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Crash-O-Matic Finance

Oil prices have dropped $50 a barrel. That may not sound like much. But when you take $107 and you take $57, that’s almost a 47 percent decline…!”
–James Puplava, The Financial Sense News Network

May not sound like much? I guess when you hunker down in the lab with the old slide rule and do the math, wow! Those numbers really pop!

This, of course, is the representative thinking out there. But then, these are the very same people who have carried pompoms and megaphones for “the shale revolution” the past couple of years. Being finance professionals they apparently failed to notice the financial side of the business, for instance the fact that so much of the day-to-day shale operation was being run on junk bond financing.

It all seemed to work so well in the eerie matrix of zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) where investors desperate for “yield” — i.e. some return more-than-zilch on their money — ended up in the bond market’s junkyard. These investors, by the way, were the big institutional ones, the pension funds, the insurance companies, the mixed bond smorgasbord funds. They were getting killed on ZIRP. In the good old days of the late 20th century, before Federal Reserve omnipotence, they could depend on a regular annual interest rate churn of between 5 and 10 percent and do what they had do — write pension checks, pay insurance claims, and pay clients, with a little left over for company salaries.

ZIRP ruined all that. In fact, ZIRP destroyed the most fundamental index in the financial universe: the true cost of borrowing money. In doing so, it twerked and torqued the concept of “risk” so badly that risk no longer had any meaning. In “risk-on” financial weather, there was no longer any risk. Imagine that? It also destroyed the entire relationship between borrowed money and the cost-structure of the endeavors it was borrowed for. Take shale oil, for instance.

The fundamental limiting factor for shale oil was that the wells were only good for about two years, and then they were pretty much shot. So, if you were in that business, and held a bunch of leases, you had to constantly drill and re-drill and then drill some more just to keep production up. The drilling cost between $6 and $12-million per well. What happened the past seven years is that the drillers and their playmates on Wall Street hyped the hoo-hah out of the business — it was a shale revolution! In a few short years they drilled to beat the band and the results seemed so impressive that investment money poured into the sector like honey, so they drilled some more. It was going to save the American way of life. We were going to be “energy independent,” the “new Saudi America.” We would be able to drive to Wal-Mart forever!

Be careful what you wish for, the old saw goes. The shale oil “miracle” was an epochal stunt. They goosed so much oil out of the ground in a short period of time that they killed the goose — demand for oil at a price that made it worth drilling for. Now, much of the junk financing will default, and the result of that is no more junk financing for a long, long time, meaning that a lot of planned wells will not be drilled and completed, meaning that the current crop of short-lived wells will crap out in the 24 months ahead, and production will not be replaced by new wells, which will not be there. When and if the riggers get busy again in the Bakken and the Eagle Ford, you can be sure it will be at a much lower level of activity than the glorious year 2014. Of course, it remains to be seen how much financial illness the spoiled junk bond paper will spread through the derivatives markets, not to mention the boring old stock and bond markets and the big banks that traffic there. You can only fool reality so long. Eventually risk-on returns for real and swipes the ground with its mighty tail.

Finance was the lifeblood of the global economy and scam after scam left it riddled with wormholes of fragility. That fragility has been waiting to express itself and the ability of bank wizards to squelch and conceal it may have come to an end. There will be no quick cure for cratering oil prices and the damage it will wreak among the shale drillers. Does that sound like much?

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James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency and the four-book series of World Made By Hand novels, set in a post economic crash American future. His most recent book is Living in the Long Emergency; Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward. Jim lives on a homestead in Washington County, New. York, where he tends his garden and communes with his chickens.

363 Responses to “Crash-O-Matic Finance”

  1. BackRowHeckler December 15, 2014 at 9:24 am #

    Not to worry, Jim. Mel Watts announced last week that Fanny Mae & Freddy Mac will once again be backing Real Estate Loans for buyers with 2% or even 0% down payments. Also, credit checks and fiduciary requirements will be loosened up to make those loans easier to get.

    Happy days are here again!

    brh

    • Neon Vincent December 15, 2014 at 10:13 am #

      Ever since the dot-com boom and bust, it seems the way to keep the economy going has been to replace one bubble with another bubble. Looks like that’s being tried again now. I’m taking advantage of it, as my wife and I just bought a house. I bought my last one at the beginning of the previous up cycle and sold it just before the bottom fell out. When I did that, I didn’t know when I’d own another house. Here’s to hoping that I purchased this one at the start of another up cycle in prices and ownership.

      If you want to see where the real sub-prime lending activity is, check out car loans, which can be had for terms similar to what I had back in 2003, when dealers were luring customers in with the pitch “Got a job? Got $100? You can drive a brand-new Kia!” They weren’t kidding, either, as I got a car then. The return of easy terms is fueling record post-Great-Recession car sales right now, with low down payments and 2% interest. I took advantage of it this time, too, buying car for my wife to replace that Kia I bought in 2003. Yes, these are business as usual decisions and I know these are not business as usual times, but as I’m fond of saying, I can’t be all DOOM all the time.

      • Petro December 16, 2014 at 1:48 pm #

        Neon, if you live where I think you live (based on clues left in your many previous posts), I can’t imagine where you’re finding house prices at the rock bottom… unless it’s south of 8 Mile Rd. In my neck of the woods, house prices are so outrageously high that I’m thinking of taking the money and running. Clearly another bubble. We could easily get 3X what we owe, probably w/o even listing it—just through word of mouth.

        • Neon Vincent December 20, 2014 at 4:57 pm #

          I didn’t pick up a house at rock bottom of prices in the Detroit market. That passed two or three years ago. It’s not even rock bottom in terms of home ownership rates in metro Detroit; Detroit is one of the few markets where home ownership rates are increasing. Nationwide, home ownership has been declining and it looks like the national rate hit a low and might be reversing. That’s the trend I hope I’m hitting again.

          On the other hand, my wife and I did manage to pick up a house for $50,000 less than it was originally offered for and $20,000 less than an equivalent house in the town where we now live. Come the new year, we’ll be in the cheapest house in a very pricy neighborhood, and it’s not south of 8 Mile. Sorry, no Boston-Edison, Indian Village, or University District for us.

    • gantech January 8, 2015 at 9:47 am #

      Holy Shit !!
      Amazing! Doesn’t anyone (but us) remember 2007-2008????

  2. Lindy1933 December 15, 2014 at 9:33 am #

    And of course the drillers pick the low hanging fruit first so the next time it will be more costly.

  3. Jeremy December 15, 2014 at 9:35 am #

    Sorry folks.
    No way Jim wrote this week’s missive.

    Those are simple not his words or his style of writing!

    Where are you Jim?

    • the blame/e December 15, 2014 at 10:31 am #

      I agree. “Sclerotic” cannot be found anywhere in this Monday’s usual rant. Where are you, Jim?

      • seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 9:30 am #

        Ghost blogger?

    • James Howard Kunstler December 15, 2014 at 2:19 pm #

      Fuck you Jeremy. Of course I wrote it.

      • dannyboy December 15, 2014 at 4:49 pm #

        KUNSTLER,

        Now THAT’S the eloquence that keeps me hooked!

      • Jeremy December 16, 2014 at 5:44 pm #

        Now that’s the Jim I love!

        • seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 8:37 pm #

          Ahhh blow me!

      • goat1001 December 18, 2014 at 3:18 pm #

        Jim, I love your style!!!

  4. Neon Vincent December 15, 2014 at 9:51 am #

    The good news for consumers in all this is the return of $2.50 gas, which happens to have made good on a campaign promise by Newt Gingrich, one of the “maniacs who promised Americans they could keep their McMansions, SUVs, and commutes” (the other was Michele Bachmann). The irony is that President Obama dismissed that campaign promise, but now he can claim credit for it, even if Saudi Arabia is the one most responsible.

    Just the same, the weakness in oil is pulling the market down. What is good news for consumers is not good for investors, and I suspect that the increased spending on consumer goods may not be enough to make up for the bursting of the shale oil bubble. This is not good, as Wall Street has a way of inflicting its pain on Main Street.

    In other news, Detroit exited bankruptcy, the CIA torture report was released, Europe is having a refugee crisis, the Nobel Peace Prize winners accepted their awards, and the NFL is continuing to have PR and legal problems with its players abusing their wives. Looks like you had your pick of things that you could have written about.

  5. Cold N. Holefield December 15, 2014 at 9:53 am #

    In doing so, it twerked and torqued the concept of “risk” so badly that risk no longer had any meaning.

    It certainly plays its part in the scam, but the most egregious perversion of natural risk, if there is such a thing, is too big to fail. There’s no downside if you’ve attained that status. Your success and double-digit returns are guaranteed in perpetuity come hell or high water — or both of those casualties and more imaginative ones yet to be discovered.

    Where are all the great men? We read about them in the history books, but where are they now when we need them? I can’t think of one let alone a few, can you? Seriously, not a single one — but I’m certain when historians write their fictional accounts of this time period, their renditions will be replete with great men doing all manner of great things.

    Of Mice And Great Men

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    • devon44 December 15, 2014 at 10:19 am #

      CNH – what if we are the great men? Why not us?

      • BackRowHeckler December 15, 2014 at 3:04 pm #

        Speaking for myself I’m a little below average.

    • sethinthebox December 15, 2014 at 7:03 pm #

      The next great men will be warlords. To quote Conan the Cimmerian:

      “Someday, when all your civilization and science are likewise swept away, your kind will pray for a man with a sword.”

      “Rogues in the House” (1934)

  6. K-Dog December 15, 2014 at 10:07 am #

    But what does me dogs fine sense of smell tell me?

    Sniff, sniff I smell bailout. No quick cure for cratering oil prices you say but how you forget. Once the bonds are bailed out and Joe Six Pack is put on the hook the can gets kicked down the road a little further.

    And the longer we stall the harder we fall, but passing the buck, it’s the American way!

    • Greg Knepp December 15, 2014 at 10:36 am #

      A good bet!

    • dweebus December 15, 2014 at 11:34 am #

      I am curious. Would the Tea Party purists heads explode over a fracking bailout. Although opposed to bailouts, the do love to drill, baby, drill. Nah, they’d just blame the environmentalists and the EPA for over-regulation.

    • ozone December 15, 2014 at 11:48 am #

      K of the Dawg,
      I’m sensing the same (fairly unsubtle) drift in codifying the criminal. (Jamie Dimon makes some phone calls to his pet “lawmakers”.)

      What I find alarming and more than a little strange, is that Americans of all political stripes and financial castes have become champions at convincing themselves of things that just ain’t so! Weird.

      • dannyboy December 15, 2014 at 4:53 pm #

        Everybody knows.

        Hat tip to whomever it was that linked the Leonard Cohen song of the same title.

        To whomever it may concern: Please take a bow for that link a couple of weeks ago. It kinda changed my perspective.

        • ozone December 15, 2014 at 6:27 pm #

          dannyboy,
          I forget who that was, but I played it twice (just because it’s so intense and goes over well) in a 4 hour gig yesterday. Were you hiding in plain sight with a drink in your hand? 😉
          Keep it percolatin’!

          • dannyboy December 15, 2014 at 6:37 pm #

            I enjoy the song. I enjoy drinking. And I now enjoy your camaraderie (Is that a political word? I don’t care.

        • Neon Vincent December 15, 2014 at 7:39 pm #

          dannyboy,

          Thank you. That was me. I linked to it in The law is an ass with music by Leonard Cohen in the comments to Ferguson. I’m glad you and ozone enjoyed and appreciated it.

          • ozone December 15, 2014 at 8:54 pm #

            Thanks, N.V.
            I think Leonard Cohen is [in part] lauded for mentioning some ugly realities in his paeans to human absurdities and missteps. (…at least by me. lol)
            I’ve been doing that particular tune for a couple years now, and even those unfamiliar with it really seem to ‘get the message’.
            “…that’s how it goes… everybody knows.”

          • K-Dog December 15, 2014 at 9:48 pm #

            Everybody Knows

            ‘Everybody Knows’ yeah that’s how it goes.

            “Everybody Knows”

            Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
            Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
            Everybody knows that the war is over
            Everybody knows the good guys lost
            Everybody knows the fight was fixed
            The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
            That’s how it goes
            Everybody knows
            Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
            Everybody knows that the captain lied
            Everybody got this broken feeling
            Like their father or their dog just died

            Everybody talking to their pockets
            Everybody wants a box of chocolates
            And a long stem rose
            Everybody knows

            Everybody knows that you love me baby
            Everybody knows that you really do
            Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
            Ah give or take a night or two
            Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
            But there were so many people you just had to meet
            Without your clothes
            And everybody knows

            Everybody knows, everybody knows
            That’s how it goes
            Everybody knows

            Everybody knows, everybody knows
            That’s how it goes
            Everybody knows

            And everybody knows that it’s now or never
            Everybody knows that it’s me or you
            And everybody knows that you live forever
            Ah when you’ve done a line or two
            Everybody knows the deal is rotten
            Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
            For your ribbons and bows
            And everybody knows

            And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
            Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
            Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
            Are just a shining artifact of the past
            Everybody knows the scene is dead
            But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
            That will disclose
            What everybody knows

            And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
            Everybody knows what you’ve been through
            From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
            To the beach of Malibu
            Everybody knows it’s coming apart
            Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
            Before it blows
            And everybody knows

            Everybody knows, everybody knows
            That’s how it goes
            Everybody knows

            Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
            That’s how it goes
            Everybody knows

            Everybody knows

          • dannyboy December 16, 2014 at 9:23 am #

            For me it’s been quite a trip from my “Not Knowing” to getting it.

            For so long, I kind of looked at these deceptions one-at-a-time. Framed the whole thing wrong. I was as ridiculous.

            Once the SHTF it all came together. All became known.

            Whenever I shared myself with anybody who’d been put really down, they’d let me know just deeply they’d “Known”.

            I’m feeling that this “Everybody Knows” is coming out to the surface fast now.

            This will be the force that unites.

          • ZrCrypDiK December 18, 2014 at 2:06 am #

            Haha, K-D – Now I get why “they” (you?) claim Robert Plant/Led Zeppelin ripped off all their material.

            Everybody knows? Heaven knows! I’ve actually heard that song by Leo (deep deep voice)…

            Anything goes?

    • hineshammer December 15, 2014 at 6:31 pm #

      The big question is, Would the American public and the media let them get away with it…again? Probably, since the media is beholden to corporations and the American public is too stupid to wrap their puny brains around it. But there is a chance that a small but very vocal contingent of us could raise enough hell to say “Fuck you, not another dollar, we already got screwed once.”

      We’ll see where the price of oil goes from here, but if it keeps down, the rug will be pulled out from under the US shale oil experiment as JHK has talked about and someone will be left holding the worthless bag of dog shit debt. Most likely us.

  7. BioWebScape December 15, 2014 at 10:16 am #

    Almost everyone that reads or posts here, knows the shale oil/gas boom was a fake out. Hyped to get easy money and all that jazz, now going through a market correction that doesn’t seem to have sunk in on Joe Public just yet. That end of the year spending spree hasn’t sunk in yet either.

    Now more war with Russia is in the offing as the gang of guys and gals in the pocket of “let us kick russia while we can” groupies in Washington have passed a bill to send match sticks to the wood shed in Ukraine. Sooner or later we will regret that action. Or maybe there is some good that will come out of it, Russia will give the USA some rights to own part of the Moon.

    The part we can see from down here on earth.

    Charles.

    • WW December 15, 2014 at 3:04 pm #

      The whole point of cratering the oil price is to cripple the Russian economy and crash the rouble. War is an expensive business and it is cheaper to cripple Russia than fight even with the domestic bailouts it will require.
      Russias military will not see themselves crippled twice with pensions unpaid, soldiers unpaid and the military at a stanstill. Nor will they consider a nuclear exchange that they cannot win. Indeed why would anyone other than the religious zealots of Islam.
      The poliburo will ‘elect’ a new leader as Putin unexpectedly retires due to health reasons.
      The West will let them keep the Crimea and the Russian sepratists will be rounded up and shot if they don’t run back to Russia first.
      Russia simply does not have the capability it one had nor the cash to fund it. Its economy on a good day barely equals the UK with treble the population and a much larger infrastructure to maintain and secure.
      Pùtin knows this and even had it all laid out to him at the G20 which is why he looked like he was chewing one of Obamas sneakers.

      • unirealist December 15, 2014 at 5:53 pm #

        WW, are you a neocon? Because that’s how the neocons see the situation. Myself, I think you’re living in the world of “if I wish hard enough, it has to come true.”

        Where do Americans like you get the grandiose idea that other countries will do what you want if you put some economic and financial pressure on them? Tell me, how did that work with Cuba, where Castro has outlasted ten US Presidents? How about North Korea? Iran?

        The last country on the face of earth that the US should pick a fight with is Russia. It has little foreign debt, a positive balance of trade, and a cornucopia of natural resources. It can feed itself, it has a leader with 90%+ approval ratings, and oh, by the way, it holds over a half trillion in US debt.

        • baird December 15, 2014 at 7:21 pm #

          And poking the big wounded bear with lots of not well managed nukes is not wise.

      • Subvert December 15, 2014 at 8:33 pm #

        Hey WW if you want some good insight into the whole Russian/US/EU/NATO fracas, check out cluborlov.com and the series of articles on Ukraine.

        I think Russia is sitting in the proverbial cat-bird-seat in the global arena. Obama Et Al are playing checkers while Putin is playing chess. This won’t end well for the checker players….

      • Q. Shtik December 15, 2014 at 11:58 pm #

        The West will let them keep [the] Crimea – WW

        ============

        It’s just Crimea, no [the]

        I guess you haven’t been paying attention.

  8. outsider December 15, 2014 at 10:25 am #

    My home state of PA is a Marcellus Shale natural gas state. It is the only state in the nation that does not have an extraction tax. Our governor-elect Tom Wolf ran on a campaign to enact a 5% tax and said it would raise a billion dollars per year. His people are already backpedaling as fast as they can on this probably inflated figure. Do any readers know if the shale gas industry will be hit as hard as its shale oil counterpart?

    • the blame/e December 15, 2014 at 11:22 am #

      There is no shale gas recovery. See any shale gas recovery units next to the shale oil drilling rigs? Just open pit burn off. No investment has been made for shale gas recovery other than just open pit burn off.

      Recovery is just too expensive.

      There are no storage facilities for shale gas, and there won’t be, unless it can be exported for profit outside the country. See any LNG tankers being built? See any LNG facilities being built?

      Go out to the original oil fields, like the ones in Upstate New York, just outside of a very financially distressed Olean, to Rock City, just across the bridge. Walk among the long emptied and abandoned drilling fields, the 3-inch diameter bore holes, now open to the sky are all around you. Get down on your hands and knees. Listen to the gas rushing up.

