First!

The USA politicians and their owners are 'holding their breath' until the November elections are past.

The rest of us are already turning blue.

~Ruff

The longer we go without realizing the collapse has already begun the worse the "payback" will be. In my Great Lakes community our Sunday paper's editorial bemoaned the fact that 20% of our mostly rural county is now on food stamps. When we think its hit bottom it keeps getting worse and now there's no where to run for jobs.

I weep for my daughters future.

djc

Here's what I read: blah blah blah, hydroponic ganja. And then there was something about capital leaving the system. Mmmmmmm...... ganja.

There is a song that sums up Jim's view: Larry McMurtrey's " Can't Make it Here Anymore"... a seven minute monster of a song that fellow readers will enjoy. I found it on i-tunes.... moe.

We'll be lucky if we have a Soviet Union style failure of State. It was mostly non violent and although it was full of hardship there was no widespread civil unrest.
I really think the Republicans are going to block any reform because they purposely want things to go so badly and fall so far in the hope that they will regain power in 2012. It is a cynical strategy aimed at inflicting the greatest pain for the most amount of people.
I just tried to call the NYS unemployment office. My UI dispersant is late. The phone system is hanging up on me.
Oh and that Chevy electric car the Volt is going to cost 40 grand. Good move GM.
Aimlow Joe was here.
http://www.aimlow.com

'That's what President Obama was doing last week in Detroit, shilling for a new electric automobile which, he said, will make us "energy independent."'

The Chevy Volt is looking more and more like it is destined to be a flop. Some have characterized it as a Prius with a lot higher price tag. Apparently its prospects are so dismal that GM has altered its production plans from something like 40k or 50k to 10k units per year.

It certainly doesn't put the bailout of GM in a positive light, and I would have to think that a politician like Obama who wants to make it a poster boy for bailouts has got to be doing so with a healthy dose of mixed feelings.

There is a song that sums up Jim's view: Larry McMurtrey's " Can't Make it Here Anymore"

====================

Probably sung by the same people who voted for Bush, who drove the country into the ditch... the same people who saw those protesting deficit-producing military spending and yelled: "America, Love It or Leave It!"

What goes around comes around. Those who voted for politicians who destroyed the country now get to suffer the consequences. Karma.

I'm taking the contrarian position that, to the extent it gets industries actively pursuing non-oil based alternatives, the prez's support of the Volt is a good thing. I understand your frustration with the fog of denial in the face of simple realities, but what I see is an increasing level of understanding in general. The real problem here is that public grasp of the issue is about where my own understanding was about 8 years ago -- "well we can try this or that", etc.

aimlow: Exactly what "reform" do you believe would be blocked by the Republicans that would otherwise strengthen the economy?

Yet more borrowing to stimulate Americans to spend on consumer goods they can't afford?

I find it bizarre that Democrats talk about Obama digging us out of the hole that Bush got us into.

Obama's economic policies are virtually identical to Bush's: Stimulus, bailouts, massive new social programs all paid for on borrowed money.

bridges:

I believe to the contrary that an alternative vehicle that proves to be a fiasco will simply breed cynicism and public opposition to such efforts in the future.

It reminds me a little of the argument that carbon taxes at the national level will "set an example" that may encourage the large carbon emitters of the future like China to follow our lead.

However, if the primary effect of those national curbs on carbon are to slow the economy, then I believe what the Chinese will conclude is: "Woe unto us to be idiots like the Americans and sabotage our own economies through carbon taxes."

Somewhat of a corollary is that the whole "green jobs" thing is nonsense. I am a strong believer in the need to convert to renewable energy but I have no patience for scientifically-illiterate politicians that paint smileys all over the effort.

Developing renewables is not going to bring dividends any time soon- for the forseeable future it will be virtually all pain and virtually no gain- lots of spending on research with very little energy produced.

The green jobs that are needed are ones that won't be self-supporting, they must be supported by expenditures out of our national savings. (oops, we are deep in debt)

Another great Monday roundup, Mr. Kunstler. Keep it all on the radar. People are starting to wake up to reality.

Too bad that we can't all live in Illinois where it only took our governor and state legislators a few days to solve the budget crisis. Just don't pay any bills and try to borrow some more money to pay all the state employees and high priced pensioners. The governor was so pleased with the solution that he gave all his staffers a raise. "Problem solved!" It's lost on me how other members of a so called intelligent society could have overlooked this obvious answer.
Next month when we put our ninth (or is it tenth) governor in prison maybe finally someone will wake up to the fact that this problem didn't start yesterday or even last century. It isn't Obama or Bush or even Clinton's fault...it is their handler's plans...those much farther up the food chain who have needs that must be filled. Good luck!

Too many people are invested in Real Estate: they can't let go, they cannot admit that their house is worth much less than what they dream. Too many people are still buying houses at prices that are not real. These prices must go down, way down, they must get in line with food stamp people and minimum wages. Most of all, it is time people stop dreaming about owning their home and accept renting: only rich and well off middle class used to buy homes, the rest rented and saved until they had enough to buy.

Switzerland is a much richer country than a lot of places in the USA and yet most people are not home owners there.

Jobs are much more important than real estate, the prices of homes at 200,000 dollars and the tax base can no longer be supported: this goes for JAPAN too, which after 20 years still can't get those house prices down to where they belong, and a lot of cities in Western Europe, London, Paris, Rome, Madrid etc. where the prices are even more wacky than in the USA.

People, don't buy houses, wait until the prices collapse, don't buy house and don't make banks and the richer rich by buying houses.

Obama should say HOUSES MUST BECOME AFFORDABLE AGAIN, ALL OF THEM AND EVERYWHERE WORLDWIDE, THE GOING FUTURE SALARY WILL BE AT MOST 800 DOLLARS A MONTH, RENTS SHOULD BE NOT MORE THAN 300 DOLLARS A MONTH FOR A 2 BEDROOM HOUSE EVEN IN LA AND NYC AND TOKYO AND PRICES SHOULD BE FOR SAID HOME NOT MORE THAN 100,000 DOLLARS.

house prices and rent should and must go way down

Repeat:

KILL REAL ESTATE PRICES, MAKE THEM GO WAY DOWN, WAY DOWN, KILL REAL ESTATE PRICES, MAKE THEM GO WAY DOWN WAY DOWN...

"I weep for my daughters future."

I have a daughter too, djc. I understand how you feel.

"Oh and that Chevy electric car the Volt is going to cost 40 grand. Good move GM."

Yeah. Hysterically bad timing. Good luck to them. lol I won't even give it a glance at $40K.

Now I'm off to the garden to harvest the okra. It's far tastier than dog food and ketchup ;)

Sold another 45 gladiolus plants thriving in my back yard -- they're ca. 2 feet tall & set to bloom later this month -- for $1 each.

I am the real economy.

Fuck the 'Real Economy' & its ghastly death dance of gov't strangulation.

This is a necessary change we're entering. It will weed out the weak, the unhealthy, and the fat cats, too. It's going to be a spectacle to behold.

Jim's right. Cars are a dying breed and wasting money fixing up the roads and bridges is foolishness.

They will make nice bike paths, though. Prepare to walk more.

http://www.healthyplanetdiet.com

NUMBER 1: I recently had to speak with a lawyer concerning an estate. For $500 an hour he perused a large pile of conflicting legal documents for about 10 minutes and then closed his eyes for about 2 minutes. He then opened his eyes and said "This is what we're going to do...(and then a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo that my bachelor's degree brain couln't fathom)" What startled me was the fact that reality is shaped by legal, verbal, and rhetorical factors. You may think that his skills will not matter much when the lights go off and the "armed hoardes" arrive to steal your last box of pasta but I think this whole sucka is going to go down pretty slow with a lot of LEGAL SKILLS being employed. Was it hubris or just talent, I don't know but I can tell you that the corporates and the government have zillions of brainiac lawyers who will have the police state well oiled by their "rule of law". There ain't going to be any "anachy", it's going to be like Burma, a freak show so freaky that Laura Bush tried to do something about it.
NUMBER 2: today's NY times reports on the fiasco if Iraq, on the trillions of dollars spent so that we can leave the place ripe for Islamic dictatorship and anarchy. It's sickening that we continue to support wars abroad while we have little to no job growth in the US. But again, I'm sure the lawyers can make dramatic sense of it and keep this crap rolling along until the eventual exit of Americans forces from Afganistan in 2024. Does anyone believe that our war for oil will actually get us any? The best survivalist move of today is not to learn how to shoot a 22, plant a garden, or ride a bike. The best move is to learn Mandarin and move to China before they close the borders to us wetbacks crossing the Pacific.
Peace - Deacon John

My brother-in-law is a chemist who explained to me the ugly truth about chemical batteries: No chemical battery will every have anywhere near the energy density of a gallon of gas or diesel — pesky laws of physics, you see. There is no magic bullet when it comes to batteries. The high efficiency of electric motors, and use of light-weight materials can mitigate for this ugly truth, but you still end up with a vehicle with very limited range, and no practical way to heat or cool the passenger compartment. This EV BS is nothing but one big circle jerk, it can never be anything more than a fancy golf cart.

BTW, it’s interesting that the same problems that bedevil EV’s today are what killed off EV’s in the early 1900’s: very limited range and long recharge times.

In this ecomomy energy and information move fast, but finance moves faster.

"His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs they cannot bark; Sleeping lying down loving to slumber. Yes, they are greedy dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his own territory. "Come" one says "I will bring wine, and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink; Tomorrow will be as today, and much more abundant."

"We really have a choice between two ways of dealing with this. We can downsize and re-scale consciously and coherently, or we can continue to chase after the phantom of growth and allow the nation to fall into a shambles of desperation. So far into this long emergency of an economic fiasco, we seem to have chosen the pursuit of a phantom."
-JHK

Brilliant distillation, again!
I cannot adequately express the feeling of dread that [finally] seems to be niggling at the back of folks' brains now'days. Jeez, it's like a smell; the smell of fear (and anger). A critical number of wallets are now being emptied, I suspect.

I'd have to say that TPTB will take their chances with chaos; for some strange reason they must believe that suffering will only be visited upon "the little people".

The one thing that can still shock me (but not much) is the wishful bullshit of a "return to growth" that the Lord High Poobahs of the "McEconomy" (tm Cowswithguns; thanks ;o) endlessly spew. For fuck's sake, Alan Greenspan AGAIN??? When will this asshole go away and wallow in his ill-gotten gains, and let us get on with the dirty business of preparing to [attempt to] survive the inevitable shit-storm? E-fucking-nough, Alan, you craven, lying, vulture.

Finally, I warn you, most emphatically, that we are NOT IN ANY SENSE as socially or "infrastructure-wise" as well off as Soviet Russia was/is for the collapse phenomena. Read Orlov and take his suggestions seriously. (While keeping his sense of black humor, as well. We'll need it.) Do not delude yourselves this will be a gentle let-down. Take a hard-nosed look at the "culture" that IS America, and draw some realistic conclusions about what privation will bring. How do the "good folks" act at the Piggly Wiggly when a storm's coming and supplies are running low? There's a clue for you.
Beware the authoritarians; these are the times they've been panting for.

I am really sorry Jim because I know these comments will ruffle your feathers.
I respect your viewpoints but you cannot seriously address the areas you are concerned about without confronting the Jewish , nay , Zionist influence in all the shenanigans that are happening all around the globe and , particularly , in America and the associated delusions in the exercise of power. The Anglo/American/Israeli alliance is central to all the shit that is happening from one end of the planet to the other. Your concerns and arguments are deficient without you having the courage and clarity to address this fact. Its not just America that is under threat - it is the whole Western world. Follow the money all the way to the BIS in Zurich and you might get the answers that you are looking for.

Truth is that the Jewish ( or should I say Ashkenazi ) community has been so successful in all areas of finance , business , media , law , administration lobbying etc etc etc that this success has fed "the crazies" whose influence has overwhelmed any sane dialogue due to the very psycotic nature of these people who are driving policy in both in Washington and London. This situation is ironically due to this very extraordinary success. Obama was chosen and groomed by shadowy figures long before the election , not elected by the people. I regret to say that your democracy that you Americans cherish so much disapeared long ago - and all that is left is some sort of Disneyland fantasy that even you are holding on to. Unless you get out on the street and reclaim your country you are fucked - think Greek ire. America was hijacked by the internationalists a long time ago.
I know you do not subscribe to conspiracy theories and you do not have to but there is an overwhelming body of evidence that there is a Globalist agenda. Without addressing and researching this issue seriously your analysis is empty and falls short of any real solution to the problem. I am sorry but incredibly much more courage and much deeper thinking is required.

With respect

Colin
Sydney
Australia

How telling is it when former members of Reagan's economic team, Paul Craig Roberts and David Stockman are denouncing Supply side economics and the insane tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans?

Stockman just wrote an article "Four Deformations of the Apocalypse" where he censures the Republicans for misrepresenting the monetarist, supply-side "ism" as rooted in traditional economic theory. There is not one among them that will think on their own and discuss economics rationally. They walk in lock-step with fundamentalist neoliberal views in spite of reality and are looking more like Bagdad Bob every time they speak. These are dangerous people since they are too afraid to stand up to the dictates of the folks who are stuffing their pockets with that pretty green paper which may be worth toilet paper in the future.

It has only led to an $18 trillion deficit and a cascade of bubbles. He also writes about Milton Friedman's $8 trillion error by getting Nixon to decouple the paper money from gold. We have lived beyond our means and have suffered a total loss of value while trade deficits are not self-correcting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?_r=1

Without barriers to entry and an interest in manufacturing anything of value here, we are only Balkanizing at greater extremes creating a bigger rift between Wall St. who feeds off the government in a form of corporate communism and Main St. which is falling deeper into a hole.

