American writer Tracy Kidder points out: “In order to go on with our lives, we are always capable of making the ominous into the merely strange.” We ignore ominous warning signs at our own peril. But ignore them we will, and have. And we continue to call them strange, thus attempting to build a protective shell around our tender psyches, comforting ourselves with an amorphous web of blatant lies.
Daniel Ellsberg knows about conspiracies and ominous signs. As he says, “Secrets … can be kept reliably … for decades … even though they are known to thousands of insiders.” These include, for example, the conspiracy he exposed with the Pentagon Papers, as well as the CIA’s apparent assassination of JFK. Such conspiracies are particularly likely in a police state such as the United States where habeas corpus no longer exists and American citizens can be “legally” assassinated. Strategic assassination is just another step toward complete compliance of the citizenry.
In other words, conspiracy theories sometimes are fact. If opportunity, motive, and means are evident, don’t rule out conspiracy merely because you’ll be labeled a conspiracy theorist.
English philosopher Bertrand Russell put his own spin on the horrors of uncovering the truth via thought:
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Small wonder, then, most refuse to think. Thinking is hard, so the majority of Americans prefer television instead. Swimming against a profoundly strong cultural current is nearly impossible, especially when the resulting discomfort threatens our own privilege. And conspiracy theories certainly threaten the ill-founded notion of American exceptionalism.
False-flag terror attacks? Check.
American government agencies buying enough ammunition to kill every citizen five times? Check.
U.S. Supreme Court collaborating with the executive branch to increase corporate power? Check, since 1971 (at least).
Goldman Sachs defrauding its clients with the knowledge of the Securities and Exchange Commission? Check.
Civilian deaths from drones covered up? Check.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is dead, though most Americans refuse to acknowledge that truth. But the former U.S. Marine arrested for patriotic posts on Facebook knows. After his relatively innocuous posts, he was placed in a Stalin-like mental ward. Displaying the “wrong” political view warrants the same treatment. Apparently questioning 9/11 — an obvious inside job, as anybody paying the slightest attention has known for years — makes one crazy. Or a terrorist. Or both. And if you think 9/11 wasn’t an inside job — the evidence for which is overwhelming and physically undeniable — then you believe in coincidence but not the Laws of Thermodynamics.
When will your silence be met with incarceration, then torture, then early death? These United States are well down the road of tyranny, regardless the mantra of the mainstream.
Meanwhile, the man who campaigned on the closure of the torture facility at Guantanamo Bay recently signed a law allowing indefinite detention of Americans without trial. People keep telling me he’s our best hope. And maybe he is. But I cannot support evil, not in the name of lesser. So I won’t.
It’s not just America, of course. The West is a giant banana republic. Just ask Julian Assange.
Fortunately, the entire set of living arrangements known as industrial civilization hovers on the brink. Near-term collapse is inevitable.
How quickly can industrial civilization unwind? Last October, Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker warned banks they could collapse before Christmas of last year. And of course, collapse in Europe is absolutely inevitable. I suspect that would seriously influence the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
We’re one step from full-scale completion of a long, ongoing decline, as even the occasional Congressional Representative is willing to admit. The next step will be the big one. The monetary situation is direr than the Great Depression and, according to the World Bank, the economic recession ahead will be more severe than the 2008-2009 recession (the one that nearly terminated industrial civilization, according to Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of the U.S.). From an imperial perspective, the ongoing economic depression is good news because demand destruction is the only phenomenon keeping the omnicidal boat above water.
Unfortunately, collapse has come too late to save our sorry species. Greenland’s melting breaks the record four weeks before season’s end. Arctic sea ice likely will set a new record next week. Sea level will rise more than 15 cm (6″) annually in the first few years after 2015. In short, we’re done. Alas, it seems we were just getting started.
That our species is headed for near-term extinction is no excuse to throw in the towel. Resistance is fertile, and there is still plenty to fight for. Coming immediately to my mind: the living planet and freedom based in anarchy.
____________
This essay is permalinked at UKIAH BLOG and Island Breath.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:45 am
Hypotheses, not theories, though hypothesis is often too legitimate a word.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:48 am
Rehsab Thgir, I’m using the vernacular. I know the difference between theory, hypothesis, and prediction, as I point out in the paper referenced below:
McPherson, G.R. 2001. Teaching and learning the scientific method. American Biology Teacher 63:242-245.
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:39 am
Guy, this reads like my last 2 weeks of my stuff!
Good warning.
Our Hawaii move is in process.
I’m filing out paperwork for the clinic I worked at before, but it’s agreed. I’ll get there probably December, and Jenny and the container should arrive in January
Head down, nose to the grindstone, food falls from trees…
August 23rd, 2012 at 8:19 am
Guy
It’s pretty difficult to refute any of which you put down here. I agree, throwing in the towel is not an option. You will find there are plenty of people who will be there going down fighting. Such a pity to see, however, such an influential culture as the USA which has been revolutionary in terms of democratic ideals, civil rights and racial equalty to go down the path of totalitarianism. Australia as an ally for now is just nudging behind too.
I hope the entire written output you have set out here is a record and testament to the motivation, integrity and profound love you obviously feel for all of and in this world. I hope no Winston Smiths get at it in some bunker history revision web log office, and that it remains there to be used as evidence of your integrity when they finally come for you, either physically or in the media, but I guess you have imagined and prepared for such scenarios.
The sandbox, just as Virginia Axline demonstrated, with a little disturbed boy named Dibs, can be a place of great transformation, and a portal facilitating an outpouring of genuine human desire to change oneself, change the world.
Earlier today I reread your original speech to that fraternity class titled:
‘The end of civilization and the extinction of humanity’
partly because the Journalist I mentioned had just received the copy I printed and sent him 3 weeks ago, and he said he would read it. I also reread it because it is truly a great commentary on the value of one man’s attempt to change the world.
It is truely a Dibs moment Guy, in print, but it was originally an oration so it is even better.
I am hoping the essay will get reread by many, and I could not agree more regarding your statment about thinking and its capacity to mess up a convenient niche life.
For me, I would not have it any other way.
August 23rd, 2012 at 9:44 am
Hi Oz Man,
I don’t think they’ll have to “come for” Guy.
They’ll just disconnect his internet and fuel.
They’ll be worried about the cities, not the little back-country homesteads of unarmed intellectuals.
I suspect there will even be interest in how things are worked out with so much less.
Maybe not a lot of interest…
August 23rd, 2012 at 11:00 am
this article really hits the nail on the head. people!!! be the fucking change you wish to see in the world, or perish in your ‘comfort’.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/21/climate-change-complacency/
“So ignorance and disbelief, in spite of a small group of influential naysayers, are not really the problems. Nor is the only problem the corporations that benefit from fossil fuel extraction and pay well for that benefit before every election. The bigger problem is the rest of us. We are the great majority who can see what’s going on but do nothing about it. Our complacency is the problem, our convenient cynicism about what can be done, our finger pointing without action, our hoping that someone else will do it for us. Unfortunately, even if we are not concerned about the chaotic collapse of our societies and the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, it appears that conveniently dying of old age before life on earth radically changes may no longer be an option.”
August 23rd, 2012 at 11:25 am
The next tropical storm to come ashore along the east coast could be a prelude of what is to come. Of course the obvious solution to sea level rise, is to do what North Carolina did. Simply pass legislation against it happening.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/03/us-usa-northcarolina-idUSBRE86217I20120703
August 23rd, 2012 at 11:45 am
I don’t know if this might have been put up sometime already, but this geoengineering documentary video, “Why in the World are They Spraying” is something I have been watching and auditioning for the past hour, something I never do. It is finally a “big picture” of a whole lot I’ve been seeing and wondering about for years. It’s more than a hypothesis, but those with the really solid data are keeping mum, “Top Secret”, ya’know?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEfJO0-cTis&feature=player_embedded
August 23rd, 2012 at 12:04 pm
.
I don’t know if this might have been put up sometime already,
Wow, never heard of that, John. Thanks for posting it. I’ll take a look see.
.
August 23rd, 2012 at 12:10 pm
.
Ummm…Todd, I think many here are making strong attempts to “be the fucking change they wish to see in the world.” The problem is, it may not be the change with which you agree, meaning many here have resolved not to save THIS world, and instead, beckon the collapse in order to make another world even remotely possible, even if that’s a pipe dream and highly improbable.
.
August 23rd, 2012 at 1:01 pm
“Don’t let it happen,….”.
At least, after millennia of slaughter, we must go gracefully.
August 23rd, 2012 at 2:05 pm
But Curtis there is another storm on its way. It in fact has made me realize that in fact there must be a god
Hurricane Isaac, currently a tropical storm brewing southeast of Puerto Rico, is on track to hit Florida the same day that Mitt Romney and 50,000 Republican delegates, journalists, protestors and guests descend on Tampa for the Republican National Convention.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/hurricane-isaac-threatens-swamp-republican-convention/story?id=17057501#.UDaaicFlTSU
That or a conspiracy by the Democratically controlled White House to use HAARP to send this storm to this location at this time…. hmmmm
August 23rd, 2012 at 2:11 pm
A friend sent me a story about Decatur IL and how the drought is affecting its main source of water, Decatur Lake. The story is not available on line but it says that they are losing some 10 million gal of water per day to evaporation. Indirectly from other numbers in the article their daily usage is about 70 million gallons, of which ADM uses 28% and Tate and Lyle, who grind corn use 31% – not sure why they need so much water in their processes.
At any rate there are other articles on the web about their problems. This one has some gems in it.
“The lack of running water can range from a manageable nuisance to an expensive headache. Homeowners and businesses are being forced to buy thousands of gallons from private suppliers, to drill deeper or to dig entirely new wells.
Mary Lakin’s family drained the last of its well water late last month in the small northern Indiana community of Parr. Since then, Lakin, her husband and two children have bathed and done laundry at relatives’ homes and filled buckets from their backyard pool every time they need to flush a toilet.”
What?
Later the article says
“In other cases, well owners have hurt themselves with careless water usage, said Richard Hubert, who owns Hubert Water Hauling Service in Smithville, Ill., about 20 miles southeast of St. Louis.
“We’ve had a lot of people who were silly enough to take their water out of their well and put it into their pool. Or they ran around watering stuff when we’ve been dry for 10 weeks,” Hubert said. “I don’t know what you’re thinking when you’ve got a shallow well, and it hasn’t rained.””
http://herald-review.com/news/state-and-regional/many-well-users-find-their-faucets-are-running-dry/article_59c093e6-e63d-11e1-a8a0-0019bb2963f4.html
I would say it is beyond silly eh? Gives you some idea of how unprepared folks are for what is coming….
August 23rd, 2012 at 2:15 pm
From my source who sent me this I would say the Hog Industry is in Panic Mode
full article at http://nationalhogfarmer.com/marketing/corn-report-bleak-trim-and-substitute-whatever-you-can
Conclusion below:
Cutbacks Underway
Livestock cutbacks have commenced. Dairy cow slaughter is up sharply over the past month, which is a good sign since dairy cows count much larger in the feed/grain balance sheet. Reducing their number will have immediate impacts. Sow slaughter has also increased, but that has little impact on short-term feed use. Lower sow numbers now will mean lower pig numbers next summer, allowing us to stretch feed supplies further. Shipping beef cows does little to save on concentrates, but some will move to town due to poor pasture conditions and skyrocketing hay prices. The poultry sector could have an immediate impact on feed usage as well, but they have already cut back and their losses so far are relatively small. I don’t think we can count on much help from the feathers crowd.
Substitute whatever you can. Start reducing feed usage in finishers by shipping pigs at lighter weights now! You won’t be able to in a few weeks. Reduce daily sow diets to the lowest possible levels that will maintain welfare and productivity. Make sure nothing goes to waste. Don’t put a pig on feed unless it is going to be extremely efficient. Treat sick pigs appropriately and practice timely, humane euthanasia. And, consider cultivating a roaster pig trade in your area. It may sound ridiculous, but we are going to need all the help we can get!
August 23rd, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Meanwhile, collapse now might save us from this pending disaster among others
A pair of widely used chemicals in the form of tiny “nanoparticles” have been shown to spread throughout a crop plant or affect growth and soil fertility.
The use of nanoparticles is increasing, yet their environmental impact is poorly understood.
A report published in PNAS shows that nanoparticles present in exhaust gases and some fertilisers adversely affect soybean growth and surrounding soil.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19320267
August 23rd, 2012 at 3:29 pm
I have problems getting the “conspiracy theorists must be lunatics” meme. Throughout recorded history governments have engaged in secret operations, and people have conspired to influence the government, particularly when this involved illegal activities. Parts of the U.S. government are probably doing tons of stuff now that won’t come to light for decades, if at all.
However, there is a paradox to conspiracy theories. If you know about a conspiracy to do something illegal, and can give people an account of it with plausible reasoning and evidence, the members of the actual conspiracy will probably kill or make life difficult for you. So you only hear the really implausible conspiracy theories.
Incidentally, the mother of all conspiracy theories happens to be the human extinction conspiracy, which is essentially that the elites are deliberately not doing anything to stop global warning because their goal is that the temperatures rise to the point where the human race goes extinct. It has some power because, at least in the United States and China, elites really aren’t implementing policies to combat global warming.
August 23rd, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Ed,
It would be easy to think that there is some conspiracy to ignore global warming because how could the elite be such idiots as to ignore the danger to themselves. But then how do they benefit. What use a conspiracy to self extinct unless you have some out (buried cities?). However the idea that they are psychopaths probably explains most everything they do. They cannot believe that they die much less go extinct. Given that most people on peak oil sites keep talking about surviving, when in fact all we can do is to extend survival by delaying death, it is logical to assume that the powerful have an even stronger denial going – after all they are so powerful how could death defeat them….
August 23rd, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Kathy C Says: “They cannot believe that they die much less go extinct. Given that most people on peak oil sites keep talking about surviving, when in fact all we can do is to extend survival by delaying death….”
Some think they’re one of the few
Who actually will make it through;
With the heat, radiation,
And other privation,
They’ll die, whatever they do.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:25 pm
.
The Twin Towers Came Down In A Flash
A Passport Survived The Mash
Through The Smokey Debris
Culprits Did Flee
As The Evidence Turned To Ash
.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Links re ‘conspiracy theories’ for you all…
http://www.serendipity.li/eden/laconspi.html
http://disquietreservations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/radical-rethinking-of-conspiracy.html
http://www.infowars.com/33-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true-what-every-person-should-know/
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/14-conspiracy-theories-that-the-media-now-admits-are-conspiracy-facts
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:35 pm
.
Combining the spray video with what Kathy C posted, we get this study for Big Tobacco concerning the effects of Aluminum Oxide Nanoparticles on Tobacco Plants. The results are not unexpected. Perhaps Monsanto can come up with an Aluminum resistant tobacco plant so idiots can still voluntarily administer their own cancer via the carefully crafted cancer delivery mechanism known as cigarettes. I can just hear the tobacco companies. “Hey, you can spray that shit all you want, so long as it doesn’t mess with our plans to kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. Don’t be cutting into our piece of the pie.”
Murder For Profit.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0034783
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August 23rd, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Morocco Bama,
Glad you saw the video.
The lunatics are running the asylum, and playing with matches.
John
August 23rd, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Morocco Bama
You wrote:
‘…so idiots can still voluntarily administer their own cancer via the carefully crafted cancer delivery mechanism known as cigarettes.’
Do you really believe these people are idiots?
C’mon Moroc, they are addicted, and that masks the trauma of adapting to a lot of violent and dysfunctional personal and cultural particulars in their past.
EVERYONE has addictions, it is the nature of the Ego adaptation to the early stages of life. We all share many addictions, the gross ones are visable to others, like smoking, and alcaholism and out of control substance abuse.
However, more subtle addictions are everywhere, like belief in authority, dependency devices and music/videos marketed and delivered to coming of age teens; getting angry at cultural collapse is a biggy for me. Thousands of serious interpersonal relational patterns of dysfunction, that litter local courts and marriage counselling sessions also reveal systemic addictions to patterns of behaviour. We who have an array of those addictions are not idiots. We are merely struggling to overcome what I now refer to, without obfuscation, as ‘Abuses Of Empire’, AOE.
Regarding the tabbacco industries desire to kill people… that is not their objective. It is to create an income stream that has been one of the most dependable types of predictable profit around. The heavy metals and small quantities of added carcinogens in the product is a way of waste disposal, which they channel from the toxic byproducts of other virtically integrated industries from their portfolio of investments. People who buy smokes are paying to dispose of the environmental toxins in their coffins or ash urns. It’s a win/win for big industries, who also have investments in big pharma, and the funeral industries.
It may seem foolish to us that smokers can’t change simply by noting the facts of cancer, however, the fear and anxiety of adapting to a mess of a culture may be harder to outgrow than you appreciate.
On a more personal note..
My mother gave up smoking after 55 years of two packs a day, unfiltered 20 mg heavy hitters. It turns out that at the age of 72 she passed away 8 months later having freed herself of an addictiont that stemmed from the abuses of being abandoned at 6 months old when her mother died as a consequence of complications from the birth. As a depression era child, born in 1920, with few loving relatives, my mother was passed around among distant relations who could not or did not want another mouth to feed. The great anxiety from the infantile need to be loved was quickly displaced by niccotine addiction in her early life as she entered the world of work, and remained an issue that retarded her growth in terms of compassion.
The fact that she was able to let go of those infantile cravings was a great thing to have overcome. A sad indigtment that that was a triumph of a life faught well.
Your views are always appreciated, but I do not share your disdain for addicts, for I remember one of those old homolies from my Empire education -
‘There but for the grace of God go I’.
Notwithstanding the refrain to a diety, I tend to go along with that ‘Aquarian’ leveller. Show me someone who is not addicted to something, gross or subtle, and I will show you a fully mature human being.
August 24th, 2012 at 3:36 am
Dr. McPherson is poking a hornets’ nest – the hornets of Empire. But thank you for doing so.
Jay Rosen: How the News is Made Now
Conspiracy requires three elements:
1) Two or more persons,
2) Planning in secret
3) For an immoral or illegal purpose.
By those criteria, there have been plenty of conspiracies. The Gulf of Tonkin and the Downing Street Memoranda are two examples not mentioned in this post.
To quote from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in: chop wood and carry water.
August 24th, 2012 at 4:06 am
.
Do you really believe these people are idiots?
Yes, I do. Back when cigarettes were first introduced, I will grant a pass on the idiocy part, because there was not full knowledge, but these days, with all the information available, it is a knowledgeable decision for people to start smoking. Most know the risks, so if they start, they’re idiots. Of course, what do you expect from people who have had their critical thought processes stunted and or neutered? Oh, that’s right, you expect them to some how save the world. They’ll show us what they’re made of when the going gets tough, right? They’ll buck up and make the right decisions then, of course, because they all have the capability of changing who and what they are at the drop of a hat, when it really counts. Got it.
My daughter mentioned that her health teacher yesterday asked if anyone in her class smoked cigarettes. It’s no surprise that no one volunteered that they did…even after he promised he wouldn’t rat them out. I told her that there were two videos I would show the class if I were the health teacher. They are as follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wwJp8VDGzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBELC_vxqhI
She said, “good try, but you’re not allowed to show movies that are rated any worse than PG. Sweet Mother of Jesus!!
