Friday, November 21, 2008

Heck of a Week, Wallstreet!

freeacre

Looking back over the last week, one can not help but notice that despite frantic efforts to shore up the economy by political leaders, bankers and pundits, the economy continues to take on water like a super-tanker stuck on a reef spilling its toxic load and poisoning all that it touches. As the world continues to deteriorate, the words of the Deteriorata come to mind from National Lampoon’s musical “metaphysical” counsel from years ago:

“You are a fluke
Of the universe.
You have no right to be here.....
Deteriorata! Deteriorata!

Go placidly
Amid the noise and waste.
And remember what comfort there may be
In owning a piece thereof.

Avoid quiet and passive persons
Unless you are in need of sleep.

Ro-tate your tires.

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself
And heed well their advice,
Even though they be turkeys.

Know what to kiss.....and when!

Consider that two wrongs never make a right
But that THREE.........do.

Wherever possible, put people on hold.

Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment
And despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer main-te-nance.

Chorus

You are a fluke
Of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not
The universe is laughing behind your back.

Remember the Pueblo.

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mu-ti-late.

Know yourself.
If you need help, call the FBI.

Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you.
That lemon on your left, for instance.

Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
Would scarcely get your feet wet.

Fall not in love therefore;
It will stick to your face.

Gracefully surrender the things of youth:
The birds, clean air, tuna,
Taiwan
And let not the sands of time
Get in your lunch.

Hire people with hooks.

For a good time call 606-4311;
Ask for "Ken."

Take heart amid the deepening gloom
That your dog is finally getting enough cheese.

And reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot
It could only be worse in
Milwaukee.

Chorus

You are a fluke
Of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not
The universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore, make peace with your god
Whatever you conceive him to be---
Hairy thunderer, or cosmic muffin.

With all its hopes, dreams, promises and urban renewal
The world continues to deteriorate.

GIVE UP!

Reprise

You are a fluke
Of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not
The universe is laughing behind your back.”

There you go, Mr. Paulson, Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Bush, et al, feel better? The stock markets are crashing all over the world, central banks are printing money like mad, retailers are freaking because consumers are not planning to buy much for Christmas. It seems the story being told is not “The Night Before Christmas,” but the one about killing the goose that laid the golden egg. “Heck of a job, Wallstreet!” You have left no dollars on the table. You sucked every dime out of every person and source possible, then leveraged it a bunch of times, re-sold it over and over, and now this monstrous financial creature awakens … to attack the whole world. The mortgage and credit card holders do not have any more money to spend. The Asian markets and the Western Markets look like Mothra vs Godzilla. Men in suits are looking up in horror at the electric ticker tape and running down the street in droves. I can hardly wait for the “End the Fed” demonstrations tomorrow. I don’t know whether to break out the popcorn or the ammo.

Congress just authorized the national debt to go from one trillion to two trillion in a matter of weeks. Militia men speaking before congress in C-SPAN and U-Tube told our dear leaders that debt servitude, rendition, torture, and the erosion of our inalienable rights are not acceptable. It looked like all the blood drained out of the face of Sen. Thompson in the background as he sat there looking incredibly grim.

Nine huge ships filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil and grain were hijacked and ransomed by pirates. What? PIRATES? Raggedy, half-starved looking Somalian pirates off the coast of Africa, for gods sake, taking over tankers three times bigger than an aircraft carrier?? In the face of the combined navies of the world, is that nuts or what? What the f**k is going on here?

How about that clip on Huffington Post and several other sites showing the G20 leaders all shaking hands with everyone except George Bush? Whoa! There’s a national humiliation.

Clueless Detroit automakers were not granted more billions of tax payers’ money despite their lame pleas. They should be getting it from the oil companies that have profited all this time from their gas guzzlers, not us. And, now the rumor is that the Chinese are thinking about buying General Motors and Chrysler!! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!!!! Excuse me while my head explodes…

Meanwhile, poor President-elect Barack Obama is steadfastly going ahead and putting together his new cabinet that supposedly will be up to dealing with this complete clusterfuck. All I can say is “good luck.”

Oh, and “Happy Thanksgiving!”


31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn!

The stock market is up.

RAS said...

FA, you might need both the popcorn and the ammo.

I for one have to hand it to the pirates. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum...

