State of the Union

9/7/2022

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Lorri

9/7/2022 13:36:46

I'm just resigned to the inevitable future you tell us about here.

I have no ability to make politicians do intelligent things, or the means to stop distortions of truth in the media. I can't change the minds of voters who don't know they're being manipulated.

Plus, as TC has said before, future earth changes would have overwhelmed even a better government than we have, though it could have been a softer landing.

My only concern at this point is preparing for a protracted crash landing.

Patrick

10/7/2022 07:16:04

The future is NOT inevitable, only certain events. Our reactions, individual then collectively as the cumulative effects arrive from many individuals, will determine "the future".

Making a politician do something intelligent is HIGHLY subjective.

You can and do change minds, and it starts with being aware. This website's readership is doing this in ways unseen.

No government is going to soften the landing events to come will bring, this is not possible. No government could ever achieve this.

It will be a protracted crash for people who want to see a crash and want a protracted, drawn out and long-lasting version. All those reactions & responses are OPTIONAL.

Lorri

10/7/2022 14:51:34

@Patrick

Of course I'm talking about the events predicted here, which are dramatic events.

TC once said that government policies have made thing worse than they had to be. That's what I was referring to.

Pierluigi

9/7/2022 15:06:00

I would suggest this lecture from a very good blogger, who happens was also an Archdruid (for real!)

I found his insightful pieces almost everytime above average, with some exceptionally good ones

Good reading
https://www.ecosophia.net/the-end-of-the-industrial-age/

Have a nice day
Pierluigi

Pierluigi

10/7/2022 00:22:20

Maybe, concerning the State of the Union, this one is better suited

https://www.ecosophia.net/the-twilight-of-empire/

Have a nice day
Pierluigi

Lorri

10/7/2022 01:28:54

I've been reading several of his essays, and I recognize many of his thoughts as my own.

Interesting site. Thanks for the suggestion, Pierluigi.

Patrick

10/7/2022 05:15:41

I struggle often reading prose; the first article on the website did this: I repeat the first few paragraphs, then offer my edited version, which says the same thing. (This is what a steady presence of The Committee inside your head does, when mixed with consumption of Hemingway, Friedman, Asturias, Vargas Llosa, García Márquez; [Nobel Prize authors] you become screwed up like me)
=========================================
ORIGINAL: The fourth enduring theme of my blogging over the last sixteen years, the decline and fall of modern industrial civilization, is also the one that most people try hardest to misunderstand. It’s not just that so many people blankly insist that it can’t happen and of course we’re on our way to the stars, just you wait and see. Nor is it that most of the people who have gotten past that delusion are salivating over the thought that we’ll get flattened by exactly the kind of sudden apocalyptic end to industrial society that history doesn’t provide.

No, the thing that keeps me shaking my head in baffled fascination is that so many people still think of the twilight of our civilization as something that’s still somewhere off there in the future. It’s not. We’re around seventeen years into the decline right now, hitting our second round of resource-driven economic crisis—the first was in 2008-2010, in case you didn’t notice—and there are many, many more still to come. The Long Descent is unfolding around us. All those things I’ve been talking about since I started blogging about the future of industrial society? They’re here, taking shape right before our eyes.

It’s important to take a moment here to recall what is declining, and why. The thing that sets industrial civilization apart from other types of human society is that all other examples so far got their energy from the current supply of sunlight. That’s what crops, firewood, and livestock are: sunlight that has been transmuted by the miracle of photosynthesis into edible plants and flammable wood, and by the further miracle of digestion and assimilation into edible animals. That’s also what windpower and water power are: the winds that turn windmills and fill the sails of tall ships and the rivers that turn waterwheels and fill dams get their motive force from the sun, which drives the atmospheric processes that yield wind and rain.

EDITED: The fourth topic about which I’ve written for sixteen years, is the decline and fall of modern industrial civilization, most widely misunderstood. Many people insist this cannot happen, that we’re on our way to the stars, wait and see. Most other people past that delusion salivate over the idea we’ll be flattened by an apocalyptic end to industrial society, which has never happened.

What baffles and fascinates is belief in the twilight of civilization being somewhere in the future. It’s right now; we’re about seventeen years into the decline, hitting the second round of resource-driven economic crisis —the first from 2008-2010, if you didn’t notice— with many more to come. The Long Descent is unfolding. Things I’ve been discussing about the future of industrial society are taking shape before our eyes.

Let’s recall what is declining and why. What makes industrial civilization different is energy not from sunlight. Crops, firewood, and livestock are sunshine and photosynthesis turned into edible plants and wood. Wind and waterpower turn mills, fill the sails of ships. Rivers power turbines and fill dams by force from the sun, causing wind and rain.

Santanu Acharya

10/7/2022 21:20:55

@Patrick who installed the Georgia guidestones and why? And why was it destroyed and by whom?

