All That Glitters...

Since we have been back up in the northeast on this trip, we've been running into folks asking about how 'tough' a market it is out in the desert in southern Nevada.
We'll it ain't pretty.. in fact, numbers are fairly dismal.. and those back on the opposite coast are too distant to feel any of the actual effects of what's happening out west (although Florida's got a good idea)... the whole region California, Nevada, Arizona has been reeling.

Mortgage delinquencies are recently falling slightly in southern Nevada, but there's still a world of hurt, even after the 90-day mortgage delinquency rate for Vegas homeowners dipped to its lowest level in nearly two years, as a research firm has just recently reported.
California-based CoreLogic said just shy of 17% of homeowners with a mortgage were delinquent 90 days or more in May. The delinquency rate has fallen steadily since it was 21% in February 2010.
To put that into context though... the national rate is 7.3%. And it must be noted, as the California-based RealtyTrac reported this week Vegas continued to post the nation’s highest foreclosure rate for all metropolitan areas during the first six months of 2011. And of note and more alarming, 1 in 4 of Nevada's foreclosures involve a decision to walk away from the mortgage even though the homeowners have the ability to make payment, according to a new study. They're just so much underwater, they've lost faith paying on a mortgage more than what the property is now worth.

The State of Nevada had 11,000 foreclosure filings in May, meaning one in every 103 homes had some type of foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac reported. (Putting that Nevada number into perspective... in New York State it is only 1 in 3,000!)
The City of Las Vegas had one filing for every 89 homes, which is more than six times the national average... one in every 19 housing units had a foreclosure filing during the first six months of 2011. Filings fell 18% from the last six months of 2010, and were 18% lower than the first half of 2010. Phoenix ranked second in the nation behind Las Vegas.

According to Standard & Poor’s Vegas-area home prices fell in May for the eighth consecutive month. According to widely-followed S&P's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, Las Vegas home prices are now 60% below their peak during the economic boom of 2005-2006. The report said Vegas prices fell 1% from April to May and were down 6.6% from May 2010.
With the deep recession continuing locally, Vegas home prices have been depressed by high unemployment (14%.. and in fact it's more than likely to be much higher than what's being reported) and resulting foreclosures. Despite recent declines in foreclosure filings, Nevada still leads the nation in the percentage of homeowners losing their homes.

Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported the median price of a single-family home sold in June locally was down 1.2% from May, and down 11% from one year ago.
(Nationwide, S&P said prices for its 20-city composite index rose 1% from April to May, but were down 4.5% from May 2010.)
"These data all support a continuation of the ‘bounce-along-the-bottom’ scenario we have witnessed in the housing market over the past two years."

And Nevada real estate agents are growing more pessimistic about the market... 82% of Nevada real estate professionals now said home prices would decline over the next six months, according to s survey conducted by California research company HomeGain. The survey found that real estate professionals in Nevada are more pessimistic about prices than in the second quarter of 2010, when 42% thought prices would rise and 29% thought they would decline.
During the first quarter, 71% said prices would decrease over the next six months... NONE said prices would increase!!  Nationally, 50% of agents said they expect home price decreases over the next six months, and 12% expect increases.

Where we go from here is really just anyone's guess... we're in territory never close to what's been seen before. Of all the subcontractors we used in building process... most every one of them has quit their business, some in the area for decades, with top reputations.. Others are now just barely holding on... there is NO high end home market to speak of left in town. When you're going to have to fund $300-400 or more a square foot for construction... and when it's finished, it will only be worth maybe half of that... why should you chose to do it... some are, but those numbers are ridiculously small.
There are some great buys on existing properties.. if it would be that values would level off for awhile. But as previously mentioned that's yet to happen... and as more jobs across the country continue to be lost, there is probably little chance it will.

This town is driven by big hotel and resort projects. From design through construction, they can take upwards of 15 years to finish, and they employ tens of thousands of people. None are on the drawing board at this time, so figure if things would begin to recover sometime over the next 5 years, it would really not be for a couple of decades until any real effects were felt in the local economy from such  projects.

