Freeacre
I gotta hand it to James Howard Kunstler. His regular Monday “Clusterfuck Nation” piece this morning pointed directly at the elephant in the room that no one has been mentioning – anti-Jewish prejudice in the face of the Israeli assault on Palestine, err… Gaza, and the meltdown on Wall Street.
Kunstler has defended Israel’s heavy military response to having Hamas send rockets their way and wounding or killing some of their citizens. And, yes, if one of my relatives had been wounded or killed there, I would be angry as well. But, the whole thing just seems so reminiscent of the Warsaw ghetto and the extermination of the Jews in Germany as well as the war in Vietnam, that it is just unnerving. Seeing phosphorous bombs in the sky over neighborhoods and burned and blown up civilians overwhelming the hospitals is atrocious. I thought the point of all those Jewish memorials was to “never let this happen again.” It is appalling to me that Israel would be engaging in this behavior. So, I don’t support Israel. God knows, I don’t and didn’t support the war in Iraq or Afghanistan either.
The Palestinians have been a pawn in a larger game in the Middle East ever since I can remember. Their misery could have been mitigated by other surrounding Persian or Arab countries, but it hasn’t been. Israel could have reached out and made peace with these people. With all the billions we have sent Israel in military aide, we could have probably sent every Palestinian through graduate school. Everybody could help them and nobody does. Apparently it is in the interests of the militarists and tribalists of one sort or another to keep this travesty going on. There seem to be no “good guys” in this fight. It was reported that Hamas went through Gaza and executed 35 El Fatah political prisoners in case they might get sprung out of jail and support Israel. Then they went to the El Fatah relatives and shot them in the legs and crushed their hands. Personally, I don’t get how one can support either side.
But on the other hand, the hate mail that Kunstler has received goes way beyond any objection to the war. You really have to read it to believe it. Click on “hate mail” in the essay. It is truly personal, sickening and obscene.
He looks at it this way;
“…Lately, public Jew-hating has made a comeback in the USA among two distinct groups: one is the extreme right-wing crypto-Nazi step-child of the old John Birch Society bunch, the idiots who believe the world is a web of conspiracies against wholesome Christian white folks. As a young newspaper reporter with an interest in political pathology back in the early 1970s -- a heyday for extremism -- I used to cover the Birchers' antics (and study their belief system, if you could call it that). Their paranoid ideology has survived the decades marvelously intact, complete with all the colorful leitmotifs including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Orders of the Illuminati narrative, the Bilderburgers conspiracy story of world domination, and a Jesus-soaked crusade against "socialism" that has mutated far beyond the quaint sepulcher of John Birch into a broad mostly Southern evangelical, Nascar-tinged, aggressive apocalypticism.
Lately, another large cohort on the political Left adopted the Palestinians as their "pet oppressed minority group du jour." This branch of Jew-haters emanated out of the humanities departments of the universities, when the faculty got bored with the Nazi holocaust, or wished to stake out some new turf in the arena of multiculturalism for the sake of academic advancement.”
Well, that seems to me to be a somewhat self-serving discount of humanities departments in general. I mean, given the prevailing prejudice against any sort of Persians, Arabs (and, let’s face it, most of us don’t know the difference between them any more than we know the differences between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in Rwanda), “sand niggers” and “towel heads,” any sympathy toward any people who are Muslim probably is a baby step in the right direction.
But, what about this prejudice against Jews, Muslims, (and, for that matter), Blacks, Christians, gays, or whomever serves their purposes, on the internet sites? I am starting to see it all over the place. I don’t know when it started, but at sites like “The Truthseeker” and Steve Quale more and more I found myself skipping over stories that denigrate blacks, feminists and Jews to find stories criticizing Bush or anticipating The Crash. Suddenly, these aggressively evangelical writers are uniformly sympathizing with Palestinians?? Since when?
Since they joined up to bring on the Apocalypse, that’s when. Now, there’s a conspiracy theory that even Kunstler can sink his teeth into.
And, what’s happened to Rense? Look at the over-the-top mud-slinging at Obama. Is that political or ideological outrage or just flat-out racist, foaming at the mouth bullshit? I can hardly find a decent UFO story anymore between the Obama as a gay, Anti-Christ, secret Muslim diatribe, and the Jew baiting financial stories. You would think that I just wandered into a chat room of the Ku Klux Klan.
And, as the financial and resource collapse continues to unfold, I fear that it will get even worse. To quote Kunstler once again:
“My own theory-du-jour goes something like this: The current orgy of Jew-hating is prompted by rage actually derived from the perceived "Jew-run" Wall Street companies who have now utterly wrecked the US economy -- Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, et cetera, not to mention the Jewish players leading the cast of this show -- Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Sandy Weil, Bernie Madoff, et al., a veritable Jew-O-Rama of money-grubbing (i.e. a Jewish trait) scoundrels who have utterly pranged the American Way of Life in order to hide their private billions in the Cayman Islands. These Jew villains, the story goes, have taken Little Debbie Snack Cakes out of the mouths of millions of squalling KMart-Shoppers-in-Training! And must now be called out to punishment! The fear and anger over the losses on Wall Street -- and the personal accounts of millions of investors -- is being deflected (for the moment!) onto the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Ho, ho , ho…. Kunstler has a way of expressing himself that does, indeed, invite abuse because he is so bitingly sarcastic. But, nobody has been a harsher critic of Greenspan, Rubin, Madoff, et al, than Kunstler, despite the fact that they are Jews. He has been critical of their policies, not their ethnicity. But, this debacle on Wall Street is going to bring out the anti-Semites like flies to road kill. The same thing goes for Obama. Every neo-Nazi white supremist knuckle-dragger out there is going to be bent out of shape over the election of Obama. Even those of us who don’t consciously realize our own racism or bigotry are going to find ourselves invited to or engaging in pity parties and blame games that we normally wouldn’t participate in. And, a lot of them are going to be racist.
Now, maybe in the long run, this will be a good thing. It will give us a way to deal with the “shadow” side of ourselves as a people and hopefully get over it. Shed some light on it. Fix it. Heal it. But, right now, it looks like a tragedy in the making.
I remember back in the anti-Vietnam days and the civil rights struggle, the Minute Men militia gathered around a water tower in a small town next to my home town. They were convinced that the “white panthers” in Detroit were going to drop acid (LSD) into their water supply. We hippies thought they were nuts. We knew a few of those “white panthers.” Therefore, we knew that there was no way in hell these guys were a threat to anybody. Plus, can you imagine how much acid it would take to affect a town’s water supply? The militia was delusional.
The same thing is happening now. Even I am confused. Maybe I am delusional. With the world-wide banking and corporate mergers, the global politics, the trillions of dollars of debt servitude spread around, the poisoning of the environment, etc. etc, it is difficult not to believe in a conspiracy of evil doers. Hell, MULTIPLE conspiracies at multiple levels. GALACTIC forces. I have to admit that I do believe that there is serious shit going on and there are conspiracies to be reckoned with. One could start with the Harvard School of Business… but, I digress.
Anyway, my point is, that we need to be careful not to become the small minded, hard-hearted, poisonous, rabid intolerant jerks that we despise. We need to remember that for every miscreant, criminal, or cretin of a certain race or religion, hue, or gender, there are ten more who are good, honest, kind, hard-working, talented folks who are a blessing to us all. As times get tougher and money gets tighter and suffering increases, we could start to turn on each other in an orgy of hatred and blame. This would be a mistake of tragic proportions.
We have the opportunity to reach out to each other in tolerance and understanding. We need to be focusing on what we have in common, not what is different. We need to oppose wicked stereo-typing, even when it is seemingly deserved.
Once the Bushistas are out of office, I believe that it will be time to shift gears and look for the positive people and policies that we can support. Because if we just continue to take a negative attitude, it will be aimed at whomever is still standing. That won’t be fair and it will interfere with what really needs to be done.
We have a planet to save. We have a world to change. Battles will need to be fought. Let’s make them the right ones.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
OH YES, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
from Murph
Yup, Christmas is over, the New Year has arrived; Obama and his crew are the next up to bat. The Democrats are already targeting the Bush administration for all the ills of our foreign and domestic policies, despite all of them being complicit. This leads me to suspect that things are not going to really change anytime soon.
Am I being overly pessimistic over the future? That depends on what I am looking at. For our country and most of the rest of the countries on this tired old earth, an attempt to continue in the manner that we have been for the last 150 years is an impossibility and of questionable benefit to all but a very few in the world anyway. All of the information I have been looking at for the last 5 years indicates our wasteful use of resources, particularly fossil energy, cannot continue because of geological constraints. The paramount question in my mind; is what will develop out of this condition? The population of this earth has overshot the earth’s capacity to feed and house everyone and it seems obvious to me there is going to be a rather vast population reduction. How fast and how extensive and in what manner this will be we can speculate on. But, it is going to happen. That realization alone is enough to get you into the extremist’s pessimistic camp for the new year.
