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Archive for the 'Old Blog' Category
Kunstler: Not Your Grandma’s Depression
This isn’t so funny anymore. Intimations of a July banking collapse rumbled though the Internet this weekend while mainstream news orgs like The New York Times and CNN pulled their puds over swift boats and Amy Winehouse’s performance technique. Something is happening, and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones…? to quote the master.
What’s happening is that American society is sliding into a greater depression than the one Grandma lived through. On the technical side, there has been unending controversy as to whether we’re gripped by inflation or deflation. It’s certainly deceptive. Food and gasoline prices are rising faster than the rivers of Iowa. But the prices of assets, like houses, stocks, jet-skis, GMC Yukons and pre-owned Hummel figurines are cratering as America turns into Yard Sale Nation.
We’re a very different country than we were in 1932. In that earlier crisis of capital, few people had any money but our society still possessed fantastic resources. We had plenty of everything that our land could provide: a treasure trove of mineral ores and the equipment to refine it all, a wealth of oil and gas still in the ground, and all the rigs needed to get at it, manpower galore (and of a highly disciplined, regimented kind), with fine-tuned factories waiting for orders. We had a railroad system that was the envy of the world and millions of family farms (even despite the dust bowl) owned by people who retained age-old skills not yet degraded by agribusiness. We had fully-functional cities with operating waterfronts and ten thousand small towns with local economies, local newspapers, and local culture.
We had a crisis of capital in the 1930s for reasons that are still debated today. My own guess is a combination of a bad debt workout that sucked "money" into a black hole (since money is loaned into existence, but vanishes if the loans are not systematically paid back) plus a gross saturation of markets, meaning that every American who had wanted to buy a car or an electric toaster had done so and there was no one left to sell to. (The first round of globalism — 1870 – 1914 — had shut down after the fiasco of World War One.)
Our debt problems today are of a magnitude so extreme that astronomers would be hard pressed to calculate them. By any rational measure our society is comprehensively bankrupt. From the federal treasury down to the suburban cul-de-sacs so much loaned money is either not being paid back, or is at risk of never being paid back, that the suckage of presumed wealth has passed through an event horizon out of the known universe into some other realm of space-time, never to be seen again in this realm. This would seem to be the very essence of monetary deflation — money defaulted out-of-existence.
This condition is partly disguised by both the loss of credibility of US currency and real-world scarcities of oil and food, but the upshot will be something at least twice as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s: people with no money in a land with no resources (with manpower that has no discipline), hardly any family farms left, cities that are basket-cases of bottomless need, comatose small towns stripped of their assets and social capital, an aviation industry on the verge of death, and a railroad system that is the laughingstock of the world. Not to mention the mind-boggling liabilities of suburbia and the motoring infrastructure that services it
The banks have been doing their death dance for an entire year now, pretending that their problems are those of mere "liquidity" (i.e. cash-on-hand) rather than insolvency (no cash either on hand or in the vault and nothing else to sell to raise cash except worthless "creative" securities that nobody would ever buy). But the destruction of money (resulting from loans not paid back) is now so intense that the game of pretend has reached its terminal point. The question for the moment is exactly who and what will be crushed as these institutions roll over and die.
Complicating matters is a global oil predicament that is really not hard to understand, but which the organs of news and opinion have obdurately failed to explicate for an anxious public. Call it Peak Oil. There are only a few elements of it you need to know. 1.) that demand has now permanently outstripped supply; 2.) that new discoveries are too meager to offset consumption; 3.) That under under the circumstances, the systems we rely on for daily life are crumbling. I’ve called this situation The Long Emergency.
Our chances of mitigating this, and of continuing our current way-of-life is about zero. I’ve tried to promote the idea that rather than waste remaining resources in the futile attempt to sustain the unsustainable (i.e. come up with "solutions" to keep suburbia running), that we should begin immediately making other arrangements for daily life — mainly by downscaling and re-scaling everything from farming to commerce to the way we inhabit the landscape — but my suggestions have proven unpopular even among the "environmental" elites, who are too busy being entranced by new-and-groovy ways to keep all the cars running.
