From the Wilderness' Peak Oil Blog

2009-07-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Collapse
Climate change 'will cause civilisation to collapse'
The very fabric of society is breaking down; What the hell is there left to believe in?
Peak Oil Latest: Yikes - Times Online
Warning over honeybee decline
Japan Should Diversify Reserves, DJP's Nakagawa Says

Swine Flu
Swine Flu is Unstoppable: WHO
Swine flu: first death of 'heathy' [sic] British patient
Get Ready For More Swine Flu in the Fall
UK swine flu cases to soar, but deaths 'will remain rare'
Swine flu vaccine to be given to entire population (UK)

Intelligence/Torture
Cheney Set Up "Illegal Secret Spy Project"
MoD may face hundreds of new torture claims

US
Not so "U." All happy states are alike but each state falls apart in its own unique way.
California - And by Extension the U.S. - Headed for Permanently Smaller Economy
Food-Stamps Reach 33.8 Million in April, 5th Consecutive Monthly Record
Continuing Claims Soar by 159,000 to New Record; Initial Jobless Claims Skewed By Autos States Use Stimulus Money for Short-Term Needs
Infrastructure: What’s Hot, What’s Not (from Rice Farmer)
Furloughs "A Drop In The Bucket" Towards Balanced State Budgets
Detroit Public School System Ponders Bankruptcy
Texans Asked to Reduce Electricity Use
Power providers warn of mandatory blackouts (from Rice Farmer)
Note: This not some Third World country, it's Louisiana!
Battle Lines Form Over "Son of Stimulus"
Craig Roberts, Former Assistant Treasury Secretary on the Bailout, the Dollar and Goldman Sachs
Military mega-lasers are too hot to handle (from Rice Farmer)
Little Brother: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears (from Rice Farmer)
Animal Medications More Lucrative than Human
Mint Again Suspends Production of Gold Coins
Four from Sebastian Ronin:
Thieves might have smuggled mint gold in acid, say experts
Forum on secession: http://namericansecession.ning.com/
Site: http://www.novacadia.org/
Blog: http://secessionistmycelium.blogspot.com/

Secrecy News writes:
"Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" by Abu Yahya al-Libi was translated, rather clumsily, by the DNI Open Source Center. A copy was obtained by Secrecy News.The book cited the use of electronic homing devices to guide air-launched missiles to their targets and images of several such devices were included in the original Arabic version of the book (at page 146). The purported use of the devices was discussed in "CIA Drone Targeting Tech Revealed, Qaeda Claims" by Adam Rawnsley, Wired Danger Room, July 8, 2009. Memri.org also prepared a proprietary translation of the new Al-Libi book, which was reported by Fox News last week.

The National Reconnaissance Office, which develops, launches and operates U.S. intelligence satellites, last week released most of the unclassified portions (pdf) of its Congressional Budget Justification Book for FY2009. While those unclassified portions are only a small fraction of the full budget document, they still provide a fresh glimpse or two of the agency and its four directorates (IMINT, SIGINT, Advanced Systems and Technology, and Communications)."The U.S. is arguably more reliant on overhead collection that ever before," the NRO says, while "intelligence problems are becoming more complex and increasingly require synergistic, multi-INT, multi-source solutions." See "National Reconnaissance Program," FY2009 Congressional Budget Justification, February 2008, released under the Freedom of Information Act July 2009.The NRO has suffered serious acquisition failures in recent years and it has been rumored, unconfirmably, that the agency may be broken up or reorganized. ("Spy Agency May Face Ax" by Colin Clark, DoD Buzz, July 1, 2009).

Meanwhile, President Obama reportedly issued a directive last spring -- Presidential Study Directive 2 -- ordering a review of classified space activities. ("President Orders Sweeping U.S. Space Policy Review" by Amy Klamper, Space News, July 6, 2009).

UK
'Horrific news' on pensions
Retirement could rise above 65
Value of taxpayer's holding in banks plummets (from Rice Farmer)
Teenage Robberty Crime Wave Sweeping Britain
Brown's secret plan to cut Afghanistan force by 1,500
Brown Guilty of "Ultimate Dereliction of Duty" in Relation to Afghanistan
Britian Halts Some Arms Exports to Israel
Why Whitehall Hates Solar Panels
Newspaper attacks phone hacking claims
The rise and rise of the vegetarian
Unemployment skyrockets throughout Europe (from Rice Farmer)
True unemployment rate already at 20% (from Rice Farmer)

Russia/Asia
Russia Wants to Open 2nd Military Base in Kyrgyzstan
Altai Protest Violently Dispersed
North Korean leader 'has pancreatic cancer' China bans mourning
Workers protest over job cuts in central China

Energy
€400bn energy plan to harness African sun
Feeling Low on Energy? Have a Bath in a Barrel of Crude Oil
Irish-Belarusian team to make biofuel near Chernobyl

And...
The Exploding World in the Last Moments of a Soap Bubble
A fitting image for our times.

Between the Lines of the Writing on the Wall

2009-07-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

A PERSONAL UPDATE FOR MY FRIENDS

2009-07-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

by

Michael C. Ruppert

JULY 7, 2009 I have been back from Oregon and the sexual-harassment hearing for over a week. Having run out of money I had to fly up and represent myself. I relied heavily on excellent pre-trial work by local counsel Lee Werdell. I cannot ever find a way to express my gratitude to Mark and Emanuel for coming down to Medford for the hearing in the three-year old case. Their presence stopped an absolutely rude, bullying Case Presenter (the Labor Board's version of a prosecutor) from calling me names or screaming at me non-stop. They were the only witnesses in a 10 X 20 hearing room. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) was utterly professional and had to admonish someone from his own Department about six or seven times a day; (six times in the closing argument alone). I never lost it once.

I have every confidence that I won. My accuser, Lindsay Gerken, was caught lying several times and, in the end, her story just fell apart. Her own mother even impeached Lindsay's testimony. And Scott McGuire was a true and honest friend who stood up to tesify about things he had seen. She had no witnesses. I had photos disproving her story. I had some records. She had nothing. I will receive the Administrative Law Judge's ruling within about 50 days now. Most importantly for me though, I sat there and fought in that crucible which had been hanging over me for three very long and painful years. I have always needed to look all my demons in the eye. There is no other way to know the truth.

I have now proved and documented that a horribly flawed and biased police report, written by an officer terminated after I left, (who had formerly worked for an L.A. area police department), was improperly leaked to reporter Bob Plain of the Ashland Daily Tidings. I had already had a knock-down, drag-out with the Tidings (and won) before Ms. Gerken came along. I can use her name now. It's a public record. Based on that flawed and biased police report, the reporter (Bob Plain) and his editor (Scot Bolsinger) published two of the nastiest and most vicious news stories I have ever seen after I wnet to Venezuela. They hurt. The Case Presenter -- Patrick Plaza -- introduced them as evidence against me in the harassment case. I got all of the trash about Bolsinger and Plain on the record to impeach the two hit pieces. Plaza's case kept falling apart like that. The ALJ (from Eugene) was listening. Legally, I deconstructed Plaza's entire case. At the end he was getting desperate.

Yeah, it was nasty.

The Ashland Police Department in 2007 and 2008 apologized first in front of attorney Ray Kohlman, and later Jenna Orkin. The APD abjectly apologized for the series of "really bad screw ups". At the second meeting the Deputy Chief, Rick Walsh, came in and apologized also. I was not a suspect in the burglary and they twice refused to give me a Voice Stress Analyzer test; in front both Jenna and Ray. A break came because the Detective who met with us, Randy Snow, was also an Army Ranger and familiar with the Pat Tillman case.

Scot Bolsinger, the former editor of the Ashland Daily Tidings, is now in prison for unlawful sex with a minor and under ongoing investigation for racketeering in defrauding at least three Ashland businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bob Plain has disappeared. All of that is in the record at the sexual harassment case. It's public now........

(paragraph removed by JO pending consultation.)

My ten-year business relationship with Ken Levine is... OVER.

It's over... It's all over. There is nothing hanging over my head.

I have no more battles left to fight. I have kept all the work we all did, clean and unblemished. My duties are discharged.

It's time to...

No, it's just happening that I am walking away from all of this for a while. I am still working closely with Chris Smith and Kate Noble on CoLLapse. (http://www.collapsemovie.com). Watch the site closely now. It seems the whole world is holding it's breath. We should see it in early August and that will coincide with the publication of "A Presidential Energy Policy" by Variance Publishing and a real marketing campaign. The book will be in bookstores when the movie comes out. -- I guess I've been fighting a great many battles for a while... thirty years or so.

In the meantime Cynthia McKinney sits in an Israeli prison for trying to smuggle crayons and medical supplies in Gaza... Well, she is a few years younger than I am.

But I'm not reading any news stories for a while. I'm not anaylzing or pondering. I'm not thinking about Peak Oil or collapse, or die off or any of it. Life has given me a second shot at some things that have long been missing; like music, singing, romance, friends... and more. The re-emergence of music in my life has set off a freight train train that I just have to ride for a while. I have two special friends to thank for that: Doug Lewis and Andy Kravitz... But then there's also this guy named Jim Sullins.

In 1982 I had a band and Jim was the first guy I hooked up with. He'd written songs for Sheena Easton, Ray Charles and Julios Iglesias. He played one of the crispest rhythm guitars and we sang some crazy-ass harmonies. Well I've heard from Jim a few times lately. I've sent him some lyrics that seem to be pouring out of me. Jim's a songwriter in Nashville and after twenty-five years he screaming at me, "Sing! Sing! Be with music. Be happy." I am happily a member of the Venice Arts Club. Scroll down at the site and you'll see a few pics of me being happy with some fine people. http://veniceartsclub.wordpress.com/

The daimon which brought me this far, through all this, to meet and be with you guys... to do the work we've done, is now dragging me into a place I'll call... happiness. I am not resisting.

I'll be there for whatever the movie asks and I'll do all for the book. But otherwise, I'm done. Now I can really retire.

Jenna, the blog is all yours. I may send a few things out. But Jenna Orkin has been this blog's parent for a long time and we all know it. What a job she has done. I'm not looking back for a while.

Love to all,

MCR
***********************************************************************************
From Jenna Orkin:

A cursory glance at the news would suggest that The Powers That Be and their spokesmen, the Mainstream Media, aren't trying to save the patient (us) from our current crises; they're trying to anaesthetize us through the dying process. The neverending story of Michael Jackson advances this agenda as we calmly moonwalk backwards off stage.

Not to torture that metaphor since I have no understanding of the moonwalk, but it would seem reasonable that all you need to do to fall behind in the world is to stay put while the world moves forward. Just keep on doing the same ol' tricks, crank out a few trillion more of that trusty ol' currency, while around you the scene has evolved; the currency, lost its trustiness.

