The 2008 prices changes are now published, with a new 2008 catalog. All prices are subject to change without notice.

We are already experiencing shortages of some food products, which was something I’ve tried to spread the warnings about. 2008 does not look any better. The alarm bells are ringing of a rising global food shortage and agricultural shortfalls. Poor and impoverished nations will be hit first and hardest (always the case).

A great article by the Christian Science Monitor, on Why The Era of Cheap Food is Over. As much as 30% of the U.S. grain crop will be poured in American gas tanks this coming year. This is unbelievable - but believe it, it is happening.

There is a growing body of evidence that a global famine is the planned execution for population reduction. Despite the well-proven science that biofuels are damaging to food prices and availability, destructive to the environment and creating starvation conditions, our illustrious leaders and corporate plantation owners are planning on keeping us slaves in line with the ultimate weapon - food.

A hungry man will do ANYTHING for food, including gleefully supporting the rising police state in exchange for his daily porridge. Or steal food stocks. I doubt if these thieves are hungry (yet), but that day too is coming. These thieves are probably doing it for the money, or a few steaks.

Expect desperate people in desperate times. We “ain’t seen ‘nothin yet”, not even close. Americans are fatted calves, soften and pampered, but well-armed and vicious when cornered (or threatened). We have already demonstrated our potential for terrorism in the infamous Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib prisons. These are trial runs for what the world will be seeing a lot more of, as the desperate race to sequester critical resources begins in earnest.

Both Lonewolf and I are “really wondering” if our efforts here are worthwhile. The price I’ve paid has personally been absolutely enormous. Heralders of bad news are not popular people, with anyone. Let me make a stark reminder to those who are unhappy with what we’ve written: we don’t make the news.

Our task or talent or propensity or whatever you like to call it, is to connect the dots, as these news sources and reports pour forth and identify as best we can what it all means. It certainly means something, and frankly, it’s not that hard to figure out.

“Unsung blog” is right. We’ve been long hoping that our fellow bloggers and writers and even some of the talking heads and semi-famous or the wanna-be famous (plenty of them to go around) would start spreading this gospel, but hey, it aint’ happenin’ yet. Frankly, we don’t think it will happen either. The truth is rarely comfortable, but it’s still essential. I really can’t imagine living any other way. I still have hope, but not for the same things anymore. I learned a long time ago that hope requires my active participation.

My purpose for writing these words and this blog in its entirety, is to express what I believe to be true, what I have learned and why I think this is all important to all of you. Who I am is utterly irrelevant, because this blog and it’s message is not about me, or Lonewolf or anyone at all. It’s about YOU and your world and what is happening to YOUR WORLD. I live here too, and it’s a crying, broken-hearted shame what we’ve done to the place.

Our devolution has been underway for some time. I inherited it just like you did. I don’t want to keep it alive anymore because it is choking the life out of everything. I don’t need an “expert” scientist or researcher or analyst to tell me that. You don’t either. We are all in this together, but you wouldn’t think so by the way we act. We’re all too busy trying to kill each other and take advantage of each other and make a profit off each other. We’ll keep doing this right to the end too as we choke the life out of the last breathing mammal as we stand triumphantly upon our heap of glittering goods. I find this tragic, disgusting and revolting to be honest.

I once believed that life on this planet was something that needed to be discovered. Now I believe that we need to discover how to live (again). I really don’t expect many others to believe that, but they should. I also don’t expect much from other people, it helps a lot when I’m let down, which I often am.

I realize these are all words seem to be about me, but this is really about you. I don’t expect many of you to believe that, but it’s true. I have learned that life and living are about almost everything we don’t want to talk about. Sometimes I talk about that here, but I’m often ignored. Lonewolf has noticed this too, and he also wonders why.

I’m wondering if we’re all really missing the boat here. Do you want to know why? Because we can readily point out to the importance of “our message” and how even other important messages are really not quite as important as the one we’re trying to spread. Climate change and environmental crisis really has no equal. But while we’re debating this and discussing this and trying to make our plans and preparations about what we individually can do about all of this, we’re missing something really critical here, something really, really important.

Do you want to know what that is? We’re missing the young. I do not know of a single young person who is taking this information to heart. Well, one, Torjus in Norway is. He is the only “young person” I know that is forging ahead, knowing what collapse means and actively putting into practice the skills he will need to survive.

