Off the keyboards of RE & William Hunter Duncan
Published on the Doomstead Diner on July 28, 2013
Discuss this article at the Guerrilla Internet Free Speech Table inside the Diner
When I began the Diner with Peter, Surly and a few other Founding Diners, my objective was not to just run my own Blog to Pontificate on Collapse, but to bring together and highlight the work of other Collapse Bloggers as well. This sort of Blog is called a Compilation Blog, there are examples all over the net, Seeking Alpha is one, Peak Prosperity another, Zero Hedge perhaps the most famous and successful of all the Compilation Blogs. My friend and ex-blogging partner Jim Quinn on The Burning Platform also runs a Compilation style Blog.
I have some very strict principles of Protocol I adhere to in Compiling Blogs on the Diner besides my own and those of other Native Diners, first one is I never Cross Post any blogger until I have had Email contact with them and received from them EXPLICIT permission to use their Blogs on the Diner. Even if said Blogger has a Creative Commons Attribution license on their Blog (which basically says as long as you are not doing it for MONEY, it is OK to repost), I still ask first. Just good Netiquette there. I have some other Protocols I adhere to as well, main one as the Diners know is I am positively FANATIC about Free Speech in the Commentary with a No Ban, No Censorship Policy on Commentary here. So even if a given Blogger deletes your commentary on their Blog, it will show up here if you post it to the parallel thread on the Diner.
Which brings me now to the reason I am writing this Blog (co-writing actually with WHD, my fellow Admin here on the Diner who will drop in here in a bit with his own inimitable style. LOL). Recently WHD got in a pretty HOT debate over on Alt-Market, run by the Libertarian Defender of the Constitution Brandon Smith. Brandon WAS a Cross Posted Blogger here a while back, officially approved by Brandon, but I STOPPED cross posting his Blogs for quite a few reasons. Here is Brandon’s OK to repost on the Diner sent to my email back in February of 2012, right after we got the Diner off the ground:
February 27, 2012
You are more than welcome to reprint articles from Alt-Market, we only
ask that you link back to us the original source. Thanks for your
interest in my writing, and I look forward to seeing how your new
website grows.
Brandon Smith
www.alt-market.com
First reason I shit-canned Brandon as a Cross Blogger on the Diner was lack of Reciprocity. Brandon’s Alt-Market is ALSO a Compilation Blog, he posts Blogs from numerous other sources on A-M all the time. I don’t expect any Blogger I cross post who runs a Personal Blog to cross post articles from the Diner, but if you run a Compilation Blog it is a I Scratch Your Back, You Scratch Mine kind of thing. Jimbo on TBP and I do this all the time these days, I put up Blogs of his I think will play OK with Diner Readership; he puts up blogs of mine which he thinks will play OK with TBP readers.
Anyhow, after cross posting a few of Brandon’s Blogs, I sent him a couple of Links to Blogs I felt would fit OK on Alt-Market. Economic stuff I write here along with discussing meta-topics like the Internet Censorship Issue and Free Speech Principles. Not only did said blogs not go up on Alt-Market, I didn’t even get an acknowledgement to the Email that I sent them to him, or a rationale for why he would not publish them.
So I am a bit peeved here now at Brandon by this time, but I am still Cross Posting some of his Blogs on the nature of the Police State we live under, which is a subject of general Diner interest. Since he is not Cross Posting any of my Blogs, I decide I will start dropping in on his Commentary to occasionally Plug the Diner, as I am wont to do on a few Blogs, notably Economic Undertow run by Steve from Virginia and Our Finite World run by Gail the Actuary, aka Gail Tverberg as well as Jim Quinn’s The Burning Platform of course. I always embed my Plugs in a post which is to Topic of the given Blog I drop the comment on. Here is a Sample of a Plug I just made over on OFW for our Podcasts, relating to the topic of Gail’s Recent Blog, which is Feedback Loops in Energy and the Economy:
Welcome Back Gail!
