collapsing investors

I was surprised indeed that the U.S. House did not pass the bailout. I read today that after that happened, $1.2 trillion evaporated from the stock market. Personally, I can't make sense of it. The stock marketers don't get $700 billion of worthlessly inflating greenbacks, and $1.2 trillion disappears?

The House may eventually pass the bailout, but they'll pay for it come election time. What a juicy time for this crisis to happen. Apparently, American taxpayers are announcing their objections to raking us and our descendants over the coals. I feel like such a Republican being against the bailout!

I read that the bailout would enable banks to loan money again, for things like mortgages, business loans, student loans, etc. I honestly don't see the benefit in this. It seems like slowing down the pace of rapid-fire loans would be a good idea. I don't know who in this economy survives on credit, but it isn't me.

yeah, what this guy says

This is my home. It is where I come from and come back to. It is the place I sit to understand.

This place has been here since long before us and will be here long after us.

Because it's not that we're destroying the world.

We're only destroying our ability to live on it.

This place will be here forever.

But where will be the eyes to love it?

--by some minor superhero called no impact man

tomato crazy

This first lovely picture is seeds, separated by variety, fermenting for a few days before sitting out to dry, label & pack up for next year's planting. We have a lot of heirloom varieties, and I didn't write down the names of anything. Sometime I will have to figure out the real names of pink and red yellow sunset tomatoes. Maybe. Otherwise I'll just have mixed heirloom varieties. The next picture is the four quarts of tomatoes I canned last week, all made from our garden tomatoes, all mixed heirloom varieties.

And lastly, there is a picture of our ripe and ripening tomatoes. I find green tomatoes on the ground and bring them in to ripen. The winds from the remains of hurricane Ike blew over the cages, and we've been ripening dozens in the house since then. The bowl of tomatoes in the front of the picture is what I harvested in one pass through the garden. I haven't harvested in a couple of days, but this is kind of ridiculous! I'm going to be processing soon enough!

let me count the ways I enjoy not owning a car

"No gas. What will we do? We won't be able to do anything. We can't go to work. We can't do anything," one driver said.

Still laughing over that one. Police are monitoring gas stations that have gas in the southeastern U.S. I see that gas is only $3.59 a gallon here. That's cheap.

"It's been a nightmare for everybody," one driver said.

also:

A petroleum executive suggested that the football game between the University of Georgia and University of Alabama should be canceled this weekend because fans could drain all the gas in the Athens area, WSB-TV in Atlanta reported. "That gas needs to be used for people to go to work, and for people to take care of their families," Tex Pitfield, president and CEO of Saraguay Petroleum in Atlanta, told WGAU radio in Athens. But representatives of Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said he would not consider "a ridiculous idea like this," WSB said.

---

It seems like if they (whoever is running this country, whoever they are!) rationed gas, this would solve a lot of the fuel shortage problems, especially since the press stresses how most of the gas shortage is caused by consumer stupidity--hoarding. Why aren't they rationing? That would be a big psychological defeat in the American dreamworld where We Still Rule. Next we'd be closing down stock markets or banks to get a handle on the panic. We surely can't do that! Printing more money is a much less psychologically painful option.

Another quote from someone and something that happened a long time ago:

"Mr. Chairman, we have in this Country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the Fed. The Fed has cheated the Government of these United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the Nation's debt. The depredations and iniquities of the Fed has cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over.

"This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of these United States, has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Fed and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it."

If you're way interested, the whole shebang is at http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html But yikes!

I'm glad I'm not hung up on this future that has been written for us, that I can use my imagination and creativity, that I can rely on my neighbors and community, that I can survive in trying times, that I can provide for a lot of my needs directly. I have a clear vision of my future, and there is no doubt in my mind that I am living it already.

carey

germ warfare

I was born in a hospital, not the cleanest place. I played in the dirt a lot as a kid, and lived on a truck route, near the train tracks, near the river. I got hit by a car. Later, I lived in the middle of a farm field, one where pesticides and fertilizers were sprayed on the fields, sometimes by planes. Our water came from a well in the middle of all this, the low point where the toxic soup drained. I used to wade in a creek 1/2 mile downstream from a mega hog confinement operation, and lived a mile upwind of another. I ate fish full of mercury from local streams. I ate a ton of chickens and eggs, never inspected by men in white suits. I went to a concrete block school by bus an hour each way. Town water had nitrates so high they turned off the drinking fountains at school. The biggest risks of death were cancer and suicide.

Later, I ate a lot of processed foods, lots of spam and gravy, lots of koolaid and extruded foods like cheese curls. I drank a lot of soda. I ate very little, starving my body, and only feeding it tiny amounts of non-nutritious foods like chips, soda, and candy. I grew up in a dysfunctional family, with physical and mental violence being normal. Guilt was abundant. I worked a lot of hours while maintaining good grades. I've washed my hands in gasoline. I worked in a paper factory, Wal-Mart and in fast food. I was a substitute teacher. I've spent many years in front of a lead screen with an aching back, and talked on a cordless phone countless hours.

I never brushed my teeth at all nor bathed more than once a week until I was a teenager. I never washed my hands after going to the bathroom until I was in my twenties. I've only had a flu shot once. I avoid doctors, but even if I didn't, I have useless state-provided health care, good only at the ER. I ride a bike in Springfield's traffic, without a helmet. I lived on a major commuter street for a year. I jaywalk.

