2010: Sunrise & Sunset - There’s a promise of hope in every sunset, so even as we say goodbye to 2010, and in spite of more gloom that may be ahead, find hope in the simplest moments of your life...and share them. Read a few travel articles in this section, from Vegas, to Zion, Sedona and the Big Trees of California.

Dec-09: Predictions for 2010 - The Nattering Nabob makes his long awaited annual predictions for 2010...and he is seldom wrong.

Nov 09: Zombies - With the “consumer” gutted by 30% interest rates, reduced credit limits, canceled accounts and staggering debt, the shoppers may be zombies this year, out in force, but no more than dead men walking.

Nov-09: For Lease - Your Home -  Move over America, there’s a new Landlord in town.  After losing another $19.8 billion last quarter Fannie has come up with a new plan:1) Ask Uncle Sam for another $15 Billion...2) Trade you a 1 year lease for the deed to your home.

Oct-09: The Fat Men - Before we can find a solution to the crisis in our economy we have to start telling the truth about it.

Sept-09: Stubborn Facts - John Adams has been well quoted: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

Sept-09: Stick Season -  spite of all the media hype about recovery and the market rally, no real recovery is underway--nor will we have one any time soon. Here’s why it’s “Stick Season” in the economy for the foreseeable future.

Aug-09:  Collective Ignorance - The increasing happy talk about the end of the recession is little more than collective ignorance in the media. The recession shows no credible sign of abating, and here’s why it will get worse.

Aug-09: Disaster Movie - The economic crisis is playing out like a slow motion disaster movie, while Hollywood serves up the real deal to make us all feel better. But how will this movie end?

July-09: Two Funerals - The Death of Jacko and Walter Cronkite present us with an interesting rite of passage this month...One stood as a symbol of the lost American Dream, the other showed us just how much credibility, authority and legitimacy we’ve lost in our media and government.

July-09: Rocket’s Red Glare - Our list of grievances perpetrated by the banks and financiers of our nation grows and grows as the people bear the pain while the wealthy continue to profit. What was our Revolution about?

June-09: Da-Fed...What Will it take before Americans rise in protest against the enormous funds allocated to banks while they lose homes, jobs and a future for their children?

May-09: Big Bad Humm - The Big Bad Humm of the US economy is as dead at the Hummer itself. And all those bankers who were once in your foyer have turned into debt management counselors.

Special: Pandemic? - Will the H1N1 “Swine” flu become a global pandemic, or is it all “Much Ado About Nothing?” A Special Report on the April-May outbreak.

May-09: The Tangled Web of deception and fraud is now becoming a blame game as prosecutors take aim at the Big Boyz of our banking fiasco. Will we ever learn the whole truth?

Apr-09: Numbers From The Waste Land - All key economic indicators, world stocks, industrial output, trade, exports, retail and auto sales, and unemployment are declining well ahead of the pace set during the Great Depression

Apr-09: Thinning The Soup - The soup line at the government bailout window is getting pretty long these days. Trillions go to the pockets of wealthy investors while Americans thin the soup of their lives each day to pay.

Mar-09: B.S.O.D. - There is only one thing we can say about our banking system that is true these days-- “This application has committed an illegal operation and will be shut down.”

Mar-09: 11th Hour - Special Edition The stubborn facts of our economic crisis that we have yet to face, and a comparison to the last great Depression in the 1930s. How prepared are we compared to generations past? Special two part article - Part II Here

Mar-09: Yellow Brick Road - How a Depression Era fantasy turned out to be reality in the new millennium. Now there’s no rest for the Wizard if Dorothy ever wants to get back to Kansas.

Feb-09: The Little Engine That Can’t - Consumer’ spending, the engine driving over 70% of the US economy, is now a train wreck of epic proportions. And it will only get worse as unemployment rises.

Feb-09: Alpha-Plus - The Sky is falling, and how did we get here? For the real culprits we must look a little higher on the pyramid, where the Alpha Plus sit in all their extravagant splendor.

