Europe incapable, America unwilling

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by u crank

It's not how we humans tick. It's how the big oil executives tick. It's money in the bank. Put your self in their shoes. And follow the money.

The executives' power comes from the willingness of the people. There is not just shepards. There is also sheep.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Skybird

The executives' power comes from the willingness of the people. There is not just shepards. There is also sheep.

I would disagree. The executives' power comes from the helpless position of the people/sheep. Attempting to change the position of major corporations to suit the real needs and best interests of the people is a almost hopeless task. Despite what these people continually say about 'our' interests and well being, their primary concern is profit. If their profit and our concerns happen to coincide then they will do it. Other wise it's business as usual.

Currently the big oil companys are tell us of all the wonderful benefits of tar sand oil extraction. Here in Atlantic Canada a significant number of people are working in the Fort McMurray Alberta oil patch. And for very high wages. My daughter's boyfriend is making $900.00 a DAY as a construction foreman on a new site south of Fort McMurray. This is a clear indication of the kind of money big oil is willing to spend. There are 5000 workers on this site and it is still under construction. Eventually it will be a refinery and others are being planned.

We are told it is all good. Jobs, home grown source of energy, less dependency on mid east oil etc.

Now I'm all for progress and good economic conditions. Don't let me stand in the way of peoples future, but some how I feel this is not good for the human species. What do you think?

[Skybird]

I say nothing, but point at the obvious:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-880546.html

Is's not about how I wish things would be. It is about how they are, and the tendency that indicates where they go. I said that clearly before.

That ^. and my current sig, a quote which completely goes like this: "The money power preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed."

I also point at historic examples that show by the huge numbers that people and cultures very often intentionally deicde for the path leading them to their doom - for perceived reasonable and rational reasons:

http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Socie...=jared+diamond

What I desire, has little to do with where things are going.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Is's not about how I wish things would be. It is about how they are, and the tendency that indicates where they go. I said that clearly before.

I guess on that point we agree.

The SPIEGEL link is very interesting and clearly points to where we are going. The energy corporations will not rest until every bit of fossil fuel has been extracted from the earth. I should qualify that. As long as it is profitable.

Hydraulic fracturing [fracking] is the new method to search for and extract natural gas from deep below the surface. Like tar sand recovery, it does not seem like a very environmentally sound method. Injecting chemicals into the earth under pressure is asking for trouble. But the spin put on this, as the article says, is all good. A bright future. With rising energy costs and dwindling supplies it will be an easy sell.

"The money power preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed."

This is nothing new. Money has always been the driving force that decides what happens in this world. I'm a realist but I don't think it will ever go too far. The 'money' knows that chaos and anarchy are not profitable. What is profitable is perceived democracy and a steady growth rate. And war is only good if you win or at least give the perception of winning.

I also point at historic examples that show by the huge numbers that people and cultures very often intentionally deicde for the path leading them to their doom - for perceived reasonable and rational reasons:

Agreed.

What I desire, has little to do with where things are going.

Again, agreed.

[Jimbuna]

Carry on.

[Skybird]

On the "money not going too far", I recommend this little book (330 pages in young language, black humoured and sometimes aggressive - which the matter deserves well, but very substantial information by two insiders), in German. It is a bestseller over here. I finished it last November, within one week

http://www.amazon.de/Der-größte-Raub...9847573&sr=8-1

Two days ago, there was this interview with the authors:
http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrich...3/02/01/21664/

When you are done reading it, you will feel ready to massacre banks and insurers and politicians in piecework style, this much I can tell you.

Money not going too far?! It already is beyond that. Never before has there been so many debts circulating as trading objects. Never before has there been so much money circulating. Never before have states been so depending on private banks, and have banks had states so hopelessly deep in their pockets.

The fiscal system, having entangled itself in a lethal vicious circle and being beyond any solutions, will collapse, the question to me is not if, but when. And the reason for why it will collapse, inevitably, is quite simple.

It's collapse is the solution to it, for the disease is the very system itself.

[yubba]

So why is this government hell bent on us not to be drilling ??? I from New York State escaped years ago I can't believe whats going on up there, so afraid of drilling for gas and you only get 7 shots to save your life, and the state is billions in the red.

[Skybird]

And another German piece, some days ago, on the shifting snetiments of Germans towards America, and anti-Americnaism spreading since Bush. Also showing that quite irrationally the sentiments and high expectations of Germans on Obama have not changed to four years ago.

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/d...-12034804.html

The drop in pro-American trust and sympathy due to the Iraq '03war, is nothing else but dramatic. And the hail being seen in Obama, is nothing but irrational.

In other words: imo the overwhelming majority of Germans is totally disconnected from reality in their views of America. I used the word several times in recent weeks, regarding the Germans, but I indeed mean it serious: the Germans have turned into a people with hysteric obsessions.