But who could have known? Such a thing never happened before (except in Rome before the collapse of the Empire, China under Kublai Khan, France after John Law, Germany after World War I......)

Collapse
Economic Fragility Underestimated - Collapse May Be Imminent (from Rice Farmer)
Debt Burden Accelerates Global Power Shift as G-8 Countries Lose Influence
U.S. Should Consider a Second Stimulus Package, Obama Adviser Tyson Says
No Amount of Stimulus Will Work
Oil price rollercoaster
Is this another inflationary spike that could derail the economy?
Pope Calls for New Political and Financial World Order
California - and the U.S. - Headed for Permanently Smaller Economy
Who Killed California's Economy?
Who'll take California IOUs?
Goldman Sachs Says Morgan Stanley All Wrong About Fed's Quantitative Exit
GM to Fire 4,000 Managers by October, Become ‘Greener’: WSJ Link
Will General Motors Kill Its Electric Car?
US Weekly raw steel production down by 46.1pct YoY (from Rice Farmer)
Americans are working fewest hours on record (from Rice Farmer)
Forbes' Layoff Tracker
Social Security Number Can Be Guessed From Government Data, Web Sites
Office Vacancies Near 4-Year High; 24% Vacancies in Suburbs; Rents Fall
Twitter Vital for National Security
500,000 Canadians 90 Days Behind on Credit Payments
Hotels Feel the Pain of a Glut of Empty Rooms and Lower Room Rates
FBI detains Russian programmer for stealing secret Goldman Sachs codes
Pentagon IG Probes Afghan Headquarters Contract

UK
Police Fear Far-Right Terror Attack
Anti-terror police face budget cuts
The Secret Torture Evidence MI5 Tried to Hide
MI5 Accused of Bribe Offer
Straw Proposes New Powers to Prosecute War Criminals in Britain
Britain to face 100,000 swine flu cases a day by end of August (from Rice Farmer)
Summer of chaos feared as BA workers reject plans

Asia
Riots, Street Battles Kill At Least 156 in China
China's Uighurs March to Protest Detention of 1,000 After Deadly Rioting
China Signals End of Commodity Stockpiling (from Rice Farmer)
"It is possible that the entire commodities / equities rally and economic ‘green shoots’ were spillover effects of Chinese stockpiling."
China Arrests Four Rio Tinto Employees
...in dispute over iron ore prices.
Key in Afghanistan Is Economy, Not Military
Workers Have Daily Smile Scans

General
Baltic Exchange made changes in calculating BDI (from Rice Farmer)
"Maritime Global Net reported that the Baltic Exchange has made changes to the way it calculates the Baltic Dry Index in a move it says is designed to help boost derivative trading."
Will Improving Farming Solve the Food Crisis ?
Scientists create test-tube sperm

Brush Up Your Mandarin

2009-07-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

HEADLINES
Emerging Markets' Global Equity Share Hits Record; China Tops $3 Trillion
What Is North Korea's Endgame?

AMERICAS
US moves into back seat
Recession on Par With Worst Year of Depression
Sarah Palin resigns as governor of Alaska
In Honduras Coup, Truth Is As Strange as Any Banana Republic Fiction

Brother Paul and the Fight for the Peruvian Rain Forest
Seven banks fail, pushing 2009 tally to 52

ENERGY
Europe Urged to Stockpile Gas
Nigeria Runs Out of Crude
The Oil Intensity of Food
"An empty cereal box delivered to the grocery store would cost about the same as a full one." Thanks to Our Fossil Fuel Addiction, We May Be Setting Ourselves Up For a Catastrophic Natural Event
Less Than Meets the Eye (from Rice Farmer)

WAR
Eager to Tap Iraq's Vast Oil Reserves, Industry Execs Suggested Invastion
Louis Freeh memoirs: FBI chief defended Saudis
The pro-Saudi bias of former FBI director Louis Freeh during the investigation of the 1996 Khobar Towers terror bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 United States airmen shut down a probe in which Osama bin Laden was clearly implicated. Had the case run its course, the US may not have been so brutally blindsided by 9/11. - Gareth Porter (Jul 3,'09)
This is the final article in a three-part report.Part 1: Al-Qaeda excluded from suspect list
Part 2: Why US officials blamed Iran
Top Judge Calls Use of Drones "Intolerable"
Hezbollah on Steroids (from Rice Farmer)

EUROPE
EU faces permanent loss of output
China to overtake UK Quarter of graduate vacancies vanish
Eye in Sky For All Bobbies on Beat
Facebook page exposed MI6 head
Pay freeze threat to all public workers
BT offers staff long holidays for 75pc cut in wages
By "long holidays," do you mean nine months?
Portugal’s economy minister resigns

We need identity cards, and soon
A conclusion that is the inevitable and perhaps not accidental outcome of ID fraud.
Climate change shrinks Scottish sheep

RUSSIA
Ten Chechen policemen gunned in deadliest attack in Russia's Caucasus
Russia May Ban Powerful Incandescent Bulbs in 2011

OSCE Passes Resolution Equating Soviet and Nazi Roles in Starting World War II

AFRICA
Fears for world poor as rich grab land
Rising demand sparks African land grab

ASIA
Uighurs riot as ethnic tensions rise in China
Mass flu infection caused by servant
DPRK Fires Four Short Range Missiles Off Coast
Chinese airline may offer cheaper fares to passengers who stand (from Rice Farmer)

ENVIRONMENT ETC.
Ants Form Global Mega-Colony
Sea Level Rise: It's Worse Than We Thought (from Rice Farmer)

Blackout (from Rice Farmer)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Doughnut
Organic Recycled Recessionista Chic

What Companies Do When They Have Nothing Else to Offer

Stripping Naked to Improve Company Morale

Top Fifteen Differences on a Naked Airlines Flight

Naked News

Recovery Hope Bubble Bursts

2009-07-03T06:14:00.001-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Americas
Joblessness Hits 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes
Home Loan Delinquencies Double on Prime Loans; Foreclosure Filings Top 300,000 3rd Straight Month
China Moves Again to Cut Reliance on Dollar
Washington Post to sell access to reporters?
SEC bosses told investigator to ignore Madoff
Small businesses vital to economic recovery go bankrupt (from Rice Farmer)
Ron Paul Wins Support to Audit Fed
Record numbers seek permits to carry concealed weapons (from Rice Farmer)
Did Leak from a Laboratory Cause Swine Flu Pandemic?
Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s
California Fails to Break Impasse as States Struggle to Meet Budget Deadlines
Beware of Rallies in Uncertain Times
Short on dollars, Arnold Schwarzenegger's state is inventing its own currency.
Will Banks Demand Discount on California I.O.U.'s?
Supreme Court Refuses Case by 9/11 Victims Families
Hugo Chavez threatens military action in Honduras

Europe/Russia
Record Deflation in Eurozone
British economy sinks at fastest rate in 50 years
OECD tells UK to cut back
Lloyds cuts 2,100 more UK jobs, total hits 7,000
UK: ID Cards Won't Be Required
Russia’s Neighbors Resist Wooing and Bullying
Russia begins large-scale military exercises in North Caucasus
Russian war games widen rift with Georgia
Gazprom Seeks African, Caspian Supplies to Build Gas Grid Circling Europe
Croatian Prime Minister quits politics

Asia
Pak general: CIA has Distributed 400 Million Dollars Inside Iran to Evoke a Revolution (from Rice Farmer)
U.S.-built bridge is windfall for Afghan drug trade (from Rice Farmer)
Flood of Afghan heroin fuels drug plague in Russia (from Rice Farmer)
India wilts as monsoon fears grow
Scientists seeks to bring on Indian monsoon
China's banks are an accident waiting to happen to every one of us
China to Intensify Patrols in South China Sea
Weather Disasters May Rise in China
Drought Plagues China as Downpour Hits South
Extreme weather hits China
China races extreme weather for wheat harvest
Extreme weather lashes country
Extreme weather hits NW China, costing 5B yuan
Extreme cold kills 1,000 Tibetan gazelles
Hong Kong's Pro-Democarcy March Draws Thousands
Young Japanese Raise Their Voices Over Economy
Japan: Biometric ID System Catches Four

CYNTHIA McKINNEY TAKEN INTO CUSTODY

2009-06-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

CYNTHIA McKINNEY TAKEN INTO CUSTODY, GAZA RELIEF SUPPLY SHIP BOARDED BY ISRAELI NAVY -- McKINNEY AND COLLEAGUES DETAINED IN ISRAEL

June 30, 2009, 12:30 PM PDT -- This morning at 0915 I received a call from Cynthia McKinney aide David who advised that a ship en route from Cyprus to Gaza filled with relief supplies including medicine and much-needed cement had been fired upon and boarded by naval vessels of the Israeli Defense Forces. On board were dozens of peace activists and aide workers including Nobeal Peace Laureate Maired Maguire. I had last heard from Cynthia on Sunday June 28th when she called me from Cyprus at around 0930 my time to advise that she and her band of international peace activists were finally departing from Cyprus for Gaza after many delays.

David advised that as far as he knew, no one had been hurt in the Israeli attack and that Cynthia was physically OK. However, he added that her safety and whereabouts inside Israel were unknown at this time.

I am encouraging all of my fans and followers to reach out by any means to the White House, to the international media, to the Israeli embassy in Washington and by whatever means they can to protest this attack on a humanitarian relief effort and to ensure the safety of all aboard. The plight of the Gazans is epic and brutal. It is time that voices were heard and all of us who have known and loved Cynthia McKinney for so long need to rally behind her uncompromising courage. We need to make our voices heard on this.

For more information, please visit http://www.FreeGaza.org.

Michael C. Ruppert
*********************************************************************************
From Jenna Orkin:

Americas/UK
Obama could mull second stimulus if needed: adviser
Fears over UK debt
Britain's national debt is in danger of quadrupling, Standard & Poor's warns
Brown to keep spending high despite recession
Atta boy.
Why the Dow Is Headed to 6000
TIPS Are Untested: What Happens When Inflation Takes Over?
US Approves IMF Gold Sales; What Does It Mean?
Volcker Gets Less Than He Wants From Obama in Curbing Wall Street Excesses
New Home Sales Market Share Drops to Record Low of 7.4%: Chart of the Day
Regulators Shutter five banks
- two in Georgia, two in California and one in Minnesota - bringing the year's total to 45 bank failures
Don't miss "The Crumbling of America" documentary news (from Rice Farmer)
The U.S. Military is Going Green
Rebellion on the Range Over a Cattle ID Plan
Supreme Court Finds Bias Against White Firefighters
Honduran President Removed in Coup
Gold Heist at the Canadian Mint?

