Where have all the good times gone?

Payday comes and you are thrilled the floater checks are covered and you hit the grocery store and gas pumps on the way home from work. You sit down and look at your checkbook and hardly anything is left. It’s going to be a hard two weeks until the next payday and a year ago it wasn’t like this.

It’s costing you $9 or maybe $18 per day to pay for gas to and from work, so you think this is to blame, but then you think about the few sacks of groceries you bought and those cost you $75 when a year or two ago they would have only cost you $45, so you think the food is to blame. Then it hits you.

Food is higher because gas is higher, and food is also higher because there is more demand for corn and rice and wheat and soybeans and now there is a shortage. Corn is more in demand for ethanol production, which was supposed to offset rising oil costs and make the fuel cleaner to burn but now it’s driven up the cost of food, food is in short supply and gas went through the roof anyway.

Fuel is higher because the dollar is far weaker than it was even 6 months ago and the people who have true wealth are moving their money into commodity speculation, so they are driving the cost of a barrel of oil higher and higher. Demand is still high for oil and refinery capacity has been decimated since the late 90’s when the big oil companies were given the green light to merge unabated.

Your monthly bill to pay for gas in the car has skyrocketed, the bill for natural gas in your home has skyrocketed, and the electric companies are chomping at the bit to sack your earnings too. Water bills are rising, food is getting expensive and in short supply, insurance keeps going up year after year.

How have your earnings looked over the past 8 years? If you charted it out in a graph you would most likely see two big dips and a flat or slowly rising line between the two dips. Earnings have not only failed to keep pace with inflation, the average and median incomes of US workers have actually fallen. Your spending power is not what it was in 2000.

No one in the government dares even say the truth; we are in a deep recession. Economist eggheads flutter around the subject without saying it but some brave souls in the ether world of economics have been saying we are in an immense recession. Slowly but surely, some are leaning their language toward the big “D” word, the word that no one dares write or say in such circles.

On April 1st of this year the stock market rallied like crazy. The cause was an email from a respected economist who’s opinion is regarded like God’s truth. His outlook was Rosy Jack and upbeat and the market responded. Then the truth got out, his email, all comments in the writing, were an April Fools joke. He was being a sarcastic fucker like your humble blogger and the moneybags on Wall Street took off on a wild spending spree.

So, I have to ask you this question. Who and what really controls our economy? It’s not wise and learned men and women, for if they did the April Fools rally would have never happened. The cyclic dependencies that have brought us to this precipice would not have been allowed to operate had wise people been at the helm. What really controls our economy? Is it optimism? Greed? Blind luck?

I can’t answer those questions; I don’t have the foggiest clue.

Economics is a strange creature. Off and on for more than 20 years I have followed economics as an occasional, novice spectator. I’ve read various reports, books, journals and it’s all led me to a point where I see economics as a multi-headed Hydra. No precious gemstone could be cut with enough facets to equal the number found in economics.

Every now and then a small door will open and then shut just as abruptly that will lead me to a new realization of what is going on behind the scenes. The drive mechanisms of the economic bus are mysterious. These can be large or small revelations, some occur just by looking into the past.

If you sat down and read as many volumes as you can find regarding the touchstone moments of economics over the past 100 years you would have a heavy reading list and dear God, is it ever boring. It would take years to read the main books and journals, assessments and deconstructions, editorials and academic research. In the end you would be no closer to understanding the real foundation of economics. You would, however, keep seeing the same façade to the subject. Credit, payment of interest and control of resources. Those are the three subjects that maintain the façade.

Take the 1971 events where Nixon told the world to pack sand as an example. Credit in this case would be Federal Reserve notes and the valuation of currency. Interest on credits would have been the US gold reserves. Control of resources is the gold stockpile and the valuation of currency. It never changes. Credit. Payment of interest on credit. Control of resources. Thirty-seven years later and it’s still about those three subjects, only the players and the medium of credit and resources have changed.

