2010 - We Can Do This

Feeding the birds

by freeacre


Good grief. Several of my “go to” writers have published their dire predictions for 2010. From James Howard Kunstler in this week’s Clusterfuck Nation, first, he rather colorfully summed up 2009 this way:

“2009 was the Year of the Zombie. The system for capital formation and allocation basically died but there was no funeral. A great national voodoo spell has kept the banks and related entities like Fannie Mae and the dead insurance giant AIG lurching around the graveyard with arms outstretched and yellowed eyes bugged out, howling for fresh infusions of blood... er, bailout cash, which is delivered in truckloads by the Federal Reserve, which is itself a zombie in the sense that it is probably insolvent. The government and the banks (including the Fed) have been playing very complicated games with each other, and the public, trying to pretend that they can all still function, shifting and shuffling losses, cooking their books, hiding losses, and doing everything possible to detach the relation of "money" to the reality of productive activity.
But nothing has been fixed, not even a little. Nothing has been enforced. No one has been held responsible for massive fraud. The underlying reality is that we are a much less affluent society than we pretend to be, or, to put it bluntly, that we are functionally bankrupt at every level: household, corporate enterprise, and government (all levels of that, too.)”
Well put, I’d say. Then he goes on to surmise what may happen next year in terms of continued bailouts, peak oil, and the continuation of failed policies. He thinks the heightened misery index will not be well received by the citizenry.
“… One wild card is how angry the American people might get. Unlike the 1930s, we are no longer a nation who call each other "Mister" and "Ma'am," where even the down-and-out wear neckties and speak a discernible variant of regular English, where hoboes say "thank you," and where, in short, there is something like a common culture of shared values. We're a nation of thugs and louts with flames tattooed on our necks, who call each other "motherfucker" and are skilled only in playing video games based on mass murder. The masses of Roosevelt's time were coming off decades of programmed, regimented work, where people showed up in well-run factories and schools and pretty much behaved themselves. In my view, that's one of the reasons that the US didn't explode in political violence during the Great Depression of the 1930s - the discipline and fortitude of the citizenry. The sheer weight of demoralization now is so titanic that it is very hard to imagine the people of the USA pulling together for anything beyond the most superficial ceremonies - placing teddy bears on a crash site. And forget about discipline and fortitude in a nation of ADD victims and self-esteem seekers.
I believe we will see the outbreak of civil disturbance at many levels in 2010. One will be plain old crime against property and persons, especially where the sense of community is flimsy-to-nonexistent, and that includes most of suburban America. The automobile is a fabulous aid to crime. People can commit crimes in Skokie and be back home in Racine before supper (if supper is anything besides a pepperoni stick and some Hostess Ho-Hos in the car). Fewer police will be on guard due to budget shortfalls.
I think we'll see a variety-pack of political disturbance led first by people who are just plain pissed off at government and corporations and seek to damage property belonging to these entities.”
The Survival Acres Newsletter contains a very dark scenario that begins in 2010, but includes an over-all view of the coming decade and beyond. It is not pretty:
“The next decade will see catastrophic changes of such scale and
magnitude, that this decade of human history will forever be
remembered as "the time of troubles". There will be little parallel
in past human history for comparison in scale, scope, size and
significance except the decade following this one which portends to
be even worse.

Many of us will probably be dead by 2020. This will be primarily the
result of the following factors: internal strife, war, disease,
plague, famine and extreme religious fundamentalism and widespread
violence. These events will begin immediately -- starting in 2010 and
continuing for through the following decade.

Root causes of these factors will be energy collapse, environmental
collapse, resource collapse and financial collapse affecting every
country of the world in the decade ahead. These are the collapsing
dominoes that underpin our entire civilization. All have been widely
abused and depleted even now, the next decade will see them falter
further and undergo full-scale collapse.”

He goes on to imagine worse and worse consequences of our collective mistakes, a sampling of which I quote here:

”… Entire countries will be abandoned to their own devices for their
survival as nations desperately hoard increasingly critical resources
for themselves. Primarily water and food will be the resource needed
most as the climate continues to spiral wildly from the norm and crops
collapse all over the world. But energy resources will be in
increasingly short supply and will precipitate the collapse of entire
economies.

2012 will be early and especially worrisome, as cultish behavior
among various groups and individuals replaces common sense in the
run-up to December 21st. Rage and riots will be replaced with despair
when prophecy proves false. Suicides will be at an all-time high among
easily influenced groups and people.

Hysteria within government, media, celebrities and pundits will
create a frenzy of hatred and froth towards groups, governments and
even individuals deemed 'responsible' for the growing crisis’s around
the world. In America, this hysteria will even achieve federal status
of protection, as lawmakers "protect" the practice of hatred and
xenophobia. Other countries will follow, believing themselves to be
under attack from within. Symptomatic responses will be the earmark
of this decade.

Politicians of all flavors will find it increasingly dangerous to
remain in office and more then a few will be forcibly removed and
assassinated. Political campaigns will resemble military conquest and
domination as contenders "vie" for the prize they seek, armed to the
teeth from the very people they claim to support. "Voting" will
become a highly manipulated and controlled affair, as increasing
privacy restrictions make simply being a citizen an unending
application process.

Privacy and rights will be completely gone by the end of the decade,
as fascist polices are layered higher and higher. Travel, purchasing,
possession and even ownership will become increasingly restricted and
controlled. The Internet will have been absorbed entirely into a
Total Information Awareness network whereby all activities, browsing,
buying and shopping will be highly controlled and manipulated. The
free press will cease to exist except underground and through
"monitored" outlets (manipulated)….”

Dmitri Orlof, on his site, “Club Orlof” sees, among other things, sophisticated attacks including aerial bombardment of isolated doomsteads attacked for their stored supplies in places like Montana by Russian mafia gangs! Good grief.

Of course, then there is Clif High at Half Past Human and his reportage of predictions based upon his advanced linguistics techniques of searching the world wide web for clues to the collective consciousness of our rather questionable species. His scenarios include much of the above with a lot more emphasis on natural disasters or occurrences of a planetary nature, like pole shifts, tectonic plate splitting, possible coronal mass ejections from the sun, and other life-as-we-know-it ending events in the not very distant future. His advise? Build a boat.

OK, OK, alright already. I get it. We’re doomed. But, is that all there is? Just a non-stop march into the worst possible problems and responses that anyone can imagine? I don’t think so. I respect each of these writes. And, I don’t discount the projections that they envision. But, in terms of my life and the lives of the people that I value (my tribe and community), my experience tells me that something is missing in these projections.

Maybe it’s because I am female. After all, for most of our experience, females of our species have lived and died with very little money, independence, or control over geo-politics, One could argue that collectively, women have been living a “post collapse” lifestyle for a thousand years. I am reminded of the quote from the movie, “Starman.”
“Would you like me to tell you what we find the most beautiful about your species?” the Starman asks of the SETI scientist. “It is that you are at your best when things are the worst.”

Let’s face it, women have made an art form of comfort in the face of brutality, powerlessness, and adversity. So, let’s not panic. Let’s break it down into manageable units, rather than get overwhelmed by the doom-o-sphere all at once. Take it day by day. Take a little time at least to focus on what is beautiful around you. Add to that beauty by making more lovely things – from simple flower arrangements or working with clay or wood or textiles. Look at the wonderful things produced by peasants with more time than money. Nurture other living things – from houseplants to animals and people. Even if you have nothing else, you will still have a lap to crawl up on and arms to embrace those around you. You have your face to smile into the faces of those you meet. You have your sense of humor to bring out a laugh from someone who needs it. You will have the music of your heart to cheer and soothe those around you. We will have our imaginations to create stories to tell to those who need encouragement and inspiration. We will have our gardens and our animals and our friends and our partners to love and to cherish even more each day. We will feed our families as creatively and nutritiously as possible. And, we will continue to add to the happy memories that children will carry throughout their lives.

Those of us who have been preparing are in a position that allows us to be somewhat more centered in the face of economic or resource collapse. Hopefully, we have kicked around these issues enough to have built up a store of emotional stability in the face of circumstances that might lead others to panic. I think it falls to us to lend a hand, lead by example, and help to extend a sense of kindness as well grace in the face of adversity in the coming year.

We can do this.

FINDING IT HARD TO BE JOLLY

Aww yes, the beauty of the cold white snow, the freshess of the air.
hmmm Bah Humbug.

