Monday, February 28, 2011

Prophets of doom

The complete program:

Watch at Youtube.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

We've been had

While in prison, I met a young man from England. He, like me, had been involved in a conspiracy to import marijuana into the United States. He told me he was a ship captain and had gone to South Korea to bring back a boat fitted for smuggling dope from Colombia to the United States. He went on to say that he had been interviewed by Playboy magazine concerning his involvement in the trade.

I explained to him that I had been a mid to low level drug smuggler, bringing Mexican marijuana across the border in hundred lots, that I had gotten busted, escaped from prison, fled to Mexico and grown marijuana, but also that while in Mexico I had witnessed and participated peripherally in a large scale Mexican/Colombian drug smuggling operation.

My friend got transferred elsewhere in the prison system and I didn’t think much more about him, until the March 1989 issue of Playboy magazine was released. After oogling the girls, I got around to reading the magazine. Imagine my astonishment when I discovered an incident from my own case in an article, which went on to describe how Michael Palmer, a pilot of a DC-6 I saw land in Mexico, first delivered arms to the Contra rebels in Central America for the CIA and got paid for it, then delivered dope to Mexico and got paid again (the drugs subsequently smuggled into the United States), and finally informed on the drug smugglers for which he worked and got paid once again, this time by the DEA. After all of that, Michael Palmer was considerate enough to testify to a Senate Subcommittee hearing chaired by John Kerry and escaped prosecution for any of this.

Come to find out, my jail house acquaintance from England worked for the same people I did. And we all worked for the CIA. We didn’t know this, but we did their bidding nonetheless.

Yesterday, I had another ah-ha! moment. While talking to one of my sons, I discovered that Lindsey Williams had revealed new information concerning that state of oil and world geopolitics. He told that I should get on the computer and listen to Lindsey’s segments on the Alex Jones show. I am familiar with Alex Jones and Lindsey Williams and tend to take what they say concerning oil with a teaspoon (if not a shovel full) of salt.

But when I listened to the program, a number of facts began to add up with what I am witnessing in the world, especially when viewed through the prism of peak oil, (which both Jones and Williams tend to dismiss). To the point of a kicked in the gut kind of realization—as in, we’ve been had.

What Jones and Williams fail to understand is that shale oil, like that of the Bakken, or the Eagle Ford, costs more to produce than that in places like Saudi Arabia where light oil is produced from sands or other permeable structures. So, while geologists knew shale oil existed, the (artificially) low price of oil never allowed a profit to be made by producing oil from shale. Also, there are inherent environmental and technological issues that come with shale oil production, in the form of massive amounts of water and energy requirements for fracking impermeable formations and the potential for groundwater contamination as these fracking fluids escape intended zones.

But, I think it’s highly plausible that Lindsey’s revelations are on the up and up, that certain elements have known of peak oil for years and have positioned themselves to benefit from the event. Certain fields were set aside here in the US while foreign oil was produced for ridiculously cheap prices. The owners of that foreign oil, (largely but not exclusively Arabs) were paid in federal reserve notes and US treasuries that will soon be worthless.

Conflict is likely to spread in the Middle East (and perhaps other oil producing nations) until most oil production is halted and the price of oil reaches $200 a barrel or thereabouts. This will mean gas prices of $6 to $10 a gallon in the US. People will quit paying their mortgages and most property will be repossessed or purchased for minimal amounts of money. Then the dollar fails entirely. The Middle East will be thrust back into the Stone Age as a result of this.

I do think this is the plan.

But, I think the plan will fail.

Call me crazy. I really don’t give a fuck. I am not here to win a popularity contest.

Do catch Lindsey Williams’ recent interviews with Alex Jones, and decide for yourself.

Part 1 of 5. February 22.

Part 1 of 4. February 23.

New fungi in roundup ready crops?

The floodgates open:

Read it here.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Somebody has to do the work

Sabbath eve, February 18, 2011

The moon is full, the sky clear. Outside my door, Great Pyrenees dogs prowl the compound barking at roaming coyotes, marking and remarking boundaries, positioning themselves like roving sentries to cover all possible points of attack. It’s one thing to defend against a single large dog and quite another to deal with six. There was a time when I found carcasses. Now the coyotes know better. So do neighboring dogs.

Corn prices have skyrocketed of late, from $3 and change at harvest time last year to over $7/bushel today. Cotton recently went over $2/pound for the first time in history. Brent oil has been over $100/barrel for a week or so. West Texas crude is considerably lower for some reason, but I am told most of the world’s light oil is fetching the higher price. It should come as no surprise that most of the American corn and cotton crop is out of the hands of farmers. A brother of mine called Cargill just for the hell of it to see if they’re buying corn. Not until August he was told.

The average American worker spends something on the order of 15% of his earnings on food. In many of the countries now revolting, people spend half or better of what they earn on food.

