Sitting here, on the eve of 9/11, I have a terrible admission to make - I don't get it. I don't get the self pity, the commercialization, the angst. I have the feeling that once again we're seeing the outward manifestation of the inner workings of the most self centered generation in the world, the baby boomers.
Look, I understand the historical importance of the attack. I understand the loss and tragedy on a personal level for the families of the victims. I realize that the attack changed America forever, mostly for the worst and mostly due to the actions of our own government.
I know the toll in lives since the attack, both for our soldiers and for all those we've killed on foreign soil. If there was some need for vengeance I'd think that we've just about satisfied it, though it's a hollow victory. I know that we've done some damage to Al-Qaeda, but that we haven't completely taken them out. And I know that the world is more dangerous today than it was in 2001, regardless of the number of lives lost and the treasure spent - or wasted.
But I don't understand why the country, at least if one is to believe the New York media, is coming to a stop.
That's the thing, though, isn't it. The country isn't coming to a stop. Most of us know what day it is and we'll say a silent prayer for the victims, the attackers, the country and the world and then we'll get on about our lives. 9/11 isn't a truly defining moment for most of us. It's a pivot point in history, just like Pearl Harbor or the Battle of Hastings.
It is a defining point, however, for the people of New York, including the media. And that's why the rest of us are being subjected to non-stop hyperbole and sensationalism. Did we see this sort of hoopla on the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City? A minor event in comparison, to be sure, but still a significant terrorist attack on American soil that resulted in a large loss of innocent life. We still hear more about the '93 attack on the Trade Center every year than about Oklahoma City. Again, because that's where the media lives.
Don't get me wrong. I think that it's important that we remember the attack in 2001. But I think that it's equally important that we remember Pearl Harbor and the firing on Fort Sumter. All three of these events caused fundamental changes to America.
That being said, I think that 9/11 has become less about remembering and more about promotion. To me it feels far more like a circus than a memorial. More about the people that are alive than the ones that are dead.
More focused on the self than on others.
But then, that's what my generation has always been about.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
MISSOURI AND THE CHINA HUB
Wow, it's been so long since I've written anything on here that I'm forgetting how to use the controls so bear with me.
Tomorrow the Missouri Legislature starts debate in a special session to decide whether to approve the China Hub bill. This thing is dirty from top to bottom.
First a bit of background. St. Louis is rolling in unused airport capacity. Over on the Illinois side we've got Mid-America Airport, a group of shiny new buildings and a nifty tower with a big long strip of asphalt road running in front of it. We've been told that the road is supposed to be used to land airplanes on but it's never really been tried so we're not sure it'll work yet. But, everyday, the buildings are opened and the lights turned on while all eyes are cast skyward and all ears strain, listening for the drone of an engine. And they do hear them. Unfortunately, they all tend to land next door at Scott Air Force Base. Oh well, maybe someday Scott'll be filled up and they'll need to come over to Mid-America.
Because of the overcrowding at Mid-America, Lambert (used to be international, now not so much) Airport in St. Louis decided it needed to expand. And it did. It (we) spent over a billion dollars gobbling up neighborhoods and the better part of Bridgeton, burying Lindbergh Blvd. in a tunnel and moving vast amounts of earth. And now, just like across the river, we've got a really nice stretch of brand new road that nobody drives on that we are told is supposed to be a landing strip.
Up 'til a few years ago Lambert was an international airport and TWA's home base. It was also a hub for Southwestern. But when TWA went under it took Lambert down, too. Not completely, there's still a bunch of traffic, but it lost it's international routes and became more of a second tier airport, just like the city it serves has become a second, no, third tier city.
And that's the real problem. St. Louis, once the home to a number of Fortune 500 company headquarters has dwindled away.
I'm old enough to remember the good days. At one time, St. Louis was second only to Detroit in auto production. The Big Three all had plants here. We had shoe factories and breweries. Ralston Purina was home owned. Monsanto is still here but they're one of the few left. It wasn't hard to make a decent living here or across the river where the meat packing plants and foundries ran day and night.
