Hi Swopa

Hi Swopa, Hiya Katy!

The motherfuckers just don’t quit, do they?

Surely you don’t expect them to actually work and think do you? That would be faaaar too easy…

To me, this “rice shortage” is just a way to make money for investors. Costco and other companies only allowing consumers to buy only a few bags is feeding into the frenzy. It’s no different in the oil industry right now. The Oil Maggots who love & support George Bush want us to believe that oil is going to dry up, but in the meantime, we must open up Alaska to drill, which will only give us a million barrels of oil, but they’ll tell us it’s a desperate situation. They’re also putting all the blame on the Democrats right now for the price of oil. Why? Because it makes the right wing Taliban of America (the republicans) feel better about themselves, so they can wash their hands clean. They want Americans to think it’s because the Democrats are in charge as to why the price of everything is going up.

Right wingers love using the psychological subliminal messages.

I think that this was what I was implying downstairs on the food thread….. as food supplies become short and fuel prices impact the cost & transport of food, the push to give up any regulation and oversight [safety] will be pushed to be throw away……

I’m sick of ANWAR still being on the table, with impeachment off of the table…!

I always thought it was better to light a candle than curse the darkness. But, who knows, we all have our jobs.
We can take turns. yeah?

Swopa!
Get ready for it folks, food , fuel and survival at it’s basic definition are going to be high priority real quick.

Exactly what the Oligarchy wants.
Everybody will be so busy making sure they have basic necessities, no one is going to bitch about a few environmental trade offs.
Sound familiar? It should, it is the exact same MO they used with the fear card to strip your civil and Constitutional rights away from you.

*sigh* can someone just invent a time machine and go back and stop this from happening?

O/T (sorry Swopa)

For now at least, the DNC has decided not to seat delegates from the non-DNC-sanctioned primary held in Michigan in January. Hillary Clinton won 55% of the vote in the election in which only her name (of the remaining candidates) was on the ballot. But now this weekend in state district conventions to choose delegates, Clinton supporters have managed to get not only the delegate slots that voted for her but as many of half the delegate slots that voted ‘uncommitted’.

It helps to have the party apparatus on your side.

more here

Right on!

hear, hear

Hey, Amigo! Any chance I could be added to the contributor list…? ;-)

I just might be a bit radical but what BushCo did to Iraq is now being down to the good old USA…..

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - and why I bring this up in when as a society we can only deal with the first or second level of needs, every minute is taken up with surviving and there is no time or energy to fight for what is right.

Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met, seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are satisfied.

Disaster Politics?

The legal, social and financial chaos that follows in the wake of an incompetent executive who believes in unregulated, unreviewable, unlimited executive power — and who relegates to servile status legislatures, judges, inspectors general, the law, and all un-co-opted lawyers generally — can only be corrected by a powerful, unregulated, strong executive?

Guess that’s the bus stop we’re waiting at now, isn’t it. Who wants to hail a cab?

If there is such a master plan, it does not originate with the Preznit. That dim bulb is just along for the (bike) ride. He is the perfect puppet for his evil masters.

Hawaii is reeling with the rice rationing, we’re the biggest consumers of rice, per capita, in the nation… Not a pretty picture…! 8-(

Rice and Spam, that is…! ;-)

Thanks so much for clearing this up Swopa.

I just couldn’t understand the ethanol bit and the let’s use conserved fields to solve the problem! bit. Makes sense now!

this is absolutely deliberate. They want a permanent underclass in the US and have made a lot of progress towards that goal. After all, that makes it much easier to fill the military. And serves as a warning to everyone else about the consequences of not playing along … Middle class and lack of borders between classes are a real problem from their pov…

This story about the folks at CostCo has every earmark of an urban myth. Yes, food prices are up, up, up and that’s important as is the connection between energy prices and food. Did you know that no American corn may be imported into the EU? Do you know why exports of corn fell from 33 million metric tons in 1996 to 33,000 in 2005?

Bonus question….

What happened to all the corn that did not go to the EU.

Really follks, what happened in CostCo happens every damn day when greedheads try to game a sale. It’s not productive to conflate that with what is really going on.

