Sand and oil

I'm working again. Back at the city filling sandbags for the upcoming 'flood of the century v2.0'.
So I haven't had time or energy to post as much. I'm having truck troubles right now or I'd be at work. The transmission is leaking. I'd like to get under the hood to try and fix it but we have really wicked wind for the last week -40 ain't no fun.
So I've been sandbagging. Hanging out at the beach.

Meanwhile, in another part of town....
The gas prices are going up and up!
Gotta love it. Whenever there is a disaster or global tension the price of oil goes up; even if it has nothing to do with oil. They jack the price.

But this time is is related to oil.
The Arab nations are getting all shook up.
So today the oil goes up because 2 or 3 American ships are heading to Libya.
My gas goes up.

Ok. I can understand and would expect that if I sent my little boats there that oil would cost more. So why did they decide to send the ships there?

Property of... Star Trek. Please don't sue me.

Lets look at the ships going.
The USS Ponce, built in 1970 - 900 troops.
USS Kearsarge, built in 1992 - 1900 troops.
And maybe...
The USS Enterprise! Built in 2363 1960 - 90 air crafts.
They aren't going there to attack just 'be there'.


Libya has 50,000 troops with  2100-7800 commando's that are very loyal to Gadhafi; due to his paranoia the bulk of his military are poorly trained and under equipped - often with no bullets. The Commando's were trained by the British in 2009.

So what are they going to do and why?
The British have been caught selling Libya military supplies to suppress the public.
Now Obama is asking the Saudis to give weapons to the Libya rebels...
So we are arming both sides. And neither side wants our help.

Whats Gadhafi going to do? If he steps down and lets the rebels take over he will end up in a coma like the Ex-President of Tunisian Zine al-Abidine or Ex-President Mubarak of Egypt; both slipped into unexpected coma's  soon after turning their country over to non-America anti-west supporters. These guys have been allied with the USA long enough to know how the CIA works. Gadhafi knows too. His job is to create as much chaos as possible. If he is a good dog, his masters will reward him.
The UN has already moved in and frozen his bank accounts. Who gives them the right? No one. They took it. I'm not saying the money isn't dirty and bloody.
It's like you have a neighbour that sells stolen merchandise. You decide it's wrong and you take all his money. 2 wrongs don't make a right. But none of this has anything to do with whats 'right'. It's about control. Why should the ruling elite need the middle/lower class? They don't. they want surfs, slaves, peons and peasants. They want to RULE like their ancestors did in the 'good ole days' of kings and peasants.

None of this is being engineered to make life better. Obama doesn't care about the Libyan people any more than he cares about his own people. HE cares about playing golf while the world goes down the tube.
I am happy to know that the President and I a couple things in common. He is brewing his own beer! That's right. Besides ruining the free world he has time to make home brew in the white house. The other thing we have in common is... well... I'm not American either. SNAP.

So good luck! With people like this running the world and people like us letting them I'm surprised we aren't worse off. ;)

This probably wont end well

I've been paying attention to what's going on in the middle east.
More fighting.

But there is more to it. But before I get to that I'm going to start here. At home.
More fighting.

Right now there are union's all across USA and Canada protesting and/or striking. Hawaii is the latest to join the craze that is taking us by storm. My job is also in peril as my co-workers have voted to strike if an agreement isn't made.
You see, the money is drying up. The US and Canadian governments gave out all that money to stimulate the economy (dumb idea) has run out so now there is no money to keep the great machine going; in fact now there is less money because we still have to pay it back with interest. So all these cities are trying to cut costs anyway they can AND trying to point the blame in another direction because they know just how screwed things really are.

So in my case, the city wants to contract out the jobs to companies that will do it for cheaper than the city worker. The actual job doesn't get cheaper - we workers get paid pretty much the same. Its the quality of the work done that is cheapened. Roads that should be 8" thick become 4" thick; instead of lasting 10 years last 1-2 years.
If your city needs $8,000,000 for road repairs but only has $2,000,000 - you're roads are going to start looking like shit.
It doesn't matter to the guys trying to cut costs because they don't want to be re-elected next term anyway. Leave the mess for someone else to clean up.

This is the crap I take OFF my burger.

Has anyone else had the joy of yellow and green tomatoes yet? Absolute garbage. But soon enough there wont even be garbage tomatoes to put on your burgers.

About the violence in the middle east. It seems like the whole area is destabilising. All these people are tired of being cheated. Their leaders have special deals with the west and little to no money ends up in the hands of the people. So the people are rioting and rebelling against it! They are forming new governments that are no friendly to the west. They are fighting and destroying oil production. That's going to push oil way up.

You hear about $100 a barrel, $104 a barrel, $117 a barrel.
A barrel has 42 gallons (159L) of oil.

But this is crude oil. Unrefined oil.
After it is refined each barrel converts to 19.15 gallons(72.5L) of oil.

These are just facts. No real point to them.

George Soros (investment banker and rich dude) says it is likely that oil will reach $200 a barrel and beyond, by summer, unless the fighting stops and pro-western governments form in the middle east.

Alright.
Best case scenario.
The fighting stops.
The leaders of these Arab countries love USA and Canada even more; they share the wealth with the people.
We all get along and oil returns to a nice low double digit number.
OH, and we discover fields of really great tomatoes. :D

Worst case...
The leaders of these troubled countries continue to fight and kill their rebelling population. The UN steps in and starts to arm and defend the people against the governments. Oil stops flowing and goes to $220 a barrel.
Gas stations in your town are either empty and closed down or they are charging 312.8L for regular or over $9 a gallon in parts of USA.
It costs a lot more money to ship food from 10,000 miles away; so your grocery bill that used to cost you $100 is now costing well over $400 and you can't even get some of the products because they are not available to you.
What makes matters worse is that the food transportation industry goes on strike when oil hits $170 a barrel. Then you can't get any food no matter how much you are willing to spend!

I don't like to plan for the worst case scenario. I don't even like to think about it. But ignoring it's potential for destruction because 'it's never happened to you' is nuts. This worst case scenario has a very real chance of happening. And when it does it will be very quick. You will probably get home from work or wake up in the morning and hear dire news warnings. By the time you know what is going on it will be too late. Because when you realise what is going on so will everyone else. Just like the  "Y2K disaster" - the day before everyone rushed out and bought all the foods they could. I was working at a grocery store and watched as people did this. Within a matter of hours after opening the store it was picked nearly bare.

I've talked about this in "12 Meals to Anarchy".
How will people react? They wake up in the morning, there is no food left, the grocery stores are empty. Do they go to work that day? Do they sit at home and watch TV while their children go hungry?
What would you do?

I have a lot of faith our ability to weather this storm. I don't think we will degrade into primitive African nation sitting around waiting for other to help them. Life will get hard for a while but we will pull though and we will do it ourselves! Our forefathers built this country from nothing and we can do it again. We aren't 'too big to fail' but we are too big to let it destroy us completely.
We have such a strong will to survive and endure, especially if we plan to endure.

So love life. Buy some 'food insurance'. Ride a bike to work if you can. Work closer to home if you can. Grow some food if you can. Do it yourself if you can.
And don't give up. Just keep going.