But the town continues on with life, and for the moment still offers lots of fun. More than 40 million people a year consistently keep comin through... room prices are way down, and there's lots of comps being offered,  of which we're taking advantage. We've been staying at Aria, Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan multiple times, with some meals and free play thrown in... seeing shows and having an overall good time.
So come on out and visit, we expect they'll be able to keep the lights burning on the Strip for at least a few more years.

In our development MacDonald Highlands, there were to have been upwards of 1,000 homes, including a small percentage of that number being condominiums. The entire project was expected to be a 10-12 year build-out. It's now been over 15 years and half the homes are in. There are a few big homes still in various stages of construction (some of the very large structures take up to 36-48 months to complete), but they're an exception.. and it would take 100 years to finish the community at the present pace of development. Foreclosure rates in the area are higher than average, the median age being 37, everyone was speculating and constantly 'moving up'. Leveraged to the hilt, 'livin the good life,' they never heard of, or if they did, follow the rule not to have all your eggs in one basket.

We'll keep ya posted... if there are signs of life with an increasing pulse out here, ya then might be able to say there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for the economy...
... keep your fingers crossed...
... warm regards... talk soon...

Holidays... the bad kind...

This is as good an issue on the table right now to discuss as any... if we cannot get up off our butts, pick up the phone and get the word out to our representatives that enough is enough, and this kind of crap MUST stop... than we deserve every bit of BS the super-rich-and-powerful are willing to cram down our impassive throats... scheming to plunder as much wealth from the economy, the treasury, and us as they can get their slimy hands on. For these guys, there is absolutely no end to how much is too much.. and there is no such belief as 'shared-sacrifice.'

We all have cellphones.. in the address book of each of those phones should be the well used contact numbers of the offices of the characters we 'elected' to represent us. Not having the billions to spend, as the super-wealthy and powerful do, to hire 'in-the-pocket' lobbyists to get our voices heard... so on the phones we have to be our own lobbyists.

These greedy one-way bastards that are repeatedly corrupting our system of government are counting on us not doing anything much at all to stop them. And the really sick part of this whole thing is they know the system is being stretched to its breaking point, and is going to crash pretty damn soon (just like the creators of all Ponzi schemes realize), and you know, they defiantly say 'I-D-G-A-S.' They're so fat now they truly believe they can withstand any downturn, no matter how huge, and come out smellin roses. It's been proven to them, they're 'protected'.. they've bought and paid for it again and again.

What these a-holes are blindly ignoring at their own peril (AND OURS) is what they're doin to the physical world around them.. they're devastating it... what a shameful time in our history... and unless they get stopped... it's via con dios for all of us.. our 'end of days.'

So that's it folks... get in the pols ears now.. or just sit back, and wait for the mother of all calamities to come crashing over us. Somethin's gonna happen irregardless... what we're talkin here is just how much easier (or worse off) we make it on ourselves...
... oh yea, and especially on the kids & gk's too... cause they're definitely the ones gonna be on the receiving end of the most dreadful part of all of it!

***********************************

 

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them...

... and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both."
-- Frederick Douglass

Corporate Tax Holiday in Debt Ceiling Deal: Where's the Uproar? | Common Dreams

... world's apart... where we are headed....

There are two films watched most recently that should be looked at as two streams of the same thought. One film called 'Inside Mecca'... the other 'The Third Jihad.'
It is getting more difficult writing about these kinds of movies. Crying wolf again and again, will have the obvious diluting effect... for these films that would be exceptionally dangerous.
We're facing today many planet altering situations... this is another that once it sinks in, you realize that yes... all things being equal... 'it' is going to happen... and 'when' appears to be getting much closer.

Nat-Geo's Inside Mecca deals with more than just place.. it tells much of the story behind the meaning of just what the location and term signifies.. and it does it pretty well. It takes the viewer on the 'Hajj,' recounting the preparation for the Hajj, the journey to Mecca, and the various rituals associated with this Pillar of Islam. Most interestingly, the viewer learns about the meaning of the Hajj for the Muslim pilgrim.

