This is one of those essays that just hits the nail on the head. Its written from an English perspective but its reasoning applies to all western democracies. Trillions are being wasted on imaginary threats while the most profoundly terrifying one is being virtually ignored:

"What does it give us? Our wars make us less safe. We would be better protected from terrorism and global instability if the UK's armed forces stopped going abroad to make trouble. No one in office can produce a coherent account of why this money is needed: the ministry's budget is sustained by the greed of contractors and nostalgia for imperium long passed. We could cut defence spending by 90% and suffer no loss to our national security. Instead, the MoD has just dropped its spending on climate change research."

Here's to your search for a bunker. Hope its on high enough ground. Read the essay. 

    Washington - This is one Christmas gift U.S. taxpayers don't need. Construction of a $30 million dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq is scheduled to be completed Dec. 25. But the decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork.

    The project is too far along to stop, making the mess hall a future monument to the waste and inefficiency plaguing the war effort, according to an independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting.

What bothers me about articles like this is not just the idea of the flagrant waste, but that how clueless the journalists are, or at least feckless -- bloated spending is the WHOLE POINT of war. Its why we went, its why wars get fought. When are people going to get it through their thick heads the 90% of all wars are made to be fought because of the extreme profits to be made?

Whether it was JP Morgan selling broken guns to the North during the Civil War (hoping it would continue as long as possible), American corporations profiting from both sides during WW2 or our recent debacle in Iraqistan, the central theme of the history of way is the money to be made.

I could list countless other examples. As the old line goes "follow the money" -- one just need read Zinn, Chomsky or VIdal Gore to understand... every tear shed by a life torn apart by war is a dollar in the pocket of someone who got paid.

For years the slogan of this site was "In the Last Days of the Empire" which is increasingly becoming more obvious in the mainstream, even if the people caught up in the media hologram still haven't figured it out yet.

I have the kind of mind thats pretty good at noticing patterns. Its very helpful in my job, allowing me to create speedy work-flows. Its also good at detecting societal trends. There are many things that I saw coming years before they happened (and wish I had been able to monetize, especially when it comes to internet stuff like, you know, youtube, facebook and sh** like that). The collapse of the American enterprise is something that seemed utterly obvious to me at least 10 years ago, if not more. Only now is it manifesting in such extremely visible terms.

Yes, its true we have an entirely different representative in the big house on Pennsylvania Ave, but this may only help create a kindler, gentler crash landing. For the system itself hasn't changed and its the system itself that is in danger. Honestly, I know I'm not really THAT unique in my assessment. Maybe I've just been more vocal about it, as friends and family can attest.

Getting to the point. Every now and then someone comes along that is able to synthesize so many disparate ideas and "data bits" into a coherent flow to help the rest of us express our deep-seated intuition about the "state of things" -- that person right now is Dmitry Orlov.

He's an unusual chap.

Being born in Russia (then the USSR) he migrated to the US at the age of 12. A perfect age to become fluent in both languages and cultures. What is interesting about him is that he went back and forth repeatedly during the collapse of the Soviet Union. His observations about the disintegration of that empire and ours is breathtaking. This is a man who has seen collapse first hand and also knows American culture in a way unique to those who aren't born there, for immigrants never reach full immersion and are often the most inciteful when it comes to our idiosyncracies.

I hope this pitch is sufficient. I should probably just make a bold, direct statement in a desperate attempt to get you to actually read his speech or download the podcast -- this is the best thing I've read in years about the sh** we're in and the storm that's coming. Here's hoping we all find a way to steer clear of the hurricane.