Anon: It's a dead cat bounce, probably helped along by the PPT.

Anonymous said...

Anon,

Notice closing on Friday was just barely over 8000. Let's see, a year ago it was 14,000 I think. Projections I read say 3000 is definite possibility.

Notice that Paulson's scare tactic to congress didn't turn out quite as he promised. He has completely done an about face on the use of the money and we didn't have immediate martial law.

Why do we allow idiots to run for office and then put them there? Once again, I state that we are the ones at fault.

Anonymous said...

FA, Murph and the rest of the fireside inhabitants...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLq9B5_iFCo

Its all bad , really bad and I am pissed about it. Just have a look at the video link I posted. This is what gets my bum a hummin these days.

People just do not have a freaking clue, nadda, zip, zero and if clues were shoes they'd be walking on their collective ass cheeks!!!

We have Peter Schiff basically calling the situation we have at present at least 2 years ago and I recall the fomenting attacks he faced when he predicted as such. Who is right now??

These other dumb asses and that whore that is conducting the interview are admitting that maybe he was right, but they are still not listening to the man!!! WTF... they seem to think the govt can get the country out of this mess. Listen to Schiff (FFS) he is on the money, the country is broke and going deeper, the world will stop at some point, and avoid completely lending any money to the USA and better yet decide to use another currency as the trade currency, and yet these people believe that the Govt can spend its way out of this.

I posted a link a post or couple of posts ago that gives a graphic picture of how much influence the 2.3 trillion dollar infusion, bailout has in regard to what the outstanding debt is, have a look if you still need an idea.

They these so called experts in economy and finance do not get it, the faster every dumb ass expert realizes the situation and the faster it is allowed to collapse then the faster the direction to the recovery road.

Still we will continue to be bombarded with the wisdom of these type of experts...

Will the DOW hit 3000, the potential is there for now I follow along with the likes of Schiff and Shedlock, two small voices in an otherwise insane economic forest.

Ely

RAS said...

The revolution meme is spreading. I was on my way to work last night, listening to the local rock station, and this song came on. What do you want to bet Everlast is now on the no-fly list? ;-)

Lyrics to Stone In My Hand :
Ride with the devil, hide with the lord
I got no pistol, ain't got no sword
I got no army, ain't got no land,
Ain't got nothing but the stone that's in my hand
Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
Ain't got nothing but the stone that's in my hand

You say you want a revolution, well get on board
We'll start a new crusade; we'll start a holy war
Don't need no orders, don't need no plan
I don't need nothing but the stone that's in my hand

Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
I don't need nothing but the stone that's in my hand
Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
I don't need nothing but the stone that's in my hand

You build your fighter jets, you drop your bombs
You kill our fathers, you kill our moms
You kill our brother and our sisters, and our uncles and our aunts
Still I'm fighting with the stone that's in my hand

Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
Still I'm fighting with the stone that's in my hand
Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
All the love that's in my heart and the stone that's in my hand

Blood runs in the gutters, smoke fills the sky
Every son that suffers, every mother cries
So if you've had enough and you're ready for your stand
I'll be waiting with the stone that's in my hand

Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
I'll be waiting with the stone that's in my hand
Stone in my hand, stone in my hand
All the love that's in my heart and the stone that's in my hand
[ Stone In My Hand Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Anonymous said...

Ely,

LOL. I think this is your first rant on the blog. Wow.

I agree. If you think back to Mike Ruppert's book, "Crossing the Rubicon" he also had gone out on the prediction limb and has also proven to be very right.

Freeacre and I have been watching a PBS series on the new Europe by Michael Palin. (from Netflix and no ads). It sure appears that there are some countries that are going to come out of this financial mess and energy depletion better than most. I expect the highly industrialized countries to really take a hit, with the U.S. really crumbling and leading the way down.

Had a conversation yesterday with a gun and shooting buddy. He's a self acknowledged crusty old fellow that is a staunch defender of the neo cons agenda and calls Obama "a monkey" with worse terms for others that are in the liberal camp. He has a tough time with anyone pointing out some contradictions in his stances and shut the conversation down with 'I don't want to argue about' it when anyone gets as emphatic as he is. His sole defense revolves around gun ownership issues and he can't see much of anything else and doesn't like to have the other issues defined. From my perspective, he is pretty much of a single issue voter (the gun issue) and mostly ignorant about the rest of the story. It frightens him that the lefties are moving toward socialism. I tried to point out that every administration in the last 100 yrs has carefully crafted their policies in that direction by deceit. He closed that down in a hurry too.

