It's READY!

Yeah!!!

It's ready.

I'm ready. 

 

It took three years to get here... (Actually, it took a lifetime.)

I'm ready to take a stab at a full-length feature – about crowd-source designing a new culture – adapted to real-world conditions.

No small task, I admit.

But it's what we need most. We need a vision.

No, there won't be any drugs involved. But that's more your decision than mine.

The vision I'm speaking of is one of insight. We need a vision of our ideal. We need a vision of empowerment. We need a vision of freedom. We need a realistic concept of our ideal future – without being too idealistic.

But what is too idealistic? Is the dream of a true democracy too idealistic? Is living tomorrow, after living like there's no tomorrow, too idealistic? Is working together towards a goal that satisfies us all too idealistic? ...If so, we're dead.

Common sense should not be too idealistic.

Common sense wisdom has kept our species alive for tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Television news personalities haven't even been around for a hundred.

Much religious wisdom is common sense wisdom. When you here it, it just makes sense.

We need a common sense vision of who we want to be.

I need your help in creating that vision. I need your ideas – so that I can group them into a video – which hopefully will be much more than just a collection of ideas and wisdom. With your help, we hope to assemble a plan.

Please visit my Kickstarter presentation to hear my offer.

What Is The Matrix In The Real World?

In the movie The Matrix, the matrix represented the system of lies we are told to keep us from understanding the real world.

But what happens when we get past that system of lies? What is the truth?

Is there is an authentic matrix in the real world?

I would offer that it is the system of life that makes up our world.

...the matrix of life.

It is all around us, even in the air we breath.

In the real world, the “construct” was not constructed – it evolved. It developed, over billions of years into an exquisite Environment that is far more advanced than anything humanity has ever created – or even imagined.

In the real world, the matrix is the cocoon of life that brought us into existence – and keeps us alive and happy.

We're barely beginning to understand what the real world matrix (of life) is – as we destroy it – and replace it with a matrix of lies. The biggest lie is the lie that this is good for the economy.

In the real world no economy will have snowball's chance in Hell if our matrix of life collapses – and it's beginning to collapse. Every ecosystem on the planet is in decline. So what do we do about it? In our real world full of lies, we pay to make our eminent collapse inevitable.

The next biggest lie is that we have no alternative. All of our lives, Americans have put up with our own tax money being used against us. We've grown to accept without question that we are essentially being led to slaughter for short-term monopoly profits. Very few have been willing to commit their life to saving everyone's lives. And now here we are; past peakoil per capita, past a global warming tipping point, and past the extinctionrate that was the end of the line for the dinosaurs. We are now cornered. We now have no alternative but to fix things – whatever the cost. But everyone keeps hoping somebody will do this for us. No one person can do this. Not Obama. Not anyone – can do this alone.

We have to break away from the system of lies that keep us from understanding the real world. We have to make the effort ourselves. We have to make the effort together. We have to realize that there is no long-term plan. THERE IS NO PLAN!

In the movie The Matrix, a spoon was used as a metaphor for imagined reality. Inside The Matrix, a young prodigy exclaimed “there is no spoon.” But in the real real world, there definitely is a spoon, and it continues to exist long after you throw it away.

The third biggest lie is that what is good for the GDP is good for humanity. We have accepted a system that only recognizes money as wealth. The matrix of life is real world wealth. Money is just paper. And maximizing paper at the expense of real world wealth is simply shooting ourselves in the foot – and then the leg – and then the torso...

And finally, the most underrated lie we believe is that; what we do as individuals doesn't matter. I'll refer to a fortune cookie I recently received:

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

How They Intend To Collapse Our Economy

Everyone knows that competition in the marketplace leads to innovation.

Everyone knows that monopolization of a market leads to stagnation and price gouging.

So why is Congress trying to pass legislation to destroy competition to the music and movie industry?

That's what they've been paid off to do.

The SOPA and PIPA are bills that were essentially written by the established record industry and the established movie industry. Without huge donations to members of the House and Senate, these bills would have gone nowhere. This is what legislation for sale looks like.

For years we've witnessed the established music and movie industry trying to sue their competition out of business.

