I am putting this post up to give commenters who would like to carry on conversations related to previous posts a place to comment, since comments on my last post have been cut off.
Also, my family and I recently returned from a two-week vacation to Japan. The combination of the time away and jet lag has given me less time to research and write a full article. Here are a few observations, based on my recent trip to Japan:
General
The scenery is beautiful, but it is clear that the Japanese people and agriculture are squeezed into the small amount of land that is not mountainous and forested.
The amount of land being used for agriculture has been steadily falling. Our tour guide remarked that if an older person wanted to leave agriculture, getting solar panels installed is an alternate way of obtaining income. We did see quite a few solar panels. But does this approach make sense, when the amount of land farmed is relatively small and falling year-by-year? The USDA says, “Based on total calories consumed, Japan imports about 60 percent of its food each year.”
Tokyo-Edo Museum Visit
When we first arrived in Tokyo, before our bus tour began, we visited the Tokyo-Edo museum. This is a photo of one of the exhibits from the museum.
In previous posts, I have talked about economies being dissipative structures–growing for a fairly long period, before collapsing or obtaining an infusion of cheap energy. I thought that it was interesting that the Edo Period lasted 265 years (1603 – 1868). This is about as long as a person might expect an economy to last in its role as a dissipative structure. In the latter part of the Edo Period, there seemed to be increasing wealth disparity and problems with the government collecting enough taxes. These are things that we would expect to happen, as resources per capita start to fall and complexity starts to increase.
Free English Language Guided Tour of Museum
The three of us (my husband, son, and I) received a free three-hour English language guided tour from a volunteer guide at the Tokyo-Edo Museum. The guide told us that he is a 75-year old retired business man. There was no charge for his services; we were also told not to tip people in Japan.
My impression is that the no-tipping policy is a holdover from the gift economy approach that much of the world used before our current capitalist approach took over. Under the gift economy approach, people are expected to offer their services for nothing, with the expectation that others will reciprocate. This system has pluses and minuses. If pensions of some elderly people are inadequate, it makes it harder for them to provide personal services for wages, since others (with more adequate pensions) will do the same thing for free, as unpaid volunteers.
Traveling School Children
Everywhere we traveled, we encountered a large number of school children traveling on school trips. They often stayed at the same hotels as we did and visited the same sites as we did. In fact, in several places they seemed to be the majority of hotel guests.
The group of children shown above had prepared some type of recitation and response to be offered in the Hiroshima Peace Park. The group is lined up for their presentation, even though there was no real audience for their performance, other than a few of us from our tour bus who happened to be walking by. I can’t imagine US children doing this.
Our tour leader told us that only children whose parents can afford to pay for these class trips are allowed to go. As a result, there is a great deal of pressure on parents to save up money for these trips.
Roads in Japan
The roads in Japan impressed me as being incredibly expensive to build and maintain. Everywhere, we saw walls built along the side of the road, presumably to prevent falling rock. In the US, we just put up signs, “Beware of Falling [really fallen] Rock.” Of course, we have more space, so we don’t build our roads quite so close to the road cuts.
The white line near the side of the road is to mark off what I would call a “sidewalk substitute.” It is a low-cost way of giving pedestrians a little space to walk.
We saw other features that make roads expensive. Our tour bus drove through countless tunnels. We also drove on many sections where the road was elevated, so that more roads could be squeezed into less area.
Nearly everywhere, soundproofing panels have been added because roads are so close to buildings. Roads are being made in an earthquake-proof manner, which also adds to costs.
Our bus frequently drove through toll stations. Wikipedia indicates that most expressways were originally financed by debt, and the tolls are being collected to pay off this debt. The Japan Guide indicates to drive the length of Japan, toll payments of 39,000 yen ($349) are required for a private passenger automobile. This is expensive compared to tolls elsewhere.
Man Made Rocks
Something else I noticed in Japan that I hadn’t seen elsewhere was the use of man-made rocks. Here, they are being used to keep the sea from causing erosion under a major road that is very close to the edge of the sea. We saw other shapes of rocks being used for other purposes elsewhere.
Government Pensions in Japan
The National Pension program in Japan (somewhat equivalent to our Social Security) is based on the assumption that all participants in the program will make equal contributions to the program, regardless of income. In 2017, these contributions amount to 16,490 yen (or $147) per month. To get the maximum pension amount, a person has to contribute at the full level (whatever it is declared to be, each year) for 40 years.
Our bus tour guide told us that because of changing employers and resulting low income, he has been unable to make contributions in recent years. When he retires, he expects that his pension payments will be very low because of this. He seemed to be well educated and hardworking. If he is having pension problems, I expect that many others are also having pension problems. In fact, some may be having pension problems today. We saw quite a few older people working.
Bullet Trains in Japan
One thing we discovered is that Japan’s bullet trains are for people, not luggage. The racks over people’s heads hold a backpack or brief case, but not much more. If people have luggage, they generally send it a day or two ahead of time via a luggage transfer service. There is also no internet service available on these bullet trains.
We chose to take an airplane from Osaka to Tokyo. Airplanes will transfer both people and luggage.
Photo in Kotohira, Japan
This is a photo of my husband, son, and me, after we had climbed 865 steps to a shrine in Kotohira, Japan. We had a good but tiring trip.
Nordstrom family launches search for buyout partner
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nordstrom-m-a-family-idUSKBN1902RS?il=0
Everybody is tuned in. The minds of the masses are ripe for molding.
http://imgur.com/a/dkbj7
“Christmas in June”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DB4VK-jV0AErkjL.jpg
If he’s serious he might want to consider the fate of others who offended the El.ders… see Gaddafi … Saddam … observe Qatar … Syria…. have a look at Putin…
If you are going to F789 with the Jesus…. you better be prepared…. The Jesus is ruthless…
And why should they?
Do US and UK sports teams hold a minutes silence when they blow up innocent people? Of course if they did the games would start 3 hours late….
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-09/saudi-socer-team-refuse-observe-minutes-silence-london-terror-attack-victims
“When things start going really bad, people are going to call and say, ‘You must save me. It’s Western civilization. It’s going to collapse.’ And the Fed, who is made up of bureaucrats and politicians, will say, ‘Well, we better do something.’ And they’ll try but it won’t work. It’ll cause some rallies but it won’t work this time.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-09/jim-rogers-says-next-crisis-will-be-biggest-my-lifetime
Delusistani Jim Rogers does not understand that this “worst crash in your lifetime” (he thinks Blodgett, the interviewer, will still have a job for Pete’s sake lolllll) will be FINAL..all of Industrial Civ will collapse and take us with it….
http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rogers-worst-crash-lifetime-coming-2017-6
I remember when I used to listen to that pecker head all the time. The “legendary” Jim Rogers. God, I wasted a lot of time on those guys.
Jim did call the commodity boom in advance … so one could have made a lot of cash following his advice…..
But if one had listened one would want to be blowing the gains at a fairly rapid clip…
I have not noticed Jim giving advice to do that … 🙂
I do remember him telling one of the CNBs cheerleaders that she should take up farming — she laughed a bit uncomfortably… assumed he was kidding — he reiterated saying he was serious…
Who knows what these guys really think — they ain’t gonna say…
Recall Steve Baum (Eismann) in The Big Short — when he realized what was happening and that he could make a fortune off of his insights — he was anything but happy — in fact he believed BAU was going to collapse…
If he saw that then — imagine what he really thinks about the current situation — I would expect that a fair number of people in the financial world are feeling very uneasy about what is happening — you don’t have to understand the energy angle to recognize that CBs propping up all markets — will end very very badly.
He is smarter than me, obviously, but I remember well his farmers are going to be rich line.
Driving the fancy cars.
If there are the people in the financial world that are not feeling uneasy at this point they must have something wrong with them.
If he does think that we will collapse and it will be the end, I would say he is a very good actor the way he tells Blodgett he will be okay because someone has to report what is happening…. :0
He probably doesn’t know it’s The End…. if he did he’d be too busy blowing his many millions to bother doing interviews.
I wonder if I could convince Jim that this is The End — and that he really should be hiring a private jet and taking like-minded people on a tour of the worlds best clubs…. resorts etc….
He could be like a sugar daddy to all of us…..
And by enlightening him he could look at this as repayment for letting him know that time is short — and it should not be wasted on CNBs appearances….
LLL Jim. LLL…. bring us along
F88k, that is great idea FE! You might get the jet yet…ITEOTWAWKI..we need you to get the details done on the women!
One can only hope….. can you guys swing down south … I’ll be waiting at the Nelson airport with my suitcase….
Hmm, that got me thinking. Name one job that makes a living wage today (> 50K/yr) that isn’t parasitic.
AI researchers making the world better by automating 90% of all jobs.
I think you forgot to add the /sarc tag at the end of your post.
There is no job in a capitalistic economy that is not parasitic.
Even a psychotherapist is making you adjust and fit into a parasitic society.
Easy!
Plumber. Kitchen fitter. Electrician.
In London that is.
What’s funny is that his kids apparently learnt Mandarin because China will be spared from the collapse of western civilisation…wtf?! deLuZIoNal
After flatlining for the past year, US income tax receipts – both at the federal government and on a state and local level – have been disappointing, and have posted a sharp drop since the start of the year, which is “sounding an alarm about the health of the US economy” in BofA’s words (in addition to the countless other alarms about the health of the economy, which however are ignored due to the record stock market).
As Bank of America highlights something we warned about last September, according to the Rockefeller Institute and CBO, US federal income tax receipts have come in about 3% below expectations this year.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-09/state-corporate-tax-receipts-just-crashed-most-recession
Great graphs!
the second chart (their “chart of the day”) is the most telling. it shows that we have already entered another recession in late 2016. all that remains is an official recognition and adding some gray shading to that plot. it appears to me that it will hard to ignore/pretend about this situation much longer. probably it hits the fan in the fall, when everyone is back from their summer vacations. October is a nice month for a crash.
I agree–that is a great chart. This is it:
Angry man denied assistance releases around 100 bed bugs in city office.
http://wtvr.com/2017/06/05/angry-man-denied-assistance-releases-around-100-bed-bugs-in-city-office/
The Revolution has begun!!!!
