GULF SPILL MUCH WORSE THAN WE'VE BEEN TOLD...

     Corporate inaction and incompetence helped thrust the Macondo blowout into an environmental disaster, and energy investment banker Matthew Simmons will be the first one to say so; in fact, he was among the first to say so, and by his own words, took a roasting for it.  Read the longer article in full at:  http://knox.villagesoup.com/news/story/matt-simmons-tells-a-real-ugly-story/338589
     Simmons believes the image of the oil spewing from the blowout preventer displayed on news sites around the world fails to illustrate the reality of the situation. He maintains that a vast lake of oil seeping from the ocean floor and the well head lies approximately six miles from the site where BP says it is trying to cap the oil flow — "flowing like lava and now probably the size of two Washington states," said Simmons. That is the source of what is polluting the gulf, spreading "rainbows of death that stretch for miles in every direction," a description of the oil paths narrated in a video produced by the conservation aviation group South Wings.
     The world is not seeing that well head, from which the heavy crude is gushing. The drilling rig is only partially attached to that well head, maintains Simmons, via a damaged riser — a long pipe (see image 5 in the gallery for an illustration of the mechanics). BP is focusing on capping the end of that riser, which is minimally connected to the well. Imagine a hose that is 30 percent connected to the faucet. The faucet is leaking more water than is entering the hose, while at the other end of the hose, much activity is placed on stopping the hose flow.
     He points to the color of the oil: Louisiana light is a high grade of crude oil typically obtained along the immediate shelf; but what is washing up with the waves is a heavy, orange substance that suggest to Simmons an origin deep below the gulf floor. He fears what gases are also coming up with it, methane and benzene lifting onto ocean breezes.
     Simmons calculates up to 120,000 barrels a day are seeping up into the Gulf, while the U.S. Geological Survey estimates 35,000 to 60,000 barrel per day. He calls the oozing oil the "crime scene," outlining its potential for smothering life in 40 percent of the gulf. In addition to environmental destruction, he talks of the potential for massive human injury, should hurricanes stir the gulf waters and release even more toxic gases from the underwater accruing oil.
     It's a scenario compounded by the prospect of power plants and refineries becoming incapacitated, their systems contaminated by oily water, causing mass mechanical failure. How will people escape noxious clouds if they can't rely on power to get them out, said Simmons.

HOME CANNING POTATOES... on the cheap

     If you got here via the doomer's forum at LATOC, you already know there's a subset / sub list there on home canning.  If you just stumbled into this site, you might want to check LATOC out -- and, if you have ANY interest in a financial hedge against 'inflation' -- food prices will keep going up -- read my first post here (June 1, 2010) on 'survival' -- and stocking in a three to six month food supply.
     Here's what I did today ~!  Would you rather pay $1.69 per can (Del Monte, store brand $ .99) for a can of potatoes or twenty-two cents ($ .22). The latter is MY choice. Recently I bought 10 lbs. of Irish potatoes for $1.99 -- it takes a good 5 lbs. for 9 pints (what my canner holds) -- more if bad spots.

     IF you do this, tho, ask the produce guy if potatoes are THIS YEAR'S harvest or on sale because they want to empty out cold storage. I fear my "sale" potatoes were the latter item. Lots of rough spots. Just cut those out and go at it. Figure I could have paid $l5.40 vs. my $1.99 and still had six potatoes left over to eat NOW (I pack my pint jars TIGHTLY). Trimmings / bad spots go into compost (I use inserts out of old washing machines for this (holes good for ventilation and drainage when it rains) and make "lasagna" -- layers of kitchen compost, then spoilt hay and thin layer to dirt. Turn it every few layers w/ garden fork.
     I learned home canning at my great-granny's knees -- in an old farm house with NO running water inside -- she did quarts -- i prefer pints (smaller family). These potatoes, along with carrots which i'll buy at the store and can up later, and cabbage will go into soups this winter.
     Remember when mayo came in real glass pint jars? Those CAN be used safely. Once you have your jars and a good canner, all you'll ever need more of are the lids -- and those CAN be kept for a decade -- they'll 'glom' together but put them into warm water, the rubber seals will loosen and you can separate them without affecting the sealing part.
     Next week it's mesquite bean jelly and mid-August, prickly pear jelly -- i will NOT eat that grape jelly crud from the dollar store, even at $1.00 per jar,  with high fructose corn syrup in it -- back to making our own ~!