America the Stupid extends to the ’sphere. Be advised to think about what you read and take nothing for granted.

No matter where you read it.

Middle class and lack of borders between classes are a real problem from their pov…

That’s what ‘gated’ communities are for…!

Dam I really didn’t think it would start happening so quickly, the Bushies are making sure they can declare a “National Emergency” by the Fall. The elections are at risk!!
Please Digg this for Swopa!!

Apply that argument to the Rye shortage please.

First part, the EU ban on GMO corn, and, 2) to feed the cattle in all the cattle lots in eastern Colorado and other places…! ;-)

All the better to isolate them in their homes and cut off their energy and supplies if the shit hits the fan!

I think the answer to this is obvious: tax cuts. /s

I just talked to my brother, a couple hundred miles away, he told me he saw a regular loaf of bread priced at $4.59.

Does the bread make itself into a sandwich for you? $4.59 good grief

Soon to be a best seller.

Thanks Swopa.

NewsHour now
ex-military for hire on MSM

and thanks Fubar and Swopa

I’m halfway through “Shock Doctrine”. It’s a major eye opener. With recent events, it seems that neocon techniques are being used to accelerate the dissolution of the American middle class. Would someone please alert the Democrats?

Don’t panic yet.

There was something going on with the UAW in particular the day of the district conventions. I still haven’t pieced it together. I’d heard in advance of the conventions that the UAW folks were going to support “Uncommitted”, but then there was a pointed shift of UAW folks depending on which district one was in. The UAW folks I knew were glad for and knew that hardcore Obama folks were taking the Uncommitted delegate slots — but if you were in the Uncommitted caucus room, you couldn’t see what the UAW folks were doing in the HRC caucus.

I have a suspicion that the union folks got some of their own seated as HRC delegates; I know that many HRC caucuses didn’t ask who the delegates would vote for once they were elected. Which means that delegates elected by HRC’s caucus could well end up voting Uncommitted/Obama in Colorado, if the party ends up seating them in Colorado.

Quite a number of the union folks were furious with HRC about the bullshit she and her “girls” pulled in MI; they were denied an ability to electioneer about a Right to Work initiative because a primary was used instead of a caucus, and because the primary came too early for the unions to organize properly for primary-based electioneering.

I would not be one bit surprised if they gave her a comeuppance. That said, somebody needs to go through each and every one of the delegates and identify them solidly as Clinton/Uncommitted — Josh Marshall did not do that, as far as I can tell.

don’t forget squirrel stew and “city chicken” (sez the vegetarian)

Thanks for the additional info. I think it’s a horrible move that they did this given the circumstances. Everday, i’m disappointed a little more. What lies in store for tomorrow?

CTuttle — do we need to start planning an airlift of rice for you?

Might have to switch to mung beans for a while.

Would someone please alert the Democrats?

yeah, let’s call rubin. not.

Grain prices have been soaring worldwide while stocks have been dwindling, causing riots in some poor countries.

this is what’s going on with gas prices, speculation is fueling price increase which creates more speculation

we will have shock therapy for fuel some time in the near future

i’m a raw vegan but mr wobbs sure isn’t going to be happy about his beloved bread being in jeopardy

There is also raccoon stew and the cats meow, roof rat kabobs, Squirrels on a stick.. there is plenty of food if you know where they are hiding! /S

Pundits on MSNBC foaming at the mouth because Wright did an interview with Moyer. It’s bad timing and will really hurt Obama says Buchanan and Scarborough. Rachel is holding her own trying to tell them that it doesn’t matter but you know repugs…if they say it enough maybe it will become true

did Syria work with China on nukeness?
NewsHour now

*frowns* but I like our squirrels in the backyard.

are they just mad they got scooped?

or is this more concern-troll action …

Swopa,
I have spotlighted this to 10 economics journalists across the country. Thanks!