Everyone else is too busy, too tired, too distracted or just not interested. This is super-important because every single one of us alive today will soon be dead. It will be the young who will need to take hold of whatever we’ve done, whatever we’ve manage to teach them and to forge a path ahead to survive. And quite frankly, they’re not interested. Not as far as I can tell they’re not.

Do you know what this means? It’s means that all of our efforts and preparations and planning and stockpiling and everything we are doing is going to end with us.

Wow. That should make you stop dead in your tracks and ponder it’s meaning.

Here’s something else: since they’re not on board now, and learning how to survive, just what exactly, do you think they are going to do?

They’ll certainly not just lay down and die. No, they’ll take what they’ve learned in their military training and Xbox gaming and street smart surviving and they’ll go forth and take what they need to survive. From YOU. Which means we’re breeding a entire generation of ruthless, brutal and soulless children to be our inheritors of this blasted Earth.

Are you shuddering yet? I am. You should be.

It take decades of preparation time to learn how to survive. You can’t just toss a few seeds on the ground and expect to have enough to eat next harvest. Or wander off into the woods and bag all the protein you’re going to need when it’s already all been killed off. And the ones that will need it the most are the very youngest among us. The will need to shown how and where and even why. The rest of us will most likely be swept away as age, sickness, health, disease and violence take us out. The young will be inheriting this God awful mess we’re leaving behind. And right now, they’re just not too interested in prepping for the end of the world as they know it. Not even.

We should be schooling these kids right now, ensuring that they have the practical skills and first hand experience on how to take care of themselves. But as expected, our hallowed institutions are churning out more lawyers, accounts, programmers and legal secretaries. A fat lot of good that’s going to do them when they’re expected to put blisters on those soft hands, or working in the fields from sunup to sundown to ensure they’ve got enough to eat.

And the rest of us, well, we’re not getting through to our own kids, now are we?  ‘Cmon, some of you have told me this yourselves.  I know I’m not, and I know that many young people just really don’t give a damn.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I lie awake at night and wonder too much about these things. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about what I can’t control so much. Maybe I should just learn to relax and take it easy, it’s really not my problem anyway. Maybe…. maybe it’s late and I should finish this entire thing and just dump it in everyone’s lap and go to bed.

Goodnight then. Happy New Year.

This is so sad, and so tragic that it belies words: Laying Waste To The Deep

It is truly incomprehensible what we humans are doing to our planet on a global scale. 4/5ths of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, which we are treating as a sewage dump and a free-for-all hunting ground.

The Plastic Killing Fields has been covered here before, but well worthy of being read again.

As he looked out at what should have been a clear blue ocean, Moore saw a sea of plastic. As far as he could see, day after day, were bottles, wrappers and fragments of plastic in every colour.

I think despair, which many are now feeling, needs to turn to rage. If we do not get angry, we will not be uncomfortable enough to change our ways.

Garrett Hardin’s Three Laws of Human Ecology

Boulding’s Three Theorems, Abernethy’s Axiom, and
“LAWS RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY” by Dr. Albert A. Bartlett

Sent in by Lonewolf (thank you) and emphasis and [comments] mine:

First Law

Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. [While this should be self-evident, it’s not as shown by the constant demand for consumerism and economic ‘growth’ (planned destruction)].

A) A population growth rate less than or equal to zero and declining rates of consumption of resources are necessary conditions for a sustainable society.

B) Unsustainability will be the certain result of any program of “development,” whether or not it is said to be “sustainable,” that ignores the problem of population growth and that does not plan the achievement of zero or a period of negative growth of populations and of rates of consumption of resources.

C) The research and regulation programs of governmental agencies that are charged with protecting the environment and promoting sustainability” are, in the long run, irrelevant unless these programs address vigorously and quantitatively the determination of optimal population sizes that can be carried indefinitely and unless the programs study in depth the demographic causes and consequences of environmental problems.

D) Societies, or sectors of a society, that depend on population growth or growth in their rates of consumption of resources, are unsustainable.

E) Persons who advocate population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources are advocating unsustainability.

F) Persons whose actions directly or indirectly cause increases in population or in the rates of consumption of resources are moving society away from sustainability. (Advertising your city or state as an ideal site in which to locate new factories indicates a desire to increase the population of your city or state.)

G) The term “sustainable growth” is an oxymoron.

Second Law

The larger the population of a society, and/or the larger its rates of consumption of resources, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability.