THE NATIVES ARE GETTIN' RESTLESS ~!

Governors Of 35 States Have (SUPPOSEDLY) Filed Suit Against the Federal Government.

     I thought this was worth your consideration, attention and interest! A little different perspective on an idea that has been circulated for some months now. . . We need a Constitutional Convention!
     Governors of 35 states have purportedly (not verified by this writer) already filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (76% of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
     This is REALLY important!  This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on. An idea whose time has come .  For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress.
     Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment), while ordinary citizens must live under those laws.
     The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We should not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come.
     If each reader person contacts a minimum of twenty people on their Address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise and pass this on to them. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.
     Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

COLLAPSE -- here sooner or here later ???

If you've not been following Michael Ruppert's work (notes from the wilderness, now http://www.collapse.net/) I strongly suggest getting acquainted with his work and predictions.  Perhaps scarey, but VERY sound research (IMHO) and at least worth thinking about.

You can catch 8 parts of interview with him at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsju8-q-TT8&feature=related, along with several other clips featured there.  Better still, read his books and/or watch the movie, "Collapse" on DVD, also available at Amazon.com.

He talks about there being three types of people on the Titanic when it hit the 'berg:  a)  those in total denial of emminent danger (after all, the ship was "un" sinkable), b) those who knew how to take steps to avoid disaster, i.e. "build lifeboats" and c) those who needed direction as to what to do.

Same for society today -- by my math calculations (which are NOT that good), assume we have 300 million people in the USA -- only around 8-8,500 follow the doomers threads at LATOC -- that must mean each one of us who is wide awake and THINKING is around l:35,000 or so.  I don't like those odds (for being informed) -- prolly better odds in Vegas.

One last discouraging word:  it was on the teevee news today that Texas ranks # 40 in UNeducated, semi-literate (i give credit for literacy if you can write your name) population.  Arkansas ranks #50.  This was data from some University-type research group in re: advanced degrees (or even Associates degrees).

You're "in" or you're OUT ~!

     Well, it tells you something when I've resorted to posting funnies here...  but then it IS MY blogspot~!  Just too much going on to post / paste the really "serious" stuff that I'm prone to -- but shally return.  What with all the rain we're had here in the desert, I've had to crank up the lawn mower MANY times of late, AND do battle royal with the tumbleweeds -- but I'm winning. 
     Then there's the watering (of container garden), canning to do, and prep work for mesquite bean jelly~!  And more reading to be done when I'm too pooped (or sunburned) to work outside any longer.  Just got used copy of "The End of Oil" to plow through.  This was printed in 2005, so NOT the most recent, but still a VERY good overview.  PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE -- so says Pauline Revere here~!  (my new pen name).
TO PEE OR NOT TO PEE.

     Like most folks in this country, I have a job.  I work, they pay me.  I pay my taxes & the government
distributes my taxes as it sees fit.  In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random
urine test (with which I have no problem).
     What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. So, here is my question:  Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check?
     Because I have to pass one to earn it for them?   Please understand, I have no problem with helping people et back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sit on their BUTT
doing drugs while I work.
     Can you imagine how much money each state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?  I guess we could call the program "URINE OR YOU'RE OUT"!
--  author unknown  (my comment:  maybe it's a good idea for ALL politicans to have to pass these tests, too)

ANY INTELLIGENCE IN THE AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE ESTABLISHMENT?