My conversations with him follow the same patters as with other defenders of the neocons I have had. Very narrow perspectives, mixing of truth and fiction. But, I suspect we are all guilty of that to more or less. Because we are not members of the elites we have to accept the observations and information from others. So we pick and choose among this information coming at us and go with what seems to fit our observations, values and preconceptions. Sure makes for some heavy conflicts doesn't it?

It also gives bloggers plenty of material to write about. lol.

Anonymous said...

Murph

I will have to check out that particular series called the New Europe, might give me more perspective on this part of the world...or maybe not.

Yep I guess I get a bit of a rant on now and again, I really pity my wife at times cause there are those days when I tend to blow off steam and she is the sole recipient... then I apologize, she says she understands, and well life gets along once again.

Just gets me so damn mad that these so called college/university educated idiots, being polite here, with their collective heads so far up their asses cannot understand what the real situation is... even I with no real formal economic or financial background can understand how to balance a check (sp?) book and basic home finances and this, while dealing with an amount of money that is far beyond my comprehension, I still know when I am flat asses broke....effin idiots

That gun fellow you spoke of sounds like a fellow I knew back in Alberta a while back. He had all the answers, could solve any problem domestic or international, yet the furthest he had ever been away from home in his life was a trip in to Calgary once. Got all his news from the TV and that was the gods honest truth coming at you... for me he was about as scary as a person can get with his ideas. Probably good he never strays too far from his perch.

There is still plenty of bad to come, those that called me a bit cracked before with my ideas are not calling me cracked no more. Just read the other day that farmers are beginning to have a tough time getting credit to plant their crops, so when they cannot plant, maybe food will not grow, no food to harvest means the shelves will get sparse and on she goes, round and round till a whistle blows and then we will see if the society holds together.

I see signs albeit small ones of shortages, for me it is a wonder whether or not flour will be available... seems there are problems with lines of credit for some buyers...

Oh well...

Ely

a bit off the topic but in regards to the name Palin... I saw a video the other day of Sarah giving an interview on a turkey farm in Alaska, right there in front of the butcher stand as the turkeys were losing their heads... could she have not moved 10 feet one way or another??? , i suppose the glass half full part of this would be that now maybe people will know that turkey does not originate in the supermarket...NOT and there are people out there who still believe she is fit to run a country...

anazuzo said...

Anyone who had their eyes open these past few years could see this slo-mo trainwreck coming, and could see through the shallow rationalizations of media and advertising. Things are going to be very different now, whether people choose to recognize it or not.

There are so many people walking around with the mentality of your hunting buddy. Some of them are otherwise pretty nice folks but you can't reason with people who have their heart set on, and their world built around, believing in the system.

There was a man in my office who approached me because he knew my views on the economy and housing. I try never to talk about these things unless asked because nobody wants their bubble burst, but I thought this guy was genuinely seeking the truth. Turns out he simply was looking for confirmation that the market was bottoming because he was thinking about taking out a mortgage on his house to buy a speculative rental property and build equity for his retirement(this is 2008!). For his sake I pray he does not qualify!

Popular narratives die hard, and there are still areas in the country where people actually think this game will still work, and it will be business as usual in the new year.

This is an insanity that has infected otherwise intelligent, seemingly sensible human beings. It is a combination of denial, laziness, and the comfort of familiar patterns.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, another thing that I noticed from the Palin documentary was that when asked about how they felt now that they were not dominated by the Soviets any longer, most of them equivocated. Many said that they did enjoy having the freedom to travel, but now they don't have enough money to go anywhere. Resentment is growing around the disparity between the super rich (criminal) oligarchy and the working class.
Such a huge difference in the layout of the land. Cities and towns, very clean, and walkable. Countryside very lush with no suburban sprawl. Trains and trolley cars that go everywhere. People interacting in the streets and town squares all times of the day and night. Seems so safe. Gardens and farms that use draft animals. Localized foods like cheese and ethnic bakeries and local dishes. Man, they are set up a lot better than we are to deal with the collapse of oil and finances.
We have a long way to go.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that Sarah Palin interview with the turkey being killed in back of her! That had to be set up by the television team that did the interview. You can bet that the photographer was totally aware and doing all he could not to laugh out loud. I gotta sympathize with Sarah on this one, to some extent.
Pretty funny all the way around. And, the turkeys were being butchered in a more gentle way than they would be in a big commercial operation. I guess people give zero thought about how the meat on their plate gets there.

