Responding to collapse, Part 15: shortages of diesel fuel
Off the keyboard of Irv Mills
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Published on The Easiest Person to Fool on November 27 2019
Lake Huron on a rare sunny day in November
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In part 10 of this series I expressed the opinion that supplies of electrical power, diesel fuel and money will be at the heart of many of the troubles that lie ahead as collapse progresses. Especially for those of us living in small remote towns, as I recommend you do. Over the last few posts I've spent a lot of time considering the gradual breakdown of the power grid, the effects that will have, and how we might prepare for them. Today I'll move on to consider what happens when supplies of diesel fuel become problematical.
For a number of solid technical reasons, diesel engines are preferred to gasoline engines for ships, locomotives, heavy trucks, and agricultural equipment. If, like me, you're living in a small remote town, the latter two are of great importance. Essentially everything that gets here comes in a truck that burns diesel fuel. Much of that stuff falls in the "necessities of life" category. Agriculture is an important […] Continue Reading…
A World on Fire
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner December 1, 2019
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Working up the energy for a blog for Sunday Collapse Brunch this week has been tough for a few reasons. Health wise, I am doing crappy again, but this isn't the only problem. My main computer is also getting close to death, it was crashing on me about every hour for a few days. Now it seems to be in a sort of remission.and hasn't crashed since late last night. So I am risking writing an article and hoping I don't lose it before I have a chance to publish.
Beyond the health issues and technical problems there are other deeper ones ongoing here. As I peruse the headlines on the Google Search Engine each day there is a new riot occurring in a new city. The entire continent of South America appears to be on fire now. Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil…you can bring up Videos now on YouTube that are IRL versions of Children of Men every day. Then there's Hong Kong, Paris, Barcelona and of course Istanbul […] Continue Reading…
Thanksgiving Pizza
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner November 28, 2019
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Thanksgiving 2019 has ARRIVED, and it's time to itemize what we have to be Thankful for this year. We can be Thankful for the fact many of us are still alive, although according to Statistics, we are dieing faster every day. We can be Thankful for the fact that FOOD is still available here in the FSoA at mostly affordable prices even on a SNAP Card budget. We can be Thankful that as of this morning, Planet Earth has not collided with a Planet Killer asteroid.
Beyond that though, we have a good deal MORE not to be Thankful for here on the last Thursday of November 2019. It's not a great day for Happy Motoring to your relatives for your Turkey Dinner, since a Bomb Cyclone has dumped mega tons of snow in many spots acrss the country. It's not too good for Albanians who lost everything in their latest Earthquake. Californicators who have been burned out of their McMansions or just […] Continue Reading…
The Economic-Oil Nexus (EON) Part 1: Why have low oil prices and various economic stimuli over the past several years failed to restore global economic growth?
Off the keyboard of Geoffrey Chia
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on November 24, 2019
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By Geoffrey Chia, November 2019
EONpart1flowchart
I recently listened to a podcast from the "Counterpunch" website on oil and the global economy which I found disappointing. https://store.counterpunch.org/jp-sottile-episode-140/ JP Sottile certainly appeared knowledgeable about the geopolitics of oil in the Middle East but exhibited zero understanding of Peak Oil which he therefore declared to be “garbage”. He asserted that the idea of Peak Oil was a ploy to create “artificial scarcity” to prop up oil prices. He subscribed to the common delusion that current low oil prices disprove Peak Oil and indicate that oil must be abundant and will remain so for the foreseeable future, a completely wrong-headed view. http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2017/07/13/the-economics-of-unconventional-oils-externalities-be-damned/
He repeated the mainstream mantra that there is now a “chronic oil glut”, a completely erroneous way of looking at things. Gross liquid hydrocarbon output may have risen since 2006 but net production of true oil has actually been flat or fallen. http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2019/01/02/how-business-as-usual-has-been-pursued-since-2006-by-escalating-fraud-and-environmental-vandalism/#comment-10693
He also repeated the misleading factoid that the largest oil reserves in the world are in Venezuela, a useful meme to imply […] Continue Reading…
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner November 17, 2019
Note: I meant ARTICHOKE HEARTS, not AVOCADO HEARTS! lol
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We have moved into a new and more intensive phase of Collapse, and this week I got myself back into gear to fullfill my Mission from God to chronicle this shit before I buy my ticket to the Great Beyond.
It has been an intense month in the world of Collapse between the Wildfires in Oz and Sunny California, the Brexit Kabuki still ongoing across the Pond, yet another Shoot-em-Up yesterday in a CA High Shool, Hong Kong Protesters breaking out the Primitive Weapons to fight the Gestapo utilizing Tear Gas and Water Cannons, and of course our own Clown Show here on Live Reality TV from the Hallowed Halls of CONgress.
