I have been mostly offline on TBP for nearly two years. I recently read an excellent article about journalism and its degradation and impact on the 2016 election. The full article is here.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/2016-election-demise-journalistic-standards/
If you don’t want to read the full article, fine. But these words may resonate with the TBP faithful.
I urge you to support the media you like. As the great writer and thinker Midge Decter once put it, “You have to join the side you’re on.” ….. There are many wonderful, thoughtful, small publications and websites that exist on a shoestring. Don’t let them die. Subscribe or contribute to those you enjoy. ….. Put your money where your heart and mind are. An expanded media landscape that better reflects the diversity of public preferences would, in time, help create a more level political and cultural arena. That would be a great thing. So again I urge you: join the side you’re on.
“a more level political and cultural arena”
I’ve noticed that most average citizens adopt the agenda of their political affiliation. Generally, they are ignorant of the subjects for which they have a strong ‘belief’. It is truly pathetic to witness and there is nothing you can say to reach out to these people.
However, getting them to change to political Independent plus visiting alternative news sites on the Internet is the Red Pill key.
‘Reasonable’ advice for those who CHOOSE to remain in the RELATIVE world of ‘sides, labels and the [so frequently presumed BOTH singular and plural]’possessive tense’. This repent[ing]/redeemed reprobate CHOOSEs ‘SUBscription’ to the SUPREME authority/jurisdiction of the ‘almighty AUTHOR’/Lord and the ABSOLUTE ‘Laws’ as so very incisively prescribed through JC. ‘Sides’ only exist in the RELATIVE world of CONTRAST[s]. In the digital world of o/1, which ‘One’ would/do you prefer/CHOOSE, or, continue to remain in the convenient/complacent/ignorant state of ‘null’?
I’m on YOUR side, SSS!! I love you, man … in a non-homo way (NTTAWWT).
Good to once again see “SSS” as the author of a thread.
Thanks, Stucky. We’ve been friends on this site for a long, long time. I value that and your wisdom. Well, not ALL of your wisdom, but most of it.
Very insightful piece. It demonstrates well the ethos driven mindset of the MSM and those who eat up their biased drivel. Thanks for posting this……….
That was a fine article. Here’s what stood out for me;
“Which brings us to the crucial questions. Can the American media be fixed? And is there anything that we as individuals can do to make a difference? The short answer to the first question is, “No, it can’t be fixed.”
It. Can’t. Be. Fixed.
Wow. That isn’t just some noob saying that but, rather, a distinguished man of accomplishment.
Well,I see it being fixed with articles/sites like this.On a side note have you ever actually collected 50 bucks for the turn off the tv advice?I do agree with the idea that all the sites on propornot should at least be given a once over look,pisses off the msm there has to be some value there,checked site me self awhile back.
When most of the MSM is losing money, and is the plaything of billionaires or Deep State subsidies, you have no leverage against them….
Thank’s ,Good article
Great article. I especially liked the part about Abe Rosenthal. Unfortunately, they don’t make them like him anymore.
Welcome back SSS! You will bring back some fact and humor, and hopefully return TBP to a place of more reason and less intellectually lazy ranting emotion
Eh,I find lazy/emotional ranting can actually be very entertaining at times!
James: LOL!
REALLY??? And which TV channel or radio station do I tune into or contribute to that truly reports the lies, misrepresentations and coverups of our government in general and politicians in particular? And which one exposes the Deep State connections to politicians who are doing the bidding of those who pay the politicians, a hell of a lot more money than we do, to subvert and destroy our country and way of life? And exactly which TV channel has the national and international reach to explain to the people of the world that the American people are not personally to blame for the unwonted fiscal or physical destruction of their country but rather it is carried out by an out of control group of elitists who are actually calling the shots here? And which TV channel or radio station do I tune into that promotes the taking back of our country through ANY and ALL means necessary to return it to a Constitutional Republic governed by responsible and moral people that are answerable to the people who actually elected them? I’m talking about channels and stations that names names, charts out the connections of tentacles from corporations to Congress for all to see and understand and ones that promote and report locations where people can meet to “protest” in the strongest possible form? Which ones?
Because until there are such channels and stations, those of us who understand what has and is happening are forced to sit and wait, stockpile and prepare for the inevitable collapse that will only come about at the appropriate time of choice by those pulling the strings of power once they think they have enough control over everyone OR can cause enough chaos to have us rip the country apart ourselves, then and only then real change will occur. And it will be UGLY.
Ummmm ….. turn off the fucken TV!!!
I normally charge fifty bucks for this kind of advice.
I’ve heard you do other stuff for a lot less than fifty bucks.
Hitman?
Yeah John, that was kinda the point. There are not tv stations to turn on. There are no newspapers to read. There are only coupons to clip so you can be lured to the store to spend money. The point of this article is that the new media is the only media. The old media is the dead media. They shot themselves in the head and then complained that nobody loves them any more.
Clean the blood off the sheets and pillow cases and move on. Don’t think that you can find useful information on your tv set.
There is useful information in lies if recognized as such.
Alt-Right news accumulator – you might find a few places you feel are OK news sources.
http://theshitlordhub.blogspot.com/
Political analysis, etc. (they do a decent weekly audio podcast, too).
http://fashthenation.com/
https://therightstuff.biz/category/fash-the-nation/ (podcast page)
Russia Insider
http://russia-insider.com/en
TV news is a bad joke.
