Now is the time to begin preparing for the future, and all the upheaval it will bring. Politics is a sideshow, economic news is taken with a grain of salt. We have a window and should use it while we can, while there is still some residual wealth left to put to good work making lifeboats.

Visit the Leibowitz Society at http://leibowitzsociety.blogspot.com/2011/08/like-minds.html for information, news, and thought related to our coming dark age, as well as plans and discussion about how to preserve our ideas and knowledge through the impending collapse.

Thanks for the nice post, love the "history is not your therapist". Although perhaps you were a bit harsh on the memory of Huey Long to equate his legacy with Perry.

Thank you, James, for another fine commentary on the "slight pickle" we find ourselves in.

I heartily applaud your writing this down; it's time. The great contraction and crumbling will take place whether acknowledged or not. I would prefer to hang out with those who take into account realities that are biting them [quite painfully] in the butt; they'll get over it and get busy:

"Does this sound a little harsh? Surprise: history is not your therapist. This is the New Age you never expected. Crybabies need not apply." -JHK

Ok. Garden: check. Light rail: nope. Running water: check. But what if a drought comes and makes hydropower impossible?

I don't think Perry is stupid. He's just bought and sold by the oil and gas industry.

To complement the Long Emergency curriculum, we'll be showing this filmstrip today.

Jessica? Draw the blinds, would you?
Jody, get the lights.
Now settle down. Tommy, quick poking Linda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24

While we're at it, and seemingly having to re-think life, let's abolish that life squasher that has repressed us for eons ... MONEY

Jack

The contest will be between the European banks in their desperation and the new leaders of Egypt, Libya and Syria (and others new and old) when they discover that a new regime won't solve their economic problems. Finances vs, economics.

He could be a two-termed if Perry gets the nomination. I can see the ads now: "how did electing a Texas governor work for you the last time?"

Here is my latest James!

http://kulturcritic.wordpress.com/posts/the-world-as-belief-and-wanton-desire-ending-the-addiction/

kulturCritic

I'm nearly there. With well water, partially off the grid with solar, acreage for growing. Fish off the sea in front of me (if there are no more oil geysers - a distinct possibility). I ceased writing on this a few years back. It was getting tiresome with the climate change deniers and the Invisible Cosmic Housekeeper in charge of everything including winning teams and selective cullings of Earth's inhabitants.
Why in heck are we travelling anymore? Shouldn't our attention be focussed on Here. Now. Staying where our hands are, readying ourselves, making the future a Better Way? H'm?
Of course Perry will get it. It is what we all deserve.
Each woman for herself.

I live in San Francisco, California. California is constructed around large and unitary infrastructure. Besides the grid, the state is dependent upon large water infrastructure. Gasoline is produced in refineries centered either in LA, or in the nearby (Bay Area) 'Iron Triangle'. The city of San Francisco is built for the most part on old sand dunes. If this infrastructure no longer functions, there will no longer be a San Francisco since there was never a reliable source of water here for a substantial population. The vaunted California ag would no longer produce given our climatic pattern (summer droughts). For the most part the native peoples did not have ag, depended on the salmon fisheries (mostly destroyed). We have to do what JK suggests, but, if Ca. wants to survive, it needs to find a way to maintain its infrastructure, at least in part.

We have entered difficult times...if you are ready to heal your body and calm your mind try Zen Yoga

Here's a little local railroad history for my small town in Michigan. Back at the dawn of the 20th century there was an interurban line that paralleled the NYC (I think) line between Lansing and Jackson. Naturally the interurban went away around 1920, leaving a still visible roadbed here and there. More recently the NYC became Conrail, then the Norfolk Southern, and about a year ago it became the Lansing and Jackson subsidiary of the Adrian and Blissfield Railroad. I guess that's a familiar arc for so many formerly-busy rail routes. The good news that it's still in daily use feeding the major east-west lines in Lansing and Jackson. The Adrian and Blissfield has a couple of pretty but apparently useless GP-9s while two leased LTEX locomotives do the real work, servicing the remaining rail customers along the line between Lansing and Jackson. -Phut

- History Is Not Your Therapist -
I like the title, JHK, and the post.

Some are going to think that you have converted over the weekend into a screaming optimist, looking at a line like this:

"Figure out a way to make stuff in some North American place where there is running water for electric power." -JHK-

That sounds so - - happy, and - - possible!

But, without fossil fuels and (ahem, nudge - nudge) nuclear power - we in the United States do not have hydroelectric power to support even 6% of our present population at present consumption rates.

It is possible that we in North America will again - someday - "make stuff....where there is running water for electric power."

But present trends continue unchecked.
100,000 LEGAL immigrants enter the US every single MONTH.

As the final reckoning on US overpopulation becomes inexorably, more disastrous.

There are excellent organizations devoted to reduction in the growth of the US population due to immigration.

JOIN one. The hour grows late.

In the 1950's the railroads were undercut by the creation of the Interstate Highway System and cheap fuel for cars and trucks. With the notable exception of the government subsidized Amtrak, there is no longer passenger rail service in most places in the USA.

I contacted the railroad that runs near my home and asked if they have future plans to restart passenger service (after 50 odd years of freight only service). They said they would consider passenger service if and when the situation occurred that makes that economically feasible.

The major railroads in this country are private enterprises and therefore must make a profit in order to stay in business and pay dividends to their shareholders. They will not run passenger service at a loss. When conditions change - i.e. limited or no air travel and ten-dollar-a-gallon gasoline I think profit will return to passenger rail travel.

So I think there is a future in passenger rail in this country, it just hasn't arrived yet (Amtrak runs a few trains on leased lines at an overall loss).

When push comes to shove I think they will even rebuild stations and platforms and add trackage as demand picks up - and almost certainly it will as gasoline and diesel prices skyrocket in the future. They may also put in place poles and lines above some rail lines so as to run electric passenger trains. There will probably be sufficient power to run electric trains far into the future even as it becomes less available for people in general.

I still believe there is a future in passenger rail and it will replace air travel and Interstate Highway travel in a few decades as the main form of regional and interstate transport for both passengers and freight.

When I was a kid growing up in the sylvan Hudson Valley, an older guy I knew, a German immigrant, had his own small generator. It was powered by the stream that traversed his property. It didn't supply all his power, but quite a bit of it. I remember thinking, "That's cool!" and further wondering, "Why don't more people do that?"

Indeed.

The future in unknowable, expect that, as you suggest, it will be far different than The United States of Cheez Doodles we see outside today...

Meanwhile, enjoy this tongue-in-cheek jab at Obama's seeming in ability to lead...

http://mytabloids.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/breaking-sweaters-for-obama-campaign-gains-traction/

Finally a succinct analysis Jim. Touche!! The only thing remaining is for the American people to run Obama out of town on a rail straight to the Hague as well.

My only possible bone to pick is the assertion that Perry is dumb. Is he? More likely he is just ruthlessly obsessed with power and act as dumb as necessary in order to capture the moronic wing of the Republican party, which is now most of the party. But I don't know. He could be just dumb with the college grades to prove it. But don't discount stupid like a fox.

What we need to do is make sure that at least our waterways are functional in the long term, the money that we still have needs to be put on upgrading our canals and the locks n our major waterways. For example the modern locks need Electric Power to run, each lock should be equipped with a hydro power plant so that when the grid fails the locks can still be operated.

It obviously matters not which moron we "elect" to be POTUS. The outcome for our society will be the same; its now fully cooked in. The reality of the matter is that Kunstler is correct, we are at the end of an era. What he doesn't fully articulate here, but does so in WMBH, is that the response of the entitled public, from the tatooed mutants to the suburban wuss boys, will be CRIME. If we can't get what we want via credit cards and make work meaningless jobs, we'll take it from YOU. We/re seeing the same process in Europe but it will be far worse here; Americans are far more pampered and have far more psychotic expectations about their glorious future. After all, the American lifestyle is non negotiable, according to one of our recent political goons.

When the music (i.e. money flow) stops, and that time is rapidly approaching, all hell will break loose. Think in terms of a hybridization of the second Road Warrior movie and Clockwork Orange, without the cops.

Lovely.

Oh.

I just love your comments.

Well, JHK you are right on all counts. Quaddafi is out, the worldwide economy is sinking faster and Rick Perry is an embarrassment. We can all learn to grow food, generate our own energy, be more responsible for our health (after all, you are what you eat). We may have to give up our annual Caribbean vacations and our Hummers but we can survive without those. Millions have and we can too. What we can’t survive without either clean, potable water or knowledge (both the common sense kind and the intellectual kind). We’ll lose both those necessities if Perry gets into the White House. The Tea Party is living in its own fantasy world of superior white men who force the non-white races to become their willing slaves. The Tea Party is utterly convinced of its superiority, its right to rule and since it has no real leader, its answers to no one and is responsible for nothing.

Evolution is not real, global warming is a hoax, the world is only 6,000 years old simply because the Christian Bible tells us so. Rick Perry or his female counterpart (and possible running mate) Michelle Bachmann are so far right, they make Ronald Reagan look liberal. Rick Perry claims he shoots coyotes while out jogging with his rifle. What a commando! Elect him and let the natural gas fracking expand without regulations! End education because kids hate going to school anyway! Ignorance is bliss! And you can put the little monsters to work at sub-minimum wage because adults cost too much! Read a frightening book called Nickel & Dimed about adults who work minimum wage jobs (sometimes two or more trying to make ends meet). It is a downward spiral where things can never get better. And if you are a single mother with a child in daycare, you are simply doomed. No matter how hard you work. The American Dream is only for the rich. And soon maybe everything worthwhile, like housing, healthcare, clean water, gasoline, uncontaminated land, fresh air, etc. will only be for the rich. Because they are better than everyone else and deserve it. I know this is true because FOX News tells me so.

"3.) more or less threatening to lynch Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

If that becomes a non-negotiable PROMISE, he gets my vote, I don't care what else is or isn't in his empty head.

END THE FED. Do it today. Right Now. Order the tumbrils in. A long line of them in fact.

IDIOT AMERICA

Dance monkeys, dance!

While I agree with Kunstler about the future of energy as he has written, few in the public at large "get it", and to speak of that view would lead to a loss in a political race for dog-catcher.

But if Perry is so dumb, how come his policy ideas have Texas in better shape than most others when it comes to jobs? Better a job with poor or no health insurance than health insurance and no job. Health insurance doesn't pay the rent.

From a political power standpoint, the Texas governorship is among the nation's weakest. Yet, his policy ideas have found not just acceptance, but benefits to Joe Sixpack. Being "in bed" with the awl bidness sure doesn't hurt Ol' Joe.

Granted, I don't understand all this "I found Jesus" thing. Call me an unaffiliated strong believer, but I stay quiet about what I believe. Folks should believe what they want; fine by me, but I have a negative reaction to a high noise level.

Call Perry dumb, but by comparison to Obama he's a bleeping genius...

Good one James!

http://www.gwabert.com/

At least this week's column spared us the "Children of the Kudzu" NASCAR rant. So speaking of being useful do you liberals find your "To Kill a Mockingbird" written by Truman Capote education and worldview implant becoming useless?

Speaking of morons and sports entertainment, 2 attendees of a Forty Niners/Raiders game are battling life threatening injuries after being shot mutltiple times. No word if the "Children of the Corn" attendees at Michigan's NASCAR race took their "honor" so seriously.