So where we are at now is the equivalent of standing in the slop by the ocean shore under a gathering hundred-foot-high wave that is about to come crashing down on our heads. Since I sure don’t know everything, I can’t say how this will all play out in the months ahead, especially with the presidential election coming at the exact moment that voters will be turning on their furnaces for the cold and dark winter beyond. I would venture to say that so far our society as a whole has done a piss-poor job of comprehending the situation. But there is still the possibility, with four months of politicking left, that the nature of our predicament can be articulated in a way that few can fail to understand, the way Mr, Lincoln articulated the terms of the Civil War on the eve of its fateful outbreak.
title=”Get Miro – The Free Open-Source Video Platform.”>
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I’ve been following these cats since they launched they launched DTV, and later Democracy Player. They are competing with some big boys who want to control the way you watch TV, but this is the only decent open source, cross platform (MAC,PC,LINUX) that plays every video format out there, Bittorrent RSS (for those who don’t want to pay for fuckin cable) video player with loads of good shit like Al Jazeera, Link TV, the Real News, Democracy Now!, etc. etc.
If you haven’t read Klein’s “No Logo” do. Can’t wait to get my hands on the new one.
I finally found a new clip worthy of our front page. This dope and timely track comes from TIMZ, an Iraqi American rapper from San Diego. Go to our front page for a gorgeous MPEG 4 version that’ll work in your iPod or PSP.
subscribe via Democracy Player or iTunes
I am still waiting from a call from Jim Webb. I believe Webb owes me for his victory big time. “Why” you would ask me “does Jim Webb owe you?” Simple math really. The video I created to lampoon his bigoted opponent George Allen got over 16,000 views by election day and Webb beat Macacawitz by 7,000+ votes. I figure a 50+% success rate is not too shabby. So Webb time to pay up.
But seriously, more than a phone call, what I really want is his ear. No I am not a cannibal, even though I love to nibble on my monkey’s ear. But I could give him some radical advice that would make Jim really popular with a lot of folks. Yeah, abolishing capitalism would be nice, but realistically he would not even hear that. So how about… Impeach Bush!
Well as we heard on Tuesday, Pelosi (soon to be top Dem in da Hizsouse) said hell no. Now, what did Howard Dean tell John Stewart about this impeachment biz? Jim, come on, you gotta do something about the cowards in your team and encourage the Dems to acquire their pound of flesh. Impeach for kirssakes! You have a known criminal running the show, you got plenty of evidence, you got the votes, what the fuck are y’all waiting for?
Now the Dem leadership has been blowing a lot of smoke up our asses when it comes to Iraq. After all, this election was a referendum on Iraq. Wasn’t it? And the referendum says “bring the boyz back to the hood”. So here’s an idea that would make you very popular, specially with the friends and relatives of all the peeps sticking their necks out in AeeRack. People vote for something, and once you are elected you give it to them. But no, Jim, your colleagues are already using Bush’s language.
OK, ok, so you wouldn’t want to do anything too controversial in your first year as a Senator. How about a gesture of good will. In January when the Dems take power of the senate, you could propose to ALL senators a surprise party for Dick Cheney. His Birthday is on January 30th. And as we all know the fucker ain’t getting any younger, so this would be a gesture of good will. Here’s what you do. You get a thumping sounds system and mic all the senators and set the volume to full blast. Get some strobe lights and firecrackers and hide under your desks in the chamber. When Dick walks in to preside, at the count of 3 (you can have the secret service warn you over walkie) well you know what to do.
As far as Rummie goes, well, I would be lying if I told you I didn’t scream in joy at the top of my lungs. But don’t get too excited, Robert Gates is quite a character.
That’s all for now. I think I am going to ween myself of Washington politics and REALLY start looking as to how to start a revolution. Any ideas?
Yeah, you can call me a one trick pony, but this made way too much sense at the time. If you don’t know who George “Macaca” Allen is and why he’s defeat is so important take a looksy at this little politc… er viral video I just made. No, I usually don’t meddle in electoral politics, but there’s people I love in Virginia and I used to live there. If you know folks in Virginia, please pass this along.
On a sad note. Brad Will, a journalist I met in New York was shot dead by ‘unknown’ shooters in Oaxaca, Mexico. He was covering a teachers strike there, that has been going on all summer. He came by my place before he left to pick up a DVD of photos of Lebanon my roommate Andy Stern had taken. We chatted about the situation in Mexico and why it was so important he be there covering it. I don’t know, it just feels strange just having talked to a person and then they are not there anymore. I didn’t know him well, but loosing a dedicated fighter is a loss to us all. My condolences to his family and friends.