Jan-09: Insolvent - It’s not a crisis of liquidity or confidence, but one of massive insolvency in the US, as well as all of Europe...And the rioting has already started.

Jan-09: Trapped In Paradise - In search of the Great Depression in Monterey California. I didn’t find it, but there are clearly signs of “trouble in paradise” in this pacific haven. Come and see.

2008

Dec-08: Predictions-2009 - It’s that time of year again, and the Nattering Nabob comes out of his cave like a crotchety old groundhog to make predictions on the year ahead. Last year he was 95% accurate. Let’s take a look back and then get his predictions for 2009.

Dec-08:The Road Ahead - Within a year or so words like “Home & Garden” will no longer be associated with a glitzy magazine about decorating your overpriced home...A look at the road ahead.

Nov-08: Legacy - Good by to George, and Dick and Rummy, and Rove. Good bye to shock & awe, birds with  flu, and days of terror, red and blue. A pictorial and verbal tour of the Bush years.

Nov-08: Mandate! -  “This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change.” If we listened to the speeches made by both candidates, and took them to heart, we’d have the beginning of a new country to face the challenges yet to come.

Oct-08: The Price Of Confidence - “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” -- Henry Ford

Oct-08: Surviving Hard Times - There’s a lot of fear and panic out there, but we’ve been here before, and survived it all just fine. How you can prepare for hard times ahead.

Oct-08: Pay Up--Or We’ll PANIC! - If we don’t pony up the largest tax hike in the history of the world, heaven forbid, the Rich Dads on Wall Street might panic!

Sep-08: U.S.S.A. - Welcome to the United Socialist States of America, where all private risk assumed by banks and other financial institutions will be move to the balance sheet of John Q. Public. The profits, of course, remain private.

Aug-08: Stormfront - Three years to the day after Katrina, Hurricane Gustav rages ashore and Ike follows with a direct hit on Houston. Meanwhile a storm front is brewing for the Fed.

Jul-08: Fannie & Freddie- The US Government wants to buy shares of Fannie & Freddie, and underwrite their massive $5 trillion housing debt. It’s now official, as the Treasury seized control in early September. Something tells me this new plan will succeed …you guessed it, “when pigs fly.”

Jun-08: Clueless - If you thought that you might soon retire, join the golf course crowd and live the easy life, think again. The world is about to undergo radical change, and the clueless, from Congress, to the news rooms, to the banking system, to the guy on the street are in for a major shock. America is just not prepared for what is about to happen.

May-08: Food, Fuel & Freedom - Believe it or not, America has more to be concerned about than which Chris to vote for on American Idol. Things are “far from normal,” according to Fed Chairman Bernanke. Now it’s about food, fuel and freedom...

Apr-08: Average Joe - Billions go to bail out the banks, while the bills for Average Joe and the Soccer Moms just keep mounting.

Mar-08: In Like A Lion - March came in like a lion with the markets losing 2.5% on “Leap Day.” Bank losses mount, housing value erodes, and the consumer is feeling the pain.

Feb-08: Fire & Ice - With the markets alternating between rapid gains and losses, the economy as a whole is beset with both fire and ice.

Jan-08: Predictions - The Nattering Nabob Looks at the Year Ahead (2008) with the Prophet’s all seeing eye!

2007

Dec-07: Fed-UP? The system is no longer in danger of failing. A crisis is not “impending.” We are, at this very moment, in the eye of the hurricane, and the interval of apparent normalcy will be short lived. The system has, already failed...

Nov-07: Drinking Sand: Oil production is predicted to move from 81 million barrels per day to 58 million barrels by 2020. That difference of 23 million barrels encompasses a vast darkness—war, famine, the demise of the social freedoms...

Oct-07: Dollar Blues - If you think the rebounding stock market means everything is back to business as usual, think again. The crisis has just begun. As one analyst put things: “The Dominoes are toppling.”

