Fictional Terrorists
January 30, 2015Off the keyboard of Anthony Cartalucci Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666 Friend us on Facebook Published on Land Destroyer on January 29, 2015 Discuss this article at the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner US “Fighting”Terror Group with Fictional Leaders US claims to be waging war against “Islamic State” whose various “al-Baghdadi” leaders do not exist.January 29, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci – NEO) – In...
Pandora’s Box
Off the microphone of RE
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Aired on the Doomstead Diner on January 28, 2015
Discuss this Rant at the Podcast Table inside the Diner
Snippet:
…Well, the Worst Nightmare for the Clowns & Jokers in Brussel Sprouts has come to pass, as Alex Tspiras and the Greek Syriza Party won a BLOWOUT victory in the latest round of Greek Elections. They are so far out in front of everyone else on the Popular Front over there that not even election rigging could fix that one.
Alex has promised to go to the WALL against the Troika Austerity that has been hammering down on Greece for the last 6 years, since the initial financial crash in 2008. Bascially Syriza has opened up the window and shouted to the world, “We’re Mad as HELL, and we’re not gonna take it anymore!”
This basically amounts to opening Pandora’s Box here, because the Brussel Sprouts are now between the Rock and Hard place. If they cut the Greeks loose, the Euro collapses even faster than it already is collapsing. If they capitulate and forgive Greek Debt, every other PIIGS Nation will pul the same stunt, beginning with the Spaniards, but quickly moving through the […] Continue Reading…
Cheap Cuts
Off the keyboard of RE
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on the Doomstead Diner on January 25, 2015
Discuss this article in the Diner Pantry
In the last episode of the SNAP Card Gourmet, I wrote about Baa-Baa, a Baby Lamb from Oz whose Ribs I consumed a couple of weeks ago. Those ribs came in at $12.99/lb, which is relatively average up here on the Last Great Frontier for your quality meat cuts, which come in anywhere from a low of around $7.99/lb for Ribeyes when I spy good ones on sale, to about the most I will cough up of around $19.99/lb for some dry aged T-Bones from Matanuska Meats. I have seen some Prime Cuts on the racks for over the $20 mark, but I have yet to cough up that much for a slab of meat.
I’m no longer keeping myself to a SNAP Card budget, but I am inherently a cheapskate, always looking for bargains and trying to eat well while spending as little as possible on […] Continue Reading…
Twilight in Amerika
Off the microphone of RE
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Aired on the Doomstead Diner on January 22, 2015
Discuss this Rant at the Podcast Table inside the Diner
Snippet:
…If it was Morning in Amerika during the Ronald Rayguns years, now it is a Sunny Afternoon in Amerika under Obama-sama. Things are fucking GREAT out there! Gas Prices are at Low, Low Prices Every Day! The Stock market is at Record Highs!
You gotta ask yourself how much CRACK Obama’s speechwriters have to smoke to be able to spit out this bullshit. Somehow, these bozos manage to miss the fact that 20% of the citizens are on Food Stamps, the FSoA Labor Force has fewer people working than at any time since Bonzo himself was in office, the Federal Deficit has ballooned from $9T at the end of the Bush era to $18T now, college students are in debt up to their eyeballs before they ever graduate, at which time about the best jobs they can find are dishing out Frappuchinos as a Starbucks Barrista! They also managed to miss the fact that Halliburton laid off 9000 workers in the last couple of weeks and Baker Hughes another 7000.
Sunny Afternoon in Amerika MY […] Continue Reading…
Collapse Cafe TV
Featuring the Collapse Cafe Vidcasts, Live Feeds, Collapse Tutorials, Documentaries & Music Videos
Fictional Terrorists
Off the keyboard of Anthony Cartalucci
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on Land Destroyer on January 29, 2015
Discuss this article at the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner
US “Fighting”Terror Group with Fictional Leaders
US claims to be waging war against “Islamic State” whose various “al-Baghdadi” leaders do not exist.January 29, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci – NEO) – In 2007, the New York Times revealed that long-vilified “Islamic State” leader Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi did not exist, and that the creation of this fictional character was a ruse to obfuscate the role of foreigners in the creation and perpetuation of “Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Image: The “Mandarin” from Ironman 3. Art imitating life, or life
imitating art as ISIS and its leadership are revealed as fictional?