That first video is a true story and another conspiracy revealed. Corporate World is one conspiracy after another, I know, I’ve been there, and I can attest. Conspiracies abound in Corporations, and Corporations are a microcosm of the Macrocosm that is our society and culture, so it stands to reason we are awash in Conspiracy. Hell, Civilization is predicated upon Conspiracy…..a massive Conspiracy in plain sight, for all to see, and a simulacra of ubiquitous sub-conspiracies. And yet, people have the nerve to deny conspiracy, which if you really think about it, is a conspiracy in and of itself….that idiots can be fooled into thinking there is no conspiracy, or there are no conspiracies.
.
August 24th, 2012 at 5:14 am
For a look at what the map in your area will look like with sea level rise:
Sea Level Rise Map Calculator
August 24th, 2012 at 5:52 am
Some newish Oil commentary questioning near term optimism.
‘Don’t count on revolution in oil supply’
by Sadad al-Huseini
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2012-08-22/don%E2%80%99t-count-revolution-oil-supply
Always hard to filter the noise in these small snippets.
August 24th, 2012 at 6:08 am
.
Dude here.
Whew! I’m safe. Per Robin’s interactive sea level rise map, Atlanta is still high and dry at 60m+ with the added benefit of a much shorter drive to the beach….and nice new beaches, at that. This calls for celebration, and celebration calls for drink. Countdown for Wine Night commences. Eight hours til take off.
.
August 24th, 2012 at 6:11 am
Morocco Bama
Your general point about the incapacity of people to quickly adapt is sound and I think it is unrealistic to assume such a capacity. as you say.
That said, I was trying to highlight that such a life destroying practice as smoking, as absurd as it seems to a rational assessment, is only really taken up by people for irrational reasons. Some of that is simply for social conformity, i.e. in an adolescent phase, and some is from anxiety from life trauma. Neither of these are particularly rational choices, and any addictive substance begun during a period of high anxiety, will cover the original feelings, but not heal or erase them, merely provide short term relief. Hence the need to return to the substance when anxiety levels increase.
None of that is rational, but it can be remediated with persistance, self reflection, effort and emotional support. Those things we should be willing to give for that purpose to others wishinng to grow beyond their poor adaptations with such things.
Yes, I agree, in a situation of servere global dysfunction and crisis, these people will be poorly situted to go cold turkey and pick up a shovel, or walk long distances. No one’s kidding themselves these coming decades will be easy for even the most able and fit.
Helpling others in times of need, even if we are all in that need, is something I have considdered to be a human characteristic. Obviously some may not live up to ‘my’ high expectations. That is not something I have any power to influence, but choosing to help others is.
August 24th, 2012 at 6:16 am
.
OzMan, thanks for that link about the Oil Supply Revolution. I have one little beef with it, though.
He says:
Much as all the stakeholders in the energy industry would like to be optimistic, it isn’t an oil glut by 2020 that is keeping oil prices as high as they are. It is the reality that the oil sector has been pushed to the limit of its capabilities and that this difficult challenge will dominate energy markets for the rest of the decade.
Whereas it may once have been true that oil was predominantly priced via a supply and demand methodology, I don’t believe it is any longer, in fact, I’m quite confident it’s not, so to use the price of oil as part of his supporting argument is flimsy. His argument stands, and is strong, without it, so there is no need for it. The price of oil is largely gamed by Insider Hedge Funds and the large Investment Houses. Like the stock market, it’s not based in reality at large, but rather their own little fabricated reality to which the populace at large is not privy.
.
August 24th, 2012 at 6:17 am
Morocco Bama
Here in NSW, Australia our kids are permitted to watch M rated movies at school with a detailed permission note signed by parient/guardian. Who are they kidding, most ‘affluent’ kids can get anything on an iphone/thingy anytime they wish.
August 24th, 2012 at 6:28 am
Morocco Bama
You write:
“The price of oil is largely gamed by Insider Hedge Funds and the large Investment Houses.”
Richard Heinberg may disagree with you on that. I considder the info you state on the hedge funds and investment angle is largly a big factor, but real spare capacity seems to be the rub when demand is high, as it was prior to the recent FUBAR. The 2008-9 WFC has left a lot of demand destruction cycling into the mix. Indeed some believe that the spike to US $124 per barrel was engineered to do just that. During this subsequent slowdown in world economic growth, there is that spare capacity now again, and manipulation can run a bit more freely than when a squeeze arrives, (somewhere down the track) as depletion and oil decline kicks in.
As a complete armchair oil industry doodler, I could be mistaken, however.
August 24th, 2012 at 6:33 am
.
Richard Heinberg may disagree with you on that.
Good for him, and I will repeat, OzMan, dropping the price component from his argument doesn’t weaken it in any way, in fact, it serves to strengthen it, imo. Research the gaming of the price of oil instead of taking Heinberg’s word for it. He’s not the definitive source on all things oil, or all things Peak, although I agree with much of what he does observes.
.
August 24th, 2012 at 7:24 am
Morocco Bama
I think we can safely assume after the recent outings of the LIBOR fixings, any real comodity like Gold, Silver, Oil or Gas has been subject to similar price manipulations, because these bring large constant investment and therefore predictable returns. So why would Oil be different?
You are right to point to not taking Heinberg’s word for it, but I wasn’t. I should have posted some quotation of him and some others regarding thier analysis of the world spare capacity as being a real physical limit as a factor in World Oil price. I didn’t because I figure it is pretty obvious your point and my point are both factors, and they are difficult to determine which is playing into the market at any one time, especially from an armchair.
If the demand destruction conspiracy theory I mentioned is correct, then some of TPTB see a slower growth, world depression is a more profitable situation than a very volatile tight spare capacity world market, that also BTW tends to provre to even laymen the arguments of Peak Oilers.
Keeping some ball rolling may be their main objective, or at least keeping it under TPTB’s control. In an unmoderated Peak Oil volitility situation, the party will be over, as Guy proposes. Playing hide and seek would seem to be the last saving throw for the big money rakers. More blatant military options from now on, would not surprise me.
August 24th, 2012 at 7:33 am
Further to my last posting…
If we wait a week or two for the higher world Corn, Wheat and Soya prices, as well as the intermix of reduced USA ethonol production, as a result of the widespread crop failures in the USA, we will see civil unrest again and spiking Oil prices, or at least steady price increase,(from the armchair). That, at least, may cause the music to stop at the party.
August 24th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Robin, add to the list of conspiracies known – Iran Contra Affair.
Conspiracies envisioned – Operation Northwoods
Conspiracies with good evidence – Operation Gladio, Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City Bombing, the first World Trade Center bombing
A Noble Lie is about the Oklahoma City Bombing and the things that don’t fit the official conspiracy theory between McVeigh and Nichols
http://archive.org/details/scm-22598-anoblelie-part1of2
August 24th, 2012 at 10:18 am
Part 2 of A Noble Lie
http://archive.org/details/scm-22602-anoblelie-part2of2
Per wiki: In politics a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda. The noble lie is a concept originated by Plato as described in the Republic.
August 24th, 2012 at 10:39 am
Economists and demographers are not scientists. Are they political hacks? Who exactly and what precisely are they representing? The 1%? Ideologues?
The colossal global predicament facing the human community in our time is partly a result of widely shared preternatural demographic theories and consensually validated economic thought. Unscientific models have been presented and defended as science on our watch. Well-established scientific knowledge regarding biological evolution, human population dynamics and well known physical ‘rules of the house’ of Earth has been ignored. These experts consciously and deliberately fail to recognize a difference between the way the natural world works and the way they think. They assume resources of a finite and frangible planet can supply infinite products. At the behest of corporate benefactors and political powerbrokers, they bear some responsibility for directing the human community down a ‘primrose path’ that is marked by skyrocketing overpopulation, rampant overproduction, outrageous overconsumption, unconscionable hoarding as well as extraordinary resource depletion and widespread environmental degradation. Most experts of demography and economics hold onto outdated ideas that serve to confuse the public and deny what could be real. A paradigm shift and drastic action to redo demographic and economic thinking will be required so that researchers in these fields of study embrace relevant science rather than conveniently overlook it.
August 24th, 2012 at 11:55 am
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OzMan, I’ve been looking for the article I read several years back about how the Enron Energy Traders didn’t just evaporate, but rather, were a hot commodity (pun intended) precisely because they knew exactly how to effectively and successfully manipulate Energy prices in the newly unregulated market where traders never have to take possession of the energy they purchase and sell. I can’t find it, but many of them went to the notable Investment houses, including Goldman Sachs, but here’s one who became a Rock Star in the Hedge Fund arena. How much do you want to bet that he made the lion’s share of that 317% return on commodities, to include a substantial stake in energy, mainly oil?
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/04/john-arnold-centaurus/
The official story of Arnold is well-known: a star Enron trader who rose from the ashes of one of the most scandalous corporate bankruptcies in American history, launching his own Houston hedge fund in 2002 with the help of an $8 million bonus and a handful of early investors. While many were wary, Arnold took pains to distance himself from Enron’s blackened legacy and, within a few short years, extracted frothy profits, propelling himself to unprecedented fame and celebrity. (See this 2009 Fortune story The wunderkind gas trader)
In 2006, Arnold minted returns of 317%, net of fees, at his fund, Centaurus Advisors. At the fund’s zenith, it held around $5 billion, much of it Arnold’s own capital. Centaurus, which charged higher-than-average fees (3% for management and 30% of earnings) closed to new investors shortly after opening, but those who made the cut guarded their memberships fiercely, acting as though they barely squeaked into a VIP room from which they could easily be jettisoned.
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August 24th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/51009/Business/Economy/Continuous-blackouts-hit-Egypt-metal-industries-ha.aspx
Each time the Egyptian government says the economy will recover soon, as stated amid the visit of the International Monetary Fund to discuss a controversial $4.8 million loan, the situation gets worse.
Egypt’s industries are suffering blackouts that last for long periods each day across the country. The power cuts phenomenon is not only affecting homes, but also the core of industrial production, which means jobs and national income.
The increasing number of power cuts in recent weeks has sparked protests in various governorates across the country. Cuts in Cairo and other major cities can last up to 90 minutes and occur every couple of days.
However, in villages power cuts are more frequent and can last five hours or more. In the summer heat and during Ramadan, the effect can be debilitating for many people.
Factories have experienced massive loses, especially metals and aluminium factories, which depend mainly on electricity. Blackouts have not only interrupted production but have damaged machinery.
“Factories blackouts led to LE70 million ($11.6 million) in production losses,” said Mohamed Hanfy, director of the Metal Industries Chamber. One of cement factory in Beni Suef city has lost around LE30 million.
Industries consume around 23 per cent of the national electricity supply, with 42 per cent for houses. Metal industries, which represent about 15 per cent of all industry, consume around five per cent of available power, Hanafy reported.
August 24th, 2012 at 1:58 pm
http://www.whatismissing.net/#/home
An interesting way to look at extinctions
August 24th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Good start, lets get it all out there.
http://www.truereality.org/#!__conspiracy
I think a key to understanding many other conspiracy theories is the passing of the dark star, aka Nibiru, or Planet X. Keeping the appearance of business-as-usual until this cosmic event can not be hidden any longer is the goal of the elites. Until they are in the bunkers that have been constructed with our tax dollars. Many
astronomers murdered to keep this under wraps. The FEMA camps are to control any survivors. Check poleshifning.com for how this event unfolds.
August 24th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Make that http://poleshift.ning.com/
Earth Changes and the Pole Shift
August 24th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
A paradigm shift and drastic action to redo demographic and economic thinking will be required so that researchers in these fields of study embrace relevant science rather than conveniently overlook it.
The researchers in those fields of study could be quite tasty if people are hungry enough. More pragmatically, a miracle will be needed for Wile E. Coyote’s forelegs to be transformed into ADEQUATE wings while accelerating at 32 feet/second/second.
The URLs
whatismissing.net/#/home
and
truereality.org/#!__conspiracy
both require Adobe Flash Player and are incompatible with the iPhone 3G.
Petroleum prices are constrained at their upper limits by the ability of the economy to support high prices: the processes and transactions that become uneconomic above a certain energy cost, cease. Those that are affected severely enough for long enough cease and desist.
A factory may reduce production for a certain while, but if the reductions are severe enough and long enough, the factory is shuttered. A person may eat less for a while, but if the reduction in food intake is severe enough for long enough, the person dies. A person may drive around less to compensate for high gasoline prices, but if the prices stay high enough for long enough, they may get a smaller car. Areas of the economy that are discretionary are first affected, and non-elastic demand if not met, is destroyed.
Elastic demand rebounds when supply is restored, but is generally discretionary (such as entertainment) and is sacrificed for non-discretionary demand (such as food). The demand for food is much less elastic: one may go entirely without entertainment for prolonged periods, and the demand for entertainment returns with the availability of entertainment. Without food, one dies, and if food again becomes available, the demand for it will have to come from another person/generation.
The lower bound of petroleum prices is set by rebounding demand, often discretionary demand. But with each downswing, there is some permanent demand destruction, reflecting impoverishment of people.
Reduced petroleum extraction will not result in an unlimited rise in petroleum prices, because the processes and transactions that use petroleum have a limited ability to bear such costs. It will instead be reflected in the impoverishment of more people who can no longer afford those processes and costs. Likewise decreasing demand driving down prices for the available petroleum will be moderated by the extent to which demands that are elastic enough do rebound – until the deindustrialisation of the economy is so far advanced that the demand for petroleum is insignificant.
August 24th, 2012 at 7:23 pm
For all you 9/11 conspiracy nuts:
9/11: A Conspiracy Theory
August 24th, 2012 at 7:25 pm
NSA Whistleblower Details How The NSA Has Spied On All US Citizens Since 9/11
August 24th, 2012 at 7:29 pm
Hi there, can anybody highly recommend a decent caravan park to stay at on the gold coast?
August 24th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Georgetta Laureno, if you’re referring to the Gold Coast of Florida, good luck finding a place. There are very few RV parks left in that area. Land costs rose so high during the hi-flying 90s that most places such as that were bought and turned into multi-story condos. Of those that remain, the competition for a spot is quite high. That being said, Florida is really geared toward tourists. You can find good up-to-date information on tourist services virtually everywhere once you’re in the state.
As we all know, if you’re going to be visiting Florida, you better do it soon. It will likely be underwater pretty soon – particularly the Gold Coast.
August 24th, 2012 at 8:08 pm
Kathy C, based on the forecast models for Isaac, you and yours should be getting quite a bit of rain soon. You may want to get your water storage containers ready – it will be a great opportunity for water hoarding! (And who knows when you’ll have another chance
August 24th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
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Rumor has it that water hoarding is soon to become illegal and anyone caught hoarding water will be considered a looting terrorist and shot on sight.
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August 24th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Stuart Staniford’s blog Early Warning
Risks to Global Civilization
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2012
Interesting Links: Tuesday Edition:
The above is the global temperature anomaly map for July 2012 – the hottest month in recorded history for the lower 48 states of the US – from NASA GISS (h/t Desdemona Despair).
New CAFE rules should be finalized this month.
The price of hay in the midwest has doubled due to the drought. If there was a cellulosic ethanol industry there, it’d be hurting.
Making soft robots that can move and camouflage themselves. Words fail.
Record low sea ice area in the Arctic already – and still several weeks to go to the minimum.
United States on track for worst fire year since records began.
It’s also challenging to keep the Mississipi open for boat traffic.
Economists discover in 2012 that loan-to-income rules would have been a good idea during the housing bubble. We’re glad you finally figured that one out…
Inflation is more cyclical than has been measured, due to store switching (going to Walmart during recessions).
“May you live in interesting times”?
August 25th, 2012 at 2:49 am
Dr. House, yes it does look like we will get the rain from Hurricane Issac – perhaps more than that if it strengthens over the gulf. It will be welcome if it isn’t too strong a storm by the time it hits us. However we have been getting a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks and the remaining crops have been responding well to it. All and all, perhaps because I planted early (starting mid March), this has been a better year in the garden than last year.
One of the models would have it bringing rain your way
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_model.html
August 25th, 2012 at 4:14 am
If you believe 9/11 was an inside job or anything like that, it is because you have a poor understanding of the power of coincidence.
August 25th, 2012 at 4:19 am
Russian troops are here.
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/06/russian-troops-infilltrate-usa-responsible-for-multiple-attacks-2241939.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC7FZLpGcVM&feature=relmfu
August 25th, 2012 at 5:35 am
Guy
After viewing the link about William Binney, and his testemony of USA spying on it’s own citizens post 9/11, what more does anybody need to know than this? The party is not just over, everyone has been taken to the county lockup and refused their one phone call !!
August 25th, 2012 at 6:08 am
Josh and I have been trying to buy hay for the last month or so. We were able to get 3 bales. We only want 20, but so far are 17 short. We are fortunate that we have enough land that our 2 goats shouldn’t have any trouble finding plenty to eat this winter – I think. But, it will require that we let them out of their pen and watch them for several hours every day. Of course, I could be wrong about that, too. It all depends on the weather. If the rains are heavy this fall and winter, it will knock down all the leaves and dead grass making it difficult for the goats to get to it. The same with snow.
I have tried my hand at making a little hay using a scythe. It worked all right, but the goats had it eaten in a day. We don’t have enough pasture to make much hay, mostly we have trees, and I don’t think I have the stamina to make enough to make much difference even if we did have the pasture.
We may not need it, but, we’ll keep looking for hay. I’m not willing for my girls to starve to death.
I haven’t heard of it yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of hay being stolen. It’s gotten quite expensive.
August 25th, 2012 at 6:22 am
Dr House, wouldn’t that be something – stealing hay. Yes I see you have a looming problem. I don’t know about you but we have coyotes and they are howling ever closer to our house. I am sure that unprotected your goats could be vulnerable to coyotes. Your little one would be vulnerable to foxes I think.
Do they eat tree leaves. If so maybe you can nab someones leaves that they rake in town. I have a cage on the back of my truck in which I throw bags of leaves from town for mulch on the garden.
Meanwhile we overdid our chicken breeding again and now have 161 chickens, 59 are chicks we hatched this year – and some are almost full grown so our feed usage is up and feed prices are starting to rise. So our axe will be busy this year – We should aim at about 20 birds but we find it hard to cull the older hens who we have grown fond of. Well if it goes from expensive to hard to get at all, we will have no choice. Time to stop the ethanol mandate.
August 25th, 2012 at 6:24 am
Georgetta, it’s not the Gold Coast but we stayed here last winter:
http://www.floridastateparks.org/oscarscherer/
and loved it. Great facilities, friendly people. Empty beaches close by. If you don’t have a dog, there is private park in Siesta Key, where you can pull right up to the Gulf.
August 25th, 2012 at 6:25 am
Martin, ah yes, the official story of 911 is a strong validation that coincidence is operating full time. And of course the official story is also a conspiracy story. 19 men and a man in a cave conspire to do acts that violate the laws of nature and they accomplish it through help from Allah. If one wants to be religious and thinks Muslims brought down the towers the obvious choice for a powerful god would be Allah. Jehovah hasn’t brought down any buildings since Samson and the tower of Babel.
August 25th, 2012 at 6:28 am
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OzMan, the “USA” has been spying on its own citizens….since probably forever, but certainly it picked up pace once Hoover’s FBI was established. It’s nothing new. What is new is that they have now codified into law, so it’s no longer “in the dark.”
