... a collection of recent web articles concerning important issues and challenges we face in our world today... along with some personal 'life' thoughts and observations mixed in.
We have in this country the ability to get back on the right track, but do we have the popular will & support essential to do so.
Maybe it will happen as more people respond and take to the streets, but we now live with a different opposition than in times past, and there are many more formidable obstacles to overcome.
All we must know is that it will not happen until a much larger percentage of the population awakens and begins to realize what is truly happening... and what will be needed to enact meaningful change.
"2 1/2 million pounds of depleted uranium weaponry was used to bomb Fallujah, causing beyond alarming numbers of deformed babies, miscarriages, and cancer, in a place where there are scant medical supplies and no new hospitals since 1986. Some U.S. soldiers who served in Fallujah also reported having deformed infants... AN UNDER-REPORTED TERRIBLE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY."
How is it possible any government can ignore, rationalize, and justify this... ... dropping 'WMM's"** on innocent people... uranium dust which emits alpha radiation and has a half life of over four billion years! Especially one claiming moral high ground, and extolling democratic superiority...
... once again... it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY..."...price of DU increased 10-fold, creating a huge multi-billion dollar industry."
The US is the largest single user of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry... and it is also the largest seller and exporter of DU weapon technology in the world.
And it begins once again... in the name of 'protecting civilians' in Libya.
How are civilians being 'protected' by dusting them with DU?
How can we continue to accept this being done to any population, by the government's declaration it is someway justifiable.. ...and exculpating those in charge, who so readily acquiesce to these extreme injustices, possibly by believing them somehow reformable?
... we must honestly ask ourselves...
...how would we feel about America, if this were our country...
* The DU name is conveniently misleading. According to the military, DU is a “mild health risk” outside of the human body... this is what soldiers and pilots are told. What is generally ignored, however, is what happens when the dust enters the body. By drinking, eating or breathing it in, DU radiation severely damages bone marrow and cellular chromosomes by internally emitting sub-atomic “bullets” known as alpha particles. This causes lung, lymph and brain cancers as well as mutagenic effects such as unusually high rates of leukemia and fetal radiation damage that cause grotesque birth defects. Uranium contamination also permanently impairs kidney, heart and liver function.
After two months of all-out effort, four reactors and at least that many spent fuel pools remain at risk. Levels of radiation in Tokyo, nearly 200 miles away, have risen... fallout has been detected in North America and throughout Europe.
Radiation continues pouring into the sea and is spreading worldwide.
Yet the Obama Administration has announced it will NOT be radiation monitoring of seafood in the Pacific... and is not providing reliable, systematic radiological or medical data on fallout coming to the United States.
We may all be in unprecedented danger.
But true to corporate loyalties, our media blackout is virtually complete... out of sight, out of mind appears to be the strategy for an industry desperate for federal loan guarantees and continued operation of a rickety fleet of decaying old reactors. Critical valve failures that contributed to the Fukushima disaster are likely at numerous US reactors.
For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV.
Our survival depends on stopping Fukushima from further irradiating us all.
ALL the world's governments must now go beyond denial, to focus on somehow bringing Fukushima under control.
With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge...
... even then the outcome is most disturbingly unclear.
Egyptian, Tunisian and Yemeni protesters all say that inequality is one of the main reasons they're protesting.
However, the U.S. actually has much greater inequality than in any of those countries.
Specifically, the "Gini Coefficient" - the figure economists use to measure inequality - is higher in the U.S.
'Americans vastly underestimate the degree of wealth inequality in America, and believe distribution should be far more equitable than it actually is.'
A PBS Frontline special from 2009.. still worth watching.
Ten Trillion two years ago... now over 14 Trillion...
...(just shy of the entire US GDP!!... $130k per taxpayer!!)
A program that everyone needs to see if the search for solutions is ever going to get beyond simplistic, accusatory catchphrases at times passing for economic policy debate in government.
Yea, Obama inherited lots of it... the federal government had already been borrowing huge numbers, and now, as the only entity big enough to revive the gasping economy, it has had to borrow much more.
The “starve the beast” economic philosophy, keep taxes low so government spending will automatically be kept low for lack of money, was a disaster, and ran off the rails.
And Bush took things an unprecedented step further by cutting taxes while simultaneously going to war...
... borrowing money from China while giving tax cuts to the most well-off people in the country... leaving the kids & gk's an outrageous bill for a war he and his cabal chose to fight.
The program just starts to scratch the surface on how we now have Obama following along this exact same path (led by most of the same group a guys got us there to begin with), and adding to the numbers... big time.
We have lived way beyond our means and we’re going to have to pay for it by spending much less on benefits, and we're going to have to collect more taxes.
A hard message to sell when unemployment is low and everybody’s feeling good... it’s impossible when people are frightened they’re going to lose their houses, their jobs, and their kids are going to be out of work.
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” – President Woodrow Wilson
... same laws... but still it happened... laws are written by men, not some greater power... existing laws are simply rewritten, or ignored altogether.... ... you still have to survive.... every single person wishes they could go back in time... ...you can’t guess the future, all you can do is estimate what can happen and play the odds in your favor... ... our belief is that it cannot happen... really, it's just a wish that it doesn't...