Youtube is where you find incisive stuff…also Unz, Vox Day, Zman, Steynonline, and others you can find yourself…
It is very good to see SSS post here. And, I particularly like the subject, if not the subject matter. There’s a riddle for you.
When I studied journalism at age 30-something, post USAF and postpartum, I read the morning paper each day, either before work or off and on during work. The paper. Anyone remember that?
The way the world “works” changed drastically in the 1990s, with Windows open to many possibilities for global communication while other windows were shuttered closed without our realizing it.
I have been reading books I’d put away to read “someday” and since moving here and getting our computer semi-reliable on dish and the electric co-op, I hadn’t messed with any of my projects meant to keep me semi-lucid into my octogenarian years.
What have I discovered? I LOVE READING INFORMATION ON PAPER. Still do. I ALSO LOVE WRITING WORDS DOWN ON PAPER. I like to read them, scribble expansions into margins, delete entire paragraphs or move them to the end by marking them “Move to End” and continuing the process. I once told a writing professor I could take ten pages of scribbled notes I’d worked on for a month and turn it into one hundred pages of copy on a computer in a week. And, to prove my point, I did it. Some of us require the hand/mind connection to get anywhere. When reading OR writing.
When I took NewsWriting, I absolutely HATED it. HATED. The professor was a surly old drunk who’d retired from some half-ass weekly paper somewhere in the area and while he seemed to grasp that the news was something more than a way to get advertising coupons into readers’ hands, he could not conceive of a world where advertising and information did not go hand in hand.
I cannot only conceive it, but I saw the world enable exactly that before I changed my major from Newswriting to Editing/Publishing.
Joining the side you are on requires far too much introspection for far too many people, SSS. The subject matter is what is hiding between the lines; our education system is a failed institution from the ground up. Our colleges are full of either teachers who simply went through college to BECOME TEACHERS (exactly what do you teach if you’ve failed fourth grade three times? Well, you ought to be able to teach fourth grade pretty well) OR our teachers are surly failures at their chosen career path and stopped by the local community college on their way to the homeless shelter for 12 hours of teaching credit to allow the state to put them out at the education feeding trough.
Is it any wonder our young people display an amazing lack of curiosity about the world? They do not know a damn thing about anything resembling historical fact or philosophical truth: they do know about entitlement, fairness and equality, three concepts dreamed up by educators with proven ability to destroy all the morals and principles within a strong civilization. Entitlement equals greed. Fairness equals mendacity. Equality equals mediocrity.
Most people should look around at the side they are on and switch once they see they’ve picked a SIDE which does not have their back.
Whoever downvoted that? Probably some damn teacher’s union member who realizes where I’m going with my current attack on the education system, which was put into Cabinet position by Jimmy Carter, making it immediately suspect. Don’t even get me started on the merger of the American Teachers with the National Education Association mid-60s, which was never a good idea.
So Fuck You Too.
“our teachers are surly failures at their chosen career path and stopped by the local community college on their way to the homeless shelter for 12 hours of teaching credit to allow the state to put them out at the education feeding trough.” – That is without a doubt the best description of teachers I have met over the years. Hands down.
I often wondered what made these people qualified to teach (and judge through grading) anything to a young person. Most young people are innately curious, and have simple common sense. I have seen with my own kids that I have had to bring them back from mendacity because the “system” literally grinds the creativity slowly out of them. You want to make US history completely uninteresting to a kid, teach it exactly how the “curriculum” tells the teacher to teach it. It is sad, because a lot of kids would drink in the knowledge in a very real way, IF the “system” was not so full of its own shit. Don’t even get me started with that ridiculous “common core math”. That is about the STUPIDIST thing ever conceived. Only a myopic, central planning focused Marxist moron (with a PHd of course) would take a subject that has been the same since the Egyptians built the pyramids, and attempt to “change” it. The arrogance and ignorance is astounding.
Regarding the new media, well that is simply a farce. TV news now is the same as the tabloids in the supermarket. Hell, I bet even the National Enquirer gets it right more than the TV news. At least they are honest about what they cover. I don’t know about other markets, but in watching the Superbowl this weekend, my local news kept running these ridiculous 30 second ads about being “trusted” and your “home town news source”. What a load of shit. Looks like they are stepping up the propaganda in a huge way to keep the last remaining lowest IQ sheep still tuning in. Apparently, more and more people realize what a cesspool the MSM has become, and even the marginal sheep are slowly leaving. The modern MSM may be owned and controlled by the elites, but it may get to the point where the talking heads will literally be talking to themselves. Hopefully that day is soon.
“There are many wonderful, thoughtful, small publications and websites that exist on a shoestring.”
Yup. I’m going to post this link yet again.
http://www.propornot.com/p/the-list.html
That site, Propaganda Or Not …. it’s a bunch of libtard MSM whores who decided to make their own list of fake news sites to NEVER EVER read ……. which, of course, means they are sites you SHOULD read. Lol.
There are some very well known web sites in that list. The gold mine is finding the wonderful nuggets that are not known.
Pretty sure Prop or Not was/is a CIA-WaPo joint venture. So, yeah.