Do I think there is a value to continue the human race? Yes I do. I guess that precludes some future changes to how existing humans organize themselves to maintain. Humans are simply going to have to change from the present paradigm to something else that is sustainable. I reckon that is an iffy optimism for the near future.
Which brings up the question for me as to why I would want the sad history of human existence to continue and to state it has value? Other than the egotistical satisfaction of having lived for some time, as human lifetimes go, and for a large part of it enjoying this existence, is there another value system for wanting humans to continue after my death? The first thing that comes to mind is of those a lot younger than me. I would want them to also enjoy the bounty of living on this planet and finding the enjoyment of doing so. Is that sufficient? I suppose if we want to answer that with a cliché we can say that it is coded in our genes to want to continue our species existence. And yet, so much of our behavior on this planet points to a death wish. Besides the destruction of our environment that we depend on for continuation, we do the whole war thing with attempts to exterminate ourselves with ever increasing war technology. It also includes the human capacity to exterminate those some particular group doesn’t like or that claim possession of something that is wanted, and that includes a large amount of the biota on this planet.
I find religion very unsatisfactory to answer these kinds of questions, and yet that is what religions are supposed to do. I find no universal panacea to make this easy.
So what do we have to look forward to in this new year? For me it is a hope that human beings on the whole wake up to the realization of how badly they have been conned, wake up to the realization of what they have done to the biosphere, wake up to how badly most people in this world live, wake up to the realization of how much negative impact we have had on nearly everything we have touched. Despite all of the advancements (if we can legitimately call it advancements) that have made a small proportion of the earths residents more comfortable and live longer and better than most, we are still not able to internalize the costs, understand how that came about. What we consider normal for living is only because we were born into it. Would the nomadic reindeer herders of the north consider their lives normal? Of course, and yet it is very different than our own, and in comparison, much harsher. For many residents of this world, their lives have been deliberately made brutish and unbearable due to the western countries looting and economically enslaving them.
So I guess I look forward in this new year to a revolt of some kind, rejection of the status quo, a changing of attitudes, and most definitely a shunning of the PTB and large government and institutions. Will it occur? Stay tuned, we shall find out.
I am dividing this post into two different subjects. This next is due to some comments on the previous post that I think needs to be addressed.
Freeacre gave a description of our rabbit harvest on New Years Eve on the last post. A comment on this expressed an inability to do the same. Believe me, I understand this. So I have a bit of self exposure on the subject.
I had been raised most of my childhood in some kind of country living to a greater or lesser degree. When I was considerably younger, being able to see my neighbor’s rooftop in the fall when the leaves were gone was close enough. As I grew older, every time I lived in a city I felt very uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get out and back to having more elbow room. Those of you who have been at this site some time know that I had taken my then family (some years ago) and done a semi survival trip in the Ozark Mountains. It was pretty much back country living. For the most part, if it was to get done, (whatever it was), you did it yourself. The really big event of the day was the mailman coming down the road. It was quiet, except in the summer when the frogs got active and nearly deafened you in the evening. I was in hog heaven in many ways. And this brings me to the subject matter, supplying your own food.
The ground in the mountains is generally pretty bad for growing gardens and crops. So, you also had to depend on animal products for food, including milk. It was a long haul to town, 30 minutes over single track mountain roads to a paved road and another 30 miles to a real grocery store. We didn’t go very often. Maybe once a month. So, we supplied much of our own food, which included garden produce, rabbits and milk/meat goats.
Unless you are a hard line vegetarian, (which I am not) this necessitates killing animals. I know there are a lot of people out there that have killed a lot more animals than I have for sport, food, plain old orneriness, out of necessity because of threats or destruction, and to end suffering of the animal. I’ve done my share for sure.
Here is where my confession begins. Every time I did kill, for whatever reason, I felt uncomfortable to a greater or lesser extent. Every time. That includes the butchering of rabbits that Freeacre talked about. In fact, on New Years Day we had a friend request that we show him how to butcher a rabbit. So we did. He was very thoughtful when he left, stating he needed to think about the experience and talk with his wife about it. We do hope he wasn’t too shocked by the experience.
In the raising of animals, from household pets to animals that supply at least some of my nutrition, I feel responsible for their well being. If I cannot supply that well being, I shouldn’t be keeping them; they are completely dependent on my largess. It is also not a matter of turning them loose to fend for themselves either when you can no longer provide for them. Most domesticated animals are completely unfit to survive in the wild if the environment has predators or conditions they are not suited to deal with. So the question arises as to whether it is more humane to kill them or turn them lose. Some animals become a real nuisance or outright dangerous when turned lose. Ever seen a pack of feral domesticated dogs or a bunch of feral cats? I have. I’ve lived where there is an annual hunt for them because they became dangerous. The import of rabbits to Australia was a total disaster. Some will always get lose and if there are few or no predators, they become a real problem. However, I am more concerned with those domesticated animals that don’t have the instincts or ability to survive if they get lose or are turned loose. In this area, we have a problem with people that are no longer able to take care of their horses and they take them out to the forest land and either kill them and leave them lay or just turn them lose. Generally, a lot of the ones turned loose die of starvation or are found by people that are willing to take them in. This part of the country is not conducive to their independent survival.
Raising animals for food involves butchering them. It is a messy affair, no argument. But, the question must be dealt with concerning how meat animals are raised and butchered commercially on the industrial farms which supply most of the meat in the Western countries as opposed to individuals doing it. The contamination of meat animals with hormone injections and questionable feeding practices and the horror of how they are dealt with in the butchering processes are awful. I can understand for that reason alone why someone would become a hard line vegan. I can also understand the difficulty for individuals unable to engage in this butchering activity. However, I think that in the not too distant future, it is again going to become more common for individuals to supply their own meat out of necessity. The question is whether it will be a humane quick death with reverence for the life you have taken or not? Will you give thanks for the sacrifice of that life form for your benefit or look upon it as a right and entitlement? Will you view that life with compassion, and understand that life has feelings and a desire to continue its existence? So Freeacre and I will continue to sage and give thanks for that life being extinguished for our continued well being. aho.
Yup, Christmas is over, the New Year has arrived; Obama and his crew are the next up to bat. The Democrats are already targeting the Bush administration for all the ills of our foreign and domestic policies, despite all of them being complicit. This leads me to suspect that things are not going to really change anytime soon.
Am I being overly pessimistic over the future? That depends on what I am looking at. For our country and most of the rest of the countries on this tired old earth, an attempt to continue in the manner that we have been for the last 150 years is an impossibility and of questionable benefit to all but a very few in the world anyway. All of the information I have been looking at for the last 5 years indicates our wasteful use of resources, particularly fossil energy, cannot continue because of geological constraints. The paramount question in my mind; is what will develop out of this condition? The population of this earth has overshot the earth’s capacity to feed and house everyone and it seems obvious to me there is going to be a rather vast population reduction. How fast and how extensive and in what manner this will be we can speculate on. But, it is going to happen. That realization alone is enough to get you into the extremist’s pessimistic camp for the new year.
Do I think there is a value to continue the human race? Yes I do. I guess that precludes some future changes to how existing humans organize themselves to maintain. Humans are simply going to have to change from the present paradigm to something else that is sustainable. I reckon that is an iffy optimism for the near future.
Which brings up the question for me as to why I would want the sad history of human existence to continue and to state it has value? Other than the egotistical satisfaction of having lived for some time, as human lifetimes go, and for a large part of it enjoying this existence, is there another value system for wanting humans to continue after my death? The first thing that comes to mind is of those a lot younger than me. I would want them to also enjoy the bounty of living on this planet and finding the enjoyment of doing so. Is that sufficient? I suppose if we want to answer that with a cliché we can say that it is coded in our genes to want to continue our species existence. And yet, so much of our behavior on this planet points to a death wish. Besides the destruction of our environment that we depend on for continuation, we do the whole war thing with attempts to exterminate ourselves with ever increasing war technology. It also includes the human capacity to exterminate those some particular group doesn’t like or that claim possession of something that is wanted, and that includes a large amount of the biota on this planet.
I find religion very unsatisfactory to answer these kinds of questions, and yet that is what religions are supposed to do. I find no universal panacea to make this easy.
So what do we have to look forward to in this new year? For me it is a hope that human beings on the whole wake up to the realization of how badly they have been conned, wake up to the realization of what they have done to the biosphere, wake up to how badly most people in this world live, wake up to the realization of how much negative impact we have had on nearly everything we have touched. Despite all of the advancements (if we can legitimately call it advancements) that have made a small proportion of the earths residents more comfortable and live longer and better than most, we are still not able to internalize the costs, understand how that came about. What we consider normal for living is only because we were born into it. Would the nomadic reindeer herders of the north consider their lives normal? Of course, and yet it is very different than our own, and in comparison, much harsher. For many residents of this world, their lives have been deliberately made brutish and unbearable due to the western countries looting and economically enslaving them.