By Murph

Here it is, almost Christmas, should be a holiday for thanksgiving, reinforcing bonds between loved ones, sharing and generally good feelings. Instead, all I can focus on is finishing projects, trying to manage the effects of winter, keeping animals well fed and reasonably comfortable and expressing concern to whoever I can corner for a moment about what appears to be happening to us. Yes, to US, every single non wealthy person on this planet.

I originally was intending to write a post about micro managed societies. You know, where the government minions of the PTB regulate, enforce, and ever demand more compliance of the citizens in every aspect of their lives. Freedom from government intrusion and regulation of our lives? Hah! Whatever remains of that ideology is seemingly long gone.

So here it is, the biggest holiday season for western civilization, Christmas and New Years. From everything I can ferret out of the internet, the tweaking of data by the government minions about the state of the economy appears to be falsely indicating good times are coming. Supposedly, retail sales are up, and yet retail store owners seem to be anxious whether they will survive beyond January of next year. Huge discount prices on most commodities to attract buyers don’t seem to be making any significant progress in volume of sales. Yet, the government stats keep telling us that everything is just fine, the GNP is expanding, jobs are coming back, unemployment is decreasing, and for heavens sake, we even finally got health care reform for which the health insurance boys will profit immensely. Oh yes, housing defaults and foreclosures are on the rise, but Yessiree, the good times with security and prosperity are coming back. So bud, stop your bitching, your just making it tougher for the big boys to loot (that little foreign voice says).

In our neck of the woods, Freeacre and I are being asked about storing food, and how we are doing it. More people are talking about getting gardens going this spring and asking us how we do our gardening. Meanwhile, our county government is trying like hell to figure out how they can shaft us some more. The fight goes on.

Then on Rense site http://www.rense.com/general88/supreme.htm is an article about how the Supreme Court is making it legal to rendition American citizens suspected and declared to be “suspected enemy combatant” by the president. What that means to me is that any citizen that too intently opposes policies and actions of the government can be put in prison and locked up indefinitely.

Then, there is this little tidbit that we sure haven’t heard about on lamestream media;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-amending-executive-order-12425

And, how’s this for moral entrenchment? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237470/Priest-advises-congregation-shoplift.html

If you haven’t already done so, I would encourage you all to read the Charles Smith publication “Survival +” which can be found here in PDF format. http://www.oftwominds.com/Survival/SP-free.pdf I consider this to be an excellent read and it is only 140 pages. The unabridged version can be ordered from Amazon for those that are interested.

Folks, I am presuming that most who frequent this campfire already know that the data indicates worse times are a comin’ to replace the current bad times. It isn’t written in stone, but all the indicators that I see sure spell doom and gloom on the horizon. Trying to keep some kind of balance today in ones personal life, trying to keep a sense of joy and compassion alive I am finding difficult. Maybe I should quite looking at all of this information if for no other reason than to keep my sense of humor concerning the human antics on this planet. Yet, I am drawn to keep up with what is happening outside of the lamestream news. While I am absolutely certain that some proportion of this information is propaganda or just outright foolishness, sifting through it has become a daily habit.

On the more mundane front, we have been experiencing a rash of ‘thing’ failures. The latest was last night when one of our printers went belly up. I got a message that the components had exceeded the life of the machine and that it would probably be more expensive to repair it than to replace the machine. The silly thing is that the message pointed to the sponge like pads as being the problem. Even if it was replaced, you then have to find/purchase a reset program to make it work again. How’s that for planned obsolescence? This morning I spent nearly an hour finding and downloading the reset software for the printer along with 3 pages of warnings to not use this unless the repair is made. I did it anyway and without the repair, and the printer now is working again. They promised me that I could have drastic ink spills over the area where the printer sets. Lol. A little bit of alcohol on a rag will take care of that if it comes up. I found the sponge they were talking about and may even try to replace it with an Oregon engineering fix. Sigh.

On the printers, notice the price differential between the factory OEM vs refill cartridge replacements? It used to be that Ebay had a dozen refill ink cartridge distributors. Now, one, maybe two at times and within the last year, huge increases in prices of the refill replacements. OEM cartridges are still so expensive that they are hardly worthwhile. I would like to know how that is justified. Those things are dirt cheap to produce. I was told once that the companies making printers sell the machine dirt cheap and make money on the ink cartridges. Amazing if true! I’m almost (but not quite) ready to go back to a pin printer, they still make them you know. Noisy, generally slow, not as neat a print job, and no photo reproduction I think. Sigh. Back to the basics I guess.

I’m not going to be able to complete the mirror refinish jobs on some real pretty grained wood bowls for Freeacre for Christmas. Not going to get the mirror refinish job done on the rifle gun stock either. Oh well, such is the holiday life.

Want to express a hope for the future and all of you who frequent this campfire have a pleasant and rewarding Christmas and New Year celebration.

Tis the Season

by freeacre


Not exactly your Star of Bethlehem….but it may be leading to something new.

Maybe we should call it “the Star of Obama” because nobody knows what it is. The lamestream reports that it was a failed Russian rocket. Yeah, like rockets form a perfect glowing spiral with a blue beam shooting out of it into an illuminated area when they go out of control. Uh huh. A more likely explanation to my mind is that it is a demonstration of the Russian version of the H.A.R.P. project – a facility for which is supposedly centered about ten miles away. Then there is Benjamin Crem jumping in at every opportunity as he has since 1976 asserting that it is yet another sign of the immanent arrival of the new Messiah, Maitreya the Teacher for the New World religion. Let’s see… that would make Maitreya about forty now and still living in London all this time. Not likely. Next we’ll be looking for Son of Maitreya…
At any rate, though, what a perfect image for the times. Cliff, in his latest report from Half Past Human, says that the linguistics on the net identify this time as one of “Secrets Revealed” and whistle-blowing by all sorts of minions as their loyalties disappear along with their paychecks. Supposedly, we are going to get out collective minds blown by the surprising duplicity of our Men in Suits, military, government, church leaders, celebrities, and basically all those cultural icons who hold what is loosely identified as our culture together.
It has already begun. Read Matt Taibbi’s scathing investigative reporting on Goldman Sachs, the financiers on Wall St. and their counterparts in the government. Formerly regarded as The Smartest Men in the Room, the toast of the beautiful and powerful, now they are purchasing guns and ducking the anticipated mob. They are afraid somebody might rearrange their face like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s was by an angry man in a crowd who broke off his teeth and smashed in Berlusconi’s nose with a statue of some sort.

How the mighty fall. I almost hate to mention Tiger. Personally, I don’t believe that a person’s personal life is anyone else’s business but their own. I had no interest in Bill Clinton’s sex life, and I have none in Tiger Wood’s either. There seems to have been no coercion or underage involvement (quite the contrary), so I would label it None of Our Business. What does interest me, though, is how much play the mainstream is giving it. I wonder if they would have treated Jack Nickolas or Arnold Palmer that way. Oh, I’m sure none of them ever had any affairs…. But, Tiger has become a cultural cornerstone and it does rattle the mental construct to have him fall so ignobly from grace. I’m not sure if this is a case of whistle blowing – or just blowing.

In any case, we have other examples:
"Roche engages in science fraud
Roche claims there are ten studies providing Tamiflu is both safe and effective. According to the company, Tamiflu has all sorts of benefits, including a 61% reduction in hospital admissions by people who catch the flu and then get put on Tamiflu.

The problem with these claims is that they aren't true. They were simply invented by Roche.

A groundbreaking article recently published in the British Medical Journal accuses Roche of misleading governments and physicians over the benefits of Tamiflu. Out of the ten studies cited by Roche, it turns out, only two were ever published in science journals. And where is the original data from those two studies? Lost.

The data has disappeared. Files were discarded. The researcher of one study says he never even saw the data. Roche took care of all that, he explains."

Then there was the story this week that reveals that the stock market was propped up by DRUG MONEY!! Feign shock.
Via: Guardian:
"Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result."

