Transitions
Preppers,
The End of Industrial Society , Samo Burja
The Industrial Revolution stopped before it was ever completed. The aftermath is not a clean and developed world, but lost knowledge and civilizational decline.
Suddenly our imports would become expensive, then shoddy, then finally we wouldn’t be able to find suppliers at all. At that point, technical knowledge and the ability to deploy it at scale would truly start to vanish. External shocks, wars, and natural wear would exhaust our legacy machinery, never to be replaced again. Out-of-order becomes the order of the day. I don’t think we will see a return of the sea peoples, but I can’t rule it out either. Here we start to hit the limits of what we can say about this scenario.
How far we regress technologically under this scenario depends on how dependent technologies are on our quite centralized societal infrastructure. We probably wouldn’t keep modern consumer CPUs with their highly centralized production and global supply chains. We likely would keep cars, although it’s unclear whether we would keep electric cars, specifically their advanced and industrially intensive batteries. Perhaps our smartphones would turn out to have been bad for our mental health all along and the devices would become controlled purchases as a public health measure. Civilians really shouldn’t be carrying them around!
These material symptoms are, however, just that—symptoms—and cannot be treated with mere technical innovation, nor minor variants of economic policy. Whatever solution our civilization might find to escape the post-industrial trap, it will require social technologies of production and knowledge very different from anything we’ve seen before. A good place to start would be a new basis for friendship that defeats atomization, and a truthfulness that is compatible with political loyalty.
Gail Tverberg , Ten Things that Change without Fossil Fuels
[1] Banks, as we know them, will likely fail...
[2] Today’s governments will fail...
[3] Nearly all of today’s businesses will fail...
[4] Grid electricity and the internet will disappear...
[5] International trade will be scaled back greatly...
[6] Agriculture will become much less efficient...
[7] Future labor needs are likely to be disproportionately in the agricultural sector...
[8] Home heating will become a luxury item available only to the wealthy...
[9] Living alone will become a thing of the past...
[10] Governments and their laws will shrink in importance. Instead, new traditions and new religions will play a greater role in keeping order...
Conclusion: In my opinion, the problem the world is facing today is like one that smaller economies have faced, over and over, in the past: The population has become too large for the economy’s resource base, which now includes fossil fuels. Today’s leaders reframe the problem as voluntarily moving away from fossil fuels to prevent climate change in order to make the situation sound less frightening.
As I see the situation, the world needs to scale down its use of fossil fuels because, ultimately, the laws of physics determine selling prices for fossil fuels. We extract the inexpensive-to-produce fossil fuels first. The problem is that fossil fuel selling prices cannot rise arbitrarily high. Prices must be both:
High enough for producers to make a profit, with funds left over for reinvestment and for adequate taxes for their governments.
Low enough for consumers to afford to buy food and other consumer goods produced with these fossil fuels.
If we assume that all the fossil fuels that seem to be under the ground can really be extracted, climate change from burning them may indeed be a problem. But it is hard to see that they can really be extracted, given the affordability issue. Politicians will hold down prices to get voters to vote for them if nothing else.
Researchers have been working diligently to find solutions, but to date, their success has been poor. Every supposed solution requires significant use of fossil fuels. So, we need to think through what might happen if we are forced to get along without fossil fuels and without an adequate substitute. https://ourfiniteworld.com/2023/12/15/ten-things-that-change-without-fossil-fuels/
Forwarded by Meryl Nass MD, The Billionaires' Revolution , Shahid Bolsen (The Lewis Powell Memo of 1971 was the Declaration of Independence for the billionaire revolution)
“Well, there's basically been like a worldwide billionaires revolution going on for the past several years or for decades, really. They've taken a very methodical, gradual approach, but overall, a constant advancement that has broken down nearly all resistance. And step by step, they have overthrown the former systems of authority that we have always known in the world, governance as we've always known it, and they've installed themselves, as the supreme rulers over the US, over Europe, and over the developing world, their revolution, the billionaires revolution has progressed, as I said, through stages, and it's possible to identify many of the key victories that helped them achieve what they've achieved and enabled them to reach the point at which they are today.
Things like the creation of the Bretton Woods economic system, the creation of the IMF and the World Bank and the WTO, things like NAFTA, and other free trade agreements, the deregulation of banking, The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. The enactment of laws for unrestricted corporate political donations.
