Patrick
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I guess the question really amounts to is whether the choice is even his to make. Every President since Kennedy knows pretty well what can happen if they wander off the res.
I’ve always felt that Obama’s candidacy was just a little too slick and easy. He was putatively a protégé of Dick Durbin but I wonder if he was more like a Manchurian candidate of the elite. Just a thought.I guess pension plans won’t matter much if that Arctic News piece is likely. That is some scary shit–like an end of the world horror/disaster movie only real.
I can only make out some of the data, but what I do understand is awesome, not in a good way. Kind of takes the satisfaction out of saying, “I told you so,” don’tcha think?
It brings me back to William Catton and Overshoot. Meanwhile over at the Big Tent Mitt and Barry duke it out for charity.
sangell “If we are looking for a catalyst it would seem Greece will be it. It is not implementing the MOU it signed and it is going to be politically impossible for Germany and the IMF to continue funding this bunch of deadbeats and a lesson must be made to the other PIIGS that failure to abide by the loan covenants has consequences. “
Excuse me! “bunch of deadbeats” you’re obviously soaking up the MSM and TPTB line, hook line and sinker! Germany has had a lot to do with putting Greece in the situation it’s in. For example: under the bailout terms Greece must fulfill it’s contract with Germany to buy tanks, subs and other military goodies, the cost of which pretty much equal the bailout money. Germany has benefited mightily from having a currency which has been kept artificially low by the inclusion of the southern tier of countries, thus adding power to their (German) exports.
Harummmph!RE there’s a problem when you argue by metaphor or analogy in that, in this case, neither poker nor chess are an exact fit for our situation. And it is around the edges that the analogy falls down. The problem with arguing that morality must be put aside in order to win and then be picked up once the battle’s over is that, once discarded, morality and ethics are rarely if ever picked up again.
Having said that I do believe lopping off the head of the monster’s quite justified. The problem is identifying the monster.
I haven’t yet finished reading the comments but when I do I’ll post my own–which will, of course, settle everything. (do I need to add a smiley face?)
But I have a question for everyone. Do you believe there is an actual “Illuminati” or some such organization of elites? Personally, I tend not to, although I’m sure that groups of the elite do get together to advance their interests. Followup question: could it be possible that TPTB, for want of a better term, would like to organize a die–off of the great mass of people to obtain a world where the scarce resources will last much longer with just them and a small percentage of professionals they require to use them? Again, I don’t believe that, or more accurately, I have no evidence for that but I can’t help but wonder sometimes if a bunch of the 1% are planning just that.
Ash, I think you touch on our point of divergence quite nicely when you talk about “rational processes” and that we are different from other animals. We are blinded by our brain into thinking that yet the evidence I see is that we are not so different.
There is considerable evidence that we are driven more by short term emotion and appetite than by rational thought. Our admittedly wonderful accomplishments in science persuade us that we are the “rational animal.” While the wars, economic catastrophes, profound injustices–the list goes on–suggest otherwise.
Perhaps confusion arises from the fact that some people do act rationally. Some of us advocate for peace and the environment, surely rational approaches. Yet what prevails? You know as well as I and much of this blog is occupied with it.The closest I come to agreement with anyone here is RevEng (and God where is El Gal when we need his humour and wisdom)? And RE I think you need to add William Catton high up on your list. His book Overshoot: the Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change is the most lucid work out there in this realm.
The carrying capacity of the planet is realistically no more than 2 billion people but we’ve degraded even that. Plus, we would most likely dip well below that in a die-off.
Let me be brutal. In the next 50 to 100 years if not sooner–here I’ll be gentle–at least 3.5 to 4 billion people are going to die and not of old age. That is if we don’t annihilate each other totally first, or suffer some other catastrophic collapse as have been mentioned above.
Hmmm, nice can of worms Ash. Right off the bat I’m between 1 and 2 with the proviso that only a small percentage of us or our children will or can survive. You need to read William Catton to understand that. We have done what is normal for species to do, i.e. we bloomed (mostly because of the oil), we overshot, (again the oil) and we are crashing (as we speak).
At the risk of insulting anyone; faith is simply silly. As we understand it, faith is that which transcends reason. It is something we prefer to believe rather than what evidence-based reason compels one to believe. Not all the evidence is in but I would argue that enough is to give us a pretty good idea of how we messed this up. The answer lies within evolution and how through that we came out thinking we were not part of the animal world. Our success and our discovery of oil has pretty much done us in. I think we can be forgiven for not understanding back in the day where all this would lead–but it has and we’re here. There is no “meant to be,” it just is.
