oh dear Obama

Do you remember all the euphoria when Obama got elected? There was going to be change in the world, the US was going to throw off its Third World mentality and become an equal member of the global 'community'. The US was going to become a  normal country.

So what is the US now, a few years along the line? Well an almost certainly innocent man was executed last week, despite all the evidence showing he was not to blame. The relatives of the person killed said they were 'justice had been done'! Hardly, if the person that did it is still walking around free. Nothing learned there then.

And what of the economy? Has Obama created the sustainable society that the US needs? Not at all. He's still trying the old socialist trick of printing money to keep the plebs in their place surrounded by consumer tat, in an environment going downhill all the time.

And as for the US in the world - they still blunder from crisis to crisis missing the point spectacularly. They still think the problem is terrorism, a dying middle class pursuit if ever there were one, rather than the real horrors of Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Perhaps there are just too many hippies in the USA, all growed up and in positions of power and influence. The (clearly insane) christian preachers, the corporate unimaginative types, the trailer park white trash, all marginalising, by their very ubiquity, those who would see new ways to get through the future.

Because that's the crux of it. The future won't be designed by weak and well-meaning politicians, old style corporate buffoons, christians willing an apocalypse or the great unwashed, but by individuals willing to embrace an energy-poor, wild weather enhanced future. The sad  thing is that many of these future leaders ARE from the US, but are drowned out by the far more common socialist hordes, who want nothing more than endless economic growth, a house full of crap and a tree that sprouts ever common US dollars ...

the new facebook ...

... is brilliant! The best feature is the way that uploaded photos are now shown really large, which give sthe whole site a much more visual feel - and has certainly encouraged me to start putting random photos on.

zero doubt

It's hilarious the way politicians and commentators are still talking about 'growth'. Do they think we are stupid? Don't answer that - or course they do.

But look at the graph above. Bank rates are at their lowest for 300 years! Surely even the most economically dyslexic can see that this is the one signal that even they can't ignore. What this chart means is that growth is finished. Not just for today or the next ten years, but probably for hundreds or even thousands of years. The reason? The end of cheap energy, booming population growth and the rising cost of many basic raw materials.

The industrial age is entering its final stage. Beyond that we are going to have to adjust to a sustainable energy society, lose possibly seven or eight billion people worldwide and completely alter the way we live.

Growth was fun. It meant that we could look forward to becoming more and more prosperous each year. It meant that we could genuinely expect our kids to have 'better' lives than we did. But most of it was financed on credit, or if you will by stealing from future generations. The downside is that we destroyed communities, damaged our climate, created ugliness everywhere and softened up intellectually.

Politics will change enormously over the next few decades. There will be a rush to the parties that promise to reduce growth. There will probably be far less democracy, more coercion. Our transport systems will change totally. Roads will vanish, railways and tramways will thrive. The canals will be used once more to move non-perishables. We'll all have to learn to create with our hands. Perhaps 80% of us will spend all or part of our time growing food. Small craftspeople, carpenters, blacksmiths, horse hauliers, teachers, nurses etc will flourish. Most of the non jobs that currently waste billions will go. The public sector will vanish, small (one person) capitalism will be the standard model for the economy.

Kids will learn how to grow plants, care for animals, look after the planet. Most lessons will be outdoors. They'll be able to play on the streets again, because there won't be any cars on them!

Adults will work harder but for less hours. We'll all hopefully have a little bit of land on which to grow all or some of our food. We'll take the tram to market to buy or sell, take the train to the seaside for our holidays, perhaps a couple of times in our life travel to continental Europe, a trip that will become an epic event!

Our lives are going to change enormously. The economic crisis, which is only just entering its most benign stage, will cause huge upheavals for us all. Most of us will have to change what we do to make a living. Many of us won't make it through. Even the climate will make it harder to do what we need to do. Expect huge horror stories from around the world. The economic crisis isn't causing this, it's just a simple message or signal of what is happening behind the scenes. The market is never wrong and learning to read it will be one of those essential life skills that we're all going to need to develop over the coming years. 

toxic tories abandon scotland

It's finally dawning on the tories (after all, they are rather slow) that they need to change their act in Scotland. When I lived up there the tories had one MP - seems that's still all they've got.

Why? Well the Scots aren't stupid for a start. And they are their own people. Why would they vote tory?

As an openly unionist party the tories are always going to reward England first, that's where their remaining support is.

But the world's moved on from Queen Victoria and Rudyard Kipling. The Scottish tories seem to have realised that, and their main candidate for leadership of the Scottish tories - surely the most thankless and activity-free job in the western world - says he'll be changing the name of the party when he wins. The tory name is just too toxic.

This is  another sigh that the UK is beginning to fragment at all levels. The tories are of course toxic at all levels and in all parts of the UK. Thatcher basically destroyed them. Yes, I know the tories currently are in government, but only as part of a coalition. We have a tory Prime Minister but he's little more than a buffoon. And ANY party could have won against the dreadful 'New Labour' rabble.

Here is Wessex we are primarily a Liberal Democrat area. There are a few tories, more Labour MPs. As the UK fractures England itself will, along lines that are already forming. There are regionalist and even separatist groups in all parts of England, taking their lead from the nationalists in Scotland, Wales, Ciornwall and, to a lesser extent, Northern Ireland. Whilst the regionalist parties and groups are part of the future, the fracturing of the big London-based parties will be a further sign that we are moving forwards. Scotland, once again, is leading the way.

sieg heil

The Nazis are back. Last night a gang of them stormtrooped their way into the Albert Hall and started to disrupt a concert.

We don't have enough beauty or high culture in our lives, these SA types would close what we do have down.

The reason the assault happened was because the orchestra was the Israel Philharmonic. So?? Apparently this was enough to justify a bunch of racist thugs to disrupt and yell abuse, because of some nonsense over Palestine. It appears that each of these musicians has a double life, as well as puffing away on oboes and scratching away on cellos, they are personally responsible for the policies of the Israeli government.

I only wish I'd been there, clutching the community gun ...