Little Murders
Conspiracy’s been around forever, and the glorious, ignominious REAL history of the “USA’ is no exception. Here’s a link to a movie made by Michael Cimino entitled Heaven’s Gate. It was not a flop. It is a masterpiece, imo, and it shows the workings and depravity of the U.S. Elite in the latter part of the 19th century.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdcRiPLp4oU&playnext=1&list=PL414C75FFE22522E6&feature=results_video
http://www.leftfieldcinema.com/misunderstood-modern-cinema-heaven%E2%80%99s-gate
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August 25th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Here’s a surprise. i sent a link to this post to another website i frequent (very independent) and one of their writers actually gave me flack – calling Guy (and me) a “shit shoveller” for the “9/11 was an inside job” statement. i backed it up with a bunch of links to expert testimony about the impossibility of the Twin Towers falling the way they did as a result of the planes impacting the buildings (i didn’t even mention the third building that went down due to bad vibes i guess, since it wasn’t hit by anything). His argument was the lack of evidence and my rebuttal was that they quickly got rid of as much evidence as they could (all the structural debris) without treating it as a crime scene as they should have. i can’t believe some people still swallow the “official” account, as full of holes and obvious lies that it is.
i found this today and share it for those finding it interesting or informative:
http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-whistleblower-william-binney-explains-nsa-surveillance-2012-8#ixzz24WM4Zo4F
NSA Whistleblower Details How The NSA Has Spied On All US Citizens Since 9/11
National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney explains how the secretive agency run its pervasive domestic spying apparatus in a new piece by Laura Poitras in The New York TImes.
Binney—one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in NSA history—worked for the Defense Department’s foreign signals intelligence agency for 32 years before resigning in late 2001 because he “could not stay after the NSA began purposefully violating the Constitution.”
In a short video called “The Program,” Binney explains how the agency took part of one of the programs he built and started using it to spy on virtually every U.S. citizen without warrants under the code-name Stellar Wind.
Binney details how the top-secret surveillance program, the scope of which has never been made public, can track electronic activities—phone calls, emails, banking and travel records, social media—and map them to collect “all the attributes that any individual has” in every type of activity and build a profile based on that data.
“So that now I can pull your entire life together from all those domains and map it out and show your entire life over time,” Binney says.
(there’s more)
August 25th, 2012 at 9:17 am
Genetic Roulette
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/83377
uns and Butter
“Genetic Roulette” with Jeffrey M. Smith. Genetic engineering unnaturally crosses the species barrier with unknown long-term consequences; serious health risks associated with ingesting genetically modified food including infertility, immune problems, inflamation, accelerated aging, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system; no long-term scientific studies conducted; regulatory capture by the gmo industry; intimidation of researchers; California Proposition 37.
August 25th, 2012 at 10:43 am
It begins
http://www.workers.org/2012/08/24/mayor-in-spain-leads-food-raids-for-the-people/
In the small Spanish town of Marinaleda, located in the southern region of Andalusía, Mayor Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo has an answer for the country’s economic crisis and the hunger that comes with it: He organized and led the town’s residents to raid supermarkets to get the food necessary to survive.
Seven people have been arrested in two raids in which trade unionists loaded shopping carts full of food and left without paying, with the support of the townspeople cheering them on and the mayor watching with approval. (reuters.com, Aug. 15)
August 25th, 2012 at 10:45 am
Bosnia on red alert during hottest summer on record
by Staff Writers
Sarajevo (AFP) Aug 23, 2012
Bosnian authorities put the entire country on red alert Thursday against a heatwave that has seen the Balkan nation bake in its hottest summer on record, the national weather institute said.
Meteorologist Dzenan Zulum said the months of June, July and August had been the hottest since measurements were first recorded 120 years ago.
In some places, the mercury has soared to 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit) and temperatures in the capital Sarajevo have in recent days been about seven degrees Celsius warmer than normal.
“We predict a similar temperature for the next two or three days followed by a slight cooling from Sunday,” Zulum said.
Farmers say between 50-80 percent of their crops have been damaged in the heatwave, and water distribution to several towns has been disrupted.
Bosnia is also battling dozens of forest fires in the south and east of the country, with many hundreds of hectares (acres) of land burned.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Bosnia_on_red_alert_during_hottest_summer_on_record_999.html
August 25th, 2012 at 11:42 am
Alien Interview (pdf warning)
http://www.thenewearth.org/Roswell.pdf
http://alieninterview.org/blog/category/matilda-odonnell-macelroy/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OaZ2gofDdQ
August 25th, 2012 at 4:24 pm
I really have no concern about the so called “collapse”, whether financial, political, environmental, or any other. I fully expect that just as we are about to crash and burn, the one running the simulation will say, “OK, there is no reason to drag this out. PROGRAM END. Everyone turn in your final assignment. Next term will run the simulation from the beginning, without homo sapiens.”
August 25th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Curtis A.Heretic
What’s the difference? Whether we are a simulation or not it still seems real.
Everybody
In the interests of balance, here are some details for the UK summer 2012:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2012/summer.html
Long after the oceans have boiled away, you’ll be able to rely on the UK for cold wet weather.
August 25th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Yorchichan,
Of course we all accept that our senses report accurately.
I was being a smart ass. Just ask Kathy C. or tvt.
August 25th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Curtis
Just wishful thinking that it will all end quickly and painlessly
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I’d love to believe I lived in a simulation. Only hope I can think of of an afterlife. Similar to a belief in God.
August 26th, 2012 at 1:38 am
I’d love to believe I lived in a simulation. Only hope I can think of of an afterlife. Similar to a belief in God.
All are delusions, within the duality of the “I” and the “not-I”: the “not-I” includes (but is not limited to) “love”, “belief”, “simulation”, “hope”, “afterlife” and “God”.
August 26th, 2012 at 2:34 am
Curtis wrote “Of course we all accept that our senses report accurately.
I was being a smart ass. Just ask Kathy C. or tvt.”
Yep that is entirely accurate
August 26th, 2012 at 2:37 am
Dr House, latest update on Hurricane Issac might mean that you will get more of the rain than us.
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html
August 26th, 2012 at 4:22 am
The Great Culling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79llvyjAqzE
“Why in the World are They Spraying?” Full Length Documenty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEfJO0-cTis&feature=youtu.be
Looking Inside the Poisoned Chemtrails
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHM7GEjv02k
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura: H.A.A.R.P.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTvik184IMs
Tour HAARP and Ionospheric Heaters worldwide 3D Map & Details
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwvrzu918HE
August 26th, 2012 at 4:44 am
Robin
All are delusions, within the duality of the “I” and the “not-I”: the “not-I” includes (but is not limited to) “love”, “belief”, “simulation”, “hope”, “afterlife” and “God”.
Thanks, that clears it up
. Sadly, I’ve yet to experience any anomalies in the matrix, so I have no evidence for it and for me it’s not even a delusion.
Are you saying that the “I’, “not-I” duality is part/all of the delusion? Why aren’t “love” and “hope” (and maybe “afterlife”) part of the “I” delusion as well as the “not-I”? They are things I experience after all.
August 26th, 2012 at 5:33 am
Issac gives the Republicans a chance to fill sand bags and do something useful for the first time in their lives.
August 26th, 2012 at 6:10 am
.
I have to laugh at all the attention Hurricanes get in the news. Living near the Gulf Coast for many years, you learn to respect Hurricanes as part of life, and never to take them for granted, nor overstate their significance. It’s just part of nature. But the press can’t leave it alone. It has to blow the effects of Hurricanes out of proportion. The fact is, Hurricanes have been reshaping coastlines since before humans, and certainly all during human existence. Prior to Civilization, humans were most likely smart enough not to build permanent dwellings in areas consistently inundated with these powerful storms….but not Modern Humans. No, Modern Humans believe themselves to be immune from the vicissitudes of nature, and so the hubris-filled fools continue to construct the coastlines only to have it torn back down again, and then have its Press melodramatize the destruction ad nauseum. I haven’t even followed the coverage of these latest Tropical Storms/Hurricanes, and I will keep it that way. And anyone who is serious about Anthropogenic Climate Change should steer clear of giving any attention to Hurricanes as support for their arguments. It’s the weakest link, and should be avoided.
Same holds true for political party conventions. Not on my radar, and not worth my time. Kabuki theater, nothing more. A farce of massive proportions.
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August 26th, 2012 at 6:52 am
Curtis, Issac gives the Republicans a chance to fill sand bags and do something useful for the first time in their lives. It’s not often that a post on NBL makes me laugh out loud. Thanks for the levity!
August 26th, 2012 at 6:57 am
Kathy C, surprisingly, it rained here pretty much all day yesterday. A wonderful break in our drought! The funny thing is that it wasn’t predicted until a few hours before it began to rain. It sure seems to me that climate change is making it much more difficult to make accurate weather predictions, yet, amazingly a large percentage of meteorologists don’t believe in global warming. Go figure.
August 26th, 2012 at 7:19 am
Morocco Bama,
I agree that the news makes way too much out of hurricanes than is necessary (can be said about any subject, really). It’s been that way since Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. I lived in Fort Lauderdale then. At that time, there had been many years without a strong hurricane strike, so news organizations weren’t really covering them at all. One lone meteorologist – Brian Norcross – was saying that he thought the storm was going to be major. We knew Brian socially, and he was expressing frustration that no one seemed to be listening to his warnings. Consequently, we decided to prepare. He turned out to be dead on with his predictions and we were grateful that we listened to him. It made his career, of course, but that, along with the burgeoning 24 hour news networks, changed everything with respect to how hurricanes are covered.
August 26th, 2012 at 7:24 am
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David W, per your links, The Great Culling is the sequel to What In The World Are They Spraying, so now it’s no longer a question to be put to the test by the authors, but they’ve jumped to the why, and the why is to cull the human population. That’s foolhardy, imo, and they have now lost credibility, because they’re no longer curious, but rather they seem to be exploiting a particular revenue-producing genre. Oh well, Another One Bites The Dust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWsJcg-g1pg
.
August 26th, 2012 at 7:45 am
.
The simple fact is, TRDH, Hurricanes do, and will, happen on certain coasts, and whereas some pre-planning may save some lives, you’re never going to be able to cover all possible destructive permutations. The answer is to not build along these coastal areas, and yet that’s precisely what people continue to do….to this day. Considering what we know about ACC, and rising water levels and the increasing intensity of all storms, be it Hurricanes and/or Tornadoes, it’s hard to feel sorry for people in the U.S. who hubristically continue to put themselves directly and explicitly in harms way.
.
August 26th, 2012 at 7:51 am
morocco bama,
Re: oil pricing
I have to concur. How else do you explain an immediate jump in gas prices here in eastern Washington by $.15 on the heels of a refinery fire in San Francisco? We get our gas via a pipeline from Montana derived from a totally different source. For that matter explain to me how the highest gas prices in the state are usually in Bellingham which has two refineries within 10 miles and another only 25 miles away. Yes, they are jacking us.
Sorry I’m so far behind the thread.
Michael Irving
August 26th, 2012 at 7:59 am
Kathy C
We had frost yesterday! Down to 30°F overnight. I got up at five and check the temp and almost croaked. Luckily we saved the garden. It is not that this is unusual, we usually get a frost the third week of August, but normally it is only after an evening thunderstorm takes all the heat in the air and then it clears off. This time it just dropped 45°F overnight. It dropped even more last night (bottoming at 35°F) but luckily it was hotter during the day.
At least we don’t have your bugs.
Michael Irving
August 26th, 2012 at 9:43 am
Michael, Yikes – weather sure has gotten crazy. Like Dr. House we find rain coming when not expected or showing on maps. Just appears out of thin (or is it thick)air.
August 26th, 2012 at 9:46 am
Max is much better on a show like this than when he is performing on his show. He knows nothing about or doesn’t factor in peak oil and climate change and is fixated on gold. Still he thinks economic collapse in the US by April of 2013 at the latest (if no other trigger gets us he thinks the dismal amount of tax dollars collected will).
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/83610
Guns and Butter
“Countdown To Currency Collapse” with Max Keiser. Escalating financial fraud; pump and dump scams; Wall Street banks; auditing fraud; absence of regulation; default or hyperinflation?; currency collapse; the trigger; Japan; China; bank holidays; social cohesion index; City of London; financial repression; confiscation of wealth; derivatives; interest rates; precious metals; the next nine months
August 26th, 2012 at 9:52 am
TRDH:
Hey, I’m serious!
August 26th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Curtis – I know! That’s why it made me laugh! I can just see all those uptight, self-righteous folks out there trying to tell all the proles what they should be doing, and how Obama caused all of this, all the while cursing “big government”.
To be fair, a friend of mine is down there and he’s a decent guy – just wearing blinders like so many.
I noticed that they’ve canceled the first day of the show.
August 26th, 2012 at 10:49 am
Here’s a conspiracy theory for you (my own): the government is essentially forcing all health care providers, hospitals, etc., to have electronic medical records (EMR). They are doing this currently using financial incentives. Soon, those incentives will change to penalties. Eventually, EMR will be mandatory. In order to qualify, an EMR must meet certain standards of security. That security standard was developed by the government. The official impetus for this move was in the interest of improving healthcare by reducing mistakes. You can be sure that the IT companies who stand to profit the most also are eager to see this implementation. But, the real reason for EMR, I think, is so that the government can use that “security” standard as a way to hack into any person’s medical record at any time. They could use it to their political advantage, or maybe even manipulate the information so as to meet their own nefarious ends. I can envision many ways for that data to be used inappropriately.
I have an EMR in my clinic – one that I wrote using my own security measures. I don’t qualify for the financial incentives since I haven’t incorporated the official security standard. (We also use paper charts for backup.)
Conspiracy theory aside, this is one more step toward collapse. In order to have an EMR, a clinic must purchase a computer and software for every workstation. Average price for that is about $2,500. Those must be upgraded every few years. A service contract to maintain those computers can be quite costly. Additionally, most EMRs are very expensive – to the tune of $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the number of users. That’s paid ever year – not just once.
My EMR server is in California at one of those infamous energy sucking data centers we hear about from time to time. Between power outages and internet failures, we are very susceptible to systemic collapse. When the power goes out, everything grinds to a halt. We can’t even print a prescription or make an appointment.
A paper chart has a one-time cost of about 25 cents per patient. Compare that to about $15 every few years per patient for an EMR. Can collapse of the healthcare system be far away with financial management like that?
All that being said, if the economy collapses as soon as many think, it won’t matter much anyway.
August 26th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Dr House, recently at the eye dr’s I noticed he was having difficulty putting my info on the computer – I talked about it and basically it has made his life much more difficult to have to put everything on the computer. Meanwhile our general practitioner discusses your welfare with a laptop in front of him. It cuts down on eye to eye contact.
August 26th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
More at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/isaac-new-katrina
Is Isaac The ‘New’ Katrina?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/26/2012 15:14 -0400
Tropical Storm Isaac has battered the hopes of an on-time departure of the Romney-Ryan express and now looks set to threaten New Orleans and the Gulf. Weather trackers are predicting an increase in intensity given its size and the storm’s predicted paths are set to cross straight through the middle of the Gulf’s oil production in a replay of the terrible August of Katrina (though we can only hope not as severe). All major rig operators are evacuating which leaves output notably down already. (via Bloomberg)
*U.S. SAYS 24% OF OIL OUTPUT SHUT FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8.2% OF NATURAL GAS OUTPUT SHUT FOR ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 39 PLATFORMS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8 RIGS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
and as a reminder – the average US retail gas price rose 75c during Katrina…
August 26th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
9/11: Criminal Incompetence and Ass-Covering by the Bush Administration from Washington’s blog
August 26th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
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Katrina would not have been a story if it were not for the levies breaking. The real story was not Katrina, but the levies. Some have conjectured that the levies were purposely breached. Yet another conspiracy.
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August 26th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
From a post today at Zero Hedge, comparing Isaac to Katrina, as Isaac is on track to pass directly through oil-field alley in the Gulf of Mexico:
*U.S. SAYS 24% OF OIL OUTPUT SHUT FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8.2% OF NATURAL GAS OUTPUT SHUT FOR ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 39 PLATFORMS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8 RIGS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
and as a reminder – the average US retail gas price rose 75c during Katrina.
August 26th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
TRDH- I witnessed the burning of an enormous trailer load of hay in Bakersfield. (May this please be the last time I drive through Bakersfield, Dear Lord) and wondered if it would even be possible to haul hay around like that once it gets hotter.
The forests in northern California are visibly very dry, as they are elsewhere. I remember what this state looked like in the 70s. The forests that were clear cut years ago look especially dry and I cannot see them ever fully recovering.
August 26th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Morocco Bama, yes you are correct, the rabbit hole goes much deeper than just a culling. I am still looking for the true motivation. This radio show with poor sound quality looks a little deeper. Thanks for caring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GBWpyVWK8Y
August 26th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
This poster appeared on my Facebook news feed a few minutes ago. It’s relevant to the current discussion.
August 26th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
9/11 a conspiracy? apart from being ruthlessly exploited for political ends, there is no reason to think so. as a moronic belief it is on a par with the fake moon landings, alien cover ups and creationism. ie, real wacko, US style loony bin territory.
i normally agree with what is said on this blog, but we part company on that one, sorry. i’m not sure who wrote the above piece but i stopped reading when they went on about 9/11. i just hope guy does not buy into the idea, as its one way to lose support from the rationalist community.
August 26th, 2012 at 11:53 pm
andyuk
I have to agree with you on 9/11, whilst admitting the Americans who dominate this blog know far more about it than I do.
I would look on it in terms of what the American government had to gain and lose by being complicit in 9/11. It seems to me that they had little to gain and a hell of a lot to lose. Yes they used it as an excuse for the “War on Terror” but, let’s face it, governments can always find a reason to invade foreign countries if they believe it is in their interests to do so. Likewise infringing the rights of their own citizens. On the flip side, if government involvement in 9/11 were ever proven, surely senior figures would face life imprisonment and the USA would lose credibility around the world.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:37 am
Are you saying that the “I’, “not-I” duality is part/all of the delusion? Why aren’t “love” and “hope” (and maybe “afterlife”) part of the “I” delusion as well as the “not-I”?
There is no delusion without the duality.
The one who “loves”/” hopes”/lives the “afterlife” is the “I”. The loving, the loved, the hoping, the hoped for, the living of the afterlife and the afterlife are all “not-I”.
It would be nice if some of the current crop of theistic preachers would address this concept.
Siva’s (the Hindu god of destruction/dissolution’s) trident represents the capability to destroy the delusion of the triad of experiencer, experiencing and that which is experienced – or the doer, doing and deed.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:42 am
lose support from the rationalist community
A “rationalist community” that rejects scientific rationality?
August 27th, 2012 at 2:41 am
yorichan, andyuk, perhaps you are not familiar with the Project for the New American Century and their document Rebuilding America’s Defenses in which they stated that they needed and event like a New Pearl Harbor to get Americans to agree to their plans. They envisioned that they needed such an event to accomplish their plans. http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
“The PNAC program, in a nutshell: America’s military must rule out even the possibility of a serious global or regional challenger anywhere in the world. The regime of Saddam Hussein must be toppled immediately, by U.S. force if necessary. And the entire Middle East must be reordered according to an American plan. PNAC’s most important study notes that selling this plan to the American people will likely take a long time, “absent some catastrophic catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” (PNAC, Rebuilding America’s Defenses (1997), p.51)”
The signers include
Elliott Abrams
William J. Bennett
John Ellis “Jeb” Bush
Richard B. Cheney
Eliot A. Cohen
Midge Decter
Francis Fukuyama
Zalmay Khalilzad
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby
Norman Podhoretz
J. Danforth Quayle
Donald Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
But if you still want to stick to the 19 muslims did it you either have to credit allah with bringing down 3 buildings at almost free fall speed, including Building 7 that was not hit by any plane or you need more that 19 muslims on planes, you need a whole host of muslims setting explosives in the buildings to create a controlled demolition.
