Sunday, October 12, 2008

REMEMBERING ALICE'S RESTAURANT

by freeacre

Two or three times this week I have received e-mails from family and friends that exhort us to participate in a general strike to express our objections to the bailout and other inadequate or criminal plans to “rescue” the economy. Karl Denninger writes, in his “Potential Economic Seizure Dead Ahead,”

“…Key: Sovereign debt (that is, Treasuries from various nations) has become infected with trash - unfortunately including ours now that Fannie and Freddie were nationalized and TARP has been passed - and may fail in a cascade-style fashion across the world. If this occurs our ability to fund our government will be cut off as well, leading to a need to reduce government spending by $800 billion a year immediately. This means huge and immediate cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Military budgets - by as much as half.

Over a year ago I warned in my writings that this could happen if we did not take action. If we did not force accountability through Congress and onto our financial system. If we did not force the thieves, liars and thugs on Wall Street to take their medicine.

Instead of taking action we have sat on our collective asses and allowed Congress to pass bailout after bailout - now our stock market is down close to 40% from the top with 20% of that loss coming in just over one week!

We are facing a global DEPRESSION and the cut-off of essential goods and services in this nation if we do not stop this lunacy immediately.

Please understand - the TRUCKER who has a full load of food headed for your grocer REQUIRES commercial credit in order to fill his truck with diesel.

The local GAS STATION owner REQUIRES commercial credit to fill his underground storage tank.

The local CAR DEALER REQUIRES commercial credit to have cars - and parts - in his dealership. No credit, no car - and no car repairs.

The manufacturer over in China REQUIRES commercial credit (letters of credit from the buyer's bank) to be able to ship those goods to America, where you can buy them. If the bank over there won't take the LOC from the bank over here, suddenly you have no tires, DVDs and other similar products to buy.

IF THESE MARKETS DO NOT IMMEDIATELY UNFREEZE THE CONSEQUENCE WILL BE THAT FOOD AND FUEL, ALONG WITH ALL OTHER MANNER OF CONSUMER PRODUCTS, MAY NOT FLOW TO YOUR GROCERY STORE AND GAS STATION.

Think about that very carefully and then consider whether YOU can afford to sit on your ass for one more second, or whether you have an absolute NEED to get on the phone, fax, and whatever else RIGHT NOW to your elected and appointed representatives and, if you do not get in response that they will IMMEDIATELY resolve this matter whether you will vow to band together with every one of your associates and friends, form a group consisting of everyone in your local city or town, and call a GENERAL STRIKE, refusing to both work and permit commerce to be conducted UNTIL THE LIARS ARE FORCED INTO THE OPEN, DEALT WITH, AND THE SYSTEM IS ABLE TO CLEAR….”

In comments to our previous post, Ely (in Columbia) laments the fact that Americans seem to have shit for brains (I am paraphrasing), as we seem to be slack-jawed, mall-walking droolers who seem to be completely divorced from reality. (That was the general drift, wasn’t it, Ely? lol)

I agree that we must do something. I have written enough letters of protest to my congressmen, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama that I am wondering if I’m already on the rendition list. But, the tried and true tactic of a general strike? No. I can’t go for it. I’ll tell you why:

Unless you are a trucker or a longshoreman or someone who handles or delivers essential goods or services, a work stoppage won’t even ripple the waters. Refusing to cut someone’s hair, fill their coffee cup, fix their furnace, flip their burgers, answer their phones, fill out their forms or file their reports will only generate disgust and disapproval and probably get you fired. Let’s not forget the words of George Carlin, “THEY DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU.” You, the American Worker – you don’t count. You haven’t counted for years. So, strike all you want to. You have no support base. There are plenty more of you that can be hired in your place. The tactic would not even make the news.

But there is one collective of us that they do pay attention to. The overlords define us not as workers or citizens anymore, but as CONSUMERS. Consumers. That is what we are to them. This is a consumer society, a consumer economy. They tell us that every day on the lamestream news. Seventy percent of the domestic product is based on consumer spending. That’s what they count.

So, you want to strike? Stop buying stuff. I mean, aggressively, militantly stop buying stuff. Food and utilities, fine. Gas to get to work, OK. But everything else, just say, “NO.” And, then tell them why.

“Dear Proctor and Gamble,

I am not buying your toothpaste today. I think I will begin to brush my teeth with baking soda that I have in my cupboard. Why? Because I have had it with you big, fucked up corporations, your stock swindles, your self-serving bloated lifestyles, your complicity in the war and the collapse of the economy. And, your toothpaste is full of chemicals, also, by the way, that shouldn’t even be in my mouth. So, fuck you….” Something like that.

Why has Arlo Guthrie suddenly appeared in my mind? He’s singing “Alice’s Restaurant…” He’s saying, “Ya want to end the war and stuff, ya got to sing LOUD. Just walk in and sing “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. And Walk out.”

Well times have changed somewhat, but the point is still the same. Blow their minds. Disrupt the expectations. Don’t play their game. Have fun with it.

Fun? Am I nuts? This is serious shit! The frigging banks and corporations and governments are on the verge of chaos and melt-down. It’s time to panic! If we do, we can be bamboozled into fascism and martial law style repression. That may be the plan.