But the story would not be complete without then viewing The Third Jihad.  The Third Jihad documentary alerts Americans to the dangers radical Islam poses to the U.S. and all Western civilization as a whole. The film focuses on radical Islam's war against liberal ideas, its violent, anti-democratic agenda as well as its human and civil rights abuses against women, blacks, homosexuals, Christians and moderate Muslims, under the tenants of Sharia Law.
Putting the two films together creates the total thought provoking experience.

Once you have seen these two films you'll be part of what is probably an extremely small group... not that it should be, for dialogue concerning the message is too important, but that's just the way the world is working right now. On one side, there is an ever expanding momentum.. and the other is unknowing, and/or uncaring... a life-transforming mixture.

These is a great deal of controversy surrounding The Third Jihad, many say it is nothing more than hateful propaganda against Muslims. But this should not deter you from watching it, and making your own judgments as future events unfold. Ignoring it completely can prove to be exceptionally dangerous.
I find it extremely curious there was such a clamor from the Muslim world over the cartoons of a Danish artist.. yet there is hardly a murmur from that same community concerning such a controversial film-work.

There is an enormous transformation taking place in the world, on multiple levels, and from all appearances there is going to be a constant clash of non-assimilating cultures.
Take a look, decide for yourself... you owe your future at least the little time involved.
(Both films can be seen on Netflix - 'Watch Instantly.')

.. a price not written on the menu.

After watching this film last night I had a very tough time getting the ideas and images out of my head.. as a result, had a miserable night's sleep. It's a difficult thing to get one's brain around such a harsh realization.

Charles Clover's short summary is a good place to begin.
'As reassurances from official sources the seas are being ‘managed’ scientifically is absolutely impossible to believe. Enforcement of rules meant to prevail in the oceans has proved wanting most everywhere. Even in some of the best-governed democracies, experts admit what is taking place is completely out of control.'

What we are doing to the oceans is a reflection of exactly how we are treating the rest of the planet.. and results will be similar.

Be sure and watch this film... it is absolutely too important to miss....  
(btw... it is a very well done documentary... and a Netflix 'Watch Instantly' selection).

________________________________________

Seafood to Avoid - Don't Eat Endangered Fish and Seafood

Our Love Affair With Fish Is Unsustainable | Truthout

... truthout ...

.. one impressive lineup of articles... MSM's time is over...
...if you want to stay on top of what's really happening, you can't do better than to subscribe to an INS (independent news source) site such as 'truthout.com'...

__________________________________________________________________


Friday 15 July 2011
War With Iran? US Neocons Aim to Repeat Chalabi-Style Swindle
Ali Fatemi and Karim Pakravan, Truthout: "In 1991, Iraqi exiles set up the Iraq National Congress (INC) with funding from the CIA. Under the leadership of Ahmad Chalabi, and flush with tens of millions dollars in US government funding, the INC allied itself with the neoconservatives in Washington and unceasingly beat the drums of war, presenting itself as the popular democratic alternative to Saddam Hussein and feeding faulty intelligence to an eager media and Bush administration. Eventually, they succeeded in dragging the United States into disastrous war that cost Americans and Iraqis their lives and caused incalculable damage to American prestige and power. Now, history may be repeating itself."
Read the Article

Why Banks Aren't Lending: The Silent Liquidity Squeeze
Ellen Brown, Truthout: "Whether by accident or design, federal policymakers still have not got it right. While we are waiting for them to figure it out, states can nurture and protect their own local economies with publicly owned banks, on the model of the Bank of North Dakota (BND). Currently the nation's only state-owned bank, the BND services the liquidity needs of local banks and keeps credit flowing in the state. Fourteen states have now initiated bills to establish state-owned banks or to study their feasibility. Besides serving local lending needs, state-owned banks can provide cash-strapped states with new revenues, obviating the need to raise taxes, slash services or sell off public assets."
Read the Article

