Noni Mausi on MONEY ...

The Promise Merchants Part II

Posted: 07 Nov 2010 04:51 AM PST

By Noni Mausa

The Promise Merchants Part II -- Postulates

(Dan here...reformatted from the original posted earlier)

1. There is always [1] excess production. Individual human beings

cannot produce enough to live comfortably, but people in groups can’t

help but overproduce.

2. People can’t stop producing. The time, attention and efforts of

human beings are expended continuously. Their energy is li

ke the

water through a hydroelectric dam – it generates electricity whether

that electricity is used or not.

3. There are two great domains of human wealth – story, and stuff.

4. Stuff is limited, immediate, distinct and substantial.

5. Story [2] is unlimited in size, shape and qualities, timeless,

mutable and amenable to distillation. Human beings distribute wealth

across time by means of story .

6. One of these stories is money. Money is a creature of time. Money

is the story which allocates the stuff across time.

7. People do not need money – they need stuff. But story liquefies

stuff across time and allows individuals to work, produce excess, and

share their excess without fear that their sharing will not be

returned in due time. Time being what it is, this fear is never

entirely unfounded, but the shared faith in money is itself so

productive that the slippage is usually well compensated.

8. One important class of stuff is the time, effort and attention

(TEA) [3] of human beings. These TEA elements, together measured as

tau, are “stuff” – real resources of real value.

9. Those whose domain is rooted firmly in stuff do not hold the

controlling hand in repayment or just compensation – quite the

opposite. Farmers and fishermen, teachers and artists, labourers and

healers and especially parents are instead captives to the stuff they

produce. The stuff each person produces is limited, but his needs are

continuous, multiple and urgent.

10. And then there are the twin motivations of love and

responsibility, caritas. Witness whether work continues in the

absence of remuneration -- in the gap you will find caritas. The

greater the caritas, the more likely the poverty of the person driven

by it.

11. Money amplifies the potency of he who possesses it, out of

proportion to that person’s personal tau, by shaping the efforts of

others in accordance with his will. It is not, however, the only type

of story which can do this.

12. This shaping is not automatically good or bad – money may shape

efforts towards crime or towards charity. Story may shape efforts

towards the defense of Britain or the invasion of Poland. But some

patterns of shaping are more likely than others, and many of these are

destructive and self-perpetuating.

13. Stuff cannot be arbitrarily increased or erased [4], but money can

– in fact, strong rules must be in place to prevent this sort of

slippage. There’s a reason counterfeiting is a federal crime. The

production of false currency, like the writing of false IOU

s, erodes

the faith that makes money work.

14. Counterfeiting money is not the only hazard. Story of all types

is eroded if it is not honoured wherever presented. Science is eroded

by false science, law is eroded by unjust or unenforced law, finance

is eroded by unequal honouring of accounts and investments. Stories

themselves, the original shared memory of our species, are eroded in

value by false or pandering narratives.

15. Story manages stuff. There is always slippage. But when the

disjunct between story and stuff is extreme, at that boundary you will

always find violence.

=============

Footnotes

1) Absolutes are never true, unless they are definitional. However

at present, this “always” is a pretty safe assumption in human

cultures worldwide. Even the poorest create some excess, as proved by

the poorest nations still supporting their elites.

2) Includes such intangibles as knowledge, memory, culture,

accounting, language, mapping, science, finance and geneology.

3) I developed this term a decade before the Tea Party raised its

head. Nonetheless, those justifiably angry grass-roots Tea Partiers

would do well to study these postulates. They know they’re not

getting the benefit of their productivity – this could show them where

that benefit has gone.

4) Stuff cannot be erased, but it can be wasted. The water above the

dam cannot be annihilated, but it can be diverted to the spillway.

Worth a thought or two. (Oh! us cynics!)

Does Humanity Have a Chance?

When you look around your Universe (which you will soon have the technology to do much more effectively), you will see that these are not small accomplishments. Of all the life forms in existence, only a tiny minority has done it. And look at your personal lives. You have grown to become dynamic, productive, loving, caring, compassionate beings, deeply concerned with the feelings of others, deeply committed to the betterment of all, and deeply determined to courageously explore the edges of your knowledge, that you might create an even brighter tomorrow. Do you see the magnificence of that? This is Who You Are, and it is only the beginning. -Neal Donald Walsh

ACTIVISM: update on Canadian Veterans

Veterans rally on Hill

Veterans and currently serving members of the armed forces assembled on Parliament Hill in an effort to get the government to reform veterans benefits, Nov. 6, 2010.

related link:

The link to the Toronto Star's fine series of articles, currently being published.

Sunday sermon via Bjork (at the Royal Opera House)

you'll be given love
you'll be taken care of
you'll be given love
you have to trust it

maybe not from the sources
you have poured yours
maybe not from the directions
you are staring at

trust your head around
it's all around you
all is full of love
all around you

all is full of love
you just aint receiving
all is full of love
your phone is off the hook
all is full of love
your doors are all shut
all is full of love!

all is full of love
all is full of love
all is full of love
all is full of love
all is full of love

The Truly Unbelievable (but true!) department !!

I ran across some extremely weird, baffling and horrifying links, videos and accusations when I was in my Infragard mode. Insurance scams that were taking away all of a person's assets as a strategy was highest on the list of outrages.

But THIS, below, published on Crooks & Liars today, has me snorting dragon flames. The intimidation of poor, impoverished, effed over folks always has me breathless with RAGE. This misuse of human imagination seems to have no limits in the hands of profiteers and psychopaths/ sociopaths.

I wonder if there will be a class action suit or similar follow up.

The latest news results for Unicredit is here. I notice the fabulous Mish Shedlock is all over this story, too . . . (video below.)

