i just rented and started watching the 11th hour

highly recommended, related, and hearing the details of the collapse of industrial civilization from such a cutey pie as Leo DiCap makes it all the sweeter.

great article

any new thoughts on dimantling err ugh i mean transferring out of the industrial era?

me and lungta got something on the burner but could always use more help

ideas? anyone? bueller? bueller?

This poor guy. He’s so depressed. He must be an atheist.

as if he refers to this as “the golden era”

Civilization is collapsing … let’s give it a push!

Decent article for mainstream, but you can’t blame it all on population; nation-states, capitalism, communism, et al definitely have done their fair share in creating the Malthusian nightmare that so many progressives are so happy to see and flaunt in the face of traditionalists. “Told you so!”

Mitigation is meaningless and so is believing hybrids and bicycles can solve anything. How many aluminum smelters does it take to make a crank set?

Only worthwhile idea so far… light a match.

blueridgenano.com
fix us up nice

“This poor guy. He’s so depressed. He must be an atheist.”

Odd generalization. Personally, I’m an atheist and feel delightful.

©¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*• .¸©
I’m glad this shit is coming to an end
©¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*• .¸©

When I was young people a few miles away in the next village had different accents. Community was king, and most practical things were common property. It was unheard of for a woman to go out to work if she had small children.

Most technology is shit anyway. When TVs were like a 12 inch cathode ray tube, there was fantastic stuff on like Bilko and I love Lucy (it was dead funny first time round). Look at TV now – it’s so hideously bad (all 500 channels) only fat bastards who can’t move watch it.

I remember, most kids went to school in some home-made clothes. Any child not wearing the right £65.50 trainers to school in Britain today is beaten and stabbed.

Professional people used to be honest and admirable. These days doctors, architects, lawyers and scientists are money-grubbing scum who probably cheated to their qualifications, and will tell any lie and pedal any shite to line their pockets.

Religion, rather than being a comfort and a uniting paradigm, has been replaced with warmongering sodomites.

I’ll also be glad when the internet shuts down – it has been a major disappointment to discover that most people in the world are brainless fucktards looking to follow the next fad.

It is coming to an end, and quite soon. I can feel it.

i love you guys

the apocalypse is sweet

i wonder if any other websites have threads like these right now

everyone take a goddamn shot and cheer for team humans

weirdest species ever!

I hope someone writes down the recipes for both Tequila and Guinness… and southern fried chicken and potstickers and dulce de leche…

I will struggle a little less hard for the survival of my species if we lose those…

I make a pretty good stout similar to guinness, and I have my own hop supply. However, I haven’t tried distilling spirits yet, and agave don’t grow here.

it won’t end it will change. the change whatever it may look like will interesting if nothing else. i know it sounds like i am giving up, but cannot be saved. lessons are about to learned the hard way. maybe the next time we’ll get it a little closer to something that resembles right. as for me… i live in the republic of cascadia…now where did i put that flag…or was it ecotopia?

the best way to predict the future is to make it happen.

Zubkov Subdued in Gazprom Debut

CLIP

In addition to Zubkov, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina was also a new addition to the board, replacing German Gref, who left the government to become CEO of Sberbank.

Among the other statement’s that Miller made in his speech and during the news conference that followed:

He said state control over Gazprom made it MORE COMPETITIVE in the intensifying hunt for attractive global and local reserves. “Companies with state participation have considerable advantages in winning dominant positions on international markets,” he said. In Russia, “the most current investment idea in the energy sector is to invest with the state.”

The Russian market has the potential to outdo the EU in terms of profitability for Gazprom in the very near future, Miller said. “In three or four years, a market will emerge in Russia that will exceed the traditional European one by twofold in terms of revenues,” he said. From 2005 to 2007, gas consumption in Russia grew by 25.5 bcm, which exceeds Gazprom’s deliveries to large customers, like Italy, Miller said.

Dismissing biofuels as the reason for the current rise in food prices, Miller touted gas as a better alternative to oil. Gazprom, in conjunction with its European partners, could build a network of filling stations that would offer natural gas instead of gasoline. In Germany, it costs motorists 70 percent more to use gasoline than natural gas in their cars, Miller said.

