[Ibon]

It can be noted from the latest post from JMG and the many comments that there is a collective consensus anticipating that we are approaching a major event, probably political or economics, that will be significant.

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ ... -dust.html

Granted there are no specifics just a slow motion sense of anxiety that we are approaching some correction of sorts.

I just wanted to check in here with po.com readers and take a pressure reading of your sense that we are approaching some sort of economic correction or geopolitical turning point etc. and what your sense is of the community you live in and to what degree you are also noticing a heightened collective anxiety.

For myself, I have to admit a certain increased level of anxiety when I engage on the internet forums I frequent. Here in rural Panama however most folks are not plugged into the global threats and life seems to continue pretty relaxed.

Anything to add?

[basil_hayden]

The feeling I sense from others around here is not one of bracing arms against impending doom, but more one of screw this let it happen and deal with the fallout (which unfortunately this time might be radioactive).

[Pops]

I started to say there is really not a lot of action around here lately then looked up the stats and we reached a new high on Wednesday!

Most users ever online was 4665 on Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:01 pm

Prior to that the high was during the Macondo Blowout. So take that as you will.

[vtsnowedin]

I started to say there is really not a lot of action around here lately then looked up the stats and we reached a new high on Wednesday!

Most users ever online was 4665 on Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:01 pm

Prior to that the high was during the Macondo Blowout. So take that as you will.

WTI hitting $107 for a while last week surely had something to do with that. The Dow hitting 17,000 looks like a bubble stretched very tight to me and the local economy seems to be in a slow downhill slide. It wouldn't take much to start a reset in motion.

[Plantagenet]

I think things feel like a tipping point now is because there is now a sense that problems can't be fixed

In the day when the US had a recession there wasn't much doubt we'd come out of it and resume economic growth. Now we're in the recession that never ends, with wages and jobs seemingly locked on a slow downward trend. Overseas we've got the Iraq war which the US seemingly walked away from in 2010 come back again, with the situation now worse than ever. And of course oil and gasoline prices only go in one direction---higher.

Who the heck thinks we'll ever get back to "normal" ever again.

[Pops]

I'm kind of out of the tipping point loop due to the current plan abandoning the bunker and advancing retrograde toward sodom and gomorrah.

Hard to intentionally convince myself that selling the farm is a good idea and at the same time consider imminent dommage.

.

[evilgenius]

I gave up doom a while ago. In that context I look at ISIS in Iraq and wonder why they aren't easier to handle. The answer, I guess, is that they largely operate in the Sunni North, and doing so essentially prospers them beyond what their numbers really are. What this means, of course, is that a reassessment of whether Iraq should have been broken up into three states post-war might be in order.

It seems as if democracy only gave the country over to the Shiites, who've run it like a Shiite state. Democracy seems to have failed at secularizing Iraq to the point of giving the Iraqis a secular Iraqi sense of identity that they would fight and die for. It also seems to have come along without a full sense of protection of minorities from oppression by the majority.

I've said before that what the US should have done in Iraq was to let the Iraqis use their own oil in order to build Iraq into a fully functioning state, with an economy, infrastructure and industry with rules governing how work and economic access would be guaranteed based on a notion of equality. Give them something to lose, in other words, before you expect them to fight for it. Alas, though, the Export Land Model would totally blow up the idea of oil production for export across future years.

Too bad, huh. Now we're stuck looking at oil prices and wondering if our Western Economies have recovered enough to sustain an oil shock. The first quarter of 2014 was slow. Most blame that on bad weather. The second quarter does seem to have picked up the pace. Jobs are gaining, but their track upward has also got a lot of down ticks. The pace, also, has not been sufficient enough for job seekers to obtain much pull. There isn't much pressure for wages to go up, even though interest rates remain low.

[timmac]

The feeling I sense from others around here is not one of bracing arms against impending doom, but more one of screw this let it happen and deal with the fallout (which unfortunately this time might be radioactive).

Yep and my motorhome is packed and ready, lets start this party..

[Ibon]

I think things feel like a tipping point now is because there is now a sense that problems can't be fixed

In the day when the US had a recession there wasn't much doubt we'd come out of it and resume economic growth. Now we're in the recession that never ends, with wages and jobs seemingly locked on a slow downward trend. Overseas we've got the Iraq war which the US seemingly walked away from in 2010 come back again, with the situation now worse than ever. And of course oil and gasoline prices only go in one direction---higher.

Who the heck thinks we'll ever get back to "normal" ever again.