So, let’s try a different approach. Stop buying stuff – no cosmetics, no clothing, no office supplies, no electronics. Nothing on a credit card. When you get advertisement offers in the mail, return them with a note, “Sorry, but to buy this I’d need A BAILOUT. Go fuck yourself.” How about street demonstrations where the participants all dress like babies? “WAAAA!” the thumb-sucking crowd whines, “ I need a BAIL OUT!!” The cops would look like real assholes clubbing a bunch of babies.

Where to protest? Federal Buildings? Post offices? Naw…. boring. I suggest retail malls and Walmart. Signs that say, “I’m not buying anything, and you can’t make me!” Yell, “Consume this!” And grab your crotch. At Walmart: “You sell us this cheap shit and steal our jobs!” Then, moon them. Stuff like that. A consumer revolt, with a dose of adolescent street theater humor thrown in for fun.

That would make the news. It would hit them where they live – in the wallet. And, it would be difficult to arrest people for without looking like total goons.

Let’s do it! Stop buying, send back the ads, lose the credit cards. I'm serious.

60 comments:

RAS said...

I all ready buy almost nothing but food, gas, and utilities. Occasionally I buy a book, but that's about it.

Here's a scary article I stumbled across today: http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=866310
If food stops flowing, it won't be long before the stores are empty. And then what? Do we get a bailout then to buy food? I think not. Good thing I have plenty stocked up.

MoonRaven said...

This sounds really good, Freeacre. A month ago I wrote a post on my blog suggesting we should boycott Corporate America--but I wasn't sure when we could organize something like that. Maybe the time is now.

If you have to buy stuff, use your local merchants and buy locally made stuff. Patronize food co-ops and farmer's markets. And tell the corporations where they can send their crap.

The protests you mention sound a lot like the stuff Rev. Billy is already doing at the Church of Stop Shopping [ http://www.revbilly.com/index.php ], I bet you could get him in on it. Really razz those greedy corporations! Go after Walmart and the malls!

Yeah, let's do it! Stop shopping and tell them where to go!

Anonymous said...

ras,

Would you believe that the article is no longer available? Geez!

Anonymous said...

moonraven,

What is the address of your web site? Bunch of Moonraven sites.

Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MoonRaven said...

Hi Murph:

My site is at http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/

The post I mentioned was at http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2008/09/boycott-corporate-america.html

Thanks.

Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RAS said...

Here's the full test of the article for those who can't open it:
Grain shipments stalled in credit drought
John Greenwood, Financial Post Published: Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The credit crisis is spilling over into the grain industry as international buyers find themselves unable to come up with payment, forcing sellers to shoulder often substantial losses.
Before cargoes can be loaded at port, buyers typically must produce proof they are good for the money. But more deals are falling through as sellers decide they don't trust the financial institution named in the buyer's letter of credit, analysts said.
"There's all kinds of stuff stacked up on docks right now that can't be shipped because people can't get letters of credit," said Bill Gary, president of Commodity Information Systems in Oklahoma City. "The problem is not demand, and it's not supply because we have plenty of supply. It's finding anyone who can come up with the credit to buy."
So far the problem is mostly being felt in U.S. and South American ports, but observers say it is only a matter of time before it hits Canada.
"We've got a nightmare in front of us and a lot of people are concerned it's going to get a lot worse," said Anthony Temple, a grain marketing expert based in Vancouver.
The port troubles occur as financial institutions worldwide experience an unprecedented level of failures; even the strongest global banks are taking shelter in government bailouts. Tuesday, the U.K was expected to invest as much as £45-billion ($87.01-billion) in three of the country's biggest banks, while the U.S. government rushed to put in place its US$700-billion rescue package for beleaguered financial market players. Ottawa has so far resisted pleas for direct financial aid for exporters.
Access to credit is key to the survival of maritime trade and insiders now say the supply is being severely restricted. More than 90% of the world's trade by volume goes by ship.
The Baltic Dry Goods Index, the main measure of shipping rates, is down 74% from its high back in May when trade with China was still strong.
"The credit crisis has made banks nervous and the last thing on their minds is making fresh loans," Omar Nokta, an analyst at investment bank Dahlman Rose, said in an interview with Reuters.
While shipping has always been a cyclical industry whose fortunes rise and fall with the global economy, analysts said the current crisis over the drying up of credit is something they have never seen before.
Jason Myers, head of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said exporters across Canada are getting caught up in the turmoil as customers delay payments, forcing them to shoulder the cost.
"What some companies are saying is we can't pay you until our customer pays us, so it becomes a question of who bears the financial risk and the cost," Mr. Myers said. "We're hearing about it more and more."
What that means is that manufacturers are getting hit as revenue slows and long-time customers disappear from the order book altogether. As profits decline, investment in product development starts to fall, too, he said.
The Canadian Wheat Board, one of the world's biggest grain marketers, has yet to refuse a customer because of poor credit, according to a spokesperson. "As of this moment we haven't run into that problem," said Maureen Fitzhenry.
Officials at Viterra, Canada's leading grain handler, were not immediately available for comment.
The meltdown in financial markets has resulted in a dramatic slowdown in maritime trade, with major ports in Canada and the United States preparing for sharply reduced activity after several of the busiest years on record.
Statistics from the Port of Vancouver have yet to officially register a drop but at Long Beach and Los Angeles, among the biggest U.S ports, imports have already declined 9% this year.