I’d like to let the OFWers know that we recently got up the first 2 of a 3 Part Series with David Korowicz of FEASTA, author of the paper Trade Off: Financial system supply-chain cross contagion – a study in global systemic collapse and more recently Catastrophic Shocks in Complex Socio-Economic Systems—a pandemic perspective on Diner Podcasts.
http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/podcasts/
Many aspects of Systemic Feedback Loops in the Monetary System and Industrial Economy are discussed in these Podcasts. The final part will be released in the next week or two, after we get up a Podcast by John Michael Greer of The Archdruid Report as well as the last installment of the marathon Podcast with George Mobus of Question Everything. Upcoming also is another quite long one recently completed with Ugo Bardi of the Cassandra’s Legacy Blog.
Stop by the Diner OFWers to listen in on the latest in Collapse!
RE
Gail has been very tolerant of my Plugging in the Commentary of OFW, and in return for that she got First Billing as one of our First Offsite Podcasts, and she has a great listenership there, well over 450 listens last I checked on her most successful Podcast, and 2nd only to Uber Doomer Guy McPherson over 800 Listens now. Guy is the Secretariat of the Collapse Blogosphere with his Extinction theory. You can’t get any Doomier than THAT! LOL.
Here is another Plug I recently dropped on The Burning Platform in Jimbo’s awesome recent Feature Article, TRYING TO STAY SANE IN AN INSANE WORLD – PART 1
23rd July 2013 at 10:18 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
“The rule of law does not exist for the ruling class.”-JQ
It never has. The legal system is designed to keep Elite in power, not to protect J6P. It was like this when Woodrow Wilson admitted the country was ruled by a small group of Capitalist Industrialists. These folks have proceeded to steal the natural resource wealth of the continent and have been at the game at least since the Railroads began spreading their tentacles across the once pristine landscape in the 1820s-1830s. You will note about all those railroads went bust, the tycoons of the era walked away with the credit issued and the taxpayers were saddled with the debt, then as now. Capitalism began destroying the country in around 1830, and has more or less completed the job in slightly under 200 years.
The difference now is that globally there is insufficient stored energy that can be extracted at a cheap price, so these folks no longer can leverage up on it. They are quite finished here as it spins down.
I’ll cross post this probably on Wednesday.
RE
http://doomsteaddiner.org
Notice that the response is entirely to topic, even if my anti-Capitalist Spin runs counter to the Group Think on TBP. I also advertise the fact I will cross post Jim’s Blog on the Diner. Anyhow, point is here it is You Scratch My Back, I Scratch Yours, and it tends to help all of us Collapse Bloggers when we cooperate in this way.
So now back to Mr. Lexington & Concord Brandon Smith here, what happens when I start showing up in the Commentary on Alt-Market? He DELETES just about every last one of the posts I make there! The posting is not Napalm, it is all to topic. You will see a Sample demonstrated further down in this article. I didn’t even Plug the Diner in every one! So this does it for me, I NIX Brandon as a Cross Poster on the Diner and stop reading or commenting on his Piece of Shit Blog, I have plenty to do on my own fucking Blog anyhow! LOL.
So now you think the Story is OVER, right? Nooooo. You see, there are quite a few Bloggers on the Diner, I am not the only one. One of them, William Hunter Duncan is also an ADMIN here on the Diner, though Brandon “Lexington & Concord” “Mr. Constitution” Smith does not know this. The shit Brandon has been writing of late BUGS William, so finally HE drops in on Brandon’s Comment Stream to take him to task for his completely absurd arguments on Peak Oil and Energy, which have been utterly destroyed on just about every decent Energy related Blog, but Brandon goes on making the same old dumb ass arguments as ever that all of us in the Energy Blogosphere have dealt with Ad Infinitum for the last DECADE in some cases.
At this point, I will step back and let William take over describing the course of this Debate, and what went down before he himself ALSO finally got AXED by Brandon. Take it away, William!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks, RE
I am an American. I was Born on the Fourth of July. My mother is a radical Christian Constitutionalist, first generation immigrant. Naturally then, I have some affiliation with the Liberty, Patriot and Tea Party movements. I whole-heartedly agree that the Constitution has been eviscerated, that those in power in America seek to divide and conquer America, that they might continue to control the empire that the Republic has become. I agree with some core conservative tenets, that individual empowerment, individual sovereignty, is a core and necessary element to being human. I also agree that the Federal government, and government generally, is a means to consolidate and centralize power, for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, inevitably. That this Federal Government particularly will prove itself capable of ANYTHING, to maintain control, “to maintain the Union.”
