I got to see this frightening speech from a link posted from runningonempty2@yahoogroups.com where I've lurked for four years, where there's a long thread called "Matt Simmons seems anxious to me." The speech and subsequent interview by Udall is now taken off YouTube due to ASPO copyright issues, but there's a link to Simmons' PDF powerpoint presentation <
http://www.aspo-usa.org/aspousa4/proceedings/Simmons_Matthew_ASPOUSA2008.pdf>. Basically, he thinks that the "topping off" phenomenon going on right now is going to lead to serious food shortages in two weeks--that the oil (and therefore food) supplies are going to grind to a halt a lot sooner than the credit. He discusses rationing but says the administration hasn't been on top of it (no duh).
I'm not going to go Mormon and buy a year's worth of food, but it makes me take more seriously a personal desire to have a strong "hurricane" preparedness plan. That's about all I can do, combined with my slow movement into what I had hoped would be a slow crash. None of this may come to pass. I just wish the video were still up so we could have a discussion about it at DU.
It's a horrid potential context in which to have what will already be a chaotic election with widespread attempts to disenfranchise the poorest among us. I hope this time he has it wrong.