In an article titled, “Leader of Al Qaeda group in Iraq was fictional, U.S. military says,” the NYT reports that:
Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, said the elusive Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.
The NYT would also reveal the purpose of the deception:
The ruse, Bergner said, was devised by Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, who was trying to mask […] Continue Reading…
The Consumer Economy Becomes Consumptive
From the keyboard of Thomas Lewis
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter @Doomstead666
First published at The Daily Impact January 28, 2015
The Masters of the Universe like to talk about our “consumer economy,” as if we have discovered the equivalent of the perpetual motion machine: an economy that can prosper while consuming, without having to produce anything except fast food and loan documents. Such an economy has the future of a snake that has swallowed its own tail — that full feeling is not going to last. Such an economy is not a “consumer” economy — that is almost an oxymoron — but a consumptive economy, which is to say one suffering from a wasting disease.
People trapped in a burning building don’t spend much time worrying about whether they have a wasting disease. So it’s understandable that with the American oil revolution imploding and the stock market reeling drunkenly along the edge of a cliff, not much attention is being paid to the spreading dry rot of ordinary American retail business. Still, it’s there.
Familiar brands, friendly […] Continue Reading…
Israel-Hezbollah War Escalation
Off the keyboard of Michael Snyder
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on The Economic Collapse on January 28, 2015
Discuss this article at the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner
The Next War In The Middle East Has Begun And Israel Vows ‘To Act Powerfully On All Fronts’
Israel and Hezbollah are at war. On top of everything else that is going on in the world, now we have a new war in the Middle East, and nobody is quite certain what is going to happen next. Israel has been preparing for this moment for more than 8 years. So has Hezbollah. According to some reports, Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of 50,000 rockets since the end of the Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006. If all-out warfare does erupt, we could potentially see tens of thousands of missiles rain down into an area not too much larger than the state of New Jersey. And of course the Israeli military is also much more sophisticated and much more powerful than it was back in 2006. If cooler heads do not prevail, we could be on the verge of witnessing a very bloody war. But right now nobody seems to be in the mood to back […] Continue Reading…
What Game is the House of Saud playing?
Off the keyboard of Pepe Escobar
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Originally published in Russia Today on January 16, 2015
[NOTE: This post is Pepe’s take on the Saudi succession, written just before King Abdullah’s death. ]
The House of Saud now finds itself in times of extreme trouble. Their risky oil price war may eventually backfire. The succession of King Abdullah may turn into a bloodbath. And the American protector may be musing a change of heart.
Let’s start with oil – and some background. As much as US supply has increased by a couple of million barrels a day, enough oil from Iran, Kirkuk in Iraq, Libya and Syria has gone out of production; and that offsets extra US oil on the market. Essentially, the global economy – at least for the moment – is not searching for more oil because of European stagnation/recession and the relative China slowdown.
Since 2011, Saudi Arabia has been flooding the market to offset the decrease in Iran exports caused by the US economic war, a.k.a. sanctions. Riyadh, moreover, prevented OPEC from reducing country production quotas. The House of Saud believes it can play the waiting game – as fracked oil, mostly American, is inexorably driven out of the market […] Continue Reading…
2015: Grounds for Optimism
From the keyboard of Dmitry Orlov
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter @Doomstead666
Published at Club Orlov on January 6, 2015
This may seem like an odd line of reasoning to pursue given what everyone else seems to be saying. Some are thinking that 2015 will be a repeat of 2014 with a few incremental changes (always a safe bet, but makes for boring reading) while others are warning of the potential for a nuclear confrontation between the US and Russia (always a possibility, on par with an asteroid strike or a supernova in our galactic vicinity). But this is all more of the same. The interesting question to ask is, How has the ground shifted in 2014, if indeed it has?
