Dr. Bill Rees, Professor Emeritus from the University of British Columbia, gave a presentation on our overshoot predicament earlier this month to a zoom meeting of the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (CACOR).
I’m a longtime fan of Dr. Rees and consider him to be one of the most aware and knowledgeable people on the planet.
This is, I believe, the best talk I’ve seen by Dr. Rees and he covers all of the important issues, including topics like overpopulation that most of his peers avoid.
Presentations like this will probably not change our trajectory but nevertheless I find some comfort knowing there are a few other people thinking about the same issues. This can be a very lonely space.
The Q&A is also very good. I found it interesting to hear how much effort Dr. Rees has made to educate our leaders about what we should be doing to reduce future suffering. He was frank that no one to date, including the Green party, is open to his message. Not surprising, but sad. Also inspiring that someone of his stature is at least trying.
Summary
Climate-change and other environmental organizations urge governments to act decisively/rapidly to decarbonize the economy and halt further development of fossil fuel reserves. These demands arguably betray:
– ignorance of the role of energy in the modern economy;
– ill-justified confidence in society’s ability to transition to 100% green renewable energy;
– no appreciation of the ecological consequences of attempting to do so and;
– little understanding of the social implications.
Without questioning the need to abandon fossil fuels, I will argue that the dream of a smooth energy transition is little more than a comforting shared illusion. Moreover, even if it were possible it would not solve climate change and would exacerbate the real existential threat facing society, namely overshoot.
I then explore some of the consequences and implications of (the necessary) abandonment of fossil fuels in the absence of adequate substitutes, and how governments and MTI society should be responding to these unspoken biophysical realities.
Biography
Dr. William Rees is a population ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus, and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning.
His academic research focuses on the biophysical prerequisites for sustainability. This focus led to co-development (with his graduate students) of ecological footprint analysis, a quantitative tool that shows definitively that the human enterprise is in dysfunctional overshoot. (We would need five Earth-like planets to support just the present world population sustainably with existing technologies at North American material standards.)
Frustrated by political unresponsiveness to worsening indicators, Dr. Rees also studies the biological and psycho-cognitive barriers to environmentally rational behavior and policies. He has authored hundreds of peer reviewed and popular articles on these topics. Dr. Rees is a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada and also a Fellow of the Post-Carbon Institute; a founding member and former President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics; a founding Director of the OneEarth Initiative; and a Director of The Real Green New Deal. He was a full member of the Club of Rome from 2013 until 2018. His international awards include the Boulding Memorial Award in Ecological Economics, the Herman Daly Award in Ecological Economics and a Blue Planet Prize (jointly with his former student, Dr. Mathis Wackernagel).
I left the following comment on YouTube:
I’m a fellow British Columbian and longtime admirer of Dr. Rees. Thank you for the excellent presentation.
I agree with Dr. Rees’ prescription for what needs to be done but I think there’s a step that must precede his first step of acknowledging our overshoot predicament.
Given the magnitude and many dimensions of our predicament an obvious question is why do so few people see it?
I found a theory by Dr. Ajit Varki that provides a plausible explanation, and answers other important questions about our unique species.
The Mind Over Reality Transition (MORT) theory posits that the human species with its uniquely powerful intelligence exists because it evolved to deny unpleasant realities.
If true, this implies that the first step to any positive meaningful change must be to acknowledge our tendency to deny unpleasant realities.
Varki explains his theory here:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-25466-7_6
A nice video summary by Varki is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqgYqW2Kgkg
My interpretations of the theory are here:
https://un-denial.com/denial-2/theory-short/https://un-denial.com/2015/11/12/undenial-manifesto-energy-and-denial/
A new way (for me at least ) to think of The Great Reset’s “you will own nothing and be happy”.
Thanks to real growth being constrained by affordable energy depletion, the only way to (maybe) prevent the economy from collapsing is to expand the asset bubble by growing debt faster than the economy and to keep this game going as long as possible with low interest rates. Eventually inflation induced higher interest rates and/or energy scarcity will cause a depression and many people will lose their jobs while living in homes with large mortgages they can no longer service.
To limit social unrest and to keep the asset bubble inflated so the economy does not implode, banks will foreclose on defaulting mortgages and transfer ownership of the assets to central banks who will “service” the debt with printed money. The homes will then be rented back to the previous owners at a rate compatible with their means.
The slogan “you will own nothing and be happy” is propaganda to prepare us for a world with assets mostly owned by the state and the elite.
Governments are also looking for tools to control the movement and activities of citizens in case social order breaks down when scarcity becomes severe. Vaccine passports may be one of these tools.
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Another useful tool would be to replace cash with some form of digital currency which I suspect is a prerequisite for negative interest rates which might help keep the wheels on a little longer.
Digital currency might also help with controlling the movement and activities of citizens, and in distributing a subsistence income to those out of work.
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Well that was disappointing. I was looking forward to Joe Rogan’s discussion with Jordan Peterson. Peterson is yet another polymath that denies unpleasant realities.
He forgot to add that we should give everyone a pony to make sure they’re happy. But first we need to figure out how to power our tractors, combines, trucks, trains, and ships with dilithium crystals. Better get on it boys.
I confirmed Peterson is already on my list of famous polymaths in denial:
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Damned near everyone is in one form of denial or another. I am no Peterson “fan”, but this recent hit piece by Nikiforuk almost rings with a Covidian/wokester righteous hate that I’m accustomed to witnessing now online and in the media. It’s getting harder and harder to stay out of the lethal crossfire of this narrative war.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/01/17/Reply-Jordan-Peterson-Pandemic-Demands/
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Thanks. I’ll read that carefully because Nikiforuk has done very good work in the past. It won’t surprise me though if he’s on the wrong side of history with covid because a lot of previously wise people have lost their minds in the mass psychosis.
For the record I have read all of Jordan Peterson’s books and respect many of the things he says. That also applies to most of the other famous polymaths on my list. It fascinates me that they get almost everything right except overshoot. That can’t be a coincidence. Just like it can’t be a coincidence that the only thing the thousands of our religions have in common is a believe in life after death.
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I’m not “in” to the tribal politics of personality evaluation, despite the temptation of these latter days of idiocracy where we seem to be encouraged to do so. There are otherwise good people that say stupid things, as well as stupid people who can on occasion say true things. And I’m wise enough to know that my own assumptions can always be revised based on new evidence.
I remember coming across an aphorism in the Hindmarsh paper I referenced here some time ago that said it succinctly:
“Even a crooked stick can sometimes draw a straight line”
I like that!
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I agree. If we ignored every person that has some chaff with their wheat we would be alone in the world.
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Peterson also is on record saying we shouldn’t worry about peak oil because Canada has vast oil sands. FFS
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OK, that is a disastrous statement that goes beyond denial. It must come directly from his lizard brain.
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bahahahaha
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Matt Taibbi today…
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/lets-not-have-a-war
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No hope!
Kurt Tucholsky – a stairway: speaking – writing – keeping silent
(it’s the last entry in his »sudelbuch«, 1935)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Tucholsky
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My favourite quote from Tucholsky is:
“In Deutschland gilt derjenige, der auf den Schmutz hinweist, für viel gefährlicher als derjenige, der den Schmutz macht.”
Translated into English, this means something like:
“In Germany, the person who is pointing at the dirt is considered to be much more dangerous than the person who is making the dirt.”
If I look into the Covid situation and other important issues like overshoot, this could be applied to the whole world.
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Has anyone seen anything by Nicole Foss lately?
She’s been quiet for a long time, I hope she’s ok.
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No, it’s been a long time! I don’t understand how theautomaticearth transitioned to the current lead blogger.
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TAE was I think founded by the duo of Ilargi and Foss. I always preferred Foss’s writing because it focused more on overshoot and the interplay of energy and economy. Foss went quiet and moved from Canada to New Zealand when (I’m guessing) she thought the end was near. Most experts on the matter seem to think New Zealand will be the best place to live as the economy collapses and wars begin.
Here is Nicole Foss’s excellent archive of writing for anyone not familiar with her:
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2017/05/the-automatic-earth-primer-guide-2017/
Here is the last good interview with Foss that I am aware of:
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She’s still active on twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/nicolefoss7?lang=en
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Thanks Perran for finding Foss.
Now I remember why I stopped following her on Twitter. I thought she went crazy when Trump was elected and talked about nothing else. I have another female friend in the doomer community that did the same.
Now that Trump is gone I see Nicole is fully engaged like many of us truth seeking doomers in trying to understand the covid insanity.
Nicole is very bright and an excellent dot connector. I had the pleasure of attending a live talk by her in Vancouver. If she has a flaw it’s that she was too confident on the timing of collapse and underestimated how much money they would print to keep the wheels on.
I’ll keep on eye what she’s up to.
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She also blogs here now https://www.foss.blog/
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She’s very active on Facebook and seems to be keeping well in NZ. When Trump was in power she pretty much focused solely on that whole debacle
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I donated to this.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/taking-back-our-freedom-convoy-2022
$5M (and climbing) raised so far for fuel and food to support a convoy of thousands of trucks driving across Canada to protest against vaccine mandates in our capital.
I’m not so keen on their focus on freedom. I think there could be circumstances when vaccine mandates are required and I think focusing on freedom will offend people who think those circumstances exist today.
It would be much wiser to focus on the required criteria for mandates and whether they are being met.
I think a mandate is reasonable if:
1) the virus is a serious threat to many; and
2) the vaccines stop virus transmission; and
3) the vaccines have been properly tested for safety.