Golden Oxen says:”Doomster’s and their followers are great for telling about our problems but have little to offer in solutions.” There’s a good reason for that GO: it is that some problems don’t have a solution. Case in point: in 1985 a domestic Japan Airlines flight suffered explosive decompression some 25 minutes into the flight, which tore off the tail fin and ripped out the flight controls. The pilots had some rudimentary control by varying the engine thrust but it wasn’t nearly enough (nor could it have been) to effect any kind of safe landing. However the plane flew on for 32 minutes with the passengers fully aware of their situation. It crashed killing 509 people, 5 survived. That’s about the proportion I see coming out of the crash ahead. We have no steering, it’s too late to steer and all we have is forward momentum until we crash.
Great rant Ash. Don’t let the nitpickers ah… nit pick. I am just reading Tim Flannery’s the Weather Makers. It’s not news to me by a long shot but he paints the clearest picture of the environmental pickle of anyone I’ve read. We are so f**ked! 100,000 years ago our plucky ancestors survived a mini-ice-age. DNA evidence indicates there were as few as 2000 fertile adults, 1000 breeding pairs at best.
They gave us a future and this is what we’ve done with it. Makes ya wanna cry. What will our children think of us as they navigate this ninth circle of hell future.Jack there is no “Jewish issue” anymore than there is a “Muslim issue” or a “Christian issue” for that matter. It is disheartening that when we attempt to discuss the very real rogue behaviour of the state of Israel, genuine anti-semites leap in and pile on. Unfortunately, it is part of the success of the Israeli lobby, AIPAC and others, that they are able to smear the genuine and well-founded critique of Israeli policies.
And what is the “name of God”? Is it Jahweh, Jehovah, Hayah, Larry?
Come, I will teach you to be a fisher of men–then you can go trolling!
El gal.. right on both counts, sloppy of me on the “sinking” as I’ve read a great deal on the incident.
Here’s a paragraph from Wikipedia on the incident with overtones of my suggestion:
“The press release for the BBC documentary film Dead in the Water states that new recorded and other evidence suggests the attack] [on USS Liberty was a daring ploy by Israel to fake an Egyptian attack to give America a reason to enter the war against Egypt. Convinced that that attack was real, President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson launched nuclear-armed planes targeted against Cairo from a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. The planes were recalled only just in time, when it was clear the Liberty had not sunk and that Israel had carried out the attack. An information source for the aircraft being nuclear-armed, James Ennes, later stated that he was probably wrong in his original book. According to Ennes, the planes were not nuclear-armed, but most likely armed with Bullpup missiles.[79] The video also provides hearsay evidence of a covert alliance of U.S. and Israel intelligence agencies.[80]”
“covert alliance of U.S. and Israel intelligence agencies” ya think? Nah, then it would be a conspiracies and we all know those don’t exist, right?
Amazing though isn’t it? The U.S. would be prepared to launch an attack on Egypt without even a cursory investigation. But it was Israel so OK then must have been a mistake–understandable in war. Gag me!
El gall,
We can agree or disagree about the dog vs. tail and the results will probably look pretty much the same. But consider how the US sees it in its interests to garrison the ME and even to take out Iran–although that looks like the damnedest miscalculation ever. They want to make it look like they’re holding Israel on a tight leash keeping them from attacking when, ooops it slipped, they got away.
I saw an interview with Lyndon Johnson a few months before he died. He was old, sick and tired. He told the interviewer (Dan Rather?) that he was deeply troubled about something he could never–he stressed “never”–unburden himself of. Might it have been the sinking of the USS Liberty and that perhaps it was a false flag that top levels of the US govt were in on? I’m not claiming I have evidence of that but it might explain the US’s curious lack of response. Had it succeeded as such and was blamed on Egypt, then the US and Israel could have jointly attacked Egypt and installed “a shah.” As it is they managed to either help Mubarak into power or co-opt him once in.
