<$BlogRSDUrl$>
INDUSTRIAL WASTE
waste-bin.blogspot.com

Katrina's Big Brother With a Foreign-Sounding Name

Sunday, August 31, 2008
There's something tragicomic about the arrival of Gustav on the scene, this monster hurricane which is aiming itself directly at New Orleans. It's as if nature wanted desperately to have another go at destroying that city.

And the way the Bush Administration has sprung into action is hilarious! Bush is making a big show of doing everything he should've done before Katrina. He's meeting with FEMA multiple times, urging the total evacuation of the city, shipping in supplies, and generally looking busy.



It's as if this Administration believes that if it can handle Gustav, it's appalling failure to handle Katrina will be wiped from the records.

I happen to think that New Orleans is going to be a disaster zone anyway. Mayor whatever his name is (is it Nagel?) has ordered all the city's residents to evacuate. About 300,000 have, and now there are 'only 10,000' left. These 10,000, according to the mayor, can expect no help: 'You're on your own,' he told them. That makes no sense. If America wants to avoid a repeat of Katrina, it should provide emergency services not only to the evacuees, but also to the people staying behind. Sure, some of these poeple are lazy-asses who deserve what's coming. But some of these people probably have a legitimate reason for staying. Let's say they don't have a car, or they're old and can't make the trip. And the homeless. These people are going to be drowned in the flood waters, and the government has written them off - before hand -.

Despite the frantic dress rehearsal by the Bush Administration, I get the feeling that Gustav is going to be just as disastrous as Katrina, and there are going to be many, many dead.


Image; Mirage; Mirror

Saturday, August 30, 2008
- I imagine women get jealous of their made-up faces.
- Many Americans probably derive a lot of their self-image from the rear-view mirror.
- The curse on facial beauty: it can fade subtly or suddenly, and always it's in the process of dissolving.
- The curse on the mirror: it always reflects you in reverse. Your mirror image is lopsided compared with the image people have of you. How much of a difference does this make?


Let's Go To Tokyo

Friday, August 29, 2008
Let's go to Tokyo
flight 888 on JAL
you and me
c'mon

We'll sit by the window,
watching Mount Fuji
off the wing
c'mon

Tokyo-Narita Airport:
we'll run laughing down
the walkalators, trailing wheeley bags
c'mon -

A cheap motel
and a hundred thousand yen
set aside for sushi, plus bullet train tickets
c'mon

I'll buy you girls' panties
from a vending machine
you'll enact my hentai fantasy
c'mon.


Another Hilariously Bad Sign

Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The FDIC is borrowing money from the Treasury because it doesn't have enough money to pay off all the accounts wiped out by bank failures. Can you imagine that? The organization that's supposed to be backing almost all of our bank money is borrowing money...

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080827/fdic_treasury.html


So What's going to happen?

So what's going to happen when we run out of oil?
well?
So what's going to happen when the nuclear plants run out of steam?
Oh, so curious -
what's going to happen when Putin realizes you can
wage conventional warfare with nuclear weapons?
I bet I'm wrong about that.

So what's going to happen when the wells run dry?
When all the fish float to the surface of the sea?
Oh, eschatologists, crazies of the Middle Ages,
hailing to the Christ Savior and the Void God
There is no end to the universe!
there will never be an apocalpyse,
but there will be extinction...

I am haunted by the total uncertainty of knowledge
I am haunted by the VIRTUAL,
primitive forms of which
were deployed in the 40s and maybe earlier.
He grabs the horse by the legs and screams,
"Neine Neine Neine Neine Neine!"

I try to say yes to everyone I pass on the freeway,
the way to Miami. Listen to me,
I'm going to learn how to drive,
I'm going to go to college,
I'm going to make money,
I'm going to be independent
and proud of my goals.
But always I'm going to keep a hawk eye's out
on humanity - and I have a contract with Satan, unsigned,
but there's a fresh well of ink by the papers.
You know, in case CERN works and I have to slip out of the
solar system.

Look, don't you know that you fight evil with evil?
Turn the modern world's own planes against the financial center
bring down the money silos,
the pinnacle of nine / eleventh,
the ninth inning,
yet to come.


The Democratic National Convention

Monday, August 25, 2008
Chris Matthews just said the word, 'homage', with such French relish. The blond color of his hair is inspiring. It's a shade of gold unlike any I've seen.

If you listen carefully to soundbites from Ted Kennedy's speech, you can hear the underlying hum of his brain cancer.

The major networks are trying to monopolize politics. 'CNN=Politics' 'MSNBC: The Place for Politics'. Their rivalry resembles any business contest: between brands of cereal or tampon.

Nancy Pelosi was unspeakably wretched. The first minute of her speech was noiseless. There was a malfunction with the sound system. When she finally came online, it was too late. Everything went downhill. Her eyes have been pried open by too many brow lifts, and Botox has paralyzed her. There's nothing about her speech that was substantive. The crowd obeyed maybe a tenth of the applause lines, and anyway, attendance was spotty. The camera showed swaths of empty seats in the stadium.


Seven

Saturday, August 23, 2008
I don't believe in any particular conspiracy theories. I've always been disgusted by the 9/11 Truth people and their gospel, Loose Change. I think it does an injustice to al-Qaeda and its extraordinary skills to attribute 9/11 to the U.S. government. Give credit where credit is due.

Nevertheless, there's something fishy about the collapse of World Trade Center 7. If you'll recall, that was the third building to come crashing down on 9/11. The collapse happened well after the two towers fell, in the late afternoon. By then, the building had been evacuated and fire fighters cleared from the area.