     I find it questionable just how "intelligent" American intelligence is, in light of the following:  "An explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post today (7/19/10) begins, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." Among the findings: An estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances.
     More than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in 10,000 locations.
     We speak with one of the co-authors of the series, Bill Arkin.
     AMY GOODMAN: "Top Secret America." That’s the title of an explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post this morning that’s already creating a firestorm on Capitol Hill. It starts, quote, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
     Some of the findings of the two-year investigation include more than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. An estimated 854,000 people—nearly one-and-a-half times as many as live in Washington, DC—hold top-secret security clearances. Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. (emphasis added)
     The series by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Bill Arkin includes an online searchable database and locator map. PBS Frontline is producing an hour-long documentary on the investigation that will run in October.  We’re giving you information on 1,931 corporations, on 1,271 government ntities across forty-five different departments and agencies. I mean, this is an enormous amount of information. And Secretary Gates himself said to us in an interview that he can’t even get this type of information about his own office and who contracts all of the contractors within his own office. 
     So much for "transparency" since some of the powers that be did NOT want this printed.  For the rest of this article, see:  'Top Secret America' Washington Post Investigation Reveals Massive, Unmanageable, Outsourced US Intelligence System http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/19/top_secret_america__washington_post
Published on Monday, July 19, 2010 by Democracy Now!

SO MUCH HOPE.... SO MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT ~!

I made myself a vow -- to be as positive as possible, while not sticking my head in the Imperial Sandhills (12 miles from here) and eschewing "reality" -- altho "reality" really IS subjective and seems to fluctuate from hour to hour (does that mean I'm bipolar???  probably).  But with all the delving into "peak oil" I'm doing, and especially surfin' ALL OVER message boards at doomers.us (a subset of LATOC - http://www.lifeafterthecrash.com/ stuff), I'M DEPRESSED.  So not deleting this one, but posting:
The Fall of Obama -- maybe that should be "The Failure of Obama" ??http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07162010.html
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN July 16 - 18, 2010
     The man who seized the White House by fomenting a mood of irrational expectation is now facing the bitter price exacted by reality. The reality is that there can be no “good” American president. It’s an impossible hand to play. Obama is close to being finished.
     The nation’s first black president promised change at the precise moment when no single man, even if endowed with the communicative powers of Franklin Roosevelt, the politic mastery of Lyndon Johnson, the brazen agility of Bill Clinton, could turn the tide that has been carrying America to disaster for 30 years.
     (But he snooked me -- I believed his "hope for the future" deal -- oops, that's the line from my favorite soap opera -- and voted for him ~!)
     This summer many Americans are frightened. Over 100,000 of them file for bankruptcy every month. Three million homeowners face foreclosure this year. Add them to the 2.8 million who were foreclosed in 2009, Obama’s first year in office. Nearly seven million have been without jobs in the last year for six months or longer. By the time you tot up the people who have given up looking for work and the people on part-time, the total is heading toward 20 million.
     Fearful people are irrational. So are racists. Obama is the target of insane charges. A hefty percentage of Americans believe that he is a socialist – a charge as ludicrous as accusing the Archbishop of Canterbury of being a closet Druid. Obama reveres the capitalist system. He admires the apex predators of Wall Street who showered his campaign treasury with millions of dollars. The frightful catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico stemmed directly from the green light he and his Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, gave to BP.
     It is not Obama’s fault that for 30 years America’s policy – under Reagan, both Bushes and Bill Clinton – has been to export jobs permanently to the Third World. The jobs that Americans now desperately seek are no longer here, in the homeland, and never will be. They’re in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia.
     No stimulus program, giving money to cement contractors to fix potholes along the federal interstate highway system, is going to bring those jobs back. Highly trained tool and die workers, the aristocrats of the
manufacturing sector, are flipping hamburgers – at best – for $7.50 an hour because U.S. corporations sent their jobs to Guangzhou, with the approval of politicians flush with the money of the “free trade” lobby.
     It is not Obama’s fault that across 30 years more and more money has floated up to the apex of the social pyramid till America is heading back to where it was in the 1880s, a nation of tramps and millionaires. It’s not his fault that every tax break, every regulation, every judicial decision tilts toward business and the rich.  
     That was the neoliberal America conjured into malign vitality back in the mid 1970s.  But it is Obama’s fault that he did not understand this, that always, from the getgo, he flattered Americans with paeans to their greatness, without adequate warning of the political and corporate corruption destroying America and the resistance he would face if he really fought against the prevailing arrangements that were destroying America.     
     He offered them a free and easy pass to a better future, and now they see that the promise was empty.  It’s Obama’s fault, too, that, as a communicator, he cannot rally and inspire the nation from its fears. From his earliest years he has schooled himself not to be excitable, not to be an angry black man who would be alarming to his white friends at Harvard and his later corporate patrons.  Self-control was his passport to the guardians of the system, who were desperate to find a symbolic leader to restore America’s credibility in
the world after the disasters of the Bush era. He is too cool.
     So, now Americans in increasing numbers have lost confidence in him. For the first time in the polls negative assessments outnumber the positive. He no longer commands trust. His support is drifting down to 40 per cent. The straddle that allowed him to flatter corporate chieftains at the same time  as blue-collar workers now seems like the most vapid opportunism. The casual campaign pledge to wipe out al-Quaida in Afghanistan is now being cashed out in a disastrous campaign viewed with dismay by a majority of
Americans. 
     The polls portend disaster. It now looks as though the Republicans may well recapture not only the House but, conceivably, the Senate as well. The public mood is so contrarian that, even though polls show that voters think the Democrats may well have better solutions on the economy than Republicans, they will vote against incumbent Democrats in the midterm elections next fall. They just want to throw the bums out.
     Obama has sought out Bill Clinton to advise him in this desperate hour. If Clinton is frank, he will remind Obama that his own hopes for a progressive first term were destroyed by the failure of his health reform in the spring of 1993. By August of that year, he was importing a Republican, David Gergen, to run the White House. Obama had his window of opportunity last year, when he could have made jobs and financial reform his prime objectives. That’s what Americans hoped for. Mesmerized by economic advisers who were creatures of the banks, he instead plunged into the Sargasso Sea of “health reform,” wasted the better part of a year, and ended up with something that pleases no one. 
     What can save Obama now? It’s hard even to identify a straw he can grasp at. (You can bet it won't have a THING to do with "Peak Oil" and that IS the 900 lbs. gorilla in the Oval Office)  It’s awfully early in the game to say it, but, as Marlene Dietrich said to Orson Welles in Touch of Evil, “your future is all used up.”