Yeah I agree. That’s why I started contributing. You don’t make a difference if you sit on the sidelines absorbing information like a sponge. You also only learn half of what you could learn because you never engage in the conversation. I believe that news is dead because people are finding out that it is not the news that has value. It is the discussion of the news that has value. I learn just as much from TBP comments as I do from TBP articles and I think that you all do. You can’t comment on a TV program. You can’t comment on a newspaper article. You can only read them, then you can forget them. And most people do forget them. If this information is important to you, why is it that you forget it so easily? I claim that you forget it because you don’t engage in the discussion. Passive consumption is not passion. Passion is something that you will remember.
So don’t just support your favorite media. That’s nice, and I love the article, but it is far more important to become involved in the discussion. Don’t stop when you get the rolled eyeballs. Force people to confront their inconsistencies. Confront your own inconsistencies. Learn and grow. We all learn something when an authors ideas are confronted with facts and that is far more valuable than reading one man’s opinion on the pages of a newspaper. That man is almost certainly lying, whether on purpose or as a result of his own personal bias. Stand up for what you think. Express your thoughts for others to confront. And accept that in fact, you are not always right, and change your mind as frequently as you change your underwear.
Sorry that was me, Hollywood Rob. I didn’t realize that I had left the internet explorer open. It won’t happen again.
Anonymous says “It is the discussion of the news that has value.” Yes, indeed! That’s why the TBP community of readers and commenters is so valuable. I have yet to find a better and smarter bunch of shit-flinging monkeys than you guys. That’s why this is my 1st go-to website. I learn as much, if not more from the comments as the articles.
“It is the discussion of the news that has value. I learn just as much from TBP comments as I do from TBP articles and I think that you all do. You can’t comment on a TV program. You can’t comment on a newspaper article. You can only read them, then you can forget them. And most people do forget them. If this information is important to you, why is it that you forget it so easily? I claim that you forget it because you don’t engage in the discussion. Passive consumption is not passion. Passion is something that you will remember.”
Dang, that was good!
I have to say that gargoil is really making a mess of the internet these days. Things change from day to day and I didn’t understand them all that well to begin with. Somehow my name got lost. Let’s see if this fixes it.
From the article:
And this is why the liberal Old Guard Fourth Estate Media is opposition force to be defeated.
Although the author generally ignored the contributions of the Alternative (Fifth Estate) Media during the 2016 Presidential Election, I enjoyed the article. Thanks SSS.
It’s the incremental ratcheting up of control by the deep state. These fuckers are both patient and relentless. Standby for an imminent reversal.
Democracy is exploited by the Marxists for the purpose of paralysing their opponents and gaining for themselves a free hand to put their own methods into action. When certain groups of Marxists use all their ingenuity for the time being to make it be believed that they are inseparably attached to the principles of democracy, it may be well to recall the fact that when critical occasions arose these same gentlemen snapped their fingers at the principle of decision by majority vote, as that principle is understood by Western Democracy. . . .
Marxism will march shoulder to shoulder with democracy until it succeeds indirectly in securing for its own criminal purposes even the support of those whose minds are nationally orientated and whom Marxism strives to exterminate. – AH
Their methods haven’t changed in at least a century. The Dems gave lip service to the Constitution, and ‘human rights,’ only so long as doing so served their actual end goals. The moment those actual end goals were no longer being served by their previous positions, those positions were jettisoned like last weeks sewage.
Yes, contribute to the smaller sites that can still provide honest, factual reporting, but that will not stop the onslaught of lies being poured upon the ears of the public.
Yes, turn off the TV (I did years ago for other reasons), but that will not stop the rapid decline I see taking place in the country today.
Taking a sounding a few days after the memo release, I see gasoline being thrown on a fire and the witch hunt has begun. Now if you support releasing the memo, you too are a Russian spy. As the progressives are further exposed, expect the penalty for being a spy to become greatly amplified, as the country faces off against itself.
The voice of reason held court in the ‘80’s, when the stability of the conntry could take a right or left leaning president and still hold course. Today it’s different, reason has been institutionalized and you will not hear from her anytime soon.
These are the times for warnings and preparation, for when the corrupt ones realize it is game over, they will move quickly to put out the light and darkness will descend upon the masses; warning won’t have much of an effect then.
I hope to be writing next week in the same fashion, but time will tell. In the mean time focus on the things that matter, defending the country against the swamp will preserve the country and if it can, another day can be reserved for what to do about global warming and our relations with other nations.
“Now if you support releasing the memo, you too are a Russian spy. ”
It’s crazy… I live in a small town in Vermont. Our tiny local paper has an occasional column by a local “ex-” CIA guy writing about (wait for it) Russian hacking. Another article talking about an “ex-“military informatics guy (whom I’ve met) now working in an emergency management position (think floods, rescue, etc.) also had him working some vague “Russia” threat into his quoted comments!!!! This is a town of 4000 people and even if you turn off the TV and cut the cord, you’re still getting disinfo in the fucking Weekly Shopper. There’s nowhere to hide.
That’s because even the small-town news outlets are usually owned by the big conglomerates so they have to tow the line. It’s all a monopoly. How many of us have watched the videos of different news outlets spouting the same exact lines on a story, shown one after another?