August 27th, 2012 at 3:26 am
Robin
I am sure more capable minds than mine have spent more time than I am prepared to spend thinking about these things. However, for what it’s worth…
There is no delusion without the duality.
OK, then you (or whoever you quote) do not claim that the duality is a delusion, only that delusion exists because of the duality. Isn’t this just a fancy way of saying that “love”, “belief”, “simulation”, “hope”, “afterlife” and “God” only exist in the human mind?
Kathy C
Was Saddam Hussein really a serious challenge to the US? Couldn’t the US have taken him out even without 9/11 using only WMD or some other trumped up excuse without the need for a complex operation fraught with the danger of discovery? If a whole host of Muslims would have been required for a controlled detonation wouldn’t a whole host of American explosives experts have been needed likewise? Wouldn’t someone in the twin towers have noticed? How would the silence of all those involved have been assured?
Not being a party to the facts it is very difficult for me to know what to believe. With anything, I can only form an opinion based on what I read, what I see going on around me and logic. Of these three, what I read I rank third in importance because it is not based on direct personal experience and I am not a trusting soul. Only with a large consensus would I be prepared to believe something simply because I have read it if it made little sense to me. Critical thinking has to work both ways.
August 27th, 2012 at 3:50 am
Russian Troops ‘Take & Hold’ Denver Airport
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuU0XeCymS8
Denver Airport Exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9CoCij6kzE
D.U.M.B.s Deep Underground Military Bases
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEDAE_9v4h0
Underground Bases and Tunnels
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_underground28.htm
Phil Schneider Speaks Out before being killed part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyXcznVui8&feature=related
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq8OH5wrZC0&feature=related
part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVLFK5uoegY&feature=related
part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVLFK5uoegY&feature=related
part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm75Ie5xNeo&feature=related
part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6PmJCddBOg&feature=relmfu
part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gft-k3GFsxY&feature=relmfu
August 27th, 2012 at 4:05 am
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A rationalist approach doesn’t start with the conclusion and move backwards, and yet, that is what I’ve seen from everyone who takes the Official version of 9/11 as gospel. A rationalist, a true rationalist and not just some poseur pretending to be one on the internet, would take each slice of 9/11 and test it against the evidence. If the evidence cannot be found, then any conclusion about that part of 9/11 is inconclusive. If that approach is taken, I’m certain that what you will come away with is that no objective conclusions can be drawn from the event that was 9/11….meaning that the Official version is pure fabrication, just as are the versions offered by some who have offered alternative narratives. However, that’s not what we see happening. Instead, we have people misapplying the “rationalist” approach and siding with authority about what transpired that day, in direct contradiction to their asserted rationalist philosophy.
Yorchcihan, you said:
I am not a trusting soul.
I’m not a trusting soul either, and so, I don’t trust one bit the lies spewed forth by the 9/11 Commission Report. Nor do I trust a lot of the information floating around on the internet that offers alternatives and questions the 9/11 Commission Report and its flimsy to non-existent evidence and erroneous conclusions. So, what to do? My take has been not to spend too much time on this one event. In the scheme of things, it was not that spectacular if you consider all the things the Elite has done throughout the history of Civilization to maintain its vested interests. I agree with you that the Elite didn’t need 9/11 to do anything draconian that came before or after, yet 9/11 is not what the 9/11 Commission Report said it is. So, don’t jump to the conclusion, just say you don’t know, and you then ask yourself why would the phoney Commission lie about it, then? If they had nothing to hide, why did they go to such lengths to avoid the truth? However, like I said, I don’t spend any time on it any longer. It’s one of a thousand rabbit holes placed strategically about that serve to ensnare the well-intentioned and misdirect their energy and focus into something that will never, ever be resolved.
My hunch is that it was a rigged event, to what extent, I don’t really care. I don’t give 9/11 the weight that others do, and I believe whoever is responsible, supersedes the U.S. Government. Yes, it used the resources of the U.S. Government to pull it off, but it doesn’t owe allegiance to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government these days, and perhaps it always was thus, is just a tool or device of the Plutocratic Oligarchy to maintain its vested interests and status. That Plutocratic Oligarchy, imo, is now supranational, meaning it has moved beyond the Nation-State model, but still uses the model to control populations.
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August 27th, 2012 at 5:22 am
Conspiracy Theory/Or/Fact with Jesse Ventura FEMA CAMPS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oddKHWoJaI
Extensive of FEMA Camps: Interactive Map
http://exaltedtruth.com/2012/08/16/extensive-list-of-fema-camps/
Breaking News Gov. Activating FEMA camps across U.S.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykipLrtcXrs
Modern Concentration Camps: FEMA exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGMoISnfevc
August 27th, 2012 at 5:49 am
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This storm is nothing to be concerned about, and it’s not worthy of national attention. I mean that. I’ve lived on the gulf coast and have been through many a Hurricane and Hurricane coverage and warnings. This is a lightweight, so there is no need to use it to raise alarms.
http://gma.yahoo.com/tropical-storm-isaac-hurricane-warnings-issued-gulf-coast-054413176–abc-news-topstories.html
As Tropical Storm Isaac grazed the Florida Keys with less force than was feared, hurricane warnings have been issued for the Gulf Coast from Central Louisiana to the Florida panhandle with Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana declaring state of emergencies ahead of the storm’s landfall.
Isaac is expected to strengthen to a weak Category 2 or Category 1 hurricane before making landfall along the Gulf Coast by Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane warnings were issued from east of Morgan City, La. — which includes New Orleans — to Destin, Fla.
Don’t follow the lead of the MSM. Isaac is not a story. The Derecho this summer, yes, but this weak tropical system, no.
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August 27th, 2012 at 5:51 am
I admit that it’s difficult – but not impossible – for me to believe that 9/11 was orchestrated entirely by the government. But that difficulty comes from years of believing the propaganda that my government has my best interests at heart. Now that those blinders have been lifted, it makes it much easier to believe that the U.S. power brokers would do just about anything to further their own selfish interests.
My personal take on the event is that, like almost every other “terrorist plot” uncovered since then, it was a legitimate scheme dreamed up by a “terrorist” organization that had lots of infiltration of the CIA. Once the plot was identified, it became the perfect vehicle to accomplish some very nefarious ends. It was then made possible with silent help from the CIA.
As to the assertion that we didn’t need 9/11 to invade Iraq, I agree totally. 9/11 made it easier, but I don’t think that was the motivation. Instead, I believe that what the events surrounding 9/11 have brought mostly is a steady loss of freedom and a greater concentration of power into just a very few hands.
The whole “war on terror” wouldn’t have been possible without 9/11. That has been a multi-trillion dollar program. Many, many companies and individuals have become enormously rich due to that “war”. I’m not suggesting that they are part of the conspiracy necessarily, but they have definitely become guilty of propagating the post-9/11 fear.
More importantly, the various political factions in the U.S. were all brought together in the months following 9/11. Serious erosions of freedoms were introduced and turned into law during that time. It is quite doubtful that those bills would have become law any other way.
Remember, the U.S. government has been aware of peak oil and its implications for more than 50 years. Dick Cheney and company, as oil men, were even more keenly aware of the seriousness of the situation. They knew that it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose and they wanted everything in place to make sure that they could maintain power in an energy-declining world.
From the looks of things, they’ve succeeded. Guy has mentioned “lights out” by 2012. If we gauge the progress the government has made in its preparations for implementing martial law, then it appears Guy’s prediction is on target. With even social agencies purchasing enough ammunition to shoot every American citizen 5 times, not counting the various police and military organizations, it seems clear that someone, somewhere is expecting some serious civil unrest real soon.
That’s the legacy of 9/11 – conspiracy or not.
August 27th, 2012 at 5:53 am
Morocco Bama, my only interest in following Isaac is the hope that it brings us lots of rain. Of course I don’t live anywhere near the coast (at least not for another 5° or so anyway).
August 27th, 2012 at 6:06 am
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TRDH, very well reasoned 9/11 post. Thanks. I agree with your sentiments, but would add, it’s much more than just the Gubmint. The Gubmint’s the tool…..and the foil.
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August 27th, 2012 at 6:13 am
Yorchichan read the PNAC document that I linked to if you want to understand their reasons. It is part of a plan for being number 1 in the world for the new century, even though the Middle East has the remaining oil. It is not about any one country it is about world dominance.
August 27th, 2012 at 6:14 am
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TRDH, we’e hoping for some of that rain in Atlanta, as well. Whereas it’s not been as hot here this summer, mostly due to persistent cloud cover (how convenient), we have not had that much precipitation, and are therefore still in significant drought. We got just enough rain here, and humidity, in the early to mid part of the summer season, to keep the lawns green and lush, but even the lawns are starting to dry out now. The lengths people will go to to keep their lawns green and lush boggles the mind. I truly believe that in the approaching end times, one of the truly fucked up and insane things I will witness is emaciated, starving people in the suburbs, fastidiously keeping their lawns up with whatever means possible, to include painting them, if need be. “I may not have any food or drink, but at least my lawn looks marvelous.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/turf-painting-spreads-drought-ravages-lawns
When this summer’s drought turned her prized lawn brown, Terri LoPrimo fought back, but not with sprinklers: She had it painted green, making her suddenly lush-appearing yard the envy of her neighborhood.
The Staten Island, N.Y., resident and her husband, Ronnie, hired a local entrepreneur to spruce up their yard by spraying it with a deep-green organic dye. By Monday, the couple’s property was aglow with newly green blades of grass and no watering needed to sustain it.
“It looks just like a spring lawn, the way it looks after a rain. It’s really gorgeous,” said LoPrimo, a 62-year-old retiree.
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August 27th, 2012 at 6:18 am
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Bunkers, Bunkers, everywhere. Why the need for all these Bunkers? First Cheney’s, now Obama’s….who’s next? I bet Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles have one…..we have to make sure the Queen lives long, right? The Monarchy must survive the Holocaust to come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx965aV2zgI&feature=related
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August 27th, 2012 at 6:19 am
OK, then you (or whoever you quote) do not claim that the duality is a delusion, only that delusion exists because of the duality. Isn’t this just a fancy way of saying that “love”, “belief”, “simulation”, “hope”, “afterlife” and “God” only exist in the human mind?
The “human mind” is the instrument for grasping the inputs and integrating them into these concepts. Objectless awareness is its precursor. Directing awareness towards objects such as these offers an infinitude of contemplation, speculation, and musing – but does nothing to approach the basis that sustains one in such explorations. The only solution to it is in oneself, by quieting the mind only objectless awareness remains, directed on itself. Then, like the ouroboros, the “I” disappears. Contemplation, rumination and musing may steer one in that direction, but if an end is sought in these, no end will be found.
August 27th, 2012 at 6:23 am
Morocco you wrote “This storm is nothing to be concerned about, and it’s not worthy of national attention.” Please note the links that both Guy and myself posted from Zero Hedge about what oil production is being shut down. Once we get to the point of having no surplus oil anywhere in the system even a small storm shutting out production becomes much bigger in impact. They don’t shut down oil wells in the gulf without reason so I suspect they have fears it will be a significant storm if not anywhere on the level of Katrina.
When you have on hand enough food for 2 weeks and fully expect to be able to go to the grocery store in one week if your bag of potatoes goes bad its not a big deal. When you have only enough food for 1 day and don’t expect to have the money to shop tomorrow any loss of food however small is tragedy.
Where exactly we are on the oil supplies is uncertain but it is sure that we have less leeway than in the past. Increasingly small events that disrupt it will take on greater meaning. And as Matt Simmons used to point out small shortages of something like gasoline can become big shortages overnight as people panic and hoard, filling up gas cans, topping off tanks etc.
Meanwhile here in central eastern Alabama we secretly look forward to hurricanes that will bring us rain despite the hardship they may bring others. But it has gotten a bit iffy as to whether we will benefit, highest percentage being 70% over the next few days. Dr. House may get a good soaking.
copied from Guy’s post
*U.S. SAYS 24% OF OIL OUTPUT SHUT FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8.2% OF NATURAL GAS OUTPUT SHUT FOR ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 39 PLATFORMS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8 RIGS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
August 27th, 2012 at 6:27 am
A new Army Corps of Engineers rating system for the nation’s levees is about to deliver a near-failing grade to New Orleans area dikes, despite the internationally acclaimed $10 billion effort to rebuild the system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, corps officials have confirmed.
Preliminary rankings obtained by The Times-Picayune show that the corps believes there’s still a significant risk of flooding from major hurricanes or river floods that are greater than the design heights of Mississippi River levees and hurricane levees on both the east and west banks. In both cases, the levees were rated Class II or “urgent (unsafe or potentially unsafe),” on a scale of I to V, with V representing normal or “adequately safe.
http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/08/new_orleans_levees_get_a_near-.html
They could fail again, with our without help.
August 27th, 2012 at 6:30 am
“When it slammed ashore on the Gulf Coast in August, Hurricane Katrina was a strong Category 3 storm, not a Category 4 as initially thought, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.” http://articles.cnn.com/2005-12-21/weather/katrina_1_strongest-winds-hurricane-center-lake-pontchartrain?_s=PM:WEATHER
From Jeff Masters Wondergroundblog
“Intensity Forecast
The HWRF model continues to be the most bullish on Isaac’s potential intensity, forecasting the storm to reach category 3 status. The GFDL is more reserved and suggest Isaac will only reach strong category 1 wind speeds before making landfall. Given current observations, the National Hurricane Center has backed off the previous forecast that Isaac will intensify to hurricane status around the Florida Keys. They now expect Isaac to remain at tropical storm status as it moves through the central Gulf of Mexico before finally strengthening as it approaches the coast and become a category 2 hurricane just before landfall.”
Could be another Katrina if the most bullish prediction comes true and the levees are really as bad as the ratings in the post above say – eh?
August 27th, 2012 at 6:31 am
World dominance?
Nature bats last!
August 27th, 2012 at 6:36 am
If an explanation for an man-made event requires the sun to move around the earth, or for the earth to be flat, then that explanation is incompatible with the accepted world-view. Melting of structural steel in an aviation fuel – air fire, free fall velocities of intact structural sections of collapsing buildings, and five live persons out of nineteen hijackers have to be accepted as miracles by Allah if we are to fit them into the accepted world-view.
August 27th, 2012 at 6:40 am
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Kathy C, I understand your point, and agree with the basic premise and sentiment, but one event isn’t going to predicate it, especially this non-event that is Isaac. For starters, since the economic depression started in the U.S., and yes, it is a depression, or should I say part of a permanent contraction, oil demand in the U.S. has subsided significantly, to the point the U.S. is now a net exporter of refined products. For certain, we do not have accurate data on surpluses and reserves, and we never will, and that’s another factor that allows price manipulation to take place in addition to removed regulations. For certain, the price manipulators will use this storm, as they do all events man made or not, to yet again manipulate the prices, but I suspect there will be no shortages….not yet, at least, but yes, they are coming, whether they’re fabricated, or not.
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August 27th, 2012 at 6:53 am
I think everyone should remember Hanlon’s Law, to paraphrase: Never attribute to malice what could just as easily be attributed to stupidity.
For an example, take a scene from the novel Black Beauty: a stable-hand notices that Black Beauty isn’t feeling well, so he washes Black Beauty with ice-cold water, and that nearly KILLS him. The master ends up reading the stable-hand the riot act. Someone else tells the master not to be so hard on the stable hand, since he didn’t mean any harm and merely wasn’t very bright, and the master retorts that more evil is done in the world by stupid people than by evil people.
August 27th, 2012 at 7:01 am
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I think everyone should remember Hanlon’s Law, to paraphrase: Never attribute to malice what could just as easily be attributed to stupidity.
Those who do seek to do malice, and are in positions of great power and influence, have to love Hanlon’s Law, and in fact, invoke its conclusion quite often, I would suspect. It goes hand in hand with my assertion that Gubmint is both a tool, and a foil. The evocation of Hanlon’s Law supports the foil part of that assertion. Gubmint as the incompetent Fall Guy….that keeps falling over and over again in perpetuity.
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August 27th, 2012 at 7:41 am
Michael Parenti has said numerous times that George Bush and the neocons are not stupid, that they have succeeded brilliantly. I will try find the talk in which he outlines this best but don’t have the time right now.
This covers some of it though
Liberal intellectuals are never happier than when, with patronizing smiles, they can dilate on the stupidity of George W. Bush. What I have tried to show is that Bush is neither retarded nor misdirected. Given his class perspective and interests, there are compelling reasons to commit armed aggression against Iraq—and against other countries to come. It is time we dwelled less upon his malapropisms and more on his rather effective deceptions and relentless viciousness. Many decent crusaders have been defeated because of their inability to fully comprehend the utter depravity of their enemies. The more we know what we are up against, the better we can fight it.
http://www.michaelparenti.org/IRAQGeorge2.htm
August 27th, 2012 at 7:54 am
“Katrina would not have been a story if it were not for the levies breaking. The real story was not Katrina, but the levies”
I’m pretty sure the residents of the MS gulf coast, which bore the brunt of Katrina, would not agree with you. Every mile of the MS coast was devastated, as were areas miles inland. The main-stream media would agree with you, however, because almost all their coverage was on New Orleans. Perhaps that’s what informed your opinion that the levies were the real story. Here is a link showing some of the devastation:
http://www.photosfromkatrina.com/intro01.htm
August 27th, 2012 at 8:05 am
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George W. Bush was the ultimate foil. I truly believe he was chosen for his role/portrayal with the reaction of the Liberals in mind. He was the perfect perceived embodiment of Hanlon’s Law, and the highly educated and sophisticated Liberals fell for it, hook, line and sinker, just as they fell for W’s successor, Obama. Liberals are easily fooled if you appeal to their intellectual egos.
One of the real brains behind much of this, but of course its even greater than him, is W’s father, Senior. Russ Baker wrote an excellently researched book about the Bush Dynasty called Family of Secrets. It’s well worth the read. Talk about a Rabbit Hole…..this one runs deep, very deep.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Secrets-Dynasty-Powerful-Influence/dp/B002T45028/ref=la_B001JP9YF2_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346079638&sr=1-1
Russ Baker has pain-stakingly pieced together a massive work on what has the potential to open the eyes of millions. Baker’s information is specific, annotated and through his extensive well-written research we are taken on a path that illuminates the machinations of not only the last three generations of the Bush family, but also that of some of the power-brokers behind them and also the many people in this country and elsewhere whom they have worked with to establish what “Poppy” Bush likes to call “The New World Order”. This is NOT a conspiracy theory book! This is an objectively written book by a journalist who is doing what few journalists have the courage to do– research as objectively as possible and report what you find.
Baker opens doors to a variety of historical occurrences from the start of the intelligence community during WW2 to Einshower;s and JFK’s presidency and later JFK’s assassination and on to Watergate and on and on to the W. Bush administration and our present trials. Baker has laid a path for continued research that hopefully he and others will continue. It’s time to wake up to what is really going on and how the Bush family and others of their ilk are not only powerfully connected, but are also masters of disinformation.
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August 27th, 2012 at 8:16 am
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Judy, perhaps you’re not grasping what I’ve said in this thread about Hurricanes thus far. They happen…frequently, and are part of life on coasts they frequent. The residents get used to them and take them in constructive stride (the ones who live far enough inland)….or at least, used to, before the media started sensationalizing them. And yet, as I said, people continued to build infrastructure along the coast, as if Hurricanes didn’t exist. Well, that’s what you get. Hurricanes are natural events that should be cherished and welcomed….not ignored and/or mitigated. To jump up and down and go “oh my God, oh my God, the world is coming to an end” in hysterics when a Hurricane destroys human creation in coastal areas is nauseating. Take New Orleans, for example. It’s been seven years since Katrina. Anyone still living there that can still be affected by the failing levies, poor or not, is foolish. New Orleans will be underwater in thirty years, if not sooner, Hurricanes and failing levies be damned. It was always a doomed city, and that doom is more imminent now than ever, and yet morons persist in being morons.