Speaking of bubbles there are developers in L.A. who are setting up business what they predict will be some real Go-Go times in the L.A., Calif real estate market in 2013. Somebody's on something.. I'd love to know what. (Can I have some of that too? It must heady- stuff, indeed-now all they have to do is convince anyone who still has money to jump right in.)

In the New Yorker there is an article worth reading by George Packer,"The Empty Chamber Just how broken is the Senate?" describing how little interaction the legislative branch actually has since everyone's just trying to raise money--- their only function. No wonder that the government is replete with corruption. Charlie Rangel et al. Nothing like having the tax policy folks cheating on their taxes.--Now that's entitlement!!

There's barely any real debate, but a lot of mugging to the camera for their own speeches and publicity. While bills are being discussed with very few showing up, the audience is twittering ideas to their press secretaries. They can't wait to get votes over with so they can catch a plane home and we are paying through the nose for this total disinterest in governing. This branch of government is completely breaking down and as usual We, the People are the biggest losers.

We all are watching in frustration as we cannot seem to turn this debacle around so all we can do is watch as the Good Ship Lollipop go down--speaking of ship references and all.

A terrific essay this morning, albeit overly optimistic that there is still time to change course. If we used what fossil fuel we have left to reconfigure sprawl and redesign our food system, if we establish local energy generation, if we quadruple mass transit, if we get serious about global population control, if CEOs start talking about less quarterly return to shareholders—too many ifs, too late in the game. We’re already sunk.

One expert on the old Soviet Union said recently that several items keep Russians going in the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet State . These were an extensive and very cheap public transport system which meant that people could still move around,get to work and move across country, without too much difficulty...in a country where few people has cars...and most city dwellers had acess to small family plots for growing vegetables on the edge of the big cities.

In addition many Russians still had family plots in the countryside and using the trains they could grow and buy some cheap food to take home.

The Second thing was that most Russian lived in state owned housing
WHEN THE CRASH CAME THEY NO LONGER PAID EVEN THE SMALL STATE RENTS THAT HAD BEEN UNIVERSAL(5% OD INCOME),,so most survived the crash !
How would Americans survive..badly re transport and badly re rent,unless the Government made a law to prevent evictions !

Interesting essay Jim. We can see the Nazis and cranks coming out of the closet even on your own comments thread - they've completely taken over what passes for the Left here in the UK, they can't seem to make it through the day without ranting about "zionism" and "israel" (nudge nudge wink wink). Between those clowns and the Muslim-bashing football hooligans of the EDL, we have the British equivelant to American Tea Party idiots, with the added bonus that they also discredit progressive politics by association.

Anyway. I agree that the Volt is probably much too little too late, that said I think it is a step in the right direction.

About the economy - I've read reports to the effect that the problem isn't that there's no cash, but that the rich are drowing in cash and have nowhere to spend it. Worth noticing when you read about private space exploration initiatives! Companies like SpaceX should soak up that surplus quite nicely. Assuming there's still energy resources left to fuel those birds, of course...

I'm just back from a week to the old homestead in western NY, an area that has been in an economic depression for four decades since the tool and furniture factories were shuttered. I spent some time roaming the roads, to see how the locals are affected by the times. I have three observations. First, it appears that the principle economic engine in the area is yard sales; the local paper ads for same took up an entire page. Second, I passed several empty houses with garbage bags full of kids toys and household odds and ends at the roadside; where are the former residents and why did they leave, I asked myself. Last, I visited a few local farmstands, all of which advertised on their signs and in the newspaper that they are happy to take food stamps.

TLE has been happening longer back there, but I take these things as nudging reminders of scenes soon to come to my neighborhood, and yours.

The electric car symbolizes the imaginary nature of the new economy. As Jim points out, electricity is just a form of energy transfer, not energy itself. The whole idea of expanded sustainable energy was to displace fossil fuels, not to supplement it. Coal, oil, nat. gas or nuclear are the prime movers for electricity, and don't forget that for thermally generated power, generation only gets 28% to 35% of the original energy content of the fuel burned, the balance is exhausted to the environment as waste heat. And,then another 5% to 10% transmission line losses. So, typically, only one-third of the energy consumed for generation will make it to the car's batteries.

The financial side of the electric car is the other imaginary dimension.

The fact that these cars may sell in any numbers at all is due to the tax rebate angle. Take California for instance. The practically bankrupt state is giving a $5,000 tax rebate. Our of thin air, one may say, or out of new IOU's, which are just about as solid as thin air. And, then I am guessing, California will soon be putting out more IOU's to subsidize additions and replacements to the electrical distribution infrastructure to support the combined load of A/C running 24/7 and the electric cars.

And then there is this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXgLnkv21Y

Once again, Mr. Kunstler cries out for a coherent march to the national ego reduction clinic, along with some pragmatic preparation in collective asceticism in advance of the inevitable austerity which foreshadows the nation’s future. But what JHK fails to mention is that no politician gets elected in this country if they have real audacity and suggest that it’s time to cut back and push the nation away from the buffet banquet table. Politicians who do so are branded losers, infected with the defeatist malaise of that misery index president Jimmy Carter. We’re Americans after all, with lifestyles that are “non-negotiable.“ So what options are left other than an extended period of checkmate time while the fat lady sings for the remaining buffalo wings?

It’s about leadership alright; but it’s also about a people who have no intention, much less the will of putting down the fork.

Beyond the diabolical and devious class warfare antics of the GOP, real discipline and austerity will be imposed by external factors. As a result, the nation will either end up looking lean, noble and reflective--I’m thinking of a magnificently lean and bearded Tom Hanks spearing for fish in Castaway--or it will descend into clans of racist barbarians shoving the equivalent of deer antlers through the wind pipes of each other a la Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

Well, Gorby did do a fine job of bringing the creaky old Soviet ship of state into drydock. And yes, there was no major bloodshed. But, according to Dmitry Orlov, something like 25 million people just disappeared! After the first few years of financial shock, they were just gone! Off the rosters. If we have a financial meltdown similar to the Soviets, just imagine what will happen here to the homeless, for example. They will die and their friends in the tent camps will bury them wherever the soil is sufficiently soft to allow easy digging. Given the current economic climate, I'm fairly certain we can meet the USSR's 25 million and even raise them a few million. I recall Orlov wrote of a "financial meltdown race" (a sardonic parody on the former arms race).

Orlov writes that the Russians were far more prepared for economic calamity than we are. Having been to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, I can certainly see the verity in that statement. The Russians, despite their welfare state, were far more self-reliant than we are. For one thing, most did not believe the crap coming out of the government gasbags. Plus, they had lots of personal agriculture. Finally - and this is very important - their expectations were more in line with reality.

In any case, I suppose we shall see...

For those who were lucky enough to get buyouts and indexed pensions from their employers, I doubt there is a lot of worry about the future. I know lots of recently-retired autoworkers who are building new homes, buying cars and going on vacations without a care in the world, secure in the knowledge that some young schmuck working for half the pay the retirees made and with almost no hope for a pension, will continue to fund their lavish lifestyle. Sometimes life sucks and there's nothing you can do about it.

"...under the control of people who would like us to eat shit and die."

No, Jim. They want us to pay the corporation/government all our taxes/debts, dig our own graves without bothering them, and *then* eat shit and die.

And if we tasted good enough, we'd be on their dinner tables with a fine chianti and fava beans.

Cheers!

When applied to society, sinking to the lowest common denominator is never a good equation.
@Ibendent..re:"The Empty Chamber..." you are right. I know many politicians; they get paid, by us, to raise money for themselves. Now, what's wrong with this picture? An analogy can be made to current day psychiatrists who get paid to dispense meds rather than do therapy and get to know their patients.
With regard to living beyond one's means- don't be fooled -being 'sustainable', at least at start-up, costs money!
"There are two Spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast domes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from a furnace." Aldo Leopold

We all know that you, I and many others have a better understanding of what needs to be done in order for this nation to be steered back onto the right course. But, the Obama Ship has been taken over by pirates, as had the ships of the previous presidents. Many of the crew members are traitors and tools for the pirates. The nation has been hijacked by the corporate elite crooks and liars. It has been allowed by the ruling classes.

Nothing will change until the pirate ship begins to sink from their own incompetencies and lack of upkeep.

We just have to wait, and in the meantime, take care of our selves and those close to us.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

The best designed SYSTEM for electric cars (so far) is Shai Agassi's Better Place. It addresses all the flaws of electrics:
--range (you can pull into a battery swap station)
--cost (you don't buy the battery, you pay for the battery like cell phone minutes)
--grid overload (the grid decides when you charge)
--cost (its much cheaper to operate than gas/diesel and overall costs are lower)

Moreover, its the only way adding renewable energy--which generates power intermittently--to the grid makes sense: the car batteries suck up the power when the wind turbines are moving, the hydro flowing, and when the solar cells get lots of sun.

Renault/Nissan will be building 100K cars a year with these swappable batteries and testing has begun on Tokyo taxis. Scaling up is their biggest issue.

It scares me to think that it could not only continue, but accelerate, our happy motoring culture. BUT, Kunstler is right: whether because of peak oil, tighter credit, and/or less disposable income, people will be driving far less in the future. But, walking or God forbid getting on a public bus is such an anathema to us that people will go hungry before they'll sell their car.

In any case, his swappable battery idea makes sense for light rail (no ugly, expensive-to-string overhead wires), buses, and perhaps freight rail.

If this all were not so tragic I might laugh. A shall attempt to provide a little history, my children. I'm sure many of you remember the Jetsons cartoon of the early l960s. Folks, this fantasy of high-tech living, flying (no fossil fuel) cars, push button automation has been a staple of the delusionary American mass consumption diet for over 50 years! It is hard to believe that our society STILL believes that we can sustain our ridiculous notion of crapping on the planet at virtually no cost (environmental, physical, mental, etc.) For chrisakes people, WAKE UP! Where, oh where is the cash going to come from to maintain the vast array of super highways your dreams are made of? Let's forget for the moment the ridiculous idea of clean energy, courtesy of the electronic automobile. Let's say it WILL happen. Let's say the government GIVES all of us a spanking new 2013 Volt (a down payment on the loan we all gave for the too big to fail G.M.). Let's further conjecture that we all get FREE ENERGY. Where is the money going to come from to maintain the infrastructure of said transit (highways, interstates, toll booths, bridges, guard rails, maintenance crews? And please don't tell me that the government is going to pay for it. Take a long, sober look in any mirror available. YOU are the government. I'm not saying you cannot have your George Jetson fantasy. I'm simply asking, how in heck are you going to pay for it with your Mcjobs? By the way, you'll need at least two Mcjobs to afford a roof over your head. Or did you think the price of food and shelter would also be provided for free?

Enjoy your view and comments from USA here in the UK -- So many parallels.

I mention your blog regularly on a world wide blog with contributors from China, France and Australia.

Other USA contributors welcome at:-

http://libertygibbert.wordpress.com/

Keep up the good work and common sense

Electric cars aren't free energy, but they do save a lot of energy - the Tesla for instance gets the equivelant of 135 mpg. The Volt when driven in electric only mode (less then 40 miles between charges) will probably get quit a bit more as it's not a high performance sports car.

That said I'm a scooter man myself. Electric cars aren't sustainable in anything like the long term as they cost a lot more and waste a lot of resources just moving people about. Scooters and bikes along with public transport would solve the problem nicely though.

One more thing, Agassi's swappable battery idea for cars is a disruptive technology; we need a truly disruptive new technology for energy (fission? helium 3 from our moon?). Otherwise, everything will come to a grinding halt.

Getting agriculture off oil probably represents the best way to solve multiple environmental problems (including global warming), employing lots of people, and eliminating most degenerative diseases. Off oil=local, nutritionally dense, organic FRESH food using perennial grasses as animal feed.

The thing about the Volt is that it's just a smokescreen. GM has absolutely zero commitment to the Volt.

Consider the fact that the Prius was sold at a large loss for the first few years. But Toyota had a long term commitment to the hybrid concept. So they ate the losses while continuing development and building brand awareness. Now the Prius is quite profitable and is the foundation of an entire line of hybrid vehicles.

GM, on the other hand, is reluctantly building just a few volts because it makes daddy happy. They have no long term plan for the Volt. There is no path of future development for the Volt. GM only wants Uncle Sugar to pat them on the head and keep forking over free government cash.

And poor sad Obama playing the fool at the GM photo ops. He's the frontman for the big IPO scam which will enrich the GM executives and the connected few. I really never imagined that a President could sink lower than Bush. But in so many ways Obama has. And it seems he he is still sinking.

Actually talk about Israel and the Middle East is relevant...because the unquestioning support of recent US presidents for anything Israel does,has helped load up the anger in the Islamic world against the USA...and I fear that the Israeli desire for an attack on Iran will land the USA in the greatest crisis of all...what will happen when the Iranians retaliate for an attack by closing the Persian Gulf to oil shipments...the price for gas at the pump will rocket...that'll be the day when the wisdom of being Israeli best friend will be questioned...and those who do that are not Nazis..for .many Jewish writers in many places do also question the policies of mad leaders like the present Likud rulers in Tel Aviv,,Libermann the Likud Foreign Minister is not acceptable in many countries which are otherwise sympathetic to Israel.
If Iran is attacked the effect may be an "oil shock" to finally topple the US economy...think about that as a consequence of unquestioning support for Israel !

Well, the more things change the more they don't quite seem the same.

I'm all boggled up with too many posts to mull over. A couple things I need clarified.

What is the "economic term" for when all the fake wealth, which is based on fake or unpaid debt, is entered into the economic system at the same time the federal Reserve prints money to give to or "loan" to all the holders of all the fake wealth and fake debt?