The majority of news outlets don’t have foreign correspondents so they rely on organizations like the Associated Press for stories They also pick up local stories from these organizations. I once wrote an article for the “Augusta Chronicle” on a drummer that was 10 years old that was allowed to play a couple of songs with a band at a local nightclub. The audience loved him.. His father told me the story was picked up in California and a talent scout had contacted him. They planned to meet with the scout (but I don’t know what happened after that). All of these news organizations are all tied in together in monopolies and/or they’re relying on stories from large news story gathering organizations.
Also, the stories that get into the news have to go through the gatekeeper, the editor. If they don’t like your story, or it doesn’t have the right bent, the story is axed. That’s probably why reporters are leaving the business.
Toe the line.
Thanks. Missed that one.
You’re not wrong in general, but this isn’t the case in this particular scenario: old family paper sold to medium-term family for many years, recently sold to young photographer guy. It really is a local rag, not an offshoot of Gannett or anything like that. They don’t “pick up” any stories from outside of a 30-mile radius.
As long as these new papers are owned by Jews and Liberal Progressive Anglo-Saxons nothing will change.One thing about these Treasonous pieces of shit ….they were smart enough to capture the main cultural institutions of our nation.
Glad to see you back SSS .Stick around for a while.
Not Sure , your are an idiotic baboon. Global warming is another lie put out by these liars in the media. MEATHEAD !
I did not agree with it, just saying there are more important things to focus on. Save your insults for worthy opponents and don’t waste them on me.
Edit: I’ve been divorced twice and have had words thrown at me you couldn’t even imagine, you’ll have to try harder than that to offend me.
Military Tribunals Are Not a Solution – Andrea Iravani
The country is in an unstoppable downward spiral; yes they are.
This is a Hell of a thing for you to be sure about, Not Sure!
The suicide of PePe, as he jumps from the frying pan into the fire!
Yeah, I hate government, let’s give them weapons, and place cold blooded murderers in charge, with a history of corruption in military legal disputes well known by military insiders, most notably Chelsea Manning.
Please consider that the military is granted zero power in the constitution.
Please consider that the military’s own system has proven to be untrustworthy and unreliable as well by insiders, including most notably Chelsea Manning.
“Manning told Chang that she felt compelled to leak the documents in the public interest because the channels for raising her concerns with senior officials “are there, but they don’t work.”
https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/chelsea-manning-interview-reveals-why-she-leaked-secret-military-documents-623668%3famp=1
Believe me, I share your frustration with the entirely fucked up corrupt establishment. It does in fact include the military though, which many Americans must be oblivious to, or they would never be supporting it.
Please consider also, that the military tribunals would in fact be the first step towards a full blown fascist military dictatorship! That never ends well!
Please consider also, that it would be simply an exchange of corruption, and evil, but this time with absolute authority and increased power, and a history of cold blooded murder!
Please consider also that things can always be worse and a military dictatorship is definitely worse!
What part of unstoppable downward spiral don’t you understand?
If you can prove the country is not as screwed as I’m saying it is, I will be the first to decry military tribunals. If there is any possible way to solve our problems rationally, politically or intelligently, I’d be the first to champion the cause. As it stands, I do not see much hope of that and as such, do not want to hide in my home while the country goes full military clamp down. Do you? Remember the words of Solzhenitsyn, before his country was taken from him.
Not sure- I understand that it is on an unstoppable downward spiral. I also understand that military tribunals and a military fascist dictatorship would expedite the process and increase the tyranny and corruption! Just based on…. the history of our military and all of world history!!!
Are you in the military?
Was, but not the blood and glory side; I was in in the Air Force under the Strategic Air Command.
We both do not have crystal balls (well, at least I don’t), so I’m good with respecting your opinion as we both hope for a better future. Take care, For Sure
The Suicide of PePe Le Frog – As He Jumps From the Frying Pan Into the Fire – Andrea Iravani
Peace,
Andrea Iravani
If the courts are corrupt, and we can’t have Military Courts, then that makes open revolution the solution.
RHSjr-
Yep. Soap box, ballot box, ammo box……………
Not Sure ,was not trying to hurt you but just get a rise.I use MEATHEAD alot because ” All in the Family ” was my grandparents favorite show.I used to go over and watch it with them every week.Sometimes my dad and mom would come along . Lots of good memories .Have a great day.BB.
No worries, my friend!
Look at my post again, my point is the debate about anything other than our nations survival is paramount to our ability to debate such things as globullwarming or the Joooo’s. Maybe if after the ones seeking to destroy our constitution are vanquished, we can go back to civil discourse. FWIW, I have always stood against the AGW bullshit.
The weaponisation of Federal Agencies against political rivals is a crossing the Rubicon event. That we have polarized into such partisan divide that the above is unacknowledged is evidence the chasm will only grow.
The allegiance of the Fourth Estate to Political entities versus allegience to the truth could not be more evident.
The loss of message control is disastrous and manifest, expect serious blow back. The tag line for SSS’s post is timely and prognostic.
Thanks for the reminder, and especially thanks to Admin for having the courage to take a stand for freedom and truth in an age of lies. I cannot help but realize what an important role The Burning Platform has played in the current zietgiest, all out of proportion to its budget. Hats off to Admin for doing so fuckin much with so little.
Truly Remarkable.
Ditto on hats off to Admin for the unsurpassed quality of TBP.
And to the above post regarding the discussion as valuable, or more so, than the actual content.
