just some random, better off nuked from orbit just to be sure:

Goldman Sachs, BP, Xe, Government Motors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the "Federal" Reserve, Haliburton..aww shoot, could go on for awhile....

So you want more people to use mass transit, but to hell with those people who aren't using any of your particular stops? Trains are cool with you as long as it is your personal train, only starts and stops where you want it? Your particular definition of what is big enough and important enough? The rails already go to these places, they are cities, why can't the residents there have as much of a right to board or disembark as you? It is NOT the same as driving to a large airport, of which there are far fewer You are special because you live or embark from one of the larger and more "elite" areas?

Then you can be riding your elite "only the big end point" trains for you "special" people and start posting with your laptop, a nice rant about all those unimportant subhuman energy hogs who live "out there" in the useless wastelands and "drive personal cars everywhere, probably SUVs, why don't they take the train"!!

Why not just sit it out and take the two weeks pay? Isn't that a lot of loot? If they restrict you from doing regular work for that time, big deal! Goof off, post on slashdot, play some games, read a book, do some of your own coding stuff..whatever.

Money is money. And also, you have stuck to YOUR word in that case, you offered two weeks, and stayed there, it is their fault and loss if they don't want you to do legit work during that time. Now actual *abuse* is a different story, but even then, document the abuse (short of physical I mean, and if that occurs you can go right to the cops) for the full two weeks, then let a lawyer take a glance at what you have. It might turn out to be quite lucrative.

Keep the moral and ethical high ground, and get paid to do it.

I guess these business guys just don't grok that in Mexico, people who don't want their irises scanned or to be tracked, stuff like that, are known to cut off the heads of people who are trying to dick with them. And that's *after* they have some "sport" with them.

They might as well issue these iris scanner techs *red shirts*.

and I want to add two more possibilities

The "great cull" using plausible deniability bioplagues or similar. No need to sweat payments if they are all dead.

General global war-still a distinct possibility, any number of planetary wild cards could happen, or be made to happen.

Either or both are enough of a distraction to institute draconian crack down measures, and to insure that the fatcats stay in power, even if they can't control all the turf. Sort of like the situations we see in iraq and ashcanistan, bases where the occupiers are relatively safe, then the outlying countryside and ghettoes, where they can only travel in armored columns.

Governments have a historical habit of getting really violent when their existence is threatened. I don't see the federal USA government being any different, and they apparently have enough armed order followers now in the military and paramilitary "civilian" police forces to at least give it a whack. Plus, they can always recruit more, when "jobs" are really scarce. The worse the economy gets, the easier it is form them to recruit, three hots and a cot, plus a check, plus take advantage of young guys sense of adventure and getting to fight against "terrorists" or what they will call them then, "terrorist traitors and protesters".

Economically though, agreed, toast, overlapping ponzi schemes. It just ain't possible to keep it going very long. That's the main reason I went into semi emergency "learn to deal with not much cash" mode some years ago. I ran the numbers...it ain't gonna work.

They outlined in their own PNAC documents what they intended to do, how to do it, and went and did it. And the process continues. They also succeeded in transferring trillions to their insider circles, putting everyone else into their "debt" for years to come, to keep those monies flowing to the insiders, and also gutted the Constitution "legally", and stripped a lot of rights from the "we the people" folks, with the patriot acts, homerland security jazz, etc. Now they have everyone putting up with "enemies of the state" lists, bow head and be silent and don't question your betters at airports and random checkpoints, got the kids brainwashed into accepting "zero anything we don't like" tolerance crap in schools, all of that stuff. Cameras everywhere, all of it.

I can't see it as being stupid when they hijacked a nation lock stock and barrel and got clean away with it, looks more like a well executed plan and *coup* to me. And because it goes across both major party lines, well...there's a lot of behind the scenes cooperation going on, even though in public they keep using those "differences" in the "divide and keep them conquered" mode. They STILL have most of the victims pointing fingers at other victims while they all chant in unison, "it's all your fault"!!!