When I was a kid, carpenters and doctors, factory workers and bankers pretty much lived in the same neighborhoods because everybody was making decent money. And the reason for this was manufacturing. We were a city that built things the world needed. And building those things created good jobs that paid good wages, real wealth that was then spent in the community supporting other businesses. Sure, business owners got rich but then their employees did pretty well, too, because they had the skill needed to make the products that the business sold. The means of production were dispersed across the society as a whole.
But now we've become a service sector city, building nothing, just filling out spreadsheets and moving things that others built around warehouses. We try to skim a little of the real wealth created by others off the top to put in our pockets. Most of the wealth goes to the business owners because, when you get right down to it, it doesn't take much skill to do most of the work that gets done in a service economy so finding people to do it at low wages is relatively easy. The day of the skilled trade have drawn to a close. And even for the few skilled trades people left the wages have collapsed because the service sector workers can't afford to pay them.
So what's the solution for this dilemma? Well, if one is to believe our state government, the way to fix the problem is to spend hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to line the pockets of a few special interests all in the hopes of creating more service jobs to support Chinese slaves manufacturing cheap goods to sell to us. We're being told that skimming a little off the top of an increasingly diminishing pie using low paying jobs that create no real wealth is the answer to our problems.
If you believe that I've got a couple of slightly used runways to sell you.
If you live in Missouri call your Reps and Senators and tell them to vote no on the China Hub Bill. My guess is that the fix is already in but we can dream, can't we?
Tomorrow the Missouri Legislature starts debate in a special session to decide whether to approve the China Hub bill. This thing is dirty from top to bottom.
First a bit of background. St. Louis is rolling in unused airport capacity. Over on the Illinois side we've got Mid-America Airport, a group of shiny new buildings and a nifty tower with a big long strip of asphalt road running in front of it. We've been told that the road is supposed to be used to land airplanes on but it's never really been tried so we're not sure it'll work yet. But, everyday, the buildings are opened and the lights turned on while all eyes are cast skyward and all ears strain, listening for the drone of an engine. And they do hear them. Unfortunately, they all tend to land next door at Scott Air Force Base. Oh well, maybe someday Scott'll be filled up and they'll need to come over to Mid-America.
Because of the overcrowding at Mid-America, Lambert (used to be international, now not so much) Airport in St. Louis decided it needed to expand. And it did. It (we) spent over a billion dollars gobbling up neighborhoods and the better part of Bridgeton, burying Lindbergh Blvd. in a tunnel and moving vast amounts of earth. And now, just like across the river, we've got a really nice stretch of brand new road that nobody drives on that we are told is supposed to be a landing strip.
Up 'til a few years ago Lambert was an international airport and TWA's home base. It was also a hub for Southwestern. But when TWA went under it took Lambert down, too. Not completely, there's still a bunch of traffic, but it lost it's international routes and became more of a second tier airport, just like the city it serves has become a second, no, third tier city.
And that's the real problem. St. Louis, once the home to a number of Fortune 500 company headquarters has dwindled away.
I'm old enough to remember the good days. At one time, St. Louis was second only to Detroit in auto production. The Big Three all had plants here. We had shoe factories and breweries. Ralston Purina was home owned. Monsanto is still here but they're one of the few left. It wasn't hard to make a decent living here or across the river where the meat packing plants and foundries ran day and night.
When I was a kid, carpenters and doctors, factory workers and bankers pretty much lived in the same neighborhoods because everybody was making decent money. And the reason for this was manufacturing. We were a city that built things the world needed. And building those things created good jobs that paid good wages, real wealth that was then spent in the community supporting other businesses. Sure, business owners got rich but then their employees did pretty well, too, because they had the skill needed to make the products that the business sold. The means of production were dispersed across the society as a whole.
But now we've become a service sector city, building nothing, just filling out spreadsheets and moving things that others built around warehouses. We try to skim a little of the real wealth created by others off the top to put in our pockets. Most of the wealth goes to the business owners because, when you get right down to it, it doesn't take much skill to do most of the work that gets done in a service economy so finding people to do it at low wages is relatively easy. The day of the skilled trade have drawn to a close. And even for the few skilled trades people left the wages have collapsed because the service sector workers can't afford to pay them.