I read a lot, and have seen nowhere on the web with as much truth as right here.
“especially thanks to Admin for having the courage to take a stand for freedom and truth in an age of lies.”
That’s why I posted the article. You caught the brass ring and get a free ride on the Merry-Go-Round.
The greatest fall of journalism was Sept 12 2001….
The day after… if you questioned the “truth” you were fired…
Who would want to be a reporter/journalist after this type of treatment?
Silence: Post-9/11 Censorship in the Press
by
Leslie Griffith
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/01/31/silence-post-911-censorship-press
I agree with Otto. Weaponizing the press is bad enough. It took an iron will to hold back the lunatics that chose a career in journalism and now that is gone and the lunatics run the asylum. But weaponizing the just us system is truly the last straw. It is the open doorway to jack booted thugs who kill for the joy of killing, safe in the knowledge that they are protected. It is the end of the rule of law. One law for Hillary and another for you morons. If this rubicon has been crossed then truly we are doomed.
An earlier patriot warned his doomed nation to “Repent [ change mind ] or perish!”. Americans seem to have forgotten the consequences of heeding false gods [ rule makers ].
What goes around, comes around, picking up speed.
Just look at the guy on the sub languishing in jail for e-mailing a picture of himself in the sub to his girlfriend. No intent to do harm, but the inside of the sub was considered classified, so sentenced just as well. Hillary is proclaimed to have had no intent to do harm, yet is free as a bird.
When I read that article, I thought of TBP and Admin, who in the early days would get a bit peeved if a thread got wildly off-topic. He gave up years ago on trying to keep any order among the shit-throwing monkeys who visit here, so I’ll dedicate the following comments to him. Enjoy, Jim.
Going from a low of 5 million barrels per day to over 10 million barrels daily, the U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of oil and has surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia. This increase in domestic production is largely due to improved fracking technology and the increased global market price of oil, which in turn spurs —– more fracking. Same holds true for natural gas, which the U.S. is now exporting.
This explosion in our domestic oil production means that $110 billion dollars a year is staying right here instead of going to exporters such as Venezuela and Nigeria. Plus tens of thousands of well paying jobs have been created, and gasoline prices have stabilized around the $2.50 per gallon range, plus or minus, depending on your state’s gasoline tax. California is an exception because it’s governed by idiots.
Paid $2.90 per gallon this morning. If we have so much supply, why has a barrel of oil gone from $40 to $65? We’ll see what happens when this debt bubble implodes and all the massively indebted non-profit making fracking companies go bankrupt.
We’d love to hear your take on the FBI and CIA, big guy. I miss kicking you around with facts.
Oh, yeah. Just for that, I hope your beloved Beagles lose the Super Bowl. Actually, I don’t for two reasons: I’m a native Pennsylvanian, and the last time Philadelphia won anything was in 1787 when it was selected as the site for the Constitutional Convention. Heh.
In honor of your return I need to post a video of your favorite singer.
“We’d love to hear your take on the FBI and CIA, big guy.”
Hear, Hear! I know I’ve probably pissed you off with my frequent assertions that both are corrupt to the core. It was never a personal thing against you or the good folks who still work there.
When I came to TBP I was still a hardcore believer in our US military mainly because I was born into a military family. The red-pilling I received here regarding how our military is the enforcement division of the world wide NWO Elite Cabal broke my heart. I still support our troops and their idealism, patriotism and integrity. Unfortunately the criminal elites use our sense of patriotism and freedom against us. It’s done with such subtlety that most never even notice but the elite use it to send our children to die for THEIR causes.
They’ve done much the same with nearly every institution of US Govt. and the FBI, CIA, DOJ, FDA, EPA and even the Executive Branch is no different. Fortunately, Military Intelligence, NSA and our new POTUS are wise to their bullshit and are in the midst of reversing this situation. Enjoy the show!
“California is an exception because it’s governed by idiots.”
California is an exception because it’s governed by venal, malignant, psychotic pedophiles. There. Fixed it for you.
I have a better opinion of Governor Brown, Pauly.
“Increased oil production” = short term boost from largely-uneconomic fracking activities (EROEI <1). You will find arguments on both sides, but the fact that there even *is* an argument about energy return is troubling in itself. If it's only marginally remunerative now, look for it to be unaffordable in the future.
The oil obtained is stuff that is too light to be processed by regular refineries without a lot of expensive retro-fitting, but "Condensates" are wrapped into production figures.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-from-u-s-fracking-is-more-volatile-than-expected-1403653344
Meanwhile, industrial civilization runs on diesel.
And to add insult to injury, to do all the fracking requires extraordinary resources in the trucking sphere, exacerbating the one-way consumption of diesel along with accelerated destruction/consumption of the highways and byways of rural America.
Overall, oil "production" (read: extraction) is declining globally by 6% or more per year.
This "rah-rah American production" talk is absurd in a global context of exponential resource depletion and exponential population growth. Many reports are "magical thinking". Look at the graphs of fracking production here, which show the steep production decline after just a couple of years:
http://www.artberman.com/permian-reserves-may-much-smaller-think/
Oh, and don't forget all this fracking uses a shitload of water and then dumps carcinogenic chemicals into acquifers. Except for what they hold back to use on crop irrigation.
GO TEAM USA!