      Dare to light a match over the bore hole. Go on. I dare you.

    • mantis December 15, 2014 at 1:21 pm #

      I also live in PA and am wondering the same thing. So far I still see lots of activity, like tankers going back and forth from wells, new wells being drilled, lots of related truck traffic. A new processing plant is to start construction nearby in the next year; I don’t think the local wells are just letting the gas escape.

    • Karah December 16, 2014 at 4:10 am #

      Shale oil/gas has generated 425M USD this year for the permian basin
      Companies are reporting profit to their investors and the SEC due to more efficient and cheaper ways of extraction.

      They have more wells to drill but they’re stalling until the prices go back up and they will go back up because everyone and their mother needs the stuff to survive.

      Putin has a deal with China so I do not understand how the price of gas on the global market changes his position. China is the most populated country on Earth and they all need heat this winter and are willing to pay for it.

      Also, I don’t understand how the USA can be energy independent while still importing from OPEC nations. If that were true, and we know it’s not, then the global market would not change our prices.

      So it must be the imports that are subsidizing the production of local fossil fuels.

  9. Poet December 15, 2014 at 10:33 am #

    How to explain why or how this nation’s and the world’s economies are still lurching along in defiance of all the laws of “reality” that say they shouldn’t?
    My vote goes for supernatural intervention by God. I know that prospect makes devout non-believers squeal louder than Cheney/Bush, Kerry/Lieberman, Obama/Biden, or even McCain/Palin ever could, but how else to explain the inexplicable?
    The Almighty is not extending the time that He is keeping all of us twisting in the wind out of any sense of mercy or compassion, but rather because He is on a time table which still has however long(?) to run before His wrath comes down upon all those running the rackets and their eager dupes (the rest of us!) before He brings all of this to a grand screeching halt.
    Sneer, mock, and guffaw if you will, but what other explanation can explain all of these strange goings on that defy all sense of “reality”..

    • lsjogren December 15, 2014 at 11:37 am #

      Well, even though I am nonreligious, I do wonder whether fossil fuels were a game God played on mankind. Kind of “all right guys, you think you are so smart, let’s see how you deal with this.”

      So mankind pursued a population explosion fueled by oil, just like a dumb algae plant produces an algae bloom when provided with a short term glut of nutrients.

      I’m not 100% convinced there is not a path to perpetuating the overpopulated human race post fossil fuels, but I think it is a long shot.

      Especially when most of mankind including most of the “educated” class, are utterly oblivious to the fact that we are living in our version of an algae bloom.

    • dannyboy December 15, 2014 at 4:54 pm #

      Everything’s right on schedule.

    • hineshammer December 15, 2014 at 6:56 pm #

      Oy vey. Not exactly poetic.

    • baird December 15, 2014 at 7:24 pm #

      Simple, human stupidity, a short history lesson should suffice.

      • Subvert December 15, 2014 at 8:42 pm #

        Look how long the Roman empire held out while simultaneously imploding… Just another historical cycle repeating, nothing new here folks…same as it ever was…same as it ever was….

    • Q. Shtik December 16, 2014 at 12:04 am #

      Sneer, mock, and guffaw if you will – Poet

      =============

      I am, believe me.

    • Karah December 16, 2014 at 4:26 am #

      Jesus said honest people who know what ‘yes’ and ‘no’ means would also recognize the Devil’s work being in EXCESS of those two simple terms.

      There is a lot of deceit and intentional misleading hype behind the activities of men in all sectors of humanity. In the end, it’s the hard working family man who will suffer because his work will be in vain. He was promised a big check but all he gets is a little one. It’s better than nothing but it won’t be when he can’t pay for the cost of living. This little respite we have from high energy costs may last 2 years due to contractual obligations. However, there are deals being made outside those contracts designed to exploit whatever is left over to exploit. This was discussed in the latest JHK podcast. I think it’s a waste of our time to try and figure out the twisted language and antics of people who simply want their money to work for them instead of working for their money. That’s the only difference between the 1% and everyone else.

  10. Malthus December 15, 2014 at 10:43 am #

    Now that low gas prices are here they are encouraging everyone to go out and spend that savings. Especially to buy huge gas guzzling vehicles because good times are here again, and the fools are. Oh what happy holidays we are gong to have. Our purchases are us. And every thing is so smart these days. The same cannot be said for the consumers.

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    • outsider December 15, 2014 at 1:57 pm #

      All it takes is a small downturn in gas prices for SUV buying frenzy to start. Around here, you see more of them, and big trucks, than you do cars. You can’t even see to backup when parked between these behemoths at the local Walmart. When gas prices rise again, and they will, these people will be the first to scream that its all the guv’mint’s fault.

      • Karah December 16, 2014 at 4:31 am #

        Look at the people driving the big honkers…it ain’t just big tall guys. It’s their little women who feel protected by all that metal and height.

        Hwys have increase the speed limit to 75! There are more deaths due to car accidents than ever before! A lot of this change has to do with semi trucking. They want to go faster than 65 and 70. It’s a sign that time is running out for a lot of people.

        • cornpone2014 December 16, 2014 at 3:38 pm #

          “Look at the people driving the big honkers

          Why in the hell won’t people buy a nice used Ford PInto?

        • BeerBarrel December 17, 2014 at 8:20 pm #

          I recently became the owner of a full-size long bed turbo diesel pickup truck that weighs 9000 pounds. For precisely the reason that I’ll probably not even be able to pay it off before the shit hits the fan – and so when it does, I’ll be able to say that I had my last hurrah!!!!

          Besides, when they need help carting produce I’ll volunteer.

  11. RocketDoc December 15, 2014 at 10:49 am #

    Man does not live by bread alone. Faith and illusion buoy him up as he casts himself down, “he will give his angels charge of you”. So you may be right.

    But if you would like another explanation, unlimited money creation is a big help. If I could counterfeit perfectly, none of my friends would be suffering. I liked musical chairs at vacation bible school as a kid but this more serious version is not as much fun….

  12. the blame/e December 15, 2014 at 11:11 am #

    The only true measure of reality anymore is how unreal things seem to have become on both sides of any argument.

    Take your pick. Either way the end is near. You can have your good old-fashioned religious rapture of Armageddon; or you can go with evil at every turn, the unending spew from the snake oil salesmen of the secular apocalypse, from the high priests and priestesses of the Church of Systemic Collapse. Kurt Vonnegut would be so proud.

    The timing and demographics are perfect. The first glimpses by the Baby Boom generation of their own financial and ontological mortality being catered to by taking their world and holding it up as the whole world. The first cognizance that there is only one future to be marketed, take your pick.

    The $10,000 dollar BLT. Paying annual property taxes that are as high or higher than what your parents paid for their first home. Flipping through the pages of a 50-year-old child’s first bank deposit book just as Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) is being officially implemented. Actually, it happened years before; we were just being desensitized to the facts. You thought it was bad enough when John Lennon was being harassed by Richard Nixon and immigration. Now it is the police who are openly militarized and are gunning, without consequence, for the unarmed citizen. The Russians pissed off at us again. And this time you can’t help but side with the Russians, or any party that is against a war-mongering nation that engages in torture and an open disregard for the “rule of law.”

    And here you are, just as the shit is hitting the fan (SHTF), like the SHTF never stopped hitting the fan. You are old with too many old age symptoms. No hope, and more importantly, no energy and no desire to play anybody’s game anymore.

    • mdhaller December 15, 2014 at 1:13 pm #

      If you get so old that the shit never stops hitting the fan, it’s time to remember a saying from an old acid head…tune in, turn on and drop out. Also, turn off the fan!

      • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 1:59 pm #

        😉

        “Also, turn off the fan!”-mdhaller.

        Indeed. Words of good-sooth for these ‘interesting’ times.

        Cheers!

        • Subvert December 15, 2014 at 8:48 pm #

          Alternately, you could turn off the shit…

          (But that won’t happen because the shit supply is coming from the deluded sociopaths with all the money n guns. What could go wrong?)

  13. dweebus December 15, 2014 at 11:32 am #

    I wonder if the Scots are now breathing a collective sigh of relief. Remember Alex Salmond’s promises that North Sea oil would pay of the operations of the Scottish State.

    There is a theory floating around that SA is intentionally driving down the price of oil to destroy the fracking industry in the US.

    It also seems to me that these wild gyrations in the oil market are entirely in line with the bumpy plateau predicted in peak oil theory. Perhaps shale oil has pushed of the day of reckoning (terminal decline) off a bit, but it will surely come. I just wonder what will be left of the biosphere when we get there. 500ppm, 600, 700? Will we trigger runaway greenhouse. Just asking.

    • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 2:10 pm #

      Dweebus,

      re | “I wonder if the Scots are now breathing a collective sigh of relief. Remember Alex Salmond’s promises that North Sea oil would pay of the operations of the Scottish State.”

      Well spotted. They might have dodged a bullet with that one.

      “There is a theory floating around that SA is intentionally driving down the price of oil to destroy the fracking industry in the US.”-dw.

      It’s not much of a theory – more of a fact – after the VP’s September visit. It is also a fantastic example of their typical *too-clever-by-half* plotting style.

      Energy has been falling since July, and these nitwits figured out – all on their own – how to accelerate the collapse not only of global trade & finance, but also the consolidation of Eurasia under the SCO banner, while at the same time giving every nation with a particle of national sovereignty every reason in the world to want their gold-reserves back.

      Wow.

      Just wow…

      😉

      Cheers!

      They are such geniuses. They really are… s/

      • WW December 15, 2014 at 3:20 pm #

        Actually collapsing the oil price is done with the USA s agreement. There will be a bailout for the frackers. In one fell swoop most of Europe and the USAs enemies, ISIS, Iran and Russia have seen their income cratered. What better way to sow dissent in their ranks whilst forcing them to impose heavy economic cuts. Even ISIS relys on oil money to pay its fighters.
        The reduced transport and raw materials will actually benefit western economies as well as those that supply it finished goods with the boost in available spending.
        Watch out for trade deals with the Saudis giving massively favourable terms along with sweeteners for their royal family.

  14. venuspluto67 December 15, 2014 at 11:54 am #

    Quantitative Easing also had quite a bit to do with destroying what is known as “price discovery”, or knowing how much paper financial assets are truly worth. That and the easy money to be had because of ZIRP triggered quite the bubble in commodities, which bore partial responsibility for the price of oil fluctuating between $90-110 for 2013 and the first half of this year. I suspect that “bubble-popping” is playing a role in the price of petroleum doing an Aunt Bunny. However, we should also note that even mainstream business-news sources are identifying plain and simple demand destruction as the primary driving force of what’s happening in the world of energy, commodities, and finance these days.

  15. volodya December 15, 2014 at 12:27 pm #

    IMO we’ll look back fondly on ZIRP as the good old days of reasonable people behaving reasonably. Of course, this is all relative and that’s how ZIRP will look relative to what’s coming. What’s coming? As the poster blame/e said, it’s NIRP. NEGATIVE interest rates.

    Yes, you see, all is darkness out there according to central bankers. But not for the reasons you’d think. Nothing to do with huge swathes of the populace that can’t find decent paying work or not being able to provide for their family and retirement.

    No, according to the pointy-heads it’s the fearsome specter of deflation spreading its black wings over the glittering towers of Manhattan. This truly would be the end of everything good and great.

    It has nothing to do with your pissant little job little man. None of the great and the mighty give a shit about you. And why should they? What can you do to them?

    No, you see, Wall Street isn’t making enough money. Not nearly enough. Wall Street is choking on loot, they can’t possibly spend it all, there being only so many hours in a day.

    No matter, there’s the learned argument no doubt with metrics and charts and statistics that show it, that unless they make more, well, let’s just say you don’t want to know. The consequences would be unthinkable. This “deflation” would sink Wall Street and civilization with it.

    Let me ask you a question. You have eyes, I have eyes, we have brains, we can reason pretty much as well as anyone. The question is this: have YOU seen this “deflation”? I haven’t. I have no idea where the economics Phds are getting it.

    Know what? I think it’s a scam, it’s bullshit, Phds piling it higher and deeper. There’s no deflation out there. They just want you to think there is to set the stage for the next mind-boggling heist: NIRP. NIRP will be presented as the cure for this dreaded economic contagion.

    Can you imagine, you deposit your money and YOU pay the bank a percentage every year? Now THAT is what I call thinking outside the box. Best swindle yet. Laughably simple, no need to find borrowers, qualify them, collect from them. No, that’s way too hard. Skimming bank deposits is much, much easier.

    It’s so obvious that I’m stunned nobody thought of it earlier. Of course the biggest depositors will get skimmed too. But, you see, they also own bank shares, and they would get the money back via dividends and buy-backs. More profits for the banks, more dividends for them. What about you? How many shares do YOU have?

    Start thinking about it. You’ll have to find a stash for your nickels and dimes. For now at least. Because the next great scam is to go with all electronic money. Make cash illegal. Yep, do away with it so there’s no place to hide.

    But what am I saying? You and I might not be able to hide, but the oligarchs and Wall Street weasels surely will. Congress will make sure of it.

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    • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 1:55 pm #

      Volodya,

      re | “It’s so obvious that I’m stunned nobody thought of it earlier.”-v.

      Someone did. It was simply called ‘feudalism’ back in the day. It wasn’t rationalized as ‘financially necessary’ back then, that’s all. They had a different set of ‘reasons’ for why it was ‘good’ & ‘just’ & ‘moot’ that they should commandeer your discretionary income for the ‘greater good’ – that only they were getting good out of.

      By the way, I really get a kick out of people who glamorize the ‘good-old-days’ of ‘divine right’. They are a hoot, are they not?

      😉

      • DrTomSchmidt December 15, 2014 at 2:23 pm #

        Incorrect. Under Feudalism, the overlord had obligations to the vassal, as well as the serf being obligated to the lord. This is no longer the case.

        Face it, Feudalism would be an improvement.

        • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 6:11 pm #

          Incorrect Dr., although I agree with you in that it looks like that – on paper – the historical record shows something very different.

          Technically, a ‘lord’ received labor and produce in exchange for ‘protection’ and ‘justice’ – of a sort. But that’s precisely the deal that ‘little people’ anywhere in the world get from a gangster or warlord today. Having seen how this works at first hand, I do not agree with you.

          One of the things that I liked about ‘The Witch of Hebron’ was that J H K describes feudal lords as they truly are: boss grifters. As leaders go, they overwhelmingly tend to be fakes; they do not hold up their end of the bargain, and they s**k horribly at the one thing their supposed to be good at.

    • Q. Shtik December 16, 2014 at 12:41 am #

      “It’s so obvious that I’m stunned nobody thought of it earlier.” – Volodya

      =============

      I’ve got news Volodya, negative interest rates are not new. I once possessed a tiny Swiss bank account that “paid me” negative interest. If memory serves, it was during a roaring period of inflation in the early ’80s.

      There were two reasons they could get away with this. (1) A depositor would actually pay the bank a small vig to put his money into the strong Swiss franc rather than have his dollars eaten alive by inflation, (2) there were so many small fry depositors like me that we actually cost the bank more to set up our accounts than we were worth so they charged us for the privilege to discourage the practice.

      I held my account for about a year or two and then cashed out. Truth be told, my main driving rationale was to be able to nonchalantly tell chicks at the bar “Yeah, I have a Swiss Bank account.” They didn’t have to know it only had 500 bucks in it.

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 4:36 pm #

      “Can you imagine, you deposit your money and YOU pay the bank a percentage every year? Now THAT is what I call thinking outside the box. Best swindle yet. Laughably simple, no need to find borrowers, qualify them, collect from them. No, that’s way too hard. Skimming bank deposits is much, much easier.”

      Isn’t that already what we have? Banks here in CA actually advertise savings account rates of .60%!! Given an inflation rate of many times that, you are better off just keeping your cash – if you have some – at home. It’s going to lose value over time anyway.

      And the WS banks have the best “counterfeiter” of all – the Federal government. Would be nice if we could share in that, but that’s not what “big Guv’mint” is for!

  16. capt spaulding December 15, 2014 at 12:32 pm #

    If dropping oil prices gut the stock market, there goes my pension plan. The new 2015 budget bill includes a provision for cutting certain pension plans by as much as 30%. My pension plan informed me that it is only 62% funded. Gee, does that mean my benefits will be cut? Thank you, Republicans. Nothing much has changed over the years. Looks like you’re still the party of the rich to me. But what do I know, I’m just an ignorant blue collar worker unable to appreciate the decisions made by people who know more than me (Politicians).

    • outsider December 15, 2014 at 2:20 pm #

      There’s plenty of blame to go around. Don’t blame it all on republicans, Obama’s had the bully pulpit for 6 years. It’s been a bi-partisan effort of the ignorant pandering to the stupid. The smartest people avoid elected office like the plague. Do you think that Pelosi and Reid know what they’re talking about any more than do Boehner and McConnell?

      • capt spaulding December 15, 2014 at 9:05 pm #

        You are right. A pox on both their houses. I was just more or less remarking on the impact on my retirement this will have. There’s enough blame to go around, but I think the main credit for the shitty addendums to the budget should be awarded to the republicans, Although I wouldn’t let my daughter marry a democrat either.

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 4:39 pm #

      I think it’s past time to realize that BOTH parties are responsible for this mess. The Democrats haven’t supported the New Deal/Fair Deal policies of the past and we’re stuck with perpetual Republican government!

      That to me is the REAL problem.

      Very few actual Democrats in the political class.

