1/29/09

Novacadia Now: Secession-By-Default

(Note: This post was originally submitted to Vermont Commons for publication in the next hard-copy edition. The editorial angle and changes to the article which have been requested will likely warrant the preparation of what will amount to a new piece. As such, it can be posted as a stand-alone.)

Thomas Naylor of The Second Vermont Republic has outlined in a previous issue of Vermont Commons why secession is such a difficult sell. Although the marketing hurdles raised by Mr. Naylor warrant considerable reflection, it can be argued that secession, as a political philosophy and act, is a difficult sell because it is the wrong "widget" and/or "better mouse trap" that is being sold. It is even more so the case when at the preliminary stages of "missionary sales" with related brutal cold-calling. It also applies not only to the dynamics and logistics of secession, but also to its labeling and packaging. A product feature that frightens and/or alienates the "political consumer" is not about to generate any great political returns. It simply will not sell. Holding to a business analogy, the "secessionist business venture" stands to be bankrupt before it is even out of the gate.

It is put forward for consideration that secession is merely a symptom of a larger historical dynamic. In and of itself, secession is not a primary historical driver, one of the major fault lines of social and political transition. It is an element and reflection of the latter. To focus political strategy and tactics on a symptom, as opposed to focusing on the cause, is a mistake that will generate a plethora of self-defeating consequences.

That secession is not a driver in and of itself is the position taken by The Novacadia Alliance. In particular, it is argued that the primary social and political driver of our age is the collapse of industrial civilization, as is made starkly evident by the descent onto the Post-Peak Oil slope of reduced energy availability. This energy descent will transform our social, economic and political institutions inside out, the social institution of the large industrial nation-state inclusive. This message is neither alarmist nor negative. The message is deceivingly optimistic and sellable. It is: Be conscious and prepare, prepare, prepare!

By employing a re-adjusted (value-added?) premise for secession, the secessionist political initiative is transformed from a subjective grasp inside a philosophical vacuum to an historical inevitability with proximity to scientific certainty. Civilizations are born, they live, they die. Within a historical context, we deal with secession-by-default and adapt to such accordingly at local and regional levels. The fringe and marginal constituency currently supporting secession is reinforced by a beleaguered middle class searching for answers to a crumbling financial reality. Furthermore, the middle class is identified and targeted as the historically designated and legitimate social agent to carry secession to fruition. We shift from the finger painting of a limited rebellion to the canvass of a revolution in perception and crafting of political will.

Massive and cheap energy flow-through has been the direct source and collateral for the growth of the industrial nation-state, the growth of the American Empire inclusive. It stands to reason, from a thermodynamic and entropic interpretation of events, that maximum institutional and ecological disorder pushing against a closed system, i.e. the earth, will result in implosion and collapse. The large nation-state, as a redundant institution, will implode because it must implode. If a balloon is blown up to its maximum limit, it bursts, leaving behind shards of rubber. The analogy to large nation-state devolution and implosion is that simple. The actual parameters of the shards, i.e. determination and governance of negative entropy, will be open for human re-invention.

As such, an alternative "marketing strategy" for North American (NAmerican) secessionist initiatives might be along the lines of:

The perception and acknowledgement that the immediate 100-year era of Post-Peak Oil is the actual secessionist "widget" that needs to be sold.

The social and political benefits of secession are features inherent in the "product" of Post-Peak Oil acceptance, i.e. secession equals survival.

Secessionist devolution and implosion on the NAmerican continent will follow along regional lines, as opposed to individual state/provincial secessions, the New England and Maritime designation of Novacadia inclusive.

It is likely that the third point nudges the VC reader onto new intellectual territory. The balance of this article deals with a preliminary introduction to the notion of Novacadia in particular, and to the merits of regional secession in general. It is a beginning, but a beginning happens to be the only place where one can make a start.

It is put forward for consideration that by the end of the current century the two nation states of America and Canada will be displaced by several regional and autonomous eco-states. This is the position that has been brought to the secessionist table by the Novacadia Alliance. Those secessionists who maintain that 48 independent nations, plus Canadian equivalents, on the NAmerican land mass is reasonable merely hamper and subconsciously sabotage the forging of a sound and marketable political analysis. It is imperative to address the issue of secession with a 2009 analytical microscope, complimented by systems theory and thermodynamics, as opposed to one that peers myopically and longingly out onto a romantic political landscape of either 1776 or 1865.