World Trade Center 7 was the first modern building to collapse because of a fire. According to the official explanation, the tower was set alight and damaged by debris from the falling Twin Towers. The fire burned up tons of desks and office chairs until the supporting columns gave way. Here's what it looked like from a few streets away:

There It Goes!

The conspiracy theorists beg to differ. They say that the building was brought down by explosives. The conspiracy theory won so many followers and so much attention that the government finally had to address it. Today, they issued a report that supposedly debunked the conspiracy theorists. A panel of engineers and like-minded intellects concluded that the fire was powerful enough to burn through the columns. They also concluded that explosives would be too loud to carry off the operation in secret. Had there been a detonation, people would've heard the boom from miles away.

One problem with that: the engineers didn't bother to address the conspiracy theorists' claim that a certain well-known type of explosive that doesn't give off a pop might've been situated right next to the main column holding up the building. Why didn't the engineers investigate this theory? Because they didn't think there were explosives next to the column. That's their actual reason. 'Why wonder if there were noiseless explosives next to the column, if we don't believe there were any?'

Another thing: World Trade Center 7 housed the offices of the CIA, the Secret Service, and Giuliani's emergency bunker, designed to allow the mayor to run the city in the event of a disaster (how ironic that it was pulverized in the disaster). Might this world-class consortium of covert organizations have reason to evaporate the immense, unsecured archives in their office building?

The other oddity about World Trade Center 7 is that BBC News reported the building collapsed twenty minutes before it did; and CNN reported that it had either 'collapsed or is near collapsing' an hour before the actual event. See for yourself:

BBC jumps the gun
CNN is even earlier

Maybe the truth got scrambled in real time. Maybe the firefighters on the scene could tell that the building was buckling and warping, and told the media. Or maybe there was an unintelligible conspiracy at the heart of World Trade Center 7.

I happen not to believe in the conspiracy. But I like the eeriness.


Economic Predictions

Friday, August 22, 2008
Next week, Freddie Mac's share price will near zero.
The stock market will lose up to 300 points on a single day of trading.
There will be at least one report about major withdrawals ('a run') at Washington Mutual.
The Bush Presidency will give a speech on Fannie and Freddie.


The C-Word

The U.S. stock market has taken the fall of Fannie and Freddie very well. America's two largest mortgage companies are nearing zero worth, and yet the overall stock market is rallying today, up more than one percent.

This rally is a sign of desperation. Fannie and Freddie's fate are sealed, but the stock market continues to be in denial.

When they do fail, however, there's a going to be a maelstrom - and these piddling rallied will quickly disappear from memory.

For a preview of the catastrophe, listen to a former official at China's central bank.

Fannie and Freddie Failure Could Be 'World Catastrophe'

When they fail, billions of dollars in Chinese investments will be wiped out. Makes you think that the Chinese won't want much to do with the American economy after this. Unfortunately, the American economy can't function without Chinese liquidity constantly greasing the wheels and the gears.

Anyway, let's see what happens. Fannie and Freddie are both down today many percent. Warren Buffet, America's multi-billionaire sage, wrote them off in an interview today. He did so offhandedly! Even Buffett has no idea what's coming.


A Profound Fortune-Cookie Maxim

Saturday, August 16, 2008
The best mirror
is a good friend.


A Little Bit of Prophesy

Thursday, August 14, 2008
Check out this amazing blog post from April - two months before Russia invades Georgia. It's about a Security Council meeting on South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"Tensions are mounting between Georgia and Russia..."


Sidereal, But Not Real

Saturday, August 09, 2008
I'm infatuated
with a prince -
but me and him are just a
green crystalline idea
I can't have him,
I won't,
I wince.


My Favorite Breakaway Republic

Breakaway republics have been a lot in the news lately, what with Russia invading South Ossetia and Abkhazia, autonomous regions that are officially a part of Georgia. Here's my most treasured breakaway. It calls itself Transnistria. It's a little strip of land in the little land of Moldova. Nobody recognizes its independence, but it functions like a nation-state. It's also thoroughly communist, and so the SovietKitsch factor there is enormous. Just look at its coat of arms:



This is a picture of its parliament.



My second favorite breakaway Republic:
Somaliland


But Will the Trains Run on Time?

Monday, August 04, 2008
Italy deploys soldiers on the streets.

A bill rubberstamped by the Italian parliament allows for illegal immigrants to be detained for 8 months without trial, puts the military on the streets and grants immunity from prosecution to PM Berlusconi (he owns the Italian media) and other heads of state during their terms of office. Why would they want such immunity, if not to indulge unrestrainedly in corruption?

A new kind of fascism is coming to Europe. It's not possible to predict its outcome, but it's taking tentative form in Italy. This is why I hate the Europeans. WWI was bad enough. WWII was unforgiveable. And now, in their decrepit old age, I see them resorting to police-state methods - again!


Baudrillard Quote of the Day

Friday, August 01, 2008
"Man and machine have become isomorphic and indifferent to each other: neither is other to the other."
- Jean Baudrillard

I had to look up the definition of the word, isomorphic. There are several definitions, all of them tantalizing. Here's the biology definition:

'Different in ancestry, but having the same form or appearance.'

And here's the word isomorphous from chemistry:

'capable of crystallizing in a form similar to that of another compound or mineral, used esp. of substances so closely related that they form end members of a series of solid solutions.'