Bob in HI

hy does scarborough keep saying … the black man when referring to Obama? Does he say the white woman when referring to Hillary? Political discourse = stupid on overload

Pundits on MSNBC foaming at the mouth because Wright did an interview with Moyer. It’s bad timing and will really hurt Obama says Buchanan and Scarborough. Rachel is holding her own trying to tell them that it doesn’t matter but you know repugs…if they say it enough maybe it will become true

So “right-wing pundit” is now synonymous with “concern troll?”

IIRC back home, the squirrel season was September or so.

gotta give bernhard credit for his posts starting in dec: fed rate cuts kill people.

if you only read one of the posts, read the last one (if just for the snark):

All that sounded just too nutty and there was little discussion on the issue. But this week, much earlier than I expected, some other lone, know-nothing lefty came to the same conclusion.

Martin Feldstein, Harvard prof and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Reagan, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the issue. He reasoned:

It’s time for the Federal Reserve to stop reducing the federal funds rate, because the likely benefit is small compared to the potential damage.

i don’t know enough to have much of an opinion on this (where is billmon when we need him?), but bernhard did call it. and unlike some of our favorite people, i think that ought to count for something.

I would say a little of both (scooped and concern troll) but really it’s about fanning some more salacious news or outrage or something

hy does scarborough keep saying … the black man when referring to Obama? Does he say the white woman when referring to Hillary? Political discourse = stupid on overload

Republican = racist.

“[W]hy does scarborough keep saying … the black man when referring to Obama?”

Because he’s playing the booga booga RACE CARD booga booga?
Because he’s pandering to the GOP base?
Because someone upstairs [i.e., in management] told him to?

Bob in HI

I’m kinda of a C student when it comes to econ and finance so I ususally sit on the sideline and try to educate myself.

and replying to bobschacht @ 55

I know, I know simple answers to simply dumb questions *g*

Me wobbly but when you have to have food on the table you have to do what you have to do! And the way things are going we may be reduced to just that which we can get on our own…. The Neocons are trying to totally break down the middle class…. why else would the Bushies and Company have property in Paraguay??

Actually a WWII cookbook would be better. Rationed eggs, milk, flour and other goods. Recipes for eggless cakes, flourless cakes and how to cook without butter.

The difference in our country today from 1929 is a world of difference…. in 1929 communities still did community barn building and agrarian society. Today there are generations of people who have no clue where their food comes from, the amount of labor and effort to supply their daily food.

Cook book, you want a cook book!

Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices

This is the strangest and zaniest collection of recipes, remedies, survival tips, philosophical musings, diatribes, out-and-out historical flights of fancy –well, I can’t describe it. You have to read it to believe it. I first came upon it many years ago, and knew nothing about it (I collect cookbooks and food lore) To put it mildly,I was astonished. Who was this guy? Since then, as some of the other reviewers have done, I have bought several copies for near and dear friends (coincidentally, Minnesotians all) “Sauerbraten was invented by Charlemagne…Henry the VIII actually never amounted to anything and would not have made a good ditchdigger…In 1212 St. Francis went to the Holy Land. When he came back he taught his followers a simple way to poach eggs…Pate De Foie Gras was first made for Joan of Arc by one of her army cooks …” You get the idea. I have noticed that the various editions have different topics, but I am pleased to note that my 1969 edition still gives us explicit directions as to what to do in case of a hydrogen attack. Mr. Herter is certainly sure of himself, and his book offers hours of good, solid (hilarious) advice and recipes.If you should chance upon a copy at a used book store or garage sale, snap it up.

who has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Well considering how anti-US it is down there, the falling world economy, drug wars, guerilla wars, etc. hope they have set aside money for security

“why else would the Bushies and Company have property in Paraguay??”

Are you sure they do? If so, they may be reconsidering their investment:

Paraguay’s New President

Fernando Lugo, a 56-year-old former Catholic bishop who campaigned on a platform of redistributing wealth to help the country’s poor, won Paraguay’s presidential election Monday. His victory broke the 62-year hold on power by the Colorado Party, formerly in the control of dictator General Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989. Although Mr. Lugo has sought to defy political labels, there is debate over the portents of his election amid the wider leftist movement in Latin America. He may offer a sound alternative to Chavísta leftism if he chooses to follow the model of President Lula Inácio da Silva in neighboring Brazil. Whether he can serve in the interests of Paraguay will not only depend on supporting free-market economic policies, but also in creating a viable government that can work with the nation’s strong congress. Questions remain about Lugo’s proposed policies, including his plans to renegotiate a treaty with Brazil in which Paraguay sells a majority of its energy harnessed from a joint hydroelectric project to its neighbor at a highly reduced rate.