Quite a few years ago, I committed to never buy music again from the music monopoly – after they sued MP3.com out of business.

The music industry's goal isn't to build a better mousetrap.

Their goal is to dominate the mousetrap market – and make you eat their crappy cheese. 

And if they stifle freedom of speech - too bad. 

As far as they're concerned, only money is speech.

But this isn't just the music and movie industry committing what should be crimes.

Every industry that has paid to move legislation through Congress has pushed monopolistic laws. That's why we see almost every industry out there monopolized.

A government for sale to the highest bidder writes the worst legislation. Because the people who want the worst legislation are willing to bid the highest.

This is the root of our crisis.

We have to get money out of politics, or our system is guaranteed to fail.

This Is The Price For Not Wanting To Pay The Price

We have lulled ourselves into a false sense of dependency.

We are a nation so dependent upon a life with fossil fuels that we've been unwilling to accept that we're running out of them. Technology has buttressed our fantasy that things could keep on just as they have. But the real world costs of deep water drilling, fracking, mountain top removal, tar sands mining, combustion pollution, and global warming has left us far worse off than if we had simply dealt with the issue.

It is time to deal with the issue.

Most of you have probably already figured out why finagling a Bill that forces President Obama to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline before the election puts Obama on the hot seat... If President Obama were to cancel the pipeline deal, the oil companies would spend whatever it takes to get an oil sell-out elected in 2012. For the big money oil oligarchs, this only makes “fiscal” sense. The potential tar sands oil profits will more than make up for the campaign contribution expenses. The oil oligarchs are willing to spend millions – to make billions.

This isn't about what is right. This isn't about what is best for Americans – or even for America. This is about maximizing profits – at whatever the cost (to the rest of us).

President Obama has already been publicly threatened. Does “huge political consequences” sound like a threat to you... especially when it comes from the oil industry's top lobbyist? “Huge political consequences” sounds a lot to me like; “Don't mess with us billionaires. We can take you out.” (Of course, you're entitled to your own interpretation. I'm open to other ideas. Maybe some of you think this oil man could be talking about an “intervention.”)

Most of you probably already know that the Keystone XL pipeline is an investment in an environmental disaster on a scale we have never seen before. But did you know this pipeline will be a broken down hunk of junk right from the start? A former Bechtel pipe inspector, now whistle-blower, has come forth to warn us that the previous pipeline project Bechtel worked on was built with “shoddy materials and poor craftsmanship.” That's right, on top of it all; they're going to cut every corner in the construction of this pipeline too. It may as well be guaranteed to leak – and spill.

Here we go again; maximize the profits – socialize the costs. Privatize our government – socialize its losses... Or as the band Rage Against the Machine put it; “bury the past, rob us blind, and leave nothing behind.” 

 

However, the fossil fuel industry does plan on leaving something behind; the biggest environmental, political, and economic mess in human history. They've already corrupted our government. They can't wait for when the supplies of fossil fuels drop, so they can price gouge us into a permanent depression. And hey, if they poison us all in the process of getting filthy rich; oh well...

The fossil fuel industry has a well documented history of leaving a poisonous mess where ever they go. And their inexcusable record extends to consistently fighting cleanup expenses or conducting much of any mitigation efforts. For example; Chevron is still fighting an $18 billion settlement in Ecuador. I wouldn't be surprised if Chevron/Texaco has spent more on advertising to con us into believing that they're the good guys than they ever will helping Ecuador.

It is blatantly obvious that the Canadian tar sands pipeline companies won't pay squat to help the people they harm from the pipeline's consequences – if they can get away with it. Hey, the industry is already trashing Canada.

…

And then, of course; there's global warming. The extreme climate change brought on by global warming is already being felt world wide. Australia is in serious trouble – serious trouble! And here? Our snow capped peaks aren't. And there's no significant snow in the 10-day forecast. That would put us into mid-January without any snowpack at all! As far as I know; nobody has ever seen this before. This could be a very dry year. And last year was an unusually wet year. Which means we could see a lot of big wildfires this summer. We might even suffer a mega-fire in Nevada (like in Texas last year and California a couple of years ago).