The WTC was already a collection of sacred buildings, dedicated to the god Mammon and how a nation was conquered and what real "laws" and practices take precedence.... so this mosque deal is just a variation on a theme, they all do it...

Someone with ties to Washington (legislative process), or a mass letter/comment writing effort to the FCC and see if a regulation would be in order to address this issue. They sure as heck always take the full price for the service. Now they want caps plus speed limits, etc, fine, there should be a mathematical formula they are required to use when the charges go out every month. Taking into account speed plus transfer. (seeking math nerd input there for this formula)

    And if they ALL had to follow that formula, every ISP, maybe they would be more interested in honest advertising and actually improving infrastructure. This would also address the issue the ISPs have with bandwith "hogs", their term. The more you get, and the faster you get it, you pay more. Less, pay less. About the same as any other utility (sort of).

...tell them you will pay them "up to" the agreed on price for their service, but you will determine what the real sums involved will be.

There are potentially trillions (skimmed out of the real economy) present in this discussion from the other side, carbon credits. A completely unnatural (there is no natural demand for a "carbon credit") and artificial conjob "market" that is promoting AGW as hard as it can, so it can get its hands on these new tradeable commodities. More sticky fingers in a huge new cash cow pie, pushed as force of law, that no one will be able to avoid, a new massive stealth tax. How wonderful...

As some people say, the anti AGW folks might be funded by big oil and coal so their views could be tainted, suspect, but check out who wants AGW to be adopted as the official "approved and settled science", such world class benefactors and all around good guys as Goldman Sachs. These sort of "gents" are the main big money behind this. And we are supposed to be completely trusting now, that there is no corruption involved??

In fact, the idea of carbon credits comes from our good and honest friends back at Enron.

http://www.investigatemagazine.com/archives/2006/03/investigate_oct_5.html

The old saying of stones and glass houses comes to mind with this accusation of who is being influenced by what behind the scenes big money.

Myself, personally, I am all for alternative and more decentralized energy. I think its spiffy. based on itself, as stand alone things, as just a general good idea, but not based on casino banker gangster backed lobbying groups or their tame scientists utterances. I find that as potentially suspect and corrupt as anything else with these sorts of sums involved.

Cleaner environment, less coal, more solar, more geothermal, more wind, more hydro, biofuel made from non food crops eventually, more individuals getting freedom from the current big energy cartelists? Hell ya! All good ideas, bring it on!

  Carbon credits? Why do I want to support the white shoe mafia boys, who have already been proven to be the biggest scammers and liars and cheats and thieves on the planet?? They are crooks, and the groups/individuals/institutions taking their crooked blood money are now highly suspect in my book.

The science is *tainted*. It needs to be thrown out, new studies done from scratch, completely open and transparent every step of the way. What has gone on so far is not lily white pure neutral, "let the chips fall where they may" science, not with those crooks involved it isn't, it *can't* be, those boys expect results for their "support". That's how they operate..

Ha! You sure do give me a lot of homework with those links! hahaha!

Basic social security check for all:

that's part of my alternative currency system I developed, a bottom up gift approach, not a top down credit/lending approach like we have today.

The idea is simple, freeze the currency we have at the current level, to establish a baseline.

Now, accrue the data (currency units again) for the top 100 traded tangible commodities inside your domestic economy.

Now divide the latter into the former, this gives you your baseline 'worth" for a single currency unit. (I was informed my idea is a variation on Keynes "bancor" theoretical currency, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bancor, but I developed it independently of that bit of data) (I leave out all non wealth production "jobs" in the economy on purpose, the commodities index gives you closer to the true worth, the rest are service and governmental jobs that don't add to the pie, just make more slices)

Now every quarter, accrue the data again, notice any productivity gains. You can garner a percentage up or down. If up, like it should be, the money supply is inflated accordingly. (If down, oh well, better luck next quarter) The first stakeholder for new money is government, now run on a pay as you go effort, no borrowing. A lot of the new money gets into circulation that way. What is left over, is divvied out to all adults in the nation as an equal proportional check, to do with as they please. That's how the rest of the new money gets into circulation.

