Election conspiracies

Being as this is a quiet time (for ten minutes), and I had a brainstorm on a blog to post today, I might as well get to it.

The election is in a little less than 3 weeks, and while I have been back and forth since my last post (on who I was voting for), I am pretty sure that I am going to stick with my decision to vote for Obama. I am going to hold my nose, since while I do see some possibly redeeming features in Obama, in the end he's just another politician being backed by suspect interests, to say the least. But I'm following Noam Chomsky's logic in "endorsing" Kerry in 2004. While there might be little meaningful difference between McCain and Obama (like there was between Bush and Kerry), that little difference can make a big difference to at least a few people, not only here but around the world. Also, and perhaps more importantly, I feel that it's important to vote for Obama, even if you are in a non-battleground state like New York. Part of what dissaudes me in a general election (and why the college needed to be abolished eons ago) is the fact that in the bulk of states, your vote really doesn't count. It's a foregone conclusion in New York, for example, that Obama will win and NY's electoral votes will go to him, just as, say, Georgia will go for McCain (although that even might be in question, since I heard that McCain is struggling to hold onto red states as a result of the certain groundswell of black voters who will be coming out for Obama). The only people whose votes really count are in the "battleground" states. But this year, I still think voting for Obama is important, even in a state like NY, since a decisive win in the popular vote would make it easier for him to implement his agenda, for better or worse.

And, to me, that's where I feel an election conspiracy might come in. I don't have a doubt that electoral fraud takes place in this country, and quite regularly. In 2000, it was Florida, in 2004, it was Ohio, who knows what it'll be this year? And, although the Democrats certainly are guilty of this too, the Republicans have especially been involved in this in a big way, at least lately. And if they try it again this year, I don't think their goal will be to fix it so that McCain gets elected. Obama has too big a lead; a CBS poll broadcasted yesterday had him up by 11points, I think. But I do think their intent behind their fixing the election and throwing out votes (if there is a cabal intending to do that), would be to lower the margin of victory enough so that Obama just squeaks by in a tight race, and can't claim a mandate.

Well, this isn't absolute, Dubya stole the election but that didn't stop him from instituting a far-right agenda as soon as he got into the White House. Just giving my thoughts on a slow night.

The End of Suburbia

I just watched a great documentary on our suburban way of life and peak oil called "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the End of the American Dream." Or at least most of it. I got the DVD on an inter-library loan, and it was really banged up. So I used my PS2 and my 360 (video game systems that can also play DVDs), and no dice. Which is too bad, because it was just getting to what I find to be the good stuff. Well, it's not good at all, it's quite scary, but it's the aspect of peak oil that intrigues me most. And that's the impact it will have on our political system.

But for the moment, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Although I regrettably was not able to finish it, I will buy the DVD and lend it out to anyone I know who is interested. I came in to this documentary with knowledge on the subject, so many of the insights were not new. But the value of this film is that it presents the issue in a fast-paced, involving style, and it's very short, around 80 minutes. And a lot of people don't like to read. So I think it's invaluable for the average person, if they can be persuaded to sit in front of the TV and check it out.

A few things. One of the aspects of the age that we live in now is our abundant use of energy. And I found it ironic in what I just said, that in addition to my DVD player, I have 2 game consoles hooked up that happen to be DVD-compatible. So I'm just as guilty as everybody in using these abundant amounts of electricity that aren't sustainable. I try to be good, I disconnect my appliances before going to sleep. But I know that that isn't enough.

Also, I wanted to get back to what I was talking about, the part of the film where it ended for me due to the DVD being scratched. And that is the impact that peak oil will likely have on our political process. As James Kunstler (the man who introduced me to P.O. through his book "The Long Emergency") says in the video, "the 21st century will be a battle for the table scraps of the 20th." Most inhabitants of this experiment called suburbia will demand that Washington do anything possible to maintain the illusion that we can have it all: the suburban lifestyle, the commute, the cheap goods, etc. And, again in Kunstler's words, we "will elect maniacs who will tell us that they'll do anything to maintain this lifestyle."