Anonymous said...

ras,

Thanks for putting up that article. Every time I went there I got the statement that the article had been taken down.

Anonymous said...

Great links, folks. Guess I won't fill up on gas...
good grief.

Anonymous said...

Stop buying stuff.

i can't imagine why, after reading fa's excellent post, anyone might still be fence sittin about the point. stop buying stuff is one thing we can do to reclaim our power. in spades. but damn, we're a collection of people ate up with unimaginable rationalizations these daz and overwhelmed with a lifetime of conditioning. like the faux patriots who've bought into the conditoned message that its somehow unpatriotic to not buy stuff, buy stuff, buy stuff.

what's the story of stuff? annie leonard spent 10 years researching the answer. here, condensed into 20 minutes, is what she found....

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Anonymous said...

I just read a really good article on Of Two Minds, Charles Hugh Smith's blogsite. It's a way to fix the credit problem that sidesteps Paulson and Berneke and their henchmen. Let the mismanaged banks go down. Create new banks with traditional standards. No baggage of toxic paper to deal with. Just start over, only this time with sound principles. Sounds good to me. I copied it and sent it to my Senator. It's #11 on his Positive Ideas series.

Álvaro said...

All of this can be applied to any other Western countries, just like mine: Spain. We are facing exactly the same problems as you. And I am also stopping buying stuff, seriously, the most important action we can take as we are facing the collapse is SAVING MONEY. Save money as if your life depends upon it (maybe, it depends).

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Phew Freeacre, what a fury and every word spot on.

As many of you know I was in business for myself, mainly during the 80’s and early 90’s and this is the first time I have ever heard of Letters of credit not being accepted because the seller didn’t trust the buyers bank. With one bank a week going in the USA down the tubes it is not difficult to understand why and apart from anything else most outside your fair shores can see the Paulson plan backwards and forwards.

Cash drying up is the most serious thing any business can face. To make an analogy, cash flow is like the blood circulating around your body; profit is like the food you put in your belly. You can survive without food for a while but once the heart stops beating then it is curtains.

Just on the theme of small businesses for a moment, the best sort of business to have is a corner shop or service (eg hairdressing) where you buy on credit and sell for cash. Unfortunately I picked manufacturing which was the worst of all. I don’t think I have mentioned this before to many of you but what I did was make and install high temperature, thermally efficient insulation primarily into the steel and ceramics industries. When I got into the game, normal credit was supposed to be 30 days, Ie you sent the order to your client and 30 days later they paid you. I quickly found this had extended itself to 60 days but so long as your bank would bridge you the extra month (and why shouldn’t they since they were making money on it) then you didn’t have a problem. Problems came as the UK recession hit and 60 days became 90 and more. Although we were small, all of our clients were a lot bigger than us and this is where the bully boy tactics started to show themselves. Many companies have gone out of business servicing guarantees in such hostile furnace environments but for example, British Steel (now owned by the Dutch) insisted on new terms to the guarantee if you wished to deal with them. Your material had to be guaranteed for a year but if it failed within the year the replacement had to be guaranteed for a further year from the date of replacement and not the remainder of the original year. Then they came up with another cute trick ‘consignment stocking’. If you want our business then we will tell you what we use in a normal year, you buy the raw materials, pay for the labour and other manufacturing costs and transport to put it on our floor; when we use it we will tell you, you replace it and we will pay you 30 days later. Not only that, there were mills all over the country wanting the same deal. Hey hey, I might on occasions have done foolish things but I’m not stupid. So there was one big client kicked into touch.

I heard one amusing story concerning GEC, who I never dealt with. One day they came out with a blanket statement that they were not going to pay any of their debts for six months so a guy I know put a ‘Winding up Order’ on the company and he got his money the same day by motorcycle courier.

Working our way back to the present problem of people with goods and other people with money who can’t complete the deal, It seems to me the only way round this is to use some sort of escrow service where for a small percentage, some intermediary holds the goods and the money at the same time before passing them on to the respective people. All you would need is a hired warehouse and a telephone. Is anybody up for it, or would this bring us into a pact with the devil?

In a comment on the last post, Freeacre said “If the citizens have any clout at all, this is time to show it.” Naomi Wolf has a new video lecture out in which she says the same thing but is advocating stronger action.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/177.html

I think Freeacre should get in touch with her and tell of the less confrontational way of bringing the system to its knees.



New post advice.

Anonymous said...

Great rant, fa. Problem is, I AM buying some stuff.

I'm afraid that the little I have left in the bank will be gone via bank failure, problems accessing my account or hyperinflation in the not-too-distant-future. So, I'm buying stuff like socks, warm clothing, coffee, vodka, beer stuffs, dried fruits and veggies, tools, ammo, seeds, etc. It's more like, "use it or loose it" at this point. And, I buy almost everything on e-bay, which means, I'm buying from someone who wants to get rid of something they're no longer using at a good price -and I'm not paying "the Man."