Dollars now go up in value all the time, not drop in value. You can save money with a clear conscious, or invest it elsewhere, knowing that it will always be worth more down the line when you need it.

At the border, "quid pro quo" tariffs are imposed, with the opposite nation setting the rates..they decide, we match it. If they want 0% tariffs, fine, we match it. They charge us 50% tariffs, we match it. About as fair as it gets, they set the rates. This also helps to fund government, and also encourage REAL free trade, free and fair, not scam trade like we have now. And no picking and choosing, this means any goods that cross the border.

No more fractional reserve lending, that's out, because it is a *congame*. Lending can still exist, from private banks, or by individuals, but it would have to be full asset backed.

  The official currency is now "backed" by 100 commodities, that can change as the economy changes. Buggywhips can fall off the list, RAM chips can be added..along those lines, and we include gold and silver for historical and practical reasons, plus it fulfills constitutional requirements, as we issue ONE official gold coin per quarter, and declare its "worth" based on our previously collected data, and it gets put up on the wall at a national museum. The rest is like we run it now, printing press money, but now backed with the process being fully opened.

  The mint can still issue coins like they do now, silver and gold and platinum eagles, for collectors or as global hedges, whatever. (ha, just turned in a my change can full of clad coins today, got another silver eagle..my modest "investment" strategy)

Personal and corporate income taxes at the federal level are *no longer needed at all* at this point. Mass pandemonium and celebration breaks out across the land, and champagne gets sold out! This gives the most possible "stimulus" to the economy that can be constructed, and foreign investment would flock here from those rates. You just can't beat zero taxes... Everyone working just gets a huge increase in pay from not having to fork out the federal tax. An easy sell to the population.

We go from top down, the "trickle down" method of running a fiat currency, to bottom up, the "rising tide lifts all boats model".

A few central bankers lose their cushy jobs, and not a single tear is shed....

States and local governments remain the same as they are today per funding, and the political "free market" then allows residents to pick and choose which state suits them best, and different strategies are encouraged there, try out different things. Eventually I would like to see the elimination of property taxes, so you really can OWN property.

Federal government is shrunk back down to Constitutionally mandated levels, and no more, it is not needed and acts as a drag on the economy. Most matters revert back down to the state level, as they should be, closer to their populations and better able to be fine tuned for the local scene. The federal method doesn't work as advertised, the "one size fits no body" method just sucks. Example, what might be needed for some place like NYC is not the solution for what might be needed in east corn cob Nebraska...they keep trying to do it that way, and keep failing. So we go back to States are way more important.

It's called listening to your customers and not dictating to them what they want. Now I don't use it, but XP is still widely used, because it got "good enough" for companies and individuals to use and rely on. Same with upgrading hardware. If what you have is good enough, not broken, and does the job, there is no overwhelming need to upgrade, even if the hardware guys want you to.

Comes a time that corporations and stockholders, etc should put the fork down, push back from the table, and realize they have eaten enough, and go into maintenance mode. Still make some money but not the boatloads they got used to. Like GM..just realize you got bloated, and cut back a lot to stay relevant. Reach a level of market share and be content with that, because all corporations can't endlessly grow forever and two days, it just isn't possible, and it is ludicrous to expect that.

    The planet has given hundreds of billion$ to microsoft..perhaps it is time they wound down and enjoy what they made so far and not expect this huge gravy train to go on forever.

