Sunday, September 14, 2008

THE FALL

The Fall

freeacre

Usually this is my favorite time of year. The gardening is coming to a close. We lost many pole beans, green peppers, and the summer squash to an unexpected frost one August night, despite our efforts. But, we still managed to blanch and freeze quite a lot of vegetables. We have bags and bags of frozen chard, snow peas, kale, carrots, beets, and green beans. Pretty soon, we’ll purchase big winter squashes from the Farmer’s Market. We’ll steam them, mash them up, and freeze those, too. It should last us most of the winter.

Another good thing, I think, is that I was able to write a series of columns about gardening in central Oregon that I augmented with pictures in our local newspaper. I am hoping that these stories about local food production as a hedge against inflation will raise the consciousness of the locals to begin to localize food production. The local garden society made a visit, and they were able to get a look at the garden and the “anarchist” free range chickens as well. I hope it will have a ripple effect. I don’t expect that many of them will be spray painting “Hen Power,” “Expect Resistance,” and “Screw Monsanto,” on the walls of their chicken coops (like we have), however…

But change in food production can come none too soon. The hurricanes and inflation of food prices, together with shortages of gasoline sure to be coming will put a bite on most of us this fall and winter. We can pretty much count on that.

Who knows what else will be coming. Potentially, we are looking at global meltdown of the economy, possible wars escalating in Pakistan, Iran, Georgia, or God knows what. From the fringes, we are warned of possible space-time distortions, alien spaceship manifestations, plagues, “secrets revealed” regarding the military and/or black ops programs, corruption, and on and on.

Then, there is this season’s gruesome election. It is getting so grotesque that I can barely focus on it without feeling sick. The whole process seems more and more about as enjoyable as a series of chemotherapy treatments. By the time I get to fill out my ballot, I will probably be bald.

By Thanksgiving, I guess we will be lucky if we can just be grateful that the lights are still on and we still have the internet and each other.

Everybody now says that they want “change.” But, very little real change is being offered. We are beginning to see many different alternative ways to keep our cars on the road. But the cars would still be on the road. People are clamoring to close the borders. But, I don’t see anyone mobilizing brigades of people to take their place in the fields or the landscape business, meat-packing plants, or housekeeping departments and whatnot. Neither candidate is suggesting that we stop depending on the sales of military weaponry and credit card debt to prop up our economy. No one talks about closing some of the 170 or so military bases that we man all over the world. We might pull back from Iraq, only to move the troops into Afghanistan.

I don’t hear much of an outcry against the brutal police state that is taking over in our country. The only person that incarcerated more prisoners than us was Stalin. The right to redress grievances and the right to peacefully assemble in order to protest against tyranny is what this country was founded upon. And yet, objections to the war and the government policies that harm the citizenry are met with paramilitary force and accusations of terrorism. Our right to privacy is compromised every day by new and better tactics of electronic surveillance and invasive marketing and tracking techniques. Unlawful searches, tasering, and police brutality of every sort are authorized and subsidized by “Homeland Security.”

Unspeakable atrocities are being committed by hideous new weapons that can melt a whole bus loaded with people and shrink their bodies down to the size of a large roast. Pain rays that burn you from the inside out, others that put incapacitating thoughts and fears into your brain with no defense possible… all this to control a civilian population that isn’t even armed with one helicopter? And, do you hear any debate about the ethics of any of this or its effects on our soldiers, or the blow-back we can expect from the world? No, just an “unexplainable” rise in suicides and PTS disorder among our troops.

To counter this waking nightmare I try to think that the Universe actually does know what it is doing. The Fall leads to Winter, and the Winter leads to Spring. Eventually, we will plant new seeds and harvest another crop.

The Murph and I are in the process of watching a series on John Adams that we rented which portrays the thoughts and the people and the forces that led to the American Revolution. Those sure were simpler times. But one thing remains the same: freedom is still a concept that people will fight and die for. And, hope seems to be as natural as sunshine or rain.

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post, fa.

No matter what happens in our existance, the winter will still come, the spring will follow it, the mountains, canyons, trees, rocks, etc. will still be here. If it wasn't for the fact that we're responsible for the extinction of most plants and animals on this planet, I think the rest of this world would just laugh at us humans and our trivial concerns. Granted, there's some really cool things about us people (art, music and beer), but these are just things for US. Nothing for the earth and most of it's not even for our fellow humans. Most is just "stuff" for me, me, and me. I don't think there's any other animal that screws it's own kind for "stuff."

Oh, and there are 770 US military installations throughout the world. It's all part of "Empire."

Dude

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Yeh Dude, but will the Empire, or more to the point, the places where the Empire are, fight back?