Not one of these three conditions is true today and therefore mandates are not reasonable today.
In any case, who cares what I think.
It’s a brilliant strategy. Park a 100,000 trucks in Ottawa until the mandates are revoked. No goods delivered to stores while we wait.
Go get ’em boys!
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The censors strike again:
“Video unavailable
This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.”
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I also saw that. I intentionally left it up as a reminder of how hard they’re trying to suppress truth.
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I finished this episode. Two very intelligent, aware, and good men discussing the overwhelming nature of our overshoot predicament and exploring possible responses and concluding that each possible solution is extremely complex and difficult to implement and many of these “solutions” will need to be applied simultaneously.
And yet they do not mention the only “solution” that is guaranteed to help even if applied in isolation with no other solutions, and even if it is only applied by a single country without global cooperation: population reduction.
When you understand the overshoot predicament you also understand that most people on the planet will suffer, regardless of what we do. The obvious goal then should be to minimize suffering and the best and perhaps only way to achieve this goal is to reduce the population.
Population reduction will surely be difficult to implement, but probably not more difficult than any other useful solution. The great thing about population reduction is that you only need to focus on one thing, because every single one of our thousands of overshoot related problems improves with fewer people. And you don’t need to be completely successful with population reduction goals to have achieved something useful. If you prevent one birth you have reduced total suffering and that is a worthwhile accomplishment. If you prevent two births that’s twice the accomplishment, and so on.
And yet despite this obvious path that we should focus on, they, and almost every other overshoot aware person, never mention it.
How is this possible without MORT?
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Population reduction – yes! Birth reduction vs. excess mortality? We’ll see! The rights of the elderly to be supported vs the rights of the young to have families…How would power shake out? I think we need both, actually – but all things considered I think allowing excess mortality is the better path. A hard future will need young people ready for what comes. It depends on what one’s goal is – but if it is a future for humans, we need to sacrifice the old, over the young.
If we’re talking sober – why forbid young people from having children vs refusing healthcare for those over ~60?
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Good point but I assumed the population of old people will decrease without the need for any policies because we simply won’t be able to afford the life extending technologies we use now.
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What are you thinking about the “issue” of population implosion? In most of the so called first world countries we have a population reduction already going on without any coercive measures due to plumeting birth rates. I live in a region in Germany, where the projection for 2030 is to 15% less people. We currently have more people older than 75 than people under 18 in our town. There are towns which will be empty in 20 years if this trend continues. The country-wide fertility rate currently hovers around 1,6 children per woman, which is 0,5 less than needed to keep the population stable. “Unfortunately”, the government policy is trying to fill up the void with people from other countries. So any positive effect of reduced energy usage due to declining population is negated. Wouldn´t it be an option to close of the rich countries to reduce our energy usage? I know this is not an option as this reeks of xenophobia, which is one of the worst crimes one can commit today.
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This is also one of the reasons why I don´t vote for the Green Party in Germany. They want us to reduce our energy usage (which I appreciate) but at the same time want to increase the population by a factor of 3 by inviting the whole world to our land of milk and honey (which does not make any sense, if you want to achieve the first part).
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Same problem here in Canada. Our population would be declining a little without immigration. With immigration we have (I think) the fastest growing population of any country on the planet.
The driver for this is the fractional reserve debt backed monetary system that every country in the world uses. Without growth this monetary system collapses by design.
I think we should stop all immigration because economic problems are preferable to over-population problems when scarcity starts to bite.
The Canadian Green party also does not mention overshoot or populaiton reduction. I no longer vote for them.
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I was thinking that a coalition of the Green party and the AfD, our “far right” party, would be interesting, if the Green party would work on reducing our emissions and the AfD would cease immigration to Germany. In reality, the parties have nothing in common and something like this would never happen. Too bad for us…
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New essay today from xraymike79.
https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2022/01/26/heads-up-truth-is-stranger-than-fiction/
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El gato summarizes how the once logical Germany has lost its mind.
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If I look at the first half of the 20th century, I would say that we are pretty good at losing our minds.
I would not say that we are back at 1930s level but if you look at our insane Covid policies and other pretty stupid policies (the agenda of the Green party mentioned above comes to my mind), it seems like we are on a good path to become insane again.
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El gato’s on fire today.
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Awesome. The problem is, if you confront an “NPC” with this, it is likely that he gets the support of all the other NPCs, while the “chad” is more or less alone.
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Wow am I ever out of touch with the mainstream. I had to duckduck NPC and chad.
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Normally, I am also pretty much out of touch of the current youth culture, but I incidentally stumbeld across these terms on YouTube a while ago. This whole meme culture is a book of seven seals for me, but I am in the process of understanding the basics now.
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If this turns out to be true I’d say it’s a bombshell
https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-whistleblowers-share-dod-medical-data-that-blows-vaccine-safety-debate-wide-open
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That does look promising. The unraveling seems to be accelerating. I’d really like to see some people go to prison, but I bet it never happens. Every single person that committed fraud in the 2008 GFC got away with it.
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I am all for rapid fire capital punishment on TV as proposed by George Carlin:
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I keep mulling different models trying to figure out what’s behind the covid insanity. Here’s the latest version of my theory.
There are three programs running simultaneously and somewhat independently.
The first program can be understood by following the money:
1) Politicians depend on pharma donations.
2) News & social media depend on pharma ads.
3) Scientists depend on pharma contracts.
4) Pharma CEOs depend on profit growth.
The second program is the mass psychosis of most citizens as explained by Mattias Desmet. This is a natural phenomenon that may or may not have been intentionally juiced.
The third program is more murky but I suspect a small group of elites, probably with good intentions, maybe led by Mark Carney at the WEF/UN, are trying to figure out what to do about the coming social unrest caused by energy depletion, climate change, and economic collapse, and have used covid as cover to implement methods of monitoring and controlling the movement and activities of citizens.
I hate to say it, but this third program, if it exists, may not be a bad idea. Given that we can’t even discuss peak oil or overshoot, when scarcity hits in the next few years, people are going to be surprised and will likely go bat shit crazy. Allowing the social unrest to get out of control will only make things worse.
Let’s hope that version 2.0 of the monitoring and control program does not require us to inject a novel insufficiently tested substance.
A better idea for controlling and monitoring citizens might be digital cash, which offers the extra benefit of making it easier to implement negative interest rates which might help keep the wheels on a few extra years.
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I agree with your assessment of the three programs. It is really hard to find out, how these programs are connected. Since I think that the global elite is aware of the upcoming troubles, I would expect that they are at least trying to plan for it (partly in public like the Great Reset, partly in secret). The pharma industry, media and national governments are just tools to execute their plan, with the nice side effect of making them richer in the process.
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The WEF/UN should also launch a world-wide programme for decentralized subsistence-farming to avoid riots!
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Canada just made the decision to hold the prime lending rate at 0.25% (free money). They mirrored the US. They are warning rates are going to rise.
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My guess is if inflation does not cool down over the next 2 months then they’ll raise rates until the markets crash, then they’ll panic and lower them again.
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Our inflation in NZ just topped 5.9%, house prices are near a million dollars on average. Our central bank is probably going to up the official cash rate
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HHH today…
https://peakoilbarrel.com/opec-update-january-22-2022/#comment-734143
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Just in case you need more evidence that the government agencies whose job it is to protect us are corrupt…
Shame on our leaders for allowing this to happen.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/resisting-the-release-of-vaccine/comments
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I made another donation so the truckers can stay until our Canadian Weasel comes out of quarantine.
Total donations now $6.2M, up $1M since yesterday.
Go get ’em boys!
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I’ve been thinking about two people a lot lately: Joseph Goebbels and Alice Friedman. Might you imagine why?
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I’m not sure I’m following you. Has Alice been censored?
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No, not that I know of. But I think it is very pertinent that she wrote a book called “When The Trucks Stop Running”. As for my Goebbels reference…just look around you. ANYBODY who has anything honest or truthful to say is censored and demonized. Anybody that is useful in propagating lies is enabled and rewarded.
By the way, have you come across this yet? It kind of destroys the notion that these truckers have “unacceptable” views or are “radical operators” or “foreign operatives” or somehow “extremists”. I urge you to watch the whole thing. Fuck me, what happened to reality?
We’ve ALL had ENOUGH! | Interview with Brigette Belton, Convoy Trucker January 19, 2022
https://rumble.com/vsx3r8-weve-all-had-enough-interview-with-brigette-belton-convoy-trucker.html
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My whole life I’ve been allergic to political movements. But I’ve had enough.
I’ve never felt so strongly about anything in a long time.
Godspeed truckers!
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Blame converges mimetically on one person. Fauci you get a break this week.
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Alice shared this on Facebook https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jeremy-grantham-even-scarier-prediction-130000203.html
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Thanks. Jeremy Grantham is a really good man. Not all of the elite are evil.
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We are on the right side of history.
United we will defeat this worldwide madness.
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If you are a Canadian, please sign this Memorandum of Understanding that our government must agree to before our brave truckers will leave Ottawa.
https://canada-unity.com/mou/
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Awesome video. The Canadian truckers somehow remind me of the French farmers who also use their vehicles (tractors) for protests. Sadly, we Germans seem to be pathologically obedient to authority that something like the freedom convoy is unthinkable here. Even our revolutions prove to be ineffective (e.g. 1848 and 1918/19).
I must admit though that I am positively surprised by the amount of protestors at the German anti Covid policies demonstrations. However, the protestors are smeared as fascists by the media, and I know many people who just recite what they learned by watching the news.
