seedlings in WalMart!
I looked up the Giant Bike website, cause I’d like an electric bike.
It asked me to put in a city for the nearest bike dealer.
OK. I put in my city. It gave me a dealer.
Then it told me that the dealer was 1.9 miles from my house.
WTF? The website is tracking my location?
As Marx said, Not a roofer but a man roofing. He said a few good things here and there – outweighted by the hatred and delusion of course.
Joe Lieberman thinks we should supporting the rebels in Syria. War number four anyone? Can you say Israel?
Dude…!
WTF? The website is tracking my location?
========
I get locations for all the CFN posters. Don’t you?
🙂
Seriously, it is not tracking you. It is tracking a router near you, the one you are hooked into for your internet service provider.
Thanks, asoka. That’s better.
However, when I sent an email to my husband, gmail suggested that I send one to my kids also.
How do they know which of my addresses are my family?
And there are advertisements on the side, pegged to the contents of my email.
It’s like that Tom Cruise movie.
Creepy.
Those Aholes could have taken the 20M, saved themselves the same amount and done something to get rid of violent male students and stalkers with the $ saved…Instead they want multiculturalism.
I was at Yale once…1971..to hear Allen Ginsburg sing at a ‘black panther march’!!
Theres some hysterical stuff about Leonard Bernstein raising money back then, trying to ‘save the panthers’….
forget if I saw it in Print or online.
Ah, a grudging compliment.
It wouldn’t work for me, though.
I quit nursing my babies years ago, and yet, I’m a nurse.
Lady GAGA will be the Godmom of Eltons baby!
Sorry about my cost estimate. It looks as though some of Giant’s electric assist hybrids are up in the $2,000 range. This is a lot higher than when I first saw one at a dealer 5 yrs ago.
Wage, do you remember when Zip+5 was instituted?
There were similar concerns about the gub-mint gettin’ too much information about us. Don’t hear a lot of people complaining about Zip+5 today.
I was disappointed though. I thought Zip+5 would have the postal worker delivering the mail under my pillow while I slept. No such luck. No such invasion of privacy.
Who is Lady GAGA?
Is FOX News Correct on this….DID THE TRAITOR IN CHIEF ……ignore Easter…while..
Obama offers wishes for Muslim holiday –
Washington TimesAug 21, 2009 …
Continuing his administration’s outreach efforts to the Islamic world, President Obama has recorded a video greeting to Muslims as they
http://www.washingtontimes.com/…/obama-offers-wishes-muslim-holiday
Yeah, I think it is because the changed from heavier nickle hydride batteries to lighter, smaller, but more expensive, lithium ion batteries.
Is FOX News Correct on this
=======
I sure hope so. We don’t want 1.5 Billion Muslims to be our enemies, so I’m glad Obama is reaching out to them. Smart statesmanship on Obama’s part, just as Bush was smart to always say we are not at war with Islam.
Really?
One of my idiot goats got her head stuck in the fence, and a couple of nice policemen stopped to help me try to wrestle her out.
I heard on the police radio the dispatcher informing them that my husband was at Town Square giving an anti-war speech!
Seriously? They’re tracking us?
They were wrong though. The speech was over by 2 hours.
For those of you who are not too depressed by the banana peel of destiny, there is an event coming this Sunday that might lighten your spirit … if as a doomster that is still possible.
World Laughter Day is this coming Sunday, May 1st. Celebrations have been planned worldwide. All you have to do is get together and laugh. Tens of thousands of people will do the same all over the world. The laws of physics (which many doomsters believe in) will guarantee the results (both physiological and psychological).
http://www.worldlaughterday.org/
Wage, this is serious. They are tracking you. It was no coincidence the police were there to “help” you.
You wouldn’t by any chance be part of those dangerous pacifist Quakers or radical librarians or Veterans for Peace that the Bush government spent so much time and money infiltrating?
You should live on the steet near the White House. Then you could protest everyday and finally be happy. You could keep a goat with you for company and milk. Maybe it will get its head stuck in the White House fence. You’d be famous!
Remember the guy dressed up as a giant toothbrush who confronted Clinton? I know him! Went to his house once for a party! When I wore a younger man’s clothes and thought I was like those people. But I am a goat not a sheep – and it has made all the difference.
Thank You JHK but especially Thank You NICKELTHROWER.
Your description of how you taught History was immensely inspiring. Wish I had you for a teacher back then…. JHK would have been an inspiring Teacher as well.
Thanks
Wage,
It could be nothing. In fact, it is very possible that the 1.9 miles refers to the distance from the city center location that you entered. If so, nothing sinister there.
However, I have personally seen websites that automatically track the location (at least the general loation to with 10 mi.) of the communicating computer, presumably by pinging the IP for an address or something (way outside my field right now, so no clue beyond that)
You could have picked up that kind of tracking cookie from any number of websites, they are so ubiquitous today. I’ve seen message boards that automatically ken your general location when you post there.
This has been going on for about three or four years, since the use of these apps has skyrocketed.
And why not? Who’s to stop them? Conscience? Concern for others’ privacy and the greater good? Worry about a Tragedy of the Commons? The righteous wrath of the puppet-like weak-minded parrot-Teabaggers? The Democratic Leadership? The Marketing VP in charge of Web Development?
Not much stopping the Corporate Powers now – no law, no fear of exposure or of an independant media or, frankly, of an American populace with any critical thinking skills at all, anymore, much more so in a collective sense than an individual sense.
Only the rapidly decaying morays of what was once truly a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world, and yes, even with our faults, flaws and atrocities in our national history, though I certainly respect that you might disagree with that. (the beacon of freedom thing, not the faults and flaws)
I still maintain that the best system (if there is one) is the US Constitution and governmental structure as it evolved post-Civil War approaching and for a couple decades beyond FDR New Deal Capitalism. Pity that era could not have been coexistant with greater civil rights and economic opportunites for all which came later and then pretty much ended with the stolen election in 2000, when TPTB, I think, realized stuff was moving towards collapse faster than they thought so it was time to stop pretending and playing liberal democracy and time to show Caesar’s Fist.
So they just told the American Subjects “Fuck off, WE decide who rules you Filthy Little Nobodies,” and then they did just that.
And nobody said boo. The United States of America died without a whimper and all the rest since then has been seeking the national grave, for our nation had, even before 2000, already lost it’s soul to treacle of Clinton’s Wall Street Feel Good Candy and the Iron Fist of the Bush Family (which includes their “other sons” Clinton and Obama, not to mention senile old Alzheimer Daddy Reagan, who let Poppy and Dick run the show) and the Gingrich/Graham Congresses, of course. Phil and Wendy Graham were the Ferengi who put big chunks of the massive economic thefts in place and undoubtedly have reaped hundreds of millions or even billions in hidden Caymans Island funds, as I’ll bet you already know.
Clinton put on a better show for us and pretended to put up a better fight for us worthless peasants and even trickled down on us a little (how angry that made Poppy Bush, America’s REAL ruler!), unlike Reagan, both Bushlers, and Obama, but I think that was because the marketing demanded it at that time.
The marketing demographics and mass psychology today don’t even require that little bit of pretend anymore, so naturally Obama can drop that part of the act and ship the extra profits of to his Bush family pals through bloated MIC contracts, same as always, only much more vast, and openly brazenly committed without shame or fear
Now the Titanic is severly listing, and all the Rich Folk are packing as many guns, burly security personnel and valuables into the fewer and fewer remaining lifeboats. Not just their own valuables, either. Because all that’s our is only ours because they let us have it temporarily, and it was always understood that if the going got tough the Rich would be taking back their crumbs.
But over in the lounge, it’s free drinks for all and if you put on a good enough buzz you can forget the six inch list and the sounds of rushing water from below.
Is that a Liszt mazurka they are playing? Beautiful.
And you think Hilary isn’t just as “bought and paid for”? And I can’t see her unplugging a toilet either.
Same old Cartman. No matter how long I go away and then pop back in, your Nazi indefatigability as keyboard warrior astonishes.
Well, either that or you have no life.
Before you respond to me, be forewarned. I won’t engage you unless you first answer the question I posed long ago to you when you began discussing the topic in a serious vein.
Who is the worse, more evil Jewish Gollum fighting to enslave the White race? Bugs Bunny or the Incredible Hulk?
Remember that, Cartman? When you completely seriously declared the Marvel Comic Universe to be a bunch of Evil Jewish Gollums defending evil Jewish interests?
I always will, because it truly is irrevocable proof that you are as dim as you try not to seem.
So, if you first answer my question, and answer it as seriously as when you brought it up the first time, of who is the worse (or, shall we say, more successful) Evil Jewish Gollum, Bugs Bunny or the Incredible Hulk?
Answer that first, and we can have a conversation about whatever you want. Otherwise, thanks for the nothing and piss off. (chuckle)
As a Canadian I can’t say I’d be real thrilled if 50 million or so Americans walked across the border into Canada. But then again, maybe everyone in the US is so happy nobody would ever do it.
I’ve heard about this kind of New Age travesty. Nothing is more grotesque than people making themselves laugh. Tasteless as ever. In you past life you were one of the mob crying “Give us Barrabas”.
Just a comment about http://www.urbanhomestead.org – did you know that the Dervaes family (owners of the urban homestead/Path to Freedom website) has now trademarked, or copyrighted, not sure which, the term “Urban Homestead” and are threatening legal action against anybody else who is using it? I used to have a lot of respect for them and what they are doing, but no more.
I didn’t get all caught up in the SuperObamaMan adulation the day Obama won the election. I could have gone into a coma the day before, woken up today, and not be able to tell you which one of the contenders was running the country based on how things are today. The only constant is the Cars, lots and lots of huge, ugly, swollen-looking SUVs, same as it ever was.
What? Is this because I said WHITE House? Your question is very poorly phrased and makes no sense – please redo. Jews have dominated comics as they have most mass media. Sorry if that doesn’t fit into your antifa worldview. As for race: check this out – it has gone viral and speakes volumes about current American Life:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ec0_1303444048
Now Whites are preyed upon constantly and no one give a shit since we are not a protected group. But it turns out that the young lady is actually transgendered – a protected group. Drastic consequences now threaten the two Negroid Thugettes. Gay now trumps Black in the Grievance Coalition!
A number of Black Male Employees besides the camera man were just standing around shucking and jiving while the “girl” was being beaten half to death. The only one who helped was an elderly White Lady. This video will awaken many Whites – the Truth trumps your illusions.
Creepy stuff at Yale….definately. As a woman, I feel like I’ve put up with a fair amount of bad stuff.
* In high school everyone had to pass down a conjested walkway to get from lunch to classrooms. The football and waterpolo jocks would line up and give us girls a rating from 1 to 10. It was horrible, but we never complained.
* In high school Sunday school class, they passed a role around class and the guys would put a number down for each girl. No girl ever got a score higher than five. We didn’t complain to the teacher.
* When I worked at Baylor College of Medicine I rode my ladies bicycle to work everyday. I was often bothered by wolf whistles. My boss suggested I wear a scarf or hat to hide my long blonde hair.
* When I went on business trips (for a computer company) we were often taken to dinner by the local sales staff (frat boys) They’d take us corporate types out on the town. It was dreadful. Not wanting to go dancing (sheesh, I’m married), I’d have to take a taxi to my hotel alone. For some reason, I have a big fear of being alone in a taxi at night–I feel too vulnerable.
The list could go on and on Vlad. I’m not particularly feminist, but I totally understand why there are “Women’s Studies.” I’ve lived my life being fearful of strange men.
Jen
What a society – everything is about money. Susan Komen sues any group who uses “for the cure” – so much for the cause of breast cancer. Many say that very little of the money raised ever gets to the research people.
The Maharishi actually looked into copywriting the ancient Vedic Mantras. What a quick study he was.
Replied to LARRYMOECURLY
LARRYMOECURLY, You insult others too easily and feign apology in the same unfortunate manner.
So let’s raise the bar here a bit, shall we?
The best advice I ever got from a lawyer was “Never spoil an apology with an excuse”. Your lame “I didn’t take my meds” voids any sincerity in your apology.
If we wish to be respected and taken seriously, we could start with posting comments worth reading.
Yes, very sad. But Feminism is not the answer: it is thoroughly Marxist and only cares about the Marxist program of changing the world – not individual women. Thus they have made common cause with the Muslims in Europe and say nothing about the epidemic of Muslim rape of White Women. Nor do they care that in Muslim areas, White women have to cover their heads or be harassed. You think America and American Men are bad? You aint seen nothing compared to what’s coming from these people. And Feminism will say nothing – they are only interested in the Anti-White Man narrative.
Men will talk about Women amongst themselves. I have done it but I would never humiliate women by cat calling. But when a woman becomes involved with a friend, any and all “talk” about her becomes forbidden around the friend. Now with women it’s a completely different story: they will talk about a man’s most intimate details with their friends. Men have a higher standard in this area at least.
Enjoy the radiation.
There is a belief that when the cost of gasoline goes over 5% of GDP there will be a recession in 60 to 180 days. Gas went over 5% some time ago anybody have an exact date? Do we expect a recession? How will the president pump the economy for his re-election bid? When will that start?
Your fears are realistic.
Why public schools refuse to create a safe environment I do not know. I worked at a private Sudbury Valley type school we had no such issue. If we did the violator would have been written up directly by the offended and it would have been judged by the judicial committee composed of three students and one staff. It would be a clear violation of the school law requiring respect for others.
New York State dad 52
“Only the rapidly decaying morays of what was once truly a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world, ..”
Hancock as E. once said to me, I love when you go off in a rant…
You really just laid out the predicament of our polity so well. I think the only thing I would add is that the ideology of Milton Friedman of unfettered business and trade gave the greed thing total legitimacy. After all he did get
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976.
Earlier you spoke about this being inverted communism and I would just like to remind you of an early posting on this site of mine:
[What we have here in my opinion is a global form of Trotsky re-engineered to flow money to the top from the masses, destroying Labor rather than building economies of strength.
Thanks Milton Friedman! What a clever guy–so you read Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution.]
————
Wage, I don’t blame you for feeling a bit creeped out by the tracking of your location. Now that it’s come out in the news, I wonder what the reaction and follow through will be.–oh well maybe it will all fade away just in time for the Royal wedding…while we all have to undergo austerity and the end of our standard of living.
Austerity just what the global bankers and global corporations did to Argentina. They took ownership of everything. So too for Greece and the PIIGS and then US. US federal lands about 30% of US will be sold, US ports and airports, waterways and water rights, any public utilities, public buildings (i.e. city hall as they have already done in San Francisco), fishing rights in the ocean will be sold to private ownership, etc….. back to work debt slave
Vlad said: “Nothing is more grotesque than people making themselves laugh.”
===========
LOL! I guess you won’t be participating?
Hasya Yoga is one of many paths, Vlad.
Thanks for your comment, though.
Sunday all I have to do is remember it, and how grotesque I must look, and I will laugh!
I love to laugh at myself. I look into the mirror and make faces at myself and break out laughing.
“How will the president pump the economy for his re-election bid? ”
=========
He will pull a rabbit out of his hat and win re-election with ease. Especially since he has no credible opposition (other than Gary Johnson)
You ARE Laughable – so we agree in a way, just not the way you would like. Real Laughter come from the depths – it is not subject to the personality’s control. You just make yourself robotic and therefore laughable. I don’t laugh with you but at you. Can’t help it. You’re a Man trying to be God but acting like a machine. You might try clowning instead – you’d be a natural.
James Howard … this part made me belly laugh:
“a case could be mounted by God’s attorney general – if he has one – that Mr. Obama abetted a gigantic conspiracy in fraudulent financial paper which makes the oil speculators look like shoplifters in a Kentucky WalMart.”
Yes, it’s all THAT surrealistic.
E.
James I appreciate what you have written today. Yes, Obama has begun to hear the anger over rising oil/gas prices, yet has been mum on the fact that this nation has been stolen away by the corporate Wall Street elite shipping jobs overseas to nations that produce a whole lot of crap to sell back to the US. As they feel more affluent, the new rising middle class Asian workers buy vehicles and do more traveling.
US usage of gasoline is not increasing. As drivers pay more, they drive less. But, I guess, that is not the case in surplus nations.
The average American has been betrayed by its government representatives and now, they feel that The Donald, or some other GOPster is the answer. Unbelievable! And, Obama feels even though he has been the President with No Vision, as well as the Grand Betrayer to his electorate, he has The Man From GE to bring in the oligarch’s cash for re-election.
http://moontownshippa.blogspot.com
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
Yep, allas good to hear a Hancock Holler!
Here’s one for yez both.
(Short slice that explains why I’m disheartened, but tend to laugh… way too much. I don’t see a “way out”, or any continuation of BAU; the only way out is through. Whatayagonnadoo-oo? So much potential; so much waste.)
***
“…Sheldon Wolin points out in “Democracy Incorporated” that this configuration of corporate power, which he calls “inverted totalitarianism,” is not like “Mein Kampf” or “The Communist Manifesto,” the result of a premeditated plot. It grew, Wolin writes, from “a set of effects produced by actions or practices undertaken in ignorance of their lasting consequences.” -Chris Hedges
***
See what happens while we’re all busy getting as much shit as we can possibly pile?
The rest:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27964.htm
Elton is pregnant? Is that possible? What next – women marrying other women!?
Elton’s sense of fashion is the ultimate expression of nihilism and the glorifcation of caricature.
Jim, why are you always assuming that Obama is completely clueless on all topics energy-related? I am positive he has at least a better idea of what’s “going on” than you or any one else on this blog, yet so many of your posts start by chastizing him as misguided.
Obama’s energy adviser is a Nobel Prize winner in physics and a worldwide expert on Peak Oil and Climate Change. Obama and Chu have a close working relationship, and Chu briefs Obama all the time about this stuff.
The US government is pouring money into batteries, solar tech, electric cars, efficiency improvements, wind, alternative energy storage mechanisms, rail/trains, etc. And you can tell by a cursory search for “obama green tech” or something similar on the internet. (even though the country is BROKE which should show you they see this all as a priority)
You can call the whole shebang a misguided boondoggle if you wish, but they are at least trying and the money is going where the mouth is located. I think it is all a lost cause, because, you know, being embedded in the American culture along with you, I’m guessing this oil-based, big box, free credit, hedonistic wet dream isn’t changing by Executive Branch decree (which is something JHK and I probably agree upon).
I am amused by this oft-proposed idea that the president can be completely blunt with everyone.
“I’m sorry folks. The endless capitalist growth machine is running out of resources to consume, so you’re all going to have to dial back your California lifestyles a notch or two. The government is so broke that we will soon have Argentinian style inflation. But rest assured that you will receive enough to buy dog food with your meager SS check once you reach the eligibility age of 78. Gas is going to hit $10 a gallon as our nation slides down the slippery backside of the Peak Oil curve. The millions of Americans who can no longer afford housing, food, and transportation on the wages from their miserable service jobs will become the New Poor. Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of FEMA tent camps and prisons for these people if they become unruly. Here’s a tip. You might want to stock up on guns, ammunition, food, and water, before this whole shit house comes crashing down.”
A great many people want to believe lies, hence the popularity of religion.
Hope & Change…oh yes, it sounds religious. Faith-based Hopey Changiness for everyone. Bullshit lies…but that’s what they all do in order to get elected, because….people like lies, not the cold hard truth.
Few want the truth about the various predicaments, quandaries, and clusterfucks that we’ve unleashed on this globe. They want to believe that the good times will never end for them, the economic growth will continue forever, and civilization will drive into the sunset on an ocean of abiotic oil. We can just clean up all the “pollution” at some later date, including radioactive waste that is toxic to humans for one hundred thousand years. We are not making the earth warmer. God put the entire planet here for us to consume. Let’s get cracking. Next up, the technological singularity and sending spaceships into wormholes. If you wish upon a star…
And regarding unfucking the situation, I would like to extend that metaphor a bit. If you create an unwanted child, then you cannot unfuck to get rid of it. Our big problems cannot simply be shrunk up and drowned in the bathtub, because they have grown up and left the house.
The latest in good news…
-American manufacturing on an uptick.
-Unemployment rate now below 9% for first time in awhile.
-Tech company hiring boom.
Spring is here. Enjoy the CF.
Yes, I’m familiar with the problems of Wikipedia, which is why I chose it as the source for my imaginary musing of the Grist.org editors…
And yes, I too have heard of Sea Ray, and seen the dramatic video footage:
http://youtu.be/B56-Vt5h004
(Warning: may not be safe to view at work if you are not allowed to fall asleep on the job)
Maybe your car will be powered by some bobbing buoy contraption before you die, but right now most of the 55 million cars sold last year, if they were all electric, would run chiefly on coal or gas–remember the reality department?
I was pointing out just one of the many ways we are blind when it comes to cars, and to what lengths even editors of major environmental websites will go to delude themselves and their readers.
The problem with cars is not one simply of fuel, but of the kind of environment they create. The mass produced automobile transformed humans into consumers, dismantled our communities and uglified our land. It promised freedom and gave us the suburban life. As Jim says in his essay above:
I’m convinced that we are committing cultural suicide by using all the cars the way we do, so I am not the one to look to for rescue remedies in this department. In fact, I am serenely persuaded that we would vastly improve our chances of remaining civilized if we gave up on mass motoring and deployed ourselves on the landscape differently.