For secessionists the fundamental issue lies with the most proper, the most reasonable, and the most balanced size of the jurisdiction to be governed, primarily as relates to population size and only secondarily as relates to physical size. The most reasonable and most balanced size, in turn, translates into reasonable rights and liberties, reasonable safety and civic integrity for its citizens, and the reasonable functioning of a free market economic system with like financial infrastructure. This principle of reduced size is the bedrock of secessionist philosophy. Reduced size will be the consequence of nation-state implosion.

Novacadia is the region that consists of the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and the American states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Vermont retains its status as the secessionist flag ship within this bioregional distribution channel; it is the political nucleus attached to both the development of regional identity and the weakest link in the American federal state (complimenting Quebec in Canada). That Vermont is leading the secessionist charge in Novacadia is simple fact.

The secessionist designation of Novacadia borrows from the bioregional model. Within this model, a political designation based solely on geographical factors such as mountain ranges, watersheds, prairie land, rivers, etc. quickly becomes convoluted for practical political purposes. Although the evolution of events and political context over the last two decades have largely made bioregionalism (and attendant Green politics) as a concrete political tool redundant, it is not necessary to throw the baby out with the bath water. From wherever it is possible to realistically borrow and most effectively aid secessionist goals surely does no harm.

The identification of Novacadia as a future autonomous eco-nation remains an element of conjecture. But all secessionists are currently constrained by conjecture. They tread on uncharted political territory. There is no secessionist crystal ball. There are no maps, no charts. Secessionists are pioneers; they are the mapmakers.

The combined population of the three Maritime provinces and the three New England states of Novacadia is approximately five million people. This is a reasonable population size for civic conduct and administration. More importantly, it is an optimum population size to house, feed and employ within greatly reduced economic parameters and expectations. Economic self-sufficiency will be at a premium. Within this regional population of five million, the three largest cities are Greater Halifax with a population of 370,000, Saint John at 122,000, and Manchester at 108,000.

The vast majority of Novacadia's population is rural. With a pre-determined economic shift to a predominantly agrarian economy complimented by small-scale secondary industry in a Post-Peak Oil world, this is crucial. An agrarian economy, coupled with a small population and compact channels of distribution, makes the economic challenge of self-sufficiency that much easier to attain. Novacadia is novel in that political power already resides in the country, and not in the city. This is a political opportunity of extreme importance.

Novacadia is endowed with ocean coastline which directly implies a seafaring nation. The natural resources to support this industry are in place. A serious development of tidal energy, as opposed to corporate posturing, could make Novacadia energy self-sufficient. The shared coastline more than compensates for a rough, but useable, highway infrastructure. Upgraded and new rail lines would be welcome. Most importantly, the sea is a cultural tie. It is a common point of identity. This cultural tie highlights a bioregional social dynamic that a people "are of place." A regional identity is innate; it evolves naturally. It does not have to be artificially hammered into minds beginning at kindergarten age and relentlessly reinforced with gaudy symbols and social spectacles for the duration of a lifetime.

In many ways, the economic possibilities for Novacadia are merely a return to the pre-industrial, pre-tariff economies of New England and The Maritimes when natural north-south trade relations existed. These economies were primarily agrarian and, due to seafaring capabilities, mercantile in nature and in practice.

As a region that has largely been bypassed by industrial development, Novacadians share a relatively undamaged natural environment and a shared history of hardships, of living within material means, and of a condescending arrogance displayed towards them by the "more developed" metropole.

In a Post-Peak Oil world, social and economic relations and institutions will be turned on their heads. What once was a liability becomes the richest of assets. Underdevelopment becomes an asset; a rural political base becomes an asset; traditional community ties become an asset; small population becomes as asset, and so on. There is almost a poetic justice, a long overdue karma of sorts, to identifying the Novacadian secessionist adventure on the very soil where European settlers first stepped to embark on continental expansionism.