That said, my affiliation with these conservative movements ends there. For an abundance of reasons, namely, that Western ideological exploitative command and control dominator attitudes toward the earth and people, are alive and well among so-called Liberty folk and Patriots, Tea Party etc. That they generally hate government but love Oligarchs; that it is not the abuse of power they object to, but mostly who is the one abusing it. That these movements are largely an extension of Christian “go forth and have dominion over the earth,” that there is no exploitation of the earth that is not sacred, provided it is for private benefit. That individual sovereignty means you can pollute the air or water or soil for everyone else, if it is a function of you exercising your liberty. That they hate government but don’t generally have a problem using government to terrorize cannabis users/growers, or sticking trans-vaginal ultrasound rods up women’s yoni’s in the name of protecting the unborn, or expelling Hispanics, demonizing Muslims, homosexuals, etc. Or their fetishization of weaponry.
Of particular concern is the turn of many of that (admittedly broad brush) crowd, in the direction of absolute denial that Humans are having anything like a detrimental effect on the biosphere: i.e. denial of Climate Change. For some Conservatives, disconnected as they are from the earth (like most Liberals), they have come to believe that peak oil, peak energy, peak growth, is a false narrative – which Brandon Smith says is meant to facilitate global governance and ultimately the deliberate killing of most of (conservative) humanity, by an elite Illuminati whomever. Now, I don’t discount that there are entrenched, nefarious interests driving this train called Progress. Nor do I discount the idea that said nefarious, entrenched interests might see that humanity is facing peak everything, and might take it upon themselves to initiate some apocalyptically hideous response, reducing our numbers. Denying outright though, that anything like climate change is even happening, many American conservatives reveal that they are at their core entirely captive to the mythologies of progress and growth that drive empire America, and they mostly just want to take the reign of it.
Brandon Smith is an excellent example of such disconnect, the fetishization of markets and the individual and the defilement of ecosystems (relationships) (while the Liberal fetishizes the collective – gov – at the expense of the earth.) He also has a tendency toward cruel condescension, denouncing whole segments of the population as “stupid”, immature, etc. He also shows a propensity for manipulating the commentary on his website, to make himself look better. Which is all whatever, it’s just a blog – except maybe such tendencies might not be what you want in those exhorting you to armed confrontation with the Federal Government, i.e. the shooting and killing of your fellow Americans, your fellow humans. Sounds more to me like him making of himself a martyr or a messiah, willing to take others with him. Nevertheless, I do believe he believes the narrative, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” He is brilliant. In a very stiff, logical, absolutist way…(after all, the Feds are known to kill cult members – Waco – which this Liberty dude keeps calling anyone who acknowledges peak energy or climate change a cultist. LOL I call that daft – and dangerous.) Though I do say in fact, I do think he cares about people – or he wouldn’t be exhorting people to learn mechanical or craftsman skills, or gardening or the saving of heirloom seeds, etc.
So I like to drop into Alt-Market every once in awhile, like I have done at Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, to stir things up a bit. My commentary gets expunged as often as not, at Alt-Market, just like it does on Huffpost. As always, you be your own judge about what you read, what you think. Difference here @ the Diner is, while we moderate the Forum, we don’t eliminate commentary. We let commentary speak for itself.
What follows is a conversation that took place between myself, Brandon Smith, and RE @ the Alt-Market, in the commentary to an article by, Brandon Smith, Get Ready For The Next Great Stock Market Exodus http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1587-get-ready-for-the-next-great-stock-market-exodus Several commentators had challenged Brandon on his ideas about Peak Oil. That is where I stepped in, four days after the article release, when few people were paying attention, and Brandon I judged, felt more free to debate with me rather than just expunge me, whom I judge he takes for Joe Schmo Idiot Tool. LOL
RE stepped in late and offered the last, perfectly innocuous comment. His comment and my last were EXPUNGED.