I agree with this statement, and I think it should be one of the core ideas in tackling the many problems we face in the world. But we’re all Dick Cheneys and Charlton Hestons when it comes to our cars, and soon every person in China, India, etc., etc. will feel the same. By then it won’t matter if you run ’em on gas, corn, Mountain Dew, or the dried remnants of all the banana peels of destiny.
Most, but not all. Many have sold their cars and changed their lifestyles to embrace public transport and walkable communities.
Of course, for those who do not own a car, there is always the option in many urban areas of ZipCars (here is a list of cities with ZipCars: http://www.zipcar.com/cities )
To say “we’re all Dick Cheneys” just is not true. There is a surging earth-friendly consciousness, one that is growing, one that is not of the have-to-own-my-own-car variety of consciousness.
“We knew this would happen for a couple-few cycles, and that then things would get… more interesting.”
That’s why we hang onto your every word, JHK. The Freak Show of American culture (hollywood) and politics (Stage Show of the right/left paradigm) and finance (Elite Banking Families) is getting monotonous. But your solution (of giving up our lifestyle to live logically) runs so counter to human nature as to be ridiculous.
Do you have any other suggestions? Or shall we just get it over now and burn down the tent?
“I don’t laugh with you but at you.”
========
In Hasya Yoga, both are equally valid.
“Fake it till you make it” really works when you are disposed to laugh and willing to laugh at your own grotesqueness.
If you are laughing at me… Mission accomplished!
First off, let me apologize for making a total *@$$* out of myself, 3 weeks ago. I’ve still been reading/following this blog. I’ve got an interesting story for you all, that may/may not be of any interest *WHATSOEVER*.
Apparently, 2 days ago, FacePlant deleted all my YouTube video links, which consisted of 98% songs that I’ve got on CD’s I purchased. Not only that, but they prevented me from posting any new YouTube content. I just deleted my FacePlant account, and it feels like a major weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
So, as a warning to you all, this is *NOT* the land of *FREE SPEECH*. Get ready for mega-filters. Anyways, don’t ride Asoka’s @$$ too hard – he tries!!!
“I’m convinced that we are committing cultural suicide by using all the cars the way we do, so I am not the one to look to for rescue remedies in this department. In fact, I am serenely persuaded that we would vastly improve our chances of remaining civilized if we gave up on mass motoring and deployed ourselves on the landscape differently.”
That’s Jim’s starting point, and why he throws such a hissy fit about people trying to save cars, even though the problems caused by cars can be separated from the problems caused by fossil-fuel-burning internal combustion engines. They even can be separated from the problems of generating electricity from fossil fuels, as well. Whether they will is another matter entirely.
What a fucking govt-(6-fig-salaried-stalka)-troll. JIM, pls – *PLZ*!!! Enough of the trolls, let’s discuss *SOLUTIONS*.
The trolls are *SO OBVIOUS* – do I even need to *tag* them?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?
At the beginning cars were like phones, something to use when you need them.
If both had remained what they were born for, not only life would still be human, but the environment would be better, the wallet fuller and oil abundant.
The car has become an extension of the legs and in certain cases the artificial legs.
Telephones are the new communication media.
In many cases to talk to somebody who is one meter apart they need a phone.
People are not able to write without a computer and are not able to speak without a phone.
We are slowly becoming the robots we wanted to create, the slaves we wanted to have.
Song time – Al stewart-style:
What if you reached, the *age of reason*?!?
LOL!!! you know it!!!
Other Hindu scamsters….Sai just died, he took like 10 billion $ from the west!
And Bikram [he of the BevHills Mansion and Hot Yoga]
luvs to sue people..he did copyright yogas pose series.
and srisri bling bling
Henry Plantagenat!!! The *second*? LOLz, I think there’s a wedding *INCOMING*!!!
Most Gay bashings are by blacks or more correctly
the race most likely to bash are young blacks.
Some call out Jehovah, some cry out to Allah!!!
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!~!@!
Asia? You are the *PENULTIMATE* spammer. C’est *TOUT*.
Solutions?
1. Quit guzzling gasohol.
2. Quit *breeding liek ratz*.
3. Quit consuming/polluting liek mother earth wants your toxins.
4. QUIT POLLUTING, LIEK MOTHER EARTH wants your toxins.
WTF. Wake up, already.
I think this account follows in the footsteps of my FacePlant account I deleted. It whuz fun while it lasted – bye!!!
Sai was gay apparently – he tried to get young men’s sperm when hugging them – for magical purposes. Do you think he had real siddhi or was it just good sleigh of hand?
JHK writes: “To go a step further, I’m convinced that we are committing cultural suicide by using all the cars the way we do, so I am not the one to look to for rescue remedies in this department. In fact, I am serenely persuaded that we would vastly improve our chances of remaining civilized if we gave up on mass motoring and deployed ourselves on the landscape differently.”
Comment: I’m now reading David Harvey’s book “The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism”, an excellent book.
According to Harvey, Capital is a process, and Capitalism’s survival requires the following: the compounding accumulation of capital. For compound capital accumulation to occur, Capitalists must always find new projects to invest in to absord surplus capital to generate new profits in order to keep the Capitalist system going. Capitalism is always finding new ways using new technology, new forms of organization, etc. to overcome barriers to capital accumulation and the absorption of capital.
In other words, the crap of our consumer economy with its superfluous consumerism is not an accident. Capitalism created Suburbia, the automobile, Happy Motoring, etc. because Capitalism needed these in order to absorb surplus capital and generate new profits.
If one gets rid of Suburbia and Happy Motoring and downsizes (i.e., reduces the collective “carbon footprint”), then one is undermining new outlets to absorb surplus capital, and generate new profits. Capitalism collapses.
Also, the 2 principal elements of Capitalism are Land (i.e., Capital) and Labour. Land = the Means of production, which includes Energy. According to Harvey, what made Capitalism possible was cheap, abundant energy, first, coal and the steam engine, then oil. Without cheap, abundant energy (oil), production cannot expand and there are no more new avenues created to absorb surplus Capital, and, in turn, generate new profits. Absent the promise of profits, Capitalists go on strike, and Capitalism collapses.
To consume no more petrol, I suggest you to use an electric car.
It’s been years since I drive in a Renault Kangoo Elect’Road, and I’m happy every day.
Passionate about ecology, I have done my job. For more information, please visit my site:
http://www.energie-ecologie-economie.com/Produits.html
Asoka wrote: Many have sold their cars and changed their lifestyles to embrace public transport and walkable communities.
Hmmm. I guess it would help to know what number “many” represents, as opposed to the 50 something million cars that were sold last year, quite a percentage of which were sold to virgin buyers. I’ve seen a number of “walkable communities.” The lovely term “transportation-oriented development” has been usurped by developers, and, if the plans I’ve seen proposed (and in some cases developed) in my neck of the woods are any indication, they will only exacerbate the problems of automobile proliferation.
A:Of course, for those who do not own a car, there is always the option in many urban areas of ZipCars
Many of those people would not have had a car in the first place. I lived in Manhattan for 16 years without owning a car. I would have probably used zipcar if it were available.
A: To say “we’re all Dick Cheneys” just is not true. There is a surging earth-friendly consciousness, one that is growing, one that is not of the have-to-own-my-own-car variety of consciousness.
I’ve been to many a talk and lecture about climate change, resource shortages, peak oil, transportation-oriented development, etc. etc. I assume some of the attendees possess an “earth-friendly” consciousness, but, with the exception of an occasional hipster on a bike, everyone got in their cars and drove home–mostly alone. While people’s consciousness may be of the “not have my own car” variety, roughly 99.9 percent are not walking the walk, and likely never will until forced to go cold turkey.
My post this week is just a long post I wrote for CFN yesterday that got moderated out of existence. Rather than get frustrated I share it with you this way.
http://smallbatchgarden.blogspot.com/2011/04/life-in-energy-descent-land.html
Cheers!
“…the 2 principal elements of Capitalism are Land (i.e., Capital) and Labour. Land = the Means of production, which includes Energy.
That puzzles me, since the thing about, say, a gallon of gas is the amazing amount of horse or human power it contains, roughly estimated at about 3 weeks of human work. I would think it should go under the Labor category.
According to Harvey, what made Capitalism possible was cheap, abundant energy, first, coal and the steam engine, then oil. Without cheap, abundant energy (oil), production cannot expand and there are no more new avenues created to absorb surplus Capital, and, in turn, generate new profits. Absent the promise of profits, Capitalists go on strike, and Capitalism collapses.
There were plenty of profits to be had in the marketplace before cheap energy. The problem is that cheap energy hypertrophies the marketplace, including the need to create goods, the increase in greed among many of the participants, etc. Increasing capacity so dramatically with cheap energy removes the human scale of the marketplace.
Although with our opposable thumbs and language and large cerebral mass we’ve come up with a strip mall full of ingenious stuff, we have yet to design a truly effective governor for keeping some of our instincts from unhealthy expression, religion and other attempts notwithstanding. Cheap energy is fuel for that fire.
Things are getting interesting in Libya. It doesn’t look like Khadafi is going anywhere but is in it for the long haul. France seems to have lost interest in the whole operation, but his week NATO (us) deployed that scourge of the Arab world, unmanned aircraft (drones) armed with hellfire missiles. Another Khadafi family compound was demolished in what looks like an assasination attempt on the Tribal Leader himself. Just like with Reagan back in ’83.
-Marlin
CFNation YD Post 1
New England Chapter
Cartman,
As I have often said to authoritarian types, both Left and Right, “Are you really that obtuse or are you intentionally acting dumb?”
(tip of the hat to Shawshank Redemption, evil Jew-written movie that it was, for that very apt line I riffed)
Can you not remember how you feel about comics, nor how you let it slip that day, making you look even more foolish than usual?
You specifically mentioned “Evil Jewish Gollums”, or something VERY close to it.
I could search back and pull up the very quote, but to waste more of my time on the likes of you? Not bloody likely.
Knowing that your core belief of fascism is a philosophy which, like Soviet Communism and other Authoriratian philosophies, Right and Left, carries mendacity as their very core value is mendacity as a means of achieving ends, it would be equally foolish to take you at your word on anything.
Therefore, I hear you like I hear Glenn Beck, the Bush Family, or Joe Stalin: When the choice comes down to stupidity or mendacity, choose mendacity every time.
Because none of the people I mentioned are stupid, nor are you.
Anyway, you didn’t answer my question, choosing instead to reply with your usual misdirection and lies, of which you usually do a better job.
I mean, c’mon…”I don’t remember”?!? That’s a piss poor Nazi propaganda effort if I ever saw one. Plus, it took you three times being asked that question over the last months before you even TRIED to Glenn Beck or Josef Goebbels me back. What’s up with that, you cowardly Jew? A Nazi fascist doesn’t shirk from battle, he charges to meet it, like a Valahalla Aryan Warrior of old!
(apologies to any Jewish readers; I hope it’s obvious I am mocking Vlad and his Nazi pals with such comments)
What would Goebbels say? He would be pretty disappointed in you now, I think.
Really? Baby Boomers are the problem! The are the ones that ok’d all of this crap that we have to deal with now. And to make it better we have to try and save SS and medicare so you people can continue to destroy the world. The old saying about leaving a better world for your kids is bullshit and the Baby Boomers have left their kids with the bill (Great parenting skills).
Plan Nine from Outer Space
BTW, JHK, liked the reference to Todd Browning’s Freaks. That’s exactly how I see the American polity right now, but I don’t totally blame them, since our corporate-owned media refuse to discuss reality with them. I really do believe many more people would have accepted reality than the fringe, who live in illusions.
Pucker Talked about Capitalism this morning and David Harvey’s book “The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism”
But as I see it the problem is we aren’t really practicing classical capitalism. It’s a distortion, monetizing debt and destroying the natural environment in supply side as opposed to demand side.
That means things that are not necessary for the market are being produced without smart planning, just a money making boondoggle for a select group of business.
We also have gone around the world, Argentina for only one of many examples, as Turkel metntioned. We entice these countries to go into debt and then send the IMF and World Bank to impose austerity programs and privatize the commons to pay off the banks.–Sound familiar?
Don’t forget, Goldman Sachs advised Greece to lie abut their debts in order to enter into the Euro.
Don’t believe these guys were just stupid and greedy–It’s right out of the Milton Friedman handbook disaster capitalism.
The final result may be a flattened world as Tom Friedman calls it.
All countries should have the same relatively low standard of living with an overlord class of wealthy doing business everywhere without boundaries, standards or quality control.
Check out that as the right wing wants to smash public education since everything must be privatized, we will enter a new class system and some are even pushing to change child labor laws…will debtor prisons be far behind?
Hancock,
It’s very obvious to me that, despite all posturing to the contrary, Vlad has always been a man without a tribe. The real spectacle of blitzkrieg in Vlad’s world would be timing how fast any fascist organization kicked his contrarian ass to the curb, or worse. Or how long before Vlad grew weary of the idiots surrounding him. Vlad is truly a man for the shadows, with a little Rembrandt light revealing a very lone dapple.
Great blog post, Tripp! What a grand description you make of a life well lived, sir.
I would like to chat with you privately about something, but when I looked around your blog, there was no direct email listed or anything for contact.
I can understand why you might not want to list your email address on your blog or in this thread at CFN.
Given all that, is there a way we can take our conversation private and off-blog? I am pretty computer illiterate, so if you have any ideas let me know.
The only one I can think of is making a “throwaway email” address for interface with people one meets on the internet.
Either way, I look forward to conversing with you privately, and hope there’s a way to do that.
Good rant, Hancock, although I think you have some blinders about the past.
The bike shop is in the center of town. I live about 2 miles from the center of town.
I bought this house with the view to being able to walk or bike to town when TSHTF.
On the privacy thing, I emailed my son, who is on a business trip and apparently bored, so he replied and explained that it’s worse than I thought.
THEN, gmail sent him the following link, showing that they are tracking the contents of our emails pretty closely-(I complained about the ads)
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=1217362
He also sent me this link-
http://xkcd.com/713/
That’s one heckuvan observation, but now that you mention it, it certainly does ring true.
I would caution of the dangers of analyzing people we’ve never really met, as people as individuals are more varied and surprising than the way TPTB easily manages and handles our collective psyche so easily in large groups.
However, what you say has a ring of truthiness to me.
Or, to put it another way, Cartman could never be anything more than an Ernst Roehm in any fascist takeover, shot to death in bed with his homsexual lover – or wasthat just another Nazi lie – who knows? Who cares?
The point is that history would remember Cartman as being shot in bed with is homsexual lover and that would be that. And even 66 years AFTER the Nazi defeat, ol’ Ernst is still remembered as one of history’s many virulently anti-gay, closeted gay Right Wingers.
Good one, Buck!
I would suggest that you rent the video “Taken for a Ride”.
It has footage of anguished people fighting to keep their public transportation in LA, San Francisco, and other places.
It didn’t matter. General Motors, Firestone and Standard Oil were actually convicted of conspiracy to destroy public transportation, aided and abetted by the Federal Government’s trillion dollar highway building plans.
They were fined a dollar for the transgression.
There are a lot of people in big cities who don’t bother with cars. Remember how New Orleans was triaged?
People with cars could get out. People without couldn’t.
That left a lot of people.
This “we all love cars” meme is a lot like the “we all love Reagan” thing that I bring up a lot.
It’s bullshit, repeated ad nauseum until we all believe it.
Wage says: “It didn’t matter. General Motors, Firestone and Standard Oil were actually convicted of conspiracy to destroy public transportation, aided and abetted by the Federal Government’s trillion dollar highway building plans.”
That’s quite true. The Interstate Highway System did as much to change the world as the continental railroad. Only problem it was a million times less efficient.
I may or may not have blinders about the past. It’s a matter of perspective, I think.
Taking the long haul of human history as one, I guess I get excited when the “dark Satanic mills that manufacture hell on Earth” (and not just the oil-fueled industrial ones, but all of them going back 8000 years, if you get my drift) abate their remorseless grinding even a little.
But on that we agree to disagree. No worries.
As for things being worse than you think, it’s already very quietly become unimaginably worse on several fronts, not just those you mention.
From VIPR Teams, Soviet-style checkpoints and VIPS to surveillance and civil liberties to BAU in the gulf and now the Arctic Ocean, as well as a dozen other topics, the speed of transition grows by leaps and bounds, it seems, the closer we get to the finish line of the RW Authoritarian Final Solution (whatever that turns out to be, it will be an ugly, endlessly unjust, suffering soul-death for most, I should think).
And if the transition is slower under Obama than under Palin or Trump, what the hell is it going to look like when it gets up to speed?
Further, I know all this even though I am looking at less than 1/3rd of the information that I would have been perusing back when I was politically active. Maybe less.
Which means it’s almost certainly even worse than I think, because there two-dozen MORE items where the transition to full totalitarianism is barreling along at breakneck speed.
Oh well. Maybe the next intelligent species won’t be so proudly ignorant or stupidly short-sighted and thus will survive beyond the cradle.
Unlike our species, which is now drowning in it’s cradle choking on it’s own waste. And with great sadness I must admit that it’s a fate that collectively, we deserve.
How’s THAT for a unpleasant truth that’s most likely to get a person lynched or beaten just by uttering it in public?
Oil speculators are all around the world so I doubt Obama would have any control over traders in London or Hong Kong, etc. But speculators are the only thing that explains the rapid rise in oil prices. There is no actual oil shortage. When was the last time you waited IN LINE to get gas? The 1970s? Because there is NO shortage, speculators jacking up the prices makes sense. Stopping them is probably next to impossible.
Which is why the Local Economy makes a lot more sense than Globalization. Every time we have to rely on the Saudis or any oil producer or the “free” market, we are at their mercy. Investing in alternate, local sources of energy are undoubtedly our best bet. Sure a gas powered car is a wonderful thing — many men live to own a Porsche, a Ferrari, etc. because it eases their descent into the middle age crisis! Look at Top Gear, a popular BBC TV show where old geezers drive fast, fancy cars. Pathetic. Energy descent would be the death of them.
So we either go with lots of mass transit (bring back the train system!) or we install solar panels on our roofs to produce enough energy to operate smart cars. Or we pay through the nose to drive our own personal cars. I’m going with the locally produced energy because the Tea Party won’t let us set up clean energy systems (too cheap and dumb to see the Big Picture) and how long can we go on paying through the nose for fossil fuel. The price of gas will fall again because the glut is building up. And for a while, the Top Gear guys will be very happy but it won’t last for very long.
See, I would have thought that you, of all people, would be about planting trees for future generations, in a selfless Johnny Appleseed kind of way.
Wage, this sounds idealistic. What’s wrong with that? Nothing, I am with you. I fully believe the solutions are here. It only requires that we open our creative eyes and our loving hearts. This can only happen as more and more of us reject the unconscious programming that has brought us our socioeconomic problems.
Awareness is so important, and in the writings one can find here and so many other places these days one is aided in this. It is not, however, simply an intellectual experience. It must be contemplated, felt, loved and lived.
By the way. Interesting comments on Marx and I partially agree.
However, I must also point out that the same holds true for Jesus Christ, who started out as a Liberal Hippie Socialist trying to convince we peasants to love and help each other instead of kill each other, and convince the rich people that the peasants were human beings and not animals to be manipulated into killing each other for personal profit and gain. Not unlike what Marx was preaching in theory, albeit Marx was “preaching” in a convoluted, overanalytical way.
This may have been the result of the humanities sciences like psychology not having caught up with his thinking and so he could not use those concepts to help describe reality in the 1860s.
But in both cases, Marx and Jesus, each liberal pinko spawned movements capable of the most brutal atrocities, each performed in the name of it’s founder, who likely would have been horrified in either case at their words being used justify horrors and injustice.
But that’s the human species for you. It doesn’t matter WHAT words are being used to justify the Alpha-chimp poopthrowing. Hell, it doesn’t even have to make sense, like using Jesus’ doctrine of “love thy neighbor” and the “sermon on the mount” to justify the many Inquisitions (most notably the Spanish one) or the Iraq Invasion and Resource Grab of 2003.
Thinking for a moment as an animal behavior psychologist (which I am not, but I know quite a bit on the subjct after 10 years of autodidactic study and empirical observation) I would say that Homo Ignoratus (nee Sapiens) only needs to hear a certain grunting cadence and that the actual content of the communication is meaningless when preparing for war (Alpha-chimp poopthrowing with the lives of everyone else as the poop).
Speaking of poop, yes, Marx’s words on flushing feces into the Thames were prescient, but industrial capitalism and it’s monarchist pals were already painting us into a corner by making that the only possible solution given the population density, layout and infrastructure of 19th Century London.
And we still flush our poop into the river. It’s tradition. 😉
“But speculators are the only thing that explains the rapid rise in oil prices. There is no actual oil shortage.”
The thing that all the price increases have in common are fiat currencies. In our case it is the Federal Reserve Note that is losing purchasing power and people selling their stuff require more of them to make up for it.
Look in the menu on the right. Under the “about me” section [with the face photo] is a “contact” section. Read it carefully, and you’ll have it! Write away…
After the complimentary things you said about Harriet?
Then you trash sheep?