Great summation posted on Steve Ludlum’s site:
More clue-by-fours:
https://www.economic-undertow.com/sample-page/pied-piper-of-dumb-money/
——————————-
As it turns out the drillers need +$100/barrel payments in order to meet expenses. If they don’t get it they die. Costs are costs, they are grounded in physical reality and cannot be cajoled or negotiated with; they are either met or they aren’t. Right now costs are met with boatloads of borrowed money from Wall Street. The problem is proportionately more funds flow to drillers than to the customers who are short of the credit needed to retire the drillers’ loans. That’s why prices have declined, bankrupt customers cannot borrow enough to offer a bid.
Mauldin & Co. discuss fracking but ignore the rest of the oil drilling business. Most of the world’s oil is recovered from legacy conventional fields that have been subject to long-term advanced recovery techniques … all of which cost enormous amounts of money. Extraction expenditures have a binding relationship to the amount of work required to lift oil from what are now depleted, difficult and inaccessible formations. There are also greater costs for processing and transport, infrastructure and maintenance, environmental remediation and leases/taxes/administration. These ‘cost slices’ must be cut from a rapidly dwindling cash-flow pie. Drilling costs per foot of well might indeed be decreasing due to better drilling techniques and highly skilled crews but the complete industry life-cycle costs are not. That this is so is self-evident: if life-cycle costs were falling, there would be no arguments, no denial … no fracking either; these things would be unnecessary.
Mauldin & Co. ignores the affect of low prices on syncrude extraction in Alberta. He fails to mention cancelled drilling projects in the Arctic, the cancelled gas to liquids plants; he fails to note the slumping earnings of major oil companies. Carnage isn’t confined to drillers. Rail transport is hemorrhaging money, so is the steel industry, also oilfield service companies, home-builders and construction contractors.
Why are prices falling? Mauldin doesn’t discuss. Like almost every word written or spoken about the energy business, the focus is on extraction rather than consumption … which is where the bulk of our difficulties lie. Mauldin and Co. assume the free markets will ‘manage’ consumption, that no special examination is required, as indeed there is none. Yet, the fuel after it has been extracted is simply wasted. We have nothing to show for our guzzling of a trillion- plus barrels of irreplaceable fuel other than smog, dead-money debts and a bunch of used cars.
Because there are no revenue returns on driving a billion cars in circles, returns/cash flow must be borrowed. The outcome is the financialization of the world and everything in it, the rise and dominion of the banks, the expansion and bloat of government and its hollowing out by corruption; the need to ‘keep the economy growing’ … or else. Our precious world of waste has saddled itself with hundreds of trillion$ of dollars worth of debt that cannot be ‘worked off’; not even the smallest fraction. The excess leverage represents systemic insolvency without the possibility of relief. The process of ‘restructuring by other means’ is taking place right now under John Mauldin’s nose.
How is this happening?
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US labor force participation: Americans working as a percentage has declined to levels last seen in the 1970s, more find themselves on the dole …
Huge amounts of the political strife and economic disconnects we are seeing are not due to Joos or The Fed or other political shenanigans (bad as those may or may not be). We are experiencing an unprecedented and ongoing, never-to-be-remedied, collapse in energy.
Bubbles – long rebuttal. I specialize in short rebuttals. “ANWR + many more to come. Thanks for playing.”
I’m supposed to be convinced by a four-letter response?
“ANWR” does not obviate any of the issues I referenced.
Frack/obliterate all of Alaska and what will it get you?
A short-term goosing at best, I think.
If you are not askeered, you should be. SSS, no doubt you’ve consolidated a personal resource base, but most USians will not have done so, nor will they have had the ability to do so. Since you are apparently revered here, do tell us what the options are for the non-USG-pensioned.
Sorry, not buying it.
“The oil obtained is stuff that is too light to be processed by regular refineries without a lot of expensive retro-fitting, but “Condensates” are wrapped into production figures.”
Condensates are simply light hydrocarbons like methane, ethane, etc. to maybe cetane (C10). Refineries can crack heavy oils into gasoline, but the lighter condensates –
don’t need cracking. Refineries LOVE condensates, they cost LESS to process. If your refinery was designed to handle heavy crudes, yes, they won’t fit as well. But as long as you have the unit space to handle them, condensates require less effort to turn into salable products.
At a refinery I worked at in Bakersfield, CA for four years, I was a process engineer. My bailiwick was crude / vacuum / light ends and the saturates gas plant. Crude distillation is the first step of turning any crude oil into products: you boil off the easy stuff, and send the bottoms over to vacuum distillation (adjacent to crude distillation), while the light ends are the stuff that come off overhead in the crude distillation, usually stopping around C6 – C10. You separate off the methane – ethane and use it for heater fuel; the propane has its own market, as LPG. You sweeten the propane and butanes, maybe use the isobutane for alkylate (gasoline blending) and just blend in the C5 – C10, straight into gasoline (after sweetening). You might reform some if you have octane targets to hit.
Now look at the heavy stuff. After you crude & vacuum distill it, the gas oils go to catalytic cracking (break down big molecules into smaller ones). You might then need to hydrotreat the intermediates (to remove sulfur again) and possibly hydrocrack them (if still too heavy to blend). Other treatments might be necessary depending on quality. All this additional processing costs money and takes time, more so than blending in a condensate.