Was thinking on looking for a used boat on e-bay so when the time comes, I might be able escape from Murika -"American Boat People Arrive in Aruba" might be the headline someday.

Dude

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

What the hell does New Post Advice mean? Someone during the last post asked about RSS feeds or similar. Some of you may know that for about 95% of the time I use Opera browser. You can configure it different ways but the default way is that when you switch your computer on and click the Opera icon, it opens up with the last page you had open from the previous session and all the background tabs loaded on the top. Usually after reading a Campfire post I go into the comments page and this is the tab I leave open for most of the time. The downside is that I often have to guess when a new post has gone up. The idea was to ask the Murphs’ to put a final comment on the old post saying a new one has gone up.

When I have a few ideas buzzing around in my head, I will open Word, write ‘From Belgium’ leave half a dozen blank lines and then make a list of my ideas that I want to include, like above I could write, Freeacre – Naomi Wolf; British Steel; GEC etc. Earlier someone called me to go out urgently so I posted what I had, forgetting I had made a note to ask the Murphs about the above. I hope that has cleared up my ramblings.

Dude,

With your meagre cash stack you could open up an offshore account in Aruba, just a passing thought.

Anonymous said...

You are, of course, right, Dude. So was Moonraven when she commented that we should boycott Corporate America and shop locally. Even we are going to make another trip to Costco and get more matches, spices, batteries, etc. But, this time, I'm going to pay cash. It's all the other Wally World stuff that is like empty calories, just made for the matrix that transfers our lives into Overlord pockets that I'm talking about.

Anonymous said...

Hey, like, ah, what's the deal with the stock market? Like, it's up to 717 frigg'in points!

WTF, over?


Dude

Anonymous said...

dude,

Hell, at 1:30 it's up nearly 1000 pts. I guess everything is ok now. Good times are a rolling. Hwaaaaa hwaaa.

Anonymous said...

Folks,

You remember Comrade Simba? Used to comment some once in a while here. Well, I was cruising around a bit at his site and came across an old post that is great, especially the comments.
http://www.comradesimba.com/blog/?p=67

Anonymous said...

what's the deal with the stock market?

its known affectionatly as a bear squeeze by those who view the glass half empty. as a sign that capitulation has occured by those who view the glass half full.

Anonymous said...

Good one fa, i think that there are probably many of us that have camped at this council fire that have done their homework and have initiated the appropriate response to staying alive in the coming weenie roast, and have said ""fuck it bring it on'', at least i hope so.... hungry people that have spent their last peso at some fucked up Wally World buying some worthless piece of shit to decorate there worthless fucking lives are really going go be a drag i imagine.
And this is going to hurt, in my wildest nightmare could i imagine killing another human being and if it occurred it would be something my body cells would demand regardless of what the dangling drawn and quartered bitch jesus says.
anyway the little core group of which i am a member have drawn up a list of each others talents and skills and another list of things that need to be learned to enhance the survival, these include the obvious shit, food,really good winter gear, arms and ammo to last a long while,maps,and at least one ''bug out'' pack for if the shit is in your face and you have to go NOW scenario ,
and you know its incredible at how much knowledge there is contained within just a few people that work as a unit, simply amazing at the ideas that spring forth when ones nutsack is on the line. ;; long term deep woods survival is not out of the question and may be the only way we might survive, i think that if you could stay out of sight for 30 or even better 60 days you might stand a good chance of surviving. because the first few weeks will be the most fucked up of times and the insanity will be hideous, fortunately here in montana there is an abundance of game to be had even for the most inexperienced of hunters, and by the way it don;t take many missed meals to gain the right perspective on the what to do,even though the consequences of the doing might bunch up your pantyhose. who thinks its going to be a picnic anyway?
personally, and you might think i'm a little or a lot off the edge of nice but i for one am glad this whole rotten fucking system that the two-leggeds have managed to have crawl out of a diseased,cancerous cerebellum is taking place, i mean it isn't like suddenly everyone is going to play nice now are they? i am almost positive that we will still be fighting and killing each other over the best portion of ''long-pig'', right? you bet, the little ones are the tastiest too i imagine.
so come on in Frankenstein, we have a place for you all picked out, and by the way you are the guest of honor.
and by the way do you have any spare cigarettes?
i notice that the little grocery store down the road has already vacant spots on the shelfs so even here in the backwoods of bumfuck montana the vibes are picking up on i guess an unconscious level , also i notice that the rainbow'ers are drifting in in lager numbers, also the Dali Lama people have purchased a sizable chunk of land here on the res, for their??? well if dali baby was here i would ask him, but hes not and the folks that acquired said parcel are mum if you can find one.hummm.

so next project if time allows is building a still to make alcohol, this is one of the projects that i have accepted from within the group to attend to, to provide fuel for the group and then to others if surplus happens, and that is the intention anyway, barter, awwww , now there's the way to go,we been doing a lot of that here for quit some time and its really great, you really get to know folks when you friendly haggle over shit, so much more then just trading worthless greenbacks, ever researched what's found on money? ughhh. don't lick it!!!