Interesting ideas. Perhaps it gives some insight into the social upheavals we’re seeing although it seems a somewhat mechanistic fashion. But I do take issue with the Occupy Wall Street having “barely made a ripple.” There are Occupy movements around North America and the world. They’ve changed the conversation, highlighting economic injustice with the 1% — 99% concept. And they’ve sown seeds which will probably bloom this spring. Imagine, an American Spring 😀
“The term ‘conspiracy theory’ itself is used as a propaganda memetic to dissuade from analytical discernment even when the known facts logically yield the truth of some conspiracies.”
Nicely put Gravity! Of course the best cover to debunk any single conspiracy is to discredit the whole notion of conspiracies themselves. It’s worked so well that the question of some conspiracies has become so toxic that even generally fearless sites such as TAE ban them. (I know the whole discussion can get very distracting but 911 was central to what’s going on today no matter who (DC) did it.)
Count me in as another one tired of the whole anti-semitism smear when it comes to discussing Israel. Btw Winston, I know for a fact that Naomi Klein, like many other Jews, is in accord with El g’s view on Israel–I’ve heard her speak on it.
However on the issue of who’s in the driver’s seat the US or Israel I part company with the tail wagging the dog theory of El g and others. The US has used Israel from the beginning as their client state in the ME. Sure Israel is a noisy and demanding client but Uncle could slap her down anytime he wants. Israel is the US stalking horse in the region. Or in street terms, they’re the US’s bitch. It’s all a little drama they put on for the rest of us. Really, think about it. Israel is going to tell the US where to get off and then what, go it alone? Yeah, I know all about AIPAC. The US has so much on Israel they could get the folks riled up to a fever pitch whenever they like. Sinking of the USS Liberty is just one item.
Candace, at the risk of sounding unkind, perhaps it’s not your job to tell people not to take on debt or convince them of anything. People who plan to say, buy houses during a housing bubble are not really in a listening mood. You might try passing on sites like TAE and some others that are sounding a warning and suggest that they look at contrary evidence. Look back at your own journey and see how long it took you to educate yourself and realize that most people are not going see what’s happening before it crashes down around them.
Lovely article Ash. Impressive the way you wove your ideas in and out of the narrative. I do agree with a couple of comments about the working hours of hunter-gatherers though. Case in point the Pygmies in equatorial (?) Africa live a hunter-gatherer life but have plenty of time for play and social activities. They are reportedly a pretty happy bunch.
I’m reminded of how in the 60s the Popular Mechanics view of our future is that technology would have taken over the drudgery and we’d be spending half or more of our time in leisure activities. I even remember a magazine article worrying that people might not be imaginative enough to fill all their leisure time. No worries there, mate!
I have often seen the correlation between income inequality and collapse/depression referred to, both in terms of the 30s and comparing the 30s to the present. But I have never seen such a fascinating and compelling explanation of the root cause. That correlation between the prison population and upper 10% share of income is really disturbing.
I am quickly getting to enjoy the new site and some of the “oldies but goodies” like el gal and greenpa are showing up with no loss of bite. I do find some of the comments churlish and unfair. So let me add my vote of confidence in Ash–by their works ye shall know them–and I & S are doing what rock stars on tour do for their music: spreading it around. I don’t think they’re getting much in the way of all night parties and groupies though.
greenpa,
I think the good ole US of A is the most likely candidate for a charismatic leader to take over. Won’t say it *can’t* happen in Greece but their experience with dictatorship is fresh and painful. Amurica otoh, has this, as James Kunstler would call it, tendency to “corn-pone fascism.” Can picture some general like Petreaus standing up and claiming the US was “stabbed in the back” by traitorous leaders.
I’ve got two words for you: hyper hypothecation (or is it one?) Regardless, the giant inverted pyramid that is financial wealth–as opposed to real wealth–is teetering on the brink right now. When it collapses there won’t be anymore savings, especially in Britain where the “city” has no constraints on how far out “assets” may be leveraged.
I think that what’s missing from the old site is that there was only one forum so everyone hung out there. Now we are to “discuss this article.” Perhaps you could consider instituting a “General Forum” that we could have more wide ranging discussions in as in the the old format. Not dissing this, like the set-up of the site and articles but… as above.
Kabuki theatre indeed with a dash of Beckett–Waiting for Godot. (is Godot a conflation of God and idiot?) Certainly the volks running around to their meetings must have some god–like intentions of solving the crisis and are idiots for believing it or in themselves. My personal take is, fall down already, you’ve been shot, you’re clinically dead, so stop walking around talking nonsense.