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I have read in the comments of one of John Michael Greer´s blogs that Trudeau “has caught a case of COWARD-19″…This somehow confirms my impression that he is the same kind of “fair-weather politician” as we have in Germany. They panic and hide as soon as a crisis is brewing.
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Brent again over 90 USD dollars at the moment. An this with a backdrop of economic deceleration. What does that tell us?
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Crash dead ahead.
Then panic, drop the interest rate, and print a gazillion dollars.
Rinse and repeat.
But never ever ever acknowledge what’s going on and what needs to be done.
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Man I’m glad I’m a small-scale seed producer and grow a shit-ton of my own food annually. I only wish I lived in a community where that kind of thing would catch on, and people would get the fuck off their devices, dispense with their yearning for cruise ships in January, and remember what serious mutual aid is all about. Time’s-a-coming!
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I think instead you wag the dog – have a good old-fashioned WAR! Ukraine anyone? What could go wrong?? The U.S. is the only SUPER POWER and Russia is merely a gnat bothering the U.S. – swat them down!! Neocons unite. (Irony).
AJ
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I wouldn’t fuck with the Russians.
Strong tough people with a good leader.
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We (the U.S.) shouldn’t fuck with the Russians, BUT we are led by a senile fool and a bunch of neocons (they used to be Republicans when we were invading Iraq and Afghanistan) who think this is 1990 and we are the world’s only super power. There is a lot of denial about the U.S. military status in the world in Washington – and it’s going to get us (U.S.) our ass kicked (only if we can avoid canned sunshine).
AJ
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Turkey on the ropes – will it be the first domino?
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Thanks, excellent find.
No problem, print some more lira and buy some gas.
Oops, no electricity for the printing presses.
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Grantham says we are close.
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I almost shared this today! 34:20 – this guy gets it. (At least to some extent)
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Live feed from Ottawa.
United we will defeat this worldwide madness.
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Al Jazeera is the last decent main stream news outlet.
Yesterday’s piece on Julian Assange was good.
Our western governments really have become evil.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-take/the-trial-of-julian-assange
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Have you ever found yourself asking : “Does our Government have our best interests in mind?”
At this juncture in history I can only hope so. Desperately so.
Exploring Biodigital Convergence Policy Horizons Canada| Horizons de politiques February 11, 2020
https://horizons.gc.ca/en/2020/02/11/exploring-biodigital-convergence/
From the forward:
“In the coming years, biodigital technologies could be woven into our lives in the way that digital technologies are now. Biological and digital systems are converging, and could change the way we work, live, and even evolve as a species. More than a technological change, this biodigital convergence may transform the way we understand ourselves and cause us to redefine what we consider human or natural.
Biodigital convergence may profoundly impact our economy, our ecosystems, and our society. Being prepared to support it, while managing its risks with care and sensitivity, will shape the way we navigate social and ethical considerations, as well as guide policy and governance conversations.
Guided by its mandate, Policy Horizons Canada (Policy Horizons) intends to start an informed and meaningful dialogue about plausible futures for biodigital convergence and the policy questions that may arise. In this initial paper, we define and explore biodigital convergence – why it is important to explore now, its characteristics, what new capabilities could arise from it, and some initial policy implications. We want to engage with a broad spectrum of partners and stakeholders on what our biodigital future might look like, how this convergence might affect sectors and industries, and how our relationships with technology, nature, and even life itself could evolve.
We welcome your comments and participation, and look forward to diving more deeply into the questions raised in this paper.”
Am I the one feeling like he’s going batshit crazy?
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I believe there is a coordinated program underway to prepare for the coming economic collapse caused by energy depletion and climate change. They call it the Great Reset.
Maybe not entirely a bad idea since we can’t even discuss peak oil so when scarcity soon bites people will be surprised and will likely go bat shit crazy. Violent social unrest will only make things worse.
I object to them using a novel insufficiently tested substance that must injected into your body as one of their tools for control.
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El gato focused on politics today arguing that the left vs. right “debate” is all bullshit and we need a new game. I thought it was quite good. It would of course have been a lot better if he was aware of the coming collapse and factored that into his discussion.
What a clusterfuck we face with huge problems coming and completely incompetent leadership.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/horseshoe-theory-and-the-politics
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Heather Heying today with a US view of the Canada trucker’s convoy.
https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/truckers-for-freedom
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Fringe minority my ass.
Total donations now $7.7M, up $1M over last 24 hours.
I made my 3rd donation.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/taking-back-our-freedom-convoy-2022
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Hey Secretface2097, looks like Germany is starting to follow Canada’s lead.
Also Italy and Argentine.
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I have heard about Italy, was not aware that Germany is also waking up. I like it.
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The fringe minority:
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I’m really impressed with the logistics organization and clarity of objectives of the Freedom Convoy. They seem to really have their shit together.
The Canadian government will be required to sign this memorandum of understanding to enforce our Charter of Rights and revoke all covid mandates before the convoy leaves Ottawa.
Click to access canada-unity-memorandum-of-understamding.pdf
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I wrote to the Premier of my province today.
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Good on you. My sentiments exactly. I’m still waiting to start this vaccine trial with covax 19. I thought I would have had my first shot by now but obviously there has been some delays.
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This vid is off topic but maybe y’all could use a laugh.
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https://populationnews.wordpress.com/2021/09/11/why-food-aid-wont-solve-famine-in-madagascar/?fbclid=IwAR2waKzWboJOlYfVCEU01lPH1tUk96EZ5CbWMV_ZJobIWBBNcuMWr1HngjQ
Thanks to Mike Stasse
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Nice video on the convoy.
https://rumble.com/embed/vqwyde/?pub=xlnlg
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https://odysee.com/@rageagainsthechine:0/Justin-Trudeau-in-His-Secret-Ottawa-Bunker:3
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Did somebody highjack Robs account and now posts spam? Because this very much looks like spam.
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It made me laugh out loud. No offense intended. I’ll take it down if it is offensive.
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The comment of “required” with its incorrect spelling, punctuation, and grammar proves to be more offensive.
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While I was never part of the Elon Musk fan club (or religion), I must admit that he is a very smart guy with a whitty humor. Have was interviewed by the BabylonBee in January 2022. Maybe I have to watch the interview for a few more good laughs.
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I not a big fan of Elon either. He has lots of wheat and lots of chaff.
I’m pretty certain he understands we are screwed due to overshoot and thinks leaving the planet to live on Mars is our only chance of preserving our species with it’s vanishingly rare intelligence. He might be right. Even if there is only a one in a billion chance of successfully colonizing Mars, maybe it’s worth trying.
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Hopium? Denial??
Elon is crazy. I thought enough people had already demolished as impossible any chance of setting up a successful Mars colony? (far greater than one a billion, IMHO). And the waste of energy/resources to attempt to accomplish such a feat – astronomical. Besides any attempt would be filling the mass of humanity with false hope. I think Science Fiction is to blame as it fosters illogical fantasy thinking.
AJ
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I ‘d also say colonizing Mars is impossible but many disagree. I agree Elon is crazy but then perhaps so am I for not conforming with the 99.9% that see a different reality.
News coverage of the Ottawa protest and Trudeau’s response has been mind boggling. Not one critic appears to have actually looked at what happened. Ditto for all the people criticizing Joe Rogan. Not one seems to have listened to the episodes with Dr. Malone and Dr. McCullough that caused the fire storm. They are must listens if you have not already done so.
The vast majority of people simply do not care about what is true. They only care about what they want to believe is true. Sadly that also applies to my friends and family. As the ship sinks not one in a million people will understand what’s going on.
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But, I saw some “poll” (today or yesterday) that said over 40% of Canadians thought that masking should go on forever! So, Trudeau is just playing to his base. So sad. Why are all the tacitly “liberal” people turning into such totalitarian fascists? Also, just to show you can’t always tell who’s on what side. The morning blog by the National Review (mainstream U.S. conservatives) was defending Joe Rogan’s free speech right to have anyone on his show he wants and have reasoned discussions with them, even if it goes counter to the current narrative. I will have to watch the interviews.
Sad about all the friends and family in denial. My wife is – living in a hopium/denial universe. Only one of my daughters really gets where we are headed (and she’s working on a degree in sustainable ag – the only one I can talk to about collapse/extinction).
AJ
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If Musk was deadly serious about colonizing Mars he would be pumping vast amounts of money and resources into biosphere (closed system vivarium) research. He is not. Turns out it is really hard to do.
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https://thinkingispower.com/the-person-who-lies-to-you-the-most-is-you/
I just stumbled across this website curtsy of Mike Stasse. Worth a peruse if you’ve got some spare time.
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Interesting article. Since we can be fooled by our own desire to avoid cognitive dissonance we have to put our (and everyone else’s) “rationality” to the test. To avoid confirmation bias and so called “pruning the hedge” of our hypothesis we need to use Science to test our evidence. And not just Science as too many practice it (which is confirmation bias and pruning the hedge). We have to vigorously attempt to falsify our hypotheses (thanks Karl Popper). Doing that we can arrive at closer approximations of the truth (uncomfortable as they may be).
I think our civilization is in terminal overshoot and we may go extinct. I would prefer that wasn’t the case, but most of my fellow “homo sapiens” seem to not believe we have a problem. I could be wrong but all arguments to the contrary appear to be based on denial or optimism bias. And evidence to the contrary appears non-existent. I could be wrong – show me where?