It is imperative for Novacadians to acknowledge the historical conditions for secession as they exist in the present, conditions which were not created by secessionists and which quickly approach a crisis and, as such, call to be acted upon. To undo the institutional construct of the large industrial nation state, an artificial imposition that has been in place for two centuries, is no small task. It is the historical condition abetted by political synergies that will unravel the artificial identity of large-scale nationalism. Secessionists need merely to perceive the opportunities afforded by societal implosion and adapt accordingly. This is the unfolding of history; it need not be taken personally.

No one yet knows how the hybrid secessionist initiative of "radical right meeting radical left" will actually present and play itself out. However, the political hybrid slowly begins to come into focus. The future already exists; it's just not here yet.

Most of the work to be undertaken over the next two decades will be to agitate and to educate, as the revolution that is proposed is largely a revolution of thought, a revolution of perception. As a people are "of place" a contemporary ownership of identity is more a matter of acceptance than it is a matter of needing to be crafted. Although covered by layers of a fawning and false patriotism, a regional identity already exists. This is easily verified by walking over to the nearest mirror and saying out loud, "I am an American. I am a Novacadian. I am a Vermonter." Which statement feels right and carries the greatest challenge of responsibility within the context of global civilizational decay and collapse?

During times of crisis, one looks to one's neighbors. This is as true on the regional level as it is at one's immediate community level. The social motivators inherent in a Post-Peak Oil world will drive political intellects and imaginations towards perceptions that currently are barely imaginable. One could venture a reasonably safe guess that at this time the notion of Novacadia is yet such a perception. What requires building is the organized notion, the spark of political imagination with relative features and benefits.

As a simple woodworker, I can only conclude by saying that before it can be built it first has to be imagined. As for the actual marketing once it is built, that is simple: Build it and they will come.

These are early days. Welcome to the womb of political imagination.

1/25/09

Condition Overview: An Introduction

It is strongly suggested that for anyone who wishes to be brought up to speed to an alternative interpretation of events (relative to the corporate media) to view this video: THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, The Great Depression of the 21st Century. It was presented by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in Montreal, January 14th.

Prof. Chossudovsky's name may be familiar to some as the Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He was also an instrumental research source for Mike Ruppert for the writing of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.

If you wish, you can weave Prof. Chossudovsky's writings and a reading of Rubicon in with Chris Martenson's Crash Course which deals with the inter-relationship of the three E's (economy, energy, environment).

Lastly, remembering that this is a secessionist blog, you may choose to cap a wrap with Post-Peak Oil and NAmerican Regional Secession.

Then again, you can go back to doing exactly what you were doing.

A Scent of Foreboding


The scene has been duplicated in several European cities over the last few weeks. This one happens to be in Reykjavik. The scene is duplicated in Latvia, Lithuania and, of course, in Greece.


Gerald Celente, the widely-recognized Director of The Trends Research Institute, has issued a Code Red to his subscribers in the aftermath of the Obama inauguration. Steve Quayle issues the following warning: "The 'artificially manipulated' spot price (of gold) is designed to keep the little guys out of the Market and fixated on the Controlled movements to keep you from seeing the Big Picture. At some point in the next 60 days major financial shock waves will make acquiring physical Gold and Silver at any where near these prices extremely difficult. The price of Gold is being touted by the major players behind the scenes as rising to 3-4 times their current level when the manipulation stops." The American Chronicle reports that the revolution in Mexico has begun. And on it goes, as you know from your own research and internet connections.


I ask of you to not only look at the image above (that's easy), but to pull in a couple of other senses: smell it...taste it...perceive it with your third eye and with your intuition.


And now I ask you to tack several months, a year, two years onto the image and your perception of it while sitting somewhere in what is still the relative comfort of NAmerica. Do the institutional fault lines waver in your imagination? Does the imaginary construct of the "nation state" retain its threads of legitimacy? Does the political validity of the NAmerican secessionist movement caught asleep-at-the-wheel warrant consideration and re-evaluation? Catch my drift?

1/24/09

The Obama Pink Lenses: Scratch 'em, scratch 'em, scratch 'em!