After many years of apathy in Argentina, the insurrection exploded... spontaneous revolt of “faceless” people... all the way to the city’s vital centers.
What happened to Argentina? ... how was it possible that in so rich a country so many people were hungry?
The country had been ransacked by a new form of aggression, committed in time of peace and in a democracy. A daily and silent violence caused greater social disruption, more emigration and death than the terrorism of the dictatorship and the Falklands War.
Ever since independence, 200 years ago, Argentina’s foreign debt has been a source of impoverishment and corruption, and the biggest scandals. Since the first loan negotiated in 1824 with the British Bank Baring Brothers, the debt was used to enrich Argentinean financiers, to control the finances and empty the country of its wealth.
This foreign debt always went hand in hand with big business, and with the complicity of nearly every government. The unending policy of indebtedness gave rise to generations of technocrats and bureaucrats, who favored banks and international corporations over their own country. Educated at Harvard, Chicago, Oxford, or other elite schools, their portraits hang in the official galleries of all government buildings....
... sound familiar? ... but no way it can happen here... can it?
Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%. Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations. The dollar was on par with the Argentine Peso... it was the Argentine equivalent of the roaring twenties...then chaos broke out as overnight the money left the country and the banks took the peoples money. The streets exploded and the government went through a succession of presidents in a few days. The film amazing as it shows just how easy it is for a country to go down the tubes by letting politicians worry about their interests more than those of the people. Many of Argentina's assets and resources were shamefully plundered. Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan. The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition. If you want to help prevent the same thing from possibly happening here, and it is starting to happen, right now,... join the revolution at the Kick Them All Out Project.
(side note - check out precious metal prices - less than 1% of the population owns any...
An important eight part video series exposes the Koch Brothers’ control over your job, your life, and your well-being.
You can be listed as a Producer for the Koch Brothers Exposed video series.
This project involved 4 months of hard work and MUST get finished and out to the world to educate the public.
It’s $40 billion of Koch money vs us!
.... 'Continue To Take Care Of Us When We Repeatedly Insist On Doing Dumb Things.'
An issue we are going to have to soon address... in our new climate changed world we are going to have more and increasing dramatic weather related events.
How are we going to keep paying for them?
As storms increase in intensity and frequency, more and more individuals are going to be affected... in some areas, over and over again.
Like it or not, the endless pot of money is just not there to provide for each and every time disaster is going to strike... at some point the system has to reflect this fact, and it will keep breaking down until it does.
People are going to have to realize they will have to leave some of these more susceptible areas in order to survive. In many instances government didn't do its job... letting them be there in the first place.
Like it or not, the new reality will have to set in... otherwise the situation only becomes that much worse and completely unwieldy.
It will become an ever increasing conflicting issue, as costs continue escalating... eventually spiraling totally out of control.
... consumers are largely unaware that 70 to 80 % of the processed foods we buy contain GM-Genetically Modified ingredients.
... we are 'largely unaware' because these foods are not labeled they contain GM ingredients.. even through 90% of consumers continuously state they want them so labeled.
... regulatory bodies and government are staffed with pro-GM people, a veritable revolving door from government to industry... a very serious issue that must be confronted and resolved.
... there are by design minimal requirements for independent testing of GM crops and foods.
... there is significant correlation between the increase in incidence of serious health problems and the introduction of various GM crops into our foods.
... more drastic are the cases of animals dying following their consumption of GM crops... not only lab test animals but farm animals.
... Monsanto and the biotech industry are well on their way to controlling the world`s seed markets.
... favorite fruits, vegetables and grains are being readied for the GM market that views us as guinea pigs.
This is an extremely serious issue... the real discussion should be about the audacity and illegitimate way GM crops have been forced on a reluctant United States and world.. and the money, corruption, politics and obfuscation characterizing its' rise to dominance.
The discussion should focus on how GM crops have taken over our food supply with little concern for safety or our right to choose, and our government's direct hand and continued complicity in support of corporate interests.
There are several truly important films dealing with this subject that you should watch... ...'The Future of Food'... 'Food Inc.'... 'The Future of Food.' Additional information regarding them can be found under the heading 'FilmsYouShouldSee' on the blog's Home bar.
The Sun is more active currently than at any time in the past 11,000 years.
Potent enough CME's (Corona Mass Ejections) can knock out grids, satellites, microchip circuitry, as well as thousands of pole transformers... all in a single blow. And once this equipment fails, most of it will require more than an overnight service call to fix.
For a significant event, the radiation will send electrical current downward in an arc and triggered a cascading failure of power grids across the world.
An ejection can pack the wallop of a billion hydrogen bombs. In 1989, a small one struck Quebec, Canada, causing a 9-hour electricity blackout for six million customers.
A NASA-funded study published in 2009 went so far as to suggest electric power and communications to tens of millions of people in the industrialized world could disappear for months.
With communications satellites disabled and the power grid inoperative, everything from the water supply to public transit would go out of service. Gasoline could no longer be pumped from underground tanks, stoplights would fail, consumers couldn't buy groceries, hospitals would become inaccessible and law enforcement personnel would have no way to communicate with each other.
In February 2010, NASA launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory, to join the army of space probes monitoring the situation. But like the others, this one can do nothing to thwart the impact of a CME, only watch.
