Economic War Of The Pacific - 5

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has been watching events on the economic front from time to time.

Events that show the damage our lusty military spending is doing to our economy.

Various aspects of this phenomenon concern world currency, various import-export aspects of international trade, and the incessant waste caused my military madmen who want to murder and plunder across the globe.

Whether or not one wants to argue that these economic results are the affect of decline of one nation, the rise of another, or the rise of many, the essence of what we have been talking about is:

"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else."

(A Decline Of The American Republic, 2, 3, quoting Fareed Zakaria). I think that the predictions of the founders indicates a decline caused by imperialism, warmongering, and draining the economy of the middle class (The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?).

In other words, the plundering of the 99% in America by the 1%.

One statistic of the data, which Dredd Blog has pointed out, is that the U.S. is no longer number one, rather, China is an economic power now:

Hang on to your hats, America.

And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just

Review Due - On Sale Now

overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet.

It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.

The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.

As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.

To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.

This latest economic earthquake follows the development last year when China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of global trade.

(Economic War Of The Pacific - 4, quoting Market Watch). The economists from Cygnus who "helped" to get us into this mess are morphing into apologists (e.g. Forbes).

But, outside their clueless bubble there are volumes of reality available (‘Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis’, Capital, a book by Thomas Piketty).

Meanwhile, as usual, China is not sitting or holding back, they are still on the move:

"Protests over democracy in Hong Kong may be preoccupying the Chinese leadership, but a subject of still greater international importance is being played out this week behind closed doors in Washington. China is bidding to enter the heart of global finance by establishing its currency, the renminbi, as part of an ubiquitous monetary unit used in official transactions around the world." - USA Today

---

"China is calling for a global currency to replace the dominant dollar, showing a growing assertiveness on revamping the world economy ahead of next week's London summit on the financial crisis.

The surprise proposal by Beijing's central bank governor reflects unease about its vast holdings of U.S. government bonds and adds to Chinese pressure to overhaul a global financial system dominated by the dollar and Western governments. Both the United States and the European Union brushed off the idea.

The world economic crisis shows the "inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system," Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said in an essay released Monday by the bank. He recommended creating a currency made up of a basket of global currencies and controlled by the International Monetary Fund and said it would help "to achieve the objective of safeguarding global economic and financial stability."

Zhou did not mention the dollar by name. But in an unusual step, the essay was published in both Chinese and English, making clear it was meant for a foreign audience." - ABC News

---

"China-rmb-world-currency

March 4, 2015
Bangkok, Thailand

When I arrived to Bangkok the other day, coming down the motorway from the airport I saw a huge billboard—and it floored me.

The billboard was from the Bank of China. It said: “RMB: New Choice; The World Currency”

Given that the Bank of China is more than 70% owned by the government of the People’s Republic of China, I find this very significant.

It means that China is literally advertising its currency overseas, and it’s making sure that everyone landing at one of the world’s busiest airports sees it. They know that the future belongs to them and they’re flaunting it." - Simon Black

That notion of becoming independent of the world currency, the U.S. dollar, has caused recent wars (MOMCOM and The Sins of Libya, 2, 3, cf. a discussion of "the foreigner trance": Comparing a Group-Mind Trance to a Cultural Amygdala).

That is especially so when mixed with the psychotic lust and greed for crude oil, the poison that is destroying the ecosystem and global climate system (The Peak Of The Oil Wars, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

The forefathers clearly warned us against exactly what is taking place today:

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Those truths are well established." - James Madison

---

“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

---

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

We have become a warmongering neoFeudalistic empire (American Feudalism, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

An empire that is committing suicide by waging wars to acquire the poison crude oil that is destroying the only habitat we must preserve in order to survive.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

---

"Stepping In A Slide Zone", by The Moody Blues

---

Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 8

"Truth is never the fault of the Messenger" - Dredd

Maybe some of you have been agitated by the reminders in this series of what the famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee said.

Or at least you have been agitated by my quoting him several times.

Maybe several times too many.

But something happened recently, an archaeological discovery of a lost civilization.

So once again, let's take another look at what Toynbee said, and then apply it to the residue, debris, and cultural artefacts of that civilization to help us understand how accurate he was:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch). So, after that civilization was murdered or more likely, committed suicide, someone stumbled upon "it":

The story of this discovery begins in 2012 when an aerial survey of a remote valley in La Mosquitia, Honduras, revealed evidence of the ruins of a pre-Columbian city. Some experts thought the ruins might be part of the legendary “White City.”