Want more? How about Climategate? Those pesky e-mails pointing to massaging the numbers on global warming that may or may not be the work of the business class influencing the scientists. Or, the scientist who refutes the claims of Al Gore in this piece:
"CLIMATEGATE - Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums don't add up
Tags:
• CORPORATE MEDIA
• COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS/PROPAGANDA
• POLITICS/ELECTIONS/CORRUPTION
• SCIENCE/HEALTH/CLIMATE/NATURE
In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”
“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Oh, yeah, and the expose’ from “Vererans Today” who accuses the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal of treason due to knowingly going to war in the Middle East supposedly to fight Osama bin Laden when they knew he was already dead.
“BIN LADEN NEVER MENTIONED IN McCHRYSTAL REPORT OR OBAMA SPEECH
"HUNT FOR BIN LADEN" A NATIONAL SHAME
By Gordon Duff/STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Conservative commentator, former Marine Colonel Bob Pappas has been saying for years that bin Laden died at Tora Bora and that Senator Kerry's claim that bin Laden escaped with Bush help was a lie. Now we know that Pappas was correct. The embarassment of having Secretary of State Clinton talk about bin Laden in Pakistan was horrific. He has been dead since December 13, 2001 and now, finally, everyone, Obama, McChrystal, Cheney, everyone who isn't nuts is finally saying what they have known for years.
However, since we lost a couple of hundred of our top special operations forces hunting for bin Laden after we knew he was dead, is someone going to answer for this with some jail time? Since we spent 200 million dollars on "special ops" looking for someone we knew was dead, who is going to jail for that? Since Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney continually talked about a man they knew was dead, now known to be for reasons of POLITICAL nature, who is going to jail for that? Why were tapes brought out, now known to be forged, as legitimate intelligence to sway the disputed 2004 election in the US? This is a criminal act if there ever was one.
In 66 pages, General Stanley McChrystal never mentions Osama bin Laden. Everything is "Mullah Omar"now. In his talk at West Point, President Obama never mentioned Osama bin Laden. Col. Pappas makes it clear, Vice President Cheney let it "out of the bag" long ago. Bin Laden was killed by American troops many many years ago.
America knew Osama bin Laden died December 13, 2001. After that, his use was hardly one to unite America but rather one to divide, scam and play games. With bin Laden gone, we could have started legitimate nation building in Afghanistan instead of the eternal insurgency that we invented ourselves.”

Yeah, I’d say it is prime time for whistle-blowing. In fact, Murph and I just finished reading “The Last Symbol” by Dan Brown. That one just may have more influence than any of the rest of these stories. It will be read by hundreds of thousands and probably seen by millions once they make it into a movie. Like the Da Vinci Code, it is full of secrets and intrigue. Only this time it is based in Washington D.C. and may shake to the core those who believe the 1950’s Disneyland take on what this country is all about.

Oddly, with all this collapse of the paradigm in mind, I find my enthusiasm for the Christmas season renewed. With so much of the banal bullshit falling away as the Mall Rats disappear into debt obscurity, a different sort of Christmas is beginning to emerge. I find myself looking through my belongings for little treasures that I can give away. Why wait until I am dead and the recipients are old to give my stuff to them? I find myself wanting to do it now. I don’t know how many Christmases I have left.

I might just put together a cookie exchange among my friends and neighbors. Gifting homemade cookies, breads, music, movies, books – all sorts of things can be given that are special and don’t depend on feeding the corporate pig. A post collapse Christmas is a Christmas that I can get behind. I intend to devote the next two weeks engaged in activities that bring joy and peace and warmth to those I love and maybe an extra meal or two for the community. No credit cards involved.

2012

...This baby is about twenty miles from our home, and there are about twenty surrounding us that are just like it.


freeacre

Until now, I have hesitated to write seriously about the 2012 prophesies. After all, there are plenty of “real” things going on to be concerned with. No need to clutter the mental landscape with imagined catastrophes that may or may not manifest. I have found it somewhat amusing to make references to “the asteroid hit” that it would take to solve our political problems in Washington. Or, that if we have a gigantic electro-magnetic pulse from the sun that takes down the electric grid, at least we wouldn’t have to listen to Rush Limbaugh any more. I have also taken some wry solace that in the event of the next Great Flood, I have a body type that would be useful as a flotation devise.

I have made light of the 2012 disaster scenarios because to take it seriously is hideously painful, especially if one has young children or grandchildren. It’s bad enough to think of the ramifications of Peak Oil and other resources destroying chances of continuing the fantasy that we can leave a prospering and thriving world for our progeny to inherit. It’s been difficult to swim against the cultural tide, and make plans for localized food production, less reliance on the electrical grid, the obsolescence of many professional careers, and cultivating the ethic that “less is more.” But, now, I guess that I am starting to be ready to actually focus on the issue of genuine global catastrophe, at least briefly.

Last night, I listened to Cliff High’s interview on 2012 with Jeff Rense for the second time. If you go to the Half Past Human site and click on the supplementary information with graphics to explain the dynamics of the sun (http://www.halfpasthuman.com/RadioSpecial.html), you will find a very cogent argument for the end of life as we know it – in about a thousand days. You can also listen to the interview with Cliff on the Rense site. It probably has been archived by now. This information does not include the speculation on Planet X (or Nirimbu), or a large asteroid possibly coming our way from outside our solar system. It also does not deal with the increased threat of collisions and different wave frequency encounters due to entering the galactic center. Those possibilities are pretty hard to figure. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe soon, maybe in 500 years. Whatever… meanwhile, I have other things to do.

But, Cliff’s information is much more immediate and, it seems to me, more plausible. There really is geologic evidence that the magnetic and physical poles of the earth have reversed and changed repeatedly. In fact, they have switched three times in the last eleven thousand years. We can verify that from core samples, of rock and ice. We can study layers of rock and the fossil record. We note references from ancient cultures in Egypt, India, the Maya, the Hopi, the Australian aborigines, the Tibetans, and on and on. Of course, that means that even though the poles have shifted and the continents have moved and the flood waters have swept over vast tracts of land, people did survive. If they hadn’t human beings would not be here today. So, that’s the good news.

The bad news is that because the sun is winding up at different rates at the poles and at the equator of the sun, it stores up huge bunches of energy that is periodically released. And, the releases can be calculated. And the calculations infer that it will happen once again in 2012. The magnetosphere that usually shields us from solar ejections has been deteriorating for fifty years. It is very weak at this time. The fact that there are no sun spots at all right now seems to indicate that something unusual is going on. The fact that all the planets in our solar system are warming up, indicates that this is a shared event throughout our whole solar system. If the sun does, indeed, spew out some mass corneal ejections, it may or may not be in the direction of the earth. So, it could be relatively mild, or it could be much worse. But, since the magnetic core of the earth will be affected either way, our planet would probably experience a pole shift which would involve massive flooding and tectonic plate shifts. And, then we would see the New North Pole in Minnesota or something and giant oceanic waves extending inland for hundreds of miles, as the Planet hits the re-set button and the magnetosphere is re-charged.

This is not going to be mitigated by trips to Costco to stock up on canned food and toilet paper. Eight-five percent of the human population of the world lives along the coastlines of the continents. So, one has to wonder if that is why the Norwegians have created the Seed Bank that is storing seeds of basically everything in a vault at the edge of the world. Or, maybe why Google is making digital copies of all known books. Or, why there have been rumors of huge underground facilities being built near Denver, Colorado, for years. Or, why the Vatican built the biggest infra-red telescope in Arizona several years ago to study the sun… Somebody knows something, but they ain’t telling us.

This is unacceptable to me. After all, we may have only three precious years left. We ought to be free to decide how we want to spend them. Those of us who live at sea level might decide to move inland to higher ground, for openers. Or, we may decide to get a house boat and stock it with supplies. Or, we may decide to spend the next three years visiting the places we have always wanted to go. Or, we may want to stop putting off sharing the secrets of our heart with someone that we secretly love. We might want to retire. We might want to learn to tango. Hell, I don’t know. There are millions of things that people might want to do differently if they knew that a planetary disaster is on the way in the near future. At least get the kids that dog they’ve been wanting – and be the most excellent parent and lover you are capable of being starting right now.

One thing regular people may not want to do is spend the rest of their lives working in pointless jobs, living in debt servitude, or going to war for some dumbass reason. Maybe that’s why the overlords are not letting the cat out of the bag. Maybe they just don’t want the slaves walking away from the plantation.

But, what if they put a few extra zeros on everybody’s bank balance, and told everybody to go out and Be All That You Can Be? I mean, hell, they just did it for Wall St. Why not the rest of us? Ok, it’s not sustainable, but hey, if the fucking sun is going whack in three years, what’s the damn difference? Why not do some things that are radically excellent?



...what do you think? Is Hot Springs Wizard looking into the distance, or into the future?

The Sorry State of Today's Youth

It's getting colder...

Thank you, ras, for sending us a guest post! Always good to hear your thoughts.

By RAS

This post was going to go in an entirely different direction. I was going to do an in-depth report on the current state of food production, the (sorry) harvest, and projections for the coming year. I may still do that later. However, I got distracted by my recent experiences and decided to do this instead.

