They're Heeeeere....Recession and Secession

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are out of the Box!

I originally posted these in the deconsumption news room but I'm moving them to the front page because these are by far the two most important stories of the year (so far):

Fast food steps up value menus

"After two years of touting better-for-you foods and premium pricier products, the $120 billion fast-food world is entering 2006 with a new message: value. Wendy's is pushing its Super Value Menu with new ads and steeper discounts. Burger King is testing a new value menu. Even McDonald's is running more value-menu ads. This is more than a winter response to slow sales. It's also about their customers' economic stress.

"When folks have to pay more than $2 a gallon for gas, the money has to come from somewhere," says Keith Sirois, CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants...."High energy prices are stretching consumers thin," says Sherri Daye Scott, editor of QSR, a fast-food trade publication. There's a "negative consumer perception" about the economy, she says."

The article actually references new promotions by 8 or 9 major fast food chains, so this isn't just an "advertisement in news clothing". The fast food industry is responding to the real economic situation in America. And the fast food industry, without a doubt, reflects the real-time pulse of America. This story, in and of itself, trumps everything that's come out of every government economic agency all year.

So it's now official, folks....the fat lady is singing, stick a fork in 'er she's done, the bar is closing and it's hotel/motel time, turn out the lights on your way out the door.....recession is here.

Venezuela donates more heating oil to U.S. poor

"Venezuela expanded a controversial program on Thursday of subsidizing costly home-heating oil for the U.S. poor with a pact in Maine, upping the ante in a political brawl with President George W. Bush....Donations to the U.S. poor by Citgo, Venezuela's state-owned oil company's U.S. division, now total an estimated $38 million in three states -- Maine, Massachusetts and New York. Rhode Island will receive a similar donation on Friday....Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed Thursday's pact with Citgo's chief executive Felix Rodriguez..."

Did you catch that last line? What it's telling us is that INDIVIDUAL STATES are signing oil agreements with foreign national oil companies! Even when such negotiations are a direct dissing of the President. You know what they call that, right? It's called a secessionary movement--or at least the first stages in one.

Here's another clue...

"...Citgo was the only major oil company to respond to an appeal by 12 U.S. senators for assistance this winter. "It's a year when big oil companies have record profits. We encourage other companies also to come forward."

Basically the Federal government--itself only an extension of Big American Oil since it's leaders straddle both boardrooms--refuses to provide for it's own. So the states begin to look outside their Federal borders for aid. Put another way, what the general populace discovered in the wake of Katrina is now being recognized by State administrators: No One Will Be Coming To Help You...You Are On Your Own.

Strangely enough, even USA Today warned us to watch for this in 2006. And I'll bet dollars to donuts we'll be seeing more hints in this direction throughout the year.

Comments

[Peter]

But Steven, you're overlooking the news from Wall Street about the Dow. Wall Street everything is just hunky-dory with the economy.

[Toomas (Tom) Karmo]

Regarding secession, note the existence of
http://www.vermontrepublic.org/.

The freedom of a city ward, a city, a county, or a province-or-state to secede from its embedding jurisdiction is one of the fundamental communal political rights, no less worthy of our respect than the better-known personal political rights described as "freedom of association" and "freedom of the press".

[montysano]

I've considered it a possibility that, in the runup to the Iraq war, we were being played, via Chalabi, by Iran. After all, having an Islamic state next door would have been a huge improvement over having Saddam Hussein as a neighbor. Privately, Iran must have been pleased that we took the bait and helped them achieve their goals.

Now, Iran is playing us again. From the Guardian UK: "Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions."

Are there no statesmen left, no diplomats? Are we led by a bunch of provincial rubes with no understanding of how the world works?

"Mr Ahmadinejad said: "You [the west] need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation."

Ouch. That wasn't a very nice thing to say to the World's Only Superpower.

We can't possibly win a conflict with Iran, whether it's a shooting war or an economic war. Our only hope is that Iran blinks.

[Bob Vadnais]

I enjoy reading your weblog on regular basis. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas.