In the United States and Europe, you got a situation where the taxpayer invests literally trillions of dollars in Corporate schemes and, no matter what, the only return they get on their investments are plummeting employment, plummeting health care and plummeting literacy.

That kind of “capitalism” is on its way out and good riddance to it. I’d have to agree.

Polish president refuses to sign EU reform treaty

WARSAW: Polish President Lech Kaczynski announced in an interview published Tuesday that he will not sign the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last month.

“For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless,” Kaczynski was quoted as saying in the online version of the daily Dziennik.

The Polish parliament voted in April to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, a key reform treaty meant to streamline EU decision-making, but it needs the signature of the president to become definitive.

oh wait. there’s more

OPEN QUOTE

The Czech Republic will also likely pose a problem for Sarkozy with many lawmakers in the centre-right ruling coalition cooling the treaty, starting with eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus.

“It is difficult to say how all this will end. But on the other hand, to say that without the treaty there won’t be a Union is not serious,” said Kaczynski.

He noted the same argument was made by proponents of the EU constitution after French and Dutch voters rejected it in 2005.

See also : Spoiling Sarko’s Euro-Show

BP faces loss of control at Russian venture

BP, the British oil company, appeared to be in danger of losing control of its Russian joint venture Tuesday after learning that the Moscow authorities have refused to renew the work visas of its expatriate staff.

BP, formerly British Petroleum, was informed Monday that 75 or more employees at its TNK-BP joint venture would not be granted work permits, which would make it impossible to extend their visas, which expire at the end of this month.

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that among those who may have to leave the country are Robert Dudley, chief executive of the venture, and his chief financial officer…The departure of top BP officials from the venture would leave operations in the hand of the Russian partners.

This is nice too

Sakhalin region offers to Japanese government joint work to restore historic monuments

The southern part of Sakhalin below the 50th parallel was under Japan’ s administration from 1905 to 1945. The Japanese population on the island numbered up to 400,000. Towns and settlements were built on the Japanese part of the island. Most Japanese architectural monuments have disappeared by now. The Sakhalin regional administration suggested that some 200 Japanese monuments that are now in various stages of decay be reconstructed.

Maybe this goes with Poland’s refusal to sign up for Sarko’s “new” Europe :

Iran, Poland to sign $2b LNG contract

Yep. I think so. And, I dare say, with Gazprom’s CEO’s pronouncement regarding that 70% savings.

That’s called pulling the table cloth out from under all the dishes without spilling a drop of wine.

Interesting move from Kaczynski.

Iranians Float an Offer the West Should Not Refuse

Although widely ignored in the international press, highly significant statements were made at an international conference in Berlin June 24-25, by two authoritative Iranian spokesmen, one an academic, the other a political leader and brother of the new Majlis (Parliament) speaker Ali Larijani. Both said explicitly that Tehran would be willing to freeze its uranium enrichment, and to provide for concrete mechanisms to guarantee that its enrichment program would not, and could not, be geared to weapons production.

Instead of acknowledging these ostentatious gestures of good will, the U.S. surged ahead with new legislation to introduce yet more sanctions against Iran, which are clearly designed to prepare a military aggression, and the European Union kicked in with its own new punitive sanctions.

At the same time, 900 Polish troops are stuck in the Diwaniya province of Iraq, waiting to hand it over to Iraqis, but the U.S. and Iraqi government refuse to visiti the region to formalize the handover, citing “problems with the weather.”

UPI

Hamid al-Khudari, governor of the Qadisiyah province of which Diwaniya is capital, said a curfew would be imposed beginning at 6 p.m. Sunday evening local time in preparation for the handover…The transfer of responsibility was to coincide with the Iraqi uprising against British forces in 1920.