Of course, the (paid off) fossil fuel industry sympathizers will probably claim that this climate change is all just natural fluctuations, sun spots, or anything other than millions of tons of carbon dioxide being extracted from the ground every year. Can they be trusted? No. No way. For a part of billions of dollars, would you lie? Somebody would. Even a hand full of scientists would lie for the right price.

Usually I say follow the money. But this time I have a much more gruesome trail for you to follow. Follow the dead bodies. Not just the animals and plants. Not just the scores of cancer victims and victims of other pollution related diseases. Follow the murder victims...

…

In case you hadn't noticed; there's nobody getting murdered on the other side. And ironically, it's the environmentalists that get accused of being terrorists by Homeland “Security.” Face it; our police state security system is in place to protect the very people causing the most damage – and we, the taxpayers, got stuck paying for our own oppression.

In the real world, the biggest security risk we face is the loss of our home – a healthy Earth. But apparently, we haven't wanted to pay the price to keep from losing our home – and our situation continues to worsen.

Now we, all of us, must pay the price for the fossil fuel industry not wanting to give up their outrageous profits.

And if President Obama doesn't stand up to these greedy fools, the price the whole planet will have to pay will be that much worse.

And if President Obama can't get elected after doing the right thing, then I guess we deserve what we get.

Consequences. That's the price we'll pay for not being willing to pay the price of doing what is best for us in the long run. And the consequences are horrifying. 

The OK-NIMBYs

In case you didn't know, NIMBY stands for “Not In My Back Yard.” 

 

Polluting industries have used this “NIMBY” accusation to marginalize resistance to polluting for years now. But there is a converse attitude that never gets mentioned. The financiers of the polluters appear to find destructive and poisoning behavior perfectly OK as long as the pollution is not in their own overpriced back yards.

I would like to call these OK-NIMBYs.

OK-NIMBYs find it OK that they make money on others' suffering. But don't get me wrong. OK-NIMBYs may not be so much evil as callus (or even ignorant). They invest their money in hedge funds, the stock market, or even their retirement plan with no real idea how the money gets invested. All they want is to maximize their investment.

But what are the real-world consequences of that?

Their back yards get polluted too.

They get poisoned too.

Their future gets compromised too.

That is the inherent fatal flaw of paper profits.

...My story begins in 2006.

That was when a power utility paid $100,000 to a global warming skeptic. Now, this wasn't just any power utility. This was a rural cooperative. Which means the board spent $100,000 of its customers' money to pay an opinionated “scientist” to speak out against global warming science.

Now, your first question might be; what in the world is a rural cooperative paying a scientist for anyway – to do anything? That has nothing to do with their mission. However, many members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association burn coal. And Intermountain Rural Electric Association General Manager Stanley Lewandowski must have believed so much in the cooperatives' decision to burn coal without pollution “controls” that he wrote a memo to the National Association to convince other rural cooperatives to send money to global warming skeptics also.

(Did more contributions come from other rural electric cooperatives? We don't know yet. If it happened here with Mt. Wheeler Power, no one who would be critical of the act is likely to have checked.)

The “scientist” who was paid (off) was Patrick Michaels, former Virginia State Climatologist – who was drummed out of his position for his controversial industry funding.

Here in lies a paradox. When you think about the thousands of scientists who have contributed tons and tons of evidence for man-made global warming, it seems very peculiar that a dozen or so vocal global warming skeptics should carry so much weight. But there it is, right on mass media news for all of us to see. What they call fair and balanced reporting just happens to weigh greatly in favor of their fossil fuel sponsors. Ain't that a coincidence? NOT!!!

So, after five years of do nothing politics on global warming, I'm looking out my window here in the mountains of Eastern Nevada. It's new year's eve day, and there isn't any snow. In fact, it's quite warm for the middle of the Winter in the mountains. If there were snow, it probably would have melted. WHERE'S WINTER???

...But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Russian science vessels have located huge fountains of methane evaporating from the oceanfloor. “We found more than 100 fountains, some more than a kilometer across... there should be thousands of them.” Said Dr. Igor Semiletov. (In case you didn't know; methane is 30 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.)