Energy
Iraq oilfields up for grabs in 'extraordinary' TV auction
Japanese Biomass Powerplants Struggle with Shortages
Big Oil's Answer to Carbon Law May Be Fuel Imports
Solar power faces early sunset in Australia
Coal-Eating Bugs May Solve Energy Crisis
Three from Rice Farmer:
The Coming Mystery Of The Missing Barrels Of Oil
Rare Metals Could Trigger Next Trade War
Black Markets for Rare Earth Metals

Water
Positioning for When Water Runs Out: Part II
It's Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado
Low Rainfall Cuts Hydro Power Generation
India turns to 'cloud seeding' to make rain

Russia
Russia considers bail-out for banks
...that will go further than measures taken by the US, as fears grow that bad loans could paralyse the economy.
Russia’s Putin welcomes oil and gas cooperation with Royal Dutch Shell in Sakhalin
South Stream Exports May Sideline Ukraine
NATO & resumed military cooperation with Russia
Mullen Calls for New US-Russian Military Relationship
Attack from breakaway Abkhazia damages Georgian power grid
Ukraine coalition 'close to collapse'
Russia Signals It Will Stay Out of OPEC
Credit crunch forces Russian climbdown.
Number of Russian wealthy drops 28.5%, report finds

Asia/Africa
North Korea Threatens to Shoot Down Japanese Spy Planes
S. Korea boosts defense spending, warns of first-strike capability (from Rice Farmer)
US Abandons Efforts to Eradicate Poppy Plants
Drug crop cultivation plummets in Afghanistan
Opium poppy production fell 19 per cent in Afghanistan
US confirms U-turn in Afghan counter-narcotics policy
Somali children being forced into war, says leader
Four from Rice Farmer:
Alarming Death Rate of Foreign Trainees Reported in Japan
Is China Faking Economic Recovery?
Japan's public pension assets suffer record yearly loss, erasing all profit made in last eight years
North India reels under power shortage

Science
When a Hybrid Takes Hold, the Outcome Can Be Bad
Worm Charming
Just what it sounds like.
Sanofi to donate 100m swine flu vaccines
The hidden cost of giving away vaccines
One-off gifts of childhood vaccines can cause more harm than good.

Intelligence
Secrecy News reports:
The Defense Department has issued a newly updated policy statement (pdf) on reporting "questionable" intelligence activities. "It is DoD policy that senior leaders and policymakers within the Government be made aware of events that may erode the public trust in the conduct of DoD intelligence operations," the June 17, 2009 memorandum states. Some such questionable activities are to be reported to the Intelligence Oversight Board, a component of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. However, the efficacy of any such reporting is limited by the fact that that Board currently has no sitting members. ("White House Intel Advisory Board Has No Members," Secrecy News, June 15, 2009).
Blog of Bill Leonard, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under Clinton and Bush II.

Collapse 101

2009-06-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Economic Collapse

Buffett: US Economy in Shambles; No Sign of Recovery Yet
The operative word is "yet." Hope springs eternal etc.
Update on US Exports and Imports: The Collapse Continues
Japan's Exports Slump 40.9%
Industrial Orders in Eurozone Drop 35% Year on Year
New Home Sales in Northeast Fall 32% in March
Auto Parts Maker Lear Close to Bankruptcy
Auto Supplier Said to Prepare for Chapter 11
UK To Sink Into Red Further Than Any Other Country, OECD Warns
King Warns of the Long Hard Slog to Clear Britain's Debt
An anemic version of 'blood, sweat and tears.'
BA cost-cutting: 800 staff offer to work for free
Credit Card Charge-Offs Hit Record High in February
Russia Facing Long Recession, World Bank Says
Quarter of Russian Families in Debt, Poll Says Gazprom Sees No Reason for 'Panic'
Could Banks Have to Close to Solve Severe Problems? (from Rice Farmer)
State Shutdowns Loom as Deadlines Near (from Rice Farmer)
Moody's on California: Nice Weather. Shame About the Insolvency
Harvard Endowment Expected to Shrink by 30%
Some Operations of Citigroup Suspended in Japan
...on grounds it failed to monitor suspicious transactions.
French Minister Says Retirement Age Will Rise
Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout
Interactive Graphic: Geography of a Recession
Lawmakers Attack Fed for Being Too Secretive
J'accuse the US Army's Development Delusions
ECB lends record €442bn in first loan offer to boost credit flows
Depressed Banker Missing With Two Shotguns
Goldman Sachs on Pace for Record Bonuses
Gold will breach $1,000

Technology/Intelligence/Terrorism
Al-Qaeda 'plotting cyber war against Britain'
India Undertakes Ambitious ID Card Plan
Obama Contemplates Executive Order for Detention Without Charges
Smartphones Pose Security Risk Says Gvt
Brazil: Terrorism possible in Air France crash
Violence Expected as U.S. Troops Leave Iraqi Cities
Somali Pirate Attacks Boost Shipping Insurance Rates 20-Fold Investors (from Rice Farmer)

Biology/Environment/Energy
China Suspends Reforestation Over Food Shortage Fears
To eat or to breathe; that is the question.
Space and Gas Deals Planned in Nigeria
Gazprom had previously discussed the possibility of participating in the construction of a pipeline across the Sahara Desert, as well as pipeline infrastructure in Nigeria. The trans-Sahara link would connect Nigeria with Algeria's export system, making it possible to send Nigerian gas to Europe.
Chinese Firm to Gain Access to Iraqi Oil
Two Utilities Are Leaving Clean Coal Initiative
Are Batteries in Electric Cars Safe?
Should Mexico Stop Exporting Oil?
Peak Water, Peak Fish and the End of Everything
Terse Op-Ed arguing that we're really smart and will figure out an answer to the doomsayers. Supporting evidence: The improvement in the quality of life over the last hundred years. No mention of the fact that this coincided with the rise of oil production.
Cows that burp less methane bred
One third of sharks and rays 'threatened with extinction'
All British homes to be wind powered
US eases pressure on China over climate change targets
Florist threatened for planting flowers
Russian street sweeper fired for planting potatoes on city lawn
Five from Rice Farmer:
Water Woes Seen As Opportunity For Ag
Swine Flu Vaccinations for the Canadian Population
Argentina Dengue Outbreak
Dengue fever out break in Sri Lanka kills 146, infects more than 10,000
Mauritius records 208 cases of dengue fever

Eurasia/Drums of War
Putin wants to remove President Saakashvili
Germany targeted by Russian commercial spies –official
Georgia fears second Russian invasion
Azerbaijani President says nation must prepare for war with Armenia
Assassination attempt raises fears of 'new Chechnya'
Russia: No Dissent on US Air Base
Two crocodiles spotted in pond near Ukrainian refinery

Asia
Pakistan: India no longer a military threat
Kim Jung-Il's Son Made Head of NKorean Spy Agency
China to Invest $3Billion in Turkmenistan Oil Field
China has more millionaires than UK for the first time
RBS topped the losses list while Chinese banks raked in profits
Japanese Exports Plunge Again

CRS Reports:
Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions
Supreme Court Nominations: Senate Floor Procedure and Practice, 1789-2009
Inherently Governmental Functions and Department of Defense Operations: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress
Federal Rulemaking: The Role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Homeland Security Department: FY2010 Request for Appropriations
Iran's 2009 Presidential Elections

And...
Spanish bar invites insults from stressed customers
A bar in Spain is serving up free beer and tapas to recession-weary customers who insult its bartenders as a way to let off steam.

Comment: The low-grade sadism involved in this article prompted me to investigate what would happen if you googled "recession" and "sex." Answer: 18.5 million hits. Further investigation uncovered Dominatrix Work Forces Recession To Its Knees

Hair of the Dog Losing Effectiveness

2009-06-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Paul Krugman's Forebear in the Weimar Republic

2009-06-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin

Quote of the day:

"The crisis seems to be easing, and a chorus of critics is already demanding that the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration abandon their rescue efforts," writes Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times this week. "Those demands should be ignored. It's much too soon to give up on policies that have...pulled us a few inches back from the abyss."

"It's déjà vu all over again," he concludes, referring to the Japanese in the '90s and the Americans in the '30s. In both cases, he thinks their economies died because they turned off the juice too soon.

But people come to think what they must think when they must think it:

"To follow the good counsel of stopping [the inflation machine] would mean... that in a very short time the entire public, factories, mines, railways and post office, national and local government, in short, all national and economic life would be stopped."

Karl Helferich, Chairman, Central Bank of Germany, 1923.

Military
US Tailing DPRK Ship Suspected of Carrying Missiles
Japan: New Draft Calling for Bigger Military

Economic/Energy Forecasts
Hyperinflation is Coming
Why Stocks Will Collapse This Fall (from Rice Farmer)
The Coming Oil Crisis (Newsweek)
New Forecast: Mass Starvation
Emerging Markets Will End Dollar's Reign: Roubini
Oil at 100, Interest Rates May Stifle Economy: Roubini
Hyperinflation Could Hit US in 5-10 Years: Roubini
Nouriel Roubini's Website

Economic Crisis
ECB's Trichet Says No Room for More Debt
UK: Borrowing Reaches Record
States in Deep Trouble Over Plunging Income Tax Revenues
States Turning to Last Resorts in Budget Crisis
Banks Fail in Georgia, North Carolina, Kansas
State Plans to Limit Bank Bailout Funds
Joblessness Continued to Rise in May in Nearly Every State (from Rice Farmer)
Unemployment Paychecks Double
The Weekly Layoff Report: Rupert Murdoch Joins the Crowd
Strange Inconsistencies in the $134.5 Billion Bearer Bond Mystery
Did the counterfeiters stage this bizarre episode in order to get caught? Is it part of a scheme to collapse the dollar?
Fire Moves Into Houses Abandoned by Foreclosures (from Rice Farmer)

Energy
IDA Study on Peak Oil Debate
Oil Price Fears Follow Rebel Attacks on Shell Oil Refinery Strike
Switch from Oil to Biomass Won't Happen Overnight
Nitwits In Congress Propose Tapping Oil Reserves To Halt Price Increases
Wartime Fungus Joins Elephant Dung to Make Biofuel
Greenwash/Hogwash

Americas
Peru's PM quits over jungle anger
Mexico: The War Next Door
Sixty Minutes report.

It's gotten so bad, a U.S. military report warned that Mexico could face "rapid and sudden collapse....."

"Half of what we seize, 55 percent are assault rifles. And this is what gives these groups this intimidation power. Over 17,000 assault rifles, throughout the last two years. Two thousand and 200 grenades, missile and rocket launchers. Fifty caliber sniper rifles," the attorney general explained.