To my mind, the really interesting development of 2014 is that the world as a whole (with a few minor exceptions) has become quite lucid on the topic of what the United States, as a global empire, is and stands for. It is now very commonly and completely understood that:
1. The United States is an evil empire, attempting not so much to rule the world as to disrupt it to its short-term advantage.
2. The United States is failing, as an empire and as […] Continue Reading…
The Broken Template
From the keyboard of James Howard Kunstler
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Originally Published on Clusterfuck Nation January 26, 2015
The more detached from reality American culture becomes the more strictly ceremonial leadership gets, as illustrated by the raft of bromides Barack Obama floated past the assembled vassalage of government last week in another grand effort to avoid the necessities of the moment.
Those necessities include freeing a hostage public from the tyrannical clutches of corporate despotism — the evil empire of big boxes, big burgers, big pharma, Big Brother — and the atrocious rackets fostered by them that masquerade as an economy. The template of the life we have known is broken and the pieces within are flying apart, and no amount of wishing or promising can keep them going. If this society is even going to survive, the people have to smash their way out of this template prison, probably against the efforts of the people and organizations now running it merely for their own benefit.
The future is telling us very clearly: get smaller, get finer, get more local, get less complex, get less grandiose, do it now. Do you want to eat food in the years ahead? Better make sure you […] Continue Reading…
Peak Oil Pulled a Fast One on Me
Off the keyboard of Allan Stromfeldt Christensen
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on From Filmers to Farmers on January 1, 2015
Discuss this article at the Energy Table inside the Diner
I’ll admit that I was completely caught off guard by the recent (and ongoing?) crash in oil prices. It’d be a stretch to say I’m embarrassed by my lack of foresight, although perhaps “dumb-ass” would be a bit deserving.
I would say I’m well enough versed with the reality of peak oil: I’ve read perhaps a couple dozen books on the topic, poured through several of the peak oil blogs (upon deciding to end my 5-year Internet hiatus a year ago), have seen several talks given by authors and writers on the topic, and I’ve attended two Age of Limits conferences.
Nevertheless, even though there were bloggers out there discussing the possible ramifications of low oil prices, its possibility still didn’t register with me. I’ll explain what I mean by that shortly, but to do that it’d be best if I first give a recap of what the mainstream media have been saying about collapsing oil prices the past couple of months.
If you’ve been following the recent oil-related news stories then you’ll […] Continue Reading…
Syriza Hits the Ground Running
Off the keyboard of John Ward
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on The Slog on January 26, 2015
Discuss this article at the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner
GREECE ANALYSIS: SYRIZA HITS GROUND RUNNING AS TSIPRAS BROKERS ANEL COALITION DEAL TO SEAL MAJORITY RULE
Prime Minister Tsipras faces a cold dawn of Monday reality
In a rapid (and smart) move that demonstrates both energy and planning, Alexis Tsipras is this morning 95% of the way into a Coalition with ANEL – better known in the West as the Independent Greeks. This is an anti-euro Party of right-wing Greek nationalists.
In going for this option, Tsipras shows that – unlike most on the Left – he can unite against a common enemy. I also suspect that his advisers see this as one dimension in an overall strategy designed to calm down bank depositors and bond markets. But shrewd or not, the new Prime Minister is going to face several waves of attack from those hostile to his election – both inside and outside Greece.
The first thing to set off screaming headlines will be the effect on the euro. Overnight, the single currency plunged down to 1.12 against the Dollar – before the weekend it was around […] Continue Reading…
The Crash of 2015: Day 22
From the keyboard of Thomas Lewis
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter @Doomstead666
First published at The Daily Impact January 21, 2015
The economy of the United States and the world is on fire, and with the flames and smoke visible in any direction one cared to look, the President of the United States declared last night that the worst is over, “the shadow of crisis has passed,” and happy days are here again. In reality (a state that presidents and candidates for president never seem to visit) 2015 is shaping up to be one of the worst any of us have ever seen.
