ZONATION: Thanks Hot Air!

You really need to watch this video folks. Zo is right on target per usual.
YouTube Link 

So there you have it folks, evidently there is a difference between illusion and reality.

Creative Visualization 101

Self-help books have become popular in America. These books pose numerous questions. One such question asks, “Where do you want to be in three years, five years, or ten years?” The question immediately fixates on two things: (1) What you want (2) according to a timetable. Anything is possible. You can be whatever you want and do whatever you want. There is a problem with this approach to life, however. “Where do you want to be in ninety years?” Answer honestly, and everything comes into sharper focus.

How does a self-help guru deal with the most fundamental human limitation of all? Perhaps he would respond with something akin to the idea, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins.” This would be rephrased as, “Whoever dies having achieved the most goals wins.” The goals might be anything. Perhaps you’d like to be dictator, occupy the Rhineland, take Austria, break up Czechoslovakia, overrun Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, etc.

More

A good friend of mine lost his life in a freak accident involving car vs man on a roadway here in the old “oil patch” today. He’d stopped to retrieve something on the road and got hit by an incompetent fool on “meth” who hadn’t slept in a few days. It was on flat ground with good visibility and would never have happened if not for that.
God rest your soul Larry Evans.
Some things never change……………..

Update: Somebody welded up a flat iron cross and planted it on the corner with “we miss you L Evans” welded on it and a Cubs hat attached to one of the arms. I’ll be hanging an old horseshoe on the other one tomorrow.

Never forget………….

Good news: EPA set to shackle economy with ruling on global warming

Economy booster: California looking to ban plasma TVs

So what would national bankruptcy mean?

Long story short. Exodus finished his tour in Afghanistan doing some IT work for the military. He’ll be joining us stateside in May, and then return to Hawaii and fix computers while enjoying the weather there for awhile. And the Exodus continues……

Nice job

Update 03-19-09:

His reflections on the trip through Kuwait and other stops along the way are quite interesting to say the least. Let’s just say civilian contractors aren’t exempt from the red tape involved when dealing with the military.

Update 03-28-09:

The plan is in place: Exodus is taking a well earned vacation to Greece and Italy (OVERKILL) before he stops by for a three week visit in May .

This kind of stuff leaves me totally speechless. Are these people serious?

Lose your property for growing food?

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Some small farms and organic food growers could be placed under direct supervision of the federal government under new legislation making its way through Congress.

Food Safety Modernization Act

House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. DeLauro’s husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto – the world’s leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.

DeLauro’s act has 39 co-sponsors and was referred to the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 4. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety Administration
to allow the government to regulate food production at all levels – and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1 million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations.

Michael Olson, host of the Food Chain radio show and author of “Metro Farm,” told WND the government should focus on regulating food production in countries such as China and Mexico rather than burdening small and organic farmers in the U.S. with overreaching regulations.

“We need somebody to watch over us when we’re eating food that comes from thousands and thousands of miles away. We need some help there,” he said. “But when food comes from our neighbors or from farmers who we know, we don’t need all of those rules. If your neighbor sells you something that is bad and you get sick, you are going to get your hands on that farmer, and that will be the end of it. It regulates itself.”

Chaos, Confusion, and Civil War

Glenn Beck w/ Ben Stein - Where there’s smoke, there’s fired

April Fools! Thank You For Smoking (For The Kids) Day comes early

That’s the way my good friend Tom Beasley (artist-musician) always explained it anyhow. He was dead on with that analogy. What you see isn’t always what you get.

Once again Illusion meets with reality.
So why am I still scratching my head?

This is Alex Jones’ latest YouTube presentation. Crap. And I thought listening to NPR on the way to work was tedious. This is a totally different prospective on how the real world works folks . I’m sticking with “Illusion Or Reality” and “the dog ate my homework” for now.
You be the judge. This kind of stuff gives me a headache.

The Obama Deception

Check out the videos at this link.
Illusion. Meet reality.

National Inflation Association

Karl Denninger posted this at The Market Ticker 03-06-09.

Illusion or reality? Putting your fingers in your ears and singing “la la la la la la la” probably won’t change anything. Neither will ignoring that huge sucking noise in the background.

