I had missed this piece from Roblimo from last August, and it's pretty good. I'd go further than his ideas though, but he's headed in the right direction, based on common sense frugality and setting priorities of life's necessities first over luxuries and to do it BEFORE you get "downsized", *well before*, _not_ after.

    He did good, outlines his efforts to still live nice but not so expensively. I'll add some of mine, example: when we moved rural from metro (inside perimeter beltway in Atlanta), I called it "evacuation in advance", relocating to where the food, water and energy come from in the first place, rather than keeping to try and rely on iffy economic conditions to always be there and be favorable to me for purchasing all that stuff. We go directly to the primary source now, much cheaper and easier and can be done at zero expense to us in a pinch. Zero is a very nice cost for necessities. Right now it is medium minimal, but in a pinch..zero, and we could still make it for those necessities. Yes it costs labor, but I am not going to fire myself or offshore myself either...

    More, take any surplus you can scrounge up now and stick it in what I call "tangibles insurance" investments, anything from a garden to a paid off small solar rig to a larger propane tank and buy in the dips in the market to keep it filled to hard round and shiny to many extra pairs of jeans and socks when they are on sale, canning supplies and can the deals you get at the grocery sore if no garden, a decent freezer and get your meats at bulk half off rates, etc, etc. too many to list, but all the stuff you *need* and will need for the vague future. Think of all the tangibles you might need in the future as your priority investment,(you are always going to want to eat, to have some sort of roof over your head, to have at least some electricity, etc) ahead of digital investments. Beat the rush, just about everyone is going to be doing similar *real soon now*.

This is a follow up to my previous entry (my closing commentary there), I neglected the link, but this is just so damn good it needs a stand alone entry anyway. The game is rigged, and everyone has to play.

Well, the first video link is, then some more, and my commentary.

  Here is a very "progressive" rep wih a retired IMF guy and economist being interviewed by Bill Moyers on the housing collapse and bailouts, bankruptcies and homelessness, etc. They hit some high points accurately, fox guarding the henhouse leads to a rapidly declining number of hens, and much fatter foxes, but neglect one critical and important aspect, the role of the private Federal Reserve and the entire central bank and fractional reserve thing, which is part of the three way rotational (Fed-Government economic advisors and officials-Wall Street) incestuous merry go round job dance in this ongoing and not even close to being over yet economic coup and heist of the millenium.

And here's an interesting article where the author claims Moody's deliberately fired analysts who just wanted to do traditional accurate ratings on risk, and replaced them wih toadies who would assign more "business friendly" people who would rubber stamp AAA ratings on about anything shoved at them. his sort of thing and ther recent busting of some insider trading fatcats is tip of the iceberg, IMO. This rot and corruption goes WAY deep, it is not a "few bad apples".

This next article outlines some of the arguments that run contrary to all the happy speak shill noises still coming out of the normal DC and Wall Street areas, this "jobless recovery" nonsense they keep spouting. It just ain't possible with so many efforts against an actual return to a wealth creation nation with a very well balanced and accurate money creation and supply system in favor of what they keep doing now, which is a "loot what wealth remains" series of overlapping policies.

This has been 80s type corporate raiding, just on a (inter)national scale. And I agree with Rep Kaptur in the vid,(remember, she is about as far left as it gets in US elected politics, and both those folks in the vid supported him initially) if the big O is *really* serious about cleaning up this mess, he needs to fire all his economic generals he has surrounded himself with and get some new blood, and some rad new ideas, and *not* from the same pool of high level mobster loan sharks. He fails to do that, this is so much political rhetoric, same old BS we always get. And that means, it ain't gonna get no better, just worse, for everyone but a relatively few high level fatcats.

Another thought, just *very* randomly generalizing, FWIW. I think, today, with all this evidence out there to look at, that most people, the ones who are still heavily "invested" in all these various digital manipulation and rearranging economic congames, are going to be losing their shirts, and drastically and dramatically so, and then be very angry and wondering what happened.