I mean - as far as I can see, this a mix of deflation and inflation at the same time. How does it manifest itself to me, my banker or my offspring?

Also, what good would it be to live like the 1860s? That economic model would result in back breaking life styles and starvation for more than half the population.

How do we as society determine the given level of austerity we must endure for a greater good? So far, the obvious deciding factors should involve using energy for discretionary consumption versus
usage as commodity for basic survival.

So JHK, you tell some good stories, but you never ask the hard questions about who decides, or how any activity, or anything of consequence will be sacrificed.

Should we cut out NASCAR or NFL and MLB night games and their team-travel by air? Tell us all about who decides on the 1860s or the 1960s...

Discretionary consumption - two little words no one wants to discuss, even here....

To: THE THREE STOOGES

Near the end of last week's thread are these two lines from Asoka:

1) What is happening today is the reconquest of the territories through migratory tactics. That is going swimmingly and nothing can, nor should, be done to stop it.

2) Liberal? I am insulted. Name a liberal who defends the reconquest of the southwest by Mexicans.

This is just a reminder to you three fools about where Asoka's heart lies.

And I must ask, when are you idiots going to stop talking to this guy as if there was some kind of genuine debate going on? As if the discussion was an actual two-way street? As if you are making headway in changing his mind? This is about as likely as Vlad calling up Precious for a date.

About the Amtrak item. This is going to be a problem that has to be dealt with in more than one part of the country if we are to raise rail passenger service above the level that Jim calls "embarrassing to Albania". Railroad speed limits are set by the Federal Railroad Administration, based on a standard set of criteria as to the sophistication and condition of a railroad's physical plant. Speed limits range from 10 mph to the 150 mph for Amtrak's NE Corridor in a part of Rhode Island.

The service that Jim is talking about, Amtrak trains #55 & 56, the "Vermonter", operates on a Rail America property known as the New England Central (NEC) from Palmer, MA to St. Albans, VT. This used to be the Canadian National owned Central of Vermont until about 17 years ago. Regional railroads like the NEC usually have relatively simple operating systems, lacking electronic signaling systems, which the FRA requires to operate at speeds above 59 mph. The NEC uses radio relayed paper orders called Form "D"'s to dispatch trains, much like in the old days when a station operator "hooped-up" hand-written orders to a passing train crew he transcribed from the station telegraph - only now relayed from a central dispatching office by radio. Not very advanced, but it works, and is far cheaper than paying to install and maintain automatic electric wayside signals.

New FRA rules set to go into effect by 2015 (courtesy of the Caltrain head-on collision a couple of years ago, where the commuter train engineer was texting instead of watching the signals ahead of him) will require a satellite-based system called Positive Train Control (PTC) to be used on all U. S. railroads handling either passenger or hazmat trains. PTC uses a GPS-based system that will automatically override the engineer's control and stop a train heading for a collision. Amtrak will have to subsidize installation of this system on the NEC so they can continue to operate their trains over it. Amtrak will probably have to help pay for the installation of PTC on a lot of miles of railroad in the U. S. Most routes that Amtrak uses do see at least some hazmat traffic, but the trend over the past 20 years has been that agencies wanting to operate passenger trains over a freight railroad pay for most of the costs of upgrading the line to accommodate passenger service. It's really something that needs to be done anyway, but Amtrak and the other passenger authorities should get more say in the dispatching and on-time performance of their trains than they do now.

Unless things have improved significantly on the NEC since the late '90's when I last rode the route, I don't know that I'd want to be on the "Vermonter" above 60 mph on the barely maintained, jointed rail of their "mainline". It was a somewhat rocky ride even at 59 mph. The route needs a major rebuilding, and if you're going to do that, then it really should be for more than one passenger train each way per day.

I guess Wall Street doesn't read CFN. The DOW is up 195 as we speak.

The 2010 Chevy Volt has already missed the 2010 model year... surprise. The Tango Car costs over a hundred thousand dollars.......

and the worst part is that the GM EV1 was ready to go OVER A DECADE AGO (more like a decade and a half) Chevy decided that it's 100 mile range was not enough (considering most people drive less than 40 miles a day.... one has to ask WTF???)

But Jim is right.... happy motoring isn't so happy anymore anyways... America has devolved into this quasi-fascist police state... where the Ohio State Police seem to be pulling over people at random (because of the shitload of cops nobody really speeds in Ohio...even in the cities) but yet there are plenty of people pulled over (being searched) nonetheless.

and all this talk about "alternative energy" has been going on since the seventies.... The United States talks about going solar like I talk about quitting smoking cigarettes..... seems like every month I am quitting... yet the next time you see me I will be headed out for a smoke.......

And our collective heads out for a barrel of foreign oil in much the same manner.... while talking about how we are going green.... Got news for you America, bullshit is brown.

The police state... and the lame corporations that provide "food" and the other stuff "needed" for travel are so bad at what they do that it makes me want to stay home!

http://www.suburbanempire.com

"Enjoy the heat and the clam rolls wherever you are in the meantime, and when you come home don't be surprised if you no longer recognize the country you're in."

But it is, or will soon be, the country they want. Upper Class and everyone else. Peons. The saving hope is that the peons are heavily armed, and the police reluctant to take them on because 1) they are heavily armed and/or 2) the police recognize that they are being had by the Upper Class. It was most often the Praetorian Guard who killed the Emperor in ancient Rome.

Great article Jim. You are somewhat ahead of your time, but you're right. I have to say, the people I know who still have very good corporate jobs, are in complete denial, about what has happened in this country and where we are headed. I think quite frankly they are brain washed, or stupid. I think both. In a nut shell, they think, we'll all be fine, that this country has always rebounded. What a load of crap. And by the way, what I find even more interesting, is they have kids just entering college, they can barely afford to pay for, and / or kids in high school. The kids, and the parents seem to think that they'll all find good jobs, after college. I keep my mouth shut, because the truth is, they may finish college, but they'll have to move back in with their folks, when they realize, the good jobs no longer exist in this country, and are gone for good. That will be another major turning point in just a few years.

Keep the good articles coming.

Hey, when we're done arguing about the economy, want to argue about the man convicted for the Pan Am 103 bombing?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/I-Don-t-Care-About-the-Fa-by-wagelaborer-100802-584.html

With a nation of angry , unemployed, college-debt burdened youth who were bottle-fed the ultimate in satanic fascist video games, I have no real expectation of receiving Social Security checks financed on the backs of the younger generations.

In fact, I’m thinking of tossing my hand-carved Skull and Roses walking- stick into the fire, lest an angry young mob turns my future mobility aid into a bloody scapegoat weapon.

Skidding Toward Fail.

Suburbanempire is right about the "police state" tactics. Here in NJ they just passed a law where if a pedestrian starts out or is in the crosswalk you must stop.

Now that's something anyone with common sense would do normally anyway but because of a few bonehead drivers out there who don't, they passed a state law.

Last week in Glen Ridge, NJ they had a sting set up on their main drag, Ridgewood Avenue, both directions whereby a plain clothes cop would start out to cross as you approached. If you didn't, (or they judged that you didn't) another cop behing a tree radioed ahead and you were stopped and ticketed.

They were doing a huge business with ticketing.

"we can continue to chase after the phantom of growth and allow the nation to fall into a shambles of desperation."

This.

"I happen to believe that we will be lucky in a few years if we are able to enjoy an 1860's standard-of-living"

Medically speaking, in the early to mid 1800's, a woman had 10-12 pregnancies in her lifetime; only 1 of 3 kids lived to adulthood, and 1 in 4 women did NOT SURVIVE their pregnancy. Women in childbirth died of blood loss and infection; children died of infection from minor wounds obtained around the farm (there were no anti-biotics, which, BTW, come from petroleum products). Think about what that life must have been like. That's what our futures look like, IF WE'RE LUCKY!!!!!. The population in the mid 1800s was small enough to be sustained without oil and all its results; our current population is far greater, so 1860 is far less likely than 10,000 BC as the lifestyle we're going to see.

"vast draughts of premium vodka in conjunction with Red Bull, cocaine, hydroponic ganja, Viagra, and Klonopin"

Sounds like a fun weekend.

The Clinton wedding seemed like a kind of parable about the folly of the rich US elites and the collapse of decency in US public life!

At a moment when tens of millions are unemployed and being feed by food stamps and charities,the Clintons behave like Bourbon aristos in Paris before "Le Deluge"..oh for someone with a Guillotine !!
MArie Antoinette was not match for Bill and Hillary...and they represent the "caring progressive "side of the US elites.? God help the USA
What a show of wealth and ARROGANCE..almost too amazing to be true !
Truly Washington is the new Roman Imperial Capital...I doubt that Nero or Caligula could been more heedless and greedy..and their new son-in-law works for a banking house...!!

"reality is telling us very clearly"

Since when do Americans listen to reality? We tie up reality, throw her into the back of the Humvee, and waterboard her.

You came up with the same figure for mileage equivalence for the Tesla that I did... but we're both leaving out something.

135MPG is extremely deceptive because it does not factor in the cost of replacing the battery pack every two years or so, at a cost of approximately $20,000.

Figure that in, and you come up with a very different number, one that makes a large Hummer look like a low-mileage economy car compared.

The battery pack is made of 6800 lithium ion battery cells. Lithium is a "rare earth" mineral and while the car does not produce emissions while running, it is deceptive to say it does not produce emissions- you must factor in the pollution produced in manufacturing the battery pack.

The Tesla sedan is an absolutely beautiful car but it will always be a rich person's toy. There's no free lunch when it comes to energy. A future of electric cars means very few people will own one, so we might as well square with the fact that the automobile age is coming to a close, and use the resources and money we have (if any) to capitalize electrified conventional rapid rail, NOT high speed.

@ Budizwiser

"What is the "economic term" for when all the fake wealth, which is based on fake or unpaid debt, is entered into the economic system at the same time the federal Reserve prints money to give to or "loan" to all the holders of all the fake wealth and fake debt?"

To answer your question, I shall say that my buddies and I have been informally formulating an economic paradigm based on our observations of sputtering 21st century Americana. This paradigm shall blow the theories of Smith, Marx, Keynes and Friedman out of the water. Under our model, the economic concept that answers your question is known as "Fairy Princess Myspace Glitter!"

Well, I gotta get back to the all American glitter hustle, but I hope that helps in the meantime!

Yes wagelaborer, "It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."

Turkle, that's just another day at the office for our faithful lobbyists up on K Street and lawmakers they entertain.

Corporate communism = corporate welfare state = corporatism = fascism = communism in the Soviet Union
These are some of the names of systems where most of the wealth and power are consolidated into few hands, typically less than a couple of percent. Those hands are firmly on the levers of law, finance, and power so everything else is just illusion for the sheeple.

wardoc, I researched 10,000 BC, apparently a new special effects movie and 1 million years BC, the 1966 Raquel Welch flick.

I'll go with Raquel.

There's some chance that climate change will runaway and release hydrogen sulfide gas which will change the environment enough so that no oxygen breathers will survive. That would be us.

"It's also a fine illustration of the psychology of previous investment, which prompts a desperate society to squander its scarce remaining resources on the very things that are putting it out of business."

This is the whole point. And the Volt is the little period of the ! More freeways for gods sake?? What the fcuk are people thinking?

Nothing is going to change until the whole thing crashes out of control.

DJ

Hey! For all you people writing about the International Jewish Conspiracy. Would you guys please be quiet or more people are going catch on to our game! You'll tempt me to bring this up at our weekly meeting. You guys probably know (since you know everything) that we meet every Thursday in a skyscraper in NYC to plan out world domination. Half Jews are welcome--but they only get half a vote.

All of you Goyim, who probably have a sibling who you never even talk to, wonder how us Jews get together and agree with each other on how to control the world. You Goyim can't even control your family but us Jews control the world. How do we do it? We are different than you. We look different too. If you see a bunch of big nose people going into a skyscraper in NYC on a Thursday you better stay away or our big nose goons will show you a little domination.

Mr. Kunstler --a Jew!-- writes about the fiasco of suburbia, peak oil and resource depletion and the American people's delusional attitude about it all. Now most people reading Kunstler's stuff would think, what does this have to do with the International Jewish Conspiracy to dominate the world? You people who keep writing in the JHK's blog about the Jewish Conspiracy do it to warn people about our diversion tactic. If JHK makes people think he is against BAU and the status quo people will not catch on to our plan of of building wall to wall Wallmarts with a few suburban ranch homes in between. (Ok, so now you know our plan. But you know everything anyways.) So please be quiet or we will have to do something about you guys. (And we know where you are.)

And to that guy in Australia who wrote about the Jews above. We will be sending you a hooker and a twenty dollar bill if you agree to be quiet about this. OK?

wall to wall Walmarts....I laughed.

Please, stop the Jew anti-Jew comments. As someone above has pointed out, these feelings were created in you by propaganda to DIVIDE the population. A divided and constantly fighting population is far easier to control than a cohesive, united people, united against their overlords..

Instead, you should be asking yourselves, 'who are these overlords that control so much of my life, and whose decisions over which I have no sway..'

George Carlin believed it was the fabulously wealthy, the ones who own much of the super international corporations who are our true overlords. I'd agree, and add that the rich ruling the non-rich is part of a societal system that manages itself and has been doing just that since the invention of money and ways to count it. But because it is inherently evil, it will ultimately fail.

We are living during the times of that failing.

"Your response is pure ad hominem attack without responding to my evidence, and without contributing anything positive."

So what else is new at kunstler.com?

thanks ZXCVBNM, for the link and compensating for my flagging computer skills.... Moe

Great column, JHK, and you are right on the money (bad pun intended).