AJ
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nah
Human beings like all biologically evolved organisms are incapable of perceiving reality (knowing the Truth). All we have access to are small streams of information from the outside world filtered through our evolved sensory organs. Our sensory organs evolved to help us reproduce, not to accurately perceive the world.
So we are stuck with ideas that are more or less useful, under particular sets of conditions, for getting useful answers to some types of questions.
we don’t so much deny reality as we deny our representations of reality.
And none of that changes that we are deep denial about the ecological overshoot of modern civilization..
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I find your response interesting in that I agree with some of it’s slant but think it is a non sequitur to the article that I was commenting on. Did you read the article? It was about motivated reasoning and confirmation bias and how that is used by people(including some scientists) to get rid of evidence that would otherwise cause Cognitive Dissonance. I was agreeing with that theory of mind but stating that I thought rational scientific testing, with attempted falsification, tied to empirical evidence had the best chance at allowing us to get to reality (scientific laws and explanations about how the universe works).
I would agree that we only see a slice of that reality – (can a human mind comprehend what came before the Big Bang? the entropy death of the universe? quantum mechanics? the duality of electromagnetic wave v. quanta nature of photons?). I also believe that such problems are solvable/knowable (perhaps not by human minds?). Our sense organs and all of our facilities for perception evolved to provide us with sufficient knowledge of reality to avoid immediate death and then to have the best chance to pass on genes. If we didn’t know something of reality (arguably more than a small stream of information) we would not have evolved. And our brain evolved to figure out complex small group relationships so as to pass on our own and that group’s genes. But, such a brain can be used for other purposes (such as figuring out reality via rationalism and science). Without science and rationalism there is no way of knowing reality; any other way of knowing is entirely subjective (and idiosyncratic nonsense).
Yes, and none of this stops denial of/and overshoot.
AJ
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I could be wrong but I’m guessing you’ve read Hoffman’s “The Case Against Reality.” I highly recommend it.
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I have not read it, but on your recommendation I put a request in at the Library.
AJ
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I have the e-book and audiobook in my library. Send me a private message if you’d like to borrow a copy.
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Those who show intellectual humility and meta cognition generally make for good reasonable company. Dogma is for dogs.
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Great video by JP. I especially enjoyed the recording of the woman who tells the prime minister to his face that as a traitor he should be hung.
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I’m still trying to make sense of the covid insanity. It really bothers me. Our leaders have got 100% of the covid decisions wrong. Something is going on that needs an explanation.
I re-listened to this excellent presentation on our energy predicament by Steve St. Angelo in which he concludes that our leaders can’t discuss the problem for fear of panic and losing their jobs, and the only intelligent thing for us to do is to orchestrate a managed degrowth.
Is covid a managed degrowth orchestrated by the Great Reset people?
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Rob: with all due respect, perhaps you’re being too “rational” about this? If you keep pursuing that path, you will find no “rational” explanation for what is going on. It does not fall under the rubric of rationality. Do you not understand the nature of evil? It rises up from time to time throughout history, and leaves senseless damage in its wake. Let yourself go there. I say this sincerely and with the best of intentions.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda-and-censorship
Dr Mel Bruchet & Dr Daniel Nagase on Using Medical Imprisonment to Silence Doctors Published January 3, 2022
https://rumble.com/vrvffz-dr-mel-bruchet-and-dr-daniel-nagase-on-using-medical-imprisonment-to-silenc.html
Listened to CBC lately? Read anything from TorStar?
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Yes I hear you and depending on how I feel when I wake up I sometimes agree with you.
It’s the global nature of the wrong “public health” response that troubles me. My little province with it’s left leaning government and probably well intentioned leaders is making the same crazy decisions.
If indeed covid is a managed degrowth plan then we are not witnessing evil but rather wise leaders trying to reduce suffering.
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From my point of view, this is definitely a possibility. But how does a country like Sweden fit into this with their much less restricted policies? Maybe they didn´t need that much bullying and coercion to get the Covid vaccines due to a high trust in the government (even though it seems that this is also eroding due to other problems in Sweden, e.g. gang warfare).
And if this is a degrowth plan, shouldn´t we be supportive, even though it seems pretty stupid?
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For the record, I think capture of our leaders, news media, and social platforms by unethical pharma money is a much higher probability of explaining what we observe.
If covid is part of a degrowth plan, I’m not going to inject a novel substance that has been insufficiently tested into my body to support them, especially when effective and safe treatments for the disease exist. I can think of much better ways of monitoring and controlling the population, like digital currency.
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The Great Reset
Why we should be worried of the agenda pushed by the WEF.
https://mtmalinen.substack.com/p/the-great-reset
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Thank you. The author seems to lack an understanding of the context within which the great reset is operating. Namely that we face near term collapse due to overshoot and optimal responses for managing degrowth will require global coordination to minimize suffering.
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The elites (for example, Leadership and Governance | World Economic Forum (weforum.org), Young Global Leaders – Wikipedia et. al.) certainly have some plans about the future. Homepage | UN Global Compact I suspect their belief that they can shape the future will prove to be hubris when we enter the period of fossil fuel energy descent. The geologic forces of resource depletion, climate change, environmental destruction and the human animal instinct for survival will hold sway.
But maybe it possible that even as we begin the energy descent, for a period of 10-20 years the electric and communications grid will be sufficiently stable to support a fascist digital technocracy that can maintain some semblance of social and economic order.
Who can really say? Maybe those truckers, angered because there is no diesel fuel for their trucks, will rise up in protest again against some other mis-guided government overreach. Or maybe they will be leading the marches on citizens who are not complying with the techno fascist government mandates. We shall see.
I bought groceries today, I swear the prices were 5% more than last month.
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Rob: Please read this blog. You will find it illuminating, I am certain.
The Reformed Physicist : Musings of a Federal Data Scientist
https://maybury.ca/the-reformed-physicist/2022/02/03/a-night-with-the-untouchables/
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That was very good, thank you. I teared up. Good people in this country are rising up against evil.
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Rob – I would suggest you relax and have a beer to get your mind off COVID, but b/c you’re currently abstaining you might benefit from meditating – there are a lot of wonderful meditation apps out there. Take a deep breath and listen to Calm. It starts with cicadas, ocean waves crashing on the beach…
Comedies are also a nice break. I watched “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” this weekend and quite enjoyed it.
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Thanks for the tip.
For me too much social media is really toxic. I created a burner Facebook account to monitor the trucker convoy. I felt a lot better without Facebook.
I spent the day sorting the best-by dates in my food cache. I feel a little better. 🙂
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Charles Eisenstein suggested in one of his latest essays to have some kind of news fast. From the point of view of mental health, this seems like a good suggestion, but currently the fear of missing out is stronger within me. So I keep on reading everything related to the current panic that gets into my hands, mostly on Substack. I am not sure, whether meditation would help. Maybe I try the discursive meditation as proposed by John Michael Greer on his blog and in his books (The Druidry Handbook, I recommend this even for people that are not into the supernatural stuff). With discursive meditation, you train and reorient the mind instead of shutting it down. This seems more interesting as the vanilla meditation of getting the mind free of thoughts.
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Secret – Any healthy activity that activates the parasympathetic nervous system has a salubrious effect on the body.
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I just had a quick look at healthy activities activation the parasympathetic nervous system: reduce stress, meditation, massage, breath work, yoga, nutrition, exercise, osteopathy, enough sleep, talking therapy.
When I look at the list like this, I’m not surprised that I’m pretty mentally exhausted. Stress since Covid is constantly high, this has induced a weight gain due to unhealthy eating and not doing any exercise (I am normally hiking a lot). Maybe it is time to get some of these activities going (again).
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Hi Rob and all, have you seen this latest paper by Bill Rees and Megan Seibert? For guys like us there’s probably not a lot of new info but I think you may find some strong denial in the “rebuttals”. Bill explains things better than most IMO. FYI and FWIW: https://shoutout.wix.com/so/31NwXFHwM?languageTag=en&cid=5b4879fa-5f2c-4025-a335-4e539e97a151#/main
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Thank you.
The opening lines say all that that needs to be said:
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Thanks! The two big debate techniques I have learned from Rees is that I have to continuously beat the drum on (1) climate change must continually situated in the context of overshoot, and (2) any successful resolution of overshoot would involve both lower population and less consumption.
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It’s funny how they barely even need citations to critique the critics because the “critics” reasoning is so bad. It just continues to astound me how dumb supposedly smart people are about renewables
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Also how infuriatingly annoying are most academics today?! So stuck up their own asses they can’t see the wood for the trees
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They should pass a law that says you may not be granted a PhD in any discipline unless you can demonstrate a competent understanding of the laws of thermodynamics.
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I can see how it might apply to….let’s say, The Propulsion Parameters of Penguin Poop but what about – Can Pigeons tell a Picasso from a Monet? I’m not sure an understanding of thermodynamics is strictly required in the latter case.
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Anything that reduces the number of PhDs or university graduates in general would be positive from my point of view. As I went through a PhD program myself, I can confirm that this academic rank does not say anything about the quality of the graduate. Even in the natural sciences, there are so many stupid people graduated, that the degree certificates aren´t worth the paper they are printed on.
As a side effect, we wouldn´t have the problem of having too few skilled workers (e.g. caregivers, craftsmen,etc).
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I agree. Universities are now growth oriented businesses selling dreams and leeching off public debt, just like the health care industry.
Just one really hard advanced thermodynamics course would weed out the culls and anyone making it through would have a solid grounding in how the world actually works. Especially required for the disgraceful discipline of economics that advises our leaders.