  17. swmnguy December 15, 2014 at 12:36 pm #

    Supposedly, Albert Einstein said, “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.”
    It doesn’t matter if he said it or not; it’s true. And as a synonym for “stupidity,” we could use “greed.”
    Economics is interested to a lesser extent because an understanding of it can help one with one’s greed. But it’s really interesting as a context for examining human behavior.
    Each economic system people have come up with deals with the same bedrock issue. The world is a finite place. As opposed, as I maintain, to human stupidity/greed. It is theoretically possible, and at times actually the case, that our greed overruns our opportunities to satisfy it.
    Simple barter stopped working when supplies of stuff to be bartered ran out. Mercantilism stopped working because it proceeds on arithmetic, rather than geometric, progressions. A greedy person just can’t get rich enough trading actual stuff.
    That’s the brilliance of modern finance capitalism. We can’t make the resources, energy and markets infinite. You can only extract so many raw materials. At a certain point, you end up having to consume >1x energy to extract 1x energy, and then that’s done. Once everyone with the money to buy one and a place to plug it in has a refrigerator, markets are exhausted.
    But you can make money abstract, and therefore infinite. We have an unlimited number of 1s and 0s at our disposal.
    The obvious problem is that if money is abstract and infinite, then it becomes worthless. It has to be made artificially scarce, or tethered to something that limits it, in order that it can retain value. So we tethered it to debt, in a Zero-sum relationship. For every $1 in money, there has to be $1 of debt. Both numbers can be infinite, but they have to total $0 or the scarcity, and therefore the value, is lost.
    This worked really well for a long time, but from the very start some people saw the flaw in the reasoning and were able to predict how it would all fall apart. We call them “Marxists,” and we don’t listen to them because they’re no fun at parties.
    Marxists were horseshit social observers, terrible judges of human nature, horrible scolds and dreadful wet blankets, but they sure did catch the flaw in finance capitalism.
    As most on this page have observed, we’re getting close to the point of collapse. It’s impossible to say exactly when that point will arrive, but it’s getting nearer. The exact point comes when a critical mass of people have an “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment and realize that the whole system is bullshit. That sentiment is growing and intensifying, but how far it has to go before it overwhelms people’s normalcy bias is anyone’s guess.
    We’ve gotten to the stage in development of the crisis where actual productive endeavors are far less profitable that abstract manipulations. That’s why wages for work are declining. That’s why the price of luxuries and trinkets falls while the cost of things we actually need rise.
    The recent absurdity in energy markets is a good illustration. We’ve been using far more energy than we’ve needed to for a long time. But the consumption of energy hasn’t fallen by half in the past 6 months. So the price either used to be fictional, or it’s fictional now. If we’re to the point that it takes $80/bbl to extract oil, then the price can’t fall to $50/bbl unless we’re using a lot less of it. And we’re not.
    So how does this happen?
    We’re not really trading oil, or gas, or coal. We’re trading coupons tied, loosely, to the notional future value of those sources of energy. The price of those coupons turns out to have a lot more to do with the price of money lent at interest to fuel those extraction industries. The price of oil tells us almost nothing about oil in today’s modern finance capital marketplace. It tells us a lot about the value of money. And the value of money is plummeting, as more and more people figure out that the supply is infinite, and the debt it’s tied to is also infinite and fictional and will never be repaid because it can’t be. And the debt can’t be repaid because it’s gotten to be so huge no amount of productive endeavor can raise enough money to repay the debt.
    The only question now is how long will be continue the stalling, and what increasingly desperate measures will we turn to in order to keep up the charade.
    At some point, one day nobody shows up. And that’s when it’s over. When that happens, I have no idea. But when the whole system is based on pretense, and there is no real anchor to value, eventually people will stop playing. Their greed will no longer be satisfied by participation.
    We’re getting close.

    • volodya December 15, 2014 at 12:51 pm #

      Bravo, great post. Great antidote for crack-pot economics.

      • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 1:44 pm #

        Stuff like this is why I ‘tune-in’…

        Cheers V!

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 4:44 pm #

      Kind of like being the victim of some insane fantasy, isn’t it?

      All these people is power jabbering about one fantasy or another, a whole society and culture with no grounding in anything except a Disneyfied view of the world.

      Really insane in a world with so much knowledge and so many capabilities.

      Future generations will ask the same question the Germans were asked in 1945. Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you stop them?

  18. Smoky Joe December 15, 2014 at 12:59 pm #

    I would be happy about the shale-oil bust if I thought we’d have a soft landing on our American-sized buttocks. Yet even in the land of whale-butt crybabies with too many guns while using too much gasoline, no posterior cushion is big enough for the next Depression.

    My 2015 Holiday Recipe:

    *One part unrest, not just by disgruntled black youth but also by fatty in his SUV.
    *Next, add ample cheap firearms and turn up heat on social media and talk radio.
    *Stir in a Congress who has just removed the modest banking reforms under Dodd-Frank.
    *Finally, reverse the oil-price drop as oil bounces back to $100 and beyond due to the shale-oil bust.

    Voila! Another Crash. Serving size at least 330,000,000.

    Optional sides: pairs well with continued war in Gulf between various regional powers. Add Chinese and Russian seasonings to taste.

    Dessert course will be violent, but pairs with sour grapes and bitter tears. Bon Appetit!

  19. lost-in-north-dakota December 15, 2014 at 1:13 pm #

    Mr. Kunstler has not completely connected the dots.

    #1 Oil crashes.
    #2 Junk bonds default.
    #3 Losses on Credit Default Swaps, held by the big banks, soar.
    #4 These losses can now be transferred to the public and to the Fed, thanks to the bill pushed through Congress this past weekend.

    My theory is THIS is why the banking industry went full-court-press on this partial repeal of Dodd-Frank.

    Just my theory.

    • Greg Knepp December 15, 2014 at 2:46 pm #

      In tandem with K-dog’s earlier comment, another good bet!

    • malthuss December 15, 2014 at 10:43 pm #

      #5 Panic in the streets?
      #6 Bank Holiday?

    • seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 9:03 am #

      Good analysis. You are correct. When SHTF, the banks will say they loaned all that risky money to energy companies for us.

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 4:51 pm #

      I am trying to figure if the explosions and train derailings of the last few years have any impact on this. Though many suggest there is no relationship between the world of experience and the world of investors. Especially since, unlike those of us who live in the real world, they are not held accountable for their actions.

      Plus Canada has called for the removal of the “Pinto” of tank cars for hauling crude oil. So if it goes to the border in our old cars, on our old tracks and bridges without derailing or blowing up – then what?

  20. MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 1:43 pm #

    This week’s contribution starts with the perfect hook:

    “May not sound like much? I guess when you hunker down in the lab with the old slide rule and do the math, wow! Those numbers really pop!”- J H K.

    This made me laugh. It’s precisely the tone that one of the myriad aid & abettors of systemic ‘black swans’ take when confronted with discomforting reality. Yes dweeb, you cannot predict all of reality from the test-bench, or the laptop for that matter… Mr. Taleb has waxed at-length and poetical about this species of ever-so earnest nitwit, but we must proceed;

    “In fact, ZIRP destroyed the most fundamental index in the financial universe: the true cost of borrowing money. In doing so, it twerked and torqued the concept of “risk” so badly that risk no longer had any meaning.”- J H K.

    And there it is – fundamentally. I’ve quietly borne the silliness of friends and colleagues who should’ve known better for the past half-dozen years. We’ve been living in a ‘Wily E. Coyote’ moment of trying to run on thin air – and then we get a little peek downwards… But enough of that. We shall move onwards;

    “The shale oil “miracle” was an epochal stunt.”- J H K.

    Exactly so. It was a bunch of last-minute heroics. In the real world of planning and doing tangible things that happen in the tangible world, there is NO faith in last-minute ‘hail-Mary’ maneuvers. None… But alas, we must push on to the *piece-de-resistance*;

    “Finance was the lifeblood of the global economy and scam after scam left it riddled with wormholes of fragility.”- J H K.

    This whole thing was avoidable – if we had been a better species, I suppose. It didn’t have squat to do with a long-list of ‘reasons’ generated by very provincial and limited imaginations. It simply came down to Greed, as a force of human nature. The inexorable gathering of power into the hands of the most-sociopathic. Humanity’s generalized tendency to race for the bottom – while spouting excuses & rationalizations about ‘how anyone could see that it was really the top’ – if they had the right ‘attitude’.

    And yet, the task of doing something better than merely surviving remains. We cannot do that without adequate information about where we are, and where we need to be.

    J H K, thanks for this useful reminder and word of guidance. It is appreciated.

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  21. BackRowHeckler December 15, 2014 at 1:55 pm #

    The hostage taker in Sydney, armed with a shotgun, a native of Iran, must not have known that private ownership of firearms in Australia is strictly forbidden.

  22. mjhmeyer December 15, 2014 at 2:39 pm #

    Horward,

    why do you think the economy will collapse in a matter of months?
    The economy is much too big with too much inertia. It takes years for such a process to take place, a decade or more given the obdurate determination of governments to print enough money to fill all holes.

    It may never collapse at all. Western governments are backing everything. Thus it can only collapse if trust in governments disappears to the point where they cannot refinance their debts.
    Currently there are no signs that such a process is taking shape.

    Japanese national debt is at 250% of GDP and interest rates are at record lows. Western governments can sustain decades of mismanagement before arriving at this point.

    On the other hand battery technology is making giant strides in research labs and it is entirely possible that we will be driving to Walmart forever.There will soon be a glut of renewable energy with storage the only remaining unsolved problem.

    Fracking is not going away. Companies may restructure but they continue operations or their operations are taken over. Tar sands will continue to be exploited.

    It seems that you find our consumer culture to be distasteful and so it is. But it is what the people want and it is what they will get until the whole world is turned into one giant unified oceaninc and continental garbage patch and no amount of wishful thinking will make it otherwise.

    • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 11:29 pm #

      mjhmeyer,

      The problem is that “trust” doesn’t need to collapse when Demand steadily does. The entire exercise of puffing up valueless ‘assets’ in some notional financial world, imposes an opportunity cost on the real world. Eventually, the general population has no choice but stop listening to talking heads and start listening to screaming stomach. We’ve already seen dress rehearsals for this during the ‘Arab Spring’.

      In the end, Hunger and Cold cut through all B-S.

  23. FincaInTheMountains December 15, 2014 at 3:49 pm #

    United States without any problems can afford any oil prices – they depend on the price of the final products of oil processing. In the most critical situations, US would only need to redistribute cash flows, subsidizing the production of raw materials, and that will take care of low oil price.

    In other words, it is ridiculous to assume that America will not stand pressure of low oil prices – quite the contrary – it will have an advantage due to the fact that OPEC and independent producers themselves would go broke first and force to take the decision to reduce production. In this case, the United States by 2020 if current trends hold will be able to start exporting nearly 5 million barrels of oil per day, which is one sixth of the entire current production of OPEC.

    Naturally, it is US who are interested in “clearing” of the oil market out of competitors and to become primary beneficiary of today situation with plummeting oil prices.

  24. FincaInTheMountains December 15, 2014 at 4:48 pm #

    Plummeting oil prices and plummeting Ruble, contrary to what a lot of folks think, is not the Russia’s and Putin biggest headache at the moment – it is stupid, or rather traitorous behavior of Russian “independent” Central Bank.

    It looks like Russian CB takes its marching orders from IMF, in other words, from Washington and does everything in its power to ruin the Russian economy: hiking interests rates instead of lowering, banking officials sending numerous signals about possible currency interventions in advance, when they suppose to keep their mouth shut and do it unexpectedly, and on and on and on.

    I wonder when Putin is going to lose his cool and order Russian Marines to take over CB Building. 2015 is definitely going to be very interesting in that respect. Either Putin will take firm control of Nation’s finances, or he will be taken out of Kremlin, perhaps feet first with the hole in the back of his head, just like one Washington official suggested.

  25. Pucker December 15, 2014 at 8:02 pm #

    In addition to the Shale Oil scam there’s the marriage scam. According to Helen Smith’s book, “Men on Strike”, about 4% of married men with children in the US are unknowingly raising children who are not their biological children.

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    • seawolf77 December 15, 2014 at 8:53 pm #

      I’m sure it’s better than 4%.

    • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 11:23 pm #

      Pucker, I need to recommend the book “Sex at Dawn” to you, right now… You’re right. The whole thing is some giant *crazy* scam, just not for the reasons that we typically suspect.

    • MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 11:45 pm #

      Oh by the way, there’s a simple remedy for this: simply take a DNA sample (cheek-swab from the infant in question) and submit it for testing. A precise breakdown of Haplo-group and SNP’s will narrow the margin of error *incredibly* well (>0.1% chance, before factoring logistical impossibility).

      If you find yourself standing on the wrong side of the line when the test comes back, the rest is up to you…

      😉

    • outsider December 16, 2014 at 10:27 am #

      Pucker – 4% doesn’t seem like that much. What’s your point anyway and how is it connected to the Shale Oil scam?

  26. Pucker December 15, 2014 at 8:04 pm #

    “I used to coach girls’ soccer with my fiancee (now wife). I stopped because one of the girls (all of 8 years old) said: “I don’t have to listen to you. I can just get you in trouble just by telling people you touched me.'” (Helen Smith, “Men on Strike”)

    • seawolf77 December 15, 2014 at 9:58 pm #

      You should have told her, “Who’s gonna believe you with all that come on your face?”

    • Subvert December 15, 2014 at 10:59 pm #

      Ah, The Manipulative and Entitled American Female: (Disneyensis Princea Exceptionalis) This species becomes expert in manipulation soon after weaning and achieves greater proficiency as it matures.

      …And my family wonders why I’m not married…

  27. bob December 15, 2014 at 8:11 pm #

    Economically the Nazi program was not in the interest of lower middle class people of Germany, but they gave their support to it. Reich asked, What psychological reason could be found that would make the fascist ideology compelling to this group of people?

    His answer was: The combination of authority and rebellion. Reich said the sons would especially admire an authoritarian person above them who was also rebellious. (Like Hitler and Stalin) That way they could fulfill the desire to rebel but with subservience. This was a submission that came with some real resentment.

    It’s about time we brought Wilhelm Reich into the conversation.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 16, 2014 at 4:09 am #

      Wrong. Hitler’s program got Germans back to work. Millions considered him literally the Father of their Country since he enabled people to have children. Like most Whites, Germans wouldn’t have children they couldn’t afford.

      Reich was a Jew – an enemy of the German people. As you know, Juden declared economic war on Germany years before the outbreak of military action.

      Jews spend decades psycho-pathologizing Western Culture. Freud said his mission was to make the West lose confidence in itself. His hero? The Semitic Hannibal. So in general they lauded extreme individuality and pathologized group consciousness – other than their own of course. The individual alone is no match for an organized alien group. Thus Whites are being displaces by group oriented aliens of all kinds now.

      • seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 9:47 am #

        Exactly correct. Hitler created 6,000,000 jobs in 2 years. Does that number sound familiar? Unemployment went from over 20 % to 0%. Everyone was working. He based his currency not on gold but on the productive capacity of a German worker, which is essentially what money is, a fungible proxy for productive capacity or output. Recent reports from the former Soviet Union indicate Stalin was planning an invasion of Germany and Hitler had no choice but to strike first since a first strike would claim the Polesti Oil fields, virtually eliminating the fuel for German military. Stalin would have gotten all of Europe, instead of half.

      • alphie December 17, 2014 at 11:56 pm #

        ” Like most Whites, Germans wouldn’t have children they couldn’t afford.” ok I’ll take the bait Janos. In the US it’s all about the status quo. The welfare system created by whites is a way to keep the populace divided. Those who have, look down upon and blame the nation’s woes on the poor for accepting handouts. A house divided… The system is also meant to keep people dependent. Imagine if the majority of blacks began to rise on the socio-economic ladder. You don’t think that would scare the shit out of whites who’ve had their hands on the levers of power since the inception of this country? And imagine if crime in our cities went away. A lot of people would be unemployed. Policemen and women, judges, lawyers, clerks, bailiffs, stenographers, jailers, wardens, assistants, secretaries, prison builders…heck there’s a whole heap of people making a living off of crime. My point is this: it’s all working just fine for those in power. So while your running around with your holier-than-thou attitude, stereotyping and generalizing about very complex issues I’d like to ask you one question: When’s the last time you were black?

        • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 5:06 pm #

          Unfortunately such reasoning is lost on Janos, who simply does not understand that the vast majority of people on welfare are white.

          This is not so much a racial issue but one of poverty.

  28. Pucker December 15, 2014 at 8:26 pm #

    According to Tim Reiterman’s book “Raven: The Untold Story of a Reverend Jim Jones”, Reverend Jones’ favorite TV show was “Hogan’s Heroes”, a sitcom about POWs in a WWII Na,,zi concentration camp.

    • malthuss December 15, 2014 at 10:46 pm #

      No. It was a POW camp. Big difference. I never found the show funny or even mildly interesting.

  29. Jello December 15, 2014 at 8:41 pm #

    I would have hoped that you would have mentioned the far greater fleecing of America this week with passing of the new budget bill. It basically adds the trillions in derivative crap onto the FDIC;s books making the people of America liable for the whole house of cards.

    Next week Jim!
    Keep up the good work, I really enjoy your posts. It’s lovely reading someone who has a grasp of the english language and sarcasm and irony, LOL!

    Jello

  30. Pucker December 15, 2014 at 8:46 pm #

    If you get married in the US and have a kid, there’s about a 1 in 20 chance that the kid won’t be yours.

    I wonder how many kids will grow up to look like Alpha Male Bernie Madoff selling Shale Oil plays?

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    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 5:36 pm #

      Somehow I’m not surprised, and would imagine that if you could do a study of this over centuries you’d find various values, sometimes maybe even much higher than that.

      Human beings have been sharing their DNA globally since practically the beginning.

  31. seawolf77 December 15, 2014 at 8:51 pm #

    Bells will be ringing, the sad, sad news
    Oh what a Christmas, to have the blues
    The oil age is gone, we have no friends
    To kiss our ass, once again

    Jews and the Muslims, send terror rations
    Sure as the nukes shine above
    Yes we are dick less, yes dick less my dear
    The time of year, to fear, the ones who run

    So won’t you tell, what I want to hear
    Christmas and New Years, the crappy cheer
    There’ll be no more Wal Mart, just meth and beer
    And I’ll be bat shit, crazy once again

  32. Pucker December 15, 2014 at 9:17 pm #

    When I was a kid, every Christmas issue of “Playboy” magazine would contain the same cartoon of the sexy, horny housewife in her nighty greeting Santa as he comes down the chimney while the husband is out-of-town on business.

    • malthuss December 15, 2014 at 10:47 pm #

      Playboy has given money to NOW so I know feminism is fake.
      And Steinham worked for the CIA.

      • BackRowHeckler December 15, 2014 at 11:53 pm #

        Word is ISIS has published an official manual on how to properly handle female sex slaves captured in Iraq and Syria. I heard Savage talking about it.

        No comment from NOW so far. They seem to be worried about the rapes that did not happen at the University of Virginia at the present time.

        brh

        • BackRowHeckler December 16, 2014 at 12:00 am #

          Its basically a rape manual. Alot about it in the British Press, not much, if anything at all, in the American Press.

        • malthuss December 16, 2014 at 12:01 pm #

          NOW must bow to ‘Muslim Privilege’.

          • malthuss December 16, 2014 at 12:02 pm #

            BRH, I doubt the news will make ‘the cover of Rolling Stone’.

  33. progress4what December 15, 2014 at 10:13 pm #

    “There will be no quick cure for cratering oil prices and the damage it will wreak among the shale drillers.” – jhk –

    That’s true enough, JHK. And I don’t think many people have an understanding of how large a portion of the real economy of real goods and services has come to be underwritten by the “shale boom,” here in the US.

