Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Jan 27, 2015

• Selective Justice
• Searching for Keisel
• Bypass Cleanup
• Dabbable Bubble
• Antisocial Network
• Meth & KZYX
• Catch of the Day
• Greek Enlightenment
• No Snow
• Trickledown
• Shamanic Journey
• Variety Show
• Radzin's Book
• Duct-taping
• Anti-Corruption Act
• Gualala Demo
• Howlin'
• Grim Reality
• Kunstler Gram

SUSAN KEEGAN was a friend of mine, not a close friend but a person I knew and liked for many years. As did many people throughout Mendocino County. The only enemy Susan had turned out to be the man she married. Nobody deserves to be murdered, least of all a woman who was in the process of shedding herself of that husband and beginning life on her own in Sonoma County. She was moving on. Susan's murder in November of 2010 was shocking by itself. What's happened since ought to at least disturb us all, and continues to shock everyone who knew her. Fact is, Susan was bludgeoned to death in her south Ukiah home by… her husband, Dr. Peter Keegan. Everyone in law enforcement, and I mean everyone, from the DA through the Sheriff's Department, believes that Dr. Keegan killed his wife of 30 years. Without rehashing the known evidence against the bad tempered medico, which is overwhelming and would have gotten him prosecuted anywhere else… (for example: Was Susan Keegan Murdered A Year Ago?) please know that Susan's death certificate reads, “Homicide.” And the doctor was the only other person in the house.

CONTRAST THE UNPROSECUTED KEEGAN MATTER to the triple prosecution of Mr. Doak of Fort Bragg. The DA's office is convinced Mr. D shot his wife. She says she accidentally murdered one of her fingers while she was cleaning a handgun. Two Doak juries have hung, with a minority of jurors voting not guilty. But the DA is going to prosecute Doak a third time (and jury trials aren't cheap) while the straight-up Keegan murder is going on five years unprosecuted.

I'M SORRY but we've got to class-angle this one. Doctors don't bludgeon their wives to death, do they? Working class drunks can shoot off a wife's finger, though, and by gumbo we'll prosecute that guy until we get a jury to say he did it. If, and sorry to be repetitive here, if Joe the Tweaker's wife turned up dead in Joe's bathroom, Joe would now be in his fifth year in state prison.

SUSAN KEEGAN deserves her day in court.

* * *

Why Equal Justice Matters — in Ukiah and New York

KEISAL UPDATE

On Friday, January 23, 2015 at approximately 10:00 AM Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies attempted to contact Riley Keisel, 31, of Mendocino, at a residence located in the 44000 block of Crestwood Drive in Mendocino, California. The reason for the attempted contact was that Keisel had a felony arrest warrant issued in Humboldt County. When Deputies arrived at the residence Keisel fled on foot towards the Big River Haul Road in a heavily wooded area. An extensive search was conducted for 1-2 hours with two Sheriff's Office K9 teams and the aid of several allied law enforcement agencies (California Highway Patrol, California State Parks, California Department of Fish & Wildlife and Fort Bragg Police Department). The search ended without Keisel being located. A reverse 911 notification was issued at the conclusion of the search notifying the public that Keisel was wanted and at large in the area. Keisel is a white male adult last seen wearing black jeans, a blue jacket, a large green back pack and a purple bandana. Keisel is known to associate with a white female adult with short blond hair and having a heavy build. Deputies developed information that suggested Keisel was in possession of a handgun although none was seen during the attempted apprehension, but the public is asked to considered him armed and dangerous at this time. As of 01-25-2015 Keisel's current whereabouts were still unknown. Anyone with information as to Keisel's whereabouts is urged to call the Sheriff's Office dispatch center at 707-463-4086.

WILLITS BYPASS UPDATE:

(Caltrans Press Release, Monday, January 26):

“Cal-OHSA released control of the area around the collapsed section of the viaduct back to Caltrans late Friday. At noon on Saturday contractor crews began to remove debris, and that clean-up will be completed by the end of the week. Contractor crews not working on the clean-up have resumed work on other areas of the viaduct and on other bridges.”