Over here, we get an import reality cop show called “Americas Most Shocking”. I used to watch it with morbid curiosity until I realised the object of the show was to get the viewing public on the side of the police. I don’t like the program much and don’t watch it anymore. I certainly don’t want to contribute to the viewing statistics in case programmers think I actually like it and load our screens with more of the same crap. Having said that, I have to tell you of one incident I saw. I think it was a stick up in a small supermarket and the person behind the desk managed to activate a silent alarm, a cop came running in and tazed the perp. In an interview afterwards the cop said the perp had a baseball bat and not a firearm so a tazer was the correct response to use. Do you notice how the black hat, white hat scenario is being used on television to ‘normalise’ these new ugly weapons.

Anonymous said...

Nice post fa. You're a legend of the Fall! And so is this campfire.

"Then, there is this season’s gruesome election. It is getting so grotesque that I can barely focus on it without feeling sick. The whole process seems more and more about as enjoyable as a series of chemotherapy treatments.
By the time I get to fill out my ballot, I will probably be bald.
By Thanksgiving, I guess we will be lucky if we can just be grateful that the lights are still on and we still have the internet and each other." ...brilliant and realistic!

Once again the American people are left wanting so much more. Yes it's truly ugly isn't it. And double ditto on the police state part. We don't have real access to the politicians the way the corporations do. A peaceful march in the street should be treated with the utmost respect. Goonland Security is a joke and an embarrassment. The HBO, John Adams series kept us watching. It was a smaller world then and everyone was involved. Sounds like you've done wonders with the garden and inspiring others! Time to stockpile even more. mrsp

Anonymous said...

Hello, Mrs.P. I quite agree. Freeacre is great. She has a fantastic sense of timing.

Belgium, could you address the mathematics Crothers questions in his letter to the published physicist? He sounds perfectly sane, but not knowing what the man is talking about, it seems I'm leaning a bit hypocritical siding with the guy without understanding fully what he's saying. It's the math equation I don't understand.

RAS said...

LOL fa, way to go. I really like this post. The elections have gotten so bad this year I am not even sure I am going to vote. And I'm the sort of person who always votes. I may write in Daffy Duck. He would do a better job than the doofus twins we've got.

We are heading into the fall of an entire cycle of history with winter to come, but the wheels will never stop turning and spring will come again, as surely as summer and fall will follow. The will turns and turns. The moving hand writes and having writ, moves on...

Ok, I'm feeling metaphysical this morning. Thank you for giving me ideas to use on my own chicken coop when I have it. "Screw Monsanto" indeed!

People are going to try and keep the cars on the road as long as possible. The psychology of previous investment (unfortunately) dictates that most of the population will support any measures that are designed to keep things 'normal' or return them to that state. The people who will do best are the ones, like us, who realize that things are changing and work on building the future rather than salvaging the past. The people who will do the best in the changes to come, overall, will be teenagers and young adults -that tends to be the case, as young people are more flexible.

Mrs. P wrote: "You're a legend of the Fall! And so is this campfire."
Indeed. ;-) To quote S.M. Stirling "we are back to the age of legends and myths". Not quite, but almost -and the first of the legends are starting to form.

RAS said...

Just to clarify on that quote from earlier: it was from a PA book.

Anonymous said...

When things are looking grim, as they are now, I remind myself that life will go on - the plants, animals, and maybe people. The mountains and forests will persist. The sun will shine. If all else fails I'd be perfectly happy living in a hut in the wilderness.

What's funny is that when I was a kid I used to imagine living like that. The older I get the closer that comes to being reality!

My biggest fear is that the people "in charge" won't let go easily, even though their tenure is clearly over. I fear they will fight so hard and so futilely to maintain their status that they'll take as many of us down with them as possible, and maybe leave the planet a smoking ruin as well. So much for a hut in the wilderness!

Dave

Anonymous said...

Freeacre;
Ironic post title.

-rp

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Anon 1.10,

Can you give me a link, I Googled the “Published Physicist” and got a Washington Post article about the Big Bang, but no maths, was that it? If you put a link up I will give it a shot. I have to tell you though that even though I qualified, maths was never where I was at, even though I could at one time derive Schrodinger’s wave equation from first principles, it was just a party trick I learned to do. Although I will do my best with it, Murph is the guy you should be asking, he used to teach the subject.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

General Petraeus, the White House’s general, is being recalled from Iraq.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4769081.ece

But what is he being brought back to do?

Anonymous said...

He's going to be in charge of the Militarization of 'Murika. He's going to oversee the filling of the Halliburton detention centers with desenters via Blackwater Storm Troopers in what Her Bush will call, "The Progressive/Liberal Solution."

Dude

Anonymous said...

Dave,
I was looking at the pictures on your blog of your little town in Kentucky on the Mississippi River. Reminded me of Huck Finn and Mark Twain. Very beautiful and lush - really nice. I looks like it's a great spot to ride out the transition. (See clan blogs at the bottom of the home page.)
Good grief, Belgium. Let's hope Gen. Petreaus is just ending his rotation in Iraq and not scheduled to head up another project for the empire.
"Legend of the Fall" - I love it.
Perhaps our little campfire will be the stuff of myth some day, like the Knights of the Round Table. Ha! We do, after all, have a colorful cast of characters...
Man, it seems surreal to actually begin to see the shit hitting the fan after all our predictions, doesn't it?
Now, a neighbor friend of ours is going to give us a bunch of rabbits. Seems they are breeding like crazy, and his wife won't let him butcher or eat any of them. So, he wants us to take them. I like to eat rabbit, but I can't actually imagine butchering them either. Good grief.