    Those drilling companies have been buying huge industrial quantities of all kinds of materials, ranging around the alphabet from trucks to tubing. And to talk timber – prices paid for standing hardwood sawtimber have doubled in the past couple of years, all around the US. where the stuff is grown. And the reason is that it’s being cut into huge hardwood beams which are then used to move and stabilize some of that heavy drilling and fracking equipment in the Bakken and elsewhere. I know several landowners who have signed contracts to cut timber that’s been growing since the 1940’s. Big deals on big trees – big money that may be about to just go “poof,” and disappear. And that’s just one tiny subset of approaching problems, something I mention because I have personal knowledge of it, and doubt that many other readers @ CFN do.

    On another note – I notice that the count of posts here is about half what it was at this time last week. The economy and oil is important – but, boy, does talking about racial politics really increase the page views. Take that knowledge out into the world at large, and it helps one understand why the race hustlers won’t stop hustling and the media won’t stop reporting it.

    Thanks for the week’s work, JHK.

    • Pucker December 15, 2014 at 10:46 pm #

      Speaking of racial politics, why-the-f..ck did the Ferguson black rioters burn down a Beauty Parlour? I don’t get it….

    • seawolf77 December 15, 2014 at 11:22 pm #

      Yes racism is the ultimate fish hook, just ask the Catholic Church. There is nothing quite as satisfying as soaking in a hot tub of eugenics. Well Ok maybe being part of a lynching. But look at it this way, if we were not able to feel superior, how else could we rape and pillage the world.

      • BackRowHeckler December 16, 2014 at 12:46 am #

        How about if we ask the Grand Mufti instead, SW?

        Not a lynching, but the new, post knockout game, of setting white women in fire, after dousing them with gasoline.

        brh

      • Janos Skorenzy December 16, 2014 at 4:11 am #

        So instead we let them rape and pillage us? Brilliant, dummy.

        • seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 9:00 am #

          That is a false dichotomy, an either or that I don’t buy, let alone rent.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 16, 2014 at 2:26 pm #

            Yet you imply it every time you condemn your own Nation and People. Why not condemn Mankind if you wish to be fair? What Nation wasn’t founded on “racism” – which basically translates to the natural love of one’s own people.

          • seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 8:34 pm #

            Mankind needs no condemnation or commendation; this is implicit. What is explicit is your need to tie success, failure, trajectory whether it is up or down, even your very soul’s place and number in heaven or in hell to what came out of your father’s member when you were conceived. Life is more nuanced than that. Try it sometime. You might like it.

  34. MisterDarling December 15, 2014 at 11:18 pm #

    Hello WW,

    re | “Actually collapsing the oil price is done with the USA s agreement. There will be a bailout for the frackers. In one fell swoop most of Europe and the USAs enemies, ISIS, Iran and Russia have seen their income cratered. What better way to sow dissent in their ranks whilst forcing them to impose heavy economic cuts. Even ISIS relys on oil money to pay its fighters.
    The reduced transport and raw materials will actually benefit western economies as well as those that supply it finished goods with the boost in available spending.”-ww.

    There’s a structural flaw in your argument WW: The Demand side of the economic equation.

    Firstly, Fuel was already trending down in June/July – so the VP’s visit to “SA” only made a bad thing – for the US/UK axis as much everyone else – worse.

    Second, collapsing demand globally isn’t new (as evidenced by the hardest data there is to fake):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Dry_Index#mediaviewer/File:BDI.png

    Aggregate demand has been trending down for more than a decade, as this article efficiently illustrates:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-14/economics-efficiency-fake-jobs-fake-growth-and-two-class-society

    Bailing out “the frackers” does naught if you damage their production capacity (permits are down 15% MoM already) while destabilizing the financial market – only to resume normal levels of oil supply and whipsaw the markets yet again, into what? An even more traumatized global market burning less fuel than before, and at prices that were killing demand to begin at the outset. At the end of the day nothing is accomplished.

    Actually, what will happen – now a bit faster thanks to the misguidance from inside the Beltway – is that physical and financial capacity will be crippled, the price will be down then bounce and keep going – which also be that much worse for everyone.

    This is a short-sighted & reactive maneuver, created by people without a strategic thought in the heads. This is why they lurch from blowback to blowback.

    Demand took a critical hit years ago, and at this point the trend is irreversible. There would be no need for corporations to send 95% of their profit (which is dwindling) buying back their own stock – [*] – and paying out dividends – [**] – if things were in a state where a short-sighted tweety-bird move like flooding a structurally disabled market would actually work.

    WW, please do not mistake my tone. It’s understood that you understand the situation in broad outlines. Actually, I sympathize. At times I’ve found *myself* having to keep my ‘game-face’ on for days, when working with people still re-living the geo-political moment of 1952/3…

    — — —

    [*] AAPL is outdoing everyone else in buybacks ($17B conservatively). Apple is not known for employing a bunch of dunces, so what does that say about what consumer demand actually is? Wow! Maybe destroying the middle-class wasn’t such a great idea after all…

    [**] Leaving a scant 9% or less for reinvestment…

  35. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 2:08 am #

    Bank of Russia hikes rates for currency speculators to 17%, rates for industrial projects remain at 9%.

    Rates on mortgages for members of the military remain at 10.75%. After all, we live in prewar times.

    Introducing discriminatory rates, hmmm… interesting. We’ll see if it is going to work. May be finally they’ve woken up to the fact of ongoing war on financial front.

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  36. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 2:41 am #

    Washington plan is fairly obvious: Hit Russia on economy, create major difficulties in Russian supply chains, heat up popular resentment against Kremlin anti-West policies and try to go for regime-change in Moscow with Kiev Maidan-style color revolution. All that will be accompanied by raising Islamist terror threats all across the country. (I don’t think Washington could count on Ukrainian-Nazi terror threats, those Ukrainians are real disappointment)

    John F. Tefft, a veteran of color revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and other post-Soviet republics is heading US Embassy in Moscow, a coordination center for anti-Putin resistance.

    Sure, Russia will soon start seeing shortages and price hikes on expensive French soft cheeses, Spanish ham and fancy Italian lady’s underwear.

    Question is, will it work or backfire, uniting Russians around their President? Bets are still open.

  37. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 3:22 am #

    New form of European tourism – watching Russian Bears flying over

    The increased activity of Russian aviation pushes the Baltic countries brains beyond the “traumatic stage”. It is said that Europe already has a new feature – “go to look at the Russian Bear.” People tend to be specifically in places where passage of Russian “military wing” will be seen. Of course, the nuclear bomber Tu-95 (The Bear), looks very elegant and, together with its combat power, of course, fascinating.

    European governments, who are forced to immediately launch their interceptors into the air, are angry and outraged. Russian planes hypnotize their citizens. Putin is using these planes to send his message to citizens all over Europe: “We are here because we don’t believe your governments.” The question immediately arises from the citizens: “Is it just because of them? Perhaps we should think about the next election, for whom to vote. ”

    Using Russian Bears Putin succeeded in offering different political agenda in Europe. West for the first time in many years now is fully aware of the Russian policy, that is, to act in response. Russians bypassed the Western propaganda machine to directly send the message to European electorate.

    Putin felt the weak point in western nerve and is now playing it like Clinton on a saxophone. He seems to say to the Americans: “Your aircraft carriers are where now? And our planes here they are, see them all. “

  38. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 7:52 am #

    Declaration of war?

    A unprecedented speculative attack on the Russian currency took a dramatic turn today. Ruble went down almost by 20% on a single day of trading.

    Russian CB is not hurrying in to start pouring foreign currency reserves on that fire – Russia would rather spend that money on the infrastructural projects.

    Is Russia is being outcast out of the Dollar system before she is completely ready and before the EroAsian Union start functioning in 2015?

  39. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 8:49 am #

    The USDRUB Pair Will Be Discontinued Due To Recent Instability Of The Russian Ruble

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-16/usdrub-pair-will-be-discontinued-due-recent-instability-russian-ruble

    When trade goes silent, the drums of war take over…

  40. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 9:21 am #

    Western intelligence missed the deployment of Russian middle-range supersonic Iscander missiles in Kaliningrad region, on the Russian/German/Polish border.

    The missiles were transformed in the middle of the night from other Russian bases during the massive military drills in the most western part of the Russian border.

    http://kgd.ru/news/item/40335-v-kaliningradskoj-oblasti-prohodili-tajnye-voennye-ucheniya-s-iskanderami

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  41. BackRowHeckler December 16, 2014 at 9:55 am #

    Front page headline in today’s Investor’s Business Daily:

    ‘Oil Related Bonds Crowd Junk Debt As Prices Fall Faster’

    JHK nailed it dead balls this time around! Very prescient of you Jim!

    brh

    • Buck Stud December 16, 2014 at 10:33 am #

      With the economic noose tightening around the neck of Putin’s Russia, I wonder if in a quiet, private moment and all all alone with nothing but his honesty Vladimir mutters to himself:

      “They’re just too big, too strong, too fast, and too smart, what was I ever thinking?!?!”

      I imagine that Olga has a nice sharp razor blade laying near the precipice of a bath soon to be drawn in fresh warm blood.

      • volodya December 16, 2014 at 11:39 am #

        They’re just too big, too strong, too fast, and too smart, what was I ever thinking?!?!”

        How deep are Russian oligarchs in this debacle? Maybe Putin thought he could pull them around by the nose. Maybe he didn’t adequately instill fear. Because I hear that the Russkis are talking capital controls.

        They sure as hell don’t worry about the average diseased and walking-half-dead-from-alcohol Russian in the street. They worry about the mega-kleptos. Anyway maybe the deal between Putin and the oligarchs is unraveling, you know, they get to steal what they want but stay out of politics. But, the bastards, they’re voting with their feet. Or their bank accounts.

        I’ll bet Putin is plenty pissed. How long before this gets ugly, a delegation of men with guns visits Putin and suggests it’s time for him to retire. Time for a new leader to put a stop to all this disruptive nonsense over the border with the Ukraine.

        Or, alternatively, a couple oligarchs meet untimely ends ie Putin does rub-outs to send a message.

        • FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 12:04 pm #

          You, guys, watch too many Hollywood movies. Relax. Things are a little more complicated in 1500-year old Russian culture.

          • volodya December 16, 2014 at 1:18 pm #

            It’s not as if the Russkis are squeamish about spilling blood. Not as if they haven’t gotten rid of leaders before. Putin may be a tough guy, which the oligarchs should keep front of mind if they want to live long enough to spend some of their stolen loot. But having said that, Putin should keep in mind also that the place he rules has no shortage of tough guys. Not as if he’s bullet proof.

            I mean, is this Ukraine thing worth the bother? I say no, not for anybody, the Russians included. Especially the Russians. What’s their angle? What in God’s name is Putin thinking? What do they get if those border areas join Russia?

            Is this their idea of push-back? Against what? An enfeebled Eurocracy? Seriously, are they any threat? NATO? Good lord, talk about paper tigers. The US? The biggest paper tiger of all.

            This has to have occurred to some of the oligarchs and I’ll bet there’s a constituency that wants to see it end by any means necessary.

          • Buck Stud December 16, 2014 at 8:07 pm #

            Now Fin we all witnessed that fifth ring failure at the Opening ceremonies, speaking of complex 1500 year old cultures. But seriously, the info you have been posting recently such as an autonomous Russian Central Bank (or an IMF/U.S. puppet per your comment) suggests that things are spinning out of control for Putin and that perhaps he underestimated the reach of his American antagonists.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 16, 2014 at 2:29 pm #

        Yes Olga keeps a razor blade in her vagina for the unwary Vlad who seeks a forced entry.

  42. lingling December 16, 2014 at 10:37 am #

    “…a lot of planned wells will not be drilled and completed, meaning that the current crop of short-lived wells will crap out in the 24 months ahead, and production will not be replaced by new wells…”

    Good lord. Still haven’t picked up the text book for econ 101? Supply and demand, Jimmy, supply and demand.

    Currently, too much supply. New wells don’t get drilled because prices collapsed. Existing wells start drying up. Too little supply. Prices go up. New wells get drilled. For fuck’s sake try and connect a few fucking dots. It ain’t all that complicated.

    • MisterDarling December 16, 2014 at 3:57 pm #

      lingling,

      Overall Demand was falling before SA got onboard. Matter of fact, demand destruction is 10+ year trend. If market demand didn’t support $107/barrel, diminishing supply to increase price and stimulate production won’t work… Basically, the energy market’s not working at any price.

      This is what “Jimmy” was getting at when he wrote: “ZIRP ruined all that. In fact, ZIRP destroyed the most fundamental index in the financial universe: the true cost of borrowing money.”- J H K.

      The market’s pricing mechanism is broken. This is what happens when the value of equity and debenture ‘assets’ are supported by fake financial chicanery for the better part of a decade.

      We’re no longer in a place where simple ‘supply and demand’ dynamics can work. We are off the map.

  43. Buck Stud December 16, 2014 at 11:25 am #

    Driving through some of the oil shale towns on the Western Slope it’s pretty apparent that most everybody realizes the only thing here to stay is that old-time dynamic of boom and bust. Everything about these towns has Temporary written all over it from the architectural ambiance to a group mentality loathe to invest in long-term civic commitment. Increased property taxes that would better fund their own children’s education are eschewed along with a minimization of environmental impact. ‘Getting while the getting’s good’ and ‘we’re just passing through’ might as well letter the license plates of oil shale employees.

    It’s the ethos of Manifest Dynasty rearing it’s ugly head in the year 2014. “Over There” is the eternal escape hatch and the rationalization that inseminates the ugly aftermath time after time, again and again.

    If decadence and degeneracy is a one-eighty from art and aesthetics then theses towns and this economy are the epitome of that mindset and this culture. Because real art and real culture implies a process that points to something better and more beautiful and the process itself never reeks with the stench of short term debauchery. To the contrary, in a process imbued with a long-term commitment to beauty and culture the process itself is beautiful, witness the roughly carved’ unfinished marble matrix that encapsulates Michelangelo’s “Slave” sculptures in a manner that does not detract, but rather, amplifies beauty because it is a holistic/synergistic commitment to a final result originally conceived as beauty of the eternal variety.

    In other words, original intent reveals itself, whether it be a long-term commitment to civic beauty and culture or a short term exploitative mentality that always results in ugliness.

    Of course, the big-money behind these efforts attempts to conceal original intent and the eventual result with ‘jobs for the middle class’ verbiage during the actual on-going debauchery, but they almost never bother with the ugly mess of the aftermath. By that time, the temporary mindset will have moved on to someplace else, over there–a half-ass culture in service of a half-ass economy.

    • BackRowHeckler December 16, 2014 at 1:42 pm #

      Buck aren’t these oil towns like the Gold Rush Towns in the Old West?

      Eventually these rough and tumble towns, the ones that lasted after the gold ran out, did develop culturally in some ways, with opera houses, churches, schools, museums and the like. Mark Twain, and Oscar Wilde a little later, were impressed with the look of mining towns in California and Colorado, Wilde commenting the miners he saw in Cripple Creek, with their blue jeans, high boots, and red wool shirts, were the best dressed men he saw in America.

      Then again, crystal meth, and oxycondin, were not yet available in the old west, just whiskey, which is saying a lot.

      brh

      • BackRowHeckler December 16, 2014 at 1:47 pm #

        When Oscar Wilde came to the US he visited Jefferson Davis at his home in Mississippi, which must’ve been quite a meeting, these two Rebels.

      • malthuss December 16, 2014 at 6:59 pm #

        Oscar was Homo? He liked the miners.

        What circa 1800s famous British writer visited USA and was shocked at the poverty and lack of culture? His name eludes me.

        • BackRowHeckler December 17, 2014 at 8:13 am #

          That would be Charles Dickens. Thackeray might have showed up on these western shores too.

          • BackRowHeckler December 17, 2014 at 8:16 am #

            Yes, Wilde was gay, but he was a lot of other things too, Malthus. He actually went to prison in England for homosexual acts, which were illegal at the time.

          • BackRowHeckler December 17, 2014 at 8:19 am #

            Robert Louis Stevenson spent some time here, prospecting for gold in the Southwest and marrying an already married American woman, on his way to paradise and an early death in the south Pacific.

            brh

      • Buck Stud December 16, 2014 at 7:45 pm #

        BRH,

        A few do but most end up like Parachute Colorado. Towns like Cripple Creek and Telluride are the exception. A few other towns have legalized gambling so casinos pick up some of the slack.

        Here’s a couple of articles, one from 1982 and the other from 2012. Not a whole lot seems to change in these boom or bust towns:

        http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19820503&id=hV0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gmQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5488,523404

        http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/us/energy-boom-turns-to-bust-in-colorado.html?_r=1&

    • MisterDarling December 16, 2014 at 3:46 pm #

      “Everything about these towns has Temporary written all over it from the architectural ambiance to a group mentality loathe to invest in long-term civic commitment.”-buck.

      You’ve managed to nutshell 80% of American Culture.

      • Buck Stud December 16, 2014 at 10:33 pm #

        Well that’s depressing, in a “The Last Picture Show” sort of way, lol.

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 5:51 pm #

      It may sound strange, but you could be describing the Silicon Valley, where I grew up, or San Francisco, where I worked for 22 years. All 3 microcosms of the US.

  44. malthuss December 16, 2014 at 11:59 am #

    This is no surprise. Obama is doing the ‘Cloward-Piven’. Bring poor people to the USA and get them on the dole. Ruin the USA.

    http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/65-percent-children-live-households-federal-aid-programs

  45. Dana J December 16, 2014 at 1:36 pm #

    Hi all, its been awhile. Haven’t really found this site to be all that relevant to me in the past couple years, but still like to check in for Jim’s End of the World, er, Year predictions, they are always good for a laugh, you know: “Next year the economy will tank and we will all be driving horse drawn VW’s…….”
    Same old cast of clowns commenting too, hows that old vampire shtick doing these days, eh Vlad? Still “Puttin’ on the Fritz”?

    And American citizens are dumber than ever, just look at those election results. Nothing ever will change there, well, until it does.

    And the whole “Energy independence” thing or “The US will be an oil exporter”…. like, the whole fracking thing has only reduced US oil imports from 2/3s to 50%. Yep, you can keep believing that while tooling down the road in your monster truck/SUV, that is until next year when prices go right back up.

    Well, guess I checked in early for Jim’s prognostications, have to check back next week or maybe never.

    Hey, have a great year.
    Dee Jones.

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    • dannyboy December 16, 2014 at 1:52 pm #

      Dear Dee,

      Thanks for sharing. Now that I know you a little, how about taking your own advice and “check back…never”.

      Good riddance

      • Dee Jones December 16, 2014 at 3:28 pm #

        Well, OK DB, but before i do, how abouts you bend over and I’ll give you a Siracha candy cane for Xmass?
        You’d like that? Well OK then…..