Maybe the unrest in the economy is natural; perhaps it is not. I don’t know. I do know a few things. Level heads will prevail if and when things get messy. Level heads do not lie down on the floor and throw a tantrum. Level heads do not go out and try to assert some sort of flawed alpha type personality trait. Level heads do not wonder where the good times have gone and ask what they should do now.

Do you own a bicycle? If not, get one on the cheap through Craigslist or at a yard sale. Do it pronto. Get spare parts for it too. Do you own a small backpack or a large duffel or Navy sea bag? If not, get those items pronto. Do you know how to make a crystal radio? Download instructions on the web and try it out and commit it to memory. Do you own real work clothes, a real pair of work boots and the ability to snuff out your ego? If you say no to any of those things, get busy on them. You will need all three.

Did you ever talk to your older relatives about the Great Depression when they were alive? If you did, you better start plucking the wisdom from what they told you. If you have no idea what they did to survive that event, here is the short answer. Be prepared and ready to do whatever it takes to survive from day to day. I’m not talking about rioting and causing mayhem. I’m talking about being prepared to work for pennies and be so afraid of letting that money out of your hands that you are willing to go to bed hungry at night, for many nights, over many years.

Could you go to bed on an empty stomach after a hard day of manual labor and know you will do it again tomorrow if it means your child or elderly family member can have one small bowl full of mush? Would you be prepared to do that? Do you even know what mush is? Find out what it is and learn how to make it.

Are we heading down that path or am I just a crazy old paranoid fool? Maybe, maybe not. I do know this. We have not seen the bottom of the economic woes in this country; we are not even close to being able to see the bottom. We have only begun to start our fall into the hole.

In one regard money follows a rule in physics. Money, like water and electricity and high pressures, will follow the path of least resistance. In the case of money, the path of least resistance is the path that will yield the highest return on investment. i.e. the payment of interest on an investment. Water will not flow uphill, electricity will flow through copper wire instead of steel cables and a failed seal on a vacuum chamber will always allow a higher pressure to enter the chamber.

Real money, not like what you and I have, will always move along to the next area to speculate, causing a bubble. This bubble ratchets up demand for that ‘thing’ and drives the prices to un-naturally high levels for that ‘thing’. Credit and real estate were speculated upon and a bubble formed. Prices inflated well above the intrinsic value of those things and rose many times higher than historical prices and what inflation could provide. The bubble is leaking; the higher pressure is entering that chamber. The path of least resistance is taking the money to food stocks and other commodities like oil and precious metals. When those have once again been pillaged beyond the last drop of interest, the money will flow out to another speculative bubble like water from a broken dam.

30 years ago the purchase of a house was a safe bet. You could expect a nominal increase in value over time along with the rise of inflation to provide you with a decent profit when you sold ‘if’ you made a wise purchase and kept your home maintained. Take a look at your county tax commissioner’s website and look at the graded and assessed build quality for homes. Check out the number of new homes that are only graded as Good when compared to the number of homes 40 years ago that were built to a higher quality standard and get an Average rating. There is your value in a McMansion. Only a Good rating for quality of materials and construction on your McMansion with a mudroom and Jack and Jill bathroom while a ranch house in the same neighborhood, built in the 1960’s is better constructed with better materials. Yes, infill was a bright idea. Actually, it was a bright idea for the speculators who made a killing on the gullible and the folks who misinterpreted the “American Dream”.

If you think a 20% or 30% drop in home values is the bottom, think again. This market has another 30% in it at the least. Look at the historical values of homes before the speculation began and you will see a modest increase yearly to compensate for inflation and demand and that is all. The ‘value’ of homes over the last 30 years has been driven by speculation and when there was no driving force to raise speculation the financiers created a credit bubble to facilitate a house speculation bubble.