Another thing the video touches on, albeit briefly, is the conspiracy by the auto industry to dismantle our street-rail lines in the 20's, forever compromising public transportation so that more people would use the car to get around. It always annoys me when I see these commercials and other platitudes spouting about America's "love affair" with the car and the open road. I don't feel that it's so much a "love affair" as it's the only avenue that we have to get places, and that it's been imposed on us as a result of our developing our society around the automobile and the consistent undermining of alternative modes of transportation, such as train, bus, pedestrian and bicycle travel, etc.

It's also funny (and sad) when Kunstler says that we have a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of. A vital player in a peak-oil world would be the railroads, and we've virtually destroyed it in the name of a lifestyle that cannot possibly last.

Well, Youtube has a 52-minute cut of the film that I will post here, but I want to see the full 78-minute version, so I will probably buy the DVD from Amazon.

financial crisis is the YOUR HOUSE IS NEXT CRISIS

I haven't had time to post on the blog lately, and I know that it's a bad time to be busy, as there's so much going on that I can talk about, and maybe even try to do something about. But it is what it is. I have been trying to follow the Wall Street meltdown and the proposed bailout as much as I can, and have many feelings about it. Naomi Klein was just on Bill Maher's show, and now I really want to read her book, "The Shock Doctrine", which basically foretells something like this occuring. One of her main points, which I haven't heard much discussion of, is that a financial crisis such as this would give the people in power who hate what remains of our fragile safety net (mainly, Social Security and Medicare) the ammunition to seriously weaken it, and even eliminate them entirely.

Anyway, Kimberly Wilder gives her thoughts on the bailout. I got it through email, and wanted to share it, it's very worthwhile reading.

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I just did a really bad thing for one's head. I went to an event at a bar and started a conversation with a young politico and 2 Libertarians. Libertarians worry. I worry. Now I am freaked out. I hope some people will read through this and consider which parts are truly freaky, and which are me really, really worrying. I will confess that I was someone who had food stored in my cupboard for the projected 1999/2000 computer breakdown crisis.

;)

The social justice movement has got to try one more time to stop the bank bailout.

The social justice movement has got to make a threat to the two parties for what if they pass the bailout.

And, the social justice movement has got to imagine what happens if this crisis gets real, real fast, which it looks like it will. What if there are hundreds of thousands of Americans suddenly out on the street with no home?

(And, what if any of the current conspiracy theories are true?: the camps being built around the country by Blackwater and friends are meant for homeless Americans; the Army is going to run 3 month war games in the NY metro area starting next week; the whole world is going to stop taking American dollars next week...???)

Housing

Let's start with ourselves and/or our relatives having no home, perhaps starting in a few days, weeks or months from now. What would we do? Perhaps we should put aside the more philosophical part of politics and do what our politicians should and won't do. Think: Where the heck would these people go? How could we use the resources of ourselves and our government to house people who get kicked out of an apartment, or can't keep their electricity on?

Some thoughts (I don't know the answers. This is my e-mail begging smarter people than me for answers after those 3 guys in a bar worried the cr-p out of me):

-Demand the absolute moratorium on foreclosures that some people have already envisioned might be needed.
-Demand a moratorium on apartment evictions.
-Encourage our friends and neighbors to truly evaluate their resources now, a few days or weeks before something happens: Make a network with 3 or 4 family members. Where would everyone go, who would they live with, if one by one they got kicked out of their homes?
-Start thinking of laws to propose, or amendments to this bailout bill, that either punish landlords with residential property not rented out, or make squatting rules so simple that there will not be empty apartments rotting around the country, while some people are homeless and looking for a place to lie their head.
-Start thinking about a way to put a moratorium on the enforcement of "keeping my neighborhood affluent laws" such as in the town I live in, where it is illegal to have a home with two front doors. Or, rules that only one family can live in a home. (Which should be well thought out, I realize. Because, they could be misapplied by bad landlords to overcrowd, or create burdens that make impossible parking/traffic situations if there is not an emergency.)

Inform the Community about the Bailout and the Current Housing Crisis

People never want to think that this might happen to them. We should study the statistics, imagine the possibilities, and communicate it to our neighbors and families about how bad this could be. We should think of names for what will really happen that make it less philosophical and more real. Maybe call it the: "Your House is Next" crisis. Or, "Homeless people will be roaming your neighborhood looking for food and shelter crisis". I am in the suburbs. People here will have trouble imagining what trouble will look like. Though, I think the trouble may be coming.