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August 27th, 2012 at 8:19 am
Some might like to view this link of Chalmers Johnson speaking about modern Americas demise, and some similarities with the fall of the Roman Empire, amongst some interesting side discussions, titled:
DECLINE of EMPIRES: The Signs of Decay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Q2CCs-x9q9U
It was posted 2008, but still shows clear analysis.
August 27th, 2012 at 8:20 am
Whoa whoa whoa, what the HELL?!
I didn’t even MENTION George W. Bush! I just said sometimes we mistake foolish doings for evil ones, that’s all!
Can’t a guy make a literary allusion to Black Beauty anymore? Jeez Louise…
August 27th, 2012 at 8:29 am
Chalmers Johnson speaks about quite a lot of the things that Guy laments in this essay, in the main the loss of liberty to the power of military instrumentalities.
August 27th, 2012 at 8:41 am
Librarian
You keep making literary allusions, they are your say. Be the proverbial ducks back. To paraphrase Yoda:
“Completely, Control the sandbox, no one does.”
August 27th, 2012 at 8:56 am
Morocco Bama
I see governments as corrupt, incompetent and self-serving. You see them, or at least the US government, as corrupt, clever and serving a higher authority. Who or what is this higher authority? How do you get to join? Can members of any race/nation join once they show sufficient contempt for ordinary people? Can you offer any evidence for any of this?
If those who belong to the elite are so clever and powerful why are they destroying or allowing the destruction of the earth on which their lives too depend? Leading such privileged lives don’t they have more to lose than the rest of us?
Robin
You lost me on this line:
Directing awareness towards objects … but does nothing to approach the basis that sustains one in such explorations.
What is “the basis that sustains one in such explorations”?
The only solution to it is in oneself, by quieting the mind only objectless awareness remains, directed on itself.
Why do I want to reach a state of objectless awareness? In such a state will the nature of reality become clear? Are you recommending a course in meditation?
August 27th, 2012 at 9:14 am
Morocco “Hurricanes are natural events that should be cherished and welcomed….not ignored and/or mitigated.”
Did anyone here say they weren’t natural. Please don’t take me or others as idiots. Of course if people didn’t build more and more on the coasts there wouldn’t be so much damage. Of course if levees hadn’t been built in the first place there would be more marsh shrubland which would take the brunt of the storm. Of course if there weren’t oil wells in the Gulf no one would have to shut them down and cut off production. Duh…. But the fact is there are hurricanes, there is huge infrastructure along the coast, there are oil rigs and wells and platforms, there is less swamps to absorb storms, there are more people etc. We are just trying to discuss what might happen given what is right now.
I would love for there to be a largely unpopulated coast with no levees allowing for the silting and growth of swamps and shrubland and all the wonderful wildlife that used to inhabit them uninterrupted by oil rigs and ports. But that is not the situation today and therefore can we please discuss what is and might happen without lectures about hurricanes being natural?
Issac might never rise above the level of a tropical storm, or in one estimate it might make a category 3 hurricane. I might hit anywhere along the gulf coast – hurricanes sometimes don’t follow expected paths. But the shut in oil production is real, and flow rates are as important as the amount of oil in the ground. The flow rate for US oil is temporarily down by 24%. Folks are talking about releasing from Strategic Oil Reserve. The price of oil is down some say because of that speculation. Whether Issac becomes anything like Katrina or is a big nothing, it is having an effect that is notable, but not because folks on NBL are discussing it.
August 27th, 2012 at 9:16 am
Kathy C/TRDH,
Looks like you are about to get really wet. Good luck!
Michael Irving
August 27th, 2012 at 9:21 am
Librarian you did assert that more evil is done in the world by stupid people than evil people. Since some people think G. Bush is stupid I recalled Parenti’s comments. I didn’t say that you were referring directly to G. Bush, just a commentary on one person that has been referred to as stupid but who is probably not a bit stupid and quite evil.
Come on, a story from the novel Black Beauty does not prove anything in the real world. You have to to look at real people to determine that. If Hitler was stupid why did he last so long. If Hitler was stupid many of the people under him clearly were not and they accomplished quite a bit of evil. I reject your Hanlon’s Law as not matching up with reality. Kissinger – Evil or Stupid? Cheney = Evil or Stupid?
August 27th, 2012 at 9:26 am
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Fine, Kathy C, so long as you’re willing to put your metaphorical money where your mouth is. Isaac will be a nice case study. Let’s see what will come of it. Let’s observe the pre and post event news coverage and statistics and compare. Or, will everyone have moved on to the next alleged tragedy without doing their post event audit? I think the latter will occur. It always does.
To me, the largest significance it holds is how much of that smothered oil from the Macondo well blowout will surface and beach itself. That could be interesting.
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August 27th, 2012 at 9:31 am
Yorchichan
A state of objectless awareness is abandoning the witness position of consciousness, or better, understanding the illusion of ego witness as separation from reality. Authentic enlightenment is abiding as that objectless awareness. Anything ‘less’ than that is pure illusion of ego self.
I follow the threads here pretty closely, and I can only assume this it is a line of discussion concerning the nature of reality. If so, and in that context, if one wishes to ‘handle the truth’, one must be willing to encounter some hitherto radical ideas and follow up on much older schools of esoteric thought, much of which was developed in the East many many centuries ago.
I’m not presuming all of it is correct, btw.
I have followed some of it because I was motivated to know the truth.
I’m pretty satisfied with the path that has opened up while on that journey, but one has to be prepared to surrender many preconceptions along the way, not just intelectually either. That is one meaning of ‘wash up your spoon and bowl’. The practice of understanding is the main transformative agent of consciousness.
Sometimes these things are easily grasped by the mind, and take years, if not liftomes to put into action. The mind is full of fear, and it can come to the foreground very quickly, but it is always there untill it is dealt with by counter egoic actions.
Love is the primary counter egoic action. Ergo, that is why it is the hardest to enact ‘at will’. When you love without reservation you are destroyed and your ‘separation’ is revealed as and illusion. That illusion can decend upon your consciousness and reassert itself later, but the experience of love to the point of self forgetting, is equivalent to the moment of surrendering the witness position, or as RD puts it, objectless awareness.
I find it useful to put whatever phrase I am unfamiliar with Robin Datta uses into an internet search engine and then I can decipher more if his/her messages, which has always been well worth it IMO.
Hope that helps.
August 27th, 2012 at 9:43 am
I just figured out that ‘Rehsab Thgir’ is ‘right basher’ in reverse. Is that the same as a left basher?
August 27th, 2012 at 9:52 am
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Yorchichan, your question about Elites is a good one, both who and what they are, and why they would also harm themselves when they have the most to lose. Both questions deserve significant exploration. I found this in my travels, and it’s a good start for research and discussion of the matter.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/04/20/privilege-how-societys-elite-are-made/#comments
The comments to the above linked article are also very intelligent and thought-provoking.
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August 27th, 2012 at 10:22 am
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Despite Isaac’s Soaking, Keys Residents Laid Back
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hurricane-watch-now-includes-orleans-area-17082527#.UDurkqBAUTA
Tropical Storm Isaac barely stirred Florida Keys residents from their fabled nonchalance Sunday, while the Gulf Coast braced for the possibility that the sprawling storm will strengthen into a dangerous hurricane by the time it makes landfall there…..
In Key West, Emalyn Mercer rode her bike while decked out with a snorkel and mask, inflatable arm bands and a paddle, just for a laugh. She rode with Kelly Friend, who wore a wet suit, dive cap and lobster gloves.
“We’re just going for a drink,” Mercer said.
“With the ones that are brave enough like us,” Friend added.
Along famed Duval Street, many stores, bars and restaurants closed, the cigar rollers and palm readers packed up, and just a handful of drinking holes remained open.
But people posed for pictures at the Southernmost Point, while at a marina Dave Harris and Robyn Roth took her dachshund for a walk and checked out boats rocking along the waterfront.
“Just a summer day in Key West,” Harris said.
That kind of ho-hum attitude extended farther up the coast. Edwin Reeder swung by a gas station in Miami Shores — not for fuel, but drinks and snacks.
“This isn’t a storm,” he said. “It’s a rain storm.”
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August 27th, 2012 at 10:46 am
Yorchichan, If those who belong to the elite are so clever and powerful why are they destroying or allowing the destruction of the earth on which their lives too depend? Leading such privileged lives don’t they have more to lose than the rest of us?
Just because someone is clever enough to be at the top of the industrial society heap doesn’t mean that they are smart enough to see the destructive results of this nightmare we’ve created. When one lives in modern day castles surrounded by sycophants, being in touch with reality is not a given. When one merely has to speak the word in order for lush gardens to be created out of deserts, it’s easy to imagine how a person might lose sight of the reality of climate change. Or when one can instruct a servant to get the jet ready so that a evening of fine dining can be enjoyed 1,000 miles away, it’s not hard to understand why that person might not understand the struggles of famine.
This fits in well with Morocco Bama’s admonition against those living on the coasts with respect to hurricanes. Drive along A1A in Palm Beach county, Florida, and see the multi-million dollar, oceanfront mansions lined up like soldiers on parade on one side of the highway with multi-million dollar yachts in the intracoastal waterway on the other side of the highway. When hurricanes come, they don’t even bother boarding up. They just hop on their private jet and fly away to somewhere else. What do they care if one of their many homes is destroyed? That’s what insurance is for – and they don’t even have to worry dealing with that – that’s what lawyers are for.
If you’ve had the misfortune of meeting many of the super wealthy, then you know that they really don’t care about anything other than themselves and, perhaps, their family. Their connection to reality is tenuous, at best. There is a reason why “let them eat cake” is attributed to Marie Antoinette.
August 27th, 2012 at 10:48 am
Guy,
“I cannot support evil, not in the name of lesser. So I won’t.”
I think part of citizenship is voting. This is the dilemma for me right now. I know it is a measure of my moral cowardice. I hate that! As I’ve noted before here, I am a liberal of the first order on most things so it is easy for me to pick between the (possible/pretend) policies of Democrats and Republicans. Democrats more often do some/a few of the things I think government should be doing (helping workers, improving health care [I’m for Medicare for all], end the wars, care for the environment, etc, etc.). You know, all that touchy-feely stuff. I’m not discussing whether or not they actually get around to doing any of these things. But, given a choice between the two ideals I don’t have much trouble choosing and most (not all) of my votes have gone to Democrats.
It is more difficult for me to pick between Stein and Obama. Why? Because voting for a third party (this has happened to me every time) is like throwing my vote away. Voting for Stein is reducing the threshold for the ascension of Romney to the Presidency by one vote. Voting for Stein increases the chances that Romney will be making the next appointments to the Supreme Court. So much for the lesser.
My problem and choice then is between what is ideal and what is possible. Whether to “throw away” my vote in support of a third party and perhaps to allow the lesser evil to be subsumed by the greater. However, if not now, when?
I’m reminded of the platform of the newly formed Republican party, barely six years old.
“…
“… 7. That the new dogma that the Constitution of its own force carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself…
8. …we deny the authority of congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.
That we brand the recent re-opening of the African Slave Trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, as a crime against humanity, and a burning shame to our country and age, and we call upon congress to take prompt and efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that execrable traffic.”
150 years ago a group stood up and said, “Enough!” Clearly, in terms of climate change, drone wars, NSA spying, assassination, Arctic oil drilling, et. al., we are again at place where the question is, “If not now, when?”
Michael Irving
August 27th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Great post, TRDH. Well said. I agree with your assessment.
August 27th, 2012 at 11:30 am
Morocco, where my mouth is if you will read my posts more carefully is that it is possible that Issac could be like Katrina. Could. I don’t believe I ever said that Issac was going to be the next Katrina. I posted an article from Zero Hedge that asked if it was going to be the next Katrina. I posted an article that said the rebuilt levees are not good. I posted an article that said Katrina was only a level 3. I posted a piece from Wunderground that said that one model put Issac at developing into a 3. I noted in my last comment I used the words might for where it would hit and for how strong it would be. I would be a fool to predict that Issac was going to be like Katrina.
I posted what Zero Hedge said were the amounts of oil and gas shut in, rigs shut down. (Guy posted the same article a few comments down from mine). If Zero Hedge has the facts right those are real events regardless of what Issac turns out to be. I did not say how that would effect oil supplies as I don’t know exactly how close we are to having actual shortages. I noted that there was discussion about taking oil from the strategic oil reserves because there was and yahoo finance attributed the lower price of oil to those discussions.
I post articles in my comments if I think they are of interest. I thought that the shutdown of rigs and lowering of output was of interest. Obviously the owners of those rigs thinks that Issac might amount to something. The title of the article was NOT mine, it was written by Tyler Durden and even he added a ? to it. Perhaps I failed to make that clear that the question about Issac being the new Katrina was Durden’s not mine.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/isaac-new-katrina I think you need to take your arguments over to zero hedge since you are arguing against his articles title.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Morocco – please note this is information only. I am making no statement as to whether to rig owners are scaredy cats or wise operators. I am just reporting the state of the gulf oil per Rigzone
Oil and gas operators on Monday continued to shut in production and evacuate workers from Gulf of Mexico production platforms and drilling rigs as they braced for Tropical Storm Isaac, which is expected to make landfall Tuesday or Wednesday along the Gulf Coast as a hurricane.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) reported Monday that 78.02 percent, or 1.076 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) have been shut in, while 48.13 percent, or approximately 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production has been shut in.
BSEE reported Monday personnel have been evacuated from 346 production platforms, or 58.05 percent, of the 596 manned platforms in the Gulf. Workers have also been evacuated from 41 rigs, or 53.9 percent, of the 76 rigs currently operating in the Gulf. The survey reflected information from 62 companies’ reports as of 11:30 a.m. Central Standard Time Monday.
Total Percentage of GOM
Platforms Evacuated 346 58.05%
Rigs Evacuated 41 53.%
Total Shut-in Percentage of GOM Production
Oil, bopd Shut-in 1,076,642 78.02%
Gas, MMcf/d Shut-in 2,165.94 48.13%
While initial reports forecasted Isaac making landfall near Tampa, Fla., as a Category 1 hurricane, Isaac is now expected to make landfall further west in the Gulf, with forecast models predicting landfall anywhere from east of New Orleans to Beaumont, Texas.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Look, Kathy, I wasn’t attacking anyone.
Hanlon’s Law does not say nobody does anything out of evil.
It says that if it’s possible to decide that an action was either evil or stupid, you should go with stupid to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Hitler’s regime did not have that kind of ambiguity of possible motivations, so Hanlon’s Law doesn’t apply there.
That’s all I really meant. I’m sorry if you felt I was stepping on your toes.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Morocco please note I am making no statement of whether this is worrisome or not, I am just showing what Dr. Jeff Masters is saying about the storm surge potential of Issac – since he thinks the levees are up to it he is not predicting another Katrina.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html
Storm surge forecast for Isaac
Storm surge is the primary damage threat from Isaac. Isaac is a huge storm, with tropical storm-force winds that extend out 205 miles from the center. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina at landfall had tropical storm-force winds that extended out 230 miles from its center. Isaac’s large size will enable it to set a large area of the ocean into motion, which will generate a large storm surge once the storm approaches land on the Gulf Coast. Water levels at Shell Beach, Louisiana, just east of New Orleans, were already elevated by 1′ this morning. Conversely, water levels have fallen by 2′ this morning at St. Petersburg, Florida, where strong offshore winds due to Isaac’s counter-clockwise circulation have carried water away from the coast. The latest 6:30 am EDT Integrated Kinetic Energy analysis from NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division put the destructive potential of Isaac’s winds near 0.6 on a scale of 0 to 6, but the destructive potential of Isaacs’s storm surge was 2.1 on a scale of 0 to 6. I expect this destructive potential will rise above 3 by time Isaac makes landfall, making Isaac’s storm surge similar to that generated by Category 2 Hurricane Gustav of 2008, which followed a path very similar to Isaac’s predicted path. Gustav brought a storm surge characteristic of a Category 1 hurricane to New Orleans: 9.5′ to Lake Borgne on the east side of the city. A higher Category 2-scale surge occurred along the south-central coast of Louisiana, and was 12.5′ high in Black Bay, forty miles southeast of New Orleans. Recent model runs indicate Isaac may slow down to a forward speed under 5 mph on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, close to the coast. If Isaac is just offshore at this time, the coasts of Southeast Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle will be exposed to a large storm surge with battering waves for two high tide cycles. This sort of extending pounding will be capable of delivering more damage than the storm surge of Hurricane Gustav of 2008.
The affect of storm size and angle of approach on storm surge
A 2008 paper by Irish et al., The influence of storm size on hurricane surge, found that large storms like Isaac are capable to delivering a 30% larger storm surge to the coast than a smaller storm with the same maximum wind speeds. The angle with which the storm hit the coast is important, too–a storm moving due north or slightly east of north will deliver a storm surge about 10% greater than a storm moving NNW or NW. Consult our Storm Surge pages for detailed information on what the risk is for the coast. I expect that Isaac’s storm surge will be about 30% higher than the typical surge one would expect based on the maximum wind speeds.
Isaac’s storm surge will provide the first test of the newly-completed New Orleans levee system upgrade. In the wake of the disastrous storm surge flooding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Congress appropriated $14.5 billion to upgrade the New Orleans levee system to withstand a Category 3 hurricane storm surge. Katrina was a Category 3 storm at landfall, but the storm passed far enough to the east of the city that its storm surge was characteristic of a Category 1 – 2 storm at the places where the city’s flood walls and levees failed. The new flood defenses were only partially completed in time for the arrival of Hurricane Gustav in 2008, which hit Central Louisiana as a Category 2 storm. Gustav brought a storm surge characteristic of a Category 1 hurricane to New Orleans: 9.5′ to Lake Borgne on the east side of the city. Since that time, the imposing 2-mile long IHNC Flood Barrier has been completed to block off the funnel-shaped pair of canals on the east side of the city. I expect New Orleans’ new flood defenses will be able to hold back Isaac’s surge, but areas outside the levees are at risk of heavy storm surge damage.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
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Kathy C, I’m not arguing against you or Durden, but rather at the host of others who use Hurricanes as a venue for their arguments, to include ACC. That, coupled with the sensationalistic media gets my dander up, so I guess when I saw it being brought up here, I felt compelled to bring it back down to reality, and mitigate the hype. Thank you for clarifying, and like I said, I agree with your overall assessment and sentiment. No doubt, disruption is much more prevalent today than it was 10, 20 and 30 or more years prior. If we look at time elapsed maps of the GOM, the presence of rigs has increased significantly over the years, and thus more chances for disruption. I believe the Strategic Reserve talk is just campaign propaganda, and otherwise not necessary, and as some at Durden’s place have commented, with the suring up of rigs since Katrina, I think they’ll weather this with minimal downtime and interruption.
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August 27th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Librarian, I think in personal relations “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” may at times be a better course of action – even if malice is behind the action. As Martin Luther said “put the best construction on everything” as an add on to the 9th commandment. However it can be dangerous to take that too far, for if you discount malice in people who are genuinely malicious they may figure you to be exploitable. I tend to give individuals the benefit of the doubt and then get exploited and then they discover I am not endlessly exploitable.