DABBABLE BUBBLE HASH?!? WHAAAAAAT…

by Emily Hobelman

Next Saturday, Jan. 31, Brandon Parker from the Mendo-based extraction crew “3rd Gen Family” is leading a day-long solvent-less hash making demo at medical marijuana dispensary Wonderland Nursery in Garberville. “Day-long” means 10 a.m.-4 p.m. And heads up…! Wonderland Nursery is directly behind the Renner Station on Bear Canyon Rd.

This is a “come all show all seminar,” where attendees will see “how to wash, zest and dry bubble hash.” (Quotes from the 3rd_gen_family Instagram.) Parker is demonstrating his personal technique from start-to-finish, and he’s “holding nothing back.” You do not need a medical marijuana recommendation to go check out the demo.

Parker makes award-winning solvent-less extracts (a.k.a. cold-water or bubble hash) that you can dab. This is precisely what’s fresh about this demo — he’s making bubble that you can dab. You gotta know, dabbing isn’t restricted to solvent-derived extracts, like BHO. You can dab bubble too, but it has to have the right consistency. Parker will show you how to get there. (I will vouch for Parker’s hash — it’s bomb.)

I caught up with Wonderland Nursery Director of Operations Sarah Hartsoe the other day to learn more about the upcoming demo. Hartsoe’s been in the medical marijuana biz for the past five years. According to her, the popularity of bubble hash in that time has been “nonexistent — pretty much no one asks for bubble hash,” she says.

However, Hartsoe says that lately there’s been a surge in the popularity of bubble hash because extract artists like Parker are coming out with “full melt” bubble. “Full melt” refers to hash that can be dabbed on a glass rig or an electric nail without leaving any residue or ash. In other words, the hash disappears when you hit it, just like a solvent-derived dab. “So it’s nice and clean,” she says, “especially with glass-on-glass.” (She’s referring to dabbing on a quartz nail.)

“The makers of [solvent-less extracts] have really stepped up and made it full melt, and that’s where they filled in the gap. People are stopping the BHO and CO2 extractions completely and going back to bubble hash. It’s cool again,” Hartsoe says. “It went from being something you sprinkled on cannabis or rolled in a joint to something you can dab.” And it’s a dab you can do with out having to worry about ingesting residual solvents.

Parker’s goal is to show that making good-quality, “full melt” hash like this is doable, but please bear in mind that this is a day-long demo. If you want all the ins and outs of his process, show up at 10 a.m. and plan to hang out till 4 p.m. He’ll start with “fresh frozen whole plant” material (quote from his 3rd_gen_fam Instagram), and he’ll end with full melt solvent-less concentrate.

Hartsoe says the best solvent-less extracts are made from fresh bud, not trim, and certain strains are superior for bubble hash making as well. “You would still want to test your cannabis for mold, fungus and mildew beforehand,” she says, but as far as testing for residual solvent, well, that’s just something you don’t have to worry about with bubble — there’s nothing to purge.

In terms of equipment, some people use straight up washing machines or specially designed hash-making machines (like the Bubble Now) and/or bubble bags (like Boldt Bags). You also need lots of good quality ice and/or dry ice. (Like, if you want to make good beer, you gotta use good water…). Parker’s demo will involve both bubble bags and a machine.

“I think it’s important for people to know that instead of blasting or using butane or CO2 to make a concentrate,” Hartsoe says, “you can do it in a safer, more affordable way. It is healthier and it is safer for the environment. There is less of an impact… There are no cans to dispose of.” At the demo, Trim Scene Solutions will have a display of everything you need to make bubble hash, so you can check out some merch. Plus, Pearl Moon from 707 Cannabis College is doing a hand-saving “water demo” for trimmers. Apparently, if you take regular breaks from trimming to dip your hands in super cold or hot water for certain lengths of time, you can prevent strain. Moon will fill you in on the deets.