(Ancient City, "Has Ancient Ferguson Been Found" - just kidding). The scientists going over the area are of a different, and much more interesting opinion than the hypothesis that it is a city:

Archaeologists, however, no longer believe in the existence of a single “lost city,” or Ciudad Blanca, as described in the legends. They believe Mosquitia harbors many such “lost cities,” which taken together represent something far more important—a lost civilization.

(National Geographic). It was a civilization thriving like any other, with commerce, politics, religion, love, hate, life and death.

Then it was gone.

The jungle grew over it, it became a myth or legend like Atlantis or the Hittite Empire, once a "shining city on a hill," then poof, empty, decaying, and gone from memory.

The cities and people surrounding the recently found civilization are evidence that there was no reason that civilization, whatever it was called, absolutely had to cease to exist.

As Toynbee said, "a society does not ever die 'from natural causes'", no, a society is perpetual, with citizens both being born and dying within its gates, as it lives on beyond the generation that founded it.

Egypt, for example, existed long before this newly discovered civilization, and still exists today, long after it.

Egypt's ancient glory is gone, but still it remains.

None of the old timers who built the pyramids, and other bloviating architecture, are around any more, but Egypt still is.

To the contrary, the mysterious civilization now hidden beneath the jungle overgrowth just went away.

Who knows when or why.

Except as Toynbee says, by suicide or by murder.

This series brings all that to our attention, because, we are in The Sixth Mass Extinction period, and are sure to try to become extinct too.

It seems that current civilization is more like "Jones Town," which was a murder suicide (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).

I would not be surprised if some, or many, survived the lost civilization we are talking about today, because, some were likely to see it coming and escape.

But, our civilization's weapons and poisons are strong beyond any civilization before us, to the point that we can destroy our civilization with nuclear weapons, or with our use of fossil fuels.

Potentially without any escape.

And, we are eagerly doing everything we need to do to "make it so."

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Inhofe's One Man Troofiness Crusade

Big Jimmy Inhofe is not taking the deceit of his country by Barbie lightly.

According to the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, he has to stop her.

Yes, he must stop one notorious Barbara Streisand, who, along with various co-conspirators in Hollywood, have wrecked many naive and innocent minds.

It is a national security threat, seeing as how she and her cohorts have deceived the Pentagon, 97% of the world's climate scientists, and even Al Gore.

So, how will he do it?

By being a one-man troofiness squad taking the gospel straight to world climate change conferences so as to make sure they don't do anything ungodly.

David Corn puts it like this:

[Inhofe goes to climate conferences] to be "a one-man truth squad." He slithered in and out of the cavernous media filing center, ever at the ready to speak to reporters looking for the other side quotes denigrating the proceedings, claiming that climate change was no more than a hoax, and celebrating the summit's failure to produce a binding and comprehensive treaty.

Inhofe was usually mobbed by reporters—especially non-American journalists who found it newsworthy that a US senator would say such things. Judging from the smile on his mug, Inhofe enjoyed skunking up the party. After watching this for a few days, I could not resist the urge to engage.

As he strolled through the media center one afternoon, accompanied by several camera crews recording his pronouncements, I approached and politely asked if I could put a question to him. Sure, he said, in his folksy, avuncular manner.

Look around us, I said, spreading my arms wide. There are thousands of intelligent and well-meaning people in this gigantic conference center: scientists, heads of state, government officials, policy experts. They believe that climate change is a serious and pressing threat and that something must be done soon. Do you believe that they have all been fooled?

Yes, he said, grinning.

That these people who have traveled from all points of the globe to be here are victims of a well-orchestrated hoax?

Yes, he said, still smiling.

That's some hoax, I countered. But who has engineered such a scam?

Hollywood liberals and extreme environmentalists, Inhofe replied.

Really? I asked. Why would they conspire to scare all these smart people into believing a catastrophe was under way, when all was well?

Inhofe didn't skip a beat: To advance their radical environmental agenda.

I pressed on: Who in Hollywood is doing this?

The whole liberal crowd, Inhofe said.

But who?

Barbra Streisand, he responded.