We are still waiting for the Alt-A bubble to begin crumbling, we are waiting for the Put Option ARMs to begin resetting, we are still waiting for the credit markets to shrug off the excess credit load with write offs. We are still waiting for the fall out from lack of cash flow that will affect commercial real estate and retail far more than the credit collapse. Remember, right now we are seeing only the early effects of a so-called credit crunch. The credit was based on ether. It was money that never existed in the first place and a massive block of the economy was being driven by this credit. When credit is gone only cash is left.

When the cash is devalued like we are seeing now, inflation really sticks it to those who have cash. When credit is gone only those with cash can maintain the economy and when uncertainty and fear permeate the economy you won’t let a penny out of your hands unless you really have to. This is the direction we are heading toward. Cash did not keep the failed and failing companies alive, credit kept them afloat. Cash did not put people in million dollar McMansions, credit put them there. The credit is going away and the speculators are looking for cash only resources such as oil and gold and corn and wheat and soybeans.

I’m not saying the end is nigh, I am saying that we all need to be prepared and we all need a plan. I’ve got a bike, work clothes, some food socked away, some cash and no qualms about letting my ego take a kicking just to make enough money to eat a bowl of rice and beans or some sort of pancake concoction. Are you willing to do the same thing?

The Iraq/Iran end game.

If you have dealt with manipulative people in your life for a long enough period of time you begin to understand patterns, habits and techniques they use to get what they want or do what they want. The skilled manipulator is capable of formulating an end result they wish to achieve, forcing behavior or actions that enable them to achieve their goals and finally pulling it off with “I had no other choice” as their justification.

I’ve thought about the tactics of manipulators this past week, more specifically the manipulators that we all deal with, our political leaders. In this context of our political leaders I have focused on the ongoing war in Iraq and the still beating drumbeat of war in Iran. Let’s look at a few facts that can hardly be disputed:

1) The neo-con leaders and brain trust are dead set on a nuclear strike on Iran. Not a ground invasion, not a conventional air strike, a nuclear air strike. They make no secret of their feelings and this is openly discussed and defended by them on a daily basis.

2) If the efforts to date in Iran had been an honest attempt to democratize and rebuild a nation, this could only be considered an absolute failure of diplomacy and leadership. While it is true that even the brightest and best among us can fail and they are not above failure, the sheer number of failures in Iran are a sign that there was never an attempt to honestly democratize and rebuild the nation. The failures have been planned.

3) The current surge strategy is not and never has worked. You cannot play “whack a mole” with an enemy and expect to succeed. The number of troops that were assigned for the invasion and occupation of Iraq (Afghanistan as well) were woefully short in numbers. This set the stage for failure before combat began. This wasn’t a simply underestimation or a failure due to lack of good, hard intelligence or intelligence analysis; it was intentional.

4) There is now a complete absence of doubt that our armed forces are in a crisis mode. The loss of men and equipment, the burnout that is occurring within the ranks and a certain shift in mood by the foot soldiers on the ground in Iraq are obvious signs. Reports coming from some of the greatest rational military thinkers and strategists confirm these outward signs. Our military has been wrecked by a failure to properly lead it, and a failure to maintain it. This has had an even more dangerous impact than an intentional dismantling of the services.

Are all four of these points just random coincidences or the result of poor leadership and cloudy foresight? To simply write these things off to incompetence is to turn a blind eye to an obvious fact, the people who hold true power in this country and led us into this catastrophe did not attain those positions out of sheer good luck. They are extremely bright and perceptive people who have focused on a goal of recreating and redefining an Imperial United States. They were smart enough and capable enough to gain these positions, failures such as these do not fit the equation.

These are not failures they are intentional acts. The end goal is control over the Middle East and it’s resources. Africa has even become an official target of the current Military-Industrial Complex as well as gaining the attention of the neo-con theorists as we have seen the Pentagon officially create its first headquarters that is tasked with the monitoring and control of the African continent.