This is a free event and everyone is welcome, but to make a purchase or to become a member at Wonderland Nursery you need a California doctor’s 215 recommendation and California ID. And Hartsoe wants to remind people that Wonderland Nursery is still giving away free CBD clones to patients, so “they can utilize the free clones and start preparing to make a CBD-rich solvent-less concentrate of their own.”

For more information, Wonderland Nursery can be reached at 707-923-2175.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

METH: BAD

Editor,

Kudos to our enlightened Sheriff Allman and to Karen Rifkin for her excellent interview with him last week; I hope that the article was read by a great many people around the county and that they will heed Sheriff Allman's message about the dire threat to our County posed by the scourge of methamphetamine. Let's pray that his predictions of increased crimes of property and violence fueled by that new law's mandated release of low-level drug criminals (so often associated with speed) do not come to pass, but it is difficult to imagine why they wouldn't, given the correlation between meth use and those sorts of crimes.

When one reads the daily police blotter it seems like, whether the crime is spouse abuse, petty theft or more exotic mayhem, the addendum is so often, "small amount of methamphetamine found". Just the other day, as I was at the gas station, I saw several of Ukiah's finest haul off a guy on a bicycle who had apparently been smoking speed in broad daylight right there on State Street. Only if more and more of us become intolerant of this viciously addictive substance will we see it's use diminish in the area.

On a completely different subject, I hope that very few people will be swayed by the endless diatribes of one John Sakowicz against our great public radio station, KZYX, which is an absolute lifeline for its many listeners all over the county. I mean, who does he think appointed him the Cardinal Torquemada of his own private Inquisition of the station?

Amazingly, he 'serves' on the station's board of directors whose main role has always been to help raise funds for the station. John, on the other hand, has chosen to do just the opposite; filing frivolous legal actions against the station that have cost it over $10,000 in legal fees, hanging up its FCC licensing, as well as lobbying underwriters to withhold contributions until, "current management is replaced", as if we could just go to the EDD and hire all new management that would do just as good a job! (The previous leadership had left the station a quarter million dollar mess of debt that the current chiefs have only recently, after many years of incredibly hard work and resourcefulness, managed to dig it out of), all the while whining about the modest incomes that the essential mainstays of the station are paid. I mean, how much does he make? It's none of my business, and I'll bet that the vast majority of listeners would have no problem signing off on the pay of those hard-working folks who bring us one of the best features of our beloved County of Mendocino. I can well imagine why they do not want to publish their pay rate; should they ever transition to a for-profit station, they probably wouldn't want to admit how little they were paid for as hard as they worked on KZYX.

His suggestion that people contribute to the Ukiah's micro broadcaster KMEC (heard mostly within Ukiah city limits) instead, is a strictly apples-to-oranges comparison; KZYX maintains an enormous county-wide broadcast infrastructure. I imagine the only reason that Sakowicz has not been kicked off of the station's board and banned from future meetings is that they're afraid of his litigious vengeance. What a heavy cross for all the hard working volunteers of the station to bear! I beseech you, Mr. Sakowicz, desist from this pointless vandalism of this precious community resource that is so important to so many people in the county.

Sincerely, John Arteaga, Ukiah

CATCH OF THE DAY, Jan 26, 2015

TROY ALBEE, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

HUNTER GRAHAM, Mendocino. Burglary (of a store).

KELLY KENNEDY, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

PATRICIA KREJCI, Willits. Burglary.

LAWRENCE LLEWELLYN, Talmage. Concealed weapon in a vehicle.

JONATHAN MIRAVALLE, Ukaih. County parole violation.

ROBERT MORENO, Ukiah. Saps or similar weapons, possession of controlled substance.

ERICA VIGIL-MARTIN, Redwood valley. DUI, suspended license.

GREECE SHOWS THE WAY!