Bill Moyers: The Murdoch Scandal and a Lesson for Corporate Media (Video)
Bill Moyers, broadcast journalist and author of "Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues" talks with Rachel Maddow about the investigation into questionable conduct by Rupert Murdoch's news organization and the dangers of media empires and corporate conglomerate controlled media.
Watch the Video

Kucinich: Debt Political Theater Diverts Attention While Americans' Wealth Is Stolen
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) spoke on the House floor about the massive transfer of wealth from the American people to the hands of the few by virtue of wars, energy policies and monetary policies. He called upon Americans to witness Wall Street's theft of Main Street, which has left millions of everyday Americans out of work and seniors facing cuts to Social Security to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
Read the Article

Congress and Its Colonialist Agenda
Stephen Zunes, Truthout: "Based on a resolution unanimously adopted by the Senate (S.Res. 185) on July 29 and by a 407-6 majority in the House (H.Res. 268) on July 7, Congress went on record reiterating their 'strong opposition to any attempt to establish or seek recognition of a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.' It called on Palestinian leaders to 'cease all efforts at circumventing the negotiation process, including through a unilateral declaration of statehood or by seeking recognition of a Palestinian state from other nations or the United Nations.'"
Read the Article

On the News With Thom Hartmann: Tax Cuts for Billionaires and Two Unpaid Wars Bankrupting America, and More
In today's On the News segment: S & P rating agency putting US "AAA" rating on negative watch, Murdoch under investigation in US and Britain, Quinnipiac poll shows majority of Americans blame bad economy on George W. Bush, tax cuts for billionaires and two unpaid wars bankrupting America, Minnesota shutdown is over, and more.
Read the Article and Watch the Video

Eugene Robinson | Make My Day
Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post Writers Group: "Those words suggest President Obama has had it up to here with the preening and posturing of Republican 'negotiators' who won't negotiate. Who could blame him? Obama's warning to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor came at the abrupt conclusion of Wednesday's talks about the debt-ceiling crisis. The unamused president asked whether Ronald Reagan would have put up with such time-wasting nonsense, then uttered another memorable line: 'I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this.'"
Read the Article

US Recognizes Rebels in Libya
Sebnem Arsu and Steven Erlanger, The New York Times News Service: "The United States formally recognized the rebel leadership in Libya as the country's legitimate government on Friday. The move, made at an international gathering here to discuss the five-month-old conflict in Libya, ratcheted up the diplomatic pressure on Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi amid a continuing NATO-led bombing campaign to push him from power."
Read the Article

Jeremy Scahill | The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia
Jeremy Scahill, The Nation: "As part of its expanding counterterrorism program in Somalia, the CIA also uses a secret prison buried in the basement of Somalia's National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters, where prisoners suspected of being Shabab members or of having links to the group are held. Some of the prisoners have been snatched off the streets of Kenya and rendered by plane to Mogadishu. While the underground prison is officially run by the Somali NSA, US intelligence personnel pay the salaries of intelligence agents and also directly interrogate prisoners."
Read the Article

Cliff Schecter | For God's Sake - Stop Talking
Cliff Schecter, Truthout: "The US takes pride in its separation of church and state, but the current political scene is 'strangely' religious. Lately, there would seem to be a whole lot more people who have a direct channel to the Big Guy Upstairs than one could have humanly thought possible. It is oft said that 'God works in mysterious ways.' But when Michele Bachmann hears voices telling her to run for president, am I the only who thinks the most likely explanation is a batch of bad clams or one too many nights role playing 'The Book of Eli' with her equally demented husband Marcus?"
Read the Article

The Predicted Job Collapse Now in Progress
Jack Rasmus, Truthout: "While politicians and business press pundits last March-April were proclaiming the jobs crisis was over, the prediction came that 'March-April's Job Gains Will Collapse This Summer.' That prediction is now underway with the latest June jobs numbers from the US Department of Labor reported July 8 showing only 18,000 new hires occurring in June. The preceding May jobs report showed an almost as dismal 54,000 jobs created."
Read the Article