People can hate fracking all they want, but this isn’t a reason to.
Well, I am always happy to have new information. I was going by the sources quoted in the links I posted.
The fact that some refineries like to process, and can sell, fracking by-products still doesn’t address, I don’t think, the diesel situation. In fact, your comment brings to mind Dmitry Orlov’s explanations that the reason Americans were encouraged to do so much “happy motoring” was because refineries needed to get rid of the lighter fractions. Diesel does the work of our industrial world, while there is nothing productive about simply driving around despite the demand for doing so as long as gas is cheap.
None of what you write addresses, either, the fact that fracking is an increasingly more energy- and resource-hungry method for obtaining fuel. It’s not so much an issue of being “against fracking” as foreseeing its inevitable decline into becoming un-economic in energy terms, at point which I believe we have reached, or near enough thereto to be of deep concern.
ETA: https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2017/02/you-are-not-in-control.html
“… the technosphere is rational to a fault and is all about achieving efficiencies. And so, an obvious question to ask is, What is it about the car-dependent living arrangement, and the landscape it enables, that the technosphere finds to be efficient? The surprising answer is that the technosphere strives to optimize the burning of gasoline; everything else is just a byproduct of this optimization.”
…
“If it weren’t for widespread private car ownership, gasoline would have to be flared off at refineries, at a loss. In turn, the cost of petroleum distillates—which are all of the industrial fuels—would double, and this would curtail the technosphere’s global expansion by making long-distance freight much more expensive. The technosphere’s goal, then, is to make us pay for the gasoline by forcing us to drive. To this end, the landscape is structured in a way that makes driving necessary. The fact that to get from a Motel 8 on one side of the road to the McDonalds on the other requires you to drive two miles, navigate a cloverleaf, and drive two miles back is not a bug; it’s a feature. When James Kunstler calls suburban sprawl “the greatest misallocation of resources in human history” he is only partly right. It is also the greatest optimization in exploiting every part of the crude oil barrel in the history of the technosphere.”
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SSS, the “great writer and thinker” Midge Decter is a fucking israel-first neocon traitor.
That’s one great big epic fail for you! One of many, as I recall…
Here’s a blast from the past when the heroic Gore Vidal took Decter on, (and her odious husband, Norman Podhoretz):
“WASHINGTON — Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine, that incubator of neoconservatism, and his wife, Midge Decter, driving spirit behind the hawkish, bipartisan Committee for the Free World, have on occasion taken the novelist Gore Vidal to task for the way he condemns the “predatory“ American past, excoriates the Reagan defense budget and predicts the doom of our society.
Vidal, author of “Myra Breckinridge“ and “Lincoln,“ lashed back with an attack in The Nation.
“To make sure that nearly a third of the federal budget goes to the Pentagon and Israel,“ writes Vidal, “it is necessary for the pro-Israel lobbyists to make common cause with the lunatic right.“
That`s pretty silly, but then Vidal gets rough. He recalls a conversation of a generation ago in which Podhoretz expressed a lack of interest in our Civil War, and writes:
“I realized then he was not planning to become an `assimilated American,` to use the old-fashioned terminology, but rather, his first loyalty would always be to Israel.“ He adds about Decter: “Like most of our Israeli fifth columnists, Midge isn`t much interested in what the goyim were up to before Ellis Island.“
The novelist does not merely charge “pro-Israel lobbyists“ with dual loyalty, which is bad enough; he accuses the entire ilk of being fifth columnists, a locution coined by Spanish Gen. Emilio Mola in 1936 to mean
“subversives acting in support of an invader.“ That active disloyalty is its meaning today.
Nor was this accusation an excess of zeal in the heat of the moment. To Decter`s observation that “Mr. Vidal does not like his country,“ Vidal writes: “Of course I like my country. After all, I`m its current biographer. But now that we`re really leveling with each other, I`ve got to tell you I don`t much like your country, which is Israel.’ “
All I can say is Bravo! Mr. Vidal. And for you, SSS, you have an affinity for subversives and traitors. Why is that?
Zara
Sometimes you’re a real dick
Oh rly? I shall not let praise of a neo-con go unchallenged. Blow me.
…and not just any neocon. Midge Decter is the Queen Mother of neocons. The blood on that bitch’s hands runs from Texas to New Joisey and back to Tucson. She is the enemy.
I wasn’t talking about you commentary regarding Midge Decter.
I was talking about this — “you have an affinity for subversives and traitors” —- that’s totally rude and bullshit. And seeing how you’re a smart guy, really, I think you know that.
It is a bit rude, I agree but it is mostly true. Decter is indeed a subversive and a traitor. SSS likes Netanyahu who is another one…not to mention a grade A war criminal and most likely a criminal in the US as well (participated in a ring stealing nuclear bomb triggers). Hopefully that asshole will be seeing the inside of an Israeli prison cell soon enough.
Stuck – want to guess why SSS has made himself scarce? Maybe he will tell us plain.
It has been a great loss.
I like SSS. I always have. However his views are very conventional How is that a great loss? Truly SSS’s main function here has been to be TBP’s favorite whipping boy and he was always a good sport about it. I hope he stays around but I have little hope for him in terms of personal growth after exposure to the abundance of knowledge which is exhibited here daily.
Z – SSS’s value was and is significant. You would never understand, but fact is SSS is a patriot.