How would these people gain and maintain control over the entire Middle East or Africa? Depopulation is the only method that can be seriously considered. We are all aware of the infamous 2000 PNAC report, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century.” In which it is argued that a “New Pearl harbor” would be the impetus to enter a new world war, which addressed instability in the Middle East, our nation’s longstanding Imperial status and America’s need for a supply of oil. It is not beyond simple conjecture to question if other, far more sinister reports have circulated around Washington that take these ideas to a greater extreme and combine other connected ideas of the neo-cons. If reports do not exist, can we say with any certainty that the most extreme right-wing theorists have at least broached ideas of this nature at cocktail parties, think tank sessions and corporate retreats for quite some time?

Henry Kissinger once commented on US soldiers by saying, “Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” This attitude is not isolated, Kissinger is one of the most powerful political, social and economic elites this nation has to offer. He is a fixture on the Council on Foreign Relations, The Bilderberg Group and is nothing less than a guru in international circles.

Prince Philip has made no secret of his feelings about population control, more specifically his support of the idea of depopulation of the world. A constant periphial but connecting idea that is shared among the neo-cons, globalists and Illuminati conspiracy theorists is the idea of a massive depopulation of the world at large.

Consider the environment in the Arabic, Persian and North African worlds at this very moment. Anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high. Support for the violent ousting of American troops in all those regions is extremely high. The true masters of world power have their eyes set on the wealth and resources of those regions. Oil, poppy, gold, diamonds, and every resource they have. The overt use of military support in the capacity of an occupying force from nations such as Britain and France was shown decades ago to be an inefficient and miserable means of controlling the resources of a nation.

What would be a more efficient and overwhelming means of controlling the indigenous population while assuming complete control of the resources of those nations? Complete and overwhelming destruction would work in the nations where a certain amount of western style civilization has a foothold. In the poorest of nations it would not work simply because those people know nothing but strife, suffering and violence in their lives. In the theoretically rich Muslim nations there is a threat of religious inspired violence for which overwhelming force is seen as a challenge and is historically in their realm of consciousness.

The way to control these nations, their people and their wealth, is to use complete and overwhelming use of force combined with strong methods of depopulation. Nuclear attacks on Iran would provide both of these qualities. The weapons themselves would provide destructive power; their fallout would curse the region with radiation sickness and generations of birth defects and cancer. Imagine if this were combined in nations such as Somalia, for which the US has been targeting with Naval Shore Bombardment in recent months, with highly infectious diseases with a staggering mortality rate?

We have seen strange and isolated cases of new and old diseases break out and disappear in the most rural and impoverished areas of the world and the most cosmopolitan and wealthy areas. The SARS virus, which oddly arose and then disappeared in Toronto. The spread of and implied human-to-human transmission of H5N1 (bird flu) in several sub-Asian nations such as Vietnam. The recent XDB tuberculosis patient who traipsed across Europe and North America with no restrictions and no manhunt. It is easy to look at these and many other cases such as West Nile virus in America, Acinetobacter Baumannii that has infected wounded US troops in Iraq, and realize that data can be gathered from these events to help plot an intentional outbreak of some deadly virus.

America and many, many innocent nations would of course feel the effects of such an attack (nuclear or Biological) but they would be minimal compared to what would be felt by the nations targeted. Never forget that all during the Cold War, American strategists theorized over Nuclear War, where Megadeaths, deaths in the millions, were used and considered as acceptable losses in the scenarios considered for Thermo-Nuclear Warfare. The tenants of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) would not come into play in such a scenario as I have presented because there would be no “other side” to fire back with identical weapons.

What would be the response from Arabic, Persian and African nations in such a scenario? They pose no military threat to the US mainland. The only “threat” to come of such activity would be terrorists’ attacks on American soil. Even if a terrorist organization held a single Nuclear weapon it’s effect on the nation as a whole would be small in comparison to what US weapons could do to those nations. Retaliatory strikes would be considered a chance to inflict even more damage upon the “enemy”. At what point would the risk, MAD, be too great to consider? The only point would be if another Nuclear power threatened to strike at us in a pre-emptive measure. But, the tenants of MAD would prevent that from occurring, so the threat is neutralized.