On a happy note I am back in Canada with my monkey. I have to admit I already miss my peeps at Democracy Now! Last Saturday I went to see Amy Goodman speak at the Vancouver Public Library. It was a sold out appearance and about 100 people were turned away for lack of space. I went back stage to say hi, and everyone looked exhausted. When she finally came out, she was a different person. She received a standing ovation at the beginning and at the end. She spoke off the top of her head about a myriad of historic events, with exact dates and names for a solid 90 minutes. Everyone, including myself, hung on every word. Then I thought to my self, “I used to work with Amy Goodman, Wow”.
Yeah I know it sounds silly, but sometimes I lost perspective working in the tiny studio in Chinatown. Glad I could be a part of it even if it was for a short time.
That’s all for now. Have a safe weekend.
Hey Kids, if you live in the ATL here’s a few things happening.
Doctors Without Borders – A series of events and exhibits highlighting some of the bravest men and women in the planet.
Click here for more info – http://www.hushbox.com/html/dwb.html
Much Ado About Nothing – A fresh take on Shakespeare’s lively comedy about love in war times!
Go here for more info http://www.pushpushtheater.com/
Doctors Without Borders – A series of events and exhibits highlighting some of the bravest men and women in the planet.
Click here for more info – http://www.hushbox.com/html/dwb.html
Much Ado About Nothing – A fresh take on Shakespeare’s lively comedy about love in war times!
Go here for more info http://www.pushpushtheater.com/
If you live elsewhere, my boss lady is traveling all over W land promoting her new book ‘Static’ If you haven’t heard her speak, go to one of these events and be prepared to be blown away.
For a ‘Static’ event in a city near you go to http://tour.democracynow.org/
As usual, this is the point in which you can either delete this message or read on and get really pissed at me.
First of, I need to clarify something. ‘An inconvenient Truth’ is a good movie. But I caught a lot of shit from a few readers that thought I was being heavy handed in my criticism of Gore. Well I just gotta call bullshit when I smell it. So in order to not drag this out any longer, go see the movie, but watch where you step.
And talking about global warming…
Hurricane season is upon us again. The memory of hurricane Katrina and its devastating aftermath on the population of New Orleans is still fresh in my mind. After losing everything in a fire a few weeks before the levees broke, for the first time in my life I could relate to the TV images of a far away catastrophe. Prior to this, images of war and destruction did outrage me and drove me to action, but not in the same way as the events of last year. Losing your home to an event you have no control of is no small thing. But the one thing I can’t relate to, is how the residents of the Big Easy must feel knowing their catastrophe could have been prevented. Knowing that you are part of the richest, morst technologically advanced country in the history of humanity, and your house, street, neighborhood, entire city is allowed to drown. To add insult to injury, right now, almost exactly a year after Katrina, Hizbollah, a ‘terrorist’ organization acoording to the US Department of State, is rapidly mobilizing a massive rebuilding effort after the wrath of Israel’s U.S. made F16 fighter jets and cluster bombs. Many folks in New Orleans still don’t have homes. A lot of them are not even in Louisiana. Thousands of them may never return to their home. God Bless AmeriKKKA.
If you haven’t heard, Spike Lee has done a tremendous of job in his 4 part HBO doc ‘When the Levees Broke’. Thanks to the magic of Al Gore’s internet you don’t need HBO to watch it. I highly recommend everyone to check it, because when you need a reminder on how bankrupt our system is, this will do the trick. Just remember, when November comes and you vote out the Republicans, that our system will remain as ineffectual with the incoming Democrats. At least this is something we can count on.
Finally, with much regret I must inform you I am leaving Democracy Now! The old lady and I have decided to lay down roots, and Vancouver won over New York City. The decision is bitter sweet, because my experience with Amy Goodman and Co. has been invaluable. Gigs like these are few and far between and tight crews like Democracy Now’s are one in a million.
With that said, I will continue with my work with subMedia but not before making a brief visit to my old stomping grounds in Atlanta. I will be speaking at the Bioneers Conference on two occasions, and visiting with friends, so holla!