Peak Oil, climate change, and economic hard times are here ~!!

     Here's another site / blog you just GOTTA READ ~!  Two of them really... by the same lady.  I took the liberty of lifting a few of her words below, because they are MUCH better stated than I can do, on the fly: 
See:  http://www.feistylife.com/  She a psychologist and aware of peak oil and the consequences of same on our mental states. 
     "It takes a special individual to step away from their culture’s commonly accepted view of the future. You’ve stepped away from the pack and slipped down into the rabbit hole…  And it is (or can or will take)taking an emotional toll. 
     “Kathy is a psychologist who actually understands Peak Oil. If you are trying to deal with Peak Oil and all its implications (whether it is partners who don’t agree, family, or friends who think you’ve gone off the deep end) and feel that it’s all getting too much, you would be hard pressed to find someone more qualified and empathic than Kathy to lend you a helping hand if you need it… but if you have the opportunity to either meet with Kathy, hear her speak, or phone/email her to help you make sense of what you are going through, she will be able to help you.”I’ve worked with people struggling with these sorts of questions:
•How have other people learned to cope with this realization that things won’t be improving in the foreseeable future? How can I?
•How do I learn to carry on with my life without falling into depression and despair?
•How long does it take people to ‘get back to normal’ and is that even possible or desirable?
•How can I manage the feelings of hopelessness, social isolation, or ridicule from friends and family?
•What do I tell my kids and what if my wife or husband is not on board? Will it kill my marriage or make it stronger? Should I stay or should I go?
•The values and attitudes I now hold have made me a stranger in my own extended family and among my group of friends. But I thought we need a strong community?! Should I forget talking about what I know in order to bond with them? If I do that, how will things change for the better?
•I’ve joined a sustainability group. But there are squabbles and power struggles, and I have become disillusioned. How can I take the lead to change it around?
     "I’ve explored the unique social and emotional challenges we’ll all face in a post-petroleum age. I will help navigate you through the maze of destructive emotional reactions and reach for a more proactive and productive state of mind. We’re extremely relieved to know that others are going through the same emotional roller coaster, or perhaps comforted by the knowledge that this roller coaster is, instead, a train or a boat that bring us to an entirely different sense of ourselves, our world, and our responsible place in it.
     I found "Dr. Peak Shrink" initially at:  http://www.peakoilblues.org/blog/.  You can read all about her professional credentials and offering at the link above.

