Article: Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’

[Arraya]

Pipeline-Istan: Everything You Need to Know About Oil, Gas, Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan and Obama

http://www.alternet.org/audits/139983/pipeline-istan%3A_everything_you_need_to_know_about_oil%2C_gas%2C_russia%2C_china%2C_iran%2C_afghanistan_and_obama/

As Barack Obama heads into his second hundred days in office, let’s head for the big picture ourselves, the ultimate global plot line, the tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order. In its first hundred days, the Obama presidency introduced us to a brand new acronym, OCO for Overseas Contingency Operations, formerly known as GWOT (as in Global War on Terror). Use either name, or anything else you want, and what you’re really talking about is what’s happening on the immense energy battlefield that extends from Iran to the Pacific Ocean. It’s there that the Liquid War for the control of Eurasia takes place.

Yep, it all comes down to black gold and “blue gold” (natural gas), hydrocarbon wealth beyond compare, and so it’s time to trek back to that ever-flowing wonderland — Pipelineistan. It’s time to dust off the acronyms, especially the SCO or Shanghai Cooperative Organization, the Asian response to NATO, and learn a few new ones like IPI and TAPI. Above all, it’s time to check out the most recent moves on the giant chessboard of Eurasia, where Washington wants to be a crucial, if not dominant, player.

http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/2381

Rome eventually hit a net energy limit and could no longer sustain its internal complexity. Efforts to strengthen the wealth conveyor through repression during the reign of Diocletian – an elaborate, highly intrusive and draconian regime of taxation in kind – amounted to feeding the center by consuming the productive farmland and peasantry of the empire itself. This period represented a brief reprieve for a political center declining in resilience, at the cost of catabolic collapse. Regions incorporated into the empire declined to a lower level of complexity than they had attained before being conquered.

No longer able to project power at a distance, or to defend the concentration of wealth (and therefore energy) which had permitted entropy to be held at bay, the western Roman empire fell. The result was the loss of an ordered state – with sharp disparities in energy concentration and resultant socioeconomic complexity – in favour of a more even distribution of both. When entropy finally gained the upper hand, concentrations of wealth, and the claim to energy represented by wealth, were impossible to sustain. Equalization at a low level was the natural outcome in the area of the former empire, although wealth conveyors in favour of other centers, such as the eastern empire, strengthened in their turn. Rome itself remained a backwater for a thousand years.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2008/12/debt-rattle-december-7-2008-energy.html

The interface between finance and energy will prove to be the most important determinant of the way the Greater Depression we are rapidly moving toward will play out in practice. For those here who may be unaware of peak oil, the point is that global oil production appears to have reached a production peak that it will not be physically possible to exceed. Oil discoveries peaked decades ago and we have since been increasing production from large existing fields using ever more complicated and expensive technology, in order to supply increasing global demand from decreasing reserves.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=Russell][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=Russell]Rus: Read “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk. It’s a very enlightening book and it shows how little has changed over the last 150+ years.

Thanks Allan, I have been reading the reviews on Amazon. It looks good. Made me wonder, Have you written any book reviews for that site? [/quote]

Rus: Nah, I’m too busy here, trying to fend off crazy leftists! =).

If you read and enjoy “The Great Game”, I’d recommend following it with Hopkirk’s “Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Plan for Central Asia”. It details Soviet ambitions in Central Asia and explains how the Russians wound up in Afghanistan. It also explains Putin’s actions in Central Asia as of late.

[/quote]

What leftists?

I’ll ask the little fellas to get me “The Great Game” for my birthday. At least they will think I read 560 page books. Actually, cliff note versions are required at this juncture in my life. I saw the Spanish translation of the Howard Zinn book that you had mentioned. That looks interesting too… with a dual benefit due to the language practice.

[/quote]

Rus: Did I say leftists? Sorry, I must be channeling William Buckley again.

If you enjoy books in the original Spanish, try Che Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries”. It’s a very interesting read. I’ve read it in the Spanish and the English. The Spanish is better.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=Russell][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=Russell]Rus: Read “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk. It’s a very enlightening book and it shows how little has changed over the last 150+ years.

Thanks Allan, I have been reading the reviews on Amazon. It looks good. Made me wonder, Have you written any book reviews for that site? [/quote]

Rus: Nah, I’m too busy here, trying to fend off crazy leftists! =).

If you read and enjoy “The Great Game”, I’d recommend following it with Hopkirk’s “Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Plan for Central Asia”. It details Soviet ambitions in Central Asia and explains how the Russians wound up in Afghanistan. It also explains Putin’s actions in Central Asia as of late.

[/quote]

What leftists?

I’ll ask the little fellas to get me “The Great Game” for my birthday. At least they will think I read 560 page books. Actually, cliff note versions are required at this juncture in my life. I saw the Spanish translation of the Howard Zinn book that you had mentioned. That looks interesting too… with a dual benefit due to the language practice.

[/quote]

Rus: Did I say leftists? Sorry, I must be channeling William Buckley again.

If you enjoy books in the original Spanish, try Che Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries”. It’s a very interesting read. I’ve read it in the Spanish and the English. The Spanish is better.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=Russell][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=Russell]Rus: Read “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk. It’s a very enlightening book and it shows how little has changed over the last 150+ years.

Thanks Allan, I have been reading the reviews on Amazon. It looks good. Made me wonder, Have you written any book reviews for that site? [/quote]

Rus: Nah, I’m too busy here, trying to fend off crazy leftists! =).