I have been working as a substitute teacher. It’s an interesting job, but amounts to little more than glorified babysitting, as I’m not allowed to actually teach anything. I have now subbed in the poor kids schools, where hall lights don’t work and paint is literally flaking off the ceiling, and in the rich kids schools, where a million dollars was spent on the stage alone. I worked at one assignment that was supposed to be high school English. The regular teacher lied so she would have an easier time getting a sub. It turned out she was an in-school detention teacher for the worst high school in the city. The classroom was me, an aide, and a 6’6” 250 lb black dude whose only job was to keep the kids from hurting each other or me. These were 9th graders -15 years old –and they were, for the most part, extremely dangerous. I’ve never had a worse work day in my life.

But it is not just those kids. Everywhere I have gone I have been struck by the sad condition of our youth. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good kids everywhere, but most of our kids suffer from one or both of two conditions: either their parents aren’t around at all and so they pretty much raise themselves, or their parents are around (some) but not enough and so they overindulge the children to make up for not being around enough. The end result is that the vast majority of our children have no manners, no discipline, and no real future.

Let’s step into the life of an average American child for one day and see what it’s like. We’re going to assume that the child is school-age (though the only difference in a lot of cases is that the child goes to daycare all day instead of school). We are also going to assume that the child has two parents, both of whom work full time at 9-5 jobs, make decent money, and really love and care for their kids. In other words, this kid has advantages many kids in this country don’t.

Our child gets up by 6:30 in the morning, because he has to catch the bus at 7. If he’s lucky, he gets a bowl of sweetened cereal at home. If not, he gets to wait until he gets to school and then gets a ‘breakfast stick’ or something similar. He is trapped in school all day, in a prison-in-waiting with 20 to 40 other kids and one teacher. Recess? What’s that? We’ve no time for recess! We have tests to teach to! Lunch is pizza, corn dogs, or hamburgers, generally speaking. All surplus from the USDA.

School lets out at 3, but mom and dad work until at least 5, so our child goes to ‘extended day care’ which is a fancy way of saying daycare. His parents get off at 5 and have to have him picked up by 6, which is when most daycares close. They have to drive there in rush-hour traffic, so it’s a quarter til or later when they pull in. The busy places in town are daycares at 5 minutes before 6 pm every night.

Now what? Well, now its time for dinner. First you have to drive home through rush-hour traffic. Mom and dad are tired; they’ve worked all day. If they’ve really got it together, one might have went home ahead to start dinner or they might have it in the crockpot. But not likely. They’ve got to feed the kids and feed them fast because by now its 6:30, so often it will be a drive-through or something from a box.

Now it’s homework time. The average child has between one and three hours worth of homework every night. This is not an exaggeration; I’ve helped first grader’s do this much homework. Some of it will have been done at daycare, but not all, so mom and dad spend an hour or more helping him with it.

Finally, everything’s done and its time for quality time with the kids, right? No, because its now 8:00 and our imaginary child has to get a bath and get in bed to be up at 6:30 again. This will repeat 5 days a week. Some nights he might have scouts or baseball after daycare. Weekends will be taken up with sports practice, more homework, and staying out of mom and dad’s way so they can take care of all the things they couldn’t do while they were working all week.

Do you see the problems with this? This child has no free time, no time to play or draw or explore. He doesn’t get to really hang out with his parents. His diet is crap. And yet –this is the condition of millions of children in this country. This child has so many advantages: his parents are home at night, they love him, they help him with his homework instead of vegging out in front of the tv, and on and on. And yet look at the state he’s in.

Consider this: 16% of kids are obese and another 15% are at risk of being obese. That number has tripled in the past few decades. Cases of asthma, diabetes, allergies, and autism have skyrocketed. The rate of childhood depression is increasing by 23% a year, and is it any wonder? So many of our kids are now on medication for these kinds of conditions it’s impossible to do an adequate survey.

It doesn’t get any better for the young adults. Over half of young people aged 16-24 are unemployed. The army recently said a third of them are not ‘fit to serve’. In a lot ways that’s a good thing –if you can’t serve, you can’t get blown up in Afghanistan –but in others its not. The army has historically recruited people who are in generally good health and not the brightest. What does it say about us as a society when a third of our young people are too fat to do a sit up and to stupid to know you need to throw a grenade after you pull the pin?

What kind of future do these kids have? Most of them don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving what is to come. If you’ve never turned off the game console, how are you supposed to figure out how to grow your own food?

I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t have any answers. But I fear for the future of our country.

The Times Call for Jedi Warriors

Freeacre


I know that things are bad. From Smirking Chimp, Brent Budowsky writes,
“Washington remains in denial about the skyrocketing misery index that plagues more than half the nation. Leaders in the capital do not get it.
The president and Congress should continue work to produce healthcare reform, but must understand that to most Americans, ignoring the economic crisis that threatens their daily lives while focusing obsessively on a healthcare bill that voters do not understand creates worry, outrage and political revolt.
Even after shocking jobless numbers, voters do not see any fierce "urgency of now" from Washington. To voters, Republicans are on Mars, Democrats on Venus, while they are suffering on Earth.
The president and congressional leaders should convene an emergency jobs summit to develop a major bipartisan plan to create jobs in America and call on business leaders to join with government.
In an upcoming column I will offer new proposals. For now my message is that Washington is dramatically out of touch with the economic pain, suffering, worry, fear, anger and concern of the people.
Consider the misery index that plagues more than half the nation in very dire and immediate ways:
1. The misery index begins with the real jobless rate of 17.5 percent. This includes the official unemployment rate of 10.2 percent plus those who are so depressed they have given up looking for work, plus those who cannot find full-time work and are forced to accept low-paying part-time jobs.
2. The misery index expands to the husbands, wives, sons and daughters of the 17.5 percent jobless in America and, for a growing number of families, the parents and grandparents who now live with them. Do the math. The "family misery index" is a giant swath of America suffering extreme, devastating and immediate hardship.
3. The misery index includes those who are employed and deeply worried about the future of their jobs. Today they are employed. Tomorrow they may not be, with the next major layoff announcement. They are deeply worried, and should be. Add them to the high end of the misery index.
4. The misery index includes wages that have been declining for almost 20 years, while the cost of living has been rising relentlessly. People work hard and play by the rules but year after year, for two decades, they fall further behind.
5. The misery index includes those holding most of the 700 million credit cards in America, who have had major increases in interest rates and fees, huge jumps in their minimum payments and major cuts in credit lines at their time of greatest need, even though they have always paid their bills.
6. The misery index includes those who are employed but are desperately making mortgage payments to avoid foreclosure. They could be forced from their homes to the streets; they frantically pay their bills and their mortgages, cutting back on food and medicine, even for their kids.
7. The misery index includes rising costs of healthcare and rising premiums for insurance that are punishing Americans. There is nothing in the healthcare bill that does anything for them anytime soon.”
And, then there is the H1N1 pandemic as well as the concerns regarding the vaccines for the flu, which may be worse than the disease. Now, it appears that a super flu or plague that leads to a hideous death by drowning in your own blood has hit the Ukraine. The lamestream is suppressing information about it, but there are several articles on rense.com and Steve Quail’s site, among others. Is it a disease or a bio-weapon? I don’t know, but it sure looks dangerous.

Peak Oil is suddenly hitting the news. A whistle blower from IEA admits that they have been suppressing statistics for years about the dwindling oil supplies in order not to create a panic. The movie, “Collapse” is opening in selected theaters today. It features an 80 minute interview with Mike Ruppert on the oil and financial crisis that will end the world as we know it. What is amazing is that the mainstream is calling it riveting and thoughtful, rather than denouncing it. Jeez, if the powers that be are suddenly going to admit that the world actually has a problem with oil production, I hardly know how to act …”duck and cover” comes to mind.

The government is handing over 11.5 trillion dollars of borrowed money to the mega-rich financiers, insurance pimps, and Big Pharma drug dealers at the expense of the rest of us. It is the most breathtaking siphoning off of wealth into the pockets of the richest 1% yet, and it’s being done by the Democrats! Of course, if it were planned by the Republicans, it would be even worse, if that is possible.

Returning veterans and people thrown out of work and into the streets are going nuts and killing people. Suicides in the military are at the highest levels since the statistics began. The mayhem may escalate as the conditions worsen.