What happened to the gentlemen’s vow of silence?
Sai was bogus…as judged by what is on Youtube..
Websearch….’fake Miracles of SAI BABA’..
when he fakes ‘spitting up the egg’ thats a hoot!
Your absolutely right. People live their lives as their options allow. While I’m thinking about it, I think it is silly to talk about TSHTF @ $150, $200, you name it a barrel. My new paradigm:
Look at gas cost per mile driven. Even at $10/gallon, if you drive a Prius, that’s only $0.20/mile. Many middle-class drive 5-6mpg RV’s, which are costing them over $0.60/mile. Given how inefficient our ICE transport system is, and how much more we can improve it, we have a ways to go before gas costs implode the economy.
Thanks for the compliment. Plus, detecting sarcasm on the internet is not my specialty, so no probs.
My view about most people’s intentions is not so cynical, so I think maybe you misinterpret my cynicism level just a bit.
I think most people actually are, for the most part humans being such complex emotional creatures, fairly well-intentioned, particularly in times of freedom and plenty.
It’s just the sociopaths who have always run things have this “There’s never enough a Machiavellian can own or control” mania that never allowed anything close to something like that to be the living condition of their human cattle and chattel both.
Such as the 1919-20 multinational assualt on the newly formed USSR which undoubtedly coarsened and brutalized their culture, allowing the worst to more easily rise to the top – so you make a good point, but Lenin was a pretty bad guy (so were guys like Iron Felix) in much that he said and did, so I can’t fully buy it but it does give me pause.
Anyway, my view is not quite as harsh as “most or all people are ill-intentioned” but rather “most people are actually fairly well-intentioned and just want to live peacful live, but rich and powerful sociopaths keep making them do terrible things in order to live and feed their families, which most do because they have no choice thy can envision because they live in societies created and run for the benefit of a very tiny sliver of wealthy sociopaths and ever has it been thus, with all too brief exceptions”.
Sort of like the book Political Poenerology.
Sort of like Jesus’ alleged comment, “Forgive them, oh Lord, for they know not what they do.”
It’s a colossal tragedy, really. A colossal injustice. The human species had everything, and we pissed it all away because we never figured out how to control the small percentage of sociopaths among us, especially the ones that had money and power.
I hope this clarifies it and don’t let it get you down, wage. Keep fighting while fight is left in you. Keep making your corner of the world a better place, get ready for the future as best you can, stay happy and sane, connected and grounded, as you can.
Do things that make you feel those good things.
I know that you know all these things, but it’s nice to hear it from someone else occasionally, no?
LBENDET wrote: “Check out that as the right wing wants to smash public education since everything must be privatized,….”
I think that Harvey would argue that the move to privatize everything is simply another expression of the need of Capitalism to find new channels for absorbing compounding surplus capital, and for generating higher rates of profits from the invested capital surplus, i.e., compounding capital accumulation.
But what happens after everything is privatized?
In addition, Harvey says that the State-Finance nexus is important to the process of compounding capital accumulation since state investment in infrastructure is a prerequisite to compounding capital accumulation since expanding production necessary to absorb profits and, in turn, yeild greater profits requires necessary physical infrastructure.
But what happens when the state’s ability to finance infrastructure is undermined via offshoring of the tax base because of globalization? This is another barrier to compounding capital accumulation that could cause Capitalism to collapse.
Suburban,
I’m with Larrymoecurly on this. Your mind is an infected gut and your spew has all the worth of a diarrhetic voiding. The pity is that you’re not alone, that you have a multitude of fellow travellers.
I see your type all the time, people masquerading as self-righteous “progressives”, adopting the pose of moderate, well informed intellectuals. But, in common with the people that I’ve had the misfortune of knowing and hearing and as evidenced by your posts, you’re nothing of the sort.
Your brand of sewage, flowing from supposed centres of enlightenment and learning, fouls your country’s politics and public discourse. Are you so cretinous that you don’t realize that the United States of 2011 is not the United States of 1961 or 1861? The armies of the North and South laid down their arms in 1865 and you mouth the words “the war is over” but has it sunk in?
Like ten year olds, you and your ilk just can’t seem to leave that hornet’s nest alone, you just can’t resist poking at it. If you’re so damn smart you’d have some knowledge of human nature. The downward path to murder and mayhem is greased by the idiocies of people like you.
Milton Friedman is but the latest cheerleader for capitalism.
That is why Marx is so important. When capitalism is expanding, it looks like it’s working (at least to us in the US, not so much for the exploited workers of China or Indonesia). And then we get the propaganda that the bugs have been worked out and capitalism can run forever.
But Marx pointed out years ago that things always look the best right before a crash –
“Thus business always appears almost excessively sound right on the eve of a crash. The best proof of this is furnished, for instance, by the Reports on Bank Acts of 1857 and 1858, in which all bank directors, merchants, in short all the invited experts with Lord Overstone at their head, congratulated one another on the prosperity and soundness of business — just one month before the outbreak of the crisis in August 1857. And, strangely enough, Tooke in his History of Prices succumbs to this illusion once again as historian for each crisis. Business is always thoroughly sound and the campaign in full swing, until suddenly the debacle takes place.”
And there are ALWAYS crashes in capitalism. They must always expand to get the profits coming. Eventually, the profits from factory investment dwindle, and they turn to financial speculation, because the profits are higher. This is not just a 2000 thing. They’ve been doing it since capitalism started. And bringing back Glass-Steagall won’t work. As Marx pointed out, when there are profits to be made from speculation, no laws will stop them.
“If new accumulation…meets with difficulties in its employment, through a lack of spheres for investment, i.e., due to a surplus in the branches of production and an over-supply of loan capital, this plethora of loanable money-capital merely shows the limitations of capitalist production. The subsequent credit swindle proves that no real obstacle stands in the way of the employment of this surplus-capital”.
This page of Capital pretty much nails what is going on in the US right now, right down to what the right wingers here scream about – the affect of inflation on Social Security. (Not in those words, of course).
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch30.htm
Interesting points, Patrizia.
Is it just human to continually want more and more?
Hummm, Cash, this is weird.
Every post, but one, of Larry,etc.s is a spewing of hate and invective. I’ve never seen you attack him.
But one by Suburb and you go all apeshit?
Is it because you expect more of her, or because it fits into your preconceived hatred of liberals?
Not just one by Suburban. This is a repeat offence. Most of the insults by Larry/Tootsie are juvenile name calling. But the shit posted by Suburban is part and parcel of your national discourse and spewed by people that ought to know better. Especially given that they tell us they’re such high and mighty intellectuals unlike the inferior people they disparage. The sophisticates with such tall foreheads ought to have some idea of consequences that follow words.
I don’t hate liberals. I’ve said a multitude of times that what seriously bugs my ass about liberals is their mighty air of superiority. From what I’ve seen there’s precious little to justify the exalted self image. Nothing makes me pull out the brass knucks faster than someone giving some else they deem their social inferior the high hat.
“You insult others too easily and feign apology in the same unfortunate manner.”
That would be because someone who ain’t me is posting as me. Here is how you will know the difference. When I post on this site, I think about what I have to say BEFORE I hit the send key. That being the case, I never have a reason to make an apology. The “feined” apologies that you refer to are not mine.
Here’s the thing about “freedom”.
People are ALWAYS free to go along with the ruling class. There are no strictures on such thinking.
Therefore, those who like the status quo believe they are free. (As the book by Milton Mayer, about Nazi Germans, is called).
The question is how those who oppose the system are treated.
You believe that the US has been a beacon of freedom. I believe that the US has been a very effective propaganda machine of freedom.
I mean, when does the propaganda stop?
Right now, we have people in prison for almost a decade who have never been formally accused of a crime, let alone tried or convicted.
The US has broken international law multiple times in the last decade alone, by invading countries that were no threat to it.
But Hilary and Barack still get up onstage and lecture other countries on international law.
The Patriot Act was preceded by the Alien and Sedition Act, the Palmer Raids and the McCarthy era.
The US slaughtered almost all of the original inhabitants of this land, imported other people to work as slaves, imported still others to work as wageslaves under conditions which Southerners pointed out were worse than chattel slavery, conditions in which most died before they hit 30 years old, murdered workers who tried to organize and resist, destroyed the original forests and animals of this land, polluted the air, water and land, kept the freed slaves in line with lynchings and beatings, and still, we are told that this is the best of all possible systems?
The US had an advantage over the USSR in that no one here has a right to a job or a house.
We live in fear at all times of losing our jobs. Therefore, we shut our mouths. You could say it’s voluntary, but I don’t call that free.
The US killed the Rosenbergs in the 50s. People argue about their guilt or innocence, but that is irrelevant.
What that was was an act of state terrorism, aimed at all the young people busily reproducing (producing the Baby Boomers).
Any young communist woman would look at those orphaned children and know that her kids could end up the same way. And for what? To try to reach citizens of Dumbfuckistan?
So leftists shut their mouths and quit trying to make a better world.
So, no, I don’t believe that we have ever had great “freedom”.
But I definitely believe that it is now getting worse.
“To say “we’re all Dick Cheneys” just is not true”
True. You are Dick Lame-y.
Someone left a post on a different blog saying “We have 1,000 years of natural gas within the borders of the United States.
I’ve never heard that before, not even the 100 years lie. Where is this information coming from? Or is it a massive fucked up game of telephone?
But thanks for the encouraging words, anyway.
I ran across an article by another guy beating his head against the wall. I like his stuff.
http://warisacrime.org/content/how-americans-can-get-and-stand
“If one gets rid of Suburbia and Happy Motoring and downsizes (i.e., reduces the collective “carbon footprint”), then one is undermining new outlets to absorb surplus capital, and generate new profits. Capitalism collapses.”
No it doesn’t, it merely regroups. Capitalism existed before suburbia and happy motoring. If cars cease guys start selling and trading donkeys and horses instead of cars. There will always be those with ideas that are worth growing. Those with capital will gamble on those ideas. They will lend to the idea-guys/gals and they will want a return on their investment. Its only natural and fair that the practice of capitalism will continue
Nice comments! I laugh at the people who think oil speculators (commodity traders) and oil execs are greedy. Oil is traded like other commodities; hogs, wheat, corn, orange juice, etc. Business functions not to provide products at the prices you want to pay. It’s all about what the market will bear.
So Capitalists caused Communists to kill tens of millions of people? Just like Whites cause Blacks to kill innocent Whites, right? You have just outed yourself as a hardcore Communist. I had suspected as much.
But you are correct if you say that the Bankers funded Communism. It never worked and was only propped up by the Bankers to destroy the West.
Another total exaggeration from someone that doesn’t want to, or can’t bear to think about, a loss in their precious living standards. I’ve also heard some wild claims that there is 1 trillion barrels recoverable in the Rocky Mtns., but “they” won’t let us drill for it.
Harsh words, Cash, my friend.
Unfortunately, people like Suburban and I did not want to resume the American Civil War, and do not now but that it has been thrust upon us by the Rebs who themselves will not leave it alone.
Can you not be aware of the century and a half old saying “The South Will Rise Again”? When you heard it, did you think it was some kind of joke? News flash: they were always perfectly serious and now we are living the reality of it(which is why they no longer say it anymore, they DID it)
Are you not aware that both the Civil War and today’s America are shaped originally by the founding schisms between Jefferson and Adams, as well as Jefferson and Hamilton?
Speaking from someone who actually lives here, let me tell you that today’s America (the former USA) is much much MUCH closer to the USA of 1861 than the USA of 1961. It is only masked by cheap available energy, plentiful food, and the fact that what came before is holding together what is disintegrating now just by the idea of it and the knowledge that what’s coming next is so much worse.
Man, what the hell did those Alberta Liberals (worst drivers in the North American West, I might add) DO to you, man, that your normally sober judgement is so distorted, one sided, and angrily red-faced?
Did they rape your wife and kids? Drive you East in a replay of the Cheyenne Trail of Tears? What?
What Suburban said is true. What progorcons and I say is true. The American Civil War never ended, I am sorry to say, and neither did World War II. In both cases, the losers and their allies are reversing the defeats they suffered. Sadly, my country is Ground Zero for both reversals.
Your country, Cash will be caught and perhaps consumed in the blast, metaphorically-speaking.
I didn’t want to believe it either, but reality has a way of destroying illusions. It’s not good news.
And if you don’t get over your irrational hatred of Liberals (not that they/we don’t deserve some of your ire, which is legitimate) you will be unable to deal with the changes spreading northward at ever-increasing speeds.
And you need to be able to do that…for your family if not for yourself.
Here’s hoping you and yours are well.
The guilt or innocence of the Rosenbergs was irrelevant? Excuse me? Are you alright? How did the Soviet Union deal with its Traitors? How did Red China? Oh they weren’t real Communist States? Ok, name a real Communist State? Can’t do it? Why not? Maybe because it doesn’t work and therefore, CAN’T EXIST.
Wage, Girlfriend – can we talk? This kind of idealism is alright for kids (not really) but it ill befits a middle age woman. One cannot but expect more from a matron.
I like your thinking. See, you don’t need to resort to insults & profanity.
I agree until I see carpooling with two people in a car rather than one and until I see two generations in a house rather than one I will not worry about energy in America.
I do believe in peak oil and the need to build out a new energy system but there is still some time. 35 years less than when President Carter talked about it.
“But speculators are the only thing that explains the rapid rise in oil prices. There is no actual oil shortage.”
There does not have to be an actual shortage for prices to rise. There merely needs to be a perceived shortage.
Lets pretend I’m a dealer of oil/gas. I sell my wares to those who want my products. I get a phone call from company “x” that tells me they want me to guarantee delivery of “x” number of gallons of gas, three months from today.
Currently, I’m charging my customer 3 bucks a gallon. Its a fair price today, as I purchased it for less than three and I’m making a small profit. But they want me to guarantee delivery three months from now. So, I pick up today’s paper. I read about a continued policy of making it difficult to drill for gas in the Gulf of Mexico. I then note that the rise in prices that I have been experiencing for my product means that the future delivery of those products will be more expensive. I then note that additional countries in the areas of the world that supply oil are experiencing rising violence. I note that Lybia has ceased exporting one of the sweetest, finest crude oils on the planet.
Given the headlines, do you think I could guarantee delivery at the same price, three months from now that I am currently charging my customers today?
No one’s crystal ball is any better than anyone else’s regarding future events. One must make the best guess they can and try and survive based on their hunches. In short they must speculate in order to survive. It may appear to be a contrived, dishonest practice and as a matter of fact, on occasion, there is collusion practiced by companies that is clearly illegal. I suggest that those engaging in this practice be penalized in the most sever fashion that our laws allow. But speculation per se, is a practice that must occur if future performance is to take place.
Do you have a reading comprehension problem, Cartman? Or should I call you Ernst Roehm now?
Did I not say that, while her point gave me pause I didn’t fully buy it?
Did I say ONLY capitalist sociopaths or ALL sociopaths?
Did I not state unequivocally that I still believe in capitalism, FDR New Deal-style, which you praised more than once, Ernst. Remember? When Liberalism helped White people, you said…remember?
And where the hell did I say anything REMOTELY like capitalists made the Commies Kill the other Russians?
Oh, that’s right, you invented that straw man out of whole cloth by combining two different posts on two different topics.
Are you so dumb that you can’t tell the difference between pausing to ponder, fully embracing “buying” a concept, and asserting with certainty that one group of people aren’t responsible for their own actions?
No, as I said before I don’t believe you are that dumb. So jam your lies and misdirections up your ass, Gruppenfuhrer Roehm.
It’s been fun and genuinely entertaining, as always, but your entertainment value is at an end. Respond further if you wish and I am sure will be further entertained.
But expect no response from me, I have wasted enough time taunting and dancing circles around you today.
“I like your thinking. See, you don’t need to resort to insults & profanity.”
I know that. But there are posters here who lie and insist on lying on an ongoing basis. In those instances I call a spade (fucktard) a spade (fucktard).
Hand Cock! I didn’t forget and I really was nonplussed at first by your sentence. It was poorly constructed and besides the obvious mock of asking me to choose between Bugs Bunny and Superman – Bugs Bunny was never a comic to my knowledge but rather a cartoon. Also the word is golems not gollums you silly wabbit.
But I persisted and dug up the article by Dr Duke and it’s a doozy. Not only does it quote from Frank Miller, the Jewish creator of 300 who ACTUALLY SAYS COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS WERE GOLEMS, but it references Jared Diamond who says race doesn’t exist but Jews do exist as a genetic people, and Freud whose boyhood hero was Hannibal because he was a Semite conquering Europeans – AND THAT HE STILL FELT THE SAME WAY. Very rich indeed. There’s alot here, hopefully knuckleheads like you, Buck, and all the rest can learn something.
http://www.davidduke.com/general/the-movie-300-neocon-racial-propaganda-for-war_2381.html
“What Suburban said is true. What progorcons and I say is true.”
Well there’s a lie, pure and simple. You are fucktards, one and all.
I never praised FDR since he was in bed with the Communists. I do believe that some degree of Socialism may be necessary in the modern, industrial state – but let it be nationally based not Marxist Internationalism which was just one of the early ventures of the Globalists. People really don’t know that there were other socialisms, ones that didn’t hate Men, Whites, America, and Western Culture.
Went to see “Atlas Shrugged” at the Theater the other day. It’s well done – you and your wife might enjoy it if you like going to the movies. It’s certainly a great time to read “Atlas Shruged” since it is about the collapse of the West due to Socialist Corruption of Capitalism.
I’m not a Libertarian since Rand isn’t interested in regular people. Her Godlike heroes need not have any responsibility for ordinary people if they don’t wish to – and that is unworkable. But she is right in that any society is doomed that hobbles and torments its most brilliant and productive people. Even the Liberal novelist Vonnegut recognized it and wrote about it in his story “Harrison Bergeron” – a dark comedy about a future where equality was enforced.
The movie only goes thru half the book – it said part one so I assume they intend to finish it. It stays fairly close to the book without getting into all the characters and details – which would be too much.
As usual, you missed my point, Vlad.
But that’s OK. In my matronly way, I forgive you and remain haughtily above your sniping.
I recommend Kevin Phillips’ “Cousins Wars” for your perusal, Hancock.
He takes it further into the past than you do. And back into England. It’s pretty interesting.
The Media to this days loves Ethel!!!
And hates Joe [goy]…
Joes Innocence and Ethels Guilt dont matter..
See the piece in NEWYORKER on Koch Brothers..
I dont like them but they manage to bring in the term ‘McCarthyism’..
What I was going to mention is ALEXANDRA ..
did you see her YouTube?
It was censored and she got death threats and had to leave UCLA [U Cee lotas asian]
Search :ASIANS IN THE LIBRARY
…SHES A GENIUS AT SELF PROMOTION…BUT IT EXPLODED IN HER FACE.
‘I have wasted enough time taunting and dancing circles around you today.’
Yr right about the first half…
If you can dance around anything post it on YouTube and lets see
Wagelaborer wrote: General Motors, Firestone and Standard Oil were actually convicted of conspiracy to destroy public transportation, aided and abetted by the Federal Government’s trillion dollar highway building plans…
Yes, I’m aware of the “conspiracy.” Though I would simply call it businessmen looking to capitalize on a good thing–Henry Ford’s invention, which, the true gamechanger about assembly line production, he ingeniously made affordable enough for the very workers who made them.
WL: This “we all love cars” meme is a lot like the “we all love Reagan” thing that I bring up a lot. It’s bullshit, repeated ad nauseum until we all believe it.
Except I never said “we all love our cars” I said we all drive our cars. By now, the love affair is over, and the compulsion and necessity (due to the very infrastructure the machine itself brought about) is all that is left. There may have been a hue and cry when large parts of the streetcar systems were uprooted, but that is nothing compared to the resistance you’ll get to, say, suggesting a few transportation dollars be diverted from highways to railroads. (I’m not getting what the people in New Orleans who mostly could not afford cars have to do with anything.)
The illusion of personal freedom that makes the automobile so seductive and addicting is very powerful, and has been ingrained into the last couple of generations here in the States as a birthright. It is unlikely anything other than sheer inability to keep the things running will rid us of them.
“I’ve also heard some wild claims that there is 1 trillion barrels recoverable in the Rocky Mtns., but “they” won’t let us drill for it.”
The amount you cite is about right but it will not be recovered by drilling. The energy is trapped in shale rock. It will be mined. Then heart will be applied to the shale, releasing the viscous oil. It’s messy and not as energy efficient as conventional oil but the energy reserves are HUGE.
“Someone left a post on a different blog saying “We have 1,000 years of natural gas within the borders of the United States.
I’ve never heard that before, not even the 100 years lie.”
100 years of natural gas is no lie. Not even remotely. The recent find in the Marcellus shale formation contains at least 100 years of current usage. The deposit runs through Western NY, across Pennsylvania, into S.E. Ohio and dips into West Virginia.
There have been additional deeper finds that are now accessible, along with the Marcellus, due to the relatively new process of horizontal drilling and fracking.
So, 1000 year? Probably not. 3 to 400? Most likely.