China is said to have lots of dollars they’re worried about. Truth is, I don’t think they’re worried about this at all. No more so than we were when we played the beggar thy neighbor game of debt slavery with the populations of Latin and South American countries. When China holds our money, they hold debt instruments that can be used to acquire goods like food, energy and precious metals whenever they damn well please. And acquiring these is exactly what they’re doing. What are we going to say? Dollars are no good here? They bought a quarter of our pecan crop. They’re buying a bunch of our corn crop. The cotton crop. They’re buying substantial interests in our new domestic shale oil fields and oil reserves from around the world that traditionally have been reserved for the United States.

Bernanke says quantitative easing has not caused inflation. Bernanke lies.

The Eagle Ford shale play is in full swing in South Texas. Some lease prices have grown 1,500% in a year’s time, an amount I think cost prohibitive, especially when the high cost of drilling both in terms of energy and money is taken into account. I remain convinced that the money finding its way into the region is from freshly hallucinated Fed funds, channeled through major banks into large corporations.

Small producers need not apply.

The high cost of oil has found its way to gas stations. Diesel fuel sells for around $3.40 a gallon in these parts and regular gas around $3. I doubt you can get it cheaper anywhere else in the country. It was at this price that the economy began to flounder in 2008 as higher fuel costs translate into higher costs for virtually everything else we really need, seeing as how our just-in-time rolling interstate warehouse on wheels is powered by diesel fuel. I suspect that people will once again decide to fill their tanks rather than pay the mortgage so don’t be surprised if there’s another downturn in the real estate market looming.

With high fuel prices, demand for fuel may decline but developing countries will continue sopping up the excess, so don’t expect fuel prices to fall on anything other than short time corrections, unless of course the fed stops creating new money and I seriously doubt that’s going to happen. When we do use less fuel, we’ll also produce less in the way of real goods and services so forget the idea of a genuine economic recovery. Anybody telling you that’s in the cards is blowing smoke up your ass.

Cabbages, spinach, turnips, carrots and onions survived the intense cold wave of a couple of weeks ago. I planted potatoes this week. Broccoli and beets succumbed to the cold, but I had already harvested broccoli and could plant another crop if I desired. I hope to plant more beets. Many of you may think I am crazy, but having food to eat is a luxury not to be taken for granted. This would be a good time to plow up the lawn and plant some potatoes, corn and vegetables or whatever else works in your region. There’s a learning process involved in food production and a time lag between planting seeds and having something to eat. If you don’t have land or resources to do this, perhaps you should consider doing part time work for someone that does in exchange for a supply of fresh food.

As for the ongoing riots around the world: it’s good that people are pissed off, but higher pay will do absolutely nothing to improve the situation, especially when every country in the world applies the same false solution simultaneously.

Money is not real wealth, only the standard by which wealth is measured. More money chasing inadaquate supplies causes higher prices.

Somebody has to work to produce real wealth.

Times of chaos are not conducive to real work. There lies the conumdrum we too shall soon face.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Why isn't Wall Street in jail

Matt Taibi from Rolling Stone Magazine strikes again. Used to be Playboy printing the hard hitting editorial pieces no one else would touch. Now it's a music magazine.

Excerpt:

"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."

I put down my notebook. "Just that?"

"That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."


Much more at the link.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Millennials rising

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

It’s been a while since I penned an original journal entry. We’ve had one terrible cold wave and are now in the midst of a second. Heat is a nuisance; cold kills. The cold wave didn’t stop at our Southern border. I read that a wave killed or damaged between 80 and 100% of winter produce in Mexico at a time when that nation call ill afford it.

Yesterday a friend arrived with a couple of his brothers, residents of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. They paint a grim picture. He says most Januarys are festive with migrant workers home for the winter lavishing money on the local economy. Not this year.

Food prices are as high, if not higher than here in the US and the people have little money with which to buy it. Other essentials like clothing are also prohibitively expensive for most citizens. Unmentionable predatory groups have extended their talons, soliciting cuotas or taxes on just about all businesses, legal and illegal. Those that refuse to pay with money pay with blood instead.

The man from San Luis asked how much a Billy goat we have is worth. I told him they’re high, somewhere around $200. He said the same goat would sell for $500 where he lives. Who in hell has $500 to spend on a goat? Especially in Mexico.

Those that say what’s going on in Mexico is just about the passage of drugs are full of shit. Mafia like organizations are charging tribute on all facets of business in Mexico, aside perhaps from oil, but even that industry has been affected.

The truth is, Mexico bought into the notion of globalization, the idea that they too could live like we do here in the US. They destroyed their own local methods of production and supply, selling out instead to multinational corporations that don’t give one tinker's damn about the welfare of Mexican citizens. Now the country starves.

A new generation of young men have no future. They’re pissed off; they have nothing to lose. It’s not just Mexico. Tunisia. Egypt. Ireland. Right here in the US of A.

It's worldwide.

The Millennial generation is coming of age in a time of global crisis. They have no direction, no solutions, only anger, strength and unity. They are going to kick ass and take names. When they win, things will only get worse.

Whether you believe it or not.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Zerohedge

Zerohedge has become the go-to spot for the latest in real financial news, in my opinion.

Check it out.