Can you say “tipping point”?

(In case you didn't know what “tipping point” means; that is the point in time where there is no turning back. In the case of global warming; it is when, even if we totally stopped emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the Earth would continue to get hotter.)

This isn't just evidence.

This is proof!

Methane is melting in mass amounts!

We're already at the point of no return.

We can believe the scientists, or we can believe the sell-outs.

If he's still getting paid, I'd bet our Cato Institute “scientist” would still be claiming that either there is no global warming, global warming is not caused by human activity, we are not near any tipping point, or “sorry, it looks like we're past the tipping point – there's nothing we can do about it now. You may as well buy more fossil fuels.”

This is exasperating! Air temperatures near the poles have increased by about 4° F! Water temperatures are higher too. The polar ice caps are melting! And the only people excited about this are the oil companies!

Oh, and one more thing. If you have read my blog before, you may recall a post where I suggested that some of the recent earthquake activity may have been caused by global warming. Well, more evidence is in. Read here.

So, with all this bad news, one would expect that we might see some changes... Nope.

The big issue at the end of the year wasn't extending the renewable energy rebate. No, it was extending unemployment benefits. That was important, of course. But in the long run, it's going to look like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Without an environment to support us, no government can keep extending unemployment benefits indefinitely.

The very best America (and the world) can hope for won't happen until year after next. If the Democrats (or some Party even more enlightened) win many new seats – and take over the House, maybe – just maybe; we can get a comprehensive Energy Bill Passed.

But don't expect that to be the end of it.

Even though we've had another big oil spill...

Even though closer analysis shows that that big American natural gas strike is all on paper – and the supply most likely won't last anywhere near 100 years (more likely 10 to 20 years)...

Even though The Daily Show gets more viewers than Fox “News” now...

Even though most Americans want clean energy, and are willing to pay for it...

...The exploiters have been able to keep this in court for years.

A Federal Judge just blocked one of California's greenhouse gas emission regulations. The regulation was written to force producers and refiners to reduce their fuel's carbon footprint by 10 percent by 2020. Though the law would have only reduced California's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, it would have been a major step in the right direction.

And another Federal Court just delayed an EPA rule on coal-fired power plants. These rules were originally mandated by a bipartisan Clean Air Act in 1990! It's been over 20 years, and it's still in court. Amazing! ...Amazingly stupid. This EPA rule would limit emissions of mercury, arsenic, and other poisons. In fact, the EPA claims that 11,000 Americans might not die every year if the rules were adhered to. This isn't about doing what is right. It's about holding the door shut until they've taken everything – and left us with the mess to clean up.

And have we learned our lesson?

With all of the damage that has already been caused by global warming, which has been documented by the insurance industry; we still hear people claiming that the answer to our problems is to drill for more oil.

This is the biggest conspiracy in the history of humanity.

It is so big that it permeates our entire information system.

For, example; the Discovery Channel is airing a seven part documentary with only one of the parts missing – the issue on global warming.

...Of course, this happens every day on the mass media news channels.

The OK-NIMBYs are getting their way. And if we really are about to run out of fossil fuels, they're about to make a killing... on us. Which means we will be double-over-charged. We will have to pay the over-inflated prices of diminishing fossil fuels (and the peculiar rate increases such as Nevada Energy's recent 10% rate hike). And much worse, we will have to pay the huge environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels.

We know better.

It's not OK.

Even if it's not in my back yard.

Follow The Money

My guess is that you suspect something is wrong – terribly wrong.

Somewhere along the way, our marginally functioning system has become critically dysfunctional. What went wrong? Follow the money...

Ignorance of bliss is not bliss.

Ignorance of reality is dangerous.

Ignorance of danger is self destructive.

In every society, there is a constant struggle between the builders and the predators – the innovators and the extractors – the nurturing and the exploiters – sometimes even the slaves and the slave-holders. The course is never clear, and the choices never easy. But the struggle has made us stronger. It has also made our would-be exploiters smarter.

The primary issue is simple; carrying capacity.