I nearly laughed. All these people had assembled in Copenhagen because of Barbra Streisand. A singer and actor had perpetuated the grandest con of the past 100 years?

That's right, Inhofe said, with a straight face. And others, he added.

By this point, he was losing patience and glancing about for another reporter who wanted to record his important observations. And I was running out of follow-up queries. After all, was I really going to ask, "And Ed Begley Jr. too?" So our conversation ended, and I headed back to reality.

But I was struck by this thought: Did this senator truly believe Barbra Streisand was the devious force behind a completely phony global campaign to address climate change? He seemed to.

In his 2012 book, The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, Inhofe does mention Streisand—but only once, lumping her together with Leonardo DiCaprio and John Travolta as celebs whose environmental "alarmism" had to be debunked. But his book did not shy away from clearly identifying the charlatans and hoaxers who have hornswoggled the planet: "environmental activist extremists," Al Gore, MoveOn.org, George Soros, Michael Moore, and, yes, "the Hollywood elites."

Perhaps when Inhofe seizes the reins of the Senate environment committee, he can further expose this conspiracy—and for the first witness … Barbra Streisand. It's time for her to come clean.

(Mother Jones). Big Troofie Jim originally came to his puritanical senses while visiting the San Diego Zoo, and going to talk to a Navy Admiral whom Barbie had completely fooled (Has The Navy Fallen For The Greatest Hoax?).

Now that he has a pulpit and power, Barbie better find Ken and go back to that alien base on Ceres.

Dawn Mission Nears Ceres Orbit Maneuvers

The Dwarf Planet Ceres - by NASA Dawn Mission

The bright spots shining in a crater near the middle of the dwarf planet Ceres can be seen rotating from left to right.

The stills heretofore only showed them on the sunlit side, generally straight on.

Thus, there was speculation early on that they could be reflections of sunlight off ice at the bottom of the crater.

This GIF shows that the spots continue to shine, or reflect, even after the crater rotates into the dark side of Ceres (as you can see, I also did a screen capture, below right, and put a red line pointing toward the spot when it enters the dark).

Thus, the light generation seems to not be a reflection, but rather light generated

Click photo to enlarge

from two sources inside the crater.

However, some of the other bright spots don't seem to glow in the dark, so we will have to wait a few days for Dawn to enter orbit (Friday).

Then Dawn can take a look at the dark side of Ceres to see if any of them glow all the way across the dark side, or instead fade out.

If they fade out slowly the source could be sunlight generated phosphorescence that fades out while on the dark side, to be regenerated on the sun facing side --but if they immediately go out and stay out on the dark side, they could be only some type of reflection from a shiny surface at the floor of the crater (such as a flat surface of frozen ice or other reflective material).

But if they glow or shine all the way across the dark side, then the light is generated by a source in the crater rather than being merely a reflection of sunlight.

Another possibility  is that there are two very high spots, peaks, in the center of that crater (which are higher than the low crater rim).

The  photo below shows close-ups of the subject crater.

The photo on the left side is the one taken in regular light.

The other photo on the right side, is inverted (white has been changed to black, black into white, and greys into darker or lighter greys accordingly).

The next post in this series is here.

---

Click photo to enlarge

---

But, I Read It In Escapism Megazine

Megazine, magazine,
and other "sizes,"
are metaphors or "approximations," megaphors sometimes,
for things and not-things.

Like the size
of your escape trip.

Escapism on planet PissyMystic
is big,
and Escapism Magazine
is "doing all right".

But why can't
the cosmic travel agents
get their shit
together?

Now, the subtle of today's post is
"A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood?"
so,
Am I going to start an argument
by referring to
Friday's Post?

We don't seem to realize   We are Here , So, here are some things to read from Escapism Megazine:
A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood?
A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood? - 2
All Alone In The Void
The Poet Laureate of MOMCOM - 3

Wiggy with Sons.

Oh well, oh hell,
just before the music,
dig this:

Nowhere to run nowhere to hide.

---

---

It isn't that there was never a valid escape, there was (The Tenets of Ecocosmology).

The problem is that current civilization has now been led to destroy the ability to validly escape (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

Having done that, Oil-Qaeda now wants to illegally escape.

Which, as the poem explains, is not going to happen.

---

We should not have taken Highway 61, we should have stayed on Highway 51:

---