All of those concepts exist widely in the survival preparedness communities.

gift economy: a lot of sharing goes on and mutual help and support. both in cyberspace and meatspace

basic income: survival and preparedness folks almost universally have more than one source of income, because they know how vital this is to survive, they don't like the "all your eggs in one basket" approach. they also understand the difference between money and wealth, and why it is a good idea to accumulate wealth, and not so much fancy IOUs masquerading as wealth.

resource-based planning: this is top of the heap for survival/preparedness. Resources=tangibles for the most part, and we understand tangibles. We look at almost all possible situations, see any negatives that might arise, and develop contingency plans and mitigation efforts in advance. This concept is called "having backups for backups". And on the other hand, we see and act on opportunities that exist, even if they are small, because we realize a lot of smalls add up to "big" or "big enough".

local subsistence communities: all community starts at the personal and family level and goes up from there. I think you'll find that survivalists are the most heavy into gardening, livestock, home crafts, canning and food preservation, doing repairs, recycling, etc, plus being active in the local community and with their neighbors. They also are the most prepared when it comes to routing around fiat currency shortfalls, by having and using precious metals/barter/back to sharing, being earlier adopters and evangelists for alternative energy devices, owning HAM gear, having a ton of tools, etc.

    The old community barn raising is another old example there, along with modern day use of open source software and open source knowledge sharing (like my board and many other free survival boards, free sharing of survival skills and resources)

I tell ya what is weird though..it is way more older folks like the greatest generation (ww2 era folks), boomers and the earliest (the oldest) gen Xers who are into it today. Unfortunately, we aren't getting it across to the later Xers and the gen Y and younger folks why this is a good idea. They have known only prosperity mostly, comfort, easy climate controlled living, a lot of leisure time, stores always full, instant always there communication, all of that, and just don't grok how fast things can change, like overnight or even faster, and why you need to concentrate on basic life necessities first, and get independent and have backups, before you go to wasting time and resources on frivolities and entertainments, etc.

They also *really* don't understand that they are half way to a full bore big brother society, because this is all they have known, it is "normal" to them. No idea how being tied so heavily to the system makes you a slave. They have never lived when random roadblocks were unheard of, or when security cameras weren't all over, etc, and "no knock" raids were exceedingly rare and reserved only for the most heinous crimes/criminal suspects.

I mean, to be fair and not come across as too much of a curmudgeon, I grew of age in the sixties, so I know *full well* what "party down" means ;) Ain't a generation out there that can hold a candle to the boomers when it comes to "party"...

  It's not like I am unfamiliar with this concept o_0..but, I always had a garden, I learned every hand tool and power tool I could get my hands on, learned all the wood craft and fieldcraft I could, learned various means and forms of self defense, learned to cross country navigate *large distances* using a compass and a few cheap maps, educated myself on politics and economics and the blend there known as geopolitics..and so on. It wasn't *all* party time.

    And I am not seeing that so much with the two youngest generations now, scares heck out of me that they are going to get really hurt and have no backups, they just won't have the mindset for it, nor the skills, they won't be able to cope. Like as soon as the ATMs don't work..lost. As soon as the power goes down..can't make change at a cash register. Stuff like that. Not much clue on keeping gear working, stuff works or it is tossed and new things bought. Really, just junk like that. (and I am very broadly and generally speaking, obviously there are exceptions there, I've known a few, but they are rare, it is mostly the older folks who have been around the block and seen hard(er) times who are into it today)(one big exception is returning young combat vets..they have seen bad news societies, several I have met I would classify as survivalists now, they have seen why having backups for life's necessities are a good idea)

Would probably fly more in Japan than anyplace else.

Also, why just genderless stick humans? Why not like giant spiders and so on..dinosaurs....or themed "this next mile of pylons is a reproduction of the cast of Bonanza.."

As to power poles in general, I'd like to see a combo hybrid model, yes, they transmit electricity down the wires they hold up, but stick some wind gennys on top of them and hang some solar PV down the sides, to add to the overall charge. Why have separate "power plants" when you already are using all this right of way space to move the electrons? Make the entire right of way the "power plant". Or at least a lot of it, wherever practical. Heck, farm underneath them with the appropriate crops to make biofuels.