We are truly on our own here. Maybe, at least today, that’s why I am actually feeling better. Lately, I have been feeling a sort of “preparation fatigue.” We have been preparing for this collapse for so long that I’ve about had it. I don’t want to talk about it, don’t want to think about it, don’t want to write about it. Stick a fork in me – I’m done with preparing. Systemic failure is not coming, it has arrived.

Now it’s about dealing with declining resources, the dysfunction of our institutions, and the collapse of the economy. Happily, today, I got a sort of “shot in the arm” (the good kind) by going to see the new movie, “Men Who Stare at Goats.” I’m not going to ruin the movie for you by telling the whole story. But, suffice it to say, that it portrayed the power of the hope and vision of the movement that inspired the hippies and changed many of us forever. It also presented the weaknesses and flaws that in retrospect were pretty funny.

I feel energized, liberated. Free from the illusion that the government will be any help, we can take it from here. And, we can re-discover and cultivate a sense of enthusiasm, joy, brother and sisterhood, love, fun, and creativity in the process. Why not:? We aren’t bureaucrats. We aren’t machines. We aren’t consumers. We are not that stupid herd that the overlords have tried to turn us into. We are human beings, with all the untapped powers and potential that real people have.

I want to catch the wave of energy that almost was forgotten. I want to be a Jedi. I want to use The Force to quell the Evil Empire. I want to sing and dance and give stuff away to my neighbors, learn how to feed and take care of each other. I don’t know how much time we have left. But, let’s bring the best of ourselves to it. Once again I tell you, we were born for this! The beautiful picture at the top is one that Montana Freeman took close to his home. I think it truly represents both the deterioration and the hope that is here for us.

GREIVANCE OR GRATITUDE

Grievance or Gratitude
freeacre

Monday, and I feel compelled to get a quick post up because we have well over sixty comments going on the previous post. All excellent, by the way. A much brainier post is in the works by Belgium. I stole the phrase “grievance or gratitude” from James Howard Kunstler’s latest Clusterfuck Nation essay this morning. He is referring to the upcoming Thanksgiving season, which seems to be buried in the malls by Halloween hoopla and the Christmas marketing blitz. He doesn’t think that folks are feeling particularly grateful this season, since unemployment is still on the upswing, many unemployment checks are expiring, the federal government is on the verge of bankruptcy, commercial real estate is about to go bust, and so forth. In fact, he intuits that when people get wind of the outlandish bonuses that will be paid on Wall St. around Christmas, a fair-sized segment of the population just might go postal. He even envisions a possible coup or some sort of disintegration of the federal government itself! That seems a tad over the top, even to me.

The consensus of opinion, at least from our little slice of consciousness at the Campfire, seems to be that President Obama is impotent to protect us from the banking and corporate globalists at best, and, at worst, a willing shill for the Reptilian puppet masters. I think of the sociopathic Big Boys pulling the strings as reptilian, due to their seeming inhumanity. They seem to be incredibly unconnected to the vast majority of regular people as to be another species dressed up in a suit. Cold-blooded, ruthless, greed-driven, malicious, and monstrous, they have proven capable of entrapping their victims whole, wrapping them up in a web of deceit, and eating them alive, like spiders. Okay, I know that spiders are arachnids, not reptiles, but they are not human, that’s for sure. The latest report this weekend on Huffington Post, and quoted by Kunstler (or was it George Ure?), that Goldman Sachs was going around the country buying up real estate mortgages that they knew full well were toxic, then bundling them up and selling them to foreign banks and pension funds. Meanwhile, they took out insurance against these derivatives so than when they failed, they would cash in. When the most prestigious financial institution is doing shit like this, with all the domestic and international ramifications, there seems to be no limit to how far they will sink. And, their perception of the people involved at the other end of these transactions are as dispassionate as the grey aliens are reported to be when observing a hapless abductee undergoing an anal probe. The banksters, the stockbrokers, and their minions in the legislatures are the aliens, and we are the herd suffering the mutilation. Sucked dry of our life’s blood and lying bloated in tent cities and underpasses, wild-eyed and crazed, or simply dazed and confused, the misery of the masses is about to get worse.

Why not? The Federal Reserve has already devalued the purchasing power of the dollar by 97 cents since 1913 and gotten away with it. The wealthiest five percent now own ninety percent of the wealth of the land, since Reagan and his chuckle headed “trickle down” theory of economics became the law of the land. The false flag event of 9/11 threw enough people into a panic that the constitution has been dismantled, and now virtually anyone can be labeled an “enemy combatant” and renditioned, tortured, and incarcerated forever without trial. The NSA just opened up a new center to help with the surveillance of our e-mails and electronic transactions – and they plan to invite corporate entities to man the facility as well. We can probably look forward to having quotas set on items to buy. I can hear the call now…”Hello, Ms. Freeacre, this is Hal, from Business Watch. We notice that you have not purchased the minimum telecommunication services and food products to keep your credit in good standing. Is there anything wrong? How may we help you?”

Oh, crap, there I go again… getting all paranoid and shit. But then, there was this Mossad agent surrounded by a zillion cops with advanced weaponry who was arrested and apparently sent back to Israel to suffer consequences after he divulged that the swine flu virus has been weaponized. It may be what is causing this hideous bleeding lungs epidemic in the Ukraine. Suddenly the web bot predictions on immanent disaster don’t seem so far from the mark. If you aren’t certain of what I am referring to, just go to today’s (11/2) Urban Survival site (linked at right) and read the column and follow the links. Or Cryptogon. Just reading this stuff is enough to give one a nose bleed. If Baxter Corp. (Donald Rumsfeld just happens to sit on their board of directors) has, indeed, released the Spanish Flu into the world again, we are looking at millions of deaths. And, if the vaccine is contaminated with adjuvants of squalene and mercury, we can anticipate additional long term suffering beyond measure. Oh, yeah, and that guy from U.N. who was found dead at the bottom of a stairwell who was working on seismic monitoring of possible nuclear testing sites also used to work in biological warfare… well, I’m just connecting some dots here. Don’t mind me. His was the second “suicide” from that lethal stairwell at the U.N., by the way. In addition to the scores of dead micro-biologists world-wide. Nothing here, citizen, just move along and buy something at your local mall.

Well, with all this, the “Death of the Dollar” and the possible attack on Iran by Israel doesn’t seem so far-fetched after all, does it? Oh, wait… we have comforting “news” by Katie Couric, et al, on the lamestream media that assures us that things are looking up for the “recovery.” Just who’s recovery is not real certain, but it looks like it doesn’t extend beyond the reptilian sector. Merciful Mother in Heaven…

The gratitude part of my headline refers, I guess, to our local and cyber communities who continue to carry on and attempt to inform, support and defend each other against these seemingly endless assaults on our collective well-being. On a personal note, I can report success after my first week on the Ultra-Simple detox and anti-inflammation program that I started. I lost twelve pounds in a week, which is pretty remarkable. Twelve less pounds to haul around in case I find myself playing commando. So, that’s a “good thing,” as Martha Stewart would say…lol.

WHO IS THIS MAN?

Be prepared, storms a comin'.

from freeacre

Almost daily, articles are pushed into my face on sites like Jeff Rense or Steve Quale’s that announce that President Obama is a Christian, a Muslim, and just recently, a Jew – sometimes all on the same page!
“ … I suspect his mother’s father Stanley Dunham was Jewish,” Henry Makow writes from Save the Males. Obama’s mother Stanley Anne Dunham, certainly looked and acted like a communist Jew…” he opines.

And, on another site a writer decries the “fact” that the little girl who asked President Obama “why do people hate you?” was a “plant.” Like the six year old was supposed to have independently hopped on a bus and gotten herself to the town hall and into the room full of political wonks to ask a question. Since she arrived with her mother, an active Democrat, he refers to her as “the moonbat mommy with Julia and Comrade Obama.”

Obama is also (depending on which hysterical and polarized site one reads) a Kenyan or an Indonesian. I don’t know why they are making such a big deal about this. There is the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law, after all. The constitution rightly attempted to halt the disturbing habit of British Kings ruling by bloodline despite what country they were from. They were sick of their kings being Germans or French or Austrian or whatever. They wanted to insure that the President of our country hailed from this country. Obama’s mother was an American, and he was raised by his American grandparents, and has lived and worked for Americans all his life and his loyalties are here. I don’t give a rat’s ass where he was born. I’d like to have the president who was duly elected be allowed to serve, for once. Those “birthers” don’t seem to give a shit that McCain was born in Panama – and well they shouldn’t. It doesn’t fucking matter. If the Constitution is so important, start looking at the Patriot Act, not the stupid birth issue, for God’s sake. So, what else is going on here?