So, how does this relate to the subject of manipulators and the current situation in Iraq and Iran? The end goal that has been propsed by PNAC and the neo-con cabal has been to gain control of resources and people. They claim an end times type of threat from Iran. The military is incapable of a ground assault in Iran. The situation in Iraq is dire.

These facts would lead them to a scenario where the Nuclear option is not only feasible, it would be the only option. The condition of the US armed forces as well as a call for a greater “shock and awe” campaign would be the justification. Radiation? Well, oil prices would of course spike, but price controls could be used in conjunction with martial law to quell the public. Of course the Military-Industrial Complex would make an even larger financial killing creating new technologies to protect workers from radiation and selling new devices. The contractors would make an even larger killing with their fees for working in a radiation hazard environment. The oil companies would ultimately make an even greater killing since they would effectively have the oil rich lands all to themselves with no interference. A virtual ghost of a population in these nations would be easily controlled as they would be sick, in a minority and powerless.

When we consider the state of affairs concerning our involvement in Iraq the end game should be in our minds just as much as the current series of moves.

News - The depressing round-up of today's news stories

A daily dose of doom and gloom to get us in the mood for the Memorial Day weekend. So much is happening right now it’s tough to keep track of who’s batting, let alone who is on deck:

As I type this posting, former DoJ official Monica Goodling is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The AP has reported this morning that Goodling broke down into tears in the office of a colleague shortly after the brouhaha over the fired US Attorneys broke, saying, "All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department," My only thoughts over this revelation are that it’s a sweet sentiment to have, hon, but the DoJ is a traditionally non-political and independent department from the White House. Goodling can squirt tears over her unrequited adoration of the President but I wonder how she would feel knowing that her slavish devotion to a man and not her nation or her sworn oath has damaged this country. I think Monica needs to spend more time at match.com than trying to please a sociopathic President.

The Democrats not only failed in their attempt to end the war in Iraq, they also rolled over and allowed the President to see their soft underbelly too. No word on whether or not he scratched their bellies. The President has infamously stated that being the President is hard work, now the Democratic leadership has proven to me once again that doing the only moral thing they can do as representatives of our nation, end the war in Iraq, is hard work if you aren’t willing to take responsibility. Don't go on Meet the Press and tell us we need a bipartisan plan, damnit we need to end that miserable lie and failure that is Iraq and try to pump the water out of this sinking ship called America. If you folks in DC don't have a pair give me a call. I'll loan my cajones out to you for a few weeks as long as they don't come back shaven or pierced.

In what can only be described as an overt threat, nine warships, including two aircraft carriers, entered the Persian Gulf yesterday for “training” in the full light of day. We now have three aircraft carriers in that sandy bottom bathtub known as the Persian Gulf. Transiting the Straits of Hormuz is tricky and dangerous to begin with. Masking operational intentions and maintaining OpSec has always looked at a nighttime transit of the Strait as a necessity. Doing so in broad daylight, in formation and with such sensitive ships as carriers is a pure double-dog dare you move by this administration and a terrifying scenario waiting to happen. The stakes are far too high and tensions too strained for this sort of bullshit bravado by the sociopaths of Washington. This story actually gives me chills and it worries me a great deal.

Gas is..well..gas is like a Mylar “Happy Birthday” balloon that has broken loose and is soaring higher and higher.

The melamine and cyanuric acid story is off the radar. Apparently Americans think it’s okay and safe, otherwise, why would we be able to eat off Melamine plates if it wasn’t safe?

