Council

"To all of you:

I am asking of you what you sense is going to happen economically and politically over the rest of this year."

---Here are the responses we've gotten so far. Please answer this question in the comments section at the bottom of the post.---


#1 - A retired female Swede: "Do you want your horoscope as well? You know predictions are hard to make - especially about the future!"

#2 - A Female California high school teacher: "The sheep will remain sedated...until it is too late. I should know! I have a captive audience of 200 young, fresh souls daily. Few get angry, frustrated or even sick and tired. Nope! They feel entitled to a world that we couldn't give them (even if we wanted to).
It is true...ignorance is bliss."

#3 - A very successful contractor: "The word from my Billionaire clients is that when people think that the economy is stabilized that there will be a 30% contraction in the stock market.

There are four things I believe in and they are all based on Bible Scripture:

1) Man will be faint out of fear of expectation things that are happening in the Last Days so it will be a difficult situation not only economically but in every other way as well.
2) At the same time it says “Do not harm the oil and the wine” so that tells me it isn’t going to be utter chaos a dooms day so to speak as Hollywood would like us to believe or seems to be seeling.
3) When they say “True peace and security the n the end will come”. Again things will not fall into chaos. The end is much more complicated than that. Democracy is a part of the problem. The Bible says that the last Government will be of “iron and clay” a democracy. It says that iron and clay makes for a weak structure and that is irrefutably correct. We don’t need democracy, we need God.
4) The end of this system of things is coming but not the end of the world including man.
5) I know that you have the pendulum swinging back my way but in a nut shell no one can figure out what the weather is much less the economy. If they could they would be billionaire’s. We got to where we are now because we are idiots and that is not going to change and I know that you agree with that. So what is in store for the economy in America is anyone’s guess and people are usually wrong. (It's the blind leading the blind; what do you think is going to happen?)"

#4 Handyman: I’d say 90% of the people I talk to know that things are going to hell. They all have a different take on it but there is a definate concensus. Lots of people are prepairing in one way or another storing food, supplies, and weapons.

I expect the banker controlled nation of Israel to continue to defi the laws of god and kill more Palastinians and most likely be at war with Iran by the Fall. Many Jews have been duped by the evil beast of global finance and its players. Some have realized that it’s wrong in their hearts though and have turned away.

Here in America the states are beginning to defy Washington . With a little jolt of truth and patriotism we may see the roaring heart of America come to life. I’m really hoping for that. I would like to live free and be happy. I could really be satisfied growing my own vegatables on a small farm AND BEING LEFT THE HELL ALONE!

The privileged few feel the world belongs to them. I don’t expect nuclear weapons to be used on a large scale, they are too distructive. I think an EMP attack is more likely. An EMP would send us into the stone age and drastically reduce the population in short order. Many would starve to death being totally unprepared and unable to survive without the system. Many more would die fighting over the scraps. The first winter would kill off the majority of who’s left, after the second year you’d know who the survivors are. If I was playing chess that’s when I’d send in the drones to find the hold out villages.

I think it will be swift efficient little moves to cut us back. I don’t expect them to waste fuel in a big showy WWII type war. It will just be little nudges. Unless of course we stand up for ourselves. Time will tell…

Ps. I realized that I didn't answer your question. I expect big fiscal problems, the devil will be making deals. If people start to wake up things will get interesting. People are really pissed over the crap they are pulling in Washington. Be ready for excitement. I don't think we are all as dumb as we look.

#5 EMT/Local Government official: Based on real estate sales (my most realistic basis for opinion), we are going to do pretty well. People seem to have decided we have hit the “bottom” and are beginning to purchase real estate. This is an excellent sign for the economy. While dollar volume is down, the number of closings is way up, so that is good news. I can’t predict whether it will continue, of course, but if it does, things will begin to improve.

By the way – I believe NONE of this has to do with the federal gov’t. I think people on the ground are what makes an economy recover. The government is a dangerous, bloated entity, and its most recent actions could undermine the good that has begun occurring in the economy. Probably will, so this optimistic report may become moot.
Thanks for asking

#6 - Blogger/Traveler: hmm. I don't have any idea. Things just keep getting worse. I'm thinking we've got a few years yet before shit really hits the fan. Honestly it's been nice not thinking much about economics and politics while being on vacation.