So I guess I look forward in this new year to a revolt of some kind, rejection of the status quo, a changing of attitudes, and most definitely a shunning of the PTB and large government and institutions. Will it occur? Stay tuned, we shall find out.
I am dividing this post into two different subjects. This next is due to some comments on the previous post that I think needs to be addressed.
Freeacre gave a description of our rabbit harvest on New Years Eve on the last post. A comment on this expressed an inability to do the same. Believe me, I understand this. So I have a bit of self exposure on the subject.
I had been raised most of my childhood in some kind of country living to a greater or lesser degree. When I was considerably younger, being able to see my neighbor’s rooftop in the fall when the leaves were gone was close enough. As I grew older, every time I lived in a city I felt very uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get out and back to having more elbow room. Those of you who have been at this site some time know that I had taken my then family (some years ago) and done a semi survival trip in the Ozark Mountains. It was pretty much back country living. For the most part, if it was to get done, (whatever it was), you did it yourself. The really big event of the day was the mailman coming down the road. It was quiet, except in the summer when the frogs got active and nearly deafened you in the evening. I was in hog heaven in many ways. And this brings me to the subject matter, supplying your own food.
The ground in the mountains is generally pretty bad for growing gardens and crops. So, you also had to depend on animal products for food, including milk. It was a long haul to town, 30 minutes over single track mountain roads to a paved road and another 30 miles to a real grocery store. We didn’t go very often. Maybe once a month. So, we supplied much of our own food, which included garden produce, rabbits and milk/meat goats.
Unless you are a hard line vegetarian, (which I am not) this necessitates killing animals. I know there are a lot of people out there that have killed a lot more animals than I have for sport, food, plain old orneriness, out of necessity because of threats or destruction, and to end suffering of the animal. I’ve done my share for sure.
Here is where my confession begins. Every time I did kill, for whatever reason, I felt uncomfortable to a greater or lesser extent. Every time. That includes the butchering of rabbits that Freeacre talked about. In fact, on New Years Day we had a friend request that we show him how to butcher a rabbit. So we did. He was very thoughtful when he left, stating he needed to think about the experience and talk with his wife about it. We do hope he wasn’t too shocked by the experience.
In the raising of animals, from household pets to animals that supply at least some of my nutrition, I feel responsible for their well being. If I cannot supply that well being, I shouldn’t be keeping them; they are completely dependent on my largess. It is also not a matter of turning them loose to fend for themselves either when you can no longer provide for them. Most domesticated animals are completely unfit to survive in the wild if the environment has predators or conditions they are not suited to deal with. So the question arises as to whether it is more humane to kill them or turn them lose. Some animals become a real nuisance or outright dangerous when turned lose. Ever seen a pack of feral domesticated dogs or a bunch of feral cats? I have. I’ve lived where there is an annual hunt for them because they became dangerous. The import of rabbits to Australia was a total disaster. Some will always get lose and if there are few or no predators, they become a real problem. However, I am more concerned with those domesticated animals that don’t have the instincts or ability to survive if they get lose or are turned loose. In this area, we have a problem with people that are no longer able to take care of their horses and they take them out to the forest land and either kill them and leave them lay or just turn them lose. Generally, a lot of the ones turned loose die of starvation or are found by people that are willing to take them in. This part of the country is not conducive to their independent survival.
Raising animals for food involves butchering them. It is a messy affair, no argument. But, the question must be dealt with concerning how meat animals are raised and butchered commercially on the industrial farms which supply most of the meat in the Western countries as opposed to individuals doing it. The contamination of meat animals with hormone injections and questionable feeding practices and the horror of how they are dealt with in the butchering processes are awful. I can understand for that reason alone why someone would become a hard line vegan. I can also understand the difficulty for individuals unable to engage in this butchering activity. However, I think that in the not too distant future, it is again going to become more common for individuals to supply their own meat out of necessity. The question is whether it will be a humane quick death with reverence for the life you have taken or not? Will you give thanks for the sacrifice of that life form for your benefit or look upon it as a right and entitlement? Will you view that life with compassion, and understand that life has feelings and a desire to continue its existence? So Freeacre and I will continue to sage and give thanks for that life being extinguished for our continued well being. aho.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
My New Year's Resolution - Stop Being a Chuckle Head
freeacre
Ah…2009! A new year! A new round of potential pitfalls, atrocities, threats, and disasters to anticipate and rail against. In view of all the catastrophes forecast on some of the sites that we frequent, I’m just glad that we are all still here.
Perhaps a review of 2008’s predicted calamities or fortuitous events (depending on how you look at them) that did not come to pass is in order.
First, of course, is the perennial favorite: the Second Coming of Christ. It didn’t happen again. Hasn’t happened any year since he died, but that does not stop the annual anticipation of The Rapture. Actually, the Essenes were looking forward to the Apocalypse even before Christ appeared in the first place, but, then, who’s keeping track? The concept continues to sell a lot of books, packs ‘em into the pews, and brings mucho money into the collection plates, so it will not end anytime soon.
Then there is the New Age updated version, Maitreya, the messiah that Benjamin Creme has been prophesying to the world since the 70’s and 80’s. I attended an enthusiastic presentation by Mr. Creme in Portland, Oregon back in the day, and was impressed with his sweet old Englishman affect and his twinkling blue eyes. But, despite his charm – no modern messiah has strolled up the street so far. Rats.
And, all the dire symptoms not withstanding, the presidential election was pulled off without Bush and Chaney declaring martial law and suspending the election.
Oh, and those secret Ninjas that Benjamin Fulford disclosed did not jump out of the woodwork and assassinate any miscreant government, corporate or financial leaders of the world, either.
It also seems that President-elect Obama is neither a Muslim, a Jew, a communist, nor the anti-Christ. Hell, he’s not even a Jehovah’s Witness! He may be a corporate toady, but that has yet to be determined. The only sure exotic thing about him is that he was raised in Hawaii, which I consider a plus. He still seems to be a viable human being to me, despite the company that he keeps. We will have to stay tuned, I guess.
Despite supposed messages from the Pleiades, black ops whistle blowers, psychic intuitives, planetary and galactic alignments, or even web bot analysts, we did not experience major earthquakes, a tsunami in the Northwest, Bird Flu, war with Iran, a major false flag event, or transformative cosmic rays. I am still keeping a watchful eye out for those, though.
And, that two-mile long Mother Ship that was supposed to show up over Alabama in October did not appear, either. Damnit!
Yeah, and on top of that, all those claims (“as appearing on Oprah”) that drinking green tea will make you lose a bunch of weight didn’t work as promised. And, I’m out forty bucks.
Now, I know that an earthquake could hit tomorrow or I could be diagnosed with Mad Cow any day, and I would just look like even more of a moron. But, for now, I am just pausing to take a breath, calm down, and vow to be less of a chucklehead next year.
I’m sick of sending stuff to my sister-in-law, who then informs me that Snopes just discredited my information.
This is not to say that there are no real threats. “Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean that no one is out to get you,” as has been said. There are real threats. The global financial construct is tanking, and I no longer think that it is a coincidence that it dovetails with the Baby Boomers reaching the age to retire. People are being thrown out of their homes and losing their jobs, and it is going to get even tougher next year. The electrical grid is very vulnerable and a lot of people could get very cold and die this winter if there is a widespread disruption of heating their homes. A lot of pensions and 401Ks may be lost next year and dreams of a comfortable retirement for a lot of people will be gone. Criminals in high places abound. So, many of the agencies and departments and companies that we rely on for our health and safety betray the people they are supposed to protect, and so we sicken and die. That’s a flat fact. Resource depletion is real. Climate change is real (whether it’s because of CO2 or the influence of the Sun). The oceans are dying. Monsanto is taking over the food supply with genetically altered Franken Food. Famine and food shortages are realities now. Israel has become some sort of Old Testament horror story. Warfare is escalating all over the globe, and may even go nuclear.
We seem to have invented a system that insures that we pay incredible sums of money to elect representatives to our government who become corrupt, self-absorbed, greedy, perverse criminals. Or, they are lazy, spoiled, self-indulgent dullards; or, privileged, insulated, power mad elitists; or good, hard-working idealists who are marginalized and ineffectual… or, combinations of the above.
Anyway, for the most part, we are on our own, and we do need to prepare and take care of ourselves and each other. Actually, I am looking forward to turning my energy away from the Wall Street hucksters and the Beltway numb nuts and Their Contrived Bullshit (TCB) to more and more localized endeavors: like seed catalogs, gardening, preserving, and simplifying, joining the Grange, organizing a farmer’s market and trading post. I plan to reach out to more and more neighbors and sharing practical responses to actual problems in real time.
I don’t pretend to know what will happen next year. All kinds of dramatic disaster movie scenarios come to mind – War of the Worlds, Grapes of Wrath, Red Dawn, Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, The Postman, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Children of Men. But, on the other hand, my experience has been much more benign. I have found most of my neighbors to be interesting and cooperative, helpful, intelligent, and fun to be around. The weird stuff out there that captures my attention, raises my blood pressure and my fear levels, is mostly far away and speculative. They have to come up with things that are entertaining and provocative, or they are out of business.