Third Law

The response time of populations to changes in the total fertility rate is the length of time people live, or approximately fifty to seventy years (The consequence of this is called “population momentum”).

A) If we want the population sizes to be reduced or at least stabilized by the mid-twenty-first century, we must make the necessary changes in the total fertility rates before the end of the twentieth century. [Which means it’s much too late now, die-off is unavoidable by whatever means it takes shape].

B) We live in a time of short time horizons.

C) It will be difficult to convince people to act now to change course, when the full results of the change may not be apparent in those people’s lifetimes.

Fourth Law

The size of population that can be sustained (the carrying capacity) and the sustainable average standard of living of the population are inversely related to one another.

A) The higher the standard of living one wishes to sustain, the more urgent it is to reduce population size. [Although this should also be self-evident, it’s not either. The U.S. standard of living for example, is being done because of the population exploitation and reduction now occurring in the third world.]

B) Reductions in the rates of consumption of resources and reductions in the rates of production of pollution can shift the carrying capacity in the direction of sustaining a larger population.

Fifth Law

Sustainability requires that the size of the population be less than or equal to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for the desired standard of living.

A) Sustainability requires an equilibrium between human society and stable ecosystems.

B) Destruction of ecosystems tends to reduce the carrying capacity and/or the sustainable standard of living.

C) The rate of destruction of ecosystems increases as the rate of growth of the population increases.

D) Population growth rates less than equal to zero are necessary, but are not sufficient, conditions for halting the destruction of the environment.

Sixth Law: (The lesson of “The Tragedy of the Commons”) (Hardin, 1968):

The benefits of population growth and of growth in the rates of consumption of resources accrue to a few individuals; the costs of population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources are borne by all of society.

A) Individuals who benefit from growth will continue to exert strong pressures supporting and encouraging both population growth and growth in rates of consumption of resources.

B) The individuals who promote growth are motivated by the recognition that growth is good for them. In order to gain public support for their goals, they must convince people that population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources are also good for society. This is the Charles Wilson argument: If it is good for General Motors, it is good for the United States.* (Yates, 1983). *”What is good for the country is good for General Motors and vice versa!” Cited in Yates, 1983, p. 123.

Seventh Law

Growth in the rate of consumption of a non-renewable resource, such as a fossil fuel, causes a dramatic decrease in the life-expectancy of the resource.

A) In a world of growing rates of consumption of resources, it is seriously misleading to state the life-expectancy of a non-renewable resource “at present rates of consumption,” i.e., with no growth.

B) It is intellectually dishonest to advocate growth in the rate of consumption of a non-renewable resource while, at the same time, reassuring people about how long the resource will last “at present rates of consumption.”

Eighth Law

The time of expiration of non-renewable resources can be postponed, possibly for a very long time, by (i) technological improvements in the efficiency with which the resources are recovered and used; (ii) using the resources in accord with a program of “sustained availability” (Bartlett, 1986); (iii) recycling; (iv) the use of substitute resources.

Ninth Law

When large efforts are made to improve the efficiency with which resources are used, the resulting savings are easily and completely wiped out by the added resource needs that arise as a consequence of modest increases in population.

A) When resources are used more efficiently, the consequence often is that the “saved” resources are not put aside for the use of future generations, but instead are used immediately to encourage and support larger populations.

B) Humans have an enormous compulsion to find an immediate use for all available resources.

Tenth Law

The benefits of large efforts to preserve the environment are easily canceled by the added demands on the environment that result from small increases in human population.

Eleventh Law: (Second Law of Thermodynamics)

When rates of pollution exceed the natural cleansing capacity of the ecosystems, it is easier to pollute than it is to clean up the environment.

Twelfth Law: (Eric Sevareid’s Law)

The chief cause of problems is solutions. (Sevareid, 1970)

A) This law should be a central part of higher education, especially in engineering.

Thirteenth Law

Humans will always be dependent on agriculture.

A) Supermarkets alone are not sufficient.

B) The central task in sustainable agriculture is to preserve agricultural land. The agricultural land must be protected from losses due to things such as (i) erosion; (ii) urbanization and development; (iii) poisoning by chemicals; (iv) salinization; and (v) waterlogging.

Fourteenth Law

If, for whatever reason, humans fail to stop population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources, nature will stop these growths.

A) Nature’s method of stopping growth is cruel and inhumane.

B) Glimpses of nature’s method of dealing with population that have exceeded the carrying capacity of their lands can be seen each night on the television news reports from places where large populations are experiencing starvation and misery.