so its a given, we shun the fucking corporate douche bags and buy from our neighbors,.... well sept for one guy and he and his wife really suck because of the fact that they let their goddam dog bark all day and night causing one of my elder good friends to loose necessary sleep and her health is deteriorating as a result of this barking, things have been put forth to correct this but the mother fuckers say they have a right to have a dog in their fenced yard to protect them,!!! the ''dog'' is about six inches tall and looks like a diseased rat but hes, ''precious''. i might go to jail for beating the shit out of the owner after he finds his ''precious'' laying on his porch in precious pieces, maybe not, hoping something will occur that will save the little yippie yapper fucker yet.
these people;s family have been here since the res was opened up to homesteading and they think that they are the godsend to the village and have a right to do whatever, hummm, well we'll see.
boy the violence is catchy ain;t it? when someone can put their fucking dog ahead of a sweet little ole lady,,,,well it can and do bring out the hostility a smiggin now don't it??
needless to say he can stick his gas station up his ass right along with his bitch of a wife and i will buy my winter tires in the city.

you know i really am a friendly person and will go out of my way to help someone in need but when i see shit like this my hackles come out and they are unashamed to do so.
fucking retards!!

anyway sorry to rant in company of such a lovely bunch of swimmers but fuck!, am i the only one that is privy to this kind of horseshit?
i doubt it.
peace to all and i hope everyone is taking this blog serious, the end has begun and the time for preparation is getting really close to being to late, we stand as one at this sacred council brothers and sisters.
aho
mf

Anonymous said...

Dude;

What's going on with the Wall St. criminals is that they believe the governments of the West are going to cover their asses by giving them YOUR tax dollars.

Bob Chapman has a really great piece on what is really happening and what we all can expect. Most of what is being discussed on tv and radio can be characterized as "focusing on the trees, rather than the forest." Chapman, like David Icke and Jim Kirwin, explains the 'big picture,' and I like what he says. Here's the link.

http://www.theinternationalforecaster.
com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/
The_Quadrillion_Dollar_Powder_Keg_Waiting_To_Blow

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

rp,

That link is interesting for sure. Not good news at all. I notice he doesn't project what is going to happen from now.

DJones up big time today. Wonder what the rest of the week does. sigh

Anonymous said...

Freeacre;

I've decided to write a children's book set in the 21 Century, about a group of alien rabbits. Calling it "Mothership Down."

-rp

Anonymous said...

rp... with lotsa hykra falling from the heavens. that'd be raba-manna-ia eh... p

Anonymous said...

Well, Rockpicker, maybe you could make those Rastafarian Rabbits, like ours turned out to be. Murph painted the rabbit hutch with three colors of old paint. Then, the rabbits got into it and painted dots all over everything, so we'd know they are Rastas. Now we have Anarchist chickens and Rastafarian rabbits. Maybe Haille Sallasi will be on that Mothership. LOL

Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Álvaro said...

"So everyone here thinks I'm mentally unstable and ready to be committed."

Welcome to the club!

RAS said...

Jacques, if you're paranoid then so is Matt Simmons (rich-ass investment banker and former advisor to the Current Occupant of the White House) and a bunch of other equally prominent people.

I have yet to find one person -one! -around here who believes what is coming and the trouble it is going to cause. A couple of them know about and understand peak oil but they are all of the techno-fix mentality. And none of them are interested in working together to help each other. They just don't see the point. Why, when things will get better? (Insert me banging my head against the wall.)

Rant alert: What drives me nuts, and drives me to despair, is that no one seems to understand that things don't have to be this way. We do not have to be so isolated, so alientated, so alone, so f**ked up. There are better ways of being, better ways of living and doing things. But no, everyone wants their single-person McMansion with their fancy new car and fast food on the table every night. We accept the corporate BS system as a given and don't try to change things. We don't reach out to one another and try to build community. Community? What's that? I don't need no frickin' community as long as I have a wallet full of greenbacks. Don't like your mate? Get another one! Don't like your child? Ignore it! Eventually it will grow up and move away. Feeling down? Go shopping! I mean, hello? Aaarghhh...
Aho.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Well here is an article from AlterNet describing how the sub prime mortgage market became unstable and pointing the finger at those who should be committed.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/102672/

Anonymous said...

Damn ...leave for a break for a couple of days and I have a weeks worth of reading to catch up on!! LOL

You nailed it Freeacre... shit for brains is perhaps the way I should be describing it..eloquence does not seem to get the point across.

There is sooo much happening right now, the markets are in what I think will be the final frenzie... I think once the euphoria of the additional money being pumped into the banking system is finally realized the pall of reality will set in.. its called derivatives people.

I have heard estimates all over the board but lets just say that the low end of 65 Trillion...ahemmm...TRILLION is accurate, and they are poking the coals trying to stoke the fire with mere billions. The latest guess on the derives estimate has it at 16 time the global GDP!!!!

My difficulty, my rage, my despair is that the very cretins that created this money from nothing ponzi scheme are now being granted billions more to perpetuate a system that is too heavy to float....let the fucker sink I say!

Get it back to core stability and, punish those responsible and restart again in a honest and dare I say and OPEN manner... enough of this cloak and dagger bullshyte!