Pressure against a bailout

That bailout can't be a good idea. There is too much money get moved to fast, with too little authority by people who should not be trusted. And, the money is going to a lot of very rich people. I think Americans are going to need that money.

I think it is time for every non-violent threat in the book. What could people agree on?:

-A general strike the next day after any bailout goes through? (I have friends that have been working on the general strike for years....might be the sentiment for it now.)
-A demonstration at every Town Hall of City Hall at 6pm the day after any bailout goes through? (With the internet, we could make a pretty big strike. Town Hall is a good place to go, because housing and zoning issues might have to be adjusted locally.)
-A threat that since the two parties are getting together and doing this, and two parties are bailing out their rich corporate supporters, everyone immediately REGISTER in a third party to make a statement now. And VOTE in a third party for the election? (Which reveals my bias as a third party activist. But, I have heard regular people talking about the fact that they call for "bi"partisanship at every turn is really starting to sound suspicious.
-Calling officials of every level of government now to make them care about this. (I have heard some emphatic requests to call Congress, which is great, but maybe we should express our demands and fears locally as well.)

I do not think all of the above is factual, or the best thinking even of myself. But, hope it is a start to thinking about this. I believe that many of us have a sense that this bailout should not and cannot go through as is. I really don't want them to have my 7 billion dollars. What can we do today. We have a whole Sunday. Let's not just play around.

Peace and struggle,
Kimberly Wilder

Drill, Drill, Drill!

This is a really good blog from James Kunstler, I think it was from last month, chiming in on the "drill, drill, drill" mentality of many people and why we are in for a big disappointment. But Kunstler says that drilling offshore is still worth doing, since it will smash our dreams of solving the oil problem. Even in the best, most optimistic cases, this will still take years to reap anything fruitful, and it's very unlikely to offset the depletion of oil throughout the world. Further, while complimenting Boone Pickens (he's the oilman who's come up with a plan for replacing our electric power system, which runs on natural gas, with wind power) for showing some vision, he blows holes in Pickens' idea of natural gas as an alternative for oil to fuel our cars. In addition, and this is me talking, I saw Pickens on Larry King last month and he was talking about how we have abundant natural gas, "we" as in the United States. Where? I thought we reached peak production in natural gas years ago, and that a lot of NG is being exported from Canada, which are themselves either at peak or near it.

While I don't have as much time to research P.O. since I have 2 jobs and am going to school full-time, I still follow it as much as I can. I really also want to work on the art of being self-reliant, and reading stuff like this makes me realize I have to work on it sooner rather than later.

The End of Travel

This article was published a month ago, in a Canadian newspaper, but it's very important to us as well. It's about, yes, peak oil, and how it will affect the airline industry. More considerably, how it will affect our ability to travel. This article points out, briefly, the profit margin of the airline industry. In order for the airlines to run at a profit, oil must be less than 100 dollars a barrel. At the time of publication, it was $124. And it's gone down further, but does anyone believe that gas will go down to approximately ten dollars a gallon, as in 1999? I don't think so.

There are varying opinions on how peak oil will impact the airline industry. Some believe it will vanish altogether. But I don't, and the writer of this article appears to feel the same. It will just be more out of reach for the lower and middle classes. The upper class, and wealthy governments and corporations will still be able to fly. But this poses another set of problems for how Peak Oil will split our society into two.

I have used air travel a few times in my life, but they've always been to forgettable, unremarkable places. If peak oil does indeed have this impact on air travel, I'll regret not getting a passport earlier and going somewhere else in the world. I'd always meant to, but until a few months ago, I was one of those many who took everything for granted and always thought that air travel would be within reach.

World Made By Hand

I've been intending to blog about this, but time has been at a preminium for me lately. I just wanted to share a good book with all of you. It's called "World Made by Hand", by James Howard Kunstler. It was published earlier this year. I have talked about Kunstler before, he is the author of an outstanding book called "The Long Emergency", which introduced me to the theory (and some would say a reality, a near-future one at that) of peak oil, and the many consequences the world will face as a result. "World Made By Hand" is Kunstler's fictional interpretation of a post-Peak Oil world. While reading "The Long Emergency" isn't necessary to enjoy "World Made By Hand", I'd still recommend reading it first if you haven't done so.

