“The Long Descent”: Coming Up Short On Reality? By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Monday, 10 November 2008

Throughout the Peak Oil and collapse of civilization milieu, much speculation abounds regarding the speed with which collapse might occur. Some theorists insist or imply that the descent will be rapid and dramatic while others argue for a more “slow burn” scenario, less dramatic and more stair-step-like in progression. The tone of proponents of acute collapse reverberates with urgency while the tone of authors who perceive collapse as occurring in a more protracted fashion is notable for its moderation and skepticism of the rapid descent theory.

Such is the perspective of John Michael Greer in The Long Descent: A User’s Guide To The End Of The Industrial Age (New Society, 2008). Greer provides an excellent read and argues astutely for his theory of catabolic collapse which he describes as “the declining arc of industrial civilization’s trajectory through time. Like the vanished civilizations of the past, ours will likely face a gradual decline, punctuated by sudden crises and periods of partial recovery. The fall of a civilization is like tumbling down a slope, not like falling off a cliff.” (32)

While Greer gives the intellect a robust workout, there is much in the Long Descent that must be rigorously questioned because of what is not addressed and because of the dangers I perceive are implicit in Greer’s resolute, and I believe short-sighted, argument.

First, Greer devotes merely a handful of sentences to the climate change phenomenon which starkly omits a conversation about the interplay of Peak Oil and climate chaos. He does mention the climate nightmare inherent in increased coal burning globally, but absent from a defense of the long descent theory is an analysis of the interplay of the two phenomena. In an excellent 2004 article “Global Climate Change and Peak Oil,” geologist and Peak Oil researcher, Dale Allen Pfeiffer explains among other things, “how will Peak Oil and the North American natural gas cliff affect global climate change.”

[…]

via Carolyn Baker – “THE LONG DESCENT”: COMING UP SHORT ON REALITY? By Carolyn Baker

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Industrial capitalism is a given and the natural world is secondary (Interview with Derrick Jensen)

Jared Diamond: Why societies collapse

Planet Eaters: Chain Reactions, Black Holes, Climate Change And Existentialist Philosophy

James Howard Kunstler: The Long Emergency (2005)

Mike Ruppert: Denial stops here (2005)

The End of Suburbia (must-see video; 2006)

Derrick Jensen & Radio Roxanne: Premise One Civilization is not and can never be sustainable

Peak Oil

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

Pfeiffer-Dale Allen

Pres-Elect Obama, No To Anti-Freedom War-Hawk Jane Harman!! + ‘Thought crime bill’ writer on short list

Dandelion Salad

by Linda Milazzo
http://www.opednews.com
Nov. 10, 2008

According to the local Los Angeles newspaper, The Daily Breeze, California Congresswoman, Jane Harman, a blue dog conservative democrat, is up for a high level intelligence position in the Obama administration. The positions being considered are CIA Director, Director of National Intelligence, and Secretary of Homeland Security. If this speculation becomes fact, and Harman is appointed overseer of the freedoms of the American people, the people’s freedoms are toast. Conservative Democrat Harman consistently legislates AGAINST participatory democracy and against personal freedom.

The most egregious example of Harman’s disregard for participatory democracy is HR 1955 – the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007” – a frightening bill she slipped in the House for passage just over a year ago. HR 1955 is so anti-dissent, so anti-freedom and so McCarthy-like in its establishment of citizen review Commissions that I’ve written on it twice – both times appealing to the public to stop passage of its Senate clone, S 1959, which luckily has not yet come up for vote. Unfortunately, Mrs. Harman was so covert when sneaking in “1955” that no citizens could lobby to stop it.