My analogy: The train wreck has already happened and we’re just waiting for the conductor in the caboose to catch up with the engineer………

Yep, this ones starting to look like reality alright. Ouch, I hate it when I do that…

What’s Dead (Short Answer: All Of It)

Just so you have a short list of what’s at stake if Washington DC doesn’t change policy here and now (which means before the collapse in equities comes, which could start as soon as today, if the indicators I watch have any validity at all. For what its worth, those indicators are painting a picture of the Apocalypse that I simply can’t believe, and they’re showing it as an imminent event - like perhaps today imminent.)

* All pension funds, private and public, are done. If you are receiving one, you won’t be. If you think you will in the future, you won’t be. PBGC will fail as well. Pension funds will be forced to start eating their “seed corn” within the next 12 months and once that begins there is no way to recover.

* All annuities will be defaulted to the state insurance protection (if any) on them. The state insurance funds will be bankrupted and unable to be replenished. Essentially, all annuities are toast. Expect zero, be ecstatic if you do better. All insurance companies with material exposure to these obligations will go bankrupt, without exception. Some of these firms are dangerously close to this happening right here and now; the rest will die within the next 6-12 months. If you have other insured interests with these firms, be prepared to pay a LOT more with a new company that can’t earn anything off investments, and if you have a claim in process at the time it happens, it won’t get paid. The probability of you getting “boned” on any transaction with an insurance company is extremely high - I rate this risk in excess of 90%.

* The FDIC will be unable to cover bank failure obligations. They will attempt to do more of what they’re doing now (raising insurance rates and doing special assessments) but will fail; the current path has no chance of success. Congress will backstop them (because they must lest shotguns come out) with disastrous results. In short, FDIC backstops will take precedence even over Social Security and Medicare.

* Government debt costs will ramp. This warning has already been issued and is being ignored by President Obama. When (not if) it happens debt-based Federal Funding will disappear. This leads to….

* Tax receipts are cratering and will continue to. I expect total tax receipts to fall to under $1 trillion within the next 12 months. Combined with the impossibility of continued debt issue (rollover will only remain possible at the short duration Treasury has committed to over the last ten years if they cease new issue) a 66% cut in the Federal Budget will become necessary. This will require a complete repudiation of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, a 50% cut in the military budget and a 50% across-the-board cut in all other federal programs. That will likely get close.

* Tax-deferred accounts will be seized to fund rollovers of Treasury debt at essentially zero coupon (interest). If you have a 401k, or what’s left of it, or an IRA, consider it locked up in Treasuries; it’s not yours any more. Count on this happening - it is essentially a certainty.

* Any firm with debt outstanding is currently presumed dead as the street presumption is that they have lied in some way. Expect at least 20% of the S&P 500 to fail within 12 months as a consequence of the complete and total lockup of all credit markets which The Fed will be unable to unlock or backstop. This will in turn lead to….

* The unemployed will have 5-10 million in direct layoffs added within the next 12 months. Collateral damage (suppliers, customers, etc) will add at least another 5-10 million workers to that, perhaps double that many. U-3 (official unemployment rate) will go beyond 15%, U-6 (broad form) will reach 30%.

* Civil unrest will break out before the end of the year. The Military and Guard will be called up to try to stop it. They won’t be able to. Big cities are at risk of becoming a free-fire death zone. If you live in one, figure out how you can get out and live somewhere else if you detect signs that yours is starting to go “feral”; witness New Orleans after Katrina for how fast, and how bad, it can get.

The good news is that this process will clear The Bezzle out of the system.

The bad news is that you won’t have a job, pension, annuity, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and, quite possibly, your life.

It really is that bleak folks, and it all goes back to Washington DC being unwilling to lock up the crooks, putting the market in the role it has always played - that of truth-finder, no matter how destructive that process is.

Only immediate action from Washington DC, taking the market’s place, can stop this, and as I get ready to hit “send” I see the market rolling over again, now down more than 3% and flashing “crash imminent” warnings. You may be reading this too late for it to matter.

From J. R. Nyquist

The Man Who Warned Congress

This is an interesting read at 1913Intel:

Beginning Now: The Panic Phase of the Collapse]

Just got this off Drudge:

Obama ‘ready to drop shield plans for Russian help on Iran’

Bad move…………..

More…….

FEAR: HOW LOW WILL IT GO?…

Global Stock Rout…

Dow’s Lowest Close Since April 1997…

BANK OF AMERICA CEO says taking $20B was ‘mistake’…

PUMP: AIG Gets More Aid After Record Loss…

Ukraine risks unrest as ills worsen; Cash withdraw not available at banks…

REUTERS: Bailouts may CAUSE a recession…