Anonymous said...

Belgium,
Sorry about the Crothers thing.
Here's the link:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/
thunderblogs/guest1.htm

Title is "Bringing The Black Hole Fallacy Into Focus"

Murph, I didn't know you taught physics. What do you think about Crothers letter?

-rp

Anonymous said...

rp,
No degree in physics, degree in math is all, some physics courses because I was interested. Did some teaching in math and electronics. Been long enough that information is now old and haven't kept up with it. Going to take a look at the site.

Anonymous said...

rp,
Crothers whole argument mathematically is contained in Ric=0. Since this is based on incomplete mathematical analysis in the article, there is no way to confirm or deny this relationship. A follow up on the links and the math is esoteric enough I cannot follow it.

I further notice that his refutation of a black hole existence depends on the validity of Einstein’s relativity. From what I have been reading lately, that concept is under attack right now.

I see this as another argument about “how many angles can dance on the head of a pin”. So what? What we do suspect with good reason is that galactic center events influence our galaxy. The Sumerians and Egyptians talked about it too. They even had it down to predicted cycles.

We do need to keep in mind that all of this kind of information is strictly and unquestionably theoretical, the math notwithstanding. Also, what is very hard for people to understand is that it is all faith based presumptions to begin with. Nothing is proved unless you accept the assumptions, and the assumptions are taken on faith. Personally, I am much more interested in the cycles proposed by the Sumerians, Egyptians and Mayans. Whatever events take place outside of our little itty bitty solar system that has an influence on our solar system at a cyclic rate is what is important and how it affects life on this ball of rock. The exact nature of the event becomes almost incidental since we cannot influence it, change it in any way nor dodge its effects.

What is important about Crothers assertion is in reference to the Cern accelerator, that is, will it produce a black hole that will swallow the earth. I did a search for other papers or statement by him. So far, this article you cited is the only one I could find.

I have to conclude this is just more wrangling within the physics community about whose turf is being threatened and grants maybe withheld or granted. I simply cannot get excited about it. Neat intellectual speculation and that’s about it.

Anonymous said...

And by the way, here is another site with a little bit of math to examine. lol Related stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution

RAS said...

FA -well, why not? lol. The legend of King Arhtur and his bunch grew out of the mayhem of post-Roman collapsed Britain. There will be legends and myths aplenty grow out of what is coming. I just did an essay for something else that I posted on my blog called "The Five Themes of the 21st Century". All of that stuff will lead to the growth of new legends and myths and I would love to come back in a few centuries and see what they are.
Yeah, I'm a geek.

I don't think I could kill a rabbit either. Not unless I was hungry. Then...yeah. I may look cuddly but I have steel in my soul.

Murph, this is what bothers me about so many people who claim such things or that they have a source of free energy, etc. They don't post the math or whatnot to prove it. Just enough to confuse the average person, if that, and no more.

Anonymous said...

Freeacre. very wise post i think. please excuse this windy set of syllables but i have lonely fingers this day, and seek council.
Having been left alone during that sprint called ''childhood'' but given enough nourishment to know that there was a sort of bond between this one and the other two-leggeds it gave a particular way of looking at the world as a place where if one did not conform there was a price to be paid, and that was not a day at the fucking beach.
So it came to pass that the easiest way to deal with the insanity that always cropped up in an attempt to deal with the forces of those that unfortunately had the eons of conditioning behind them to '' bow,scrape and grovel before authority'' was to put at least three states between them and this one,. Well there are only so many states, so doing the natural indian thing was to party harty with the firewater, this shit just ain't fit for the genetic disposition of native trout and really set the wildfire of attitudes ablaze which was as natural as rainwater in the desert. That ongoing enterprise ain't easy on a set of homeboy genes and leads to all kind of strange anti-social behavior, like telling a cop to go fuck him-her self, they think that there is something rare and unusual about such an attitude, and the only way to deal with such impropriety was to drag out the BIG ticket book and write in BIG letters like at grade school where they had those BIG crayolas that were suppose to be unbreakable but weren't, plus they were tasty, i liked the purple ones the best, grape flavor i think. Anyway the point of this is that there ain't really any point, just dropped in to say hello to all of you fellow malcontents and hope your day is blessed with something that might approach a state of being were there is visible love between something and something else, might hard to see these days with the takeover of the nasty one, its like smashing a finger with a hammer and forgetting what it felt like and just using a bigger hammer to fix that attempt to place a nail in its proper place, and smashing it again and wondering what went wrong. i think humans for the most part have the attention span of a nailbag with loose straps to boot.
i watch the babies mimic the parents to a T and it gives me the shivers as the scratches in the stone are made. This is forever folks,those initial scratches turn into gaping slashes before the end comes in the form of a human roast at a hotdog party, and thats no bullshit, its easy to observe.
For instance, looked at what happened to the bushfool when he was caught playing with his own excrement, he became the leader of this country, so if you want to engage in politics just play with some shit when you're a kid.! and watch what happens. WHOA.!!!out comes the penal code in every way imaginal concoction, a slap here, a little slap there and obedience classes in the corner, with a tall witch shaped hat just to remind you of what a fucking looser you are, o i loved those goddam bitches that just got a big nut watching the shame that ran down the legs of the little ones as they struggled with the fact that they were cast from the garden that the great spirit had made for them.
Now you might think that this would have a long term effect which would include having thoughts of getting rid of the filthy disease called school teachers, (not all of course) and you would be right, however there were just not enough of us to really have much influence on that which had been brought over by the boat people,...well here we are people , brothers and sisters,looking at a way to clean up the mess and all we have are good hearts and a love for each other that is indeed rare and unusual, and even more so by the fact that we are spread so far apart from one another and still have respect for the thoughts (regardless of how off the wall they might appear)(there's always a grain of truth to things said even though they might appear damaged) of others
this is rare, because it is an undeniable fact that the easiest thing to do is to jump right out with some opinion sliced of a book written by some fool that couldn't even tie this own shoes on a given day.
of course thats just an opinion.