America’s real red scare
The slow-motion collapse of the American Empire
http://www.salon.com/2017/06/08/americas-real-red-scare_partner/
Be bold for shit wages.
http://imgur.com/nL8cYJD
The toy wages for the toy world.
I live in Hippitown. The Green party rules supreme. The public transportation busses are painted green with flowers. We all use green electricity (wood). We are surrounded by forests and lakes. Everybody is eating ice-cream in the sun and getting fat. There is zero awareness of collapse in this little town… well… except for the town debt which is exploding… but since the ECB is printing no one really cares.
Let me guess buses already according to latest ver “EURO6” emission standards..
/sarc
Buses with flowers on are a bit like bombs and missiles with smiley faces.
A nice story that sells well.
War is brewing. Terrorism. Russia 24/7. Everybody is tuned in. The minds of the masses are ripe for molding.
Qatar has started positioning tanks on its borders, Saudi Arabia is demanding Al-Jazeera shut down, and two delivery ships carrying natural gas were denied entry into Great Britain.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/qatar-diplomatic-crisis-latest-updates 170605105550769.html
Qatar 11,800 men, 2B/year Military
KSA 688,000 men, 88B/year Military
This my be brief!
Turkey, Iran, and other heavy weights ready to deploy “help” to Qatar if necessary..
But we are not there yet, still nothing going on the visible (crash-burn-boom) front
Qatar to my understanding has the largest natural gas deposits in the world, so countries that ostracize them better be sure. The world better be sure, because if anything like what happened in Libya happens in Qatar, then maybe those deposits get squandered or detonated or burned off and then people will wonder if it could have been handled differently.
Mr. Brexit Nigel Farage doubts that Brexit is going to happen at all and contemplates a return to politics after his UKIP was decimated. The outcome of the election could be interpreted as “Bregret”.
Great point. We can*t discount the possibility, that calling this unnecessary elections was planned sabotage (Tory inside job) to effectively cripple at least some if not many of the sharp-edgy negotiating points about BREXIT. In another words, soft BREXIT materializes eventually out of it all.. And as pointed above, in forth turning, in couple of years and past several crashes, and further elections leaning quasi command economy, well UK can re-join some “new better union”. This smells like their cunning plan.
Disclaimer I don’t assign it the highest priority, but they might want play it..
If Brexit matters to the El.ders… it will not be allowed to happen.
Just like the Greek and Italian referendums that were proposed a number of years ago — never happened.
Worldof
Had occurred to me, too.
The El.ders have already blessed Brexit just as they’ve blessed Trump. As long as they run the planet at the top level,the shape and makeup of the local and regional administrative divisions doesn’t really matter much to them.
A long time ago, they realized that most people generally don’t mind being ruled, but they strongly dislike being ruled by what they perceive as foreign entities or foreign people.
When the EU was generally perceived as “us Europeans ruling ourselves” it was successful as a PR exercise. Also, showering the less developed regions with “free euros” helped buy support for a while. But once the EU is generally perceived as a continental elite who can’t even speak our language properly and/or who are basically acting as an occupying power, then it’s game over.
The Greek experience is very instructive as to what can happen when people find out that those “free euros” had a price tag after all, and that the EU was not just a big friendly ATM. The Scots, Irish and anyone else who is dependent on EU subsidies would do well to heed the lesson of the Greek tragedy.
‘As long as they run the planet at the top level,the shape and makeup of the local and regional administrative divisions doesn’t really matter much to them.’
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hey FE can you share that link from the IEA that says high oil prices hurt economic growth please? or anyone else?
According to the OECD Economics Department and the International Monetary Fund Research Department, a sustained $10 per barrel increase in oil prices from $25 to $35 would result in the OECD as a whole losing 0.4% of GDP in the first and second years of higher prices. http://www.iea.org/textbase/npsum/high_oil04sum.pdf
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-09/nothing-else-matters-central-banks-have-bought-record-15-trillion-assets-2017
Remember when FE posted that it is USD1T in the first 4 months of 2017. Well, for the first 5 months of 2017, it is now USD1.5T. If you don’t see this as exponential, I don’t know what it is…..
FE – super desperation…. I gave up…. I am now going to enjoy my whiskey
Whiskey, and plenty of it, CTG.
I recommend Glenlivet 18y single malt or Talisker.
May as well indulge….
Talisker !! Good choice..
Will get an order in for that…. thanks for the recommendation
Laphroig 10 year old. Tastes like medicine, and probably is.
We wrote about it here several times, estimated range about 3-4T per year seems correct so far..
An article just recently posted on Google news reports that even moderate alcohol consumption leads to atrophy of the Hippocampus (in the brain), so easy on the sloshiness because it leads to Alzheimer’s. I knew someone that romanticized drinking alcohol, specifically Tequilla and then later Bourbon in his retirement and he got Alzheimer’s. Not a pretty state believe me. Sitting in a nursing home, no short term memory, barely cognizant, little or no appetite, no control over bodily functions, etc.
My wife and I drink water. People seem to have this predilection not to drink water, but that is mostly what the body needs. It keeps the kidney’s clean, the mind clear, nothing like it.
One of the great things about having no future is not worrying so much about money or health. Cheers!
I believe the colloquial expression is: “SISSY!”
Just kidding, but worrying about Alzheimer’s when humanity has a few years left? I’m leaning toward Epicureanism lately.
“I’m leaning toward Epicureanism lately”
Hahaha, well said Snorp…BTW Great Song!!!! Thanks for that gem!!!
Guys, that is an absolutely awesome song. Right now we should be trying to challenge our livers and completely wearing out our most important organ!
I’ll drink to that. Water, I mean. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to have squandered one’s health thinking that one didn’t have a future and it didn’t matter…and then things didn’t turn out as bad as expected and one’s health did matter.
We all die no matter what we do — if a bottle of wine per night is your thing — go for it. Even if the world is not going to end before your life….
A few drops of water …. with an ounce of good single malt…. clears the head
Probably some sense, then, in the old rule of always having a pint of water after drinking. And days of ‘fasting’, with little food and only water to drink.
Ah, but what the hell is in the water these days?! The tap stuff here is like some industrial cleaner…….
Sitting in a nursing home, no short term memory….
I drink to forget.
My wife and I drink water. People seem to have this predilection not to drink water, but that is mostly what the body needs. It keeps the kidney’s clean, the mind clear, nothing like it.
Have you tried it with a slice of lemon, a few ice cubes, and just a dash of vodka?
If a Puritan skinker do cry,
“Dear Brother it is a sin,
To drink if you be dry.”
Then straight this tale I begin.
A Puritan lay down his can
And took up a foaming jug
And there he played the man
As long as he could tug.
And when that he was spied
Did ever he swear or rail?
“No truly, dear brother,” he cried,
“Indeed all flesh is frail.”
If a man should be drunk tonight
And laid in his grave tomorrow
Would you or any man say
That he died of care or sorrow?
Hang up all sorrow and care
`Tis able to kill a cat
And he that will drink all night
Is never afraid of that!
For drinking will make a man quaff,
And quaffing will make a man sing;
Singing will make a man laugh,
And laughter long life doth bring.
https://youtu.be/OC9Mp8EaMJE
Great stuff, Tim. Another thing about drinking I’ve always liked is the bonds it creates with
friends and how well you get to know the people you drink with. There should be a psalm devoted to a good drinking buddy!
Alcohol ‘more harmful than heroin or crack’
After extensive personal research, I can confirm this to be the case. I never touch alcohol anymore.
A man has to know his limits for sure.
Every night I see the after effects of excessive alcohol consumption. I always feel sorry for the people throwing up and lying in the gutter. (I’m considerably less sympathetic if they throw up in my car.) If you want to bond with somebody, ecstasy is 10x better than alcohol. Unfortunately, the magic of that wears off after you’ve done it a few times. Nothing wrong with feeling normal, anyway.
My only vice these days: Choco Leibniz 😉
Haha Yorchichan, about 2 months ago I kinda went overboard in my drinking (and mixed a loooooot of different types of drinks)….so I took a taxi home…half-way there, I managed to tell him to stop the taxi so I could do my thing (I had not puked in years lol)…needless to say the taxi driver was very happy + I gave him a sizable tip for having put up with me and driving me home…one thing (a rookie mistake on my part)…when you go off on a bender…stay with the SAME drink all night….
Jim Breuer illustrated that fact in a very clever, hilarious way at the Just For Laughs festival here in MTL a few years ago…Brilliant:
I guess I look at it more like food. Both can be abused and ruin your life while at the same time being the occasion of the greatest feasts and memories.
If everyone were to take a tab of ecstasy instead of hammering booze…. the world would be a far better place…..
Think the happiest moment you have ever had in your life … then multiply that by 1000 …. that is ecstasy….
If any drug should be legalized…. this is it:
http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/MAC28_PTSD_CAROUSEL04.jpg
+++++++++++
https://img.thewhiskyexchange.com/540/hlpob.18yov2.jpg
Except perhaps the ratio of US liquidity injections to everyone else’s affects where the dollar floats.
Interesting:
http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/DB3PPqBUQAADDMe.jpg-large.jpeg
Corbyn’s certainly is the most astonishing story. After Labour again lost the general election in 2015, Corbyn had to beg a few fellow MPs to support him as a candidate, to widen the choice. They did so, and one or two publicly later regretted it. Members of the public were allowed to join the Labour Party and vote. Thousands of young people did so and voted for Jeremy Corbyn, who duly became leader.
Here was a figure who looked like a cross between Worzel Gummidge and Catweazle (if you know your old British TV programmes). Most of his MPs were embarrassed to have him as a leader, and Prime Minister Cameron routinely insulted him in the House of Commons. Still he soldiered on.
