O Blogger, Where Art Thou?

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Bloodhounds“Mr. Lewis, where art thou?” writes Daniel Reich. “Been reading your blog for years now and it looks as though you have abandoned your post so to speak. Been a fan ever since I read Tribulation  A book that gave me comfort gained from knowing that I wasn’t alone. I think you know what I mean. Please come back, Mr. Lewis. Let us bear witness to the unraveling together.”

First let me offer an apology to you, Mr. Reich, and to all the other regular readers of The Daily Impact. All seven of you. It is not polite to cut off an ongoing conversation without explanation, and I should have handled my absence with more respect for you. I shall try to explain.

Remember the old joke that asks, “How do you immobilize a centipede?” and answers, “By asking him which foot he leads with.”  A similar thing applies to writers. How do you block them completely? Ask them “What is the point of writing this?” Whether administered by a malevolent onlooker or by the unwitting writer himself, the immediate effect of the question is paralysis.

That’s what I did to myself earlier this year, more or less in mid-sentence. And, not to quibble, Daniel, but I did not abandon my post. I have been sitting right here, watching my cursor blink, for two months, trying to answer the question. Continue reading →

Benefits of CBD

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CBD, or cannabidiol, has gained significant attention in recent years for its potential health benefits. Derived from the cannabis plant, CBD is a non-psychoactive compound, meaning it does not produce the “high” associated with marijuana use. Instead, CBD interacts with the body’s endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in regulating various physiological processes.

One of the most widely recognized benefits of CBD is its ability to alleviate pain and inflammation. Studies have shown that CBD may help reduce chronic pain by impacting endocannabinoid receptor activity, reducing inflammation, and interacting with neurotransmitters. This makes CBD a promising option for individuals suffering from conditions such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and chronic pain disorders.

In addition to its pain-relieving properties, CBD has been touted for its potential to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation. Research suggests that CBD may interact with serotonin receptors in the brain, which play a key role in regulating mood and anxiety levels. As a result, many people use CBD as a natural remedy for anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

CBD has also shown promise as a treatment for epilepsy and other seizure disorders. In fact, the FDA has approved a CBD-based medication called Epidiolex for the treatment of two rare forms of epilepsy: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. Studies have found that CBD may help reduce the frequency and severity of seizures in individuals with these conditions, providing hope for patients who have not responded to other forms of treatment.

Furthermore, CBD has been studied for its potential neuroprotective properties, with research suggesting that it may help protect against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. CBD’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects may help prevent damage to brain cells and reduce inflammation in the central nervous system, potentially slowing the progression of these debilitating diseases.

Overall, CBD like the ones offered by Cannabis delivery Bakersfield offers a range of potential health benefits, from pain relief and anxiety reduction to seizure control and neuroprotection. However, it’s essential to note that more research is needed to fully understand the long-term effects and optimal dosing of CBD. As always, it’s advisable to consult with a healthcare professional before incorporating CBD into your wellness routine, especially if you are taking other medications or have underlying health conditions.

One Nation, Under Water, with Penury and Indigence for All (*)

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debt(* that is, the 99 per cent.)

I was there when a furniture-store owner I’ll call Chuck introduced, to a certain British-ruled, sub-tropical, behind-the-times island, the concept of hire-purchase — or, in American, rent-to-own. He started selling furniture on credit, for a small down payment and a contract to repay the balance at an astronomical interest rate. His policy scandalized everyone on the island who was rich enough not to need credit for such purposes; and was insanely popular with everyone else. Continue reading →

Fires Rage, Words Fail

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You can watch the fires break out and spread only for so long before you, too, are involved.

You can watch the fires break out and spread only for so long before you, too, are involved.

The Daily Impact has been a quiet place lately, and I will tell you why: words fail me. The scale of the global crash now enveloping us, and the fecklessness of the leaders pretending to protect and defend us, exceed the vocabulary of this wretched scribe. If one manages, however briefly, to comprehend the enormity of the multiple disasters bearing down on us, then one accidentally sees part of a presidential-candidate debate and has to pick up  pieces of one’s skull all over the room again. Continue reading →

What’s Next for Oil: Whiplash

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roller coaster

This is the closest we could come to a chart showing what is next for ojl and gas prices, and how it’s going to feel. (Photo by Patrick McGarvey)

A savvy investor once told me that if you read something in the news, it is no longer true, if it ever was. I keep this in mind as I read over and over that the world is awash in 3 billion barrels of surplus oil. This glut — always and everywhere specified as 3 billion barrels — is present, the conventional wisdom (oxymoron alert) goes, because the crafty Saudis refused to cut production when the price of oil tanked (metaphor alert). They did this, it is said, to run the pesky American oil frackers out of business before they took over the world. This reminds me of the engraved plaque found in many Irish bars: “The Lord invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world.” An endearing sentiment, but probably not true. Continue reading →

World Trade is Coming to a Halt [UPDATED]

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ship scrapyard

This is where more and more of the world’s cargo fleet are headed — the scrapyard, like this one in Bangladesh. (Photo by Christoph Hein)

On Friday, for the first time in recorded history (according to MarineTraffic.com), there may not have been a single cargo ship in transit across the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. If true, this would have roughly the same implications for the industrial world as does a flatline on a heart monitor, for a patient in ICU. Somebody had better call a Code Blue.