There is a website I have accessed for a couple of years now, both to read the commentaries as well as to listen to their weekly news offerings. It is the financialsense.com site and I would urge anyone who reads JHK's weekly commentaries to access their Newshour for July 28, 2010. It features an interview with Michael Ruppert, an ex-L.A. cop and former detective who has turned his investigative talents over to the current crises we face in the U.S. I usually allow this program to play in the background while I take care of other tasks but I have to tell you that this particular program had me riveted and listening with all senses at attention. I recommend it to all.

Gracious sakes! Them railroad-train contraptions a tearin' along at a mile a minute! Why, tarnation, that's liable to scare the horses, make the milch cows dry up and put the chickens off their feed! What'll they be tryin' next?

Seriously, my dad used to sing some lyrics about a train going a mile a minute that was an old song when he was young. I think it might be this one:

http://ciscohouston.com/lyrics/clickety_clack.shtml

Suddenly it's 1860! Ominously, that was the year before the Civil War broke out ...

"Please, stop the Jew anti-Jew comments. As someone above has pointed out, these feelings were created in you by propaganda to DIVIDE the population. A divided and constantly fighting population is far easier to control than a cohesive, united people, united against their overlords..

Instead, you should be asking yourselves, 'who are these overlords that control so much of my life, and whose decisions over which I have no sway..'"

A very BIG Like!

Yoni.

Interesting article this week, JHK. You splice known truths into gloom and doom and come up with something that is enjoyable to read...but depressing overall.

Just to be sure, I went back and read the article a second time....YEP, it's depressing all right.

The Ship of State is going down and Jim tells us we burned all the lifeboats for firewood years ago.

And some of you posters on the thread make JHK look like a screaming optimist. I mean...my family had been hoping to have turkey for Thanksgiving....

But according to some of you posters the best we'll be able to expect for Thanksgiving is a couple of roasted rats from the river swamp below the house.

At least we'll have something to eat.
Life is good!
************************************************
And seriously, we can't have a "normal" economic recovery in the US anymore, because we don't MAKE useful things.

You can't run the economy of a great Nation when all the best new business ideas involve cleaning each others offices....selling financial products to one another...or selling Sub Sandwiches to people passing by on the street.

And now real working capital is free to move around the globe...I'm sure the business people in China and India are not as depressed as some of you on this blog seem to be.

An honest national effort at renewable energy (equal in scale to NASA's moon program) could still save the US and the world...but time is getting damn short.

and Q and A and anybody small minded enough to join in their foolishness....this is an internationally read blog with new visitors every week...what you two are doing is wrong...STOP BURNING UP JHK'S BANDWITH ON THIS IDIOCY SO EARLY IN A NEW WEEK!

What happened to all the perfectly good GM EV1s? They were crushed. Oil money rules the world. Watch "who killed the electric car"...

On a positive note, I actually went for a ride in a 100% Electric converted Honda Civic on Friday Night. It was fucking awesome! There were a couple Toyota RAV4 EVs at the event too. Supposedly there are only ~350 Rav4s left because they were all crushed. You can't even buy a new battery pack either, Chevron bought that patent.

And yes, I am converting a 91' Honda CRX to be 100% electric, silent, fast, and cool.

I'm also going to plug my website one week soon...

JHK, how many hits do you get on Monday mornings?

You'd think we could get the world to WAKE UP with the internet, the perfect viral video with an oh by the way were fucked at the end message and please do something about it call to action..or not...

PUSH ON . DO GOOD . KEEP SMILING

Howdy Wagelaborer, Last week you posted the following:

"All right, SNAFU, way to use math!
Now, why don't you work out the mathematical equation for the potential of jet fuel to explode- "Six million sq ft of masonry, 5 million sq ft of painted surfaces, 7 million sq ft of flooring, 600,000 sq ft of window glass, 200 elevators, and everything inside came down as dust, according to Greg Meeker of USGS" , not to mention 200,000 tons of steel, thrown into pieces,some of which pierced neighboring buildings, plus pulverized humans, bits of which were tossed onto the rooftops of neighboring buildings?
I'd love to see the equations for that!
Didn't you state before that the buildings were ripe for falling, and it was just a wonder that a pigeon smacking into a window didn't bring them down earlier?
Or was that someone else?"

Where to start? Never have I pontificated about the twin towers on this or any blog prior to today.

Math? As I have stated previously I am but using high school algebra and physics. The knowledge of 28 hours of engineering math and 18 hours of physics required for my engineering degree have unfortunately to a large degree slipped silently out of my memory banks.

To the task at hand I did a bit of sleuthing upon the net to ferret out the following information:

Flt 11 was a Boeing 767-200 aircraft with 92 humans aboard, I estimated about 15000 lbs for their wt. and 10000 lbs for their baggage and other miscellaneous cargo, 70000 lbs of fuel out of a potential 168000 lbs full load of fuel. The aircraft was traveling at about 404kts/hr at impact with the North tower between the 93rd and 99th (out of 111) floors. 102 minutes later the North tower leaned over and collapsed.

Flt 175 was a Boeing 767-200 extended aircraft with 65 humans aboard, I estimated about 10000 lbs for their wt. and 10000 lbs for their baggage and other miscellaneous cargo, 70000 lbs of fuel out of a potential 168000 lbs full load of fuel. The aircraft was traveling at about 545kts/hr at impact with the North tower between the 77th and 85th (out of 111) floors. 56 minutes later the South tower collapsed virtually straight Earthward. Although the South tower was struck 17 minutes after the North tower it collapsed approximately 29 minutes prior to the North tower.

Now let's look at bit of physics:

For convenience I used the same impact mass which I estimated at 250000lbs/32ft/sec/sec = 7812 slugs for both aircraft because Flt 11 had more humans aboard and Flt 175 was a slightly larger aircraft. We shall see that the mass differences would make relatively small changes to the energies involved. Converting the speeds from kts/hr to feet/sec we find Flt 11 was traveling at 685 feet/sec and Flt 175 at 800 ft/sec. The kinetic energy of each aircraft at impact was about: KEflt11 = 1/2*7812*685^2 = aprox 1.825*10^9ftlbs or 1.356J/ftlb*1.825*10^9 = 2.47*10^9 joules of energy. The KEflt175 = 1/2*7812*800^2 = 2.5*10^9*1.356 = 3.39*10^9 joules
of energy. From Wikipedia I found that 4.184*10^9 J is equivalent to 1000Kg of TNT explosive. Therefore the TNT equivalent impact energies of the two aircraft were: KEflt11 TNT equivalent = 2.47*10^9/4.184 = aprox 590Kg TNT and KEflt175 = 3.39*10^9/4.184*10^9 = aprox 810Kg TNT. Notice the power of exponential increases, for the same mass an increase in speed of 1.17 times Flt 11 for Flt 175 yields a TNT equivalent increase of 1.37 times. The impact of the planes likely sheared off some of the exoskeleton structural support of the towers; however, the 70000 lbs of fuel estimated to be aboard each aircraft was the real damage maker. Had there been no fires the towers would not have collapsed; however, there would still have been large loss of life on the floors impacted by the aircraft.

Let's take a look at the fuel; Jet A or Jet A1, I know not which was in use, are very similar with the exception that the density of A1 is about .5lb/gallon less than A. Both have a flash point of about 105F and both contain about 2.4*10^7 J/lb of energy. For the 70000lb this means that the energy contained in the fuel was about 70000*2.4*10^7 joules = 1.68*10^12J which equates to a TNT equivalent of 1.68*10^12/4.184*10^9 = 402metric tons of TNT or roughly 442 US tons of TNT which is about 884000 lbs of TNT equivalent in 70000lbs of fuel oil. Is this an Ah Ha moment for anyone? Did a light illuminate about the reason OIL is so sought after? Oil has roughly 12.6 times as much energy per unit mass as TNT; is that a WOW or not?

Jet A and Jet A1 fuels are specifically formulated to have a high flash point (105F) which is the temperature at which the fuel will vaporize sufficiently to burn in the presence of an ignition source. The auto ignition temperature of a substance is the temperature at which it will continue to burn absent an ignition source which for Jet A and A1 is about 400F. When the aircraft impacted the buildings the fuel continued forward at a high rate of speed and likely a significant amount was atomized as it collided with structures within the buildings. The hot engine components were right behind the fuel and provided an ignition source for the atomized fuel which quickly heated the air in the building cavities containing the fuel to the point that the fuel would have reached autoignition temperatures. The likelihood that a fuel air explosion took place is vanishingly small. When I was in Viet Nam the USAF used a few fuel air bombs which I was not involved with but as it was my job became familiar with. As anyone with a computer can Google and discover most fuel air combustion processes take place subsonically or as it is known in the trade it deflagrates. A detonation blast takes place with a supersonic flame front racing through the fuel oxidizer mixture igniting the substrate as it passes through. For a fuel air weapon to function the mixtures of air (oxidizer) and fuel must be within some relatively close parameters and to obtain a detonation blast a supersonic ignition source must be present. Therefore my best guess is that the fuel from the aircraft burned intensely with a minor overpressure effect which would have blown out windows and some affects within the buildings but not sufficient to do any major structural damage.

The components of the aircraft undoubtedly ripped a significant portion of the insulation surrounding the structural steel off as they slammed into the interior of the buildings. The exposed steel was heated rapidly, sans it's insulation, by the burning fuel and office space combustibles. If both aircraft contained approximately the same amount of fuel why did the second building hit collapse first? This is where the differences in the velocities plays an effect. The first aircraft impacted with an energy of 1.825*19^9 J and the second with 3.39*10^9 J and the impact energy differences affected the damages to the interior of the buildings. The second aircraft with higher energy at impact likely drove fuel and components deeper into the interior of the South tower enabling a more symmetric heating of the structural steel exposed to the heat of the burning fuel. Since there were about 34 floors above the impact level on the South tower the additional mass coupled with the deeper heating resulted in a nearly pancake perfect collapse of the South tower 56 minutes subsequent to impact. The North tower was inflicted with a less severe impact injury same quantity of fuel; but, not as symmetrically dispersed with significantly less mass, only 17 floors, half the number above the impact level of the South tower. When the North tower collapsed it started with a tip out of the top 17 floors and then it also pancaked virtually straight down.

The impact damage at distance from the collapsed towers can be understood as the momentum of impact from the mass of the towers hurtling Earthward impinging upon portions of the lower floors which in turn hurtled pieces into the air space due to collision effects.

There you go Wage have fun.

Progressor, Fear not I have started looking into the photovoltaic power generation industry for you.

SNAFU

I'm a limey, myrtlemay, but I read about the Edsel (without the details you give) long ago.

You sure write well, Vision Cube. Do you do it professionally?

Regarding my earlier post; ie, my neighbor's new, big, shiney, Dodge Ram. I noticed that it has an ethanol emblem on it. Do any of you out there in CF land know anything about these trucks? I know ethanol isn't the answer to anything, but just how efficient are these things? This truck is absolutely unbelievably big. I'm thinking the guy could have bought himself a little Toyota p/u for half the price. I have never seen him load anything in this monster truck, although I have no real idea what he does for a living.

I am not an historian but I am, nevertheless, fairly certain that nearly 100% of the people on earth are occupying lands that they or their ancestors "took" from some previous "owner." Yes, there may be an exception or two - the Eskimos perhaps?

Once land is taken the new owners will fight like hell, carve commandments such as "thou shalt not steal" into stone tablets, and concoct elaborate legal systems and property rights to hold on to it and in time will be convinced that they are, in fact, the "rightful owners." And, so long as they hang onto that land, occupy it, use it and defend it from new, would-be occupiers they are the rightful owners. If ever there was a relative term, "rightful owner" is it.

One of the more extreme examples of this is Jerusalem which has changed hands 26 times in 4,000 years and has been totally or partially destroyed 35 times. (For more on this google "Jerusalem the Contested City" by Dr. F.E. Peters.)

Sooo ... if Anglo Saxons arrived 5 centuries ago and displaced indigenous Indians and Mexicans, well, tough shit for the Indians and Mexicans. As Vlad said, "we took it fair and square." And if the Mexicans wade back across "our" southern border and re-take the southwest it's tough shit for the Anglos. This is how it works. Don't go getting all pissed off at me for telling the truth.

In case you haven't guessed, I favor defending all our borders from encroachment by "illegal" immigrants. What makes them "illegal?" Because we fucking say so. Is this too harsh for someone's tender little ears?

Why is this so hard to see and understand? It's so obvious.

Q and A ... what you two are doing is wrong...STOP BURNING UP JHK'S BANDWITH ON THIS IDIOCY SO EARLY IN A NEW WEEK!

==================

Progressorconserve, see what you have done?

Your post is only going to promote more small-minded response and more waste of bandwidth, contrary to your stated concern.

Late to the flame-o-rama this week, but here's a bit of support for JHK's thesis: an Morning Edition or Marketplace story (still hunting that link) about "underwater" mortgages in the DC suburbs.

Bottom line: nationally more than a million home-owners unable to move because they owe a lot more than their homes are now worth--50% more in the area covered by the story.

These folks are one layoff away from walking on that loan. What a disaster. I expect another housing collapse in the dark days of winter.

The Oil Drum proves against that it hasn't met an oil industry subsidy that it doesn't love and seek to defend regardless of the consequences:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6796#more

I'd become offended except that there isn't a conscious person alive outside the employment of the oil industry who would read The Oil Drum as anything other than what it is ... that is a lying shill and propagandist for the American Petroleum Institute.

It began an oil industry rag and it remains and oil industry rag and it won't ever stop being an oil industry rag.

The members there don't mind, though, because most of them get their paycheck from the oil industry and the rest have their oil industry investments.

Trashing the Gulf of Mexico is just collateral damage to those people. They love their money more than they love humankind. Oil is the drug that will drive humankind extinct.