So what's the solution for this dilemma? Well, if one is to believe our state government, the way to fix the problem is to spend hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to line the pockets of a few special interests all in the hopes of creating more service jobs to support Chinese slaves manufacturing cheap goods to sell to us. We're being told that skimming a little off the top of an increasingly diminishing pie using low paying jobs that create no real wealth is the answer to our problems.
If you believe that I've got a couple of slightly used runways to sell you.
If you live in Missouri call your Reps and Senators and tell them to vote no on the China Hub Bill. My guess is that the fix is already in but we can dream, can't we?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT
I haven't posted anything in quite a while because I'm just running out of things that I care to write about...and it's summertime with gardens and fishing to consider.
That being said, I'm getting tired of the political spin surrounding the current push by the Republicans for a Balanced Budget Amendment so I thought I'd post the actual bill language so we can all make up our own minds.
Here it is:
At first read it seems fairly sensible to me but then I'm not a lawyer and we all know how even the simplest language can be twisted. That being said, I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others about specific problems that they may think are not addressed in the bill.
The one thing I do know is that America is broke and on the verge of financial and political collapse. If we don't get our act together and start living within our means, no matter how painful this is going to be, we're done. I think that a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution is the only way to bind the hands of our politicians, both current and future.
Like it our not, the days of big government are over because we simply can't afford it. Better to take the hit on our own terms than to have it forced on us by others.
Well, enough writing, time to go back to the garden.
That being said, I'm getting tired of the political spin surrounding the current push by the Republicans for a Balanced Budget Amendment so I thought I'd post the actual bill language so we can all make up our own minds.
Here it is:
JOINT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to balancing the budget.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:
`Article--
`Section 1. Total outlays for any fiscal year shall not exceed total receipts for that fiscal year, unless two-thirds of the duly chosen and sworn Members of each House of Congress shall provide by law for a specific excess of outlays over receipts by a roll call vote.
`Section 2. Total outlays for any fiscal year shall not exceed 18 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States for the calendar year ending before the beginning of such fiscal year, unless two-thirds of the duly chosen and sworn Members of each House of Congress shall provide by law for a specific amount in excess of such 18 percent by a roll call vote.
`Section 3. Prior to each fiscal year, the President shall transmit to the Congress a proposed budget for the United States Government for that fiscal year in which--
`(1) total outlays do not exceed total receipts; and
`(2) total outlays do not exceed 18 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States for the calendar year ending before the beginning of such fiscal year.
`Section 4. Any bill that imposes a new tax or increases the statutory rate of any tax or the aggregate amount of revenue may pass only by a two-thirds majority of the duly chosen and sworn Members of each House of Congress by a roll call vote. For the purpose of determining any increase in revenue under this section, there shall be excluded any increase resulting from the lowering of the statutory rate of any tax.
`Section 5. The limit on the debt of the United States shall not be increased, unless three-fifths of the duly chosen and sworn Members of each House of Congress shall provide for such an increase by a roll call vote.
`Section 6. The Congress may waive the provisions of sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 of this article for any fiscal year in which a declaration of war against a nation-state is in effect and in which a majority of the duly chosen and sworn Members of each House of Congress shall provide for a specific excess by a roll call vote.
`Section 7. The Congress may waive the provisions of sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 of this article in any fiscal year in which the United States is engaged in a military conflict that causes an imminent and serious military threat to national security and is so declared by three-fifths of the duly chosen and sworn Members of each House of Congress by a roll call vote. Such suspension must identify and be limited to the specific excess of outlays for that fiscal year made necessary by the identified military conflict.
`Section 8. No court of the United States or of any State shall order any increase in revenue to enforce this article.
`Section 9. Total receipts shall include all receipts of the United States Government except those derived from borrowing. Total outlays shall include all outlays of the United States Government except those for repayment of debt principal.
`Section 10. The Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation, which may rely on estimates of outlays, receipts, and gross domestic product.
`Section 11. This article shall take effect beginning with the fifth fiscal year beginning after its ratification.'.