I wonder what outfits like “Moveon.org” are going to do once Bush is out of office? Since many of their plans to influence the powers that be include sending them a check, I doubt that they will disband. Oh, and thank you so much, moveon, common cause, etc. I’m so impressed with the results you got with all those petitions. Come to think of it, did ANY of the petitions I signed and forwarded, do any good? NO? Does that mean I should sign even more petitions? See what I mean with the “chuckle head” thing?
But, I am grateful to those who have really given us a heads up warning as to what is really going on and what to prepare for. I am happy that we have taken tangible steps to creating a better future for ourselves because it has also enabled us to create a life that is more enjoyable in the here-and-now as well. And, without them, the Trout Clan would not have come to be. So, I am grateful to all those linked on our blog.
Anyway, I hope that all that should end, does end in 2009. I pray for the relief of suffering and some happy surprises. With some luck, it will be both the Beginning of the End, and the Beginning of the Beginning. So, have a Happy New Year and remember that…
WE WERE BORN FOR THIS!!
aho
Ah…2009! A new year! A new round of potential pitfalls, atrocities, threats, and disasters to anticipate and rail against. In view of all the catastrophes forecast on some of the sites that we frequent, I’m just glad that we are all still here.
Perhaps a review of 2008’s predicted calamities or fortuitous events (depending on how you look at them) that did not come to pass is in order.
First, of course, is the perennial favorite: the Second Coming of Christ. It didn’t happen again. Hasn’t happened any year since he died, but that does not stop the annual anticipation of The Rapture. Actually, the Essenes were looking forward to the Apocalypse even before Christ appeared in the first place, but, then, who’s keeping track? The concept continues to sell a lot of books, packs ‘em into the pews, and brings mucho money into the collection plates, so it will not end anytime soon.
Then there is the New Age updated version, Maitreya, the messiah that Benjamin Creme has been prophesying to the world since the 70’s and 80’s. I attended an enthusiastic presentation by Mr. Creme in Portland, Oregon back in the day, and was impressed with his sweet old Englishman affect and his twinkling blue eyes. But, despite his charm – no modern messiah has strolled up the street so far. Rats.
And, all the dire symptoms not withstanding, the presidential election was pulled off without Bush and Chaney declaring martial law and suspending the election.
Oh, and those secret Ninjas that Benjamin Fulford disclosed did not jump out of the woodwork and assassinate any miscreant government, corporate or financial leaders of the world, either.
It also seems that President-elect Obama is neither a Muslim, a Jew, a communist, nor the anti-Christ. Hell, he’s not even a Jehovah’s Witness! He may be a corporate toady, but that has yet to be determined. The only sure exotic thing about him is that he was raised in Hawaii, which I consider a plus. He still seems to be a viable human being to me, despite the company that he keeps. We will have to stay tuned, I guess.
Despite supposed messages from the Pleiades, black ops whistle blowers, psychic intuitives, planetary and galactic alignments, or even web bot analysts, we did not experience major earthquakes, a tsunami in the Northwest, Bird Flu, war with Iran, a major false flag event, or transformative cosmic rays. I am still keeping a watchful eye out for those, though.
And, that two-mile long Mother Ship that was supposed to show up over Alabama in October did not appear, either. Damnit!
Yeah, and on top of that, all those claims (“as appearing on Oprah”) that drinking green tea will make you lose a bunch of weight didn’t work as promised. And, I’m out forty bucks.
Now, I know that an earthquake could hit tomorrow or I could be diagnosed with Mad Cow any day, and I would just look like even more of a moron. But, for now, I am just pausing to take a breath, calm down, and vow to be less of a chucklehead next year.
I’m sick of sending stuff to my sister-in-law, who then informs me that Snopes just discredited my information.
This is not to say that there are no real threats. “Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean that no one is out to get you,” as has been said. There are real threats. The global financial construct is tanking, and I no longer think that it is a coincidence that it dovetails with the Baby Boomers reaching the age to retire. People are being thrown out of their homes and losing their jobs, and it is going to get even tougher next year. The electrical grid is very vulnerable and a lot of people could get very cold and die this winter if there is a widespread disruption of heating their homes. A lot of pensions and 401Ks may be lost next year and dreams of a comfortable retirement for a lot of people will be gone. Criminals in high places abound. So, many of the agencies and departments and companies that we rely on for our health and safety betray the people they are supposed to protect, and so we sicken and die. That’s a flat fact. Resource depletion is real. Climate change is real (whether it’s because of CO2 or the influence of the Sun). The oceans are dying. Monsanto is taking over the food supply with genetically altered Franken Food. Famine and food shortages are realities now. Israel has become some sort of Old Testament horror story. Warfare is escalating all over the globe, and may even go nuclear.
We seem to have invented a system that insures that we pay incredible sums of money to elect representatives to our government who become corrupt, self-absorbed, greedy, perverse criminals. Or, they are lazy, spoiled, self-indulgent dullards; or, privileged, insulated, power mad elitists; or good, hard-working idealists who are marginalized and ineffectual… or, combinations of the above.
Anyway, for the most part, we are on our own, and we do need to prepare and take care of ourselves and each other. Actually, I am looking forward to turning my energy away from the Wall Street hucksters and the Beltway numb nuts and Their Contrived Bullshit (TCB) to more and more localized endeavors: like seed catalogs, gardening, preserving, and simplifying, joining the Grange, organizing a farmer’s market and trading post. I plan to reach out to more and more neighbors and sharing practical responses to actual problems in real time.
I don’t pretend to know what will happen next year. All kinds of dramatic disaster movie scenarios come to mind – War of the Worlds, Grapes of Wrath, Red Dawn, Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, The Postman, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Children of Men. But, on the other hand, my experience has been much more benign. I have found most of my neighbors to be interesting and cooperative, helpful, intelligent, and fun to be around. The weird stuff out there that captures my attention, raises my blood pressure and my fear levels, is mostly far away and speculative. They have to come up with things that are entertaining and provocative, or they are out of business.
I wonder what outfits like “Moveon.org” are going to do once Bush is out of office? Since many of their plans to influence the powers that be include sending them a check, I doubt that they will disband. Oh, and thank you so much, moveon, common cause, etc. I’m so impressed with the results you got with all those petitions. Come to think of it, did ANY of the petitions I signed and forwarded, do any good? NO? Does that mean I should sign even more petitions? See what I mean with the “chuckle head” thing?
But, I am grateful to those who have really given us a heads up warning as to what is really going on and what to prepare for. I am happy that we have taken tangible steps to creating a better future for ourselves because it has also enabled us to create a life that is more enjoyable in the here-and-now as well. And, without them, the Trout Clan would not have come to be. So, I am grateful to all those linked on our blog.
Anyway, I hope that all that should end, does end in 2009. I pray for the relief of suffering and some happy surprises. With some luck, it will be both the Beginning of the End, and the Beginning of the Beginning. So, have a Happy New Year and remember that…
WE WERE BORN FOR THIS!!
aho
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Happy Holy Days or "winter of our discontent"?
freeacre
From ras…
“Deep in the dark of the darkest night/We keep our vigil by candlelight/Waiting to sing to the newborn sun/The universe will birth when the night is done
Happy Solstice all!"
December 20, 2008 4:46 AM
and from Rockpicker...
“Blessings to all who attend this sacred fire. We have made it, collectively, to this longest night.
Snuggle in and dream deeply the future you wish to see. Know, you are powerful beyond your dreams….”
These have been the latest sentiments from the campfire…and so, in keeping with the Winter Solstice, why not let ourselves dream of what may be.
I recently finished James Howard Kunstler’s book, “The Long Emergency.” He is a compelling writer, and paints a vivid picture of the consequences of our collective decisions that have been made on the basis of resources that we thought were infinite – but, are not. He leads the reader through history, as civilizations rise and fall and transform themselves based most often on the resources available. He shows how the huge spike in population was due to petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides allowing the increase of the food supply/market. And, how the world now looks to endless growth to enrich them and fulfill their dreams of stuff and more stuff…so many people with so many dreams.
Since we had a seemingly endless supply of oil, corporations were able to outsource production of goods and then services to the cheapest sources of labor. The goods could easily be shipped to those designated as “consumers” to complete the production/marketing/supply loop. He relentlessly illustrates the devastating deterioration that has resulted to our farmland, the infrastructure of our cities and towns, and the redundancy and inanity of the populace.
It’s hard to argue with his vision of the future. After all, he wrote the book in 2006 and several of the events that he predicts, like reaching the peak of oil production, continuing resource wars, financial collapse, famine, and so forth are happening all around us now.