“Speaking from someone who actually lives here, let me tell you that today’s America (the former USA) is much much MUCH closer to the USA of 1861 than the USA of 1961. ”
Hardly, fucktard. There was a massive migration from the South to the north shortly after the cannons were silenced in the 1890’s. This was followed by another huge migration North when African Americans migrated to the industrial jobs during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Blacks brought along many of their customs, including regional cooking, music, etc. that was adopted and co-opted by Northerners. (Think Motown, R&B, fashions)
More recently, the migration has been from North to South. Many of the FUCKTARDS that wish to run the entire region of the South down, do so at the risk of trashing their own relatives, as millions from the North have headed South for reasons involving, jobs, weather, cheaper costs of living, and states that are business friendly and hence growing their workforce. Texas alone, created more jobs last year than all other states combined.
So, shut your fucking yap. You are a FUCKTARD, an imbecile, and I’m guessing, fucking ugly to boot.
“Every post, but one, of Larry,etc.s is a spewing of hate and invective. I’ve never seen you attack him.”
Another lie. (Surprise) Many are invective. When people such as yourself, post lies and silly, fucktardedly, incomprehensible bullshit, I’ll shine my widdle light.
Furthermore why would such an open, peaceful, enlightened soul, such as yourself, (who hates the occupants of an entire region of the continental U.S.) admonish CASH for NOT attacking me? I mean it sounds like you are promoting violence (verbal). This from a peacenik? How fucking stupid are you posting what you post and hoping/praying that people will continue to think you remotely intelligent with something of merit to say? Answer me that, Fucktard.
And by the way Wage, get the fuck over youself and cut out the drugs for a short while. Talk about paranoia. Nobody, and i mean NOBODY, is tracking you. How do I know? Who the fuck would give a shit about you and your worthless, war protestor husband. i mean for fuckssake, look in the fucking mirror. Take stock of thyself. No. One. Cares.
“Obama’s energy adviser is a Nobel Prize winner in physics and a worldwide expert on Peak Oil and Climate Change.”
He is also a fucking nincompoop. He’s on the Sunday shows blabbing about how they are close to developing a 300 mile range car battery. Of course he is also going to shut down coal powered plants. Fuck-ing-DUH!. Guess them ole’ spin-top hats will power the plants to charge the batteries.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the memo that “speculators” are causing the increase in oil prices. (Thank God, Obammy’s commission will get to the bottom of the evil “speculators” issue) When asked why he thought energy prices were going up he answered, “Supply and demand.”
Can’t remember if it was 60 Minutes or Nightline, but the show reported that fracking is causing earthquakes in Kentucky. They think it’s because of the millions of gallons of water they have to put back into the ground. Has anyone heard anything else?
Everytime I see his name (is he named after the Black Comic Book Hero?) I think of Jared Laughner for some reason. As for Sai, too much Harsya Yoga I guess. He laughed so much he became a joke.
I didn’t miss anything Missy.
MD – good point, MD but aren’t all First World currencies fiat money? Is there anywhere in the world where (say) gold or silver is exchanged for goods? I did read an interesting book on the subject of fiat money called Web of Debt by Ellen Brown. It gave an interesting accounting of how the financial system works. A couple of people on this blog recommended it and it was eye opening.
JonSS – it’s true that a commodities trader’s job is to make as much money as possible. The expectation of profit is a reasonable thing. Why work if you don’t profit from it? But profiting and price gouging, to my mind, are two different things. If you gouge too much, you might hemorrhage your customers to the point where neither they nor you will exist. Actually I am beginning to suspect the whole oil run up is something like the old game of Hot Potato. The speculators will keep jacking up prices until the last sucker is caught with the now worthless potato and then the market plunges (due to the inevitable glut) and that guy is out of the game. As we may all be if prices get high enough!
LCM – very true that speculators operate on futures that may or may not happen. It’s a huge gamble that could pay off spectacularly for a few and horribly for most. Despite oil being an essential commodity for the majority of Americans, I would not suggest nationalizing oil because of the huge uproar it would cause. But I do believe that we need alternative energy sources so we won’t be held captive by brokers worldwide who are gambling on all our futures and wouldn’t hesitate to destroy the worldwide economy to line their own pockets. No one individual should be able to have that much power over anyone else.
I would disagree that this has much to do with region or color, unless the color is green. I believe what’s happening is all out class warfare, where the very wealthy have stopped at nothing to grab anything and everything, they’ve subverted what’s left of democracy and peeled back the gains the working class and poor made under the New Deal/ Fair Deal, they’ve gutted unions and working class movements. They’ve won just about every battle, from ‘free trade’ to starting one war after another for the poor to fight.
Let’s say we do have enough natural gas to meet all the countries energy needs for 300 years with expected growth. How long until we are 90% energy from natural gas? What will the price per BOE be? This is great no need to war in the middle east or Africa. Does Europe, Japan, China, India also have enough for 300 years? Will they try to buy “our natural gas”? How many years can we power the whole world on natural gas? At what price per BOE? When can we start?
I am a fan of CSP (concentrated solar power). Google is investing in two CSP companies eSolar and BrightSource. Now all we need is night time storage with pumped hydro or hydrogen.
Hi Helen
Copyright the word “homestead”, urban or rural? Isn’t that an interesting notion. I wonder how they would profit from it? Maybe it’s obvious, but I’m not sure why they would bother.
Cheers,
gerrit
Vlad, I remembered reading something about tremors in Arkansas, so I googled it:
http://www.politicolnews.com/frack-fluids-and-earthquakes-in-arkansas/
Pucker,
That’s why mixed economies work for more people. Since we moved away from Keynesianism we have a total imbalance.
from Thom Hartmann:
[America has wealth inequality levels higher than at any other time since right before the Great Depression. In other words – the rich have a lot more money than everyone else. The problem is – most Americans have no idea just how unequal this nation is. Looking at a new study out of Duke and Harvard Universities – the vast majority of Americans incorrectly guessed that the top 20% of richest Americans own roughly 60% of the wealth – the real figure is that they own more like 84% of the wealth.]
I cannot understand how anyone can condone this, especially in lieu of deficit reduction.
Wage,
Interesting points. I do think that Friedman as a Nobel laureate did give cache and a system to the redistribution of wealth in this country, though. He wasn’t a mere cheerleader, he was instrumental in using other countries as laboratories of his ideology and many suffered as we are about to find out here.
I place blame squarely on his shoulders, even if he’s no longer around–all the more reason they should let this go.
Thanks for the website. I copied the text and will read.
Hi larrymoecurly
Yes you’re right, renting is an option. I read something just the other day that also talked about how the house as investment concept isn’t as obvious now after the crash. It seems people are divided on whether the housing market will mostly sort of crab around or tank even more. Plus, it seems like inflation’s coming back and with them interest rates are bound to go up. I’ve been both a renter and an owner (inasmuch the bank lets me). I’m looking for a place to settle, which makes me lean towards owning. But the math has to make sense.
Thanks,
gerrit
LarryMoeCurley wrote: “No it doesn’t, it merely regroups. Capitalism existed before suburbia and happy motoring. If cars cease guys start selling and trading donkeys and horses instead of cars.”
Comment: What you’re describing is a post-Collapse-of-Capitalism, post-War scenario.
My point is that people who advocate downsizing to a simpler, more local economy, thereby, reversing Globalism, are, in effect, denying Capitalism what it needs to survive, which, according to Harvey, is a minimum, 3% perpetual economic growth rate. Such people are, in effect, advocating the overthrowal of Capitalism. This will only happen through tremendous social upheaval, collapse, likely War. It’s not something that people will merrily “transition to.”
Well, a little late to the party….but more and more “official” outlets are “hinting” at the global energy crisis….
Just finished reading BLOWOUT IN THE GULF penned by two USGS men who made NOBODY (not even the MMA) look decent. They didn’t come out and say the dreaded PEAK OIL…but they DID say that the era of cheap, easy energy was over…
Worth a read :>)
Thanks for the suggested reading. Good to see you around.
Sorry i advance if this is repeated. My connection went out for a moment
re:BLOWOUT IN THE GULF
Oh, one more thing, Elle
It’s very amusing to see BP blame Halliburton and last week they were saying I believe on Morning Joe that the board of directors at BP were freaking out because Tony Hayward will be getting close to $1 million dollars a year upon retirement which I believe is now.
I also read somewhere that BP was awarded some kind of safety award and had one of their best years last year….
How in the world is that possible?
Ah but in the global corporate communist world I guess up is down and black is white and no matter how much they screw everything up they always win.
Must be nice..
I’m thinking it’s going to be difficult for there to be any more deflation in prices any time soon. That last deleveraging event was unacceptable for a government with as much debt as the U.S.A. I think they confused debt with real money or something but it didn’t take them long to realize that deflation was not working for us debtors nearly as well as it was for our creditors. I think we will see steadily higher prices for commodities as a result of the war on deflation.
Our government can’t afford to let the price of real money fall(crude oil, wheat, copper, etc.) because our creditors are holding massive amounts of the debt(currency) these things are priced in. During the deleveraging event China surpassed the U.S. as worlds leading car consumer and producer. The U.S. housing bust was not the end of the world for creditor nation China but a huge win, for example, Palladium prices(among many other commodities including crude oil) had fallen below the cost of production! Palladium is necessary for producing catalytic convertors for cars because of the catalytic properties of Platinum group metals. China needs pollution control devices like a blind man needs a dog.
I think you get the idea why the FED cannot allow any more deflation in prices — it just accelerates an inevitable Chinese hegemony.
I have a guy on my bicycle racing team that works for a company developing lower cost, massive storage, building sized batteries.
Agreed. Housing deflation, especially, has left us some nasty problems.
Misanthropy is a generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt, or hatred of the human species. You sound like a very conventional, middle-of-the road (maybe even a bit RW), misanthrope.
I would like to understand the EROEI in order to comment.
SCOTT wrote: “…it just accelerates an inevitable Chinese hegemony.”
China may be headed for a hard-landing.
The Chinese Capitalists are reinvesting their surplus capital into the Chinese property market, rather than production, which is driving up the Chinese property market and fueling inflation as there are more Yuan chasing fewer goods produced. Eventually, rates-of-return on Chinese property will diminish, or disappear, and the Chinese property market will come crashing down as the flow of capital to the Chinese property market slows or reverses. Then, China is no longer a channel to soak up excess international capital, but rather another hulking wreck of excess capacity. BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ken Wilber wrote a whole book about this very question: THE ATMAN PROJECT describes how the thirst for wealth, for “more and more,” is really a horizontal deflection of what should be a vertical striving toward divinity (The Atman Project).
Wilber’s is a difficult book, but if you managed to read Marx’s DAS CAPITAL you should have no trouble with THE ATMAN PROJECT.
Damn! You mean like high-hat William F. Buckley?
Nice post, Wage! It is nice to see that not everyone has fallen for the propaganda. We live in a military dictatorship. We are a military empire. We kill innocents wantonly (3 million in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, over a million in Iraq, etc.) but because we are bringing them “freedom” all is forgiven.
Why do deflationists always focus on China’s property markets as being a bubble? If you are paying cash for something it isn’t the same as going into debt. How is China going to have overcapacity while the FED is using every tool at it’s disposal to keep capacity at maximum?
W
When asked why he thought energy prices were going up he answered, “Supply and demand.”
=====
He didn’t mention the invisible hand?
I’m telling you there are invisible hands and there are invisible gods, wreaking havoc in our economy and in our minds, respectively.
Let’s not forget Vonnegut’s book “Player Piano” where 99% are unemployed due to automation.
Space-based solar can provide solar energy 24/7/365…
http://www.spaceenergy.com/s/Default.htm
no need for nighttime storage because there is never a nighttime.
“It’s not something that people will merrily “transition to.”
========
Ha! Speak for yourself.
I’ve only been around to see eight decades (40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s), but the energy descent (less money, fewer material possessions, more friends, more joy) has been merry so far!
You really think 3 to 400 years is accurate for the amount of natural gas in the world? Isn’t energy consumption exponential, given population growth and industrialization around the world?
What do you say to Jim’s prediction of 4 years of natural gas?
Personally, I don’t put much stock into Jim’s geological sense, mostly because he’s an artist, not a scientist. No offense, of course, Jim.
some good news…obama will try to force government contractors to disclose contributions. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/us/politics/27donate.html?hp you’d think that if you were getting screwed from behind you’d at least want to turn around and see it was some muscle hunk or a toothless septogenarian with a lot of cash… yuk yuk yada yada
obama will try to force government contractors to disclose contributions
=========
McCain would never do this.
And some continue to say there is no difference between Dems and Repubs. This is another example of a difference, as is the appointment of a wise latina and a jewish woman on the supreme court. McCain would never have done that either.
There is still hope that oil will rise to $200 a barrel and that will be a great stimulus for conservation and investment in less expensive and cleaner and sustainable alternatives, like solar and wind.
So far, so good, the prices are going up nicely. Unfortunately, crude oil prices are going DOWN:
My last blog entry effort is appropriate here I think:
Apocalypse – Sooner Than You think
Perceptivism
[info]icurhuman2
April 24th, 21:25
All life on our planet is doomed to die-off within a handful of years.
There is now no chance that any life will survive a cascade of deadly consequences that have taken a mere century of human activity to construct. The clock is ticking and a countdown to apocalypse is underway. Blame can be apportioned across hundreds of generations of human endeavour as the economics of the past, the cause of our doom, were enshrined and lauded by consecutive generations, right up until today.
The Great Flaw has always been a belief that growth would be eternal, that no matter what boundary nature put before us our ingenuity and intellect would overcome it. However, limits to infinite expansion were always there, even when we thought our world was the centre of everything. As our understanding of the world and the vast exclusionary universe it exists within became clearer the outcome of our folly has become more obvious.
We were always bound by the closed biosphere of our small planet, by its limited resources, and by its limited ability to sustain life. We have now reached the natural limits to expansion and the effects of our failure to understand this will soon kill every living thing on planet Earth..
In the last two years we have seen two related incidents that have caused and are continuing to cause serious damage to our world – the barely contained Gulf oil spill and the Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe, the last of which may far exceed the damage of Chernobyl.
Evidence of a permanent decline in oil output is now impossible to refute – even oil-promoting bodies in the grip of U.S. control are now admitting there’s a supply crunch coming. (The Pentagon also has warned the White House to expect 2012 as the crunch year, though this warning came before Libya’s 1.6 mbpd of oil supply was shut in.)
Permanent energy decline will result in a permanent decline in all industry and agriculture as this fuel and fertiliser base is critical to everything, from transport and food production to economic theory and practice -which historically has relied on mythical eternal expansion to fuel lending and borrowing. A mass human die-off is expected but the end of all life is not. In the beginning, from nations that can’t afford to feed their populations, there will be mass migrations and mass starvation, resource wars for access to remaining reserves of oil will escalate, but it should be noted that the financial system will collapse long before all the oil is taken from the ground, meaning the last of it will remain there, except for those deep-water wells that weren’t plugged; they will eventually become uncontrolled evacuations of entire fields into the world’s oceans.
But, even the most pessimistic of peak-oil theorists don’t realise there’s also an unavoidable nuclear time-bomb set to go off that cannot be diminished, and that it was set to go off a long time ago.
Arguments for and against nuclear power are now immaterial – a wasted effort by either side of the debate. The building of so many reactors across the world, not power plants, of which there are 442, but reactors that number in the thousands, has made it impossible for them all to be decommissioned.
Each nuclear power plant takes many years to shut down and costs, in terms of energy used and money spent, are prohibitive. Each decommissioning of each plant costs between US$350 million to US$500 million, magnify that by hundreds, and factor in hyper-inflation from a collapsed monetary system, and then spread the cost over three continents and scores of nations, and the inevitable is obvious. Any idea who will pay for decommissioning reactors in, say, Romania.
The decline in available energy, expertise and finance to decommission all these reactors when peak-oil hits, when industries and cities are abandoned, will see most of the world’s reactors ultimately go into meltdown. It won’t matter what kind of reactor it is or how much fail-safe thought has gone into its construction, left to themselves they will all go into meltdown.
It must be noted that the Chernobyl meltdown consisted of only one of four reactors at that power plant, the rest were decommissioned over the following decades, and the last one was finally decommissioned in 2000, some fifteen years after the original accident. Magnify Chernobyl by several thousand, and scatter the effect across the globe, and you can be assured that all life on this planet will die. There’s also the nuclear weapon stockpile to consider and nuclear reactors in various navies’ fleets – I suspect these will find their way into the atmosphere too, either in a last minute payback or as they rust into slag.
The latest news is that US$750 million of finance has been raised to build a steel sarcophagus to cover the one reactor at Chernobyl that was buried in concrete 25 years ago.
Time has run out, there is no one or multiple changes to our energy mix that will ward off the inevitable supply crunch. There will be no way to avoid a nuclear catastrophe. All hope is gone. Radiation sickness will be the final horseman after war and starvation have had their way…
No – the humble will inherit the Earth. The plants and simple creatures like cockroaches often have extraordinary resilience against radidation. They will mutate, change, perhaps some will begin the road of intelligent evolution. Two legs good, six legs better? Perhaps the last mutated humans will be hunted down by ants the size of cats.
Vlad, you do know there are white cockroaches and black cockroaches. The white cockroaches have just shed their outer shell; they are weak and vulnerable. They don’t last long. Within eight hours they become black and strong again. As you say, “intelligent evolution” toward blackness.
But how will the power be transmitted back to Earth? By cosmic rays? Wont those be at least as dangerous as high powered lines are now to any who cross their path?
I think it’s more that we ourselves have to go into outer space away from this dying world of resource depletion, murderous elites, and resentful, arrogant third worlders. Let’s build an Ark to avert icur’s doom as detailed above. We know where a few planets are in other systems. Lets’s make our way in that direction. The colonists could be the highest grade of human beings possible for the new Eden. No Affirmative Action here please. As for others, they could enjoy a safer destiny on the Moon, Mars, or Ganymede. Or even in permanent stations in orbit around any of these. The Earth’s orbit might be a bit dangerous if Terrorists of whatever kind get ahold of rocket technology.
The purest form of solar energy will always be available in space – along with the industrial advantage of zero g.
Didn’t you read that book The World Without Us?
He says that cockroaches need humans to survive, at least in cold climates.
Colonizing space is a pipe dream. It will never happen.
Icurhuman2, are you sure about this? I haven’t seen a word about Fukushima in the newspaper for several days now. Doesn’t that suggest to you the problem must not have been all that serious and that for all practical purposes it has gone away?
I’ve been somewhat intrigued by Fermi’s paradox and lately I’ve pondered that the answer to the enigma is that inevitably all cultures stumble upon nuclear power and in every instance it marks the end of the species in short order.
I totally agree with you. The human race has stupidly and voluntarily put itself into a race for survival. Figure out how to solve the problem of nuclear waste before it kills us. We entered headlong into the reckless gamble confident we would have someplace to store the waste before it got to be a problem.
The pools where it is now stored are now forced to hold double what they were designed to hold. Never mind keeping the cooling water flowing until the end of time. How many years before our nuclear reactors can be officially defined as antiques?
Or, ivory-tower Buckley?
Sometimes it was amusing to watch Firing-Line
and see his guest squirm, thinking to himself, “I don’t understand a f______ thing this guy is saying.”
It was said of Buckley, as you may know, that he was “… a stowaway foretopman on the ship of state, a franc-tireur for the West and Christendom, a Burke, a Roland, a Quixote with a whiff of Falstaff and a swing of the snickersnee.”
Did property prices in Chernobyl ever bounce back?
I’m thinking of buying property in Fukushima, taking a long-term view….
JonSS;
Your little post on a friend on your bicycle racing team working on developing a superbattery to power up large buildings reminded me of something.
When I was a kid in the late 60’s we had a neighbor who was part of a team at UTC, working on a project to develop hydrogen power, mostly for the space program, but also for other applications. I remember him saying that hydrogen was the most common element in the universe, that we may be able to heat buildings with it, and power up automobiles. He was a smart guy, a chemical engineer.
I remember talking to him years later in the old neighborhood, in the mid-nineties. He was still working on the Hydrogen project at UTC, still hopeful that it could replace fossil fuels and uranium as a energy source in the US. UTC must have spent millions on that project.
-Marlin
CFNation YD Post 1
New England Chapter
Evelyn,
Just because you don’t hear much about Fukashima, doesn’t mean that it’s not as bad as we thought. Don’t you know this week all that’s happening in the world is the Royal Wedding?
Who’s gonna wake up at 4:00 am to watch this thing?
(as if they’re not going to play it over and or over ad nauseam anyway all weekend.)
I picture some elderly anglophile watching in her jammies and rhinestone tiara toasting the Royal couple with cheap champagne in a plastic flute.-ugh
It was just announced that 8 ‘NATO’ troops were killed in Afghanistan today, by an Afghan Army Officer, ostensibly our ally, people we are training, once again shot in the back.
To go back to an earlier thread from about a month ago, maybe before that, we’ll see how many of these casualties were American, how many were European. My assertion at the time was that “NATO casualties” always meant “American Casualties”.
NATO is 75% US funded and staffed, yet the Obama ass-kissing MSM, along with Obama himself, in Afghanistan and now Libya, attempt to mask US military engagements as “NATO”, not American.
He isn’t fooling anybody.