Some people say he is siding with the fascist takeover by the oligarchs (and, to tell the truth, I find that argument compelling), others think he’s a socialist as he attempts to provide universal health care. Others write that he is part of the global cabal of Illuminati overlords. It is said that he is nationalizing the banks. Conversely, he is accused of siding with the banks taking over the government. Others scream that he is a Godless communist, and ultimately - the Anti-Christ. Oh, yeah, and he’s bi-sexual to boot.

So, I have to ask: Does this seem really strange to you? Unless he is some sort of shape shifter from some cheesy science fiction movie, I am beginning to think that none of these sightings have anything to do with President Barack Obama. And, I have to admit, I am disturbed. Let me explain why:

Let’s go back to the bad old days. Sometimes you can sort of pinpoint a time in history when things began to go seriously awry. Like when Edward Bernaise began to apply his cousin, Sigmund Freud’s, ideas of the structure of the personality to sell products. He used his insights on what motivates people, their desires and their insecurities, and constructed a form of powerful manipulation that has morphed into what we now know as “Marketing.” Or, when a little known resentment-filled house painter got tossed into jail and used the time to write a creepy little book called “Mein Kompf,” - thereby mobilizing a bunch of his compatriots to rise up and feel good about themselves after they lost WWI by telling them that they, as Aryans, were the superior race and their destiny was to rule the world. Or, later, when an economics professor at the University of Chicago named Leo Strauss taught a group of overachievers including Dick Chaney and Donald Rumsfeld that the future of America was to advance the cause of global domination by a fiendish, but tidy, philosophy called “neo-conservativism.” Make up a story, he said, that the sheeple will follow. Never tell them the truth. Make them fearful and ignorant, and never lose site of the goal of power and control of global resources and military might to build a stable empire.

Which leads me to the slimy, but clever little maggot – Karl Rove. As a Young Republican, Karl Rove took up the neo-con standard and merged the money and power of the Republican military/Chamber of Commerce coalition with the energy and paranoia of the Fundamental Armageddonists. Beginning in the Nixon days and running through the first Bush administration, he really got going during the Clinton years. By that time he and his foam-at-the-mouth Christian Coalition minions waged an unrelenting character assassination campaign against Clinton over the heinous “crime” of getting a blow job, of all things. This is when the rest of the world began to suspect that the American people were going nuts. Meanwhile the neo-con agenda really was being advanced with the complicity of Clinton. It was during these years, after all, that NAFTA, CAFTA, and the World Bank began to export the manufacturing base of our land and the regulations on the banking industry were shit-canned with very little fanfare.

But, the Liberal contingent (including me) we so outraged by the outrageous demonizing of Bill Clinton that we began to absolutely hate all things Republican and were distracted from the financial agenda. So, when Bush II got elected, and then really DID do heinous things like bomb countries that had done nothing to us and torture and kill civilians and systematically dismantle the Bill of Rights, we criticized the asshat President with as much or more vitriol as the right-wing minions had used against Bill Clinton. For eight years we despised and insulted and struggled against each other in a no-holds-barred brawl of the “right” versus the “left.”

I would submit that one of the unintended consequences of this on-going national dog fight is what we have now: nobody believes anything that anyone says, nobody knows what is really going on, and the country is polarized beyond anyone’s imagination, leaving it totally dysfunctional. We have driven each other mad.

Enter Barack Obama. I suspect that he is a true centrist. I suspect that, due to his rich heritage of cultures, he is compelled to attempt to heal the divide - much like a child caught in the middle of two parents who are constantly at odds. I fear that he truly desires to be inclusive, to bring out the best in people of all sorts, and probably in denial of their flaws. I fear that he may actually be trusting people around him (even if they are corporate and financial psychopathic scum), and expecting that he can resolve our differences, much like his hero, Abraham Lincoln. And, let us not dwell upon what happened to Mr. Lincoln. It is too scary to me.
And, for his effort, I am afraid that everyone on every side is turning against Barack Obama, except those darn Norwegians. Maybe we’ll find a way to attack them next. Perhaps the next Republican administration will bomb their seed bank in retaliation for the Nobel Peace Prize. Karl Rove is probably working on the plans already.

It’s an old story and one that has been repeated in our lifetimes. Christ was nailed to the cross because he pissed off the Pharisees when he threw the money changers out of the temple. But he also angered his dispossessed followers when he refused to be their militant King. So, when the time came to be judged, nobody stood up for him.

Martin Luther King was assassinated after he over-stepped his role as a racial activist and attempted to enlarge his message to that of peace and freedom for all working people and spoke against the war.

Robert Kennedy, another cerebral, eloquent speaker who wanted to stop the war and work for social justice was shot and silenced.

Are you familiar with the term “racket feeling”? It’s a transactional analysis term that refers to a main bad feeling that people find themselves experiencing over and over due to decisions that they made when they were children. It is usually due to some sort of abuse or discount of themselves. It may be hurt or anger or humiliation, helplessness, rage, inadequacy, betrayal or a plethora of painful feelings. But, whatever one’s racket feelings are, a person often sets him or herself up to feel them one way or another. And, the kicker is that it is done out of their awareness. As Palooka’s Revenge would say, they are in “denial.” They don’t own the feeling. Instead, they project the bad parent or situation onto somebody or something else and then struggle against it and end up re-experiencing the racket feelings over and over.

Barack Obama, it seems to me, is the perfect foil for people’s projections. He is calm rather than emotional, thoughtful rather than reactionary. I don’t think any of us knows what the real deal is with him because we can not see beyond our own projected perceptions, and we have learned not to trust what any of our leaders say. That’s why he can be judged to be everything from the Messiah to the Anti-Christ, a Christian, Muslim, Jew, commie, fascist, corporate tool or bankster overlord. People can comfortably dwell in their favorite emotion of hate, outrage, fear, disappointment, confusion, or even devotion. Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?

Maybe he already has. And, maybe we are so blind and crazy that we can’t see him. Maybe he’s just a guy who is in an impossible situation and he’s trying to do the best he can against enormous odds. Maybe not. I am afraid that we will never know. I think that if I were in his position I’d tell us all to take the job and shove it far into where the sun don’t shine. But because he is part of a larger dynamic, I am afraid that he will be used as a reluctant player in our national game of Doom as we all declare war against each other. Because, we are doing the same thing on other issues as we are doing on Obama. It’s getting to be like the Tower of Babel – nobody understands anybody else on anything.

So, I ask myself, “How do I stop at least the part that I am playing in this insanity?”

I think that I need to identify what my racket feelings are. Personally, I know that mine involve helplessness and betrayal with a good dose of anger. I need to know what I come to the table with, for openers. And then, I need to learn to just stop and put them aside. Look with new eyes. Admit that I don’t know what is going on. Get sane.

Maybe it is time for forgiveness for all our shortcomings. Maybe it’s time to just try to make things better where I can, and attempt to cultivate a peaceful place inside of me. .. some natural place that was mine when I was born, but got lost somehow. And as far as the President goes, I wish him well – whomever or whatever he is. Maybe someday we will get to really know him. Let’s leave the mental door open to the possibility that maybe we and he can do better this time. After all, as John Conner says, “The future is not yet written.”

Birds in back yard, chicks have grown!

DEMOCRACY, CONSTITUTIONS, AND PLUTOCRACY

First, some photos from other regulars on the site.

Palooka's mother lode of chanterellas, don't they look tasty.

Baz's bounty, brown sugar and local honey glazed eels. Looks good eating to me.

DEMOCRACY, CONSTITUTIONS, AND PLUTOCRACY
from Murph

In my last post, I started by saying that I was feeling overloaded with information, saturated with the stuff. So let’s start off with a list of stuff I have been perusing lately.

A 500+ page book that is well documented
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20262742/The-Rich-and-the-Super-Rich

New guest post on Charles Smith site from Oct 5 titled Inalienable Rights and the Constitution; http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

All of the posts at this site are examinations of how things are currently and their relationship to the constitution; http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwinA.htm

This will get you started on what I am writing about in this post.

I am seeing more and more articles lately that are examining the pact from the 1700’s with the government and the citizens of this country called the U.S. Constitution.

One thing that I find interesting that there is more discussion about this phrase from the constitution;
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

In other words, the people have the right to revolt and change the government when it no longer serves their interests. I’m sure all of you are now familiar with the quote from Jefferson concerning a revolt every 20 years is necessary;

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."

