What's Going Down and What's Coming Up

By your leave, I'll pause my weekly journal essays to make a "news and views" entry. I had wanted to write about the idea of global warming leading to a sudden shift in climate that could actually bring on the next ice age, but I'm not ready for that one, yet. So, for those of you following, I'll make a quick update on the status of my writing projects and on a few world events.

Regarding my writing work, I'm still working on my first Dentville novel. I have finished the entire draft and just need to make my editing passes. Then I'll want to get some professional editing done on it and I need to save some money for that. So I don't know when that book will be published.

Meanwhile, I am compiling an ebook of short stories that I'm excited about. It will be a collection, in one volume, of many of the stories I've already published, though all them will be revised. It will also contain at least three new stories. All of the stories (probably 8 to 10 of them; my short stories tend to be long) will be preceded with commentary (author's notes) to describe my reasons for writing them and provide some background for each. The commentary will constitute an over-arching essay on the theme that runs through all the stories--characters trying to find hope and a reason for living in the face of a collapsing and terminal world system.

The picture I've attached to this journal entry is related to a thematic symbol in one of the new short stories the collection will contain. The picture is of a bunch of roses I bought for my wife for Mother's Day, and the symbol in the story (which will probably be called, Apocalypse Diary ) is "cut flowers." It'll make sense when you read it.

Apocalypse Diary will likely also be the title for the collection. I hope to have it done by the end of this summer. I'll keep you posted on that.

When the collection comes out, I also intend to give my website a make-over and even launch a new website with its own blog. This will be my publishing site to promote my work under the name of Arbordin Park Press. Its blog will be more literarily focused than this one. It will generally be about books that contain themes similar to my work--living in a time of collapse, surviving in a dark world system, the importance of not destroying the earth's ecosystems, etc (all in a SciFi-Fantasy-Speculative thriller wrapper). I will write the blog but I might occasionally solicit a guest blogger. I will continue these journal entries, leaving them more personal essay/political in nature.

My work tends to be infused with what I see happening in the world and with the way I understand western civilization  "operates." For that reason, I've made a few journal entries where I talk about what's happening with several current events. Here's a brief update:

Greece is still not out of the woods financially and it looks certain to default on its International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans. It has made enough payments on its debt to keep it afloat, but it is literally going loan-note-to-loan-note. The SYRIZA-led government is having to choose between paying the country's debt and funding social programs to care for the suffering Greek people. The IMF is turning the screws and the people are protesting. It is just a matter of (a short) time until it defaults, which is what all the serious commentators expect. It is looking more and more like Greece will pull out of the EU and turn to Russia and the BRICS countries for financial help. Already, Russia has invited Greece to join the BRICS banking system (which is independent of the EU/IMF).

I'm reading a lot of economics commentary that's predicting another financial collapse--bigger and badder than that of 2008. There's much speculation as to what the "trigger" for this collapse will be. It could be Greece's default or a thousand other things, but it will basically be from the great Ponzi scheme of world finance reaching its end. That is, the world economy is based on debt (which is basing something on nothing) and it will finally become common knowledge that there is too much debt for anybody to pay back. For example, the European banks that are holding Greek debt will lose a large chunk of their "wealth" when Greece acknowledges that it can't pay it, and thereby making it worthless. See this article .

The fighting between Donbass and Ukraine is flaring again after the feeble cease-fire that I expect was only a delaying tactic to allow Ukraine to regroup. An " advisory group " of some unsavory people and war hawks (including Sen John McCain) has been formed to help the neo-nazi government of Ukraine keep the neo-cold war going.

The bill to allow "Fast Track" passage of trade legislation (principally, the Trans Pacific Partnership Act) was voted down in the US House but approved by the Senate. It is certain that the Fast Track will be reconsidered by the House and approved due to intense pressure being applied to the Congressmen by the White House (and God knows who else). The TPP is important to the elites as it will promote corporate world rule (internationally trading corporations will be able to sue governments that have laws that hurt their profits). There is a similar Act being negotiated (in secret) for the Atlantic side of the world.

And operation Jade Helm is still on schedule to be run in the southwest US in July and September. Ex-soldier and West Point graduate, Joachim Hagopian, has written a brilliant article about why this warm-up for martial law has prompted grave concern among those US citizens paying attention.

There's more happening in the world, but that's about I can bear to think about right now.