As for myself, I am thoroughly invested in Nature and look forward to the post-human earth:

http://www.flickr.com/dmathew1

Peak Oil better get here soon otherwise it will be lost in the muddle of civilization's collapse and no one will even notice its occurrence.

So JHK, you tell some good stories, but you never ask the hard questions about who decides, or how any activity, or anything of consequence will be sacrificed.

Should we cut out NASCAR or NFL and MLB night games and their team-travel by air? Tell us all about who decides on the 1860s or the 1960s...

Discretionary consumption - two little words no one wants to discuss, not even here..

Why the BS about electric cars? They "consume" - what is needed is technology that "saves" energy?

And if we can't find the "savings" then the cuts have to come from the status quo?

Let's all get together, like in Denmark and discuss how each of us will reduce our discretionary energy consumption....

Discretionary consumption - two little words no one wants to discuss, not even here..

Why the BS about electric cars? They "consume" - what is needed is technology that "saves" energy?

In other words, during the 28 hour flight the plane increased the amount of energy available.

Even if all of our cars were ommitted and the trains were somehow enlisted to do the dirty bit of moving us around the landscape - there are too many of us - too many of us to move about. We need double maybe even triple sets of train tracks to move us to and fro. Back and forth to the grinding, belching factories that hold our paychecks...wait, I'm thinking of some other place. Nevermind. Go, talk amongst yourselves.

i genuinely like ol' dave. like i like most humans. they are just so fucking human.

pretty pictures bubba. i saw a roadrunner in the rain today. broke my heart. no camera though.

if a heart breaks in the desert and no one takes a picture...

shecky desolado

I am just replying to my Jewish friends.

Please don't give us the old "anti semetic" chestnut. Its a copout and just inhibits meaningful discussion.

"I can't ignore the sensation of being seasick-on-dry-land" that tells me something awful is at hand" (JHK). I hear ya, the last time I felt this way was 2 months before Sept. 11. I returned from my semi-annual road trip up the California coast two days ago (we still have roads in California---for now anyway, so I went for it), although Big Sur seems to be sliding into the Pacific, with a few one-lane areas now and construction crews erecting enormous fake cement mountainsides to stop the erosion. Nets don't work anymore. Santa Barbara's State Street (main shopping area) was eerily vacant, although Pismo Beach had a lot of tourists (Germans, many Germans in San Francisco, too). Lots of road rage in Central Cal on Highway 1, and tons of jumbo people in their "El Monte RV" motorhomes clogging the roads---everywhere. Well, gas is only $3.49 a gallon. I came within 3 feet of a fresh dead person on the sidewalk at the base of Buena Vista Park, the cops put a white sheet on him right when I approached. I looked into the dead man's eyes. He did not look unhappy. In San Franciso I bought a near-mint issue of the March 1970 Esquire magazine, featuring Lee Marvin's wary countenance on the front with the cover blurb "Evil Lurks in California. Lee Marvin is Afraid". 1970? Evil? OK, there was the Manson Family and the Vietnam War, but I have a feeling the Cat Ballou star would be pissing in his pants if he were alive in 2010.

Here are some simple businessmen from Indonesia who are using gold and silver currency as part of their economy. They have a pretty good grasp of the deception and theft of the Babylonian banking system. They show in simple terms how money in the bank is continually eroding in value, while gold and silver can purchase the same number of goats or chickens today as they could 1500 years ago.

So simple, an American can understand it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNtIsSWVJBI&feature=player_embedded

China has been the worlds largest economy for 15 of the last 18 centuries, the U.S. has been the worlds largest economy for about a half a century. China has been through many cycles of inflation, deflation,hyper-inflation, wage arbitrages and the like. The U.S. only knows inflation so it is difficult for the average American to comprehend the possibility of necessities such as cars, healthcare and pensions only being affordable to elites and government workers.

The U.S. government is in the process of monetizing all those bad mortgages, car loans and debts of all kind to ensure that we all pay those debts through inflation. The government cannot allow deflation to set in because it would then be impossible for the government to service the growing debt. Everyone loses with high rates of inflation but at least the government will be able to sustain it's self.

And Building 7?

Oh, wait a second -burp!

People get a fucking clue. Either we get together and discuss ways to share values regarding discretionary consumption or we are fucked.

We either rig markets, or penalize people directly, but no matter what, leaving it alone assures the worst of possible Clusterfucks, with the hogs winning and polite people losing.

Get a fucking clue. Now discuss discretionary consumption. That's why the rest of the world hates us, it's the non-negotiable American way of life.

Get a fucking clue. Now discuss discretionary consumption.
=======================

budizwiser, we are in a bit of a bind right now and discretionary cash flow is declining.

We know this because the effects are showing up on bank balance sheets and income statements as slower loan growth, faster share growth, rising delinquency rates, and lower net income.

There are several contributing factors to declining discretionary income. These include:

1. Consumer incomes aren't rising as fast as inflation.

2. Rising food and fuel prices are increasing essential spending costs.

3. Discretionary spending is decreasing.

4. Consumer balance sheets are eroding as falling home prices reduce consumer wealth.

5. Home foreclosures ... need I say more?

Because of this wealth evisceration, consumers are reducing discretionary consumption and increasing savings.

Consumers are hoping discretionary cash flow will improve when economic expansion resumes ... if it resumes.

Islam's banking system is based on fees charged ahead of time. This means you can't get money back if you pay ahead of time (unless you put something into the contract detailing whether money is given back for pre-payment, and how much). I'll take interest-paying, as long as I know what I'm getting into, the rules are fair and I can pay ahead without having to pay for the full period.

And as for the "zagat" the bank gives to various charities, goody for them - I'll give on my own first, and worry about whether the companies I pay money to give afterwards.

One railroad-oriented website went back and calculated the average travel speed, including station stops, for streamliners in 1952, based on the Official Guide to the Railways. Many of them were in the range of 40 to 45 mph, a few under 40 mph, and a few above 50 mph. The Chicago to Florida routes in particular had slow speeds.

Many of the railroads in the east had (and some still have) significant geometric and grade issues. Station stops do require time, and the urban routes that trains go through involve many low speed (15 mph) sections. In fact, raising a section of track from 15 mph to 30 mph (or 40 mph to 60 mph) is much more efficient than increasing the speed from 79 mph to 90 mph.

That said, we need to look at the concepts that railroads like CSX are using. CSX improved speed and capacity along its Chicago to Atlanta route by adding high speed turnouts for passing sidings, allowing trains to pass each other at 45 mph each. This is much more efficient than double-tracking a route that never had a double track before. (Think bridges and tunnels as well as new rights of way and existing industrial sidings.)

CSX submitted to the USDOT in 2006 a proposal for a Washington to Miami four-track corridor, to be grade separated, that would allow passenger train speeds up to 125 mph and freight speeds up to 79 mph. It is a good concept model for the critical high speed corridors that the federal government has identified. Everything else needs to be conventional rail.

Right now, the Obama administration has freaked out the Class I railroads by issuing a draconian set of regulations for federal railroad grants that gives the railroads no incentive to take the money. The Senate subcommittee has cut the high speed rail funding and increased the Amtrak funding. We still have no transportation bill, but, of course, we don't even have a federal budget!

No one (other than JHK and a few like him) has asked the question "where are we going to find 10,000 rail passenger cars and 1,000 rail passenger locomotives?" That is how many passenger rail cars were in inventory when Amtrak started in 1971. (Of course only about 30 percent were still road-worthy.)

Do Obama or Ray LaHood (Transportation Secretary) know any of this? Probably LaHood does, but he has no real power. Meanwhile, we are waiting for Obama to come to Nashville to bless the new Nissan Leaf, the best electric car coming. Metro Nashville government is adding recharging stations on public property. Of course, Tennessee is a right-to-work state, so we won't hold our collective breath.

Good column, Jim. Keep preaching.

budizwiser said:

Get a fucking clue. Now discuss discretionary consumption. That's why the rest of the world hates us, it's the non-negotiable American way of life.

On second thought, your whole premise here may be wrong. Not only do they NOT hate us for our discretionary consumption, they are anxious to join us in discretionary consumption.

In the past 10 to 20 years, emerging economies have been heavily driven by exports and investments. Looking ahead, the structure of growth will shift to discretionary consumption.

This is due to rising income levels. With a lot of evidence suggesting that certain levels of income (around $3,000 per capita) lead to a sudden surge in discretionary consumption, the fact that 50% more people in emerging markets are expected to reach that threshold in the next five years is significant.

Another factor driving the discretionary consumption trend is the correction of global imbalances. Recently, export-driven emerging markets have generated huge current account surpluses, while discretionary consumption in the developed world has produced large deficits.

The credit crisis has made it clear to emerging market policymakers that they can't continue to grow by relying on exports.

The third driver of discretionary consumption is the lack of household debt in emerging markets. While household debt relative to GDP is above 80% in the United States, this number is less than 20% in emerging markets. Similarly, mortgage penetration in many markets such as India is only 7%, compared with 80% to 90% in many western countries.

Solar Guy

ya have to be careful in those really quiet cars because people will step out in front of you. you are going to have to use the horn alot.

i luv quiet cars.

i sure wish i had my old honda cv. major miles per gallon.

i have 3 bicycles now tho and can get around this town i live in without a car. got feet, bikes, buses. etc. and a camry.

we are definitely going thru a transformation, much needed actually. but it's gonna hit so hard because of all of the thieves who took 'our' money they didn't earn. it got so out of control. people got caught up in it making 200k in one month on a house. from 200k to 400k in 2002 or so. buy and sell immediately. it was a sickness. (too bad i didn't get in on it !)

maybe there is no such thing as a simple life in this world.

what a long strange trip it is.

i know i am not original, but i enjoy reading the posts here. every once in awhile, i say something, or try to anyway.

that's it for now.

Asoka,

You are not a biologist. You have no demonstrated knowledge of exponential growth of populations.

You say, "On the other hand, as incomes rise in emerging countries and their opportunity for discretionary spending increases, they won't want to come."

Your open borders and rising incomes in emerging countries are setting forces in motion that can destroy the ecosystems on the planet that support human life.

Have a nice day.

Nissan's electric vehicle will be more successful because the Japanese government - which has balanced car manufacturing and mass transit in their homeland for nearly fifty years - have an economic strategy. Nissan is owned by Renault, and the French are pretty good at striking a balance between autoroutes and TGV lines.

The Japanese economy stays afloat on our demand for Honda Pilots.

This oil-dependent land of ours failed to notice that August 2, 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the day Mr. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Thanks for making it clear. Your grandchildren...

Others have grandchildren, too, and need the food security and clean water you already have.

But you are "not willing to doom the human species"... just allow it to suffer a slow death on the other side of the big fucking wall you love so much.

Do me a favor and never imagine you are a Christian. You are a moral monster.

CORRECTION: "You are a moral monster ... but I like you as a person."

Anyway...

What got us into this discussion was the unsecured border with Mexico.

http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/1438/earth_lights.gif

Look at this picture. I mean LOOK at the goddamn thing!! Mexico has *almost* as much progress and civilization as the US...and they are closing fast.

If they don't have "food, security, and clean water" it is a problem of the Mexican government and their management of the country's resources.

I'll repeat the question from last week that no one answered:

"Why is it that the light skinned Castillian Spanish citizens of Mexico never attempt to emigrate to the US illegally? What is wrong with Mexican society that their lower class citizens have to BREAK the LAW trying to escape?"

Mexico needs to solve their own societal problems.
The US cannot save the World any longer. We may be lucky to save ourselves.

Illegal immigration is bad for Mexico, bad for the US, and bad for the Planet.

I haven't driven a single mile since my old shitbox of a car took a crap in mid-June, and I don't plan to any time soon, because they are expensive, and I don't really need one. I still go to visit the same friends every weekend, I still do my shopping, and I still to and from work (for however long it lasts).

This past Sunday, I was riding to my friend's house, a journey of about 12 miles round trip. He lives out in the country away from my small town, and the area is populated by people with big trucks, ball caps, and NASCAR bumper stickers.

I came to a four way stop, and while waiting for traffic to clear, someone going the other way came to a stop and yelled out his window to me, "Keep going buddy, you're almost there!" I yelled right back "Keep going buddy, you're almost here!", while pointing at my bike.

Needless to say, he didn't get the joke. To make things even better, he did a nice long burnout with his F-150 and headed off to town, probably to buy something. Precious.

I am well aware of who owns the country, and everything in it, but they do not own me. I participate in the system only to the degree that it makes sense to me to do so. When working for a paycheck no longer suits my needs, I will move on to something else. I don't have children, and my name isn't "Dad", so I can do that.

I don't have any illusions about my ability, or the collective ability of everyone who participates in this forum to effect any sort of a political solution to the compressive deflationary contraction we are witnessing. It is what it is. It's as simple as that. Trying to find solutions to problems that cannot be solved is wasted effort, so I try to spend at least as much of my free time learning useful skills as I do in escapist amusements.

I haven't driven a single mile since my old shitbox of a car took a crap in mid-June, and I don't plan to any time soon, because they are expensive, and I don't really need one. I still go to visit the same friends every weekend, I still do my shopping, and I still go to and from work (for however long it lasts).

This past Sunday, I was riding to my friend's house, a journey of about 12 miles round trip. He lives out in the country away from my small town, and the area is populated by people with big trucks, ball caps, and NASCAR bumper stickers.

I came to a four way stop, and while waiting for traffic to clear, someone going the other way came to a stop and yelled out his window to me, "Keep going buddy, you're almost there!" I yelled right back "Keep going buddy, you're almost here!", while pointing at my bike.

Needless to say, he didn't get the joke. To make things even better, he did a nice long burnout with his F-150 and headed off to town. Probably to buy something. Precious.