Sep-07: Bear Market - When the market burned, the ECB and Fed poured on the cash to put out the fire. Billions were lost in a 3 day period... Billions more printed to take their place. And the NSA is worried about your phonecalls?

Aug-07: Meltdown - As our energy situation, housing market, dollar and debt crisis melt down, let’s not forget the grandaddy of them all - global warming.

Jul-07: Long Hot Summer - Another summer of fireworks between Israel and Hamas may usher in the main event. Ominous signs of a wider war in the Middle East.

Jun-07: Eye Of The Storm - Emperors and kings of yesterday would envy the life we’ve lived in the eye of the storm. With Gasoline reaching nearly $4.00 per gallon, here’s why you won’t see a 300mpg car any time soon.

May-07: It’s Our War - Nobody dies when we let our economy run amok with a flow of easy credit and equity cash to make us feel better about shelling out more greenbacks for gasoline. Nobody dies here, that is. They die in other places, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, the Sudan.

Apr-07: Home Wreckers - The Housing Boom is long over. Now subprime loans begin to explode like well placed IEDs all across this nation... And the consequences could be more severe than many think.

Mar-07: Bank Robbery: The phrase has a new meaning in this pointed article that exposes some of the shameful practices banks use to fleece Americans and reap immense profits. Osama Bin Ladin could not do such damage if  he tried. An update on our most popular article ever published--and the real damage was yet to come.

Feb-07: Shadow War - Chaos Theory and the Bush-Cheney War Plan--Could all the reckless chaos and incompetence be intentional? Are we ready to start the final round in Iran?

Jan-07: Paying Attention - As the holiday clutter of Christmas cards and credit card bills leads us to a new year, why not ask yourself a few important questions? 

2006

Sea Change - America voted last November and a new tide swept the political landscape clean. But the real sea change we need will not be a plan for extricating our troops from an unwinnable war in Iraq.

Turning Point - As all three members of the “Axis of Evil” reach a crisis point, Bush is faced with the grim reality of defeat in every case. His Neo-Con inspired crusade to transform the world for democracy appears doomed to failure. But that was never the reason for the invasion of Iraq, and the real winners are about to seize “The Prize.”

Amerika has been undergoing a strange and steady metamorphosis these last five years, and now, with congress legislating and empowering our very own military tribunals to deal with terror suspects, with detention camps now operational on US soil, with the walls going up all along our borders, that metamorphosis has taken yet another dark evolution.

Lessons Learned? - As the Iraq war quietly moved beyond the time expended to fight WWII, Rumsfeld anguished over “those who fail to learn history’s lessons.” Note to the Secretary: Here’s a few lessons you may have missed.

The Autumn of Our Discontent - The kindling is piled in thick oily logs of energy adversity, national debt, trade imbalance, a weakening dollar and crushing consumer debt. Now all we need is for someone to light a match. Getting Yourself Ready For Hard Times.

Fair Witness - To understand the Middle East these days you have to abandon ideological rhetoric and become a Fair Witness. Justice must be even handed, and without justice there will be no peace.

Rumors of War - Wars are so easy to start, and so difficult to end. Is there no alternative to another endless war in the Middle East? Because we won’t be able to fight this one with “the bravery of being out of range.”

Business As Usual - You don’t feel any pain yet, but you’re in a detention camp data base out there somewhere, waiting your turn at interrogation. It won’t be water boarding, or snarling dogs this time. Just data mining and analysis. The dogs come later.

War News - This war will not be won by F-16s killing terrorist madmen in the dead of night. It will be won or lost in the hearts of the innocent, those unfortunate Iraqi citizens both sides have been willing to kill to achieve a political objective.

Farewell Freedom - A battle is being waged at the very heart of our secret government.The NSA now has all  the tools it needs to stop the likes of Woodward and Bernstein. But can they stop the next Deep Throat?

Who, What, When, Where, Why? - The government needs to spy on you--for your own good of course, and they will break laws, quash investigations and trample the constitution to get what they want.