Barry Bonds is 10 dingers away from tying the Home Run record set by the great and beloved Henry Aaron. Aaron, I believe can be argued, was the greatest all-around pure hitter the sport has ever seen. This paper argues that it’s ok to root for Bonds, after all, he is innocent until proven guilty. I say bullshit because we the fans aren’t a sequestered jury and that defense just doesn't cut the mustard unless you are a lawyer or on trial. Bonds did the juice and we all know it so let's stop making excuses for him and call the damn strikes and balls like we see them. This pussy-footing around the issue insults the intelligence of even the casual fan and is a slap in the face for lifelong fans who have followed the sport for decades. Henry Aaron is still a great leader and has been a true gem as a pillar of the community in Atlanta since retiring from the sport. I’d wash Mr. Aaron’s car and not ask for a tip or recognbition. I wouldn’t let Bonds pump my gas.

Michael Vick has morphed from miracle working hero of Atlanta football into the worst kind of trash imaginable. If only Steve Bartkowski were 25 again.

On a positive note, Memorial Day weekend is upon us and the two greatest race spectacles known to man will be run, the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Indianapolis 500. My weekend will be spent at home this year, saving gas, watching the two races, doing damage to my “to be read” stack of books and posting to the blog. Hurry up and get here Friday!

Commentary - Who truly controls America?

Who truly holds the reigns of power in this country? This question weaves its way through the Conspiracy Theory community regardless of the theory being researched. Power, the gaining of and maintenance of said power, is the root thread in all conspiracy theories. Many researchers and enthusiasts point to the Illuminati and it’s connected components such as the Bilderberg Group, Freemasonry and other secret societies, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Just who is in power is worthy of debate and research, who is not in power is obvious. We, meaning you and I, have absolutely no power at any level in this country.

We are the bottom feeders in the food chain. When the average person thinks along the lines of class and finances we tend to think the rich are in power, and those with some riches seem to think so too. Both of those groups are sadly mistaken. True wealth, wealth that brings power to bear along with vast amounts of money is where the power lies. Several million dollars, an expensive infill home and putting the kids in private school puts you in the bottom feeder class with day laborers if you can’t bring true power to the equation. The only advantage that being rich provides is a little less discomfort in the day-to-day existence of life.

What is the source of true or pure power in America right at this moment? True or pure power comes in several forms but in the world of conspiracy theory there are only three areas where this power can be found. Controlling politics, finances and religion. All three intertwine in some theories but for the sake of this posting I’m going to address these three areas with real world examples of how this power is being wielded against us today.


Polemic Control

Regardless of whether you consider yourself a leftist, conservative, libertarian, environmentalist or apolitical; the true source of political power in America isn’t centered on the fair and honest operation of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”. The true source of political power comes from the financial rewards offered by corporate America.

Laws are passed from bills written by lobbyists, of whom their allegiance is devoted to the companies they represent. The lawmakers allow this to happen for two reasons; to ensure they will get campaign contributions from those companies and their executives and to ensure that once they leave public office they will be guaranteed a paying position with either the corporations or the lobbying firms. The companies involved in this scheme need this full and complete control of legislation to ensure the aspects of government that were created to regulate their growth and exercise of power over the American public, are not unleashed upon them.

All that is left to do is keep the American public ignorant of their work, which is easily accomplished by controlling the mass media and by creating bills that are so large and complex that the average American will never be able to decipher the contents no matter how much time they are given to study the bill. It also helps to distract the public by creating inner worry and turmoil in their lives by controlling the economy and providing them with mindless entertainment that helps them to pass their time while they worry about bills and being employed.

From this work a small cadre can wield true and pure political control over the public at large. There will be no secret conspiracy to cover up and covert methods to operate are not needed. The conspiracy can be carried out in full view without worry of retribution because the layers of corruption are too deep and too overwhelming for one person to expose, and even then, what could one person do?


Economic Control

As I mentioned in the description of Polemic Control, the use of Economic Control can be used to meet the goal of gaining even more power or maintaining the power that is already held. The central aspect of economic control in America is the dwindling number of companies that provide goods and services. All goods and services in this country are controlled by a small number of groups, which grow larger by mergers and buyouts, which reduces their numbers even more. The power and wealth becomes concentrated and the resources for them to continue this trend expand exponentially at each merger.