I post this because now a good many of you are ready to abandon the Democratic strongholds of the cities for the vast rural hinterlands. But you have one problem, you sound nuts, and while sounding nuts at Daily Kos or the student union is acceptable if not encouraged sounding nuts while your new neighbors are the targets of wrath for their "bitter clinginess" is not going to work.

I detest Rick Perry - he's just a slick snake oil salesman. However, I'm now conflicted. I agree with Jim's comments about Perry's basic ignorance of reality, but then I think that anyone with the good sense to openly criticize the counterfeiting king, Ben 'Bernokio' Bernanke, can't be all bad.

Thanks for your insight as always, JHK

Yes, watching Libya play out this ouster of a dictator should make of an interesting soap opera drama this week. The problem as with so many of these countries is that they are unnatural union of opposing tribes who never should have been shoved together under one banner by the Western powers after WWII. They needed a strong man to keep the factions under despotic rule, but as in so many other cases we can point to from Yugoslavia etc., there will be a point when the ethnic differences will erupt, so peace is not assured. Oh, but cheers, gas prices will be going down!

Bring out the Bush Royal family?

Given that nobody wants to admit that the Global paradigm is a disaster and there isn't enough energy to keep it going, we are in a state of inertia. We'll just keep this illusion going until it crashes and burns.

The Republic party had originally stated that Perry would be the sane choice against Bachmann. He would be espousing economic remedy for our woes. Unfortunately, instead he held a prayer meeting where everyone prayed for a better economy and all sorts of crazy comments were made--can't keep t he lunatic fringe down for nothing--they have a voice and they're going to make it loud and clear!

At least two news outlets showed the uber-citizen, Bank of America in the form of an anonymous representative who did not introduce himself by name, telling Perry at a meet and greet that they would be sending money his way.--Ha, the curtain goes sideways and we see yet another playa with a populist twang---let's go get the money grinders, what else can you do if you're playing for the Banksters?

Either we were going to put the banks back in their places take control of the wild west casinos that is the global banking system, or we are going to grid out money like Rumpelstiltskin turning hay to gold.
What would Perry recommend instead? Very easy to counter the present President---not so easy to tell us how we get outta this.

So when Perry crashes and burns who is left standing in the wings? Jeb Bush says he doesn't want to run this time around, but with his Hispanic wife and his conservative track record and relative intelligence, he might just be the great Republican hope. Now I think it all depends on whether they really want Obama to do their dirty work and blame things on the Dems, or whether they want to take us down themselves.

ps, Perry was once a Democrat---like fellow Texan John Connolly, there's no zealot like a convert.

By Wednesday I'm looking forward to next Mondays CFN. Nothing else needs to be said.

djc

Perry, Bachmann, Palin, et al. All ultimately irrelevant. That's the reality of of our situation. Our salvation, if there is any, will be from our earnest understanding of our situation and quickly getting serious on a personal and local level. Get in shape. Eat real food with real nourishment. Grow some food if you can. Expect less. Make do with less. Be humble. Make peace with the realization that the world we have created for ourselves here in the US is unsustainable.

Very good Jim! Hilarious.

I also got a laugh from an article in the Globe and Mail this morning reporting that Greece will experience "negative growth of five percent" this year. The financial analysts don't have the word "contraction" in their vocabulary. So the economy still grows, but negatively. LOL. Anyway... if the Greek economy is contracting at a rate of 5% there isn't a snowballs chance in hell they will be making all their loan payments.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/daily-mix/greece-growth-to-be-worse-than-thought/article2135160/

As bad as Rick Perry is, I think Mitt "Corporations are People, My Friend" Romney is much scarier.

Why?

Because he could actually be elected -- despite his Mormonism.

Wall Street is all about Romney, and that should make us all very worried.

You can't always get what you want, Jim. The Ron Paul campaign is the closest you're going to come to sensible government from the present bunch of candidates.

Better take the bird in the hand instead of hoping for something that offers all your talking points -- unless you plan to run.

Oggi si svolge lo sciopero della Stampa contro la Legge Bavaglio, un disegno di legge che limita la libertà di fare informazione e di informarsi - proprio in un paese come il nostro,Look da brilliant,1 Johnny Depp, Lenny Kravitz, dove le persone già si informano poco e macho,1, prevalentemente in tv.

La legge bavaglio interessa direttamente anche noi blogger, che ci sollazziamo di notizie leggere e argomenti di nicchia, lontani dall’opinione pubblica: la legge stringe la morsa contro la libertà di espressione anche sul web: estende a chiunque misure tipiche del mondo giornalistico,Cheap Pandora Compose, e lo fa in maniera del tutto arbitraria. Purtroppo si va verso una Rete meno libera di book,Copertine riviste Gennaio 2011 - modelle e celebri,1 conversazione, sarà più facile colpire chi gestisce un sito per cercare di zittirlo. Ci perdiamo tutti,Accessori per le feste - Cappellini Haute Couture, sia appear,1 cittadini sia appear,1 lettori appassionati di buona informazione digitale.

E’ importante che tutti i seicentomila nostri lettori sappiano cosa sta succedendo: ad esempio vedete cosa dice la stampa estera più autorevole di questa nuova legge, per cercare di capirne qualcosa di più. Qui a Blogo ci occupiamo di queste cose su Polisblog, fateci un giretto ogni tanto per sentire che aria tira oggi in Italia.

Paul campaign is the closest you're going to come to sensible government from the present bunch of candidates.

Better take the bird in the hand instead of hoping for something that offers all your talking points -- unless you plan to run.

no you don't get it, JHK is an avowed lover of the (Nothing)Left, that's why it's always 'oh poor obama is faced with this and that', or only very minor criticism.

JHK's seethes underneath with hatred for non-Left individuals, and never tires of writing about it.

he is caught in the Left-Right Matrix & uses up his precious peak oil while likely gorging himself on big gulps and cheezits.

has he ever planted anything, besides fifth-rate pulp novellas? (tho' this week's blog has some gems, gotta give credit where due...)

peace peaceniks

Cabra1080 wrote:
"In the 1950's the railroads were undercut by the creation of the Interstate Highway System and cheap fuel for cars and trucks. With the notable exception of the government subsidized Amtrak, there is no longer passenger rail service in most places in the USA."

Also it was the loss of postal traffic that sealed the coffin on passenger rail. The rail post offices were an efficient system of mail delivery and toward the end the passenger rail lines were making more money from postal revenue than ticketed passengers.

JHK,

You do Huey Long a disservice. The T Harry Williams biography of the Kingfish is a great read. Back when old Huey was getting started on the political trail his two main issues were 1) Paved roads and 2) Free text books for school children in the Louisiana public schools.

That was considered too radical for the reactinary powers that be that ran the state.

Maybe it is just me but Libya has the potential of being a blood bath of recrimination between tribes. But it seems the British and French think it is gonna be all ok since there are news reports of "first dibs" on the oil business.

Jim,

A special request for you. I'd really like to see you as a commenter over at Calculated Risk. I think your wit and wisdom would add some spice to that august group. I find myself starting to suffer withdrawal symptoms about noon on Monday as I realize I'm 7 days away from my next fix of JHK. Hope you'll consider it. And thanks for waving the warning flags for all of us.

If Obama has created more war and reneged on his promises, wait till you see who the Republicans have lined up! Rick Perry believes evolution is a fraud and Michelle Bachmann is promising $2 gasoline! Lol Where she getting that from? An even more toxic landscape?? Last time I looked, shuttle is retired and there's no hint of 1000 rockets ready to go to moons of Jupiter for prospecting.....

Saw you on Max Keiser Jim, great job. Great article but you don't understand europe. Germany is doing fine, Italy's impenetrable labyrinth worked against the US Hedge funds trying their financial terrorism...but having banked there, invested, we have the battle scars and mio marito's half Italian! France, however, could be the lynch pin with all the toxic derivatives at societe....but still, europe has the gold, the trade and if need be, China behind to bail it out for now...

EU might be on shaky ground, but it's fine. And you also seem to forget that places like italy, the people (north, mostly, yes ) own their properties, they have gold, money stashed....different as with the US and UK where there really are far more pressing issues....

I've been a liberal all my life, proud of it, but Ron Paul, does provide direction and understands the economic fix and IS actually willing to address it. Odd you don't get that...libertarians are tricky but they do get economics. And most of our economic theories simply don't apply in this global market...alas, the fix we're in. But I bought a bunch of gold and it's doing great, and it will continue to go up and up and up.....it's not about a #, it's about a dynamic.

JHK, thanks. "hat trick of cretinism" made my day.

Oh and btw, here in E. TN we have decent amounts of hydropower from the TVA lakes, but water situation seems to be going from "really good" to "cycles of drought and flood" the last 10 years or so.

I just returned from 2 weeks in Ireland. They're quite proud of Obama there, & speak affectionately about his visit in May. As he does have some Irish ancestry, the Irish were delighted when he claimed he was back to pick up his missing apostrophe. I noticed many many pictures of JFK from his visit in the early 60's adorning pub walls from Dublin to Galway. The Irish really do want to keep the hope alive that "one of theirs" will do the right thing in a "tough situation". They were saddened by my harsh words for the head mouth piece of our plutocracy.

I also heard, on literally every Irish radio (RTE et. al.) talk show I caught, how the population is quite miffed about their economic situation. The joke is, is that the Germans tried twice to take over Europe with guns, but feck-it-all, now they're gunna do it with debt. An owner of a card shop told me that everyone is beginning to think that two or three generations will be "lost". Many unemployed young Irish people are heading to Canada & Australia. With the dollar currently worth about 3/4 of the Euro, no need for them to come here. Family dinners for 4 usually were in the range of $75 - $150, but there seemed to be no dearth of diners in many establishments. I saw/heard lots of Italians & other Europeans enjoying the sites & shops; some Americans, too. I guess if you can still afford to travel, you can cough up the dough for food, drink, & trinkets.

Ireland has a land mass about the size of Indiana, but only 2/3 the population. I saw many many homes with gardens, chickens, cows, sheep & goats. Horses, too. I really think - JHK's comment recently about Ireland drowning in their beers aside - that they're particularly well-positioned to ease into The Long Emergency. Their rails seem to be operating, and they certainly don't have to worry about water! It rains every damn day! And as far as the beer drinking is concerned, at least it seems that most adults spend some time in pubs - and not just saturday nights -talking about things - like politics - with their neighbors. They even sing together - frequently! I don't see that kind of bonding happening much in America these days, except for young teens regurgitating vacuous pop lyrics in big anonymous halls. It was all quite warm and wonderful. You always felt like you were among friends.... No, they won't be attacking each other when the gas prices - now about $9+ a gallon there - hit $20 or higher... I know all about the co2 & fuel costs associated with jet travel, but it's gonna be sad when it's gone....

I'd been saving up "The Witch Of Hebron" for this trip. I think I enjoyed it more than WMBH. One thing that struck me in particular, was how most people had to come together, stick together, and be compassionate and supportive. In that world, no one gets far on their own. Supernatural abilities aside, the people of Union Grove & elsewhere simply wouldn't survive with out a truly collective spirit of cooperation. I think Mr. Kunstler intended for that concept to be a fundamental observation for the reader. I think that people in the USA, friendly as they might be with some of their neighbors, have a long way to go in that department. I think the Irish are pretty much there.

Anyone for a sing along? Just bring along some whiskey in an old jar...

