Bad News, Good News, Consequences, Action

First the bad news; the Earth is full. 



Now the good news; Abundance is our future.




As both Paul Gilding and Peter Diamandis point out; we are in a difficult predicament, but we have hope for a much better future.

However...

This isn't the future we are presently headed for. Our present path leads to a catastrophic compounding of our problems. For example; The true cost of oil.




But, things don't have to be this way.
The oil oligarchs want us to keep paying for oil, no matter how bad we don't need it. They are afraid of losing their multi-billion dollar income stream. This is literally insane behavior. They are more concerned about the survival of their companies than they are the survival of humanity.

Now for the great news:
a DOE funded company has developed a new lithium ion battery that has three times the charge capacity at half the cost of present lithium ion batteries. This is the price/performance point that some analysts consider the "holy grail" of battery characteristics required for mass commercialization in automobiles.

We don't need gas in cars built from now on.

The People of Las Vegas are Finally Waking Up

The list of expensive boondogles, etc. is even more impressive in print. See the list here. 

Oh, and by the way; most of the watergrab water isn't actually for the people who are going to get stuck with the bill. They already have water. And if they ever have to ration water, it would be far cheaper than draining Rural Nevada - so that they can continue to waste.

Taking action before the commitment makes much more sense than complaining afterward. Take Action Now!

This Is Your Wake Up Call

Almost 70% of U.S. corporations pay NO federal corporate income taxes.

Some of our most rabid patriots are FAKES intent on destroying America.

In the long run, this only hurts us all.

And I mean really hurts us all. 

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.