It might surprise you to learn where all these guns are coming from. It turns out 90 percent of them are purchased in the US..."

There was an assault weapons ban in the United States for ten years. It expired in 2004.

"Would you consider asking Congress to reinstate that?" Cooper asked Napolitano.

"I haven't thought that far," she replied.
How New Intelligence Will Tame the Information Explosion
The economic crisis paves the way for RFIDs. This is an ad for IBM disguised as an article.
NASA Prepares to Bomb the Moon
Obama Protecting Cheney from Jon Stewart

Russia/Europe
Russia, Netherlands, Discuss Serious Energy Plans
Rosneft Boosts Powers of Board of Directors
Russia renames mountain in tribute to energy firm
Mosquito swarms threaten Britain
Helicopters are being deployed to spray poison in the skies above northern France to wipe out swarms of mosquitoes that are threatening to cross the Channel into Britain.

Asia
China Crosses the Rubicon (from Rice Farmer)
They Shoot Frequent Fliers, Don't They?
37,000 Dogs clubbed to death in China to contain rabies
Seven Killed by Lightning in Beijing
Speculation inevitably centred on the government's weather modification programme, which has been ramped up in recent years to offset droughts by seeding clouds.
Power Outage Darkens Pakistan's City of Light (from Rice Farmer)
The Curse of Oil Looms for Cambodia

The Truth Will Out

2009-06-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Americas
Fed Starting to Panic Over TALF Collateral Concerns
The Shadow Banking System: Death from Nowhere (February/March, 2009)
Large U.S. Corporate Bankruptcies Accelerate
Worst Housing Number in Decades: What Is the Wall Street Media Smoking?
Ongoing, Stealthy Deterioration of Asset Quality
A Pick Up in Housing Starts Will Only Prolong the Housing Recession
Obama’s Financial Regulation Proposal: The Devil Is In the Details
Debt, Debt, and More Debt in Store for the U.S.
The Case for California Defaulting
Obama's Choice: Healthcare or Climate
The title of the article an allusion to Sophie's Choice? Ie: Choosing which of your two children to have killed?
Carlyle, Blackstone (BX) and TPG are reportedly leading a group of bidders in talks to buy Bank of America's (BAC) First Republic Bank
Carney May Be Pressed Into Buying Bonds as Canadian Dollar Batters Economy
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, who says a strengthening currency could choke the economic recovery, may be pressed into creating dollars and buying assets such as government bonds to offset the dollar’s rise.
The Great White High: Cocaine Smuggled in Sharks
Cyberscares About Cyberwars Equal Cybermoney: Watching the Cybermilitary-Industrial Complex Form (from Rice Farmer)

Europe
David Milliband Wants Interrogation Policy Kept Secret
UK Public Borrowing Hits Record
How many times have we linked to a headline containing the word "record" in reference to the financial crisis? That's a rhetorical question but google "economic crisis" and "record high" and you get 213,000 hits.
UK unemployment expected to have risen
The number of people claiming jobless benefits is expected to have risen by 60,000.
Middle class families are suffering from an inflation rate more than twice the official level, as the price of petrol, mortgages and alcohol all creep up in price.
Spain's Bid to Reduce EU Reliance on Russian Gas Stalls on Lack of Pipes
Spain is building up gas stockpiles and import capacity that officials say could help cut Europe’s reliance on Russian fuel. They just don’t have the pipes to deliver it.

Energy
Who Has the Most Oil?
Gapminder's video.
Nuclear nations rush to lock in uranium deals (from Rice Farmer)
Japan Plans Underwater Sponges to Soak Up Uranium
Fusion Falters Under Soaring Costs
Estimate Puts Natural Gas 35% Higher
The New York Times shills for hydraulic fracturing, a technique whose environmental effects are vague since the chemicals involved are considered trade secrets.
Human Sewage to Power Homes

Eurasia
Most Oil Projects May Not Be Profitable
The majority of new oil projects in Russia will not be profitable even with oil prices at $150 per barrel, according to an Energy Ministry proposal on how to reduce taxes at undeveloped fields.
Oil Tax Plan Would Ease Burden on New Fields
Window on Eurasia: Moscow’s Anti-Extremism Effort Targeting Ever More Groups
Romanians hit by racist attacks 'want to go home'
Around 20 Romanian families were forced to take shelter in a church and will get temporary homes in student accommodation
Russia Makes the First Call for the Monetization of Gold

Asia
US Funds Terror Groups to Sow Chaos in Iran (from Rice Farmer)
Iran Election Turnouts Exceed 100% in Thirty Towns, Website Reports
Where were the analogous reports after the '00 and '04 elections in the US?
Foreign fighters join Afghan insurgents
Uzbeks and Turks are prominent among foreign fighters joining Arab recruits to fight alongside the Taleban
Obama's Bulldozer Risks Turning Taliban Into Pakistan's Khmer Rouge
Kim Jong Il's son 'made secret visit to China'

Swine Flu
Vaccinate Kids to Control H1N1 Virus: Researchers
Inventory Uncovers 9,200 More Pathogens (from Rice Farmer)
Full List of Swine Flu Cases, Country by Country
New Strain of Swine Flu Discovered in Brazil

Environment
Re-Engineering the Earth
Scientists come up with Rube Goldberg-like solutions to climate change, dirt cheap and with unintended and unpleasant consequences.
In Japan, it's raining tadpoles ...
Criminalize Organic Farming? BILLS: HR 875 and S 425
The End of Small Farms? HR 875, HR 759, NAIS & Monsanto
Shelly Roche

Odds at the end
Man Lives in Closet to Save Money
Gold Bar Dispensers at Frankfurt Airport
Gold Parties
Tupperware's out.
9/11 Hero Dog Cloned

North Korea Preparing to Launch Missile Towards Hawaii

2009-06-18T10:07:00.001-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

North Korea Preparing to Launch Missile Towards Hawaii

Here's where pedantry goes into overdrive. Does this headline come down to the choice of a preposition? Is "towards" the same thing as "at?" Or is the firing of the missile just a warning shot in the direction of Hawaii?

The Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, with a range of 4,000 miles, are [sic] being developed to give North Korea the capability to strike Hawaii and Alaska, however analysts say that the technology still falls some way short of that goal.

Rise of the IMF

2009-06-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Economic Crisis
ECB Warning on Banks Rattles Markets
Worst Days of US Crisis May Lie Ahead, IMF Warns
BRIC to Focus on Raising IMF Clout
Hedge Funds in Cayman Islands Withdraw from UK Banks
British Airways asks staff to work for free
Conoco Chief Says Replacing Oil May Take a Century
Krugman Warns of Japanes Style Stagnation
Three from Rice Farmer:
U.S. credit card defaults rise to record in May
California to miss budget deadline, "meltdown" nears
Supreme Court refuses to stop US-Mexico fence construction

Military/Intelligence/Asia/NeoFascism
N Korea in 'early phase of all-out confrontation with US'
Troops mass for onslaught on Taleban
Legal shield for Army chiefs in Afghanistan
British commanders offered indemnity from prosection if they make a decision that leads to the death of a soldier
Indian nuclear expert missing
Pakistan to release 'terrorist' linked to attacks
Recession toughens up the Army
Influx of new recruits has pushed the drop-out rate on the infantry's gruelling, basictraining course below 30 per cent
Neo-Nazis are in the Army now (from Rice Farmer)
Citizen Patrol's Fascist Uniform Sparks Outcry
Spooks get permission to buy off Taliban
UK Names New MI6 Boss

Climate Change
Spain warns of jellyfish invasion
Portuguese Men O' War invade the Mediterranean
Jellyfish head for UK in bumper numbers
Climate change divides the Alps down the middle
Global warming is already causing flooding in the north and water shortages in the south, report says.
Crops under stress as temperatures fall Australia's damaged wildlife
Hundreds of animals were victims of the worst bushfires in history.

Power Shortages/Africa
Power Rationed Amid Saudi Electricity Shortage
Harsh Austerity Measures Implemented in Ethiopia
Power Shortage Hits Zambia
Zimbabwe Faces More Power Cuts Due to Debt
Recession Blamed for Sharp Increase in Number of Abandoned South African Babies

And...
Mayor of New Orleans Quarantined in China
Court Clears TV Station of Extremism for "South Park"Asia News

2009-06-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Headline
North Korea Declares All Out Push for Nuclear Weapons
[T]he resolution risks standoffs between US and North Korean ships – a danger underlined by North Korea's response. "An attempted blockade of any kind by the US and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response," the regime said.

Energy/Americas
The Coming US-Saudi Fight Over Energy Independence
Peak Coal, Global Warming Policy and Exponential Math
From Recovery to Oil Price Surges
Secret Documents Show How Shell Used Military Government Against Protesters
Feingold's Objection to McChrystal
"The Role of the Department of Defense During a Flu Pandemic," June 4, 2009.
"Geospatial Information and Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Current Issues and Future Challenges," June 8, 2009.
As Iraq Runs Dry, a Plague of Snakes is Unleashed
As Wind Power Grows, a Push to Tear Down Dams
US Cities May Have to Be Bulldozed to Survive
Argentina accused of economic war

Russia
Russia: GDP Shrinks 9.8% in 15 Year Record
Report Says Crisis Curbs Need for Democracy

Pakistan/Afghanistan
Pakistan Hikes Defense Spending 15%
Four from Rice Farmer:
Pakistan orders army to go after Taliban chief
From last year: Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud Dead
Report: Baitullah Mehsud is Dead
Russia Seeks Bigger Role in Afghanistan on Eve of BRIC Summit

East Asia
Humans Intrude on an Indonesian Park
Niche in Europe for China Cars?
Chinese Cities to be Lit Up By Leds
China Stockpiling Oil (February)
China Stockpiling Corn (March)
China Stockpiling Soy (April)
China Stockpiling Copper (April)
China Stockpiling Copper Metals (April)
China Stockpiling Iron Ore (June)
Poppy Hunt in Beijing

Africa
The End of the Internet for Namibia?

Australia
Students riot over attacks

And...
A.P. in Deal to Deliver Nonprofits’ Journalism
Researchers Use Brain Scans to Read People's Memories
Information from brain scans has already been used in court in India to help judge whether defendants are telling the truth or not.

Regarding a recent reference to the threat of stem rust to the global wheat crop, see also: Weaponization of Stem Rust
Investors Rush to Buy Gold
The Return of History and the End of Dreams (Book Review, 2008)

The Difference Between Latvia and California

2009-06-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Latest: Twitter reports Mousavi under house arrest; Rafsanjani resigned.

What's the difference between Latvia and California? Answer: A week.