At first read it seems fairly sensible to me but then I'm not a lawyer and we all know how even the simplest language can be twisted. That being said, I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others about specific problems that they may think are not addressed in the bill.
The one thing I do know is that America is broke and on the verge of financial and political collapse. If we don't get our act together and start living within our means, no matter how painful this is going to be, we're done. I think that a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution is the only way to bind the hands of our politicians, both current and future.
Like it our not, the days of big government are over because we simply can't afford it. Better to take the hit on our own terms than to have it forced on us by others.
Well, enough writing, time to go back to the garden.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
MUSLIM CULTURE MEETS GERMAN ENGINEERING
Sorry, I haven't posted in a while. It's spring and the garden and the house need lots of work. I'll get back to this eventually.
In the meantime, I just had to put this up!
In the meantime, I just had to put this up!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
FOX NEWS CLAIMS BIN LADEN IS DEAD - DECEMBER 26, 2001
"Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief."
Fox News
RIDING THE PEAK OIL ROLLER COASTER
"If you're searching for early signs that higher gasoline prices are starting to weigh on consumer demand, you might want to look at the latest SpendingPulse report from Mastercard Advisors..
Overall, April sales trends are mixed, with some sectors showing continued year-over-year growth, while others are flat or even negative, according to the report, which tracks sales across all payment methods.
The late timing of Easter, which shifted some sales from March into April, may make intepretations a little bit murky, but there are a few datapoints that suggest high gasoline prices—which are now topping an average of $3.96 a gallon nationwide—are starting to have an impact on consumer behavior."
CNBC
"U.S. retail gasoline demand fell last week as prices continued to climb, MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse report showed on Tuesday.
Average weekly gasoline demand dropped 1 percent from the previous week, MasterCard said."
Reuters
I've been wondering where the breaking point would be this time, where the price of fuel would intersect with the ability of people to pay it and then it would begin to depress the economy like it did in 2008. Then it had to get to $147.00 a barrel. This time it appears that somewhere around $112.00 will do it.
I knew that we'd never get to $147.00 because the economy is in tatters. It's not the debt fueled, high speed machine it was prior to the first run up in oil. So what's the next step?
I heard Stuart Varney say on Fox this morning that he thought we were going to see the price of gas plateau somewhere around $4.00 a gallon and them begin to drop off. He said that supply is high and demand is falling and he's right on both points. And we should expect to see this sort of see-saw pricing, the price of fuel going up and down, with each peak coming sooner and doing more damage as the economy grinds to a halt and demand for fuel falls, along with demand for everything else not essential to survival. I expect the low points in pricing will become higher and higher with each cycle, too. The dollar is collapsing at the same time the price is falling so regardless of demand and supply the cost of crude will continue to rise.
And then we have China. Can they survive without America buying their goods? I don't know. I do know that our good friends Saudi Arabia are busy right now cutting a deal with them to supply them the oil they used to send our way. I know that part of this deal will, in probably fairly short order, replace the dollar as the worlds reserve currency with the yuan. And our ability to buy oil on the open market will dwindle. And honestly, if we can't pay the price we're not going to get the product. It'll go to the countries that can.
When we lose our ability to get oil, cheaply and abundantly, everything changes in America and we haven't done a thing to get ready for it. If we are forced to live off what we can produce then just get ready to lower your lifestyle expectations. And believe me, the day of reckoning is coming like a freight train full of coal.
So, short term get ready to see the price of fuel fall a bit and then to see an uptick in the economy. The press and the government (the same thing, really) will tout this as evidence of a recovery and we'll be told happy days are here again. Don't believe it. Act and prepare like everything is about to change and the economy is still collapsing because it will be. It'll just be hidden for a very short while.
The next cycle we'll see a slowdown at a lower cost per barrel. How many more cycles can we ride this roller coaster? I don't know but I think not many.
So get prepared and pray because the worst is yet to come.
UPDATE: DOLLAR AT THREE YEAR LOW
"The dollar fell to a fresh three-year low on Wednesday and the euro briefly rose above $1.49 as weaker-than-expected U.S. employment data convinced investors that U.S. interest rates would remain low this year.