He loves his country, and would defend it to the death against all foes. He loves the Constitution. He takes well-reasoned positions, and is a man of breadth and depth of knowledge and thought. He has served his country in war, and in peace. He has a code of honor that permeates to his very soul.
Those things are anything but conventional. They are rare as hen’s teeth, especially when they are held as deeply and honestly as SSS holds them.
You do him a disservice.
Re the abundance of knowledge here, I see less and less of that, and instead see more and more false narratives, or slanted narratives, or fake news galore based on such narratives and not on facts and data. SSS never was that type. He could and would defend his positions with facts and data, and not with the wild unsubstantiated narratives others use.
In your mind and in his, I agree. They are admirable qualities. The problem with him, and to a certain degree with you, is that some of things you know as facts are in fact untruths. Some of these untruths are exceedingly dangerous to the very attributes you admire. I’m sorry you are incapable of seeing that.
Well said, indeed, Llpoh! And I say that as one who scuffles with SSS on various issues …. such as Sweet Mary Jane.
Zara, if we all had the same Enlightened Views that you hold …. then this joint would be nothing more than an Echo Chamber. Is that what you want? There’s nothing wrong with conventional viewpoints, especially if you can back it up with logic and reason which SSS does (even if you don’t agree with it). Think about it.
Stucky, think about what you are saying. He quoted, admires and in fact named his entire post after a person who has perpetrated vastly greater evil than Charles Manson.
Let that sink in for awhile.
He can’t defend shit like this because there is no defense for it. Therefore he won’t. But in case SSS is lurking here, I’d really like him to explain why the US military still has bases in Syria. Go for it, big guy!
Just yesterday he mentioned something about the FBI memo.
Previously, he may have mentioned that there was too much discussion about (((a certain topic))).
Welcome back SSS! It’s been too long!
I believe we’re about to see a major shift in the MSM. Journalistic integrity is going to make a big come back and the long marginalized Alternative Media will become mainstream. The only reason it’s called *alternative* is because it’s been an alternative to the lies of the MSM. I was recently introduced to Your Voice America by Brenden Dilley. So far I like it. https://www.yourvoiceamerica.tv/
I’m partial to TBP style of getting my news. Just post something…..anything here and the STM’s generally distill it down to what is important and true.
EDIT: I doubt that I’ll ever fully trust ANY media again after being lied to EVERYDAY of my life but I’ll trust some more than others.
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“I doubt that I’ll ever fully trust ANY media again after being lied to EVERYDAY of my life but I’ll trust some more than others.”
Once trust is lost, I’m not sure it can ever be fully regained.
I don’t trust any media site anymore, either. Not completely. I am always wondering what the real agenda is.
The lies on Faux News are just as abundant, CNN is the biggest offender But there are no channels that don’t use deceptions and propaganda.
You’re kidding me right? I thought EVERY other msm source was pure as driven snow!
It was embarrassing watching mainstream media committing suicide over the last few years. At first, I was angry for the ass media’s blatant and increasing bias. As the evisceration continued, I found joy in its self-destruction. The leading roles were filled by the Washington Compost and the Joo York Times. I’m surprised they still have advertisers.
There are 15 suites per floor on the high rise I live in. Once upon a time, going to work in the morning, I could see 10 to 12 doors with newspapers waiting. Today, there are only one or two. They now deliver flyers wrapped in the classified ads to the lobby for residents to pick up so the newspaper can claim they’re delivered to so many homes. However, delivery is not readership and they fired their reporters a few years ago as they could no longer afford to pay them.
Good-bye. Good riddance. Dishonesty generates its own Karma.
And thank you for saying it, SSS. Yes, we must support our alternative news sources. We’ll be in the dark if we let them wither.
In all honesty, some of that losing of business for newspapers is the Internet. My mother is the only person I know that still gets a subscription to the local newspapers, and she’s 86. Everyone else uses their phone or computer to access the news. It appears the advertising dollars are moving online as well.
It’s been a long time that journalists abandoned investigative reporting to muckrakers like National Enquirer and became mere parrots with coveted press passes to the briefing room.
Thanks for posting SSS.
Cheers and glad yer back.
“(SSS) quoted, admires and in fact named his entire post after a person who has perpetrated vastly greater evil than Charles Manson.”
—-Zara
No, I didn’t. I quoted a lifelong journalist who quoted American Jews whom you abhor. Read the article and its author, dipstick.
“And for you, SSS, you have an affinity for subversives and traitors. Why is that?”
—-Zara
Once again, right from the start, you connect me directly to American Jews you dislike. In fact, I only posted an article from a New York Times/Post journalist who quoted one of those Jews, and then you threw me into a link with her Jewish husband, both of whom you consider subversives and traitors. For an engineer, you need a lot of help in reading comprehension. I hope you do better with blueprints.
SSS says, No, I didn’t. I quoted a lifelong journalist who….
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Who advocates non stop wars in the Middle East where Americans die in the service of a foreign country at the same time destroying those countries causing untold civilian deaths and misery. Cases in point, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Iran is next. She is a monster. Why are you incapable of seeing that? She is a million times more evil than Manson could ever dream of being. Manson held sway over less than a dozen people. She influences millions. Including you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwc_M0KN2vU
SSS! Welcome back ?