Bob in HI

david gregory mouth..I’m truly fascinated by it’s size.

do you have any of his other books?

Lets hope Bob then the international court can arrest them easier!!!

Last time I went to the store, I was looking for my favorite rye bread. I went to two stores, but I couldn’t find it. I think now I know why. It is a very popular brand, and one or two of the other rye breads they make were on the shelves, although fairly expensive, but I’m now wondering if they are discontinuing my rye (I’m pretty sure it’s a sourdough rye with caraway) because they can’t find enough rye grain to continue making so many different types at any form of reasonable price. After all, the name of the game is prices as high as the market will bear. Maybe the market simply won’t bear what they’d have to charge.

Two book recommendations, both fun and eye opening. may be surprisingly practical. We learned stuff from both …

Five Acres and Independence

The Good Life

I’ve had this for 30 years but no, I don’t. It is one funny book.

my father had three, one being “How to Live with a Bitch”
He was a character

orowheat?

Blue Texan up with a new post about McCain’s Boy Hagee’s pronouncement on Katrina.

Yep!

Do you know anything about why it’s disappeared from the shelves? Has it also disappeared in your area?

Whoa, good thing there is a new thread!

any one remember the great mythical paper shortage in the 70’s?

created one. everyone stocked up, my gma had every cupboard filled…toilet paper, tissues, etc.

so, then there was one.

the structure was ready for those who crashed the banking bubble just moved their money on over to commodities, their world bank buddies already had it set up for them…

and rayne at 35–i find that disturbing, one side said the other side is ’gaming’ the system, then the other side brags about ’gaming’ the system….hmnn.

====

and fubar–why would the baker’s union release a statement and end it with a statement about ethanol tariffs and waiving production limits? ..trading influence for lesser tariffs on what they need?

and i bet the ’fake g9/nafta’ meeting in new orleans last week was alllllll about the ethanol…

canada just finishing largest ethanol plant…

when bush was in south america last year, he stayed with the largest ethanol producer. we have all kinds of treaties pending regarding ethanol. north and south.

google south america ethanol paraguay brazil uraguay etc…….pick one.

I think this is being missed;

what are we gonna do when we can’t afford to get to work?

that’s gonna happen, there’ll be 10 dollar gas no doubt

no doubt

they will use this “crisis” for their next “shock doctrine” policy change

fuel is going up for a number of reasons, one being how many greenbacks are being printed but the other reason is that speculation is causing the price to rise which creates more speculation

just like the housing market

there will be another redistribution of wealth when the fear and shock hits us that we can have our life blood choked from us

here’s the twist though;

this can result in the benefit of the planet, we can begin to make the changes needed to woo our country off of petroleum and toward a greener scenarion as a whole

first thing we need to do is begin harvesting hemp again instead of corn for althernative fuel, that’s the first thing, the next thing might be to make 50% hybrid or pure electric/alternative vehicles a standard that has to be met

this will actually be good for the auto industry, they will begin to sell this new technology and people will be lining up to buy it

Here in the capital of VT, perris, I’m seeing one out of about every 6 cars is a hybrid. They’re everywhere.

Also, the price of petroleum is going to hit education, hard, and quite soon. Where we live, there are big regional high schools, where kids from half a dozen smallish towns are bused in - not too far, but some of these kids travel twenty or so miles to school.

And the schools are big. Big buildings. What happens to education when costs of heat and transportation become half, or more, of the annual school budget? It won’t be long before they cannot afford to bus rural kids to school - or heat the buildings in winter. Then we’ll all be homeschooling, or a quick shift back to small local school houses.