My tradition has been to produce a Collapse Meal here on the Doomstead Diner for Sunday Brunch, and over the last 7 years I havent missed too many Sundays, The last few weeks though I have been engaged in another very important pursuit, online […] Continue Reading…
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Responding to Collapse, Part 14: adapting to life without the grid
Off the keyboard of Irv Mills
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Published on The Easiest Person to Fool on October 29, 2019
Late October Sunset over Lake Huron
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I am still on Hiatus, not so much due to being under the weather as due to my new Gaming habit, playing the online, browser based game of Vikings: War of Clans. For the Doomer and Collapse Prepper & Planner, it's the best game I have found to date which makes you think about your Resources, plan for Zombie Attacks and secure and build your Doomstead. I have been engaged in a non-stop series of Battles and Competitions over the last couple of weeks as I learned the features of the Game, of which there are many. When my addicition finally calms down, I'll get back to work writing about all the IRL DOOM currently facing us, most notably this week the EXTREME fire problem in Oz, where the fires have moved from the Bush to the Big Shity of Sydney in New South Wales. Before we hear from Irv who is standing in again for me this week, here's one of the current Newz […] Continue Reading…
Responding to Collapse, Part 13: Keeping the Lights on When the Grid Goes Down Forever
Off the keyboard of Joe Clarkson
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Published on The Easiest Person to Fool on October 16, 2019
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Standing in for me this week is Joe Clarkson standing in for Irvine Mills. lol.
Hoping to get some energy back for next Sunday
RE
I'm doing something new this time, which is to publish a post that is almost entirely the work on one of my regular readers and commenters, Joe Clarkson, who lives off-grid on the Big Island of Hawaii. My knowledge of solar electric systems is entirely theoretical and I have always found that in the process of actually building something like this, one learns a great deal that isn't covered in the books. So I am pleased to present this material from someone who can speak with a much greater degree of practical experience than me.
I do have a few comments to make, but I'll save those for the end of the post.
-Irv Mills
Keeping the Lights on When the Grid Goes Down Forever
by Joe Clarkson
As someone who has lived most of my adult life in an off-grid home, I have had a lot of experience in managing the equipment […] Continue Reading…
This Week In Doom, October 27: “Get Over It”
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on October 27, 2019
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell” ― Carl Sandburg
Last night, Trump tweeted "…." An ellipsis. Later a message that "Something very big has just happened!" Today, Trump says that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of the Islamic State, has been killed after a U.S. special operations mission targeted him in northwestern Syria. Trump claimed credit, declaring that U.S. forces have brought "the world's No. 1 terrorist leader to justice."
This latest announcement is part of a diversion to hijack the narrative of the past week, and change the subject from a devastating confirmation of his misdeeds, corruptions and felonies while in office. After several weeks of having both the facts and the law go against #TeamTreason, Trump and his gaggle of dead-enders are reduced to hijacking the narrative, pounding the table and stealing the valor of American servicemen. Because the facts are in, and Trump's impeachment is a certainty.
During this week's closed-door testimony of William Taylor, the […] Continue Reading…
TransAtlantic Kabuki
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner October 20, 2019
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Across the Collapse Blogosphere, you'll repeatedly run into the acronym "SHTF". There's even at least two blogs titled with the acronym, SHTF Plan & SHTF Blog . I'm sure there are others, but those two make it into the Top 15 of "Survivalist" Blogs. Here on the Diner on an economic level we often discuss "SHTF Day". It's the day the ATMs go down or the liquidity dries up in the ovenright interbank lending market or the stock market drops 5000 points in a day, that sort of thing. Total MAYHEM ensues after such an event of course, which would be a watershed and marker as we move inexorably down the Collapse Highway. The Stock Market crash of 1929 was such an event, and for those of you interested in comparison of what occured 90 years ago to the week to today, this is a good documentary recently produced (there are of course many of them).
A single SHTF Day may or […] Continue Reading…
Setting the Stone on the Collapse of Industrial Civilization: The Christening
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner September 29, 2019
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I've been feeling pretty under the weather for the last couple of weeks, with very low energy to do any writing. It's unfortunate since there is so MUCH to write about these days in the World of Collapse The Trumpovetsky Impeachment grows ever more bizzare each day with new revelations, new inquiries, new subpoenas and new comedy. The Tweeter-in-Chief digs himself an ever deeper hole, and Repugnant Rats are jumping ship all over the place. At this point impeachment articles are pretty certain to be brought, to be followed by a trial in the Senate. Whether enough Repugnant Senators will vote his Trumpness out of the Oval Office remains to be seen. It all depends on public opinion, and whether the 20 or so Senators up for reelection in 2020 consider Orange Julius to be too much of a liability to support anymore.