The yen also hit a six-week high against the dollar after data showed the pace of growth in the dominant U.S. services sector also slowed unexpectedly in April, another sign the U.S. economy may be hitting a soft patch. See [ID:nN04186623]
With markets worried about a yawning U.S. budget deficit, traders said signs of slower growth will only add to trouble for the dollar, which fell to a three-year low against major currencies Wednesday. It has lost 7.7 percent in 2011. <.DXY>
"The dollar got beat up pretty badly against the euro," said Firas Askari, head of foreign exchange trading at BMO Capital Markets. "The U.S. fiscal situation is a concern. Now it seems the U.S. economy isn't just tepid but actually cooling off again. That's not encouraging."
But Askari and others said concerns about slower U.S. growth also dulled appetite for commodities and higher-yield assets for fear a U.S. slump would reverberate globally."
Yahoo
All this means is that regardless of demand it will take more dollars to buy a barrel of oil. I can see two results that will come of this. One, the demise of the dollar as the worlds reserve currency is getting closer and closer. The rest of the world is losing faith in it and there is considerable pressure from China and Russia to create a basket of currencies to replace it. And two, as the dollar weakens and takes our economy with it the price of oil will rise at the same time the demand shrinks here in America, which should drive the cost at the pump down, narrowing the margins for the oil companies. At some point, and I really don't know when this will happen, they'll decide that they can make more money elsewhere and pretty much leave us sucking hind tit.
The result will be fuel shortages which will destroy our economy and way of life. When the trucks that carry the food can't get fuel to bring it to the stores what do you think is going to happen? When we can't get fuel to go to work what's going to happen? When manufacturers can't get fuel to move their products what do you think will happen? What happens when utility companies can't get fuel to run the trucks that keep our infrastructure up and going?
It won't take long at all for everything we take for granted to just go away. And that time is right around the corner.
And when it happens, and I'm convinced it will, will some one or some group try to use the pain and confusion to leverage a new political system, something that voids the Constitution and the rights it protects? If the pain is bad enough most people will accept anything.
Remember the North American alliance and the new currency, the Amero? I wonder whatever happened to that?
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
TIME TO PICK UP OUR BALL AND GO HOME
This guy gets it:
All the end of the world predictions are wrong. It's not ending, just changing. And the period between now and then is going to become increasingly chaotic. We are just in the beginning stages.
The powers that be, both in the corporate world and governmental, which are pretty much the same thing, will try to use this period of transition to consolidate power and control. The New World Order that we've all been hearing about is real and it's coming. Order, defined as a forced imposition of structure, is the key word. Our freedom is being eroded at an increasing rate, whether through major changes such as the devaluation of currency or the little things like being forced to submit to the most demeaning abuses just to get on a plane. We're being trained slowly, piece by de-humanizing piece, to accept control, so when the real restrictions come we won't fight them.
The one small hope that we have to come through this, not painlessly but free, is to resist all the power arrayed against us. To tell the politicians and CEO's that we don't like the way they've changed the rules of the game and it's our ball anyway so we're just going to pick it up and go home. And do it.
How? Opt out as much as you can. This starts with mental preparation. Get used to the idea that life is going to change. Learn to live as independently as you can. Grow your own food to the extent you can and for those things you can't, such as meat, look for local farmers that you can buy it from. It supports the local economy and disconnects you and the farmer from the agricultural system built to support corporate farms and giant petrochemical concerns.
Learn the old ways because they're going to become vital once again. How many can sew, can, make candles, heat with wood or use tools effectively anymore. How do you get potable water when the water plant stops working? Have you got some chickens? What about stores of useful pieces of what most would consider trash but in reality are pieces of reusable stuff that can be used for repairs or building the things you need. Remember how our grandparents saved stuff because, "You just might need it someday?"
Create local networks because as our old giant world comes apart, and if you want to retain your freedom, your world will have to shrink to a local and manageable level. In our new/old world oil won't be available at the levels it is now so transportation options will return to a more limited group, such as walking, bicycles (until the tires go and we can't replace them because they're made of oil) and for those that can afford them and have the ground and barns, horses. The local network will be vital because in our old/new world things will be like they've been through most of human history and most people may never get more than a couple days walk from where they were born, live and die.