Guidelines for how to protect YOURSELF if you fall into financial straits are here, too. (and please, do, read them !!) Also, a link to find a good bankruptcy attorney is here.

Debt Collection Company Was Using Fake Sheriffs, Judges and Courtroom To Scare Debtors

By Susie Madrak

Now remember, citizens, it's the people who neglected to yank out their gold fillings to pay their credit card bills after they lost their jobs who are the real bad guys here. A debt is a debt, after all, and an honorable person would go without food or shelter to pay the crooks who are collecting the money!

HARRISBURG - Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced that a consumer protection lawsuit has been filed against an Erie debt collection company accused of using deceptive tactics to mislead, confuse or coerce consumers - including the use of bogus "hearings" allegedly held in a company office that was decorated to look like a courtroom.

Corbett said the civil lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection against Unicredit America Inc., with corporate and business offices located at 1537 West 39th St., Erie, also identified as the "Unicredit Debt Resolution Center."

"This is an unconscionable attempt to use fake court proceedings to deceive, mislead or frighten consumers into making payments or surrendering valuables to Unicredit without following lawful procedures for debt collection," Corbett said. "Consumers also allegedly received dubious 'hearing notices' and letters - often hand-delivered by individuals who appear to be Sheriff Deputies - which implied they would be taken into custody by the Sheriff if they failed to appear at the phony court for 'hearings' or 'depositions'."

Corbett said that in conjunction with the lawsuit, the Attorney General's Office has also filed a petition for special and preliminary injunction, asking the court to freeze all Unicredit assets; prohibit the company from engaging in any debt collection; immediately cease all bogus hearings or depositions; and to provide detailed information about company bank accounts, assets and business records.

According to the lawsuit, fictitious court proceedings were used to intimidate consumers into providing access to bank accounts, making immediate payments or surrendering vehicle titles and other assets - sometimes dispatching Unicredit employees to consumers' homes in order to retrieve documents or have consumers sign payment agreements.

Corbett said Unicredit allegedly used civil subpoenas to summon consumers to an office in Erie, which included an area referred to by Unicredit employees as "the courtroom."

The fake courtroom allegedly contained furniture and decorations similar to those used in actual court offices, including a raised "bench" area where a judge would be seated; two tables and chairs in front of the "bench" for attorneys and defendants; a simulated witness stand; seating for spectators; and legal books on bookshelves. During some proceedings, an individual dressed in black was seated where observers would expect to see a judge.

Corbett said Unicredit is accused of violating Pennsylvania's Consumer Protection Law and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and also failed to comply with state and Erie County court rules in order to extract payments from consumers.

Corbett urged consumers with complaints or questions related to Unicredit debt collection practices to call the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-441-2555 or file an online consumer complaint.


More video and comments here ... all by people in investment circles so far.

And now the video you MUST WATCH> (Keiser Report No. 92)



More links (hopefully, more to follow . . .)

From the PA Attorney General's website.

FOX v. Richie: Round One

Stand up for the democratic process here in Minnesota and the "local" Fox news affiliate will send in the spanker(s) ... ( I mean, why save fireworks for the Fourth of July only ?)

Sec. of State Mark Ritchie Explains Vote Tally Error, Governor's Recount

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie talks with FOX 9's Heidi Collins about the Hennepin County election night error and a recount in the Minnesota governor's race.




Should your day be a bit overcast, I heartily recommend watching Richie's sublime performance and reading the ripe comments over at TPM found here.

Does this remind you of an interrogation ?

Who is sending her a pink slip?

I wouldn't mind seeing a "Dump the _itch at Fox" movement -

soon.

Why Medication Can Be Dangerous to Your Health -- Signs of the Times News

Why Medication Can Be Dangerous to Your Health

Dr. Leo Galland
Pill Advised
Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:31 CDT

Did you know that the majority of FDA approved drugs have serious potential side effects that were not detected before marketing approval? (1)

That about three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the U.S. because of adverse drug reactions, according to the CDC? (2)

That the number of medication-related deaths in the U.S. is estimated at over 200,000 a year, making medications the third or fourth leading cause of death in this country? (3)

That even common pain relievers called NSAIDs, examples of which include Advil, Motrin, Aleve and aspirin, account for an estimated 7,600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. every year? (4)

It sounds like the cure could be worse than the disease in far too many cases.

Thankfully, there is an option, an innovative approach to healing that seeks to restore balance and healthy function, instead of simply treating symptoms with drugs and suffering the side effects. I call it integrated medicine, and it is a powerful and effective way to address chronic illness...more on that in a moment.

But first, let me explain in brief why the everyday medications Americans rely upon are so dangerous.

The reason is simple and based upon the basic nature of modern drug therapy.

Most drugs used today are intended to act like biochemical strait jackets. They suppress cellular functions that appear to be overactive.

You can see this by looking at the names given to categories or classes of drugs. Almost all include "blocker," "inhibitor" "anti-" in the description: beta-blockers, calcium blockers, ACE inhibitors, proton pump inhibitors, anti-histamines, and anti-inflammatories. These drugs are developed to treat disease by interfering with the biochemical processes involved in illness.

But they also interfere with the natural and healthy functions of the body.

It's like throwing a wrench into a sophisticated machine in an effort to fix it.

Furthermore, the biochemical processes they inhibit are rarely the cause of the illness. They are just part of the many changes in the body that accompany disease. Outside the setting of disease these biochemical processes all play important roles in normal cellular function.

It's no wonder that many of these drugs have side effects that are a direct extension of their therapeutic ac­tions. (5) They are not restoring normal cellular function; they are merely inhibiting cellular hyperac­tivity.

NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are an excellent example and include common over the counter drugs such as aspirin (Bayer, Bufferin and Excedrin), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin and Nuprin), and naproxen (Aleve). They relieve pain and inflammation by blocking an enzyme called cyclo-oxygenase (COX).