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

Paulson is the Lap-Dog of the new oligarchy.

The laundered bailout money being poured into the banks is allowing them to take control of all of the "real" assets..ie industrial economy. Nothing is being done to address the sated goals of TARP, instead those derivatives are pretty much being left for dead, just like the American taxpayer. Who will emerge with power after this is all over ? Paulson's cronies in the surviving banks who will own half of all America, the other half owned by the US. Govt.

The New Oligarchy will lord over the devastation with unmitigated powers. Walled behind security fences, armored car motorcades and private militias, they will be the New Lords of the next decade of ruin.

Thanks to the bailout we just became a fascists country....

Hard to believe that it was the REPUBLICANS who actually resisted this absurd plan.

Look for the Dow to be at 5,000, and gold to be at $1,500 by mid 2009.

and yes RAS, revolution is coming. If I were in Greenwich Conn. I would be quite worried.


DOWN WITH THE NEW OLIGARCHY !

Anonymous said...

Well, has anybody noticed that the "End the Fed" was a bust? It would seem it's an idea with not a lot of legs.... much like the "Ron Paul Revolution." Apparently, its time has not yet come.

Personally, I really don't know what is going on. For now, I am preparing for collapse, but hoping that things are not as bad as my fears and my limited knowledge would have me believe. Perhaps the new team will be able to pull the fat from the fire somehow.

On this anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination, one hopes that there is some force for good working in the government... although, this is an ironic day to look for it, I must admit.

If we are to avert total chaos and repression and all that we despise, I think we will have to cultivate the "little willingness" that allows us to be our best selves and create some good. At this moment, at least, those neo-revolutionaries of cultural consciousness - Gene Roddenbury, George Lucas, and the Waschowski brothers are my guides. I believe that we can prevail against the forces of the Dark Side. If we are to win any battles, the first ones will be in our own imaginations. I need to be able to keep in mind my goal of a sustainable, healthy, peaceful, co-operative world that is grounded in liberty and love for the planet. That doesn't mean that I become a total numbnuts. But, it means that I don't give in and let the evil empire prevail in my head. At least in the territory between my ears, I win. Every empire in history has one thing in common - they all disappeared.

Anonymous said...

Anazuzo... not seen your posting here before, if you have I apologize for not reading you sooner, but if this be your first I would like to say hello...liked what you wrote.

Not sure if I mentioned in one of my posts but I have encountered similar situations as you describe. The Colombian fellow living in Miami I met last Oct 2007 was prouder than all get out that he bought a condo for 30k less than what it was a couple of months earlier. Was offered an amount less than what he paid he never took it and I burst his bubble when I told him he should have cause by July 2008 it would be worth at least 30 to 50k less.... I wonder if he would still sneer at me as much to say dumb ass Gringo now?

Or even the extended family... tell them all the time why they should not buy, but they fail to listen and buy anyway and now are scrambling to come up with the payments and lamenting the decreasing property value... told them too, with all kinds of reasons and all yet...

I am finding you cannot tell people anything except that which they want to hear, they are deaf to everything else, these are reasons for me getting angry at the so called financial gurus who won't listen to those that do actually know.

I am now at that state where I tell them nothing cause it is often not what they want to hear and if they do hear you they will somehow fault you for their stupidity anyway..... so Anazuso the best bet is to say little if nothing cause this person does not want to hear facts, they are deafened and blinded by dollar signs...

FA, I cannot find in myself to feel anything for Sarah Palin. I still find myself drawn to stories about her hoping to find that I have grossly mistaken what I see in her yet I see that hoping for something that will never happen is misplaced.