James, Great essay; however, comparing Huey Long to the likes of Texans of the Bush?perry ilk is akin to comparing Obama to Palin. Huey was undoubtedly greedy and power hungry, as are most if not all politicians, but he was, in the opinion of historians, highly intelligent. From the "History Matters" web site comes the following tidbit about Huey:

On February 3, 1934, he founded the Share Our Wealth Society and called on the American people to organize in order to accomplish the following objectives:
1. Limitation of poverty to a minimum of a $5,000 family estate.
2. Limitation of wealth to a maximum of $10,000,000.
3. Free higher education for all, with a mental test instead of the tuition test. If men in the army can be fed, boarded and clothed while we teach them how to kill, we can do as much for our best minds while they are being trained to live.
4. Employment for all by the shortening of hours.
5. Full compensation for veterans.
6. Old-age pensions.
7. Great national development programs to absorb the unemployed.

From Jan 1934 to Jan 2011 the US inflation was 1568.36% or roughly 15 times therefore Longs poverty minimum would be $75,000 in assests and his wealth maximum would be $150,000,000 today. Who could not be satisfied with $150 million in assets and who would begrudge the poorest $75,000 in assets?

CONSERVATIVES or LIBERALS?

SNAFU

Down here in the Sunshine State in the "eye of the Hurricane" for a 2 week visit.
Here in the Tampa Bay area they have gone totally nuts with endless road expansion which accomplishes nothing. When I lived here in the 70's the main road for Dunedin, Route 580, was 2 lanes, 1 lane each direction. Returning to visit a few years ago it was then 4 lanes. Now it is 6 and 7 lanes!!
A sea of asphalt!
They have done handwaving to Green Transit by adding
perilous "bike lanes" amongst the sea of asphalt.
But these "bike lanes" besides consisting of only
painted lines on the asphalt, are constantly crisscrossed every 100 feet or so by McDonalds, Taco Bell, Strip Mall, and road exits so that a daring bicyclist faces constant danger from cars turning into or coming out of all the Strip Mall fast food joints.
All the same, amazingly enough, there ARE bicyclists, mostly hispanics but also others, who
do use the bike lanes. I suspect that these are the people who already cannot afford cars and are forced to bicycle similar to the irony of gas station attendants back in New Jersey with their bikes chained by the gas station. The gas station attendants themselves are riding their bikes as they cannot afford the cars they are servicing!
Meanwhile the vacancy rate down here makes New Jersey look like a cakewalk! There seem to be 50-70% of strip mall stores closed with for rent signs.
According to the St Pete Times, Florida's ranking on the National Tests for high school student's
knowledge was 48th....

The only ray of hope is that loathing for Gov Rick Scott is universal and openly displayed even
in this Bible Belt reality denying area...

So you think Rick Perry is stupid? Well, try this stupid. The stupid we have to worry about are the stupid majority that elected Bush and then Obama. As to your insults about creation science: I challenge you, Kunstler, to express some of the legitmate arguments against evolution and just a few of the legitimate scientific arguments for creation. My bet is that you have not read a single book or article that presents same. You just knee-jerk suck up all the crap that gets peddled in pubic schools.
I am confident that there is no way you could debate the creation argument if you were given that side in a debate whether or not you "believe" it. What this country needs in a leader might start with the knowledge that belief in evolution does not mean diddly squat moving electrons or any other technology that is useful to everyday life in your "world made by hand". So quit the "hand-job" and read up.

Candidates like Perry and Bachmann make a plain vanilla narcissist like Sarah Palin look at least capable of running a student council. What a low moment in America's history. Don't lose sight of the fact that there's room for the bar to go further down.

Believe me, there will be plenty of jobs. Only they won't be like sitting in a cubicle writing a marketing plan for a video-game about the slaughter of gym rats from another planet.

We're in permanent contraction now. There are no technological rescue remedies that will restore the old economic regime. The banks are not working anymore because we can't create more real wealth, and the wealth we pretended to create for thirty-odd years in the form of IOUs can't be paid back into existence.

The whole Greenspan Christmas gift will most likely arrive December 2012 – just in time for the new lackey in charge to tell us to pray for our sins.........

Jim,

What about Ron Paul?

James-wish you would quit picking on pork rinds as they are a wonderful zero-carb snack. However the Pepsi and all the other carb laden goodies will put you in the long-wait emergency room or the grave! If folks really want to prepare for the rough times ahead they need to read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes so they can understand how to really eat in order to be healthy and to deprive "Big Pharm" and "Big Farm" of their obscene profits made from deluding the public since World War II.

Here's a little local history from my hometown in North Louisiana. Huey Long built the first paved highway system in the State and funded the public schools with State money for the first time. He started a system of charity hospitals that for the time was a model for the nation and he did it with money he extracted from Standard Oil; money that had been used to buy the politicians. Did some of that money go into the pockets of his cronies, you bet! And why not; at least the people were finally getting some of it and is it so much different from the New York oligarchy getting it today? Not really, only Huey's methods were a little rude and crude; definitely unacceptable to the artsy-fartsy Northeast types who have always ruled this country for their own interests.
And, by the way, how's it working out with our brilliant community organizer-in-chief? Maybe he should just keep on eating those ice cream cones and forget about coming back to Washington.

being stupid or dumb does not count--having a set of values that have stood the test of time is all that matters-you can sound smart or sound dumb-its all the same-having values that work matter-

These days I'm continually reminded of the Jackson Browne lyrics from The Road and The Sky: Do you see those storm clouds gathering up ahead, they're gonna wash this planet clean like the bible said, you can hold on steady, try to be ready, but everybody's gonna get wet, don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet.

everybody is ready for a big change, but it doesn't have to be in the form of the seeming apolcalypse that many people are creating. It could also come as a shift in consciousness, not a New Age shift, but simply a disidentification of the madness of our minds, at last to see it as madness. The Zen masters say it is that action alone that is the enlightenment. But don't try to figure it out.

When Ike started the Interstate Highway System, it was meant to be a replacement for the old federal highways built in the 1920s. Highways like the Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30) and U.S. 66 were no longer considered up to date Many of those U.S. highways used city streets and small-town mains streets as rights of way. Many of them slowly got decommissioned as the interstates replaced them. But Ike never meant for the interstates to replace passenger trains! He also wanted the interstates to go around cities like the autobahns in Germany, not through them. But what happened was that Congress didn't allocate money for any kind of mass transit and congressmen representing urban districts only voted for the highway plan when they were promised interstates in the cities. Eisenhower wanted a subway system for Washington, D.C., which only became a reality after this death. That the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago, which destroyed the West Side, is named for him is a cruel irony; a freeway going through a big city and tearing up the neighborhoods was NOT wanted Ike wanted.

Correction - . . . "a freeway going through a big city and tearing up the neighborhoods was NOT wanted Ike wanted."

Let my try that again: . . . "a freeway going through a big city and tearing up the neighborhoods was NOT what Ike wanted."

[quote]Do you want to eat a few years from now? Get serious about reorganizing agriculture on a smaller, finer, more local scale. Believe me, there will be plenty of jobs.[/quote]

Please check out what we're doing to relocalize agriculture, using the most sustainable and efficient food production on the planet: [link=http://www.friendlyaquaponics.com]www.friendlyaquaponics.com.[/link]

"We can't fund anymore senior golfing careers..."

Great idea, Jim. Now howsabout the government gives me back all the money they took from me over the course of an entire working lifetime. That should at least keep me in miniature golf!

This hatred of people on social security is all well and good -- that may well include your own flesh and blood, I might remind -- but it's dirty pool when a) they take your money and when it's your turn you just get a flying digit; and b) you don't even make enough -- more and more people these days -- to put aside anything more substantial than sofa lint.

I hope we meet in twenty years, see how you're doing!

Munged that comment - but please check us out! It's all about local, organic food production, the EASY way!

www.friendlyaquaponics.com

Line of the week:
"lot of people will have to just stop eating fried pork rinds, guzzling Pepsi Cola, and then waddling into the emergency room for consolation."

"and all the other citadels of grift until blood runs out the bronze nostrils of George Washington's statue," How else could this be better said? Couldn't without changing the context. Perfect.

Malthus,

My apologies for pointing this out, but actually it's all about planning. We are such good planners because planning is a survival skill. Flexibility and adapting plans on short notice is also a survival skill.

For example, I am currently in the middle of the harvest. My day job hasn't gone away, and I am spending 20 hours a week on top of it, harvesting, processing and preserving. I planned it this way. Happens for about five weeks every year. I do it because I am seasonally employed but I like to eat every day. I may or may not have work in the off season, but baring catastrophe, I will have chow and some to share.

There seem to be 50-70% of strip mall stores closed with for rent signs.
According to the St Pete Times, Florida's ranking on the National Tests for high school student's
knowledge was 48th....

...US economy, torpedoed, sinking fast

...US 'education', DEAD for the longest time now.

...US' ability to compete with better-educated, highly disciplined foreigners....haha, hahaha

...US' ability to kill people anywhere & at all times. AAA+

buy some gold and relax while the ship o' state goes down, good riddance to bad rubbish

peace peaceniks

Jim, i gotta tell ya for all the apocalypse now commentary i still see a whole boatload of beachgoers, fair goers, end of summer shoppers doing their thing.

As a longstanding reader i totally enjoy your rants but i would submit that you are way ahead on the timeline. Do not think for one minute that this country is going all iceland in the equation. Beaucoup nukes means to a certain extent we will determine our own destiny and those cards have a lot of mileage in them, and they aint close to being played.

Obama is a failure but so would anyone else be. The fact is that the office serves corporations and that aint us. It doesnt matter who sits in the chair, cause the agenda doesnt change. In fact nothing will really change until a different form of govt is instituted.

city dog said:

"Great idea, Jim. Now howsabout the government gives me back all the money they took from me over the course of an entire working lifetime. That should at least keep me in miniature golf!"

They can't give you back the money because they SPENT it for God's sake. Don't you follow politics enough to know how Social Security funds are handled by the federal government.

You pay in, and they turn around and dump the money into the general fund. Oh yes, I forgot, they do have a phony "trust fund", although it is not an actual pension fund, it is a set of IOUs. Perhaps the federal government can be persuaded to give SS recipients like you their money back by rewriting those IOUs into little IOUs representing what individual workers contributed to SS, and send them to those individuals.

Anyone on SS complaining about the fact that the program is dying: I hope you were screaming bloody murder as the government spent the money you put in rather than set it aside in a pension fund. Otherwise you are hardly in a position to complain.

By the way, don't worry, you will get all your SS money that's been promised to you. Of course, the US dollar will be worth as much as a used piece of gum stuck to the sidewalk, but at least you will get your dollars.

what's the with anti-money rant out here? stop with the nonsense already, money's (often gold) been around forever because it serves a needed purpose, it makes things a whole lot easier when you want to acquire something efficiently.

it's when it's adulterated & diluted that you get the wholesale falling apart of society we're witnessing.

notice how the non-adulterated, non-diluted money (Au) is doing very well. It's actually just reflecting the debasement of paper currency, which isn't backed by jack shytt.

fess up.

peace peaceniggs

The USA doesn't need an analyst, it needs a good, swift kick in the ass.
Face it, the USA is toast, but Empires don't just collapse all at once, but slowly, over decades and centuries. Oh, OK, so the US may go down in a few decades, instead of centuries like Rome, but what we know of the USA will be nothing like the USA of the next century. A hundred years from now it will, after the oil runs out, the US will probably be six different countries. And all living locally and much, much more frugally. And perhaps more of a hand-maid tale...