Recent data shows that dramatic and potentially deadly effects can result from solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Substantial data suggests that an event, similar to the one anticipated in the 2012 'doomsday' scenario, occurred about 14,950 years ago and was recorded by ancient humans.
This event appears to have lasted for several years in duration and was responsible for the abrupt end of the last ice age.
The extreme solar event corresponded to powerful radiation coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and was associated with gamma rays and cosmic dust. Recent observations have shown a dramatic increase in gamma ray energy in the Galaxy's equator which will be in maximum alignment with our solar system on December 12, 2012.
The past records in ice cores (strata from 13,880 to 13,785 BCE) suggest that intense radiation from this last event could have lasted many years.
It seems highly likely this alignment will cause another extreme solar event, since other factors precipitating a 'solar maximum' also converge on this exact same date...
...we have up until that time to prepare.
Ask yourself a couple of questions... one...what, if anything, do you know about the 'School of the Americas'? You might not realize it, but it is having a dramatic and profound effect on all our lives, and those of millions of others in various regions all over the world.
All in Latin America have ample experience with US terrorist tactics. In South America alone 90,000 people disappeared as a direct result of the operation of the School of the Americas and US "counterinsurgency" policies (30 times more than the victims of the World Trade Center). It is estimated that the 64,000 Latin American troops trained at SOA since the 1960's have been involved in around 75,000 murders in El Salvador, 200,000 in Guatemala, and thousands more in other violence-torn countries such as Columbia.
According to the Center for International Policy, "The School of the Americas had been questioned for years, as it trained many military personnel before and during the years of the 'national security doctrine'... the dirty war years in the Southern Cone and the civil war years in Central America, in which the armed forces within several Latin American countries ruled or had disproportionate government influence and committed serious human rights violations in those countries."
And the next question... what is 'the second 9/11'? (Ours was not the first of dramatic importance.) U.S. terrorism is far worse because we are a powerful state. Take what happened on 9/11, it was a serious terrorist act. In Latin America, they often call it 'the second 9/11'... because there was another one, namely September 11th, 1973 (the original 9/11... giving rise to increased hatred of the U.S. for it's role in the incident).
"Suppose that al Qaeda had not just blown up the World Trade Center, but suppose they’d bombed the White House, killed the president, established a military dictatorship, killed maybe fifty to a hundred thousand people, tortured seven hundred thousand, instituted a major international terrorist center in Washington, which was overthrowing governments around the world and installing malicious dictatorships, assassinating people, and brought in a bunch of economists who drove the economy into its' worst disaster maybe in history. Well, that would be worse than what we call 9/11... and it did happen... namely on 9/11/1973."
Were the lives of those killed at the World Trade Center more valuable than the innocents murdered in Chile's U.S. backed coup.
SOA and WHINSEC graduates continue to surface in news reports regarding both current human rights cases and new reports.
Journalist and documentarian John Pilger focuses on the role played by the U.S. in promoting Latin American democracy, suggesting American leaders have often favored oppressive regimes over more democratic alternatives. Pilger, in his film 'The War On Democracy,' outlines the last five decades of political manipulation by the CIA and other U.S. agencies, focusing in particular on recent efforts to unseat the populist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
It flies in the face of the false realities being promulgated by media and powers with vested interests in the area. This is an important film you really should take the time to watch to better understand the continuing international policies of the American government throughout the world, and their effect on how the world population views the interventionist role of our government. It's truly a 'must see' film.
Having been to the Antarctic just a few months back had to post a link for this TED video I came across recently.
Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
TED is a great site... if you're not familiar with it, sign on to their subscription feed.
They send out an email once a week showing new presentations.
All are well done and always interesting.
(You can unsubscribe at any time).
Following the writings of individuals 'close to the ground' on these issues for some time... this is one of the most succinct I've recently come across. Not only does Ronnie Cummins unflinchingly lay out the 'way it is' now... he does what many do not do... informing us of what we need do to 'get through' to our future.
Not wanting to believe it is going to happen is fast becoming a non-option... ... critical issue now is devising a survivable path & workable strategy for the kids & gk's to follow. Cummins' perpends in his well written piece..."I’m horrified to ponder the thought my teenage son may have to struggle for sheer survival in a brutal, ecologically devastated, martial law state."...
The world is drowning in corporate fraud,... money talks, and it is corrupting politics and markets all over the world.
There is scant accountability... two years after the biggest financial crisis in history, fueled by biggest banks unscrupulous behavior, not a single financial leader has faced jail.
Corruption pays in American politics as well... most corporate crimes go un-noticed... and politicians often look the other way when corporate behavior crosses the line.
Close connections of wealth and power with the law, make reining in corporate crime an enormous struggle. Politicians must emancipate themselves from corporate donations, to regain the ability to control corporate abuses.
This is a very tough challenge.. but how much longer can we continue on. The system is severely straining with the weight of all the many enormous issues burdening it, yet the powers that be would appear to have a very definite plan, with no indication they are willing in any way to relinquish even one iota of their control.
2100 is as good a guess as any... and seems a long way off.
But that date is not fixed, and undoubtedly will change and shorten again in the very near future...(and remember of course no way is 63" a 'set in stone' maximum).