I did an interview here once, displaying my products for a local Television program. While I will agree that the interview crew had a say in how to set up and where, it was me in the end that said the products would best be displayed in a more favorable light and in the end they agreed. I am afraid that a thinking person would or should have looked the situation over and thoughtfully said ...I think my image would best be served by doing the interview in front of that backdrop...thank you very much.

I guess what bothers me is that millions of people think that this person would make a good candidate to lead a country such as the USA yet cannot seem to conduct herself in a more considerable manner and in a better light so to say.

As far as the rallies that fast become non events, the MSM has played that one well. The early rallies were not televised to any degree, and the desired effect was to have the populous believe that rallies are a waste of time. I guess they have won.

If it were not for the internet millions would be blind to the atrocity that is the present administration, it is not and would not be televised. The govt learned well the lesson of the 60s and 70s that a populace with information is a dangerous thing.

I see now though that that form of information gathering ie. the internet is under greater attack, Australia being the first to begin what they call filtering of the internet. They have all kinds of reasons one being the proliferation of child porn that they are crusading against. That is a good flag to hold up when your ultimate goal is to sensor the information the government does not want you to have access to namely the truth.

In the end does this make that country any better than China, well any country that wishes only to promote their own agenda? I think not...


nuff for now


Ely

Anonymous said...

Anazuzo,

I also don't remember a past comment by you. Welcome to the campfire. Please feel free to contribute to the conversations going on.

Ely,

I agree with your perceptions. If you follow the blog Survivalacres, it appears that the writer is intelligent and very well informed, and he has stated outright that he has given up on convincing anymore people about what is happening. Some of his rants have been delicious and sure appear to me be to be right on.

Unless this new administration pulls a rabbit out of a hat, we are in for some really rough times in the immediate future I think. I wonder if they will find restriction of information on the web to be an imperative?

The next post is going into this in some more detail.

Anonymous said...

Sweet Jesus, Ely! I don't want you to think that I am a Sarah Palin supporter by any means! I just thought that piece with the turkeys was ludicrous. The more I read about it, I guess she was aware of the background, and just dismissed it. She is just the right sort of freak that I'm sure the media will continue to showcase. She'll probably have a show of her own that we'll have to suffer through for years. Aaargh.
I think we won't need to be trying to convince people of much anymore. The time is past. Now it will be more like trying to save ourselves and people we care about from being sucked down the drain.

Anonymous said...

LOL ...FA, never took you for a Palin supporter no, and you having sympathy for her in any way is your perogative, but as I said I am still drawn to articles about her.... still trying to figure that out, but I think it is because she was chosen as a potential for Veep, and potentially the President (cause lets face it McCain did not and does not look all that healthy) what it was that garnered her a person to hold that type of position. I don't think she is capable, never have and I try to see if any justification for feeling and thinking that way was wrong but so far I have not found anything that proves that my position regarding her being a brass grabbing Ho is wrong. The thing with the turkey just proves more of what I think of her and as someone else pointed out she really is clueless....

Alas yes it is said she is going to sign a multi million dollar deal for a book and has already signed up for appearances on all the talk shows so we will be seeing and hearing more of her...

Murph , the admin needs to pull something out of the hat, but in the scheme of things I think all the magic in Vegas could not rectify the situation this admin is leaving and the new is heading into... reminds me of an old Gene Tracey joke... maybe old Obama should just reach over and wake up ol' Leroy...

Ely

anazuzo said...

Thanks for the warm welcome, Freeacre and Ely. I should have introduced myself before posting. I came across your campfire because Charles S. mentioned it... I suppose you guys have been acquainted for years, whereas some blogs are more accustomed to transient traffic. I was drawn into your conversation partly because of Ely. You see, I have a child named Ely, and I have never met another.

You are right, people don't want to hear what's really in the cards even if their life depends on it. I had figured that out, and then my policy was to talk about things when asked. Now I realize that even if people ask, they may not want an answer that is in conflict with their beliefs. Better to just keep your mouth shut, unfortunately.

I have been monitoring the situation since around 2006, and I confess that prior to that I was sleepwalking like everyone else in my sphere. I give all the credit to the internet. It all started when I just wanted to learn to manage my own investments, which led to questioning market systems, which led to questioning economics and monetary policy, which led to sleepless nights agonizing over deflation vs. inflation, which led to questioning the politics of globalization, and all this ultimately led me to the dark side. I am learning more every day. If not for discovering the dark side, my life would have been utterly destroyed in the last 24months. Of course it might still be...