Even the creation of the European Union and the creation of the eurozone, all of these things are significant triumphs in the global coup by the 1%. And within specific countries, you can also identify important victories that they've achieved as well. I mean, anytime a country takes a loan from the IMF or the World Bank or any other international so called development bank. and then they begin to implement the macroeconomic reforms that are always recommended or demanded, stipulated, in the loan agreements. Are victories for the 1%.
That's victories for this billionaires revolution. You know? Like in in Egypt, for example, the loan that they took And then the law that they imposed banning third party opposition to investor activity, the cutting of food subsidies, food and fuel subsidies in Egypt and in other countries that have succumbed to the IMF. All of these represent successes for the a revolution of the 1%. I think it's vital for us to understand that what is happening is a revolution against state sovereignty and political authority.
And at this project of the 1%, if you wanna call it that, the owners and controllers of global financialized capital, this project moves forward by means of key events, it's not something that's inevitable. It's not some sort of natural disaster that cannot be anticipated, resisted or thwarted. Certain things have happened which have allowed it to triumph, and certain things are still being pursued, And we can do something about those things. We can anticipate those things. We can respond to those things preemptively.
We have to recognize this so that we can identify any upcoming events or plans, steps that they're going to want to take, that will consolidate their power and compound our subjugation. Once we identify these things, then we can organize ourselves and adopt a strategy that will turn those events in our favor because they are turning points. They will either be victories for them or victories for us depending on what we do about it.”
Gaza death toll surpasses 20,000 , Among the 20,000 killed by "Israel" are 8,000 children, 6,200 women, 310 medical personnel, and 97 journalists. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-death-toll-surpasses-20-000--over-two-third-children-an
IDF shooting squad terrorizes Christian community in Gaza , Thanks Eleni. The Order condemns unequivocally the killing of two innocent Christian women seeking refuge at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City. In addition to these two deaths, seven others were injured in the attack. The parish is only two miles away from Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church, which was also bombed by the Israeli Defense Force back on October 19th, killing around 20 people.
According to reports, the IDF had shoot-to-kill orders for anyone leaving the confines of the parish. The Order views this violent and ruthless action as a senseless tragedy. These actions by the IDF prove that there is no safe place in Gaza. Not even the Christian churches in Gaza are recognized as a place of sanctuary. Our prayers are with the slain and those wounded at the Church of the Holy Family.
This atrocity brings to mind our own concerns for the nearly 500 people still seeking refuge at Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church, which we have not been able to make contact with for over two weeks. https://orderofsaintgeorge.org/idf-shooting-squad-terrorizes-christian-community-in-gaza/
Israel Smears Christian Mother And Daughter They Assassinated in Gaza Church as 'Hamas Spotters' https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64189
Shocking testimonies expose Israeli killings, field executions in Gaza According to horrifying testimonies gathered by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (EMM), Israeli occupation forces (IOF) carried out field executions against civilians in Palestinian homes in Gaza.
Earlier reports from Al Mayadeen sources corroborate that Israeli forces executed more than 15 Palestinians at the Annan family residence near Burj al-Jalaa in the northern part of Gaza City.
Israeli occupation forces left behind several martyrs and wounded several others, all in front of children and women in the residence.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory received shocking testimonies about field executions committed by the Israeli occupation forces against civilians during house raids in the border areas of Gaza.
The organization indicated that the victims included members of the displaced families of Annan, al-Ashi, al-Shurafa, who were shot to death. There are also reports of other individuals who remain in critical condition and an elderly man who has been taken away by soldiers with an unknown fate.
It also noted that among the 27 women and children trapped in the house, some are suffering from serious injuries, including amputated limbs. They have issued pleas to the International Committee of the Red Cross for coordination to evacuate them from the location to save their lives.
According to EMM, Israeli forces stationed in military vehicles or high-rise structures are conducting sniping operations against Palestinian residents who are either inside their houses or attempting to move within a residential area in search of protection.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/shocking-testimonies-expose-israeli-killings--field-executio
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: An Israeli strike killed the head of the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Thursday, Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip said.
Crossing director Bassem Ghaben and three other people were killed as Israeli aircraft targeted the infrastructure, the crossings authority and the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said.
The Israeli army and COGAT, the defense ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, did not immediately respond to requests from AFP for comment. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2429411/middle-east
US Veto Threat Once Again Delays Security Council Vote on Gaza Ceasefire The White House threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution that would call for a ceasefire in Gaza and set up an expedited inspection mechanism for bringing aid into Gaza. The US is demanding that the resolution affirm Israel’s right to self-defense and that the part of the text calling for a ceasefire be changed. The vote was scheduled for Monday but has been delayed three times this week. https://news.antiwar.com/2023/12/20/us-veto-threat-once-again-delays-security-council-vote-on-gaza-ceasefire/
Hamas politburo seeks Palestinian state, to end war: Report
Doha-based Hamas official Husam Badran says the resistance group is willing to join the PLO and support negotiations for a Palestinian State while not recognizing Israel
"We don’t fight just because we want to fight. We are not partisans of a zero-sum game,” Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Doha-based political bureau, stated. “We want the war to end.”...