Although COX activity contrib­utes to pain and inflamma­tion, this enzyme also performs important functions such as:

* Protecting the stomach from the corrosive effects of its own acid,
* Regulating circulation of blood to the kidneys,
* Modulating the activity of the immune system.

NSAID use can have severe side effects, which are a direct result of COX inhibition.

The documented side effects of chronic NSAID use include:

* Stomach ul­cers, (6)
* Intestinal bleed­ing, (7)
* Kidney fail­­­­­­­ure, (8)
* High blood pressure, (9)
* Aggravation of immune system disorders like asthma, (10) Psoria­sis (11) and Colitis. (12)

When you took an NSAID, let's say for a headache, were you aware that you could just be trading one problem for another?

The search for a safer type of NSAID led to the development of drugs called selective COX inhibitors. As their name suggests, they're selective in their effect, designed to inhibit only the so-called "bad" COX enzyme, without inhibiting the so-called "good" COX enzyme.

This approach created one of the most highly anticipated drug releases in the history of medicine: Vioxx.

Vioxx was a disaster; it increased the death rate from heart attacks and strokes and was withdrawn from the market.

What the scientists behind Vioxx failed to recognize is that all forms of the COX enzyme are important for health. (13)

So instead of giving us a safer drug therapy, it was like tossing a different type of wrench into the machine.

The idea that there are "bad" enzymes and "good" enzymes or "bad" hormones and "good" hormones is a total misrepresentation of how the body works. But the pharmacology underlying conventional medical treatments is based upon that misrepresentation.

Fortunately there is another way of looking at health and healthcare that addresses the underlying causes of illness: integrated medicine.

The great value of integrated medicine is that it provides alternative strategies for healing, based upon enhancing normal physiological balance instead of merely attempting to suppress the hyperactive biochemistry involved in disease.

One of the powerful strategies of integrated medicine is the therapeutic use of nutrition. Nutritional therapy, when properly used, can achieve results that drugs cannot, because nutrients are essential components of the cellular information network. An excellent example is omega-3 fatty acids.

Thirty years ago I pioneered the therapeutic uses of omega-3 fatty acids in my research, scholarly writing and teaching of medical faculty. Seeking to educate the wider public about the importance of omega-3's and other dietary fats I made them a cornerstone of my books Superimmunity for Kids and Power Healing.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish, flax seed, walnuts, sea vegetables and leafy greens. The most potent omega-3's, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are used by the cells of your body to make powerful chemicals that help to maintain normal cell function under conditions of stress. (14) The so-called "bad" COX, in fact, converts DHA to substances called resolvins and neuroprotectins, which play a vital role in controlling inflammation (15) and helping brain cells survive injury. (16) This is one reason the inhibition of any of the COX enzymes can be bad for your health.

Knowledge of the benefits of omega-3 fats provides an alternative strategy for controlling inflammation that is both natural and potent. The basic idea is to increase your body's levels of DHA, the omega-3 fatty acid your body uses to make these beneficial chemicals.

Remarkable results in reducing inflammation can be accomplished by dietary changes and nutritional supplementation. Increase consumption of foods that contain omega-3 fats (mentioned above) and decrease consumption of foods that interfere with the anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3 fats, such meat, and oils, spreads and dressings made from corn, sunflower, soybean, safflower or cottonseed oil, substituting olive oil and flax oil instead. This simple approach had allowed people in research studies with severe rheumatoid arthritis to decrease their use of anti-inflammatory drugs. (17,18)

Putting these principles together, I created an anti-inflammatory dietary program called The Fat Resistance Diet. For free recipes and a one-day meal plan visit www.fatresistancediet.com

A vast amount of scientific research has been published in prestigious medical journals on the therapeutic use of nutrition. Now it is time to put all of that essential knowledge to work.

Making nutrition a cornerstone of everyone's healthcare has been my longstanding goal and is the first step in real healthcare reform. Moving from a system based on treating symptoms to a system for achieving optimal health will enable healthcare to achieve its true potential.

References:

1) Manag Care Interface. 2005 Oct;18(10):49-52 "Preventing adverse drug reactions in the general population" Pezalla E.

2) JAMA. 2006 Oct 18;296(15):1858-66. "National surveillance of emergency department visits for outpatient adverse drug events." Budnitz DS, Pollock DA, Weidenbach KN, Mendelsohn AB, Schroeder TJ, Annest JL

3) Pezzalla E., Manag Care Interface. 2005 Oct;18(10):49-52

4) Annals of Internal Medicine, 1997, 127:429-438. "Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and the Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice." R Tamblyn, L Berkson, WD Jauphinee, D Gayton, R Grad, A Huang, L Isaac, P McLeod, L Snell

5) JAMA 1991; volume 266: pp 2847-2851 "Computerized surveillance of adverse drug events in hospitalized patients." Lassen DC, Pestotnick SL, Evans RS, Burke JP.

6) Annals of Internal Medicine. 1988; pp 359-363.. "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammato­ry drug use and death from peptic ulcer in elderly persons." Griffin MR, Ray WA, Schaffner W

7) Gastroenterology. 1987; 93: 480-489. "NSAID induced intestinal inflammation in humans." Bjarnasson I, Zanelli G, Smith T, et al.

8) Archives of Internal Medicine. 1992; 986-990. "Acute renal failure and glomerulopathy caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs." Shankel SW, Johnson DC, Clark PS, Shankel TL, O'Neill WM.

9) Archives of Internal Medicine. 1993; 153: 477-484. "A meta-analysis of the effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on blood pressure." Pope JE, Anderson JJ, Felson DT

10) Clin Chest Med. 1990; 11:163-175. "Drug-induced bronchospasm." Meeker DP, Wiedemann HP.