However when it comes to powerful people I think you have to assume they wouldn’t be in power if they were stupid and thus you must attribute at the least bad values but most likely evil or malice to any actions that have bad results such as killing an American with a drone. Neither the president who ordered that nor the men controlling the drone were stupid.
As for stupid, how do you know what is stupid and what is ignorant. They are not always the same. If stupid means lower intelligence, and ignorant means lack of proper training we cannot really know from the Black Beauty story which was true of the man but I would bet on ignorant not stupid.
Is this man in the story stupid? Malicious? Greedy? Ignorant?
Mr Nicholas Skinner – A ruthless cab horse owner who charges a high fee for renting cab horses. As a result the only way the drivers who rent his horse can make money is by overworking the horse, usually by whipping the horse to make it move even when tired. When Beauty collapses from overwork Skinner plans to send Beauty to a knacker but a farrier convinces him to rest Beauty and sell him at a horse fair. Seedy Sam used to rent horses from him.
We are overusing antibiotics and breeding for ourselves antibiotic resistant bacteria. I hardly think the Drs. or Vets who overuse them are stupid or ignorant. Yet most would not call them evil or operating out of malice. Yet money is probably one of the motivators for their behavior.
Hanlon’s law is too narrow for the range of what humans do and are I think. By the way you might want to read and add to your library Craig Dilworth “Too Smart for our Own Good”. Whether you disagree or agree with him it is thought provoking.
August 27th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
What is “the basis that sustains one in such explorations”?
The awareness that is the witness of all thoughts and all the states of the mind.
Why do I want to reach a state of objectless awareness? In such a state will the nature of reality become clear? Are you recommending a course in meditation?
I do not know why. Clarity has an object – the thing that is clear. There is no end to such contemplations, musings and ruminations. Meditation is only one of many methods. Husking rice could be one option.
Hui Neng was an illiterate who sought instruction in the monastery of the Fifth Patriarch (of Zen Buddhism) and was assigned not to a study group, but to the kitchen, to husk rice. The Fifth Patriarch asked the students to compose a stanza to show their understanding of the teachings. The lead student’s stanza was to the effect: The Mind is a bright mirror that reflects the world. We must strive to keep it free of dust.
The Fifth Patriarch commended this and told all the students to recite it, but in private told that student to try again. Hui Neng heard the stanza recited by students, and had one of the staff write a stanza on the bulletin board to the effect: Since the Mind is Nothingness where can dust alight?
When the Fifth Patriarch read this, he enquired as to the author. He the secretly transmitted the Patriarchy to Hui Neng and instructed him to leave immediately because his life was in peril.
August 27th, 2012 at 2:07 pm
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Kathy C, that’s an excellent response regarding Hanlon’s Law. I feel and think much the same way.
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August 27th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
To vote is to give one’s moral sanction to the only basis of the puissance of the state: enforcement by the threat to initiate coercive force against even peaceful non-compliers. One has to avert one’s eyes from the gun to maintain a charade of morality, or turn away from the voting booth.
August 27th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Nicholas Skinner’s actions CAN’T adequately be explained by stupidity, he benefits too much from what he does. So Hanlon’s Law doesn’t apply to him.
Likewise, if people in power’s actions can’t adequately be explained by stupidity, then yes, I agree that they’re malicious, and Hanlon’s Law doesn’t apply to them either.
August 27th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Robin Datta
You wrote:
‘He the secretly transmitted the Patriarchy to Hui Neng’.
What was transmitted, the Patriarchy? Was it only information transmitted or was it ‘understanding’ in an esoteric sense? Or a level of realisation? Can you elaborate on this please?
August 27th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
MO, I have had no difficulty following your arguments about hurricanes and their part in the scheme of Nature. I grew up in MS, and I know firsthand the power of Nature, as it were. What I find difficult is your declaring that there would not have been a story without the failing levies. That’s your opinion. I also know that people learn to take hurricanes in stride. I agree that people living on the coast are taking chances, and I understand that relying on levies to hold back nature is ridiculous (in New Orleans). I think that all man-made intrusions on nature should be dismantled,and nature should be allowed to take its course (which of course it will, eventually.)
My much ballyhooed hand wringing and jumping up and down (sorry to nauseate you) is because I have friends and family who have been impacted by hurricanes from MS, AL, LA, and TX. That would include me, even though I didn’t live on the coast. Most of them don’t live on the coast, either. I understand you celebrate the deaths of all those people as just part of nature doing her thing; I don’t. I know we have population overshoot and something needs to happen to stop and reverse that (too much medical intervention?). I just cannot be happy about the people who are killed or left homeless and more due to a hurricane. By the way, if you think hurricanes are so unimportant, why do you capitalize it?
August 27th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
A Flashing Warning On The “Unintended Consequences” Of Ultra Easy Monetary Policy From… The Fed?!
August 27th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
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Oh, come off it Judy, please. I have family and friends who live near coastal areas, and specifically the one that’s about to be impacted, and as I said, I have lived in those same areas, so what I say applies to me, as well. I’m not the one celebrating death. Those who disrespect nature and live in defiance of its power, appear to me to be the ones who celebrate death….by the mere fact they taunt fate by living right in the path of obvious destruction. And please stop overplaying the significance of Hurricanes beyond property damage, i.e. deaths. The number of deaths from Hurricanes is rather minor in proportion to other forms of life extinction….like cancer, for example. I capitalize things in unorthodox fashion because that’s my style. It doesn’t bother me if the teacher thinks it’s grammatically incorrect. And, it’s MB, not MO.
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August 27th, 2012 at 9:54 pm
What was transmitted, the Patriarchy? Was it only information transmitted or was it ‘understanding’ in an esoteric sense? Or a level of realisation? Can you elaborate on this please?
Understanding would involve the one who understands, the understanding and what is understood.
There are plenty of descriptive narratives of the episode. The Wikipedia entry:
Hui Neng
“Hongren then passed the robe and begging bowl as a symbol of the Dharma Seal of Sudden Enlightenment to Huineng.”
August 27th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Realization also involves the realiser, the realising and that what is realised.
August 28th, 2012 at 2:00 am
‘Oil to Hit $100, but Experts Say Sell the Rally’
Looks almost a cert soon.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48798504
‘Dominic Schnider, Head Commodity Research at UBS Wealth Management, agrees it is “highly likely” that oil prices will touch $100, but adds that the move is likely “short-term.”… I don’t expect a lot of real damage to infrastructure (in the oil fields) … things have been modernized, oil rigs have been the replaced and the new ones will be able to withstand such storms,” he said.’
For what it’s wrth, an insider and all.
August 28th, 2012 at 2:04 am
‘U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market’
Who would have thought…
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html?_r=2
‘Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress….Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals….A worldwide economic decline had suppressed arms sales over recent years. But increasing tensions with Iran drove a set of Persian Gulf nations — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — to purchase American weapons at record levels.’
What can one say, the writing is on the wall.
August 28th, 2012 at 4:09 am
Robin
Thanks for your continued patience and I actually understood everything you wrote last time. Thank goodness you are not recommending a course in meditation. I might have felt obliged to do it!
OzMan
Thanks also for trying to explain to me about enlightenment. I don’t agree with you that love is the primary counter egoic action. At least I don’t appreciate why it should be so more than any other emotion strongly felt. Isn’t the fear you strive to free yourself from a large part of love? After all, you never love someone or something more than when you feel you are about to lose them/it. Also, non-human animals don’t feel love without reservation and yet they lack ego.
Morocco Bama and TRDH
I believe that those in power are not clever. Obviously they are of above average intelligence and they have intelligent people working for them, but I do not think they are not amongst the most intelligent people. They have achieved their positions due to their social skills and ruthless desire for power more than due to intelligence.
Interesting what you wrote, TRDH, about meeting the super wealthy. I did once meet my Member of Parliament to ask for help and my experience was exactly as you describe. He didn’t give a damn about my problem. Fortunately for me I was friends with someone in the MP’s party involved in selection of candidates. As soon as possible deselection was mentioned to the MP, he couldn’t do enough to help me. As you wrote, these guys don’t care about anyone but themselves.
Michael Irving
I doubt that in the history of all elections in all states any election has ever been decided by just one vote, so every individual vote you have ever cast has made no difference to the outcome and has been a wasted vote. IMHO you should vote for whatever candidate or party (I’m not sure how these things work in the US) you would most like to get elected. Only by every individual doing so do the people get the government they most desire (within the restrictions of the voting system).
August 28th, 2012 at 4:18 am
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Yorchichan, I believe they are clever, and are trained/educated to be clever, but that doesn’t preclude others from all classes from also being clever, it’s just that the Elite’s cleverness is more widespread and it is greatly amplified by its immense leverage.
With classes other than the Elite class, those are clever are the exception and have to overcome all attempts to squash it out of them, whereas, with the Elite class, it’s part of the program, something to be inculcated, enabled and facilitated.
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August 28th, 2012 at 4:35 am
Nature is up to bat and looks like game over for us.
Pole shifts are cyclic occurrences on the Earth and the cycles are natural. This is something that happens to the Earth naturally through cosmic cycles that happen like clockwork when looked at from the perspective of celestial events. There are clearly two cosmic events that are about to change the world as we know it. Either or both will result in pole shifts.
The Mayans were master calendar makers and were taught by ETs about time and space. Shortly after the pole shift earth will be passing through what they called the dark rift.
On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years(Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. The Galaxy has special significance to humanity as it is the home galaxy of the planet Earth). This special alignment means that the usual energy that typically streams to Earth from the black hole in the center of the Milky Way will be disrupted on 12/21/12 2012 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time. The end of the Maya calendar is known as the end of the Great Cycle which is 26,000 years long.
The Coming Pole Shift
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54i23jcKJ9U&feature=related
Nibiru…? The Movie – Planet X Revealed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFzvrCa-j10
Two Suns video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70HG9V3yxs&feature=youtu.be
Nibiru and the Avebury Manor crop circles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_RISeobyNg
Expansion of the Sun video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb-k77fkFFA&feature=player_embedded#!
Earth Under Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKeeak2NSic&feature=related
Knowing – the movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_RISeobyNg
Pole Shift & Military Preparations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8hC5WjcOx0&feature=related
Doomsday 2012 playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9DE587D4DCC549A7&feature=plcp
August 28th, 2012 at 5:34 am
Yorchichan, I doubt that in the history of all elections in all states any election has ever been decided by just one vote,
This happened in a town about 25 miles from us . . .
November 11, 2006 (AP) — Randy Wooten figured he’d get at least one vote in his bid for mayor of this town of 80 people even if it was just his own.
He didn’t. Now he has to decide whether to file a formal protest.
Wooten got the news from his wife, Roxanne, who went to City Hall on Wednesday to see the election results.
“She saw my name with zero votes by it. She came home and asked me if I had voted for myself or not. I told her I did,” said Wooten, owner of a local bar.
However, Poinsett County results reported Wednesday showed incumbent William H. Wood with 18 votes, challenger Ronnie Chatman with 18 votes and Wooten with zero.
“I had at least eight or nine people who said they voted for me, so something is wrong with this picture,” Wooten said.
Poinsett County Election Commissioner Junaway Payne said the issue had been discussed but no action taken yet.
“It’s our understanding from talking with the secretary of state’s office that a court order would have to be obtained in order to open the machine and check the totals,” Payne said. “The votes were cast on an electronic voting machine, but paper ballots were available.” [Note that courts have always ruled that the voting machines are proprietary and cannot be examined. It is difficult to overstate the frustration.]
A November 28 runoff is scheduled to decide the mayor’s race.
“It’s just very hard to understand,” Wooten said.
————-
And now for the rest of the story. It turns out that after all the national news media arrived and Wooten and others were questioned more pointedly, he didn’t vote for himself after all, nor did his wife or “friends”.
August 28th, 2012 at 5:52 am
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Speaking of celebrating death, some do. It sure beats many of the funerals I’ve attended.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhcinJ03idI&feature=related
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August 28th, 2012 at 5:56 am
Yorchichan
Animals have ego, why else would they fight to survive?
I was referring to self transcending love, which reveals the true nature of the heart. The fear is of the mind, but no stratergy to remediate or eradicate fear will accomplish the ‘no suffering’ experience. The suffering is self created, and only by ego release can the enlightened existance be.
Endless explainations are not fruitful, I can only vouch for the veracity of the bowl and spoon cleaning as a tried and tested ‘way’, but as a metaphore of course.
August 28th, 2012 at 7:39 am
Yorchichan, TDRH – yep an election in our County for Commissioner was decided by one vote too. It was a good vote. (the loser took the matter to court but lost) Had it gone the other way the reinstatement of our town would never have happened because that one vote gave us 4 Commissioners we could talk to out of 6 instead of 3. Thus the 1 vote in the election gave us 1 vote in the Commission. Whether reinstating our town will turn out to be good or not is to be seen, but given looming collapse it probably doesn’t matter. Still we hicks in our little town of under 200 won against the forces aligned with the richest and most powerful man in the county thanks to one vote – until I saw your post TDRH I had forgotten about that particular election and what it meant to us.
August 28th, 2012 at 7:58 am
TRDH and Kathy C
I meant in presidential elections, in which I believe the party with the largest vote in a state gets all the electoral college votes from that state. Surely with the large number of voters involved the result for any state has never been decided by just one vote?
Sorry for not making myself clear.
August 28th, 2012 at 7:59 am
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Well, I think the point is, the larger the voting population sample, the less probability there is of one vote making a difference.
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August 28th, 2012 at 8:38 am
Yorchichan, I figured you were talking about larger scale elections, but your post prompted that memory in me and I always thought it was a funny story. Sort of made your point, actually.
As to your question, snopes.com has a pretty good rundown on the subject, of a sorts:
http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/onevote.asp
August 28th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Yorchichan, ah yes well in Alabama my vote in presidential campaigns is futile of course. I thought I wasn’t going to vote or was going to write in, but Romney and Ryan are convincing me to vote democratic just as a protest.
And like Dr. House the one vote issue reminded me of the story from our neck of the woods and the personal implication of that vote (in a different district from us) made for us
August 28th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Now how about that: another hurricane is due to hit New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina. Hope those new pumps and levees work.
In other fun news: we can all feel safer now that our fine, upstanding, strictly by-the-book, “watching out for your safety” employees of Homeland Security are on the job.
http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/08/laptop-thefts-drug-smuggling-other-crimes-resulted-hundreds-dhs-employee-arrests-last-year/57628/
Some Homeland Security Department employees have found creative ways to supplement their government salary.
A Citizen and Immigration Services worker charged $1,500 to approve citizenship applications. A Customs and Border Patrol agent collected $5,000 to smuggle 30 undocumented aliens across the border. Another officer received $10,000 to let a car filled with 1,700 pounds of marijuana through a port of entry into the United States.
An annual summary from Homeland Security’s inspector general said the department initiated 1,389 investigations into internal matters, leading to 318 arrests and 260 convictions of DHS employees. In 2011, the auditor — which describes itself as “the principal agency within the department with the authority to investigate employee corruption” — found instances of bribery, child pornography and “nonconsensual sexual contact” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees among the crimes DHS staff allegedly committed.
The investigations resulted in fines, restitutions and administrative cost savings of more than $45 million, the report said. Many of the employees face significant prison sentences in addition to termination from their positions. (there’s more)
In some unsurprising, and i’m sure widely known to everyone here, Arctic Sea ice is at the lowest point ever. Somehow i think we’ll be revisiting this again next year to break the record again, and in the following years until it’s gone.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/27/751781/arctic-sea-ice-reaches-lowest-extent-ever-measured-reports-national-snow-and-ice-data-center/
August 28th, 2012 at 11:02 am
According to the Seattle Times, 78% of oil “production” in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut down.
August 28th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Per EIA
Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 23 percent of total U.S. crude oil production and federal offshore natural gas production in the Gulf accounts for 7 percent of total U.S. dry production. Over 40 percent of total U.S. petroleum refining capacity is located along the Gulf coast, as well as 30 percent of total U.S. natural gas processing plant capacity.
Per Rigzone
Seventy-eight percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil production and almost half of U.S. Gulf natural gas production has been shut in
If my math is right that means 18% of US oil production is shut in (.78 * 23)
While it looks like Isaac is only going to be a Cat 1, it seems clear that the oil industry figures it is less expensive to shut down rigs than to keep them running and manned.
August 28th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
I notice that no one on NBL has yet mentioned the looming “sequestration” in the U.S. budget debacle (or if so, I’ve missed it). It’s possible that this may be the “black swan” that leads to rapid collapse, assuming it doesn’t happen sooner. Certainly for those of us who receive payments from Medicare/Medicaid, it’s something that’s definitely on our radar.
The following is a month or two old, but still pertinent – http://govwin.com/kkozemchak_blog/as-sequestration-looms-cbo-updates/637987
Uncertainty surrounding the conditions of sequestration has been a force unto itself. With the threat of $1.2 trillion in cuts on the horizon, hiring in the contracting world is slowing and actions are becoming more deliberate as companies brace themselves for uncertainty. Although details of the cuts have not been made clear, sequestration impact at defense and civilian agencies are expected to be similar: . . .
Acting Director Jeff Zients testified on August 1st before the Armed Services Committee that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be prepared to implement sequestration. At the same time, Zients has been quoted as saying that, “Sequestration, by design, is bad policy,” and that, “No amount of planning will mitigate the damaging effects.” The nuances of numerous government programs and the variations in their funding add to the complexity. In his testimony, Zients noted that, “some programs are seasonal, so more spending might be up front, in which case you need to save up front,’ and similarly that, “some might be backend-loaded, in which case the money’s going to come out of the later months of the fiscal year.”
August 28th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
“And, it’s MB, not MO.”
Oops.
August 28th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
MB, I said, “I understand you celebrate the deaths of all those people as just part of nature doing her thing; I don’t.”
You are correct that this was my assumption; I clearly was not correct. At least when I consider what you wrote in rebuttal.
Could it be that we are on the same page but just don’t know it?
August 28th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
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Yes, Judy, I think we’re on the same page. I don’t want to see people suffer and die, but it appears to me the media does, otherwise, it would lose its purpose.
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August 28th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
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Looks like the GOP Convention may still get hit with something, afterall.
http://i.imgur.com/3A99m.jpg
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August 28th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
MB, “I don’t want to see people suffer and die, but it appears to me the media does, otherwise, it would lose its purpose.”
You are so correct!!!
August 28th, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Update on Arctic sea ice by Paul Beckwith of University of Ottawa
Predicts 50% chance of sea ice vanishing by 2015
If you don’t have time to look at all the slides page down to the last one and note the feedback loops and especially the one in red.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByLujhsHsxP7OXliVnN4T3lnekE/edit
August 28th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Anyone seen or read any Thom Hartmann?
‘Threshold – The Crisis of Western Culture’.
August 28th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
I actually understood everything you wrote last time.
Good. That indicates an awareness of the meaning of Right Action and Right Effort two of the aspects of the Noble (“Aryan”) Eightfold Path, also incorporated into the Way of Action (Karma Yoga). Whether it be husking rice, chopping wood, carrying water, or washing a spoon and bowl, it involves being free of the sense of agency, the idea that “I am doing such and such”. This in turn involves non- attachment, absence of a sense of personal attraction or aversion – to be distinguished from callous indifference. From this comes a non-attachment to the results of the action: action because it is perceived as appropriate rather than motivated by the desire for its results. Even most of what is called “love” is really a manifestation of attachment, and is responsible for the adverse experiences associated with “love”.
