1. Close your ears to the lies of politicians and corporations. Turn off your television and ignore advertising. The purpose of the bail-out is not to help Main Street. Congress will not get a clue. The government will make the situation worse. Politicians will distract you from important actions that are necessary to save your family and community from this crisis. Look to the "side-stream" media for news and info. (19 more...)

A dozen national leaders will sit in a room in Libya sometime in 2012 and essentially decide whether the U.S. continues as a country.

The men are the leaders of the oil producing nations, and the meeting the next Opec conference. More radical members are pushing to have the cartel move away from trading in the U.S. dollar. It would devastate the U.S., while rewarding the oil states.

Forget for moment peak oil, party politics, the credit crisis, terrorism or even nuclear rogue states – these are all secondary to the new Cold War. This time around it’s economic warfare, played out on the business pages.

The elections in Iraq on March 7, 2010, are likely to serve as an important indicator of the prospects for a resolution of the long-running dispute over the administration of the ethnically mixed and resource-rich province of Kirkuk in the north of the country.

The Iraqi Kurds have repeatedly called for Kirkuk to be transferred to the control of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which already administers three provinces in the predominantly Kurdish north of Iraq. The other ethnic groups in Iraq – including the Arab-dominated government in Baghdad – are equally insistent that Kirkuk should remain under central control and that any oil or gas revenues should be divided between the entire population of the country rather than all going to the KRG.

With Yemen’s oil revenues plunging, the government’s push into the gas market seemed like an economic saving grace for a state wracked by poverty and terrorism, but analysts warn more thought should be given to carving out the country's post-petroleum era.

The infamous Christmas Day bomber’s attempts to blow up a jet approaching Detroit – which Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for – has drawn unwanted attention to the country’s vulnerability to terrorist movements.

Part One, The Working World
by Mike Dakota

In the world I grew up on,
everybody worked,
from the farmer to the baker,
to the pharmaceutical clerk.

Cars rolled out assembled,
stores filled high with goods,
corn spilled out of silos,
and people rested when they could.

America was prosperous,
the whole world hoped to know,
how we built our factories,
and how our cities glowed.

But now these workers have grown older
and till the soil no more,
they spend the cream of taxes
from money others work for.

Because even though they labored hard
and saved for rainy days,
now they are living longer
and spend more than they put away.

Social Security's thin notion
is that dozens pull a few,
but too many sit in the wagon now,
and the wagon will not move.

Why should anyone's children
put their shoulders to this yoke,
and bring home bread for strangers
when they are going broke?

We all need to roll up sleeves,
this unbalance cannot host
an economy that is wobbling
because too many simply coast.

Part Two, The World of High Finance

A plate of food, a glass of drink,
did not magically grow,
there was sweat involved and bending down
by people we'll never know.

Farmers still drive tractors,
carpenters hammer homes,
workers continue to lay down roads,
and people still make phones.

So while it would be wonderful
to let money work for you,
your slaves have become invisible
on plantations out of view.

Castles built to last forever,
high in the desert air,
give little rain to those who work
growing food out there.

Glaciers formed with money,
have ice that never melts,
stealing water away from children
who must always tighten belts.

The world is not perfect,
muscles need to be used,
and though we can see we're connected,
many simply refuse.

So, all you financial gamblers,
all you waiting for the mail,
all you who are paid for idling
are the writers of this tale.

Remember when our coffin
settles firmly in the ground,
it was you who pounded all the nails
that lowered America down.

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The views of the contributor authors are their own, and do not reflect the views of Charles Hugh Smith. All errors and errors of omission in the above texts are the sole responsibility of each author.

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