Kurdish nationalism plus big power need to control Kirkuk oil leads to ethnic cleansing

Most Kurds are Sunni Muslim. So why is nationalism so strong? Because they live on top of two important liquids, oil and water. Consequently foreign powers that want control of these two liquids, encourage nationalism in order to create Kurdish "leaders" that they can manipulate. The oil under Kirkuk is the last major reserve of easy-to-get oil. So you can expect more meddling and manipulation of Kurds.

The National: "Last summer when ISIL swept in from the west, many Iraqi Army forces, which were at that time in control of Kirkuk and the oil flats to the south, abandoned their posts. Kurdish Peshmerga flooded south to keep Kirkuk – and its oil – from ISIL’s clutches. They defended the city of 400,000, but it was close: by autumn the frontline with Isis was a just sniper’s shot west of the highway that cuts from Kirkuk all the way to Baghdad, 150 miles to the south."

Saudi kingdom hanging by a thread

#ISIS flag painted on a mountain near #Dawadmi in #Riyadh.. #Saudi pic.twitter.com/6c7p1WeaUa

— Rami (@RamiAlLolah) September 6, 2015

US deliberately killing people to control oil

Physics wins over economics

If you want to understand the world, go back to school and refresh your physics. The age of information is the age of disinformation and there is a lot of confusing propaganda out there. Physics, though, doesn't lie. It is not religion. It is based on evidence.

Here are some things we know about how our home, the biosphere, works.

• Animal life generates heat. 
• Complex animal life that uses million-year-old deposits of carbon generates lots of heat.
• Certain gases in the atmosphere slow the release of heat from the biosphere.
• Energy comes in every day from the sun.
• Life depends on temperatures being in certain narrow range.

Wouldn't it be wise to pay attention to the balance?

Prepper meme is a marketing scam, a dangerous one

Preppers, people preparing for system collapse, are an invention for marketing products related to survival during system collapse.

This is a dangerous business for the customers and society in general.

First of all, the idea that you will sit out in the country with a gun and be safe, is ridiculous. When systems collapse, gangs will form. What will you do when twenty SUV's full of armed thugs drive up to your hideout?

The safest place is among people who are aware, active, and united. Being armed guarantees nothing. Unity brings out the power of people. With this power, you can get guns if you need them.

Currently, people are watching corporate news on TV and getting brainwashed by a steady stream of anecdotal events. Anecdotal thinking makes you stupid.

We should encourage people to turn off the TV and get involved in the community.

Fall of petrodollar will not save humanity

The petrodollar is in trouble. It will fall sometime, sooner or later. What does that mean?

Many are hoping for this fall. They want to see the arrogant, hypocritical US empire humiliated. But what will this fall actually bring?

The world economic system is carrying a burden. That burden is the world financial system. The financial system is essentially debt. The interest owed on this debt must come from the energy provided by fuel or labor.

The problem is that a certain fuel, oil, is very high in net energy and has no ready replacement. It is also the fuel with the fastest falling net energy. Every day it takes more units of energy to extract, transport, refine, and distribute, than the it did the day before to produce the same units.

Oil production and use, especially use, has generated a massive fixed infrastructure. It cannot be quickly undone. So even if all debt is wiped clean in one day, there is still a mess left behind.

People should not expect this mess to be cleaned up by the US elites. We have to unwind the auto-and-sprawl infrastructure ourselves. The more we do the less painful the collapse will be. 

Isis in Gaza: 100 Hamas Members Pledge Allegiance to Islamic State

ibtimes : "In a development that could have a far-reaching consequence for the entire Middle East, a new report says that 100 Hamas members have joined the Islamic State (Isis) in Gaza..."

The US war on the Islamic State is a waste of money. Estimates of the cost of killing one IS soldier vary from 1/4 to 1/2 million dollars. Meanwhile, 100's of new soldiers are recruited every day. Even if the story quoted here turns out to be false in particular, it is true in general. Many join every day, and the areas in which they can join are bigger or more numerous each month.

The US has tried to train and equip militias, or make alliances with existing ones, to try to have ground forces to oppose IS. Problem is, as soon as a group is considered a US proxy, it loses all its credibility. Wonder why.

So, here is an idea. Spend the money in the US on free buses. As more buses are free, more people will ride. As more ride, fewer vehicle miles will be driven, and more people will get exercise walking to and from bus stops. Oil demand will drop, and the US can cut back on all the terrorizing of people for oil.

Pentagon expects many years of #oilwars and #climate disaster

@nafeezahmed Middle East Eye: "Two research documents published in recent months by the US Army reveal the military establishment’s latest thinking in startlingly frank terms. The research not only lends credence to environmental warnings about how climate change will fuel political instability, but also vindicates concerns about how looming resource shortages could destabilise the global economy."

Falling oil prices not helping world economy

Resource Insights: "As the world's central energy commodity, oil is a good indicator of economic activity. With the nearly universal conviction that the previous bounce in oil prices to around $60 signaled a stronger economy and thus stronger oil demand, logic would dictate that we now consider the opposite: That the new slide in oil prices is signaling new weakness in the world economy. If so, it's the kind that ought to frighten even the optimists this time."

Because burning up energy in traffic does not feed, house, or clothe anyone. Fossil fuels have been used to create a wasteful #autosprawl economy. Even if all the debt were to be defaulted, we would still be left with this mess. Even if all the energy wars were to stop tomorrow, we would still have this millstone on our necks. Future generations, if any, will be furious with the way we wasted all this bounty.

We are in harsh #degrowth now. Let's soften it with #freetransit.

There are no more profits. Capitalism wasted all the cheap energy. We are left with a complex, unsustainable society. Cash is hoarded, while debt sucks the last blood of the working class.

People are fighting back. But those still employed by the capitalist system can help. Simply become a public transit advocate. They are not putting people in jail for that ... yet.

As cities have fewer cars, urbanization will accelerate. People will demand safety and education. Birth rates will drop faster.

Making buses fare-free will speed this process and ease the pain of collapse.