Coal, Resource Limits, Micro and Macro Strategies

>Perhaps we're already on the precipice with coal,and just don't know it yet...

Of course we are...

How much coal do you think is in the ground?

Do you have any idea, how much we use on a daily basis?

Travel through Montana by bus, and maybe you'll see the seemingly endless coal trains taking out the dirty, less efficient black stuff going to the power plants and industrial applications further east. Go see how much they're taking out daily.

And the environmental destruction? First, the trees are all clear cut, and for what purpose? Then, mountain top, and mountain side removal. Have you ever been to West Virginia and environs and seen the acid mine drainage pollution of the rivers?

All for what?

To fuel a very brief inane, insane period of transient greed driven opulence and ostentation?

Fundamental, radical, demand side management needs to be the plan. I wish you all would get with me on that. This hippie BS about back to the earth on self-sufficient homesteads, while developing very useful survival strategies that you can teach and be of help to many others, is not in and of itself a survival strategy. You will perish with the rest of us.. It is important that we all work together as a united world, united regions, united communities or the very worst of the doomsayers' prophecies will engulf us all.

So, come on, individualism is fine within the context of community and world humanity, but ONLY within that context.

- "An individual has not stated living until he or she can rise above the narrow confines of his or her individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity."
- Dr. Martin Luther Kin, Jr.

-"The essence of socialism is to take as one's criterion the collective interests and the interests of the individual and to judge every word and every action by this criterion"
- Chairman Mao Tse-Tung

The environment is each and every individual on the palnet and her/his relationship to their environment. The environment is not an issue. It is THE issue.
- Mike Morin

In Peace, Friendship, Cooperat ion, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR

Continuing with the Plan to Implement a Peoples' Equity Union

Robert (et al),

Do you live in a city, a town, a village, a rural area?

Is there a credit union in the vicinity?

You need to establish a local board with an economic plan for your neighborhood. The economic plan could be very similar to the way the Mondragon Cooperative Society operates. You need to establish a local Board of Directors, a company (equity union) charter and by-laws, including the criteria how economic decisions will be made from funds allocated, and how decisions will be made regarding the investment of surpluses made from business operations.

Remember, it is important that we inculcate the principles of economic democracy in every thing that we do, say, think, and communicate.

Create a Peoples' Equity Union Trust Fund in your local credit union.

After you have done that, and I receive the payment of $30 billion, I will deposit $20 million in your Trust Fund Account. Then it will be up to you and your colleagues to develop and share your local socialist equity union economy. When you have met the needs of your community, and have achieved an equitable, sustainable, inclusive, and humane quality of life among all neighbors, then it will be incumbent upon you (the denizens of your community and the Board of the Peoples' Equity Union Branch) to identify other communities with which you see a need and desire to share your socialist success with. As you are organizing your neighbors and developing your commune, you very much want to be establishing relationships, personal, social and economic with neighborhing communities, and communities worldwide, thereby furthering the cooperative nature, organization, and operations of the Peoples' Equity Union's neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional and world wide socialist ecological economic plan.

The prospects of receiving funding are dependent upon potential participants understanding the mission and the modus operandi of the Plan.

Do you understand thus far, and could you cooperate given that funding was imminent?


Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union

To Antheus Vincent ("Green Interfaith Alliance")

Antheus Vincent (Who is Gerard Frank?):

Ambitious plans you have to rebuild West Denver. Would like to be involved in any way that I can help. Can't attend your meeting, for I am in Eugene, Oregon (much too far to walk)...

Are you a Denver based group?

Have only been through Denver on a bus, so I can't visualize West Denver (Is it the "black" section of town? "Latino"? I'm guessing that it is poor and distressed. Would that be a correct assumption?).

We need to take control of the Treasury and allocate funds directly for ecological (resources are maximized and retained within neighborhoods) economic community redevelopment. That is what I mean by a socialist paradigm. Right now, the Treasury loans funds to Capitalists who loan to other Capitalists who work together with Landlords and Warlords and Investors and Owners to exploit working and poor people. Profit is the motivation, not needs of the people.