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." - Thomas Jefferson

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1R8vRB-qeU&eurl=http://www.infowars.com/?p=7310&feature=player_embedded]

Green Party of Canada: A Tired, Old Dinosaur

The Green Party of Canada (GPC) has finally released proposals for the ailing national economy with an Economic Stimulus Package. As usual, it is too little, too late, and too irrelevant.

The GPC is now down to 5% national support (likely closer to 3%-4%), carrying a choking debt-load, and straddled with a leader, Elizabeth May, who seems to be as unpopular within the party as she is with the general public. This is not a good mix...for the GPC, that is. It is a great mix for ex-Greens who await the final collapse of this centralist, nanny-state, run-of-the-mill, liberal, establishment party.

The entry onto the depletion slope of a Post-Peak Oil world makes the GPC policy proposals somewhat redundant. They constitute a lie. The GPC is still pitching, through rose-coloured lenses, the prospect of a smooth transition to a Green economy/world. Such position is either a combination of vanity and delusion or crass political opportunism, neither of which is acceptable.

The GPC is a tired, old dinosaur. The wisest thing for tuned-in Greens to do would be to withdraw financial and philosophical support, let the party crawl away and die a reasonably quiet death. A bioreginal, back-to-basics, eco-political direction is available, in some cases as close as autonomous provincial Green parties. Let the Central Canadian, urban hand-wringers, social workers and delusional feminists who control the GPC dangle on the rope for which they have so stringently clamoured. In this day and age, all myopic fools deserve a just destiny.

The GPC's adherence to IMF, OECD and G20 guidelines in the Stimulus Package is disquieting. With a UN party girl like Liz May at the helm, such overtures seem to be the norm. Her political simplicity, coupled with the party's affiliation to a Global Charter, merely positions the GPC to be an unwitting Bilderberg patsy.

With the recently announced news of Ms. May's move to New Glasgow from Ottawa, the GPC may as well strike a leadership search committee. This move has as much to do with schmoozing the Liberal base in Central Nova in order to prime the pump for that nomination as it has to do with anything else. The guess is ventured that Ms. May has her sights on the Environment Ministry in an Ignatieff government. Outside of tweaking from Dion to Ignatieff, this guess has not been altered in two years. If Ignatieff proves to be as much a Green dolt as was Dion remains to be seen.

A 25-year era of liberal Green political posturing has passed with no results. There will be no Green nirvana "stewarded" in by enlightened, touchy-feely, matriarchal principles. A new generation of Post-Peak Oil warriors and amazons waits in the wings.

It's over. It's finished. Let it go.

1/22/09

Secessionist Plug in The New Yorker (Whither James Howard Kunstler?)

The prestigious and uppity New Yorker has graciously given the NAmerican Secessionist Movement a bit of a plug...tucked away in the last para of the abstract for an article called The Dystopians. What is not mentioned is that even though James Howard Kunstler did address the Vermont Independence Convention in November 2008, hosted by the Second Vermont Republic, he came out against secession in his very presentation: "I'm personally not an advocate of national breakup or secession."

I've been kicking around a post between my ears re the above contradiction, i.e. Kunstler speaking out against secession as a guest speaker to a secessionist convention. The organizers could have vetted the speech, thus neutralizing Kunstler's anti-secessionist sentiment. I can assure you that Kunstler's site generates more hits than the SVR's.

It is just one more PR misfortune. Of course, Kunstler is entitled to his opinion re secession. But the Vermont convention was a political event, and speakers are, as a rule, vetted accordingly. If Kunstler was brought in as a marketing hook to fill the Vermont Legislature's chairs with university students, then fine. But the trade-off seems to have back-fired.

Let us not forget that Kunstler's invitation to address the Vermont conference must be seen within the context of his seemingly strong secessionist empathy as written in The Long Emergency: "It would be reasonable to wonder whether the United States will continue to exist as a unified entity, and what kind of strife the Long Emergency could ignite region by region."