Why? Look at it this way, to "stay in", and "win", you are betting-and it is for real a bet- that you are just slicker, that you are smarter, sneakier, have more insider knowledge, have better timing, and are also *psychic enough* to stay several moves ahead, to beat the largest assemblage of wildly successful crooks ever grouped into a gang in the history of the world. That you are going to beat them at their game they designed and built, where they not only set the rules you can see, but can have secret rules and moves hidden way beyond where you can see or find out about, moves they can play but that you can never take yourself, PLUS, they control all the umpires and "scoring" of the game as well.

Would you even want to play a video game like that, let alone a real life high stakes game?

My friend who runs vista had an interesting question that I don't know the answer to. Is it possible to have a real time backup that will copy everything you type directly to a Cd/disk, as you type it, during a long recording session maybe? And failing that, what would be the easiest, cheapest solution to having a functional real time backup for a regular home user? (I guess besides getting nailed with a keylogger...HE wants the backup)

Thanks guys, I am clueless when it comes to using windows.

ya, ya, I know, I should have stopped right after the word "clueless". OK, yuk yuk yuk ;)

There's a big banking convention going on in Chicago soon, and activists are planning some demonstrations. Showdown in Chicago

"The same financial institutions that caused the economic crisis and took billions in taxpayer bailouts are back to earning incredible profits. Meanwhile, Americans face shrinking pensions, rising foreclosures and unemployment, state budget cuts, predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees, and sky-high credit card interest rates....." and so on.

There's one nifty thing an individual can do to help out, if they so choose and are motivated enough, and that is, just stop using credit, especially through banks and credit card companies. Yes, it is really doable. Just say no. If you can't pay for it, maybe you can't afford "it" in the first place. The "we the people" could solve this economic problem well before government and the banking industry can, by "opting out" instead of "in" for their usury and "investment" scams.

  The default in our society is, you get brainwashed-and this is clearly done on purpose and is rather extensive- into "opting in" starting when you are a little kid, and it carries on over to adulthood, and you are never really presented with credible alternatives, you are forced to seek them out on your own, whenever it dawns on you that there even might be an alternative to participating in all these scams. Most people are terrified of the thought "OMG! No credit! Howsoever would I live!?!!" shake, tremble, etc. And that's as far as it goes with most people, they shut down immediately and it is never considered again, trapped in that cult. And it is a cult, the cult of the crediots.. They have been literally terrorized into that belief system and mindset.

  The concept of living "without credit" in our modern society is so alien to most people's economic upbringing that they never rationally consider it, or even take little baby steps towards trying to implement it in their own lives. They heroically hang onto putting themselves into decades/entire lifetimes of near complete economic thralldom, they "opt in" to that experience, as they are convinced now, in cult like fashion, that this is "the proper thing to do, look, everyone else is doing it!".

    Now, many, millions and millions, are wondering where all their money went,(despite reading a few articles back in school about the great depression and the stock market crash, it never sunk it why this really happened or who won and who lost back then, and why) and they are all now so very upset, despite years of working hard, they demand the same crooks and grifters and conmen to "reform" somehow. HAHAHAH!.... Doesn't even enter 'wishful thinking" stage, it is so unbelievable to think that is going to happen.

These millions and millions of people simply gave their wealth away freely, without even being really conscious of it, they got scared into giving it away, they got scared and conned (the stick and carrot applied to them) into paying outrageous interest sums over years and years, for pretty much everything, and into also thinking the "something for nothing" stockmarket would make everyone rich, that that would be the magic cure to make up for paying all that interest, when it is economically near impossible for that to even happen. The stock market is both winners and losers, it is not all winners, and most who participate eventually are losers, with a few really big winners. The system is designed that way, exactly like the big casinos in vegas are designed so that overall, the odds always favor the house. That's just reality. Same with the banking and credit "industry", same with the government and tax "industry".

  You see, if you *really* think about it, there is NO, none, nada, zero, incentive whatsoever for government nor the big banking/currency and credit creation "industry" nor the stock market shilling industry to really solve the credit and money problem as regards YOU, because that's how they get paid and how they accrue and maintain so much economic and political power over "you" in general terms, it is NOT a problem for them, it is YOUR problem, they take it from your pocket and place it in theirs, AFTER you willingly hand it to them, based on some vague, outrageous and thoroughly unbelievable promises they mumble combined with a few big threats that if you don't, even more terrible a fate awaits you.