But anyway....

Dee

You pay in, and they turn around and dump the money into the general fund. Oh yes, I forgot, they do have a phony "trust fund", although it is not an actual pension fund, it is a set of IOUs.

Yes, not a person in 10,000 seems to know this. The truth is that if you had taken the money and put in in an interest-bearing account you'd have SEVERAL TIMES what you'll [possibly] get from SS.

Who IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would put money in a bank for 40 years, then, when wanting to withdraw their money, accept being told 'oh you can only get it out a tiny bit at a time, and if you die phuqq you your wife will only get maybe half, if she hasn't been disqualified cuz we phuqqed with the eligibility rules hahaha."

it's a blessed SCAM. Americans need to understand they are nothing but cash-cows for the politicos and elite that disdain them, look down on them, feed them with poison patriotism, and otherwise toy with them to effect their whims.

the US....what a has-been of a country...(used to be Gr8 tho', such are the vicissitudes of history....god bless ya roy rogers)

peace peaceniks

Jim and all:

This is why Tim De Christopher is going to prison. He's speaking his mind, and he's young. He's telling the truth. Please listen to his speech from the April 2011 Powershift Meet. Pass it on to others. He deserves support.

http://youtu.be/81EZUkYzrxU?hd=1

"3.) more or less threatening to lynch Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The nation has not seen such a puffed up rogue take the stage since the days of Huey Long, but the rural idiocy that saturated Louisiana in the 1930s "

WHY
Defend bankers, or at least never mention as a class, from all attacks in spit of the fact that they are what enabled "the biggest misallocation of resources in history?"

OK, we can't live the profligate energy-wasting lifestyle that so many live now without fossil fuels. So what? We can live very decent lives without wasting so much energy.

We can't grow as much food as we do now without fossil fuels. So what? We grow FAR MORE food than we need, thousands of calories more than we need.

Look around. What is the result of growing more food than we need? And of building communities that use fossil fuel instead of human energy to transport people and goods?

We get obese people. And then we start burning corn in cars.

It would not be the end of the world to live more modest lifestyles (as so many of us already do), grow just enough food to nourish us, instead of stuffing us like Christmas geese, rebuild our communtities to be walkable, and generally go back to pre-WW2 lifestyles.

This is not the end of the world. Unless we continue burning every goddamn bit of fossil fuels we can drill or blast out of the Earth, or steal from other countries.

THAT will be the end of the world.

I'm plenty busy and not looking for a "real job", but I did hear that job hunting sites like Monster.com et al have posted notices to the effect of:

"If you don't have a job already, don't bother applying for one here."

Wow. What to do?

Want my two cents? Doesn't matter, I'm gonna give it to you anyway. Success in this transition has nothing to do with your stash of cash (nor gold actually), nor much to do with weapons. He who can live on the least, and who stores his capital in diffuse, hard-to-transport media (think fruit trees and firewood), wins.

Come to my farm with your truck and your gun and you can rob me, yes, but you won't get much compared to what I actually have, and I'm much more valuable to you alive than dead. I can feed you today, or you can cooperate with me and I can feed you indefinitely.

Figs and fish trump bonds and securities every time. For 99.9% of human history this has been the case, and we're finally, dear lord finally, returning to our senses.

Here's to the producing class! May we soon be free of a sizeable chunk of the kleptocrats.

"and all the other citadels of grift until blood runs out the bronze nostrils of George Washington's statue," JHK

The sanguinary imagery is reminiscent of one Enoch Powell. Like Cassandra of Troy, back in the 1968, he warned the U.K. about the recent English riots, some 60 years later, which cause billions of pounds of damage. And just think; it's just a sneak preview.
The infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech laid it all out for the British, and Powell (youngest brigadier in WWII and scholar of classics) was rewarded by being removed from the shadow cabinet and relegated to being called a racist.

Now JHK makes makes a prediction about blood flowing in the precincts of lower Manhattan. Couldn't say it is anything but a sure bet. The blame for the wholesale destruction of America's industry, finance, economy and political system lay at the bronze and marble doorsteps of the Big Boyz of Wall Street. Will the old Baron Rothschild adage apply?: "The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." Oh yeah, I forgot, Rothschild and his cronies are behind the dissolution of America. You are right JHK, histroy is not our therapist - it's the roadmap to our awful future.

We're in permanent contraction now. There are no technological rescue remedies that will restore the old economic regime. The banks are not working anymore because we can't create more real wealth, and the wealth we pretended to create for thirty-odd years in the form of IOUs can't be paid back into existence.
So, how far will the next Renaissance go?
I am sure the Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Mayans, Romans, Aztecs and other select advanced cultures thought (prayed and/or calculated) the technological magic of the day would surely allow perpetual advancement of wealth, science, and social understanding. Maintaining said lifestyle, with hopes of more for the future probably seemed a birth right. Though I hope they didn't refer to living as "lifestyle"; consumer speak is irksome.
Their magic was as technological as ours for the time. Their descent was slowly solar powered and probably lasted centuries. Maybe they didn't even notice.
Our descent appears much more rapid. Each passing day seems to bring further evidence of a world in decline with no “breather” in between debacles.
How low will we go before the new normal is established? Mr. Kunstler is probably correct in that soon many opportunities will be available in agriculture and Animal Husbandry if Governor Perry is lucky.

From:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=176423

Science is Arbitrary.

What is the difference between E=mc^2 and W&%TR$ and any old scribble ? None, only what it means to an observer that is defined, conditioned and programmed according to arbitrary pain/pleasure circuits, to what the consequences of the symbols associated to interactions and events can mean for the observer, what it implies in terms of what the observer's mind and memory and thought paths feels and thinks and imagines what will happen according to some fixed invariants like "last as long as possible (don't die)" or "avoid pain as much as possible", and how the observer is forced to interact with the environment according to his pain/pleasure circuits, etc.

What we have is an infinite amplification of information, when information becomes significant, and it becomes significant only because it has consequences, implies direct pain/pleasure events on the subject that is "living" and "existing" within the world as "defined by the laws of physics" (but the laws of physics are a function of how the observer is designed: change the design of the observer and you change the laws of physics absolutely and completely, totally, no matter how brainwashed you are that the laws of physics are external absolute entities). So some quirk sequence of events, some quirk interaction like "throwing a person in fire" is irrelevant, is meaningless, is just a sequence of symbols, just equivalent to a random picture of pebbles on the street, but that particular sequence of events, that particuar interaction becomes infinitely important and significant and full of meaning and reality (when information becomes reality, becomes real, when information is no longer an abstraction but a real entity confirmed only according to some quirk pain/pleasure consequences and circuits) only because we are designed in a particular way, we interact with the world in a very particular but not absolute and objective way, but extremely quirky, flukey, arbitrary, a pure random circuit thrown into existence just because, for no deeper or further reason than that of Natural Evolution following some weird and random path and in the end defined us.

Hence all of our science and logic, all the laws of physics exist only because they have meaning to our pain/pleasure circuits and invariants we impose on existence like lasting long and avoiding pain.

But change the design of the "observer", create completely new interactions and pain/pleasure circuits and thought paths, make it become a variant entity, no longer fixed as an absolute (as Man is the Measure of Everything: NOT, only this design of Man measures all, but change the design and you go into a new universe) and you get a whole new set of laws of physics, of universes, of realities, we only see a small slice of reality, reality is much larger, infinitely larger.

On another note, I read of a TV CRT company that produced 2 million CRTs a year with only 2,000 people in 1985, imagine how many CRTs they could have produced with a million people! But this is EXCESS CAPACITY, the Technological Economy that creates Free Wealth through huge economies of scale. But that CRT company is dead, closed, no longer operating: and this shows how all of the innovation and novelty and technological "advancements" only exist to create a new stage for a new competition and fight and see who wins and loses: just like the IPAD is the new arena where to fight and see who wins (when it is way more primitve to all the high class software and applications UNIX workstations and PC software created in the 1980s and 1990s), all innovation really means is changes to create a new arena to make corporations fight and win the game of competition: the last fight is finished, the winner is Apple, now let us start a new fight and see who wins, etc. Change for change's sake, not for the advancement or well being of all or the general good, but only for subjectivities to confront and compete against each other (Nokia lost, but won the previous fight) and so on.

Always new items, always new changes, the fights continue forever, all new actors and items, but most of the items are useless crap, they only serve as a justification for the fight and competition, who brainwashed the most people of the "importance" of their new "device" or whatever.

Jim

As you have pointed out many times, the essence of the future is local. Local power, local production and local farming will soon be a necessity.

Suggesting reasonable ways to salvage the collapsing leviathan (like fixing the railroads) is educational for some, but essentially futile. Those with power to implement them won't listen, as such suggestions don't fit the agenda, and/or make profits for this years bonus. If we could save it, would it be wise to?

I'm not concerned with the standings in the prequalifiers for the presidential puppet playoffs. They are even less interesting than NASCAR or baseball.

Does it matter if Perry is that stupid, or just regurgitating his cue cards? How smart does one have to be to read a teleprompter and sign when instructed? Paying attention to the politicos and voting just encourages the scam. We have better things to do with our time. For the most part IMHO, our efforts should be focused within walking distance.

Corollary: because someone contradicts other, verifiably intelligent people, it becomes plausible that they are intelligent as well.

For example, Rick Perry: "I think scientists manipulated climate data."

James Hansen "has stated that burning more coal and oil over the next few decades would probably lead to a climate that is unlivable for the vast majority of Earth’s species within the current century."

Therefore, lets debate whether we think Rick Perry is intelligent, because he contradicts James Hansen.

Corollary: lets debate whether or not YOU are intelligent for contradicting the opinion of intelligent scientists.

Corollary to the corollary: You like to think about yourself and fancy yourself to be intelligent.

Triple Corollary: You fancy yourself magnanimous by granting latitude to people with patently absurd beliefs.

No one could possibly be any more stupid than Ronald Reagan. Some of these new politicians are as stupid, but that would be an achievement indeed to actually exceed him in the obliviousness department. And any future vehicles recharged off of the windmill in your backyard are going to weigh about as much as those quadricycles you see advertised in the back pages of Popular Mechanics. In other words, they are not really going to be automobiles. They are going to be cycles for lazy people who are disinclined to do their own pedaling. So yes, you are essentially correct when you insist that the motoring holiday is nearly over.

Corn-pone Hitler has been found at last! His name is Rick Perry!

hey, this is... interesting. The CEO of Goldman Sachs has just hired a top defense attorney. When I say "top," I, of course, mean "top/bottom."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-goldman-blankfein-idUSTRE77L5VK20110822

Here ya go: 7 ways Rick Perry wants to change the constitution. In particular pay attention to nos. 6 & 7. 7 Ways Rick Perry Wants to Change the Constitution

Not for nothing, but Ill cast my lot with the "rural idiocy" over the urban intelligentsia any day of the week. You are much more likely to find people who grow their own vegetables, keep chickens, hunt, fish, make homemade wine, and are generally less attached to their I-pads and $300 Ed Hardy designer sunglasses, out yonder in "Jesusland" than you will in any redoubts of east coast/west coast urban sophistication and their assorted outposts in college towns sprinkled throughout the interior, places where they still think that "the green economy" and high-speed rail will bring the good old days back again.

Like Hank Williams Jr said, "A country boy can survive".

Fine post today, and for a change, some real discussion has been happening in the comments. Hope the trend continues.