If Kunstler blind-sided the secessionist movement only he and the organizers of the convention know. That would have been his prerogative, although a questionable prerogative. If he did indeed blind-side the movement, then it can be scratched up to just one more lesson on the political and PR learning curves. It stands to reason that at a secessionist event the very topic under discussion will not get dumped on nor marginalized by a keynote speaker. A political utterance is qualitiatively more loaded than the comfort of liberal proselytizing on a stump of safe hypotheses and increased book sales.

It looks like I've just written the post that I've had in mind.

1/20/09

Against the Trinket of Mass Democracy

The more that lurkers come out of hiding and ignorance to contribute to the Peak Oil dialogue, the more I am struck by how many "savvy" Peak Oilers are latent useless eaters, i.e. conscious of the magnitude of what is about to break yet powerless, within their own lives, to take a first step towards protecting themselves and their families. There is much subjective hand-wringing and spiritual masturbation, neither of which will protect one from the elements nor supply needed nutrition. Until one separates oneself from the herd to take appropriate action, one is of the herd, nose stuck up the asshole of the beast in front for delusional warmth and security.

NAmericans have never experienced the degree of social upheaval and transformation that hovers on the horizon. We are barely able to imagine it, let alone prepare for it. Allow me to repeat myself once more: within a global scope and context, the economic meltdown will make the thirties look like a stroll through the park and the die-off will make the Black Death look like a nose bleed. On a historical time scale, it is all only a heart beat away. That it should be camouflaged by the media-packaged Obama trinket of mass democracy and false hope is only fitting. How else could it possibly be?

To aid the savvy hand-wringers, I would like to offer a quote from Joe Stalin. It seems to be appropriate: "The death of one soldier is a tragedy; the death of one million soldiers is a statistic." This is the objective perspective as opposed to the subjective twaddle that resides between most ears. The trick is to be a decent and courageous human being, not a statistic.

Re Post-Peak Oil preparation, if there is some action you can take towards crafting your survival, then do it. Fight where you stand, not necessarily "against" anyone or anything, but for yourself. There is only one place to start and that is at the beginning, in the here and the now. Otherwise, one is left shitting in one hand and wishing in the other, waiting to see which piles up first.

However one may understand and relate to a God of their understanding, may God's speed be with us all. We will need it.

1/15/09

An Ominous Signal for the Launching of North American Union?

As reported by the El Paso Times, U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of Mexico is possible.

The dots to be connected here are so evident that they barely warrant comment. For anyone needing to catch up in a hurry, a good place to brush up on North American Union 101 is here and here.

The real point of this post is to highlight, once more, the degree to which the NAmerican Secessionist Movement (NASM) is disconnected, not only from its own political mandate, but from the political psyche of the NAmerican public. For further context on this claim, please see last week's post, NAmerican Secessionist Movement Asleep-At-the-Wheel.

On any given day we are confronted with events pointing towards the collapse of industrial civilization, entry onto the depletion slope of a Post-Peak Oil world, financial and economic meltdown, the initiative for North American Union, etc., etc. This happens to be the meta-context for the philosophical justification of the NASM. Yet, as has already been stated, as a political movement the NASM is incapable of issuing public commentary on the above events because no medium for doing so, such as a proposed North American Secessionist Congress, exists. The world in general, and North America in particular, sit on the cusp of an historical crisis of unforeseen proportions, yet the NASM is hand-cuffed from offering official and legitimate executive commentary by its own short-sighted choosing.

Without strategy, the option for identifying and implementing tactics does not exist. By virtue of its self-imposed non-voice and invisibility during these times of crisis, the NASM runs the real risk of joining NAmerican Green parties inside a toothless vacuum of myopic navel-gazing and political posturing. Ground can always be recovered; time never can be.

With friends like us, who needs adversaries?

Heads Up!

This one came via Vincent over at Mike Ruppert's blog: Bush declares a 'state of emergency' in Washington as cost of Obama's swearing-in ceremony soars to £110m. Mike offers some very interesting commentary on who will actually be holding the reigns of power on January 20 during this "state of emergency." It will be none other than the VP, Dick Cheney, the same administration offical who held absolute power via another "state of emergency" on September 11, 2001. For the structural web that allows for this, see Mike's blog.