It’s a potent mix of flammable situations, from an unhinged stock market to a drought-ravaged West to the fiscal convulsions of China, Russia and Europe. But for us in America, the collapse of the bogus New American Oil Revolution is the fire that’s burning hottest and spreading fastest. This is how it’s likely to go:
First, drill rigs are being shut down and workers laid off, especially in the fracking plays; as unemployment rises and income declines, production […] Continue Reading…
A Way Back to Eden
From the keyboard of Thomas Lewis
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter @Doomstead666
First published at The Daily Impact January 20, 2015
The second story the Bible tells us, right after recounting how God created Heaven and Earth, and set humans up in a bountiful garden, is the story of how we got kicked out of the garden. Historians believe that the story of the Fall has been told for 10,000 years, which is about how long we’ve had agriculture. (Coincidence? I don’t think so.) For ten millennia we have lamented the exchange of a life of ease and plenty for our hardscrabble existence marked by loss and pain.
When I contemplate the coming crash of the Industrial Age, when I visualize its massive wreckage, I have come to believe that I can see, in all the smoke and horror, a path leading back to the Garden that was once our birthright, and could be again.
After all the time we have been telling each other this story, you’d think we’d have a pretty good grasp of its contents, if not its larger meaning. But […] Continue Reading…
The Anti-Empire Report #136
From the Keyboard of William Blum
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Like us on Facebook
Artwork: Anthony Freda
Published originally in The Anti-Empire Report January 20, 2015
Murdering journalists … them and us
After Paris, condemnation of religious fanaticism is at its height. I’d guess that even many progressives fantasize about wringing the necks of jihadists, bashing into their heads some thoughts about the intellect, about satire, humor, freedom of speech. We’re talking here, after all, about young men raised in France, not Saudi Arabia.
Where has all this Islamic fundamentalism come from in this modern age? Most of it comes – trained, armed, financed, indoctrinated – from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. During various periods from the 1970s to the present, these four countries had been the most secular, modern, educated, welfare states in the Middle East region. And what had happened to these secular, modern, educated, welfare states?
In the 1980s, the United States overthrew the Afghan government that was progressive, with full rights for women, believe it or not , leading to the creation of the Taliban and their taking power.
In the 2000s, the United States overthrew the Iraqi government, destroying not only the secular state, but the civilized state as well, leaving a […] Continue Reading…
How to Save the Human Genus
Off the keyboard of George Mobus
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on Question Everything on January 24, 2015
Discuss this article at the Environment Table inside the Diner
What Can be Saved?
I am on record as saying I doubted that humanity as a global population could be saved from certain destruction. I have also stated that the species, Homo sapiens is probably not salvageable in its current form. However, I have also suggested that the salvation of the genus, Homo is both feasible and desirable. Let me briefly recount.
There is at this point, in my opinion, nothing that can be done to save the vast majority of humans alive today from a catastrophic demise. I am sorry. And below I will summarize my findings. The simple truth, as I see it, is that humanity has set itself on an irreversible course of destruction that is equivalent to the impact on the Ecos that the meteor or comet that crashed into the Yucatan peninsula had on the dinosaurian Ecos 65 million years ago. That is, by our activities we have brought about a geologically recognizable age called the Anthropocene in which we are the agents of the extinction of vast numbers of […] Continue Reading…
Greece, Tsipras, Draghi, Putin, and the Antidollar
Off the keyboard of John Ward
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Pulished on The Slog on January 23, 2015
Discuss this article @ the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner
ND Rally: Samaras in final passion play, sorry, plea
The bandwagon effect taking place in Greece looks set to deliver leftist Party Syriza a victory by 6-7% of the popular vote….but the ECB says the country is an ECB leper. The Slog tries to put things into a wider geopolitical context.
Well, now we know: Greece will be shut out of QE “for at least six months” because of “limits on how much debt the central bank buys from a single issuer”. It must be smashing being a central banker: everything you do is secret and/or the opposite of what the public are told – so you can lie your head off with glorious abandon. I spoke to a contact in Spain today, who had this to say:
“Spanish banks break those limits at least once a week, but the ECB moves the money around the whirlygig so that it never hits the tripwire. If he’d let the Greeks take part [in the easing programme] frankly nobody would’ve noticed it. It’s just more bullshit”.