In short, read your history and start to think in terms, if we're lucky, of the lifestyle of the average American in the 1880's - 1890's. Of course, it may take us a while to get back to that level of comfort because we're going to have to pass through hell first as the riots and unrest consume society during the collapse.
But the thing is, we don't have to go through hell if we just accept reality and force the issue in our favor by not going along with the program. Pick up our ball and go home. Just say no. It's really that easy. Want to stop the full body scans at airports? Stop flying. If everyone would just, say for a week or two, absolutely refuse to board a plane, the laws would change. The oligarchy that controls our government can't stand to lose the money.
Tired of the controls the pharmaceutical oligarchy places on our ability to use the drugs that nature provides instead of the manufactured variants they control? Stop using so many drugs. Some people need them to live so their choices are limited. But really, we've become a country of addicts, addicted to pain pills, diet pills and psychoactive happy pills just because we won't man up and deal with life's little problems. Most of these drugs weren't available even 40 years ago yet somehow we got along just fine. STOP TAKING THEM! Learn to use the natural alternatives as much as possible or take nothing at all. If you hurt or feel down, what's wrong with a beer or two? Beats the hell out of Prozac. And you can make your own beer, too.
By the way, how come your local pharmacist can't go back to making and supplying the drugs the way they used to? Why do we have to have a doctors prescription for everything we buy? Aren't the pharmacists trained to make, manage and supply pharmaceuticals like they used to be? If not, what happened?
Barter or trade. Disconnect from the Fed's fiat currency as much as possible. Get out of debt. Tear up the credit cards.
Pick up our ball and go home.
If it's possible we need to do this on a national level by forcing our reps to disengage our troops and bring them back. All of them. We were never meant to be an empire and we're not suited to it. Stop defending Europe. Let them bear the cost. Without us there Europe will return to form with wars between families, towns and countries but that seems to be their way. Why should we care? The Middle East will go the same way but again, how is that our problem? Israel can defend herself.
We're going to have far less ability to maintain our defense oligarchy so we need to reduce it back to a level that can defend our country and nothing more. Tell the rest of the world to stay out of our business and we'll stay out of theirs. And remind them that we still have our nukes.
Pick up our ball and go home.
We each have a ball and we each need to make the decision. If each individual, then each family, then each community refuses to play then the game will end. Then a new game will start and because we have the ball we can set the rules. If we give the ball away then the oligarchy will set the rules.
Pick up YOUR ball and go home.
Then get ready to sit it out 'til the new game starts. It's going to be really hard and the oligarchy will offer you all kinds of things to bring the ball back. Don't do it. The ball is all you've got.
The ball is freedom.
"A lot of people believe the world as we know it is going to end on December 23, 2012. Nonsense, I say. The far more honest answer is that the end of the world as we know it has already begun. And it doesn't mean the end of the world; it means the closing of one era and the birth of a new one. It is a transition between the ages. This particular transition, however, promises to be the most tumultuous and costly transition humankind has ever seen.
But don't wait around for December 2012 to look for the signs. Here are 14 signs that the world as we know it is unraveling right now. We are living through the end of one era and the birth of a new one. In the future, they'll look back and call this all one moment in history, but when you're living through it, it seems to move forward at almost a snail's pace. But make no mistake: We are living through the opening chapters of the end of the world as we know it, and on the other side of all this will emerge a new world that's very different from the one we know today..."
To read more go to Natural News.
All the end of the world predictions are wrong. It's not ending, just changing. And the period between now and then is going to become increasingly chaotic. We are just in the beginning stages.
The powers that be, both in the corporate world and governmental, which are pretty much the same thing, will try to use this period of transition to consolidate power and control. The New World Order that we've all been hearing about is real and it's coming. Order, defined as a forced imposition of structure, is the key word. Our freedom is being eroded at an increasing rate, whether through major changes such as the devaluation of currency or the little things like being forced to submit to the most demeaning abuses just to get on a plane. We're being trained slowly, piece by de-humanizing piece, to accept control, so when the real restrictions come we won't fight them.