11) J Dermatol. 1981; 8: 323-337. "Exacerbation of psoriasis induced by indomethacin." Katayama H, Kawada A.

12) Annals of Internal Medicine. 1987; 107: 513-516. "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs activate quiescent inflammatory bowel disease." Kaufmann HJ, Taubin HL.

13) Cardiovascular & Haematological Disorders-Drug Targets, 2006, 6, 83-98. "Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitors: A Painful Lesson." S Sanghi, EJ MacLaughlin, CW Jewell, S Chaffer, PJ Naus, LE Watson, DE Dosta.

14) Curr Mol Med. 2009;9:565-79. "Role of lipoxins and resolvins as anti-inflammatory and proresolving mediators in colon cancer." Janakiram NB, Rao CV.

15) Proc Nutr Soc. 2010, 28:1-8 "Fish oil and rheumatoid arthritis: past, present and future." James M, Proudman S, Cleland L.

16) J Lipid Res. 2009: 50 Suppl:S400-405. "Neuroprotectin D1-mediated anti-inflammatory and survival signaling in stroke, retinal degenerations, and Alzheimer's disease. Bazan NG.

17) Drugs 2003; 63: 845-53. "The role of fish oils in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis." Cleland et al.

18) Rheumatol Int. 2003; 23: 27-36. "Anti-inflammatory effects of a low arachidonic acid diet and fish oil in patients with rheumatoid arthritis." Adam et al.

GASLAND fracking—keeping tabs on the crime syndicate | The Greanville Post

Cheney and Rover are on it - that is, super profit$ made from FRACKING. Be sure to press the title link to see the video that follows: which is an excerpt from Countdown (Keith Olbermann) interview with documentarian Josh Fox on what the oil/natural gas syndicate is up to. Damn worth watching. (11.4.10)

Turns out Dick Cheney (surprise!) had a big hand in masterminding this disgusting gift to the oil industry, a true unconscionable stab at the public interest, but what is perhaps most irritating is that this crime continues to date unchallenged under Obama.

More on fracking here. In fact, try giving fracking AND water pollution google searches.

So here is the real hullabaloo from Crooks and Liars:

Guess Where Karl Rove Was After The Election? Chowing Down With Big-Money Fracking Polluters

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 07:00 AM PDT

I was on jury duty yesterday, but before I left the house, I caught this Will Bunch piece on Attytood and it made me really, really angry -- and afraid for my state of Pennsylvania. Because the corrupt new Republican governor Tom Corbett is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the natural gas industry, and wants to make Pennsylvania the only state that doesn't even tax these polluters enough to cover the damage.

Then I came home and found that Keith Olbermann picked up the story, too:

You know where Karl Rove spent the day after the all-important mid-term election? Here in the state of Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh to be exact -- gnawing on steak and potatoes and running a political victory lap with the fracking polluters who can now befowl our state's water supply with impugnity for the next couple of years, aided in no small part by the $38 million in mostly secret donations from large corporations that was donated to Rove's American Crossroads outfit that ran attack ads smearing congressional candidateswho support sensible environmental laws.

In celebrating Tueaday's GOP win with the Marcellus Shale frackers, Rove showed himself a man who not only knows where his cow flesh is seared but where his bread is buttered.

Here's what Rove told them:

Rove said a new Republican House of Representatives supportive of the energy industry "sure as heck" would not pass climate-change legislation that the outgoing Democratic Congress had been unable to pass.

"Climate is gone," said Rove, the keynote speaker on the opening day of a two-day shale-gas conference sponsored by Hart Energy Publishing L.L.P. And Rove told the trade show, "I don't think you need to worry" the new Congress will consider proposed legislation to put the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing under federal rather than state regulation.

The procedure, known as "fracking," is responsible for the dramatic growth of shale-gas drilling in formations such as Pennsylvania's vast Marcellus Shale.

And really, rape and pillage of the environment, the working class and the Social Security trust fund is what this election was all about -- even though the Republican campaign ads never, ever mentioned any of those issues.

That's because whenever Republicans admit their real agenda, the voters soundly reject them. This election is no different.

To be contrasted with THIS, below, the official version of the Rover post-election "story":

Rove: Up to Obama to set the tone in Washington

By JENNIFER C. YATES and JOE MANDAK

Bloomberg/Businessweek

PITTSBURGH

Republican strategist Karl Rove told oil and gas industry officials Wednesday that President Barack Obama's promises of change may have propelled him to the White House but it was his actions that led voters this week to send a clear message that they aren't happy with what he's done.

The architect behind George W. Bush's two presidential election victories spoke at a conference billed as the largest gathering of drilling interests in the Marcellus Shale region. Outside the conference, more than 300 opponents of fracking - injecting water and other chemicals into the ground to break it up and force gas to the surface - chanted "It's our water, we will fight!" and "Whose water? Our water!"

The protesters contend fracking contaminates groundwater and can release harmful chemicals used in the process, including benzene, into the air near wells.

Appearing the day after the midterm elections, Rove touched on drilling briefly, saying he believes the political climate now will take everyone "back to a period of sensible regulations." But he spent most of his time talking about why Republicans won Tuesday night.

Rove said Obama's tone, the state of the economy and health care legislation are all things that drove tea party followers and independents to the polls. Obama failed to capitalize on what brought him to the Oval Office, Rove said.

"He had a unique moment to turn the page and usher in a new era, but it didn't happen," Rove said.

Going forward, Rove said there will be some gridlock but it's up to Obama to set a new, more conciliatory tone.

The protesters gathered outside the downtown convention center where Rove spoke zeroed in on drilling and, more specifically, the fracking process used to get natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a vast rock formation under New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

While many in the crowd called for a ban on all gas drilling, and some were anti-capitalists, others were pushing primarily for a ban or tight regulations on fracking.