Starring also this week in the Reality TV show is El Presidente's personal lawyer, Rudolf the Red Faced ex-mayor of the […] Continue Reading…
OPEN LETTER TO GRETA THUNBERG
Off the keyboard of Geoffrey Chia
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on October 6, 2019
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by Geoffrey Chia, October 2019
Dear Ms Thunberg,
It is with some hesitation I pen this letter. If you ever read this, which is unlikely, it may seem but one more of numerous missives from complete strangers who feel entitled to write to you or about you because of your recent meteoric rise to fame. If you never read this, which is more likely, then what is the point of this letter? Hence I admit I write this more as a catharsis for myself (as has been the case for most of my articles) than as a means of communication. I do however hope and believe this note may also be of some value to others who may chance upon it.
Let me begin by congratulating you on your plain spoken address to the UN climate action summit last month, expressing your contempt for the empty words and meaningless gestures of hypocritical adults who either claim to address climate change but do nothing, or blatantly deny scientific reality to line their own hip pockets. Your […] Continue Reading…
Setting the Stone on the Collapse of Industrial Civilization
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner September 29, 2019
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More than many weeks that I have spent observing the Collapse of Industrial Civilization, this week (and the weeks before too!) have proven to be above and beyond merely awful, they have been downright DISASTEROUS! The decent into Dante's 7th Circle of HELL began more or less with the latest in Climate Disasters, the FLATTENING of Grand Bahama by Hurricane Dorian, a massive Cat 5 Hurricane that hovered over the islands for a couple of days with sustained winds of 185 MPH. This place will not be a Tourista Destination again for a very long time, if ever before the planes stop flying there.
Following up on this climate disaster, we had the further emergence and promotion of Greta of Stockholm, the 16 year old modern Joan of Arc who is battling with the Big Boys on Twitter over Climate Change, including the biggest Twit-Shit blowhard of them all, the Denier-in-Chief, Donalditry Trumpovetsky. So far, Greta hasn't Blinked, which is of course not […] Continue Reading…
Collapse Chronicles meets the Doomstead Diner
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner September 22, 2019
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Sam Mitchell of Collapse Chronicles
I know Diner Fans are Chomping at the Bit awating the vids from the SUN☼ Monument Placement Ceremony on it's Eternal Resting Place in the center of Flyover Country, Springfield, Missouri. However, you will have to wait another week for that, at least. As usual, other more Time-Sensitive artciles or vids have jumped the queue here, and for this line-cutter it's an interview I did with Sam Mitchell of the YouTube Channel Vlog COLLAPSE CHRONICLES. For a change, I am not doing the interview, I am the "Intervieweed". In this episode, we talk about Economics, Climate Change & Extinction, all pretty popular topics amongst Kollapsniks of course. 🙂
Besides that, except for you Grizzled Veterans of the Diner who already know this stuff, included as a BONUS is the short version History of the Doomstead Diner, how it came to be and WHY it exists at all? Although some of Sam's listenership on Collapse Chronicles are familiar […] Continue Reading…
Responding to Collapse, Part 11: coping with power outages, the basics
Off the keyboard of Irvine Mills
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Published on The Easiest Person to Fool on August 25, 2019
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Storm moving in off Lake Huron, August 2019
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In my last post I talked about some of the problems with using "for profit" companies to provide infrastructure services and went on to look at how one major part of our infrastructure—the power grid—is likely to gradually fail over the coming years. I ended up looking at the effects of power outages, but ran out of space to cover how you can mitigate those effects and what your community can do to cope when it finally finds itself permanently isolated from the grid. I'll start talking about that today, but it looks like it's going to take three or four posts to cover this subject in the detail it deserves.
If you're following or considering following the suggestions I've been making in this series of posts, you're probably receptive to the idea of making preparations for collapse—possibly quite eager to get at it. The endgame here is the end of industrial civilization, with the grid shut down completely and the wells, mines, farms […] Continue Reading…
Nothing but the Dead & Dying in my Little Alaska Community
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner September 15, 2019
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Regular readers of the Diner Forum are well aware of my most recent Jet Setting, Fossil Fuel Burning trip down to the Lower 48 to witness and Christen the SUN Monument on it's Eternal Resting Place in Springfield, MO, where I will join it buried beneath when I have my Final Meeting with the Grim Reaper and buy my Ticket to the Great Beyond. To date, I have been able to battle him off on all the occasions he has knocked on my front door, but win he will in the bye & bye. Nobody keeps the Reaper at bay forever, and I weaken still more with each of these battles. My time left walking the Earth as a corporeal Meat Package grows shorter all the time.