Deal Is Made for Ending Shutdown in Minnesota
Monica Davey, The New York Times News Service: "The governor of Minnesota and the state's Republican lawmakers announced on Thursday that they had, at last, reached a deal on the state's budget, bringing what is expected to be a swift reopening of government services."
Read the Article

Teaching Gay History Becomes Law in California
David Siders, McClatchy Newspapers: "California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring public schools to teach students about the contributions of gay and lesbian people, making California the first state to adopt such a measure. The legislation requires instruction in the social sciences to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, as well as people with disabilities and members of other cultural groups. It would prohibit teaching from textbooks or other instructional materials that reflect adversely on people because of their sexual orientation."
Read the Article

Click here for more Truthout articles

BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

Is the Tea Party just another name for an anarchy party?
Granted, given that the Tea Party was financially turbo-charged by the Koch Brothers (Americans for Prosperity) and Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, it's a challenge to define members of the loose-knit group. It's clear, for instance, that a significant segment of the party consists of individuals who are venting their racist gripes with President Obama.
But if you look at the corporate media conventional wisdom perception of how the Tea Party impact plays out on Capitol Hill, it is an uber anti-government force that believes taxes of any kind are akin to theft.
This is not just an eccentric BuzzFlash at Truthout theory; there is indeed a school of libertarian economic theory known as anarcho-capitalism. In fact, the son of Milton Friedman - the guru of the Reagan-era school of economics, which now seems liberal compared to the Cantor/Bachmann/Tea Party theories - is one of its foremost adherents. David Friedman believes in the primacy of the individual and property, without the interference of any governmental entity, including laws.
As excerpted from "Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism," by Peter Marshall, the extremity of what is being played out by the GOP Tea Party wing is a bit chilling:

Anarcho-capitalism has recently had a considerable vogue in the West where it has helped put the role of the state back on the political agenda. It has become a major ideological challenge to the dominant liberalism which sees a role for government in the protection of property. The anarcho-capitalists would like to dismantle government and allow complete laissez-faire in the economy. Its adherents propose that all public services be turned over to private entrepreneurs, even public spaces like town halls, streets and parks. Free market capitalism, they insist, is hindered not enhanced by the State....

Anarcho-capitalists, according to "A History of Anarchism," "maintain that even the minimal state is unnecessary since the defense of person and property can be carried out by private protection agencies."
The major area that anarcho-capitalists (and Ayn Rand adherents) would have a falling out with most Tea Party adherents is over social issues, in which anarcho-capitalists have no interest. For example, without a government of laws, it would be hard to legislate against gays, immigrants etc. In short, the government dreaded by the Tea Party could not be used by them to establish authoritarian, moralistic control over people.
But when it comes to economic theory, Eric Cantor, for example, certainly sounds a lot like an anarcho-capitalist.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout Rebekah Brooks, Head of Murdoch's UK Print Empire Resigns Over UK Phone-Hacking Scandal
Read the Article at CNN

Cantor's Last Stand?
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County
Read the Article at The Atlantic

Greenpeace Attacks Clothing Suppliers in China Over Hazardous Chemical Pollution
Read the Article at Bulldog Reporter

How Florida Is Making It More Difficult to Vote in a Democracy
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo


Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines

 

Reaching a limit...

"The impact on daily living for the U.S. population could be severe.Our authors predict in addition to increased costs, states and cities will see their pension funds drained. The government will be forced to sell off infrastructure, including roads and transport, to private corporations. People will be increasingly charged for privatized utilities that were once regulated and subsidized. Commercial and private real estate will be worth less than half its current value. The negative equity that already plagues 25 percent of American homes will expand to include nearly all property owners. It will be difficult to borrow and impossible to sell real estate unless we accept massive losses. There will be block after block of empty stores and boarded-up houses. Foreclosures will be epidemic."