I just wanted to mention that you frequently misuse the word "it's", a contaction for "it is", when you should use "its", the posessive pronoun. I thought you might like to know, in much the same way people like to know when their zipper is down or they have a booger hanging from their nose.

> refuses to provide for it's own
> since it's leaders straddle both

[Chris]

Hey look -- a nit snit! ...with its snark filter loose, I see. (Manners still apply, BV even on these internets. Might try humor next time!)

[Peter]

No one escapes the spelling police.

No one!

[George]

I always had problems with it's/its until someone told me that if the sentence still makes sense if you were to use "it is" then you can use "it's. If not, then you should use "its".

But, hey, what I really miss are some new posts. I always find them interesting and thought provoking, and I rarely, if ever, check for grammar usage.

Thanks again Steven! I have been reading the News Room a lot, since there have not been many new posts lately. Maybe that is your plan?

[Steven Lagavulin]

No...the slowdown is not according to plan. I haven't really seen anything worth making an extended comment on. Not that there isn't a great deal happening, which is why I'm updating the News Room so often now, but the things that are happening don't seem any surprise to me...they're just confirmation that the main points I've been reading and writing about all along are being validate.

In fact the one thing the never fails to interest me is how many "professionals" of various fields are sooo far behind in recognizing these trends. I don't think it's any hidden agenda to deny the reality of our situation....I honestly think that people--especially so-called "intellectuals"--are so conditioned by their training to think in solely conventional ways that they just don't recognize the larger view until someone spoon-feeds it to them.

Anyway....

I also don't post on weekends since that's my family time.

Oh....and I DO get the it's/its rule, but I post everything on the fly nowadays, so I don't use a spell check and some errors slip through.

[George]

Mentioning things that don't surprise you, I did have something surprise me the other day. This is sort of off topic, except that it was a surprise to me.

I was having lunch at a fast food buffet restaurant in central Arkansas. There were a lot of policemen also having lunch at the same time, maybe 20 - 30 of them. They all had "VAP" on their collars. I could not think of any city around with the initals "VA", so I finally asked one of them about it.

It is the "Veterans Administration Police" and their academy is in North Little Rock, AR.

I had never heard of them, but a Google search gets quite a few hits. I could not find much of anything else about them. Are you familiar with them, and what duties they have and who they are charged with policing??

[Aaron]

Steven wrote: "In fact the one thing the never fails to interest me is how many "professionals" of various fields are sooo far behind in recognizing these trends. I don't think
it's any hidden agenda to deny the reality of our situation....I honestly think that people--especially so-called "intellectuals"--are so conditioned by their training to think in solely conventional ways that they just don't recognize the larger view until someone spoon-feeds it to them."

Steven have you read 'Disciplined Minds' by Jeff Schmidt. It really opened my eyes to why intellectuals behave as they do. I've written a review of the book (http://villageblog.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/01/13/disciplined-minds.html) but there's much more info at the books website www.disciplined-minds.com.

It think that it fills in a gap in our thinking about how the domination system works

[Steven Lagavulin]

Thanks Aaron. Good article, and it rings true.

And since we're on the subject, Noam Chomsky has also written a fair amount in this same respect--the cultural brainwashing of the learned class to support the status quo.

[Aaron]

Thanks!

I've read some of Chomsky's comments on this issue (although not all) and I think this book goes a lot deeper. I continually find myself referring to the concepts in it whenever I'm considering some inequity of our current system

[Montysano]

Damn........ my utility bills have jumped from $225-ish last winter to $365.00 last month. It's no surprise, but still, when the reality hits.....

Here we go...

[Steven Lagavulin]

Just curious, Monty...is that total utilities or just natural gas...?

[Montysano]

Total utilities. $200.00 gas, $100.00 electric, $65.00 everything else. Not a particularly cold winter here in north Alabama, either.

When you read about "the disappearing middle class", I feel like I'm living the demographic. I work for a medium sized, locally owned, 25 year old business. We were kicking ass during the 90s, but the last 2-3 years have been a steady spiraling down.