Peak Oil
written by William Hunter Duncan , July 16, 2013
Peak Oil is the point at which you have to keep the price of oil @ $100/brl to pay for all that hideously destructive fracking, tarsands, deep water activity, to maintain baseline supply. You either keep it at $100-ish, or noboby makes any money. Which also conspires to create demand destruction, which means a further increase in price hammers demand, while a collapse in price destroys the capacity of the industry to frack, etc.
Which, what is the real cost of pumping fracking fluids into the aquifers of half the nation, in the exploitation of oil and gas? How about having to gather water from the sky only, because the surface waters and below ground are all severely polluted – in a time of radically shifting climate patterns?
Votes: -1
…
written by Brandon Smith , July 16, 2013
@William
And where is your evidence that fracking is now the primary source of oil production? Where is the lack of supply from the Middle East, or Russia, or Africa, for instance? What demand is not being met by standard oil production?
Again, where is the scarcity? For prices to rise based on scarcity, someone, somewhere, MUST have a demand for oil that is not being met. WHERE ARE THESE PEOPLE? Show me on a map.
Why can no peak oil cultist answer this simple question? And why can no peak oil cultist fathom that perhaps, just perhaps, price increases are being caused by dollar devaluation, and that their entire religion of peak oil is based on a con designed to distract the masses away from hyperinflation?
Also, William, it is not surprising that you believe in the now debunked Climate Change con as well, since both Peak Oil and Global Warming were designed by globalist interests at the Club Of Rome in order to terrorize dupes like yourself with false environmentalism, and get you to go along with their agendas of population reduction and energy dominance.
Votes: +1
Hmmm…
written by William Hunter Duncan , July 18, 2013
Dupe? Con artist? Cultist? Advocate for population reduction and energy dominance? How about you try flinging some more shit at me, to see if it sticks?
How about peak energy, then. Seven billion people adding 80 Million a year? If you want to persist with the fantasy of unlimited growth, go ahead. If you want to imagine oil is infinite, abiotic, whatever. Climate Change is Debunked! I’ll say again, as I’ve said before, I don’t think you give a damn about the health of the earth or it’s people.
I’d say you know jack about the Club of Rome, but whatever. As for fracking being our primary source, where’d you get such an idea that I would ever say such a thing? I said basically, if oil were unlimited like you seem to think, we wouldn’t have to be fracking above aquifers, gouging it out of the surface like they do in Alberta, or attempting to drill in the Arctic, or in ten thousand feet of water.
Finally, as for Peak Oil, it shouldn’t take a child to get that if you have a fixed amount of apples and oranges, sooner or later you are going to run out.
Votes: +1
…
written by Brandon Smith , July 19, 2013
@William
You still haven’t answered my question, which tells me you don’t have the answer. And if you don’t have the answer to that very simple question, then your position on Peak Oil is essentially irrelevant.
Show me WHERE in the world demand for petroleum is not being met. Where?
Also, where is your proof that oil is a fixed resource? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the creation of oil is an Abiotic Process, a cycle like volcanoes and rain that functions perpetually. Old oil wells have been found replenished in the NE United States, and new wells are found yearly. Again, if you can’t back your position with facts, then you are basing it on pure faith and assumption. This is what a cultist does, or a child, not a logical adult thinker.
I care about REAL environmental issues, not fake issues created by a bunch of elitists seeking to frighten thick headed people into going along with their agenda. By blindly following the lies of Peak Oil and man-made Climate Change, YOU are hurting the Earth, because you are wasting your time and energies on false notions rather than legitimate issues. It’s sad.
Votes: +0
@ Brandon
written by William Hunter Duncan , July 21, 2013
Where in the world is a demand for oil not being met? How about Japan? How about the whole of Africa? Surely many of the people of Japan and Africa would appreciate more oil than they have access to. Not to mention the whole of Europe. You think the English wouldn’t like to find a Gwhar field under the Tower of London about now?