Sometimes lately though, I feel so outraged by the daily barrage of lies and nonsense disguised as 'news', and the absurd and ignorant rationalizations of america's collective reality, that my mind just seethes and burns in my skull and I almost think I am going insane!

But no, not really. It's most certainly everyone else that has gone insane, not me. I have been thinking lately that perhaps the best outcome would be for the whole house of cards to crash and burn. That is not very positive I know, and there would be horrible consequences... but isn't the alternative just as horrible if TPTB somehow manage to right the ship and things go back to normal? Will we just go back to building SUVs and inflated McMansions for everyone?

I almost wish that we could go back. But then, wouldn't it would be so much more ideal if a whole bunch of corporations would just go away? And the banks, and the federal reserve, and the government as we know it? I think it just might be worth it, even if it means our corporate jobs go away too. Well, it's not like we have a choice. Whatever will be, will be.

I have still been torn on the question of whether this crisis was all planned, or whether 'they' just lost control. If it is the latter, is it not possible that this is the greatest opportunity for the people to finally throw off their shackles?

If all the consumers and worker drones and shareholders can't continue to conduct business as usual, we may all be reduced to scavenging for food and basic necessities. What would be so bad about getting back to basics? Maybe Americans need something radical to to wake them from their slumber, and maybe then they would have more free time to think and read and realize stuff...

anazuzo said...

Sorry, I meant to say AND MURPH!!

Anonymous said...

Welcome, anazuzu. Plenty of room around the campfire. We run this site with a nod to the American Indian tradition of passing a talking stick and each person speaking their own truth as they see it. Everybody has their own perspective. Nobody has all the truth, but each has something to add.
Many of us have had much the same process, in terms of learning from Peak Oil sites like From the Wilderness and Life After the Oil Crash and financial sites like the Daily Reckoning, and many others added since then. If we hadn't read Rupert and Deconsumption, Murph and I would have been ruined by now as well. Instead, we sold out at the right time from our over-priced home in Tahoe and moved to the cheapest acre in the cheapest county in Oregon. Sure glad we did. Now we have a paid for place, garden, greenhouse, chickens, rabbits, and a year's worth of food stored up.
It's been so good to develop this cyber-tribe of wonderful human beings with whom to share our thoughts and feelings as the outrageous greater culture continued to deny reality and offend us and the planet at every turn. Hopefully we will continue to offer the support we need to each other to navigate these murky waters. The end of the world as we know it will be of benefit to the planet in the long run at least. And, hopefully, we will have more to give to our children than just the keys to the madhouse.
Just out of curiosity, what part of the world do you live in? We are happy that you have arrived, and feel free to stay as long as it takes to create the new paradigm.

RAS said...

Welcome anazuzo! I think I first discovered PO through LATOC, but I don't remember now.

Thanks pretty much suck in my world right now. I've discovered that because I've had some credit problems I'm pretty much unhireable. Of course I've had some credit issues, as long as I've been unemployed! But don't tell those people that. Right now there are so many people looking for work that employers can afford to be picky. I've been turned down for three jobs in the past two weeks. (Lucky for me, I still have the piddling part time job I've kept for a while.) The sad thing is it has nothing to do with the kind of worker I am. The cars going out. All kinds of things just seem to be creating a train wreck.
Aaarghhh!

But enough of my whining. I think it really will take something radical to wake up the majority of the American people. I was watching the news the other morning and there was this two-bit numbnuts pinhead of an economic pundit on there who was saying that if you can't make it on your own, tough, go crawl off in a corner and die quietly. It's survival of the fittest right now, he said. And he may be right -at the moment. But if enough people get hungry, cold, and homeless, that attitude will change quick. Or if it doesn't, the pitchforks and torches will come out again, just like in crises past.

Anonymous said...

Hello Freeacre –
Thank you for the encouragement to take up the talking stick. I will strive not to rant too much here, and to listen more. I have been reading historic posts on your site, and I can see that you and Murph have a lot of wisdom and good information to share with your cyber-tribe. It will take me a long time to read all your messages. My world-view is evolving almost as rapidly as the world is evolving, and it is really valuable to bounce thoughts and ideas with a group of grounded thinkers. I confess I am not so grounded right now. However, I am extremely interested in your lifestyle because it is so similar to what I aspire to.