  It is never going to be "fixed" in YOUR favor, never, ever, evah, ain't gonna happen no matter what they say, despite anything they claim they will do, despite which of either regular mainstream "party" you vote for or is "in power", because their system itself is set up to be a mass wealth and power skimming effort from YOU to THEM..

  So, it is basically quite simple, the more people stop using credit, and the less they stop believing in the magic beans for the cow "something for nothing" theory of investing, the less important this becomes in the overall economy, and the more affordable all the various "things" you want will become, by eliminating HUGE layers of completely unnecessary and extremely predatory middlemen and the wealth skimming that occurs in those layers of allegedly "important jobs".

    And you can only start with yourself, there's no one else is going to start that for you, it won't happen, so it is silly to think it will.

You really can't reform the system as long as you maintain active participation in that system, it's a waste of time to even try. Like hitting yourself with a hammer because theoretically if will feel just so darn good when you stop. The better idea is not hit yourself with the hammer in the first place.

Just a link, FYI, FWIW Flu vaccines and antivirals

Basically like the state North Dakota bank I have mentioned previously. They have some interesting projections if they do.

It needs to happen. Private for profit banks with the additional benefit to *them* of getting to use a fractional reserve system are way too much of a ripoff, and as we can see, are not really serving the needs of the people all that well. Wall street shouldn't be allowed to front run or use naked shorting, nor have their own employees being revolving door regulators and policy setters in the government, that's a clear cut case of conflict of interest, and private banks shouldn't be allowed to lend that which doesn't even exist. Both are complete frauds.

Once again we have been saved from the evile terrorists and their insidious plots! Vigilant nannyists in the "comrades in following orders" people's state of Meree Aulde Englande have busted a terrorist who was STEALING from the coffers of some of our most esteemed higher echelon "specials"! One epsilon shopgurl was caught, red tongued, as she actually dared to *sing* while working, in violation of the people's copyright wealth transference doctrine! Oh the horrors!

I was reading tha long security thread today and reading about all the various key dongles and different passwords and so on to make online banking secure and I thought of an idea that could possibly alleviate all that stuff, something I will call a "burst transaction". This is a variation on spies using "burst transmission" when sending off their secret code jazz over the radio. The entire message is coded, encrypted, then compressed and released as a fraction of a second "burst". This makes it harder to intercept, decoy, and keeps the spies location possibly more secure.

How this works for financial transactions is adding this "third layer" of authentication, which is you *proving* that you are you, and for the bank *proving* they are them, so there is no man in the middle possibility. Ok this part is easy-peasy, you walk into the bank, in person, and that's as about as secure as it will ever get with banking. It's not perfect, but the best we have now hands down,nothing else comes remotely close. The problem with that is, people are reluctant to carry a lot of cash around, and they want to do most of their business online, and not go to the bank all the time. OK swell, but you *still* could do both, if the system was set up for an opt-in combination bank/merchant/customer financial digits "authority escrow" system.

During a one month time frame, say you have direct deposit of your pay and pay bills automatically with direct withdrawal, some of them, your car and house note, utilities, etc, and you make additional purchases from here or there with your card or online, etc, all these transactions are noted as "initiated" and they go through, but not all the way, they are all *held in escrow* until once a month you MUST physically go to the bank, you stand right there, get a printout with all your transactions, and check them off as legit/non legit. At this time, if all legit, you thumb print it, get photoed at the counter, etc, you have proven you are you to the bank's satisfaction and obviously you are IN the real bank not some "phish" bank, so everyone is happy so they mash a key and poof, a "burst" of last stop third factor authentication has now occurred and now all your transactions of the previous month are recorded as fully complete and out of escrow holding.

Merchants and other banks are authorized to record just the escrow notification as an asset, so they can maintain liquidity throughout the month and not worry about various day to day arbitrage and interest rates, etc, those are handled normally as they are now, just with a one month dealy as an escrow account, but they still *accrue*. So that's a wash, no change. Discrepancies in the transaction statement are handled the same way we do them now, either you the consumer have been a thief and "uttered" a bad check, or lost track of your finances and now must pay overdraft fees(the stupid tax), or some transaction you see you didn't do is flagged as bogus, like "sorry, no way in hell did I buy those spinner hubcaps and..what's this? A case of champagne for all those strippers over in fraudsville, east elbownia,nope, haven't even been out of the country this year, all verifiable" whatever, along those lines.