MPs claimed that Corbyn didn’t do enough in the Brexit referendum. On 28 June 2016 he lost the vote of confidence by Labour Party MPs by 172–40. However, the rules entitled him to stand again in the leadership contest, and he won again with an increased majority. Corbyn was re-elected as Labour leader on 24 September 2016, with 313,209 votes (61.8%) compared to 193,229 (38.2%) for Owen Smith
There was open talk in the Labour Party of a split, such as happened in the 1980s when the Social Democratic party was formed by break-away Labour MPs. Still Corbyn soldiered on, as he knew he had a small but solid base of left-wing support in the country. He appealed to the public, over the heads of his MPs.
When opinion polls suggested that Labour would be slaughtered in a general election, leading to a Tory landslide, Prime Minister May took her fateful decision. She made major errors during the election campaign. She refused to join in the party leaders’ TV debate, and ended up looking arrogant. Corbyn’s performance was surprisingly thoughtful, moderate and effective. Meanwhile, May repeated wooden phrases (“Strong and stable!”), leading to a new meme on social media: the Maybot!
The one-time ridiculed ragamuffin Corbyn wore a smart suit and was allegedly coached by Bernie Sanders. He played a blinder and markedly increased his party’s vote. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Meanwhile, the Sun, a Conservative newspaper, headlined this morning with “MAYHEM”.
But back to OFW – what difference does this all make anyway?
Yep, the turn-out among youth/young adults was ~70%.
4th turning trend again vindicated at another junction, these folk would vote (or otherwise support) any hard core redistribution command style economy after the next crash. Plan accordingly..
Yes, some of the youth have been angry for a long time.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/nov/10/student-protest-fees-violent
I have a customer who is a charming old boy, now retired. He couldn’t afford to go to university at 18, went straight into surveying and ended up in a senior national planning post, got his degree later.
Having done so, he paid for his son to be privately educated: not too bright, nor skilled in anything lucrative, the kid rails against his father’s generation for ‘having it all’ and calls him a ‘fascist.’ He is all for re-distribution asap.
It’s very sad. These disenchanted, and spoiled, young people are going to be dangerous: they know nothing of history, and feel cheated of everything that advertising promises them. I can see them knocking baby-boomers on the head to get their houses…..
I think it is Corbyn’s socialist views rather than his appearance that causes many Labour MPs to want him out (mostly because they fear for their own jobs as MPs). He looks far more prime ministerial material than Michael Foot ever did.
“I think it is Corbyn’s socialist views rather than his appearance that causes many Labour MPs to want him out”
You’re quite right, of course, but his appearance did attract comments, and you are supposed to make an effort if you are in a public position. He did eventually do so.
It is difficult to say who would make good prime ministerial material. Foot was a fine speaker and had worked as a newspaper editor. Who can say how he might have turned out, given the chance? Mrs Thatcher was not particularly impressive, prior to 1979. I remember one of her slogans: “Why should the workers get the crumbs when the shirkers get the plums?” Groan. 😉
On the issue of looks, we probably have the ugliest set of political leaders in the UK for many a century, and now Arlene Foster has just joined the fray. Who says you have to be photogenic to succeed?
A friend of mine met a former Labour minister in Blair’s government, at some smart event: he actually said ‘You know, I was never a Socialist in the first place.’
But was he even a social democrat? I found it strange that both Blair and Brown, during their premierships, publicly invited Mrs Thatcher to visit 10 downing Street, and it was filmed in both cases. They never invited any surviving Labour ex-prime ministers. Thatcher was given a state funeral – the first since Winston Churchill. That probably indicates the extent to which she Thatcherised the UK.
You guys are missing the larger point here.
Obviously, Vlad Putin hacked the UK election in a conspiracy with Merkel, Macron and George Soros for some inscrutable reason that has escaped us all for the moment. You know it makes sense!
A little more seriously, this looks like the result of a protest vote by the youngsters, who did it to upset their elders. We should never have handed out the franchise to teenagers in the first place. What’s the matter with kids today?
Also, allowing women to head political parties is providing added drama in the UK. The female head of the Conservatives is now calling on the female head of the Democratic Unionist Party in Ulster to shore up her majority. The DUP lady opposes same-sex marriage on religious and historical grounds, while the female head of the Scottish Conservatives, a prominent supporter of same-sex marriage, opposes the deal with the DUP. Meanwhile the female head of the Scottish Nationalist Party has been campaigning for a second referendum on Scottish independence and up until the election was saying that if that didn’t succeed she would campaign for a third one.
GIve me blokes in charge every time, I’m afraid. At least with blokes they can have a barney, trade insults and tell each other off and then get together in the pub for a few beers afterwards. That way everything gets sorted, innit?
Truth bomb, Tim;-)
It was a lot more than just youngsters. I could feel sentiment changing as the campaign went on. In the end, Labour even won Kensington, for goodness’ sake. Corbyn managed to sound sensible, moderate and modest, which I’m sure he wouldn’t be if PM. He took May’s slogans and rubbished them: “No deal is better than a bad deal”, she said on Brexit. Corbyn rubbished the logic of that one, which wasn’t hard to do. And May earned the title of Maybot within the space of the campaign, which was entirely due to her wooden performance. She did herself no favours by refusing to take part in the televised party leaders’ debate. In this era of “Big Brother” and “reality shows”, there are many people (my sister included) who watch this debate, despite having no interest in politics otherwise.
I could barely recognise Corbyn as the same person who first stumbled onto the national stage. I didn’t vote for anybody, tho – what’s the point when they think BAU will last and don’t see the wider issues?
CP-
What do you think the election results will have on the independence movement in Scotland?
There are 59 seats / constituencies / MPs in Scotland. In the 2015 general election, the Scottish Nationalists won 56 seats, while the Conservative, Labour and the Lib Dems won one seat each. Now, after the 2017 general election, the SNP have 35 seats, the Tories 13, Labour 7 and the Lib Dems 4.
So, the Tories gained 12 seats in Scotland and Labour only 6. Scotland used to be deeply anti-Tory. But it has helped to save Theresa May – for now. It’s as if the Scots have said, “Well, we had our independence referendum – not so much use for the Scots Nats now”. And in England and Wales, the UKIP vote is way down, now that Brexit has been secured. It looks like a return to two party politics.
Scotland is still deeply split. Probably up to 40% would still go for independence, given the chance. The younger generations are more independence-minded, so in 10, 15, 20 years’ time, who knows. But within that time span, will BAU still exist anyway?
We saw a few secessions in Eastern Europe after the deep-freeze of communism, but that was a special case. Secessions in the Western world are far harder to come by. Look at how often people have predicted Belgium would split up, but it still hasn’t happened yet. And in your own country, Quebec has had two or three tries, I believe, without success. These sentiments are not static – they come and go. So if you are looking for Scotland to secede, don’t hold your breath. It’ll be a long time away or never – if BAU holds. If not, all bets are off. 😉
Thanks CP. While I think people are better off with small, localized government I have no strong feelings about the issue of Scotland seceding. I just find it interesting since my ancestors are from their. They seem deluded that they would be better of economically though.
As for Quebec, with all due respect to my virtual drinking buddy, ITEOTWAWKI, they have held this country ransom with the threat of separation for years. Good or bad, Canada would be a very different place where it not for Quebec.
In keeping with the theme here, our countries entropy is much higher with the place than without it;-). Nice people and super hot women.
Haha Joe, it’s been a while though that the issue of separation has been on the back-burner…millennials and immigrants are overwhelmingly against, and the old-timer separatists are dying off…so even if our Industrial Civ had a future (which it obviously doesn’t) Quebec would never separate from Canada…
Jus a bit before my time, but Newfoundland wasn’t always part of Canada. They only joined in 1949. And there are those who say that the fix was put in by the Brits and Canadians.
From WIkipedia:
Due to Newfoundland’s high debt load, arising from World War I and construction of the Newfoundland Railway, and decreasing revenue, due to the collapse of fish prices, the Newfoundland legislature voted itself out of existence in 1933,[67] in exchange for loan guarantees by the Crown and a promise it would be re-established.[68]:8–10[69] On February 16, 1934, the Commission of Government was sworn in, ending 79 years of responsible government.[67] The Commission consisted of seven persons appointed by the British government. For 15 years no elections took place, and no legislature was convened.[70]
When prosperity returned with World War II, agitation began to end the Commission, and reinstate responsible government.[71] But, the British government created the National Convention in 1946, reflecting efforts in self-determination among European nationalities that followed WWII. The Convention, made of up representatives from throughout the country, was formally tasked to advise on the future of Newfoundland. Chaired by Judge Cyril J. Fox, it consisted of 45 elected members from across the province.
How the electorate voted in the 1948 referendum
Several motions were made by Joey Smallwood (a member of the convention who later served as the first premier of Newfoundland[72]) to examine joining Canada by sending a delegation to Ottawa.[72] The first motion was defeated, although the Convention later decided to send delegations to both London and Ottawa to explore alternatives.[73][74] In January 1948, the National Convention voted against putting Confederation onto the referendum 29 to 16; but, this vote was over-ruled by the British, which controlled the National Convention and the subsequent referendum.[68] Those who supported Confederation were extremely disappointed with the recommendations of the National Convention and organized a petition which more than 50,000 Newfoundlanders signed demanding that Confederation with Canada be placed before the people in the upcoming referendum. As most historians agree, the British government keenly wanted Confederation on the ballot and they made sure that it was.[75]
Three main factions actively campaigned during the leadup to the referendums. Smallwood led the Confederate Association (CA), advocating union with the Canadian Confederation. They campaigned through a newspaper known as The Confederate. The Responsible Government League (RGL), led by Peter Cashin, advocated an independent Newfoundland with a return to responsible government. Their newspaper was The Independent. A third, smaller Economic Union Party (EUP), led by Chesley Crosbie, advocated closer economic ties with the United States. Though a 1947 poll found 80% of Newfoundland residents wanting to become Americans,[76] the EUP failed to gain much attention, and merged with the RGL after the first referendum.[77]
The first referendum took place on June 3, 1948; 44.6% of people voted for responsible government, 41.1% voted for confederation with Canada, while 14.3% voted for Commission of Government. Since none of the choices had gained over 50%, a second referendum with only the two more popular choices was held on July 22, 1948. The official outcome of that referendum was 52.3% for confederation with Canada and 47.7% for responsible (independent) government.[78]
After the referendum, a seven-man delegation was picked by the British governor to negotiate Canada’s offer on behalf of Newfoundland. After six of the seven-man delegation signed, the British Government passed the British North America Act, 1949 through Parliament. Newfoundland officially joined Canada at midnight, March 31, 1949.[78]
As documents in British and Canadian archives came available in the 1980s, it became clear that both Canada and the United Kingdom wanted Newfoundland to join Canada. Some have charged that it was a conspiracy to manoeuvre Newfoundland into Confederation, in exchange for forgiveness of Britain’s war debt and for other considerations,[68]:68 but most historians who have examined the government documents have concluded that while Britain engineered the inclusion of Confederation in the referendum, Newfoundlanders made the final decision themselves although it was a close vote.[79]
Subsequent to the referendum, there had been hearsay that the referendum was narrowly won by the responsible government side, but the result was fixed by the British governor.[68]:225–26 Shortly after the referendum, several boxes of ballots from St. John’s were burned by order of Herman William Quinton, one of only two commissioners who supported confederation.[68]:224 Some have argued that independent oversight of the vote tallying was lacking but the process was supervised by respected Corner Brook Magistrate Nehemiah Short who had also overseen elections to the National Convention.[68]:224–25
Behold the US master RACE!
http://imgur.com/a/PsLYK
Sorry, this is most likely not shot in the US..