For more writings by Jefferson on the subject see;
http://www.revolt.net/

Now let’s see, revolts against the government in one form or another in the last 20 years or so.
Gorden Kahl in Arkansas in the 80’s. I was living there at the time and the shootout took place a few miles from where I was living.

The CSA revolt in the 80’s in Arkansas. Here is a short quote about it from; http://www.rickross.com/reference/israel/israel6.html This article has a few facts wrong but gives the essence of this group. Good read.
“The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, as Ellison's group eventually called itself, would be responsible for a church arson in Springfield and for bombing a Jewish Community Center in Indiana. As early as 1983, it talked of blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City. Ellison and other members of the group even went to Oklahoma City at one point in the early 1980s to case the federal building, which Timothy McVeigh destroyed on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people. That raid began April 19, 1985 - 10 years to the day before McVeigh's attack.
An accident at the Covenant compound, and then a raid by local, state and federal officers, broke up the group before it carried out any more violent plans, according to Noble, who served more than two years behind bars for possession of unregistered weapons.”
Actually, I was living there then and not far from their compound and had a friend that took part in the raid by local police. What actually happened is a couple of the members of the group got out of control of the leaders and decided to knock off a Brinks truck and killed a couple of guards. They were survivalists and led the feds on a chase through the mountains for over a month before finally walking out and giving themselves up. I had met a few of the members of the group and got along just fine with them. They offered courses in urban and rural warfare but I never had the money to take them up on it. At the time, they sure seemed legit to me.
The Okalahoma city bombing.
Waco Texas
Ruby Ridge
And then there is 9-11. Was this a random terrorist attack, or an external rebellion against American economic dominance and policies, or a manufactured incidence by our government, or some combination?

Well, we sure do know how those actions turned out. Lots of people killed and nothing changed. In fact, the aftermath of all of this was a rabid increase in power of the executive branch of the government that continues today. It is readably apparent that our government is in the hands of bankers and CEO’s with the president as sham head of state.

In any event, one of our most current severe problems in this country is a lack of citizen insistence that the government operate according to the constitution. If we don’t like the constitution, then put together some other form of agreement on how we are to be governed. It seems obvious to me that the government has no intention of adhering to the constitution and its tenants and that we are rapidly sliding into some form of absolute plutocratic control. Our elections are, and have been, shams of the most severe kind. This is not to say that we haven’t been under control of a plutocracy in the past, (just read the economic history from 1870 through the 1920’s) but I can say that the amount of control has gone up exponentially. I can say that our supposedly constitutional guarantees of freedom and rights have been radically diminished and governmental controls at every level of living have increased dramatically, except of course for the plutocracy. When the robber baron in the early 1900’s got so excessive that it could be no longer tolerated, people in government put some brakes on to their excesses. But then they got the Federal Reserve act passed in 1913. The plutocracy consolidated power and it’s been down hill every since for all of us. Our dollars in purchasing power is now 4 cents when compared to 1944. Our supposed inalienable rights and freedoms are being softly taken away without a meaningful peep out of the population. The harsh debasement of the only people in our society that actually produce anything of value, what we call the blue collar worker, is proceeding apace. I’ve gotten arguments about that kind of statement. Oh come on I retort, what does a supervisor produce, or a CEO, or a banker? Unless you want to talk about endless paperwork, they produce nothing. Even the financiers, the investors produce nothing except more hopeful profits for themselves.

Now I suppose it can be argued that an economy can be built on something other than production of useful goods, like the information economy, or the get your degree economy, or the service economy. None of which is really needed unless you are producing something people really do need, in other words, some kind of production of truly useful goods. The essentials are still food, water, clothing and getting out of hostile weather. It appears obvious to me that pre western civilization, pre industrial societies were able to be self sufficient or very nearly so. But the larger the society, the more it depends on a division of labor and disconnect from the social group as a whole to survive. Much smaller societies tend to have a pretty much of a consensus concerning how they will live and the rules to live by within the group. In larger societies, at least over time, consensus becomes impossible, allowing a ruling elite to take charge. As the ruling elite’s power base expands on the promises to the society at large, they become more rapacious and more authoritative (controlling.)

1) All that is just abstraction. Just the creation of Marketing, Business, and Financial Business School creations that have led us to the sorry state that the nation is in.

2) With the constraints of financial and marketing systems that have metastasized and are ready to blow up and kill the host, I’d say hopefully, all this will go the way of the homing pigeon. What we will need more of is trades people who can fix things and manufacture usable items. Cottage industries that produce items vital to the lives of the people close by.

3) It would appear that fighting the government with the weaponry envisioned by our Founding Fathers is, in the end, futile. It may hold them off for awhile, but in the end, armed resistance is futile. They have the clear advantage in terms of firepower, and are just looking for an excuse to demonstrate it. At least that is what the plutocracy is banking on. I will leave the arguments over this for others to expand on.

4) It could be that better tactic would be to assess where their vulnerabilities lie and take advantage of those. A globalist consumer economy requires consumers. Pretty simple. Resist by not consuming anything that isn’t produced here. Of course the problem revolves around what is not produced in country that is truly needed. My observation is that most of what is produced outside of the country is fluff.

5) They manipulate and bombard us with commercials – disconnect from the satellite and cable and stop purchasing objectionable newspapers.

6) Turn the tables on them. Has your boss taken out a “dead peasant’s” insurance policy on you or your co-workers? Then, take out a “dead boss” policy on him and see if that makes him squirm.

7) Observe what other things they are using to damage or destroy us – and turn it back on them. Obviously, one cannot go into detail.

8) Avoid joining groups that can be infiltrated and manipulated, including political parties and protest groups. Random acts of creative resistance are much harder to identify and punish.

9) Become as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible as a community. Reach out to as many neighbors as you can. Nobody can do it alone (unless you are Baz, living in the New Zealand outback or some such thing and even Baz is dependent on the greater society for his life style).

10) Cultivate happiness. Figure out what your passion is and do it. Their whole evil system is based on unhappy people manipulated into buying or doing things to relieve their mental anguish. Freedom and happiness are the anti-dote. Take those seriously and make them a priority. They are our birthright.

What I find immensely interesting is how an elite cast is created in complex societies, and why the population will tolerate them. It seems to have a relationship to ownership and control of resources and the control of the medium of exchange (money in the case of most societies). Take away the elite ownership of resources (in whatever form) and put it into the hands of the general population and the elite caste systems breaks down. It sure enough appears to me that not allowing it to happen in the first place is a bunch easier than to wrest control away from them later. When this control by the elites is allowed to continue, we end up with a plutocracy, where the primary benefit of the arrangement always awards disproportionately the elites in the form of money and privilege. In other words, egalitarianism is never the outcome of this arrangement. Keep this in mind during the next voting cycle.

Our elder, Caroline's spectacular planers filled with flowers and raspberries, strawberries, potatoes, grapes, tomatoes, cauliflowers, chard and beets. WOW!

WEIRD DREAMS

Comfort food, rabbit, spaghetti, garlic bread

garlic bread from scratch.

Todays eggs

Weird Dreams
By freeacre

This has been a rather odd week. Everything seems distant to me both in place and in time. Lots of suffering and challenges with the earthquakes and tsunamis in Samoa, Indonesia, and the Philippians. The whole Pacific Plate seems to be moving and raising hell all over. It could be just doing what it does, or it could be the beginning of something even bigger, like part of the process of a magnetic pole shift. At any rate, it seems far away and there’s not much I can do about it, except sympathize with the people involved.

Same goes for politics. The drama over the health care proposals seems almost tedious to me despite the importance of the issues involved. Blah, blah, blah… blah, blah, blah…. Insurance companies, Big Pharma, maternity care, abortion craziness, a bunch of old men arguing that pregnancy should not be covered, while their Medicare pays for Viagra enhanced hard-ons. I grow tired of their crap.

The Flu disinformation campaign is seemingly to be just another annoying thing. Are we going to be forced to take the shots? Can we choose to opt out? Is the flu a really big threat? Or, is the vaccine worse? I wish I could just trust the government to do the right thing. I wish we could take the damn shot and be happy that we did the right thing for the protection of the people as a whole. But, of course, we can’t. I mean, I remember when the polio vaccine came out, and what a blessing it was. Same thing for the measles. But, it is different now. I see the agony my neighbor goes through every day with Gulf War syndrome. I see my nephew tragically damaged with autism. Is it the vaccines or some other toxic poisons the FDA has allowed into the environment that is making them so sick? All you can count on is that somebody is making a shitload of money off it and probably writing the laws regarding it as well. But, until they stop my car in the street, or come to my door to administer the shot, it seems far away for now.