Look at your paycheck and think of where it must go before you have, if ever, money left over. Food and shelter are your main concerns. Transportation and maintenance of your goods and life follow. By time you are done with the monthly bills, how much of the money that you worked so hard to earn is left? Very little and that amount is dwindling weekly.

You need a place to stay, be it a house that you are paying to own or an apartment that you rent. There goes the largest chunk of your hard earned pay, a place to live. You have to eat and no matter how much variety you have in your diet or how little you may eat, the foods you buy are made by a small number of companies. 98% of all poultry is produced by a small number of companies like Tyson and Cargill. 50% of all agricultural products that are produced come from just two corporate farming companies. 80% of all beef slaughtered in America is produced and owned by just 4 companies. 60% of all pork produced in America comes from just 4 firms.

You need water, heating, garbage services and sewerage services where you live. Not to mention electricity and possibly gas for cooking and heat or oil for heating your home. Now the utilities are being scoured by private buyout firms, looking to plunder your checking account and the money held by the communities where those services provide a vital service. Gas and oil are subjects all to themselves. The billions of dollars made in pure profit every single month by even the most ineptly managed oil company are staggering.

The money grab is non-stop and against you, the government will not stop it because the companies have already bought and sold our government. The mega-companies will continue to narrow in number, prices will always escalate and quality in their products will always deteriorate.


Theocratic Control

Founder of the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, has never made it a secret that the goal of the Christian Coalition and the offshoot groups that orbit around this movement, Regent University which was created by Robertson and the people who align themselves to this movement; are actively engaged in taking control of the American government so that they may shape the laws of this nation to suit their beliefs and not yours.

Their success has been astonishing as it has only been of late that the tip of the iceberg has been seen. One revelation in the scandal about the firings of US Attorneys, it was learned that over 150 graduates of the Regent law school, a Tier-IV university, are employed at various levels of power within the US Justice Department. Just how deep this infiltration of our government by agents of the theocratic conspiracy goes is unknown.

This group bypassed economic control and instead aimed for a polemic means to their ends but their connection to the polemic and economic forces are strong. The reason is simple. It’s not because the politicians and people who hold power over politicians have a deep-seated faith in God. It’s not because Big Business are Christian men and women who wish to share their wealth with the impoverished. The reason they have allowed this group to gain the power they now have is that they are enablers for the goals of the people who hold polemic and economic power.

The Theocratic power base accepts the money given to them and the money that they are allowed to share in as they promote the needs of Big Business by placing themselves in positions that will allow them to control the mechanisms that control companies. The movement into the Justice Department by the religious right-wing is a sign of this as that department can control investigations into corrupt business practices.


How this affects you, today.

Today is Friday and most of us get paid for our work on this day. Let’s look at your routine after work and see how it empowers the conspirators who wield power in America.

After you get off work you’ll probably go to the grocery store. On the way to the store you may pass a gas station and notice that gas is now $.10 higher per gallon than the last time you filled your tank. You may even consider how much it would cost you to convert your car to Ethanol or Bio-Diesel. When you get to the grocery store you get sticker shock. Almost everything we eat now is made with corn.

Corn is at historic all-time high prices because of two things. The fuel needed in the growing and harvesting process for the corn is at outrageously high levels and corn is in demand outside the food market for use in creating Ethanol, the higher cost gets passed to you. The cost of fueling trucks that transport the food to the wholesaler, then the distributor and then to the retailer is higher; the higher cost gets passed to you. The grocery store has to pay higher rates for electricity to light the store and keep the freezers going as well as a higher price for the goods they sell. The higher cost gets passed to you.

You drive home, maybe stopping for gas at a station that’s $.03 cheaper per gallon than the others. You get home, use gas to cook dinner, burn electricity to see what you are doing and watch TV, of which the cable rates have gone up 45% over the last 10 years, and you worry about the bills you have to pay this month with what little is left from your paycheck.