        • dannyboy December 16, 2014 at 7:26 pm #

          whatever this nonsensical post conveys it is a true reflection of who you are.

          the more you post the clearer your insanity becomes.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 16, 2014 at 2:31 pm #

      Dee don’t go. Soak misses you! He’s Blacker than evah….

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 5:53 pm #

      It’s impossible to achieve energy independence without a modern transportation infrastructure.

  46. MisterDarling December 16, 2014 at 3:44 pm #

    A Houston Plumbing Co. truck resurfaces — As an ISIS gun-truck;

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-plumbers-truck-on-front-line-of-syria-war/

    There’s something about this image that epitomizes this Age of American Blowback.

    Cheers!

    😉

  47. barbisbest December 16, 2014 at 4:41 pm #

    BACKROW HECKLER

    How about if we ask the Grand Mufti instead, SW?

    “Not a lynching, but the new, post knockout game, of setting white women on fire, after dousing them with gasoline”

    Be careful BRH, you may have to be female the next time around, or maybe you were one in the past. In the book Journey of Souls by M. Newton, we’re reincarnating more in the past century than ever. This may be one of our last incarnations. And thank heaven, according to the book, dying is easier than being born! but no one gets out alive. Course, starvation may not be the nicest way.

  48. seawolf77 December 16, 2014 at 4:42 pm #

    To all the cop loving, willing to look the other way no matter what, excuse making apologists of the Ferguson shooter, check this out.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/16/sandra-mcelroy-ferguson-witness_n_6334714.html

  49. progress4what December 16, 2014 at 6:11 pm #

    “A Houston Plumbing Co. truck resurfaces — As an ISIS gun-truck;”
    – md –

    That is too funny, md, on every level. Wouldn’t you like to see the CarFax report on that truck after a year in combat? And do the gunners and drivers double as plumbers when they aren’t doing the insurgent thing? Does Jon Stewart know about this truck? He could get 5 minutes of pure gold out of this.

    And seriously – who is so stupid as to not remove company decals from a vehicle before it is sold? I was trying to enforce that policy over 30 years ago, for a company I worked with.

    Coincidentally, I still have occasional dreams that I quit my job and forgot to turn in my company truck. In my dream it’s been sitting in the yard for years, or I’ve been driving it around, and I’ve been trying to remember to take it back to my old employer the whole time. Wonder what this means?

    Funny stuff. Thanks, md.

  50. Pucker December 16, 2014 at 6:17 pm #

    Did the blacks burn down the Ferguson Beauty Parlour because they think that Beauty Parlours are part of the White Power Structure?

    If so, the Homosexuals must be pissed?

    Dean Martin: “A-ring-a-ding-ding!”

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    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 5:58 pm #

      Just could not avoid exploiting an incident of probably random violence with the interjection of a couple stereotypes?

      Could you?

  51. Pucker December 16, 2014 at 6:23 pm #

    What we need is a gold mine lease and a fake surveyor’s report confirming that it’s likely that we’ve struck the Mother Load.

    Dean Martin: “A-ring-a-ding-ding….”

    Washington D.C., Dec. 16, 2014 —
    The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against two individuals and their companies behind an alleged gold mining investment scheme based in Miami.

    The SEC Enforcement Division alleges that Michael Crow and Alexandre Clug promised investors a stake in so-called “quick-to-production” gold mines that their company Aurum Mining LLC purported to own and operate in Brazil and Peru. Crow, who had filed for personal bankruptcy, teamed up with Clug to raise approximately $3.9 million from seniors and other investors in Florida. Despite highly optimistic statements that the gold mines would yield millions of dollars, the investors never received any money back from their investments.

  52. progress4what December 16, 2014 at 6:32 pm #

    Aww, gee – someone seems to be sadly missing the last couple of week’s of cop-hating on CFN. 🙁

    “To all the cop loving, willing to look the other way no matter what, excuse making apologists of the Ferguson….” – seawolf –

    Apparently, until this article came out, HuffPost had been unaware that eyewitnesses can have character flaws and give mistaken testimony.

    That’s funny since, until this article came out, HuffPost had been taking ALL of the “his hands were up” eyewitness reports as ABSOLUTE GOSPEL since the day of the shooting.

    HuffPost’s comment section isn’t near as strong as it used to be, but they do sometimes allow comments to slip through and stay posted for a few minutes, that challenge a story. Here’s one:

    “This isn’t anything new. We’ve known about the credibility issues with Witness 40 since the day the grand jury records were released. The DA, in fact, directly undermined her sworn testimony before the grand jury. They brought out her mental health issues and submitted her racist journal entry to jury. It doesn’t appear that the grand jury gave her testimony any weight. There are five other witnesses who testified that Brown charged at Wilson (#10, #14, #16, #48, and #64).” – steven gauck @ huffpost comments –

    More funny stuff. Thanks sw.

  53. FincaInTheMountains December 16, 2014 at 7:50 pm #

    “It’s not as if the Russkis are squeamish about spilling blood. Not as if they haven’t gotten rid of leaders before. Putin may be a tough guy, which the oligarchs should keep front of mind if they want to live long enough to spend some of their stolen loot. But having said that, Putin should keep in mind also that the place he rules has no shortage of tough guys. Not as if he’s bullet proof.” — Volodya

    What a cartoonish, purely American/Hollywood/Romanticized view of Russian society.

    As in US, there are essentially two groups of political elites in Russia: one, championed by Putin, is mainly military, security agencies and intelligence types – so called “siloviki”, the other are championed by Dmitry Medvedev (former President, now Prime Minister) – those a liberal, free-market/free-trade and Sun-rises-in-Washington types.

    Medvedev runs all economic block of Russian Government, including finances and relationship with CB.

    So what the current anti-ruble attack does is gives power to Putin to finally get rid of the liberal, Sun-rises-in-Washington bureaucrats, which he was ready to do anyway. Essentially, it is the worst case of “friendly fire” by Washington I’ve ever seen.

    Give it a month or so, if my analysis is correct we are going to see big changes in economic block of the Russian Government, with Russian CB turning finally into a full-blown sovereign emission center. They have ALREADY started to emit rubles backed by Russian companies bonds (ROSNEFT), not by shadowy obligations of US Treasury.

    • ozone December 16, 2014 at 8:27 pm #

      Finca,
      Here’s a little something that takes the $/ruble thinking a bit deeper. (Just on pure instinctive speculation, I think this is the direction things will take, efforts by imperial $ propagandists notwithstanding…)

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40486.htm

    • MisterDarling December 17, 2014 at 1:54 am #

      FitM,

      re | “So what the current anti-ruble attack does is gives power to Putin to finally get rid of the liberal, Sun-rises-in-Washington bureaucrats, which he was ready to do anyway. Essentially, it is the worst case of “friendly fire” by Washington I’ve ever seen.”-f.

      Yes.

      Back in the mid-90’s there were all these visits from Russian law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to the US, for the purpose of meeting and training with their American counterparts. What they actually did was spend 95% of their time picking the brains of the Americans for any and all techniques and technology that they could use to spy on and get leverage over top-brass oligarchs & OC.

      Fast forward to the 1999-2002 when the siloviki really got on top… And they’ve maintained that strategic advantage ever since. Mr. Orlov has written eloquently about the transformation.

      The thing that’s not really understood on the US/UK axis, is that Putin is in a position to stalemate or kill off oligarchic rivals. He has options. You cannot say that about the PM or the POTUS (sadly).

      Winter is here and the current Ukrainian regime is in a very f*cked position – they’re getting screwed by everybody. The US is trying last-minute heroics, and it’s putting Russia on a ‘war-footing’. By Summer there will be only one faction in Russian government. Only One.

      No choice.

      • BackRowHeckler December 17, 2014 at 11:33 am #

        Ok MD.

        What’s the upshot with all this with Russia?

        Thru out the 19th century the US brushed up against European powers many times — France, Great Britain, Spain, Germany — for various economic, military and colonial reasons, and only in 1812 and 1898 did it lead to war. In fact, international events that loomed large at the time are hardly even remembered now. Just to name a few, near war with France around 1801, dispute with England over Oregon and Washington State in the 1850s, trouble with Chile in the 1870s over interned US Navy sailors, German warships challenging the Navy in the Philippines in 1899 … these events caused alarm at the time but eventually differences were worked out, as I hope they will be with Russia now.

        brh

        • MisterDarling December 18, 2014 at 1:38 am #

          BRH,

          re | “What’s the upshot with all this with Russia?”-b.

          Probably not a (direct) war with the nation formerly doing business as the USSR (or CCCP for the nostalgic)… The US will probably be busy putting out fires much closer to home.

          [ahem]

          😉

    • Janos Skorenzy December 17, 2014 at 3:18 am #

      Good news indeed. Vlad must rule. The Government must dominate Business and not vice versa. Putin is coming closer to the Fascist model.

      • FincaInTheMountains December 17, 2014 at 7:37 am #

        Janos, it is not NECESSARILY a Fascist Model – that depends in whose interests the whole thing is set up. If you take a look at “American School of Political Economy” – supported by Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, it admits an extremely important role of Government in National Economy for the purpose of creating most favorable conditions for developing National Economy and National Businesses.

        So, there is a valid role for Government AND for private initiative.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 17, 2014 at 1:38 pm #

          I never implied otherwise. Fascism is completely in favor of private enterprise and property, guided by the Government for the good of the Nation. You people (Jewish Media and Capitalism – not to be confused with private enterprise) are the ones who slandered Fascism and sowed the seeds of confusion so liberally. And you attempting the same thing here again.

          We don’t need you or your parasite banks. Nor do we need our currencies backed by gold. Hitler had none since the Allies had looted Germany. He still created a flourishing Germany. Based on what? The strong minds and backs of the German people. That’s what his currency was based on.

    • volodya December 17, 2014 at 11:27 am #

      Yeah, we know about the different shades of opinion there. Every society has them.

      Run up and down the xylophone of countries and you’ll find in every one a blend of opinion ie authoritarians, traditionalists, liberals, reformers etc.

      The question in many/most of them is what faction is strongest? Who has the mix of muscle, money and public support.? No matter the ruthlessness of the regime, in the end it needs the acquiescence of the ruled in order to carry on.

      But, in the end, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Russia is a place run by very bad men, alumni of a rotten police state, with as its head a former KGB man, the KGB not noted for its humanitarian impulses. Or maybe you think that characterisation is cartoonish too. Personally, I don’t think it is. Not in the least.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 17, 2014 at 2:00 pm #

        Not true. Look at Putin’s leniency in regards to the Pussy Riot attack of an Orthodox Service. The girls got a year or two and they’re all out now I believe. Imagine if some White Nationalists did the same thing to a Jewish Service – they’d be charged with “hate crimes” and go away for many years.

        A case can be made that Putin was too lenient. Indeed some of the Orthodox believe so.

        • volodya December 17, 2014 at 2:37 pm #

          Pussy Riot? Seriously? In the affairs of state and the world… Pussy Riot?

          Don’t get me wrong, I have no time for their nonsense. But who fucking cares about Pussy Riot? They just want attention. So do as little as possible to give them any.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 17, 2014 at 8:53 pm #

            You’re not watching. Hillary and many of the Elite have lauded Pussy Riot as heroes. Does this mean they aren’t stupid? By no means – it means our Liberal Elite are devoid of taste. But again, Hillary and Co know their business. Revolution proceeds on many fronts. Pussy Riot is an infection that can’t be ignored or dismissed. You need to study your Alinsky more.

            Look at the Vatican: Patti Smith is going to be part of the Christmas Concert. In other words, the Left has triumphed in the Catholic Church.

  54. Q. Shtik December 16, 2014 at 8:19 pm #

    [A] unprecedented speculative attack on the Russian currency – Finca

    ================

    In your case, Finca, I have, for the most part, avoided my usual criticisms of grammar, spelling, etc since it appears English, or, more accurately, American English is not your first language.

    I note that when I HAVE criticized, for example when I reminded you that [the] Ukraine and [the] Crimea have been considered grammatically incorrect for 20-25 years, you took it graciously and, in fact, thanked me for keeping you on the right track.

    With that in mind, please be aware that “[A] unprecedented” should be “[An] unprecedented…”

  55. Greg Knepp December 16, 2014 at 9:08 pm #

    ” If you think America is in trouble, it’s because we’ve divided into tribes. If you think a certain way, watch FOX; if you think another way watch MSNBC, or another way watch CNN….All are geared toward building a nest for people who are comfortable to think a certain way.”

    Bishop T. D. Jakes, Trinity Broadcasting Network

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  56. Pucker December 17, 2014 at 12:44 am #

    The Saturnalia is not about the birth of the Baby Jesus. It’s all about Going-to-Town.

  57. FincaInTheMountains December 17, 2014 at 2:52 am #

    Curious facts: the executive director of ForEx trading desk of Moscow’s Exchange, where RU/USD futures are traded, is one Roman Sulgik – a guy who happened to participate in Kiev’s “Maidan” and have met with Senator John McCain – well known rusofob and fierce opponent of Mr.Putin.

    Personal page of Roman Sulgik: http://moex.com/a1147
    Here is his photo with Sen. McCane: http://politrussia.com/upload/iblock/ac8/ac80b8febd147b57b8f41a86ec55e427.png

    I am sure that FSB (Russian KGB) is taking a closer look at Mr. Sulgik activities.

  58. FincaInTheMountains December 17, 2014 at 3:56 am #

    Washington’s punitive operation against the Russian Ruble will help Russia to get rid of Dollar dependence

    Until now, Russia operated on Currency Board system under which Russia invested profits from the sale of oil and gas into US Treasuries, and then was seeking the Western loans for the purpose of necessary development and industrial expansion – only at higher interest rate. Essentially, Russia was actually paying West a dollar rent, while due to the limitations of that vassal scheme always starved for money for development.

    Every ruble ever created so far is backed by low-interest paying “Dollar reserves” – proceeds of Russian exports.

    It is not unlike you would “invest” your money into a bank savings account at 1.5%, just to seek loan at the same bank at 7%, or even worse, borrow on your credit card at 15-20%. Effectively, you’d be borrowing your own money, while paying interest to fat cats at the bank.

    Russian CB for the first time in history printed rubles that are not backed up by dollar instruments, as it was before, but by Russian Company ROSNEFT bonds. So, Russia is starting to get rid of the dollar and become a separate emission center: that is, begin to finance the economy by printing rubles.

    A year ago, the rejection of Currency Board system would mean a declaration of war against the United States. But now, when the US has attacked Russia first and used all means at their disposal to destroy the Russian economy, the rejection of Currency Board will not lead to any additional problems.

    Now Russia does not need to think about where to get the money to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait to Crimea, the laying of the gas pipeline “The Power of Siberia” to China or breaking through the new subway tunnels and the construction of hydroelectric power plants.

    Now, the Russian Central Bank can just print money for these projects – as do Western countries. In this case, there is no risk to get into a debt hole or glut oneself with cheap money: in Russia there is a catastrophic shortage of money, and the first few trillion rubles the Russian economy will swallow without any adverse effects.

  59. FincaInTheMountains December 17, 2014 at 4:28 am #

    Essentially, Russia is adopting a model of “Project Financing” – bringing new money into circulation by providing low-interest loans for productive projects like new roads, pipelines, housing, etc.

    That is the model I have always advocated on this blog for American economy as well, rather than printing new money for financial bubbles. Remember, the model under which the FED buys State and Municipalities Infrastructural bonds, rather than buying junk mortgage bonds.

    The obvious advantage of “Project Financing” model is that it creates millions of real productive jobs in the National economy, thus increasing the power of National middle class. That is why it is rejected by Oligarchic Capitalism System of the United States – American rotten to the core financial oligarchs do not want to assume any social responsibility before the American people.

    • AKlein December 17, 2014 at 1:00 pm #

      Fincaln, as I recall reading, when Hitler took over the German government and the financial controls, he instituted a scheme which did not require the possession of gold reserves – since Germany did not have any gold. Hitler was quoted as saying in one of his speeches that there would be “… a Mark’s worth of work performed for every Mark created.” Germany embarked on huge public works projects, such as the creation of the Autobahn system. This scheme apparently worked to pull Germany out of the depths of depression. Seems like Putin is doing something quite similar since Russia is being starved out on dollars, which, under the current nefarious trading system, are the new gold. Could this be one of the reasons some Western “journalists” and politicos are reviling him as the “new Hitler”?

      • FincaInTheMountains December 17, 2014 at 7:24 pm #

        Didn’t FDR did the same thing? Nobody calls him a “Hitler” – a commie, yes, but not Hitler.

        Actually there is only one way of pulling any country out of Depression – huge infrastructure works financed by printing press. And that is not some secret knowledge. You also need a real leader.

        FDR was one, Stalin was one, Kennedy – the last of Mohicans, was one, and Putin is the one.

        Everybody else are just pitiful pygmies, one of the reason they were let to power in the first place.

        It’s real simple. Instead of everybody hiding in their own small corner bitching about this and that, organize them to do something useful for themselves and society. Money is just instrument of organization, a political fiction.

        • MisterDarling December 18, 2014 at 2:03 am #

          FitM,

          “FDR was one, Stalin was one, Kennedy – the last of Mohicans, was one, and Putin is the one.”-f.

          Say what you want about him; Putin is an actual leader contending with a field of sock-puppets – with a sprinkling of halfway decent folk who realize how badly they’ve been bamboozled only when it’s too late.

          “Everybody else are just pitiful pygmies, one of the reason they were let to power in the first place.”-f.

          In a place where money buys elections, docility is one of the primary qualifications in a candidate… And that seems to work, until there’s a real crisis – precipitated by lack of. . . *leadership*.

          The effete financial mandarins currently calling the shots have forgotten something very fundamental about themselves: they SUCK at running things. Yes, there is a price to be paid for that:

          http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-07/riddles-surround-36th-dead-banker-year

    • MisterDarling December 18, 2014 at 1:34 am #

      FitM,

      re | “Essentially, Russia is adopting a model of “Project Financing” – bringing new money into circulation by providing low-interest loans for productive projects like new roads, pipelines, housing, etc.”-f.

      The type of bank that you’ve outlined has existed since 1919 in the US:

      http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/03/how-nation%e2%80%99s-only-state-owned-bank-became-envy-wall-street

      The __Bank of North Dakota__ explicitly operates in this way. It was the reason that ND didn’t get plowed by the housing pump-n-dump scam of the Early-Oughts, and now isn’t overly exposed to shale-oil downside today.

      What you’ve been discussing aligns perfectly with Ellen Brown’s work. She’s well qualified as a consultant on this task.

  60. FincaInTheMountains December 17, 2014 at 4:45 am #

    Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia:

    If Putin withdrew his support for proxies in eastern Ukraine, then West would lift some sanctions & Russian economic crisis would slow.

    https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/545007388755914752

    Yeah, yeah, Michael. I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one if I were you.