-Marlin
Agreed, Marlin
And don’t forget that just 2 days ago they were saying that 500 prisoners escaped in Afghanistan. That was an inexcusable disaster. What the hell are we doing there–inquiring minds on both sides of the aisle want to know–yet we just can’t get out—must be the rare metals and gas pipelines we are monitoring.
_____________________
The Gray Panthers
Yes, the “Great Generation” can’t be fooled by Ryan. Last night I had the rare pleasure of watching an audience of angry seniors at town hall meetings now yelling at their Republican representatives about the Medicare “restructuring” for the deficit.
These citizens, who experienced the last depression and witnessed the building of a great middle class know how good Keynesianism is. They’re not buying into the freemarket fundamentalists whose only goal is to make sure they can further cut the taxes of the wealthy so they can have ever more of our wealth, while contributing nothing to the country.
Make no mistake, these guys are trying to dismantle Roosevelt and in other areas are trying to destroy public education and re-capitulate child labor laws.–They don’t want a population that believes in evolution or think stem cell research is a good idea.
Can we bring this country back to the 1800’s?
It’s amusing how the Republicans are trying to sugar coat their betrayal to the middle class this morning–my guess is their ideas will remain very unpopular even amongst Republicans.
By the way, Marling
It’s the MSM that owns Obama not the other way around. Who owns the media? The war contractors and they make lots o’ money on our military escapades.
I was being facetious.
I just wanted an excuse to share my image of the elderly Royal wannabe.
Despite the incessant ruling class propaganda railing against the old and the poor, most Americans (unlike those on this blog) remain stubbornly in favor of the New Deal.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/03/02/wsjnbc-poll-hands-off-medicare-social-security/
For some reason (sarcasm) the Wall Street Journal left out the military budget as a source of savings in this poll. But I have seen others in which Americans unerringly point to the trillion-dollar war machine as a good place to start cutting.
Even the right wing Republicans, including ex-Special Forces, that I work with, point to the war budget as excessive.
Of course, they put it like this- “Why should Americans be helping those assholes in other countries when we need help here?”
Yeah, let’s quit “helping” those assholes by dropping bombs on them, and start taking care of our own people.
A consensus is beginning to form (even in casual, public discourse, I’ve noticed): The call and response of crisis to media to politics to gross misunderstanding has become surreal (to say the very least of a highly explosive mix of bullshittery and disenfranchised, angry peeps.)
I think it’s also coming to light that the megalomaniacs have [far and away] overplayed their hands. (Whether they’ll shortly begin throwing one half of the underclass at the other is up for debate, as that little exercise necessitates lots of true believers, and faith is being lost faster than a motorcycle getaway from a drive-by assassination; especially by those deployed on the front lines of the Corporate Empire Quest.)
Now, you may say that a G-D poet doesn’t know shit from your basic shine-ola, but he shore do write a good chemical peel for the propaganda-enshrouded brain.
Here’s Phil again with:
“Botox Politics
Among Ciphers, Barn Burners and Confidence Artists: a comb-over treatment for declining empire.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27966.htm
I think even Cash could enjoy this one! ;o)
Great article, Ozone. For those missing Joe Baegant, some sharp-tongued, on the mark observations of the American body politic, as they call us.
But I think lbendet would really like the article, calling out the Chicago School as it does.
Check it out!
Yesterday, when I was pointing out the effectiveness of US selective terrorism as opposed to mass terrorism, I thought of “The Grapes of Wrath”.
I read that book during the 80s, when US-backed death squads were terrorizing peasants in Central America. I thought that seeing people with their throats slit would anger others enough into rebelling.
But when I read that book, I saw it more clearly, and I’m seeing it today at work.
When one vocal person turns up dead in a ditch, the others don’t take revenge, they cower in fear, and submit to oppression.
People have kids to worry about. Who wants to leave their children orphans?
Selective murder,(or terrorism), is very effective.
My co-worker, the ex-sniper Marine, was telling me how he killed people in Columbia.
I knew that he was probably killing union organizers or peasant leaders, so I told him, “You were killing the good guys”. (That’s how Americans talk- good and bad guys).
He said, “They were all bad guys. But I did wonder why they told me to kill that one and not another one.”
“You really think 3 to 400 years is accurate for the amount of natural gas in the world?”
The US has 3 to 400 years of natural gas at present US usage levels. The world? Beats me.
“What do you say to Jim’s prediction of 4 years of natural gas?”
Duhhhhhhh?
No, not everyone falls for the propaganda.
http://davidswanson.org/content/how-americans-can-get-and-stand
“Oil slipped for a second day after the head of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company said the kingdom isn’t comfortable with prices near a 31-month high and on concern rising futures will slow the economic recovery”
And you are buying this? You are a bigger MORON that even I thought. The Saudi Pubah’s are sitting in a corner with their robes filled with shit. WE are their last life line. They will say what they feel they need to say to hold off the angry hoards. Their time is limited. When they eventually fly off into the night, the cost of a barrel of oil will jump to 300 to 400 dollars per barrel overnight.
Howdy ICUR,
I concur completely with your estimation: “All life on our planet is doomed to die-off within a handful of years.”; however, convincing more than a handful of irrational humans of same is a virtual impossibility. As pointed out in a reuters article this morning the estimated timeline to make Fukushima safe enough to live within a few kilometers is multiple decades. Link – http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/japan-plant-idUSL3E7FR2IV20110427 –
The, out of sight out of mind, mind control lunacy promoted by the MSM is amply demonstrated in the comment to your comment by Evelyn Victor April 27, 2011 2:17 AM.
SNAFU
“My co-worker, the ex-sniper Marine, was telling me how he killed people in Columbia.”
Hey maybe he could head down South and kill some Southerners. You should ask him if he would. I mean you think they are all bad “down there” just like he thought everyone in Columbia was all bad down there. Its worth asking, Wage. Go for it.
“As pointed out in a reuters article this morning the estimated timeline to make Fukushima safe enough to live within a few kilometers is multiple decades. ”
And that points to planet die-off? OK, whatever.
You do get that she was joking, right, SNAFU?
***When one vocal person turns up dead in a ditch, the others don’t take revenge, they cower in fear, and submit to oppression.
People have kids to worry about. Who wants to leave their children orphans? -Wage***
True; but when your children are starving to death, fear is no longer the overriding concern; genetic preservation gets the goad.
***Selective murder,(or terrorism), is very effective.***
So, guess what? When that tactic becomes as good for the goose as it is for the gander; things will be in full percolation!
***My co-worker, the ex-sniper Marine, was telling me how he killed people in Columbia.
I knew that he was probably killing union organizers or peasant leaders, so I told him, “You were killing the good guys”. (That’s how Americans talk- good and bad guys).
He said, “They were all bad guys. But I did wonder why they told me to kill that one and not another one.”***
The awakening quietly continues. (And I give you loads of credit for being as loud as you are! ;o)
BTW, it’s likely as impossible to be an ex-sniper as it is to be an ex-Marine…
“These citizens, who experienced the last depression and witnessed the building of a great middle class know how good Keynesianism is. ”
Ryan’s proposals, specifically state that they would in NO WAY effect those that are already retired or about to retire. His proposals recognize that they system cannot be sustained as it is currently set up. The GAO concurs. Ryan is saying that if we do nothing there won’t be ANYTHING left for ANYONE. His is a fazed-in plan that does not lay a glove on senior citizens.
If the viability of the very existence of the US is to remain, the silly, left-leaning chant of “They are going to starve Grandma.” must stop. It is a LIE and it gets in the way of solutions that the adults in the room are trying to provide.
Give some thought to being a slavish devotee to the “peak oil” doomsday cult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_cult
Social scientists have found that while some group members will leave after the date for a doomsday prediction by the leader has passed uneventfully, others actually feel their belief and commitment to the group strengthened.[27] Often when a group’s doomsday prophesies or predictions fail to come true, the group leader will simply set a new date for impending doom, or predict a different type of catastrophe on a different date.[27] Niederhoffer and Kenner attribute this motivation of the charismatic leader to maintain a consistent belief structure as due to a desire to save sunk cost: “When you have gone far out on a limb and so many people have followed you, and there is much “sunk cost,” as economists would say, it is difficult to admit you have been wrong.”[28] In Experiments With People: Revelations from Social Psychology, Abelson, Frey and Gregg explain this further: “..continuing to proselytize on behalf of a doomsday cult whose prophecies have been disconfirmed, although it makes little logical sense, makes plenty of psychological sense if people have already spent months proselytizing on the cult’s behalf. Persevering allows them to avoid the embarrassment of how wrong they were in the first place.”[29] The common-held belief in a catastrophic event occurring on a future date can have the effect of ingraining followers with a sense of uniqueness and purpose.[27][30] In addition, after a failed prophesy members may attempt to explain the outcome through rationalization and dissonance reduction.[21][31][32] Explanations may include stating that the group members had misinterpreted the leader’s original plan, that the cataclysmic event itself had been postponed to a later date by the leader, or that the activities of the group itself had forestalled disaster.[21] In the case of the Festinger study, when the prophecy of a cataclysmic flood was proved false, the members pronounced that their faith in God had prevented the event.[24] They then proceeded to attempt to convert new members with renewed strength.[24]
“obama will try to force government contractors to disclose contributions”
Sure he will. Obama the transparent. What a maroon.
Harsh words, Cash, my friend. – HC
What I posted reflected a herculean act of self restraint.
Maybe 600,000 dead and a wrecked country weren’t enough for folks like Suburbanempire. Maybe they’d like more.
What you DO have is a great deal of acrimony. What you do NOT have is a war. There’s a world of difference between shouting and shooting. But it’s a slippery slope.
Fair enough, you actually live there. But I have to say this, Americana saturates this country. I do have familiarity with America from work and family amd geographic proximity. Plus I think that some distance gives a different perspective.
I have to say this also: in 1961 (or 1861) Black people in the White House would have been unthinkable and so would a Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a Black Secretary of State. Do you remember about that incident when Marian Anderson was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall by the DAR because she’s Black? Can you imagine something like that happening nowadays?
What did Liberals do to me? Long story and I won’t bore you with it. But it was Canadian Federal Liberals and their economic policies (not Alberta Liberals) that messed me up and many others out West.
Many of my own attitudes you would paint as “liberal”. Some you would paint as “conservative”. My bile is directed both at liberals and conservatives for their policies of national suicide. Liberals are eating at us from a cultural and political perspective and conservatives from the economic side.
HC we are in our fourth federal election campaign in seven years in this place. We are getting to be like Italy with their unstable, short lived governments. Why? Because this country is so regionally and linguistically fractured. Why? Because of people up here like Suburbanempire.
Catch a blast from you guys? I’d say we have our own problems to deal with. I’ve been saying for a long time that if eastern liberals up here don’t put a lid on it this country will crack up and, as you guys would know from experience, these things can get shitty real fast. Nobody learns from history and especially, it seems, our posturing intellectuals.
So then I see assholes like Suburbanempire saying things like this: How do you circumcise someone from the South? Kick his sister in the mouth. And this: you are doing justice and adding authenticity to the worlds image of the South… that it is filled with retarded inbreds.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is also paved with bad intentions. The best service that haters like Suburbanempire can render your great nation is to shut their damn hole.
If there is a genuine sign of a true ideologue, its their false self assurance. Take Ron Paul for example, if he were President we would save a lot of money on “advisers”, because he already knows the answer to every possible question. Just ask him! It will pop out of his mouth without a shred of reflection or doubt.
So it is with Jimmy and his “doomer” cohort. Don’t try to fog their crystal ball with any divergent information or complexities, they will have none of it. THEY, and their self selected experts, know the TRUE nature of events and circumstances. As Rush would say, “its really very simple folks”, (even when its anything but).
Anything is possible, and circumstances surrounding things such as oil supply and energy economics are so complex that even a reasonably formed opinion requires a capacity for holding multiple divergent trends in mind simultaneously. Something few of us are really that good at doing.
Every doomer prediction has a degree of plausibility and possibility, but notice how often it seems to be informed with an agenda. People have been predicting “doom” on one basis or another, for centuries, not one of them has been right yet. Keep that in mind. Embrace uncertainty.
BIRTH CERTIFICATE IN!
Whats Certain is cause n Effect..
And 3 major religions all call this the dark age or end times.
Your argument doesn’t make sense. Even if it doesn’t affect those people, they still know better.
Did you ever look at a hospital bill or a surgery bill? If you only were given a voucher for $15,000.00 it wouldn’t cover much at all–and that’s with today’s prices! So if youhad to get private insurance what would it cost per year? $20,000.00 or more cause you’re most likely to get sick?
Who can afford that?
Instead of giving tax breaks to people who are not creating jobs or putting money back into the country, let’s consider changes that are less extreme than Ryans’.
Wage and price control in the Medical industry is going to have to be considered too! It’s by far the most expensive in the world and is less effective in many areas.
Your freemarket ideology doesn’t work–proven time and again whereever it’s been instituted. Unless of course you want to smash the middle class.
I see you ain’t fer me.
But, don’t forget to apply these notions of “the psychology of previous investment” to everything that is in the political theologies of man, and all that is man-made infrastructure.
Ah-ah-ah! [wagging forefinger] You’ve forgotten already.
(Dang, almost as funny as Pud-Pud declaiming that his imbecilic views and vile spewage reflect “adult” behavior. I’m still not sure why people come here to “change minds” about our being well-and-truly fucked. Because “they care” that we might be sadly misinformed and brainwashed, and wish to “save us”? I don’t think so… Oh, it’s getting more comic by the day, with all these distractionary tactics and just plain dumbfuckery.)
Hey, Cash!
How is a divorce in Arkansas like a tornado?
Either way – someone’s going to lose a trailer!
Doom preachers have never been right, Dale?
Depends on who was preaching. I’d say that Native Americans, pagans in early Europe, Jews in 20th century Europe, anti-nuclear Japanese, New Orleans residents preaching about levees, Congolese through 2 centuries, etc., etc., etc. were right.
What he’s doing is assuring people that Granny won’t starve.
The grandkids will.
Most people think that everyone deserves a decent life and retirement.
This dividing of the generations is insidious.
But why would the ruling class give up such a tried and true method as divide and conquer?
Too bad the hateful and ignorant fall for it every time.
Yeah, that part about the adults in the room cracked me up too.
If there was an “adult” like that in my room, I’d get the kids out quick, before their psyches were damaged for life!
” I’d get the kids out quick, before their psyches were damaged for life!”
Of course you would. then you could heard them in the corner and preach to them the hatred of the South. I mean we wouldn’t want them to NOT learn that little lesson. (That, after all, is ADULT.)
Haven’t been to a theatre in years. We borrow videos from the library. I’m going to see if I can get it that way. I read Atlas Shrugged about 20 years ago. At the time I liked it. I tried to re-read it not long ago and couldn’t do it. I’m interested to see how they did with the movie. From what I read of Rand it sounds like she was a real pain in the ass.
“What he’s doing is assuring people that Granny won’t starve.
The grandkids will.”
No, they probably won’t. If we start to teach them that there is no free lunch and we must live within our means. If, on the other hand, we teach them that we can just take other peoples money to supplement our shortcomings then the little bastards are doomed. How can I say that? Because that thinking has brought us to the precipice.
“This dividing of the generations is insidious.
But why would the ruling class give up such a tried and true method as divide and conquer?
Too bad the hateful and ignorant fall for it every time.”
Which is how we ended up with Dear Leader. Good point.
“Hey, Cash!
How is a divorce in Arkansas like a tornado?
Either way – someone’s going to lose a trailer!”
Hey Cash!
How do you get rid of Wagelaborer?
Flush the shitter.
Shame on you Wage. You’ll damage their self esteem. Which raises a question: in the US how is family property divvied up in a divorce? Does the matrimonial home get special treatment? Is it a state by state thing or is divorce law federal? Just curious.
Actually I’ll bet trailers are selling like hotcakes with people walking away from their mortgages. We don’t have a lot of trailer parks in this neck of the woods. I’ve forgotten what part of the country you’re in. How’s the housing market where you are?
“How’s the housing market where you are?”
Actually wage is envious of trailers as she/it hangs out in a cardboard box.
Too many people are unshakeably convinced there is such a thing as a free lunch. There’s a bank TV commercial up here with the slogan “you’re richer than you think”. As if there’s a magical hole somewhere with money in it.
Actually it should go “you’re poorer than you think”. People think that in their old age money will magically appear without any obligation on their part to set money aside. Buy ten thousand dollars in stocks when you’re 30 and retire when you’re sixty five with a million. Your financial advisor will wave the wizard’s wand and there it is.
Yep, just as I thought! The 8 “NATO” soldiers killed today in Afghanistan, shot by an allied Afghan Officer, were all Americans.
-Marlin
Well, Cash, you asked me two questions I can’t answer.
I don’t really know how they divide up property in a divorce. The trailer thing was just a joke.
As for the housing market, I don’t know about that either.
Do you mean, are houses selling? Or, are prices falling? Or what?
And I have nothing against trailer parks. I lived in one for a long time.
What’s brought us to the precipice was free trade with millions of jobs and investments by the richest CEO’s and investors of this country going overseas for the burgeoning new markets, wars paid for by borrowed money from China. Giant bank bailouts for the international bank system, lowering taxes on the rich so that we are in a huge deficit instead of the balanced budget we had with Clinton.
Calling Obama dear leader is ridiculous. When’s the last time you had to forage for bark and grass for dinner to keep from starving?
Every president we’ve had went back on their word.
Clinton felt our pain until he undid Glass Steagall, W didn’t want to nation-build until the neos got to him. Then all the sudden he wanted to export democracy at the barrel of the gun.Then he did the corporate communist thing and handed over what some say was $23 Trillion in TARP to US and foreign banks, AIG, GS etc.
Keeping interest rates down to 0 is another big game plan so you have to invest in the global casino and they can keep this racket going. And it’s been going on for many years. The presidents just step into it for 4-8 years, then they are gone. The entrenched continue to slow bleed the country for the sake of ideology.
Even Trump had to say this morning that there’s a calculus of change in the world and old ideas from 30 years ago aren’t going to work anymore.
Oh, and today Bernanke is going to tell us all about the game plan for keeping the interest rate down and quantitative easing set for June. Now they think it’s important to be more transparent…
“Take Ron Paul for example, if he were President we would save a lot of money on “advisers”, because he already knows the answer to every possible question.”
Advice on matters the government has no authority to be involved in would not needed by a contitutional government. He seeks to restore a small, limited, central government.
I’ll answer that as best I can.
In CA divorce is 50/50 split on community property.
Whatever you owned before is yours. UNLESS it was comingled, and then you have to proove that and it will be split by the judge however that works out.
Yes yes yes ‘trailer’ (modulars) are ARE selling like hotcakes here. like I said a few days ago, modulars and trailers in parks are Expensive where I am on the West Coast. Houses are 600k for an old 60 years or older. So that jacks up trailers. trailers are around 200k to 300k. higher in 05 and 06. double wide. new or old. because see if the trailer is old it is valuable because it is already in a park, (has a space), spaces are not easy to get here in this resort town. same trailer in WA would be 20k. or Oregon. Or Auburn CA for that matter. but all around getting harder and harder to get. and then there is this company from Texas buying out parks and jacking up the rent spaces… until no one can afford and then they can take it down and put up houses.
Thems’ the facts.
Here’s a real beaut if you really want to understand this debt thing:http://michael-hudson.com/2011/04/10-million-foreclosures-matter/
But will they let experts examine it – I doubt it. And unless they do, I’m not convinced. If it was real, why didn’t he show it in the first place? And why did he spend two million dollars of his own money fighting the 10 or so people who sued to see it?
“What’s brought us to the precipice was free trade with millions of jobs and investments by the richest CEO’s and investors of this country going overseas for the burgeoning new markets, wars paid for by borrowed money from China. Giant bank bailouts for the international bank system, lowering taxes on the rich so that we are in a huge deficit instead of the balanced budget we had with Clinton.”
And every single thing you mentioned above was brought forth by the actions of government. It had nothing to do with free trade. It had to do with members of our government trying to jerk laws around to the benefit of their constituents.
The “evil investors” send money overseas when pin-head legislators make tax laws unfavorable for domestic investing. Why would anyone, risk a single dime in a foreign locale with all of the attendant translation of language, currency, measuring units, shipping, etc. etc. etc? Answer: Because even with all of those obstacles to overcome it is still preferable to do so then try and make a buck here at home. What the fuck does that tell you about how badly our laws have screwed things up?
Borrowed money from China? Hell yes. Its called Treasury Bills. The Chinese hold roughly 3 trillion dollars worth. Our government (not business leaders) sold them to the Chinese to service our debt. This debt, of course, resulting from our legislators (Dems &B Repubs.) robbing the fucking till, over promising goodies and turning this country into a fucking nanny state.
Re Clinton & his surplus: George the 1st walked into the S&L debacle during his admin. and was forced to clean up the stinking mess. He did. Clinton waltzed into office just in time to benefit.
Yeah, great book. Yes cold is their achilles heel – my old landlord once cleared his house of them (brought in by a tenant) by just turning the thermostat down on a cold day in the middle of winter. They came crawling out by the thousands to die.
But outside of that, they are amazingly hardy – they have found some preserved in amber and they are scarcely changed in last 600 million years. They can go without food for months.