Oh an enough of this crap that only those who know the real economics have the alphabet trailing their names. It has become glaringly obvious that the MBAs the PHDs etc etc have no real clue as to how the economics work regarding the real world. Good example is the recent Nobel award winner in economics stating that the only way to correct this mess is to do as Gordon Brown is attempting and that is to put more money into the system... works wonderful if there was an endless supply of money of any REAL value, but there isn't and the sheer weight of this monster was created by the ability to pump more and more liquidity into a system that was backed by .....nothing! Not gold not silver not by anything but it looks like it will be backed by the future sweat blood and tears of generations to come I guess at least 3...

Yes FA... the heads of a lot of people is comprised of fertilizer but not only Americans, cause here in Colombia it is beginning to look like the Govt is trying to increase their amount of US greenbacks...

They just don't Farging get it do they????

Ely

Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm thinking that the PTB are giving those mega-buck billions to their buds in banking and finance so they can buy gold by the ton, stash the stuff in the Caymans or Switzerland and crash the system. That way, they can hide in Paraguay or wherever with their loot and pay Blackwater to guard their fortresses from the riff-raff.

We're doomed, I tell you....DOOMED!!!!

Dude

Anonymous said...

Jacques,

I have a copy of the Screw Tape Letters. I also have a copy of Dialogues With The Devil by Taylor Caldwell, a very difficult book to find since it has been out of print since the 60's. Both are neat perceptions of why evil exists. But, I fail to see what they have to do with what you were talking about in class. Unless we want to take the position that Satan made me do it. Geez!!

I wouldn't give up talking about it. Those that want to hear different views are out there, just a small minority. Besides, when the full effects of the SHTF is being felt, might even become a guru to a group. Right now, we are mostly preaching to the choir.

I would encourage you to always have the caveat that the projections we make on events may not happen that way. We will get surprises in events. Humans simply cannot process enough data to be accurate in anything other than very general terms, and then, historically, have been proven wrong way too many times. The Old Testament prophets were more often right than wrong. Now let's see, what does that tell us? lol

And yet, for all the stupid actions and thinking and maliciousness committed by people, there are the few with honest and honorable intentions, that exhibit integrity and truthfulness and do not wish others harm. The pressure on these people is enormous to do otherwise and need to be supported.

The totally clueless and non thinking part of the human race for whatever reason will simply have to pass on to another existence I think. This has also been true throughout history, even though some manage to live a long life. As long as these people do not gain power and wealth, they have minimal impact on society. It's when they rise to ascendancy and power that we create mammoth problems for the whole of society. I would assert that Bush is an example of this.

Don't give up man, there are some that will listen and you won't find them unless you are willing to stick your neck out.

Anonymous said...

What does not fit the narrative
is ignored.

It is ignored, because it is dangerous. It threatens the narrative. And the narrative MUST be protected.

Works the same, whether we're talking economics, cosmology, over-unity electromagnetics or anthropology and archeology.

Evidence of aberrations is dismissed, buried and hushed-up by those who represent the established order. Always and everywhere.

Challenge the narrative. Make them explain.

-rockpicker

Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jacques de Beaufort said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Like I said, make them explain this aberration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_xDpqSTNEQ

-rp

Anonymous said...

Alright, ras, look up and let us know if that friggin' alien mothership has appeared in the sky over Alabama. Today's supposed to be the day.

DARN! You really can't count on an alien when you need one.

Maybe this condition is not just limited to the human race....

Anonymous said...

I hate to tell you this, Rockpicker, but the very shocking footage of the huge UFO over Shanghai, seems to be phony. Same crowd footage looking up at the buildings was used in a 2007 video of a Spider Man daredevil climbing a building. Rats.

There are so many fascinating links and things to see and read today that I am having a really hard time tearing myself away from the internet. If we share a "mental illness", this may be it...

Need to go out and listen to some Bob Marley with the rabbits..

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Rockpicker I have heard that the Smithsonian Institute is one of the biggest overt offenders in this. I believe they have trashed countless irreplaceable archaeological artefacts because they did not fit in with their version of the story.

Jacques,

Your postulation that modern agriculture is the process of turning oil into food and also that declining oil equates to declining food is spot on. But I think you are also touching on the more fundamental argument of Thomas Malthus. This can be wrapped up any number of ways but essentially he said that increases in human population if left unchecked will eventually outstrip the food supply, as simple as that. What Malthus could not have foreseen in his day was the effect oil had on both agriculture and population. Here is the Wiki on him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Malthus

