More On 'The Madison Effect'

There is another good example of 'the (James) Madison Effect' for a people to live long under a regimen of self-governance, or to be ridden and driven by smooth-talking thugs, in the same issue of NEXUS Magazine that I have referred to in my last couple of blogs.  That is in an article titled 'The Looming Shale Gas Fracking Disaster', by F. William Engdahl, wherein he details, with impeccable facts and commentary, the scam going on in this area, all unbeknownst to the average American, who believes what the MSM tells him about all manner of things.  For why not?  Why would anyone lie about anything???  Read on, sucker…

"At a time when much of the world is looking with a mix of envy and excitement at the recent boom in the USA in unconventional gas from shale rock…the US shale boom is revealing itself to have been a gigantic hyped confidence bubble that is already beginning to deflate…

"If we're to believe the current media reports out of Washington and the US oil and gas industry, the United States is about to become the 'new Saudi Arabia'.  We are told that she is suddenly and miraculously on the track to energy self-sufficiency…"

'We are told…'  Ah.  There's the rub.  

What are we not told (and need to dig a little to find out)?:1

"A more careful look at the actual performance of the shale revolution and its true costs is instructive.

"One reason why we hear so little about the declining fortunes of shale gas and oil is that the boom is so recent…Another reason is that there have grown up huge vested corporate interests from Wall Street to the oil industry that are trying everything possible to keep the shale revolution myth alive.

"Despite all their efforts, however, data coming to light, mostly for the review of industry professionals, is alarming…"

And so forth and so on, ad nauseam, in that vein… To wrap up a long but intriguing story (and as in 'intrigue'):  

"Veteran petroleum geologist Arthur Berman…reached sobering conclusions using existing well extraction data for major shale gas regions in the US since the boom started.  His findings point to a new Ponzi scheme…Shale gas is anything but the energy 'revolution' that will give US consumers or the world gas for 100 years, as President Obama was told…"2

"Where, then, did someone get the number to tell the US President that America has 100 years of gas supply?  Here is where lies, damned lies and statistics play a crucial role…That number comes from a deliberate blurring by someone of the fundamental difference between what in oil and gas is termed resources and what is  called reserves…" (emphases in the original)     

Ah: the details.  Where the devil resides…

I am reminded of 'the Fight of the Century' between 'Sonny' Liston and a brash, super-confident young newcomer named Cassius Clay, later to be called by his chosen, post-colonial name of Muhammad Ali (you will have heard at least of him).  At the time, Sonny Liston was all the talk and rage.  I can remember hearing, and reading, about him: he demolished his opponents in seconds.  Wiped them out in a torrent of colossal power.  Pulverized them, were the reports  (An earlier version of fracturing.)  Was The Hulk personified (and may have even been the inspiration for that later fictional character).3  By the time it came to the big showdown, Heavyweight Championship fight with 'Sting like a bee' Clay, Liston had been built into a gargantuan.  I remember one of the ringside radio announcers, when the gladiators made their entrances, commenting, almost curiously, about Liston and his listed measurements: "Actually, he's no bigger than Cassius."   What??!  But the bets were down, and the fight was, for all intents and purposes, on.  When Liston proved to have Clay feet as well.  And made a bundle on the Grand Deception, obviously.  But not as much as the hypsters behind the whole con job.  

It has been ever thus??  Caveat emptor, baby???

Nevertheless, it is now going to come to a screeching halt.  Because such behavior cannot pass Go, into Humanity's New Age of Ascension.  We have other business to be about, now. 

And it even overshadows the hype about shale gas as humanity's great new source of energy.  

Hey -  boyos.  You ain't seen nothin' yet.  Wait'll you get a load of what's coming up.   

          

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footnotes:

1 Since investigative journalism has almost - almost - gone the way of the Dodo bird.  And every time an honest journalist tries to research something, they are reined in, by the overriding power of the corporate world over the MSM, print and TV. 

     Good on Sharyl Attkisson (of CBS) for somehow bucking the tide, and demonstrating how it can, and should, be done.  Give that woman a Pulitzer.  And let's see more of the same.

2 Reference given earlier in the article:  ""In his January 2012 State of the Union address to US Congress, President Obama claimed that, largely owing to the shale gas revolution, 'We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years'." 

     Er…well.  Give or take a little.
     ("Therein [i.e., the true structural cost of shale gas production] lies the explanation for why a sophisticated oil industry in the US has desperately been producing full-throttle in a high-stakes game, laying the seeds of their own bankruptcy in the process.  They are racing to offload the increasingly unprofitable shale assets before the bubble finally bursts.  Wall Street financial backers are in on the Ponzi game with billions at stake, much as in the recent real estate securitisation fraud...")

3 You younguns think that Mike Tyson was mean, with ol' Holyfield's ears an' all?  Shoot.  You shoulda heard the hype on Sonny.  He ate nails fer breakfast, and spit'em out into 2 by 4s in neat little rows; bam-bam-bam; jist iak thet.  Heck, I can remember…well.  To move right along; at the carnival.