US foreign policy all about controlling energy sources and routes

Global Research: "What does a pipeline in Afghanistan have to do with the crisis in Ukraine?

Everything. It reveals the commercial interests that drive US policy. Just as the War in Afghanistan was largely fought to facilitate the transfer of natural gas from Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea, so too, Washington engineered the bloody coup in Kiev to cut off energy supplies from Russia to Europe to facilitate the US pivot to Asia."

Debt: Eight Reasons This Time is Different

Our Finite World: "The problem we are running into is the fact the world is finite. Growth can’t continue indefinitely. The way that the physical world enforces the end to growth is not obvious, until we start hitting the limits. The limits are cost of production limits for oil and for our supply of stable grid electricity."

Transportation fares see 35% to 50% increase, contrary to government estimates

Well here is the answer to the question in the previous post. It was a lie. Egypt, instead of sending more money to the IMF, should stop wasting money on cars. Make public buses fare-free, and stop wasting precious resources on fuel for private autos.

Daily News Egypt: "In the report, the agency detailed how diesel-fuelled buses will increase fares, adding that taxi fares will be increased by 5.6%. Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb mentioned in a Saturday press conference that the base fare for white taxis will start at EGP 3, up from the current EGP 2.5.

Meanwhile, fares for the use of transport vehicles will increase between 2.3% to 4.7%.

Dalia Moussa, researcher at the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), projected that transportation fares will keep increasing. She attributed the increasing continuous increases in food and industrial products to the rise in fuel costs."

Egyptian govt says public transport fares immune to price hikes

Egypt government doing the right thing. But why?

Ahram Online: "An increase in the price of fuel will not affect public transport costs, Egyptian government officials stated in the face of public concern after the prices of subsidised gasoline were raised on Friday night.
Egypt raised the prices of three widely used petroleum-derived fuels, octane 80 gas, octane 92 gas, and diesel, by up to 78 percent.

Cabinet spokesperson Hossam Gaweesh announced that public transportation, including Cairo metro fares, would not be affected by the price hikes."

Connecting some important dots

• Cheap oil is gone. Every day the mix of oil on the market is a little more expensive. This is because every day it takes more energy to get oil - falling net energy.
• Complex economy, especially car-dependence, is no longer sustainable.
• Financial system is being propped up by debt and money-creation.
• Capital formation has stopped. 
• The only way to get more capital is to take from other countries by war. 
• Or take from the people by austerity and high unemployment.

U.S. elite is out of options, now backing Nazis in Ukraine

The people of the US are not hearing about it, but their government is backing Nazis in Ukraine. This because cheap oil is gone, growth is over, and the worlds elites have nothing left but to take from each other and drive down the poor.

Two things Americans can do. First, turn off the TV and read up on what is really happening in Ukraine. Here is a good place to start:

slavyangrad.wordpress.com/ 

Second. Join the campaign for free public transit. This can be done at the local level and will cut the flow of power to the oil industry and split the 1% in two.

The cost will just be passed to the consumer

Why can't corporations pay taxes for things like #publictransit? One argument you still hear goes like this.

We can't force corporations to pay their taxes because they will raise prices and pass the cost on to the consumer and that will hurt the economy.

But prices are determined by the market, are they not? If they raise prices they will be lose business to competitors. Not being able to pay for the cost of doing business means you should go out of business.

So what we have is the elimination of public investment -- education, parks, transport, in order to allow corporations to avoid taxes. Taxes are the price of civilization. No taxes, no civilization.

Cities with the best #publictransit are the best places to live and work

Report Names Best Cities for Public Transit | Tampa Bay Times: "When finding the right place to live and work, the availability of public transportation can play a major role in the decision-making process. Commute times and stress can be reduced substantially when public transit is available, and with the rising costs of gas, it can be economical as well. "

People of Brazil would rather have #freetransit than FIFA

https://www.facebook.com/passelivresp

https://www.facebook.com/events/1406932819587323

#Degrowth is here, just a matter of how painful it will be

EcoWatch: "With less useful energy available, the global economy will fail to grow, and will likely enter a sustained period of contraction. Increased energy efficiency may cushion the impact but cannot avert it. With economies no longer growing, our current globally dominant neoliberal political-economic ideology may increasingly be called into question and eventually overthrown."

Waiting for collapse is not acceptable. What can be done right now? We need to undo sprawl. Sprawl is subsidized, and the auto has critical mass in transport. When people are no longer car-dependent, they will no longer support sprawl subsidy. This is the Achilles heel of sprawl. Free buses are the arrows that can break the critical mass of the auto, and its sprawl.