Global Plans To Replace The Dollar

Some weighty thoughts.. tough decisions... can it - does it...  get 'that bad'... and if there's a chance... when.
It was really not that long ago hardly anyone would have thought this kind of gamble was even in the realm of the possible.


 

Untold Millions At Risk...

Look at the first four countries on this list...
...with groundwater supplies increasingly in trouble world over, (U.S. included), it will not be very long before there are catastrophic issues about how the world is going to feed itself in the near future.

In India, groundwater-based irrigation systems are experiencing difficulties in different parts of the country as shallow aquifer levels are getting out of reach due to fast depletion of the groundwater table. Shallow tube-wells (STWs) now cannot draw water for about 46 percent irrigated cropland during dry season thanks to current level of groundwater declination.

In China's north plain, that country's breadbasket, 30 cubic kilometers (1.059 trillion cubic feet) more water are being extracted each year by farmers than are being replaced by the rain. Groundwater is used to produce 40 percent of the country's grain. The state paper China Daily admitted the nation "may be plunged into a water crisis" in less than 20 years, when its population is scheduled to peak at 1.6 billion.

The tube-well revolution, whose technology is adapted from the oil industry, has also swept water-stressed countries like Pakistan and Vietnam, where precious underground reserves are likewise being depleted. "Vietnam has quadrupled its number of tube wells in the past decade to one million, and water tables are plunging in the Pakistani state of Punjab, which produces 90 percent of the country's food.
Tube wells are sucking groundwater reserves dry, driving Asian countries towards environmental catastrophe.  
Arsenic poisoning is another additional and major calamity resulting from tube wells.

Tens of millions of these wells have been drilled over the past decade, many of them beyond any official control, and powerful electric pumps are being used to haul up the water at a rate that far outstrips replenishment by rainfall. The extraction is providing many countries with a lavish harvest in thirsty crops like rice, sugar cane and alfalfa, but the boom is bound to be cruelly short-lived, and the rebound soon to come extremely harsh.

Water tables are falling so dramatically within a short time, some landscapes could become arid or even be transformed into desert. In the case of India, smallholder farmers have driven 21 million tube wells into their fields and the number is increasing by a million wells per year. Nobody knows where the tube wells are or who owns them. There is no way anyone can control what happens to them.
Half of the India's traditional hand-dug wells have already run dry, as have millions of shallower tube wells, causing some despairing farmers to commit suicide.

When the balloon bursts, untold anarchy will be the lot of rural countrysides.

List of countries of the world ordered by irrigated land

Oligarchs Rule

 "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it."

Frederic Bastiat,  The Law**

 ************************************************

Democrats and Republicans... one party... two names...

.... (good article, be sure and read the full Robert's piece)

Today both parties are dependent for campaign finance on Wall Street, the military/security complex, AIPAC (America's pro-Israel lobby), the oil industry, agri-business, pharmaceuticals, and the insurance industry.
But it is the powerful private oligarchs that will continue to write the legislation Congress passes and the President signs. New members of Congress quickly discover achieving re-election requires bending to the oligarchs’ will.

Americans out of work, out of income, out of homes and prospects, and out of hope for their children’s careers are angry. But the political system offers them no way of bringing about change. They can change the elected servants of the oligarchs, but they cannot change the policies or the oligarchs.

Turning this around would require more realization than exists among policymakers and a deeper crisis.
And so the destructive policies continue... there is no re-regulation of the financial industry, because the financial industry will not allow it. The unaffordable wars continue, because they serve the profits of the military/security complex and promote military officers into higher ranks with more retirement pay. Elements within the government want to send U.S. troops into Pakistan and into Yemen. War with Iran is still on the table.

Control of the oligarchs extends to the media. The Clinton administration permitted a small number of mega-corporations to concentrate the U.S. media in a few hands. Now there are only five major corporations in control of the majority of all main stream media... it was not that long ago there were over 50!
Corporate advertising executives, not journalists, control the new American media, and the value of the mega-companies depends on government broadcast licenses. The media’s interest is now united with that of the government and the oligarchs.
On top of all the other factors making American elections meaningless, voters cannot even get correct information from the media about the problems that they and the country face.