Anyway, the expression seems familiar, during WWII ~these guys~ were obviously not the material fit to operate fighter planes, tanks, infantry or work in the tech-dev sectors. They manned the camps on lowest level..
Agreed, by his looks, he would be a fine fit in a “Hogan’s Heroes” remake of Stalag 17!
Cliffhanger makes a good point…Humans have NOT learned or changed since that time and are prone to retreat to that ideology as a means to cope and justify extreme vile acts.
I’m afraid when the SHTF we will again relive the horror of past times.
Genocide is as human as art or prayer.
– John Gray.
Unequipped to hold their own in the ferociously competitive world of White America, in which even the language is foreign to them, the Navajos sink ever deeper into the culture of poverty, exhibiting all of the usual and well-known symptoms… and various forms of mental illness, including evangelical Protestantism.
Ed Abbey
Old patterns of belief exercise a surprising attraction, and just seem to pop up time and time again. Like replicating viruses…..
The interesting thing in the 1930’s is that many Nazis started off as young Communists and then switched.
Frankly I don’t know what I fear most: drought and plague or human beings who lack self-awareness.
The $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia is fake news
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/06/05/the-110-billion-arms-deal-to-saudi-arabia-is-fake-news/
When fatcats fight their minions tend to spill the beans, just a few snippets and you are up to speed what is new or old news in the world as always, lolz.
“Gates (DoD) also negotiated a deal with Israel to compensate the Israelis and preserve their qualitative edge over their Arab neighbors. With the fall in oil prices, the Saudis have struggled to meet their payments since.”
“You will know the Trump deal is real when Israel begins to ask for a package to keep the Israeli Defense Forces’ qualitative edge preserved.”
“What is coming soon is a billion-dollars deal for more munitions for the war in Yemen. The Royal Saudi Air Force needs more munitions to continue the air bombardment of the Arab world’s poorest country.”
US shale oil alone cannot meet the world’s growing demand for crude, Chevron CEO warns
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/01/us-shale-cannot-meet-the-worlds-growing-oil-demand-chevron-ceo-warns.html
People don’t understand this. Perhaps it is helpful to have the Chevron CEO explain it to them.
People just don’t understand
This is how the average Republican voter sees the situation.
U.S. Begins Importing Iraqi Oil After Saudis Cut Exports
Cornucopians are not restricted to any political ideology or . In America, those who believe in the expansion of social welfare programs are feasible think they are feasible because…we have… “endless wealth”.
No, Bernie Sanders Supporters Aren’t Looking for “Free Handouts
From my experience, it seems like many people who are interested in politics seem to think there’s a conspiracy of hidden wealth that is not being shared.
There are an awfully lot of people who are doing worse financially than their parents, and they can’t understand why. At one point, a high school education was enough, but it isn’t any more.
The story is different today, however. The developer, Extell, is selling the remaining One57 apartments at widening discounts. Last year a buyer shaved $12.7m off the asking price on an apartment, and a foreclosure auction is scheduled next week for another that originally sold for $21.4m.
The situation at One57 points to a chill that has swept across “billionaires’ row” — a stretch of new towers south of Central Park that have reshaped the city’s skyline in recent years — and the rest of New York’s once red-hot luxury market.
High-end developers in other cities are feeling the chill, too. The five-year global boom in ultra high-end property that has transformed cities from Vancouver to Shanghai appears to be ending in a global glut. In New York and London alone, agents are trying to sell tens of thousands of high-end apartments amid sharply falling prices.
“A lot of this development has been based on flight capital,” says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York consultancy. “We’ve been building the world’s most expensive safety deposit boxes. You just put your valuables in and then never visit.”
Such capital flows can dry up rapidly, however. For example, Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese purchasers spent $27bn on US homes in the year to March 2016, according to the National Association of Realtors, but the numbers of mainland Chinese buyers are shrinking, agents say, as outbound capital faces tougher scrutiny from Beijing.
Mr Miller estimates that Manhattan has more than 12,300 unsoldcondominiums either built, under construction or planned, against sales of about 1,400 a year. The numbers in London are similar: according to the data provider Molior London, since 2014 construction starts in London have exceeded sales by 13,500 units.
Luxury developers are offering lavish inducements to would-be buyers, from price discounts and tax incentives to gift cards, sports tickets and furniture packs. One development in north London boasts a free car for every purchaser.
“Other than a ‘buy one get one free’, I’m not sure what more they can do,” says Henry Pryor, a London property buying agent.
https://www.ft.com/content/c8bae1f4-3898-11e7-821a-6027b8a20f23
i was just in lower Manhatten this weekend and was admiring those all-glass exterior luxury condo towers under construction. an interesting observation is the tower’s ground level is actually elevated, on par with the old “high line” railroad tracks. i suspect they are thinking about rising sea levels and can foresee that the old Amtrak storage yard in that area might become a shallow reef, at least during storms.
We need buyers for all of these properties. If worldwide incomes are rising a lot, it helps. If they are not, it doesn’t. Capital outflows don’t help either.
Real estate prices since the late 1980s, when technology was making it easier for capital to flow to anywhere there is electricity, were based on increasing wealth accumulation at the top. As long as embezzling politicians, criminals and the professional class saw their incomes rising, and felt they needed to store their income in something that could not be confiscated by the local government, building those properties made sense.
but maybe this is an indication the top 5-20% percent of income earners’ incomes have stopped increasing.
If incomes of the top 5 to 20 percent of income earners stop rising, or their borrowing stops rising, then the economy will grind to halt soon because of all the changes that have occurred in the economy since the late 1980s, which includes the rise of designer clothing, have made the top 5-20% of income earners catalysts for economic activity.
http://www.nicolegibbonsstyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/lobby.jpg
30+ years of supply side economics, has made luxury housing much more important than it would have been without supply side economics. Without supply side economics, the construction of ultra-cheap housing, rickety shacks would be a leading indicator of the health of the economy.
Economists have been spending a lot of time with bad theories about the economy. Maybe they need to learn a little about energy use, diminishing returns, and debt.
One source has this to say about supply side economics:
Supply-side economics emphasizes economic growth achieved by tax and fiscal policy that creates incentives to produce goods and services. In particular, supply-side economics has focused primarily on lowering marginal tax rates with the purpose of increasing the after-tax rate of return from work and investment, which result in increases in supply.
Good luck with that one!
The electric car seems to be on an unstoppable trajectory. In the past five years, the number of electric cars on the road worldwide has soared to two million from basically nothing, the International Energy Agency said this week.
But one nation is showing there’s a way to halt their popularity: Stop paying people to buy one.
Electric-car sales in Denmark fell more than 60 percent in the first quarter after the government announced that tax breaks would be phased out. Tesla’s Elon Musk had traveled to Copenhagen and lobbied against the cuts, and now the Danish government has extended the tax breaks but still intends to reduce or eliminate various incentives. The phase-out plan “completely killed the market,” said Laerke Flader, head of the Danish Electric Car Alliance.
“Price really matters.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-09/the-tesla-killer-isn-t-a-car-at-all
Maryland Approves Two Offshore Wind Farms
The projects are expected to cost residential ratepayers about $1.40 a month and commercial and industrial customers about 1.4 percent a year. The companies can sell renewable-energy credits at a price of $132 for each megawatt hour they produce for 20 years, which will help to cover the $2.1 billion estimated cost of building the two projects.
Utilities and other electricity suppliers are required to buy enough of the credits annually for Maryland to meet its goal of having 25 percent of its electricity generated by renewable sources by 2020. It is estimated that at least 2.5 percent will need to come from offshore wind.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), offshore wind turbines are the second most expensive generating technology that the agency considers in its Annual Energy Outlook, behind only solar thermal. The agency estimates that the levelized generating cost of an offshore wind turbine coming on-line in 2022 would be 15.7 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2016 dollars—almost 3 times more than a natural gas combined cycle plant and more than twice as much as onshore wind.
In other words, the projects will be implemented only with subsidies. The public and business will pay higher electric rates. The companies walk off with renewable energy credits.
Waste of time and money, but is a way to justify more government debt, and more use of fossil fuels now.
Surprise!
lol and then there’s the truth I guess from the Bilderbergers
Bilderberg Group “NO COMMENT” Walk Of Shame
https://youtu.be/BQXu2ZCn8Xw
Doing God’s work.
I know no leader of a country let alone a company or even ones own parents for that matter would ever tell the real truth about the dangers awaiting us wanting instead to speak white lies or half truths or nothing at all but listening to Trump speak and if he isn’t one of the most positive persons to grace American politics in the last 20 years. He really believes America is on course for an astounding future, full of hope, jobs, prosperity not seen since the roaring 20’s. Watch and listen closely to his demeanor, nuances and well just the way he carries himself, his words and if one isn’t left questioning how what he speaks could ever truly come to fruition? He is not scared about anything it seems and I don’t get it? For an insider to know details of so many things would leave any of us on this site deeply troubled of mind and spirit yes? I’m flabbergasted. But we’ll see won’t we?
https://youtu.be/Wz4iIEU1ZHI
yeah a reset? to what exactly? sound money?