Fifteenth Law

Starving people do not care about sustainability. If sustainability is to be achieved, the necessary leadership and resources must be supplied by people who are not starving.

Sixteenth Law

The addition of the word “sustainable” to our vocabulary, to our reports, programs, and papers, and to the names of our academic institutes and research programs, is not sufficient to ensure that our society becomes sustainable.

Seventeenth Law

Extinction is forever.
[It is clear that our denial of these immutable laws are the reasons why we are now in such trouble as a species. We are now dealing with the results of our gross violations of natural law.]

Let’s hope there aren’t any more of these: California Women With Multi-Resistant TB Flies The Deadly Skies

Lonewolf sent in another great link: The End Of The World

I don’t think this is a blog reader here, but they could have been. A one-page summary of just how bad it is, what we’re facing and what is likely to happen.

It is very hard to comprehend just how serious our situation has become. Right now, it still seems to almost everyone that this party will just keep on going forever. Yet this is a seriously dangerous illusion. Our so-called “success” has had really serious side-effects. We’ve experienced unprecedented growth on the back cheap oil, exploding our population, production and manufacturing capability. Our entire civilization was built around this “abundance” paradigm.

Now overpopulation and severe resource depletion are about to create a reality check crisis of incomprehensible proportions. Our “petri dish” experiment of consuming all of the available resources while exploding our population levels is about to come to an end.

It’s no wonder that we still refuse to recognize our plight. The time when our civilization is most successful and thriving is exactly in the last half minute before midnight. This is when we are consuming the maximum amount of resources and enjoying “peak everything”.

99.99% of the blogs out there are completely clueless on what the real important issue is these days. Most are distracted with politics or the economy or world affairs. It’s not that they are not important, but they pale in comparison to the steeping walls of this rushing river we are on. In reality, it makes no difference who is assassinated by who or who is elected or who is promising what or what the latest scandal is anymore.

None of this even “matters”, as evidenced by our transient attention anyway. Much of it is important yes, and often tragic, but nothing compared to the tragedy that is about to befall us all.

There is absolutely no doubt, despite all the smoke and mirrors, that world leaders are well aware of our plight, just as there is no doubt at all that they do indeed intend to do something about it, but it’s not what many are hoping for. In this article, some of their plans are revealed:

We haven’t seen many headlines on this topic, but the world is sitting on the brink of a major food crisis. Emergency stockpiles are at low ebb, production levels are down, crop failures are up, etc. It’s a very nasty picture even without biofuels. In this context, the net consequence of a major biofuel agenda comes down to intentional genocide. The Post-Bush Regime

Like me, the author is already saying who the next (s)election will anoint as the “chosen one”. I’m stepping out of this one, because withholding my consent is one of the few powers I have left. I do however, think the author errs on several points though. The whole “Gore agenda” thingy is woefully misinformed and worse, misleading, but the general premises of “managing the die-off” is close enough.

The elite are engaging in what they have long known they would need to do, and that is reduce global population levels and revert the entire world into a kingdom fit for squires and slaves.

I hope no one out there has any romantic notions about the new Administration, and I hope everyone realizes that the political process can never be used to solve our problems; that system is in fact the heart of our problem. I also hope it is clear to everyone that global genocide is an inevitable consequence of the continuation of this insane capitalist system, whether you agree with most of my analysis or not. And in the end, capitalism can’t last anyway.

Just so, capitalism IS the problem. It is the engine in the train running at full-speed over the cliff. It is not the capitalist-exploited populations of the third world we should be worrying about, it is the ongoing stoking of the capitalist engine that is without doubt, going to kill us all. This will be the End of the World for a huge percentage of the population.

The only chance, albeit a small one, is for everyone to get off the train, which would still cause the train to wreck. But wreck it should; it must; and it will, nothing whatsoever can be done about that now. This is where this blog differs from all the rest. Understand this coming catastrophe and embrace it, and discover and learn how you might survive it.

Here is factual proof regarding climate change and my predictions that we were consistently and faithfully, underestimating it’s impacts.

Several critical points that I’ve brought forth on this blog before:

a) We’ve known about it for a long time;

b) We are not working on ANY real solutions at all;

c) We’ve effectively accomplished nothing in the past 50 years;

d) Emissions are accelerating beyond our worse case fears.