Patrick

11/7/2022 15:19:50

Four questions, repeated and numbered:
1. who installed the Georgia guidestones
2. why?
3. why was it destroyed
4. by whom?

Replies The Committee:
1) The names we shall not divulge, because this has no value or meaning anymore. Deaths have happened among them; however the legacy of beliefes lives on.
2) To proclaim their beliefs and make a large number of people consider them. To predict the future.
3) Disagreement was the motivation. The destruction has increased attention on both the messages and the disagreement.
4) The perpetrators. We do not identify participants in possible criminal acts, by either innocence or guilt. Have you considered these stones were sabotaged by people with what humans would consider a lawful right to do it, such as owners or their proper agents?

Steve

10/7/2022 22:55:48

Is it gunna be Hilary v Trump re match,? That be Popcorn Worthy ! 😁

alex campbell

11/7/2022 07:36:00

As an outsider looking upon US politics now and again, it seems to me that the country would benefit greatly from socialized medical care and university tuition. Over here in Scotland I paid no tuition fees for my degree.

My children don't pay for their tuition either. Also our hospitals do not have cash registers. Paying for these social goods from general taxation would alleviate a lot of stress and debt in the health and education space.

Renie

11/7/2022 09:11:39

Alex, those of lower income in the U.S do receive "free" healthcare and qualify for financial aid to attend college, as well as rent, utilities, food and childcare assistance. It is paid for by the taxpayers. The population of Scotland is comparable to one of the larger cities in the U.S., so maybe socialism works best with less diversity?

Lorri

11/7/2022 13:22:34

@Renie

Yes, there is a lot of assistance, but there are also gaping holes depending on the level of low income and the state you live in.

For instance, you can only get your health insurance subsidized with the Affordable Care Act if your income doesn't fall below a certain level. If your income is below that level, you are supposed to get Medicaid, except that is nearly impossible unless your state has expanded Medicaid. 12 states did not expand Medicaid, so people can fall into the gap in those states.

If you end up in the hospital because your condition has been untreated so long, some hospital will offer financial assistance up to 100% depending on income. You will still be left with smaller bills like the fees of the doctors who treated you or outside vendors like radiology.

Moreover health insurance isn't what it used to be. Deductibles are now sky high. Bankruptcies due to medical debt happen to people WITH insurance, not just people without it.

So we have more help than Europeans think, but it's still a mess and people in states without Medicaid expansion and no insurance actually die unnecessarily. If our system worked, there would be no medical debt bankruptcies. That these bankruptcies occur even to people WITH health insurance is mind-boggling.

Renie

11/7/2022 14:35:05

@Lorri, I agree--too many people get sucked into that black hole of debt because our medical system has turned into an unloving, overpriced monster ruled by big pharma.

Patrick

11/7/2022 15:31:27

A large portion of education in the USA is already funded by general taxation, nearly all schooling until age 18 (i.e. high school) and a large portion of university education. The calls for all university education to be cost free for the student comes from the crowd that wants 100% of American education to be that way, not 90% as it is now.

Your idea of medical treatment for all paid for through taxes isn't wanted by most Americans. Obamacare came close but it didn't work. The problem is cultural; forcing Americans to buy things is intensely disliked.

Scott2

11/7/2022 12:33:57

@steve given how the first round of Hillary vs the Donald went wouldn't that be cruel to subject Hillary to a second round.

Scott R

11/7/2022 22:22:24

No, no, Scott, prop her up and get her on the stage. We could use the entertainment...
Truth is it would be rehashing what we already know. I just want her gone.

Patrick

11/7/2022 15:21:54

Hillary has already said, she ain't running again. The latest rumour is: Former 1st lady Michelle Obama will be the Democrat Party nominee.
😮

Kyle

11/7/2022 15:37:06

1st Lady ?????

Patrick

11/7/2022 16:59:18

The wife of the president of the USA has traditionally been called The First Lady.

Kyle

11/7/2022 17:46:22

Joan Rivers died not long after this interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9C3SAdw-AA&list=WL&index=2

Scott2

11/7/2022 17:54:25

@Patrick is it me or wouldn't the democrats look strange that they are trying to keep Barack in power whether Joe or Michelle is seen as more a puppet president rather than a true president voted in by the people.

Scott R

11/7/2022 22:29:06

I believe she just may have the balls to do that...).

merica101

11/7/2022 11:54:52

"We Jews have put issue upon issue to the American people.
Then we promote both sides of the issue as confusion reigns.
With their eye's fixed on the issues, they fail to see who is behind every scene.
We Jews toy with the American public as a cat toys with a mouse."
~ Harold Wallace Rosenthal

Scott R

11/7/2022 22:33:05

Thank you to the Committee for this post. And to the royal messenger who delivered it. ).

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