It’s kinda like when your wife says ‘am I fat’… and you say ‘actually you are not fat you are obese’
How dare you say that! I’m not fat. I am just a bit chubby.
Ok says the husband in the name of keeping the peace… chubby… just a bit chubby.
The only reset in mankind’s future is a die-off…
The Planet is going to reset…. after it removes the human cancer…. and returns to it’s previous state…
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-n7svIyqTzY/maxresdefault.jpg
Might take a few million years to recover, but yeah.
I don’t mourn the loss of humanity on this planet.
Even if it’s a microbe that manages to make it past the spent fuel ponds, even if it’s a human killing bacteria that makes it……………………
What other process would have liberated all that sequestered carbon?
You will love this;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
Nature has found a way to run on gamma radiation too 🙂
Not sure whether its true though, the references look a bit fishy.
It’s true.
Black fungus found in Chernobyl eats harmful radiation
Try as we might, we won’t wipe out all life on Earth.
There are oil eating microbes as well. Even ones that can use electricity.
There is a scale and degree. For instance, Putin is able to openly explain to the people on the other end of TV in plain language, why they are on purpose curbing RUB exchange rate, in order to export products, keep and increase jobs, although it on the other hand means expensive foreign consumer crap. On other topics he might not be that open, but you can get it anyways, by the form, when very angrily talking to the MIC bosses about delays, fu#kups etc.
Boeing, the largest US exporter by dollar value, faces a tough environment for commercial jetliners.
In 2016, net orders dropped 13% from 2015 and 53% from 2014, to just 668 planes, the lowest level since 2010! Through June 6, 2017, Boeing has just 208 net orders.
The company is under pressure to cut costs. So there has been wave after wave of job cuts through voluntary buyouts and involuntary layoffs last year and this year. Its payroll has shriveled by about 30,000 workers over the past five years. At the end of May it was down to 145,000.
http://wolfstreet.com/2017/06/08/after-laying-off-thousands-boeing-ceo-says-offshoring-to-china-wont-harm-u-s-jobs/
Hm, Airbus is in some segments doing even worse, and both China and Russia (with their clients) won’t be buying more in the future anyway, scaling up domestic production (or the expedient collapse scenario)..
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-08/airbus-is-running-out-of-buyers-for-its-enormous-a380s
Won’t harm US jobs–LOL!
Global debt explodes at ‘eye-watering’ pace to hit 170 trillion
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/04/04/global-debt-explodes-eye-watering-pace-hit-170-trillion/
Don’t worry, it’ll all be repaid with crypto currencies, you’ll see.
You forget to add the /sarc tag at the end of your post.
Well, it could be attempted, millennials and Asian tax evaders just love that stuff..
Long term probably not so much.
Thing is; i’ve heard that strictly speaking it isn’t anonymous, you need some additional software to “mix-up” the bitcoins to confuse tracking of ownership apparently
So here is some on the ground info from the dying days of Industrial Civ…it’s from one of the most “Peak BAU” activities ever, and it’s happening in my city this w-e = F1 Grand Prix Montreal..And I am currently at an F1 event where the tables are 10000$ for a table of 10 (paid by my employer..of course)… surrounded by delusional rich people (with a heavy contingent of Very.Hot.Girls (like crazy hot))…the Mayor of Montreal came on and said how important this event (F1) is to our city and that this event is here to stay for at least the next 25 years (LOL)
So I am going out on a limb and going to call this whole event as, if not the last, then next to last (2019)…let’s see what happens…in the meantime enjoying my evening 🙂
If you get a chance… mention my website if you are speaking to the hot girls…
http://www.endofworldharem.com/applyNOW
Lolll
Take some pics and post here?
We could use a bit of distraction ….
I don’t even know how to do that..but now moving on to a club in Old Montreal…taking advantage of every day BAU is in place 🙂
Your website has accessibility issues, browser gave an an error when i tried to apply 🙂
PLAN A: cross-dress, get into FE Harem, Lock FE out, Enjoy end times with the ladies !
I’m not sure its possible to lock out FE, if his harem is on the other side.
If Chuck Norris stood in the way of FE getting to his harem.. Who would win, FE or Chuck?
It’s a bird? It’s a flying train? It’s the Boeing of Doom? Noooo!
It´s Super Fast!
https://previews.123rf.com/images/ribah/ribah1601/ribah160100028/50985885-3d-illustration-of-flying-brave-superman-super-hero-with-red-cloak-carrying-word-text-super-fast-3d–Stock-Illustration.jpg
Same F1 deal,here in Austin.
The races are barely attended with mostly empty seats.
Can’t wait for it to shut down.
Liability insurance…
“Imagine working for seven years to build a community food forest. It would be a very fulfilling project to take a neighborhood and transform it into a living food source full of fruit trees, luscious vines, and edible ground cover.
And imagine all your hard work being torn away in an instant by the city council.
Literally torn away; what would you be thinking and feeling as they sent landscaping crews to tear out the trees, some with fruit still one them, and grind them into wood chips.
Unfortunately, what could only be a feeling of utter exasperation and crushing disbelief was forced upon residents of Sunshine Coast, Australia. The people of a section of the city banded together to transform 11 city blocks into a food forest of which at least 200 people enjoyed the fruits.”
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/7-years-of-work-on-food-forest-destroyed-over-permit/
Someone should ask this city council if there is any insurance to protect from the coming storm?
Peak gas…
This chart is very easy to explain. The data in the chart is from 22 U.S. natural gas producers. The green line represents what they are spending in capital to drill the wells to produce the gas and the brown line shows how much cash they are making from operations. Normally, the operating cash has to be high enough to pay for the capital expenditures or the there is a deficit.
So, if the companies are making enough operating cash to cover their capital expenditures, the brown line should be above the green line, but it isn’t. Thus, these 22 natural gas companies continue to fork out more CAPEX then they are making from their operations. Which translates to NEGATIVE FREE CASH FLOW.
However, these companies negative free cash flow margin has declined as the two lines are now closer together. This is due to a reduction in CAPEX spending by these companies.
Unfortunately, many of the companies have already exploited the SWEET SPOTS in many of the Shale Gas Fields. So, it is going to be increasing difficult to increase production as they move out to the less profitable and less economic wells outside the sweet spots.
https://srsroccoreport.com/u-s-still-producing-a-lot-of-natural-gas-but-still-not-making-money/
https://dj0s31cxqi9ot.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/22-US-Natural-Gas-Producers-Cash-Flow-vs-CAPEX-768×535.png?x65756
Coming to a Mall near you:
http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59370a28b1bd5657008b45dc-1131/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-101649-am.png
And now the slime and greed factor comes into play:
US-Qatar fighter jet sale worth $21B in middle of diplomatic crisis
http://www.defensenews.com/articles/us-qatar-fighter-jet-sale-worth-21b-in-middle-of-diplomatic-crisis?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/category/newsletter-daily-news-roundup+(Defense+News+-+RSS+Feed+-+Newsletters+-+Daily+News+Roundup)
Demographically speaking, just observing, I find it interesting that it is well off, white, middle aged people who are most afraid of fast collapse.
Is it because you know more, or is it because you are projecting your own fears (of old age, of the brown and black hordes taking over) onto the system as a whole?
Probably a combination of both. And some of you are upset you never made it into the really top tiers despite all of your hard work. But what you can’t reconcile in your mind is whether or not you actually want the crash to proceed or not. It’s like you have two minds – one is glad that BAU is being preserved at all costs, but another simply can’t believe the system is going on.
Personally, I’m not afraid of collapse. Honestly. The system actually needs a correction. We are due for the reintroduction of chaos and death, and let the chips fall.
I am thinking… the people most afraid of collapse.. are the ones with children.
and grandchildren
I think I was ahead of the game there. As far back as the 1970s I never wanted to have children for various reasons, with one of my favorite excuses being that my instincts told be they would probably still be around when the population tsunami runs out of the resources needed to sustain it.
That factored into the decision for me…. but ultimately the deal-breaker was that I have ZERO interest in having anything to do with being tethered to a slobbering… screaming … shitting and pissing animal for multiple years ….
I don’t mind them once they get beyond say… 8 years old…. at least I can get them to do some yard work… and take out the trash…. the scales start to even out at about that age….
ZERO interest in having anything to do with being tethered to a slobbering… screaming … shitting and pissing animal for multiple years
Hahahahahah,you say that so well FE.
Many years ago my ex & I nearly had a kid after she told me she’d had her tubes tied.
Scared the crap out of me as I never wanted to bring another being into this world that would get sucked into the vacuous misery that is this culture & yes I’m a hypocrite tapping away on a plastic keyboard in the depths of the bowels of an abysmal death culture…………………..I don’t have the fortitude to kill myself, to rid myself of this poisonous society I’m trapped in…………………………..
I love & adore this planet & the universe which keeps me going.
I worship the sun in the morning & give thanks every night before I close my eyes & am grateful for ever being given the chance to experience what I have yet I could never, knowing what I know, bring another heart into this world that is soon to experience the horrors of a species that has had its day in the sun, has built its monuments to itself, taken photos of itself & proclaimed itself a god in its own image.
The sun is going down on this culture quickly…………………………………………….
‘the vacuous misery that is this culture’
http://www.ifaw.org/sites/default/files/Spirit%20before%201%20%282%29.jpg
Whereas babies are boring, children become fun at a much younger age than eight. The time when my children were very young was the best time of my life. To experience the wonder in their eyes is to experience the joy of one’s own childhood a second time.
I bet you would have made a great parent (seriously).
Well said. I have 3, who are still children. So it becomes the defining purpose of my life to 1) provide as good and spiritually nourishing life as possible for them in the time we have, 2) do everything I can to get them as much time as possible here.