I have trouble categorizing WMBH. Some might say that it's science fiction, since it takes place in the future, but what science fiction takes place in a future without electricity or gadgetry?

Anyway, WMBH takes place in upstate New York, in a post-apocalyptic future, in which our wars in the Middle East have resulted in the annhiliation of several American cities, including L.A. and D.C. It revolves around the former president of a software company turned carpenter in a small town, and his everday interactions and trials with the town's inhabitants. As a result of peak oil, the town has reverted back to a 19th century way of life. There's no automotives, no electricity, so as a result, people walk everywhere (or ride horses, which are very expensive since they can't be bred fast enough) and often work on farms for one or two employers. Serfdom is back in this future, and farming is big again too, obviously. What I found striking was how Kunstler identified many characters by what they'd done before Peak Oil hit. The main character was a president of a software company who flew everywhere, other characters were insurance agents, lawyers, one managed a drugstore, etc. Positions that are considered by Kunstler to be pretty much useless in a post-Peak Oil world.

Anyway, the story takes place in the course of one summer, and the town is trying to survive a gang of criminals on the outskirts of town, an even bigger gang of extortionists in the former capital of Albany, and a new religious sect that has taken up occupancy in the town's old high school, whose motives appear to be just, but also possess a tendency to make the town's inhabitants live just as they do.

I know I'm doing a shitty job of explaining this. It'd been over a week since I finished the book, and it isn't as fresh in my mind. But it's really good. I don't judge a book by its prose or even its story, but rather on its ability to hook me. To say "I had trouble putting this down" is the highest compliment that I can pay a book, and I had that experience with both "WMBH" and "The Long Emergency".

BTW, at the end of the book, Kunstler states the fate of other areas in the New York region, including Long Island. He says something to the effect of, "Due to the effects of brutal weather (presumably hurricanes) and dengue fever, Long Island's population is at 1800 levels. This means that there's plenty of free parking"> Ouch.

I'm Voting For Obama

What a difference a few years makes. In the last election, 2004, I was a political animal. I spent most of every day keeping up on the latest news, and was also an activist. I was the director of the Suffolk leg of a presidential campaign, Dennis Kucinich's. Albeit, Kucinich was on the margins of the primary campaign, way in the shadow of Howard Dean, John Edwards, and the eventual nominee, John Kerry, but I believed strongly in his platform to campaign for him. I registered as a Democrat just to work for his campaign and spread the word. I voted for him in the primary, and also for myself as a delegate.

Fast forward four years later. I've long since burned out as an activist. I really miss it sometimes, but I found out something important. Just because there are people who believe in the same things that you do, that being progressive ideals and causes that you generally consider to be just and righteous, it doesn't make them good people. That was true both for the campaign I worked for and later on, when I was directing a more general organization.

I wasn't planning to vote in this year's general election. I feel that it's the same old story, that of the two major candidates being Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, along with a variety of third-party candidates who, while having a really good platform and message, don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of having even a minor impact in the election. I used to vote third-party as more of a protest vote, but I figure that just staying home and not voting at all is as strong a protest vote as any.

But over the past few days, I've been doing some thinking, and now, I'm pretty certain that I will vote in the general election, and for Obama. It's not because I like him as a candidate. I find him to be the lesser of two evils compared to McCain, and he's already wavering on things that he's previously said. However, I also realize that he is the first black candidate who has a realistic chance to win the presidency, and if he does win, it will be a very significant moment in this nation's history. And I want to be a part of that.

Also, it's nice to have a candidate who people are genuinely excited about. I don't really see what there is to be excited about, other than him being black as I just mentioned, but for whatever reason, it's a rare sight and it is nice to see it. In 2004, no one wanted John Kerry. No one could get excited about John Kerry. No one could tell you why he would be a good president, only that he wasn't the other guy. 4 years before that, no one cared whether Bush or Gore won.

I think that this election will be a landslide for Obama. Not like the Reagan landslide of '84, but still a very impressive showing. He's running against an old candidate who's running on an issue that no one cares about in this age of foreclosures and a sagging economy, and states (primarily southern ones) that have long been GOP strongholds can come into play due to record turnout of black voters. I feel that if McCain wins, there should be no more naysayers on the issue of electoral fraud, since that's the only way I see him winning at this moment.