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“The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power”
It takes years of tireless dedication to write this way so let’s not be hasty in our judgements Secret lest we be accused of being anti-intellectual or worse.
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hilarious – reminds me of the Sokal affair https://physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html
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Christ mate – I hope that at least you threw all your Twinkies out, expired or not.
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LOL :). I’m a student of history so it’s mostly protein and fat.
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On the collapsing Chinese real estate bubble.
This is a concrete example of why the WEF’s Great Reset plan says “you will own nothing and be happy”.
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Move along, nothing to see here. $30,000,000,000,000 is no big deal.
https://wolfstreet.com/2022/02/02/the-incredibly-spiking-us-national-debt-hits-a-monstrous-30-trillion/
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It starts looking like a hyperbole… Usually a sign of market frenzy and coming reversal.
But when the crash hits?? Who knows?
I used to believe it all would be ended by 2020. Nowadays I am not so sure… Maybe even next 10 years is possible with usage of differents tricks and cons…
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Yes, I’m pretty sure “you will own nothing and be happy” is another trick they hope will buy us some more time.
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Senate hearing on covid whistleblowers. Some of our leaders need to hang.
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Surely a harshly worded letter is more civilized. Let’s not jump the gun and get all Robespierreish here.
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My moto is don’t get mad, get even.
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How very Hatfield & McCoy of you and here I was thinking you were a man of reason. LOL. That kind of thinking is why the Middle East is so unstable – honor killings, never ending cycles of violence…sometimes it’s just better to put the club down and walk away.
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You do understand that many hundreds of thousands of people died unnecessarily because effective early treatments were blocked to maximize profits, and because of the side effects of unnecessary lock downs? It’s called murder.
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I understand harm has occurred and a lot of bad decisions have been made. But more as a result of incompetence, panic, or lack of good information than by design or evil intent. You seem like a compassionate guy, so I’m surprised you would characterize people with whom you disagree as evil or people who deserve to be harmed. I don’t think it’s helpful to demonize the other side as murderers b/c sadly the other side will do that to you & your side and then we all end up in a downward spiral. And if we are indeed hitting energy limits, as I suspect we are, then we need to keep this precarious ship we call civilization and civil society going so we can maybe, just maybe collectively make some positive adjustments.
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I hear you. It’s the blocking of vitamin D and effective early treatments that could have prevented at least 50% of the deaths that makes me hard.
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I know I’ve shared this link in the comments above but I think it deserves a repeat
https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-whistleblowers-share-dod-medical-data-that-blows-vaccine-safety-debate-wide-open
Is this true? Can any body tell me? If this is true it is totally insane. A complete bombshell. Why isn’t this headline news?
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I believe the senate hearing video just above this comment discusses these whistleblower revelations. Looks like some lawyers and a few politicians are on the case.
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Despite his partisan defects, Kunstler sure can turn a witty phrase.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/death-wish-2/
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Excellent new video from the Canadian Covid Care Alliance.
More evidence that some of our leaders need to go to prison.
https://rumble.com/vtt9ge-dispelling-the-myth-of-a-pandemic-of-the-unvaccinated.html
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Dr. Robert Malone, one a small handful of heroes that stood up to the covid insanity from the beginning, says this essay is one of the best compilations of failed government covid policies he has seen.
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2022/02/04/how_a_war_on_misinformation_led_to_a_coronavirus_tragedy_815161.html
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They killed the GoFundMe Campaign. Our democracy, “-pseudo” as it was, is fucking over. This is astoundingly depressing in what it signifies. They have succeeded in convincing the clueless and bovine majority “public opinion” that the truckers convoy protest is some kind of “terrorist” entity. And the public have swallowed it. We are beyond fucked in this country….and for that matter globally.
I seriously fear for what comes next.
https://westphaliantimes.com/gofundme-returns-donations-to-freedom-convoy-donors-due-to-law-enforcement-saying-peaceful-demonstration-has-become-an-occupation/
And for the record, I’m sick of msm here in Canada constantly admonishing us that we have no right to compare what is transpiring to any historical precedent. That is Bullshit.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-biological-state-nazi-racial-hygiene-1933-1939
I for one, am not a stupid ungulate.
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Stay calm and let’s double our resolve to win. Get your money back from the crooks at GoFundMe and double it to the new donation site.
https://www.givesendgo.com/FreedomConvoy2022/donate
See the video below from the organizers. This ain’t over yet.
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GoFundMe changed their position in response to “feedback” 🙂 . They are now automatically refunding all donations, even if you don’t apply for a refund.
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I could not believe what I have read about the move by GoFundMe to cancel the funds for the truckers and their anti-social (or criminal) behaviour afterwards. I am glad that a least the people get their money back.
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I think this is the way it’s going
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FK_CqI8XsAEDrLt?format=jpg&name=900×900
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I love the convoy organizers.
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Looks like Turkey might be the first domino to fall. They have 50% and rising inflation and they are lowering their interest rate. Notice that their energy costs are up 140% because they have no energy resources of their own. Also note that their main export is minerals and they are becoming less competitive due to rising mining energy costs.
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Interesting article over on Peak Prosperity by a Canadian. If you read the whole thing he had some insight into the “poll” numbers and public opinion in Canada (by corollary also the U.S.). It appears that their is a significant chance that opinion is being manipulated against the truckers by a group inside/outside the government to conform to their narrative (that the truckers are bad). Propaganda and manipulation is what western liberal governments have turned to. It portends badly when the shit really hits the fan, i.e. economic collapse/food scarcity/war.
https://www.peakprosperity.com/cold-comfort-the-discussion-we-need-to-have/
AJ
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Apropos to your comment AJ see these links and sniff around “Policy Horizons Canada”. I could not make this stuff up:
https://horizons.gc.ca/en/2017/07/03/behavioural-insight-brief-the-role-of-narrative-in-public-policy/
https://horizons.gc.ca/en/2013/10/01/agile-policy-on-complex-terrains-nudge-or-nuzzle/
https://horizons.gc.ca/en/our-work/bi-in-brief/
Scroll to the bottom of the page of that last link and look at the “Tags”. Human augmentation? Gig economy? Internet of Things? Telepresence? Virtual Reality?
What “future” do they envision for us little maze rats?
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Brian,
Read those links you posted. I was shocked that they were on a government site. The hubris of the bureaucracy is mind boggling. I took a couple of years of psych as and undergrad but they have come a long way since Skinner (behaviorism).
These bureaucrats see no problem with manipulating the populace for whatever their masters (politicians and the elites that own them) require. They must have studied 1984 and Brave New World to get their playbook.
Yeah, and I’m sure they see most of their constituents as maze rats.
AJ
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Just learned that Ottawa “Law Enforcement” is finally going full-on Darth Vader. This is tragic and underscores that there are forces at work here that will not relent. The synchronous global brutality is chilling and should be raising alarm bells everywhere. Wasn’t this supposed to be about “Public Health”?
Look, just look: https://t.me/s/TheMarieOakes
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I’m going to try to stay calm because I think sentiment is shifting in favor of freedom and because I think Canadians have the trucker’s back. I hope I am not wrong.
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“Propaganda and manipulation is what western liberal governments have turned to.”
It was always like that. I think it was Noam Chomsky who said that in a dictatorship you can just beat people on the head if the do the wrong thing (i.e. against the regime). That’s not possible in a liberal democracy so the elite has to control what the common people think which might be less violent but is it any better?
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Chomsky would prefer that the unjabbed to die in their apartments of starvation. He’s 100% onboard with the current media messaging.
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Just learned that Spotify is a Swedish company. That explains a lot.
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Vitol’s Muller says oil stocks
worrisome,' OPEC+ spare capacity near
alarming’ levelhttps://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/020622-vitols-muller-says-oil-stocks-worrisome-opec-spare-capacity-near-alarming-level
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The science supporting vitamin D for covid risk reduction is overwhelming. It’s also cheap and super safe. The fact that our leaders never discuss vitamin D is proof they are corrupt and do not have public health as a priority.
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Until today I had this vague notion that there were a handful of wise countries, like maybe Russia, that were relying on old fashioned tried and true vaccine technology to protect against covid.
This excellent Whitney Webb podcast episode shows that Russia suffers from the same profit seeking pharma grift that provides cover for the WEF great reset agenda as almost all western democratic countries.
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/02/resources/show-notes/russias-sputnik-v-and-the-wef-with-riley-waggaman/
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Funny that this comment would arrive in my inbox just as I’m watching this:
Dump Davos #1: Data Colonialism & Hackable Humans January 29th, 2021 (2:26:58)
https://odysee.com/@UnlimitedHangout:a/Yuval-Noah-Harari-Davos-2020:c
(In this video series investigating the people and agendas of the World Economic Forum, Whitney Webb and Johnny Vedmore analyze a recent speech given at Davos by Israeli “futurist” historian Yuval Noah Harari that exposes the WEF’s agenda for the “useless class”, the rise of exploited data colonies and the creation of an internal and external surveillance state.)
recent article by Mr. Schwab hisself:
This is what Governance 4.0 could look like to enable change | World Economic Forum
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/this-is-what-governance-4-0-could-look-like/
How deep, exactly, does this rabbit hole go?
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That’s a good way to spin the Great Reset for public consumption.
If we assume most leaders are good people with good intentions, the real agenda which they can’t discuss for obvious reasons, might be how do we fairly ration energy and other scarce necessities, and how do we control social unrest, when the monetary system breaks down due to excess debt and limits to growth?