What the new government will do:

A major renegotiation of Greece's debts and deep cuts in repayments on its £185billion international bailout

Writing off the bank debts of people who can't afford to pay – a move some experts fear could result in a run on lenders today

Heavy new taxes on the rich including wealth taxes, new levies on luxury goods and an end to tax breaks for Greek shipping magnates. A massive job creation scheme to tackle Greece's 25 per cent unemployment rate, and a 50 per cent increase in the minimum wage. Deep cuts in defence spending and possible withdrawal from Nato

I-80 TO TRUCKEE: To put this in perspective, Blue Canyon averages 252 inches of snow per year, Truckee averages 204 inches per year, and both have zilch right now. The weather station at Blue Canyon (5,240-foot elevation at the small airport) is used as a reporting point for meteorologists across America; it has bare dirt around it right now. Drought? Hardly. The station has already recorded an amazing 46.67 inches of rain this winter. If all that rain were snow, it could be 20, 30 feet high. As you head into the Sierra, there is no snow at all when you cruise up the Whitemore Grade above Blue Canyon (5,022 feet), a sparse layer of snow at Kingvale and Soda Springs (6,128 feet), zilch with a few speckles on the terrain above Donner Lake (6,394 feet), and virtually nothing at Truckee (5,951 feet). — Tom Stienstra

AND BRING YOUR OWN TREE!

Journey group update

Hello Friends of the Caretakers Garden!

I hope that you can join us for an evening of exploring the Shamanic Drum Journey at the gardens. Further details will be sent the week of the group to those who've RSVP'd. Also please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. I look forward to Journeying with those of you who feel called to attend!

Much Love, Heather 707.357.5869

Website: www.theyewtreeshamanichealing.com

“For a long time we lean against the trees in the circle and they hold us up. But there comes a time when we realize that we must become the tree in the circle, able to hold the leaning of others.” —Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

TIME TO DUST OFF THAT TUTU and Get Your Act Together! The AV Solar Grange is once again gearing up for the spectacular 24th annual Variety Show, coming up March 6th and 7th. Seeking: Mad thespians, surreal magicians, contortionists and bendy folks, mind readers, competitive whistlers, cat jugglers, horse whisperers, slam poets, hula hoopers, and demonstrations of skill in matters practical or frivolous. Call Rainbow: 895-3807 or Bill: 895-2318 and show us what you got!

‘SEARCH FOR TRUTH: THE SEEKER BEGINS’

Book Review by Jonah Raskin

Self-published novels don’t have to be self-indulgent. Bryan Radzin’s one and only self-published novel describes the cross continental adventures of a young, idealistic California journalist who unearths a global conspiracy with the help of his devoted California girlfriend and a gang of good natured guys. Search for Truth: The Seeker Begins borrows from several genres: romantic comedy, dark thriller, plus a bit of science fiction and a little fantasy thrown in for good measure.

Radzin, 34, grew up in southern California and attended Humboldt State University. As a kid he read Roald Dahl’s popular novels; two of his favorites were James and The Giant Peach and Matilda. But at the top of his list of all-time favorite children’s books was Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth because, he explained, it had “so many deep philosophical messages.” Search for Truth is a kind of Phantom Tollbooth for adults with its own version of magical events and mysteries.

In high school, Radzin wrote about sports; after he graduated he authored a column about parenting for The Press Enterprise in Riverside County.

“I got so tired of seeing all these parenting shows and reading books by people that didn't even have kids,” he said. “My column was about parenting from a young person’s perspective. I really enjoyed it; it was fresh so to speak.”

These days he works at a Best Western in Arcata, California. “It doesn't pay very much, but I'm very happy at it because half the job is talking to people,” he explained.

The hero in Search for Truth is based largely on the author himself. Christina is inspired, he says, “by the kind of woman I have always wanted.” His name is Jason; hers is Christina. They’re quirky, loveable pot-smoking Humboldt County hippies who like to get stoned, who care about the planet Earth and about democracy, equality and truth.

If you live in Arcata or Garberville, Petrolia or Alderpoint you probably know people like them. Early in the novel, they go their separate ways. Near the end they come back together again. As a team of two they’re on a quest to find the masterminds behind “The Six Entities” an evil, invisible organization that “controls the entire world and everything in it.” You root for Jason because he’s the little guy at war with a monstrous giant; you root for Christina because she’s the goddess of goodness itself. Together they’re invincible.