Obama’s reelection is really a very, very simple math problem. Consider the following:
1. Blacks will vote for Obama blindly. Period. Doesn’t matter what he does. It’s a race thing. He’s one of us,
2. College educated women will vote for Obama. Though they will be offended by this, they swoon at his oratory. It’s really not more complex than that,
3. Liberals will vote for Obama. He is their great hope,
4. Democrats will vote for Obama. He is the leader of their party and his coattails will carry them to victory nationwide,
5. Hispanics will vote for Obama. He is the path to citizenship for those who are illegal and Hispanic leaders recognize the political clout they carry in the Democratic Party,
6. Union members will vote overwhelmingly for Obama. He is their key to money and power in business, state and local politics,
7. Big Business will support Obama. They already have. He has almost $1 Billion dollars in his reelection purse gained largely from his connections with Big Business and is gaining more every day. Big Business loves Obama because he gives them access to taxpayer money so long as they support his social and political agenda,
8. The media love him. They may attack the people who work for him, but they love him. After all, to not love him would be racist,
9. Most other minorities and special interest groups will vote for him. Oddly, the overwhelming majority of Jews and Muslims will support him because they won’t vote Republican. American Indians will support him. Obviously homosexuals tend to vote Democratic. And lastly,
10. Approximately half of independents will vote for Obama. And he doesn’t need anywhere near that number because he has all of the groups previously mentioned. The President will win an overwhelming victory in 2012.
– Dr. Walter Williams
Do you really think American workers can compete with Coolies – without becoming coolies themselves? The Corporations would have no problem with letting us become coolies again btw, just as we were at the begining of the Industrial Revolution. Read about six year olds getting caught in the machines; about 16 year olds working 16 hour days; about the tens of thousands of teenage prostitutes in London – their families have been thrown off their lands and the girls cut loose to fend for themselves.
It takes alot of money and love to have a viable Country. Capitalism by itself without guidance and controls in just not conducive to it. Did the Japanese adopt our system whole cloth? Hardly. They never entertained the illusion that Corporations and the Goverment could be separate. But instead of the Corporations dictating to the Goverment – the Goverment dictates to them. They’re in together for the good of the Nation – not the good of just the owners, managers, and stockholders. And small business flourishes there more than here now too. So it’s not “Socialism” but by no means is their system Capitalist as we have come to understand it.
I once saw a clip of a Japanese Executive apologizing to his workers after the factory had been relocated to the Philliopines. He wept as he apologized, saying how sorry he was that he had failed them. This was punctuated every other sentence by deep bows. Can you imagine anything like that here – I mean the deep feeling not the bowing? So their workers can’t compete with coolies either – but they will be taken care of while our people will be thrown into the garbage.
I like and respect Williams but I think its a bit early to be calling the election. We don’t even know who the players are yet.
I think the Clintonista’s mantra, “Its the economy, stupid” will be the driving force. If candidate “X” is able to stand up on stage at the debate and pose that age old, Reagan question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” how will Obama answer?
Additionally, where will we be regarding an exit status from Iraq, Afghanistan and Lybia? What will the price of gas be? Will the dollar still be the world reserve currency?
There is a lot of road kill ahead on the road to the WH.
“Do you really think American workers can compete with Coolies”
STFU, MORON
Some things are not possible. We call these impossible. Sorry to be a pedantic clod. Carry on…
I’m a white, democratic, college-educated woman and I’m not voting for Obama. We’re still in Afghanistan. He lied about getting out.
I sent Obama another email yesterday, complaining that we are now sending our drones to kill people in Libya. I’m so mad about our involvement in Libya I am going to explode in rage.
I wrote that I’m not voting for him in 2012.
Jen
“I sent Obama another email yesterday…”
Well then relax. I’m certain that not only will he read your email but he will take your advice as well. (Sheesh.)
Tax restructuring or cuts will not bring employment back here. You can’t compete with slave labor and monetization of debt. Also these other countries represent huge new markets for the corporations, so changing taxes won’t put the genie back in the bottle.
The history of taxing when we had a Keynsian model in the 1950’s and 1960’s was that when we had higher taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals we had more employment and were a the biggest creditor nation in the world. So what changed?
My contention is that this is a keytone system (meaning sick) and that not producing real goods, but monetization getting rich on debt produces more garbage.
BTW I don’t like any of the Pres. we’ve had, but I don’t fool myself into thinking they have a wit of power. They work at the pleasure of Wall St.
So it’s not “Socialism”
—
Whatever…
“So what changed?”
The emergence of the 3rd world and the adoption of a more democratic/free market approach. In short they adopted our ways. And they had huge, impoverished millions to take advantage of. But keep this in mind, China still has 300 million, extremely poor peasants. Chinese leadership has real juggling act on their hand to keep things rolling along. To date they have had to rely on assembling the intellectual designs of foreign nationals.
Look, dollars/sheckels will continue to chase the lowest labor bidder. But there are other factors at play. When it gets too fucking expensive to ship goods half way across the world, even with lower labor costs, those goods will be made closer to home. Labor is but one input. You have cost of raw materials, tax laws, labor, shipping, perceived/real advantage of product a over product b, engineering, higher quality, etc. etc etc. If you can’t fight the battle on the “cheap labor” front you have to address those areas that you do control to remain competitive.
This is just a hello. I know I can’t do better than Kunstler, certainly not more amusing, criticizing what’s wrong with our world. So I will soon join this discussion offering solutions and no doubt open myself and the proposed concept to criticism. You are welcome to have a jump-start if you like to take a look at our (father and daughter team) proposal at http://www.holigent.org.
Talk to you soon.
The book I’m reading now is “The Global Economic Crisis”, a compilation of articles by various people.
You may know, but I didn’t, that Ben Bernacke is a disciple of Milton Friedman.
You may like this article.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article10783.html
Good on ya, Jen.
Some are still calling the people that voted for W, twice – stupid… but they will turn right around and re-elect Obama. Pot. Kettle. Black.
So we must all work for the corporate oligarchy or at least survive on their benificent tinkle down. I for one welcome our business overlords.
Thanks for that Wage,
After Ratigan I’ll read it. I already copied it into my simple text library.
I figure just about everyone in positions of power are in some way a disciple of Friedman or we wouldn’t be doing this still after 1987 it should have been clear this was not the path to take, if they cared to have a middle class here.
Anyway you had the S&L crisis and BCCI, as the dress rehearsals for 2008.
The next one should be a real blow-out!
Please explain to me how a small, limited government could function effectively in governing a heterogenous country of over 300 million people with 50 states.
Please state for me any precedents where a small, limited, libertarian-style government has EVER effectively governed a country of comparable population, size, and complexity.
It is all well and good to stick to paleo-conservative or libertarian principles, but the practicality is quite limited. The year is not 1805. Our country has changed and what used to work will no longer. That’s the way of the world. Things change. Some people can’t seem to wrap their heads around it.
That’s not to say many of his points aren’t legit, just that these overarching pronouncements like “abolish the Fed” are completely silly and anachronistic. Without the Fed, the US would be about as wealthy and influential as Argentina.
“Anyway you had the S&L crisis and BCCI”
How soon we seem to forget…
“I figure just about everyone in positions of power are in some way a disciple of Friedman”
His gospel always had three key points: lower taxes, remove regulation, and privatize publicly owned assets. Not all policitians are in favor of these.
Politics, like government, is often viewed as a necessary evil, but to make matters worse it is, in essence, a mind-numbing and stupendously boring enterprise.
An art critic once said that modern art was “…fatally circumscribed by the facile irony and mocking facetiousness of camp.” Well, politics is fatally circumscribed by its limited conceptual reserves and its tiresome litany of players, from saints to scumbags, most falling somewhere into the “manufactured middle.” After all, there are only a handful of viable governmental constructs and policy variations.
It is the blunt, brutal intrusion of these constructs into our daily lives that that makes things at least tolerably, if forcibly, interesting.
And things finally get most interesting of all when the boring, petty, tactical political gyrations and endless shuttlecocking of egos, whether group or individual, fail to realize and/or address the major issues of the day, leading to huge, strategic uncertainties.
Otherwise, politics; same shit, different day.
Turkle,
In discussing neoliberal influences, I didn’t mean elected politicians, necessarily. I meant the people who get appointed into positions that can be seen as bureaucracy. Certainly those who are handling financial issues. Or those in the sate dept etc who stay on long after the president leaves office.
…scrotum
We will be innovators!
But the CEO’s want the greatest differential! Bush when he went to India told the engineers study hard and the American people will be happy to eat your mangoes.
They’re not hiring Americans in America for engineering jobs. Bill Gates made a case in congress to hire Indian engineers who come in at 75% cost. They can live a few in one apartment.
On C-Span I heard mothers calling in about their sons with engineering degrees were not landing jobs.
My sister told me that she know someone at American Express noticed that they were hiring Indians in US offices.
I get calls from India to take my extra work in digital retouching and many of the places I work use India to do basic work overnight.
Bottom line. Any country who doesn’t believe in evolution will not be innovating anything!
In the meantime let’s destroy public educaton and change the child labor laws…hm sounds real high-end to me.
Has anyone considered the possibility that TPTB are completely aware of our predicament regarding peak oil and capacity for growth? Could it be that there is an agreement between the worlds central bankers to effect a, “we will muddle through” scenario by pretending that debt isn’t piling up against inexorable decline?
I think, if you assume that “they” are aware for a while rather than believing you, and only you, “knows” and read between the lines of the news you will see things differently.
Like it or not, the U.S. dollar is the worlds, “currency”. Confidence is the only thing that makes a fiat currency “money”. Any deviation from positive rhetoric about growth could spoil confidence in the currency. TPTB couldn’t tell us the truth if they wanted to.
We’ve had over 12 inches of rain in one week.
I just went through my second tornado warning, complete with sirens, in one week.
So I turned on the news to see the weather.
Omigod! Now I know what you’re talking about!
The ABC WORLD News was in London, because of the royal wedding. Seriously? That’s the top news story?
They had graphics! Fairy Tale Wedding, or something. They were going to show pictures of previous royal weddings.
I turned it off.
I can’t believe that that is considered world news, with all that is going on.
Hey Wage,
I warned you that was going to happen—always does. The world stands still for a human interest that is according to polls not that interesting to most Americans, but the media loves it and sent a good deal of reporters to party this week in London.
CNN gave good coverage on a huge tornado in Tuskaloosa, Ala.
We have had three days in a row of tornado warnings here in Germantown, TN where all the McMansions have single pane windows and two AC units lol.
My morning glorys were vining around the patio railings nicely but today after the latest bout of storms they kinda gave up their grip on things.
Over 12 inches? Jeez, man. Stop with the “scrotum” already.
Yeah, that teabagger thing is so past tense. I was listening to Hannity on AM radio on the way home from work and he was saying that everyone can be rich if we have the right economic model based on freedom. Really no different than the knucleheads who think big government is the answer.
Capacity for growth is capacity for growth, the past 150 years of persistent economic growth was an anomoly. We are reverting to the mean of the rest of human history.
Those 8 American Servicemen who were murdered in Afghanistan today, shot by an Afghan Air Force Officer who they were supposedly working with … it hardly got a mention in tonights news. Who gives a shit about that when there is a ROYAL WEDDING coming up this weekend?
-Marlin
If 8 soldiers are killed while occupying someone else’s country, that’s murder?
But if a wedding party is wiped out by a Predator drone, that’s collateral damage?
Got it!
The reason I say the teabagger thing is “past tense” is because no one with one iota of ability to analyse large data sets believes there is one chance in hell of econmic growth. The only debate is how steep the decline curve will be. I think the last few have given up on the, “we will muddle through” scenario so — fasten your seatbelts and make sure your trays are in the upright positions!
CFNation New England Chapter (Yankee Division)
Ozone, Nathan, Orionoir, BTBill, SubEmpire, Ripthunder;
2 days in a row over 70d.F, first time since October. Mowed lawn 1st time this year, planted potatoes, motorcycled out to Riverton to check out trout fishing situation (it is good). Could spring finally be here?
-Marlin
People are going to want to know, “what happened.” Why does it have to be, “corn pone NAZI’s that fill the void? Not that I have a problem with nationalist socialism, just your interpretation of what “that” is.
Comrade Wagelabor, why don’t move to N. Korea or Cuba? They’d love to have you, with your communist background and all, and you’d be much happier there.
-Marlin
‘Any country who doesn’t believe in evolution will not be innovating anything’
Maybe….what is happening is de evolution!
And is it all due to the Republicans?
Doesnt BG give lots to the dems?
Do ya know why Carter started Dept of Energy?
Dept of education is worse than useless.
And how small is small?
Naturally there will be a void of “truth” that will need to be filled in the wake of all the lies that have been told for so many years to support “confidence” in the worlds reserve currency.
The worlds reserve currency actually failed as a stand alone hegemony in 1970 when the U.S. reached peak oil.In 1971 President Nixon renegged on the Bretton Woods agreement that established the U.S. dollar as worlds reserve currency based on $38 OZ gold when their wasn’t enough gold in Fort Knox to cover, “a run on” the gold window by foreign central banks led by the French.
The U.S. dollar now as a, “we are all in this together” worlds currency for globalisation failed in May of ’05 when global peak oil occured.
So, what “truth” will come out on top in the wake of so many lies for so many years?
From the front page of my blog:
CONTACT
Feel free to contact me regarding permaculture in Georgia, consulting work in edible landscaping, ecological gardening, or food forests. Or just to chat. trippticket(at)gmail(dot)com, or just post to the current thread.
Cheers!
Scott,
I like your comment and see real validity in it. Fact is there has been no audit of our holdings of gold in over 50 years, nor will there be.
My guess is that there will be no accepted truth, since you would have to admit to peak oil in 2005 to begin with. T. Boone Pickens did. He said we reached peak in Nov 2005 during the fall of that year. (I heard him on talk radio)
Since we have no consensus for what is true in this country, I think your apt definition is rendered moot.
Damn James,
Your blog may be one of the most stunning examples of artificial intelligence / active disinformation it has ever been my displeasure to experience.
Jonathon Stains
Executive Officer
Public Relations Department
Burpelson Air Force Base
City of Pustule, State of Florida, USA.
“Without the Fed, the US would be about as wealthy and influential as Argentina.”
If this means we would be free again {living in a constitutional republic as opposed to a huge open-air mind control experiment}, it would be an vast improvement.
http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.org/weblog/WebPosting.cfm?LogID=2562
“Things change.”
Whistleblower issue for July 2006 writes this:
“Today, the entire Western financial world holds its breath every time the Fed chairman speaks, so influential are the central bank’s decisions on markets, interest rates and the economy in general. Yet the Fed, supposedly created to smooth out business cycles and prevent disruptive economic downswings like the Great Depression, has actually done the opposite.
“From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble” in 2001, charges U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, “every economic downturn suffered by the country over the last 80 years can be traced to Federal Reserve policy.”
While many Fed defenders claim it worked valiantly to prevent or minimize the ravages of the Great Depression, in reality the Fed caused the Depression and greatly increased the severity of its effects.
In fact, as July’s Whistleblower documents, the Fed’s new chairman, Ben Bernanke, admits that the Federal Reserve was responsible for the Great Depression. “We did it,” Bernanke said, adding, “We’re very sorry.”
But the Fed’s sins go way beyond the Great Depression. “Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy,” said Paul, the congressman best known for his steadfast commitment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Bernanke hasn’t learned a thing.
I’m game if you are to follow “sound money” principals. That means we go back not only to 1970 and around 9 million barrels a day but the depletion rates since at around 5 million barrels per day. So, if we follow the Constitution and suddenly get a grip on sound money principals we go from 20 million barrels per day of consumption to 5 million barrels per day of consumption.
Yep, thats a pretty steep decline scenario right there buddy. Gonna happen sooner or later, might as well be on our terms right?
Right.
“The day will come when, instead of teaching [believing] that these leaders were nobly trying to ease the pain of financial forces beyond their control, today’s politicians will instead be accurately portrayed as naïve, negligent, and just plain stupid populists whose ignorance of real economic matters was exactly the ingredient necessary to permit the psychopathic and misanthropic banking community to form the financial policies of their governments. Unfortunately, the only ones likely to be alive by the time that happens are now in diapers.”
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/west041911.html
My apologies for also misinterpreting your post. A rereading subsequent to Wages’ comment to my comment clearly upheld your/her contention. As I was taking a break from setting fence posts at the time I reckon my old addled brain was partaking of an O2 deprived senior moment.
SNAFU
It wasn’t the FED that created loans for everyone to have the “American Dream”. I think it is written in stone somewhere at the FED that “no one gets more debt than they can handle”. lol. They know better than anybody what can happen to people that get more than they can handle — it ruins them. Just look at all the “millionares” that have won lotteries. They invariably say it was the worst thing that ever happened to them and wished they had never won.
Yeah If only I could find that one out for myself.
There is a book called Suddenly Rich that is about just that. And I keep meaning to read it.
Interesting subject. I just don’t think it would be the worst thing to happen if it did, to me that is.
I’m leavin’ on that midnight train to Georgia.
of all the things I miss having had to give up ‘my house’ with the garden, it’s a garden.
really really hope to have one again. in CA.
Your pics are awesome tripp. beautiful layout.
Hey, scott.
The whole millieu of cheap credit is based upon the fact that the Fed loans out “free” money to all major banks through its discount window, among other programs. This means that these banks are then able to loan out this money at (relatively) low interest rates and still get a nice return.
During the bailout, these ultra low or no interest loans were extended to major corporations, such as McDonald’s and Harley Davidson, as well as all the major banks.
The housing market itself has been propped up for years by pseudo-government entities Freddie and Fannie buying up most domestic loans and bundling them into securities. And who do you think ultimately backs up the housing market, by guaranteeing the solvency of banks and so forth? I’ll give you a few guesses.
Then there is the fact that without the Fed, there would be no way to run the gigantic fiscal deficits we have without incurring immediate inflation from “printing money.” As it is, we kick the can down the road, because the Fed buys the extra bonds.
I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on the Fed, but it is a fascinating topic. And the deeper you go, the more you find its tentacles everywhere.
Then you shouldn’t have any problem acquiring debt from the FED. Just tell a banker what your plans for productive activity are and voila. lol.
People complain about the FED’s reflation efforts handing debt to corrupt people on Wall St. but can only offer plans to directly hand debt to ordinary citizens??? How are ordinary citizens going to reflate the economy — buy more stuff at WalMart? Maybe if we ordinary citizens get together and bid up farmland like those debt worthy investment bankers and create communes — er gated communities?
My intuition and thoughts are the Wind Power is going to be happening more and more, and it should be.
Funny, I must live in a different country than you. I know a couple of lottery winners and they are very happy and well-adjusted. I bet for every lottery grand prize winner that gets messed up because of sudden riches, five winners are quite ok with it.
BTW, be careful about using “absolute” words like “invariably” or “always”, etc. One exception proves you inaccurate; not good for your reputation. Say “most” or “a majority”.
I’d bet one out of fifty might be better off with being handed lottery winnings amounts of debt. Most people end up destroying themselves when confronted with more debt than they know what to do with. They start out with the initial adrenaline rush of spending money buying things that makes them happy then end up just buying things to be happy. A lot of similarities to drug addicts.
I got $184 for copper wire with the plenum still on.
Can’t pick up my check until Friday. Good thing I know some one with a bank account. Do you know where I can find some copper?
Thanks, Jackie, I appreciate that. And I hope you get to garden in California too! Nice Mediterranean climate like that just begs for all the crops we cut our teeth on as farmers about 10,000 years ago. We may have to do things a bit differently down here in the south.
Jackie, yes it would be the worst thing to happen to you. You would instantly become a target for kidnappers. You would suspect anyone who smiled at you or said hello to you that they are probably after your money. You would be suspicious of your own family and family members who suddenly appear after years. You would have to worry about people constantly trying to sell you stuff, scam you out of your riches, hack your bank account. You would become isolated, lonely, depressed, you might even commit suicide all because you “won” a bunch of money and it ruined your life.
Be grateful for the life you have: it is full of the blessings of poverty and anonymity.
Donald Trump said:
=========
Well, Mr. Trump, it is time to put up or shut up.
Here is what I say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5ueEKsSWc&feature=player_embedded#at=75
My sentiments via YouTube
“New Orleans residents preaching about levees, Congolese through 2 centuries, etc., etc., etc. were right.”
===========================================
False analogy…..poorly built levees do not compare in complexity to worldwide economic circumstances. Likewise, Congolese, facing centuries of colonial oppression. What’s so difficult about predicting what is already happening will continue?
That was the point after all, complexity is the issue that makes such “predictions” as you mention so different from predicting economic collapse.
Carry on.
“Advice on matters the government has no authority to be involved in would not needed by a contitutional government. He seeks to restore a small, limited, central government.”
=============================================
Not really sure what your first sentence intends. But it really doesn’t matter what Ron wants to do, the simple fact is he is such a ideologue that he named his son “Rand” for Chrissakes! He doesn’t think, he just regurgitates thoughtlessly, chapter and verse from Libertarian talking points.