PEAK OIL IS COMING ~!

     The U.S. economy IS in decline and any "rebounds" are nothing more than smoke and mirrors.  Much more on this to come.
     The U.S. lifestyle and "standard of living" we take for granted are also in decline -- there are "doomers" and "doomer damners", but whether the ride down is slow or swift, it IS coming -- hopefully NOT in sheer freefall.
     BUT, before I dive deeply and drill down on what "peak oil" protends (with both some pro- and many con sites -- that would be "con" of maintaining the status quo), here's a wee bit of humor for your weekend reading (both my readers~!).  (the laffs only come at the end when you THINK about this):
 Wal-Mart vs. the (elected) Morons, i.e. our "leaders'
  The heirs to Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Each of the five heirs was worth at least $15 BILLION in 2008. Probably more than $20 BILLION by now.

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears+ Costco + K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.
8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.
11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart (I'm an exception in SOOooo many ways -- for starters, 60% of the people my age don't know how to use a computer or "google" anything -- and I live a good 40 miles, one way, to the nearest wally world and I LIKE it that way)
     Lest you may think that the writer of these stats is complaining, but s/he was really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.
     This should be read and understood by all Americans Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!!
MEMO: To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature:
     It is now official you are ALL corrupt morons:
a. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
b. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
     You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

(here's the laughter part, or at least a cynical smirk):  MAYBE WE OUGHT TO KICK YOUR EGG-HEAD BUDDY BUMS OUT OF OFFICE AND HIRE WAL MART TO RUN THE GOVERNMENT ???  WAL MART SEEMS TO KNOW HOW TO RUN A BUSINESS.......WHY DON'T YOU GUYS JUST ADMIT IT'S WAY BEYOND YOUR PAY GRADE, AND QUIT?
     Folks, keep this circulating. It is very well stated. Maybe it will end up in the e-mails of some of our "duly elected' (they never read anything) and but MAYBE their staff will clue them in on how Americans feel.

IF you don't believe me, maybe...

Maybe you'll believe the info provided by http://guymcpherson.com/2010/04/surveying-the-field-and-charting-a-course/

Dr. McPherson, professor emeritus at Univ. of Az., is a prolific writer, researcher and all around SMART guy -- check him out online and follow these (from his site):
     "When I open my browser to start the day, several tabs reveal themselves. Some of these websites give the facts, as accurately as they can be determined: Bloomberg energy prices, American stock markets, and the U.S. national debt clock. Others are information clearing houses with occasional original essays, notably including the sites of Matt Savinar, Mike Ruppert, Rice Farmer, and Chris Martenson, along with Energy Bulletin, Counter Currents, and The Oil Drum. Others provide synthesis and analysis: Business Insider, Baseline Scenario, Dmitry Orlov’s blog, Speak Truth to Power, Economic Collapse Blog, The Automatic Earth, and Zero Hedge. Finally, one tells me what people are thinking out there in the culture of make believe: MSNBC. Needless to say, that’s the scary one.
     Go to the link above for his page with direct links to the sites in bold face here.