Financial Crisis

ECB Fears Bank Crisis
Is Eastern Europe on the Brink of an Asia-Style Crisis?
Latvia Faces Economic Meltdown
California Fifty Days from Financial Meltdown
China's Foreign Trade Plunges Deeper in May
Bank Rescue Costs UE States $5.3 Trillion, More Than German GDP

Countries and other entities respond to the crisis according to their respective abilities and "needs:"

Central Banks May Put Half Reserves Into Gold

Russia May Swap Some US Treasuries for IMF Debt
China's Commodity Buying Spree
Global Financial Crisis Could Drive Poor Colombian Children to Join Guerrilla Groups
G8's Promise to Africa is Likely To Be Broken
Canadian Banks, Ranked World's Best, Step Up Job Cuts
Mandelson Says Britain Will Join Euro

Behind the Scenes:
Geithner to Allow Banks to Repay TARP Although TARP Stress Test Analysts Say Test Was Flawed
Fed Would Be Shut Down If It Was Audited Says Expert
America's Sea of Red Ink Was Years in the Making
Yet who could have seen it coming?

Energy Crisis

German Military Opposes Gazrpom's Baltic Pipe
Obstacles pile up for Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline (from Rice Farmer)
Energy fuels new 'Great Game' in Europe (from Rice Farmer)
Is the West's Love for Oil Receding for Good?
The Crude Reality of Peak Production
Oil Drops After Record Plunge in European Industrial Production
US Oil Imports at Risk
Chrysler's Next Fear: High Gas Prices
The World in Energy Statistics
EU Lines Too Old to Deliver 2020 Renewables Target

Swine Flu
Millions of Britons Could Be Infected with Swine Flu
Note the following two sentences appearing in the same article:

[WHO Director Dr. Margaret Chan] told a press conference in Geneva the majority of cases have been mild with most people making a full recovery without the need for medication....

Confirmed cases and their close contacts have received the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and orders have been placed for 90 million doses of H1N1 vaccine which are due to be delivered by December.
Swine Flu Drugs Will Replace Containment

Intelligence/Torture
Classification and the Descent Into Torture: Comments by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Teachers Urged to Join MI5
Bin Laden Hiding in Pakistan, CIA Says
See what a little waterboarding can do?

And...
Industrial food is killing us, claims ‘Food, Inc.’ movie (from Rice Farmer)
Goldman May Get $321 Million on Missed Trade Center Deadlines
American Friends of the British Nationalist Party
Guppies Provide Lessons in How to Evolve Fast
US Man Arrested in Gold Bullion Ponzi Scheme (February)
Policeman Uses Taser on 72-Year-Old Woman
...for speeding.

Prediction of $250 Oil

2009-06-11T03:48:00.000-07:00

Oil Price Leaps to Year's High
Thanks to V(incent) for bringing this to our attention.
CERA Official Acknowledges Peak Oil is Here
Swine Flu "Pandemic" Announcement Imminent

"What's happening right now is not about public health surveillance and science," [Michael Osterholm] said. "It's about politics and risk communication."

Comment: And in case you had any doubts about how independent science is of the PR department:

"In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would spark mass panic. The agency appeared to cave into the requests, saying it would rewrite its definition of a global outbreak so that it wouldn't have to declare one right away for swine flu."

Comment: Which is not to say that the declaration of a pandemic is not itself a caving to political interests, just different ones.

Fascists Rush In Where Reasonable Folk Are Too Bummed Out to Tread

2009-06-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin

Europe/Global

Right and Fringe Parties Make Gains Across Europe Amid Low Turnout
Labor Facing Worst Ever National Results
The Genteel Face of NeoFascism
British National party MEP and former National Front chairman who started political life in group set up in honour of Hitler
The Great U-Turn: Global Migration Flows Reverse for the First Time Since the Depression as Work in the Rich World Dries Up (from Rice Farmer)
Gordon Brown's Legacy Is a Nation More Divided Than Ever
World Oil Reserves Fell For First Time in Ten Years
Global Weapons Spending Hits Record Levels
Six Police Officers Accused of Torturing Drug Suspects
Sliding smoothely down the slippery slope from 'terrorists' to suspected criminals to...
The Next Big Thing: Neomedievalism (from Rice Farmer)

Americas

Bank Profits From Accounting Rules Masking Looming Loan Losses
Airlines May Lose $9 Billion This Year, IATA Says
Double the previous forecast.
Stocks Will Fall 37% or Gold Will Rally 60%
Bankruptcy Filings Reach 6000 A Day
US Jobs Propaganda Gets More Desperate
Gold and greenback go head to head for 'reserve currency' title (From Fice Farmer)
By Stepping Up to Sell China’s Bonds, Standard Chartered and HSBC May Accelerate the Yuan’s Acceptance as a Global Currency (from Rice Farmer)
Is Obama's Change Simply Cosmetic?
Peak phosphate (from Rice Farmer)
Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply (from Rice Farmer)
The Amazon is Dying Peru Protest Violence Kills 22 Police

Reports
"Mexico's Drug-Related Violence," May 27, 2009. "The 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) 'Swine Flu' Outbreak: U.S. Responses to Global Human Cases," May 26, 2009.
"The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11," updated May 15, 2009.
"USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives After 15 Years: Issues for Congress," May 27, 2009.
"Identity Theft: Trends and Issues," May 27, 2009.

Central Europe/Middle East

General Says Georgia Fully Rearmed
Imports of Belorussian Milk Products Banned
Gazprom Aims to Supply 10% of U.S. Gas by 2020
Protests against Putin sweep Russia as factories go broke (Rice Farmer)
Crisis bites deep into Russian infrastructure programme
HSBC Targets Rich With Retail Banks
A War of Water

Asia/Africa

DPRK Boat Intrudes Into ROK Waters
Swaziland to Brand HIV Sufferers

Environment

Ocean Acidification to Trigger Job Losses, Scientists Warn
The scientists have caught on to the nuances of PR. Couched in terms of job loss, climate change and environmental havoc grab the attention of politicos and public alike the way warnings of dire consequences in fifty or even fifteen years never do.
Schoolgirl Allergic to 21st Century

May Merkel Make Her Mark

2009-06-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin

Americas
Five more years of those 10% of GDP deficits will quickly raise America's debt to GDP level to 100%, a level that the rating services - and more importantly, the markets - recognize as a point of no return.
Professor at USU Says US Society May Collapse (from Rice Farmer)
Goldman Sachs Predicts Oil Price Hike in 2009, 10
IATA: Airline 2009 Losses to Exceed $4.7 Billion
Oil Stored on Tankers is Up 71%
US Bailout Repayment Seen Bigger Than Expected
Green Shoots, Red Ink, Black Hole - Spitzer (from Rice Farmer)
Liberty Dollar Producers Arrested
Dollar Crisis Looming; Don't Short the Market - Jim Rogers (from Rice Farmer)
Priest Invites Parishioners to Bring Guns to Church to Celebrate Independence Day
The priest said he would also invite gun shop owners to attend the service in order to tell about their services.

Comment: Mixing church and state is a no-no, but church and commerce are way cool.
Canada: Midterm Oil Production Outlook Down 500,000 Barrels
Brazil's Actions are Combatting Amazon Deforestation

Swine Flu
Six-fold Surge in Swine Flu Cases Hits Scotland
Flu Pandemic Could Wipe 7% Off UK Economy
Swine Flu Outbreak has "Overwhelmed" US Healthcare System, Report Says
WHO Tweaks Pandemic Level to Prevent Swine Flu Panic
As Swine Flu Wanes, US Preparing for Second Wave
Tamiflu Ban for Teens Continues (Japan)
Encephalitis Shots to Resume (Japan)

Europe/Russia
Merkel's Criticism of ECB a Big Departure from Tradition
French Budget Deficit May Swell to Record as Revenue Slumps
Baltic Crisis Hits Sweden
Latvia Rings Alarm Bell for Europe
Europe Agrees How to Open Doors to Dozens of Guantanamo Detainees
Putin Takes Control in Angry Town
Russia Launches Second Train at Sakhalin 2 Plant
Ruble Reserve Currency May Not Be So Crazy
Bulgaria Warned on Gas Supplies

Africa
Gunmen Kill Guinea-Bissau Presidential Candidate

Asia
India Puts All Southers States on High Alert
China and Singapore Build Eco City
Shandong to Boost Gold Industry
China: Poor Forced to Pay for Country Road

Food/Energy
Is this the future of food? Japanese 'plant factory' churn out immaculate vegetables
Green Algae Strategy (from Rice Farmer)
Prison Blues: States Slimming Down Inmate Meals

2009-06-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

Jenna Orkin

Yesterday things got ratcheted up so tightly that the uniformity of message hardly mattered. Each article articulating another facet of collapse only confirmed that the walls are caving in on all sides.

Or maybe it was just that cup of coffee that passed itself off as decaf.

US/Global
US Business Bankruptcies Rise 40% in May
Jobless Rates in US Cities Zoom Higher in April
Fed Failure! (from Rice Farmer)
Global Recession Making World More Violent: Study
Shell Warns Oil Prices Could Spike on Low Investment
Libya Sees Further Oil Price Rise
"In 2-3 years, or maybe even next year, the talk of peak oil will be looming again. What is happening is temporary; demand will come back," Ghanem said.
Wood is New Coal as Polluters Use Carbon-Eating Trees (from Rice Farmer)
One in Nine Americans on Food Stamps
Barrett Says Copper May Rise by 25% by Year's End
Bernanke Warns Deficits Threaten Financial Stability
Et tu, Ben? Behind whose comforting bromides can we hide now that the sham's cheerleader in chief has joined the rats leaping off the sinking ship?

Here's what he was saying less than a month ago.
FDA's Secret Files
WHO Closer to Declaring Flu Pandemic
In the Money and Policy section.

Europe
UK Needs Emergency Budget
A Collapse that is Long Overdue
A Very British Form of Anarchy
Compulsory Vaccination Urged After Measles Outbreaks
Another 510 Jobs to Go at Lloyd's
UK Swine Flu Toll Is Really 30,000
British Scientists Ask WHO to Condemn Homeopathy for Diseases Such as HIV
Want to Help the Ailing Economy? Give Away Eyeglasses
Merkel Attacks UK's Plan to Print Money
95% Finance Professionals Expect Downturn to Continue
The Bottom in UK House Prices is No Bottom At All
Barclays Pensions Scrapped
17,000 staff to lose final salary benefits but US investment bankers exempted.
Iceland Turns from Collapsing Banks to Disappearing Fish
(or "from the devil to the deep blue sea")
Germany's $143 Billion Wind Farms Jeopardized by Tight Funding
Latvian Debt Crisis Shakes Eastern Europe
The finance ministry expects GDP to contract 18pc this year. House prices have fallen 50pc , the world’s most spectacular crash. A third of the country’s teachers are being fired and public salaries will be slashed by up to 35pc to meet bail-out terms imposed by the IMF and the European Commission. The policy risks a deflation spiral that defeats its own purpose.