As the economic situation is likely to continue deteriorating, the anger will grow. And you can be sure the oligarchs will try their utmost to direct the anger away from themselves and toward the vulnerable elements of the domestic population and 'foreign enemies'... as the rewards are far too great, and no other action will meet their purpose.

In the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819, where the British government sent cavalry to scatter a massive demonstration of 60,000 to 80,000 individuals demanding parliamentary reform, an enraged Percy Bysshe Shelly penned 'The Mask of Anarchy,' ... 
... which ended in words today’s powerful would do well to consider:

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number...
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many... they are few.

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** Notes on 'The Law':
When a reviewer wishes to give special recognition to a book, he predicts that it will still be read "a hundred years from now." The Law, first published as a pamphlet in June, 1850, is already more than a hundred years old. And because its truths are eternal, it will still be read when another century has passed. Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before — and immediately following — the Revolution of February 1848. This was the period when France was rapidly turning to complete socialism. As a Deputy to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Bastiat was studying and explaining each socialist fallacy as it appeared. And he explained how socialism must inevitably degenerate into communism. But most of his countrymen chose to ignore his logic. The explanations and arguments then advanced against socialism by Mr. Bastiat are — word for word — equally valid today.  It is said 'history repeats itself'... maybe we would be wise to take heed.

Oligarchs Rule « The Burning Platform

Age of Greed: People Should Get Organized‬‏

There are several independent news sourses to which I subscribe and receive regular updates... The Real News is one, and it is one of my favorites.

The Real News Network is a non-profit news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. Its staff, in collaboration with courageous journalists around the globe, investigate, report and debate stories on critical issues of our times. They are fully member supported and do not accept advertising, government or corporate funding.
Financial support for them (and other INS organizations) could not be more important in today's world.

This is another very good Real News interview series with Paul Jay... all parts are well worth watching... as a suggestion, watch this last one (part 4) first...

Jeff Madrick is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, and a former economics columnist for The New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at The Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School. His last book, The Case for Big Government (Princeton), was named one of two 2009 PEN Galbraith Non-Fiction Award Finalists. His new book is titled, Age of Greed, The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970-Present.

... then go back to the other parts....

Age of Greed, the Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to Present

It's important to note how the interview ends on Jeff Madrick indicating his belief we have become 'an elitist, class-driven society,' and as a result, unless eminent corrective action is taken, as a nation we could be in increasingly serious trouble.


And give extra thought to subscribing to TRNN... I'm sure if you do for just a short time, you will be 'hooked.'


Age of Greed: People Should Get Organized‬‏

Listening to Life, Before It's Too Late...

This is just a few excerpts from an interview with Ellen LaConte...(worthwhile website)...
...just might have to pick up her new book...

"Life has encoded in every other-than-human species a sort of protocol or blueprint of economic rules for survival, a set of behaviors and relationships that allow Life as we know it to live within earth's means, to be long-term sustainable. In the physical/material realm on this planet, Life calls the shots. Life rules, we don't. Other species have no choice but to obey those economic rules. We alone have a choice. And lately, as a species living under the influence of a global economy that has, in the vernacular, gone viral, we've chosen pridefully and foolishly to break all the rules. The way we live in the present Global Economic Order - capital G, capital E, capital O - isn't sustainable. It's pathological. It works at cross-purposes to everything small g, e and o – "geo," everything earthy. In particular, the GEO works at cross-purposes to Life."

"If you condense the 100,000 years or so that Homo sapiens sapiens, humans like us, have been around into the 24 hours of one day, the Global Economic Order has been in existence for less than a minute. We can live without a GEO, but we can't live without or apart from Life as we know it. So we have two choices: We can forego our present economic model and choose to learn and obey Life's economic rules. Or we can choose not to. In which case, Life will rule us out, adapt to our trespasses like an apple tree adapting to a lightening strike, and get on with its experiment in creating and sustaining more life just fine without us. Life rules, we don't."