[…]

via OpEdNews » Pres-Elect Obama, NO TO ANTI-FREEDOM WAR-HAWK JANE HARMAN!!

h/t: Under the Rader

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‘Thought crime bill’ writer on Obama administration’s short list

by Maasanova
Under the Rader
Monday, November 10, 2008

Jane Harman (D – CA) is reportedly on President-Elect Barack Obama’s shortlist for a variety of positions in his upcoming administration including CIA director, Director of National Intelligence, and Secretary of Homeland Security.
The fact that Harman is begin considered is probably due to the fact that she joined a host of prominet Jews, including Middle East “negotiator” Dennis Ross, to assure Ohio’s Jewish voters that Obama would be a strong ally of Israel.  Harman is the hawkish “blue dog” Democrat who slipped the dreaded Violent Radicalisation and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (HR 1955) on a “suspension calendar for non-controversial bills,” making the innocuous bill pass effortlessly though the House.

[…]

via Under The Radar Media: ‘Thought crime bill’ writer on Obama adminitration’s short list

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Pointing the US Surveillance Apparatus at the American People by Tom Burghardt

Senate Moves Forward on Orwellian “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act”

Freedom of Speech and H.R. 1955 (videos)

Maxine & Ted – Don’t Call Us If You Call Us Terrorists! by Linda Milazzo

Video Discussion of H.R. 1955 Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act (link)

Kucinich on HR 1955 Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

US House passes Democrat-crafted “homegrown terrorism prevention” legislation by Naomi Spencer

The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act: A Tutorial in Orwellian Newspeak By Robert Weitzel

Homegrown Terrorism

Obama-Barack

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose + A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks

Dandelion Salad

By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg)
(Update2)

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

[…]

via Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

h/t: CLG

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A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
washingtonpost.com
Monday, November 10, 2008; Page A01

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

[…]

via A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks – washingtonpost.com

h/t: CLG

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Will the US default on its foreign debt? Interview with Michael Hudson

Who are the Architects of Economic Collapse? by Michel Chossudovsky

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

Mikhail Khazin: U.S. will soon face second “Great Depression”

Dandelion Salad

By Yevgeniy Chernyx
ICH
November 10, 2008 “KP.RU”

Renowned economist Khazin predicted U.S. financial crisis in 2000

Five years ago, I ran the cultural section at Komsomolskaya Pravda. Publishing houses used to send me their new releases now and again for review. One day, after digging through the latest shipment of such literature, I stumbled upon a book titled, “Sunset of the Dollar Empire and the End of the Pax Americana.”

I remember reading the title over to myself several times in disbelief. Way back when, Soviet Americanologists loved to debate the collapse of the U.S. financial empire. But this book was published in 2003.

I flipped through the pages, skimming over the text. The conclusions of the author — an economist named Mikhail Khazin — seemed convincing enough. So I gave the book to our economics columnist at KP Jenya Anisimov, who wrote a review and interviewed the author later at our editorial offices.

All these years, I kept Khazin in the back of my mind, and followed his career as he spoke at various conferences throughout Russia. He seemed certain the U.S. was teetering on the verge of an economic collapse, while other analysts were quick to refute his theory. Now, as his once unfathomable prognosis begins to come true, KP contacted Khazin for an interview.

Fired from the Kremlin!

KP: Mikhail Leonidovich, how did you end up predicting the current financial crisis?

[…]

via Mikhail Khazin: U.S. will soon face second “Great Depression”       : Information Clearing House – ICH

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Will the US default on its foreign debt? Interview with Michael Hudson

Who are the Architects of Economic Collapse? by Michel Chossudovsky

End The FED: November 22, 2008

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

Dandelion Salad

By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
ICH
November 10, 2008
New York Times
November 9, 2008
WASHINGTON

The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.

In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission — captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft — in real time in the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away.

Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations.

[…]

via Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries       : Information Clearing House – ICH

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

What Obama win means + Obama and global security with Jonathan Schell

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews

Jonathan Schell: The election of Obama says something about Americans

Keynes with a neo-liberal twist? By William Bowles

By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
10 November 2008

“Just imagine saying, “production for use leads to stagnation; production for death leads to exchange value and profits.” Now don’t jump on me! Wait, I have to go into capital expansion and its being “the breath of capitalism” and, as yet, no forseeable future opportunities for capital reproduction to the magnitude needed for its expansion.”