Meanwhile in Canada we have lost the leader of our only remotely progressive party, the NDP (New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, who died from cancer earlier today. His party had just won the most seats in Parliament ever and he was ready to take on the role of Leader of the Opposition. While he had an uphill battle to fight against the two right wing parties (Conservative and Liberal) he was our best hope for the future of Canada and the outlook without him is grim. A sad day for progressives all across the country.

Now we are left with two parties that are almost identical in their policies and both beholden to the corporations who fund them. Hey, sounds like the USA and look how well that is turning out. This is the last thing we needed up here, now nobody will speak up for the common good. There will be a replacement for Jack, and he or she will have good intentions, but they won't be Jack, and it was his hard work that brought them so close to power. RIP Jack Layton.

How come no one is talking about Ron Paul? Talk about Ron Paul, you fsckers! He looks to be one of the few with some principle and integrity among your political bozos.

JAMES, once again great insight and suggestions. History is cruel and in my conservative one newspaper town in western NYS, both right and left are blind. After 10 years of cold dark storage of my canned dry freeze foods, the flour, baking supply items, beans, rice, pasta, cereal,salt,all did well,BUT STAY AWAY from the freeze dried meats, not worth it, messy, veggies,and beans are the best,made frsh Italian bread with the 10 year old flour it did well. BUT, when no one else in your area is prepared, oh well Rochester will turn into Rottenchester.

I and many others would prefer to
goose step with Perry, rather than
duck waddle with Obama.

Huey Long was a left wing sort of populist, who did everything he could to help ordinary people, in between being a crook. He was in no way a corprate shiil like Rick Perry or most of the modern Republican Party. Of course facts don't seem to matter on here that much, when the yankees get going with their everything is the south's fault bullshit. They believe in Jesus they must be crazy!

The CBS Evening News last night blew a charming puff of smoke up the national ass. Apparently the Santa Cruz Police Department has made "Minority Report" come to life with a new computer program that tells commanders to dispatch extra officers to areas where it has detected patterns of high crime.

The teaser for the segment made the program sound like an Orwellian infringement on civil liberties. After watching the actual piece, though, my reaction was "no shit, Sherlock!" It was a glorified crime statistics analysis program. The only thing that sounded conceivably like an improvement over Comp-Stat was better code to crunch the raw data, and the segment gave me no reason to be convinced that this new program was any better than Comp-Stat. Perhaps it just pesters commanders and beat cops to follow its instructions more often than Comp-Stat does, in which case the program would be of no use to an alert force.

Talk about technograndiosity! For as long as there have been police, good cops have been doing something pretty fucking close to what this program tells them to do. I can just imagine some inspector in Victorian London telling his Bobbies, "aight, chaps, I've been told that the pubkeepers around Oxford Circus are having trouble with assaults by the common drunks again. So keep an eye out in those parts." Shit. If the last dozen crack-fueled street assaults occurred in the Tenderloin, perhaps the next one will be in the Outer Sunset? Or Park Merced? Or should the cops take a wild-ass guess and keep an eye out for crackheads on the warpath in--don't say it--the Tenderloin?

I suspect that even Comp-Stat does little that an alert group of commanders couldn't do with pushpins on a wall map. These newfangled computer programs, like the maps that they replace, are only as good as the people using them. And when I consider that beat cops allegedly need the computer to tell them where the crime is, I have to wonder whether our police forces haven't decided to hire oblivious incompetents who merely project a good image. I've always been told that performance objectives for beat cops normally included having a clue about what was afoot on their beats because they were paying some kind of attention and had some ability to detect patterns, but what do I know?

Another weird situation on CBS, maybe a coincidence but maybe not. "60 Minutes" has recently been filling its broadcasts with old segments. It has always rerun segments from time to time, but it seems to be doing so much more frequently than it did a decade or two ago. Maybe I'm just watching it at the wrong time of year, but Leslie Stahl did recently report a new piece in which corporati complained that the US has a lower corporate tax rate than Switzerland, so it still has some original reporting capacity. I've recently seen broadcasts in which two out of three segments were reruns. It seems CBS is hunkering down and ripping itself off in order to save money.

My cynical explanation is that the "60 Minutes" audience is becoming too old to tell the difference.

Extra cheese please and don't forget to supersize the cola.

When the students are ready the teacher appears:

Gerald Celente on the Alex Jones Show - 22 August 2011 - YouTube - http://goo.gl/eQqWe

The thing that is so annoying for me is that the average American is so clueless about this. Most either do not know what peak oil is, or they have already dismissed it. Instead they want to revolt over gas prices. They think the good ol' days will come back once gas is cheap again. They think it's just a matter of politics, drill baby drill. Absolute morons. The ship is sinking, and these idiots are my shipmates.

Food for thought,...Saw THIS cat Don Peck on the tube last night promo'n his new effort Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures and What We Can Do About It.

Six Principles to Guide Our Recovery Efforts
1. The problems created by the most-severe recessions are typically bigger and longer-lasting than they first appear. Every year that goes by while masses of people are trapped and idled due to housing woes and high unemployment is not merely one lost year--it’s a loss that’s paid forward into future years as well, an accumulating deficit of skill, character, and regenerative ability that will restrain America’s growth potential for many years to come.
2. Again and again, our tendency in periods like this one has been to hunker down and wait for the bad times to pass. When bubbles pop and times grow hard, the animal spirits within all of us turn bearish, sometimes ungenerous, and deeply averse to risk. Unchecked, these sentiments can bias our thinking and actions in ways that are just as dangerous and counterproductive as bubble thinking itself.

3. Historically, as a result of these first two factors, we have tended to underestimate the true cost of remaining in periods like this one, and to overestimate the risks of aggressive action to try to hasten recovery. The bias in periods like this one has usually been toward doing too little; if anything, it should be toward doing too much.

4. This was not an ordinary recession, and ordinary responses will not fully end it. Boilerplate responses--cut taxes, raise spending--are insufficient given the nature and variety of these problems, and potentially dangerous if only bluntly applied. We need a combination of actions--some time honored, some novel--to restore our health.

5. True recovery is not simply a matter of jolting the economy back onto its former path; it’s about changing the path. We are in the midst of a major, global economic transformation, one that is steadily thinning the American middle class. The Great Recession has brought this into sharp relief, and in some ways has given us a preview of where America’s economy is heading. Many of the deepest economic trends that the recession has highlighted will take decades to fully play out. We can adapt successfully to them, if we start now.

6. Culture matters. A cultural separation is accompanying and reinforcing the economic sorting of Americans into winners and losers. Much of the nonprofessional middle class is slowly coming to resemble the poor in its habits and values; the rich are simply floating away from everyone else, not just financially but emotionally too. Both developments are profoundly unhealthy. Solutions to the problems of this era cannot be only economic. They must be cultural as well.

JHK 4 PRES

Food for thought,...Saw THIS cat Don Peck on the tube last night promo'n his new effort Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures and What We Can Do About It.

Six Principles to Guide Our Recovery Efforts
1. The problems created by the most-severe recessions are typically bigger and longer-lasting than they first appear. Every year that goes by while masses of people are trapped and idled due to housing woes and high unemployment is not merely one lost year--it’s a loss that’s paid forward into future years as well, an accumulating deficit of skill, character, and regenerative ability that will restrain America’s growth potential for many years to come.
2. Again and again, our tendency in periods like this one has been to hunker down and wait for the bad times to pass. When bubbles pop and times grow hard, the animal spirits within all of us turn bearish, sometimes ungenerous, and deeply averse to risk. Unchecked, these sentiments can bias our thinking and actions in ways that are just as dangerous and counterproductive as bubble thinking itself.

3. Historically, as a result of these first two factors, we have tended to underestimate the true cost of remaining in periods like this one, and to overestimate the risks of aggressive action to try to hasten recovery. The bias in periods like this one has usually been toward doing too little; if anything, it should be toward doing too much.

4. This was not an ordinary recession, and ordinary responses will not fully end it. Boilerplate responses--cut taxes, raise spending--are insufficient given the nature and variety of these problems, and potentially dangerous if only bluntly applied. We need a combination of actions--some time honored, some novel--to restore our health.

5. True recovery is not simply a matter of jolting the economy back onto its former path; it’s about changing the path. We are in the midst of a major, global economic transformation, one that is steadily thinning the American middle class. The Great Recession has brought this into sharp relief, and in some ways has given us a preview of where America’s economy is heading. Many of the deepest economic trends that the recession has highlighted will take decades to fully play out. We can adapt successfully to them, if we start now.

6. Culture matters. A cultural separation is accompanying and reinforcing the economic sorting of Americans into winners and losers. Much of the nonprofessional middle class is slowly coming to resemble the poor in its habits and values; the rich are simply floating away from everyone else, not just financially but emotionally too. Both developments are profoundly unhealthy. Solutions to the problems of this era cannot be only economic. They must be cultural as well.

JHK 4 Great World Leader 2016

It's not a question of resources or 'wealth' (we, as humanity, are ultimately as wealthy as everything we can get to on the planet anyway...), it is a question of knowledge. To go back to the 17th Century-style economy dominated be small-scale farming and artisanal furniture-making we would need to lose over 3 centuries of knowledge. No reason for this to happen now. The world in 50 years may look very different from today's world, extrapolated, but the future will not be the past.

It's ironic that Republicans love to associate
themselves with moral rectitude yet it seems
like most scandalous, hypocritical behavior
comes from their members.

Rick Perry turns out to have invested a lot in
the porn industry. Michele Bachmann, a rabid
get-the-government-out-of-the-private-sector
screecher, was found to have accepted state
government handouts for her business. Yet
they continue their candidacies as if nothing
happened.

We love our criminals. We love our hypocrites.
That's why we love Britney and Paris and Lindsay.
So low have we sunk as a people that VIRTUE is
now the ultimate sin because it does not rouse
us from our narcosis, our numbness, it does not
make us feel as alive as ROTTENNESS. Rottenness
is provocative and titillation must come from
the OUTSIDE because we've become so stupid and
unoriginal that it cannot be generated from
WITHIN. We have no inner life. Comcast lives!!

E.

On delimitations: how are words subdivided, how far do they extend in space and time, what if the word existence had a trillion symbols, what if the word always changed, what if that word like any of hundreds of others needed to be said in a certain time, maybe a day or year or needed to be written in a certain size, how far does a word, concept or sentence - thought extend in time and space, how are they distinguished from each other, how does one word or thought flow into another, where are the delimitations, the repetitive patterns that make up thought, how do they become one different from another, why not change them, etc. A concept or word can last 3 years to say and the next sentence 3 seconds, and the next 50 years and the next extended in time and space and blended into each other, how items are delimited, how they are seperated and such. Modified minds will change all these delimitations, even just the thought of them changes them.

Patrizia:

On Italy, the place is a failed entity, has the worse housing bubble, real estate bubble ever that is waiting to explode, it has rent or mortgage prices like 1,200 euros a month with salaries of 800 euros a month, and home prices (for crappy one bedroom houses) 300,000 euros with salaries of 10,000 euros a year, 30 to 1, no place has such a huge real estate bubble, it will blow up, even though they don't have property taxes because they are governed by real estate hogs and old hags, the place is doomed, failed, will collapse.

Yikes! Rick Perry in the porn business? That's another Sweet Jesus on a Dinosaur moment. It's sort of like American gunmakers selling arms to both sides in foreign conflicts, except that we're the combatants and victims this time.