What I mean by plan and implement socialism is that we need to fundamentally change the dominant economic paradigm so that resources can be allocated directly to the people in need, to meet their needs. In Moslem law, all interest on loans is usury. In Capitalist Western Financial Empires, Central Banks and the Banking "Industry" is a big con game to further the competitive advantage of the Capitalist property holders.

Until the basic way that resources are allocated to and within communities is radically and completely changed, I don't see how you/we will be able to fund the type of redevelopment that is needed throughout this country and throughout the world. On a larger view, we also have to change the way that resources are allocated within and among economic sectors, but let that be a subject of another discussion.

I envision walkable communities where automobiles will not be necessary. This is what I call demand side management (we are way past peak in world fossil fuel production capabilities and terribly squandering such on a daily basis, wouldn't it be wise to conserve such precious resources for home heating, cooking, hot water, and electricity?) and would also require supply side reallocation so that the things people need are within walking distance of their quality of life homes.

Equity (meaning ownership and equality) is a key word.

Sustainability without equity will never happen.

Get Van Jones (appointed to CEQ by Obama) and the "Latino" Secretary of Labor to influence Obama and Gaithner and get funds dirctly allocated to (y)our communit(ies).

The USA and their Capitalist allies are on a dead end path and it is way beyond the midnight hour.

I can not over express the urgency of the situation relative to the youth and children of our communities.

I have a relatively brief essay on the concept of "Restructuring Financial Systems" that creates local and inter-community "Peoples' Equity Unions" for which ownership would be shared and redistributed in accordance with the principles that we are all kin and seek and deserve and will enjoy working to bring a quality of life to everyone. Such is a more humane world view than how can I make a profit by offering more and more absurd and irrational economic choices, within a rapidly dwindling natural resource base.

You may want to check out my web log.

Let me know if I can be of assistance.

Peace.

Intro. to "Green-InterFaith" Discussion Group

I just joined this group and wanted to introduce myself and query current memebers about their activities and ideologies.

I am an Ancient Green, having come of age during the early years of The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Total Environmental Action, R.A.I.N, and the multitude of other green organizations that flourished in the 70's.

I have read Van Jones' book. I have tremendous respect for his call to inclusion for the envireonmental movement, but must point out that Van's understanding of "green technologies" is naive, as we were in the early days.

The real opportunity for a "green collar economy" is in a comprehensive demand side management plan coupled with a comprehensive supply side reallocation scheme in which we rebuild neighborhoods and reallocate goods and services to those neighborhoods in a "plan and implement" socialist paradigm.

I have given many years of study and thought to the situation and see no alternative other than to fundamentally change the ways in which resources are allocated to and within communities and within and among economic sectors.

The Fallacy of Supply Side Economics

Despite the proclamation of Say's "Law". Supply DOES NOT create its own demand. Sure, supply creates some demand, but the siting of production facilities based on the availability of cheapest resources (and) labo(u)r cause a crisis in Capitalism and especially the last generation of global exploitation and supply side foolishness. The additional costs of distribution and competition need to be factored in, as not so well. The lack of effective demand will not support the greed-driven "maximize your utils" insanity of Classical, neo-classical, Reagonomics, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, and the Yuppie scum.

We must start with a complete restructuring of the financial systems. I have outlined and explained this in relative laymens' terms, very concisely.

Notice, I never use the word reform any more, due to the reactionary behaviour that it elicits.

It is my hope that you will accept the basic tenets of the Peoples' Equity Union and work with me to see that such a revolution is implemented.

Thank you.

With Respect to "Transition United States" Website Initiative and "Movement"

Until we all recognize that none of this will succeed unless we explicitly call for the rapid mobiilization to a Socialist economy, the Transition United States website will probably remain little more than self-congratulory phony Liberal chit-chat and diversion.

We were hip and advocating all the "technical" aspects, being discussed now over thirty years ago (some of them like PVs, windpower, hydrogen, collectively known as "appropriate technology" are in reality a lot of false hope).