Then there is the debacle on Wall St. In the latest Rolling Stone, Matt Taibi s evisceration Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and the SEC as he did Goldman Sachs and the “Federal” Reserve in the previous issue. He analyzes the gargantuan fraud by the Boyz in charge of our financial system and lays them bare. This article coupled with the new Michael Moore movie on capitalism should completely destroy any vestige of legitimacy that the American banking system has. Anyone who continues to invest a dime in securities after this is simply a hopeless moron or a flat out criminal. But, then, we already know that, and Wall Street seems very far away. The savings and pensions of working people all over the world has been evaporated with the trumped up financial froth created from Frankenstein derivatives and collateralized debt obligations. Fractional banking ran amok with the complicity of the regulatory agencies and the bought off congress. One can only imagine the consequences in the international community once this congeals into common knowledge. We are so toast.

But, for now, the money still buys stuff and the electricity is still on. The football game is in the background, and I’ve got spaghetti going on the stove. Everything seems pretty normal (except that the chickens just laid six eggs in a towel on the porch and it’s been snowing for two days).

“Normal,” I say, except for this disturbing dream that I had yesterday:

I dreamed that Murph and I lived in a forest of huge trees next to a river. The trees were Sequoias or Redwoods – really huge. That element probably came from watching the new Ken Burns series on National Parks. (I started talking to myself with the voice of Peter Coyote since watching that as well, but that’s another story…) Anyway, we were planning to climb one of these very tall trees with some sort of parachute and pulley thing. But, when I looked up and saw just how tall this tree was, I told Murph that I figured it was more that I could do. So, the plan got put off, and then the wind came along and blew the gear into the river.

I jumped into a boat and went after it. The current carried it a long way downstream. Eventually, I ended up in an unfamiliar place on the river where a small community of people was gathered. I was hanging out with them and we noticed a cluster of small clouds roiling in the sky. As they approached, the clouds began to disappear revealing luminous space ships within each one. It was broad daylight. Bright sunny day with autumn leaves on the trees by the river. Then, a few fighter jets whizzed past the space ships. We, of course, were dumbfounded. Then, amazingly, additional planes began to appear. But, they were not fighter jets. They were planes that seemed to have been there all along. It’s as though they had just uncloaked and were stationary in the sky, facing off with the flying saucer space ships.

Additional planes began showing up with a sliding door on the side that you could see military guys standing in the doorway trying to reach out and grab some stringy things that the space ships seemed to be dropping. The planes were unusual, in that they could maneuver and hover, much like the flying saucer types. The sky began to fill up with these ships and also larger support ships from both sides. They appeared to be toe to toe and it seemed like an ominous battle was about to begin. This stranger came running up and sat down and called his wife on his cell phone. “Honey,” he said excitedly, “It’s actually happening! It’s an alien invasion – going on right now!”

Well, I was feeling pretty amazed and vulnerable because I realized that I was down the river and away from murph. So, I woke up, and was happy to have him at my side.

Now, what the hell? I do not, as a rule, have dreams like this. As much as I may like to, I do not see auras, have visions, or channel any messages from anywhere. So, I don’t think this is any vision of something that is actually going to happen.

But, I think that it is a manifestation of generalized anxiety about being threatened and vulnerable and basically a spectator of things that I have no control over…like the frigging flu, like the frigging economy, like the frigging earthquakes.

We are surrounded by very big forces (like a forest full of giant trees) that are beyond our pitiful ability to affect. What we can do is stick together and hope for the best.

Anybody else having weird dreams?

We hope Baz doesn't mind us sharing a picture he took of the a sick little Razorback piglet that he found abandoned and attempted to save it. Sadly despite his best efforts, the little guy (named Snorky) succumbed.

WATCHING AND WAITING

Today we have some pictures of Rockpicker and Oldensoul’s fall garden. Killer frost evidently has not hit their area yet. Our garden is about done except for the onions and garlic to yet be fully harvested for the winter.

Rockpickers fall garden, look how it has grown!

Rockpicker and Oldensoul's end of season rock planter with ripening tomatoes.

Squash fest from our garden, an no, we didn't grow all of them. Frost killed off many fruit that were started.

Squash custard with resberries


WATCHING AND WAITING
From Murph

I’ve got to admit that I feel like I am reaching an overload on information. Among all the web sites on the internet and various books and periodicals we try and stay up with, I feel saturated right now. Most of the subjects I am concerned with and some new approaches and ideas I read about are written so well that I wonder what I can talk about on the blog nowadays. One thing that sprang out at me was a new post at the Archdruid blog. He has been on an extensive examination of all sorts of perspectives on the current economic situation and economics in general. Very scholarly stuff and well written.

By now I am sure you frequenters of this campfire are aware that Freeacre and I have unending contempt for most of what our society, government and civilization is and has been doing as long as we have been alive, and before, if our reading of history has any validity at all. We have been anticipating a fall/collapse/revolution so long and have been preparing so long for something along this line to happen that we are sick of the waiting. Let’s get with it on is our frequent mantra.

However, the universe seems rather perverse in its determination to thwart our projections of events. Charles H. Smith recently put up a post that examined the possibility that the dollar will not collapse. Oh darn! The PTB aren’t going to allow that, bad for business. I have a lot of respect for Smith and his perspectives on what is happening financially and socially in this society. His 110 page e-book that nicely condenses his analysis is an excellent read. This can be found at: http://www.oftwominds.com/survival-plus1.html

When we picture what a collapse would be like, we are mostly projecting fantasy into it. Our fantasies around this determine what we do in preparations. Inevitably, collapse/revolution will be different than what we fantasize. It might just be so different that what we do in preparation has no significance at all. And, that conundrum is what I am continually scratching my head over. For the most part, I realize humans are damned poor at future projections. That is not even assuming how many unforeseen consequences can and will happen for any scenario we dream up.

Without some drastic change in thinking, I have little faith in humanity’s ability to make decisions for the good of those living or to be born yet. It sure seems to me that a very large proportion of decisions have these niggling unforeseen consequences that are harmful. Cripes, look at what the indigenous people did on this continent when the white man came, they helped them overcome starvation and look at those consequences.

Among my favorite conspiracy theories is the one of shadow governments; some elite PTB that is controlling events throughout the world for their own nefarious purposes. Unless they aren’t human, are they subject to the same problems in future projections as the rest of us? Are all of their plans going to have consequences they haven’t planned for? I’m sure the elites were not planning to have to deal with a national uprising during the French revolution. Will we have something similar in our case? I am also reasonably sure that the English aristocracies were not figuring on the surety of an American revolution since the Americans were facing such an overwhelming force, nor took into account the tenacity of the rebellion.

So what I am banking on is that the PTB have done a magnitude of overreach, and are doomed to ultimate failure. But then again, maybe not. Much science fiction from the 70’s dealt with the ultimate takeover by some elite group and the consequences. What these novels did not take into account for was the need for vast amounts of non renewable energy to do so. Will that apply today? Does the shadow government have technology that we can only dream of in SF novels? Are they indeed at a point that their ultimate control of the world is at hand? If so, what do we do about it? Bend our knees and pay homage to the bastards? Even so, would humanity be better off or not? It sure seems to me that a vast majority of people are willing to live that way since societies have been doing so for most of recorded history. If freedom from autocratic control by a few is not desirable, when are we going to do what is good for us on an individual and group basis and end autocratic control? Again, without some serious and drastic mind shifts, it is not likely. My observation is that most people want that control, and in some cases, feel it is necessary. Considering the emotional/education level/mental states of the population they might be right.

Whether humanity is ultimately destined to be ruled by an elite few or live in some other manner, I think it would behoove us to carefully examine what we really want and the ultimate consequences of it. I am reminded of the million moron march recently on Washington. What I heard in interviews and read on the signs they were carrying, my impression is that they had no idea about what they were advocating. A very large proportion of the idiot marchers were against socialism and sure looked like they were either in or near retirement age and able to collect social security (a socialist agenda). Didn’t see one sign that advocated ending that or Medicare or ADC or end taxes to support public schools, or military expansion overseas or any or a hundred other “socialist” programs. All they seemed to be concerned with is government control over who their health care providers were. Geez! Don’t they realize that is the case now, except instead of government control it is controlled by the insurance industry? I guess they figure that big corporations know better what is good for us better than the government. Frankly, I don’t buy into either concept.

I reckon we will just have to watch and wait to see how this all works out.
For Belgium from Freeacre