The Clintons gave the GOP a run for its money with Whitewater, which was technically legal under Arkansas state law, but not under the law of almost any other state on account its being a despicable bottomfeeding con. It was a fucked up sort of mortgage racket in which the Clintons and their partners had a contractually stipulated right to claim 100% equity on any property and sell it to a third party if the original buyer missed a single monthly payment.

Whitewater was remarkably similar to a fictional scam that Sinclair Lewis described in "The Jungle," in which an Irish property speculator with buddies in the Chicago city government sold recently repainted but shitty, unsanitary houses to unwitting immigrants who didn't understand the relevant legal documents, then evicted them when they missed a single payment and resold them to new marks. The main differences between this scam and Whitewater was that it preyed on poorer, somewhat more ignorant people, and that the Irish crook in this story always marketed the houses as "new homes."

It's telling, and disturbing, that the Lewinsky episode stuck to Clinton but Whitewater didn't. I take some comfort knowing that a majority in the Senate stood up to the sex scolds and refused to convict Clinton; that would have set an even worse precedent than the terrible one set by the House when it passed articles of impeachment. Still, it's disgusting and a bit scary that a consensual tryst with an intern was ultimately treated as a much graver sin than a twisted scheme to get middle-class retirees to invest their life's savings in real estate deals involving fraud by contract. It's hard to find the words to describe how cruel and predatory Whitewater's forfeiture clauses were. The Lewinsky tryst, by comparison, was nearly harmless. Hillary had become used to "bimbo eruptions" years earlier, Monica was over the age of consent (frankly, the only serious legal consideration concerning the age difference), she and Bill had a mutual attraction, and I'm not aware of any evidence that he used the power differential to prey upon her in any way (in contrast to his treatment of some women as governor of Arkansas). Many of the arguments that Clinton compromised White House security by giving Lewinsky unusual access were made so selectively and with such petty intent as to be specious; they came from junkyard-grade partisan attack dogs who didn't give a rat's ass about White House security in any other circumstance.

You're right about titillation. (Sidebar: you can't spell titillation without "tit." Heh-heh.) Real estate cons don't titillate us, or apparently even work very many of us into enough of a lather to keep our attention, but the thought of the president's face in an intern's vagina titillates us greatly. It seems more than a few of us were excited to read the official bureaucratic write-up commissioned by the smarmy, bespectacled Ken Starr, and since when were prosecutor's reports bestsellers? For a brief time, we at once had private and public sector versions of Pornosec. (Bad work if you can get it in either case: it's said that writing pornographic copy is as gruelingly boring a job for writers as there is, because it quickly becomes the same fucking thing over and over and over.)

Maybe what we need are government-run brothels and burlesque shows. They would cause less damage to the participants than the Clinton impeachment fiasco did to Lewinsky. Or maybe we could set up a permanent Pornosec, but hopefully staffed by MFAs instead of attorneys. Americans have an appetite for stories and movies about presidents, interns and cigars, have we not? We already have the NEA, so the precedent has been set for government involvement in really unpopular obscene art. Why not have the government produce wholesome, popular obscenity for a change?

The reason why not is a sick one. We have a much easier time getting off on sex involving repression, transgression, shame and pain. $20 happy hour at the National Mall Whorehouse is a bit too healthy for our tastes. We're looking for something more like a national S&M lounge-cum-Chris Hansen man cave. That's a step too far for me.

I really wish Mark Sanford would publicly tell the family values hypocrites to shut up and stop dragging our country into the gutter. Sanford obviously made mistakes, especially with his stupid story about the Appalachian Trail, but he took responsibility almost immediately. Since then, he has spoken about sex (and other matters) with an impressive grace and thoughtfulness that is almost entirely absent from our political class. He'd probably get more press if he were standard-issue religious right, a sanctimonious, hypocritical sadomasochist, but with a touch more conviction in his speech he could potentially get a lot of bad actors down off their high horses. He might disgrace Rick Perry to the point of forcing him to sell dirty magazines out of the back office of a used car dealership in Paint Creek, carrying on the classic American tradition of using a really dirty business as a front for a cleaner one.

Some are predicting that the next speculative bubble to burst in the US will involve student loan debt products. I consider this scenario plausible. We seem pretty close to the point at which investors holding student loan-backed CDO's and the like take a Marine Corps boot camp haircut after one too many debt serfs decides that the prudent, edifying and healthy course of action is to drop off the radar for a while and take cash on the barrelhead for, say, trimming bud in Garberville.

And damn straight the rational decision for many of these kids is to trim bud, at least if they can stand the bathing-optional culture (and, depending on the farm, being kicked out if they get pregnant, as happened to a woman I know). My sense is that the presence of Zeta-grade gangs in the hippie hills is exaggerated by the media and that most of the growers are at worst garden-variety paranoid property rights zealots. In terms of personal finances and dignity, what makes more sense: having a pound of flesh extracted every month by cold, condescending usurers, or being paid an extremely competitive wage by the equivalent of small farmers, likely in addition to free rent (take note, 8man!) and frequent offers of food, drink and doobie snacks? There is still some residual belief in the debt system among young conformists, as well as fear of crossing the government, but this system's popular legitimacy is fading fast--if I'm reading the tea leaves accurately, very, very fast.

Dropping off the grid in this fashion is also a good way to avoid paying rent to predatory landlords. Two examples: the largest property management business in Eureka, PPM, is a barely disguised criminal syndicate, and one of our high-volume individual slumlords, Floyd Squires, is busy turning neighborhoods where he owns properties into Detroit-by-the-Bay. I expect that a student loan crash will cause the residential rental sector to take a good kick in the nuts, which PPM and Squires richly deserve but many others don't. The real hit will be in areas with young populations, such as Denver.

If inflation is an indicator of unsustainability, college tuitions are due for a serious correction. Just as housing prices did until recently, they are quickly rising out of the reach of median-income households. Hence the student loan racket, which is a parallel version of the mortgage racket, aside from its debts not being dischargeable upon declaration of bankruptcy.

From the perspective of actual education, this sort of debt crash may be a good thing. A lot of what goes on at our colleges and universities isn't education but disingenuous bottomfeeding and fraud. The for-profit schools that advertise on TV are the most notorious (“I'm the director of nursing at the Mayo Clinic, and I am a Phoenix”), but they're far from the only brazen, disgraceful ones. My Alma Mater, which straddles the second and third tiers of small liberal arts colleges, has about $100,000 in endowment funds per student. Normal, decent people would show some gratitude for the ability to defray several thousand dollars' worth of costs per student annually just from interest and dividend income. My Alma Mater's administrators, however, treat this amount as grounds for an inferiority complex relative to the likes of Swarthmore, which has more $400,000 per student, and greedily demand more from everyone within earshot. Even their betters at Swarthmore are pikers compared to Williams, whose endowment has over a million dollars per student.

For institutions whose avowed purpose is cultivating in their students a life of the mind, they engage in incredible shows of smoke and mirrors and make incredibly brazen, hypocritical demands of their students to suspend critical thinking for sales pitches. It's to their great discredit that with almost no exceptions they play the games encouraged by US News and World Report, whose hackneyed bullshit quantifying the unquantifiable has pathetically become the gold standard for most prospective students and their parents in the US. (Reed is the only competitive college I can name offhand that doesn't play this brainless game.) These schools have all the grace of an insecure twit sulking because his Lexus is older and cheaper than his neighbor's Lexus.

It's worthwhile for every prospective student or parent to consider whether the purpose of an education is to get an education or to become chummy with slick networkers who have been disembrained by smarmy institutional pitchmen. If it's the former, student loans are most likely a waste and a dangerous trap. If it's the latter, they're probably a needlessly high price of admission to a racket, and the kiddos should angle for a discount. After all, isn't one of our cultural watchwords now “name your own price?” There might be some good, old-fashioned fraud or extortion rackets free for the taking, possibly even lawful ones. Also, if such hucksterism again becomes the province of unpolished penny-ante shysters, we might begin a rectification of names without even trying.

E.

What I've always said about the Republicans is that they live in the land of what should be instead of what is. They have put themselves in a corner claiming "family values" to be all theirs and the other party and mixed economies as godless.

They have conflated Capitalism with god and liberty, but we know it doesn't work that way.

They set up standards that they can't possibly live by and over-simplify all issues so that even a five-year old could parrot them, but again they really don't solve any problems plaguing this complex global entity.

It look more like in Freudian terms a reaction formation to their own weaknesses from which we all suffer to some degree, but when you look at what they say and what they do, there is a great schism.

Michele Bachmann claims to have become a tax lawyer so she could keep an eye on the enemy. She claims to have tried hundreds of cases, but in reality she tried two!

She hates government but gets subsidies for her farm and her effeminate husband's religion-based gay cure center. She follows his directives and says that is mutual respect.

Rick Perry wants you to believe he's a regular guy, but big banks like BofA will be contributing big money to his campaign and he will dutifully not look into any impropriety they commit.

It has ended up that liberty (no regulations) for the top tier means lawlessness and is stepping on the freedoms of 99.9% of the rest of us.

Campaigns are more about marketing and advertising PR than dialog and discussion of how we remake international trade laws to create a climate for employment.

First you have to admit that we are in a global economy. Then you have to describe what economic philosophy has inculcated the culture, think tanks and education for the past 35 years. (Milton Friedman-Neoliberalism). And most importantly real campaign finance reform. Less in and out the revolving door lobbying for corporations and foreign entities.

Before you do that there can be no effective change from the downhill trajectory we find ourselves in.

Why, we would even begin to discuss peak oil and what that means for our way of life. Now wouldn't that be special.

-----

Note to those who say JHK for pres. Cute. Good luck with that, as if he would even want to. But they won't even let him on TV to peddle his books except on a history channel show called "Prophets of Doom".

"Just as bad as the casino spots, but for different reasons, are the constant ads for cancer treatment and open-heart surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital in Eureka."

One of these days, and perhaps that day is already here, a credit check will be required before surgery will be performed on a prospective patient. And for good measure, throw in the house as collateral, too.

There's many ways to 'thin the population' which seems to be such a grave concern here on CFN. Of course, a little creativity is required but what better way to start than entwining medical care with the good old fashioned American business practice of a credit check. And if one doesn't qualify for an apartment, house, or surgery, well obviously they deserve to die. It's a Josiah Bounderby wet dream.

Name all the people you want, name all political parties you want, and come up with millions of reasons why all of you are right. Whether you are conservative, liberal, straight, gay, happy, depressed, republican, democrat, rich, poor, urbanite, suburbanite, or farmer. We are ALL in this together. We all are suffering, in our own worlds, and NO ONE is able to pick up the pieces of Humpty Dumpty again. Whether you have a plan to go into the past, present or future to solve this problem of the downfall of America, it seems as though there is NO WAY OUT. We are going to suffer, and to those who blame others for this problem, just remember, you are probably right. But in the middle of this muck and mire, we all stand together. Its the only way to win. United, together even if in misery. Maybe that is way so many people enjoy reading Jim's comments every week. NO ANSWERS...JUST A GROUP OF US PEOPLE ....REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR WORLD HERE IN AMERICA. If we could all just meet somewhere, we might feel even better,..you know...a face with a blog....

I just finished reading a very interesting article

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/17/why-amazon-cant-make-a-kindle-in-the-usa/

it explains what really happened and how China became the first economic power and will stay the first for long, unless the US wakes up.