As I predicted […] Continue Reading…
Rewilding, Dispatched
Off the keyboard of Peter Michael Bauer
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on Urban Scout on January 7, 2015
Discuss this article at the Primitive Living Table inside the Diner
For years now I’ve had a google alert set up for the word “Rewilding.” I like to check the pulse of how the mainstream is perceiving it, as well as the multiple permutations that it has taken between conservation biology, and humans returning to hunter-gatherer lifeways and culture (and the inevitable merging of the two that will take place at some point). I was surprised one day when I was alerted to a news article about a racehorse in Europe named “Rewilding.” For a long time I followed Rewilding’s success. Horse races are disturbing to me. Still, I wondered if it was a sign; should I “put it all on Rewilding?” In spite of the horrible animal cruelty of horse races, I loved getting headlines that began, “Rewilding Takes Clear Victory…” Was the universe telling me something?
One sad day I got an e-mail alert. Rewilding had been running full speed when his leg bones buckled and turned to jello. He fell under the weight of a useless leg and had to be euthanized right […] Continue Reading…
Why the future for a healthy human species is local not global
Off the keyboard of John Ward
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on The Slog on January 22, 2015
Discuss this article at the Kitchen Sink inside the Diner
There are far too many of us.
I must’ve written the assertion here a hundred times over the last seven years, and every month the problems of that reality become more and more obvious.
To be clear about it, this is not some scientific equation point I’m trying to make. It’s not about land and air and population expansion: that’s a pointless debate that goes round in circles: I do think water is a vital resource and will become a key geopolitical factor in the future unless governments wake up, but this isn’t an eco-conservation wonk plea. It’s about pack-size and complexity – about the fundamentals of social anthropology.
The sheer size and population of contemporary western Sovereign States today means that individual choice and freedom are shrinking, literally, day by day. It leads to, among other things, a dilution of the sense of personal responsibility and worth, a one-size-fits-all attitude to medical diagnosis and treatment, education, welfare and manufacturing, and a self-serving élite following its own agendas rather than observing and then fulfilling citizen needs.
The […] Continue Reading…
Hebdo Schmebdo
Off the keyboard of Jaded Prole
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
First Published on Blue Collar Holler, January 12, 2015.
“All people want is Justice and Respect.”
– Shirley
A good friend of mine named Shirley who had come of political age in the struggle against the KKK in Greensboro, NC in which most of the KKK were also police once said to me, “All people want is Justice and Respect.” Muslims in France have had neither. Muslims living in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Israel have born the brunt of invasion, war, torture, apartheid, assassination and the murderous terror of drones. They continue to have their culture and beliefs attacked and disrespected in the western media. In our country they face violence, assault and attacks on mosques.
There is no justification for the suppression or murder of cartoonists or writers by governments or religious fanatics of any kind. But the reality is that far more innocent Muslims have been attacked and murdered around the world without big marches of solidarity against hate crimes. As for “Charlie Hebdo,” it is easy to be controversial and “edgy” by poking fun at others, lambasting their cultures and beliefs. There is a long history of this. Think of […] Continue Reading…
A Solemn Pause
From the keyboard of James Howard Kunstler
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Originally Published on Clusterfuck Nation January 19,2015
Events are moving faster than brains now. Isn’t it marvelous that gasoline at the pump is a buck cheaper than it was a year ago? A lot of short-sighted idiots are celebrating, unaware that the low oil price is destroying the capacity to deliver future oil at any price. The shale oil wells in North Dakota and Texas, the Tar Sand operations of Alberta, and the deep-water rigs here and abroad just don’t pencil-out economically at $45-a-barrel. So the shale oil wells that are up-and-running will produce for a year and there will be no new ones drilled when they peter out — which is at least 50 percent the first year and all gone after four years.