The one small hope that we have to come through this, not painlessly but free, is to resist all the power arrayed against us. To tell the politicians and CEO's that we don't like the way they've changed the rules of the game and it's our ball anyway so we're just going to pick it up and go home. And do it.
How? Opt out as much as you can. This starts with mental preparation. Get used to the idea that life is going to change. Learn to live as independently as you can. Grow your own food to the extent you can and for those things you can't, such as meat, look for local farmers that you can buy it from. It supports the local economy and disconnects you and the farmer from the agricultural system built to support corporate farms and giant petrochemical concerns.
Learn the old ways because they're going to become vital once again. How many can sew, can, make candles, heat with wood or use tools effectively anymore. How do you get potable water when the water plant stops working? Have you got some chickens? What about stores of useful pieces of what most would consider trash but in reality are pieces of reusable stuff that can be used for repairs or building the things you need. Remember how our grandparents saved stuff because, "You just might need it someday?"
Create local networks because as our old giant world comes apart, and if you want to retain your freedom, your world will have to shrink to a local and manageable level. In our new/old world oil won't be available at the levels it is now so transportation options will return to a more limited group, such as walking, bicycles (until the tires go and we can't replace them because they're made of oil) and for those that can afford them and have the ground and barns, horses. The local network will be vital because in our old/new world things will be like they've been through most of human history and most people may never get more than a couple days walk from where they were born, live and die.
In short, read your history and start to think in terms, if we're lucky, of the lifestyle of the average American in the 1880's - 1890's. Of course, it may take us a while to get back to that level of comfort because we're going to have to pass through hell first as the riots and unrest consume society during the collapse.
But the thing is, we don't have to go through hell if we just accept reality and force the issue in our favor by not going along with the program. Pick up our ball and go home. Just say no. It's really that easy. Want to stop the full body scans at airports? Stop flying. If everyone would just, say for a week or two, absolutely refuse to board a plane, the laws would change. The oligarchy that controls our government can't stand to lose the money.
Tired of the controls the pharmaceutical oligarchy places on our ability to use the drugs that nature provides instead of the manufactured variants they control? Stop using so many drugs. Some people need them to live so their choices are limited. But really, we've become a country of addicts, addicted to pain pills, diet pills and psychoactive happy pills just because we won't man up and deal with life's little problems. Most of these drugs weren't available even 40 years ago yet somehow we got along just fine. STOP TAKING THEM! Learn to use the natural alternatives as much as possible or take nothing at all. If you hurt or feel down, what's wrong with a beer or two? Beats the hell out of Prozac. And you can make your own beer, too.
By the way, how come your local pharmacist can't go back to making and supplying the drugs the way they used to? Why do we have to have a doctors prescription for everything we buy? Aren't the pharmacists trained to make, manage and supply pharmaceuticals like they used to be? If not, what happened?
Barter or trade. Disconnect from the Fed's fiat currency as much as possible. Get out of debt. Tear up the credit cards.
Pick up our ball and go home.
If it's possible we need to do this on a national level by forcing our reps to disengage our troops and bring them back. All of them. We were never meant to be an empire and we're not suited to it. Stop defending Europe. Let them bear the cost. Without us there Europe will return to form with wars between families, towns and countries but that seems to be their way. Why should we care? The Middle East will go the same way but again, how is that our problem? Israel can defend herself.
We're going to have far less ability to maintain our defense oligarchy so we need to reduce it back to a level that can defend our country and nothing more. Tell the rest of the world to stay out of our business and we'll stay out of theirs. And remind them that we still have our nukes.
Pick up our ball and go home.
We each have a ball and we each need to make the decision. If each individual, then each family, then each community refuses to play then the game will end. Then a new game will start and because we have the ball we can set the rules. If we give the ball away then the oligarchy will set the rules.
Pick up YOUR ball and go home.
Then get ready to sit it out 'til the new game starts. It's going to be really hard and the oligarchy will offer you all kinds of things to bring the ball back. Don't do it. The ball is all you've got.
The ball is freedom.
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