1/14/09

A Crude Awakening - Peak Oil Video

For anyone who hasn't yet seen it, the award-winning video, A Crude Awakening, is about as good as you'll get to an introduction on Peak Oil. It is well worth the investment of an hour and a half of time to watch it.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-665674869982904386]

Corporate Media Dips a Toe into Peak Oil: Addendum

"The U.S. media, in general, wants to avoid discussing why many scientists believe that global oil production will probably peak in the near future, if it hasn’t already. They prefer happy talk of oil sands, coal-to-oil and cellulosic ethanol developments even if those developments have little probability of replacing declining conventional oil production. In the end, the talk may soothe the minds of the motoring public, but it won’t change the probability of peak oil."

This quote is lifted from an article by Roger Blanchard in the Energy Bulletin in response to a Peak Oil article carried in the New York Times, March 5, 2007. Also, considerable Peak Oil coverage in the English language mainstream media, though not in the NAmerican mainstream media, has been offered by The Independent. See here, here and here.

So, yes, there has been some Peak Oil coverage in the print media (ergo, not mass media, as that is the domain of the tube), but falls far short of what Peak Oilers would consider a reasonable educational initiative. And most certainly, the words "Peak Oil" have not been uttered by any sitting government in the Western world. The political concerns should be self-evident. If the message is not massaged and managed "correctly" then a mass hysteria, stock piling, and run on banks is quite possible.

So to refrain the post of January 11th, it is left to the Obama administration to drop this bomb shell into the public's lap. The motive for doing so and the manner in which the message will be managed remain to be seen. One thing is certain, Western governments can not sit on the Peak Oil lid for much longer.

When the cat is finally let out of the bag will said governments be able to stroke a purring, household pet, or will they have on their hands feral consequences for which there are no known, easy and ready "strokes" because the condition is wild, wild, wild?

1/13/09

Henry Kissinger: The NWO Non-Useless Eater

It stands to reason that as the world economic crisis deepens, the orchestrated calls for a "new world order" will increase. To the degree that the economic crisis has been engineered to allow for the full-blown unveiling of a NWO is left to each individual's level of political perception, sophistication and opinion. Be that as it may, the recent calls for a NWO have been ramped up to a new level...and they are no longer diplomatically veiled. A good overview of this "surge" is offered by The August Review article, Chorus Call for New World Order.

But what better NWO cheerleader to trot out than that beloved war criminal and non-useless eater, Hank Kissinger, hisself. This may very well be his last kick at the can and he spares no punches. To do so, he is given front page exposure by the International Herald Tribune with the op-ed piece, The Chance for a New World Order.

This is on top of the recent CNBC interview with Hank held on the floor of the NYSE (nice symbolic backdrop!).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBCFtJQPnOg]

This brazen media offensive will only increase. The time has arrived (because it has been orchestrated?) for the NWO agenda to be fully unleashed and implemented. Look for the complimentary releasing of the Peak Oil cat from its bag by the Obama administration some time this year. How it will dovetail with "the test" which has been forecast and will be dropped into his lap soon after the inauguration remains to be seen.

None of this ramping up should come as surprise. As the condition/crisis matures it is next to impossible to keep the blinders on the public's eyes. How the public will respond once the blinders are removed is the great unknown. It's handy to have the fall-back position of several hundred FEMA "detention centers" and a couple of battle-tested Army brigades.
Hang on. We are in for a ride! What? You expect history to be a touchy-feely cakewalk?

1/11/09

Corporate Media Dips a Toe Into Peak Oil

The Montreal Gazette has released a story on Peak Oil by William Marsden with the byline: The age of oil is ending. No mention of the nefarious two words, but the ball is rolling. So here we go; the public is finally getting prepped. There are all sorts of signals coming out of the U.S. administration-elect that the shit is about to hit the fan in a very serious way.

The BDI Song Bird

In pre high-tech coal mines the miners used to rely on a caged song bird to warn if there was a build up of dangerous gases. When the song bird dropped dead, it was time to quickly get out of the shafts.

Well, the BDI song bird is chirping its head off and going into death convulsions.