“The Long Emergency” explores the alternatives to oil, like wind and solar and hydrogen power, and leaves little with which to comfort ourselves. Perhaps if we had started earlier, before we were so close to peak everything and before the infrastructure of our cities and towns was so destroyed by urban sprawl and paved over by highways, and water and soil so depleted… and, before the population grew to over six billion, going on nine billion soon.
So, now we need to make “other arrangements.” Not just trading in that Taurus for a Prius, or changing to a goofy looking lightbulb. This is not new to us at the campfire. We’ve been thinking on these things for years now. We know at least enough to know that we don’t have all the answers. We know we have a lot of problems. One problem, it seems to me, is that the corporations and banks seem to be more powerful than governments and nation states. Just who is running who here? Will Obama, et al, we able to rein in the high and mighty Rich and Powerful bankers and fraudsters and their minions? After all, they have the money. We have to have our own American currency LENT to us with compound interest, just for openers! And, the last President who was attempting to change that situation was John Kennedy, and look what happened to him… And, now we just doubled our national debt in the last three months! Doesn’t that put us into debt servitude to the so-called “Federal” Reserve, which is just a consortium of un-identified global banks and not part of the federal government at all? Well, I think so! And, that’s just for starters.
We’ve got tundra that is melting and releasing methane into the air. We’ve got oceans that have already lost 90 percent of their largest fish and is becoming so acidic that the coral and the phytoplankton is dying. Mutant seeds, Franken Food, commercial lockdown of food supply, global economic collapse, and resource wars.
As our lately silent, but still dear Elder has lamented on more than one occasion, “What’s a motherf**ker to do?”
It sure looks to me like we need to localize food production and manufacturing and radically conserve how much of everything we use. It sure looks to me like we have to create economies that are not based on relentless “growth” of capital and goods. I’d say we need to kick those to the curb who want to live by using their money to just make more money, whether it supports producing anything useful or not. I think we are going to have to deal with serious challenges that will most probably involve more deaths than is even thinkable right now. Whether it’s due to wars, famine, sickness, freezing, insurrection, lack of medicine and services to care for the elderly and infirm, or a combination of all of the above. Times are probably going to be really tough until we reach a sustainable level of people that our societies and our planet can support.
But, maybe not - or maybe that, but maybe more. Like the fabled valley of Shangra La that sheltered an enlightened tribe of people kept distant from the rest of the world, maybe there will be surprising exceptions to this dismal scenario of loss and lack. Maybe adversity really does bring out the best in us.
Perhaps thought really does create form, and what we imagine eventually becomes real for us. Perhaps we simply need to come to terms with new and expanded paradigms for Who We Are and What is Possible.
What if there is nothing to fear? What if death is just an illusion, and if we need more time to finish a project, we can have it in another life and another body? What if there are those OUT THERE who are looking out for us? What if we are surrounded by unlimited power that we could use to lighten the load of so many people who need it? What if there are wonders yet to be confirmed that seem so much better than we can accept that they seem like magic and miracles?
What do you think? Since this is a time for dreaming. We are starting with a “new” sun for the year. . . what are some of the scenarios that are in our collective imaginations?
From ras…
“Deep in the dark of the darkest night/We keep our vigil by candlelight/Waiting to sing to the newborn sun/The universe will birth when the night is done
Happy Solstice all!"
December 20, 2008 4:46 AM
and from Rockpicker...
“Blessings to all who attend this sacred fire. We have made it, collectively, to this longest night.
Snuggle in and dream deeply the future you wish to see. Know, you are powerful beyond your dreams….”
These have been the latest sentiments from the campfire…and so, in keeping with the Winter Solstice, why not let ourselves dream of what may be.
I recently finished James Howard Kunstler’s book, “The Long Emergency.” He is a compelling writer, and paints a vivid picture of the consequences of our collective decisions that have been made on the basis of resources that we thought were infinite – but, are not. He leads the reader through history, as civilizations rise and fall and transform themselves based most often on the resources available. He shows how the huge spike in population was due to petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides allowing the increase of the food supply/market. And, how the world now looks to endless growth to enrich them and fulfill their dreams of stuff and more stuff…so many people with so many dreams.
Since we had a seemingly endless supply of oil, corporations were able to outsource production of goods and then services to the cheapest sources of labor. The goods could easily be shipped to those designated as “consumers” to complete the production/marketing/supply loop. He relentlessly illustrates the devastating deterioration that has resulted to our farmland, the infrastructure of our cities and towns, and the redundancy and inanity of the populace.
It’s hard to argue with his vision of the future. After all, he wrote the book in 2006 and several of the events that he predicts, like reaching the peak of oil production, continuing resource wars, financial collapse, famine, and so forth are happening all around us now.
“The Long Emergency” explores the alternatives to oil, like wind and solar and hydrogen power, and leaves little with which to comfort ourselves. Perhaps if we had started earlier, before we were so close to peak everything and before the infrastructure of our cities and towns was so destroyed by urban sprawl and paved over by highways, and water and soil so depleted… and, before the population grew to over six billion, going on nine billion soon.
So, now we need to make “other arrangements.” Not just trading in that Taurus for a Prius, or changing to a goofy looking lightbulb. This is not new to us at the campfire. We’ve been thinking on these things for years now. We know at least enough to know that we don’t have all the answers. We know we have a lot of problems. One problem, it seems to me, is that the corporations and banks seem to be more powerful than governments and nation states. Just who is running who here? Will Obama, et al, we able to rein in the high and mighty Rich and Powerful bankers and fraudsters and their minions? After all, they have the money. We have to have our own American currency LENT to us with compound interest, just for openers! And, the last President who was attempting to change that situation was John Kennedy, and look what happened to him… And, now we just doubled our national debt in the last three months! Doesn’t that put us into debt servitude to the so-called “Federal” Reserve, which is just a consortium of un-identified global banks and not part of the federal government at all? Well, I think so! And, that’s just for starters.
We’ve got tundra that is melting and releasing methane into the air. We’ve got oceans that have already lost 90 percent of their largest fish and is becoming so acidic that the coral and the phytoplankton is dying. Mutant seeds, Franken Food, commercial lockdown of food supply, global economic collapse, and resource wars.
As our lately silent, but still dear Elder has lamented on more than one occasion, “What’s a motherf**ker to do?”
It sure looks to me like we need to localize food production and manufacturing and radically conserve how much of everything we use. It sure looks to me like we have to create economies that are not based on relentless “growth” of capital and goods. I’d say we need to kick those to the curb who want to live by using their money to just make more money, whether it supports producing anything useful or not. I think we are going to have to deal with serious challenges that will most probably involve more deaths than is even thinkable right now. Whether it’s due to wars, famine, sickness, freezing, insurrection, lack of medicine and services to care for the elderly and infirm, or a combination of all of the above. Times are probably going to be really tough until we reach a sustainable level of people that our societies and our planet can support.
But, maybe not - or maybe that, but maybe more. Like the fabled valley of Shangra La that sheltered an enlightened tribe of people kept distant from the rest of the world, maybe there will be surprising exceptions to this dismal scenario of loss and lack. Maybe adversity really does bring out the best in us.
Perhaps thought really does create form, and what we imagine eventually becomes real for us. Perhaps we simply need to come to terms with new and expanded paradigms for Who We Are and What is Possible.
What if there is nothing to fear? What if death is just an illusion, and if we need more time to finish a project, we can have it in another life and another body? What if there are those OUT THERE who are looking out for us? What if we are surrounded by unlimited power that we could use to lighten the load of so many people who need it? What if there are wonders yet to be confirmed that seem so much better than we can accept that they seem like magic and miracles?
What do you think? Since this is a time for dreaming. We are starting with a “new” sun for the year. . . what are some of the scenarios that are in our collective imaginations?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
OUR SOCIAL CONTRACT IS DEAD, GET OVER IT.
by Murph
I have written multiple times in the past concerning our constitution. One of the things I have emphasized is that it is a flawed document from several perspectives but nevertheless, was a contract between the citizens and the government concerning how the government was to conduct itself, particularly, in regards to its citizenry. As far as I know, every elected official in this country is required to take an oath to uphold the constitution. Many non elected positions are required to do the same; military and law enforcement come to mind. Despite the fights over the interpretations of what the document says, it should be rather obvious that the document has little teeth and ability to sustain even the most basic concepts that it contains concerning the well being and freedoms of its citizens. For all practical purposes, we no longer have a constitution that is enforceable, at any practical level. What parts are enforced are for show alone, to convince the sheeple that we are truly a nation with laws and principles.
Take a look at the two amendments below. Think they are being adhered to?
Article 9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Article 10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
As I again read through the constitution, it appears to me that most of it has been violated, at least as I read it. Of course, I am not a constitutional lawyer with a couple of degrees to back up that statement. At least we now have a president (hopefully, maybe) that is a constitutional lawyer. It will be interesting to see how he handles a lot of these issues.