"There's actually a pretty good explanation for the now almost-total disconnect between our perception of reality and our actual reality, between our sense as a species of being larger than Life and the inarguable fact that we are dependent on it for our very existence. Actually, there are a couple of explanations.
 

One is money. Since we use money - or its funny-money kin, such as credit and its ever-funnier-money kin like default swaps - to acquire the things we need and want, we don't provide those things for ourselves; we've lost track of where the things we need and want actually come from. We have little or no knowledge of the sources of our provisions or the damage done to living systems by the way we acquire them and the amounts of them we acquire. We've put our faith in the economy's ability to deliver what we need to us, so long as we have enough money. Money has come between us and substantial things - the real goods, resources and ecosystem services that we actually need to live. 

Money has kept us from seeing the truth of our circumstances, which is that soon there will be insufficient fossil fuels, plastics, clean fresh water, forests, living soil, grains, seafood, congenial and predictable climate, functioning governments. You name it, we'll run short of it ad infinitum. 

Another explanation for our ignorance of the reality of our present circumstances is that most people have never heard of or taken seriously the limiting factor on a finite planet called "carrying capacity" - the number of a species or a collection of species that an ecosystem can support long-term without suffering damage in excess of what the ecosystem itself can repair. In accounting, exceeding carrying capacity is called going bankrupt. That's where we're headed environmentally, as well as financially, right now. But most of us don't realize that's where we are yet, because in those previous 23 hours and 59 minutes of human history, we've either had more places - more "New Worlds" to move to, conquer and plunder - or new technologies that would do a better job of plundering the places we were in to provide for us.

We have just recently - in, say, the last 30 seconds of that last most recent minute of human history - hit that point in our global economic assault on living things and living systems both human and natural, that there's no going back. We have just hit what I call Critical Mass, which is the name I've given what others are calling collapse, the tipping point, the long emergency, or bottleneck. It's my name for our previously latent and slowly unfolding, now rapidly worsening planetary equivalent of HIV/AIDS."

"We need to periodically contemplate what we have we don't need, what harm having it causes, and whether we're willing to discomfort ourselves enough to un-have it... or at least some of it."

Listening to Life, Before It's Too Late: An Interview With Ellen LaConte | Truthout

... One-By-One ... ... ...

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

.... THEN ....



...(in fact, we are somewhere between one and two right now... 
and the pace of change is increasing very rapidly)...

 

In Our Lifetimes...

During the four billion years that life has been evolving on Earth there have been five distinct periods when as much as 90% of the species alive at the time suddenly disappear from the fossil record. Today, scientists believe that we are entering the 6th Mass Extinction. But unlike the previous five, this one will not take centuries to unfold—in fact, it will take place in our lifetimes.

As scientists begin to realize the severity of the crisis and new worldwide assessments are made, the news is difficult to believe. At least half of all plant and animal species are likely to disappear in the wild within the next 30-40 years, including many of the most familiar and beloved large mammals: elephants, polar bears, chimpanzees, gorillas and all the great apes, all the big cats, and many, many others. Bird species are similarly imperiled, songbird populations have declined by 50% in the last 40 years.

One out of every eight species of plant life worldwide and almost one third of the plant species within the United States already face extinction. Populations of large ocean fish have declined by 90% since the 1950s. All around the world, birds, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, as well as trees, flowering plants, and other flora, are all in steep decline. The rate of extinction today could be as much as 10,000 times greater than the expected natural or background extinction rate. Scientists estimate that tens of thousands of species are vanishing every year, including many that have yet to be discovered or named.

The solution is clear: in order to save our planet and secure a future for our own species and all species, we need a new worldview. We must recognize that technology alone cannot save us. We must realize that business-as-usual is no longer an option. Instead, we need to create fundamental change in our culture, our minds, and our hearts. Unique among all human generations, those of us alive today have been given a great opportunity: one last chance to preserve the vitality and magnificence of the living planet that brought us into being, and is our only home.

Will we have enough time to be able to come together... and save our future.

Call of Life