That’s all for now
much love
the_stimulator
So, summer is here with a vengeance and things are heating up all over the fuckin place.
Europe and the western US are experiencing record temperatures and even though summer in NYC has been mild, (until today) thousands of people are without power due to increased power usage. I am nervous every time I enter the subway for fears the power is going to cut out in the middle of a tunnel.
And unless you live under a rock you know how hot things are in the Middle East. My workload at Democracy Now! has increased dramatically due to all the fresh footage of destroyed Lebanese cities, Israeli aerial attack video (you know, the video that looks like 1980′s video games), westerners boarding cruise ships in order to escape the violence, and of course the dead.
Yup, everything seems pretty much hopeless. And just when you think things couldn’t get worst, I paid $10.75 for Al Gore to tell me how much MORE fucked things are.
I went to see ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ a few weeks back. I must admit I went with very low expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised by a well produced informative presentation on Global Warming.
BUT (insert paragraphs of hate)
Yes, you knew that was coming. The film fails in several ways so let me articulate.
First of all, is this a film about Global Warming or about our almost president? Gore uses this film to redeem himself and his family in several ways. One is his almost presidency. If he felt so strongly about how he got cheated, why didn’t he stay and fight? If only Mexico’s López Obrador had been around earlier to set an example. But to come out and talk about it now. Well Al, this is just sour grapes, and even though I didn’t vote for you, you let us all down. Just watch the opening scene in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11‘ when Gore shut down all the complaints coming from Florida. What a wuss.
But it does not stop there. Gore continues to pat himself in the back. After you watch the film, you might come out believing he came up with the term ‘Global Warming’ just like he invented ‘The Internet’. What Gore ‘Conveniently’ leaves out is that Occidental Oil funded his dad’s and his own political career. Oil, you ask? Isn’t that the substance that once refined and combusted in an automobile engine produces the gas most people (including Gore) blame for the before mentioned ‘Warming’. Now why leave that our worldly saviour? It’s time you come clean like solar power.
OK – let me hate some more on Gore’s film.
So you finish the film and you think to yourself how lucky you are because, since we are so fucked you just might get laid. Not so fast, your date says. Before the movie ends, Al lays out a whole bunch of solutions. IN THE CREDITS!! Apparently Gore felt that even though Global Warming is a looming global disaster, that will take more than a World War II era type effort in order to save our sorry butts, that spending 25% of the film talking about himself was ok. The other 74% explaining Global Warming and about 1% on solutions. Of that 1%, 99.9% of the solutions presented are market based solutions. I.e. Buy a hybrid car (he owns a Lexus hybrid, NICE!) buy energy efficient appliances, and the list goes on.
Wait a minute, isn’t the problem directly related to our voracious appetite for widgets and fast cars? Isn’t capitalism what got us here in the first place? This is the one issue that no one wants to talk about. We need a complete lifestyle change. It’s not about buying ourselves out of this mess, it’s about making some hard motherfuckin life changes, and for starters we need to throw out capitalism. I’m sorry if I sound like a damn commie, but there’s not nice way to say it. And for the record, I am not a commie.
But in the end Al and the so called progressive film studio that put out the film, Participant Pictures are capitalists at heart and ‘Truth’ is a profit driven endeavor. If it was truly an altrusitic act, the parties involved which include millionares such as Laura David (aka Seinfeld creator Larry David’s wife) ex-Ebay president Jeffrey Skoll and Gore himself, would give the film away as a public service. I mean, if enough people don’t see this film, we’re screwed, right?
Well, I decided to something I knew from the get go wouldn’t work, but I had to waste 30 minutes on something. It was either that or do my laundry so I decided to go commando for an extra day. I wrote Participant almost exactly what you read above without all the hate, curse words and sarcasm and they just passed the buck to Paramount, the distributor.
And by now you are sick of my negative ranting, so you better watch for yourself and decide. If you don’t want to pay $10.75, you can download it through the magic of Al’s own internet. But I highly recommend David Attenborough’s BBC special ‘Can we save planet Earth’ Part 1 and Part 2.
On the bright side of things, I am officially hired as a TV producer at Democracy Now! SUCKERS!! haha, just kidding. I am lucky to be accepted into such a team of smart, talented and committed individuals. TV Land, watch out!
have a great weekend
love//the_stimulator
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