We are on or have passed the cusp of the oil curve, if we believe what we are being told about ANWR. We cannot sustain agriculture with dwindling oil to feed the exponential population growth. The question is what should be done about it and by whom. To play Devils Advocate for a moment, if in the face of this economic crisis, the American population is maintaining the well being of the mall and constantly ignores the economic elephant in their living room, to use a hackneyed phrase then what are the chances of them recognising a resources problem. Do not take the jibe in your class so seriously, there are none so blind as those who don’t want to see. So, as Lenin once said, “What is to be done”? There is the Chinese solution of limiting every female to one child in her lifetime. This has the effect of halving the population every generation. It is not a bad solution but starting from 1.4 billion it is not going to happen quickly enough. This can only happen in a dictatorship anyway; say this in the west and you will quickly find a finger tipped up in your direction. Well Africa is a basket case, we could loose them. They are what Henry Kissinger defines as ‘useless eaters’. The problem is that most of them are dollar a week people, they just don’t consume, so their loss and the loss of the rest of the non industrial third world would not cause a ripple. Again, who would have to go? What about the excess consumers and multipliers – that’s you folks! Do you recognise that a neat trick has been played on you; birth control allows you to get your stuff before you multiply and get poor. Here though you have Wall Street on you side, boy do they need you. They would even get Dick Cheney to kiss your baby’s head if they thought it would get your ass off your land and into the mall. But those looking down on Wall Street from above have been studying this problem for 200 years now and have decided that they are going to solve the problem we cannot even recognise. They are going to trash the economy and shortly afterwards they will create an energy crisis to trash agriculture (I haven’t even mentioned the codex card here). Russia is the dark skinned ethnic boy amongst the collection of fossil fuel as has been recognised by the European Missile Defence Shield. Our boys fighting the war in the Middle East are bringing home burning sperm syndrome which produces deformed offspring but more than that, airborne DU is making the worlds population less fertile. Collectively then, are not the people who are orchestrating this affair, these men of excellence, not doing the planet a favour by implementing the sort of catastrophe which will allow the planet to recover? And are they not also correct in implementing a regime in the aftermath of the future calamity which will not allow us to make the same mistakes again. Should we not applaud the fact that they are saving us from ourselves?

I kinda suspect that you were hoping for a happy ending here so I am looking for anyone to find the fault in my argument and knock me off my perch.

Anonymous said...

Belgium,

Your perch is secure enough as long as we all recognize that it is speculation. More reasoned perhaps than most such. The sole problem I find in your ending argument about the elites is the historical abuse of everyone below them. If they indeed are being benign it would be a most radical departure from the past, recent and ancient. After all, they have had the ability to nuke whole civilizations off the map if population reduction was the only agenda.

Nawww, I think it's about control and preserving the symbols of wealth and privilege.

Anonymous said...

Murph,

Nuking the whole world to get rid of a few billion wouldn't do the PTB much good either. They want the world to be somewhat intact to rule over, not a totally contaminated shithole. So, why not let their rich buddies make a few trillion off the suffering of a few billion "useless eaters?" An Easter Island world is not what they want.

Dude

Anonymous said...

Should I just give up trying to educate these people, ....

jacques.... i ain't sayin monkey see monkey do.... just saying this is what i did. do. it came to a point where i had to ask myself just what the hell i was doing. what's my agenda? whats underneath this? what the hell is it that thinks it needs to educate every dumb ass who ever pissed on an electric fence? i mean, hell if they didn't learn from that, what the hell's the point? so why was i beating my head over it? what did i need? what was i trying to sasify in me? could it be i'm skert shitless that if they don't "get it", i'm fucked?

ely...65T rings the happy bell only if your counting CDF's. thats just a small % of the derivatives monster....a little yappy puppy now estimated by some to have morphed exponentially into somewhere 'tween 1 and 2
q - u - a - d - r - i - l - l - i - o - n!!

thats 16 digits left of the decimal point! which makes quite a point at that!! 2007 global GDP = 53,311,608 millions according to wiki. which i think is like 53.3 trillion. 608 millions reads 608,000,000. so....

53,311,608,000,000

compared to between...

1,000,000,000,000,000

and

2,000,000,000,000,000

2 would be over 37 times GDP! but whats a decimal point here and there among theives anyway... p

Anonymous said...

FA; I am soooo disappointed!

P; You crack me up.

Murph; I am going to get one of those kits from Bedini.

Belgium; What I've read is that lots of museums, over the years, have shipped strange, inexplicable artifacts back to their facilities from exotic digs, only to have them boxed-up and stashed out of sight in dusty basements where they can be handily forgotten.

Everyone; I hope you are keeping eyes on the Thunderblog site, because these folks are onto big truths. What they're saying makes sense, and promises to turn conventional cosmology on its head.
For a fascinating read about something I'll bet you never really thought about, try this article on the origins of the Grand Canyon.
It's here;
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2008/
arch08/080929grandcanyon.htm

-rp

Anonymous said...

Hey, Palooka;

Whatdya thinka this one?

http://larouchepac.com/news/2008/10/12/no-need-
panic-larouche-knows-what-do.html

Anonymous said...

I came across this article on 3-2-1 Gold. http://www.321gold.com/editorials/
wallenwein/wallenwein101408.html

Makes an explanation of why gold is not a shooting star right now.

Anonymous said...

rp,

That picture of the Grand Canyon sure does have some appearance to an electrical discharge in the ground. I presume you have seen what happens when a lightening bolt hits in sand. Very interesting.

Anonymous said...

Yep P it is but a movement of the decimal point a few zeros over... and this was done so that all those in the financial industry, not just in the USA but world wide could feel really proud to go home with their billion dollar bonuses... it is sooooo very fucked up but hey when a pastel faced actor can command a billion odd dollars for playing out a fantasy heck why not a power financier on Wall Street doing a Razzle Dazzle with digits??