There's only so much milk the cows can give – especially when they aren't fed well any more. And there are only so many taxes the people can pay – especially when they aren't paid well any more.

The wealth extractors always want more – because there are always more of them.

...And as always has been, the more powerful the wealth extractors get, the more they become like slave-holders (or even predators).

It appears that today's wealth extractors have become more powerful than the government of the United States of America. Face it; we know who tells whom what do in our government... We know that our votes don't count nearly as much as they should... The oligarchy ignores us. But only because we let them.

The biggest monopolies are multinational now. Our nations will have to work together to limit their power. This is the one thing the super-rich oligarchs fear – which is why you see so much “one world government” negative propaganda. They want us to keep fighting amongst ourselves. They don't want us to organize. They don't want a UN with real power.

If humanity organized worldwide, we would have the power to break these monopolies up – and sometimes, we really really should.

If they come to us for bail-out money; we should break them up.

If they callously break the law, and people die; we should break them up.

If they stifle life-saving innovation; we should break them up.

If they manipulate our governments to loot our wealth; we should break them up.

But we haven't promoted authentic capitalism. We've allowed the biggest companies to merge and acquire each other for decades now – until they've become “too big to fail.” (Translation; too big.) These dangerously big companies are growing even stronger now – and more predatory. For example; the big banks forced America and Europe (and the world) to give them billions of dollars because they gambled away our savings. And behind our backs; they borrowed trillions from theFederal Reserve (at our expense).

…

Most of the time; what we see anymore is really only pretend capitalism. Check for yourself. Take a drive across town in the nearest city. Every five minutes, you see the same set of big corporate business signs (and you know that many of them are owned by one of the other corporations). Local businesses are like endangered species. I see an oligarchy. I see a small group of people making greedy decisions that are, at best, only good for themselves, and only for only a short while.

As simply as I can put it; taking is not making. And a take over is not a make over.

Monopolies are well known for two things: eventually selling us garbage, at over-inflated prices. Ultimately, this isn't good for anyone – because good ideas (which our society desperately needs) get ignored.

Let's face it; we're all trying to get ahead on the same planet.

But if we trash the planet in the process, nobody gets ahead.

Paper profits don't amount to shit in a crappy world.

If we bring back real competition, good ideas will follow. If we nurture that competition in the right direction, we could even create a stronger civilization in a healthier environment. That's what we really want.

How To Bypass The Corporatocracy

Have you been thinking that the monopolization of just about every industry in America is somehow inherently wrong?

Are you tired of voluntarily financially supporting the oligarchy?

Have you decided to support small (even mom and pop) businesses?

But there's one big issue holding you back; you're caught up in the machine? You know who the big companies are, because they spend millions on advertising. And you know that some of those small businesses are small because they're lousy. So, you spend your money with the big mediocre companies because you don't want to deal with the bad ones. In time, most everyone herds to the big companies. And eventually, there are no small companies left to do business with. We have to face the reality that we are a part of the problem.

At least for some industries, it doesn't have to be that way. The service and travel industries still have small and mom and pop businesses. All you have to do is figure out whom to do business with.

Enter “yelp.com”

...I know. What a strange name for a website that ultimately could help us save capitalism.

Of course, the answer to our problem is both simple and complicated. If we don't want to support big remotely owned companies that siphon off our local economy, all we have to do is support local businesses. But which ones?

In a nutshell, Yelp is a referral system. We submit the reviews. We share our knowledge of local businesses. If the big business chains stand out, and are far better than the local businesses; the reviewers will tell you. But much of the time, at least one local business is the best.

When we travel, the point is to get out. So, why go to the same old place in a different location? For example; here in Ely there is a McDonald's. It gets tons of business from travelers, who are too scared to take a chance on local mom and pop restaurants. But with Yelp, travelers can check to see the reviews of the local non-corporate food. One of the highest rated restaurants here is the Twin Wok (locally owned and operated by authentic orientals). Twin Wok is almost across the street from McDonald's. So it isn't out of the way. And they serve a lunch buffet, which is even faster than fast food.

But until travelers had Yelp, they didn't know.