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  61. barbisbest December 17, 2014 at 12:04 pm #

    Ah CFN, documenting the apocalypse and making it seem fun!!

  62. Janos Skorenzy December 17, 2014 at 1:47 pm #

    Any thoughts on the Sony hack? I think they are getting their just desserts. To make a movie about the assassination of a foreign leader is an outrageous act – can we assume it was cleared by the State Department? Or are the Hollywood Moguls so closely connected with the State Department that the agreement was tacit and unspoken? In any case, to mock an unstable Dictator who takes pop culture very seriously is the height of irresponsibility. The hack and the subsequent embarrassment is delicious. A measured response in and of itself. Now the group is threatening the American public which is what I was afraid of.

  63. Asoka December 17, 2014 at 2:18 pm #

    In any case, to mock an unstable Dictator who takes pop culture very seriously is the height of irresponsibility. –Janos

    We have to stand up to Muslim extremists and communist dictators. Denmark published the cartoon. The US should show this movie about the CIA. There have been over 50 attempts by the CIA to assassinate foreign leaders, and half of them succeeded. This movie is not showing anything out of the ordinary. It is how the United States acts. Plus it is a comedy.

    When did you become so politically correct, Janos?

    • Janos Skorenzy December 17, 2014 at 8:49 pm #

      Is the same Asoka who haunted this site previously? Wanting to avoid needlessly provoking a terror strike is not being PC, just prudent. As you say, it’s comedy. Is it really worth it?

      Kim knows his Alinsky. Comedy is a terrible weapon. Nothing innocuous about this from his point of view. Ancient Celtic Kings were very respectful of Kings for the same reason.

    • Q. Shtik December 17, 2014 at 9:14 pm #

      Asoka
      December 17, 2014 at 2:18 pm #

      ================

      ^This^ handle has Cold N. written all over it.

      • ZrCrypDiK December 18, 2014 at 1:46 am #

        “^This^ handle has Cold N. written all over it.”

        You mean pk rug, or finca, or cass, or m-darl, or his dozen other aliases? Wake the F* up, already, “Dad”.

        Don’t you know, it’s demand for oil that’s down 50% ($110->$55 per barrel). The CO2 trend won’t reflect that – but hey – this is a democracy. 2 votes no, 1 vote yes means it’s truth/fact (disregard evidence/data).

        Endgame? 2 tons of sand need to be jammed into each of those fracks (along with the residual oil refinery *WASTE*) in order to obtain 1 barrel of oil (and *tasty* aquifer water – flammable? [hardly, haw – they all got bought off with non-disclosure agreements in order to receive drinking water from the frack company]).

        And here I promised myself I wouldn’t become angry/depressed tonite. I guess I forgot to NOT think…

  64. ozone December 17, 2014 at 6:07 pm #

    One more germane note on Shale Shinola, and then we return to the vast fields of irrelevancy and gnawing the root of the moot (a poisonous plant that is eagerly consumed by those who dabble in delusion).

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-17/chevron-shale-exit-shreds-ukraine-s-hope-of-energy-independence.html

    Awwww, more vainglorious dreams shattered; promises broken and contracts ignored. Who could possibly have foreseen such an outcome? (I guess if we were talking about the State Dept…… not a solitary soul.)

  65. Buck Stud December 17, 2014 at 8:06 pm #

    I have a feeling that in the common years there will be more formerly unthinkable alliances between the right and left. Alliances such as a Dennis Kucinich article from the Ron Paul Institute being posted on Lew Rockwell’s libertarian site.

    And speaking of the Kucinich article it’s very informative in terms of how bills get passed in D.C. For instance, “The Russia Sanctions bill” which received very little attention but contains some mighty powerful declarations which never made the news and apparently which many House Representatives didn’t bother to read such as some of the below:

    5. Fifty million dollars to assist in a corporate takeover of Ukraine’s oil and gas sectors.

    6. Three hundred and fifty million dollars for military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank, anti-armor, optical, and guidance and control equipment, as well as drones.

    10. An unverified declaration that Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, is a nuclear “threat to the United States” and should be held “accountable.

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/no_author/kangaroo-congress/

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  66. Pucker December 17, 2014 at 9:48 pm #

    Do you think that young black males would benefit from more white female and metrosexual male role models?

    • Janos Skorenzy December 18, 2014 at 12:41 am #

      Please name your first Black Son, Dindu Nuffins.

      • Pucker December 18, 2014 at 12:49 am #

        “If your kid needs a role model, and you ain’t it…,then you’re both F…cked!”
        – George Carlin

  67. pkrugman December 17, 2014 at 11:31 pm #

    JHK says: ”…the current crop of short-lived wells will crap out in the 24 months ahead, and production will not be replaced by new wells, which will not be there.”

    Really? 24 months, JHK? That is a prediction I will hold you to.

    The United States’ shale oil production will continue for decades, and no one else can compete with the United States when it comes to the ongoing shale oil boom. Other countries will not be able to replicate our boom, because only the United States possesses the unique ingredients necessary to fully develop shale resources:

    ** A legal system that enshrines the private ownership of land and the resources below it

    ** Open capital markets

    ** A reasonable regulatory system

    That unique combination has led to the growth of thousands of independent oil and gas companies, all of which are in intense competition with one another.

    As a result, nearly four million oil and gas wells have been drilled in the United States, versus 1.5 million in the rest of the world. The bustle of drilling activity in the United States has also led to increases in innovation within the industry on an order of magnitude that other countries can only dream of.

    Although other places, such as China and Europe, have substantial shale resources, they don’t have the entrepreneur-friendly system needed to develop those resources quickly and productively.

    Contrary to your prediction of decline in 24 months (which I believe you also made in years past), the United States’ shale revolution will continue for decades to come. I will debunk your shale oil decline prediction with industry production figures 24 months from now.

  68. pkrugman December 17, 2014 at 11:32 pm #

    JHK says: ”…the current crop of short-lived wells will crap out in the 24 months ahead, and production will not be replaced by new wells, which will not be there.”

    Really? 24 months, JHK? That is a prediction I will hold you to.

    The United States’ shale oil production will continue for decades, and no one else can compete with the United States when it comes to the ongoing shale oil boom. Other countries will not be able to replicate our boom, because only the United States possesses the unique ingredients necessary to fully develop shale resources:

    ** A legal system that enshrines the private ownership of land and the resources below it

    ** Open capital markets

    ** A reasonable regulatory system

    That unique combination has led to the growth of thousands of independent oil and gas companies, all of which are in intense competition with one another.

    As a result, nearly four million oil and gas wells have been drilled in the United States, versus 1.5 million in the rest of the world. The bustle of drilling activity in the United States has also led to increases in innovation within the industry on an order of magnitude that other countries can only dream of.

    Although other places, such as China and Europe, have substantial shale resources, they don’t have the entrepreneur-friendly system needed to develop those resources quickly and productively.

    Contrary to your prediction of decline in 24 months (which I believe you also made in years past), the United States’ shale revolution will continue for decades to come. I will debunk your shale oil decline prediction with industry production figures 24 months from now.

    • FincaInTheMountains December 18, 2014 at 5:56 am #

      I tend to agree – the shale oil/gas seems to be a strategic direction, and that will beat any monetary considerations.

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 6:35 pm #

      Please also chart the environmental degradation that ensues and the resultant long-term costs to this.

      Lot of hype there. Still got trains derailing and exploding and thousands of miles of pipes leaking. Koch is a big offender and pays miniscule fines in this “entrepreneur-friendly system” with its “reasonable” regulations.

      I know that much of Europe is more cautious and also includes such factors as safety and risk before charging ahead.

      Shipping millions of gallons of crude on old trains, old tracks, and old decaying bridges is NOT innovative.

  69. pkrugman December 18, 2014 at 12:39 am #

    Source for previous post:

    The United States of Gas: Why the Shale Revolution Could Have Happened Only in America By Robert A. Hefner III. Foreign Affairs May/June 2014

    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 6:36 pm #

      One could read a title like that in so many ways!

  70. FincaInTheMountains December 18, 2014 at 3:38 am #

    Something went wrong with inflation panic in Russia. Despite strong PR attack on the subject of “Black Tuesday”, people are not rushing to buy dollars. Instead, the Russians decided to have a powerful buying spree and started to gobble up various consumer goods for the year ahead – from mobile phones to cars.

    The dollar, meanwhile, played a little bit down and is currently trading at around 58 rubles.

    Of course, this does not mean that the dollar will not further fluctuate up or down, but the time for quality panic has been clearly missed. To make people forget everything and rush to buy dollars the dollar increase has to be smooth, day in and day out.

    When the dollar soars almost to 80, and then rolls back by 20 rubles in just two days and continues to gradually weaken, people prefer to wait – not to buy expensive dollars and then left holding the bag of cheaper enemy’s paper.

    Meanwhile, not backed by a rise in the dollar, informational attacks on Russian consumer have been largely wasted.

    http://fritzmorgen.livejournal.com/744739.html

    I wonder, what would happen, say in Ferguson, if dollar were to loose 50% of its value in just a week reducing in half the buying power of welfare checks and foodstamps?

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  71. FincaInTheMountains December 18, 2014 at 5:49 am #

    Just get the f*ck lost

    EU leaders refused to meet with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, who had to cancel a visit to Brussels. This was reported by the German edition of Die Welt citing euro-diplomats.

    President of Ukraine planned for this week’s visit to Brussels to inform the gathered there European heads of state and government on the latest developments in Ukraine.

    “But the EU is not going to meet with Poroshenko,” – said in a publication entitled “Europe is tired of Poroshenko’s complaints .”

    In addition, the official Kiev concerned about easing of the European rhetoric in relations with Russia and calls for tougher sanctions against it. In Brussels believe that there is no reason to worry, as there are none for a meeting with Poroshenko in Brussels.

    “Poroshenko ought not to complain about the missing attention from the EU. Now is not the time to visit,” – said the ambassador of the EU in the comment edition.

    New President of the European Union, Donald Tusk, initiated the cancellation of the meeting with Poroshenko. The publication also suggests that Europeans really sick and tired of Ukraine. A little more – and the word “Ukraine” will cause them to puke.

  72. FincaInTheMountains December 18, 2014 at 7:16 am #

    “The Bank of North Dakota explicitly operates in this way. It was the reason that ND didn’t get plowed by the housing pump-n-dump scam of the Early-Oughts, and now isn’t overly exposed to shale-oil downside today.” –MisterDarling

    But of course the Public Bank of N.Dakota is advantageous to people living in the State. It’s no brainer – cut the f*cking middlemen.

    Now instead of instituting a state-owned bank in the rest of the 49 states, why not to cut to the chase and make FED act as if it was National Bank of United States, for crying out loud. Cut the f*cking middlemen.

    Now think for a moment of Russia as North Dakota and they want their Central Bank to act in the interests of Russian people, not to serve as “Currency Board” for Wall Street jackals. Why not? Cut the f*cking middlemen.

    And now, the Wall Street Boys sensing that they’re about to loose good chunk of their feeding ground, instigated all that trouble in Europe through Ukraine. They are not going to succeed, and guess what – they are just going to tighten up the screws on YOU, through austerity, budget sequestration, increasing medical insurance premiums, rising cost of food and fuel.

    And Americans, the dupes they are, are ready to talk about anything else, the race, the immigration, the gay marriage, just to make it easier for Wall Street Boys to divide and loot.

    Cut the f*cking middlemen.

    • Q. Shtik December 18, 2014 at 10:53 am #

      they’re about to [loose] [.] good chunk of their feeding ground – Finca

      ==============

      That should read [lose] [a] good chunk

      lose rhymes with booze
      loose rhymes with moose

      And don’t forget, it’s [a] good chunk, not just “good chunk”

      • malthuss December 18, 2014 at 3:12 pm #

        You actually read his posts? Why?

        • FincaInTheMountains December 18, 2014 at 10:08 pm #

          Tired of reading your boring trivialities?

  73. pkrugman December 18, 2014 at 9:41 am #

    “Fascism is completely in favor of private enterprise and property, guided by the Government for the good of the Nation.” — Janos

    “guided by the Government” ???

    Will a woman control “the Government”, Janos?

    Will the people get to elect a woman leader in open and free elections? Janos, don’t you call democracy mob rule?

    Fascism has not worked because, instead of democracy, fascism depends on dictatorial strongmen who are bound to be overthrown by other men. They always are. Men have failed. Men have created the world we live in, where macho values, greed, pollution, and war are the norm.

    Fascism needs feminine leadership to succeed.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 18, 2014 at 2:18 pm #

      So would you go along with the radical Feminist idea to get rid of nine tenths of male humanity?

      Queen Elizabeth was a strong ruler. Monarchs were Fascists in the pre-industrial era. And it works the other way too – Dictators who pass Rule over to their sons have brought back Monarchy. Of course Fascism rejects this as undemocratic.

  74. pkrugman December 18, 2014 at 9:48 am #

    President Barack Hussein Obama continues to lead. He has a phone and he has a pen. He is using both. I don’t think anyone on CFN has commented that the President took action to protect a place called Bristol Bay, Alaska, which is a national treasure — and one of the nation’s most productive fisheries.

    President Obama placed Bristol Bay off limits for oil and gas leasing. Alaskans have been fighting to preserve Bristol Bay for decades. Today, Obama got ‘er done.

    Bristol Bay helps to produce 40 percent of America’s wild-caught seafood each year. It supports $2 billion every year in commercial fishing, and supports good jobs in sport-fishing and tourism.

    The Bristol Bay waters are beautiful and valuable, and Obama’s action, using his phone and his pen, will ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the bounty in Bristol Bay waters.

    That is hope and change I can believe in.

  75. pkrugman December 18, 2014 at 9:56 am #

    President Obama. Cuba. Of course, Florida went for Obama in 2008 and again in 2012, so the old guard Miami Cuban “gusanos” have little power or say in the matter anyway.

    An end to Cuban isolation. More hope and change I can believe in.

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    • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 6:42 pm #

      Me too. On both counts.

  76. twofortheroad December 18, 2014 at 10:59 am #

    Reply to P Krugman. about shale oil issue. Yep, keep on fracking. Who needs clean water in the future? I know, we need that energy source, but isn’t it maybe time to rethink things. If fracking continues, there will be more earthquakes and there won’t be any clean water. I think what JHK has suggested in the past is that we may all think about our living arrangements, and make adjustments.
    iaye was here

  77. budizwiser December 18, 2014 at 11:25 am #

    I think the current low costs for energy prove out my theory that disposable energy consumption is so massive – that we are likely to experience a “peak plateau” of the oil age for several more decades.

    The world is awash in pointless, non-essential energy consumption.

    However, the real story “these days” – is the tremendous volatility of the global market place.

    What goes down wildly – can go up — soon the other staples will become fodder for the “gods of wall street.” ……
    I

    • malthuss December 18, 2014 at 3:16 pm #

      Lets say JHK wrote his epic 12 years ago. Now there are a billion more people on Earth needing resources. Chris Martensen has some interesting movies online. One shows a copper nugget then [huge] and a copper mountain that is now a hole one or two miles deep in the ground.

      Non renewable resource depletion.

    • malthuss December 18, 2014 at 3:17 pm #

      ‘ soon the other staples will become fodder for the “gods of wall street.’
      Which staples? Food?

  78. progress4what December 18, 2014 at 7:31 pm #

    Lew Rockwell does have an interesting outlook on policing, buck. Here’s an excerpt:

    “The real solution may be to strip police of much of their duties and in urban areas takeaway their cars. They should not be “crime fighters” enforcing every new government law on drug sales, selling of untaxed cigarette sales etc. They should not be crime solvers. They should be limited to the order-maintenance” of the old days. Indeed, the ultimate solution should be for each neighborhood devising its own private protection program, just like the old days, with each neighborhood setting their own rules of order-maintenance.

    The current protesters understand none of the history of how current confrontations between the police and citizens has grown as government involvement in policing has escalated. They are even in greater confusion if they think the problem on the sidewalks of urban America is simply a race problem.

    Until the role of government police is shrunk dramatically, even eliminated, the problems over time will continue to escalate. Simply making police promise to be less brutal isn’t going to change anything. They are far from the nightwatchmen of old. They are put on the streets to enforce government laws and they will escalate until their orders are complied with. That is simply the nature of modern day government police forces.” – excerpt –

    I can’t really argue with any of that. And it would work. Problem would be prying modern cops out of their cars. Plus, finding cops who would be willing to do foot patrol in the roughest urban areas, at night, in the snow, and uphill both ways, could be problematic, given today’s realities.

    So, I don’t know about it at all. If you read between the lines of the lewrockwell piece – then we’ll do best to head back to the future. That will mean police on foot, sure. But it will also mean that some of these police are the old fashioned tough guys, and with a critical mass of them drawn from the areas they patrol – yeah, on foot would work then, for sure.

    Then if these new-style, old-fashioned cops had access to patrol car backup at a moments notice, for arrest and investigation – –
    yeah, this might work.

    Of course, if it didn’t work – or if the access to those patrol cars could not be assured – then what it would devolve into would be tough guys on foot who match the ethnicity of the areas they patrol.
    And this sounds a lot like the first 9,900 years of human civilization on Planet Earth.

    Irregardless – if certain areas ever turn into “no-go areas,” where the police and government cede control to the locals – then we can know that we’ve turned a corner into a darkening future.

    • Q. Shtik December 18, 2014 at 9:45 pm #

      [Irregardless] – if certain areas… – Prog

      =============

      OMG! Prog, surely you know that [irregardless] is a non-word!!!

      It’s just friggin plain old regardless.

      • Buck Stud December 18, 2014 at 10:25 pm #

        When I saw that I knew that our resident “sidewalk polisher” was not going to be able to resist the urge to correct. But since you’ve been so quiet of late I think Prog was just rocking your rocking chair a bit.

        Speaking of which, the topic of shale oil doesn’t have much rock n’ roll apparently. Maybe somebody should start up an ethnic IQ discussion or something.

      • malthuss December 19, 2014 at 11:38 am #

        Are your critiques written badly?

        Badly and goodly are made up word.

      • GutenbergGuy December 19, 2014 at 6:45 pm #

        I think it’s like “nucular” – just won’t go away.

  79. progress4what December 18, 2014 at 7:38 pm #

    Here you go, pucker, this made me think of your posts:

    http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/muslim-scholar-blames-porn-for-jihad/

    “(INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT) Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf, president of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif., blamed pornography for the proliferation of jihadist violence during a Georgetown University (snip) for Muslim Understanding at the university.