Anyway, the financial structure of the shale play was suicidal from the get-go. You finance the drilling and fracking with high-yield “junk bonds,” that is, money borrowed from “investors.” You drill like mad and you produce a lot of oil, but even at $105-a-barrel you can’t make profit, meaning you can’t really pay back the investors who loaned you all that money, a lot of it obtained […] Continue Reading…
Oil Patch Ebola
Off the keyboard of Michael Snyder
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on The Economic Collapse on January 20, 2015
Discuss this article at the Energy Table inside the Diner
12 Signs That The Economy Is Really Starting To Bleed Oil Patch Jobs
The gravy train is over for oil workers. All over North America, people that felt very secure about their jobs just a few weeks ago are now getting pink slips. There are even some people that I know personally that this has happened to. The economy is really starting to bleed oil patch jobs, and as long as the price of oil stays down at this level the job losses are going to continue. But this is what happens when a “boom” turns into a “bust”. Since 2003, drilling and extraction jobs in the United States have doubled. And these jobs typically pay very well. It is not uncommon for oil patch workers to make well over $100,000 a year, and these are precisely the types of jobs that we cannot afford to be losing. The middle class is struggling mightily as it is. And just like we witnessed in 2008, oil industry layoffs usually come before a downturn in […] Continue Reading…
Greek Election Update
Off the keyboard of John Ward
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on The Slog on January 20, 2015
Discuss this article at the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner
GREEK ELECTIONS: Alexis Tsipras is heading for power – get over it and get behind him.
While 200,000 talented graduates have left a Greek population of just 13 million in the last few years, Western media, EC gargoyles and the failed Greek Establishment seem keen only to make Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras a bogey-man. Today’s piece by Andrew Lilico in the UK Telegraph is a classic of this spinning moral compass genra. But Yesterday’s polls in Greece show that the electorate isn’t having any of it: Tsipras can only be denied now by illegality. The Slog makes a plea for the men who care more for people than money to be given a chance.
Shortly before Christmas, I blogged several times about the likelihood of external forces putting pressure on the Greek electorate. I was right of course….and the blatancy of some of it should confirm to anyone who’s awake that there isn’t a scintilla of democratic soul left anywhere in Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin or Washington. But dark internal forces have issued more than their fair […] Continue Reading…
Doctors & Scientists for Sustainability & Social Justice
Off the keyboard of Dr. Geoffrey Chia
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on the Doomstead Diner on January 20, 2015
Discuss this article at the Environment Table inside the Diner
The Diner welcomes Dr. Geoffrey Chia as a Guest Author, writing on Sustainability issues from the perspective of a Cardiologist-Physician in Brisbane, Australia.Geoff has published numerous articles in the past on Nature Bats Last, and in addition ran the discussion group D3SJ.org from 2006-2013.First up here, an Open Letter to the former members of D3SJ.org, followed by his article Advice for Sustainability Activists in 2015. It’s another take on concepts we explore on the Diner, and Tom Lewis explores on the Daily Impact. Not enough voices saying this yet though, and I will publish every last one of them that has the gist of this correct, which Dr. Chia does.We hope to hear more from him on the Diner as well, but this one is a good introduction to a voice that has been crying in the wilderness for a long time, before I even woke up to this shitstorm. He is worth listening to.RE
Dear former D3SJers,
Below is my article “advice for sustainability activists in 2015″. Feel free to forward this […] Continue Reading…
Global Econo-Fiscal Crisis…
Off the keyboard of John Ward
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on The Slog on January 18, 2015
The fiscal surrealism and economic mendacity of supranational globalism has abolished the right decision
Discuss this article at the Economics Table inside the Diner
…If nobody knows the truth, then nobody knows what to do. Now it’s your turn to have a go
I thought we might have a change this bright and sunny, freezing-cold windy Winter’s morning here in agrarian France. You see here – down among the agricultural equipment dealers, maize farmers and fruit orchards – most people are busy at the really important tasks in life: bringing up kids, feeding the soil, pruning trees, having a jolly good drink-up at the salle des fêtes, and evading tax. They don’t do derivatives, currency wars, open-market squeezing, spin, gold manipulation and Libor rates: they chop, they mow, they grow, they sow and they crop. It’s dead simple: plant, water, prune and collect.