The question no one wants to tackle is when will we actually start to notice the dramatic sea level rise that most surely will come. As soon as that time comes, it is going to get very crazy in our world, as such a huge percentage of the world's major infrastructure and expanded population are in precarious proximity to shorelines and low lying areas.
Just set your mind to imagining the changes that the world will have to undergo are mind-boggling...(think New Orleans spread over the entire planet... and it's permanent).
Even if we began a crash program starting tomorrow (which of course there seems little likelihood of us doing).. there would, in all probability, not be enough time to counter the extreme catastrophe looming in our future.
...it is termed the worst country in the world into which a child can be born... where average life expectancy is 42 years of age... 7.4 million live with hunger and fear of starvation... millions more rely on food help... 20% of children die before the age of five....
... 6000+ US Soldiers killed... trillions of dollars wasted.... hundreds of thousands of civilians killed... tens of thousands imprisoned... torture as part of foreign policy...
...and each week taxpayers in the US continue spend two billion dollars to continue a senseless war...
Sanders saying LOTS that makes sense... thinkin maybe he should change his mind, and at run for President...
...if only to get some of what the other guys are not talkin bout into the debate.
In this unedited, extended interview, Bernie Sanders believes the Republican plan to cut social programs while extending tax cuts for the wealthy is insane.
If you have not been following this case closely, then take up the cause... ask yourself honestly, how much do I know about it.
We should all be absolute awe of the undaunted spirit of this young American.
What he has had to endure NO one should ever have to be subjected to... and to think it comes at the hands of one's own government is beyond comprehension.
If this is what our country has become and now stands for, then I'm in fact ashamed to say this is my country.
The video had originally been labeled as 'private', and this was the first time I had ever seen that... anyway, it did finally get posted... here it is:
Interview with Paul Jay from The Real News and William Lazonick
William Lazonick: SEC allows corporate executives to make fortunes exercising stock options after large buybacks boost prices.
Bio
William Lazonick is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he directs the Center for Industrial Competitiveness, and co-founder and president of The Academic-Industry Research Network (theAIRnet). He is also affiliated with the University of Bordeaux and the University of Ljubljana, and collaborates extensively on research in Europe. Previously, Lazonick was Assistant and Associate Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Professor of Economics at Barnard College of Columbia University, and Visiting Scholar and then Distinguished Research Professor at INSEAD. Lazonick holds a B.Com degree from the University of Toronto (1968), a M.Sc. degree in economics from the London School of Economics (1969), and a Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University (1975). In 1991 Uppsala University awarded him an honorary doctorate for his work on the theory and history of economic development. He is the author or editor of twelve books, including Competitive Advantage of the Shop Floor (Harvard University Press, 1990) and Business Organization and the Myth of the Market Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1991), and more than 100 academic articles. His latest book, Sustainable Prosperity in the New Economy? Business Organization and High-Tech Employment in the United States (Upjohn Institute for Employment Research 2009) has been awarded the 2010 Schumpeter Prize by the International Schumpeter Society. Currently Lazonick is directing an international project on financial institutions for innovation and development, funded by the Ford Foundation, and a project on the stock market and innovative enterprise funded by the Institute of New Economic Thinking.
Blackmail, bribery, quasi-legal 'subsidies'... glories of the free market...another 'shining' business model...
... rush to tell and show your kids how this is the way to large a portion of our biggest and best US corporations function today... business as usual, in our 'corporate welfare system.'...
Remember the old TV show... 'Who Do You Trust?'...
...we'll in today's hidden agenda world... ya gotta say... precious few...
....the Corporate State Always Wins...
".... see how you are manipulated? The Fed/TBTF/Govt/Media Complex is desperately clinging to power. Again, anyone with a brain knows that oil is rising because its denominated in dollars. Its the reason corn is rising. Its the reason gold is rising. Its the reason the stock market is rising. The world is awash in dollars, willfully printed by the Federal Reserve, to fund the U.S. government ponzi scheme. If you want to control inflation and bring the cost of crude oil down, you stop printing money and make the U.S. government function on revenues alone.
But that’s not going to happen, now is it? Nope. No way. So long as the politicians and their willing accomplices in the media can construct straw men upon whom you can vent your anger, change will never come.
Your politicians will distract your neighbors from focusing on the real problem (them) by encouraging them to chase dead ends, instead."
We live in a fragmented society.... ignorant of what is being done to us.... diverted by the absurd and political theater....
....so again... who do you trust... ya gotta figure, you're pretty much on your own!!
... approaching national debt on par with the total GDP of the country.... is very serious because most economic research suggests countries tend to decelerate in their growth and have more and more severe economic problems, once their debt-to-GDP ratio gets above about 90 per cent.... we’re about to go through that level...
... with its own backyard in disarray, the US is hardly in a position to hand out financial advice to others....
America’s financial management can be best defined by a non-stop borrowing binge...
... problem is so bad the US president cannot ignore it, and the government seems not to know how to solve it....
... changes will come gradually...Turkey, Iran, Russia, China are increasing the irrelevance of Washington.
Note: Bank of China is now allowing American firms to trade in renminbi, another step in China’s effort to position the currency on the world stage. Promoting the renminbi to Americans at a time when loose monetary policy on the part of the US Federal Reserve has some concerned the dollar’s value will continue to decline.