Reading Search for the Truth feels like watching an action packed movie with good guys who have only their wits to defend themselves and bad guys who use automatic weapons and anything and everything insidious at their disposal.

There are humorous moments, mostly in restaurants with cute waitresses. Jason loves Cuban sandwiches and biscuits and gravy, too. He’s a flawed character who knows his flaws and who maintains a healthy dose of optimism and humor. Christina is absolutely brilliant and absolutely loyal: she’s the ideal girlfriend, pal and comrade-in-arms. The novel ends just as a new plot begins to unravel and as Jason and Christina wonder where their next steps will take them. A sequel seems to be in the works.

NOW IF YOU CAN JUST GET SOME MONEY TO PUT IN IT…

The Ukiah Library hosts:

DIY with Duct-Tape for Young Adults

Wednesday, February 4th 2:30pm

DIY with duct-tape at the Library! Young adults (8-18) are invited to make their heart’s desire: wallets, purses, bookmarks, superhero capes, you name it. Come make it with duct-tape! Materials will be provided. Sponsored by Friends of the Ukiah Valley Library & District Teens.

You can also follow District Teens on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ukiahlibrarydistrictteens to stay informed about teen events at the library.

COAST MEETING ON GETTING MONEY OUT OF POLITICS

Sunday, February 8th, at the Mendocino Community Center

Mendocino Coast Transition Towns will host a public discussion about a new strategy to get the corrupting influence of money out of the political process -- a strategy that has just been successfully voted into law in Tallahassee, Florida. In what they call an “Anti-Corruption Act,” Tallahassee activists have reset the rules so that government of the people, by the people, and for the people can truly function, free of the corruption that dominates so much of the political scene these days. The Anti-Corruption Act prohibits government officials from taking political contributions (bribes) from those they regulate, closes the "revolving door" by which people move back and forth between government and regulated industry jobs, and ends secret money financing for political campaigns. Drawing support from both left and right, the new law was adopted in Tallahassee by 70% of the voting citizens. We could accomplish something similar here in Mendocino County, making our local political system more democratic, and bringing pressure on Sacramento and Washington DC to enact similar rules. Come hear about the Anti-Corruption Act movement, and discuss possible next steps. Presenters: Michael St. John and Charles Cresson Wood. Location: Community Center of Mendocino, 998 School St., in the Village of Mendocino. When: Sunday, February 8, 2015; 630PM-800PM. More information: call Charles Cresson Wood at 707-937-5572.

SOUTH COAST PEOPLE FOR PEACE & JUSTICE continue our Demonstrations for Peace, Freedom, Justice, An End to Ongoing Wars, and BLACK LIVES MATTER! We gather in front of the Gualala Post Office every Monday at noon, and will continue until further notice. Everyone is welcome to join us.

For information call: 884-4703 and visit our Facebook Page at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/South-Coast-People-For-Peace/1488299098076641

‘HOWLIN' FOR YOU’

I must admit

I can't explain

Any of these thoughts racing

Through my brain

 

It's true

Baby I'm howlin' for you

 

There's something wrong

With this plot

The actors here

Have not got

 

A clue

Baby I'm howlin' for you

 

Mockingbird

Can't you see

Little girl's

Got a hold on me

 

Like glue

Baby I'm howlin' for you

 

Throw the ball

To the stick

Swing and miss and a

 

Catcher's mitt

Strike two

Baby I'm howlin' for you

— Howlin' Wolf

A FRIEND OF MINE who worked on American Sniper for months and attended several screenings in places as different as Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington DC had an interesting observation that mutes some of the ideological ‘wars’ that have consumed multiple critics conducting operations from the safety of their laptops and iPhones. It revolved around the scene where Chris Kyle sights, shoots and kills the major-league caliber Iraqi sniper from a distance of more than a mile away. In a sandstorm. At a screening in LA and New York, the crowd cheered. In Dallas there was no cheering. And when the film was screened at one site in Washington there was only a heavy silence. Where was that location? Walter Reed National Medical Center, where the wounded, the limbless, the brain damaged are treated for injuries that linger forever and are largely forgotten by a country and a culture where more attention is paid to deflated footballs than the needs and cost of caring for men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. American Sniper is a movie. War is a grim reality and with us still.

