War, Oil and More Lies:
Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News is fired up and on the air.
I normally report on economic issues that affect the lives of Middle America, my favorite group of people. But this morning, I want to examine where we are militarily and also touch on oil; again.
Let me first say that I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, I worked on the Alaska Pipeline, I live smack-dab in the middle of oil shale country and I’m writing in Ron Paul on Election Day.
I’m hopin’ mad today after sifting through several news items this morning that are blatantly false and/or downright wrong. All liars, regardless of party leanings, are on my radar. Alert reader Billy B. sent me an article written by Newt Gingrich regarding Democrats not wanting to drill for oil right here, right now and free us from foreign dependence. Sure Newt, we believe that. After all, we have forgotten that the Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the Presidency and failed to drill for oil right here, right now.
Ol’ Newt wants to re-enter the limelight so badly that he has become a shill for the Republican Party in his new role of telling sound-bite-lies in hopes of influencing the election and selling his new book.
Newt is currently spreading the fable of having more oil reserves in Colorado oil shale than all the oil ever produced in Saudi Arabia. This is a true story. Well, part of a true story, but as Paul Harvey would say, “this is the rest of the story.” We can’t get the oil out of the shale, I know, that’s a picky detail but one I thought was worth mentioning.
I have written several detailed articles about shale. There is no viable proven method to extract shale oil. Oil companies and researchers have been trying to perfect a method since the early 1970s at a cost of billions of dollars. Not to mention, oil from shale is synthetic and makes poor gasoline. And finally, no one is keeping the producers from making oil from shale. Shell has a massive ongoing test project 80 miles from my home. In a recent meeting, Shell stated that it would be at least 10 years before we would see production…if the process works!!
This isn’t about an election; this is about the survival of America. Why can’t we see that our two party system has failed us? Each telling their own beneficial lies and pointing at the others failures, while neither serve the best interests of American citizens. Yet we will elect one the status quo candidates in November and insanely expect positive change.
On the military front, it seems that the U.S. is absolutely intent on engaging in a new world war. News this morning reported that Condoleezza Rice has made an agreement with Poland for the U.S. to place a missile defense system in that country against the strong objections of Russia.
Let’s turn the tables around. If Russia were placing the same system in Mexico, would we have a problem with it? Enough said.
Why does our government insist on the continual military buildup in foreign nations when our domestic situation is crumbling around our feet? Why do we go out and pick fights around the world when we can’t control the violence in our own cities? Why do we have the largest per capita prison population in the world? The answers are all the same. Our government believes that we can control the world and our own people by force. History indicates that they are wrong.
Our continual conflicts with the rest of the world will create a common cause between such resource rich countries as Russia and the growing industrial might of China and Korea. Where will that leave the U.S.?
Some of you may see our military actions and buildup in foreign lands as justified, but as Will Rogers said, “When you get into trouble 5,000 miles away from home, you’ve got to have been looking for it.”
Ron Paul stated that as president, he would pull the American troops out of the 130 countries around the world where they are based. I agree. We cannot rule the world by force, no more than we can rule our own people by force. If I’m not mistaken, our Constitution was written to state that very thing.
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No real comment, except to say I agree completely.. We need big changes that are not going to happen because we care enough, write enough, or vote enough.. We will have to do more.. I suggest that a good starting place is to demand an honest informative media.. With our government propaganda system in place, any change will happen far too late… We cannot survive with the best government money can buy!! WmA..
Right on Mike,
That’s what I would have said if I could have figured out how to say it that well. An old friend of mine used to say, “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.” I think of him every time I listen to the political B.S. We can’t run our own country, but think we should dictate how others run theirs. It would be funny if it were not so serious. Talk to you later-
Soooooo true. If we, our government’s extremely flawed policies aren’t corrected really soon. And if the citizens in this country do not push harder than they have ever pushed for anything in their lives immediately. We are in for a terrible beating. I did not say spanking.
I just do not see the tide turning however. We keep getting more people to take the time to get themselves educated. But will there be enough of us to turn the tide in time to make the difference prior to the exponential function playing out? It is a nice thought. -bb
I get many e-mails that are loaded with half truths and down right lies, it’s difficult to say which is most damaging.
We must remember that the Iraq war has now lasted nearly 5 1/2 years with absolutely no end in sight. That is longer than WW-II.
We are also fighting in Afghanistan, would like to be fighting in Iran, and we are provoking Russia. Smart, real smart.
How can we tell anyone what to do? Or how to do it? Our economy is in shambles, we are the largest debtor nation in the world, we are dependent on borrowing some $3 Billion per day from foreign nations, we are mired in two endless wars…and oh, by the way, if you want to know how form a successful democracy, we can show you how.
Oil shale may never become productive. And if it did, it would be at a horrible cost, since it would consume enormous quantities of fuel and more water than is available in most areas that contain oil shale.
T. Boone Pickens has at least the beginnings of a concept of what has to happen to keep this mess we are in from becoming a catastrophe. We need to immediately begin moving to natural gas to run our equipment and automobiles as a transitional fuel (heading for alternative fuels). We must slow the consumption of oil to a rate unheard of.
But even at this, we have no renewable energy resources nor a combination thereof, that can scale up fast enough or provide even near the energy equivalent of oil to avoid severe, world wide energy shortages. This information is simple math and it is documented fact.
To make matters even worse. If we do not immediately stop our economic policy of exponential growth (and BillyB is dead on with this), nothing else we do will make a difference in the end. Not the solar, not wind, not hydrogen fuel cells, not tidal power generation, not fusion power; nothing. If we continue status quo, as our two presidential candidates (Obama and McCain) have planned for us for another 15 - 20 years, the exponential function of our flawed economic policy will have come to maturation and we will not have the resources remaining on planet earth to even think about starting over again With any alternative energy source. And even if we planned to do it right the next time.
This is not science fiction or fairly tale stuff. Our government has known about this for a fact since 1974 (many prior to that date)and refused to anything about it. They know today that exponential growth is not mathematically possible and yet both of the front running candidates are proposing this very path for us. That path will lead us to a very abrupt ending in the not too distant future and this is not guess work.
I guess like BillyB , I do not understand why any American bothers following either presidential candidate.
Maybe if you look up “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction” in the dictionary, you can view a 3-D, color photo of our very confused, very ignorant population?
Remembering that oil is used for other purposes than motor fuel is helpful for getting a glimpse of the big picture.
G.M. is now advertising their “Volt” car as going 40 miles without a drop of gas. True. But it does consume electricity which consumes fuel of some sort and I’m not talkin’ solar here. Half truths at work once more.
Brazil for instance is the largest producer of ethanol in the world, yet uses more oil than ethanol.
Finding a new and viable motor fuel would be very helpful, but it won’t be the end of oil use. That event will come only when there is no more oil to use.