Monsanto's 'Terminator Gene' is a gene put into a seed, when the seed becomes a plant, that plant will not seed again it will be terminated. Basically this accomplishes sterility in plants.
Monsanto will make this a law so that any farmer has to buy only GMO seeds from Monsanto over and over again and they will again dominate the world.
Another modification Monsanto has in store is called the 'Cheater Gene' which appears to be a normal plant but with the addition of more chemicals it becomes another terminator gene and the plant will not be able to seed or be reproduced through it’s own seeds.
Monsanto will kill any seeds that are organic, they will produce low quality chemicals put into seeds that will require an increasing amount of chemicals to maintain and only Monsanto chemicals like Round Up will be used.
The control will be with this corporation only and they want to control all farms and your food supply.
This is a very powerful corporation with 21,000+ employees and over $10 billion in annual revenues.
Harboring a pretty insane and evil philosophy, with some grand ideas of world domination.
There is a very good documentary about the food industry in America today... you should make it a point to look it up and watch it... (it's on Watch Instantly on Netflix).
It has a major segment dealing with Monsanto... absolutely infuriating to say the least.
...the real problem for America may well be that it does not face a short-term crisis... cost of servicing America's debt today is actually lower than it was in 1998, at the height of the Clinton boom....
... why? ... even though the US debt now is much greater, interest rates are much lower... result is a lower bill...
... the real problem is that this short-term good news means Washington isn't really acting as if it faces a crisis, no matter the rhetoric....
people are still pushing their ideologies rather than fixing the problem...
... great danger is that once again, the American economy will momentarily outperform expectations and relieve politicians from having to make hard choices about entitlements and taxes...
...but it will only postpone the day of reckoning and make the crash that much more painful.... (be wise... take the time and prepare).
Many are the authors who may wonder if anyone is paying attention to what they write.
Professor Noam Chomsky, MIT's preeminent linguistics authority, doesn't have that problem.
Recent research on citations in three different citation indices show that Professor Chomsky is one of the most cited individuals in works published in the past 20 years.
In fact, his 3,874 citations in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index between 1980 and 1992 make him the most cited living person in that period and the eighth most cited source overall -- just behind famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and just ahead of philosopher Georg Hegel.
Indeed, Professor Chomsky is in illustrious company. The top ten cited sources during the period were: Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, Freud, Chomsky, Hegel and Cicero.
But that isn't all.
From 1972 to 1992, Professor Chomsky was cited 7,449 times in the Social Science Citation Index-likely the greatest number of times for a living person there as well, although the research into those numbers isn't complete. In addition, from 1974 to 1992 he was cited 1,619 times in the Science Citation Index.
"What it means is that he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines," said Theresa A. Tobin, the Humanities Librarian who checked the numbers.
"In fact," she added, "it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky.
Chomsky is a 'huge deal'... what he says we all should be mindful of, and listen to very carefully. This lengthy article is a must read (at least a couple times to grab all its' message) for anyone interested in the state of the world today.
And search out and watch his YouTube interviews... he's very easy to listen to and understand, and what he says is crucial to all of us in today's world.
Note: The list of url's for his speeches & interviews has been moved up top to the 'Home' bar on the blog... (ChomskyTalks).
From the get-go oil should have been looked at as a transition resource... and with a better vision, it could have been with us for possibly thousands of years. Instead it was treated as the end all of all end-all's, and as such 95% of all the stuff in our present day world in one way or another relates to oil... and so it incredibly might not last 100 years.
The real fault is at the doorstep of all the leaders that had time but for one reason or another, no inclination to make the changes necessary to lead us in another direction. We're even really not trying hard to do it now, when we all know how little time we have left with oil still somewhat available.
It's going to be very uncomfortable the day peak-oil arrives... our lives will change measurably. Another big gamble, that no one really has an answer to... will the drop come quickly, or will it be gradual.
There's a huge difference from one to the other... smart thing would be to plan for the worst. But sad reality is that we just can't seem to do the right thing on a consistent basis... get ready.
There's no doubt in my mind, doing away with the draft was one of the costliest decisions this country has made.
For there is no way it would be so easy to get involved and stay involved in conflict for so many years if not for the absence of conscript service.
The American people are far too removed from wars being fought... having friends and relatives in service would have stopped them in their tracks by now...
... with only 0.5 percent of Americans in the military (compared with 8.6 percent during World War II), we have relatively few witnesses to the butchery of soldiers and civilians who can come home to tell their stories....we don’t know war up close....
No question.. there is no 'morality' when it comes to top executive remuneration.
It's glom whatever you can get your hands on... whatever way you can do it.... ... from 2000 to 2008, the people running the top 14 US financial institutions received cash compensation (salary, bonus, and the value of stock sold) of around $2.6 BILLION!!
Not every one, but most of these characters are very bright guys. And they just might be reacting to the realization that the ship is sinking, and they are going to grab as much as possible for themselves before it goes under.
And it goes without saying that they know in today's world there is not much that is going to stop them... they might get slowed down a bit, but the system is on their side for whatever they want to get away with.