The crisis we are faced with fa is just the culmination and a continuation of business as usual and no different then at any other point in the history of the two-legged experience except for the obvious fact that we can destroy our own kind and all our relations with the filth that extrudes from a collective mind that was born insane, for this i see no problem, it has to end, there has to be a new beginning where the nasty one has to be put in its proper place and that is the denial of whom the fuck we really are, this denial of which some of us are privy to and includes the illusion that there is a separation somehow between us just has to be looked at with the eyes of interest, don't ask me how this motherfucking miracle can occur, i have scratched my noggin till there ain't much hair left and there just seems to be no solution to this endless bloodshed of the self.
it would be great if it would just up and fucking croak, but it ain't gonna happen as the Murph would say. And as rome burns to death we will play our little fiddles and watch it burn and sort through the ashes trying to find some sense to the gore which we have been blessed with unable to comprehend that it was we that lit the first match, yep, it is us the malcontents that have thrown the gas on the over the hill nasty control freak, and we will watch it burn with tidings of great joy and if one little smiggin of the remains tries to reassemble itself we will just throw on some more gas until nothing of any import survives.
Fuck, it just feels good to say those words, fucking control freaks,nasty misshapen,ugly,hideous,baby fucking control freaks, because thats what they are.
Why mince the real? Am not throwing the baby out with the bath water but i'm sure everyone here knows of which i speak.
The so called evil is rather large but what is even larger is the fact that it is an illusion and can be easily pierced with an inquiring mind. thats all.
thats all it takes,to look at things as they really are, not to stumble on our completely prejudiced way of looking at things, we are prejudiced, thats a fact. getting past this fact means looking at it as it is, thats all, not trying to make it something that it ain't because its just to fucking uncomfortable to look at, its like the buzzword going around the world as putting lipstick on a pig., same thing it is,....under that which we have inherited from the nasty one,and which makes us crazy is something that is totally out of sorts with this world and that is love.
not the love of motherfucking money or ones mustache but something that heals all the broken hearts and broken promises and gives to us the reality that we all long for, and that is the recognition that we are not and never have been separated to the point other then to not have all been born in the same body. we are a gift unto our selfs, bug says so and it seems right to me. to live a life of ease without the constant threat of a parking ticket just does not seem to be asking for to much does it??
We are good people and thats that, we are all brothers and sisters, we can live together in harmony, this is not idle speculation, it is the truth, i have seen it, therefore i know its possible, a little kindness here a little kindness there, some consideration for things that will not glorify our beatup and bloodthirsty egos.
that endless search for completeness where there is none.
its putting a bird back in its nest, to look for the hidden light in another's eyes, to know that people are doing the thing that they have to do at that moment, that they are in real pain and could use a touch of warmth if its possible, we have so many problems, all day we are faced with problem after problem and live in constant fear of scarcity which is nothing more then an imprint perpetuated by the many faces of television, never realizing that there even is some other way of being, just being, not being something or someone, not having to perform every minute always knowing that whatever you do its never quite good enough. god what an ugly world we have stepped into,
ok enough happy talk,
the thing is though is that as the collapse of civilization occurs it will bring on something that we will not be ashamed of. something rich in the connection with each other as knowing that our hearts share the same blood and that i cannot hurt without being hurt, thats just the way it is.
and what a good thing that is,how else can we know,? i feel what you feel, i am hungry,as all things must eat,even the most microscopic thing has a set of teeth of some sort, even a white cell has teeth and a hunger, and needs disease to quell that hunger, there is much mystery to look at and we can look at this marvelous mystery once the crap we have accepted as ''all there is'' is gotten past.
we live in a world of delight in the most incredible amazing things,which are there for the looking. AFTER WE PAY THE MOTHERFUCKING BILLS BULLSHIT IS OUT OF THE WAY.
ok thats harsh but its the truth, to me at least, somehow that sort of thing must be but into some kind of perspective where it is not the dominating factor of our entire existence, and it can be, i have seen it i have experienced it, so it is possible, it just has to be of some interest that it can be, and the spirit will assist and bring it forth, i promise.