As per the usual on these trips, I shot a good deal of video and fully intended this week to publish one of them on the Placement of the Monument, which took a full 2 years to finally come […] Continue Reading…
C5 Vs Hurricane Dorian
Off the keyboard of Category5
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on September 11, 2019
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C5 Vs Hurricane Dorian (Updated)
Posted on September 7, 2019 by Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
(Updated at the bottom)
To Be or not To Be. That is the Question…..No, Seriously.
I asked myself that question, one stormy evening, tangled in some roots with my head stuck under water. While considering just relaxing and breathing in the water, I said to myself, “This is exactly how my second X-wife expected me to die. There is no way in hell I am going to give her that satisfaction”.
That was the added incentive to push harder, one last time… then I was sucked down the river…..
OK. There might have been alcohol involved.
Dorian is about to hit us dead on… but only as a Category 1.(edit. Just upgraded to Category 2 and they have pulled linesmen off the roads) I thought I would put up a quick post before the internet kicks out.
I only had to do ONE storm prep after strapping everything down. I went out and got beer. In the line up, I said, […] Continue Reading…
C5’s Shipping Container Home… of Dooooom
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on September 6, 2019
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C5’s Shipping Container Home… of Dooooom
Posted on September 2, 2019 by Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
With your (I think I am officially burnt out) Host, Category5.
We are just being hit by a tropical cyclone, here in Nova Scotia, so this is a good time to crash and burn and return to the keyboard for a couple of days. Everything is as battened down as merits. I’ll run out to the container when it really gets downpoury to look for leaks in the mud room, eves troughs and windows. The container, itself, will have no problems
It’s still not done but I think we can officially unveil this years experiment, here at the Dark Green Mountain Survival RESEARCH Centre. What an expensive, exhausting and wild ride it has been. The dizzying highs. The depressing lows. The creamy middles.
Yes, I dropped off the earth for a while. I wrote and then erased a few articles, that though correct, I decided were not helpfull. I stopped communicating with friends, relatives, allies and other blog sites.(Dont worry. I’m […] Continue Reading…
Rock of Ages 2: Travelogue
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner September 1, 2019
The Fun of Flying
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Regular readers of the Diner Forum know I am currently out of state from the Last Great Frontier of Alaska on another one of my Cripple Cart Jet-Setting Adventures related to the SUN☼ Monument, which by no coincidence is also my Tombstone. I'll be writing a full article and producing a video just about that aspect of this trip after I get home, but for today I'll just fill in the readers and viewers with other aspects of this trip I am trying to accomplish.
It's also no coincidence where the Final Resting Place for the rest of Eternity is for the SUN☼ Monument, it's dead center of Flyover Country in the FSoA, Springfield, MO. This because it's where my few remaining family members live, and it's where my mom died and was buried. So I bought a plot there for myself after my accident, figuring it wasn't going to be long before I was pushing up daisies myself.
SUN☼ represents everything I have stood […] Continue Reading…
This Week In Doom Sept. 1, 2019: Rat Bastards
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Anthony Freda
Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on September 1, 2019
“This country was born on violence. Violence is as American as cherry pie." –H. Rap Brown
I awoke this morning to see what news had broken and found this:
10 injured in shooting after high school football game in Alabama
At least 10 teenagers were injured when a shooting broke out after a high school football game in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday night, authorities said. Nine of the victims suffered gunshot wounds.
Well, it's Alabama, and it's FOOTBAW, so thus perhaps reason enough. But I'm old enough to remember going to high school football games without fearing for my life.
"Why are the young people bringing this type of violence to public events?" Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste asked in a news conference Friday. "They're bringing their beefs that they have with each other in their neighborhoods and they're putting other people in harm's way."
Let's not forget the exortations by Trump to do that very thing.
GOP front-runner Donald Trump encouraged a […] Continue Reading…
This Week in Doom August 26, 2019: The Lyin’ King
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on August 25, 2019
“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Madness occasionally asserts itself on the world stage.
"The Madness of King George" is a stage and film production about Britain's George III, known through history as "the mad king who lost America." George III was king of Great Britain during some of the nation’s most challenging and tumultuous years, including those of the American Revolution. By accounts he was a dutiful, steady monarch who guided Britain through the French revolution and later Napoleon's rise and fall. In 1788, illness brought on his mental breakdown, but he briefly recovered for a time. His later escalating bouts of insanity led Parliament to pass a Regency Act, […] Continue Reading…
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