What I’m suggesting is the hidden agenda might not be evil, except they tried to implement this agenda by forcing people to inject an inadequately tested substance, which does at a minimum make them corruptly captured by pharma grift.
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So I was listening to Soundscapes on TV and this little gem of a quote appeared.
“There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.” William James
I am not sure where this precious little nugget of so called wisdom ranks in the hit parade of stupid and demonstrably false BS quotes – maybe between “That which does not kill you makes you stronger” and “Failure is impossible “ Susan B Anthony.
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Shame on Trudeau.
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Here is something astounding. Are these folks a “front group” manned by bots? This is utterly nonsensical. Machine-gun tweets aimed at some bizarre inversion of reality.
https://mobile.twitter.com/CdnHumanRights/status/1491141716992135169
Here is a video that literally made me weep:
The Last to Leave Ottawa – Romanian Trucker Speaks Out – Feb 6, 2022 (9:03)
(Scroll to embedded video)
https://strongandfreecanada.org/partner-video/the-last-to-leave-ottawa-romanian-trucker-speaks-out-feb-6-2022/
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Thanks, looks like the deranged woke mob that took out Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying at Evergreen college. Facts are irrelevant to them. Got a bad feeling that many of them are employed by our governments now because its hard to get a job anywhere else if you have a bullshit arts degree.
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Welcome to the Woke Industrial Complex.
Re: Bret – Yes, it was not about justice or mutual accommodation, it was about seizing POWER. Heady stuff. Probably wise not to expect better from a bunch of hierarchical apes.
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Her Rob, go onto Bing.com and type Vaids. Then go onto Google.com and type in Vaids. I have no idea if Vaids is real. Could be total bullshit and hysteria but the difference between the results of the two search engines is pretty stark.
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Fascinating. I recently switched to DuckDuckGo and also tried it.
My interpretation is that censorship is bad with Google, less bad with Bing, and there may be no censorship by DuckDuckGo.
Glad I switched to DuckDuckGo. It also has less tracking.
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I’ve been using Firefox and DuckDuckGo for the last 6 months or so. I love Google’s integration with all their “tools” but hate them as a company. It seems all organizations over a certain size end up becoming evil (money being all that matters). Not sure if I buy VAIDS as a valid syndrome, but I would always error on the side of caution. Wish I hadn’t gotten that first shot. No boosters for me. At this point all I (or anyone) can do is try to maximize your health. Even that is hard to do. Exercise is good, sleep is good, lowering stress is good, staying young helps (wish I knew how to do that!!) generally drugs are no good (maybe a little in moderation???). Food becomes a problem only because everyone has an agenda. Low fat diet, whole foods diet, keto diet, paleo diet. Each has a proponent who appears to cherry pick studies supporting their “advice”. I just try to stay slim and eat food that is as unprocessed as possible (what our distant ancestors ate (which was generally anything that didn’t kill them – because K calories are hard to obtain without cheap fossil fuels)). And LOL, all that probably won’t help me much.
AJ
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Yeah AJ I’m not sure on Vaids either but I found the difference between the two search engines results to be enlightening. As for not getting old, so far the only known way to extend life is through caloric restriction. There are some good books and YouTube programs about it. It appears that caloric restriction slows the aging process. So if you can put up with being hungry all the time you might live a decade longer than you might have otherwise. Start in your twenties and your potentially talking several decades if experiments on monkeys are anything to go by.
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I also have no knowledge or opinion on Vaids. I tend to pay attention to issues when Dr. Malone, Dr. McCullough, Dr. Weinstein, Dr. Martenson, Dr. Kendrick, and Dr. Bossche say they are important.
On the other hand, if the minister of health in my government said Vaids was nothing to worry about I’d know for sure it was a huge threat. Seriously. I wonder if our governments have any idea how much damage they have done to their credibility?
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I think they simply do not care. We’re at Solzhenitsyn’s “We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”
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https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ive-never-seen-market-goldman-sees-shortages-everything-you-name-it-were-out-it
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I love this video and the music that frames it.
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Our wins so far include removal of the federal conservative leader and removal of all covid mandates in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I predict more wins to follow soon. Total donations made via GiveSendGo now equal CDN$9M which equals the amount previously donated via the corrupt GoFundMe. Fuck Trudeau and Horgan.
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Go Canada! What do you think of Pierre Poilievre as a possible new leader of the conservative party and successor of Trudeau? I am not very versed in Canadian politics but the few videos I have seen of him were quite positive. He put´s the finger where it hurts.
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First in a series of new videos from Nate Hagens.
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Superb-the basics in 6 minutes, but I still have a feeling that its only for the choir. Every time (increasingly rarely) I say anything about this stuff, in even what would be considered well educated circles, I’m met with derision. The answer they always give is that we will figure it out.
I’m not sure how Nate stays positive enough to keep working on this but, as a member of the choir, I’m glad he does.
How do I give a like to comments?-do I have to have a wordpress account and what is it?
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Yep, my friends too. It’s genetic reality denial on full display.
You’ll have to create a WordPress account and then stay logged in. You can use an anonymous name if you wish.
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Yep, great video. Nate really knows how to hit all the salient points. I wish he would put a word or two more on how long it took evolution to make multicellular creatures (2 – 3 billion years) and how unusual they appear to be in the universe. Other than that this was a superb video. I too have no one (save one daughter) who gets this and sees where we are going. Yes, reality denial is on full display. Oh so sad.
AJ
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Im lucky to have many family members who do get
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A friend of a friend works in Santa Monica. He’s complaining about the heat. It’s Feb. 9 FFS!
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We’ve been having a wet cold summer where I live. Across the mountains it has been unseasonably hot (30c+) and a drought
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If I look at the average temperatures for Santa Monica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monica,_California#Climate), 21°C is not unusual for February. If I look at the daily mean temperature, there is only a 5 degree difference between the hottest (Aug, 19,4°C) and coldest months (Dec, Jan, Feb, 14,1°C). So, no cold winters for Santa Monica.
I had relatives living in Los Angeles during the 1990s. The lowest temperatur they ever had was 12°C in December. I visited them multiple times in the summer, where some parts of Greater LA are unbearably warm (around 40°C). Santa Monica was always colder due to being on the Pacific Coast.
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Sunny California – Hottest Super Bowl Ever
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/12/weather/record-heat-advisory-california-super-bowl-weekend/index.html
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WASF.
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Apparently, it wasn´t the hottest one ever:
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/super-bowl-2022/its-a-hot-one-at-the-super-bowl-but-not-the-hottest-ever/2888593/
The record from 1973 still stands. No need to panic…we had enough the last two years.
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Really good essay from Dr. Malcolm Kendrick today. He’s one of the few experts I trust because he has sufficient intelligence, integrity, and self-awareness to say “it’s complicated and we don’t know the answer”.
In this essay he argues we have grossly overreacted to covid. He does not speculate if this was due to incompetence or malfeasance.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2022/02/10/some-observations-on-the-infection-fatality-rate-of-covid19/
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When parody is reality we can be sure the world has lost its mind.
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I translated the sentence to German because I could not make any sense of it. After translating I still cannot make any sense of it.
A famous German blogger often says that you can no longer tell satire and reality apart.
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The insanity will continue until some part of the market delivers a “punch in the nose.” This being the best way to get a drunk persons undivided attention.
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We’re gonna need a bigger covid.
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Good analysis of Alberta oil production. Albertans will soon need to return to farming.
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2022/02/10/a-case-study-of-fossil-fuel-depletion/
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Many of my friends oppose the convoy saying we have no right to hold the country hostage.
My response is that we are both wise and entitled to defend the Charter of Rights if you are unwilling to show the data and logic used to justify emergency measures.
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“Many of my friends oppose the convoy saying we have no right to hold the country hostage.”
You are right…only our government gets to do that.
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“Many of my friends oppose the convoy saying we have no right to hold the country hostage.”
Do they also oppose climate activists blocking streets to attract attention to their agenda? I often sense double standards in such cases, whether the people like the cause of the protest or not. At least in Germany, climate protest is an approved version of holding the country hostage, as the government basically let´s the activists get away with it.
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Not to get too political. . .
But it’s just like in the U.S., riots by BLM or Antifa participants (not wearing masks or social distancing) is reported with approval in the MSM. But, any info at all about anti-Covid treatments or anti-Covid protests in Canada is either not reported or subtly denigrated.
If you support the elite/corporate/Pharma/government messaging – you get good MSM coverage. If you don’t you are either not reported on or denigrated.
I hope Trudeau gets shot down in Parliament? Is that wishful thinking.
Oh, by the way. . . we’re going to have a war? And the U.S. is doing it to defend democracy, the rule of law, and international stability (as long as the U.S. gets to pillage everyone with impunity and gets good press).
Oh, and doubly by the way. . . look out for a potential downturn in the economy? (it’s really a buying opportunity (buy the dip! (sarcasm))).
Best of Monday to you!!
AJ
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I agree. Talking about “mostly peaceful” protests in front of burning buildings is the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
Here in Germany, there is a deep relationship between the so called left wing parties (SPD, Die Linke) and Antifa. You could say that they are a paramilitary unit sponsored by the government. During the reign of Angela Merkel, they were even used to scare her opponents. It´s no wonder that some people get the impression of a block party when they look at the German party landscape. The only opposition to the government seems to come from the AfD and a fraction of Die Linke led by Sarah Wagenknecht.