At least some of the countries in Europe it appears are actually starting to ask what the fuck happened, not so in the USA, regulation Hell NO We Won't Go is the mantra...just give us the blank cheque and piss off you ungrateful taxpayer!

What they are doing now with the billions, and I recall a time when you mentioned a billion and one could barely wrap your mind around that amount, will be equivalent to trying to piss on a forest fire to put it out. Funny P you mentioned pissing on an electric fence , was 12 been there done that and yep learned real good!LOL in my defence it was a dare...

Damn ... I am disappointed the mothership did not show... now I have to look toward 2012 for relief maybe....or maybe not?

Later

Ely

Anonymous said...

hey 448... can't say much except i'm one of the ignorant crazies. so crazy i'd say suggesting you can control the evils by beating them at their own game otta be tarred and feathered and run otta doomville. would agree with his view that physical value is what counts though. but how he gets from there to suggesting... no demanding... that good ole put 'n call america... check that... good ole LL hisself, is the prince savior on the white horse just blows me fuses!! but hell... this from a guy who flunked econ 101. did pretty good in history though. can't recall ever reading of a treaty we didn't break. can u? ... p

Anonymous said...

Murph; I have not yet read part 2, but I intend to tonight. At the end of part 1, did you read and understand the author to describe how the top stratum of the Grand Canyon is the same stratum as the bottom stratum of Zion? And, the top stratum of Zion is the bottom stratum of Bryce? He states that what is missing, regionally, is tens of thousands of cubic kilometers of material! And it is nowhere evident at the Colorado's delta. Yeah, that's what I say!

-rp

Anonymous said...

Hey, gang;

Remeber back not too long ago people we were reading were saying things about all the counterfeit money that was floating around the States, causing all sorts of trouble? I thought about it, and wondered, who could possibly counterfeit this stuff, now that the Feds have made it so high-tech? Somebody suggested North Korea was the culprit, but that didn't make any sense, because not enough of the funny money was in circulation to pay for the expense of purchasing the equipment to print the damn stuff. Only rational explanation I could come up with was it was the gov'mint doing it, since they already had the equipment. All they have to do is leave out dotting an 'i' or crossing a 't', use the cash to pay off drug lords, then track the cash and bust whoever they want somewhere down the line for passing counterfeit bills and then reuse the moola all over again.

Check this out. Written in 2003, by David Wilcock.

http://www.greatdreams.com/political/media04.html

-rp

Anonymous said...

P;

448 was me, rp. Sorry 'bout that. LL declaring hisself saviour has me kinda nervous as well.

Could be outta the pan and into the fire, for all I know.

I guess I wouldn't mind seeing all the derivatives nullified. And it wouldn't break my heart to see chain gangs of young Wall-Streeters taking advantage of health-enhancement outreach programs offered by state-run, re-education agricultural co-operatives.

-rp

Anonymous said...

b... ok, i'll take a shot. 3 fer a buck?

1.... Collectively then, are not the people who are orchestrating this affair, these men of excellence, not doing the planet a favour by implementing the sort of catastrophe which will allow the planet to recover?

if you consider john gotti tactics fair play. you know, send the goons out to extort the neighborhood for protection and then buy em a turkey on thanksgiving.

2.... And are they not also correct in implementing a regime in the aftermath of the future calamity which will not allow us to make the same mistakes again.

here's a conclusion that defies history!

3.... Should we not applaud the fact that they are saving us from ourselves?

only if we asked em. they weren't that powerful. so, i'm bettin, somewhere on the dark side, we did. can we break the pact? i sure hope so! ...p

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Murph :-)

p. Do you remember somewhere about the beginning of the second term Dubya (it’s a long time since I heard that one) was being ostracised for printing $2T. Someone at the time was trying to visualise what that looked like and said that if new dollar bills were stacked on top of one another 2T would stretch about two thirds of the way to the moon. Now a quadrillion - that would likely build a bridge to Mars. Oh how quickly these decimal points get assimilated and then just roll off the tongue.

Anonymous said...

Here's something worth looking at.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/print/8855

-rp

Anonymous said...

rp,

you are right, worth looking at. Sort of supports all we have been talking about doesn't it?

RAS said...

No motherships here yesterday, I'm afraid. I did get hit in the head by a wasp while out walking the dog. Does that count, lol? Lots and lots of wasps around here. They're getting in one last hoorah before winter.

People around here are panicking because we are going to get our first real cold snap this weekend. Cold being, lower 40s, at night. I'm trying *not* to laugh at them, really I am, but I can't help it. Me, I'm just trying to decide what sweater to wear first and whehter to make soup or chili. Yum.

One thing I'd like to point out about the PTB, regardless of your stance on the whole conspiracy thing, one thing has held true for all previous collapses on record: the people in charge at the beginning are not those in charge at the end. So, if the pattern holds, they'll tumble off their heights as this thing really picks up steam.

Anonymous said...

How about taking it one step further and speed up the process?
Everyone decide on a month and don't pay any of your bills. Can you imagine the effect of millions of people not paying a cent on what they owe would do to things?
We might even start to see those fucks start throwing themselves out windows and people chanting jump, jump. jump!