Russia/Middle East/ Central Asia
Protests Spur Plan to Seize Factories
Stocks Fall Over 7% in Four Month Record
Belarus on the Verge of Bankruptcy
Overdue Mortgages Increase 50%
Banker Sacked for Prediction
More People Are Paying Bribes, Says Survey
Kazakhstan's Uranium "Stolen" By Ex-Official (from Rice Farmer)
Netanyahu Cites Secret Deal with Bush to Justify More Settlements ,

Pacific
Hungry Number Up 100,000 in South Asia: Unicef
South Korea Conducts Military Drill Near Demilitarized Zone
Australia Feels Chill As China's Shadow Grows

Food
A Billion People To Go Hungry in 2009 (from Rice Farmer)
Foods May Soon Be Modified to Make You Feel Full Twice as Long
One way to handle food production when there are too many people and too few resources.

Science
Humans, Hogs, May Eat Their Way to Flu Resistance
New Type of Cloud Found
Climate change or weather modification? Facts are welcome; unsubstantiated speculation, not.
Leading Scientist Says Three Quarters of Consumers Say Broadband as Essential as Water
Drone Wars (from Rice Farmer)
Mind Wars: Neuroscience and the Military

URGENT -- DOES ANYONE HAVE OLD PRINT COPIES OF FTW? -- NEEDED FOR MOVIE

2009-06-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

All of the archived physical copies of FTW were destroyed in Oregon in 2006. If anyone has a hard-copy of the first "From the Wilderness" from May 1998 please contact the blog and advise immediately. it's needed for a final cut of the movie "CoLLapse" which will be formally announced soon. A scanned image of the first page would do, but a hard copy would be better. If you have it, please let us know right away and we'll figure out how I can get it as quickly as possible.

Thanks,

MCR

2009-06-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Headlines
South Korea Sends Missile Ship to Northern Sea Border
Join Us As We Watch the Crisis Unfolding
Kenneth Deffeyes' latest:

"September 12, 2008: 2031 rigs running
May 22, 2009: 900 rigs running"
But Governor: You CAN Create Money
How the Nation's Only State-Owned Bank Became the Envy of Wall Street

Energy
Some Cautionary Thoughts About Wind
from Gail the Actuary of The Oil Drum
A New Oil Shock is Inevitable
OPEC Predicts Demand Recovery
China Closing Energy Deals
China Tightens Grip on Rare Earth Metals
Western Nations' Share of Economy to Fall Below 50%
Rise in Taxes on US Petrol "Not Feasible:" Chu
Tidal Power Keeps on Truckin'
Transition Towns

Economic Crisis
Citigroup's Exit from Dow Cements Bank's Downfall
Loans by Banks Taking US Aid Fall by $42 Billion
Quarter Million Jobs Could Be Lost in Bankruptcies (from Rice Farmer)
If You Think the Banks Have Recovered, Think Again
More Small Banks Ailing as Recession Toll Mounts
German Debts Set to Blow "Like a Grenade"
Gold Fever Hits Chinese Investors

Quote of the Day:
There are about $1,600 trillion worth of derivatives in the world…$125 trillion worth of real estate and business assets…$100 trillion worth of stocks and bonds secured by assets…$65 trillion worth of government bonds (rising rapidly)…$4 trillion worth of actual currency…and only between $2 and $4 trillion worth of gold and silver.

Intelligence/Torture
Mysterious Chip is CIA's Latest Weapon Against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Is Obama Selling Military Secrets to China for Debt Forgiveness?
Identity of Men on CIA Rendition Flight to British Island Revealed
Former Head of MI6 on Torture
Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos Show Rape
MI5 Faces Fresh Torture Allegations
Report: Faulty Communications Imperil President
Hence the new cyber-czar.

Middle East/Asia
France Opens Military Base in UAE
New CSTO Military Force Will Protect Central Asia (from Rice Farmer)
Iraqis Prepare for Summer with Nonfunctional Electric Grid (from Rice Farmer)

Russia
Russian Gas Output Hits New Lows in May
Russia Urges Global Help for Ukraine to Help Pay Gas Bill
Central Bank Raises Reserve Requirement
Bid to Deepen Ties with Berlin
Pipelineistan Goes Iran/Pak

Six from Rice Farmer
Memorial Day Disaster: Foreigners Dump US Bonds
Home Prices Fall a Record 19%
Smile! The US Sees You Coming
More Documents Needed Soon to Enter the US From Mexico
Yet Another Bogus Terrorist Plot
What Happened to Sovereign Wealth Funds?

Africa
China Consulting Britain on Avoiding Mistakes of Colonialism
Kinder, gentler exploitation. Or perhaps just more ruthless, efficient exploitation.
Africa Almost Giving Land Away, Says UN (from Rice Farmer)

Climate Change
Rainforest Area the Size of Egypt Could Be Lost in Ten Years
Professor Steven Chu: Paint the World White to Fight Global Warming
Melting Ice Could Cause Gravity Shift
The rise in sea levels would be highest on the west and east coasts of North America where increases of 25 per cent more than the global average would cause catastrophic flooding in cities such as New York, Washington DC and San Francisco.
The Methane Time Bomb
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Says Solar Panels Take 100 Years to Recoup Installation Cost
Water Levels Dropping in Major Rivers
Water Wars Strike Ahead of Predictions
Evaporation of the Aral Sea
But not to worry because... Brazil Under Water and Thousands Evacuate Australian Floods, One Dead
Greenland Ice Could Fuel Severe US Sea-Level Rise
Government Greatly Concerned by Palm Oil Production
Rare Animals To Be Moved From Natural Habitat Because of Climate Change

OK, THIS IS SERIOUS

2009-05-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

by

Michael C. Ruppert

May 28, 2009 7:30 PM, PDT -- Here's the first headline: "Russia Fears Korea Conflict Could Go Nuclear".

There were three humongous stories in the news today about Russia. All are connected. What this one says clearly is that this is serious. Russians are not ones to raise alarm and when they do... everybody listens. Russia has a border with North Korea. Russia is preparing militarily in case the conflict goes hot. That would include containment, possible evacuations, medical treatment, and protection of critical oil and gas infrastructure in the region. With Putin condemning North Korea and Medvedev urging caution against hasty action in the UN, it's clear that Russia is doing some serious back-channeling with Pyongyang and stalling for time. It has alerted the whole world that a nuclear war might be imminent. Russia holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council with veto power. So does China.

Here's the second headline: “Arctic Natural Gas is Mostly Russian”. This is an absolute min-blower. First, almost all the energy in the Arctic is natural gas and not oil. The USGS survey, just released, says that only 2%-3% of all the oil yet-to-be-discovered is there. That’s nothing and I doubt it’s worth the cost to develop… unless Uncle Sam is hiding something, which I doubt. (Bad for the economy) It’s almost all natural gas and most of that is Russian. But wait a minute… Russia already has the largest natural gas deposits in the world. It’s playing power politics all the way to London with the heat it provides now. Almost all of what’s in the Arctic is in Russian territory. And some 39% of all that natural gas is in the South Kara Sea above Siberia in uncontestable Russian waters.

Catch this quote: “Arctic oil reserves are much smaller than those of natural gas and are unlikely to lead to any shift in world oil balance”.

Russia is holding an amazingly strong energy hand. Whatever the Sarah Palin crowd is thinking there might be in the Arctic just ain’t there and Russia has the best energy future of any country in the world… for as long as that lasts.

Now the last headline:”Iraq deal to revive gas pipeline to Europe”. There’s a great map linked to this story. Here’s the short version: Western Europe, NATO and the U.S. want gas pipeline that will bypass Russia. It’s called Nabucco. It will run from northwestern Iraq through Turkey and end in Vienna. It is competing against a Russian pipeline called South Stream. That pipeline will also serve Rumania and Austria but will add Greece and Italy. I do not think both can be built given the lack of financing and the collapsing economies of Eastern Europe. I suspect that both cannot be funded. The Russians offer a better deal for Europe. Now couple that with the above.

I keep coming back to geography as the ruling power in collapse. Like others on this list I see eventual Russian hegemony over Europe. I don’t take it personally and, in fact it is logical. We should focus on our neighborhoods first and think less about contesting no-win situations at long range. The United States and Russia are partners of necessity in stabilizing the world. Russia knows and respects – I believe – the power of geography. They wouldn’t waste the energy to try and rule North America. The great increase in energy reserves from the second story says that Russia must be respected.

And as for Korea, I don’t know who or what is pushing Pyongyang’s buttons but I’m certain someone is. I see only three possible candidates: Russia, China, and the United States. I don’t know. But if Russia is concerned then I am concerned and I can guarantee that Russia will be quick to pounce on any opportunities that arise. It has huge investments in oil and gas along its Pacific coast.

There’s kind of a rule in nuclear confrontations. If one country draws its weapon, everybody who has one draws theirs too. That would include Pakistan and India.

MCR
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From Jenna Orkin:

US
US Deploys Jets as North Korean Tensions Rise
Japan Panel Wants First Strike Ability (from Rice Farmer)
Extra US Troops in Afghanistan by Mid July
Obama Asks Australia to Take Detainees
The island does have a track record in that department after all, as well as a formidable moat.
DHS Losing Lead Cyber Role
Homeland Security Taps SciFi Writers (from Rice Farmer)
About 12% of US Homeowners Late Paying or Foreclosed
The US Housing Market's Very Sobering News
Our Crumbling Foundation (from Rice Farmer)
Smart Grid Can't Outwit Recession (from Rice Farmer)
Once Considered Unthinkable, Sales Taxes Get Fresh Look (from Rice Farmer)

Europe
Why the Wheels Fell Off Germany's Economic Model
MoD Admits Use of Controversial "Enhanced Blas" Weapons in Afghanistan

Russia/Middle East/Asia
Russia: Oil Field Reserve Proposed
Rosneft Posts 20% Fall in Q1 Profit
Belarus Loan Shelved on Solvency Fears
Iraq Redux? Obama Seeks Funds for Pakistan "Super Embassy" (from Rice Farmer)
North Korea Could Opt for Devastating Land Assault (from Rice Farmer)
China: Experts [Say] Huge Holding of US Bonds Risky

Environment/Climate Change
Aerosols Drive Much Arctic Warming, Scientists Find
55 Whales Die After Beaching in South Africa
Wild Donkeys Overrun Cyprus Villages
American Academy of Environmental Medicine Calls for Immediate Moratorium on Genetically Modified Food (from Rice Farmer)
Organic Dairies Watch the Good Times Turn Bad
Terra Madre
Slow food project

Invention/Technology
Scientists Develop Virus that Wipes Out Cancer Cells
World's First Battery Fueled By Air
Technology Seen Slashing Battery Recharge Time, Weight
Tiny Invisibility Cloak is Like a Magic Carpet
Slashproof Clothing
Lab Comes Up With Technology to Determine Where Food Was Grown
Or "Protectionism and Xenophobia Hit Shelves at a Supermarket Near You"
Human Speech Traced to Talking Fish
Language Gene Alters Mouse Squeaks

Generation Gap
UK: Record Numbers Want Assisted Death
1 in 500 Babies Now Born Drug Dependent
UK: Government Fights For Numbers Secrecy on Abortions
Autism: Study Finds 12-Fold Rise in Cases
Child Porn Goes Uninvestigated Amid Cash Crisis
British Firms Join School Gardens Campaign

2009-05-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin

Energy/Americas
The Sinking Titanic: Interview with Michael C. Ruppert
Unraveling Markets Bode Ill for US Economic Might
Duh. But it's noteworthy that they're daring to say so aloud.
G8 Hears Oil Prices Could Soar When Crisis Eases
IEA Repeats Warning of Possible New Oil Price Spike
Looming Oil Shock Means Globalization's End
Rubin Blames Recession on Oil
Warning About an Oil Supply Crunch
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Naimi Says Oil to Reach 75$ a Barrel
Alberta In Tie-Up with OPEC
The Lithium Boom Is Coming: The New Bubble?
Could pop real fast.
Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure
Energy Plans Often Run Out of Gas
California Crisis Imperils Obama's Agenda
Regulators Seize and Sell Florida's Largest Regional Bank
After Major Florida Bank Fails, Carlyle Swoops In As Buyer
Governor Plans to Completely Eliminate Welfare for Families
Many Summer Internships Are Going Organic
"Master of Fantasy" Bernanke Says Economy to Heal
Bernanke recalled how he spoke a year earlier to a graduating class to which Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling also delivered an address. The student who introduced Bernanke jokingly described the two speakers as "two of the great masters of children's fantasy fiction," he said.

Comment: Ha?

Bernanke offered wisdom from references to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King (the object of central banks should be to make monetary policy as boring as possible),

Comment: Why? So the public will be lulled into complacency?
Americans Save
In March, the average person saved 4.2% of disposable income, compared with just 0.2% a year earlier.
British Banks Revolt Against Obama Tax Plan
Value of Mexico's Crude Exports Down 60%
Olduvai Theory: 2009 Article Genes of New Flu Virus Not So New
So far sampling of the new H1N1 virus shows very little genetic mutation -- a sample from a patient in Mexico is virtually identical to samples from various U.S. states and other countries.This "indicates that this virus may have been introduced into humans in sort of a single event," Cox said. Or if more than one person was infected directly from an animal or other source, they were infected with genetically identical viruses.
IEA Forecasts First Electricity Use Decline Since 1945
China Grows More Picky About Debt
This is in the US section of the blog because guess whose debt they're talking about.
US Is Said To Be Weighing Financial Consumer Agency
Another deck chair for the final rearrangement.
GDP Down 6.1%
Seven from Rice Farmer:
TARP Warrants Show Banks May Reap Ruthless Bargains
Under 20% College Graduates in 2009 Found Jobs
Is the US Dollar Heading for a Mighty Crash?
The Myth of Efficiency
Skyscrapers Across the US Being Sold at Firesale Prices
Unemployment Up in 44 States
Trade Based Money Laundering is Flourishing - UPI

UK
UK Falls Out of Premier League of Economies
Expenses Row "Unbearable;" Suicide Feared
How MI5 Blackmails British Muslims
Senior Muslim Officer Charged Over Restaurant Scuffle
Online and Undercover
Award-winning NightJack blog on policing in the UK, by an insider.
Wildcat Strikes Over Foreign Workers
Car Production Slumps by 55%
House Building Hits 50 Year Low
British Airways Makes Worst Ever Loss
BA plummets Into Record Losses
Bee Rustlers Cash In On Honey Shortage
Young People To Be Hit Hardest By Recession, Warns Prince's Trust
Police See Huge Rise in White Collar Crime
Professor Shiller Warns Britain May Suffer a Double Recession
Gold Bugs At Last Have Their Perfect Trinity
From Cigarettes to Gold: French Tobacconists Boost Falling Income

Russia
Zubkov Proposes Mini-Grain Cartel
Drive for Domestic Chicken
Russia, its appetite for cheap poultry meat growing, is spending billions of dollars developing its poultry farms to slash its dependence on imports and squeeze U.S. suppliers from their biggest export market.
Gazprom Output May Fall 18%
Riot Police Officer Caught Trying to Sell Arms
New Wave of Defaults Looms
Production Stopped at Ford Plant
The factory... employs about 200,000 people.

Middle East/Asia
Iran Completes Gas Pipeline Deal with Pakistan; Could Include India
Wind Turbine Noise Suspected of Killing 400 Goats
Japan: Crude Steel Output Plunges 44%
Japan's Big Guns Prepare to Rejoin Arms Trade
Younger Farmers Blogging Their Way to Success
...some of them even gracing other people's blogs. - (JO)
Bank of Thailand GDP Down 5-6%
PetroChina Becomes World's Biggest Firm
Chinese Oil: Google Images Show Growing Crude Storage (from Rice Farmer)
NRO To Be Revamped
Drones Hardly Ever Kill Bad Guys
This article, provided by Rice Farmer, is especially interesting for its source: The Department of Defense.
Nomination of US Afghan Commander Revives Questions in Tillman Case

BOOK REVIEW – “SACRED DEMISE: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse” by Carolyn Baker, Ph.D.

2009-05-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

by

Michael C. Ruppert

[Author: “Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil” and “A Presidential Energy Policy: Twenty-five points Addressing the Siamese Twins of Energy and Money”]

In the rare instances where I come across a book that is a feast for the mind and soul I wrestle with it as with a lover. Pages get dog-eared, the pen comes out and notes appear all over. Great passages are underlined. There are coffee and wine stains. This marks my affair with a great book. “Sacred Demise” is the first such book I have read in many years. In spite of the profoundly disturbing topic: the collapse of industrial civilization and possible extinction of the human race; it is a book which has left me feeling joyful, hopeful, humorous and deeply comforted. It has made me love more completely and – in that process – has allowed me to be more alive in this present moment.

This isn’t a mass-consumption book nor should it be. My life and experience have taught me that few humans have evolved or are aware enough to even grasp its significance. The book is like a great sacred text from antiquity that makes us love our forbears and take comfort in our connectedness to them. If intelligent life is able to find “Sacred Demise” in two or three millennia I can see it being revered as a great testament to what our potential as a species might have been… or might yet become.

“Sacred Demise” is an incredible how-to, first-aid, healing map and manual of how one can navigate an aware psyche through the emotional and spiritual challenges of collapse – to find and to give love, comfort and even great joy in the midst of pain, despair and death. It teaches and reminds us that death is not a bad word but a “parenthesis in eternity” as Joel Goldsmith wrote. I know of no one who has had the courage to address these crying needs in detail and Baker is uniquely qualified to do it. Every ounce of her heart, mind and soul were committed to this book’s writing and that is clearly evident throughout. This book is an act of love. I am no different than any human in that I respond instantly and involuntarily when I see that someone has the courage to place a naked heart in front of my eyes. It reminds me that we are never stronger than when we are most vulnerable.

The book’s genesis comes from Baker’s clear statement that, “while many individuals will be able to physically navigate collapse, some will not be able to do so emotionally”. I consider the book to be profoundly spiritual, although others may approach it as a psychological or cultural text that finally and beautifully addresses what I have seen as a crying need to deal with the emotions that collapse surfaces. Emotions ignored always return to bite us on the behind. They sap rather than enhance our strength. “Sacred Demise” is an emotional and spiritual guide for the treatment of those of us who understand what collapse means and by which we can give comfort, aid, assistance and great strength to ourselves and to those we love.

As Baker points out consistently – while fearlessly acknowledging that civilization and the species may become extinct soon – here is a pathway to choose not only which physical parts or our lives may endure, but what core values survive the transition and die-off. She reminds us that to be truly effective, “we must come to grips with our own mortality.”

I have known Baker for many years. We have worked closely together and shared many painful “initiations”. I am not at all surprised that she cites many spiritual books that I have long treasured and also delves deeply into Native-American spirituality for its close connection to a planet that “civilization” has cut us off from. Nor am I surprised that we have both arrived at exactly the same conclusions. What I am surprised at is Baker’s Herculean research, her incredible depth and her broad, multi-discipline and multi-cultural approach. She does not confuse the reader, she refreshingly reminds us that truth and knowledge based upon harmony and balance with all life are universal truths once liberated from artificial labels and knee-jerk induced intellectual door slamming..

The book’s greatest use will be in guiding and comforting those of us who are “hospice” workers for industrial civilization. Having written on the subject of collapse for almost a decade I have longed for something that would comfort me and the great many who have labored to awaken mass consciousness to the gravity of the current crisis. As on a battlefield one inevitably asks, who or what will care for the caregivers? This is that book.
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Jenna Orkin adds:

MCR and I are on the same wave length only going in opposite directions at the moment. As he was writing his review of Carolyn's book, I was writing the dyspeptic article below on the same subject.

It would appear we have different points of view on the matter of spirituality but I suspect that a glance beneath the surface would reveal a deeper convergence and harmony.

Let me also say straight out that I haven't read Carolyn's book yet. Plan to, as I greatly admire her work at FTW and on her website. From all that I know about Carolyn, she's solidly grounded in reality and is a bona fide shrink to boot so none of the comments below refer to anything like the work she does.

That said, I gotta tell you that spirituality makes me gag. Not the thing, which I wouldn't know if it fell on me, but the word. It is amorphous, vague, indulgent, meaningless and vapid. It gets us nowhere unless uttered in the company of a joint which gets some people somewhere - high, they tell me - but that's another thing that doesn't work for me although I will grant it's very real for some people.

As a word, it reeks of the West Coast.

I love the West Coast. Malibu's beautiful. Venice is a carnival. And the West Coast can't be beat for movies.

But. But. When they start waxing spiritual on you, well... climate change can't swallow up that Venice fast enough.

What is this 'spirituality' that the spiritual bandy about in their more-spiritual-than-thou tone? Is it like wealth? If you have to ask how much the yacht costs, you ain't got it?