I hear that all the time…
But the thing is…
Once the deed has been done is someone gonna say ‘I wish I had never had these little bastards!!!’
No matter how stressed out and burned out a parent is… they may have their doubts … but they generally do not express them.
I have yet to hear a parent tell me they regret their decision — although a friend has told me that his sister was profoundly depressed for years because she felt her life was over when she had kids (she has since divorced and does not have the kids)
No doubt there are some positive moments — between cleaning up the shit and dealing with the howling…. but overall young children are pretty much a massive headache…
I know I would make a terrible parent — because if a mistake had been made and I somehow was trapped into having to deal with the nightmare…. I would resent it every single day….
Throw in the fact that I know the kid would be dead in the not too distant future — and I’d not see much point in providing guidance…. to what purpose….
To some extent I am failing to do that with the two kids we sponsor…. although they are doing very well and buy into there being a future….
I have zero interest in having kids — and zero regrets in this respect. I absolutely never think about what if… never.
And I get to go skiing for a month in August… and I am going to Europe for a few weeks in June…. because granny is in town to mind the fort….
Misanthropes know better than having kids. Fortunately, I always thought mankind stinks, and that our culture was rotten to the core. Love this poem:
This Be The Verse
By Philip Larkin
They f*ck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were f*cked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
I never read the book, but the premise really resonated with me…really happy that I never had kids…in hindsight (knowing what I know now), it was the most judicious choice I have ever taken in my life…
https://www.amazon.ca/Better-Never-Have-Been-Existence/dp/0199549265
++++++++++++
Misanthropes know better than having kids. Fortunately, I always thought mankind stinks, and that our culture was rotten to the core.
Can’t argue with that & I love the poem too.
If people were to pull the blinkers off — and observe the human condition — one could not help but feel deep disgust.
But most people prefer to keep the blinkers on.
My oldest boy is Valedictorian of his graduating class this month and is off to university this fall. I am so proud of him.
My middle son is a problem child.
My youngest son is the kindest kid you could ask for.
The love I feel for them pains me.
The thought of them starving to death makes me wish they were never born but my faith that there is life after death comforts me that, no matter how it goes, we will all be together again.
Based on historical experience with collapses, I would guess dying of a communicable disease is a lot more likely a cause of death than starving to death. Once people are weakened, their immune systems go down. Also, it is harder to maintain sanitary conditions, with a collapsing civilization. If water gets contaminated, disease spread quickly.
I would imagine that people will quickly run out of wood to boil water to sterilize water…. they will burn whatever is near in short order…. they will not have the energy to go very far to collect more dead wood to burn….
Even if one has stockpiled dry fire wood — assume the neighbours have not — which means your stockpile gets shared and depleted very quickly…
Really the only way to last very long when BAU goes down would be to have some sort of high tech underground bunker… and even then … when you run out of supplies in there you need to come to the surface… the grocery stores will not have re-opened.
The more one thinks about this — the more one surely has to recognize — there is no surviving… even surviving for a short period means suffering….
Go gently into that good night.
But Melian looked in her eyes and read the doom that was written there, and turned away; for she knew that a parting beyond the end of the world had come between them, and no grief of loss has been heavier than the grief of Melian the Maia in that hour.
Tolkien got that right. As a parent, what scares me most about my own death is the thought I will never see my children again. If collapse is as rapid as you predict, seeing my children suffer and being unable to help will be awful. Doing like the Goebbels is too painful even to contemplate.
There is a part of me that mourns not being a parent & yes doing what Goebbels did is beyond my comprehension & I’m a very misanthropic person.
There is a part of me that feels profound regret of not at least being able to teach my child the wonder, magic, sanctity & the beauty of the universe in all the reality of life & death yet I’m torn between that & knowing what’s coming………………………………….
This is something I feel an incredible conflict from within myself.
I have a niece in New Zealand who is as close to a child I’ll ever have & she’s a kind soul.
I wrote a book of short stories in late 2015 focused on nature & I hope she’s taken some of it on board on her venture through her life.
I can’t ask for more than that……………………………
If it’s any consolation, despite children being the best thing ever to happen to me, I wish I did not have any. Not because of collapse, but because, as Xabier once wrote, life is a tragedy.
Supposedly Martha did that, the spouse and mother..
Let’s put some positive spin on this…
You could be rotting away in a hospital waiting to die…. I imagine there would be a rather sad moment where you realize you are about to sink into darkness… yet your children continue to live their lives without you …. a feeling that you are missing out…. a yearning to be able to continue your life…..
Well the end of BAU puts an end to all that…. everyone gets to die … so you miss out on nothing.
At the end of the day … isn’t that what a big part of the sadness associated with death is all about? They go on … without you….
Not this time.
The NSA Says It Has to Spy on You to Find Out If It’s Spying On You
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/the-nsa-says-it-has-to-spy-on-you-to-find-out-if-its-spying-on-you
… to keep me safe… from the terrorists….
Which is what the majority of people still believe..
A world filled with MOREons.
look like we have final countdown of bau
https://youtu.be/9jK-NcRmVcw
https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder855/58712855.jpg
Carmakers and auto parts suppliers traded weaker on Thursday after Morgan Stanley warned of an “unprecedented buyer’s strike,” and lowered its U.S. auto sales forecast by millions of units for each year though 2020.
Jonas’s estimate cuts for the years 2018 to 2020 are more substantial, indicative of a broader slump. Morgan Stanley now expects 2018 sales of 16.4 million units, compared to 18.9 million previously, with the rate slowing to 15 million in 2019 and 2020.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/autos-slump-as-morgan-stanley-sees-impending-buyer-s-strike
It won’t be just the auto industry that is impacted… retail and restaurants will continue to take hits… the consumer is near death —- and taking Oxycontin for the pain….
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carl_Haasper/publication/51439552/figure/fig2/AS:317882719326208@1452800554022/Fig-2-The-trauma-intensive-care-unit-of-our-department-has-eight-ventilator-equipped.png
“Since, 2011, Pioneer Resources has reported consecutive NEGATIVE FREE CASH FLOW. For example,
Free Cash Flow:
2011 = -$760 million
2012 = -$1,218 million
2013 = -$730 million
2014 = -$1,210 million
2015 = -$1,145 million
2016 = -$562 million
2107 Q1 = -$155 million”
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/enhanced/webdr03/2013/3/16/16/anigif_enhanced-buzz-30698-1363465001-25.gif
“Largest Single Arms Deal in US History” Turns into “Fake News”
And then there’s what everyone wants to know: How would the Saudis even pay for this $110 billion, after having slashed their budget due to the collapse of their oil revenues while also having to fund their war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s foreign exchange reserves have plunged 33% from their peak in late 2014 to $506 billion in April. This chart shows the move in millions of Saudi Riyal (via Trading Economics):
http://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Saudi-Arabia-foreign-exchange-reserves-2017-04.png
http://wolfstreet.com/2017/06/08/stocks-defense-contractors-surge-on-fake-news-saudi-arms-deal-then-sag/
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/6g2d7j/collapse_of_global_civilization_by/
I would add one more basic, thats a bit difficult for people to grasp:
Why the economy MUST grow, and what happens when we come to the point it doesnt http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EF000171/full
And then I would maybe start a new thread, for suitable materials to print for candle light readings:
http://www.i4at.org/library.html
http://www.survivorlibrary.com/?page_id=1014
http://www.pfaf.org/user/default.aspx
https://archive.org/details/dupontfarmershan00eidu
Cliffhanger do you have any references to back up your claim?😳
Stop that.
There was a hint that Qatar can cripple its neighbors’ energy infrastructure, if the situation escalates further:
QATAR FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS 40 PERCENT OF UAE POWER DEPENDS ON THE NATURAL GAS OF QATAR
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-08/qatar-says-we-will-never-surrender-welcomes-turkish-troops-iran-offers-food-ports
If I am the King of Qatar…. I am placing large bombs into the wheel works of the gas and oil infrastructure…. and threatening to blow the whole lot sky high ….. perhaps mix some plutonium and other nasty stuff in with the bomb too to make it uncomfortable for the kings men when they try to put humpty together again…
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/21/28/9b/21289b0c90d34282a46817c820a38d97.jpg
The United States has begun importing Iraqi oil at a rate of 1.1 million barrels per day to replace export cuts announced by Saudi Arabia late last month, new figures compiled by Bloomberg show.
In late May, Riyadh announced its plans to purposely reduce exports to the United States to force a reduction in the latter’s sizeable inventories, which are preventing a greater rise in global oil prices, according to Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih.
Earlier that same month, Saudi Aramco said it would cut crude supplies to China, South Korea, and South East Asia by 1 million barrels each. The nations exports to Indian buyers in June were set to decline by just over 3 million barrels, and supplies to Japan will drop by just under 1 million barrels this month, according to a Reuters’ source.
http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Begins-Importing-Iraqi-Oil-After-Saudis-Cut-Exports.html
Twilight in the desert?
https://www.google.com.hk/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F9to5animations.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F04%2Fred-alert-animated-gif.gif&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.9to5animations.com%2Fred-alert-gif%2F&docid=be34M5sg3uTRGM&tbnid=wML-nQtjnIyosM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwiB2s_gh6_UAhUMi5QKHfqnADsQMwhAKAUwBQ..i&w=500&h=313&bih=638&biw=1366&q=red%20alert%20gif
https://media.tenor.com/images/1cd3fd16db1e31b119cb3739b7b55527/tenor.gif
This wouldn’t have anything to do with the Qatar situation …. would it?
I just read in a book that Saudi exports have decreased by around 1.4% yearly between 2005-2015. And CItibank recently released a report that estimated Saudi to be exporting ZERO amounts of oil by the end of the next decade.
Meanwhile…. the shale patch is being swiss cheesed to suck the oil out as fast as possible…
Perhaps the trigger won’t be related to the toxic side effects of CB policies rather it will be that there is just not enough oil available that can be extracted profitably … BAU is strangled by that and turns purple and flails desperately for more cheap oil …. the price spikes for a very short time — and that is the bullet to the head of BAU?
Is that what they used to call Peak Oil?