August 28th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Just from viewing some 10 -20 min utube it is apparent that Thom Hartmann has chronicled the post Reagan/Thatcher/Howard era of destroying the middle classes in western Democracies, precicely because the middle class evokes a greater participation in democracy by yhe people. Another bit of the puzzle falls into place.
How to turn it around though?
Perhaps only in collapse, will Fascism be negated.
August 29th, 2012 at 2:32 am
2 Suns & Mawson Station, Antarctica?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuYTF05vJnM
Deadliest Profession! Trails of Dead Astronomy Teams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcNssKydco
The Matrix – What is Real
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnEYHQ9dscY
August 29th, 2012 at 2:36 am
http://enformable.com/2012/08/exelon-shuts-down-nuclear-construction-plans-due-to-uneconomical-markets/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Enformable+%28Enformable%29
“Exelon has informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it is withdrawing its Early Site Permit application for a new nuclear construction project in Texas. The continuing plunge of natural gas prices, economic conditions, market instability, and public resistance has made the nuclear industry uneconomical now, and for the foreseeable future.”
August 29th, 2012 at 4:05 am
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OzMan, the Middle Class is pathetic, and it is what has allowed THIS to continue long past its expiration date. It’s the bulwark and accelerator of Industrial Civilization, so if we know that Industrial Civilization is the culprit, which of course we do, then we know it is imperative that the Middle Class perish, so pointing to people like Hartman, and they are numerous, who lament that the Middle Class is being destroyed and must be rehabilitated, is antithetical to what we know should, and will, happen.
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August 29th, 2012 at 4:56 am
i think all classes (but especially the ultra-rich, 1%, psychopaths who somehow “own” everything – and of course misuse it all) must go and that if there are to be any survivors of this bottleneck cooperation and equality will have to be the case or it just won’t work. Once 85 – 90% of humanity is gone, the rest are going to have to figure this out real quick or it’ll become Mad Max world or everyone will just perish (because nobody can do it all by themselves).
August 29th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Morocco Bama
There is rarely a post here where you do not assume the high ground of opinion. To be fair I have some memory of you explaining your views and squaring with others when challenged, however, it appears no one has posted a view you can’t counter. That, IMO, is not constructive, but merely egocentric, notwithstanding evidence and discussion of POV.
With regard to Thom Hartmann, his crituque may not be entirely unique, but who’s is, and regardless to an answer to that, what does it matter that there are plenty like him.
He is pointing out, amongst other things that in several incarnations an emerging ‘middle class’ was largly responsable for some political, social and environmental dissent and call to reign in aspects of elitism directing almost every aspect of Empire.
That doesn’t seem to be good enough for you.
An analysis of why the Reagan/Thatcher/Howard era’s deliberate
disempowerment of the middle classes such as Hartmann’s may not deliver the Empire collapse many demand to ‘stitch in time save nine’ the biosphere, but it is necessary to understand the travesty that is now unfolding and backs onto Guy’s last essay concerning the deliberate destruction of higher education.
Let’s not forget the title of the type of reform instigated by Reagan/Thatcher/Howard – it was and still is called ‘Economic Rationalism’.
Even single mums with small children are squeezed to work themselves back to Dickensian times, to quantify their previously zero economic contribution to ‘the economy’, forgetting it is a culture instead.
I raise the issue of your approaching dominance of the high ground on this discussion forum, because it has become tiresome IMO, and you do make very worthy points and put up equally interesting links, but the smugness, that smacks of a highly drilled academic who has played the smack the tutorial group around to show them you are ahead by miles game, and that IMO feels less like equality, and more like competition.
I put links up to share.
Comment and differing views is expected and very liberating. I am a bit player and have learned a lot from all who have posted, especially Kathy C and the regulars, yourself included.
Your point about the middle classes being “the bulwark and accelerator of Industrial Civilization” I take as accurate, but at the critical years after the protest movements what transpired for say middle class North America was a whole lot of attack at many fronts that was designed to suck the power from that public concern for these issues. As a political ploy it has worked, and diverted a lot of minds to self interest, like making an eager capitalst from every home owner, rather than continue in the reform movements that came from those times. That ” bulwark and accelerator of Industrial Civilization” was in the process of turning to more radical ways of living, like communal sharing and engagement in spiritual movements like bhagwan rajneesh. Cults were whitwashed deliberatly by destablising and making scapegoats of communities likw Wako. In deliberate ways ‘the Middle class’ has been herded back into the grosest of consumer patterns, and you criticise that, but do not acknowledge that there is little alternatives to a population that has its pillars of change smashed by big money.
Ignorane in ‘the middle classes’ is what it is, but it is fruitless, and a wellnigh meaningless response to have contempt for those still blinded by some well researched and well funded 100 years or so of sophisticated phsychology that is used against their best interests.
Who is responsible for their own awareness level?
Only those who know themselves, IMO.
The others are yet to become so, and it is better IMO to assist as many on that path as one can, rather than chuckle and smirk at the ignorance, and obvious powerlessness of so many disenfranchised people, who otherwise want to do a minimum of damage to their world as possible. short of holding one’s breath, my sense is that many are overburdened with the challenge, because it has been derailed by big money, while most large political parties are in on the scam.
I also have to disagree with, ‘so if we know that Industrial Civilization is the culprit, which of course we do..’. The culprit is better described as an attitude to the biosphere, that has arisen in part by the manufacturing and duplicating of that hyperrational valuation of the biosphere. Industrial Civilisation is a systemic manifestation of a relatively homogenious collective belief system most of us can see has some powerful interests pushing it on people.
August 29th, 2012 at 7:44 am
To stray into a contemporary metaphore, it seems clear to me that the original first two movies in the Alien series describe the process of turning humans into aliens, and the primary act that completes the process, after implantation by the face hanger is the expolsion of the heart area, so necessary for a creature that uses every aspect of its environment to replicate and survive. All potential for humanity is gone and compassion has no vessil to express itself. Simmilar to the cockroach like vassils in the Empire in Star wars, or the all too familiar armoured riot squads deployed to suppress civil dissent today, the humanity is gone and the machine takes over.
No one be surprised when outbreaks of some very deadly disease are reported when civil unrest is rife and TPTB judge the game needs to move into phase 2. We will know the real expendables by who lives and who does not.
August 29th, 2012 at 7:53 am
That should have read…’the explosion of the heart area’, apols.
August 29th, 2012 at 8:02 am
Tom
You wrote:’…cooperation and equality will have to be the case.’
I hear you, and I agree.
Off topic …
I have some evidence that the recent spate of walabies and kangaroos seen in our area may be populations displaced from neighbouring estate suburb clearing, down on the plains, some 90 km away. I will be chasing up some of the park rangers about their take on that.
August 29th, 2012 at 8:03 am
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OzMan, please stick to the discussion and leave the personal attacks out of it. I’m not attacking you, I’m pointing something out in an article you posted with which I don’t agree. Some of your post addresses that disagreement, and I welcome that, but I’m not going to read your berations of me…that is not constructive, since you’ve brought up constructive. I’ll make a deal with you. You don’t get personal and I won’t get personal. This is the second time you have attempted to censor my view, and that’s two too many. Agree or disagree with it, and leave “me” out of it. Okay? Deal? I am not being high and mighty with anything I say. It applies to me as well as any other. I don’t cotton to your metaphysical discussions you have with Yorchichan and Robin, so I move on and leave it alone. I don’t take it as a distraction or an afront and go on to attack you for being distracting and smug. That never enters my mind.
Now, back to constructive discussion. I disagree with you on trying to separate out Civilization from Attitude Toward The Biosphere. In the Chicken and Egg game, Civilization came first, imo, and then came the enculturated attitude of which you speak that was necessary to perpetuate the destruction. But ultimately, both are so deeply intertwined, it’s not a worthwhile exercise to separate them out…meaning they’re both part of the same root system.
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August 29th, 2012 at 8:08 am
“Could it be that we are on the same page but just don’t know it?”
That sounds like a good theme for a future thread.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
-George Bernard Shaw
August 29th, 2012 at 8:13 am
That doesn’t seem to be good enough for you.
It’s not a matter of good enough, or not good enough. Considering the direness of what is discussed at this blog, it is beyond absurd, if that’s possible to go beyond it, to lament the Middle Class and seek its rehabilitation. At a place like this blog, where people have freed themselves from that trapped way of thinking, it’s regressive. Do I understand what he says and why he says it? Yes. Do I understand his blind compulsion to proffer it? Of course. Does that preclude me from commenting on its misdirection? No, certainly not, and if all remain silent that know and feel otherwise, then it’s his voice, and all others like it, that carry the day for dissent with conventional wisdom.
FYI, Tom, I agree with you, and the dissolution of The Middle Class will bring all that about. It’s what holds this together right now, and we all know this should not be held together, regardless of our fear of the gnashing of teeth to come.
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August 29th, 2012 at 8:21 am
About the middle class allowing this to happen…
We sometimes derisively refer to the general public as “sheep” or “cows” etc. This is usually when we are angry and frustrated about our situation.
But if we put aside the emotions I think that analogy is still very accurate. We see “herd” behavior all over the place. “Popular Mass Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” chronicles some of the past misadventures of human herds.
When the cows or sheep are lead down a path to be sheered, I do not blame them. And I know they are powerless over their fate.
————
I’d recommend the following tune to be played at the funeral service for the Middle Class of the herd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqlsVZ1zxMk
(note- please do not read into this any contempt, anger, etc – just “is”…)
August 29th, 2012 at 8:26 am
Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out
There may be dogs about
I’ve looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.
What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is no bad dream.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green he leadeth me the silent waters by
With bright knives he releaseth my soul
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places
He converteth me to lamb cutlets
For lo,m he hath great power and great hunger
When cometh the day we lowly ones
Through quiet reflection and great dedication
Master the art of karate
Lo, we shall rise up
And then we’ll make the bugger’s eyes water.
Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.
Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you’re told
Get out of the road if you want to grow old.
August 29th, 2012 at 8:36 am
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When the cows or sheep are lead down a path to be sheered, I do not blame them. And I know they are powerless over their fate.
Once again, to be clear, I’m not blaming “them”. I’m discussing the Middle Class as an abstract concept. It’s a structure…..a function, even, and my criticism is of that, and the role it plays in perpetuating this madness. Once again, if we’re going to be constructive in discussing any of this, can we start by not personalizing every criticism that is made? In many respects, I could be considered Middle Class, for Christ’s Sake. I have seen this for what it is, and I am calling it as I see it from deep in the belly. From a purely ethical basis, it is unethical to not share my critical view about what I was part of, and am still part of, despite my path to free myself.
As Guy has said many times over, Anarchy is taking responsibility for one’s life and one’s behavior. It’s about living responsibly and being accountable. I hold that expectation out as a standard to be met by all, and if I see something being espoused that is at odds with that standard, I’ll be damned if I’m going to hold my tongue because The Wizard finds it “smug”.
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August 29th, 2012 at 8:45 am
Morocco – honestly, that was not intended for you or anyone in particular.
I have not been following this conversation closely, I was just skimming through the posts. A couple of things caught my attention and and I just shared my “belly’s” response as it popped into my mind. I gave No thought of the consequences…
I apologize for the distraction.
August 29th, 2012 at 8:47 am
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navid, you Animal!! Thanks for that. Some Floyd is always welcome and appreciated.
Pursuant to that, there are times, and this is one of them, where I just want to say “fuckit, bring it all down.” I suppose that’s just one of the reasons I haven’t been entrusted with the nuclear codes.
That’s satire for you Intelligence Services Creeps out there, okay?
Anyhow, we might as well Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun. Oh wait, scratch that…..they’ve already been set. Strap in and strap on….the ride’s about to get fun….real fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_0iZQ-TuA
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August 29th, 2012 at 8:50 am
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No problem, navid, I didn’t think you did, but I wanted to make sure that I made myself clear that I’m not a genocidal maniac. I used to have a Teeshirt my wife bought me that said:
I Holler Because Care
It’s true.
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August 29th, 2012 at 8:51 am
.
Sorry, that should have read:
I Holler Because I Care
.
August 29th, 2012 at 9:09 am
Morocco Bama
You wrote:
‘This is the second time you have attempted to censor my view.’
In truth, I am unable to understand your stated views of contempt for others. I don’t intend to berate ‘you’, but question why you see a need for ‘bashing’ classes of people, like ‘middle classes’, or ‘consumer junkies’ for enacting poor choices that have been circumscribed by big money and TPTB.
Perhaps I should have asked why you hold that view, and in that sense I apologise if I confused the view you expressed and you.
August 29th, 2012 at 9:17 am
Morocco – no harm, no foul!
“I am Animal!” ; 0
Pink Floyd’s Animals – the sound track for the last 40 years and the next 40?
————————-
Breath after Breath we carry this mortal coil… safe for tomorrow ???
(part of this is in portuguese, I think. I don’t undrestand a word of it… just the sound of the words is “medicinal” for me – out goes the pain and frustration, in comes some vague hope ; )
(and that is enough self-absorbed nonsense from me for today)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yghbzIXv0Qg
——-
Breath After Breath
Ama! Danca!
Every day I wake up in this room
And I don’t know
Where I come from,
Where I’m going to
Then I hear the voice
Senhora musa da paz
Me abraca
Me carrega no teu andor
Dormir no colo da dor
Amiga, arrasa!
A tua mao desenhou
O sonho na areia
Agora, entrega de vez
Meu rumo
E vida
From where I stand
The truth isn’t black and white
Alone we live and die
We love and fight
Breath after breath
We carry this mortal coil
Safe for tomorrow
Do I dare
Oh do I dare
Follow through the goorsteps
My whole body hears
Beating on my heart like a feather
Beating of a moment til I disappear
Diga uma palavra alegre
Manda um recado
Que seja agoca
Faz o mundo ficar novo
E dancar no colo do tal de amor
From where I stand
The truth isn’t black and white
Alone we live and die
We love and fight
Breath after breath
We carry this mortal coil
Safe for tomorrow
Circles in sand are washed out into the sea
Just as we slip on through to eternity
Breath after breath
We carry this mortal coil
Safe for tomorrow
Diga uma palavra, cara
Bem alegre
Corre, manda logo um recado
Me abraca
Faz um clima doce
Me arrepia!
Chega de sufocol
Me poe louco!
Me faz diamante
Teu amante
Danca ao som do vento
Me ensina
Basta de sufoco
Nao faz jogo…
A flame of love is burning
Always
The song is of the planets
Oh whooooooo
The dance is to the rhythm of the rain
Where everyone is coming from
Is coming to
And birth is just a
Breath after breath
August 29th, 2012 at 9:20 am
.
OzMan, if my views are so troubling to you, may I suggest you make an appointment for a check-up with your favored guru. Perhaps he can adjust what ails you.
I don’t know, OzMan, perhaps it was the name Thom that rubbed me the wrong way. I always found that spelling of it to be a bit pretentious. Or, maybe it’s because my mother abused prescription medication when I was a wee lad and she and my father considered voting for George Wallace even though they lived in upstate Pa at the time.
Or, maybe I’m just an Asshole.
.
August 29th, 2012 at 9:23 am
.
(and that is enough self-absorbed nonsense from me for today)
I hear ya. Idle time is the work of the devil. Time to get back to pushing this rock up the endless hill.
.
August 29th, 2012 at 9:32 am
.
Or, perhaps it’s because I loathe The Genius of The Crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gifEn61dZBc
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art
Charles Bukowski
.
August 29th, 2012 at 9:54 am
A significant consideration about the rise of the middle class is that a degree of literacy, numeracy and abstract mentalisation has been deemed necessary to enable more complex aspects of Empire work to take place. It has been a problem for TPTB that those forms of widespread education, when performed well, also lead to critical thinking and considderable radical questioning and dissent. The post 1970s dumbing down of education, and distraction through entertainments, and encouragement into debt, and now fear wholesale, show how TPTB have attempted to deal with the dissent.
The poor have always had minimum power, the rich, with some individual exception, see no need to protest, and it is the Middle Class, from which even an illusory sense of security enables some dissent and criticism of Empire.
IMO it is not a return to the blind middle class that Hartmann and others are calling for or lamenting, but the level of mental and emotional stability, and perhaps moderate intellegence that allows for dissent based on rational analysis of the global problems.
In the Occupy movements in recent times, and in economic analysis by people like Elizabeth Warren, the clear strategy of TPTB is to impoverish the vast majority of the previous generations of the middle class, who will still need to eat and get mortgages, and buy their energy from central suppliers, and receive a poor education, and pay for health services and water. The consumption train will continue, but the social competition, insecurity and unhappiness, and ill health will expand.
And the dissent will be less rational and more herd like.
I do not advocate a return to the uncritical consumer aspects of the middle class, however, to overemphasise the ignorance and lack of crtical thinking as a characteristic of the middle class is to not recognise that it has been white-anted and the earlier cohorts were more inependent in mind. (Many still went to the casino, blinded by the bribes of easy retirement and such I’ll admit.)
The plan seems to be the 99% are a working underclass, but are able to afford McMansions?
In this situation with very dire prospects I say reform and transform where possible, and let the collapse come when it will, yes very soon, to save the planet.
For what its worth Moroc, no one would want you to hold your tongue on any of this stuff, least of all me.
August 29th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Morocco Bama
Perhaps it is not a fair thing to ask here why anyone has a particular opinion, so I’ll leave it at that.
…And my appointment was made well before this lifetime.
No solutions to the problems we face here, just documenting them I guess.
August 29th, 2012 at 10:23 am
For anyone who needs a little inspiration, of sorts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=IZ-_3Ug3wqU&NR=1
Titled: “One of the most courageous things you will ever see on a running track ! In my opinion “.
August 29th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Who needs conspiracies.
Look at this, In Broad Daylight. The gov has not a single thread is on his body.
——-
Remote Alaska to stockpile food, just in case
…Gov. Sean Parnell worries a major earthquake or volcanic eruption could leave the state’s 720,000 residents stranded and cut off from food and supply lines…
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-08-29/remote-alaska-to-stockpile-food-just-in-case
————————-
REALLY ?!?!?!
All of the sudden he is worried about earthquakes and volcanoes ?!?!?!
If it wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious.
I must say though that this is the first and only instance of a state government doing something that suggests they at least recognize we are living under “emergency” conditions – even if the general population is completely asleep and unaware, there is at least one “leader” who is at least trying to act responsibly.
too many suits asleep everywhere else it seems.
August 29th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Navid, yes looks like smart action for false reason.
My friend in the hog industry continues to tell me that they are getting beyond nervous about having enough feed at any price for the herds. Liquidation of cattle, dairy cow and pig herds continues which drives meat prices down at the same time feed prices are up. Look for more farmers going out of business.
August 29th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Yorchichan,
There have been a number of elections that have ended with a coin toss. You are right, that is not the case with the president. However, the principle of the importance of each vote is borne out in practice.
All that aside, your comment is welcome but it really does not end my dilemma. In recent US history the pro-Nader vote in 2000 is an example (according to some people) of what happens when too many people vote their conscience. What did they get for their effort? I guess they still get to say, “I didn’t vote for either one of the corporate stooges.” The winning Republicans got a couple of wars and a loss of individual freedom at home. The Democrats got to ride into power on the backlash to Bush & Co. and completely remake the country. Oooops! Well, it does look like we are getting the government we most desire (or deserve).
Michael Irving
August 29th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Kathy,
“they are getting beyond nervous”
It reminds me of the Lame Deer quote:
” …the machine stops and they are helpless…”
Oh well. I’m sure we are worried about nothing. Right now everything is perfectly fine, the sun is shining today, the county fair begins today, and… and… we have plenty of time… besides, any problems will always be someone else’s, or someone else will have prepared for them, I think. I am pretty sure tomorrow will be exactly the same as today.