I subscibed to “Reason” (The Libertarian Magazine) for one year, just to see if I could follow their argument. It was so incredibly boring I could hardly make it through one article each month. A better title for the magazine would have been “Dogma”
They love to talk about the “Constitution” like it’s something chiseled in stone, and passed down from God, instead of a living breathing document. We “The People” decide what the Constitution is, and it should change with time, just like everything else in the world. It’s just silly to think that what worked in 1775 is perfect in the modern world.
MD said: “Advice on matters the government has no authority to be involved in would not needed by a contitutional government.”
dale replied: “Not really sure what your first sentence intends.”
======
MD means affairs of civic life {government by rule-makers} are dealt with by a constitution, but a constitution cannot give advice on affairs of the spiritual life.
In my opinion, MD is wrong about this.
I’m all over “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as spiritual advice.
Life {stop your killing ways}
Liberty {respect others}
Pursuit of happiness {God wants His creation to rejoice}
Of course, I am not Christian, so my opinion counts for very little.
My philosophy can be boiled down to three verbs: LIVE! LOVE! LAUGH!
So i suppose in your mind letting Bush, Cheney, Obama, run wars without proper constitutional authority, jail citizens without trials ,spy on citizens without a court order is much better than Ron Paul’s old fashioned ‘obsession’ with the constitution.
The Justice Department under Bush Jr said that the President is a dictator in wartime, just let them make up shit to suit themselves! We wouldn’t want to annoy anyone in a position of power.
You look pretty young and healthy there Asoka. So why are you horsing around on YouTube with so many Nubian roofs yet to be built?
That you asoka?
Thanks for sharing.
All of this reminds me of the time that as an ICU RN at a large suburban hospital in Kansas City, the true life Patch Adams (Dr Hunter Adams) came to speak for national nurses day or some other such banner-flying event.
Groups of young mid-twenty something nurses were coming back from his talk saying things like “He was sooo weird” and “Like it wasn’t at all what I expected” and “was soooo depressing.”
Turns out that an especially feisty Patch had been talking about his mission against human evil in the world, with rather graphic references to war crimes in Burma and Vietnam if I remember correctly.
These chicks just wanted to see him make funny faces and maybe honk his nose.
The level of national discourse in this country in dealing with real impending watershed issues is roughly at this level most of the time.
Ron Paul has fringe views. He has talked about how the US should withdraw from the UN, and that the Federal Reserve should be abolished. Both of these ideas are simply off-the-wall.
Finding the legitimate and reasonable amongst his sheer wackiness is pretty difficult.
The president is the Commander in Chief during wartime and so over the years has been given more and more power in fighting conflicts.
But, as I recall, Bush got approval from Congress in both his little adventures. Correct me if I’m wrong…
Tom Waits…yes! Love that album.
The problem with libertarians and their ilk is that they don’t acknowledge the good that government accomplishes.
So let’s perform a little mental exercise. Imagine the US without Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance, welfare, etc. Pretend America’s frayed social safety net is removed entirely, which is many a libertarian’s wet dream.
Would American be a better or worse place overall?
Don’t think too hard about it.
Also, removing government from the equations of power and influence tends to result in dominance by the wealthy and the mega-corporations they own and run. And you don’t need any experiment, mental or otherwise, to see how that’s turning out for us.
turk is one who bemoans US influence [military] as do I!
Many people want life to be all buttercups and lollipops and don’t want to concern themselves with the bad things, of which there are a few. Instead of acknowledging the cold fact that the universe is not designed for human happiness, they would like to believe some invisible being watches them from above and has a darn good reason for everything that happens. Sheer wackiness if you ask me.
Most people don’t actually want freedom, even if they say they do. They want guarantees of increasing prosperity, security from crime, and predictability in their lives, not that you can blame them. When they say they want freedom, they mostly mean that they want to pay lower taxes (can’t blame people there either).
Freedom is an overrated virtue, especially in America. Freedom has no ethics aside from “Do what thou wilt.” In its purest form, freedom is anarchy. It is purely selfish, an ethic of “I’m going to do what I want.” As the basis for a society, it has many shortcomings, though it does give America and Americans a very powerful and compelling set of positive attributes, especially our “can do” spirit and willingness to try new things (especially in business).
Think about it. So many scared suburbanites are obsessed with crime, and many would probably tell you also that they love freedom. Well, which is it? Do they want a policeman on every corner and every minor criminal locked up for years or do they really want more freedom than a police state?
Or the Republicans are all for freedom, supposedly, yet they started and seem to love the nightmarish War on Drugs, an a priori removal of your basic freedom to ingest whatever substances you wish.
The hypocrisy, it makes me whistle in admiration.
People are also pretty stupid. Like, do you want to see more freedom on our roads? There’s a reason they are so covered in signage and stop lights. Because given true freedom, too many people fuck it up for everyone else.
scott,
Why do you think that “sound money” would help? I’m not sure I follow. Do you want a gold standard? For most people, that would be far worse than our current system. Or maybe you meant something else.
Freedom and the pursuit of happiness are nothing but hedonism draped in shiny philosophical clothing, or at least that’s what they have become, an excuse to tickle one’s pleasure sensors at the expense of all else.
An ethic of doing what “feels good” plays out neural stimulus response behavior programmed by evolution, which has become maladaptive and destructive in our world. For instance, humans are programmed to like sweet foods, because in nature they are rare. Now, fast forward to the days of Baskin Robbins and warehouse sized food stores, and people pursue their happiness by becoming fat disgusting blobs. The brain is designed to be responsive to new stimuli, especially fast moving visuals. So now there is a multi-billion dollar industry of providing video games to people so they can be glued in front of screens for hours. These types of behaviors are destructive of social cohesion. Yet they are encouraged by our pursuit of freedom and happiness.
Because we place so much emphasis on achieving happiness and on each individual’s freedom, society frays and collapses as each person goes their own way. This makes necessary shared organization, planning, and sacrifice almost impossible, as each person thinks he knows best through his license to be happy and free and will not listen to authority.
Freedom has no ethics, aside from (possibly) the idea that you don’t mess up the other guy’s freedom, which usually doesn’t work out so well…tragedy of the commons and all that.
From last week “metuselah”:
“Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING relating to US imperialism and the “New World Order” (modeled on the old Roman imperialism**) is directed by, and for, the benefit of the Vatican and the old european establishment. And it is all for the purpose of bringing back the old age of religious darkness, ignorance, and serfdom. ”
The only real god the church has is sex. And in fact most religions are all obsessed with this issue one way or another, their only goal is to regulate it and mostly repress it and become perverts in the process like catholic priests hitting on boys, etc. Of course, the issues are more complex etc. the history of civilization, the organization of society, etc. But religion works on amplifying the opposites by contrasting it (reminds me how fights of all kinds are really generated, you want A, I want B, both A and B are no big deals, not very important, maybe not even very different, but by the very fact that they become in opposition they amplify each other and their importance becomes amplified beyond any reasonableness), and by amplifying the opposite you make it ever more important and dominating until it becomes the real one and only god.
So this opposition between religion in general and sex, is mostly putting sex on the altar where god should be. Anyways, I could go on, others probably have noticed all these contorted and perverted effects and associations, and oddball situations etc. I also noticed some porn sites, they are interesting, they show the bottom line without all the bull shit conversation, or romantic love necessary, or the dictatorship of beauty, etc. Like it is “true love”, unconditional love: also you find all kinds of interesting new relationships sought after like impotent man looking for women self pleasuring, or frigid women looking for man self pleasuring, whatever, and all permutations and combinations, anonymous, not anonymous, some want to pay, some not, some hiding themselves anyways with masks, some not, whatever. All rules are broken down, also very strange to see what effects all of this can have in general,
etc. in the long run.
My take on it is that the Internet and worldwide websites can and will have a devastating effect in the long run on all of our rules and social organizations, on civilization in general.
Bustin J talked about, some time back, on the effect that it could have on democracy and politics, rules of laws, etc. We see some effects in the Middle East and Africa, people getting more information, getting a different description of the world and acting accordingly. I would not underestimate the effect that all this new information and relationships with other, all the possible new interactions could have.
From Bustin J last week:
“The common thread of all these movements will be the internet. As it continues to grow it will destroy the ability of the major political parties and the media to control the message of the party, and the old false dualism will be conflated with conspiracy and avarice.
The undergirding premises of this upheaval will be the power of the Internet to dissolve old barriers. For example, the high barrier of media access is going to be utterly smashed. It is already a hole in the dam; erosion will take the entire edifice down at the inevitable tipping point.”
Also, from:
(Another cool sounding block of text)
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=174349
“The real question should be why did life want to escape the laws of physics ? It is as if life wanted to make a statement like “I am so random and quirky that you can’t predict me”.
The cells, organisms, the way insects or other animals randomly move in space all seems to be a mocking of “laws” in general and the “laws of physics” especially, especially the mathematical description of the laws of physics.
And sprinkle Free Will (that animals also have, but humans have perfected to the nth degree) on it all and you have something that is trying to actually escape the laws of physics, is just trying to escape predictability.
And the entire process of natural evolution is so random and quirky, that it is unbelievable that the underlying molecules and atoms even do follow laws of physics: they do, but the aggregates of particles start to misbehave, start to want to do their own thing, which is nothing, but except being totally unpredictable.
Yes, you have your large scale trends, reproduction – selection, and many other large scale statistical trends, just like you have your large scale differential equations describing the laws of physics but rarely having precise analytical solutions.
As if it is saying “I will give you some patterns, some trends, I will let you discover some laws, laws of physics, but past a certain point there will no longer be any laws”, aggregates of molecules, insects, animals and their behavior will demolish any laws, or at least any “precise” laws.
But this is then yet, another justification for the Instant Singularity modified neural network minds, yet another statement of the Universe, Reality and Nature telling us to invent all we want, there are no real laws of physics.
When did matter decide to lie to itself ? Why did carbon molecules start to interact between each other and start lying to each other and disobey mathematical laws, even though they are part of the laws of physics, they started lying to each other and reality and Mass – Energy by evolving into cells and lifeforms and minds.”
and:
from:
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=174981
“Yeah, open that can of worms. Most likely there are trillions of permutations corresponding to a P – N much greater than that of a close encounter or of a time travel in the past or future. In fact, most likely there are way more interesting experiences to play out amongst all those combinations.
But anyways, only with a handful of transistors in the brain – mind you can probably achieve many new states – experiences, and even with just a high degree of self deception, pure capacity to lie to yourself, to pretend, a very strong and high degree of being able to make believe and then make it real all through simple thoughts is probably an even easier way to achieve time travel and close encounters.
But by a high capability to lie to yourself, deceive yourself and make believe, you can especially reach all the more incredible experiences that the equivalent permutations of sensory information, or simply the combinations of Mass – Energy self manipulating, or simply the configuration of Information Relationships can reach.
One interesting problem could be how the “degree of aknowledgment of other minds – emotions – consciousness” variable as E can vary in these experiences. In normal life E is probably only 1 in a scale of 1 to 100 corresponding to only people, not objects, you think are conscious (but they may be ghosts, you verify it maybe only when they act to provoke pain/plesure), but in these experiences the variable E could be 20 or 70 meaning that even the rock is alive and you aknowledge it as being a will power.”
There are many others, on that site ilovephilosophy, by nameta9, read them all, study them very carefully, you will be tested on it all by JHK himself, he wants you to become educated and knowledgable.
It doesn’t matter what the money is made out of be it silver, gold or whatever. Bankers have always lent out more than what was in reserve. When pressed, Libertarian Austrian economists still believe in infinite growth and that the world is powered by money. Austrian economists are no different in discounting energy as low as possible, be it your labor, crude oil, whatever and elevating their currency to as high a worth as possible.
Why do you think it is that economists want to place a high value on their “money” and a low value on your labor?
I refer to the Reuters report below.
Harvey in his book, the “Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism” describes the fetishe that Capitalism has for technology, and technological fixes to problems.
When I was a kid growing up in Alabama, we used to make fun of the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. We dreamed up an imaginary redneck family, “The Mutants”, who lived down wind from the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant.
There is/was a US Army nerve gas stockpile near Anniston, 50 miles from Birmingham, Alabama. There is/was enough VX gas in the stockpile to fry everyone on the planet several times over. At one time, there was a Project Manager at the nerve gas facility surnamed “Love”.
True story….
Reuters reports:
Severe storms and tornadoes moving through the U.S. Southeast dealt a severe blow to the Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday, causing three nuclear reactors in Alabama to shut and knocking out 11 high-voltage power lines, the utility and regulators said.
***
All three units at TVA’s 3,274-megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama tripped about 5:30 EDT (2230 GMT) after losing outside power to the plant, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
A TVA spokeswoman said the station’s backup power systems, including diesel generators, started and operated as designed. External power was restored quickly to the plant but diesel generators remained running Wednesday evening, she said.
The Browns Ferry units are among 23 U.S. reactors that are similar in design to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan where backup generators were swept away in the tsunami that followed the massive earthquake on March 11.
VX Gas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkbBnvz0rw0
Pucker,
That’s really scary. Nothing like having the sword of Damocles hanging over your head in the form of a poorly designed nuclear power plant in the path of a tornado!
In NYC and outlying suburbs we have Indian Point in Buchanan NY built on of all things a fault. Yup, some genius came up with that locale and everyone nodded to got for it. Can you figure that one out? NYC alone has 8 million people on an island, no less.
Interesting note: according to Wikipedia,
[Indian Point 1, built by Consolidated Edison, was the first of three reactors at this location. It was a 275-megawatt pressurized water reactor and was issued an operating license on March 26, 1962 and started operations on September 16, 1962.[4] The first core at the Indian Point power station used a thorium-based fuel, but it did not live up to expectations.[5] The plant was operated with uranium oxide fuel for the remainder of its operations.
The Unit 1 reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974 because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. All spent fuel was removed from the reactor vessel by January 1976. The licensee, Entergy, plans to decommission Unit 1 with Unit 2.[6]]
Evacuation:
Many scholars have already argued that any evacuation plans shouldn’t be called plans, but rather ‘fantasy documents”.(I feel so much better, now)
Earthquake risk
Researchers from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have located a previously unknown active seismic zone running from Stamford, Connecticut, to the Hudson Valley town of Peekskill, New York – the Ramapo Fault – which passes less than a mile north of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Indian Point was built to withstand an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale, according to a company spokesman. Entergy executives have also noted “that Indian Point had been designed to withstand an earthquake much stronger than any on record in the region, though not one as powerful as the quake that rocked Japan”.[32]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Indian Point was Reactor 2: 1 in 30,303; Reactor 3: 1 in 10,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010. Msnbc.com reported based on the NRC data that “Indian Point nuclear reactor No. 3 has the highest risk of earthquake damage in the country, according to new NRC risk estimates provided to msnbc.com.” According to the report, the reason is that plants in known earthquake zones like California were designed to be more quake-resistant than those in less affected areas like New York. The NRC did not dispute the numbers but responded in a release that “The NRC results to date should not be interpreted as definitive estimates of seismic risk.”]
Let’s just hope we never have to find out the hard way.
“So i suppose in your mind letting Bush, Cheney, Obama,”……
==============================================
“So I suppose in your mind” — any post which begins with that line is certain to follow with a “strawman” distortion of the poster’s position, having nothing to do with anything the poster had published.
Classic internet argumentation. Carry on.
If you recall, many years ago there was “close call” at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama and a nuclear meltdown was allegedly narrowly averted.
Apparently, the hero in that nuclear Close Call was the Chief of the local Fire Department. When all the “experts” were paralyzed by indecision, trying to figure out what to do as the water levels in the reactor were falling perilously low, he made the fateful decision:
“Well, it ain’t nutt’n but a fire. Why don’t ya just per some water on da damn thing?!”
And…It worked….
True story….
Yesterday Obama appeared again on Oprah as a special guest, and after the show jetted east to Philly and NY for more fundraisers, including a hip hop concert and more golf.
Need any more be said?
-Marlin
… trailers are around 200k to 300k. … same trailer in WA would be 20k. – Jackie
Man, that’s a big difference but it is what it is. People charge what the market will bear.
Many years ago, a reporter asked, Mr. Bob Love, the Project Manager at the US Army nerve gas storage facility (near Anniston, about 50 miles from Birmingham, Alabama) why there was never any thought given as to how to dispose of the VX gas?
“Well, because we always just assumed that we’d use it.”, he replied.
Do you mean, are houses selling? Or, are prices falling? Or what? – wage
Do you have a healthy market there in your neck of the woods or is it rotten with foreclosures and short sales? I heard some stat a couple weeks ago about the proportion of house sales in the US made up of foreclosed houses being sold by banks. Can’t remember the number but it was big. But it was a national average which is pretty much meaningless. Housing markets are local or regional and not national.
Eventually, as always happens, someone here will insist that I’m a Pollyanna optimist. As such thinking goes, since I don’t accept “over complexity” as a reason for the “doom” of mankind, then I must be a “Techno-cornucopian” –I’m going to trademark that term 😉
Well, I guess that’s true in a way. I know most of the technology to solve GW, and PO (for example) already exists, and any that doesn’t can be created . ANY PROBLEM TECHNOLOGY CREATES, TECHNOLOGY CAN SOLVE. Simple logic, to someone who understands the subject. That doesn’t mean however, that I am optimistic about the future of mankind.
The most serious problems mankind faces are not complex technological issues of modern life, but the ancient markers in our DNA, which have been with our species since we first stood upright. As Shakespeare put it; “”The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves.”
If mankind collapses, or becomes extinct, it will be due to very simple issues, clearly visible in the actions of people we see around us every day. You don’t need any long winded science to explain these. Fear, Greed and Ignorance; which crystallize into the Ego, are what will truly be our downfall, if and when that time comes.
Dale, here’s how incongruous it’s become;
Easter Sunday I was at my daughters $2 million mansion, feasting on Prime Rib and Shrimp, BMW’s and Escalades in the driveway, trying to explain to other Easter guests and family members at my end of the dinner table about Peak Oil and TLE.
They were incredulous, looking at me like I was nuts. Finally I just shut up.
-Marlin
Need any more be said?
I like this passage:
When an entity is formed specifically to operate outside of the publicly elected offices of government, but is given dominion over the most important property of the voting public – its money – and when that entity acts in direct opposition to the interests of the public to whom it owes a fiduciary duty, then its status as government or private really becomes irrelevant. All that matters in terms of its identity is its treasonous and fraudulent activity. – James West
My sentiments precisely. The problem is that the “public” has swallowed the propaganda that money matters and economic matters are far beyond their ken and are best left to “experts” like Greenspan, Bernanke and their bosses at the Wall St banks. Only the “best and the brightest” working at places like Goldman and JPMorgan have a hope in hell of comprehending these things. It’s not the case but, so long as the man in the street maintains his thumb sucking attitude, the psychos on Wall Street and their fart boys at the Fed will have their way.
***Why do you think it is that economists want to place a high value on their “money” and a low value on your labor?*** -Scott
Bingo!
That’s not only food for thought; that’s a friggin’ BANQUET!
(We would be well-served to remember who these wraiths who haunt the shadowy halls of dry and dusty “Economics” are ultimately in thrall to…)
There’s no wonderment in why Marx is [officially AND casually] so reviled.
Actually, I think we agree on more than you think.
It is about the color of money, or to be more specific, about the Aristocracy preparing their own preparations for TSHTF, which basically means making sure the future is like the past, at least where humanity’s relationhip with it’s Aristocratic Overlords maintains.
If there is one thing certain, even when there are 100 human beings left on Earth, is that a sociopath and his family will sit on top, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down, and him and his will live th most comfortable lives while everyone else lives in ignorance and want.
There will also be those who can see which way the wind is blowing and get on the sociopaths’s good side.
This is explained by the ages-old universal Aristocratic saying, “I can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half.”
Having said that, a nation is like a city, with many layers to the palimpsest, one built on top of the other.
So, while you are correct that the current RW transformation is today, on it’s surface, about money, it is built on top of and has as it’s foundation the regional and sociopolitical (yes, and racial) undertones I mentioned.
As I have said, it’s as if the Yankee Corporatists and the Southern Plantation Owner have teamed up to beat the crap out of the bottom 80-90% because thats what the Aristocrats have always done for 8000 years when times get tough.
Which is kill off their own people, either by economic measures, more favored today in our highly-technological, oil-fueled world…or start bloody wars of we peasant cattle against each other.
This used to be the main methodology used by Humanity’s Rulers, the bloodletting, and we can see that war still holds an important place in the Aristocratic method of controlling their human cattle and chattel (that’s us). But there’s a better way, thanks to the sciences of mass psychology and public relations.
This minimal hiatus from Aristocratic Business as Usual is coming to an end as we type. Coincidentally, it is ending just as the glut of cheap, available energy is ending.
Yeah…coincidentally. (chuckle)
LOL!
While I am sorry for the sore lack of enlightenment, that’s pretty funny!
In the end, shutting the hell up is what “polite society” is encouraging us to do (in regard to certain “unpleasant” subjects).
‘Least we can yell about it to each other; and when it suddenly becomes life-or-death? Who knows what can happen with folks who are psychologically “unprepared”? I kinda feel bad for them, but we’ll have so many other fish to fry that thinking about that particular might be quite incidental. (Yes, it’s the most frustrating when trying to place that bug in the ear of your loved ones. Oh well.)