At some point one of the major oil companies is going to get bailed out in a similar fashion to what happened with the TBTF banks and auto-makers in 2008.
Once that happens, you can go ahead and book your end of the world party FE – because that will be the straw that breaks the back of CTG’s camel.
PM — I suspect we are already well into the bail out of Big Oil phase ….
We’ve seen the HSBC report https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/brace-for-the-financial-crash-of-2018-b2f81f85686b#.z9uwvj2gd
Then this : According to the OECD Economics Department and the International Monetary Fund Research Department, a sustained $10 per barrel increase in oil prices from $25 to $35 would result in the OECD as a whole losing 0.4% of GDP in the first and second years of higher prices. http://www.iea.org/textbase/npsum/high_oil04sum.pdf
The financial world is aware that there is a problem…. the price of oil can never get to break even because that will collapse the economy….
Now if you are banker … are you lending money to an industry that is obviously not going to pay you back?
Normally you would not do that — but someone is:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/20160809_oil.jpg
Perhaps this is the CBs in action doing whatever it takes —- perhaps it is the banks being told to extend cash to these companies because if they don’t —- we collapse.
If you can’t repay the bank a $10,000 loan — you have a problem.
If you can’t repay the bank a $1 billion loan – the bank has a problem.
If the bank doesn’t loan Big Oil money to continue to produce oil — BAU collapses — and we all have a …. problem…. actually… we all die….
“If the bank doesn’t loan Big Oil money to continue to produce oil — BAU collapses — and we all have a …. problem…. actually… we all die….”
Why can’t people that have been here on OFW for a while and who think Industrial Civ will take decades to unwind, not understand how unsustainable this is and is a temporary fix…this was NEVER needed in the past..
I guess they don’t want to stop believing that we have a future…
It’s all bailouts, all the time now. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop…
Yes, if it truly escalates over there, otherwise the Saudi exports reshuffles could be more in the interim about oil pricing scheme, grade compatibility for particular refineries around the globe, and compensation for junior producing partners (similarly as Russia allowed Iran to pickup their quota curtailment of exports within that larger deal among exporters)..
Who knows, such potentially disruptive serious situation should be cleared relatively quickly though, months..
At the same time the EIA reported that US domestic oil production is geared to hit an all time daily high over 10million barrels larger then the 1970 record.
And we still desperately need ME Oil????????????????
Ponzi is unraveling shale is poo. Can’t make marketable products from shale oil.
Shale oil does not compete with light sweet Saudi conventional crude. NOT ALL OIL IS EQUAL!!
Any thoughts on the Qatar , Saudi fight ?
Watcher says:
06/08/2017 AT 11:47 AM
The border with KSA is about 35 miles wide. There are few highways north from there. Doha is 60 miles north of that border and on the coast. KSA’s 320 tanks are located mostly in the far north of Saudi Arabia. They will take weeks to get to the border.
The Saudi Air Force could bomb, but targets are a problem. The LNG port is like a giant bomb in and of itself. Hard to imagine KSA wants to kill all those people. In the modern world, the upside of having almost no military is an enemy has to bomb population centers since there’s nothing else to hit, and doing that will generate PR problems.
This morning Iran offered use of its ports to reduce the impact of the Saudi move prohibiting shipping from stopping at their own ports if a stop to/from is scheduled for Qatar. That undercuts the action. Overall it doesn’t look like KSA has any teeth in this matter unless they are willing to kill Doha residents.
At the moment it’s unclear, we need more action. It could be just a harebrained scheme comedy show how to push oil prices few bucks up. Should the Turkish troops start landing massively in Qatar, and Iranian ships moving food through the embargo, we have likely more genuine situation (of Turkish-Qatar-Iran-China-Russia-.. alliance move). So far Qatar claims, did not receive any detailed points about the further steps of full scale embargo, and UAE-Saudi claim they are not going to push it at the moment, negotiations first.
It Will Take 131 Years To Replace Oil (Niemeier & Malyshkina 2010)
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es100730q
https://i.imgflip.com/1utsg.jpg
Can you say cobalt?
http://cdn.oilprice.com//images/tinymce/Fig5LCO3.jpg
yep, demented contemporary culture wants to spread more wirelessly or something, hence more demand for cobalts to the masses, from high-rises to 3rd world shacks
Elliott’s Singer Warns System May Be More Leveraged Than 2008
(leverage is good for profits, right?)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-07/elliott-s-singer-warns-system-may-be-more-leveraged-than-2008
We have a front row seat to the upcoming “Great Malthusian Nightmare”
Cathal Haughian – Why do you think that the can cannot be kicked beyond August/September?
Because the Families or Brethren have determined that highly placed sources are reading volumes 7 and 8 and the redacting of the System Reset is a concern that all must consider preparing for before the NWO conflicts with the stated values of the meta analysis results conducted by the tribunal.
I mean, isn’t it obvious?
Maybe I should fire up the Black Helicopter and fly over to the Queen of England to find out?
Oh…Sorry, I was busy.
I didn’t say I think that.
I wrote that TPTB think that.
Cathal,
David Korowicz from Feasta pretty clearly demonstrates, that if you take out one part of the global system, you take it all out. We are talking about a system wide global collapse..
Paul Chefurka had some calculations about the natural carrying capacity of earth, and he came to a number; less than 1 billion.
Joseph Tainter pretty much described the diminishing returns of complex societies. And what follows from the collapse of that complexity.
Alice Friedemann pretty much describes what happens when trucking stops.
Norman Pagett pretty much explains the energy supernova.
Fast Eddy pretty much describes when you combine the above, what happens when the hyper complexity born from the cheap energy supernova, collapses to super simple. Hyper complexity collapsing leads to additional risks, because fuel and spare parts (raw materials) can not be had.
Gail pretty much describes that after the all the easy to get cheap resources are done for, the expensive hard to get resources will stay in the ground forever.
Its not a reset. Its Game Over.
Bitcoin wont help. Gold wont help. Prepping wont help. Homesteading wont help. Having an organic farm wont help.
All you can do, is print out these, then youll have something to read in the candle light. While withering away and/or waiting for the zombie hordes to arrive http://www.survivorlibrary.com/?page_id=1014
Oh, and I wouldnt much recommend Island or Finland. Both have their unique challanges.
Yep, we already told him/her on previous page, that “reset” and -.5B delete is a joke of understatement..
However, for the few years after serious collapse, with some spares and scavenging, can’t completely discount some strange specimen might still pulling through, .. , unusual character combination at that of commandos Lt. meets hands on experienced bio farmer, how many people like that are there in the West? One person in 100.000, 500.000, .. (plus some random slaves gathered in the area etc.) lolz?
I dont even think Cathal has done the full guided doomer-tour yet http://doomfordummies.blogspot.fi/
Too much simplicity, and not enough reading, is what I read in to Cathals arguments. Way too much of David Stockman meets Alex Jones for my taste.
Very well Doc Van Kent, case referred to the pathology ward then.
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…again
There appears to be two camps on this site today:
First, the one that hopes we can stretch out BAU for another 7-10 years. I say ‘hope’ because there’s no detailed planning provided. How to get from HERE to THERE without a global disintegration? Come on, give ME the DETAILS.
And please don’t leave out counter moves by Russia, China etc.
The second camp has some sort of amorphous fear of global disintegration without any timeline or understanding of how it will unfold.
Look, it all likelihood it will unfold in such a way as to ensure the continuing survival of humanity and the Dominant Class. It’ll be planned out very carefully. Whatever it takes. Will it work? Not sure. I’m not sure how to enforce social changes required to keep critical companies operational… without fascism or communism aka Totalism.
How to get forward.. if we get forward.. easy..
It all shouldve ended in 2008. The CBs have printed enough money to buy.. everything.. well just Apple, Facebook and 30% of all governments (government bonds) so far. But the printing isnt hard. They just print money and they buy stuff.. The printing is called QE.
If we get forward, we will have ‘mystery buyers from belgium’ recapitalizing banks. We will have sudden profit booms for the pension funds. The Trump plan is set in motion by local federal bonds, which the CBs buy with printed money. Helicopter money is given a green light, which the ECB funds by printing even more money.
All the big players in the world economy are rolling their eyes and wondering what the hell is going on. No wonder its an August date. Or September date. Or something like that. But the CBs are in full damage control mode buying everything. And while this QE to end all ponzi schemes lasts.. the limiting factor will be food, raw materials, energy, population, dying oceans.. the hard cold physical realities.. sure if it all starts going south.. sure the defatory death spiral can end it all by August or September. But then somebody would have to shut all QE down..
Found something more to print out for your library http://www.pfaf.org/user/default.aspx (something that actually helps)
One more thing everyone forget… inflation is very rampant in all corners of the world and I mean the inflation that hurts the most – food, water, energy (drop in WTI does not actually reflect gasoline prices). With QE, there is no real job creation and layoffs are piling high. The more QE, the more leakage into the real economy, the higher the inflation. Someday, somewhere in an important place, this will pop
The weasel is gonna pop… one of these days
It’s a bit rich if someone suddenly lands on this forum and wants from us a summary of past several years of musings, while not even getting right correctly the “turf war essentials” of locals over here..
Never-mind, firstly forget binary clear cut predictions and results that’s historical nonsense. At least my preferred approach is running probabilities, there are several scenarios of dissimilar likelihood, and also there is near term, midterm, longterm. Usually we observe, and adjust..
Predictions, predictions, this is a freak world after-all, for example right now jump into the time machine taxi, dial mid 17th century destination, and on arrival show to some first “victorious” Swede you encounter, a nice contemporary video shot from his homeland nowadays, possible highlights: grannies brutally raped by adult refugees claiming they are underage and or metal industries owned by China. Don’t forget to carefully watch their reactions, chances are you won’t make it back into that taxi in one piece on time, lolz.
Similarly, try another one, in reverse guard. It won’t be a problem to ad hoc interview few random guys in the West, what’s their opinion on Putin & patriotic co., taking over their nation again, well chances are very high you might record several people to be pretty jealous about not having similar situation at home, now hop into the taxi dial back ~20yrs and show that recorded clip again in the same Western city, it would be just surreal what kind of incomprehensible message are you trying to convey to them, lolz!
