chinese sun

CHINESE SUN


Today’s segment of “this doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the article and why can’t you just shut up and get to the point and then you can be like everyone else and publish one paragraph of original material, three links and a video download, none of which is offensive or controversial nor wakes up anyone’s slumbering grey matter” ( say that three times fast ) is about BP and bankruptcy. One article says they have a month before declaring bankruptcy, another says the British government can’t let it go under because it is the largest pension fund provider, another says the corporation is segregated into separate companies and only a sacrificial lamb will be slaughtered. My vote is that the US government will go after the company so as to look official and dutiful. Then, the Brits will bail them out from all the lawsuit and other blow out costs to appease their voters. Then, the Brits will go bankrupt and need a bail out from the IMF. Which will be covered by US Dollar inflation ( print up a few more trillion since there aren’t enough taxpayers left ). So, in effect, the consumer, through higher inflation, will bail out BP. Of course, the cost of the bail out will be ten times what BP pays leaving plenty of graft for the big bankers.

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I want to make clear up front this article doesn’t invalidate my strongly held conviction that we will see a massive die-off due to the plunging down slope of Hubbert’s bell curve. Exponential decline, the continued decline at the same percentage rate, is an upside down hockey stick. Al Gore might be a fat greasy sleazy pig of a man but at least he introduced the hockey stick graph into the public school educated masses consciousness. This article rather fits into the time period of five years ago to, whatever, perhaps, maybe, five years from now. I hope it is a whole five years from now. The period before the die-offs start. This will be an interesting time, if for no other reason than it will be confused as the collapse itself, luring folks into a false sense of security. China does a lot of things right. Their basic premise is flawed, if they think they can minimize the effects of Peak Oil on themselves. But at least they are doing something other than “business as usual” ( widening the straw to suck up the finite resources quicker ). And who knows, it just might work. Turn your own workers into a middle class to sustain your own economy, taking over that role from the US, who will promptly self destruct from its own economic stupidity. In the meantime, protect and conquer with a military that is basically self supporting through its ties with corporations. In contrast to the US model which has been to keep the military the lifeline of the economy ever since the Great Depression ended ( this worked so well for the Soviets ).

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What China is doing correct is to bring about the middle class on a very low level of energy ( at least compared to the US ). Three times the population uses one third the oil, and that is with a manufacturing economy. You might think the coal use would alter the figures, but my guess is that since we a lot of coal ourselves ( to run the electrical grid, which in essence runs our economy the way oil and Detroit used to long ago ) they can weather Peak Oil much better than we can, and they are doing it with diplomacy and bribes rather than the invasion and occupation that we do to get energy. And, no, I’m not disparaging our troops in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are doing a fine job with the limited tools our country allowed itself after painting itself in a corner. If we hadn’t occupied the middle east we wouldn’t last the few extra years that we will. It just buys us time. Like eating the feed corn. Not the greatest solution, but Better Than Nothing.

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The first good example, besides the obvious manual labor that is ambiguous in that country, is the rooftop solar water heaters nearly every home has. Here, you either pay huge bucks to a small, cottage industry outfit to sell you a water heater or you make it yourself. If you are poor you can jerry rig it, but few know how, as simple as it is. Since most of us have little money, no more credit, and no labor skills as part of our general education ( relax, Bob The Builder, I’m speaking of the general population ), no one has solar hot water heaters. In China, almost every peasant can afford the mass produced affordable, simple heaters. And remember, three times our population. The second example is their popular work van. About five grand, and half the size of the old VW Bus. With really good gas mileage. Everyone uses them. Because the lawyers haven’t made another ten grand worth of expenses necessary ( thanks a butt load, you commie cunt Ralph Nadar ). These are just two examples of how a country run by engineers rather than lawyers can keep things affordable, energy efficient and outside the embrace of cheap/affordable oil. We won’t emulate it, because we are stuck in our old economic model. And there are far too many powerful people living quite well off of that arrangement for it to end. Even if the alarm was suddenly heeded, by then there will be no money, no credit, no energy and no resources or training to switch. I think we actually already passed that point. Enjoy your collapse, bitches.
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