    After George noted that intelligence agents routinely find sexually explicit materials on laptops belonging to captured jihadists, Yusuf offered a theory in which young men “become deeply defiled” by the pornography habits and blame the West for providing the corrupting influences. They turn to jihad for religious purification and redemption.”

    One must suppose that it is, altogether, too bad that they couldn’t just masturbate like normal men, instead.

  80. Pucker December 18, 2014 at 9:34 pm #

    It’s a good thing that Picasso didn’t live in California.

    Poor Cosby: The Las Vegas lap dancer says Cosby gave her and her friend drinks and she soon felt dizzy
    Cosby offered to help her but the next thing she remembers is waking up naked to find him licking her toes and pleasuring himself.

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  81. FincaInTheMountains December 18, 2014 at 9:48 pm #

    From Putin’s interview Dec. 18:

    Question: Mr President, are the current economic developments the price we have to pay for Crimea? Maybe the time has come to acknowledge it?

    Putin: No. This is not the price we have to pay for Crimea… This is actually the price we have to pay for our natural aspiration to preserve ourselves as a nation, as a civilisation, as a state. And here is why.

    As I’ve already mentioned when answering a question from your NTV colleague, and as I’ve said during my Address to the Federal Assembly, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia opened itself to our partners. What did we see? A direct and fully-fledges support of terrorism in North Caucasus. They directly supported terrorism, you understand? Is that what partners usually do? I won’t go into details on that, but this is an established fact. And everyone knows it.

    On any issue, no matter what we do, we always run into challenges, objections and opposition. Let me remind you about the preparations for the 2014 Olympics, our inspiration and enthusiasm to organise a festive event not only for Russian sports fans, but for sports fans all over the world. However, and this is an evident truth, unprecedented and clearly orchestrated attempts were made to discredit our efforts to organise and host the Olympics. This is an undeniable fact! Who needs to do so and for what reason? And so on and so forth.

    You know, at the Valdai [International Discussion] Club I gave an example of our most recognisable symbol. It is a bear protecting his taiga. You see, if we continue the analogy, sometimes I think that maybe it would be best if our bear just sat still. Maybe he should stop chasing pigs and boars around the taiga but start picking berries and eating honey. Maybe then he will be left alone. But no, he won’t be! Because someone will always try to chain him up. As soon as he’s chained they will tear out his teeth and claws. In this analogy, I am referring to the power of nuclear deterrence. As soon as – God forbid – it happens and they no longer need the bear, the taiga will be taken over.

    We have heard it even from high-level officials that it is unfair that the whole of Siberia with its immense resources belongs to Russia in its entirety. Why exactly is it unfair? So it is fair to snatch Texas from Mexico but it is unfair that we are working on our own land – no, we have to share.

    And then, when all the teeth and claws are torn out, the bear will be of no use at all. Perhaps they’ll stuff it and that’s all.

    So, it is not about Crimea but about us protecting our independence, our sovereignty and our right to exist. That is what we should all realise.

  82. progress4what December 18, 2014 at 11:00 pm #

    “OMG! Prog, surely you know that [irregardless] is a non-word!!!”
    – q –

    Hey, man, as I first told you nearly 4 years (WOW! Time flies! Isn’t this sucker supposed to have gone down by now?) ago, if spell check will take it, it’s going in. (umm – in it’s going?) Although I did think it was time to rock your rocking chair a little bit, as buck said. That was funny, btw, buck.

    “Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps….” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irregardless?s=t

    And yeah, buck, only 224 posts as of now. That’s way below this time, last week. Right or wrong, good, bad, or indifferent – we can see why so much of our US “news” media like to play up racial angles to stories, ya’ see, fincaine?

    “And Americans, the dupes they are, are ready to talk about anything else, the race, the immigration, the gay marriage, just to make it easier for Wall Street Boys to divide and loot.”

    The race? The immigration? Those are the main ways some of us are being subjected to the looting, fincaine. Do they have gay marriage in Russia, btw?

    • FincaInTheMountains December 19, 2014 at 5:02 am #

      No.

  83. pkrugman December 18, 2014 at 11:26 pm #

    “The race? The immigration? Those are the main ways some of us are being subjected to the looting, fincaine.” — P4W

    “subjected to looting”???? What a racist thing to say.

    Some white folks not too smart. Ever notice the looting happens after murder of Black folks by officials followed by official impunity?

    The solution is simple. Stop murdering Black folk. Start acting as if Black lives matter. Then “some of us” won’t “be subjected to looting”. Duh.

    White racist stupidity is weighing upon me so heavily.

    I can’t breathe.

    • progress4what December 19, 2014 at 12:03 am #

      “I can’t breathe.” – pkrugsoaker –

      Yeah, you don’t seem to think all that well, either.

      Fincain was speaking as a Russian, to me as an American, concerning looting by Wall Street.

      I responded for all Americans (including my black brothers) that race and immigration are contributing to some of our (financial) looting.

      Do you deny that many native born blacks are being misplaced from of their living spaces and jobs by competition from recent immigrants?

      Who’s the racist now, pk? It’s not me.

      And how about those oil prices, jhk?

    • progress4what December 19, 2014 at 12:03 am #

      “I can’t breathe.” – pkrugsoaker –

      Yeah, you don’t seem to think all that well, either.

      Fincain was speaking as a Russian, to me as an American, concerning looting by Wall Street.

      I responded for all Americans (including my black brothers) that race and immigration are contributing to some of our (financial) looting.

      Do you deny that many native born blacks are being misplaced from of their living spaces and jobs by competition from recent immigrants?

      Who’s the racist now, pk? It’s not me.

      And how about those oil prices, jhk?

      • progress4what December 19, 2014 at 12:06 am #

        for a while, this software blocked double posts
        that while appears to have ended

      • Q. Shtik December 19, 2014 at 2:33 pm #

        many native born blacks are being [misplaced] from of their living spaces – Prog

        ================

        [displaced]

        • ZrCrypDiK December 19, 2014 at 10:32 pm #

          Wow, talk about adding ABSOLUTELY no value whatsoever, “Dad”:

          “from (of) their living spaces”

  84. pkrugman December 19, 2014 at 1:35 am #

    “for a while, this software blocked double posts
    that while appears to have ended” — P4W

    Too bad it doesn’t block unintelligible posts.

  85. pkrugman December 19, 2014 at 1:58 am #

    P4W, you are presenting a false dichotomy in trying to pit Blacks against immigrants. You are obscuring the diversity of immigrant identities in the Black community. You are mistaken in thinking that immigrants and African Americans are mutually exclusive groups.

    Black immigrants face the same conditions of inequity that African Americans do. Police, employers and bigots do not ask for a person’s country of origin before discriminating. Immigrant communities face the same neighborhood displacement as Black communities in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

    When we look at Black immigrants, who suffer significantly higher deportation rates in cases of criminal apprehension than Asian, Middle Eastern or white immigrants, we see that racial profiling is at play.

    P4W, you want to see immigrant groups as being in competition for housing and employment. The real employment threats in the Black community are union busting, substandard education and systemic racial discrimination.

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  86. FincaInTheMountains December 19, 2014 at 5:18 am #

    For the right amount of money you could sell Wall Street bankers a rope they’ll hang themselves with

    In a meantime, Russian sovereign funds used the recent attack on Russian economy to wait till the prices of premium Russian companies went down on NY stock exchange just to start buying them back, de facto continuing nationalization of its strategic industries.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=RSX+Interactive#%7B%22range%22%3A%221mo%22%2C%22scale%22%3A%22linear%22%7D

    Never let a good crisis go to waste.

    • ozone December 19, 2014 at 9:03 am #

      Yep. I toooooold you!
      Taking ones’ destiny and sovereignty back from those who mean you no good is the rational course when such an opportunity presents itself so bald-facedly. (We might think about that for our individual lives as well, although I wouldn’t holler too loudly about it. TPTB are becoming more desperate for believers and cannon fodder as their plans and proxies turn to ash. Beware the true Boogeyman.)

    • ozone December 19, 2014 at 10:53 am #

      Damn! Another fine plan, shot all to hell!

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-19/russia-busts-gold-selling-rumors-reports-it-bought-another-600000-ounces-taking-gold

      This all ties in with the very short-term thinking by the Oligarchs that attempts to ham-handedly topple their competition. I smell desperation (to prop up the debt market) and chickenshit (punk-ass proxy “revolutions”).

  87. FincaInTheMountains December 19, 2014 at 7:07 am #

    Russian nuclear giant Rosatom orders portfolio exceeds $100 billion dollars
    http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=558463

    Just a few days ago Putin signed a huge deal with India on construction of over 10 new power-producing nuclear reactors.

    Behind every dollar in GDP there is a certain amount of KWH of energy. Obviously, not everybody in the world are planning to expand their industries by using 14th century wind mills or inefficient and expensive solar panels, not to speak of burning food for energy (Ethanol from corn).

  88. goat1001 December 19, 2014 at 8:40 am #

    So movie theaters are refusing to show “Interview” because they are afraid of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. The Big Hack Attack against Sony was essentially an act of war (cyber warfare but warfare indeed). So the question is how do you hack back? I think a good counter attack at this point would be to fly aircraft at high altitude over NK and drop wads of conductive fibers over power substations and power transmission lines – shorting out their electrical grid, blowing out transformers and putting them in the dark for a good while. Then simultaneously releasing (Sony) the film to all media outlets and having it play 24-7 while the Mr. Un fumbles in the dark….

    • progress4what December 19, 2014 at 9:52 am #

      That’s an idea, goat.

      But what about all that ordinance that the N. Koreans have targeted on Seoul? And don’t the NK’s have a nuke or two, lying around unused?

      • progress4what December 19, 2014 at 10:00 am #

        Speaking of peak everything and collapse – take a look at this nighttime satellite pic. Those N. Koreans don’t have far to fall, except for a tiny area around the Pres’s house in Pyongyang.

        http://janetnewenham.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/north-korea-in-the-dark.jpg

        • Q. Shtik December 19, 2014 at 2:24 pm #

          take a look at this nighttime satellite pic. – Prog

          ==============

          Congrats and thanks to the North Koreans for not pissing away energy for lights at night. If God hadn’t wanted it to be dark at night he would have made it sunny at night.

        • malthuss December 20, 2014 at 12:42 am #

          Its a beautiful and scary image. Millions have starved in North Korea, a land modern times left [or lefty] behind.

          I really like the images of NK gals fainting because of their leaders problems.

          http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2832739/posts

      • Janos Skorenzy December 19, 2014 at 11:40 pm #

        Exactly. Millions dead all over a stupid comedy. But make no mistake, humor is a deadly weapon. It’s easy to say the other guy is over reacting when he the butt of it. Kim probably felt he had to do something or lose credibility. So he struck back effectively and I’d say proportionately, that is at the right people and in the right way. Now Obama feels he has strike back. Everyone is forgetting we started this cycle, this time anyway.

  89. progress4what December 19, 2014 at 9:46 am #

    “P4W, you want to see immigrant groups as being in competition for housing and employment.” – pkrugs –

    PK, in lower socioeconomic areas, immigrant groups ARE in competition with the native born for housing and employment.
    This is a simple fact. This competition is most evident as Mexicans/Central Americans against native born blacks, but it occurs among other groupings, as well.

    “Black immigrants face the same conditions of inequity that African Americans do.” – pkrugs –

    That may be true in pkrug-land, where everything is judged on skin color, but there are some ironies in your statement, as follow:

    1. First generation children of (black) immigrants are outperforming native born blacks in school. Whether this will hold for subsequent generations remains to be seen, but right now the native born are falling further and further behind. Ironically, they are falling behind while, in many cases, attending the same schools as the (black) immigrants.

    2. Recent (black) immigrants are WINNING the competition for jobs against the native born. I can point to Somali immigrants, in particular in my region, as winning the competition for jobs. Also, because immigrants tend to stay banded together against “the other” (in this case other blacks) they have built-in advantages.

    and the greatest irony of all

    3. Programs, like affirmative action, were intended to give native born blacks an advantage in overcoming slavery. Recent immigrant blacks are taking advantage of these programs to advance themselves over the native born. The irony is that some of these immigrants from the continent of Africa have ancestors that DIRECTLY contributed to selling the ancestors of today’s native born blacks into slavery.

    —————————

    “When we look at Black immigrants, who suffer significantly higher deportation rates in cases of criminal apprehension than Asian, Middle Eastern or white immigrants, we see that racial profiling is at play.” – pkrugs –

    That seems unlikely. Do you have a link to offer as “proof.”

  90. twofortheroad December 19, 2014 at 10:58 am #

    Song lyric post week
    You say it’s very hard to leave behind the life we knew
    but there’s no other way, and now it’s really up to you
    Truth is the key we must turn, truth is the flame we must burn
    Freedom the lesson we must learn, do you know what I mean?

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  91. Buck Stud December 19, 2014 at 11:05 am #

    Some are calling for and anticipating a doubling of the H1B Visa once the GOP takes over next session:

    “H1-B visas need to be significantly increased, even doubled, and awarded based on competitive bidding.”

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-can-boost-economy-with-tech-agenda/article/2557299

    And speaking of “looting” in the metaphorical sense, what about all the American citizens unable to find work in their chosen hi-tech professions? They bought into the more ‘science and math’ line and took on huge loads of student debt only to discover that a temp worker from India will work cheaper and be far more compliant to exploitative working environments, and thus more “valuable” to a given employer. Of course, this value is replaced with deceptive terms such as ‘talent’ and skilled’ order to obscure the true intent of importing cheap labor into the high tech industry,

    And now we need to double down while American citizens trained in the tech fields sit on the sidelines?

    What I also find ironic is that many white voters along with and out and out hard core separatists such as Janos, view the GOP as an ethnic ally of sorts when in actuality the GOP has been their worst nightmare via cheap immigrant labor.

    On the other side of the coin, people like pkrugman cite the benefits on these same cheap labor immigrants on one hand while lamenting the destruction or organized labor/unions on the other.

    In other words, pure Clusterfuck Nation incoherence.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 19, 2014 at 9:01 pm #

      You are slandering me again. Either that or you can’t keep my views straight, perhaps because you don’t want to. I have spoken for years about the vast Evil of the Republican Party. I listen to Rush to get insights about various things from a clever man. I certainly don’t agree with everything he says, but it’s a good intellectual exercise. Both Bertrand Russell (Leftist) and Aleister Crowley both recommended reading one journal a month whose editorial policy you don’t agree with. This is my version of that. What are you excluding or unconsciously ignoring?

      Recently Rush refused to go along with the Republican Mainstream on the Amnesty. He joins as Ann Coulter as awol from the Reservation. It’s far too little too late of course.

  92. malthuss December 19, 2014 at 11:38 am #

    Anyone here have insight into all the dead bankers?

  93. twofortheroad December 19, 2014 at 11:40 am #

    Congratulations NY State, word on the street- the first to ban high volume hydraulic fracturing, Wish more states were smart.

  94. ozone December 19, 2014 at 12:09 pm #

    While everyone is looking elsewhere and trying to change the subject and narrative, it appears that Kunstler has done his homework and research in time for Reality to come knocking… not unlike the disturbing bangings in “The Haunting of Hill House”.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-18/its-huge-crisis-uk-oil-industry-close-collapse-people-are-being-laid

    Distract yourselves with piffle at your peril, ’cause this is what ‘holistic’ looks like.

  95. progress4what December 19, 2014 at 2:23 pm #

    “Distract yourselves with piffle at your peril,
    ’cause this is what ‘holistic’ looks like”
    – ozone waxes poetic –

    That’s pretty good, O3. Write some more words, set it to the music of Hallelujah, by Lenard Cohen, sing it like Bon Jovi – and you should have a new hit! http://youtu.be/RSJbYWPEaxw 😉

    ====================

    And, seriously, I’m in agreement with you about this oil price drop leading to the end of the fracking bubble, possible collapse of global economies, and the end of everything. My first post this week was about the knock-on effects in hardwood sawtimber, remember?

    Only thing is, I’m not seeing some of these posts, (well, my posts hah), as being such a complete distraction. Which is to say that the US could have survived almost any crisis with 1970 era resources, and that 1970 population of 200 million, more united, hands-on, and resilient people. As for me, and since we can’t go back in time – I’d rather head into the crisis you foresee with a US population capped at the present 315 million, instead of the 375,000,000++ that we are apparently heading for, before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

    And I also think we’re quite a bit better off, as a nation, if our minorities, who live quite closely among SOME of us (like, especially some of my family), don’t hate on the police and generic “white people” just because they are being constantly told by black political leadership and the TV that those police are the face of government evil and that generic white people (who look like, especially, some of my family) are themselves inherently evil and irredeemably racist.

    But that’s just me, obviously. Where am I wrong?
    How does collapse not involve all of these things?
    Do you suppose I’m more concerned because of where I live?
    Are you unconcerned because of where you live?

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  96. pkrugman December 19, 2014 at 2:25 pm #

    …people like pkrugman cite the benefits on these same cheap labor immigrants on one hand while lamenting the destruction or organized labor/unions on the other.

    All my life I have heard how Americans are the best workers, best educated, etc. … which all turned out to be a lie, as their current victim complaint mentality demonstrates. As soon as there was a level playing field (made possible by H1B visas), it turned out Americans were not the best workers. Americans believe they are “entitled” to American jobs.

    Republicans are anti-union, but I expect the H1B workers will eventually gain permanent legal status and will organize unions. If that is not allowed, then the more intelligent and more hard working H1B workers will find other ways to become legal and start their own independent businesses, showing they are also more ambitious and entreprenerial than Americans.

    We should legalize dreamers and welcome H1B workers to our country … and give them amnesty as Reagan and Bush did, but with full rights. Obama did not grant amnesty. He only gave a limited, small segment of immigrants a permit to work, with no rights to immediate benefits or immediate citizenship.

    But even without an amnesty I am confident the H1B workers are intelligent enough to gain citizenship by themselves. They are not like the native born Americans who had citizenship handed to them and now have the nerve to complain about competition from those who are courageous enough to fight for citizenship.

    It is especially galling that native born Americans whose families immigrated in earlier centuries now want to slam the door shut. There is no way to prevent immigrants from arriving.

    Throughout our history there has been immigrant bashing against Irish, against all other ethnic groups. Throughout our history there have been anti-immigrant laws and deportations.

    But no one and no organization can stop the flow of immigrants to the United States, just as nothing can stop the unions they have formed and will form. Unions are the only way workers can force a $15 minimum wage that allows full-time workers to live with dignity. It will be good for business, too. People who have money can then spend it, thereby supporting business and creating employment. It is a win-win.

    • Buck Stud December 19, 2014 at 8:46 pm #

      “All my life I have heard how Americans are the best workers, best educated, etc. … which all turned out to be a lie, as their current victim complaint mentality demonstrates.”