I am well aware of who owns the country, and everything in it, but they do not own me. I participate in the system only to the degree that it makes sense to me to do so. When working for a paycheck no longer suits my needs, I will move on to something else. I don't have children, and my name isn't "Dad", so I can do that.

I don't have any illusions about my ability, or the collective ability of everyone who participates in this forum to effect any sort of a political solution to the compressive deflationary contraction we are witnessing. It is what it is. It's as simple as that. Trying to find solutions to problems that cannot be solved is wasted effort, so I try to spend at least as much of my free time learning useful skills as I do in escapist amusements.

The most useful skill I have learned so far is how to be happy in spite of " ". Fill in the blank, and have a nice day.

Doh, sorry for the double post (with edit). I didn't think the first post made it through. Ciao.

Whew! I just skimmed all this stuff, twisted man that I am. And (drum roll), my award for the best post of the day goes to Brian F. for letting us all in on the weekly meetings of the Jewish conspiracy team.

Brilliant satire, my friend. Wall-to-wall Wal-Marts -- love it!

The sad thing is, though, it's a conspiracy that some -- perhaps even on this site -- have thought about in very earnest ways.

I liked the line "chasing the phantom
of growth" in Jim's weekly missive.
That about sums it up. If ever there
was a version of earth that fits Thomas
Malthus' theories, it's this version.
Earth 2.0. :-)

There are many ironies about the US
economy in Earth 2.0. One is that we
are counting "growth" as the cancerous
growth in the financial sector which
is careening toward being a full third
of the entire US economy.

Kids are still majoring in Business in
college. It's a big favorite. The
irony is that in the 1970s biz majors
were relentlessly teased as not being
"real" students ... and rightfully so.
What "skill" do you learn in biz school?

The course titles ought to reflect what
such courses represent:

1) Finance 101 - Obfuscated Financial Products
2) Finance 102 - Fleecing Third World Countries
3) Finance 103 - Courting Dictators
4) Finance 104 - Downsizing Your Neighbors Wallet
5) Finance 105 - Getting People to Buy Shit
6) Finance 106 - Manufacturing Necessity in
Consumers
7) Finance 107 - Shopping as Lifestyle
8) Finance 108 - Orwellian Advertising
9) Finance 109 - Psychological Methods to
Prevent Saving in Consumers
10)Finance 110 - Offshoring for Civic Sociopaths

I don't believe a college should have either
a school of business OR a school of education.
I don't know which is worse. When you meet
educational administrators, you really sense
you're dealing with an Orwellian slimeball.

Many Republican talk shows love to light into
educators but you educators out there know
that the overpaid, underworked people in
education who IMPEDE progress in classrooms
are the principles, Deans, Presidents, and
various functionaries who deal with "student
activities" and "counseling".

It's time for my mantra: Kafka's world was
sane.

E.

Well Jim

As we enter the summer holiday silly-season.... (you may pulpit bash)...but the masses are not listening...they're focused on cramming the SUV's to the rafters full of all those key creature comforts... you know, sleeping bags, baby-diapers, note-books, kindles, DVD players, iPod chargers, the kitchen sink.... and fast-food snacks, cheesy-doodles and the ubiquitous shrink-wrapped mega coke bottl/sugary drink bratz placating packs...

You're the king-o-the-hill in that gas-guzzling masculine knobbly tyred uber vehicle....right?

But when those gloom filled weeks of October are back, when Billy-Bob is sat at the coal-face of corporate down-sized sanctioned workstations (the lucky ones still with jobs that is) return to the sobering stance of income generation again.... then where will they be?

Increasingly frightened, on-the-edge and disillusioned. One of the winning fields in all this is mental health. Here in the UK white men of 50 plus and a certain age/class are more frequently turning to guns to solve there melt-downs... there lack of easy affluenza...

A case of this fiction....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8b3963VRW4&

Becoming fact...

The biggest irony of all this being some centuries past Europeans flocked to your landmass originally for a better future as the unravelling at home had become unbearable...

(the local red-skinned incumbents quickly being removed/dispersed) New age settlers or invaders... use whichever word works best?

And where are you lot now exactly, chest beating and star-striped clasped?

Right here I'd wager....

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/07/27/american_people_obsolete

Once more headed for a grim life of ghastly deprevation...Govt elite sponsored or otherwise people.....*sniggers*

And WWIII awaits patiently off-shore Iran...

(HooRah to that)

Here is a "rebuttal" -- I suppose -- from the Seretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner. It is published in today's New York Times [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/opinion/03geithner.html?hp][/url] (By the way, please don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger!!)

Welcome to the Recovery
By TIMOTHY F. GEITHNER
Published: August 2, 2010

THE devastation wrought by the great recession is still all too real for millions of Americans who lost their jobs, businesses and homes. The scars of the crisis are fresh, and every new economic report brings another wave of anxiety. That uncertainty is understandable, but a review of recent data on the American economy shows that we are on a path back to growth.

The recession that began in late 2007 was extraordinarily severe, but the actions we took at its height to stimulate the economy helped arrest the freefall, preventing an even deeper collapse and putting the economy on the road to recovery.

From the start, President Obama made clear that recovery from a crisis of this magnitude would not come quickly and that the recovery would not follow a straight line. We saw that this past spring, when the European fiscal crisis posed a serious challenge to the markets and to business confidence, dampening investment and the rate of growth here.

While the economy has a long way to go before reaching its full potential, last week’s data on economic growth show that large parts of the private sector continue to strengthen. Business investment and consumption — the two keys to private demand — are getting stronger, better than last year and better than last quarter. Uncertainty is still inhibiting investment, but business capital spending increased at a solid annual rate of about 17 percent.

Together, private consumption and fixed investment contributed about 3.25 percent to growth. Even the surge in imports, which lowered the rate of increase of G.D.P., actually reflects healthy and growing American demand.

As the economists Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart have written, recoveries that follow financial crises are typically a hard climb. That is reality. The process of repair means economic growth will come slower than we would like. But despite these challenges, there is good news to report:

• Exports are booming because American companies are very competitive and lead the world in many high-tech industries.

• Private job growth has returned — not as fast as we would like, but at an earlier stage of this recovery than in the last two recoveries. Manufacturing has generated 136,000 new jobs in the past six months.

• Businesses have repaired their balance sheets and are now in a strong financial position to reinvest and grow.

• American families are saving more, paying down their debt and borrowing more responsibly. This has been a necessary adjustment because the borrow-and-spend path we were on wasn’t sustainable.

• The auto industry is coming back, and the Big Three — Chrysler, Ford and General Motors — are now leaner, generating profits despite lower annual sales.

• Major banks, forced by the stress tests to raise capital and open their books, are stronger and more competitive. Now, as businesses expand again, our banks are better positioned to finance growth.

• The government’s investment in banks has already earned more than $20 billion in profits for taxpayers, and the TARP program will be out of business earlier than expected — and costing nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars less than projected last year.

We all understand and appreciate that these signs of strength in parts of the economy are cold comfort to those Americans still looking for work and to those industries, like construction, hit hardest by the crisis. But these economic measures, nonetheless, do represent an encouraging turnaround from the frightening future we faced just 18 months ago.

The new data show that this recession was even deeper than previously estimated. The plunge in economic activity started an entire year before President Obama took office and was accelerating at the end of 2008, when G.D.P. fell at an annual rate of roughly 7 percent.

Panicked by the collapse in demand and financing and fearing a prolonged slump, the private sector cut payrolls and investment savagely. The rate of job loss worsened with time: by early last year, 750,000 jobs vanished every month. The economic collapse drove tax revenue down, pushing the annual deficit up to $1.3 trillion by last January.

The economic rescue package that President Obama put in place was essential to turning the economy around. The combined effect of government actions taken over the past two years — the stimulus package, the stress tests and recapitalization of the banks, the restructuring of the American car industry and the many steps taken by the Federal Reserve — were extremely effective in stopping the freefall and restarting the economy.

According to a report released last week by Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi, advisers to President Bill Clinton and Senator John McCain, respectively, the combined actions since the fall of 2007 of the Federal Reserve, the White House and Congress helped save 8.5 million jobs and increased gross domestic product by 6.5 percent relative to what would have happened had we done nothing. The study showed that government action delivered a powerful bang for the buck, and that the bank rescue on its own will turn a profit for taxpayers.

We have a long way to go to address the fiscal trauma and damage across the country, and we will need to monitor the ups and downs in the economy month by month. The share of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more is at its highest level since 1948, when the data was first recorded, and we must do more to ensure that they have the skills they need to re-enter the 21st-century economy. Small businesses are still battling a tough climate. State and local governments are still hurting.

There are urgent tasks to be undertaken to reinforce the recovery, and Congress should move now to help small business, to assist states in keeping teachers in the classroom, to increase investments in public infrastructure, to promote clean energy and to increase exports. And while making smart, targeted investments in our future, we must also cut the deficit over the next few years and make sure that America once again lives within its means.

These are considerable challenges, but we are in a much stronger position to face them today than when President Obama took office. By taking aggressive action to fix the financial system, reduce growth in health care costs and improve education, we have put the American economy on a firmer foundation for future growth.

And as the president said last week, no one should bet against the American worker, American business and American ingenuity.

We suffered a terrible blow, but we are coming back.

I wonder how JHK feels about Bill and Hillary's recent big extravaganza in New York State just a bit south of him? Duchess County (I think that's the county Rhinebeck is in) exemplifies much of what JHK reviles. Big box stores, NASCAR devorees, rampant poverty of all kinds, and lots of faded glory popping up here and there from the weeds. And in the midst of all this current "culture" erupts the vulgar excess of a multi-million dollar wedding. How ironic that the Great Stain-Maker should spend so much loot on celebrating holy matrimony! Certainly the sum spent (more than movie stars spend) is a clear indication of sincerity! How ironic that the groom in this splendid affair is an "investment banker." How appropriate for these times of ours!

Suffice it to say that the Great Stain-Maker is really not so clever after all. For sentient adults, this recent excess clearly exposes the reality of the current situation in the country. Once again, he has "let the cat out of the bag." Translation: if you can't read the present and future now, then you just aren't listening.

O tempora, O mores.

Jimbo: You forget that GM just bought a finance company that specializes in high-risk loans, so pretty soon the taxpayers will be buying Volts for welfare moms.

Uh, oh. We better protect ourselves while we still can. http://www.thenothingstore.com

Garrett Hardin's lifeboat ethics and tragedy of the commons position has two basic problems: it holds survival to be the ultimate value and it views mankind primarily in biological terms.

These problems lead to a rejection of traditional moral values, to an inadequate view of society which limits morality to the members of one's tribe (or family, or grandchild).

A concept of moral community can ground obligations to future generations in a manner that appreciates the importance of biology while recognizing the human transcendence of biology through culture and maintainability of traditional moral values.

Growth as has occurred in the last 50 years is over for the developed world, USA, EU and JAPAN (and some others, Australia, Canada, South Korea, etc.). This is very simple: when a country goes from being poor to middle class (even lower middle class), the economy constantly "grows" in the sense that more people have money, buy cars, furniture, TVs, some buy homes, etc. This process creates jobs, more jobs, more money, more growth etc. for decades. This happened very nicely and according to the textbook in Italy, JAPAN, South Korea, Germany, USA and some others from 1945 to about 2000. Actually for Italy and some other European nations and JAPAN this process of "the end of growth" occurred in the beginnings of the 1990s, aka the "lost decades of JAPAN".

Now this happened also in an era of a given level of technology and technology applied to production and the economy: a given amount of automation, optimizations and computer applications, etc. And since these elements were still not as developed as today, there was still a lot of labor that was needed, factories weren't so automated, bosses still needed secretaries (they didn't have or use MS word, Access, etc.).

But now that growth is over in the "West" and technology is killing those few jobs that are still needed, there is no hope of going back to the good times. Growth in the developed world can only occur through services, that is by deliberately breaking things up and fixing them up in a futile cycle. Just look at Health Care, Lawyers, and Military adventures to get an idea.

On the other hand, countries like China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, etc. are in the "growth phase", where JAPAN was in the 1960s and 1970s for example. So this is where the markets are, and this is where western corporations are making huge profits by selling to high growth economies, economies that are going from being poor to being rich (this is why the stock markets go up anyways no matter how bad things are in Ohio). Of course technology applied to the economy just accelerates this as does the internet, outsourcing etc. so they may end up having an even smaller window of time of high growth economy.

What the west needs now is to start modifying the brains of people, start creating the Instant Singularity by putting chips and computers and changing the neural circuits of people so they go forward into a new era. We are at the threshold of the next technological revolution, the Instant Singularity:

check out:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewt...hp?f=4&t=172275

And forget about all the population explosions and resource limitations: worldwide population may reach at most 10 billion which is nothing compared to the holding capacity of 100 trillion the world has, and all the energy science will harness through fusion, bacteria that creates oil, genetic engineering food and petroleum creation, trillions of skyscrapers, space travel, trillions of cadillacs, etc. Colonization of the galaxy through Technological Singularity computers, robots, etc. An infinite Resource Society.

And in yesterday's news, Obama says we'll be out of Iraq by the end of the month. This on the heels of the announcement last month that the Chinese will be developing the oil fields in Iraq. What a great way to repay our debt to the Chinese! Now get back to making more cheap plastic shit for people to throw away!

Growth as has occurred in the last 50 years is over for the developed world, USA, EU and JAPAN (and some others, Australia, Canada, South Korea, etc.). This is very simple: when a country goes from being poor to middle class (even lower middle class), the economy constantly "grows" in the sense that more people have money, buy cars, furniture, TVs, some buy homes, etc. This process creates jobs, more jobs, more money, more growth etc. for decades. This happened very nicely and according to the textbook in Italy, JAPAN, South Korea, Germany, USA and some others from 1945 to about 2000. Actually for Italy and some other European nations and JAPAN this process of "the end of growth" occurred in the beginnings of the 1990s, aka the "lost decades of JAPAN".