David Keith is also wrong about our ability to gain anything by deploying wind or solar power as a means of reducing human impacts. Although this video is NOT about this particular issue, permitting or perpetuating human activity by enhancing our electrical production cannot possibly “reduce” environmental impacts.

Not only is the payback on such system measured in centuries, they consume as much electricity in their production as they actually produce, and perpetuate the human activity that is causing climate change in the first place and allow even more to occur (Jevon’s Paradox).

I fail to see why “environmentalist” repeatedly cannot see this simple truth. It is fundamental to the entire issue of human-caused or human-induced or human-contributed climate change (take your pick).

This video is really about geo-engineering, with huge, catastrophic risks. You decide, I already have. Everything mankind does to “fix” things for the better, backfires with huge long term risks and consequences.

Worse, such “engineering” does not fix the root problem of human caused emissions, it just permits them to continue. How stupid is that? This would simply permit more of the same problems that caused the problems in the first place.

This proposal is not only “daring” but dangerously irresponsible. But even more dangerous then this, is the basic premises that science, and tinkering with something as complex as a living Earth, is our playground to “experiment” with.

Underlying this premises is the so-called “faith” in science itself. The belief claims that our ingenuity and daring, exploring and even changing the unknowns, will NOT have catastrophic and long term effects, such as wiping out all life on Earth, through our well-intended “tinkering”. This is a total unknown and will forever remain a total unknown, and certainly not worth the risk.

In a “science” that is still under a raging debate as a well-understood discipline, how can we honestly think that “clever things to do” will “fix” what we have caused? Why not finally and forever ADMIT to what the root causes are and FIX THAT INSTEAD? Why expose the entire human race and every living species on the planet to even more of our tinkering and live “experimentation”?

It’s not “more leverage” that we need, but RESPECT for natural systems.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the Earth does not “need” our help. It needs for humans to leave it ALONE and it will naturally heal itself, for good or for bad. Adaption is a natural fact of all life forms, this is also true of human life forms. Either we adapt, or we remain forever dependent upon our failed technology and science, which will always have the same ultimate outcome (no technology or the ability to maintain it lasts forever).

Making the entire human race and all other life on this planet totally and forever dependent upon technology is got to be one of the stupidest ideas I’ve ever come across. This is contrary to all forms of natural life and life systems, including human life and is already doomed to failure for that reason.

This is a time of year when being on the road is simply risky. Holiday drivers are out in force (and shoppers) and drinking and driving is something we’ve all seen.

This is about to take a new turn, as food prices and grain prices continue to skyrocket.

“That’s the reason I cut down on milk consumption - so I can drive my car,” said Norris.

Everyday foods like fruits and vegetables, beef, poultry and cereals are on the rise. The price of milk is the biggest culprit, with a staggering increase of 23.2 percent through November. And with basic foods like dairy and wheat driving up the cost of other groceries, almost everyone is feeling the squeeze. Food Prices Soar In America

Your choice is going to be are you going to keep drinking, or are you going to be driving?

It’s not just milk drinkers at risk, it’s beer drinkers too.

JUST as the festive season gets going, drinkers in America are finding their favourite beer suddenly more expensive or even—horrors!—not available at all. Hit by price increases and shortages, many breweries, particularly the small “craft brewers” and the even smaller microbreweries, are being forced to raise prices, make do with modified recipes or shut off the spigots altogether. Trouble Brewing

In other, related news:

Duty-free US Corn Imports

But some farmers worry introducing that GMO seeds could contaminate hundreds of wild blue, red and multicolored corn varieties planted for centuries in Mexico.

“The farmers who want to plant transgenic corn are irresponsible, they don’t care if the are putting the genetic heritage of Mexico at risk,” said Victor Suarez head of a small farmers’ group that wants keep trade protections for corn and beans.

This has been happening all over the world. GMO crops are replacing heritage crops. This is a planned and deliberate campaign, often brought to you (and everyone else) by Monsanto.

EU Faces Feed Shortages, Increases Imports

“The situation is radically different than in years past,” said Kurt Shultz, USGC director in the Mediterranean and Africa. “Europe is a traditional surplus supplier of grains but now is importing significant quantities of feed grains.”

Not be outdone, our fishery stocks are still declining (of course, what did you expect?):

EU Ministers Allow More Fish To Be Caught Next Year

Ignoring the advice of their own scientific consultants, European Union fisheries ministers voted on Wednesday to allow European fishermen to catch more fish next year. Experts said the decision will threaten already endangered species.