Central banks do not fight inflation. Central banks create inflation. I’ve talked to people that think inflation is a good thing. But from what I’ve seen wages never keep up with inflation. Bit by bit, month by month, year by year the wages of the average joe get whittled down and down and down and so does the the value of any savings. People at the bottom of the economic food chain ie people working in service industries or in unskilled or semi skilled occupations, suffer worst of all.
Someone said last week that they welcome monetary inflation. Maybe they’re misguided, maybe they haven’t seen the deleterious effects of a period of prolonged inflation. But, regardless, the gang at the Fed and the gang on Wall Street need enablers like that.
I don’t know if we’d be better off without central banks like the Fed. How would you have a generally accepted currency if banks are running around printing their own notes ie Bank of Montreal ten dollar bills. But the Fed in the hands of people like Greenspan and Bernanke are a cancer on the productive economy. You need a central bank in the hands of capable, wise, good people with sound judgment. Where do you find such people?
This only further enhances my point that ultimately, we will drag you down with us and that you already ARE getting “radiation from the blast”, so to speak.
Lots of elections in a short period of time as your legislature bogs down. Sounds like the Italian legislature in Mussolini’s early reign (eearly to mid 1920s) or the Reichstag and regional legislatures in 1930s Weimar.
Or the last decade of the former USA.
Allow me to ask a question that Wage asked you and then you sidestepped it: Why so angry over LW calumnies when RW calumnies are so much more prevalent and typically orders of magnitude more virulent?
(Disclaimer – you know I put less stock in Left-Right than Authoritarian vs. Libertarianism, but in this case the authoritarian “evil” is definitely gathering on the Right in this place and time, in others is has concentrated on the Left but that is irrelevant to describing our curernt situation)
Let me tell you something from someone who lives here that you cannot know, and apparently no matter how many times I tell you you refuse to let it past your shields.
The RW has by far been the long-term aggressor and escalator of our Civil War v2.0, ever since Civil War v1.0 ended, and doubly so since 1960.
(it’s currently bloodless, yes, but that’s only because society has been softened by cheap energy, high technology, 500- channel cable, plentiful docilizing medications, and the most adanvced methodology for docilizing and handling people that the world has ever seen).
The RW has LONG said the LWers are intrinsically evil, using absolutist and eliminationist terminology one would have to find in a Klan rally before 1980. Make sure you check on and know exactly what “absolutist and eliminationist terminology” are before dismissing my point.
It’s like when Vlad Cartman justifies the mass murders of Jews or Left Wingers by saying, “They make fun of us.”
As if making fun of somebody is justification for them to murder you, talk about the original False Equivalence Op.
Cash, just so you know:
A KAYAK AND AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARE NOT THE SAME BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH SHIPS!
A KAYAK AND AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARE NOT THE SAME BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH SHIPS!
A KAYAK AND AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARE NOT THE SAME BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH SHIPS!
You know he has said virtually that on numerous occasions, but you look right through it. Thuis is similar to your overlooking the monstrous growth of totalitarian tendencies, with accompanying absolutist/eliminationist language, on the American Right on focusing on much smaller stuff when the Left finally has had enough and fires back.
Is the Left blameless and pure? How many times do I have to shout, “HELL NO!” before you stop looking at this as some sort of team sport and you holding the 1983 programme trying to figure out why none of the numbers and names on the uniforms match, so to speak, or that your understanding of the game is so woefully archaic?
It’s both tragic, grotesque and laughable, but oh so human. We are all human and all have frailties and blind spots like this.
Based on what and how you say things on this site, I would not have guessed such intransigenece in the face of repeated rational facts bolstered with direct, observable examples.
(like your endless free pass to Righties vs. your off-the-hook response to Suburbanempire – if he posts vile vitriol for 1000 more posts he should just begin to catch up with Vlad and Toots/OEO, who you NEVER admonish, at least that I have seen)
How blinded are you by your experiences in Calgary? Pretty much completely, I am sorry to say.
But you know, I never expected this level of personal hypocrisy from you, which means you are even more blinded that I had originally thought.
If you have any self-awareness that isn’t colored by your bad experience with Liberals that has lead to your disproportional hatred and ultimate double-standard, you will take note of every vile thing the CFN RW Douchebag & Nazi & Pals bunch make and keep track.
Do the same for the Evil Lib’ruls on CFN. I’d like to say that, given what you have written and how intelligent you are, you couldn’t perform such an experiment without having a “look in the mirror” moment, but I no longer believe you are capable of it.
And I no longer think that you are one of the Canadiens who doesn’t deserve what coming to you.
Sorry, your hypocrisy level just pegged my meter. You go ahead and let all the RW bile flow on and then go nuts when a liberal gives back one-tenth of it. You go ahead and nod when Cartman tells you the kayak and the aircraft carrier are both ships and it a liberal trick to pretend they are different.
You should be ashamed of yourself, but I have noticed shame is in short supply everywhere these days.
By the by, Cash, when you say the reason the former USA is what it is because of guys like Suburban Empire, you sound like someone who complained that the reason World War II happened was because of those horrible, horrible German Social Democrats.
Which is technically true. Up until their outlawing in 1934 and mostly mass murder during 1933-1938, they were partially responsible for what came after. Undoubtedly.
But nobody says something like that today, because (even if more than 1 out of 1000 Americans could accurately name the greatest political foe of the Nazis) partially true though the statement is, becauise a kayak and and aircraft carrier are NOT the same, such a comment would make a person look like someone who could not make that distinction.
i.e. someone who’s got it bass-ackwards, even if what they say is technically true
You’re projecting again, Commie. I never said put people to death for making fun of us – that’s your desire. Own it.
I have said that the Liberal/Left has destroyed all dialogue in this country. Ron Paul a racist? The Tea Party as Tea Baggers? And Patriots as “Nazis”? You punks have no shame.
How did you like the piece I sent you about comic book heroes as golems?
That’s why you don’t want Man to expand into space – you don’t want anyone escaping from your hideous ant hill society. Certainly not the best and the brightest who keep the lights on and wheels turning.
All of them Obama voters I presume? What a coalition the Dems have, minority racialists, chauvinist Tikun Olan types, union hacks and the creme of the crop the vain SWPLs. That makes the Repugs look somewhat sane.
As sadistic as any Calvinist those lefties are.
“That’s why you don’t want Man to expand into space”
It has nothing to do with what I want. It is a matter of physical possibilities.
“ANY PROBLEM TECHNOLOGY CREATES, TECHNOLOGY CAN SOLVE.”
Dale, you’re a pretty smart guy, but there is no possible way you can prove that statement or even come close.
“Yesterday Obama appeared again on Oprah as a special guest, and after the show jetted east to Philly and NY for more fundraisers, including a hip hop concert and more golf.”
Yep. And this was after his little press blip regarding his birth certificate where he declared he had “more important stuff” to do. And in comparison, these activities ARE more important than having to defend “the Donald’s” accusations. But in terms of the responsibilities of the President of the US, this is the best he can do to fill up his day planner? Scary. Real fucking scary.
Hi Marlin!
I had no idea that you and your family were part of the tiny sliver of people that the the top 0.1% actually considers as semi-human, rather than animals to be docilized, exploited, and controlled like the rest of us.
Good for you. If there is one thing certain, in whatever RW “paradise” of ignorance, want, injustice and greed that is coming, the only groups that are likely NOT to suffer as greatly are the “superiors”, and of course a minimum number of required henchmen, ahem, I mean “security personnel”.
Technology has rendered, temporarily, the old Aristocratic saying archaic. Now, you can hire only one-tenth of the poor to kill (or control) the other nine-tenths.
Efficiency! Productivity! Cheap Energy!
You may request Wage to head on over to N. Korea, but I would equally suggest you move on over to Saudi Arabia, the “new” old Egypt, or even totalitarian capitalist China, who’s Communism awful as it was, is now a sham like American Democracy, and sample the RW Paradise that your Glenn Beck Lies (you continue to repeat an awful lot of them) are building here.
But don’t move there as an Aristocrat, because Aristocrats have pretty much the same experience all over and Aristocrats are ALWAYS mostly free and usually completely free, no matter how much fear, ignorance, want, and injustice the Plebes swim in around them.
Move there as a Plebe, if you dare.
Or, if there is an afterlife, hang around and enjoy the RW Corporate Socialist Paradise that is coming. Yours will almost certainly be doing as fine as Prussian Junkers turned Nazi in 1939, so that might be nice to watch as you flit around in a white winged nightgown.
Good for you and yours.
If you think they looked at you like you were nuts now, just wait until they reach the 1936-38 German “look how country healthful style we are” and “look how timeless and innocent we are” phases of rathcheting-up manic denial.
The more totalitarian and evil a nation becomes, the more it’s people have to do mental gymnastics to remain in denial about what we ourselves have become in allowing it, the more shriekingly manic and transparent said denials become.
If you live long enough, you’ll see it doubly so among your own, because history records these manias were more prevalent among the German Upper and Aristocratic Classes.
This only makes sense, since at bottom and as the primary initial funders of the Nazis back in the 20s (though the primary membership was always German Teabaggers), they had a proportionally greater responsibility for making it happen.
As more educated people, their denials were more likely to be subconsciously undermined by their knowledge.
The denial in America now is nothing compared to what is coming. Look how country-healthful style, timeless and innocent your daughter and her husband are!
How could anything be their fault? How could anything be yours (or mine, for that matter)?
It’s all our faults. But we can’t acknowledge that because it would hurt and we might have to get off our asses then and, heavans forfend, actually DO something.
As someone said above, “The fault, dear Cassius, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
“your hideous ant hill society”
Mine?
Whatever, Freakshow.
“So let’s perform a little mental exercise. Imagine the US without Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance, welfare, etc. Pretend America’s frayed social safety net is removed entirely, which is many a libertarian’s wet dream.
Would American be a better or worse place overall?”
If you would take all of the money, with accumulated, compound interest, that went into these programs and divvied it up amongst tax payers, we’d probably be better off. Meaning, these programs have been a real fucking drag and have encouraged leeches to continue to leech.
Liberals and commies. Commies and liberals. Blah blah blah.
Your shtick is getting OLD.
“Freedom and the pursuit of happiness are nothing but hedonism draped in shiny philosophical clothing…”
Uh, huh. Now all you have left out of the original equation is “life.” (this assuming you are substituting freedom for liberty) Of course a while back you mentioned how the current boomer problem would take care of itself with a big die off. (hehehe)
You are a MORON. And you reemphasize your MORONIC views on a daily basis. Nothing like consistency.
You make me laugh, Nazi. Same tricks as always. Anyone to the Left of Albert Speer is a Commie.
Same old calumnies, same old lies.
And it always degenrates into the same catcalling, “You are lying, Jew! No, YOU are lying Nazi!”
What’s funny, of course, is that history has shown pretty conclusively who was doing the lying, yet by sheer indefatigable force of will and liberal weakness in opposition, you can still sucker people in even after the Nazis gave you about the worst PR ever, a transparent look into what you are at your core – a person who worships injustice, exploitation and inequality.
Yes, you say I am lying and I say you are lying. Who is telling the truth? The Nazis or their Leftist and Jewish victims?
Hmmm, that’s a tough one. I can see why so many people have trouble figuring it out.
(chuckles)
You haven’t changed one bit, Ernst, in 80 years.
“You need a central bank in the hands of capable, wise, good people with sound judgment. Where do you find such people?”
Their training is not yet complete. Negative examples are provided in current events. Be aware.
Bernanke IS lying. He lies by omission and by implying the monetary system functions in a way contrary to it’s design. He lies by ignoring fundamental causes of inflation in any physical economy. He lies directly and indirectly. He lies by every word and deed with the intention to mislead.
Parsing what Bernanke said, he appears to believe that inflation will remain under control. But on what does he base this? He knows that since commodities are mostly priced in dollars, a fall in the FRN will push commodity prices up. When prices are passed on, it will impact everything the consumer uses. That is price inflation. He knows continuing to monetize debt, and not raising interest rates, will result in the dollar continuing to plummet. Fiat value is based on confidence, and not maintaining confidence is the same as actively managing fiat value lower. Bernanke knows no nation has ever borrowed its way out of debt. Other than inflation or default, the only way a nation has to remove debt is to grow the physical economy. But no effort is made to keep what is left of the USA manufacturing base to maintain the existing physical economy. With the world witnessing this behavior, rejecting the thought of continuing to have the FRN as reserve currency continues to gain proponents. Without the FRN as reserve currency, with all the ramifications of being able to “print” the fiat the USA uses to support the existing standard of living, the USA as it is now can not survive. Bernanke knows this. When he talks about the housing market decline, and unemployment, and his *sorrow* for the hardships of the little people he lies by omission of relevant causal reasons, with every word.
“Someone said last week that they welcome monetary inflation. Maybe they’re misguided…”
Whoa there. This coming from a man called CASH? There are those who clearly benefit from a bit of inflation, namely the elderly. Any one sitting around on fixed income or who is trying to live off of their life’s savings is getting killed by nearly 0% inflation. Banks are paying hardly anything for savings deposits and thus seniors are seeing their principal diminish on a daily basis.
“Well, Mr. Trump, it is time to put up or shut up.”
Not really. Its merely time for this assclown to go the fuck away.
“Your shtick is getting OLD.”
Pot to kettle, “Black!”
I think you are reading my posts through the shield of your own biases. When I hit liberals you react. When I hit conservatives you don’t.
For example read my post of April 28 11:09am.
Isn’t Greenpan a conservative? He spews the conservative “free market”, zero regulation garbage that got us where we are. Maybe my failure was to not use the word “conservative”.
Many other examples but to recount them would take way too much time and be a total bore.
In any case, as I said, what makes me reach for the brass knuckles faster than anything on this good green earth is someone affecting an air of superiority and disparaging people they deem inferior. This I see most of all from liberals. I can’t bear it.
And you are right that Liberals/liberals in this country have wreaked far more damage than our Conservatives/conservatives simply because Liberals have been in power for a longer time and have enacted more destructive policies. You talk about Right Wing Lie machines. Have you seen or heard our Left Wing Lie Machines up here? Have you heard the corrosive discourse emanating from our supposed centres of liberal moderation and level-headedness?
We had a political party up here originating from the West whose motto was “The West Wants In”. Not “the West Wants Out”, not “The West Wants Indpendence”. They wanted changes made to federal institutions. And the fury of the invective directed at them by liberals was breathtaking.
OK, you say American conservatives started it. Fine. You would know better. But I’ll reserve the right to hammer someone like Suburban. Southerners are in-bred morons? Sorry but I’ve worked with quite a few Southerners. They are anything but.
All authority {freedom to act} comes with responsibilty {accountability}. What you have described is the religion of Americanism {a cult}.
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/04/28/kr142-keiser-report-blind-cult-of-america/#comments
Look whose talking, moron. Please go get banned (again).
“Isn’t Greenpan a conservative?”
No, he is not. Not even remotely.
This merits further talk but I have to get going. More tomorrow.
I can assure you that you do not want to engage me as I will, once again, hand you your empty head. You are an idiot, posing as an imbecile. Were that not amusing enough you actually believe you bring something to the table. You do, however, it is an empty plate.
Now go dust mommy’s powder room. And if you are a good boy she may continue to give you a little internet time. In the future, perhaps you should budget that time for the Cartoon Channel? Just a thought.
You want a pretty damn good indication of how this economy is doing? Read on:
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.
“We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” Duke said at an event in New York. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.”
Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.
Lately, they’re “running out of money” at a faster clip, he said.
“Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year,” Duke said. “This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.”
Oh this again, about how you’re some kind of incredibly intelligent, monster internet debater.
Is that what the smart people do in your world, get banned from the same website 15 times?
If so, you’re doing really good, Einstein.
“Is that what the smart people do in your world, get banned from the same website 15 times?”
Who the fuck cares, dimwit? You go on and on about this. Who. The. Fuck. Cares? (Except you and that doesn’t matter.)
I get banned, I come back. Life goes on. (Except in your small world.) Now get dusting or mommy will deny you those crumb cakes you love so well.
“Oh this again, about how you’re some kind of incredibly intelligent, monster internet debater.”
I wouldn’t know about this. I never tried to “debate an internet”. Although I’m fairly certain you have. (By the way, did you win? Just curious.)
The clear way to lowering the state budget would be stopping all wars.
The lowering of the Offense budget (wrongly called defense)would also mean a much better consideration for your country.
America has done nothing else than making wars all over the world, making the American people the most hated race on this world.
It would also mean a good step toward a lowering of the debt and I am sure a better performance of the dollar.
America, as Europe, has done nothing else than losing jobs in exchange of a fast earning, importing cheap merchandise from China.
But now the moment of truth has come, when people have no job they also have no money to spend.
How can you save the economy when there is money just for weapons?
If the American people do not do anything to get again the power in their hands, the whole world will be left in the hands of a few psychopaths.
Doesn’t the five-year-old preening and sneering ever get tiresome?
I will say this about you Authoritarian Followers, no one follows better than you do, no one repeats bullshit without end like RW Authoritarians (except maybe LW Authoritarians)
Plus, the five-year-old shrieking and insults are simply precious! Oooga-wooga-googums-oogums, baby boy?
It would truly be a waste of time baiting you, because nothing you say, you thought of yourself.
Even Vlad Cartman is original sometimes, or works up new riffs on old facsist or Nazi lies, and is interesting or entertaining occasionally.
But I know – indefatigability is your mission, not coherence. So continue on and enjoy. It must be nice to have so little of a life you can spend so much time here.
‘Bye now.
(yes, yes, yes, I know signalling my exit will bring you out like the sneaking coward you are, so have at it as well)
Just in from Mark Steyn on Rush Limbaugh: White Man arrested on the Island of Wight for singing “Kung Fu Fighting”. A couple of Chinese guys were walking by the bar (oldies night) and called it in. Not with a bang but with a whimper.
Enjoy your triumph Turk, Buck, Dale, Hanc, Wage – laugh while you can for you will not laugh long. Like Samson, the pillars that you have toppled will bring down the whole Temple onto your idiot heads.
There’s always someone more politically correct than thou. Phillip Egalitarie (one of the architects of the French Revolution) ended up losing his head to the more than thous. As did countless “comrades” to Lenin, Trostsky, Stalin, and Mao.
“It would truly be a waste of time baiting you, because nothing you say, you thought of yourself.”
And yet, genius that you are, have “wasted time” doing just that. (Sheeesh, this response shouldn’t prove too taxing.)
“Plus, the five-year-old shrieking and insults are simply precious! Oooga-wooga-googums-oogums, baby boy”
I believe “Oooga-wooga-googums” can be attributed to you, as this is the first time, in all my life, I have typed this wonderful gem. (And very adult utterings, I might add)
“It must be nice to have so little of a life you can spend so much time here.”
I would welcome you to tally up the posts of mine, as well as their length, (Just take the last two days, I mean, I wouldn’t want you to “waste” any more time.) and those posted by YOU. I think you may be shocked to find that you have spent FAR MORE TIME here than I. (What a surprise!)
(Not!!!)
(yes, yes, yes, I know signalling my exit will bring you out like the sneaking coward you are, so have at it as well)
Well, if you insist. See previous post. Try not to cry.
“It must be nice to have so little of a life you can spend so much time here.”
By the way this makes no sense. No matter how one breaks it down it makes absolutely, no sense. Unless you are suggesting that you wish to have “so little of a life.” Ooops! I get it you are. You think it would be “nice” to have so little of a life. Well fear not. You do, so start feeling better about yourself.
Hey Wage and Suburb
How you like those tornadoes killing all those Southerners? Cool huh? Guess God answered your prayers.
(Fucktards)
“ANY PROBLEM TECHNOLOGY CREATES, TECHNOLOGY CAN SOLVE.”
Dale, you’re a pretty smart guy, but there is no possible way you can prove that statement or even come close.
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It’s a LOGICAL certainty, if you just think through it. Most of the tech already exists, it is just a matter of the will to use it.
I believe in GW, and eventually PO (although no one knows when that will occur, or what exactly the consequences will look like) but let’s just get real about what it all means.
In geological terms, (and even in historical times) the weather on this planet was far different than it is now. It has changed over and over again down through time. Mankind is almost certainly a catalyst for it changing again, but what does that mean? Is “change” necessarily “bad”? Was it “bad” when trees grew in Anarctica? Is it good now that it’s sheet ice?
If the oceans rose 3 feet, it would certainly be “doom” for property values in lower Manhattan, but that will hardly be a blip in terms of human survival. Climate change is gradual, and humans are the animal designed to survive gradual change. It’s a chronic, not an acute problem, and it is alterable.
If a billion people died in an extremely serious economic/energy contraction, (acute problem) would that be worse than the Black Plague was in the 15th century, in terms of human survival? I doubt it.
Yes, changes (usually small and gradual) have been occuring throughout history. Change is one of the few things you can truly count on. But WHEN big changes occur, and why, is extremely problematic, and calling it “good” or “bad” is simply a designation without basis.
Human existance will always depend on problems we didn’t truly create, that are part of our deeper nature, either impossible or extremely difficult to overcome. We can live differently any time we want. What prevents such change are Fear, Greed and Ignorance. Until we conquer those, our survival will always be in doubt.