In 2005, Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. That law allows the EPA to regulate the injection of hazardous fluids into underground wells, a practice widely used to dispose of drilling wastewater.
Personally, I would not trust one of these characters as far I could toss them... yet we are relying on them to be honest and moral in protecting our drinking water from poisons.
Yea right... that's gonna work!!
In the next 10 years, the United States will use the fracturing technology to drill hundreds of thousands of wells in cities, rivers and watersheds. The problem is scientists and regulators have not answered crucial questions about the risks.... 29 chemicals that are known or possible carcinogens.
In the United States regulating the industry is going to be tough, because the federal government does not regulate hydraulic fracturing. Oversight is left to states where regulations vary widely.
Again we're rolling the dice that all will turn out right.
Another enormous bet... with quality of life for millions at stake.
... that last line of the article is for the most part the only one that's entirely incorrect.
It cannot continue on forever, it IS going to end, ... and it's going to end very badly for huge numbers of the population, and not only those in this country... the world will suffer greatly as well, nowhere will be immune.
It's a terrible indictment of what this country (and the world in general) has evolved into... what is being described here should be leading to charges and jail time, but instead they are able to continue on with their 'no holds barred' to hell with the world philosophy.
The system has been deliberately set up to proceed the way it is.. an ultimate con, and we're all the suckers just letting it go on and on... until it brings us all to our knees.
"The problem will come when the dollar starts to seriously erode against other currencies because too much of the currency has been put into circulation. When that happens, there may be a shift away from the dollar as the world’s “reserve currency.” Looking further, one could then imagine the US being unable to issue debt to foreign investors, because they would no longer want to be left holding dollars, and the US would have to either drastically reduce its debt, or borrow in foreign-denominated debt--say Yen or Euros or Renminbi."
That day might not be much longer, and all I can say is that we should all use the time to get ourselves ready for what is undoubtedly going to be one of the most unbelievably difficult periods in our history.
Be sure and read carefully Robert Scheer's article... and stay on top of this issue.. it's life or death for our democracy.
"Consumer confidence is down, the housing market is expected to decline an additional 10 percent over the next year, and the job market is predicted by most of the experts to stagnate for years to come. Continued tax breaks for the 1 percent of the population that controls 40 percent of the nation’s wealth will do nothing to restore the confidence of the other 99 percent of consumers who are suffering"
"This at least Obama seems to understand, but count on him to betray his instincts by once again following the advice of his treasury secretary and the Wall Street crowd that contributed so lavishly to his first presidential campaign and whose support he seeks once again."
If we are to climb out from this enormous hole we're in... this must end. This never ending cycle of corrupt money being poured into our political system must be brought under control. If not, our whole way of life is surely to be consumed by the self-serving elite with the money and power to overwhelm our political system.
Dear _________, Take Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefit cuts completely off the table. The overwhelming majority of Americans oppose cuts to these programs... ...but will support taxing the rich, ending corporate welfare, and heavily reducing military spending. That, plus investment in jobs, should be the plan. Be the leader all HOPED you would be.
Statistics about U.S. economy almost too crazy to believe:
Obama administration projects federal budget deficit will be $1,650,000,000,000 this year. Republicans and Democrats fight over budget cuts. Republicans proposing to cut the deficit by 1.59%. Democrats want it cut 0.86%.
Estimated total U.S. government debt will grow by 42% by 2015
U.S. economy actually grew more from 1930 to 1940 than during the past decade..
Over last decade, number of Americans without health insurance rose from 38 million to 52 million.
Agricultural commodities are soaring, price of corn has more than doubled over last 12 months. Corn is in thousands of our food products, this is a VERY frightening statistic. Rising food prices are an extremely serious issue throughout the entire world.
Between 1999 and 2009, real median household income in the United States declined by 5.0%.
Average American spends nearly a quarter of their income on food and gas... other parts of the world, it's almost, if not all of their income going for food.
Average U.S. household will spend $700 more on gasoline in 2011 than 2010.
Almost 25% of U.S. households now have zero net worth or negative net worth. In 2007, it was just 18.6%.As this figure grows, as it most surely will, more and more people have NOTHING to fall back on as times get even tougher.
Cost of the first week of attacks on Libya was 600 million dollars.
For the first time ever, OPEC will bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year, biggest customer is the United States.
China produced 19.8% of all goods consumed in the world last year. US only 19.4%.
US lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the WTO in 2001.
U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.
U.S. home values have fallen 6.3 trillion dollars since the peak of the real estate market in 2005... as hard as it is to believe, it will probably get even worse, as values fall even further.
One out of every 45 U.S. households was hit with a foreclosure filing in 2010.
Number of homes actually repossessed reached the 1 million mark for the first time ever in 2010.
New home sales set a brand new all-time record low in the month of February.
Home sales in the US are down 80% from the peak in July 2005.
American families financial condition continues to deteriorate rapidly. In 2010, one out of every eight families had at least one family member that was unemployed, highest since Labor Department began keeping track back in 1994.
More than 6 million have given up looking for work completely.
Average length of unemployment in the U.S. is now an all-time record 39 weeks.
Americans now owe $900 billion in student loans, also an all-time high.
Average household debt in the US is 136% of average household income.
Between 2007 and 2009 median household net worth in the US fell by 23%.