Sources to Voices of Iraq Monday, however, said security forces lifted the curfew Monday morning, citing, with few details, a dispute between the Iraqi and U.S.-led militaries…Iraqi security forces hold authority over nine Iraqi provinces. Qadisiyah and Anbar were scheduled for transfer, but U.S. officials said the ceremonial handover was delayed indefinitely due to poor weather conditions.

from das wikie

A Japanese settlement in the southern end of Sakhalin of Ootomari was established in 1679 in a colonialization attempt.

Russia started occupying the island, with an army made up of convicts, from the 18th century onwards. . . . people from both Japan and Russia attempted to colonise the island, albeit from different ends.

Japan unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island in 1845 . . .[while] Russian settlers established coal mines, administration facilities, schools, prisons, churches on the island.

In 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that both nationals could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clear boundary between.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, which resulted in the southern part of the island below 50° N reverting to Japan; the Russians retained the other three-fifths of the area.

In August 1945, according to Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. The Soviet attack on South Sakhalin started on 11 August 1945, as a part of Operation August Storm, four days before the Surrender of Japan, after the bombing of Hiroshima.

Holy cow Shaz!

re.: the Iranians offering to freeze nuclear enrichment last week and the US completely ignoring the statement.

I can’t believe I missed that. Muchas gracias.

We got us a Euro Split. Oh yes we do. Prosperity calls Muchachos. Warmongering is for tards.

It’s interesting how the EU has sought to pressure Poland into backing the treaty. Check this out:

Polish workers protest to save Solidarity shipyards

Scores of Polish workers protested outside European Union headquarters on Wednesday in an attempt to save from bankruptcy three major shipyards where the Solidarity anti-communist movement was born…The EU executive Commission has given Poland until Thursday to present restructuring plans for the three yards, which would allow them to avoid repaying an estimated 1.3 billion euros ($2.03 billion) in state aid.

“If we are forced to return this state aid, this will be the end of the shipyard industry in Poland,” said Janusz Sniadek, head of Solidarity…The collapse of the shipyards in Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin, which employ 15,000 workers, would be political dynamite in Poland and a serious blow to the centre-right, pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

..“We ask the Commission for more time … to find a solution that would allow us to save our jobs,” Sniadek told Reuters, adding that finding strategic investors for Gdynia and Szczecin could resolve the problem.

... EU rules allow governments to give financial help to ailing companies only if the cash is accompanied by plans that would make the firms viable in the long term and involve production capacity cuts..EU Competition Commissioner Neelies Kroes said there would no more leniency for the Polish shipyards and unless Warsaw sent credible plans, she would propose “negative decisions concerning the aid”, her spokesman said.

Moreover:

Polish workers oppose government plan to restrict right to strike

The frequency and intensity of industrial conflicts have markedly increased in Poland over the past two years. Those who hoped that Poland’s entry into the European Union would bring some improvement of the social situation have been disappointed. Instead, membership of the EU has only served to widen the gap between rich and poor. While wages in some sectors of industry have risen because of the substantial shift of specialists and technicians to other European countries, any increases in salary have already been eaten away by a dramatic rise in inflation—particularly in the prices of food and energy.

The cost of living has increased considerably since Poland’s entry into the EU. The prices of many basic foodstuffs have increased by between 50 and 100 percent, in some cases even by 200 percent. The price of electricity and fuel has also soared along with huge increases in rents and the housing market. In the meantime, home prices and rents in major Polish cities such as Warsaw, Krakau, Breslau or Danzig are now on a par with western European cities—although the strong position of the zloty in relation to the euro or the US dollar should have served to depress price increases. Should the value of the zloty fall in the near future, then further dramatic price increases will be inevitable.

...While a small, super-rich layer are able to enjoy lives of luxury and a small middle class has developed, particularly in the major cities, for the large majority of the population life is becoming increasingly difficult…According to the Polish office of statistics, 66 percent of all children live in families subsisting below the poverty level. Around a third of all children in Poland are insufficiently nourished, and in 2005 12 percent of the population had to survive on less than the official subsistence level of 387 zloty (approx. €100) per month. In 1996, this total was just 4 percent.

...Over the course of the next three years, the government plans to privatise no less than 740 state enterprises. The sales of these industries are expected to net 30 billion zloty (approx. €8.82 billion). Half of this sum is to be returned to the original owners of the private enterprises whose factories were nationalized after the war by the country’s Stalinist regime.