I have lived in the SFBA my whole life. Grew up on the streets of SF, clawed my way up from a homeless and school-less childhood, managed to attain some semblance of success and a career to support my family, and moved all around the bay following a series of factory jobs. I have been doing this work for a lifetime, and I am now at a cross-road. After all these years I still feel that my occupation does not define me, I am still an outsider. I don’t want to live the rest of my life this way, I know it will not end prettily.

Like you, I had the good fortune to sell my house at the top in 2006. It was a once in a lifetime blessing, and the $ will someday buy another house. It has been truly breathtaking to see just how fast prices have collapsed in my area, and now with all the other shoes dropping all around it is very unsettling. In the past three years my son Ely and I have made several scouting trips to Oregon and Washington, looking for a suitable place to buy small acreage in a small town when the time is right. We are making another trip in the Spring, and narrowing down the best spots we can find. I want to have a garden, an orchard, and chickens.

I don’t have much experience with sustainable homesteading, but as a kid I spent a few summers on a hippie commune pressing apples. I’m learning to play the banjo. I have read Possum Living, 10 Acres Enough, and the Humanure Handbook. I keep track of Jim Rawles’ site, but some of his ideas won’t work for me. I have long ago abandoned the idea of moving to Idaho.


Hello RAS –
In the light of day I see the other side. There is a human side to this horror-show, and that’s why hoping for a total crash is not a good answer. Maybe just a baby-crash to get people’s attention and alter their habits gradually… I hope that Obama really can turn the ship and help people, not just corporate citizens. It is not just about pixels on a screen going red, or franchises putting up going-out-of-business signs. Here at economic ground zero the landscape resembles something out of Eraserhead. Boarded up stores and businesses, thousands of unemployed people competing for a few mediocre jobs, empty foodbanks, crowded shelters, and dreams of a snuggly Xmas postponed.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you. You say that you have been turned down for three jobs, but try not to take it personal and just keep trying. The most likely reason is that they have so many applicants that they can now demand that candidates have an advanced degree, speak French and Chinese, and juggle, even for the most menial jobs. I remember the same thing happened during the last recession, suddenly employers simply would not hire people without degrees. During the boom they seemed to care more about attitude, experience and competence. You still have a chance with credit problems, it’s just much harder. Some small employers are not yet technologically advanced enough to screen personal credit.

I am now unemployed myself, and the situation looks bleak in my area. It is definitely a good time NOT to look for a job. For every job that is listed there are thousands of applicants, most of them coming out of the financial and real estate industry. On the bright side, I have only put 28 miles on my car in the last two weeks!

anazuzo

Anonymous said...

Arrrrrr!!! I got it! The new job prospects will be in the Pirate Industry. Woohoo! That's the ticket! I'm getting on e-bay right now to put the first bids in on eye patches, sabers, hooks and ruffled shirts. I'll probably go with a fake parrott, though. Don't like parrott poop on my nice ruffled shirts.

Later -

Dude

Anonymous said...

anazuzu & ras,
Glad you are in the Bay Area, anazuzu. Maybe you could visit us in your scouting trip this spring. We are in La Pine, 26 miles south of Bend. We have a big tent you could use as a base to stay in and look around, if needed. The invitation stands for anyone who reads this site, in fact. Deschutes Co. is the poorest county in Oregon. But, that's a good thing for our purposes. The growing season is short, however, in the mountains and the high chapparel presents huge challenges for growing things. Straight North from here in Hood River is a great place for orchards. Only a few hours drive from here.
ras, darlin', please know that if worse comes to worse, you can always get on the Hound and live with us. We'd put you to work constructing rabbit hutches and a hay bale addition to our garage to live in, but at least you'd have a roof over your head and food in your belly until you found something better.

Anonymous said...

Dude,
Have you seen our favorite pirate movie, "Cutthroat Island" with Geena Davis? GREAT movie! Lottsa fun. Rent it, you'll love it. Love those ruffled shirts.

Anonymous said...