Now this happened also in an era of a given level of technology and technology applied to production and the economy: a given amount of automation, optimizations and computer applications, etc. And since these elements were still not as developed as today, there was still a lot of labor that was needed, factories weren't so automated, bosses still needed secretaries (they didn't have or use MS word, Access, etc.).

But now that growth is over in the "West" and technology is killing those few jobs that are still needed, there is no hope of going back to the good times. Growth in the developed world can only occur through services, that is by deliberately breaking things up and fixing them up in a futile cycle. Just look at Health Care, Lawyers, and Military adventures to get an idea.

On the other hand, countries like China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, etc. are in the "growth phase", where JAPAN was in the 1960s and 1970s for example. So this is where the markets are, and this is where western corporations are making huge profits by selling to high growth economies, economies that are going from being poor to being rich (this is why the stock markets go up anyways no matter how bad things are in Ohio). Of course technology applied to the economy just accelerates this as does the internet, outsourcing etc. so they may end up having an even smaller window of time of high growth economy.

What the west needs now is to start modifying the brains of people, start creating the Instant Singularity by putting chips and computers and changing the neural circuits of people so they go forward into a new era. We are at the threshold of the next technological revolution, the Instant Singularity:

check out:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewt...hp?f=4&t=172275

And forget about all the population explosions and resource limitations: worldwide population may reach at most 10 billion which is nothing compared to the holding capacity of 100 trillion the world has, and all the energy science will harness through fusion, bacteria that creates oil, genetic engineering food and petroleum creation, trillions of skyscrapers, space travel, trillions of cadillacs, etc. Colonization of the galaxy through Technological Singularity computers, robots, etc. An infinite Resource Society.

Growth as has occurred in the last 50 years is over for the developed world, USA, EU and JAPAN (and some others, Australia, Canada, South Korea, etc.). This is very simple: when a country goes from being poor to middle class (even lower middle class), the economy constantly "grows" in the sense that more people have money, buy cars, furniture, TVs, some buy homes, etc. This process creates jobs, more jobs, more money, more growth etc. for decades. This happened very nicely and according to the textbook in Italy, JAPAN, South Korea, Germany, USA and some others from 1945 to about 2000. Actually for Italy and some other European nations and JAPAN this process of "the end of growth" occurred in the beginnings of the 1990s, aka the "lost decades of JAPAN".

Now this happened also in an era of a given level of technology and technology applied to production and the economy: a given amount of automation, optimizations and computer applications, etc. And since these elements were still not as developed as today, there was still a lot of labor that was needed, factories weren't so automated, bosses still needed secretaries (they didn't have or use MS word, Access, etc.).

But now that growth is over in the "West" and technology is killing those few jobs that are still needed, there is no hope of going back to the good times. Growth in the developed world can only occur through services, that is by deliberately breaking things up and fixing them up in a futile cycle. Just look at Health Care, Lawyers, and Military adventures to get an idea.

On the other hand, countries like China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, etc. are in the "growth phase", where JAPAN was in the 1960s and 1970s for example. So this is where the markets are, and this is where western corporations are making huge profits by selling to high growth economies, economies that are going from being poor to being rich (this is why the stock markets go up anyways no matter how bad things are in Ohio). Of course technology applied to the economy just accelerates this as does the internet, outsourcing etc. so they may end up having an even smaller window of time of high growth economy.

What the west needs now is to start modifying the brains of people, start creating the Instant Singularity by putting chips and computers and changing the neural circuits of people so they go forward into a new era. We are at the threshold of the next technological revolution, the Instant Singularity:

check out:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewt...hp?f=4&t=172275

And forget about all the population explosions and resource limitations: worldwide population may reach at most 10 billion which is nothing compared to the holding capacity of 100 trillion the world has, and all the energy science will harness through fusion, bacteria that creates oil, genetic engineering food and petroleum creation, trillions of skyscrapers, space travel, trillions of cadillacs, etc. Colonization of the galaxy through Technological Singularity computers, robots, etc. An infinite Resource Society.

The link:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=172275

THE LINK

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=172275

READ THE LINK

IT IS COMING, WATCH OUT .......

CORRECTION: There will be blowback for adopting a "lifeboat ethics" stance, whether self-inflicted or from those we have pissed off.

In the latter case, blowback may be nuclear... Grandchildren will not survive. Having ammo or gold stored up is no guarantee of survival of a nuclear attack. Karma.

Anyways worldwide economic growth is 3% a year so in 40 to 50 years most of the world will be about completely developed. No stopping that, the west is standing still the rest is growing...

8m, re:singularity, you might enjoy the podcasts at http://urbangurucafe.com on advaita vedanta

"But now that growth is over in the "West" and technology is killing those few jobs that are still needed, there is no hope of going back to the good times. Growth in the developed world can only occur through services, that is by deliberately breaking things up and fixing them up in a futile cycle. Just look at Health Care, Lawyers, and Military adventures to get an idea"

I forgot to add that a very important "engine of growth" in the developed world is to HIKE UP THE VALUE OF REAL ESTATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, creating imaginary "growth" and "imaginary wealth". We all know how that will end up...

It is akin to making believe your house or commercial building is now Instantly worth twice or three times as much, and you can ask rents three times higher. No wonder no one wants to open a business anymore with commercial real estate rents so stupidly high...

And by changing the neural networks of people's brains they will be engineered into correction: the fighting, conflicting, free wills, opposing opinions and all of that will no longer exist.

All of what economy and sociology and psychology and politics tried to obtain can be corrected by changing just one bit in people's brains:

KILL FREE WILL

KILL FREE WILL

The brains of humans must be engineered into correction: the free will circuits must be deactivated, the circuits that generate conflicting opinions, conflicts in general, differences, inequalities, power struggles, war, confrontations, etc. must be changed, they are probably just a few transistors, just a one transistor circuit that creates free will and the material called "Free Willonium" that is composed of particles that freely make different and contrasting choices, that struggle and fight each other, in this way escaping all the laws of physics.

This must come to an end, this will end 100,000 years of violent human history with all their "fights" and "politics" and "different choices - opinions - lifestyles - behaviors", etc. It is probably just one bit in brains that must be changed, and humans will then become a superior spiritual machine, one monolithic slab of unity of intent working towards higher singularities, more advanced experimental brains, circuits, and hence universes, emotions, experiences. Change all the circuits in brains, create new sense organs, new emotion systems, new and fake and simulated and make believe logics, laws of physics, internal narratives, new memory and logic circuits, etc.

The serialization of trillions of "Man Hours" of work accumulating into solid results of unity of intent, and not like now with everyone working against everyone else and dispersing all the energy each individual puts in. Work that adds up, hence an Instant Singularity created by the shear number of Man Hours of "product" that is finally accumulating and creating ever higher states of being.

KILL FREE WILLS, all of them, the machines and the universe will decide what configurations are valid...

To get a real idea of where the American economy is headed, all eyes should turn to Mexico. Although Mexico's population is about a third of ours, their class hierarchy resembles what we are beginning to see in this country. About 60% of Mexico's populace are poor, aka, the lower class. These folks usually have an elementary school education (at best), and live in one room houses, often times with dirt floors. They take day laborer jobs and servant positions in Mexico's thriving tourist meccas. Those who are obedient, servile, complacent, and dependable keep their jobs (thus having what we call job security). Roughly 30% are what we consider to be middle to upper class, including professions such as police officers, electricians, small business owners, and managers. About 10% are upper middle class, of that group, a little less than 1% are what we call "super rich", with second homes, servants, European vacations, including quick jaunts to Manhattan to catch a few plays on Broadway, shop 5th Avenue, and dine in top tier restaurants. Private (mostly Catholic) schools are in charge of teaching children, with the Roman Catholic Church pulling out the smartest boys to become clergy. Most people in Mexico don't own their own homes. Population trends find that an increasing majority are clustered in the larger cities, because job opportunies and government services (think flushing toilets and paved roads) are more plentiful than in the agrarian country side.

I'm not so sure there is much anyone can do to avoid the U.S. descent into a Mexico scenario. The past 60 or 70 years in this country can be seen through a larger lense as an aberration. Huge numbers of a formerly lower class ascended into membership of middle and upper middle class (yes, the rich have always been with us). WWII was pivotal in recruiting and drafting thousands of men into the armed services, providing them with tools to better their existence through the GI bill and loans for new home buyers. Government infusion of money lifted thousands of families from grinding poverty into stable, middle class existence. Before this, however,
I had an uncle who worked as a factory hack for an iron works concern somewhere in Allentown, PA. He worked there for over ten years when one day he mistakenly left his hand on a machine press for about fifteen seconds too long and his entire right hand and much of his fore arm had to be amputated, having been crushed beyond recognition. The company's response? He was promptly fired. There was no workman's comp, social security, or welfare. His wife (my aunt) had to get a job as a seamstress and his two oldest boys dropped out of high school and junior high to go to work. The older boy found employment as a gas jocky, the younger found work in the same factory where his father became an amputee!

I agree with Jim. We are in the process of driving the tanker right off the cliff. Pretending to be what we once were.

Germans have proven to be the most technologically advanced innovators on earth. They deal with $8.00/gallon equivalent petro every day. See any hydrogen, electric, syngas, etc. vehicles in their national private fleet? Didn't think so...

If you've read through all the comments today you've endured a serious dose of EightM-think and I feel an explanation on behalf of 8M is called for.

About two weeks ago 8M's meds ran out and there were no refills left on the prescriptions. The shrink was supposed to fax in a new Rx to CareMark but something got F'd up and, well, here we are with 8M back to his old lunacy ... trillions of skyscrapers and trillions of cadillacs. (Just a quicky question for 8M ... how many million are in a trillion?) And then there's the problem of the multiple posts.

Feels to me as if the zeitgeist becoming soooo painfully clear to anyone in America with functioning brain cells, is that our fume-based 'Economy' has hit the brick wall, and the zillion shattered pieces are in a kind of slow-motion descent to the ground, also known as Cold Reality.

Most college 'educations' are literally less-than-worthless as they've morphed into a sick form of perpetual debt slavery via student loans.

I cringe in horror when I read about the futile job searches of college grads with a degree in 'Literature' or 'Female Studies' or 'PolySci' eegads!

What the Fuck are those people and their parents thinking? For 20-40k a year???

If this doesn't underscore the Canyon of Disconnect between economic reality & American's utter ignorance thereof...

Learning to repair washers&dryers, cars, refrigerators, computers, etc seems much more beneficial to me. Along with lessons in Self-Sufficiency.

Jeez it's a Disaster out there, with bright spots of Awareness coalescing into larger islands of Awakening.

To Al Klien,

A. Klien said: ..."something like 25 million people just disappeared! After the first few years of financial shock, they were just gone! Off the rosters."

Al, could you give a reference please. I like Orlov and i missed that that statement in the summary i read.

It seems like if 25M disappeared we would have heard many many horror stories. How did they collect them? Where were they disposed of? Surely some would escape to tell the tale.

Homefire

Messianic,

last week in repsonse to one of my posts you asked why do so many people spend so much intensity pigeonholing others?

I think it's in our nature to mentally organize and classify. I think it's also in our nature to be tribal, to demonize the "other". It seems that after our forebears left Africa we forgot that we're all related.

I think that was one of the Old Testament's deepest insights. I think that's the point of the story of Adam and Eve, that we share common parentage. It's a funny thing, how "rational" people crap on scriptures. To them they're nothing more than superstition. Yet now we have geneticists talking about "mitochondrial Eve". It's a funny thing too, how people thousands of years ago sitting around a fire, armed with nothing more than their intellectual faculties, came up with such an insight.

I think that we moderns have really misunderstood those old books. I think the writers meant to tell stories but that historical and scientific accuracy was the least of their concerns. Some of it was tribal saga, some of it was about human nature and some of it was about how we live our lives.

But we go looking for Noah's Ark. What were they telling us in that old story? IMO at its heart it was about environmental cataclysm from which there were few survivors and it was also about those few survivors that became founding peoples that carried on. We know that such things happened. The glacial melting and global warming 12,000 years ago much have been wrenching, millions of cubic miles of ice melting in a few thousand years with massive flooding ravaging huge areas. Seems to me that the story was a distillation of stories circulating for a very long time.

The universe is infinite in time and space. The number of planets, galaxies and any other structures is infinite. It has lasted forever, forever changing, will last forever. The big bangs is either:

1) True. Which means we happen to be in a bubble of maybe 10^1000 light years in space and 10^20 years from origin, which means it appears to be a big bang since this is how far we can ever possibly see both in time and space ("observable universe" and note that all of the official science has never denied that we are limited in our observation of the universe, has never denied that we can see only a small slice no matter what). If 10^1000 is too small, well just add a few trillion zeros to the exponent aka 10^1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.....

2) False. Which means that the microwave radiation has another, different origin, which may very well be possible.

Since the universe is infinite in space and time, all possible combinations of Mass - Energy will have the time to come into existence, and in fact will cycle through an infinite number of times, "the eternal return". This also fits in nicely with my theory of the universe as a combination, as a big number:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=157516&start=25

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=152877

Since any possible combination will occur, this explains the occurrence of life on earth, since that one time quirk sequence of chemical reactions that brought life and man had to occur at least once (but infinite number of times, since the universe is infinite in time and space). So the origin of life is explained.

Also the universe is probably just a small dot in a universe containing an infinite number of other universes with different laws of physics.

All of our science, religion and philosophy is just desperately trying to size this universe to our limited brain, language and thought processes: we cannot accept infinity as an answer while in fact infinity is the only answer. That is why scientists cling on so strongly to the big bang theory.