The downside of all that is the failure of most conversations to move beyond rainfall, the Meteo, shooting things, and the price of tractor oil. But you do not need an IQ in four figures to work out why one decision is almost certainly […] Continue Reading…
Lemminged
Off the keyboard of Allan Stromfeldt Christensen
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on From Filmers to Farmers on September 1, 2014
Can we escape the siren’s blue light? (photo © Mopic, adapted by ASC)
Discuss this article at the Science & Technology Table inside the Diner
Lemminged: To be Herded offthe Peak Oil Cliff by Filmmakers
According to an Associated Press article,
Fish don’t know they’re living in water, nor do they stop to wonder where the water came from. Humans? Not much better, as we share a world engulfed by television. And the deeper our immersion becomes, the less likely it seems we’ll poke our heads above the surface and see there must have been life before someone invented TV.
Those are the opening words to the article “The Forgotten Edison of Television” which recounts the little known history of the television and its inventor Philo Farnsworth. Far from being a household name like a Thomas Edison or an Alexander Graham Bell, Farnsworth lived and died in relative obscurity in regards to being recognized as the inventor of television.
Unlike the flatscreen LCD and plasma televisions that are all the rage today, the no-longer ubiquitous cathode ray-tube-based television (those bulky TVs with the big bulge […] Continue Reading…
"ALL THE KNEWZ THAT FITS THE WIDGET"
Something Really, Really Terrible Is About to Happen to Our Coral
How Poor Is Poor?
Remembering the Paris Commune: When Workers and Women Rose Up Against the Oligarchy
Dems Sound "Privatization" Siren Ahead of New Social Security Fight
HUD Official Worked for Government and Housing Industry at the Same Time...Beyond the Revolving Door
Enbridge Gets Another Federal Tar Sands Crude Pipeline Permit as Senate Debates Keystone XL
Some Ugly Truths About the Bank Bailouts
Why This Baby's Mom Is So Angry at the Anti-Vaxxers
White House ratchets up criticism of Netanyahu
Seattle Pot Producer Rolling 12,000 Joints For Super Bowl
The Prosecutor Who Filed Murder Charges Against the Cops Is Becoming a Police Target
Judge: California Medicaid Backlog Violates Law
Cuba has an illegal 'internet' that connects thousands of computers
Making progress on veterans' suicide prevention bill
Creationism would be easier to teach in South Dakota classrooms if a bill in the state Senate becomes law.
Climate Forecast: More Southwest Droughts and Australian Floods
Oil Train Spills Hit Record Level in 2014
Ayotzinapa, emblem of the Twenty-First Century social order
More Prisoners Were Found Wrongfully Convicted in 2014 Than Ever Before
Shell signs $11 billion deal to build petrochemicals plant in Iraq
Saudi Dictator's Death Shows NYT as Pawn of Power
A Staggeringly Lopsided Economic Recovery
New Greek PM Alexis Tsipras Appoints Radical Economist to New Government
Louie Gohmert: God Will Punish America for Obama's Tense Relationship With Netanyahu
Cuban Migration Surges on Fear of Policy Change
BPA Exposure Linked to Changes in Stem Cells, Lower Sperm Production
Obama's Oil Complex
Natural-Gas Line Explodes in West Virginia
Netanyahu to American Jews: Get Lost
White House Backs Plan to Allow Atlantic Oil Drilling
Search Warrants Against WikiLeaks Staff: Justice Department, Google and US Media Silence Threaten Press Freedom
Commodity boom extracting increasingly heavy toll on Amazon forests
How the CIA made Google
Vets study links PB pills, genetic variations to Gulf War illness
7 States That Are Next in Line to Legalize Marijuana
After Spending More Than Half His Life Behind Bars, Innocent North Carolina Man Now Free
Africa's quiet solar revolution
Know What's Killing More People in Nigeria Than Boko Haram? Lack of Drinking Water
The war on leaks has gone way too far when journalists' emails are under surveillance
Is USAID Helping Haiti to Recover, or US Contractors to Make Millions?