The way we have it now is exactly the opposite, the transactions go immediately through completely (AFAIK anyway), then you have to try and sort out any messes that might have happened. There's no reason for that, especially dealing in electronic digits, which is what this whole deal is about, just transfers of digits here and there between banks and merchants mostly. This new way gives you all the modern convenience of not having to tote the cash, being able to do all your stuff online as much as you want, or in person with your card, plus ALSO all the nonmodern security we had in the past always having to go to the bank and then pay cash for everything face to face, but now there's no real harm ever "completed" because you physically *must* be there to finalize an entire month's stuff, and there's banks all over, they offer courtesy services if you can't get to "your" bank for some reason. No approval by either party, the bank or you, and now you can fix stuff *before* it hits permanent record and wealth transfers around. Everyone is safe until that last step when final physical security is accomplished, not a penny has really been transferred yet, just an escrow account record of the penny..

This is sort of a two step "money" idea, you have pre money transactions, then the "burst" post-money "now it really is money" step.

I don't actually have anything to say. Kathleen is due any day, and I'm looking forward to a few weeks of staying home, getting poor sleep, and changing diapers.
But mostly I'm testing to see if journal saving works properly.

Vigilant homeland security [chest thump, sieg heil salute] nannyist kommisars [/salute] in some school system nabbed a thoroughly dangerous terrorist who violated his elementary indoctrination and re education center's "zero tolerance" policy. He had just joined the dangerous underground group of counterrevolutionaries known as the "cub scouts" and one of the common WMD they issue to their terrorist recruits is one of those three in one snap together, butter knife/fork/spoon combos, a very common and highly lethal terrorist weapon, probably smuggled in from one of their east asia training camps.

  Oh freekin noes! Quick, lock down the entire block and bring out the swat teams and dudes in NBC suits and the bomb disposal robots! He brought it to school to have fun and eat his lunch with, or so he claims. Likely story, proly some form of dangerous conspiracy plot to bring down our system of orders and..more orders. He is facing "detain-nation" in reform school over this, 45 days. The six year old trained terrorist keeps trying to lie and weasel out of his sentence, but our political interrogator will get the truth out after a little water boarding softening up period.

He got off easy! Our *righteous betters and masters of the heroic revolution* should have had the re education center's kommisar's security detail taser him, then a gallon or so of pepper spray, then several "attention and compliance" taps with the "baton of rule", before being renditioned away.

    Dang tarists all sneakin up on people and stuff... Praise be our glorious leaders for being so vigilant!

A shared "in memory of Nobel" economic prize this year for Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson for their work on Economic Governance. BBC coverage, WSJ coverage. The two academics teach at Indiana University Bloomington and U Cal Berkeley. Berkeley has their news release up so far. Here are wiki writeups on them: Elinor Ostrom, Oliver E. Williamson

Oil and water mix quite well..on farms. It takes oil and water to make the planet's food now, this is not changing anytime soon, and we have a rising population, and many places are now entering a breakout big middle class scene, which means people want to be eating a little higher on the hog than some tree bark and grubs.

      Peak oil is one thing, but peak water is an equally important part of this "feed the billions" situation, and doesn't get near the notice it should, because we are already at critical shortage levels in many places around the world, although some places are sitting pretty and will be the powerhouses of the 21st century like the mideast has been for oil. If you can't eat or get a drink, because you have no clean fresh water, all the other stuff is irrelevant.

Here's one rather medium successful fatcat who agrees with me, tangibles rule.

""If the world economy recovers, commodities will do the best, because supply is being restricted. If the world economy does not recover, commodities will still be the best place to be, because governments are printing huge amounts of money." "

This is a book excerpt, very well written IMO, about the collapse, or prevented collapse so far with the "too big to fail" side of the economy, the big dogs. Long enough to be interesting. It really does read like a good thriller novel. No idea whatsoever how accurate it is, there are a LOT of quotes for instance, but it purports to be real, the "inside story".