No I ain't. I live in the real, dog-eat-dog world (a misnomer of course since dogs - faithful, good-natured creatures that they are except when nasty humans mistreat them - intuitively understand spirituality.) People do things for reasons, whether they're conscious of those reasons or not. The reasons may be telic which is to say, purposeful. Or they may be aetiological, driven by prior events. In other words reasons can lie in the past or the future or there can be a combination of both. But there are reasons and uncovering them can be helpful, if you need help.

But spirituality is a cop-out. It introduces a deus ex machina that has nothing to do with the plot. And that's cheating. Doesn't work. You can't get there from here.

Herein lies the true continental divide between LA and NY. We New Yorkers are lifelong analysands. Even when we leave therapy, it doesn't leave us. We think like pseudo-shrinks. We talk like pseudo-shrinks. This is our particular way of driving each other crazy (in addition to standing in the doorway of the subway car so no one else can get on) and getting each other out of the craziness that the other pseudo-shrinks have driven us into.

It is our local national pastime. When the emphasis is on 'pseudo' you get psychobabble which is as nauseating as any other quack remedy. But when the analysand has absorbed at least some of the lessons of therapy, you get something real.

Not Enlightenment. You don't become a Spiritual Person, one who's simply risen above the pettiness and moral squalor of this fucked up world. You get insight so that instead of levitating to the next plane, you can walk there (or at least out of your quagmire,) step by step. (It sounds as though Carolyn's book can actually help with that process.)

This rant is probably going to invite a slew of outraged, pseudo-calm 'reflections' in defense of spirituality along with patient explanations and kindly guidance. Some will be published because some of you enjoy this sort of thing. Then I'll gag and that'll be that.

I know. I asked for it. Take a deep breath and count to ten. One... two.... Oh fuck it.

Rock and Hard Place Closing In

2009-05-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

Jenna Orkin

There's a weird phenomenon afoot which I observe on the personal level and suspect readers of this blog do as well: Much as we intuit how screwed up our economic paradigm is and where it will all lead, it nonetheless gets the blood charged up whenever the details are spelled out. We, the jaded gloomer-doomers, can still be overcome with moral outrage.

People never get tired, in other words, of horror. All happy families (or car outings or civilizations on the upswing) are alike but each unhappy family (or car wreck or collapse of civilization) is unhappy in its own way. (Actually that's false, as many an unhappy family has noted. And civilizations tend to go under shortly after some version of an 'economic stimulus package' otherwise known as printing money.) But just as there are only 36 basic plots in literature yet we keep reading books or at least, going to the movies, we'll continue to gawk until our own personal car wreck or collapse swallows us up.

Meanwhile, anyone in need of a reminder of exactly how the wizards pull the strings in the economic horror show should check out Ellen Hodgson Brown's latest, Another Look at the Weimar Hyperinflation. The inimitable Brown continues her campaign to educate an economically clueless public about how we got into this mess and, unbelievably but crucially, how we could get out.

Global/Americas
Deficit to Exceed Four Times Last Year's Record
Brazil and China Eye Plan to Ax Dollar
Obama Considering Preventive Detention
FBI Use of Patriot Act Authority Increased Dramatically in 2008 (from Rice Farmer)
World Oil Production Forecast
Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller
By Jeff Rubin, chief economist and chief strategist at CIBC World Markets.
US Housing Starts and World Markets Permits Plumb Record Lows
US Pension Agency Sees Record Deficit
US Energy Secretary Says Oil Prices Rising on Economy
The Great Ethanol Scam (from Rice Farmer)
Farms Start to Feel Credit Pinch (from Rice Farmer and fulfilling Kunstler's warning.)
Swine Flu May Be Human Error: WHO
Dengue Fever Epidemic Hits South America (from Rice Farmer)
In Chile the Birds are Dying and No One Knows Why (from Rice Farmer)
Venzuela's Hope of More Sway Dims as Riches Dip

UK/Europe
Lloyd's Warns Government May Rejig Toxic Insurance Scheme
Demand for Gold Soars
Bank Considered Bringing Extra 75 Billion Pounds
Stephen Lewis, economist at Monument Securities, said: "I think it points in the direction of doing more quantitative easing, the fact that the £75 billion option was discussed suggests that when they have their next meeting they will be discussing whether to do another £25 billion."
UK Poorly Placed to Recover From Recession Rise of Europe's Extreme Politics (from Rice Farmer)

Russia
Pirates Won't Be Tried
Russia will hand over a number of suspected Somali pirates to an unspecified third country, First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Kolmakov said Tuesday.
Banks May Need $16 Billion in Capital
Could Kabardino-Balkaria Become the Kosovo of the Caucasus?
Transneft in Biggest Bond Issue

Asia
China Plans to Build Petrol Reserves
Anti-Terrorism Trade Fair: A Gun that Can Shoot Around Corners
Japan's Economy Suffers Record Plunge
Perhaps this explains the thousand school closings ostensibly because of swine flu.
Japan's Economy Shrinks Record 4%
Banks See Fertile Ground in Farms
"if use of farmland is deregulated."
GDP Plunged 15.2% Last Quarter
Taliban Using Ammunition from Afghan Army
From the Department of Defensive Hypotheses: "Lt Col Christian Kubik said ammunition could also have been seized by insurgents from overrun police stations or captured on the battlefield.

'We have not had any reports of ammunition being recovered that can be directly linked to us,' he said."
Pakistan May Only Have Six Months
Warning two months ago from David Kilcullen.

Two Archives Relevant Once More
Pakistan Problem, Washington's Perspective
The Empire's New Middle East Map

Sri Lanka on Brink of Catastrophe as UN Aid Blocked

And...
40% of Coma Patients in "Vegetative State" May Be Misdiagnosed, Report Says

Trifecta of Crises

2009-05-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

From Jenna Orkin:

Climate Change/Water
Emerging Economies Face Acute Disaster Risks: UN
All Disasters are Local
Localization cometh, one way or 't other.
China Running Out of Water
Pay Farmers to Halt Irrigation to Help Water Crisis
Stemming the Water Wars - Jeffrey Sachs
Australia's Largest River Close to Running Dry
"Adelaide, Australia's fifth biggest city, could run out of water in next two years."
Australia's Wine Growers Face Ruin Without Rain
Can 350.org Save the World?

Energy/Recession
Oil and Gas Cos. Projects' Costs Up 30% Due to Rig Shortage
Gas: 12% Surge in Three Weeks Plateau Theory Drives Total to Oil Sands
Total honors Peak Oil in the breach, by acknowledging its plateau aspect.
If Oil Demand is Falling, Why Are Prices Going Up? (from Rice Farmer)
Gas Shortage Forces Kuwait to Shut Shuaiba Fertiliser Plant
Credit Card Defaults Rise to Record Highs
US Derivatives Regs Pose Risk for Commods Markets
Central Derivative Clearing May Concentrate Risks
How to Follow the Fossil Fuel Money on Capital Hill
Some databases referenced in above article:
Open Secrets
Source Watch

NY Sunday Times Magazine: The Debt Issue
Includes a false-bravado interview with Myron Scholes, formerly of Long Term Capital Management, more recently of credit default swap fame.
Even to Save Cash, Don't Try This Stuff at Home
Dr. Doom: Capitalism Could Fail Like Communism (from Rice Farmer)
American Express to Cut 4000 Jobs
Audit the Fed, Then End It - Ron Paul
Biden Reveals Veep's Secret Bunker
US Health Officials Worried About Flu Pattern
But it's great for demand destruction: Four schools are closed in Queens, a hundred in the US and four thousand in Japan.
First Ocean Acidification Lawsuit Filed Against EPA
"Ocean acidification is global warming's evil twin," said Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program.

Does that make global warming the good twin?

As one of twelve original plaintiffs in "the residents' lawsuit" against the EPA following 9/11, I'm particularly interested to see where this lawsuit on ocean acidification goes. Ours ended with a Court of Appeals decision that said, in legalese, "We know they lied and did everything wrong and that people are sick and dying as a result, but suck it up."
China, US, Held Secret Talks on Climate Change Deal
World Trade Center Cheat Sheet
Planned at 79 floors and 71 floors, to be done by 2011 and then 2014, these towers [Towers 2 and 3] may never exist.

I warned Lower Manhattan electeds and activists of that particular local manifestation of the economic crisis years ago, only to be met with deer-in-headlights stares. That's a step up from the mocking dismissals of warnings about the envirodisaster of 9/11 eight years ago.
The Future of California Farming (from Rice Farmer)

UK/Europe
UK: Caroline Lucas: "We've got to get better at painting a positive vision of a post-carbon world. This is not about sitting around a candle in a cave."
Of course not. How absurd.
UK Defies Argentina By Claiming Seabed Rich in Oil and Minerals
British, French Nuclear Subs Crash in Atlantic
...and reported in the Chinese press.
Car Scrappage Scheme Has Difficult Start
Courts Rule British Soldiers Have Right to Life
Woman Beaten Up Over Asparagus Price
Gas Pipeline Fight Escalates Sharply
Rally Running Out of Steam
Are the writers aware of how poignant their metaphors seem these days? How literally the rally is running out of steam?

Middle East
Obama to Push Israel for Two-State Pledge
Likud Rejects Peace Plan

Russia/Central Asia
JP Morgan Banker Resigns to Advise Russia on Foreign Mergers
Euro's Stake in Reserves Overtakes Dollar
Gazprom Slashes Dividend by 86%
The Kremlin Takes Aim at Mongolia's Uranium Reserves
Nicaragua Gets Free GAZ Buses After Helping South Ossetia
Kazakhstan: Manufacture of Gasoline Decreased 10% in April
...and kerosene, including jet fuel, decreased 24%.
Kyrgyz PM: Energy Losses Should Come to 25% in 2009
Kilcullen Believes Drone War Should End While Supporting Troops in Faraway Places

China
China Aviation Oil Net Profit Drops 54% in Q1
Iron Ore Imports Hit Record High
China's Fiscal Revenue Down 13% in April
Fraud Uncovered in Stimulus Spending
Suicide Epidemic Has City Reeling

Japan
Will Second Wave of Price Destruction Finally Spur Change?
Banks See Fertile Ground in Farms
Swine Flu Cases Surge; Most Are Teenagers

India
In One Minute, India Best Stock Market in World with 48% Gain in '09

Women
Like African Americans, women gain power just in time to be left holding the bag when civilization crumbles. The black belt of Dalia Grybauskaite, the first female president of Lithuania, should set us straight on whether or not this microtrend is truly an endorsement of the 'feminine' side of mankind, whatever that may mean.
Vote in India Reshapes Landscape
First Women Win Seats in Kuwait Parliament
Woman is Elected to Lead Lithuania