I think this best sums it up for me. A sense that external events, whether they be domestic economics or external geopolitics, are not fixable. This is what creates a growing sense of tightness and a feeling that something has to give.

This is something new, this lack of trust and faith in the system recovering. I would say this is the beginning of our society collectively confronting the stalemate we know is inherent to a growth based economic system hitting physical limits?

My opening post was not suggesting doom by the way, just an unease in the collective.

[Newfie]

Pops,

It's funny, just yesterday I posited elsewhere that I felt the activity here was pretty low. Lurk ears? Or is it just that I avoid a lot of the threads and only participate in the few that interest me?

My Wife and I too have growing sense of unease. But it could be that as our life style moves us further from main stream it looks weirder and weirder looking back.

I write this cooking on a grill on our boat. Packed and ready to roll in the event we need to.

BTW....just bought some scrawny green peppers for grilling, at 79 cents each. Red or yellow were $1.49!

[Pops]

There seems to be lots of comments on the front page news, I think that's where the hits are coming from although I don't have access to page hits to say for sure.

Kudos to admin who has been doggedly posting 4 or 5 stories out there singlehandedly for years now!

We had a link to a front page story in Forbs the other day. It's now number 5 on our referring links list according to Alexa.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackm ... ollies-28/

Just for grins, here is our numero uno referring link according to Alexa, from Yahoo Answers from 7 years ago:
Is it true that the earth is going to end in 2014?

[Rod_Cloutier]

I feel it too, some sort of collective consciousness awaking to a new reality. I used to think business as usual would continue for a few years, then a few months, now I'm feeling we've got a dozen weeks or so before something happens which will change everything.

This fellow here is warning about the beginning of world war III:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8brHr_ ... lpage#t=15

Scary stuff- nuclear war is bad for business.

[evilgenius]

I feel it too, some sort of collective consciousness awaking to a new reality. I used to think business as usual would continue for a few years, then a few months, now I'm feeling we've got a dozen weeks or so before something happens which will change everything.

This fellow here is warning about the beginning of world war III:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8brHr_ ... lpage#t=15

Scary stuff- nuclear war is bad for business.

Don't you see that the person at that link is a fear monger? During the last decade we have seen the rise of fear mongering as a means to build huge financial empires. Under the guise of free speech, and able to use a plausible explanation of certain facts, these people have built huge piles of cash under themselves. Never mind that they only use the facts that support their positions, and disregard those that don't. Confirmation bias and cherry-picking are not in their vocabularies.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Don't you see that the person at that link is a fear monger?

Yes I do, however watching his daily report gives me my 'Two minutes of rage' to Quote Orwell.

Somehow I feel better after getting the rage out. I also like Gerald Celente; he does a daily news report as well where he rants, raves, curses, and shouts. Watching it gives me an outlet for things I feel myself that are socially unacceptable to express. Things I can't express myself at work, home or play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ucvf-L ... ilpage#t=0

[evilgenius]

Don't you see that the person at that link is a fear monger?

Yes I do, however watching his daily report gives me my 'Two minutes of rage' to Quote Orwell.

Somehow I feel better after getting the rage out. I also like Gerald Celente; he does a daily news report as well where he rants, raves, curses, and shouts. Watching it gives me an outlet for things I feel myself that are socially unacceptable to express. Things I can't express myself at work, home or play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ucvf-L ... ilpage#t=0

You just made me laugh out loud. Fear mongers as therapy, that's a classic idea. I can see the truth in that.

I can see looking at Alex Jones, Celente, and others as comedians. I tend to think, though, that one shouldn't complain unless one has solutions to offer instead. And those solutions had better be more than anachronistic appeals that are nothing but proxies asking for blind faith. You know what I mean, "Blah, blah, blah, gold standard. Blah, blah, blah, gold standard."

[Keith_McClary]

I just wanted to check in here with po.com readers and take a pressure reading of your sense that we are approaching some sort of economic correction or geopolitical turning point etc. and what your sense is of the community you live in and to what degree you are also noticing a heightened collective anxiety.

For myself, I have to admit a certain increased level of anxiety when I engage on the internet forums I frequent. Here in rural Panama however most folks are not plugged into the global threats and life seems to continue pretty relaxed.

Anything to add?

Same in this remote small town corner of Alberta. Not plugged in.

[Newfie]

There is this article in CS Monitor that talks about the publics lack of trust I. Obamah and congresses.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/0 ... l-plummets

I suppose that such wide read lack of someone you can trust in control would make folks feel skitterish.