Median household debt in the US has risen to $75,600.
Purchasing power of dollar declined from $1.00 in 1913 to 4.6 cents in 2009...(unreal). Sadly, the Federal Reserve is working very hard to get rid of the little bit of purchasing power that the U.S. dollar has left.
From 2000 to 2008, the people running the top 14 US financial institutions received cash compensation... (salary, bonus, and the value of stock sold)... of approx. $2.6 BILLION DOLLARS!! "Of this amount, around $2 billion was received by the five best-paid individuals, who were also central to creating the highly risky asset structures that brought the financial system to the edge of the abyss: Sandy Weil (built Citigroup, which blew up shortly after he left); Hank Paulson (greatly expanded Goldman Sachs, lobbied for allowing more leverage in investment banks, then moved to the US Treasury and helped save them); Angelo Mozilo (built Countrywide, a central player in irresponsible mortgage lending); Dick Fuld (ran Lehman Brothers into the ground); and Jimmy Cayne (ran Bear Stearns into the ground)."
One great article... lays it out clear and simply stared.
More of these summary scenarios are beginning to appear.. eventually we might all be on the same page, fully understanding what is happening... question is, will there be time enough left for meaningful action.
For the blog bio, mention I never thought I'd be seeing these things that are now happening occur in my lifetime, Parenti mentions this exact same theme in his very well thought out and well written piece.
It could come to pass, that more of these guys that have the power to do something might eventually change their stripes and switch sides. But will they have that mindset or the will to act.
Bottom line is: profit & greed are enormous motivators.
Most all of us cannot really imagine what it's like to have that kind of temptation. .. just glad I don't have to make that choice.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, addresses the growing class divide taking place in the United States and inequality in an article... "Of the 1, by the 1, for the 1%."
Stiglitz is a professor at Columbia University and author of numerous books, most recently Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy.
"It’s not just that the people at the top are getting richer," Stiglitz says. "Actually, they’re gaining, and everybody else is decreasing... And right now, we are worse than old Europe."
Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth.
The top 1 percent have the best of most everything, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to buy them: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.
Through history, something the top 1 percent eventually learn.... but too late.
... of the 400 U.S. taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income, the effective federal income tax rate, what they actually pay, fell from almost 30% in 1995 to just under 17% in 2007, according to the IRS.
... for the approximately 1.4 million people who make up the top 1% of taxpayers, the effective federal income tax rate dropped from 29% to 23% in 2008. It may seem too fantastic to be true, but the top 400 end up paying a lower rate than the next 1,399,600.
---- between 1948 and 1979, the richest 10% of families in the US claimed 33% of average income growth.... between 2000 and 2007, the richest 10% claimed a full 100% of average income growth in the US.
---- business taxes were cut from 46 to 34% 25 years ago... but today 115 of the big 500 companies listed on Standard and Poor’s paid federal and other taxes of less than 20% over the last 5 years... GE's rate last yer was 7%.
---- top 5% US households claim 63% of the entire country’s wealth.... bottom 80% hold just 13% of the growth.
---- last year, John Paulson, a hedge fund manager “earned” $4.9 billion (that's in ONE year folks!!)... ten years ago it took 25 such managers to collectively earn that much. ... last year the top 25 hedge fund managers pocketed a total of $22 billion.... it would take over 440,000 people each earning $50,000 a year to match that amount.
---- there are now more people living in poverty in the US than at any time in the last 50 years.... foreclosure filings were nearly 4 million in 2010, up 23% since 2008.
Finally.. someone talking about the world's insane appetite for conflict and the direct relationship with weapons sales.
This is what it's ALL about... nothin else, plain and simple... money, big money... billions and billions of dollars.
Those espousing different, they're really avoiding the situation, or lying through their teeth... like most every recent and present politician and media mouthpiece worldwide (not all in either group, but close to it).
It is:
... why we have an 'unknown' number (THOUSANDS) of military bases in most every country on the planet...
... why we constantly keep getting involved in the most insane and ridiculous wars that never end...
... why we spend more than half our dollars on the MIC...
... and why we are flat out half a heartbeat from national (and ultimately worldwide) bankruptcy.
... serving in today's military.. high-class muscle-men for Big Business, for Wall Street and bankers.
All this back and forth name calling nonsense between politicians is just plain BS... deliberate obfuscation, to deflect attention from the real issues of who actually controls government through all the piles of cash flowing into their pockets... and the hard choices that must be made.
What politico do you constantly heard swearing, they ain't doing anything till that Citizens United decision gets fixed, and the country's insane military spending drastically gets cut. The power elite backing them prevent and will not allow even for them to hint at these real issues.
It's one (if not) 'the' main reason our government is so money corrupt. 'Untouchable' budget items... all in the name of getting outrageously rich.
Like Koehler states straightforward in his article... the oligarchs here in this country maintain, if they ain't gonna do it... someone, somewhere else will. So, with that logic, their gloming as much as they can, as fast as they can, and to hell with any of the consequences, no matter how harmful to the country (or the planet) that mantra may be.
