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People rarely stop and think of the profundity of such statements as “The last straw”. Beasts of burden can carry many bales of hay, but one straw too many can break a camels back.
Our backs are so tired, we have borne too many heavy burdens for too long. Our burdens are by design, not by misfortune; or any failure on our part for that matter. I can even show you the design, they left a record.
Incalculable greed and corruption has placed burdens on our shoulders beyond our ability to bear them. Once upon a time we had regulatory agencies where honest people kept a vigilant watch for unscrupulous people who would take advantage of us, until; corrupt politicians discovered that if they appointed people to head those agencies; who were as corrupt as them, with the same insatiable greed, they could bypass those regulatory agencies.
The most important domestic agency we have, is the CFTC. Most people don’t even know what CFTC stands for. That’s because it has functioned like an elegant swiss watch for so many years. Those people have protected us from some of the richest and most unscrupulous charlatans from around the world, but they couldn’t protect us from our own politicians.
In just a few short years, a depraved politician; who was inconceivably corrupt and depraved. I said depraved once, didn’t I. OK so sue me, he was really depraved. When he manipulated gasoline, corn, copper and all of the other commodity markets, and corrupt greedy politicians saw how much money he was making; they looked the other way, because they were as greedy as he was.
Now that our backs are about to break, the greatest market manipulator of all time has arrived, his name is DROUGHT, and he is going to drop “The last straw”.
Go to this website http://wp.me/p2vRlu-4
20 Comments
But which came first, comrade, the depraved market manipulator and his compradors, or the awareness of armageddon?
How else would so many greedy capitalists unite?
The greedy capitalists have overdone themselves, no one can save us now.
Oh, no, comrade. They are capitalizing on catastrophe. Surely we can be saved from that cynical monotopia.
I note that you note we are many backs. Therefore much more straw is needed. Did you notice when the crapitalists were flapping their lips about Theresa Sullivan @ UVA, one floated their brilliant scam, “strategic dynamism”. Do you know what that means, comrade?
Ok, I tell you before years of analysis and data collection have confirmed their treachery. It means crapitalists experiment with institutions to find which thrive best. All for the good of proles, comrade, because if they didn’t experiment, then all the proles might chose the same wrong path. So the crapitalists job is to ensure that some survive in the hostile environment they anticipate.
Now, comrade, what we need is more anticipation and fewer compradors. That’s how to make crapitalists go extinct.
The first catastrophe was of their own design when the food prices were manipulated even higher than they are now. Those high prices drained the economy once. This is equivalent to the second drought. Corn has just reached the same price it was when they manipulated the market.
This society is so strange. If it’s not announced on the news, it didn’t happen; but they wont have to announce this drought. When we go broke, they will go extinct. If there are no sheep, what will the wolves eat.
Nope. They’ve been counting on and abetting catastrophes long before your first.
These are smart wolves, comrade. They can live off serfs too. Their trick always been to make you think they don’t have the bases covered.
From “After the Apocalypse” a docu about the USSR dropping nukes on its own people in order to project the max that could be used in a “preventative” nuke war”:
And so it goes.
The middle class suffered a great deal from the manipulation of food and gas prices before the drought, as indicated by the charts. The middle class is stretched. In a month, when everyone is faced with even higher food prices and AC bills, there will be political consequences. Obama is in trouble.
O my goodness.
Recommended, lakota. I read that Texas, which is separated from the United States electricity grid for the most part, and run by giant corporations, is increasing it’s prices as much as 60 times above normal during this time, gouging businesses and customers.
Need to find the specific article. Here is a related article:
http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=35514
lakota–
If O is “in trouble,” it simply bears out the old colloquialism that “the chickens come home to roost.”
Mad As Hell
That reminds me of the housing debacle. When a person wants a house, they go to an agent who shows them houses within their ability to make the payments. Those agents who sold houses financed with ARMs, didn’t tell the borrowers that their payments were going to go up substantially. If the people knew their payments were going to double, I don’t think they would have agreed to the loan. No one would buy a house in order to have it forclosed when they couldn’t make the payment. Why would someone sell a house which guarantees that it will get foreclosed. That should have been illegal. A $500,000 loan at 4% for 30 years equates to a payment of $2,400 a month, but when the rate increases from 4% to 10%; the payment increases to $4,220. All of the victims in this debacle were turned into stupid people who caused the problem.
In 06, Ben Bernanke raised the interest rate. This was at the same time the housing market was slowing down and “subprime” loans were beginning to be a problem. That sent the housing market off a cliff. The interest rate on all those ARM loans was increased and they couldn’t make the payments. People who had 30 year loans could make the payments, but their houses were worth much less than they paid for them because of the other foreclosures. Anytime someone left a house, it remained vacant and didn’t resell because the price was too high. All of these vacant houses made all of the rest of the houses worth much less. Pardon my cynicism, but I can’t see how Bernanke couldn’t see this coming. Actually, Bernanke was no more than a sock puppet, whoever told him to raise the rate saw it coming. All of this is part of a plan I’m not privy to.