If you read and enjoy “The Great Game”, I’d recommend following it with Hopkirk’s “Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Plan for Central Asia”. It details Soviet ambitions in Central Asia and explains how the Russians wound up in Afghanistan. It also explains Putin’s actions in Central Asia as of late.

[/quote]

What leftists?

I’ll ask the little fellas to get me “The Great Game” for my birthday. At least they will think I read 560 page books. Actually, cliff note versions are required at this juncture in my life. I saw the Spanish translation of the Howard Zinn book that you had mentioned. That looks interesting too… with a dual benefit due to the language practice.

[/quote]

Rus: Did I say leftists? Sorry, I must be channeling William Buckley again.

If you enjoy books in the original Spanish, try Che Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries”. It’s a very interesting read. I’ve read it in the Spanish and the English. The Spanish is better.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=Russell][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=Russell]Rus: Read “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk. It’s a very enlightening book and it shows how little has changed over the last 150+ years.

Thanks Allan, I have been reading the reviews on Amazon. It looks good. Made me wonder, Have you written any book reviews for that site? [/quote]

Rus: Nah, I’m too busy here, trying to fend off crazy leftists! =).

If you read and enjoy “The Great Game”, I’d recommend following it with Hopkirk’s “Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Plan for Central Asia”. It details Soviet ambitions in Central Asia and explains how the Russians wound up in Afghanistan. It also explains Putin’s actions in Central Asia as of late.

[/quote]

What leftists?

I’ll ask the little fellas to get me “The Great Game” for my birthday. At least they will think I read 560 page books. Actually, cliff note versions are required at this juncture in my life. I saw the Spanish translation of the Howard Zinn book that you had mentioned. That looks interesting too… with a dual benefit due to the language practice.

[/quote]

Rus: Did I say leftists? Sorry, I must be channeling William Buckley again.

If you enjoy books in the original Spanish, try Che Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries”. It’s a very interesting read. I’ve read it in the Spanish and the English. The Spanish is better.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=Russell][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=Russell]Rus: Read “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk. It’s a very enlightening book and it shows how little has changed over the last 150+ years.

Thanks Allan, I have been reading the reviews on Amazon. It looks good. Made me wonder, Have you written any book reviews for that site? [/quote]

Rus: Nah, I’m too busy here, trying to fend off crazy leftists! =).

If you read and enjoy “The Great Game”, I’d recommend following it with Hopkirk’s “Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Plan for Central Asia”. It details Soviet ambitions in Central Asia and explains how the Russians wound up in Afghanistan. It also explains Putin’s actions in Central Asia as of late.

[/quote]

What leftists?

I’ll ask the little fellas to get me “The Great Game” for my birthday. At least they will think I read 560 page books. Actually, cliff note versions are required at this juncture in my life. I saw the Spanish translation of the Howard Zinn book that you had mentioned. That looks interesting too… with a dual benefit due to the language practice.

[/quote]

Rus: Did I say leftists? Sorry, I must be channeling William Buckley again.

If you enjoy books in the original Spanish, try Che Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries”. It’s a very interesting read. I’ve read it in the Spanish and the English. The Spanish is better.

[sd_matt]

Aldante

Here here on the “second party” comment. I have been chirping this one for a while to mostly deaf ears. The big two will only get their arses in gear when their very cush jobs are threatened.

Who cares which party takes over. What should matter is that its reps understand that they must perform or be fired. I think about 90% of the USA fails to grasp this.

[sd_matt]

Aldante

Here here on the “second party” comment. I have been chirping this one for a while to mostly deaf ears. The big two will only get their arses in gear when their very cush jobs are threatened.

Who cares which party takes over. What should matter is that its reps understand that they must perform or be fired. I think about 90% of the USA fails to grasp this.

[sd_matt]

Aldante

Here here on the “second party” comment. I have been chirping this one for a while to mostly deaf ears. The big two will only get their arses in gear when their very cush jobs are threatened.

Who cares which party takes over. What should matter is that its reps understand that they must perform or be fired. I think about 90% of the USA fails to grasp this.

[sd_matt]

Aldante

Here here on the “second party” comment. I have been chirping this one for a while to mostly deaf ears. The big two will only get their arses in gear when their very cush jobs are threatened.

Who cares which party takes over. What should matter is that its reps understand that they must perform or be fired. I think about 90% of the USA fails to grasp this.

[sd_matt]

Aldante

Here here on the “second party” comment. I have been chirping this one for a while to mostly deaf ears. The big two will only get their arses in gear when their very cush jobs are threatened.

Who cares which party takes over. What should matter is that its reps understand that they must perform or be fired. I think about 90% of the USA fails to grasp this.

[NotCranky]

O.K. Arraya the ALternet link qualifies as cliff notes. Thanks.

Allan, I haven’t even watched the CHE movie yet.The book suggestion looks great too.

[NotCranky]

O.K. Arraya the ALternet link qualifies as cliff notes. Thanks.

Allan, I haven’t even watched the CHE movie yet.The book suggestion looks great too.

[NotCranky]

O.K. Arraya the ALternet link qualifies as cliff notes. Thanks.

Allan, I haven’t even watched the CHE movie yet.The book suggestion looks great too.

[NotCranky]

O.K. Arraya the ALternet link qualifies as cliff notes. Thanks.

Allan, I haven’t even watched the CHE movie yet.The book suggestion looks great too.

[Author]

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