Chris Maresca, 28, of Pittsburgh, walked his dog, Baloo, a mutt that had a sandwich board with "I Hate Karl Rove" on one side and "I love Clean Rivers" on the other. He said he isn't against drilling entirely.

"Just the fracking. I have no problem with industry and creating jobs, but doing it at the expense of our health doesn't make any sense to me," Maresca said.

The protesters carried banners as they marched from Pittsburgh's North Side across a river and down a downtown street to a small stage near the convention center. Some held pinatas shaped like oil derricks that were smashed open with sticks, littering the street with candy.

Josh Fox, whose documentary about the dangers of fracking, "Gasland," was featured on HBO, told the crowd that civil disobedience may be needed to ban fracking. He said the drilling industry is lying by characterizing natural gas as "clean alternative fuel."

"This is the fossil fuel industry's big push to kill renewable energy. This is the battleground for climate change, this is the battleground for renewable energy," Fox said.

The protesters reacted loudly when Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields told them the panel has proposed a citywide fracking ban that he claims has a veto-proof six-vote backing.

Mark McConville, a conference attendee, uses natural gas at his Airport Express Limousine Service in Birmingham, Ala., which features compressed natural gas-burning vehicles. He drove one to the conference, and believes it's unrealistic to think there's no downside to any new technology.

"There's always a downside," McConville said. "But I don't believe anybody in the industry's intentionally trying to give us bad drinking water."

And for this, truly, Olbermann takes the tumble . . .

Hydraulic Fracturing FAQs

How does hydraulic fracturing work?

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.

What is horizontal hydraulic fracturing?

Horizontal hydrofracking is a means of tapping shale deposits containing natural gas that were previously inaccessible by conventional drilling. Vertical hydrofracking is used to extend the life of an existing well once its productivity starts to run out, sort of a last resort. Horizontal fracking differs in that it uses a mixture of 596 chemicals, many of them proprietary, and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of.

What is the Halliburton Loophole?

In 2005, the Bush/ Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. Essentially, the provision took the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off the job. It is now commonly referred to as the Halliburton Loophole.

What is the Safe Drinking Water Act?

In 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was passed by Congress to ensure clean drinking water free from both natural and man-made contaminates.

What is the FRAC Act?

The FRAC Act (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness to Chemical Act) is a House bill intended to repeal the Halliburton Loophole and to require the natural gas industry to disclose the chemicals they use.

How deep do natural gas wells go?

The average well is up to 8,000 feet deep. The depth of drinking water aquifers is about 1,000 feet. The problems typically stem from poor cement well casings that leak natural gas as well as fracking fluid into water wells.

How much water is used during the fracking process?

Generally 1-8 million gallons of water may be used to frack a well. A well may be fracked up to 18 times.

What fluids are used in the fracking process?

For each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used. Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

In what form does the natural gas come out of the well?

The gas comes up wet in produced water and has to be separated from the wastewater on the surface. Only 30-50% of the water is typically recovered from a well. This wastewater can be highly toxic.

What is done with the wastewater?

Evaporators evaporate off VOCs and condensate tanks steam off VOCs, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wastewater is then trucked to water treatment facilities.

What is a well's potential to cause air pollution?

As the VOCs are evaporated and come into contact with diesel exhaust from trucks and generators at the well site, ground level ozone is produced. Ozone plumes can travel up to 250 miles.

Love them rePUBs.

Tomgram: Chase Madar, All-American Gitmo | TomDispatch

Tomgram: Chase Madar, All-American Gitmo | TomDispatch

Guantánamo, Exception or Rule?
All-American Justice for a Child Soldier at Obama’s Gitmo
By Chase Madar

When I was down in Guantánamo a few months ago, a veteran German journalist let it slip that she didn’t much care for the place. “This,” she confided in me, and many of the other journalists there as well, “is the worst place I have ever visited in my entire career.”

It’s not hard to see why my superlative-loving friend felt this way: we were covering the case of Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian captured after a firefight with U.S. forces outside Kabul in July 2002, tortured and interrogated for a few months at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, then transported to Guantánamo. He just reached a plea agreement that will avoid a trial before a military commission at Gitmo for five “war crimes.” Four of them, freshly invented for the occasion, are not recognized as war crimes in any other court on the planet. (Khadr pled guilty to all charges and will get at least o

Tomcast: Chase Madar "The Land of Oz"

LINK:

The Land of Oz

Chase Madar, a civil rights lawyer and contributor to The London Review of Books, Le Monde Diplomatique, Counterpunch and The American Conservative, illustrates how prisons like the one at Guantanamo Bay are not the exception, but rather the rule, when it comes to the American criminal justice and penal systems.

related story:

Obama's Gitmo

MUST READ: Juan Cole on what we must learn post election

I'd love to see this get lots and lots of tweets and shares .. ;-)
Yes, I am asking YOU.

1942 Midterms: Republicans win Popular Vote, Pick up 47 Seats in House; Roosevelt on Ropes; Pacific War Uncertain, Economy Slowly Improving

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 12:54 AM PDT

It was November, 1942. A year earlier the Japanese Empire had struck at Pearl Harbor and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had finally entered World War II. Although in May of 1942 the US was kicked out of the Philippines by the Japanese, with Gen. MacArthur retreating to Australia, in June of 1942 the US wins a major battle against the Japanese at Midway. Still, in fall of 1942 the long, bloody battle for Guadalcanal in The South Pacific had not been decided. The economy had finally begun improving after the long years of Depression. The unemployment rate was reduced from 14.6 percent in 1940 to only 4.7 percent in 1942. Roosevelt faced midterm elections.

Would you really choose that moment to more or less return to power the party that had caused the Great Depression?