..“We want to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem,” Badran said.
Badran also stated Hamas wishes to join the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which represents Palestinians at the United Nations and other international forums.
“It will be a national dialogue,” Badran said. “We have always said the PLO should contain any Palestinian faction.”
Badran and other Hamas officials say the talks have also included Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief with close Emirati and Egyptian support, and former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
“I am no friend of Hamas,” Dahlan said. “But do you think anybody is going to be able to run to make peace without Hamas?”
The Hamas political leaders indicated they would be willing to join the PLO and support negotiations for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
But Badran said that Hamas had no plans to recognize Israel as long as the occupation continues... ..Badran says Hamas is seeking a full-scale ceasefire and a full exchange of captives from both sides. “If there is a ceasefire, our stance is crystal clear: We want an exchange of all-for-all,” he said.
Israel has for years sought to foster divisions between Hamas and the PA, led by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear he has for years approved Qatari payments to Hamas in Gaza, while ensuring the PA remained weak and unable to win the establishment of a Palestinian state through peaceful diplomatic means.
Israel has also sought to use the PA security forces to dismantle Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank. https://new.thecradle.co/articles/hamas-politburo-seeks-end-to-war-palestinian-state-report
RUNNING THE RED GAUNTLET — RUSSIA IS NEGOTIATING WITH THE HOUTHIS FOR RED SEA PASSAGE OF OIL CARGOES DEFYING US, EU SANCTIONS
Russia is negotiating with the Houthis of Yemen to protect Russian oil cargoes moving through the Red Sea for delivery to India and China, the principal destinations of Russian oil currently traversing the waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.
Notified in advance to the Yemeni authorities and the Houthi military command, the Russian oil movements by tankers flying a variety of ship registry and national flags, are running the gauntlet of US and European Union (EU) sanctions against Russian oil exports.
China is also negotiating with the Houthis for safe passage and protection of Chinese-flagged container vessels. The Chinese military base in Djibouti, recently reinforced to support a large Chinese military group intended for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, is also covering the waterway.
Both Moscow and Beijing are acting in semi-secret against US and EU government threats to assemble a naval fleet to convoy shipping headed to and from Israel’s southern port of Eilat. This plan, which the Pentagon is calling Operation Prosperity Guardian, follows the failure of the two US aircraft carrier groups in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf to protect Israel, and deter the Houthi operations. The Pentagon is also threatening to attack Yemeni territory.
The fleet, to be assembled over the next month from the Ukraine war coalition states against Russia, will also threaten military force against the movement of Russian oil...
..For the time being, Russian Foreign Ministry officials are keeping mum. In Marrakesh, Morocco, for a meeting on Wednesday (December 20) of the Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not publicly mention the Houthis or the Russian contacts...
..The Foreign Ministry communiqué summarizing the discussions in Morocco declared: “There was a thorough discussion of the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, the Ukrainian crisis, countering terrorism and extremism, and the creation of a zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.”
https://johnhelmer.net/running-the-red-gauntlet-russia-is-negotiating-with-the-houthis-for-red-sea-passage-of-oil-cargoes-defying-us-eu-sanctions/#more-89078
More from John Helmer , Thanks Zerosum , BREAKING NEWS: CHINESE, IRANIAN AND INDIAN WARSHIPS ARE NOW IN THE RED SEA, GULF OF ADEN A Russian military blog post posted on Thursday, December 21 at 11:33 Moscow time, has revealed the hitherto secret positions of all warships in the area which the Pentagon has announced for its OPERATION PROSPERITY GUARDIAN.
The fresh data and the open map (lead image) were not available when yesterday’s report was published at 09:32 Moscow time of Russia’s “two-track” strategy for opposing the US and NATO, and for protecting Russian oil shipments while the Houthi drone and missile operations are under way against Israel.
No Russian Navy vessel is in the area at present although Russian crude oil cargoes are moving through the Red Sea with Iranian and Houthi agreement. Because these ship movements are defying US and NATO sanctions, it has been decided in Moscow to negotiate safe passage with Iran and Yemen rather than deploy the Russian Navy to protect them. However, the new combined US and NATO operation, targeting the Houthis and their Iranian support and supply systems, increases the possibility of a direct American, allied, or false-flagged attack on a tanker carrying Russian oil...
