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The Real State Of The Union Is Bleak
TBI - Kunstler.com ^ | 2-12-2013 | James Kunster

Posted on 02/12/2013 10:16:00 AM PST by blam

The Real State Of The Union Is Bleak

James Kunstler, Kunstler.com
February 12, 2013, 8:56 AM

The fog of chatter about Federal Reserve money-printing shenanigans, currency wars, fiscal intransigence, exchange rates, and alphabetized rescue operations conceals the central reality of the historical moment: that all industrial economies now face epic contraction, even rip-roaring China in its absurd and spectacular bid to become the latest drive-in utopia.

The so-called advanced nations of the world are all sliding toward something less than they wish to be, and the so-called developing nations will backslide further into poverty and anarchy where development will never happen. The implacable contraction underway is the simple result of growing scarcity of cheap oil, the master resource.

Thus, in a world where fantasy has replaced analysis, the propaganda channels brim with false news of America's coming "energy independence" and the rebirth of domestic manufacturing, the coming electric car fleet, and space tourism.

There is also chatter among the paranoid that an imagined elite has deliberately engineered American collapse for fun and profit, with sideshows about the Department of Homeland Security promoting social upheaval in order to make a show of putting it down. This is all b.s. concealing the futile machinations of people so unfortunate as to hold political office in an unraveling they can't control. Where control is no longer possible, paranoid fantasies fill the vacuum of wishing for control.

One thing you can be sure of: the current sociopolitical weather will change. A front will blow through and sweep the fog away. So many circles of hazard are spinning around events that some fast-turning object will come off its axis and start smashing all the fantasies.

When that happens, it will be every community for itself, and where there are no real communities -- for instance,

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 113th; bho44; bhoeconomy; bhosotu; economy; recession; recovery; sou
"Not since the Civil War (1861 - 65) has anything bad of this scale happened within the United States itself and the public is unprepared despite our total immersion in the on-screen ersatz heroics of avatars such as Dwayne Johnson. The terrible convulsion of the 1860s was preceded by a political time much like ours is now, with figures (calling them leaders is inaccurate) of no conviction backpedaling furiously toward strife."


1 posted on 02/12/2013 10:16:10 AM PST by blam
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To: blam
The Real State Of The Union Is Bleak

I'd say so. Barry and Michelle need an overflow section for their "victims" seating area.

2 posted on 02/12/2013 10:20:37 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Now Playing. Obama II - The Revenge of My Father.)
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To: blam

I’m still reading, but this line caught my eye: “This is all b.s. concealing the futile machinations of people so unfortunate as to hold political office in an unraveling they can’t control.”

I said in 2008 that the R’s may not want their guy to win because whoever wins will get blamed for the inevitable. It’s why, though I think Obama is an amateur at best and everything the movie 2016 implies, there is nothing he can do, really, so why not play golf and enjoy the good life while you can? No, I don’t really cut him that much slack, but you get my drift. i.e. I agree with the remark above.


3 posted on 02/12/2013 10:29:12 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: blam

Crap. I could have written that article, though it would not have been nearly as well said or interesting. It’s like the guy picked my brain and wrote about what he found, right down to the very last sentence.

BTW, we have a pretty serious chicken and egg thing going on at the bunker. We’ll be planting the garden soon.


4 posted on 02/12/2013 10:37:41 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: cuban leaf
" Crap. I could have written that article, though it would not have been nearly as well said or interesting. It’s like the guy picked my brain and wrote about what he found, right down to the very last sentence. "

Ditto.

We're very insync.

I have a friend and a neighbor just down the road who got into the chicken & egg thing too.(He thinks a collapse is coming) He produces organic, open-range eggs...

I buy eggs from him that I don't even need at $2.00 a dozen just to encourage him and keep this source of food availabe. I boil the excess eggs I buy and feed them to my dogs.

5 posted on 02/12/2013 12:12:52 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

We have a few goats too, but are looking to get pigmy goats. I may have the ones we have converted to hamburger. Most of my neighbors have over 15 head of cattle. I’m splitting one with one of my neighbors.

Honestly, the one thing I’m really trying to finalize is solar power. Interestingly, I’m in a “family band” where I’m the only non-family member. Everything they eat comes off their property. They gave me a bag of homemade mozzerella that was being kneaded when I arrived. When the father does work, he specializes in - get this - solar power installations. ;-)


6 posted on 02/12/2013 12:20:58 PM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: cuban leaf
I have a friend who bought some of these when they were $149.00 per kit.
7 posted on 02/12/2013 12:41:27 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

I’m thinking somewhere around $1.50 per watt. You can find stuff cheaper on eBay, but I don’t know if I trust ‘em. I need to ask my friend where to get the best for the cheapest price.


8 posted on 02/12/2013 12:50:53 PM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: blam
A slow recovey and the Fed's response
9 posted on 02/12/2013 2:09:09 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

Good post. True on oil, IMO. But on the “chatter,” from what I’ve read on the Net and about television, lately, many with resources have been sponsoring doomsday stuff to fire up the panic and hysteria. And quite a few of the more radical government folks have also been stoking the craziness with declarations of plans about various kinds of control. Haven’t actually watched television for about 10 years except for an occasional video on the Web. The “paranoid” “chatter” appears to be popular with people from all kinds of occupations and classes—especially too many in leadership positions.


10 posted on 02/12/2013 2:23:11 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: blam
I boil the excess eggs I buy and feed them to my dogs.

Hope your dogs stay outside for a spell after eating them. Just sayin'. :)

11 posted on 02/13/2013 11:30:24 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Hope and Change has become Attack and Obfuscate.)
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To: familyop

I wonder if this is enough to offset the impact of obamacare.


12 posted on 02/13/2013 11:30:36 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: cuban leaf
"I wonder if this is enough to offset the impact of obamacare."

If what, in particular, is enough to do so?


13 posted on 02/13/2013 4:05:35 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: blam

The Fedgov is just like the family in 2007 riding a wave of false prosperity based on maxxed out credit cards and helocs on a house with negative equity.

Instead of leased luxury SUVs and a McMansion, they have purchased election buying entitlements with the credit card.


14 posted on 02/13/2013 4:11:02 PM PST by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: gov_bean_ counter
"Hope your dogs stay outside for a spell after eating them. Just sayin'. :) "

My dogs are outside dogs exclusively.

I've worked in and around chip-making clean rooms for 30 years and couldn't imagine having a (another) shedding animal in the house. (The only animal allowed inside is me, ahem)

15 posted on 02/13/2013 4:27:25 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

Well then, stay up wind after after you feed them the eggs. :)


16 posted on 02/13/2013 5:29:20 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Hope and Change has become Attack and Obfuscate.)
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To: gov_bean_ counter

WILCO.


17 posted on 02/13/2013 5:35:05 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
Nice home page, by the way.

Love dogs, but they are a "5" on the RAST test, so we don't have any.

18 posted on 02/13/2013 5:44:50 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Hope and Change has become Attack and Obfuscate.)
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