We might look back on these years of the “Greatest Generation” as heroic, and Roosevelt as unbeatable. But you know what? His Democrats lost the popular vote, losing big in the House of Representatives, and Republicans picked up 47 seats. Because of the way things were then districted, the Democrats did hold on to the House by a slim margin. But they were deprived of a comfortable majority (left with just a 13 seat margin). As the Los Angeles Times noted the day after the election, Roosevelt was left without a real majority, because he always faced defections on any vote. The paper breathlessly noted the dramatic fall of Democratic dominance from the party’s commanding position in 1936.

Remember, this is almost a year into World War II, troops are fighting and dying in the Pacific, and the economy is looking up. Roosevelt and his party should have benefited from his being a war president, and should have gotten some credit for having saved the country from the worst economic crisis of all time. Instead, the voters punished him.

Timothy Y. C. Cotton explains in his article, “War and American Democracy: Electoral Costs of the Last Five Wars,” The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Dec., 1986), pp. 616-635:

‘ The attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 brought home to Americans the sure knowledge that the aggressively expanding totalitarian powers on either side of them presented a real threat. At the time of the midterm election of 1942, the war effort was not going well. Voters seemed to turn from the Democrats, who were still enjoying the benefits of the recovery of the economy from the Depression. Despite strong economic growth in 1942, the GOP was able to cut substantially into the Democratic majority in Congress.

The lack of progress in battle was one reason the GOP fared better in 1942. Another was the imposition of wartime controls on the domestic economy. “During 1942 the Office of Price Administration instituted ten major rationing programs, while shortages in still exempt goods
drove their prices up, encouraged hoarding and forebode further rationing to come” (Blum, 1976: 227). Economic growth was being funneled into the war effort rather than consumer goods as part of the effort to build up the nation’s military strength. Labor unions were
obliged to lessen their demands and not to strike, given the critical need for maintaining the supply of the tools of war. Workers became resentful, however, thinking that they were being taken advantage of by management. These factors conspired to turn the voters against the
Democrats in 1942.’

Of course, the dynamics were very different than today, with the Afghanistan War even chancier than the then Pacific one, and with government intervening in the economy in different ways (bank bailouts, briefly taking over an auto company, stubbornly high unemployment closest to that of 1940 than that of 1942, health care reform).

An even more interesting story could be told about the 1946 midterms, when Democratic President Harry Truman, who had, like won World War II, saw the Republicans pick up an astonishing 55 seats and take control of the House. People were tired of long years of war and sacrifice and the Republicans promised prosperity through unleashing the free market.

But that’s American politics. Presidents often lose big in midterms, and especially when the public is nervous about foreign wars and domestic economic uncertainty. In a two party system and a corporate-dominated society, what else can one expect but a continual see-saw?

SUICIDE IS PAINLESS (Featured Article)

I have not posted the tables. They'd take too long to load AND if you access the link you will be able to read the important comments.

I found the article and the tables shocking.



16 comments

Posted on 2nd November 2010 by admin in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

tags: Bubbles, home prices, Jeremy Grantham, John Hussman, MASH, Military industrial complex, National Debt, Peak oil, QE2, suicide, Y2K


Everyone has watched one of the best TV series of all-time – M*A*S*H. You also know the tune that played during the opening credits as helicopters delivered wounded soldiers to the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Unit. Most people have never heard the lyrics that go with the music. The song is Suicide is Painless and the lyrics were sung during the M*A*S*H Movie. As I watched the movie a few weeks ago, the lyrics struck home. Our country has been slowly committing suicide for the last 40 years. The movie and TV series were set during the Korean War. It is fitting that military spending is one of the major causes of our suicide as a nation. On an inflation adjusted basis, the US has doubled spending on Defense since 1962. It is on course to rise another 20% in the next four years. Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex in 1961:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

The fact that the US currently spends 7 times as much on Defense as the next nearest country is proof that the military industrial complex has gained unwarranted influence and a disastrous rise of misplaced power has occurred.
U.S. DEFENSE SPENDING

File:InflationAdjustedDefenseSpending.

When you critically analyze why we would need to spend 7 times as much as China on military when there is no country on earth that can challenge us, the answer can only be OIL. Our own military came to the following chilling conclusion in their Joint Operating Environment report, issued earlier this year:

By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD.

A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest.



The U.S. military knows we are on the verge of an oil crisis. There are no new supplies ready to come on line before 2015. The President and his advisors know that an oil crisis is in our immediate future. We have military bases in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait. We have active fighting forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have a naval armada of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. Our forces completely encircle Iran. Is this a coincidence when the countries with the largest oil reserves in the world are noted?

1. Saudi Arabia – 262 billion barrels
2. Iran – 133 billion barrels
3. Iraq – 112 billion barrels
4. Kuwait – 97 billion barrels

The war on terror is a cover for access to the hundreds of billions of barrels of oil in the Middle East. A 10 million barrel per day shortfall by 2015 would be disastrous for a country that consumes 25% of all the oil in the world. Our hyper-consumer society is like a drug addict, dependent on its oil fix. If we are denied oil for even one day, the withdrawal symptoms would be traumatic and harrowing.