Hopefully, these “detours” will guide on the right path.
Probabilities is the only way to go. Short- and mid-term anything can happen. Sure TPTB might have some general plans but they will probably have to play it by ear, so many unknowns that can erupt any day.
My God, how did you get this way?
You nay-saying defeatist commies!!!
You sure aren’t going to survive, that’s for sure.
OK, simple thought experiment, and be positive:
The Reset happens.
Any loose nuclear material is seized.
Asset prices collapse. Massive unemployment. Riots.
All ethnic minorities are ethnically cleansed, or driven out, within three months.
Troops move in. Kill protesters. Fascism.
Banking systems in selected nations targeted.
Trade is cut-off to selected nations.
Mass death ensues in selected places.
Regional Depopulation.
Basic Income implemented in local currency, allows for basic survival in core industrial areas. Society is stabilized.
Important commodity producers are protected, continuing exports to industrial areas.
And fuel and fertilizers? Come on, coal and gas liquefaction is a functional technology. Fertilizers can be derived from coal, right?
Now everything I just wrote can be done. Easy peasy. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE Dominant Class.
Get over your nihilistic jive and get ready.
You are :
http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/58ca8f1c09900734376208c8/16:9/w_1200,h_630,c_limit/Clueless.png
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xzxwbQrBnC8/movieposter.jpg
What is it you are trying to say?
What I’m trying to say is … the Unofficial Leadership have no limits.
NO LIMITS.
I understand that they own a perpetual motion machine…. it will allow them to make oil from air when BAU expires…
https://pastortimwalker.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/big-tongue.jpg
You don’t seem to get it…. BAU is the system that allows these elites to exist… without BAU they are nothing… their stocks and bonds and cash and gold and property… are worthless…
It is really not that difficult to understand…. although I suppose if you worship these people like some sort of gods — which you obviously do —- I can imagine it must be difficult to picture Jamie Dimon squatting next to a fire fueled by sofa cushions… grilling a rat…
Gosh, I Wish I Had That Kind Of Stunning Insight.
Pinky Commies…
Cathal have a look at http://www.feasta.org/2012/06/17/trade-off-financial-system-supply-chain-cross-contagion-a-study-in-global-systemic-collapse/
Read to understand and not read for fun.
That paper is a MUST read … anyone who refuses to read it …. should not be on FW
Yeah, well you’re confirmed dummkopf None of the nonsense that you’ve written has any factual basis. What you are doing is worse than gossip. It’s very clear that you are not an insider nor have you read any material about what is discussed on this blog.
.
Desperation at its finest.
FE – you should be proud…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-07/tokyo-nights-lit-up-from-1-700-miles-away-is-big-mongolian-bet
Whenever I see the words Burn Coal….I suddenly become….
giddy
ˈɡɪdi/Submit
adjective
1. having a sensation of whirling and a tendency to fall or stagger; dizzy.
http://www.giddybrighton.com/site/img/giddy.gif
The trouble is that when I inquire how we could revive a measure of coal production in this old coal mining town, people regard me very strangely.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWiB7ZuLvI
“The energy demands of the next three decades will be astronomical,” Liu, now chairman of the Beijing-based Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, wrote in a Bloomberg View column in April. “We will need to power — mainly cleanly — at a scale and for a range of uses we cannot yet fully imagine.”
All you really need to know…
“We will need to power — mainly cleanly — at a scale and for a range of uses we cannot yet fully imagine.”-State Grid’s former chairman, Liu Zhenya
Drilling down in the pdf, we find-“15% of total installed CAPACITY will be renewables”.
This is how the megamachine keeps growing, through deception.
The opioid crisis that is ravaging urban and suburban communities across the US claimed an unprecedented 59,000 lives last year, according to preliminary data gathered by the New York Times. If accurate, that’s equivalent to a roughly 19% increase over the approximately 52,000 overdose deaths recorded in 2015, the NYT reported last year.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-07/drug-overdoses-now-leading-killer-american-adults-under-50
This is a brilliant policy:
– it gets rid of useless feeders
– it reduces the number of people collecting food stamps
– it reduces the number of people in America without a job so that the numbers look slightly better … although when you have 102M without work this will be an uphill battle
– it creates work for undertakers
– a drugged up junkie doesn’t protest much — a dead junkie doesn’t protest at all
This opiate epidemic is all upside….
Snort More Oxy NOW!
Smoke More Meth NOW!
Drug addiction is very common in Iran: one way of making the poverty and tyranny bearable. And as you rightly point out, they don’t protest….
The people who run the show are never addicts.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/sep/02/prime-ministers-and-alcohol
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/adolf-hitler-super-junkie-drugs-veins-collapsed-norman-ohler-blitzed-thousands-injections-a7346111.html
Drinking a lot is simply very British: it is not an addiction. 🙂
A number of years back I noticed all the drinking they did on “Coronation Street’. You would never see that kind of drinking in North American shows other than “The Trailer Park Boys”.
Xabier, yes it is.
“In 1783, William Pitt the Younger was seen vomiting behind the back of the Speaker’s chair before replying to a vital debate as chancellor of the exchequer. When the Tories complained that Thomas Gisborne must have been drunk after he collapsed three times during his defence of the government in a no-confidence debate in 1840, the Whigs said that the problem was that he was not drunk and that when he was tipsy he was really very good.
“The prime minister furthest advanced in alcoholism was Herbert Asquith, who turned up one evening for the committee stage of the Welsh church bill, which was being taken through by Rufus Isaacs and Herbert Samuel, and promptly fell fast asleep. Sitting opposite, the Tory leader Arthur Balfour complained that the fate of the church was “in the hands of two Jews who are entirely sober and one Christian who is very patently drunk”. Countless cabinet colleagues complained. Churchill (ironically enough) called Asquith “supine, sodden and supreme”, Richard Haldane told him that he was drinking too much champagne, and Sir Charles Hobhouse complained that his failure to deal with Lloyd George was attributable to the fact that he had been drinking “during the last week or two, pretty hard…””
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2014/aug/10/politicians-passed-bills-blind-drunk-history-mps
It was those naughty Vikings who taught the English and Scots to drink hard.
That was the excuse they used in the 12th century, anyway, so it must be true.
Family legend has it that we had a cousin who could only sculpt when drunk, so his wife stood anxiously watching every chisel blow, ‘Because, you know, marble isn’t cheap!’. His speciality was portraits of prim Queen Victoria. He is said to have died in a ditch. It fills me with pride to be related to such a true Brit. 🙂
I like the story about our first Canadian prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald.
“Macdonald was well known for his wit and also for his alcoholism. He is known to have been drunk for many of his debates in parliament. One famous story is that during an election debate Macdonald was so drunk he began vomiting violently on stage while his opponent was speaking. Picking himself up Macdonald told the crowd, “see how my opponent’s ideas disgust me.”
WPtY immortalized here:
Yep…. if we recall Scarface….
We had the minion Tony….stuffing his face with industrial amounts of cocaine….
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2b/ab/db/2babdb3cbfe38bd219598219352b6655.gif
And his boss Sosa — who warned Tony ‘not to get high on your own supply’…
http://68.media.tumblr.com/d833e6fb53bdec0a8a38b8dffe28431a/tumblr_or4qtj0dtK1vnrg74o1_r1_500.gif
That didn’t end so well for Tony
As Bill Buckley said heroin should be as cheap as rat poison.
So do I pay my terminal and provisional taxes this year or buy up some veuve clicquot and stuff my little yacht with well…stuff…and head off?
….is this the ‘last-call’ for drinks, or does the pub have another round in it, and its just another punter with a skin full of doom?
I wouldn’t be doing that. Wait until the “Lehman’s event”, you’ll have a few days, and then get on your boat.
Can someone help explain to me wth is a Reset? And why would the sheeple go insane from it?
All I know is it comes with a heck of a haircut as the sheeple get sheared.
A reset is how the rich think they’ll be able to get away with their ill-gotten gains, once the financial system collapses, whilst cutting everyone else loose…
> I’ll send a message.
Thank you.
> Maybe someone will talk, but these guys tend to be tight lipped these days.
Because they are scared.
> I think they’re planning something horrible. Depopulation.
>
Yes, depopulation—you are correct. Letting hundreds of millions freeze
to death, drown & starve. We are heading into an ice age, my dear friend.
Hundreds of millions is not depopulation Cathal. Humans are in very deep overshoot, far beyond the carrying capacity of the earth to support them, without the windfall bounty of oil that promoted our wild reproduction. When population starts crashing, which it must, as is the fate of all species in overshoot, the falling knife will not suddenly stop its fall mid-air. It will sink deep into the ground – undershoot for some time, before a final equilibrium is established.
But because humans have done such a great job of ravaging the planet, this level of equilibrium will be quite low. So low it will approach an extinction level event. I don’t expect more than 3 million humans to be alive by that stage, sometime around the 22nd century. That’s depopulation. No one will be able to control the descent, and yes, whole continents will be all but wiped clean of man, even if his artefacts endure for a few millennia longer.
OVERSHOOT IN A NUTSHELL (MALTHUS WAS AN OPTIMIST)
Have you thought about writing a movie script?
No..but he…she…or it…whatever it it is, is probably trying to sell a book, seminars, and consulting services.
“Hundreds of millions is not depopulation ” Forgive its lack of awareness but it thinks the world’s problems are restricted to the United States, where the current population is in the 100s of millions, hence the warning, “P.S. The USA, get out of the USA”
Actually I did mention half a billion dead.
Putrid: I need my coffee!
Rothschild: Coming up…
We really need to nail down the carrying capacity of the planet. I mentioned the question here a few months ago. No answer so far.
At the last sociopath committee meeting a two billion figure was mentioned. Perhaps three.
But that was just an educated guess.
Cathal
This summary by Paul Cherfurka on the carrying capacity of the planet is pretty good, at least until he gets to the “Discussion” part when for some reason he becomes way too optimistic in the timeline.
http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Sustainability.html