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Brian Peckford, the last man alive that helped to create the Canadian Charter of Rights, says it is not being respected and we need to defend it.
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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/14/trudeau-authorizes-bank-accounts-frozen-for-social-media-posts-in-support-of-freedom-protests-canadian-civil-liberties-association-denounce-decision/
Your country is going full retard.
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It makes me sick. The really troubling thing is I suspect most of my friends and family support the government actions. The vaccine mandates have nothing to do with science because the majority of citizens are frightened herd animals unable to think independently. The government is just reacting to the herd.
God help us when we are soon faced with true threats to survival like food and energy shortages.
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Karl Denninger today points us at what to focus on.
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245164
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Zero Hedge is in the doghouse:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-accuses-financial-website-of-spreading-russian-propaganda/ar-AATSr9I?li=BBnb7Kz
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Of course the Russians are to blame for everything.
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I’m waiting for Trudeau to get Canadian intelligence services to ban you Rob! (You are putting out damaging information about Covid and vaccinations ;)) And watch out for that propaganda about the Russians – we all know they are evil and the U.S. is GOOD (only if you are aligned with biden & co.). (lot’s of sarcasm above).
Chuck Watson (who I have linked to previously) had a new post on Ukraine yesterday. It was good and insightful as usual.
https://blogenkiops.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/the-surreal-ukraine-situation/
Hope Trudeau gets his comeuppance soon.
AJ
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Thanks to you I now follow Chuck Watson and already read his post.
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Great share – thank you.
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This is one of the best analyses I’ve come across of Russia’s foreign-policy decision-making process. The West is focused on Putin as if he is the one pulling all the strings, but there is an entire bureaucracy in Moscow that has been formulating policy for years. One commenter notes that as a KGB veteran of overseas assignments, Putin must be well aware of the problems of spun intelligence, which led to bad decision-making, and was one of the many reasons for the downfall of the Soviet Union. I think we are dealing with a much more rational actor in Russia now – their decison-making is based on facts and data.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/02/americas-putin-psychosis/
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It was good, thank you.
I think the US meddling in the Ukraine is no different than Russia meddling in Mexico. Everyone should mind there own borders. Instead we’ll risk a global war, over what exactly? Weapons money and pharma money seem to cause the same irrationality in our leaders, I wonder why?
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The U.S. is now the one dealing with the consequences of spun intelligence. Colin Powell said that his biggest mistake was going before the U.N. Security Council in 2002 with the presentation on Saddam’s supposed possession of WMD. That story was cooked up by the Dick Cheney cabal – not one intelligence analyst believed it.
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If you put yourself in Cheney’s shoes at that point in history when fracking was not yet a thing, and conventional oil was peaking, and if you were a ruthless unethical leader that cared only about protecting the American way of life, then occupying Iraq, which had the last best undeveloped oil reserves, makes perfect sense. I suspect most Americans subconsciously understood what was going on, which is why he got away with it.
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A not-insignificant number of US bio-labs in Ukraine. Plus lots of US political families criminal interests (Pelosi, Biden, Kerry, Romney).
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A former deputy secretary of energy in the George W. Bush administration says that the cure for high energy prices is less red tape, more pipelines, more LNG terminals, more drilling, and natural gas is “green” and “sustainable”. Overshoot, depletion and energy descent doesn’t exist.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/how-us-policies-contribute-to-high-energy-prices/ar-AATTxnB?li=BBnb7Kz
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Another “leader” telling his flock what they want to hear rather than what they need to know. All of our leaders, left. right, and green are worse than useless.
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Two of my favorites talk about fossil fuels for the first time! Check out Michael Green and Lacy Hunt at 1:07.
Hopium to follow, but good to hear them say it!
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Thanks.
To the day I die I will remain amazed that the best and brightest that run our world don’t have a fucking clue how the world works.
They see the problem is global, they see it is unprecedented, they see it spinning exponentially out of control, and they have not a clue about the cause. They do understand that austerity is the only good path forward, but they think austerity is impossible because citizens won’t accept it. Well duh, if our experts can’t say the words “end of growth” or “overshoot” or “declining net energy” and explain to citizens that although austerity will be painful, the alternative will be MUCH worse, it’s no wonder citizens will reject the only good path.
I note they did mention population, but only in the context that it’s not growing fast enough. You can’t make this shit up.
Our species deserves what’s coming.
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“They see the problem is global, they see it is unprecedented, they see it spinning exponentially out of control, and they have not a clue about the cause.” Exactly. Perfectly concise summary of the situation. Why is this the case? Because they think it is ingenuity and technology (and economics) that has taken us to where we are, at the pinnacle of human civilization. And it is true, without technology/ingenuity (simpler: engineering) our society would not be where we are. 70 years of oil, or more than 200 years of oil plus coal, have moved fossil fuels out of sight and into an unconscious background that is just taken for granted. Engineering schools (as well as other schools) should have much more about mass and energy flows in their curricula. The confusion also arises from the fact that the same quantitative and analytical scientific methods are used to describe technology/machinery, on the one hand, and natural systems on the other hand. It is then easy to focus on technology and lose sight of natural systems and their mass and energy flows, and fall into the trap of “it all comes from human ingenuity”. Working at a technical university, I see this every day. They really believe – fundamentally believe, beyond any rationality – that technology is everything and will save us.
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… obviously, it is a pseudo religion serving the same old goals: redemption and immortality.
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Well said. I think your observation that “They really believe – fundamentally believe, beyond any rationality – that technology is everything and will save us” is a manifestation of our genetic tendency to deny unpleasant realities as explained by Varki’s MORT. The evidence that technology will not save us is too simple and too obvious for there to be any other explanation than MORT.
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So, what we see in many respects is not an intentional scheme or a plot, but it is a metaphysical void that they fill with the belief in technology, growth, eternity, redemption. It is very wrong and very sad.
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Yep – the nice thing about the Hunt/Green video is that they at least acknowledged it was about energy, as fossil fuels. They also descussed The Rise and Fall of American Growth (Gordon) which traces the diminishing returns of technology.
They are missing overshoot and denial from their analysis.
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Please correct me if you saw something different, but what I saw was 65 minutes of detailed discussion of economic theories and data that demonstrated we are in trouble, but provided no insight into the cause or path forward.
Followed at the very end by one guy making a 30 second comment that we need a new energy source to replace fossils, with no apparent awareness that this might be impossible, or the timeline that that it must be accomplished, with the other participants listening without comment, and then the video ended.
In other words, they discussed everything except what needs to be discussed.
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I read this article, and it has an interesting take on social class.
They divide up society by grouping the “physical” vs the “virtual”
“It turns out that not only do the Physicals still exist, and are (for now) still able to drive themselves into the heart of the cities, they actually still have power – a lot of power. In the middle of a supply chain crisis, those truckers represent the total reliance of the ruling elite on the very people they find alien and abhorrent. To many of the Virtuals, this is existentially frightening. The reaction of the Virtual ruling class – represented by the absolutely archetypal modern progressive male, Justin Trudeau – to this challenge has been extremely telling, and rather predictable.” – https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/reality-honks-back
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Thanks, it’s an interesting theory but I’m not sure I agree with it, simply because I really don’t understand what’s going on with covid. An equally good argument can be made that the majority trusted their leaders and injected a vaccine for the common good and now simply don’t care if it was the right or wrong decision. Anyone who did not do the same is no longer a good member of the tribe.
The piece that still troubles me the most is why our leaders aggressively suppressed effective early treatments and advice on lifestyle/diet that could have prevented the majority of deaths. And why they have a pushed risk on to children to reduce risk in the old and fat. To me these are unfathomable crimes, and yet most countries did the same. WTF?
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Rob, you’re about 10 steps behind where you need to be on this. No wonder you “don’t understand”. How could anyone? It’s like a bad Hollywood villain movie, only we’re in it right now. Here is some enlightenment. Pay attention to this linked article and remember : the difference between a conspiracy theory and reality is about 8 months! Ha! Some “laughing matter”, this is!
WEF/Young Global Leaders The greatest conspiracies are hidden in plain sight
https://nakadai.substack.com/p/wefyoung-global-leaders?r=12te6f
and read some history dammit!
Writing the News – United States Memorial Holocaust Museum Encyclopedia
“Shortly after taking power in January 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis succeeded in destroying Germany’s vibrant and diverse newspaper culture. The newly created Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda handed out daily instructions to all German newspapers, Nazi or independent, detailing how the news was to be reported…”
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/writing-the-news
Best, Brian
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Thanks, that’s a very good essay on the WEF agenda. I’ve been chipping away on a new essay that discusses the same thing but draws a different non-evil conclusion.
Here’s a different way to think about the WEF agenda.
All of our big predicaments are global and will require global cooperation to mitigate and minimize suffering:
1) Low cost fossil energy depletion.
2) Climate change.
3) Eco-system collapse.
4) Debt backed fractional reserve monetary system implosion without growth.
If you really understand these issues then you can predict with certainty the scarcity of survival essentials, and violent social unrest that will make the situation worse, and war.
Implementing some tools to control the activities and consumption of citizens might be a really good idea if controlled by wise people with good intentions. I suspect covid has been used to advance this agenda.
Was covid created to advance this agenda? I’m guessing not, but I’m not sure about anything.
Are our leaders wise with good intentions? I’d like to think the majority are but I’m really troubled that they were willing to kill many by blocking early treatments, and are adding risk to children to reduce risk in the old and fat, doubly so given it’s likely that vaccinating children will not reduce risk to the old and fat.