There are 255 million passenger vehicles in the U.S. Our society will collapse within weeks without a sufficient supply of oil. The average American’s only concern about oil is when they get a card in the mail from Jiffy Lube telling them it is time for their 5,000 mile oil change. They stick a hose in their gas tank and fluid pours out, allowing them to motor freely around mall dotted suburbia. Within five years they will be paying over $5 per gallon for this fluid or they will be waiting in lines for three hours to get 10 gallons of that precious fluid. Peak cheap oil has been predictable for decades. The Department of Energy was created 31 years ago. Preparing for peak cheap oil would have required some pain, sacrifice and forethought. But, suicide is painless.
Visions of Things To Be

Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
the pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see…

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

Suicide is Painless – M.A.S.H. Movie

As I peer through the fog and attempt to see visions of things to be, I see nothing but pain ahead. Anyone who can look at the following chart and not conclude that there is much pain ahead for this country is either a Goldman Sachs banker, a Federal Reserve Governor, or a bought off politician in Washington DC. It is no coincidence that after Richard Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 and allowed the Federal Reserve to “manage” our economy that total debt outstanding in the US surged from $2 trillion to over $50 trillion. GDP has risen by 1,300% since 1971, while total US debt has risen by 2,600%. Now for the kicker. Real GDP has only gone up by 292% since 1971. This means that 1,000% of the increase in GDP was from Federal Reserve created inflation. Over this same time frame, real wages have declined by 6%, from $318 per week in 1971 to $299 per week today. Inflation has been the American drug of choice to commit suicide over the last 40 years. It is stealthy, seemingly painless, and deadly.

File:US debt outstanding by sector.

Inflation is the “painless” method through which the Federal Reserve has decided this country will commit suicide. It is like turning on the car in the garage and letting the carbon monoxide slowly put you to sleep. The ruling elite are content that the American public is dumbed down by the government run public schools. They count on the fact that 9 out of 10 Americans do not understand inflation. It is an insidious scheme of robbing the working middle class and funneling it to the Wall Street/K Street ruling class. The Federal Reserve has gotten bolder in the last few years as they realized the public doesn’t understand or care what they do. Bernanke has relished in the mainstream media adulation that he saved the world with his printing press in 2008/2009. Even though critical thinkers know for a fact that it was Federal Reserve policies that created the worldwide financial conflagration in the first place, the corporate mainstream media and the Wall Street beneficiaries have been cheerleaders of Easy Al and Helicopter Ben. These men are traitors. They have purposefully impoverished senior citizens and the working middle class in order to enrich their ruling elite masters on Wall Street and in Washington DC.

Ben Bernanke on Wednesday afternoon will announce Quantitative Easing Part Deux. This is a fancy name for Ben printing $1 trillion out of thin air, buying US Treasuries and/or more toxic mortgage securities and artificially lowering interest rates to convince Americans to spend money they don’t have. Jeremy Grantham, in his recent quarterly letter, issues a scathing indictment of Bernanke’s methods:

“For all of us, unfortunately, there is still a further great disadvantage attached to the Fed Manipulated Prices. When rates are artificially low, income is moved away from savers, or holders of government and other debt, toward borrowers. Today, this means less income for retirees and near-retirees with conservative portfolios, and more profit opportunities for the financial industry; hedge funds can leverage cheaply and banks can borrow from the government and lend out at higher prices or even, perish the thought, pay out higher bonuses. This is the problem: there are more retirees and near retirees now than ever before, and they tend to consume all of their investment income. With artificially low rates, their consumption really drops. The offsetting benefits, mainly shown in dramatically recovered financial profits despite low levels of economic activity, flow to a considerable degree to rich individuals with much lower propensities to consume.”

The ruling elite in Washington DC and Wall Street decided that fraud, misinformation and cooking the books was preferable to the pain of honesty, orderly bankruptcy, and assets valued at their true worth. Ben Bernanke ”saved the world” by putting the taxpayer on the hook for $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgage garbage he bought from his masters on Wall Street. John Hussman describes the decision to choose painless suicide over choosing painful medicine to cure our disease:

“Over the short run, two policies have been primarily responsible for successfully kicking the can down the road following the recent financial crisis. The first was the suppression of fair and accurate financial disclosure – specifically FASB suspension of mark-to-market rules – which has allowed financial companies to present balance sheets that are detached from any need to reflect the actual liquidating value of their assets. The second was the de facto grant of the government’s full faith and credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities. Now, since standing behind insolvent debt in order to make it whole is strictly an act of fiscal policy, one would think that under the Constitution, it would have been subject to Congressional debate and democratic process. But the Bernanke Fed evidently views democracy as a clumsy extravagance, and so, the Fed accumulated $1.5 trillion in the debt obligations of these insolvent agencies, which effectively forces the public to make those obligations whole, without any actual need for public input on the matter.”

The Only Way to Win is Cheat

The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I’m beat
and to another give my seat
for that’s the only painless feat.

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

Suicide is Painless – M.A.S.H. Movie

The Federal Reserve has incessantly created new bubbles every time one of their old bubbles has burst, since the elevation of Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman in 1987. The bailout of LTCM convinced Wall Street that uncle Al would come to the rescue if their gambles endangered the financial system. Greenspan cheered on the internet revolution and flooded the system for the fake Y2K crisis. When the internet bubble burst in 2000 and the 9/11 attack struck in 2001, Greenspan aided and abetted the greatest bubble in history. He dropped interest rates to historic lows, encouraged the use of adjustable rate mortgages, didn’t enforce bank regulations, and pretended that he couldn’t see the bubble forming. Jeremy Grantham explained the Federal Reserve, Wall Street and K Street conspiracy to avoid the pain of dealing with our long-term structural problems in his latest letter:

“House prices may often not be susceptible to manipulation. Low interest rates may not be enough: they may stimulate hedge fund managers to speculate in stocks, but most ordinary homeowners are not interested in speculating. To stir up enough speculators to move house prices, we needed a series of changes, starting with increasing the percentage of the population that could buy a house. This took ingenuity on two fronts: overstating income and reducing down payment requirements, ideally to nil. This took extremely sloppy loan standards and virtually no data verification. This, in turn, took a warped incentive program that offered great rewards for quantity rather than quality, and a corporation overeager, with aggressive accounting, to book profits immediately. It also needed a much larger, and therefore new, market in which to place these low-grade mortgages. This took ingenious new packages and tranches that made checking the details nearly impossible, even if one wanted to. It took, critically, the Fed Manipulated Prices to drive global rates down. Even more importantly, it needed the global risk premium for everything to hit world record low levels so that suddenly formerly staid European, and even Asian, institutions were reaching for risk to get a few basis points more interest. Such an environment is possible only if there exists an institution with a truly global reach and a commitment to drive asset prices up. In the U.S. Fed, under the Greenspan-Bernanke regime, just such an institution was ready and willing.”