Your income is steadily dropping and there is no such thing as job security no matter how hard you work or how good you are at your profession. The profits made by the companies that are eating more and more from your paycheck are much higher now because the price of raw materials has skyrocketed. Their bank accounts are bulging at the seams while yours is frighteningly short. Big Oil has even said they don’t even know what to do with all the extra cash they are floating in.

You can’t look to the government for relief because they are in the pockets of Big Business and they are busy mopping up such things as war, terrorism, corruption and foreign policy. Sorry but they are just too busy to do something about your monthly bills.

So, what’s left for you to turn to but God? Guess who’s got that market cornered too?

When the Democrats can find the time.

It would be nice if they could get some of the oil company execs to make a trip to the Capitol to testify under oath why the gas prices *really* are as high as they are. When I filled up my tank last Monday afternoon the price was $2.56 a gallon at the BP across the street from where I work. I just looked out the window at their sign and nearly had a heart attack. It's $2.74 right now. That's an $.18 rise in 7 days. Take a look at the performance of Exxon stock over the last 3 years and you'll know where your paycheck has been going:

http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=XOM&time=3yr

Oh, and don't give me that refineries line that the oil companies and their lackeys are so fond of parroting. Here is some info to counter their finger pointing when they say that it's the environmental laws that prevent them from making new refineries:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/Oil_and_Gas/articles.cfm?ID=11829

Wasn't cheap oil supposed to just flow like a wide open tap after the Iraq invasion? I thought the oil was going to be some collateral for the cost? I guess that no one in the White House could have foreseen that gas prices would be this high. That's the usual dog ate my paper excuse that they give.

The memory hole goodie bag - Pons and Fleischman 18 years later

Exactly eighteen years ago this week the debate began to escalate over the claims of Drs. Pons and Fleischman of achieving cold fusion at room temperature in their Utah laboratory. Imagine for a moment that this claim were to be made today. With steadily rising energy costs, a mainstream acceptance and discussion of global warming and a war being waged in the midst of the worlds main oil suppliers the feedback over such an announcement would be deafening.

The findings of Pons and Fleischman were discredited but they have continued their work non-stop since then. Other alternative energy devices have been developed in obscure workshops worldwide as well as being studied and tested at respected laboratories and research facilities of major Universities and organizations such as NASA and TVA. Even the Griggs Device has found a niche in the pulp wood industry and is in production by Hydro-Dynamics today. Of course the words "over unity" and it's much debated history are not seen in any of their literature or on their web site but this is beside the point and a distraction from what is really important. The point is that an energy efficient, functional and creative device is in production.

We will not wake one sunny morning to news of a breakthrough technology which makes oil, coal and nuclear energy obsolete and worthless. But we are slowly rising with a hangover to a number of technologies which will address our energy and transportation needs. Oil companies are raking in record profits but their added wealth is not trickling down to their own customers. All businesses rely one way or another on the availability of cheap, abundant energy and their bottom line is weakened across the board due to the rising energy costs. They will, one day, implement the devices being developed in the labs because simple economics demand that they be implemented.

There is a long lived and much repeated conspiracy theory which relates to this subject. Since the 1930's there have been urban legends regarding the existence of an engine that runs on water, the classic Water Engine story. The legend promotes the idea that the oil companies took control of this technology and have suppressed it to maintain their control over the energy sector. Variations on this legend also maintain that the oil companies destroyed all records of this technology therefore, it is not just suppressed it is a lost technology and cannot be recreated. David Mamet even wrote a play about this mysterious subject in the 1970's.

In times of heavy handed corporate power reigning over the public, such as what we see today with "Big Oil" and others; feelings of being powerless manifests itself in our consciousness as a society. Even though we haven't seen an uptick in rumors and conspiracy theories regarding a water engine or other groundbreaking alternative energy devices it would not surprise me if we do in the near future. Our urban legends and conspiracy theories are sometimes a comforting way of explaining why things are the way they are.