So, in effect we have, as a practical matter, a rogue government, with no limits concerning what it can do. Notice how our rights to redress have been ignored, right to assemble, right to protest, rights of free speech have all been seriously eroded, or the gun rights issue, or freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and confiscation of property, and of course the contentious abortion issue, and holding government officials responsible for murder and illegal wars. Keep in mind that violations of the constitution have been committed almost from the beginning. In comparison, they were minor to what has transpired in the last 20 years, and most distinctly in the last 8 years. If we had a government truly adhering to the constitution our situation would be considerably different than it currently is. Good god, since when does the supreme court have the constitutional right to determine an election?
The ideology around the new administration compared to Bush and crew doesn’t appear on the surface to be significantly different to me. There will be some differences of course, but I expect a further repudiation of our social contract with the government. I hope to be pleasantly surprised but I’ll not hold my breath in anticipation. Just too many of the old guard being appointed to positions of power and influence, that is, those with contempt and disdain for the populace. I doubt that keeping the old guard in positions of power that have created the problems, will solve the problems. They are stuck in a paradigm that is not going to be changed.
Quite a number of the financial people that write on the web are saying that we are now in a depression. George Ure is one of my favorites. I like his style of writing and how he analyzes current events. Even if we technically cannot substantiate that we are in an economic depression, it sure appears we are headed for one at break neck speed. This is going to put tremendous pressure on the incoming administration to “do something”, anything, to keep us afloat and progressing down the road to capitalistic paradise. So far, in the last 8 years, that has consisted in advancing toward a capitalistic dictatorship by the executive branch. I honestly do not expect that to change significantly. I know that Obama has stated that he wants to get rid of all the excessive oppressive bureaucracy that Bush has put in place. Consider how many more unemployed that will create. Currently, the federal government is the single largest employer in this country, and that doesn’t include state government employment. Currently, state, municipalities and county governments are shedding personal at a terrific rate. If the feds start shedding personnel, then unemployment figures will go up dramatically. I simply cannot believe this is going to happen, politically unacceptable. Consider poor Obama’s position. No matter how benign he intends to be, no matter what decisions he makes, he is going to be hated. If he starts pissing on the powerful moneyed people, he is going to be in real danger of being assassinated at its worst, and opposed by very powerful interests at best. If he pisses any more on the populace, he faces rebellion. I really think this is going to be his choices. We are sure going to get to see just what he is made of in a very few months now. In any case, further abridgment of civilian rights and freedoms are ahead of us. For all practical purposes, we will not be operating under any type of final arbitration in the form of a constitution. Undoubtedly, there will be a flurry of court show cases over these issues but the real hard issues will not be addressed because it sure appears to me that the moneyed and influential top of the heap would not benefit. The minute there is talk about limiting severely the elite’s privilege and benefits; there will be hell to pay. The minute Obama starts to talk about a more egalitarian distribution he will have vast and very powerful forces opposing him. Historically, the only means that have been effective has been open rebellion and revolution by the masses, and that has always resulted in more and different bums governing the population.
If we truly want something different, we have got to get away from elitist hierarchy control. I figure that one is going to be a tough one to implement.
Considering how fractionated and divisive our population is, no matter what is done or proposed, it will be opposed. How much divisiveness can be tolerated in a society until it falls apart? It is possible, even in this country, to have a strong push toward race wars of various magnitudes. We already have had two of them; the first was the whites against the Indians, and later the whites against the blacks. Wonder who is going to align against the Spanish speaking people, and/or the Muslims.
For those that still advocate a strong central government with some kind of constitution, just what would you put on paper that would stop cold the abrogation of that constitution? Bush was correct, “It’s just a damned piece of paper”. Only the people can stop that abrogation. We sure can see how well that works in today’s world. I have no idea to the extent or how long it will last, but we are surely heading toward some kind of very oppressive government in this country, hah! More than we have now for sure. Would you believe that just recently an Oregon court classified a car as a 'public place'? How nuts is that? I figure as the TPTB become more scared and desperate to retain control you will see more of this kind of insanity. You can also figure that as federal, state and municipal budgets are slashed that enforcement of these kinds of laws will become a bunch more difficult. Just another method of keeping the population in a state of fear whilst our enslavement and impoverishment continues. Oh well, as long as the population goes along with it all, it will continue.
I have written multiple times in the past concerning our constitution. One of the things I have emphasized is that it is a flawed document from several perspectives but nevertheless, was a contract between the citizens and the government concerning how the government was to conduct itself, particularly, in regards to its citizenry. As far as I know, every elected official in this country is required to take an oath to uphold the constitution. Many non elected positions are required to do the same; military and law enforcement come to mind. Despite the fights over the interpretations of what the document says, it should be rather obvious that the document has little teeth and ability to sustain even the most basic concepts that it contains concerning the well being and freedoms of its citizens. For all practical purposes, we no longer have a constitution that is enforceable, at any practical level. What parts are enforced are for show alone, to convince the sheeple that we are truly a nation with laws and principles.
Take a look at the two amendments below. Think they are being adhered to?
Article 9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Article 10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
As I again read through the constitution, it appears to me that most of it has been violated, at least as I read it. Of course, I am not a constitutional lawyer with a couple of degrees to back up that statement. At least we now have a president (hopefully, maybe) that is a constitutional lawyer. It will be interesting to see how he handles a lot of these issues.
So, in effect we have, as a practical matter, a rogue government, with no limits concerning what it can do. Notice how our rights to redress have been ignored, right to assemble, right to protest, rights of free speech have all been seriously eroded, or the gun rights issue, or freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and confiscation of property, and of course the contentious abortion issue, and holding government officials responsible for murder and illegal wars. Keep in mind that violations of the constitution have been committed almost from the beginning. In comparison, they were minor to what has transpired in the last 20 years, and most distinctly in the last 8 years. If we had a government truly adhering to the constitution our situation would be considerably different than it currently is. Good god, since when does the supreme court have the constitutional right to determine an election?
The ideology around the new administration compared to Bush and crew doesn’t appear on the surface to be significantly different to me. There will be some differences of course, but I expect a further repudiation of our social contract with the government. I hope to be pleasantly surprised but I’ll not hold my breath in anticipation. Just too many of the old guard being appointed to positions of power and influence, that is, those with contempt and disdain for the populace. I doubt that keeping the old guard in positions of power that have created the problems, will solve the problems. They are stuck in a paradigm that is not going to be changed.
Quite a number of the financial people that write on the web are saying that we are now in a depression. George Ure is one of my favorites. I like his style of writing and how he analyzes current events. Even if we technically cannot substantiate that we are in an economic depression, it sure appears we are headed for one at break neck speed. This is going to put tremendous pressure on the incoming administration to “do something”, anything, to keep us afloat and progressing down the road to capitalistic paradise. So far, in the last 8 years, that has consisted in advancing toward a capitalistic dictatorship by the executive branch. I honestly do not expect that to change significantly. I know that Obama has stated that he wants to get rid of all the excessive oppressive bureaucracy that Bush has put in place. Consider how many more unemployed that will create. Currently, the federal government is the single largest employer in this country, and that doesn’t include state government employment. Currently, state, municipalities and county governments are shedding personal at a terrific rate. If the feds start shedding personnel, then unemployment figures will go up dramatically. I simply cannot believe this is going to happen, politically unacceptable. Consider poor Obama’s position. No matter how benign he intends to be, no matter what decisions he makes, he is going to be hated. If he starts pissing on the powerful moneyed people, he is going to be in real danger of being assassinated at its worst, and opposed by very powerful interests at best. If he pisses any more on the populace, he faces rebellion. I really think this is going to be his choices. We are sure going to get to see just what he is made of in a very few months now. In any case, further abridgment of civilian rights and freedoms are ahead of us. For all practical purposes, we will not be operating under any type of final arbitration in the form of a constitution. Undoubtedly, there will be a flurry of court show cases over these issues but the real hard issues will not be addressed because it sure appears to me that the moneyed and influential top of the heap would not benefit. The minute there is talk about limiting severely the elite’s privilege and benefits; there will be hell to pay. The minute Obama starts to talk about a more egalitarian distribution he will have vast and very powerful forces opposing him. Historically, the only means that have been effective has been open rebellion and revolution by the masses, and that has always resulted in more and different bums governing the population.
If we truly want something different, we have got to get away from elitist hierarchy control. I figure that one is going to be a tough one to implement.
Considering how fractionated and divisive our population is, no matter what is done or proposed, it will be opposed. How much divisiveness can be tolerated in a society until it falls apart? It is possible, even in this country, to have a strong push toward race wars of various magnitudes. We already have had two of them; the first was the whites against the Indians, and later the whites against the blacks. Wonder who is going to align against the Spanish speaking people, and/or the Muslims.