Under the pretext of “dismantling bureaucracy” the government is also planning to change the country’s industrial law. Restrictions on working times are to be loosened, the rights of pregnant women and mothers are to be limited and redundancies made easier to enforce. In the longer term, the government is intent on introducing a so-called flat tax—a uniform tax rate on all salaries, big or small. This will lead to a further enrichment of the rich and super-rich at the expense of society as a whole.

How is that pressuring them into backing the treaty? It is more of a get off your arses and do the necessary paperwork if you want the funds

CLIP from Solidarity shipyard No. 1 “... EU rules allow governments to give financial help to ailing companies only if the cash is accompanied by plans that would make the firms viable in the long term and involve production capacity cuts”

“involve production capacity cuts”? plans that would make the firm more viable in the long term, ok, but necessarily “involve capacity cuts”? Looks like we got the dirty on the new EU plan right there. That’s the famous “restructuring” coming out of its closet from hell.

OPEN QUOTE from the second piece

The cost of living has increased considerably since Poland’s entry into the EU.

END OF QUOTE d’oh.

It’s not paperwork. It’s massive lay-offs and restructuring, which was the aim of the EU Commission all along.

The EU isn’t dispensing funds, it’s state aid from Warsaw that’s at stake. The EU says that such aid is not permissible within the common market, and wants to stop the Polish government doling it out, as functioning shipyards is not in the master plan for Poland’s economy.

re.: dis

How is that pressuring them into backing the treaty?

It’s the old Euro Freedom and Democracy recipe. First we’ll beat the crap outa ya, and then you’ll do as we say.

The competition commissioner is definitely an office that can piss off as far as I’m concerned. Why on earth is the EU commission demanding that Poland’s shipyards bankrupt themselves by repaying state aid and to submit plans that prove their long-term profitability, while farmers across the EU receive billions of euros in subsidies…?

The thing to remember is that “state aid” is a euphemism for taxpayer support. In other words, the idea is that the people are investing in their nation’s capitalist enterprises. In a genuinely capitalist system, if you make an investment, you do so with the expectation of seeing a return on that investment.

What the EU wants is for the taxpayer to make those investments without expecting any returns.

The “competition commissioner” LOL. Is that Big Brother Squared or what?

In regard to all of the above, maybe they shouldn’t have voted a bunch of free market liberals into office then :) (That would include both PO and PiS)

“—although the strong position of the zloty in relation to the euro or the US dollar should have served to depress price increases.” – Should have being the key words here, the suppliers are pocketing the savings – Imported goods are increasing at the same rates as the domestic, bit like the way the retailers (except for the drug dealers) ripped off the customers in Ireland when the Euro was introduced

note: the price of weed hasn’t increased in Poland since they joined the EU.

“It’s not paperwork. It’s massive lay-offs and restructuring, which was the aim of the EU Commission all along. “ – I stand corrected

Ya. That’s it exactly : Things get more expensive when there’s no competition — ie., not enough to go around. It could be an organic paucity, or it can be suppliers getting together ganging up on the consumer to extort ‘em — to bloat profit margins.

Is it good weed and where does it come from?

“Is it good weed and where does it come from?” – it’s sensimilla so pretty good really, comes from Holland i suspect, but couldn’t be sure.

but i should add that even though it is cheaper than in Ireland, when you adjust for salary differences it works out more expensive.

gnn solid gold thread
in case it wasnt obvious

Mike Whitney has a smashing interview of the author of Superimperialism — in today’s CounterPunch . . . there are LOTS of ideas out there guys. No need to get discouraged.

Getting to the Heart of America’s Economic Crisis

_No need to get discouraged. _

Of course not. We are living interesting times. Not for the faint of hearth and lots of open space for challenges and ideas. Thank Tron for THC and some remnants of sanity. :-)

well put mike.

im waiting on the editor from mongabay.com to get back to me on publication of an article i threw together on the end of the industrial era.

should be out soon.

woot!