bug sits on the desk looking at the screen and sends the the thought that she wishes she could reach out and touch all of your beautiful minds and that we could put all our hands together,holding the dance and watch the unfolding full moon give up its light and its song of love, for all of you are born of the great spirit, and you are love in its grandest form she says, i believe her.
peace to us brothers and sisters.
aho
mf&b

Anonymous said...

Montana,

As usual you have a perspective and way of expressing it that is so cool.

You are right, the bill must be paid. We may not like the price we have to pay, but pay we will. Our societies greed and non attention to the essentials and bowing before the elitist authority will haunt us for some time, if not forever. We are all guilty, we all must make amends. The problem with situations like this, is we will also be paying amends for those long since dead and gone also. Tough enough paying for your own bad decisions, but paying for past decisions we had no part in is a tough meal to put down.

News today on the web sounds exceedingly dire. We may indeed have passed the apex and are beginning the hard fall from grace. Economic news indicates that a point of no return has come. Predictions abound that the next 30 days will indicate the severity and extent of our self inflicted wounds and the casualties that will come.

I truly fear that our cyber tribe will be forced into incommunicado status soon. If this does not happen, we can breath a sigh of relief, but do be ready. We cannot accurately predict the extent that the greedy shit heads in power will go to in order to keep ignorance in force and control of the unwashed.

viva la revolution!!

aho

Anonymous said...

Well, it looks like the das poop is finally hitting the fan. The banks are tanking, we're at war with Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan and soon to be at war with Iran -hell, the entire Earth! Hurricains, Palin talking shit, McInsane lying like a dirty rug and the Rethugs blaming everything on Bill Clinton, man, it all makes my head spin. Good thing I have very little money in the bank to loose, but what I do have, I better take out and buy more beer.

We're doomed, I tell you, DOOMED!

Dude

Anonymous said...

Well, Dude, it may be a better idea to purchase beer-making supplies! Then, you may be able to drink it after the trucks stop running - and barter some with the neighbors as well! We're not really doomed unless there is a nuclear war. We just have to make other arrangements...now before the money doesn't work anymore.

I can hardly get my mind around all the devastation from the hurricanes. It's going to take so long to re-build. And, they always re-build the same stupid houses that get blown apart all the time. There are really cool cement and steel homes that can withstand tornadoes and stuff. But do they build those? Hell, NO! And, now there is no money to build anything with. What are people going to live in this winter?? Yikes.

The national debt has just doubled with the assumption of the debt from Fanny, Freddie, & AGI. I can't believe that we bailed out AN INSURANCE COMPANY. Ain't that a bitch? It's like bailing out a serial butt-fucker. There is no way to repay the staggering amount of money that "we" owe. So, I would assume that they will tank the dollar so that this debt can be paid with zillions of worthless dollars. Of course, that will not endear us to our creditors, but why start giving a rat's ass what anybody else thinks now? Bush is probably heading to his ranchero in Patagonia after the election anyway.
Maybe we should build rafts and live on the Mississippi River. Then, we could go to Dave's house and take showers. How 'bout it, Dave?
Seriously, if any of us troutclan find ourselves in dire straits - I think we should be thinking of how we can help each other. Maybe we have an extra room, or a space to park an RV, or a tent to lend, or something. I'm thinking maybe of building a bunkhouse onto the side of the garage for visitors or neighbors that might need to spend the winter or something. Most of us regulars seem pretty secure. But you can bet that family and friends are going to have it pretty rough pretty soon.

Anonymous said...

Grieving For Falluja, Election Day, 2005


I'm waiting empty in a cold house,
with shamrocks, the dog and favored books,
listening for the old tread of new boots,
gunning to kick in this loose-hinged heart.

The angry hands of those with much
to lose, I imagine, close on me.
They drag me, incendiary,
into their unmooned dark.

A chilled cup of tea upon the table
is how my neighbors find me gone.
No bloated stench. No skeletal sneer.
Only the storm door banging mad in wind.

- rp

Anonymous said...

A source on project camelot reports he's received orders to ship out to the middle east. War with Iran is "a done deal."

October 14 sure seems like a long way off now.

Dug our first bed of spuds Sunday. They were small, but firm, and no scab. Two more beds to go. We're good for potatoes this winter.

Carrots are still filling out. Tops came back thick and tall. (Can't sing enough praise for chicken shit tea.)