Obama Administration to Propose New Wilderness Protections in Arctic Refuge - Alaska Republicans Declare War
New Documents Show FBI Targeted NATO Protesters
15 Health Problems Linked to Monsanto’s Roundup
Effort to Make the "Right to Vote" a True Constitutional Right
And the Lifetime Award for Shameful Corporate Behavior Goes to... Chevron
Federal Court Order: Explosive DOT-111 "Bomb Train" Oil Tank Cars Can Continue to Roll
The Devastating Impact of Vaccine Deniers, in One Measles Chart
Offshore Wind Beats Drilling for Jobs and Energy in the Southeast
CIA’s Top Spy Steps Down
Texas Used Junk Science to Restrict Abortion
Why wealthy Americans’ delusions about the poor are so dangerous
Friend in Need
“I AM YOUR CHILD. WE WANT A SCHOOL.” AFGHAN STREET KIDS WALK
Palin says she’s ‘seriously interested’ in 2016 campaign
As Euro Slides, Strategists Cut Forecasts
Early Speeches Reveal Lynch's Passion for Racial Justice
Throats slit, Florida pelicans dying in serial slashings
Charlie Hebdo protests erupt across southern Asia
Iran vows to attack Israel from West Bank
Obama Says Treating Drug Use As a Criminal Problem Is "Counterproductive"
Why Is It Legal to Cause Fracking Earthquakes In Colorado?
As Disneyland measles outbreak spreads, O.C. bars students lacking proof of shots
"I remain committed to seeing in my lifetime passage of H.R.676, an Improved And Expanded Medicare For All. "
Michael Brown's family considers suing Darren Wilson in absence of charges
There have been more anti-Muslim incidents recorded in the last two weeks in France than in the whole of 2014.
King Dies, New Tyrannical Leader for Saudi Arabia
US House Passes Stringent Abortion Restrictions
Protesters pour into streets in Yemen as crisis deepens
Marco Rubio Moves Toward 2016 Presidential Bid
WEEKEND: Philly to Boston May Get Biggest Snow of Season
Disneyland measles outbreak grows to 70
Drone Flies Through Congressional Hearing
Feds Spent $432,000 Studying Gay Hookup Apps
Assisted suicide movement gaining traction across USA
FCC Commissioner: Don't Regulate Internet!
Billionaire tells Americans to expect less -- flies two nannies to Davos!
ICAHN: Oil will go lower, Saudi Arabia blindsiding world
Meth-laden drone crashes near US-Mexico border
REPORT: 65 Secret Service Agents Accompany Hillary to Paid Speech
Bloomberg Philanthropies Launches $48 Million Initiative to Cut Carbon and Spur Investments in Renewables
Supreme Court considers whether judges can directly ask for campaign donations
Toward a New Solidarity
Gold rush threat to tropical forests
Want to create a new generation of farmers? Forgive their college debt
Humans erode soil 100 times faster than nature
200 Arrests in Ongoing Seneca Lake Uprising
Historic Grassroots Victory Stops Central Illinois Coal Mine
Cuba Wants Off US Terrorism List Before Restoring Normal Ties
First round-the-world solar flight to take off next month
Obama’s Half-Assed Populism
World Economy Is Worse Than Thought
Five Years of Citizens United
The 1% Will Own Most of World's Wealth by 2016
Virginia Lawmakers Roll Out Pro-Choice Legislative Agenda
Ruptured Pipeline Pumps Tens of Thousands of Gallons of Shale Oil Along Yellowstone River
Inspired Youth Take On Their Future by Learning How to Tackle Climate Change
New Police Radars Can "See" Inside Homes
Inequality and Social Mobility Central to Obama's State of the Union Address
The Right’s Home-School Conspiracy: How I Helped GOP Launch a Religious War
Honor King’s Legacy by Protecting Voting Rights
Fighting shakes Yemen capital as Houthis accused of coup
"Black Lives Matter" Aspires to Reclaim the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
White House Threatens to Veto EPA-Related Bills
Black Conservatives Mangle and Defame the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
These countries are for freedom of speech in France but not at home
What to Do About Record Low Voter Turnout? Bernie Sanders Says Call a Holiday
The Selma-to-Montgomery March: A peaceful protest that changed history
Black Lives Matter—At School, Too
Obama Will Focus on Wealth Inequality—Not Just Income
Recent Comments