Quote of the day:

"Early experimentation with hydrogen bombs revealed far greater yields than were projected in theoretical principles. There was astonishment within the councils of science as carefully calculated paradigms were exceeded. By comparison, the Hadron collider’s potential exceeds previous models at an exponential level. From a technical perspective, the results would be catastrophic, which is of course, horrific in itself, and far beyond comprehension."

-from >http://www.stevequayle.com/index1.html<
CERN, European Nuclear Research...

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

rp,

The article on the Hadron collider
asks an important question; are there indeed areas of knowledge where humans should not go? I have yet to see anything in print that tells us what they expect to accomplish in real life. So, we recreate a moment in the life of the theoretical formation of the universe. I say, so what?

Anonymous said...

Murph; To begin with, I don't care whether these fruitcakes truly believe they're investigating the Higgs-Boson or not. It's immaterial to me. From their own literature, it's patently clear that what they're up to is controlled fusion. And the reason things went Kaboolie in Sept. is due to mathematical underestimation. They're trying to get to 26 atmospheres, and they have yet to achieve 20 atmospheres.

I don't mean to denigrade or belittle these attempts. But let us take heed of what is being discussed.

If you read current solar theory, what the best and the brightest think takes place on the sun is hydrogen fusion. As in, two hydrogen protons slam together , in a dense pressure environment, fuse into a helium atom and give off a bunch of light, or heat. Ok. Cool.

What does CERN say it's attempting? See any similarities?
I suggest they are blatantly lying to us, and most of us are too stupid, or too complacent, to object. From what I've read the LHC is fully engaged in a controlled hydrogen fusion experiment in which nutcases half my age think they can slam two hydrogen protons traveling at near-light speed together and capture a glimpse of what the universe looked like a split second after God said, "Go!"

Sorry. I think it's a bad idea.

-rp

Anonymous said...

Council Fire at the Bench Cairn

We are standing on a high hill
with commanding view of surrounding ground.
Two sides collide below, churning clay
in heat, as if battle mattered.

We squeeze in close
to our small flame when daylight dies.
A woman tells an angry story, funny,
with a dry tongue. A young man drums
his rhythmic stick, letting the stick say
how his life is tied to these hard rock women.

In the darkness a flute produces notes,
like truths we knew as children in the dirt,
or food we need to eat to reaffirm belief
our goodness is crystalline and inert.

Warriors sit at stoplights
in Lamborghinis.
They hone their axes.
They gun over NPR, impatient
with the latest disinformation.

We rise and say, "Good Morning." to the sun.
Our women feed us. They teach us how to sew
leather soles with awls and quill
the finished brain-tanned hide with beads.
We drum them up. While Sun clears his throat
and fires are ignited, we set
horses out and drum the raw day
unmeasured into what might be.

And the Lamborghinis,( woof! and woe!)
Wait to hear, "It isn't so!"
But 'so it goes,' and 'so it's gone.'
"Is there a reason to keep us on?"

And the lone flute
connotes sad truisms in sage
we can't deny, over the dingy
firepit, at the rough cairn's base.

We, who gather, windswept, on this knob
do come together in a universal wind,
and reach out for each others' hands
in a conscious clutching of reaffirming flesh,
(each to each, heart to weeping heart,)
in momentous recognition,
we are the missing part.

-rockpicker

word verification: (logic)

RAS said...

RP, IMO anything that could have severe adverse effects on this world should not be done. Take the Manhattan Project -a lot of the scientists on it thought the bomb could destroy the entire earth. But they set it off anyway. Wtf? Were they all psychopaths or what? (Don't answer that, lol.)

Dude, a friend and I were joking about that last week. We were especailly wondering when the pirates will crop back up on the Great Lakes. Laid-off auto workers will have to do something, after all. We were joking that we just hope the first yachts they rob belong to the executives of the car companies!

stoney13 said...

Hazel's in the hospital with some scary assed blood pressure numbers. They think it's because the medication she's been taking to control her Diastolic blood pressure has been taken off the market by the DEA.

They're going to do a bunch of scans tonight to see if there is any damage to her blood vessels.

I still can't figure out how the DEA thinks that people suffering the effects of high blood pressure is better than somebody catching a buzz!

I'll be back before long, but I've been pretty busy here with this! This has been an on-going thing for the last three weeks. Her doctor thought they had it fixed, but it's not.

She should be home tomorrow (I hope)