The Oil Drum explains why, in one of their long, well-researched and thought-out posts, hos the US electrical grid came to be in such precarious shape.

Their sombre conclusion.

I am having a very difficult time seeing how this can be done. There are just too many entities and too many funding issues to make a transition from a neglected old system to a much-improved new system in a reasonable length of time. Our current economic model seeks growth and the maximization of profits. This economic model does not facilitate large groups of entities working together for the common good.

What we need is power to the people, by the people, for the people.

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The WSJ thinks so. Calculated Risk isn’t so sure.

It does appear that prices in hard-hit areas have dropped enough that long-term investors and vultures are starting to buy. So, that might imply a bottom is forming. We shall see.

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Britain has spent billions installing spy cameras in an Orwellian attempt to monitor the population and presumable reduce crime. However, the spy cams have had virtually no effect on stopping crime.

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Celcias details how “free trade” and onerous terms forced by banks upon Third World countries directly cause food prices to rise.

Recipients of IMF and World Bank loans must open their borders to the influx of highly subsidised agricultural produce from countries like the U.S. of A., who sell their food at below the cost of production (a practice called ‘dumping‘), undercutting local producers and putting them out of business — causing mass urbanisation as millions leave their fields to work or beg in cities, as well as swelling numbers of illegal immigrants into the North.

Yet those very same banks insist that Third World countries do not subsidize their crops, even as the US continues to.

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Ed Sanders explains how the Fugs ran into censorship problems from mass media and police problems when they started doing music (but were never hassled when just doing poetry prior to that.) This from about ‘65 or so. Somethings never change, eh?

Also has live footage of some of that very same music.

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