Got a few squash. Got a few pickling cukes. Beets are back, and getting bigger. It was in the eighties here, (southwestern Montana), today.

Chemtrails to the north most of the day. And smoke. Something must be on fire west of here.

We have a batch of eight puppies. Four weeks old. Conceived on the summer solstice. They are very cute. And very hungry. Unfortunately, the blessed event , which resulted in these new consciousnesses, occurred without the benefit of previous arrangement, so their paternal genes are somewhat circumspect. Mama is a red, my border Colleen.
Dad #1 is a Rotweiler sort of a mut. Nice enough and all, but not a cowdog. All the puppies are black and/or tan, but one. A little girl is definitely blue heeler. None look like mama.

Gold and silver are on their way back up. George Green says the dollar is near death. Freeacre is right about the beer-making supplies. Trade in your dollars for things of real value. I'm buying more water filters.

-rp

Jacques de Beaufort said...

I have a question for all fellow doomsayers:

Should I bother trying to pay back my student loans or should I just default ?

I'm never going to pay the full amount anyways....

Do you think they'll have enough time to hassle me with all the financial turmoil churning up ?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Anonymous said...

By the way, I just read about storm damage in Kentucky and Ohio on
AboveTopSecret.com. What is going on with the lamestream? You'd never know that the damage is that extensive.

Anonymous said...

Welcome Jacques!
My sense is that they will bail out the bad guys and hound you to your last breath. I think debt servitude is the point. But, maybe you can pay them off with the money once it becomes hyperinflated or something. Not being a money manager of any sort, don't rely on my advise, god knows... Keep in touch.

RAS said...

Darth Cheney is going to be less than 50 miles from my house today. I can all ready feel the breathing from the mask. The Decider was supposed to come but bailed out due to 'conferences with his advisors over the economic crisis'. Ha Ha. Bush, understanding economics. There's a joke for you! The whole thing is supposed to be a $1,000 a plate fundraiser for two local candidates. They may bring in, oh, $50k tops. Do you know how much the city is paying for security and so forth for this event? $250k or so. Yep, THAT'S real bright.

A therapist I know told me on Tuesday that I have an 'overly hostile view' of the world, and that if I just adjusted my view to see the world as the 'fundamentally friendly and positive place it really is' I would have such an easier time of thing.

She was quite surprised when I laughed in her face. People like that will not do well in the coming crises unless they are really, really lucky.

Jacques: don't default yet. Things aren't that bad, and they can garnish your wages and take your tax refunds. Try to get some kind of financial hardship deferral or adjusted payment.

I hope our cyber tribe doesn't go incummincado murph, but I'm worried.

I am getting close to dire straits myself. My little PRN job and my odd jobs aren't coming close to paying the bills. As for 'respectable' full time work I've been applying to Wally world and everything else. No one's hiring. House still hasn't sold. My real life clan has several four-legged members but only the one with two legs so I may be in trouble soon.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jacques,

You the same of YouTube and the blog by that name?

Frankly, I have the same problem with the student loan thing. I rather imagine I have another aspect to it you don't have, I'm 67 yr old. No income, no prospects for any and no way to continue payback. Perhaps they will reopen debtors prisons? Got to justify all those Halliburton hotels somehow.

Are they going to hassle you over that? You bet. Remember a while back the guy that was drawing SS for disablement and was living in a wheel chair and couldn't or wouldn't pay on student loans? According to the last I heard about it (also some time ago) they were taking at least some of his SS payments for the loan.

When looking at situations involving citizen debt, keep in mind that in the last 50 years there has been an accelerated concentration of money into the top 10% of the population at the expense of the 90% accompanied by decreasing standard of living and increased debt for that 90%. They aren't going to let you off the hook easily.

I have been taking out deferments for my loans for 5 years now. Switched loan backers twice since had my last real job. Every year been going through the paperwork but that will end soon. There are time limits.

How this is going to shake out for those with these kinds of loans and non ability to pay on them is going to get interesting. My advice for whatever it is worth, is get out of the wage slave economy. Also tough to do.

Jacques de Beaufort said...

hi there freeacre, murph, ras

I love you blog..thanks for all your thoughts.

Yes I am the same Jacques from the blog/youtube, etc.

I might be the only doomsayer in the Los Angeles art world..which is a highly speculative environment of object fetishists and status seekers. I've also been teaching at area colleges..8 total in the past 8 years.

As an adjunct you need to work about 3 times as much as a full timer to make the same amount and plus drive all over the place. I've been losing my belief in this city and it's institutions slowly, but it lately has reached a critical mass. I had to put off paying my college loan debt for 7 years, and now it's enormous and untenable. Every payment is 3/4 interest and only a small amount goes to the principle. The art world and academia are ponzi schemes just like the financial sector....

John Michael Greer has advised me to move out of LA asap and go to a large town or small city. You can imagine this will be a difficult transition for someone who has lived in an urban environment for so long. I'm trying to figure out if I should stick it out here until the bitter end or make a leap while I'm still relatively young. I wonder just how bad the situation is, or will be in the near term..