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About 10 years or so ago I was entertaining the notion that “global techno fascism is the only thing which can save us.” Unfortunately after reading Tainter I don’t think this is possible. Faced with limits, we can’t expect increased global cooperation, increased application of technology, or anything which looks like more complexity. Simplification is coming – which means less of everything, I think.
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Yes you’re right, the future is local and simple.
I suspect the WEF people honestly believe that climate change can be “fixed” with global cooperation. Also, in the interim while we sort of keep BAU going, we’ll need international cooperation for trade and the movement of people.
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Jack Alpert is the only overshoot thinker on the planet that has a technically & thermodynamically feasible plan for what needs to be done to minimize suffering from collapse and to maintain an advanced civilization.
He gave a new talk yesterday to the Canadian Club of Rome. It’s 2.5 hours long so I have not watched it yet but will soon.
Here is more work by Alpert that I’ve posted in the past:
https://un-denial.com/?s=alpert%3A
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The new presentation was sobering. I appreciate his work but consider it a pipe dream. Interesting exercise! I keep in mind we don’t live in “one civilization” even if we have a shared global economy. We live in a plurality of civilizations, many of which are by no means willing to entertain this. It’s kind of a western intellectuals delusion that we could find some democratic way through this.
Bill Rees had the most sober comment/question at about 1:14.
The rebuttal is that Alpert believes a bottom-up change is possible if people can be made to see what he calls the “potential injury” or consequences. While that is logically possible, I don’t think it is actually possible.
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I left the following comment on YouTube:
What I didn’t say there but will mention here is that it was very depressing to see Bill Rees, Paul Beckwith, with support I think from Alpert, aggressively state with confidence that the freedom convoy is wrong for opposing covid policies.
I try really hard not to form opinions without a lot of evidence and weighing of contrary views. I respect Rees/Alpert. One of us is clearly wrong on the covid reality and this might be another example of our tendency to deny unpleasant realities. I hope it’s not me doing the denying.
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You are not wrong Rob. The covid reality is as you see it. Many smart people also see it – Chris Martenson, Malone, Kory and many others. Covid is being used to curtail our freedoms and attempt to put us in tribes. I have found that there are numerous people who I used to respect that have gone full psycho on covid. One I just couldn’t read any more is a fellow Canadian of yours – Category 5. https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/
He used to write a very insightful and practical blog on collapse survival, but since Covid has gone completely off the rails and sees nothing wrong with the Canadian government going Nazi on the Freedom Truckers protest. He’s now pandemic crazy. I can’t read him at all now.
You are sane and rational, others are trapped by fear and denial. Keep up the good work.
AJ
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Thanks for the kind words.
I’ll bet Bret Weinstein, who I respect very much, thinks wind and solar will prevent Alpert’s 2100.
Everyone is blind to something.
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The COVID and Convoy discussion did depress me, too. They may have rightly fit it into the pattern Alpert noted of “the existing systems breaking down,” but not in the way we see it – i.e. break down of institutions of politics and science, rather than breakdown of social order. Perhaps it’s a bit of both.
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Good point.
I sometimes wonder if our health care system ever functioned as we imagine it functions.
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China changes the rules again to protect their bubble.
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Surprising to me! With Xi’s new commitment to “common prosperity” most China observers were predicting the losses would be left on the developers. Which of the two is more likely: (1) the common prosperity push was never intended to deal with inequality, contrary to other recent actions such as crack-downs on celebrities, or (2) the government concluded the risks are too high to stay the course?
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I’ll take door #2 please.
I predict that preventing an asset and monetary system collapse will override every other priority for every country.
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Turkey is now asking its citizens to sell their gold jewelry to the government so it can be melted down to bolster monetary reserves.
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I heard that yesterday! The last time I had encountered the concept was in the fiction book The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047, a story of economic collapse. LOL A good fiction book! But the conclusion is bad.
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Jason Bradford is one of my few heroes. He understands our predicament, tries to educate others, and sets a good example in his personal life.
This recent interview of Bradford by the Planet Critical podcast is very good.
https://www.planetcritical.com/p/transforming-food-systems-to-transform?utm_source=url
P.S. Thirteen years ago Bradford had his own podcast, The Reality Report, which is still my all-time favorite podcast. I posted one of the episodes with the godfather of doomers, Jay Hanson, here:
https://un-denial.com/2018/03/26/by-jay-hanson-reality-report-interview-november-3-2008/
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On the importance of animals for sustainable farming…
The little organic vegetable and fruit farm I assist has given up on the idea of building a proper composting facility that I wanted to construct for them. The cost of the concrete is high, and benefit is low because we don’t produce enough high quality organic waste to make it worthwhile.
The cost of organic fertilizer is rising and supply chain issues are making delivery sketchy. In addition, there is no reliable local source of manure we can truck in.
The plan being considered now is to graze our small pastures with a few head of beef and collect the manure, rather than selling hay.
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Yeah, most small scale organic farmers I have read about tend to buy compost. This includes The Market Gardener and these guys: https://www.singingfrogsfarm.com/
I personally did the “square foot garden” method and found that I generated enough compost. I supplemented with a lot of leaves stored in the fall, which is the most important part on small scale (dry browns). I also included coffee grounds from my office and a few other found sources.
I was never involved with this on my family’s farm – but I believe for their dairy they spread manure, but also took egg shells from a local manufacturing plant. I believe they also occasionally used some form of byproduct from a local wastewater treatment facility?
Sad to hear, nevertheless. I also volunteered at a CSA which teaches urban youths for a career in organic agriculture. They make compost but note they don’t generate enough dry browns. You’d have to team up with something like a landscaping company for ground wood chips.
But on a personal level, I found that a 50 gallon drum of brown leaves worked perfectly. Every time I added greens (garden waste and kitchen scraps) I added a few scoops of browns.
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Collecting leaves from your yard and composting them is a very good tip for the home garden but is usually not practical for farms. implicit is the assumption that you have much more land not producing food than land producing food. That’s not the case for most modern small farms. Preindustrial farms had about 30% of their land producing food for their machines and larder (animals) and another 25% fallow to naturally replenish nitrogen. Which leads once again to the conclusion that a sustainable civilization, regardless of the standard of living, must have a much smaller population.
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Yep. They also had wood lots. Sadly, even if you have access to lots of leaves, eventually the trees/forests need those leaves for themselves. The only viable world is one with significantly fewer humans. Permaculture systems work, but ultimately need to keep what’s extracted local to the property. Including human waste.
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Martha’s composting operation is impressive. Too bad you don’t have her dough – you could get yourself a tub grinder. “It’s a good thing.”
Wonder how much diesel that grinder takes?
https://www.themarthablog.com/2019/06/the-tub-grinder-at-work.html
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Yep, that’s very green and sustainable! Morons everywhere you look.
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Or as Nate Hagen’s would say, “energy blind”
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https://www.peak-oil.com/2022/02/europas-energiekrise/#comment-400281
Patrick says:
February 18, 2022 at 08:55 am
“While Germany has prescribed itself an energy turnaround, it has been stepmotherly and inconsistent and is now leading to the issue of energy prices becoming relevant again.”
And this energy turnaround is leading us exactly…where?
We’ve been going in circles here for years.
I stand by the realization that a world based primarily on wind and solar can only accommodate a tiny fraction of today’s population.
And even this wind/solar generation technology will disappear not too long after fossil disappears as well.
Our overriding problem is not climate change, but quite simply and banally an exorbitant overshoot.
Climate change is only a symptom of it.
Why should we continue to dither around it and imagine a world powered by hydrogen, wind and sun?
It simply won’t happen.
If the fossil industrial age ends, then the absolutely predominant part of mankind will also end.
The most that can still be done is to mitigate the maximum nosedive a little bit and to change to a not quite so steep descent.
So we are only delaying the inevitable a little.
For better or worse, we will have to resign ourselves to a healthy dose of fatalism in the future.
The complexity of the global economy goes beyond what is often mentioned here. Supply chains can be permanently destroyed, demographics, migration(s), wars/civil wars, currency collapse…there are so many things at play that can influence whether or how much oil and gas we can still extract in energy terms.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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El gato’s very good today. Our mass psychosis (aka reality denial) is amazing.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/an-epidemic-of-self-delusion/comments?utm_source=url
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Oh dear, the U.S. is about to become a net importer of oil again… So much for the shale “revolution”. Art Berman, Jeffrey Brown and others said our net-exporter status would not last long. The author of this piece says we have “vast resources” – but makes no mention about the quality of those resources.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/us-set-to-again-become-net-importer-of-oil-despite-vast-resources/ar-AAU2zWC
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Net importer you say? Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.
Maybe not so smart repealing in 2015 the 1975 law that generally prohibited the export of crude oil produced in the United States.
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Karl Denninger reminds us how fragile we have made our modern civilization. It’s not hard to imagine how any one of many possible (probable?) disruptions to world trade would collapse the infrastructure we need to survive, very very quickly. There’s lots of candidates: economic collapse, diesel shortages, trade dispute, war, viruses, climate event, accident, etc.
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245184
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And a comment from one of Denninger’s readers The_serb:
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As Chris Martenson recently discussed, too many shocks to rats in a cage and they become unruly. This is unusual for my province.
https://bc-cb.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=2130&languageId=1&contentId=73532
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Doug Nolan also now at Defcon 1 today with a very nice global snapshot of the risks (sans energy of course).
http://creditbubblebulletin.blogspot.com/2022/02/weekly-commentary-made-decision.html
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