I just ate a brandywine tomato sandwich with arugala on home baked whole grain, with fresh mayonaisse and I had an orgasm. How's that for a visual image! I am such an asshole.

Hey Kids, Uncle buddy here - asking questions --you can make up the answers.

I've been trying to come up with what the real "end game" will look like. My limited intellect is trying to collect any information that would give clues so as to where and how and on what scale one could survive or otherwise prosper if in fact paper money societies go all ga-ga sometime after the next elections.

So my take on the situation is that much of the mass production of staples will fail when supply chains are disrupted. So the common wisdom is that urban areas will be more Clusterfucked than rural area with local farm and stock supplies.

So my questions are: If actual agricultural output was limited to the production levels of the 1940s or 1950s - and the transport of these commodities was limited in scope to that of the transportation activities of the '40s and '50s - just how many of the US - assuming they had financial wealth would be able to be supported?

I'm thinking these models for "communities" or co-ops or whatever are supposed to provide sustainable staples are pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

I'm thinking that sometime within 10 or 15 years the US population will faced with declining agri-productivity that may resemble the output of the "50s...... So how many people were served then?

Any comments - won't the guns take the butter away?

,Johnny Depp Does Vanity Fair July 2009,Cheap Pandora Bracelets

Il brand Ash presenta in anteprima la nuova collezione per il prossimo autunno 2011. Calzature originali che si ispirano agli scarponi da montagna con tacco alto,Met Gala Michelle Williams,Pandora Compose, modelli con tomaie in pelle rifinite da dettagli in pelliccia montate su fondi in legno o zeppe fasciate,Cheap Gift Certificates,Color Combo to Try Neutrals + Maroon, stivali femminili alti sopra le ginocchia o stile motorcycle dal attending,1 aggressivo tempestato di borchie. Le mie preferite sono le sneakers stile All Star in pelle con chiusure multiple con fibbia e riproposte ogni stagione in nuovi versioni e materiali. Il lancio è previsto per la accomplished,1 di luglio.

Via | nitrolicious.com

ASH collezione calzature autunno 2011

Hey guys,

I'm working on a project on my computer and suddenly I felt shaking. Thom Hartmann in Wash., DC felt the same thing at the same time!
There's an earthquake on the east coast. Don't know how big an area it affected--but lets just say the cats are not happy.

It's really scary in a high-rise let me tell you. Hope I don't feel anything more!
-------
Wage, knowing what we all know about the priorities of this country, you know we're going the way of N. Korea.

Yes we felt it here in Allentown...lasted about 30 seconds or so.......first time i felt one......someone says it was a 5.8'er

Felt shake in NC. Word is that Thomas Jefferson is extremely pissed and was doing more than spinning in his Charlottesville, VA grave.

Quake or thomas Jefferson sending a message from his resting place in Charlottesville?

The earthquake has dislodged all the ticks from the stampeding deer herds of New England and they are now roaming the countryside looking for human hosts.

End games -
Good question Budizwizer -

Answers will vary -

I think our government sees what the will of the average citizen wants to see -
Good times continue!
(or good times return, if your life presently sucks)

I think reality is less hopeful. Absent some sort of economic shock, or geopolitical shock, or terrorist shock, or climate/meteor strike shock -

How about we just continue on our present course.
In a decade gas and diesel will be at $10/gallon, with all that entails for living expenses and food costs.

In a decade, we're got a population of nearly 350,000,000 - with more unemployment, more underemployment, more third worldly characteristics. And the overpopulation will tend to concentrate in cities, which gradually become less and less pleasant places to live.

In two decades, we pass through 400,000,000+.
We are no longer a net food exporter.
We finally get serious about US population control.

It is far too late, for the US and for the World.

And it could have been avoided - at several points along the way.

Sorry, bustinj - if the government has viable long term contingency plans - they should have been implemented 20 years ago.

Those Powers That Be - are as stupid as the average Joe - and much more greedy.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Rick Perry wrote a book that was published less than a year ago, in Nov. 2010.

In his book he says Social Security is unconstitutional and should be completely eliminated.

Somehow I think that alone will prevent him from receiving enough votes to become president. Perry will have to defend his written words.

Here is the book title:

Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington. (New York: Little, Brown, 2010. )

It also in interesting to note how these supposedly "anti-government" people (like Ron Paul) have been living off government salaries for years.

Perry says he want to save America from Washington. And the way he wants to do it is to become one of the highest paid government employees in Washington. Nice, but no cigar.

JHK wrote: .."hat-trick" of cretinism last week by 1.) announcing his disbelief in climate change science; 2.) announcing his disbelief in evolution science; and 3.) more or less threatening to lynch Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

I would reverse the order of these three items. Indeed, AGW has not been proven to the satisfaction of many scientist. As far as i'm concerned the Cap and Trade market that some are trying to develop would create a financial instrument that would make the phony derivative market products look like bars of gold in comparison.

I have the utmost respect for JHK's Peak Oil predictions, but I think he -and those of you who agree with him about AGW - should reexamine your position and review the geological record instead of trusting in the numbers that fall out of the IPCC's flawed computer models.

America is scared.
They cast about for someone to blame.
Blame Obama. Blame a Mexican. Blame a Jew. Blame a Liberal. Blame a School Teacher. Blame a Union Member. Blame a Black person.
Blame anyone but ourselves.

Enter Rick Perry. Enter Michelle Bachmann. Enter Sarah Palin. Insert name____________

Go right ahead my "conservative" friends.
These people will indentify your enemy for you so you don't have to think about what has happened to us and you won't have to shoulder the blame.

And you will probably get what you want and maybe what we all deserve. Maybe the sociopath Perry, the Bible Thumper Bachmann or God knows who else.

EARTHQUAKE ANYONE?

What you don't hear Perry or Bachmann or Palin say is we should TAX THE RICH. I was pleased to learn that nurses’ unions in the United States have been particularly outspoken advocates of a financial transactions tax.

As they put it: “Heal America. Tax Wall Street.”

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/a-sales-tax-on-wall-street-transactions/?ref=business#preview

"...short-term trading has increased enormously in recent years, with no positive impacts on economic efficiency.

Our current tax policies favor speculative investment in financial instruments over productive investments in human capabilities.

For all of you who like Max Keiser, he's interviewing Catherine Austin Fitts again today and also addresses the SEC squelching of investigations...
Catherine Austin Fitts who Pappa Bush administration describes the coup d'etat that took place in this country which destroyed the good operations of government and turned it into a criminal enterprise---Remember I called it Myer Lanasky's Murder Incorporated last year?
Well I wasn't too far off. Fitts described attempts to poison her, or trying to run her off the road as she tried to do her job honestly.
Great interview a must hear.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/37941/the-dangerous-reagan-cult

This one's for you, Wage.

And to 1980 - when the first big nails went into the coffin of the American Dream.

“Aitor Throup has advised,1 the 20th Anniversary Edition of C.P. Company’s a lot of,1 iconic section,What kind of handbag should I get my wife,1 – the Goggle or Mille Miglia Jacket. To bless,1 both the past and future of this jacket the aggregation,1 is hosting a special exhibition at their showroom in Milan during the 2009 International Furniture Fair. The exhibition, which has been curated by Aitor Throup, appearance,Canada Goose Vests Men Sale,1 the new design as well as 20 Mille Miglia jackets selected from the C.P. Company archive.”

Beinghunted has uploaded a feature, showcasing the exhibition, the accomplished,1 models of the anorak,Canada Goose Sale,1 and of course gives a abundant,1 attending,1 at the new Aitor Throup jacket.

C.P. Company celebrates the 20th anniversary of their famous 1000m Goggle Jacket. For the appropriate,1 break,1 they invited Aitor Throup to design this years jacket and already,1 afresh,1 the designer proofed that functionality and design can go duke,1 in hand.

Share

Check out the C.P. Company 1000m Goggle Jacket by Aitor Throup after the jump.

23 August 2011 --- The First Day of School at FREEDOM High School.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-17/justice/florida.school.attack_1_pipe-bombs-explosive-materials-investigators?_s=PM:CRIME

http://freedom.mysdhc.org/

My whole life has been living the future and living the present in view of the future.
Needless to say that in times like this my main reading has been about collapse.
And what better example than the previous collapses?(1929, URRSS collapse)

What will be?
How to be prepared?
First you must think with a "post collapse mind" and NOT as you would react today.
First thing: how to save what I have, or better, what will I need that I can prepare now?
Many invest in gold.
Currencies will collapse, so gold will be the new currency.
Now, what do you think you need mostly when there is no money, no state, no welfare, nothing?
To whom do you sell your gold?
Who will need gold?

You will need food and a place to live.
No or little energy will mean you need a place where you do not need too much energy and you can produce it.
So: no gold, but may be a house.
A house in a place not too cold, with a piece of land where to grow my food, fruit trees, may be a few chickens, or a pond with fishes and geese.
Second: some solar panels or a wind turbine.

May be, if I lived in US a good buy could be a house in Florida.
But not Miami or a fancy place.
Not even on the beach.
A place where with a little money you can buy a nice house and a good piece of land.
Then, as I said, solar panels and so on.

If the collapse really comes, who will live better:

A financial guy with a lot of gold in a safe in a bank, living in a penthouse on the top of a skyscraper which cost him a fortune just in electricity for the elevator, or me, in my small house in a sunny place, with my kitchen garden, my chickens and my geese?

From:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=176423

[quote="kowalskil"][quote="nameta9"]

... Hence all of our science and logic, all the laws of physics exist only because they have meaning to our pain/pleasure circuits and invariants we impose on existence like lasting long and avoiding pain. ...
[/quote]
.
I tend to disagree. Suppose all of us disappear due to an epidemic. Laws of physics will still control the planet, and the rest of the solar system. Science and logic are in our brains, but laws of physics exist independently, even before they are discovered by humans. This is one of self-evident truths to most scientists.
.[/quote]

A group of persons, with their decoding of the universe, establish the laws that are valid for that group of persons, or better that group of entities designed and configured in a certain way, or better that particular combination of Mass - Energy, Matter a Man Brain is compared to other combinations of Mass - Energy in which the Man Brain is swimming. there is nothing fundamental, or absolute in the way the Man Brain is configured in terms of Matter compared to any other chunk of Matter. Hence, the Man Brain has no absolute reference to declare what the laws of physics are "independent of itself", or when the Man Brain is "no longer around": they are arbitrary, undefined, non existent and exist only when an observer declares them and lives them through particular circuits of pain/pleasure that make the information become real (as in if there where no consequences of pain/pleasure, there would be no information, nothing significant compared to anything else, only the particular configuration of pain/pleasure connected to interactions with the external world, and the decodings and information remembered through the experience and memory of the events provoking the pain/pleasure define the "laws of engagement of the observer with the observed", the "laws of physics", the universe).

So a set of "same observers" define "laws of engagements", any other new set of observers designed differently would define new "laws of engagement" and so on. And then that set of 3 observers or 3 trillion of "same observers" (but they could all be different, hence no "common laws") is just a chunk of Matter measuring other chunks of Matter: change that chunk of matter made up of the observers and you change how that new chunk of matter measures other chunks of matter, hence new laws of physics.

But mostly, the laws "independent from us" are at best valid only for a few billon or trillion years, and then they are no longer, or if the observer lived in snapshots of a second every hundred years, the laws would once again be differen and so on.

From:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=176423

[quote="kowalskil"][quote="nameta9"]

... Hence all of our science and logic, all the laws of physics exist only because they have meaning to our pain/pleasure circuits and invariants we impose on existence like lasting long and avoiding pain. ...
[/quote]
.
I tend to disagree. Suppose all of us disappear due to an epidemic. Laws of physics will still control the planet, and the rest of the solar system. Science and logic are in our brains, but laws of physics exist independently, even before they are discovered by humans. This is one of self-evident truths to most scientists.
.[/quote]

A group of persons, with their decoding of the universe, establish the laws that are valid for that group of persons, or better that group of entities designed and configured in a certain way, or better that particular combination of Mass - Energy, Matter a Man Brain is compared to other combinations of Mass - Energy in which the Man Brain is swimming. there is nothing fundamental, or absolute in the way the Man Brain is configured in terms of Matter compared to any other chunk of Matter. Hence, the Man Brain has no absolute reference to declare what the laws of physics are "independent of itself", or when the Man Brain is "no longer around": they are arbitrary, undefined, non existent and exist only when an observer declares them and lives them through particular circuits of pain/pleasure that make the information become real (as in if there where no consequences of pain/pleasure, there would be no information, nothing significant compared to anything else, only the particular configuration of pain/pleasure connected to interactions with the external world, and the decodings and information remembered through the experience and memory of the events provoking the pain/pleasure define the "laws of engagement of the observer with the observed", the "laws of physics", the universe).

So a set of "same observers" define "laws of engagements", any other new set of observers designed differently would define new "laws of engagement" and so on. And then that set of 3 observers or 3 trillion of "same observers" (but they could all be different, hence no "common laws") is just a chunk of Matter measuring other chunks of Matter: change that chunk of matter made up of the observers and you change how that new chunk of matter measures other chunks of matter, hence new laws of physics.

But mostly, the laws "independent from us" are at best valid only for a few billon or trillion years, and then they are no longer, or if the observer lived in snapshots of a second every hundred years, the laws would once again be different and so on.

So a set of "same observers" define "laws of engagements", any other new set of observers designed differently would define new "laws of engagement" and so on. And then that set of 3 observers or 3 trillion of "same observers" (but they could all be different, hence no "common laws") is just a chunk of Matter measuring other chunks of Matter: change that chunk of matter made up of the observers and you change how that new chunk of matter measures other chunks of matter, hence new laws of physics.

...seems to me you're stating that "everything is relative", yet in an absolutistic format that may contradict your premise.

how can you state a definitive truth about the laws of physics if you too are just spouting from a perch of relativity?

peace peaceniks

From:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=176433

I saw an IPAD. Once again confirmed, there really is no "progress" anymore, just different combinations of the same old crap, over and over again, to give the impression that it is "something new" and "cool" and worthwhile, etc, so everyone buys into it, it is defined as "new and better" from the outset, not from what it actually "does". The software is the same old PC software that has been perfected over 20 years ago, no real high class UNIX workstation software, the touch is way worse than the "mouse", but the mouse is "out of style now", etc.

What it really shows is that what is really important is to create a new arena where corporations can "compete" which means, disperse money and resources and man years and energy simply to waste time, to not produce anything, to just see who is stronger and the winner, etc. Nothing constructive here, nothing accumulative here (all these products are based on being flashy, a lot of gimmicks, a lot of "eye candy", a lot of "games" (as in fun and games since we no longer have anything serious to do anymore, like building Rockets and Skyscrapers) just like candy to little children, and that is the level of worth).

We need to build Skyscrapers, Cars, Trains and High Speed Trains, BUSES, Houses, Atom power plants, Atom smashers and Particle Accelerators, Rockets, etc. All real things, things you can touch, and we need to substitute the Man Brain with a decent Machine that isn't looking for fights (as in competition and innovation (change for change's sake, just to see who wins the next fight, as if people are always enemies and they are all proud of their sunjectivity, what pukes, what craps, kill all people!)).

After so many decades of "Innovation" and "Science and Research" and all, what has been achieved is the pukey IPAD, incredible, and Economic Collapses, Poverty, Accumulation of cash in always the same Rich Hands, and all. What an incredibly low "productivity" society, what a trashy civilization, a failed civilization from the outset.

From:

http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/08/history-is-not-your-therapist.html

"Get serious about reorganizing agriculture on a smaller, finer, more local scale. Believe me, there will be plenty of jobs."

Also, JHK, there won't be "plenty of work", by going back to the Stone Age, there will be real Mass poverty and nothing to do just like rural India and China (that is why they prefer the 18th century sweatshop factories and industry instead of the "fruits of the land").

Idle, Joblessness, Free Time is the real story of this Economic System thanks to the Technological Economy creating Free Wealth all by itself: but instead of using the wealth to build Skyscrapers and colonize the Solar System, we use it to beat each other up as in "competition" and to build pukey IPADS and such.

From:

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=176433

I saw an IPAD. Once again confirmed, there really is no "progress" anymore, just different combinations of the same old crap, over and over again, to give the impression that it is "something new" and "cool" and worthwhile, etc, so everyone buys into it, it is defined as "new and better" from the outset, not from what it actually "does". The software is the same old PC software that has been perfected over 20 years ago, no real high class UNIX workstation software, the touch is way worse than the "mouse", but the mouse is "out of style now", etc.

What it really shows is that what is really important is to create a new arena where corporations can "compete" which means, disperse money and resources and man years and energy simply to waste time, to not produce anything, to just see who is stronger and the winner, etc. Nothing constructive here, nothing accumulative here (all these products are based on being flashy, a lot of gimmicks, a lot of "eye candy", a lot of "games" (as in fun and games since we no longer have anything serious to do anymore, like building Rockets and Skyscrapers) just like candy to little children, and that is the level of worth).

We need to build Skyscrapers, Cars, Trains and High Speed Trains, BUSES, Houses, Atom power plants, Atom smashers and Particle Accelerators, Rockets, etc. All real things, things you can touch, and we need to substitute the Man Brain with a decent Machine that isn't looking for fights (as in competition and innovation (change for change's sake, just to see who wins the next fight, as if people are always enemies and they are all proud of their subjectivity, what pukes, what craps, kill all people!)).

After so many decades of "Innovation" and "Science and Research" and all, what has been achieved is the pukey IPAD, incredible, and Economic Collapses, Poverty, Accumulation of cash in always the same Rich Hands, and all. What an incredibly low "productivity" society, what a trashy civilization, a failed civilization from the outset.

From:

http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/08/history-is-not-your-therapist.html

"Get serious about reorganizing agriculture on a smaller, finer, more local scale. Believe me, there will be plenty of jobs."

Also, JHK, there won't be "plenty of work", by going back to the Stone Age, there will be real Mass poverty and nothing to do just like rural India and China (that is why they prefer the 18th century sweatshop factories and industry instead of the "fruits of the land").

Idle, Joblessness, Free Time is the real story of this Economic System thanks to the Technological Economy creating Free Wealth all by itself: but instead of using the wealth to build Skyscrapers and colonize the Solar System, we use it to beat each other up as in "competition" and to build pukey IPADS and such.

OK - all is well - the Army will make sure the farmers get diesel and I will not starve.

Clusterfuck solved....

However, now - I mean right now - I discovered that the AC unit outside keeps "shutting" off after a few minutes.

Its 85- fucking degrees inside - and the forecast is for 101 and indexes above 110. I live in a brick oven in an urban area.

OK - as long as I have some fruit trees - I will just "chill" by singing hymns and waiting for fall.

Procedural questions -

Olde69 - Why, WHY, F*cking WHY, man???
Why do you double post so much?
You may be brilliant - but your repetitiveness signals a form of digital diarrhea - that is not attractive, and is best ignored.

To the thread at large - What's with all the spam, all of a sudden. I translated the first post out of Italian and it made slightly more sense. But these latest posts are already in English, and make no sense at all.

Try this gem:
"We love it,Canada Goose Canada!
The new Visvim Spring/Summer 2009 Jackets are now available in the honeyee.store.
Detailed image follow after the jump.
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That's not English, is it?

It looks like JHK is going to have to go to some sort of digital filter on these comments, before too long.

Wanna get away?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/homesteading_n_934323.html?ir=Green

Getting "off the grid" is a challenge.

AMR, I would like to see you write your own blog. Your comments on administration and people and the place you live are so good and so readable.

? What is UR in relation to healthcare? University Research? Every abbreviation should be explained at least once.

Looked at those Canada Goose down jackets, what a bunch of chink crap peddled by a spammer. This is the material equivalent of junk TV.

Now that the special forces types from NATO have lead one group of Arabs to glorious victory, when does the butchery begin?

From one end of the "Islamic world" to just about the other end its butchery, and just a coincidence this is the oil producing region that actually exports a sizable quantity. (Malaysia a small amount and it is close to China, no monkeyshine allowed there)

And the nutters want to export this monkeyshine to Iran, poor Obama caught in these cross winds of interests. The Shiite crescent caught in a vise.

Kunsler writes, "I don't begrudge poor Barack Obama's attempt to eat a few ice cream cones at the seashore with his wife and two girls."

But what about "peak oil" and the terrible waste the by the Obamas, who could have saved taxpayers a load of money by taking one jet instead of two to fly up to Martha's Vineyard for vacation. Mrs. Obama and her daughters arrived before President Obama, who arrived in the evening along with the family dog Bo.

The extra costs related to Mrs. Obama’s solo trip included the flight on a specially designed military aircraft she took instead of Air Force One, as well as any extra staff and Secret Service that had to go with her. She also had her own motorcade from the airport to her vacation residence.

This is not the first time she has gone on vacation ahead of the president on the taxpayers’ tab. Last December, she racked up what was likely more than $100,000 in expenses leaving early for their Hawaii vacation.

The king and queen of selfishness and hypocrisy.

How about the blog writer, or one of his liberal hero worshipers, finally admitting that Obama is way out of his league and is simply enjoying an all-expenses paid 4-year vacation on our dime.

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Holy **** !

The Best ever by JHK. I couldn't have said it better myself ! In a million years even.

Not like we have even close to that.
I have sensed this since beginning 20 years ago.
Then found his books, the rest is history.

He is right. Cut your losses.
Now I will get around to reading all the rest, and see what's going on around here this week.

JB

going to run errands now. drive on those roads,
more to come later, you've been warned.

OK OK - AC had a bad capacitor - all is well - thank you so much - Internet community - I feel so much better knowing you all gave a shit about me.

Now back to the racist, sexist sophomoric shit - you know the stuff where you string a few fucking alliterative adverbial phrases together and feel like you just wrote Moby Dick.

I'm gonna go somewhere else and bitch and moan about the price of cheese.

I took a break from CFN for a while to let my scrolling muscles recover. So I drop in to see how it's going and find:

1. The racists are still choking their chickens.

2. 8man is still leaking his/her techno-fantasies
out of every orifice -- plus the extra treat of double-posting and triple-posting.

3. Chinese spam about handbags and jackets?

Some posters are interesting to read, but this site on the whole reminds me of the kid digging through the pile of manure trying to find the pony he wanted.

Always a day late and a dollar short it seems when I comment - but I have to say I agree 100% with this week's column.

I do not always agree or find the discussed news events worth a pixel, but this week is spot on.

Our society on full-automatic is running outta steam and unless you have the brains to make it without your remote, you're SOL.

So if you like cheezy poofs - better learn how to make them from scratch.