Since Friday, the stock market — after the worst beginning of a year since the last Ice Age — has been creeping upward. Guess they didn’t get the memo about the Code Blue. Continue reading →

The Scariest News Story of 2016

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Arab Spring Yemen

This is what the Arab Spring looked like in Yemen, four years ago, when its people lost all hope. This is what Saudi Arabia, with diminishing prospects of success, is trying desperately to avoid. (Wikipedia Photo)

Correct. The scariest news story of 2016 is already in. Saudi Arabia is starting to come apart, and when its unscheduled rapid disassembly is a little farther along, the Industrial Age will come to an end.

[TROLL: “Don’t you ever get tired of making predictions that never come true? You said exactly the same thing a year ago. And the year before that.” Actually, dear trolls, what you find here are not exactly predictions, rather they are analyses of trends and the likely outcomes of those trends. But even if you insist they are predictions, the fact is that virtually all of them are in the process of “coming true” — it’s just that people who have the historical horizons of a fruit fly assume that anything that doesn’t happen while they’re looking at it is never going to happen, and never happened before. In medicine that’s called amnesia.]

But back to Saudi Arabia, where the forces of disassembly have been in play for decades.   Continue reading →

2015: The Year of Lying Dangerously

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Pinnochio

No, we don’t think his nose is deformed. Looks perfectly normal to us. And we’re going to vote for him. Photo by Tristan Schmurr/ Flickr

The crash of the industrial age proceeded apace in 2015. One reason that is not well understood is that a different, parallel trend — the onset of moral bankruptcy accompanying the collapse of American Empire — also accelerated this year, often obscuring the economic news, often by design. Whether one is causing the other, or both are caused by something else, is something for the historians to sort out, if there are any historians. Right now, both are happening too fast to analyze. But let’s focus for a moment on the moral decline.

The ethical glue that once held our culture together — the unquestioned mutual commitment to freedom and decency and fair dealings — is liquefying at a terrifying rate. This is what happens at the end of empires, when the energy of their high ideals is spent, the ecstasy of their ascent is in the past, and the agony of decline causes them — their leaders and their people — to abandon everything they once believed in. Continue reading →

Billions of Barrels of US Oil Set to Disappear. Poof.

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oil fire

An oil refinery in Puerto Rico burns in 2009. That’s one way to make a bunch of oil disappear, but accountants can do it faster. And they’re going to. (Wikipedia Photo)

In a few weeks, several billion barrels of American oil will vanish in an instant. (I am not making this stuff up: the headline is right there on Bloomberg Business, hardly a chicken-little medium.) This is — shortly to be was — the oil that just a few months ago (Remember? When we were young, and happy?) was to return us to energy independence, to make us the number one oil producer in the world, to bring the happy days here again for good.

Okay, there were weasel words salted into those assurances all along, words that we didn’t realize were there until too late. The new American oil revolution was going to put us on the road back in the general direction of North American energy independence (as long as you counted Mexican and Canadian oil, too); and we would be the number one oil producer if you included in your definition of “oil” such things as biofuels, refinery gains from heat expansion, spillage and, if necessary, drippings from leaky transmissions in shopping mall parking lots. Continue reading →

The Search for the Crash of 2015

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Plane-Crash The later it gets in the year, the more pointed become the questions: “So. Where’s your Crash of 2015, eh?” (Some of the questioners are Canadian.) Reminds me of a story. I was in a strange city, to meet a person very important to my future, and had been given directions to, let’s call it the Metropolis Building. “Huge building, right on Main Street, you can’t miss it.” I followed the directions, but could not find the building. Increasingly frantic as the appointed time drew near, I gave myself a time out, letting a granite wall alongside the sidewalk support me as I gathered my wits. I decided desperate measures were called for. “Excuse me, sir,” I asked a passerby, “Can you direct me to the Metropolis Building?” The reply was accompanied by a withering look. “You’re leaning on it.”

And that, dear interlocutor, is my answer to you. Look no further for the Crash of 2015; you’re standing in the rubble. And if you are going to disagree with me, based on the fact that CNBC and the Wall Street Journal have not yet described what you’re standing in as rubble, then let’s just agree that we reside on different planets, rely on different sources of information and part company. Continue reading →