August 29th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Man, you guys stay busy — and logged in all the time. I had a couple responsive comments but have forgotten them now that the comments thread has grown to about 12 times the length of the subject post, which as usual quickly fell away from being the topic of discussion.
Regarding the true (if hidden) motivations of the criminal elite or the criminally complacent middle class, that’s a fool’s errand, IMO, and leads nowhere. Motivations inhere to individuals, but once individuals are aggregated into classes, behaviors that spring observably from their unique prerogatives (I like the bit about amplifying effects empowering the 1%) vs. the utter desolation of any individual’s powerlessness in the face of such collective forces, well, let’s just say it no longer makes sense to speak in terms of motivation. The same is true of the mob, a headless beast without guiding force that cannot be channeled, or for that matter, demographics and large swings in cultural and social history.
And that, too, points to the power of abstraction. To participate meaningfully in the world as it now exists requires ignoring the underlying meaninglessness and pointlessness of it all and committing on some level to the charades of fiat money, fame, glamour, and cachet in a mutually reinforcing dance of idiots. The media reinforces it incessantly. Has anyone else noticed that the stories we tell ourselves, whether via the movies or the endless cycles of political racehorse baiting, are getting more and more disconnected from reality? Superheroes are everywhere, yet they’re all fundamentally impotent in the reality we actually inhabit. But we nevertheless commit to this escapism, as though the world has so few breathless wonders we can’t tolerate living without our illusions.
August 29th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
.
Yes, Brutus, I’ve noticed. Being fond of movies as I am, it’s increasingly difficult to find an artful movie that deals with these deep existential issues….on any level. Still, I search, and I do find treasures here and there, some of which I deposit here for those who would like to consider them, but yeah, most of it today is Superheroes, Vampires and Zombies….and Will Farrell, who seems to do a movie a week.
However, it could be that one day soon, we will lament the days that latent sociopaths had Bread & Circuses to keep them distracted from carving us up.
.
August 29th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
.
To participate meaningfully in the world as it now exists requires ignoring the underlying meaninglessness and pointlessness of it all and committing on some level to the charades of fiat money, fame, glamour, and cachet in a mutually reinforcing dance of idiots.
Yep, and Frank would agree. The shooting is over the top, but his monologue resonates….with me, and the Brutus’ comment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=52EnTtGstKg
.
August 29th, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Navid “I am pretty sure tomorrow will be exactly the same as today.” Yep that is usually a safe bet thus humans are programmed to expect that. But more and more today and tomorrow are less and less like each other. I have taken to watching http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/currentweatherusnational/usdeparturefromnormalhighs_large.html?clip=undefined®ion=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined departures from normal highs. This year many parts of the country have been yoyoing all over the place. I think that on some level this has to be making people nervous without knowing what is making them nervous. The weather has become weird and changeable in noticeable ways and this contradicts the program that says tomorrow will be much like today.
August 29th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Kathy C: I’ve looked at that link from Paul Beckwith, doctoral student at University of Ottawa in climatology. He predicts loss of all Arctic sea ice by 30 September of THIS YEAR.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByLujhsHsxP7OXliVnN4T3lnekE/edit?pli=1
This is extremely serious. The last slide in the set tells us what he thinks the implications are.
I’ve had two faculty here so far have a look at this and both of them told me that it looks very bad, but that the data was not in their area. I’ve sent it to two more and we’ll see what they say.
August 29th, 2012 at 11:21 pm
Morocco Bama
The clip from God Bless America was rather good. Keep the recommendations coming.
Everybody
After a repeat viewing this week of Limitless (my favourite movie from last year), I’ve suddenly developed an interest in “smart drugs”. Anybody know if they work? TRDH, know anything about “modafinil”? With it’s help maybe I can infiltrate the elite. At worst, I should be able
to make an on-topic post.
August 30th, 2012 at 12:39 am
Yorchichan
‘Now children, today I wanna talk to you m..bout something called drurgs. That’s right, drurgs. Now remember children, drurgs are bayd, take drurgs ya become bayd…’,
just remember, it was only a movie!
August 30th, 2012 at 2:38 am
BC Nurse – thanks, I will look forward to what you report. I Whole lot of discussion going on about things that are going to be irrelevant if we lose Acrtic Sea Ice this summer. It is increasingly looking like it will vanish this decade for sure.
I keep getting articles from industry publications from my friend in the hog industry. The corn and soy situation has them in panic mode. Herds of pigs, cattle and dairy cows are being sold off which will depress the meat prices, which will drive those farmers out of business. Even if future years were better it takes time to rebuild an animal herd if everyone else has sold off too. Animals reproduce at a given rate, not at a rate the market calls for. He told me feeder pigs (newly weaned piglets) are now selling for $10 each. A sow can produce 25 in a year. So you have to feed, house and care for each sow for a return of $250. And feed prices are rising. Sorry if I already wrote this but there seems to be a (unconscious?) conspiracy not to talk about how bad the food situation is this year.
Someone started a saying that is probably pretty accurate “we are 9 meals away from anarchy”, meaning 3 days without any food and all hell breaks loose. I doubt the person who wrote that meant Guy’s meaning of anarchy.
August 30th, 2012 at 3:33 am
.
Whole lot of discussion going on about things that are going to be irrelevant if we lose Acrtic Sea Ice this summer.
I don’t think it’s irrelevant to discuss the inter-workings of the System that has led to that predicament. Is there something better we should be doing rather than understanding how we arrived at this point? Like prepare? How can we prepare for something that can transpire in manifold ways? Like track the latest Hurricane reports? Isn’t that irrelevant if the sea ice melts, though? What if the sea ice doesn’t melt the way described above? Does the previously irrelevant now become relevant again? Who gets to decide what is relevant, or what isn’t relevant? In any surviving community, will committees of relevancy be created? If so, I don’t want to survive. I want no more authority. The authority of the majority, or the minority, is still authority. In the new world of my visions, there will be no more corralling and herding of the witless and feckless, because there will be no witless or feckless. There will be no more of this “stay on topic” nonsense that comes with our tight-ass culture. There will be no more “not now John, we’ve got to get on with the film show.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRnQ65J02XA
It reminds me of the endless corporate meetings I had to attend in my previous life. I would always try to breath some sort of life into the charade, and many times I would succeed in bringing some animation to the uselessness when I was motivated to do so, but of course, there were the Captains and Assistant Captains, and Assistant Assistant Captains, and Assistant Assistant Assistant Captains, who would ensure that the meeting stayed focused and on topic. Afterall, there were more important matters to attend to…like destroying the planet at breakneck speed.
Perhaps that Puritan ethic of staying on topic and staying focused hasn’t worked so well for us and our relationship with planet Earth. Some more off-topic, perhaps, is good for the soul, and good for planet Earth.
Note: The above is meant to address the comment, and is in no way meant to malign its author. Please do not take it personally, it’s not intended to be personal.
.
August 30th, 2012 at 4:04 am
The Orion Conspiracy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOoR5D73Huo
Celestial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6ggirhnTm4
August 30th, 2012 at 4:42 am
If Guy waits some longer with a new entry, this one might reach a 500 comments.
Conspiracy theories. I think the only existing conspiracy is the fact of calling all those partly covered up crimes – conspiracy theories.
To come to the point: The covering up is a crime in itself.
August 30th, 2012 at 5:35 am
Morocco “I don’t think it’s irrelevant to discuss the inter-workings of the System that has led to that predicament.”
Unfortunately once you are in a food predicament you can’t do anything about it until the next crop comes in. Crops don’t grow on the hot air of endless discussions.
You can’t eat words, discussions, ideas, you eat food.
Don’t matter, the way things are progressing on the climate front even Guy’s possible salvation of the planet and our species via early collapse of industrial civilization seems highly unlikely. In fact the climate is in charge now and looks set to both collapse industrial civilization in the near future AND take out that pesky species homo sapiens.
In fact after reading Dilworth’s “Too Smart for our Own Good” this all seems inevitable from the moment homo became sapiens.
I have often thought I spend too much time discussing irrelevant things here on NBL (increasingly everything is irrelevant) But luckily you and Oz man came along so I can look better by comparison
August 30th, 2012 at 6:00 am
Morocco Bama
Agreeing with you feels good. I agree that discussing what actually went wrong in some details is worthwhile. I also agree in principle with Kathy C that much will be ‘less’ relevent when TSHTF, and her comment about 9 meals away from anarchy is spot on.
All
Much of this discussion is really concerning death in the background. Some have asked what does anything matter if we are certain of the inevitability of the collapse, and the human, and other life forms tragedy. That is like facing one’s own mortality, inflected through a larger collective prism. But it is still mortality, and it is not a pointless exercise. What is it all about for us individually?
In earlier times when entering a Buddhist order the first considderation one studies is that of death and mortality. Not to get one down, but to live subsequently on the realisation that the bodymind will pass, that it is inevitable. That is counter to the ego intention, and serves to better orient a spiritual beginner to the path.
When I contemplate this comming catastrophe one aspect of my response is to attempt to survive, and assist family and neighbours as well.
Others have written no one survives, and that is a great reminder that you get a brief strut and then you’re away. I recall Hamlet speaking to the skull of Yorik, the previous court jester, and he asks, ‘where are your jibes now?’ What was it all for?
I am not going to be stupid enough to attempt answers to these questions here, but the end game of Homo Sapiens, which hangs in the balance over all that we put up here, should awaken us to the full and great situation life offers just now.
I have my own reasons to struggle in a collapse to survive, most probably deluded, but there you have it. Others say they don’t wish to be around.
I’m motivated to ask why are we posting here now we know the near term FUBAR situation?
I’ll be honest and write that reviewing information from clued up people about the environmental readings are a factor, but I also want to have the two way and more on what others feel has made this happen.
Guy has sent out a message and in some way or other ‘we’ have responded.
I confess to sometimes unhealthy levels of anger and fury at the way the ‘actors of Empire’ have done this shit. Notwithstandig that I also feel some strenght and support in my attemps to do something creative and life affirming in the face of this inevitability we ‘know’, or have strong evidence is coming.
Some neighbours have a new baby, as I mentioned to Kathy C a post ago. That is a beautiful and horrible thing to me. My brother at 52 is soon to have his frist child, and I feel the same ambivalence when I contemplate that new life.
There are so many unknowns I find it better to concentrate on living as much as possible, and increasingly, in ways that rely less and less on the things that will fall away in a collapse.
I’m hosting the first of monthly community readings and storytelling nights tomorrow night. I suspect no one will come, and not even my wife will be there, for some reason.
See how it goes, that seems to be my affirmation for daily living in these times now. See how it goes.
August 30th, 2012 at 6:04 am
Kathy C
I like the way you give complements. Keep em coming gal.
August 30th, 2012 at 6:13 am
Yorchichan, your question was probably hypothetical, but I thought I’d provide a little insight anyway.
Modafinil, aka Provigil, is a drug used primarily for narcolepsy but is also sometimes used for obstructive sleep apnea, shift work sleep disorder, and fatigue related to multiple sclerosis (those are the “indicated” uses). Some doctors use it off-label to treat ADHD even though it’s not in the same class as other ADHD drugs.
As to the “smart drug” question, many, many students today are on ADHD meds. When they’re young say 5-10 years old, it’s primarily because they won’t behave in class. When they’re older including adolescence it’s because they can’t stay focused.
For many of those students, the only way they are getting through school is with those drugs.
Parents aren’t allowed to discipline their children anymore apparently. The way many of these kids speak to their parents astonishes me. A 14 year old boy in my clinic told his mother to “fuck off” the other day when she said something he didn’t like. She just looked at me embarrassed and said, “see, I can’t get him to behave since he’s been off his meds”. If I had said something like that to one of my parents, my life might have ended at that point. Yet I hear that and more almost every day from children as young as 8 or 9.
Compounding the problem are all the electronic stimulants that young people are dealing with. From texting, to cell phones, to video games, to TV, to the internet, it’s no wonder at all that the young can not stay focused. TV commercials are excellent analogs to our ever attention-deficited population. No image stays on the screen for more than a second or two.
In some ways, this phenomenon should not be surprising at all to regular readers of NBL. It seems to be a logical progression of the ever-increasing complexity of industrial society and our separation from the basics of surviving in nature.
So, look for more and more children and adults to be on ADHD meds in the future (assuming BAU).
August 30th, 2012 at 7:23 am
Here is perhaps a more relevant topic for discussion, ie one that we will face soon and in which we can exercise choice.
If you have created some way of surviving longer when things collapse (stores of food and supplies, gardens, livestock) what will you/should you do when those who have not done so come to beg or take your supplies or take over the farm you have worked hard to create?
August 30th, 2012 at 8:08 am
With thanks for the vigorous discussion, I’ve posted a new essay. It’s here.
August 30th, 2012 at 8:35 am
Kathy
“I am pretty sure tomorrow will be exactly the same as today.” Yep that is usually a safe bet thus humans are programmed to expect that.
Yes, I take the blue pill daily – but it seems to be losing it’s potency… wears off early in the day ; )
—-
“making people nervous without knowing what is making them nervous.”
I have noticed that too lately. Not just the weather, just a creeping unease in general. It is worrisome… fear and anger mixed with confusion can lead to a lot of collateral damage.
August 30th, 2012 at 11:00 am
.
But luckily you and Oz man came along so I can look better by comparison
LOL! That was a good one, Kathy!
Another way of looking at it is that everything is relevant now, versus just some things.
I have often said in the last several years that we have already reached the Singularity, because Satire has now merged with the reality of which it was once a derivative. So, if the goal is satire, which is often the case for me, it’s redundant, because reality is already a satire. Shit, now I’m redundant, hypocritical and an asshole….and probably a long list of other things to be named at a later date…when the ice is completely melted.
.
August 30th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Morocco Bama
You wrote:
“So, if the goal is satire, which is often the case for me, it’s redundant, because reality is already a satire. Shit, now I’m redundant, hypocritical and an asshole….and probably a long list of other things”
All too human….
August 30th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
‘Parents aren’t allowed to discipline their children anymore apparently. The way many of these kids speak to their parents astonishes me. A 14 year old boy in my clinic told his mother to “fuck off” the other day ‘
for what it’s worth (2 cents?), imo a lot of parents are so clueless, fucked up, and hypocritical themselves, it’s no wonder their kids are disrespectful. competent loving parents will naturally command respect, don’t u think? the way i see it, whenever there’s trouble in any group, it generally begins with whoever is nominally in charge, not the underlings.
August 30th, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Excellent, new essay’s been posted, so I can post off-topic again without feeling guilty (if anyone’s still reading).
OzMan and TRDH
No need to worry about me and drugs. I’m the sort of person who would think long and hard even about drinking a cup of coffee. After watching Limitless, I was curious enough to do a google search on “real life NZT-48″ and that was the first time I learned of “smart drugs”. Reviews for modafinil were favourable and I wondered if anyone could give me a little more insider knowledge before I took the plunge and purchased some. It’s FDA approved so how dangerous can it be? LOL.
I’m well aware that no drug in existence could work even 10% as well as the fictional NZT-48, but if modafinil works even a little, I could have potential use for it. I expect that if I purchase some I’ll try it once, not like the side effects, and either bin it or give it away. Happens to me every time. Every drug has benefits and drawbacks, but I’ve yet to find one where the benefits are large enough and drawbacks small enough for me to want to use it even infrequently. Not easy to improve upon nature, which has had billions of years to perfect it’s own version of reality.
Morocco Bama
Watched God Bless America last night. Quite good. Certainly in top 3 new movies I’ve seen this year (the other two being Chronicle and Brave ,which had the advantage of being on the big screen). The GBA imdb rating is about right. Difference between God Bless America and Antichrist was that I actually cared about the characters. Once lost a job in eerily similar circumstances to Frank and I feel the same way about contemporary culture as, clearly, do many NBLers.
TVT
Glad you’re OK.
September 24th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
From Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg, You know you are a conspiracy theorist if … you answer yes to any 5 of the 32 questions on this list.
September 28th, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Do we have an opportunity to unite? I am and should be afraid. Food prices go up for no reason. Gas prices go up and then down regularly. Keeps us off balance doesn’t it? Take something away, then give a little back.. In ‘Night’ be Elly Weisel most Jews did not see what was coming. Things were so slowly taken away it was difficult to notice. AND what can we do besides notice what is being taken away? I wish I didn’t see what is happening.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:02 am
I never thought I would see my hometown, Decatur, IL, mentioned on “Nature Bats Last,” although I am not surprised. It was the site of racial hostilities in the early 20th century (the black part of town was burned to the ground, and life there is still lived in highly racialized terms), it was ground zero for the last big union struggle in the U.S. in the mid-90s (the workers lost), the water is so poisoned by agribusiness runoff that pregnant and nursing women are regularly advised not to drink the tap water, the high school I attended is built on a sinkhole (what a metaphor), and, of course, the majority of its citizens are God-fearing, flag-waving, jingoistic morons.
Someday I will weigh in with more substantive, but for now I had to say something about good old Decatur!
October 17th, 2012 at 10:17 pm
Recently one of my four sisters tried to convince me to vote for Barack Obama as “the better of two evils” in November. I told her that I regard Obama as a war monger, not only because of his continuance of the US/NATO occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, but also because of Obama’s bellicose rhetoric toward Libya and Syria, and his command decisions to attack Libya and Syria with US/NATO mercenaries and munitions. Madame Clinton is also a war monger.
My sister warned that the Republicans might take away Social Security, Medicare, and abortion rights, and she said that we should therefore vote for Obama as “the better of two evils.”
I told her that the wealthy, elitist Mafiosi who actually rule the USA have designed the Republican and the Democrat Parties to run a “good cop/bad cop” scam on the voters (particularly the Liberal voters) by forcing us to choose between “the better of two evils.” For me, the fact that the USA is slaughtering innocent people by the thousands in foreign countries trumps anything that the US government might give to, or withhold from, the domestic US population.
I do not wish to give my approval (with my vote) to the murderous Republican/Democrat foreign policy in exchange for the table-crumbs the US government gives to us. I do not want to accept their manipulative Welfare in exchange for their aggressive warfare. That’s the bargain that murderous Mafia Dons always strike with their families and the thugs who do their dirty work.
October 17th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Correction to my previous comment: “I do not want to accept their manipulative Welfare in exchange for tolerating their aggressive warfare.”
November 5th, 2012 at 7:39 am
After hearing Mr. McPherson in Louisville KY recently it appears that if we want to “try anything but what we are doing now” in the face of ‘certain extinction’ with but a ‘very small possibility of survival’ opening one’s mind to new technology that appears to PERHAPS be able to turn around the hydro-carbon based energy infrastructure and have indications of even plasma-based alchemical processes, would be a no-brainer. I just heard only solar power and wind (only ‘proven’ alt-energy sources) and reduce our over-consumption behavior (granted). As many following Mr. McPherson know, this probably won’t cut it. Certainly it will not reverse the GHG emissions already in the atmosphere. Why not take the chance and look into The Thrive Movement (Foster Gamble)- a very comprehensive effort to apply solutions to critical problems, Nassimm Haramein, John Bedini’s work, Tom Bearden, Walter Russell, and Nikola Tesla; peswiki.org (Sterling Allan) is tracking many promising new inventions, including cold fusion/LENR (it’s not dead as proported). What do you have to loose? An old paradigm of physics? Small price to pay to help save a world. We need ALL solutions is what I am hearing from Mr. McPherson. I agree.