They've created the perfect situation for themselves... they are in full control, and know exactly how they wish to proceed. But it's an arrogant doomsday scenario, taking us to a place where the world as we now know it cannot survive for much longer... the world just does not have resources to continue on with this madness indefinitely. They're all just burying their heads, expecting, hoping and praying it all crashes on someone else's watch...(and we should not delude ourselves, most realize it's gonna)... timing is their only real concern, not the unthinkable consequences of their inaction and dereliction.
John Stewart says in one of his recent bits... "we're now firing teaches and missiles simultaneously"... that's the life we've put together for our 'brave new world.'
We'd need divine intervention (or some other kind, not of this planet) to get this corrected... these guys just ain't givin it up any other way. It's said Obama will be the first billion dollar President... yep, you betcha... they'll be throwin millions (and billions ) more out there to stop their ponzi scheme from being dismantled.
If you're not a spiritual person, would suggest conversion rather soon... the world needs every prayer it can get right now.
Business of War: Federal & Private Military Contractors Profit Off War
Here we go again...
this coming Presidential election is going to seem to go on and on forever... but what's it really gonna matter... what's it going to change.
The structural problem we now have with government is going to continue. Why... cause no one's even talking about doing anything about it... so how for the love of money is it gonna get changed.
The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy.The wrong folks rule... they have the power, and ain't gonna give it up... they'll die first... and spend every last penny of their vast fortunes doing battle.
Obama wins... even if he does a 180, he's still facing the same bunch and would have them to confront and deal with... same old... same old.
Pick someone who's got a chance of winning besides Bama-man, combined with the skill-set to make this enormous redirection happen... please, give the world that name...
... Bachmann... OMG!! ... should it EVER become possible... we deserve what we would get!!
... Donald Trump... he wants the limelight, but not employment.
... 662 overseas bases but fails to include the 411 bases in Afghanistan, 88 remaining bases in Iraq, or sites in Qatar and other countries where military personnel are stationed
... maintaining and constructing all U.S. bases cost American taxpayers $41.6 billion in 2010
... Washington is responsible for nearly half of all global military expenditures, which totaled over $1.5 trillion in 2009
... demand the world dial back the military madness and devote resources to the real threats facing the planet: climate change, global poverty, nuclear proliferation.
... until Democrats agree to rein in entitlement spending, and Republicans back off the blank checks to the military industrial complex, all puffery in government amounts to political gamesmanship.
... in spite of all the rhetoric, we will go deeper in debt, the Fed will print more money, and the value of the dollar will continue to plummet. How long will it be before foreigners stop buying our debt, and hyperinflation arrives?
... throughout history, empires have always overextended themselves through conquests and wealth transfers leading to eventual collapse, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union. We are headed in the same direction and it seems only the chaos of the collapse of the dollar will stop the spending spree.
... arguing over funding for Planned Parenthood and NPR, though important, only shows that leadership in Washington either won't face reality, or don't understand how serious the problem is.
... no one in Washington has the will to tell the population the nanny state has to come to an end.
There is a growing sense that we're not going to be in a 'recovery' for quite some time. Our leaders have not generated the type of policy making required to turn things around. To the contrary they have made it a point to keep things just the way they are, why not, for those doing well, they are doing very well... and they're the ones in control.
We can probably go on like this for another several years, but it will get no better, there are no major sectors to pull us out of the hole we're in as there were in past recessions and depressions... we're not going to construct, manufacture, and spend our way out from under this economic meltdown.
And then there is the MIC sucking us dry... half century ago, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the "military industrial complex" created to fight two world wars was undermining democracy. Now it is undermining our real security as 60% of our tax dollars this year will pay for our present and future wars. We cannot continue on this crippling path of military spending without bankrupting the country.
And also on the world's horizon looms peak oil... that's the real game changer. As supplies of oil run short, our situation goes into very unknown territory. According to some of the experts, things will be very upsetting, as society begins to break down... civil unrest and rioting a regular occurrence. We're starting to see the beginnings of this already in many parts of the world, and it's happening in lots more places than we hear about, as mainstream media does not report it for one reason or another.
As each day passes, it's going to be even harder for those looking to turn away and bury heads. There are some things that could be done to make the impact less great, we're really not into doing them yet, probably won't until some form of leadership change takes place. Interesting question is.. who are going to be the 'lesser evils' to lead us from this morass. Who's your best guess?
Journey To Planet Earth is an exceptional program series from PBS...
... the PLAN B: Mobilizing to Save Civilizationsegment is especially well done, and should be 'must see' on your viewing list.
"Plan B" is the 12th episode of the award-winning PBS series Journey to Planet Earth, and it spans the globe... from China, Japan, Korea, India, Italy, Turkey, Bangladesh, Zambia, Haiti, and the United States... to explore new ideas in solving the challenges of global climate change.
Featuring some of the world’s most original and influential thinkers, "Plan B" provides audiences with a glimpse into a new and emerging economy based on renewable energy sources plus realistic strategies to avoid the growing threat of global warming.
Appearing with Lester Brown are Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman, former Governor and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, along with other scholars and scientists.
If you haven't already see it, go on PBS on the website, and search for when it will next appear.. then just set up an email alert for when it will be airing.
It is well worth searching out and watching. The whole series is important, but if you have to watch just one.. watch the latest segment 'Plan B - Mobilizing To Save Civilization'.