For those that still advocate a strong central government with some kind of constitution, just what would you put on paper that would stop cold the abrogation of that constitution? Bush was correct, “It’s just a damned piece of paper”. Only the people can stop that abrogation. We sure can see how well that works in today’s world. I have no idea to the extent or how long it will last, but we are surely heading toward some kind of very oppressive government in this country, hah! More than we have now for sure. Would you believe that just recently an Oregon court classified a car as a 'public place'? How nuts is that? I figure as the TPTB become more scared and desperate to retain control you will see more of this kind of insanity. You can also figure that as federal, state and municipal budgets are slashed that enforcement of these kinds of laws will become a bunch more difficult. Just another method of keeping the population in a state of fear whilst our enslavement and impoverishment continues. Oh well, as long as the population goes along with it all, it will continue.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
PAYING THE PRICE
by Murph
AAAARG, No Don’t ask me to give up ANYTHING. What are you some damned communist? GOOD MORNING AMERICA!!
Geez!, Ok, got that off my chest.
Again I have the quandary about what to talk about today. I read a vast amount of information every week on the web and in books and publications and find it interesting and sometimes instructive in the analysis of what is happening to all of us. I don’t have the specialized economic information to offer more than generalized assessments and wonder just how much I really understand of what I do read. However, I can drag out one bit of conclusion about it all; we are now going to pay the price for our extravagances. Nothing new about that statement, we have all been saying the same thing in different ways for a long time now. We have been warned over and over again since the 1970’s that a time of reckoning was coming. The Old Testament was full of warnings about excessive living. Interestingly, few of the warnings seemed to apply to the elites of the time, but we may now be coming into the time where even they will have to pay a penalty for their excesses. Whether the very top of the heap end up paying a significant price remains yet to be seen.
That our government has been lying to us about what it was doing, the state of the country economically and other assorted pieces of information, is now blatantly obvious. But don’t just blame our favorite scapegoat, the Bush administration. This has been going on since before the civil war. It has just been raised to a fine art by the Rove/Cheney partnership. Never underestimate the gullibility of the general population (that’s all of us) to lies and broken promises.
At this time, the nation appears to be in the grip of Obamaism, the great hope for making things ‘right’ again, of course let’s not get too specific about just what is ‘right’ anyway. So far, the statements about economic strategy for the next administration appear cloudy and do not seem to address the basics of our rather dire economic problems, namely, what to do about a society that has been run on excessive credit and the manipulation to transfer more wealth into fewer hands and impoverishing greater and greater numbers of people at an accelerating rate. At least Obama has the guts to say that things are going to get worse before they get better. But just what is the strategy to take us back to some shadow of affluence and ‘good living’? Considering the energy levels needed to do this, it sure appears unlikely to me. Obama is proposing a giant government works project, reminiscent of the CCC of the depression years of the 30’s. To what end? If we don’t have the cheap energy to run our society available any longer, just what is the advantage to repairing roads and bridges and tunnels? That massive a project alone will mean that the government will have to go even deeper in debt. To just pay the interest for that amount of borrowing, taxes will have to go up dramatically, and guess who will be hit the hardest by that. It all has to be paid for somewhere down the line and I doubt that Obama’s charm is going to convince the mega wealthy to pony up for it. Already the screaming has started about the tax and spend liberal administration coming to town.
Presently, the news about the overseas shipping being virtually shut down because of lack of lines of credit bodes very badly for us peons. Packing of food for sale to the public appears to be heavily threatened. Where are all the cans made for food packing made anyway? It appears from some articles it is overseas. Where will the financing come from to go to alternative food packing? So, unless that problem is solved, that means that grocery stores aren’t going to have much in canned food. Although considering the quality of canned food, maybe a good thing.
Due to the economic globalization, every single system for sustaining a population everywhere is entwined with every other country. That makes the whole system very sensitive to disruptions in just about any commodity anywhere. Add in the “just in time delivery of money and commodities” and we have a recipe for economic and food disaster. If Obama and his crew have any real solution for all of this will be interesting to see. I doubt it though. I think we have now come to more unsolvable problems than can be adjusted for at any level on a global or even national scale. Obama is at least openly admitting that the problem is far greater and with far greater impact than anything the Bush administration has come out with. I would however fault him for also hinting that some miraculous policy will pull us out and be back to our posh lifestyles sometime in the future. The population needs to be told that going back to our extravagant lifestyle is not physically possible, the resources are simply not there. We are going to have to change the way we live big time.
Where we live, there is a pretty substantial proportion of retirees. I haven’t heard much talk about an optimistic near future. And yet, few are downsizing, getting rid of the gas guzzlers and lowering their comfort levels and preparing to furnish much of their basic necessities themselves. A few are. Every person and family is going to have to take a serious look at what seems to be going on around them and decide on just how much preparation they are willing to make based on the information they can find. In our area, just providing a basic diet is a challenge, and takes time to learn. If you ain't doing it now, it may be too damned late. Success and failure are determined by persistence and a learning curve that takes time. Considering that the depression era of soup lines is substituted today by food stamps, (nearly 10% of the American population now) a strong push for victory gardens may be an absolute necessity for a very large amount of our population. Of course, with 2/3 of our population living in coastal cities, this is going to be a stretch for most people. Hah! Who says we’re not in a depression right now? Geez! They finally came out and admitted that we have been in a recession for a year now. In another year maybe they can admit we are in a depression.
Our involvement in the local politics and our fight with the county has elevated considerably my observation that the cards are stacked very high against citizens. We are constantly trying to decipher and understand the stacks of legal documents pertaining to just one issue. I know damned well that is primarily to cloud the issue and not make it easily understood. It is only that we are not working a steady job that we can even attempt to understand the documents and their ramifications. The multiple layers of bureaucracy, laws, legal opinions and general bull shit is phenomenal. It also takes considerable amount of money to fight unjust laws. So, in our case, we have to engage in constant fund raising for attorney fees. It took us a full year for 3 of us trying to understand a 2 inch thick USGS study to understand how much wool the county pulled over our collective eyes and the consequent lies that they came out with. During the last election cycle, we at least got rid of one of the county commissioners running for reelection. What the new one will be like is open for observation. At least one more to go. A real arrogant bastard is next and Freeacre declares she will spend the rest of her life getting him out of office.
Oh yes, a price must be paid on so many fronts. I would imagine that the people reading this in their many scattered communities would be amazed at the roadblocks put up by officialdom to citizen participation in the government. I have come to the conclusion that the only thing they really understand is the same tactics they use against us, brute force. Well, when their bill comes due, it may be a whole bunch more violent than they planned on.
AAAARG, No Don’t ask me to give up ANYTHING. What are you some damned communist? GOOD MORNING AMERICA!!
Geez!, Ok, got that off my chest.
Again I have the quandary about what to talk about today. I read a vast amount of information every week on the web and in books and publications and find it interesting and sometimes instructive in the analysis of what is happening to all of us. I don’t have the specialized economic information to offer more than generalized assessments and wonder just how much I really understand of what I do read. However, I can drag out one bit of conclusion about it all; we are now going to pay the price for our extravagances. Nothing new about that statement, we have all been saying the same thing in different ways for a long time now. We have been warned over and over again since the 1970’s that a time of reckoning was coming. The Old Testament was full of warnings about excessive living. Interestingly, few of the warnings seemed to apply to the elites of the time, but we may now be coming into the time where even they will have to pay a penalty for their excesses. Whether the very top of the heap end up paying a significant price remains yet to be seen.
That our government has been lying to us about what it was doing, the state of the country economically and other assorted pieces of information, is now blatantly obvious. But don’t just blame our favorite scapegoat, the Bush administration. This has been going on since before the civil war. It has just been raised to a fine art by the Rove/Cheney partnership. Never underestimate the gullibility of the general population (that’s all of us) to lies and broken promises.
At this time, the nation appears to be in the grip of Obamaism, the great hope for making things ‘right’ again, of course let’s not get too specific about just what is ‘right’ anyway. So far, the statements about economic strategy for the next administration appear cloudy and do not seem to address the basics of our rather dire economic problems, namely, what to do about a society that has been run on excessive credit and the manipulation to transfer more wealth into fewer hands and impoverishing greater and greater numbers of people at an accelerating rate. At least Obama has the guts to say that things are going to get worse before they get better. But just what is the strategy to take us back to some shadow of affluence and ‘good living’? Considering the energy levels needed to do this, it sure appears unlikely to me. Obama is proposing a giant government works project, reminiscent of the CCC of the depression years of the 30’s. To what end? If we don’t have the cheap energy to run our society available any longer, just what is the advantage to repairing roads and bridges and tunnels? That massive a project alone will mean that the government will have to go even deeper in debt. To just pay the interest for that amount of borrowing, taxes will have to go up dramatically, and guess who will be hit the hardest by that. It all has to be paid for somewhere down the line and I doubt that Obama’s charm is going to convince the mega wealthy to pony up for it. Already the screaming has started about the tax and spend liberal administration coming to town.