What are your thoughts on the the Minneapolis/St. Paul area ? This would be my escape route as I have family there....

Do you imagine we will become a more socialized nation with programs similar to the New Deal as hardships become worse. I tend to agree with John Michael Greer that a sudden collapse, however possible, is less likely than a long slow decline. Recessions mitigate against oil consumption, so we move from ledge to ledge.

Anyways, glad to meet you guys and I welcome any thoughts. Your blog is fantastic !

Anonymous said...

WTF?! The DOW up 410 points?! This is getting rediculous! I wonder what's in store for all of us tomorrow. Wait! It's the NEW O.J. TRIAL! Geez, I was wondering what the laimstream media was going to pull out of it's collective ass to keep the sheeple's (Mormon Lemming's) knat-sized brains occupied.

Anyone have any ideas as to a safe place for keeping my few grand? My Ma's got more in Chase that she can't afford to loose (retirement $) and I think Chase might bite der-big-weinerschnitzel in the not-too-distant-future and she's asking me what to do with her bucks. I have no frigg'in idea. I plan on spending what little I have in Chase bank on beer making supplies.

Dude

Anonymous said...

Well, Dude, you might tell you mom that she might consider getting some gold or silver. Buy on the dips. Get the real stuff, not the paper if possible. Not that we are any sort of financial advisers, but we are glad that we did. Murph's mom bought an annuity that won't let her draw out her money until she is dead. Gotta watch out for those things.

Anonymous said...

...I should add that gold in not considered an investment as much as it is a hedge against inflation. And, there is the caution that you can't eat gold. It might be hard to spend in an emergency. Silver may be easier to cash in because each coin is worth a lot less. Totally your call.

Anonymous said...

Have books on the way from Amazon and gleaning what i can from the internet about making alcohol, to run as gas in internal combustion engines, but also suitable for consumption by the two-leggeds, we call it fire water and what the fuck, if it will run my old toyota it must be good to drink.
no shit guys, spend the useless green shit and get something you can trade with, something sustainable even better, i have upgraded and surrounded myself with tools of the building trade and am already using those skills acquired over a lifetime of practice in mostly barter, man its great!! course i live in a little village which is growing by the way with ''rainbow'ers'' if you know what i mean, the mental climate here is one of pull in the shutters and bolt the door its on its way, this is coming from young hippies, old hippies, and everything in between , i mean its in the fucking air, physic wize. i talked with a new lady that moved in across the street last week and she had just sold her ''sock making machine'' to a nether young lady that has also moved in recently, i asked her what the fuck a ''sock making machine'' was and she informed me that it was a machine that made socks!! it was a relic from WW2 and it still made socks. it fit in a small pail.!! said they were no longer made. hummm i mean this kind of shit is really coming on strong. we know folks , we all know its soon, real soon.

Welcome Jacques,
good to have you here at the last hold out of those that can say with great enthusiasm ''government fucks come kiss my crusty ass bitches''!!
man if i was you i would get the fuck out of the large cities and make some friends someplace where folks know each other, but who really knows ?? till it happens/

rp glad you greens are a makin, in spite of the round cubes. i got peppers....

murph you are right as rainwater my brother, wished we lived closer, i don't know a tangent from a toenail.

dave ure going to do fine brother, you got it going on.

ras, what the fuck you doin at the shrinks digs, she have a problem she couldn't handle.?
''the world as the fundamentally and friendly place it really is? what the fuck was she smoking and could i get some?? please??

you know as an outsider looking in i see the election as the most insane bunch of horse shit ever con=cocked by the two-leggeds. unfuckingbelievable!!!!!!!

fa would you be in charge of snail mailing our physical addresses in case the in goes down and or would that be good ida? i don't care who has mine and all that attend this council are welcome to try to find sanctuary here in paradise lost. it is friendly so far and will try to remain that way as long as possible ,
we have one more meeting to try to get the message through to the ignorant assholes that are trying to sell this little village down the river to the highest developer with a city planing commission before we tar and feather the fucker's and run um out of town.
no matter where you go there you are,, ''catch and release''
the sphinx nose.
great to see all of you here.
love you all
aho
mf

RAS said...

Jacq, I would get out of LA. That is not going to be a nice place to live as the grid and such go down. It's a desert with millions of people living there. Not good without imported water and food. Minneapolis/St. Paul isn't bad from what I here and if you have friends or family there that makes it better than most other places (save those like LA, Boston, etc) by default. Plus, there's plenty of good farmland and water there. The only downside I can see is that the winters are a bitch. But keep in mind that the last remark is coming from someone who has never seen more than a few flakes of snow and wears shorts into October. ;-)

MF, lol. I wasn't seeing the shrink. I just know her pretty well as we belong to some of the same groups. She told me this at a discussion group the another night. That 'world is a happy, friendly place' mentality is common among upper middle class people who've always had it easy. I've never had one tell me I am 'overly hostile' to the world. The truth is the opposite: it's the world that is hostile to ME.