French immigrants must learn La Marseillaise says Nicolas Sarkozy ally

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
9 November 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

excerpt from ‘French immigrants must learn La Marseillaise says Nicolas Sarkozy ally‘

by Kim Wilsher, Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2008

Foreigners should be forced to study the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, if they want to stay in the country, a close ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared

Brice Hortefeux, the minister for immigration and national identity, says foreigners should be taught the history and “values” of the national anthem – which includes calls for the shedding of “impure blood” and the defeat of “foreign cohorts”.

The proposal comes less than a month after Mr Sarkozy threatened to call off football matches if fans jeered, whistled or booed during the playing of La Marseillaise.

Mr Hortefeux, 50, who is one of the president’s closest friends and has his full backing, made the suggestion during a European conference on immigration at Vichy.

“The Marseillaise is too often heard as a song, but not as a lesson,” he said. “We are failing to explain well enough to immigrants who want to live in France where the song comes from, what it means and what values it conveys.”

see

Protests, Arrests As France’s Vichy Hosts EU Conference + U.S. takes page from Israel’s book in Syria strike

Industrial capitalism is a given and the natural world is secondary (Interview with Derrick Jensen)

Crossposted at Thomas Paine’s Corner thanks, Jason.

Melissa Gragg and Jason Miller interview Derrick Jensen
11/8/08

“Top priorities may not be any of those five. It may be continuing to stabilize the financial system. We don’t know yet what’s going to happen in January. And none of this can be accomplished if we continue to see a potential meltdown in the banking system or the financial system. So that’s priority number one, making sure that the plumbing works in our capitalist system.” —President-Elect Barack Obama

Ironically, it is the plumbing of that capitalist system that we are using as we flush the future of life on Earth down the toilet.

We can “elect” a charismatic, intelligent man from a brutally oppressed minority to be our president to purge our collective guilt, mouth “feel good” platitudes, celebrate the triumph of “democracy,” and delude ourselves into believing we are preparing to warp back to a fictitious golden era when America was a benevolent guardian of humanity and the Earth, but that doesn’t change the fact that industrial capitalism is rendering this planet uninhabitable.

And just two days after the “election,” we learned that our newly minted “savior,” for whom we were desperate after eight years of “anomalous” malevolence under the Bush administration, is making the viability of our violent, irrational, unstable, exploitative, unjust, and unsustainable socioeconomic paradigm “priority number one.”

Obama has sold his soul to capitalism, a way of being premised on greed, selfishness, materialism, alienation, and infinite growth—a recipe for ecocide.

Perhaps the best “change” for which we can “hope” is that more people will awaken and fall into a despair that spurs them to do something about the rapidly deteriorating state of our environment, frighteningly large increases in the number of extinct species, rising scarcity of potable water, ecological overshoot, and a host of other symptoms of the terminal disease Obama blithely calls the “capitalist system.”

Let’s glean some insight from Derrick Jensen, an anarcho-primitivist, author, lecturer, philosopher, and tireless fighter for a beleaguered, dying planet. Here is a back and forth he had with radical activist, Melissa Gragg, and Cyrano’s Journal Online’s associate editor, Jason Miller, on 4/15/08:

Melissa: Okay, let’s start off with you kind of, I’ve seen a couple interviews, and I guess you have to answer some of the same questions over and over.

Derrick: [laughter]

Melissa: But do you want to explain to people who haven’t read your writing why you think civilization needs to be brought down?

Derrick: Well it’s killing the planet. Ninety percent of the large fish in the oceans are gone. There’s six to ten times as much phytoplankton in the oceans as—I’m sorry, six to ten times as much plastic as there is phytoplankton, and that’s the equivalent of, in temperate forests, of there being Styrofoam ninety feet thick through all the forests, and . . .

Jason: Wow, that’s a pretty horrifying metaphor.

Obama versus Medvedev: Nuclear Standoff in New Europe by Mike Whitney

Dandelion Salad

by Mike Whitney
Global Research, November 9, 2008

“US president-elect Barack Obama has told Polish President Lech Kaczynski he will go ahead with plans to build a missile defense shield in eastern Europe despite threats from Russia, Warsaw said on Saturday”  AFP Warsaw