On Wednesday Ben Bernanke will inject more poison into the veins of a once great country. This country, at one time, dealt with its problems in a realistic manner and was willing to sacrifice, cooperate, and make hard choices. QE2 will not help our economy or solve any of our problems.


Is It To Be Or Not To Be?

A brave man once requested me
to answer questions that are key
‘is it to be or not to be’
and I replied ‘oh why ask me?’

‘Cause suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.
…and you can do the same thing if you choose.

Suicide is Painless – M.A.S.H. Movie
The leaders of this country, with the full support of a zombie like disinterested distracted electorate, have chosen to ignore and defer every tough decision regarding energy, spending, entitlements, deficits, and infrastructure. The Federal Reserve has allowed politicians to run the National Debt up to $13.6 Trillion by imposing no limits on the printing of fiat currency backed by nothing but promises. Based on Obama’s 10 year budget projections, adjusted for the real impact of Obamacare and extension of Bush tax cuts, the National Debt will reach $20 trillion in 2015 and $25 trillion by 2019. This is truly a suicide mission. We will never reach these levels because the sweet relief of death will overtake our economic system as the final vestiges of QE2 painlessly bring about the end.



Grantham warns that Bernanke’s actions on Wednesday are a desperate last ditch attempt to fend off the pain of reality. It will fail.

“Thus, our current policy of QE2 is merely the last desperate step of an ineffective plan to stimulate the economy through higher asset prices regardless of any future costs. Continuing QE2 may be an original way of redoing the damage done by the old Smoot-Hawley Tariff hikes of 1930, which helped accelerate a drastic global decline in trade. We may not even need the efforts of some of our dopier Senators to recreate a more traditional tariff war. And all of this stems from the Fed and the failed idea that it can or should interfere with employment levels by interfering with asset prices.”

The only difference between Dr. Bernanke and Dr. Kevorkian is that Kevorkian helped the terminally ill commit suicide. Dr. Bernanke and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve have inflicted suicide on a patient that was healthy and capable of living many more years. The suicide concoction of fiat currency, debt, military empire, and delusion has been painless for those in power, but painful for the working middle class of this country. Dr. Bernanke fancies himself as an expert on the Great Depression. He is destined to be remembered as the man who killed America. Suicide is painless, it brings on many changes.

Matt Bostrom: Expect a landslide

And I quote from an Emmerish blogger, Shot in the Dark (i.e. right wing):

. . . Ramsey County Sheriff: Matt Bostrom will be the first endorsed DFLer I will have voted for since 1998. He may well be the last. Let’s make it count. (italics mine.)

Point: Matt Bostrom has won over every thinking person or person who knows his positions, personality, credentials, charisma, heartfulness and general brilliance, not just here in Ramsey County but all over the Metro area.

I went into the volunteer arena (after spending three days working for Mark Dayton at the Minnesota State Fair) convinced Matt COULD NOT WIN. I wanted to put in as much energy into his campaign as much as I possibly could.


Remember Sheriff DeFazio of Allegheny County, PA? The guy who aided and abetted the harassment of one of my heroes, Dr. Cyril Wecht?

Well, Bob Fletcher is just as sleazy in my book. Maybe more so, since SETTLEMENTS in civil rights cases against the Ramsey County Sheriff's office always have gag orders slapped on them. Thus, some wicked things are known only to a few handfuls of folks here.

I am not going to bring down my elation today. I am celebrating a new sheriff in town. I have come to the conclusion that perhaps this is a position that should not be on a political slate. Too easy for guyz with gunz to rip up lawn signs, put their own up illegally and evade The Truth. - and the law.

Good men like Matt fight an uphill battle as the position garners little media attention. Good thing Matt has a huge aura and a lot of die-hard friends and supporters.

"Evildoers beware, there's a new sheriff in town and you never know where he's going to show up next."

Us citizens are NOT getting the Time Shift sheriff at all. Nor the one in Blazing Saddles, although Matt is studily anti-racist. Nor is he Russell in Beverly Hills cop ... (links refer to the videos.)

Seriously - Matt may prove to be the best thing that EVER happened to Metro Minnesota. He's the best bet to manage a crisis - and there will be plenty in the years ahead such as brownouts, dissatisfied citizens, earth changes . . . the list is long. What we will get is management, service and leadership.

Be sure of one thing, we will be led by a man with capable hands, a heart and tremendous smarts.

This election landslide for Matt is a true win-win for all.

Gotta go - time to get my nails done in time for the victory party.

ps. It was not a landslide - as Randy said at the victory party:

It was an avalanche!!

Happy Birthday, Dear KD ! Another God Moment

I posted the video below as a blog entry last night, only to have some one email this morning that it IS k d's birthday!! I mean, I did not KNOW. November 2 will be a date to remember, as is 8 October.

And I do believe in God Moments and wish I had created a label for them, as blogger refuses to let me have any more labels.

If you are reading along, please take the time to read k d's wikipedia entry and celebrate the birth of this finest of voices (she CAN out sing Susan Boyle, folks! with perfect purity of tone and phrasing.)

My gratitude to ya, k d, if ya ever chance on this. Happy birthday (and God bless your mother.)

Birthday bonus video (so hard to choose).