Presently, the news about the overseas shipping being virtually shut down because of lack of lines of credit bodes very badly for us peons. Packing of food for sale to the public appears to be heavily threatened. Where are all the cans made for food packing made anyway? It appears from some articles it is overseas. Where will the financing come from to go to alternative food packing? So, unless that problem is solved, that means that grocery stores aren’t going to have much in canned food. Although considering the quality of canned food, maybe a good thing.
Due to the economic globalization, every single system for sustaining a population everywhere is entwined with every other country. That makes the whole system very sensitive to disruptions in just about any commodity anywhere. Add in the “just in time delivery of money and commodities” and we have a recipe for economic and food disaster. If Obama and his crew have any real solution for all of this will be interesting to see. I doubt it though. I think we have now come to more unsolvable problems than can be adjusted for at any level on a global or even national scale. Obama is at least openly admitting that the problem is far greater and with far greater impact than anything the Bush administration has come out with. I would however fault him for also hinting that some miraculous policy will pull us out and be back to our posh lifestyles sometime in the future. The population needs to be told that going back to our extravagant lifestyle is not physically possible, the resources are simply not there. We are going to have to change the way we live big time.
Where we live, there is a pretty substantial proportion of retirees. I haven’t heard much talk about an optimistic near future. And yet, few are downsizing, getting rid of the gas guzzlers and lowering their comfort levels and preparing to furnish much of their basic necessities themselves. A few are. Every person and family is going to have to take a serious look at what seems to be going on around them and decide on just how much preparation they are willing to make based on the information they can find. In our area, just providing a basic diet is a challenge, and takes time to learn. If you ain't doing it now, it may be too damned late. Success and failure are determined by persistence and a learning curve that takes time. Considering that the depression era of soup lines is substituted today by food stamps, (nearly 10% of the American population now) a strong push for victory gardens may be an absolute necessity for a very large amount of our population. Of course, with 2/3 of our population living in coastal cities, this is going to be a stretch for most people. Hah! Who says we’re not in a depression right now? Geez! They finally came out and admitted that we have been in a recession for a year now. In another year maybe they can admit we are in a depression.
Our involvement in the local politics and our fight with the county has elevated considerably my observation that the cards are stacked very high against citizens. We are constantly trying to decipher and understand the stacks of legal documents pertaining to just one issue. I know damned well that is primarily to cloud the issue and not make it easily understood. It is only that we are not working a steady job that we can even attempt to understand the documents and their ramifications. The multiple layers of bureaucracy, laws, legal opinions and general bull shit is phenomenal. It also takes considerable amount of money to fight unjust laws. So, in our case, we have to engage in constant fund raising for attorney fees. It took us a full year for 3 of us trying to understand a 2 inch thick USGS study to understand how much wool the county pulled over our collective eyes and the consequent lies that they came out with. During the last election cycle, we at least got rid of one of the county commissioners running for reelection. What the new one will be like is open for observation. At least one more to go. A real arrogant bastard is next and Freeacre declares she will spend the rest of her life getting him out of office.
Oh yes, a price must be paid on so many fronts. I would imagine that the people reading this in their many scattered communities would be amazed at the roadblocks put up by officialdom to citizen participation in the government. I have come to the conclusion that the only thing they really understand is the same tactics they use against us, brute force. Well, when their bill comes due, it may be a whole bunch more violent than they planned on.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Financial Warfare, Famine & Meltdown?
freeacre
The news of the dramatic attacks in Mumbai was disturbing last week. Seeming like an action movie, the story of ten armed men breaking up into teams and terrorizing Mumbai in several locations at once was shocking. The Taj Mahal hotel up in flames for days. Tourists and Jewish people executed in a city that avoids killing cows!
But that, it seems, is not the half of it. It might have been a sucker punch to the gut of financial globalism itself. I think, as usual, Mike Ruppert nailed it. He wrote on Thanksgiving evening,
“I do not know how many other corporations are affected; but they will be many, if not most of the Dow 30 and the Fortune 500. And I can tell you that on Friday morning, any customer or client of Citigroup, Symantec or Hewlett-Packard will be unable to get customer assistance over the phone. Warranty service for these corporations will stop. I know that because I have been through that horrible grind with all of them in the last year or so. All of their calls are taken in Mumbai, by Indians. Nothing is working in Mumbai and there can be no certainty when anything will be working. Because the attacks included the premier hotels in the financial district, no multi-national will ever trust the city again. The risk is too great. I can almost bet that the multinationals are all well prepared for attacks on their own facilities, but were totally unprepared for an attack that pulled the city out from under them.
I think many corporations also have data processing and IT centers there as well.
The Achilles tendon of globalization has just been severed.”
Since then, Matt Savinar on Life After the Oil Crash continues the analysis this week:
“…This is why, as Mike Ruppert wrote last week, every world leader with an IQ over 70 is shaking in their boots right now. Reason being the effects of the attacks on the Fortune 500 and Dow 30 will be, at the very least, as follows:
A) the cost of insuring their outsourced operations goes through the ceiling
B) the cost of providing security goes through the ceiling
C) the cost of capital (interest rate) for any projects outsourced to
With so many companies as highly leveraged as they are, it doesn't take much to push them over the edge. Jack up their interest rates, jack up their insurance premiums while drastically escalating the amount of money they need to spend on security and a whole bunch of them will be plunged right into insolvency.
Point #2: "But won't they just move their operations back
Again, this would only serve to raise their operating costs and therefore raise their interest rates. In a different era, where things weren't so mind-bogglingly leveraged, a company might be able to absorb these increased costs. But modern Fortune 500 companies rely on "Just in Time" (JIT) financing the same way Safeway and Shell rely on JIT delivery food and fuel. As you already know, it only takes a brief (2-5 day) or small (1-3%) disruption in the JIT delivery of food and fuel to totally shoot the whole system to hell. It's the same with the JIT delivery of money. The companies most affected by these attacks have structured their operations for maximum financial "efficiency".* Maximum efficiency is great for a company's bottom line when times are good and the flow of capital is reliable. But when things get dicey, maximum efficiency means just a small increase in costs, be it in labor, in capital, in insurance rates, in the cost of security, etc. can blow your entire balance sheet to hell.
Key point: the big banks have loaned money to the Fortune 500 under the assumption that the project of globalization will continue, more or less, unfettered. An attack like this therefore detonates one of the basic assumptions under girding the finances of pretty much every multinational corporation on the planet.
So the answer to the question of "will they be moving their operations back to
HOLY COW!
You wonder why the stock market plunged on Monday? Naturally, there will be dead cat bounces and fluctuations. But, the one-two punches of resource depletion and increased costs of production and insurance, just may have knocked out this globalization beast!
What?? Give me another cigarette… I think I need to smoke two at once while this is sinking in… humm…
Somehow the global financial brain trust has managed to set everything up so that it could not be more vulnerable to the slightest vagary. Running so close to the bone in terms of relying on “just in time” deliveries of both goods and monies, the very cheapest labor costs, cheap oil for production as well as distribution, and low rates of insurance, the geniuses of greed have orchestrated their own demise. Plaxico Burress seems not to have been the only one who shot himself in the foot last week.
Meanwhile, as though oblivious to the Dead Men Walking scenario that is the corporate reality in
Then, we would be liberated to make other arrangements as the world as we know it deteriorates beyond recognition.
We really can not afford to be this stupid. Because in addition to the corporate meltdown, we are facing a disaster with our food production next year as well. In the last post, ras directed our attention to a Daily Koz article (11/27). Here’s an excerpt:
“ … I wrote earlier about the famine potential we face due to the under fertilization of the wheat crop. Wheat that gets enough ammonia is 14% protein, if it is unfertilized closer to 8%, and that 43% reduction in total plant protein is going to cause unimaginable suffering in places like
The fall nitrogen fertilizer application has been 10% of the norm. A typical year would see 50% put on in the fall and 50% in the spring. During fertilizer application season the 3,100 mile national ammonia pipeline network runs flat out and the far points on the network experience low flow both fall and spring. If they try to jam 90% of the fertilization into a period of time when the system can only flow a little more than half of the need much of our cropland will go without in the spring of 2009.
Finances as much as weather are the issue with regards to fertilization this fall. Crop prices have fallen to half of what they were, ammonia prices have dropped but ammonia suppliers here, receiving 75% of their supply from overseas, still have product in their storage tanks purchase at the historical highs last spring and summer.
When farmers plant they record the acreage and they purchase crop insurance - $20 to $40 an acre depending on the crop. If they have a failure they file a claim, an adjustor contacts them, and they get a check to cover the deficit. Some of this runs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and some of it is through private insurers.
My conversations with farmers earlier this week lead me to believe that the largest private insurer,
Additionally, there is a propane shortage in the
So… the banks are blowing up, the jobs are disappearing, the homes are being lost, the commercial loans are still frozen, the government is giving away all our money, and now to top it off, we are looking at severe food production failure.
Is it raining frogs yet?
In spite of all this bad news, I think the most horrifying thing to me last week was that a 34 year old employee of a
Good by and good riddance to all of it.
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