Wedge Issue -  Instead of serious, sustained national debate on our energy future, and a clear plan for what we must now do as a nation to survive, the issue we get national media and citizen mobilization about is…immigration.

2005

Neo-Cons - How a group of lobbyists seized the U.S. Government

and led America to war.

Turbulence - Fasten your seat belts. The smooth flight to liberty and democracy in Iraq has hit another of those annoying “patches of turbulence”

The Enemy - Just who is the government afraid of these days, Iran, Osama, or you?

Ready? - There’s a quietly rising buzz behind the thrum of our media these days. And it is telling us to be prepared...

Black Friday - For all our frenetic compulsion for bargains, the real needs in America, and this world, will not be answered by anything you can slip under a Christmas tree this year.

Is Paris Burning? -   300 French cities saw violence, exposing a fatal flaw in capitalism that may be simmering up to the boiling point. How long will it be before the fires start over here?

Hold The Light - in spite of what the media broadcasts at us 24 hours a day—that we must roll that money over, refinance now, live richly, get, watch, and do what we want …the real things people desire and need have nothing to do with a one-day sale at Macy’s.

Bye, Bye Big Easy - The crisis in New Orleans is a microcosm of America as a whole. We are a society living below sea level in a rising tide of energy adversity. And the Big Easy, along with the easy American life style, may be gone forever.

Perfect Storm - First published in 2005, this article darkly predicted the current economic crisis. Hear what the economic prophets say is coming. Then read today’s headlines.

Perspectives - While we worry about things like the London Subway attacks and lost girls on Aruba, the real terrorists go unchallenged. Taking the “War on Terror” in perspective.

Wargames: The new plans for the “regime change” game in Iran.. And the likely consequences.

Ignorance Is Bliss: Our happiness has to be paid for... and our young soldiers and the citizens of Iraq are paying the price. It is our responsibility to know about it, and to own it.

2004 & Earlier

E Plebnista: Reflections on the 2004 Election, and the will of the people

Reasons: As the next fight for Fallujah looms, and we go to the polls to elect our next president, ponder some reasons why we fought the War in Iraq.

History Lesson: the new “Great Game” - A look at US policy in Central Asia & the Middle East

Culture Clash - Why the  radicals hate us, and what we’ve been doing about it.

Scare Tactics! The politics of fear and why Americans seem to be afraid of all the wrong things. (And some statistics that may surprise you!)

April Fools!  A year after the war was declared “over” in Iraq it seems that April has begun a cruel new phase of the conflict. A look at the current situation and hopes for the future.

Uplift: Our one chance for victory in Iraq will not be achieved by Abrahams tanks and cruise missiles. After the battle ends, “Uplift” is the only hope our nation has.

The Devil’s Garden: A new election is about to be held in Baghdad, and the outcome will decide the fate of the war. ( Update: The Vote is In! )

We Are The Borg: Our collective culture is slowly assimilating the world, consuming a vastly disproportionate share of resources. What about everyone else?

The Road To War: Explores the obvious reasons for the US war in Iraq and questions the motives any democracy should have before it goes to war.

Afghanistan: Written in October just after the 9/11 incident,  this article presents a remarkable accurate prediction of what actually happened in that conflict.

Werewolves Reflections on the World Trade Center attack and the War that lies ahead. To fight war we must become a beast. How can we assure that we will become human again? - 2001

Big Brother in the Brave New  World: Reflections on Power, Freedom and Control in Our Modern World. New technology places enormous power at the disposal of our government. Will it be used to preserve and protect our freedom, or threaten it? - 1998

P H I L O S O P H Y

Finding Your Self: A Celebration of the Here & Now. Those who strive to know their inner self may find out there is nothing to learn.

A Welcome For Autumn: Reflections on Life & Death, on the occasion of the death of my parents.  - By John Schettler )

Linked Chains: The expression of  Art in the Modern “Age of Noise.”