The Baltic Dry Index tracks the price of shipping bulk cargo. It is a concrete barometer of the global trade in economic building blocks like iron ore, coal and grain. The BDI is not a traded index so no one profits from the index itself, which makes it virtually manipulation proof. It is what it is; its numbers tell a fairly accurate story.

As recently as last June, around the same time that crude peaked at $147 a barrel, the BDI stood at a reasonably healthy 11,600. It has currently plummeted to 791. That’s about a 94% drop in goods actually being shipped worldwide.

Put simply, the cost of shipping has dropped through the floor. For example, sending a tonne of iron ore from Brazil to China in early June would have set you back more than $100 per tonne, or around $15m per voyage. But freight rates have now dropped to only slightly over $10 per tonne, or just $1.5m for the 70-90 day journey.

The BDI's plummet points towards unprecedented disaster around the world, especially as it relates to food. Products are simply not being shipped. The products aren't being shipped because there aren't any orders for them.

Of particular interest in the following video is the correlation between the decline in crude shipping and the tanking of the DPI.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXATSV8S3-M]

DarthDubious, Song Bird #1

Hubris and Nemisis, Song Bird #2

The Independent, Song Bird #3

1/9/09

NAmerican Secessionist Movement Asleep-At-The-Wheel

It took just about a month for the mainstream media to catch up to a story on the disintegration of NAmerica that first broke on November 25, 2008. I refer, of course, to the WSJ article which ran on December 29: As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. The WSJ article is getting a lot of play in the blogosphere. The original Izvestia story, as was covered by Global Futures, was touched on with a post in this blog and can be jumped to here (link to the original Global Futures article inclusive).


The motives for such an esteemed gatekeeper as the WSJ to run with this story is left to individual imaginations. It is safe to say that the determination of motive will vary to the degree of one's political smarts and where one sits within the conspiracy cosmos, i.e. alternative interpretation of "news." The acknowledged role of the corporate media within such "conspiracy cosmos" goes without saying.

More to the point, the issue for the NAmerican secessionist movement (NASM) around this story is not if Prof. Panarin is a nut job or to the degree, if any, that his theories on the break-up of the United States serve Russian propaganda purposes. The issue for the NASM here is the degree to which it has been caught with its pants down. By all rights, the NASM should be all over this story and the wide public attention it is receiving like a dirty shirt; it should be collecting PR premiums, via the positioning of the NASM in the public psyche, hand-over-fist.

Unfortunately, the NASM is asleep-at-the-wheel because it is currently structured to be asleep-at-the-wheel, i.e. there is no structure. Within a context of political organization, the movement is straddled with a non-organized gaggle of non-affiliated state/provincial and regional secessionist initiatives ranging from the politically astute and professional (Quebec, Vermont, The South, Texas, Alaska), to fledgling start-ups, to the competition amongst Cascadian organizations as to who can design the prettiest web site.

The Middlebury Institute, widely recognized as being the clearing house for secessionist news and information, makes no mention of the Panarin story. The American Secession Project is likewise out of the loop, which stands to reason as it has been dormant since 2007.

After the major international media breakthroughs accomplished at the Second NAmerican Secessionist Convention held in Chattanooga, TN in 2007, the NASM took a step backwards with the poorly organized Third NAmerican Secessionist Convention held this past November in Manchester, NH. For the media it was a non-event, likely due to a combination of Obamamania, lack of interest, and poorly executed press releases.

1/8/09

2008: Financial Meltdown + Peak Oil = ?

Here's a small tap up the side of the head in case anyone need's jarring from Newton's Sleep. We all know things are bad and about to get much worse. The following snapshot of the 2008 performance of the world's stock markets captures the meltdown quite succinctly. This comes via Davos over at Chris Martenson's site who, in turn, pointed me towards Bespoke Investment Group. Remember that stock market performance usually foreshadows by several months where and how economic performance will go. If you wish, you can overlay Bob Chapman's January 7th commentary for greater nuts n' bolts clarity. Now factor in the consensus, nicely arranged in a post by Cliff Wirth, that global oil production peaked in 2008, and we have a stage set for some interesting, painful and...very different times. Okay, back to sleep now.