A lot of us knew, at the time, that it wouldn't happen under the oppressive ignorance of the Capitalist system, but some (I was young and naive), if not many, thought that we were heading calmly and slowly towards Socialism and peace and conservation and demand-side management and solar water heating and passive solar design and towards self-sufficiency in food, popular gardening, and REAL organic agriculture (not the lies in labeling Marketing ploys of unscrupulous Capitalists), and we thought we had a future.

Then came "the Reagan Revolution" and "supply-side economics". Reagan unleashed greed. It will probably prove to be the beginning of the final end to the Capitalist absurdity based on the total denial of a finite real planet of resources and the notion that it's OK to cut your brother's throat, if there's money in it. Many good lives were ruined both domestically and abroad, and Kissinger's "detente" turned out to be Reagan stabbing Gorbachev in the back.

US and associated Capitalists had a great transient boom. Now, here's the bust.

But, we remember.

I'd like to see a peaceful transition to an equitable, humane, sustainable planet with a quality of life for everyone, especially the progeny, but the gluttons of the USA, with their ignorant, individualistic (read selfishness), nationalist ("the remaining "Superpower" :-P) notion of Global Manifest Destiny raised hell and we are now going to pay for it. In their typical style they will try to damn everyone else, first.

Thanks USAers! Thanks Capitalists! Can anyone cue up George Harrison's song "Piggies"?

In My View (Macro-economics)

Marx thought that it would be a process of overthrowing the government(s) and setting up a State controlled economic system that would modify Capitalism according to the labor theory of value, workers' councils, etc. and educate the masses, some if not many, who were already hip to the oppression of the Feudal/Mercantile/Capitalist domination and the cooperative communitarian/socialist/Communist desirable alternative, but at significant disadvantage relative to the opportunity costs of an arms race, and disadvantage relative to the superior resource base held by the USA and his allies (not because of the superiority of Capitalism, but because of the unique opportunity of an advanced Western Industrial "civilization" to rape a virgin landscape (the Americas)).

Class struggle in the Soviet Union and the Peoples' Republic was necessary, because as Marx identified, it has always been an issue of "class" struggle (i.e. aristocratic and bourgeois oppression and uprisings against such). It was necessary to fight fire with fire and the Capitalists never forgave the Communists for beating them at their own game. But violence begets violence and becomes a modus operandi of the violent, thus the accusations of oppression of personal liberties within the Communist systems.

The Capitalists have always been in control and along with over-reactionary and under-reported slaughter and imprisonment techniques, use more subtle techniques of violence such as propaganda (i.e. the freedom of the press belongs to those that own one). When the Soviet system relapsed, the American led Capitalists claimed permanent victory and incorporated such into their educational and media systems.

Now, we find an over-confident dying Capitalist war, and economic machine, making a last stand in Iraq and Afghanistan, and worldwide, respectively. We see a terrible over-supply with diminishing to no effective demand in the USA for their "free-traded" products and services and a gluttonous surge to strip the planet and all its inhabitants of the dwindling fossil fuel (and other) resources. That is, American Capitalism has a terrible over-demand problem with a finite worldwide diminishing supply.

Tensions are mounting, although the Capitalist ruling class wants thee all to think that there is little to no organized resistance. And they may be right. They are willing to commit multiple genocides, ecocide, and suicide to feed the gluttonous beast that they have created.

I don't think that we can defeat the USA Military/Police/Prison/Propaganda Complex, at least not stateside (I am writing from Eugene, Oregon, USA). We can cheer for the hastening of the downfall of Capitalism and their Fascist allies, but I don't cherish the thought of what it will be like when the system implodes to the point of no return, or we can speak and write as if some rational Chief Capitalist (Obama?) was listening and appeal to "them" to recognize that Capitalism is dead and we need to begin right away to build a better system from within.

I have a rather comprehensive socialist plan with a mission based on peace, equity, humanity, quality of life, and sustainability based on strategies of neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional/worldwide ecological economic planning, reallocation and redevelopment. Fundamental to such is the reforming of financial systems.

You can view my work at www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com and/or we can discuss the various aspects and strategies for making it real in this discussion group.

I'm a Work kin for peace and cooperation.


With much love and care,

Mike Morin