Obama is going to have more chickens than he knows what to do with. The price of gasoline went to $3.50 on the commodities market in 07, which translates to over $4.00 at the pump. (the market manipulators left a record for us to see) That increase in the price of gas vacuumed all of the excess money out of everyone’s pockets. This was indicated by small shops and stores closing at the malls. What happened in my neighborhood, also happened in your neighborhood. If you think back, you can remember the stores closing in the malls. The toy store was the first to close in my mall. Poor people could no longer buy their kids toys, and these closures corresponded to the highest gas prices ever in history. All of those small business failures contributed to the high unemployment numbers. When you look at the gasoline chart, think of how this corresponds to dates on the highest prices.
You are correct lakota.
There is more pain on the way.
And the pain of the people is ALWAYS the gain of the sociopaths.
Frankly, what all, or many, of us here, see, most people, living in the USA do not.
Not yet.
And until most people living in the USA actually FEEL the pain, personally, then they will simply refuse to see.
Patience, and a form of equanimity, as well as the ability to educate, even as you are now engaged in doing, is required of all of us. Spread the word, talk with your neighbors, but do not expect much understanding, yet.
It will taker years of pain before understanding dawns …
Reason, alone will NOT “out” … only personal “understanding” will avail.
That is not pessimism, merely the truth.
Will it take five years, ten, or more?
An accurate measure is this: How much longer will people, everyone who is not of the elite, continue to “believe” that they have but two “choices” … to “vote” for the R’s, or to “vote” for the D’s?
Look at the opposition, even here, to even the mere consideration that there might be “alternatives”.
Hard times ahead.
However, there appears to be no other “way” by which understanding may be “accomplished”.
“Thinking” requires “motivation”.
Our job is to be able to supply something considered, a “plan”, a “possibility” when the many begin to think … for then, the demagogues will supply nasty “solutions” … some quite “final”, and “we” must have thoughtful, compelling, and human “alternatives” to offer in their stead.
There is every reason for optimism, don’t you imagine?
And I mean that VERY seriously, we must imagine and develop narratives and patterns, in our minds and in our local regions …
That is our task.
The only “promise” we may honestly share with each other is that “it” will not be easy.
Recommended, of course.
And, thank you, lakota, for all that you share, and all that you are …
DW
Inspiring, comrade Bartoo. The problem is this is neither an ordinary capitalist crisis nor an extraordinary one. This is harvest time.
In the descent, amidst ferocious anger and jealousy, what thinking can survive? Will it be in the Morris Berman monasteries, or will it be in the network of the indigenous, or …?
They’ve already cultivated a nasty species of comprador. Those will not be persuaded.
This is one of the best post’s I’ve ever read. There’s too much for me to comment on at the moment, but I shall return to your post.
Ludwig, this is not an ordinary capitalist crisis for sure, and I don’t know what thinking will survive; and yes, we have the nastiest species of comprador, plus they are legion in number; but, “The last straw” will produce ramifications like never seen before.
Rec’d.
Market manipulation is another wizard behind the curtain that none of us are supposed to know about or talk about once we’ve glimpsed the hidden. Good on you for keeping it in discussion and linking it to recent developments.
lakota–
In no way was my previous comment (#10) intended to trivialize your analysis. I am in complete agreement with it.
Highly recommended.
Mad As Hell
The real bottom line under all these disasters is the accelerating climate catastrophe underway. We’ve passed the climate tipping pt. and the climate train is rapidly picking up speed as it plummets downhill. What’s taking place in the Mid-west today is just a small taste of of what’s to come. Once this area enters a near permanent warming/drying cycle just up ahead in this century and food and fuel prices soar and people start to starve I wonder if then the people will awaken? Probably not is my guess.
Mad as hell, Ain’t gonna take it no more; I thought your post was quite accurate and positive.
I would like to bring everyone’s attention to the charts on this website http://wp.me/p2vRlu-4
Disregard everything that’s written and click on the charts for enlargement. The first chart is gasoline. Those dotted lines represent the beginning and end of the Bush Administration. From 1988 until 2004, gas barely went over $1.00 a gallon.
Next, click on the corn chart. In 96 it went to $5.50 a bushel for a hot minute, but if you examine the rest of the prices between 1988 and 2004, they barely went over $3.00 a bushel.
Now we click on copper; $1.50 a pound from 1988 through 2004 was the highest price.
Back to gasoline; now we’re going to examine the peaks in these commodities. Gasoline peaked at $3.50 a gallon in 2007, 2011 and 2012. Corn is next.
Corn was $7.40 a bushel in 2008, and it went to $8.00 a bushel in 2011. Currently, corn is at $8.35 a bushel.
Now to peaks on copper; $4.00 a pound in 2006 and 2008; $4.50 a pound in 2012. Demand for copper varies with the demand for new housing.
These charts are telling us that their prices were manipulated. Non of those manipulators anticipated, “The Last Straw”.