Most significantly the ministers agree to allow an 11 percent rise in the catch of North Sea cod. The sea council had recommended a reduction of 50 percent in the total removal of cod from the area, a figure that includes both legal and illegal fishing as well as natural death of the fish.

The scientists also called for a reduction in the quota of haddock fished. The ministers instead allowed it to rise 5 percent.

Greedy idiots running the farm will result in collapse. Which is exactly what I do expect.

Monkeyfister has nominated 15 “unsung” blogs for the 2007 Monkeyfister Awards.  I’m humbled to even be recognized.

My job is to recommend 3 of my favorites, for the “Au Peer” Award of 2007.  I can think of several and I’m proud to be linking to them.

This was predicted: tent cities coming to a blighted urban area near you. The housing downturn will turn out thousands of newly homeless into the streets.

I’ve seen a few articles lately about how the new homeless will be able to squat in vacant homes, buildings and lots. Much more likely is how they’ll all wind up in (debtors) internment camps. New York is already putting senior tax debtor to work.

Common sense of course, does not prevail (such as lower the tax rate). The State will extract it’s pound of flesh until after your dead, making sure your survivors have been properly punished too.

Probably one of the best ways to choke the life out of the State is to own or earn nothing.

Don’t ask me who’s going to pay for this - free health care. Oh wait, you are:

The governor’s plan would require all Californians to obtain health insurance by 1 July 2010 - providing subsidies for those who would otherwise have struggled to pay the premiums.

In a State that can’t pay its power bills or close it’s borders, free health care isn’t free, it always comes from somebody’s pocket.

I’ve not had any health insurance for many, many years, believing instead in preventative care. Unfortunately, I’m sick now, still dragging my feet on visiting the chop shop and trying self-medication with what I suspect is some expired medicine (it’s not dated, but it hasn’t killed me yet). But it’s not working too well, unfortunately, but I’m being persistent, since a doctors visit is like offering your first born.

My last visit to the doc wasn’t too bad, I paid the bill before I left and got a receipt. Strangely, three week later, I got another bill, demanding an additional payment of $40. I challenged this, since I paid my bill before I left the doctors office. I was told that this was an “adjustment” to my bill total, and that they didn’t have the “correct total” on the day of my visit. Not so, I argued. I had a receipt, and it stated my bill was “paid in full”. My insistence to talk directly with the doctor about this matter was deftly ignored by the office manager. But I did get a phone call back in about two hours, claiming my bill was “adjusted” and the balance would be “written off”. What a scam.

American health care is a scam from top to bottom. In fact, just about everything American is too. Our “freedom” is being “bought and paid for” by blowing up children to smithereens in foreign lands. We’re suppose to be “thankful” for this as we are herded off into “free speech” zones as we applaud or curse the politicians which profess to “represent” us.

And lest we forget, our “democracy” which alleges to support the individual’s right to “vote” and be “represented” by the (s)elections we are “priviliged” to participate in are all bought and paid for by rigged Diebold and ES&S voting machines.

At the time, back in late September 2005, the stock price plunged to a 52-week low of about $44.37/share (which we’re sure they’d kill for now — not that we wish to give them any ideas) and DIEB-THROAT told us in response to the related news: “the last time this kind of deception occurred it was called Enron.”

Then came a class action securities fraud suit against the company in December 2005, as first broken by The BRAD BLOG natch, before the parallel SEC investigation first became public.

Since then, following one independent study after another after another after another, finding their electronic voting systems to be virus-prone, hackable, unreliable and inaccurate, the company finally dumped it’s controversial CEO who had infamously promised in a Republican fundraising letter that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to” George W. Bush in 2004, before attempting again to fool the American public by renaming its election division “Premiere Elections Solutions” (same pig, fresh lipstick), just after stock prices plummeted again in August of this year to $47.60 as The BRAD BLOG noticed what appeared to us, and at least one financial analyst, to be possible insider trading among a number of company officials. Diebold Under DOJ Investigation

2008 is nigh upon us now. Count your blessings that you’re not in an internment camp yet, or that you haven’t been renditioned by Lord Cheney to some godforsaken backwater to be tortured.

Here’s a cool poster on where all the money is going.  Pretty evident that the stuff we should be caring about and spending money on isn’t high on the list. Or rather I should say, hardly on the list.

Anybody still doubt what this means for our future?  Filed under collapse (that’s a hint).