..The Russian source map is now reporting that the Chinese Navy’s 45th Escort Task Force, comprising the Type-052 destroyer Urumqi, the Type-547 frigate Linyi, and supply ship Dongpinghu were at berth at the Chinese base at Djibouti as of Wednesday, December 20...
..The Russian map also reveals that the Iranian vessel MV Behshad is in a standing position in the Red Sea (lead image, top left of map). According to the Russian source, it is operating as an electronic surveillance, command and control centre to monitor friendly state ship movements – Russian, Chinese, Indian – and also hostile vessels of the US, British and French navies, tracking their positions; and relaying the data to Iran and probably to shore positions in Yemen...
..According to the western vessel tracking service VesselFinder, the Behshad is a “general cargo ship” flagged by Iran. It reportedly sailed from the port of the Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex (ISOICO) to reach its current position, which VesselFinder confirms in the southern half of the Red Sea as of fifteen minutes ago. The western source reports the vessel is at anchor in 6.5 metres of water...
..The new Russian intelligence now makes clear that the UK, France and Spain are already in the region, with the US.
After Austin’s statement, his Italian counterpart announced that Italy is dispatching a frigate...
..The Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias followed the Italian to say that Greece too is sending a frigate to join the US operation. Dendias is claiming the reason is that Greece is “the country with the largest ocean-going fleet [and so] has a primary interest in preserving the freedom of maritime zones and protecting the lives of seafarers.” What he means is that the involvement of Greek shipowners in the sanctions-busting Russian oil trade has been so profitable, Dendias wants to protect the Greek tankers and their owners; and at the same time avoid the embarrassment of being so disloyal to the US and European Union sanctions regime.
For the time being, no Russian Navy vessel is reported in the Red Sea area, although reports indicate that the submarine Ufa is heading eastwards across the Mediterranean with a surface support vessel, and is likely to transit the Suez Canal and the Red Sea soon.
The presence of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy’s destroyer Yang Man-chun was reported when it left its home port in September to be for a six-month mission to combat piracy and threats against cargo shipments headed to and from Korea. The map reveals it is currently off the Somali coast, near Indian, British, and US Navy vessels, as well as the Japanese Navy’s destroyer, JS Akebono...
..Operationally, US Navy releases indicate that the Japanese and the Korean destroyers are “working in coordination with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command” to combat both Somali pirates and Houthi operations.
Iranian Spy Ship Is Assisting Houthi Attacks On Red Sea Shipping: Intel Officials (That would be the MV Behshad, described above.) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranian-spy-ship-assisting-houthi-attacks-red-sea-shipping
Dima at Military Summary Channel proposes that China is backing Yemen to tie-down western naval forces far away from Taiwan, and possibly to grossly humiliate them with hypersonic anti-ship missiles, should some of those be lying around. [IMHO this is a better "good investment" for China than the Ukraine war ever was for the US/NATO.] The Red Sea Is The "Dead" Sea for Western Business. Military Summary And Analysis For 2023.12.21
If US attacks Yemen, its battleships will be struck: Sayyed al-Houthi The leader of Ansar Allah movement slams the US action in the Red Sea as "illegal" and describes it as "a reckless and foolish aggression that only serves Israel." https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/if-us-attacks-yemen--its-battleships-will-be-struck--sayyed
Russia has "already won" the war in Ukraine, which the US & NATO had been preparing since 2014. Only the final disposition is being worked out. Can any US politicians "let Putin win", or even "admit Russia won" since it has already happened? White House Hysteria: New Domino Theory, Putin Won’t Stop With Ukraine https://mishtalk.com/economics/white-house-hysteria-new-domino-theory-putin-wont-stop-with-ukraine/
This action flies people transported to the US by global organized crime syndicates to essentially any US city they name. This is like cancer metastasizing distantly.
"Public Has A Right To Know" - O'Keefe Exposes Bussing Of Migrants Direct From Border To Phoenix Airport https://www.zerohedge.com/political/james-okeefe-confronts-bus-driver-shipping-migrants-border-phoenix-airport
Only Half of All Ford Dealers Agree to Sell EVs Next Year
Preparing for Next Year (pictured planting tomato seeds under clear glass bowls)
I just love when a man practices what he preaches.
Perhaps this site would give more optimism?!! Especially their off grid electrical. https://ldsprepperstore.com/