— Mike Barnicle

THE TRUE STATE OF THE NATION

by James Kunstler

For one who has been a close observer of the US socio-political-economic scene since the Kennedy era, the nation has gotten itself into a pretty sorry state. The pervasive racketeering that poisons American life from the money-in-politics farce, to the shameless, chiseling medical-pharma cabal, to the SNAP-card and disability rights empire of grift, to the college loan swindle, to the disgusting security state apparatus, to the corporate tyranny of local life and economies, to the delusional techno-narcissism of the media, to the despotic and puerile gender preoccupations of academia — all of it adds up to a society that cares as little for the present as it does for the future. And that’s aside from the pathetic digital device addiction of the generation coming up, and the sheer sordid behavior of the tattooed, drug-saturated, pornified masses of adults now forever foreclosed from a purposeful existence or a decent standard of living.

Even physically America is a sorry-ass spectacle: between our decrepitating cities, abandoned Main Streets, gruesome strip-mall highways, repellent and monotonous suburbs, dreary industrial ruins, profaned countryside, and desecrated coastline, there is little left to actually love about This land is Your Land. We’ve made so many collective bad choices about how we live that one can’t help feeling we are simply a wicked people who deserve to be punished.

Whole classes already are, of course. What used to be a working class with aspirations has devolved to the forlorn savagery averred to above. Our thought-leaders are devoid of thought. Our hopes and dreams are absurd sci-fi fantasies prompting us toward robot-assisted suicide. Our political stratagems of recent years accomplish nothing except making more trouble for ourselves while inciting the enmity of people elsewhere.

Barack Obama’s signal failure — aside from letting the banks get away with murder and omitting to counter the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — has been his total evasion of measures that would prepare the nation for the vast changes in social and economic imperative that will attend the transition out of the techno-industrial era when he is out of office. These include supporting local small scale agriculture (rather than giant corporate agri-biz); promoting and supporting the reconstruction of local economic networks (Main Street business); eliminating multitudinous federal regulations that prevent individuals and small enterprises from operating; closing the hundreds of superfluous US military bases around the world; giving federal support to rebuild the US passenger rail system; promoting walkable communities — especially the re-activation of existing small towns and cities — instead of mindless obeisance to the suburban “home-building” industry (and its step-child in the commercial highway strip development racket) — and truly reforming medical care without the connivance of the insurance racketeers.

Obama and his party can be faulted for fostering the myth that every young person needs a college degree — leading a whole generation into debt penury for no good purpose, while depriving society of a long list of vocational roles and livelihoods based on providing genuine service or value. We will be a nation of unemployed gender studies graduates instead of plumbers, electricians, organic farmers, arborists, carpenters, machinists, nurses and paramedics, small business owners, et cetera.

This enormous bundle of myths and misplaced expectations for yesterday’s tomorrow prevents the collective national imagination from summoning a revised American Dream based on repairing the massive destruction of recent decades.

The political mood has not been murkier in my longish lifetime. Both major parties edge toward extinction as the Whigs did in the mid-1850s. The citizenry not sunk in drugs and depravity — that is, people who still read the news in some form and would like to care about their country — deserve a new faction or party that can at least express their discontent with the current situation. They will surely not get this in the generally supposed coming contest between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. I hope they will be so insulted by this dynastic grab that more than one new party will form and make a big stank about it. The Tea Party was a good start in that spirit, but it tripped on its internal contradictions and its association with Dixieland-style religious fundamentalist idiocy and cracker war-mongering.