Why do you assume in the article that Obama is well-intentioned? All the responsibility seems to have been routed away from him and to his advisers and cabinet only.

I don't believe he is baffled about the reasons his policies haven't been effective; mainly because it appears to be deliberate that he keeps trying the same methods and getting the same outcome.

To whom it may concern:

There are certain comments written on this blog that are so "off the wall" that they don't deserve a serious reply. Rather, they get the kind of reply they do deserve -- a contemptuous spoof. This makes it clear the replier doesn't think the comment's author is "playing with a full deck."

"...being seasick-on-dry-land"

Exactly how I've been feeling since 911.

From the start,Obama gave me the impression of already knowing he would be taken care of, as if he had already been told of his golden parachute. And another thing I thought when I saw him in the campaign was that 'he will be a globalist president, like HW Bush was.'

In the Financial Times recently, an article about a particular CEO quoted him as saying he had been feeling stressed, and so realized he needed 'some yacht time.' This is the kind of elite running things now. We as citizens and workers no longer matter to this new system we see emerging.

Myrtlemay has been SPOT ON in several arguments the past two days.

Comparing present day realities in Mexico with the future of the US seems very apt....depressing, even chilling...but apt.

Of course Mexico *was* a third world country and most of their lower class people *should* have no way to go but up. Whereas the US was a first world country that may be destined to slip inexorably down due to TLE and/or demographics.

Then 8m and several others pointed out that the third world countries will be "built out" within the next 40-50 years. (To which I add...yeah, no doubt AND with little regard for the devastating environmental consequences of their industrialization.)

Then seayoung (great handle, btw) points out for us that even at $8.00/gallon the Germans do not use anything but fossil fuels in their private cars.

http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/3208/

And I found this link that says the Germans plan to be 100% wind and PV powered by 2040.

But I'm so depressed from reading the thread that I don't have the mental energy to look at it right now to see if it has the *ring of truth* or not.

SNAFU, haven't forgotten about PV solar and math...hold those thoughts....'Cause I think if the planet has a future that its in that area.

And Wells...funny stuff in your little script about Chelsea Clinton and Bill the Stainmaster!
I'd never heard that term before...good stuff!!

I think that we as Americans' have led a charmed life for awhile now. led to think that 'everything' will always be this way. We don't know how good we had it.
It's over.

I have a friend who had to flee Cuba when he was 8 when Castro took over. So he's always been 'enlightened' as to the Real World. His family got out in the nic of time.

There is No Security. Not really. He knew it then.

This world is ready to blow, it already 'blows' imo.

It's just sickening to see young high school kids stabbed by mexicans, so they can join a gang or what ever. happens all the time where i live, in a beautiful tourist town. by the beach.

I wish more men or people would take care of these punks. It should be legal. right is right and wrong is wrong. it's about context. not an eye for an eye. some punk stabs or shoots someone innocent person, well i say the one who takes care of that punk is a hero. period. Should get a Medal of honor.

Some guy was walking his dog in broad daylight,
gangster gets out of car, shoots both. dog dies. man injured. makes me sick.

Now you know how they say 'don't take the law into your own hands?' what the hell does that mean. right is right and wrong is wrong.
period.

well we just have to keep our eyes and minds open, and watch our backs, and our friends backs.

and move if we can afford it. which of course i can't.

This isn't Disneyland. (I never liked that place)
Time to grow up. sadly too many won't or can't.

MC

Sorry CFN'ers.. apoptosis.

In what wing nut universe is Obama a Communist? You do realize that your talking points come straight from noted psychopath and Obama-hater Glenn Beck, don't you? He and the other Fox News talking heads want to convince you that Obama is a socialist, Marxist, whatever.

The neo-cons were the true Marxists, always talking about exporting their democratic revolution, creative destruction, etc.

Obama is just trying to fix things. He's doing a good job. Stop presenting the toilet droppings of Glenn Beck as some kind of gourmet meal, ya brainless dittoheads.

Get a clue people. If you use per capita consumption as the criteria for discretionary energy consumption the US wastes nearly 50% of its energy on non-essential uses.

If another country the size of the US was as wasteful - we would all be feeling the "real" effects of Peak Oil.

Simply changing our consumption rate to that of a country like Japan, could make up for the expansion of consumption of India and China for several years.

Currently our national energy policy is "use it or lose it." That may play well for now, but it hardly helps prepare for the inevitable.

My point is that no one is even examining the hard questions. How will govern those who choose to use energy as an amusement or recreation when we see others sliding into dire straights.

So far, we got curly-cue light bulbs.

Jim,

What you fail to look at, because you are purposely programmed to look the other way, is the underground reich that has stirred and manipulated the US towards the fascist imperialist model and the national security state. The state and all the resources of the state are geared towards feeding the arms industry and the corporatist empire.

SIS-CIA-MSM propaganda priests agitate and manipulate for war, because enemies allow the wheels of the anglo-american central bank warfare/welfare model and the imperialist machine to turn. The CIA-MSM keep the world unstable to allow the Establishment political cover to spend any amount of money on arms and enrich the war profiteers. The establishment is basically the Rockefeller and Morgan clans along with the satellite families that are partnered to them. These families have run the United States as a subsidiary of their family business for over a hundred years, and it is their man that largely make up and control the CIA and the government mafia. To learn more about this I urge you to check out the Mises Institute, and in particular the excellent work done by the late Murray Rothbard, especially as it regards US economic history. Also, see Russ Baker's latest book, "Family Of Secrets". Baker's book digs into the history of the Bush Family, to reveal what I'm sure to many will be startling facts concerning the government mafia and the underground reich.

"So far, we got curly-cue light bulbs."

=================

CFL light bulbs are so yesterday. The new light bulbs are LED.

LED is the most energy-efficient light bulb you can buy. It'll last you 10 times as long as a CFL counterpart, while creating less heat during use (after five minutes of use, an LED light bulb will be cool to the touch, unlike both CFLs and incandescent bulbs), which could equal lower cooling costs for your home.

Because there are no hazardous materials in LEDs (no mercury), they're easily recyclable and less of a health risk if they break--and they turn on instantly.

QTIP - while we're niggling - you should know that the word you were TRYING to correct (not even the right word), is "prattling", as in: Noun: Foolish or inconsequential talk: "this childish prattle". Which is the bulk of almost everything you have ever contributed here. When you need a professional, but unfortunately unemployed, proofreader to check your prattle before you post, nah - never mind. Not worth it.

budizwiser said:Simply changing our consumption rate to that of a country like Japan, could make up for the expansion of consumption of India and China for several years.

OK, how do we change our consumption rate? I have an idea. If you divide energy consumption per capita by the income per capita you arrive at a calculated energy intensity index.

Now, here is the interesting part: Studies have shown that, using the calculated energy intensity index, energy consumption is directly controlled by per capita income.

But it doesn't stop there. An increase in energy efficiency corresponds to an increase in per capita income across the board, which is in agreement with a recent report published by the American Physical Society. The energy intensity index increases over time despite positive developments in energy efficient technologies.

So, it's a bit more complicated than simply saying discretionary income results in wasteful energy consumption.

It's a Catch-22.

Increased energy efficiency results in increased per capita income. Energy consumption is controlled by per capita income. An increase in energy efficiency corresponds to an increase in per capita income across the board, ad infinitum.

There is a synergistic interplay of many different variables to consider when talking about per capita discretionary income and energy consumption.

It's also not fair to generalize "United States" energy consumption, when some states have made more efforts at energy efficiency than others. You might want to check out "Energy Consumption Trends in Hawaii" (Energy; March 2010, Vol. 35 Issue 3, p1363-1367)

White folks are being scared by false information.

Immigration is up in Phoenix.

Crime is down in Phoenix.

Property crime has gone down year after year.

Violent crime has gone down year after year.

Conclusion: increased immigrants means less crime.

Open the borders, as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed by the USA, stipulated.

Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish.

Gosh, I thought all this time I was some poor sucker, single parent trying to scrape by. Now it appears I have the upper hand on survival. I have been living within my means for the past 20 years. I have food stored up; the kind that lasts for years. My rent is low with expectations to match. I have been using public transportation, walking and riding my bike. This article gives me hope that others will now learn what my life has been like for some time now.

Just tonight I harvested prickly pear fruit from my neighborhood and made juice, which is very nutritious. I have my mesquite beans picked and ready to be milled into flour. Yes, I use the grocery store, but I just hate to see food go to waste. Most people in my city step on and throw away desert food. Not me. I know what's coming in our future and I want to stay one step ahead of the game.

"...if “liking phenomenal latin music that’s bursting with rhythm and pulse and that’s led by one of the hands-down best rumba flamenco guitarists in the world,”…then have a listen to Jesse Cook:

http://www.myspace.com/jessecook.

I recommend Bombay Diner and Havana, but the entire album is great.

Ooops...the period at the end of link above is not needed:

http://www.myspace.com/jessecook

In 1979 I picked up a book called "Muddling Toward Furgality" by a economic geographer who forcasted the current situationa and how we would get there and he has more than correct in his assupmptions.
One comment amomng many that has stuck with me and has caused me to go back and reread his book was a comment that people act and goverment reacts. Want change then the people must act even if it is illeagal for by action we create de-facto law.

Beware: The downgrading of the American lifestyle is non-negotiable. You will find that attitude in both liberal and conservative circles alike.

On one hand, you have a group of people that will not give up the big-screen TV and Hummer, while on the other, the ideal of the American Dream for all -- which is dependent on a lot of resources -- will not be abandoned.

The reaction to a Long Emergency -- should it come to pass -- will therefore be fierce from both sides.

There are those among both Asoka's and Vlad's circles who would probably bludgeon a guy like me to death.

A very important property of the infinite universe is that it is large enough to contain logical contradictions: since it is unbounded in time, space, combinations and laws of physics, it no longer has to obey to any principle of non contradiction. Thus the last boundary or models, languages and thought processes of our mind imposed upon reality also disappear.

Any logical contradiction, any linguistic or mathematical contradiction can be contained inside the infinite universe, our thought processes simply break down and cannot contain or model such a world, but nonetheless it is true.

For example, you can rebut that the universe is infinite in time and space but contains just one bit of information that is always set to one and never changed or can change. This is true. You can say, AT THE SAME TIME, the the universe is made up of matter, Mass - Energy as we know it in all directions for infinity and all time from the past to the future, from minus infinite time to plus infinite time. This is true. But since the universe is infinite ,it is large enough to contain both universes, they exists, AT THE SAME TIME, mutually exist, are both true even though they appear to contradict each other because infinity is large enough to contain both of them no matter how contradictory they are. Hence even logical contradiction is too small to be contained within an infinite universe.

While the Clinton’s and their newly bedded in banking family members and other favoured guests eagerly flaunt their power and privilege, by partying-on down-dudes...with a $3m matrimonial blow-out....

(Cue Hello Magazine pay-off for photos at some future point, so women throughout the global village infected heavily with the virus - Affluenza - can enviously dream on, wishing and swooning for there own prince charming to ride in over the horizon, bearing their ticket to a glittering consumption fuelled nirvana)....

Meanwhile Ms. Jarrin and her fellow four million US 99’ers quietly fade into some back-lot car seat living hell, and lest we forget the other current millions of US uber-poor families still limping along on via the good grace of food stamps...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/us/03unemployed.html?_r=1

(Anyone here thinking, what I’m thinking?)

Now sing with me folks...

‘Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just...
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave..
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!’

(That’s the problem with a once powerful nation state wilfully blind to truths)

Unabashed arrogance flaunted under the watchful eye of a state-sanctioned benevolent ‘Christian’ god,with not a whine or whimper in sight, that makes it all acceptable and in good taste and morally right?

Keep sucking it in....and breathe it deep, I hope you've got the stomach for it...

(I guess with rampant per capita obesity you have?)

Great advice indeed!

Qshtik - indeed I have been a professional proofreader for most of the last 30 years, and you are still wrong. Look at the CONTEXT of the original comment. "Prattling" is the real word that fits. No, the typos and errors in blog comments do not "drive [me] crazy", because it's not in a professional environment where my job is to correct errors. I learned a long time ago to separate reading for fun from correcting professionally. I don't correct my friends in polite conversation anymore - because it's not polite. You seem to be permanently annoyed that everyone isn't as smart as you. Well, they never will be - so you need to relax. And yes, I've always given a shit for what I do - someone has to care about the quality of our communication. You know, it's a fairly thankless job - no pats on the back for 99 percent accuracy - yet condemnation for the one percent failure rate. I lose my job every time the economy tanks, and everyone thinks their spell checkers catch their errors. Spell checking software is worthless with names and numbers, for instance. Your "then" for "than" or "that". Or my favorite: "or" for "of". Good Day to you. And sorry to the rest of you for the off-topic personal nonsense. Hob

Ok, so the wedding was an ostentatious display of wealth. On the other hand, the wedding may have answered a few temporary prayers for some cake bakers, photographers, groundskeepers, tuxedo merchants, catering services, carpenters , musicians, clergymen, painters, framers …

Within the confines of the day-to-day economic forest, where the macro-view is relegated to a food search on the basement floor, and where many self-employed craftsmen, artists, and merchants have not had a commission nibble for months, the phone call from a wealthy potential client is not an unwelcome event. And that’s the fly in the big picture ointment: economic trauma and necessity obscuring and undermining long-range concerns. So it cones down to leadership and some zealous politicians willing to lose a reelection bid for their beliefs.

In the meantime, there will be plenty of the self-employed more than willing to suck on the large tit of the wealthy and who can blame them--most cannot collect unemployment when their work dries up.

The transition phase is going to be some very tricky business.