You might want to back your assertions that oil wells in the NE are refilling, with something resembling evidence. LOL. Abiotic! Anything like 85 million barrels a day, what humanity is using about now? If that’s the case WTF are we doing fracking, etc for?
As to your last paragraph, yeah, the end of easy oil and radical climate change isn’t anything like a legitimate issue. OK bubble boy.
As for those other serious issues, like the evisceration of the Constitution, or the increasingly police/facist State, or High Finance looting of the global economy, etc, there’s a lot more cross-over between you and me than that shit you flung in an earlier comment would suggest.
BTW, I do think you care about the earth and it’s people, or I wouldn’t bother. I just think you are getting carried away by your own BS.
WHD
Votes: -1
…
written by Brandon Smith , July 21, 2013
@William
Where in Japan is demand not being met? Show me a specific example. Where in Africa? Where in Europe? Show me where specifically people in these countries are lined up for gasoline and not getting any. You clearly have little to no grasp of the concept of supply and demand.
And yes, petroleum has even been found on other planets, including the moon Titan:
http://www.space.com/4968-titan-oil-earth.html
Where did this oil come from? Dinosaurs? I think not. This is hard evidence that petroleum molecules are produced Abiotically. If you had ever done any research outside your own cultism, you would have already known this information.
And yes, older oil wells have been found replenished all over the world:
http://www.viewzone.com/abioticoilx.html
As far as climate change goes, show me the source data for NASA and the CRU’s experiments on global warming. Show me the proof that what they say about man-made global warming is true. You’ll never find the source data, because even after hundreds if not thousands of FOIA requests, climate “scientists” still refuse to release it to the public. Why would they be afraid to release their own data to the public for scrutiny unless it was all garbage?
Again, William, you have been duped. You’re no different than a 9/11 dupe, or a Federal Reserve dupe, or a Boston Bombing dupe. You continually refuse to answer my questions with any specifics, so I have to say that there is little purpose to discussing the matter with you further. If you are comfortable in your ignorance, then nothing can be done to help you.
EXPUNGED
Written by William Hunter Duncan, July 21, 2013
Isn’t this fun. I get to call you bubble boy, and you are game enough to let me, while then slinging that shit about me being a cultist and a dupe and ignorant.
I don’t understand demand? Are you telling me the Japanese wouldn’t be burning oil like mad if they could get it for $20/barrel? Humans would be burning 200 million barrels a day, more than twice what we are, if they could get it. Again, abiotic anything like 85 million barrels a day? I say your conception of demand is stiff and narrow, which is what I would expect from an absolutist.
I dont give a shit about the source data. What I care about are things like the fact that as the climate becomes increasingly variable and unstable from my perspective, the more hysterical the Liberty movement, conservative circles, Patriots become that climate change is entirely a hoax perpetrated by global government boogeymen. Infowars loves to rave that CO2 is Good For You! Well, not @ 400ppm, while they are cutting down rainforests to plant Monsanto soybean fields.
As for that last link, isnt it great that this one Swedish study proves that oil is abiotic, wells are replenishing – contrary to the, um, not-evidence apparently, that we are fracking, gouging and deep sea drilling as fast as we can just to stand still, aka the red queen syndrome.
As for 9/11, or the Fed, or the Boston Bombing, you want to list anything else I am not a dupe about?
Written by RE, July 21, 2013
“However, you never answered my question. WHERE is this so called scarcity? Where is demand for oil not being met amply? If there is scarcity, then someone, somewhere, is not receiving the “dope” they desire, right? “-BS
Many places now are being triaged off the Oil Economy by Economic means. Greece, all the PIIGS Nations, Egypt etc. Demand for gasoline is cratering in Europe, and it is in serious decline here as well. Steve on Economic Undertow refers to this as “Conservation by Other Means”. A barrel of Oil not consumed in Europe is one left for a bit more Happy Motoring for a few people here.
This is happening first at the periphery of the Industrial Economy, but is working its way inward at quite a rapid pace really.
RE
——————————————————–
RE back at the keyboard here.