What really bothers me after reading Shock Doctrine is the new knowledge that everything they taught me in business school was nothing more than indoctrination into the Chicago School of Economics cult.

They tried long and hard to tell us that a mixed economy or any other variation of distribution and politics besides so-called free market capitalism was bad or evil. There were occasional glimpses of the truth — like the section in international economics in which we discussed Ricardo’s Theory of comparative advantage, and the problems that come from excessive concentration on a single industry or crop — but the truth was always squelched with absolutes.

Ricardo’s Theory was flawed, and so was much of the rest of classic economics taught by American business schools for the last 40+ years. While specialization should be encouraged to enhance growth, no country should concentrate all of its resources in the production of product(s) at which it excels, putting itself at extreme risk if factors related to production fail. This is one of the key reasons why we are seeing food insecurity; some locales concentrated on a single crop, only to have it fail and have no fall back due to the lave of diversity.

This is but one theory; the rest of what they taught me in business school is just as flawed, riddled with holes. What an immoral waste; how long it will take to stop this damage and undo it.

They tried long and hard to tell us that a mixed economy or any other variation of distribution and politics besides so-called free market capitalism was bad or evil.

there is no such thing as a free market and all regulation does is force industry to pay the bills they cause but don’t want to pay

for instance, they dump crap in our air and it is their expense to clean it up but they won’t in a “free market”, they ONLY method of getting them to pay the bills they incur is through regulation

the brutal truth is “regulation” are sulutions to problems industry created themselves and refused to address

I have a book que.

The Shock Doctrine - Noami Klein

Great American Hypocrites - Glenn Greenwald

Bad Samaitians - Ha-Joon Chang

Crunch time, what a shock. Heavy reading for sure.

Swopa, thanks to fubar for this excellent post -and thanks to you for bringing it here.

Shock Doctrine’s ugly flask - and spray nozzle - were the first thing Big Ag grabbed this week when they lost bigtime on global hunger and in the CA courts.

On April 15, the IAASTD delivered their comprehensive report on global ag.

What’s the IAASTD?

The report, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) Global Report, was commissioned in partnership with the United Nations after a group of biotech companies asked the World Bank what it thought of genetic engineering technology as an agricultural strategy for developing countries.

So who did the work?

The report - the first significant attempt to involve governments, NGOs and industries from rich and poor countries - took 400 scientists four years to complete.

What did they find?

Sixty countries backed by the World Bank and most UN bodies yesterday called for radical changes in world farming to avert increasing regional food shortages, escalating prices and growing environmental problems.

But in a move that has led to the US, UK, Australia and Canada not yet endorsing the report, the authors said GM technology was not a quick fix to feed the world’s poor and argued that growing biofuel crops for automobiles threatened to increase worldwide malnutrition.

Say what?

The scientists said they saw little role for GM, as it is currently practised, in feeding the poor on a large scale . “Assessment of the technology lags behind its development, information is anecdotal and contradictory, and uncertainty about possible benefits and damage is unavoidable,” said the report.

So the report GMO wanted said - what?

Genetically-modified crops are not the solution to spiralling food prices or Third World hunger, according to a powerful international report published yesterday.

Questions remain over their effects on human health and the environment, it warns.

Sixty governments, private industry, scientists, consumer groups and social campaigners have delivered a blueprint for global agriculture for the next 50 years.

It delivers a remarkable snub to “Frankenstein Foods” and the industrialisation of farming while offering a boost to organic and small-scale agriculture.

This represents a direct challenge to government policy in the UK, Europe and the U.S. Publication of the report triggered an international row after the U.S. government, which has attempted to impose GM crops on the world, refused to sign up to the global initiative.

Yet over the last week: on the BBC’s “Have Your Say”, on NPR, and from the AUstralian Broadcasting Network, I heard “experts” invited by the “public” media systems tell listeners that GM crops really were the answer to global famine.

Mr Core says a second major concern the Australian Government had with the report is that it underplays the contribution of 21st century technologies including genetically modified (GM) crops, which will be crucial to feeding the world.

Just another day of spin for the apostles of the Shock Doctrine