I don't always wash my produce before I eat it. I eat out of dumpsters and off the floor. I'd rather eat weeds than have a full-time job. I eat expired food, dairy that's gone "bad" and fermented cabbage. I drink alcohol on a daily basis. I don't take prozac, nor talk to a counselor. I don't use antibacterial soap. My child is not fully immunized.

I know this world is toxic, and you've got to take precautions. But for today, I feel strong.

an alternative to toxic debt...your future

I would like to share a post on my friend Abby's blog. It is the most succinct explanation of the housing/bank/stupidity crisis, as well as a more accurate picture of the possible future than I have read in the virtual papers.

I second all of what Abby says. I think we have lost sight of the paradigm of the god of money, and it seems we are well on our way on the path of community. When money means nothing, and people mean everything, we find ourselves living in a different paradigm. It's bound to happen. Feedback makes changes, as surely as three of the top 5 financial players have ceased to exist, there will be a future that does not revolve around money. It has to be. America will never be as wealthy as it was 60 years ago. Good-paying jobs will not be available for every American to access.

And it will not matter. We will have ourselves to rely on to create a meaningful future, in places and with people worth caring about. It is one option available to all, without regards to race, gender, age, caste status, or capabilities. I have no faith that a system of representational leadership will end institutional racism, sexism, etc. A woman now earns around 75% of what a man does, and in my state you are 57 times more likely to go to prison for drugs if you are black. It's been generations since the civil rights era, and this method, the feedback tells me, isn't viable.

We can think a lot. We can explore our passions, get to be creative generalists again. We can share knowledge, assistance, and good will. We can bridge the gap between the paradise we lost (eden) and the carrot-on-a-stick paradise (heaven) not attainable. We can raise children who function as part of society, not cogs to be managed from birth to death by schools, jails, workplaces, and nursing homes--bureaucracy for all! We can be part of an integrated community, neighbors who belong to a place for as long as the elms.

Yeah, what Abby says! America, are you tired of getting screwed? Finally?!?! Is it so blatant and in your face that you can't deny the corrupt corporate government that was not elected by the majority? There are vast numbers of nonvoters who are in reality voting for something else. Who cares what happens the next (s)election day, when it's really what you do the other 1,460 days of a presidential term that makes a real difference.

The socialists and anarchists had a lot to say after the depression, and a lot of people were listening--they had nothing else to do. And then came massive government intervention with pumped in money, mass production, and a war to focus on. What will happen after this depression? There is no money to be pumped in (and if it is pumped in, it will go only to corporations). There is no war we can win. And mass production fled long ago. Will people be talking about things that matter, instead of nascar chariot races or the dumb things the president does? Will people be more attuned to think about the writings of people like Abby?

A lot of people are searching for something else, because they know this exponential growth economy has hit a dead end. Well, I'll be in the ghetto, forgetting about politics and major league baseball, and remembering how to save seeds, share plants and food, kicking it with my unemployed neighbors, laughing and carrying on especially with the kids, eating raspberries and holding babies, hugging friends in need, listening. We'll be living life every day, bringing joy to ourselves, using creativity as a key to the locks of the next paradigm. Won't you join us?

carey


"With as much love as I have, and as much heart as I can give, I am yours, each of yours, through and through. Let's stop trying to put up with this crazy world and start envisioning our own lives becoming fulfilled and abundant. I promise that we can do this, we can truly build our lives differently, and it doesn't take change from the top down. Change You, and the world changes. "--Abby

socializing the banks

In doing the math, say dividing the $700 billion we're forking over to "fix" the economy, by the estimated ten million households (U.S. Census bureau's 2010 estimate), it equals out to about $70,000 per household. Well, damn, my house only cost $25,000. I imagine there are lots of small livable houses for that price or less, especially in dilapidated urban and rural areas. It seems giving money to American people rather than corporations would make a lot more fiscal sense and provide a lot more security to our citizenry, to have every American owning their own home. Wouldn't we be rather impervious to most any financial collapse, if we weren't in danger of losing our homes? The government could even set up an economic renewal program repopulating urban and rural ghettos, focusing on remaking them as walkable functioning neighborhoods within cities, and promoting reclaimed lots & fields for small scale local agricultural and livestock (chickens, goats, bees, etc.) entrepreneurships.

Surely some of our elected leaders have more vision and scope of creativity than just rewarding greedy bankers with wads of someone else's money (our lives even, which is what we trade the money for, and those of our grandchildren, observing the raising of the absolute maximum debt cap!) when the pyramid scheme flounders. It seems the same old isn't going to do much lasting adjustments, but will continue to reward those who invest in short-term get rich, long-term bankruptcy kinds of options. A public works administration focused on rebuilding our country's infrastructure and vital necessary non-industries (farming!) could employ thousands of Americans, effectively jumpstarting the economy rather immediately. Why is giving money to guys in suits considered good for our country, but to give money to our citizens disgusting and pathetic welfare?

Loved this book by Curtis White, The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work. (The author lives an hour from me, but we'll never meet in person, because neither of us drive. Ha!)