#7 - A female underground Cinematographer: Both a tough & easy question. At the risk of sounding loony, my gut says that there is a undiscussed, added component motivating at least some (probably not all) of the scary, blue-blood family corporate overlords.That component would be the impending global natural disasters (major earthquakes, rising sea levels, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods in some areas, drought in others, dwindling potable water, etc..) Others within the aforementioned "scary people" camp are motivated by religious fanaticism (just spotted an article about Goldfein from Goldman-Sachs claiming his recent bonus was because he was doing "God's work," and of course you know that Eric Prince of Blackwater/Xe is, and comes from, a family of Catholic zealots.) In other words, what's on my mind this minute is how Earth's next cycle of apocalypses (both the Earth's natural reality version, as well as the nut-bag human version) is motivating a major play for control of all of the world's resources, most habitable areas & all of the world's labor force before the shit hits the fan & the overlords lose their hold amidst the chaos. But as for this year, the economy: I believe that there will be some band-aide-like schemes hatched to get people saddled with mortgages again, and similar processes that offer big promises, but mostly deliver big debt loads, as well as the chained-and-can't-rock-the-boat effect that stalls large scale (and necessary) social unrest. Tuition, credit cards, mortgage, high cost of living, stress = ball & chain.To me, the solution, the deliverance for many, will be housing and worker's cooperatives (if you haven't seen John Curl's book on the history of cooperatives in the U.S., "For All The People," check it out!) It is corporations & bankers who deliberately pushed the labor force, both skilled and unskilled, back into a wage slavery that was not the norm (or desire of the common person) from this country's inception. In fact, getting away from that was (supposedly) the very idea in the first place, right?Without control of the means to take care of our most basic human needs, we are not free.I also believe in skills acquisition. There are many "intellectual" socialists, anarchists or other flavors of "left," but too often they end up strictly existing in academic & rarefied circles - cycles of conferences, book tours, teaching, etc., but unlikely to draw from the working class to whom those ideas most effect and benefit because -- well -- they have no practical way to connect.Everyone, and I mean everyone who is not quadriplegic or living with some other devastating disability, should have functional skills in one or more of the following: building; growing & preparing food; making clothes - including making, weaving, spinning, plaiting, whatever the clothing or textile item is derived from; first aide, diagnosis and treatment of illness; mechanics; the ability to recognize and know something of the animals & plants around them; practical skills in survival in general. I shudder to think of living through a long term major disaster with people who have zero skills that are not in some way attached to computer technology, or sales charts, etc.. Corporate interests have sought for years to train us out of doing for ourselves, out of self-sufficiency, into "specializing" in often obscure & passing fields, and created a society of needy, whiny, consumers.I do think the economy will tank if there is not gigantic regulations put on the CEO set, numerous arrests of bankers, and seizure of their assets to be redistributed to those that they stole from (I know - that last one still smacks of a bureaucratic mess, but how can it be worse than what we have?)The biggest obstacles are the mentally unhinged right wingers in this country. I'm not kidding. Their racism, blind obedience to capitalism and Jesus mania make them the most likely "terrorists" that we face - both here and abroad.The other obstacle is those who believe that there is nothing we can do.Frankly, I'm not sure how I will squeak through this year. Trying to solve the issue of how to buy a pro-HD camera, since simply even generating my own projects (which I can do in a heartbeat - from planning to camera to edit & DVD authoring) is effected by not currently shooting in HD, which is what distributors (not to mention many viewers) expect & demand. Camera rental costs are exorbitant. But I have no choice but to figure out a way, since clearly creating products (informational & educational DVD's, political films) and selling them myself seems to be the most reliable & logical way for me to go - not to mention participate in positive change.As far as this year's economy - at what point do we start using a different yard stick other than the stock market & housing prices? To me, the number of people employed at a living wage seems a better index of recovery, but we seem to not even flinch when the indicators used (in the media anyway) have little to do directly with the vast majority of us.So - back to co-ops. We need to find as many ways as possible of removing ourselves - our bodies, minds, ideas, labor, from the corporatocracy & recreate ourselves in decentralized self-sustaining communities that provide food, shelter & health care to one another. If we need to be militant about it, so be it. But it, ideally, should be done quickly, with plenty of useful free information available, and gather enough momentum to truly change things before the establishment knows what hit it (in many ways, the early "hippie" movement was about this, which is why it was such a threat to the establishment.)And we will have to be on guard for the inevitable corporate co-opting (ironic term here...) that will ensue. The same way "hippie fashion" became chic, or punk was co-opted and used for selling junk, or how the "green movement" is being corporatized.That's my 2 cents. Why do you ask?


Mind-Boggling Budget Deficit This is a funny and informative article.

Obama Appoints Pesticide Lobbyist to Chief Agricultural Negotiotator Perfectly orwellian, the way it should be when a country is run like organized crime

Quote of the day:

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian