Strange Loops and Stranger Preznits

Or not so strange, when you think about it.

...A strange loop is a hierarchy of levels, each of which may consist of objects, processes, or virtually anything else (such is the generality of the notion). Each level is linked to at least one other by some type of relationship. A strange loop hierarchy, however, is "tangled" (what Hofstadter refers to as a "heterarchy"), in that there is no well defined highest or lowest level. The levels are organized such that moving through them eventually returns one to one's starting point, i.e., the original level...

Which, in disinformation theory [via Wombaticus Rex] comes a fundamental principle:

The Shroedinger's Cat Trilogy, pg. 380

"Knight knew what most people only vaguely suspected -- that Intelligence Agencies engage in both the collection of valid signals (information) and the promiscuous dissemination of fake signals (disinformation). They collected the information so that they could form a fairly accurate picture of what was really going on; they spread the disinformation so that all their competitors would form grossly inaccurate pictures. They did this because they knew that whoever could find out what the hell was really going on possessed an advantage over those who were misinformed, confused and disoriented.

This game had been invented by Joseph Fouche, who was the chief of the secret police under Napoleon. British Intelligence very quickly copied all of Fouche's tactics, and surpassed them...by the time of the First World War, Intelligence Agencies everywhere had created so much disinformation and confusion that no two historians ever were able to agree on why the war happened, and who double-crossed whom...

By the time of the Second World War, the "Double-Cross System" had been invented -- by British Intelligence, of course. This was the products of such minds as Alan Turing, a brilliant homosexual mathematician who (when not working in espionage) specialized in creating logical paradoxes other mathematicians couldn't solve, and Ian Fleming, whose fantasy life was equally rich (as indicated by his later James Bond books), and Dennis Wheatley, a man of exceptionally high intelligence who happened to believe that an international conspiracy of Satanists was behind every conspiracy he didn't invent himself. By the time Turing, Fleming, Wheatley and kindred British intellects had perfected the Double-Cross System, the science of lying was almost as precise as Euclidian geometry, and nearly as lovely to the detached observer.

What the Double-Cross experts had invented was the practical political applications of the Strange Loop. In logic or cybernetics, a Strange Loop is a set of propositions that, while valid at each point, is so constructed that it leads to an unresolvable paradox. The Double-Cross people drove the Germans bonkers by inventing disinformation systems that, if believed, were deceptive, but if doubted led to a second disinformation system. They enjoyed this work so much that, at times, they invented Triple Loops...

These Strange Loops functioned especially well because the Double-Cross experts had early on fed the Germans the primordial Strange Loop. "Most of your agents are working for us and feeding your Strange Loops."

Many German agents, it later turned out, had managed to collect quite a bit of accurate information about the Normandy invasion, but many others turned in equally plausible information about a fictitious Norwegian invasion; and all of them were under suspicion, anyway. German Intelligence might as well have made its decisions by tossing a coin in the air."

--Robert Anton Wilson

Now why bring this up now?

Symmetry requires it. A later post on the same thread.

...A couple years ago, ConocoPhillips and BP proposed to build a gas pipeline with their own money to take (relatively) clean natural gas from Prudhoe Bay south, all the way to the Lower 48. What was Palin's response? She hustled the Alaska State legislature to award the license to a competitor, TransCanada Pipelines, but with a $500 million taxpayer incentive attached.

That's right, the people of Alaska gifted half a billion to get a pipeline built that another consortium was willing to build with its own nickle.

But, it gets even better. It turns out that the TransCanada Pipeline project won't be taking gas to the United States, after all. It will end at a preexisting terminal in Ft. McKenzie, Alberta. What's there? The world's largest tar sand pits. And, what might natural gas have to do with that? A billion cubic feet of the stuff is needed to cook the petroleum slury out of the sand for shipment to the U.S. for processing into motor fuels and heating oil, a much dirtier end use for the stuff. But, more profitable in an era of $150/bbl oil. So, who owns the processing plants and tar sands? If you guessed ConocoPhillips and BP, you get a cigar.

So, to wrap up, what was Sarah Plain's role as "reformer" and oil industry watchdog? She handed the oil companies $500 million taxpayer dollars to build the shorter pipeline that they really wanted to begin with.

Follow the pipeline, and you'll find the money...

What they're doing is first, an end-around of NAFTA, because the gas will come from the US (Alaska, remember?) rather than Canada, and second, getting more profit out of it because of the high price of oil and the comparatively low price of gas. The oil companies would otherwise have to tap the McKenzie gas fields to develop the Athabasca tar sands; but they can't do that because of NAFTA. With this pipeline in place, they can use the Alaskan gas instead, and basically sell it to us at five times the price by shipping synthetic crude from Athabasca made with the gas, rather than directly shipping gas from Alaska. To top it all off, they get to keep the price of gas high in the lower 48 because there's no major influx of gas from Alaska; they're burning it in Athabasca.

Joe Sixpack ain't gonna be able to follow this particular piece of legerdemain. The 500 million simoleans is seed money to get the project going to employ Alaskans. You can almost make a case for this if you ignore the global warming implications, the price of the Athabasca synthetic crude, and the price of natural gas in the lower 48.

This is one seriously slick piece of double-dealing. Palin can point to the benefits to Alaska and justify it that way; the oil companies can point to the Athabasca synthetic crude and claim they're providing what we said we wanted; and they make more profit off the gas two ways, first because they use it to make a higher-profit product, and second because they don't drive the price of the gas they're selling down by adding the Alaska gas to the market...

Sister Sarah might not be the brightest bulb on the stage, but whoever owns her likely powers the whole theater.

Strange loops for a stranger government: consider that if the Republicans steal this one again, we'll have two sockpuppets in office, with no way to tell who's the puppetmaster.

Although chances are it will be same one who figured out this shell game for British Petroleum.