All that redounds on the current state of the Republican Party, a gang of venal ignoramuses pimping for lost causes. Despite having won the 2014 midterms, and capturing both houses of congress and governorships, they seem increasingly out-of-touch with the realities of economic contraction, peak oil, and climate irregularities. The old magic of stirring up the animals on social issues of abortion, bedroom activities, and allegiance to Jesus fail to move the old base, which is becoming economically quite desperate. That base also becomes conscious of how they have been hornswoggled into voting against their own interests for years in the sense that author Thomas Frank so aptly described in What’s the Matter With Kansas.

Race relations turned very sour in 2014 with more highly publicized killings of young black men in ambiguous circumstances. The chief martyr of the year, Michael Brown of Ferguson, Mo., was a poor candidate for sainthood, and did not help advance the credibility of claims that police brutality rather than the misbehavior of young men is behind a lot of strife abroad in the land. One gets the feeling that black race hustlers are in the driver’s seat recklessly pushing African Americans toward open warfare with everybody else. My view of the situation is not popular with Progressives, viz: that black separatism and its offshoots in “diversity” politics and multi-culturalism tragically promote an antagonistic, alienated, oppositional black politics at the expense of a common culture for blacks and whites with common values and common standards of behavior. It has gotten so bad that reasonable people can sadly conclude that the long civil rights project has ended in failure. We are treading on dangerous ground here, with foolishly outmoded ideas about what to expect from each other, and of course all this begs the questions: What now? What next?

Domestic Forecast Particulars for 2015

Markets tanking in Q3 destroy the illusion of “recovery.” It becomes obvious that the story was a lie and the public mood grows much more surly.

2014 proves to be the year of peak shale oil. After the shakeout of 2015 due to low oil prices, production never returns to previous levels. The fairy tales of “energy independence” and “Saudi America” fall apart, deeply demoralizing a gulled public and adding yet another layer of discredit to the people in charge of things.

Different kinds of political revolt break out around the country among varied groups, left, right, and center. Some of it revolves around life-and-death struggles for the souls of the floundering major parties. Some of it is organized violence against the government and especially against the US security state apparatus, including overly militarized local police forces.

Low-grade racial warfare erupts across the US. Flash mobs, knock-out games, lootings, and hammer attack type outrages generate counter-attacks. By summertime the conflict heats up. Firefights become routine and casualties mount. President Obama proves to be tragically ineffectual in restoring peace.

Anti-immigration sentiment in Europe spreads to the US as falling oil prices produce political disorder in Mexico prompting tens of thousands to try to flee north.

Bank of America is the first of the Too Big To Fails to enter the event horizon of failure. Obama can’t get congress to go along with a bailout. By Thanksgiving, there is turmoil among the banks as they scramble to cover losses. A public furor over using taxpayer money to cover derivatives losses leads to an unprecedented concerted action by states to attempt “nullification” campaigns.

Citibank applies for a bail-in of account holders. Dithering, frightened federal authorities are too slow to respond, permitting a run on deposits.

Hillary is loudly booed and hectored at campaign stops as “a tool of Wall Street.” Her coffers overflow with TBTF bank contributions. She bows out of the presidential contest as the public mood toward her sours. But not before she generates a lot of resentful opposition and alienates many Democratic Party voters who are also furious over the eight-years of Obama’s “hope” and “change” hand-jive. Elizabeth Warren is dragooned to replace her — dubbed the “Un-Hillary” — rescuing the party from a near-death experience. She openly feuds with party bosses, who plot against her, and undermine her campaign.

Senator Rand Paul agitates to abolish the Federal Reserve. His senate colleagues are shamed into considering legislative reform of the Fed’s mandate. Debate on the issue is the only thing the Republican dominated congress and senate accomplish in 2015. Paul decides to challenge Jeb Bush for the 2016 nomination. This blows the Republican party apart.

At Christmas 2015, the DJA sits at 13,500, the S&P is at 1200. Gold is at 1750, silver at 42.

Good luck everybody. Gird your loins and fasten your seat belts.