Has anyone seen the news? Not only have we doubled the national debt in the past few weeks, we're about to give a blank check to every bank in the country. If I was a credit rating agency I would drop the U.S. Treasury's rating below AAA immediately. As it is, I'm thinking how long would it take me to get set up as a bank? That's about the only way I can the governemnt ever giving me any free money. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hello to Everyone,

This site offers such comfort. Though most of us have not met face to face, yet do we carry concocted
visions of one another in minds and hearts, and will recognize ourselves
in chance meetings, in the low
grumblings and mumbled epithets that grow steadily into a chorus of truth
the deniers are impotent to drown.

Here is a must read by Mike Ruppert.

http://mikeruppert.blogspot.com/20
08/09/now-is-time-there-is-hope.html

Jaques, may I suggest Missoula, Mont., as an alternative to L.A. It's home to a lot of liberal-minded artsy types. You might really like it. Good farmers market, too. That's important now.

I expect another major war very soon, as Bushco has made it clear for some time that war is their exit strategy. Faced with a shortage of conscripts, you can expect this one will be fought with high-tech shit. Missiles, directed energy, chemicals/biological. The real shit.

For two weeks now, our missile silos in central Montana have been armed and active. Putin has given Nato forces 21 days to evacuate the Black Sea. Russia's putting hardware into Cuba and Venezuela. There are Russian planes being reported over Norway. We held a joint border-crossing drill with Canada yesterday at the Sweetgrass crossing, in Montana, which involved 31 agencies.

I've been monitoring OWS, the chemtrail map guys, and their information seems very good. I urge all to bookmark the site and check it every day.

http://www.owsweather.com/ows.html

left side of page, contrail report is where the map is. click on map to enlarge. check out canada for sept. 19


I have this on good authority. A friend, who works for one of the local gentry, is relaying information passed to her by said individual. This is first hand stuff. This guy had 5 million stashed in mutual funds. Yesterday he got a call from his broker to blind-sell the entire portfolio and collect whatever he could. According to this source, 60 billion in assets have been frozen. It's too late to withdraw large sums of cash from the system. If you've got cd's, get to the bank and cash them in if you can. The wheels are off.

No more debate about fast or slow crash.

Dude, better buy some malt.

Speaking for Oldensoul and me, we love you all. (Think maybe it's time to stop putting- off getting that trout tattoo on my arm.)

Take care, and stay in touch.

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

Freeacre;

Which arm?

-rp

Anonymous said...

This is good!

http://curtmaynardsnewestblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/former-
air-force-fighter-fighter-tells.html

-rp

Anonymous said...

RP, et al...
My trout tattoo is on the inside of my right arm, above the wrist - about where the Jews got tattooed by the Nazis. But, either arm would be OK, I figure.
Yeah, if anyone wants to drop us an e-mail with your mailing address and/or phone number, I will forward the info on to the rest of us, so that we all have each others addresses. Our e-mail is sunrise3@coinet.com.
When was that saucer to appear over Alabama again? I forgot. I'd sure rather see that than some friggin' missile. Damn, this stuff is making me crazy.
Meanwhile we carry on as if nothing is happening, and we are continuing to collect signatures on petitions, go to meetings regarding groundwater, and pretend to be normal. Rabbits coming tomorrow and Murph is clearing a space to put them in the greenhouse for now.
We should get another post up, but have had no time. Gotta run. Love to all.
aho

Anonymous said...

October 14

Anonymous said...

RP,

Have you read through this guy Curt Maynard's posts? Have you gone to the touted blog site "Wolf's Press" that he thinks is just great?

I can understand being really mad with Lieberman, but I get the feeling that air force jockey is mad for the wrong reasons.

Curt's understanding of history is really faulted as near as I can tell. Personally, I find the white supremacy arguments to be really illogical and full of an unrighteous hatred. Same arguments for committing genocide by the white race through history. Of course, the Caucasians aren't the only ones to do so.

If I have missed something here, let me know.

Anonymous said...

Murph;
No. I haven't read anything about or by Maynard. I just ran into the video on Rense and thought it was funny. Certainly not into white supremacy.

But I really despise Joe Lieberman, and I agree with the pilot, Joe should go live in Israel.

-rp

RAS said...

No spaceships down this way, but lots of choppers from the nearby military base doing maneuvers. The bastards (pardon the language) have twice this week flown so low over my neighborhood that they rattled my windows. That's close for a chopper!

Those maneuvers have picked up in frequency lately. I can't help but wonder what's going on.

Anonymous said...

jesus i just went to mike rupperts digs and the commentators sound just like us!!! almost.
great to hear that good brother again. ya just can't keep the truth down no matter what the illusionists have on their agenda, fucking scaly ones.they will soon rot in their own poison.make no mistake about that one. what? o hell yes they will have plenty of help.
mf