Notice a few things about the comment stream there. WHD’s first Comment is entirely to topic, and there also are no Plugs for the Diner. Fortunately, since if WHD had copped to being a Diner Admin at the beginning, his first post would have been Expunged.
How does Brandon come back at WHD? He NAPALMS him! Calls him a “dupe”, “blind follower”, “cultist” etc, trigger words all over the place in his responses. He doesn’t ever address the fact there is plenty of evidence of Oil Scarcity issues, it’s the whole reason the economic system has gone so outta whack here! All you gotta do is spend a couple of days reading Steve from Virginia’s Blogs on Economic Undertow, and you’ll see the picture quite clearly, at least if you have any CFS* you will.
(CFS: Diner acronym for Common Fucking Sense)
It is at this point WHD drops a note on the Diner that this Napalm Contest is going down, so I decide to go back over there and Chip In my Opinion. I know the post won’t stay up long, but I give it the old College Try by being 100% Rational, no Napalm, no Diner Plug. Indeed, my post has a lifespan on Alt-Market measured in minutes, and this is at something like 9PM Mountain Time as I recall. Brandon is on the Ball here! LOL. Said post was not in fact my last one, I made one more after Brandon Shit Canned it.
Re: A most revealing conversation about oil, with Brandon Smith @ AltMarket.com
« Reply #468 on: July 22, 2013, 12:10:19 AM »
My recent post on Alt-Market, not long for this world over there but available in perpetuity here on the Diner! LOL.RE
Quote from: RE
Heavy censorship hand you have there dude.
What ever happenned to Constitutional Guarantees of Free Speech? Suspended on Alt-Market?
Anyhow, said post is up on the Diner @
http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index.php?topic=535.msg27862#msg27862
Have a Nice Day.
RE
Brandon Smith of Alt-Market spouting Ideologically driven Propaganda
So now you come to the crux of the matter here, WTF is Brandon Smith, Mr. Constitutional Protections & Rights doing the Joseph Goebbels thing and CENSORING everything I drop on as a comment on Alt-Market, and why does he Napalm WHD for pointing out the issues with Oil Fracking? What nasty thing did I ever do to Brandon? My only relationship with him was to cross post some of his Blogs with his explicit permission to do so! I never even got in a Napalm Contest on Alt-Market ONCE! LOL.
The reason is that Brandon’s ideological box does not allow him to accept ideas of Climate Change or Energy Depletion, and he doesn’t want any of that “trash” polluting his website! LOL. His Solution is not to debate the points, but rather to either Napalm the poster as a Brainwashed Cult Moron, or failing success with that to Expunge the offending posts from the Alt-Market board!
The Irony of course here is beyond belief, this fellow who constantly writes about how our Constitutional Rights are being undermined himself cannot maintain the most BASIC of Freedoms on his website, that of Free Speech! Imagine if Brandon was made Minister of Propaganda for the New Republic after the next battle at Lexington and Concord with the FBI, DHS and ATF, if he actually won that battle. You think Brandon would let me keep the Diner up on the New Republic Net? In a Pig’s Eye he would! The dude can’t even leave up a post which points out the obvious Economic Effects of Demand Destruction!
Anyhow, the point of this exercise besides revealing the TRUTH about this particular case of Blogosphere Censorship by Ideologically Driven Blogger Propagandists is to make Blog Readers more aware of the fact that the Expunging of Critical Commentary by MANY Bloggers is systemic around the Collapse Blogosphere, Brandon is by no means the only one who does this. In fact many if not most of them do. I won’t name names here, but I have and will continue to do so inside the Diner any time one of my comments gets deleted. Anytime I suspect a Blogger of this nefarious form of Propagandizing his point of view, I will Mirror the Posting on the Diner Forum before it goes up on the given Blog, Just In Case. If this is being done to your posting, I invite you also to cross post your comments here, where they will NEVER be deleted, at least not until the boys in the Black Cadillac Escalades show up at the Cabin to ship me off to GITMO.
You want Constitutional Protection of Free Speech? You GOT IT here on the Doomstead Diner. It is the CODE OF THE DINERS!
RE