It has dawned.

Gross outlines the limited benefits so-far from ethanol.

There are NO bright lights on the horizon, from any direction.

I expect USA to soon veer towards radical politics: mainly left, but with a racist right.

Can't you see it?

Do you agree?

Frustration always did that to every country.

I would prefer that political fragmentation ended up with more than two significant groups; for instance: left, right, and bland. This would mean that we would have dynamically changing alliances on each political question of significance and one wouldn't be trapped in a mode where control is determined every two or four or eight years and the results of every issue are predictable over that timespan. This two-party bullshit has been intrinsic in our government for all of my lifetime. I'm really disenchanted with being able to predict every Congressional vote for years on the morning after the general elections.

Well, that's what I would prefer, but I am not sure it will happen. You may be correct. It would be efficient since the government is all set up (including the arrangement of chairs and aisles) to allow for only two parties. I would assume the Democrats would become the left and the Republicans the right. Much less likely, each of those two parties could fracture into a left-wing and a right-wing (but where would you put the heart?).

Well I would agree if I thought that there were no bright lights on the horizon. There certainly are plenty of opportunities to dig ourselves out of this, but we have to choose to actually move in the right direction. Those lights won't come to us on their own.

As I wrote before, I think it is wholly possible to meet rising energy demands with a combination of solar, diverse biofuel sources, and a decreased supply of hydrocarbons. The technology is nearly there. What is mostly missing is infrastructure; the delivery systems for new forms of energy. That will take, as some say, an "apollo project" of sorts to get us through this frustration. It is not a guarantee by any means, but it is a path available to us if we are willing to think long term.