      Translation: American workers will not work as hard for the half the money as imported H1B hi-tech workers will do.

      “As soon as there was a level playing field (made possible by H1B visas), it turned out Americans were not the best workers.”

      It’s not a level playing field. Many American hi-tech workers are deep in student loan debt while many foreign workers are the privileged elite of their countries and and thus not shouldering such a burden out of the starting gate.

      And yet you denounce these young Americans who risk their financial future via debt because they do not eagerly embrace global wage arbitrage and further assert that American workers are harbingers of a “victim complaint mentality” and ‘not the best workers’.

      In many ways, ironically enough, you come off as a Gary North/libertarian clone mouthing ‘no illegal immigrant lowers American worker wages’ absurdities.But while North asserts that economics is an Ivory Tower with innate universal laws not subject to the imposition of societal composition by human will, you simply seek to undermine and pull threads from any notion of an American nation for Americans first and foremost, and immigration, if needed, after that fact.

      Unfortunately, it’s mindsets such as yours that will ultimately be the demise of the Democratic Party/ Progressive cause. We received a preview the past November and another jolt of reality will be issued in Nov 2016. After that, your silly platitudes will ring very hollow indeed when the SC is packed with even more conservative justices.

      Your message is simply not a winning message politically or otherwise. Do you really think that underpaid, part-time college graduates drowning in debt are going to eagerly swallow your “win-win” pro-immigration propaganda and run out and register to vote?

  97. Q. Shtik December 19, 2014 at 4:34 pm #

    An end to Cuban isolation. More hope and change I can believe in. – Krug

    ==========

    It’s not often I agree with you but in this case I do. Sixty some years of isolation in an attempt to contain communism has done little or nothing. “Normalizing” relations is going to have an amazing effect on Cuba. I may not see the full flowering in my time but I expect that island will become a raging bastion of capitalism just as China has. Why? Because capitalism is as natural as breathing. By my own definition capitalism comes down to watching out for ol’ number one, you and your family, and only secondarily, others.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 19, 2014 at 9:08 pm #

      Exactly. And that raging Capitalism is what caused the Revolution there to begin with. We seem to be going in circles because few seem able to learn the correct lessons from history.

      Your honesty is refreshing and the simple truth. And it shows that Capitalism is far too selfish to be allowed to be the ruling philosophy of a Nation.

  98. BackRowHeckler December 19, 2014 at 8:48 pm #

    99 year old woman mugged in Windsor, CT Sunday nite. She was delivering Christmas cookies she had baked to the local Senior Center. The mugger tossed her on the ground, stealing the cookies, and her pocketbook.

    Description of the suspect: Black Male wearing a blue hoody, on foot, seen running toward Hartford …

    What’s the deal with Hizzoner, the esteemed Head of NYC, Mayor Bill DiBlassio? I know he considers himself a Sandinista Revolutionary, but should he be stirring up the assembled mob with chants “What do we want? Dead Cops”, and “Kill the Cops?” After all, its his PD, and he must rely on them to keep order and enforce the law in that chaotic city.

    brh

  99. Janos Skorenzy December 19, 2014 at 9:48 pm #

    Liberals demand safe places to live and often have the political clout to make it happen – as in Manhattan. But Blacks may throw their allies under the bus. And of course DeBlasios of the world will be there to help.

    http://www.counter-currents.com/2014/12/burn-this-bitch-down/#comments

  100. Janos Skorenzy December 19, 2014 at 10:03 pm #

    Affirmative Action Queen is asked to get something off the shelf by a lady. She automatically assumes it’s racism. There is something deeply wrong with Blacks….

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/17/michelle-obama-i-was-asked-to-get-something-off-the-shelf-at-target/

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  101. ZrCrypDiK December 19, 2014 at 10:37 pm #

    I swear, sometimes it takes me minutes, nary hours to recall syntactics (Let X == X [Laurie Anderson]). However, the semantics never cease to evade me (amaze?)…

    We play a bad game (an end game?). No respect (Rodney). Narcissism is the complement I give to “those” sociopaths. Do they really think they don’t eat/drink/breathe the same (exponentially depleted/poisoned) resources?

    I’ve become totally worried about eating Pacific Ocean fish. I remember 2 decades ago thinking the same thing about Atlantic Ocean wildlife. Now, you simply don’t want to eat anything out of the Gulf of Mehico or the Pacific (how did the Atlantic gain such ground?)…

    Atomized nuclear heavy metal waste. Fukushima is STILL not under control (will it ever be, in the next 10,000 years?). And there’s recent talks about building new reactors (I guess nobody reads Greg Palast). It would seem prudent, to come up with a plan to deal with nuclear waste NOW, before creating more plants that create similar exponential wastepiles of extinction…

    Who knows – maybe these sociopaths expect some portion of the population to *adapt* to radiation, and NOT “pop” out cyclops/crab claw/monster head mutants. Adapt or die – good plan (impossible?)…

  102. Q. Shtik December 19, 2014 at 11:44 pm #

    “Irregardless……….. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. -Prog quoting from a dictionary

    ================

    Yes, exactly. It’s an annoying and unnecessary doubling up on the negative sense. It’s similar to saying [very] unique.

    • ZrCrypDiK December 20, 2014 at 12:09 am #

      ““Irregardless……… Yes, exactly.” (nice closed parenthesis, ‘douche’)

      Srsly, “Dad?”

      OMG, you just GLOM on. It’s kinda sad – *regardless*…

      I suspect those old ’53/54/55 chevys (sp) in Cuba will be shipped to the US for $10k apiece, to morons who want 7-8 mpg collectible guzzlahz. I’m guessing Cubans want to buy those 25-36+ mpg autos that have existed for the past 30 years…

      You’re quite *unique*, “Dad.” An ordinary 70+ yr old baby boomer – dime-a-dozen… Nothing to say, other than asinine, irrelevant corrections (of NO merit, whatsoever).

      Tell us about *SOMETHING*, “Dad.” Otherwise, STFU (douche).

      • ZrCrypDiK December 20, 2014 at 3:27 am #

        Ouch! 277 posts (that’s it?). Where’s that *CASS* when you need her SPAM…

  103. FincaInTheMountains December 20, 2014 at 4:41 am #

    From the interview with George Friedman, Chairman of Stratfor, “The Shadow CIA”

    Q: What is the goal of US policy in the Ukrainian direction?

    GF: We Americans for the last 100 years have had a very consistent foreign policy. Its main goal: to not give any Nation to amass too much power in Europe. First, the United States sought to prevent Germany to dominate Europe, and then resisted the influence of the USSR.
    The essence of this policy is as follows: as long as possible to maintain the balance of power in Europe, helping the weaker party, and if the balance is about to be significantly disrupted – to intervene at the last moment. So the United States intervened in the First World War after the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia in 1917, to prevent the strengthening of Germany. And during WWII US opened a second front only very late (in June 1944), after it became clear that the Russian prevail over the Germans.
    And all along the United States have considered the most dangerous potential alliance between Russia and Germany. This would be an alliance of German technology and capital with Russian natural and human resources.

    Q: Do you think Ukraine in retaliation for Syria?

    GF: No, not retaliation. But Russians intervene in the process in Syria, while the United States addressed the problems in Iraq, have been negotiating with Iran … In Washington, many people have the impression that Russia wants to destabilize the already fragile US position in the Middle East – a region that is key importance for America.
    In Washington, on this account were two points of view: that the Russians are just playing the fool, or that they have found a weak point of the US and trying to take advantage of it. I’m not saying that Russia’s intervention in the Syrian conflict was the cause of the Ukrainian crisis, it would be a stretch. But this intervention has led to what many in Washington have decided that Russia is a problem. And what is there to do if that is a case? Instead of confronting them in the Middle East, it is better to divert their attention to other problems in other regions.
    Now I’m a bit oversimplifying, it is clear that things are more complex in practice, but the bottom line is that the strategic interests of the United States – to prevent Russia from becoming a hegemon. And the strategic interests of Russia – not to allow the US to its borders.

    Q: And what, in your opinion, the meaning of US sanctions?

    GF: The purpose of sanctions is to hurt Russia with minimal damage to the US and slightly bigger damage to EU in order to make it capitulate to US demands.

    Sanctions demonstrate the power of the United States. And the United States are willing to apply that power to countries with nothing to respond adequately. It is also an opportunity to bring the Europeans to order. I do not think that the main purpose of the United States is regime change in Russia. The main goal was to limit the room for maneuver of the Russian authorities that we are witnessing.

    http://kommersant.ru/doc/2636177

    • ZrCrypDiK December 20, 2014 at 5:39 am #

      I don’t think too much…

      I don’t look inside…

      I saw Gorby (with Greece on his forehead) recently talking – haha, barely 1/2 of a fifth of vodka down!!! That guy’s *OLD* (87?). Motherland (*HOMELAND*), indeed. Yeah, he barely sync’d. I felt for the poor geezer (grampz)…

      The wall is down, gramp-pappy. You still gunna spam about *teh* good ol’ daze?!?

  104. FincaInTheMountains December 20, 2014 at 5:08 am #

    The interview with George Friedman is just a prove how far the cool-headed, professional view of intelligence operative is from romanticized Hollywood-style propaganda that is being practiced on American mass media pages in a form acceptable to majority of American public, including the participants of this particular blog.

    I am fairly certain that Mr. Friedman is not saying even 10% of how things really are, but from what he has actually said it is clear that current public discussion about developments in Europe, and in Ukraine in particular, bears no correspondence to reality whatsoever.

  105. Buck Stud December 20, 2014 at 9:05 am #

    Not very many true Christians left anymore IMO; only political impostors who seek the opposite of the below:

    “Therefore, you who are eating luxurious dinners, call in the tramp from down by the highway and share with him, –so gradually you will learn how your brother came to be a tramp; and practically make your own dinners plain till the poor man’s dinner is rich,–or you are no Christians; and you who are dressing in fine dress, put on aprons and blouses, till you have got your poor dressed with grace and dignity,–or you are no Christians; and you who can sing and play on instruments, hang your harps on the pollards above the rivers you have poisoned, or else go among the mad and vile and deaf things whom you have made, and put melody into the souls of them,–else, you are no Christians.”–John Ruskin

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    • BackRowHeckler December 20, 2014 at 11:40 am #

      Hey Buck, ditch John Ruskin.

      Pick up a volume of Rudyard Kipling, get you thinkin’ straight.

      brh

      • Janos Skorenzy December 20, 2014 at 1:57 pm #

        And Kipling was not only for Britain, but also for the White Race. The two go together and can’t be separated. That’s where you get confused – or are you a closet White Nationalist?

      • Buck Stud December 21, 2014 at 10:09 pm #

        Never ditching Ruskin…nobody writes with more authority on the art of carving.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 20, 2014 at 1:55 pm #

      Yes Christianity is against the World and its Ways, including our natural inclinations. That’s why it’s so dangerous, both for good and for bad. If you overthrow all hierarchy as Ruskin seems to be suggesting, then what culture is left? There goes the Church. And there goes Art too. Did Ruskin invite bums into his studios?

      Jefferson said it best: there is a natural hierarchy of excellence. Did Ruskin make the distinction between false hierarchies and real ones?

      • Buck Stud December 21, 2014 at 10:08 pm #

        Janos,

        Ruskin does not prescribe formula; he is no’paint-by-number thinker thus his writings seem contradictory at times. In the above he seems to be prescribing a particular color of Christianity for a certain type of soul. In other writings he presents differing facets of his Christian belief system.

        If you read the below essay -I’ve posted it before–he delves deeply into the most subtle and exquisite detail regarding architectural hierarchy, specifically the Gothic. And he presents a sharp contrast between East Indians and Highland Scots

        http://www.readbookonline.net/read/2781/11997/

  106. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 9:57 am #

    ““Therefore, you who are eating luxurious dinners, call in the tramp from down by the highway and share with him…” — Ruskin

    “an American nation for Americans first and foremost, and immigration, if needed, after that fact.” — Buck Stud

    Buck, your view seems to be that immigrants are the tramps we reluctantly let in, but only if it benefits the Nation.

    A level playing field has nothing to do with how much debt you have.

    When applying for a position the employer’s concern is with intellectual preparation and ability to do the job, not debt accrued. On a level playing field most American workers cannot compete with immigrants who have superior intellectual ability. Your American exceptionalism does not wash in reality.

    • Buck Stud December 20, 2014 at 11:42 am #

      “A level playing field has nothing to do with how much debt you have.”

      Actually it does. Those operating in a specific economic paradigm are bound to that specific playing field. In other words, if a student took on a specific amount of debt in order to finance their education with the understanding that said career pays a specific amount of money (without calculating for cheap immigrant labor undercutting the market and which has absolutely nothing to do with spurious claims of ‘intellectual superiority’) only to be undercut by the cheap importation of labor, then the economic playing field has been significantly altered. The cheap labor immigrant import is not previously burdened by and chained to the structural economic realities that American students/workers must negotiate.

      Put another way, if the “system” entices Americans to take on massive debt to finance educational careers and then pulls the economic rug out from under the feet of students via cheap imported labor then the playing field has indeed been altered and in a deleterious manner for American workers.

      How about letting go of the need to win arguments via sophist pick and choose tactics devoid of context and actually having an honest debate for once? It’s OK to lose or more precisely, not be fully victorious; no one cares one way or another anyway.

      • progress4what December 20, 2014 at 1:33 pm #

        “How about letting go of the need to win arguments via sophist pick and choose tactics devoid of context and actually having an honest debate for once?”

        Good luck with that one, Buck!

        “It’s OK to lose or more precisely, not be fully victorious; no one cares one way or another anyway.” – buck –

        I care, buck. You’re winning. Keep up the good work.

  107. BackRowHeckler December 20, 2014 at 11:27 am #

    Friday, December 19, 2014.

    New Haven Register

    “Victim, officers find knife wielding robber”

    When Rodney Carr spotted a man working outside his home on Dover Street in New Haven he thought he saw some easy pickins’.

    “The (victim) said he’d been making repairs to home on Dover Street when he spotted 4 ‘Youths’ rush by. “He said a minute later, one returned and crept up behind him”.

    Rodney showed a knife, and the homeowner was relieved of his wallet, cellphone and watch.

    Rodney Carr probably figured he had robbed a piss ass Yalie, in which case the victim would apologize to the assailant for incipient racism, grovel, and offer numerous mea culpas while asking for forgiveness … for the slave trade, for Ferguson etc. …

    But no, this victim picked up a pipe and followed the man who’d robbed him all thru the city, for an hour, several times engaging in physical altercations in the street.

    He followed the assailant to an apt. on Peck Street, when the police were summoned. Rodney Carr claimed he’d been home all day with his ‘Baby Mama’, and ‘Dint do nuffin”. However, the stolen cellphone, wallet and watch were found crumpled up inside a yellow hoody stuffed underneath a bed.

    Just another relatively minor incident in the small city. I can’t imagine how bad it is in the big city, and it is about to get a lot worse since the police are now compromised and won’t be able to do much about this sordid street crime plaguing the US.

    brh

    • malthuss December 20, 2014 at 11:48 am #

      Holder-Obama have emboldened dangerous thugs. They have ’empowered’ the ‘underserved’.

      ‘If I had a son etc’.
      ‘racism cannot happen to Whites’ etc.

  108. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 12:44 pm #

    “to finance educational careers and then pulls the economic rug out from under the feet of students via cheap imported labor then the playing field has indeed been altered and in a deleterious manner for American workers.” — Buck Stud

    Buck, you are still refusing to acknowledge the superiority of immigrants and why it is so important to allow more immigrants into the “Nation.”

    You call my argument spurious. Face facts, Buck.

    It is a fact that increased financial investments in education do not inexorably lead to concomitant academic returns.

    It is a fact that top educational systems in other countries all put an emphasis on their students developing basic skills, such as numeracy and literacy.

    It is a fact that the USA has fallen behind and is now 14th in global education rankings.

    It is a fact that employers take note and act accordingly.

    The playing field is level from the point of view of human resource managers. They do not ask how much debt you took on for your poor American education. They are interested in intelligent human resources that will yield results. That is why they want immigrants, not Americans.

    Americans have too much baggage with their complaining attitude, their sense of entitlement, their poor work ethic, their mistaken belief in their inherited “smartness,” and their actual inferior intellect, Americans simply cannot compete with ambitious, hard working, and intelligent immigrants.

    We need to increase the immigration quotas for the benefit of the Nation. We need more immigrants to get us out of the clusterfuck we are in.

    Some of the immigrants will become educators… and may even find ways to elevate poor American academic performance. Those Americans capable of learning from immigrants will be better prepared to compete.

    And it is not just in cognitive skills that immigrants excel. They also surpass Americans in non-cognitive skills, such as communication, leadership, emotional intelligence, teamwork, entrepreneurship, global citizenship, and problem-solving.

    All of those specific American deficiencies are the reasons Americans cannot compete on a level playing field. Educational deficit is the reason, not educational debt.

  109. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 1:01 pm #

    “Pick any metric that you want. America’s resurgence is real. We’re better off.” — President Barack Hussein Obama

    Thinking back to 2007-2008, the last Bush years, I have to agree. The economy’s gotten better. Our ability to generate clean energy’s gotten better. We stopped ebola in the USA, confirmed pending judicial nominees, and got the government funded without a shutdown. We solved problems.

    All those things, and more, have happened.

    ** The president issued an executive action on immigration, in the process granting legal protections to an estimated 5 million people.

    ** He struck a climate change deal with China, bringing the world’s biggest polluter and one of its fiercest resisters of reform into the environmental protection movement.

    ** He has continued to oversee steady job growth and, for the first time, some signs that wage increases will be coming along with it.

    ** He relaxed the United States’ policy toward Cuba and opened up relations with the country.

    ** And his health care law enabled Americans to successfully enroll in insurance for the second year in a row, a process that occurred almost entirely under the radar.

    On Friday Obama said: “I’m energized. I’m excited about the prospects for the next couple years. A new future is ready to be written. We’ve set the stage for this American moment.”

  110. BackRowHeckler December 20, 2014 at 1:10 pm #

    We used to have a poster on this site ‘Being There’, an interesting woman from Manhattan, a fan of JHKs and a former employee of Time Inc.

    Being There, if you see this, how about some on scene comments concerning the street disturbances in NYC. Have you been personally inconvenienced by them? What’s the vibe down there? At first it seemed pretty cool but of late seems to have turned a little ugly, “What do we want? Dead Cops!!” A few hipsters have been arrested, a Prof. at CUNY for one. (You lose yourself inside the mob; anything goes. But then you’re singled out and arrested and are pretty much alone. The blacks in the mob have nothing to lose, are already unemployed and unemployable. They’ve been arrested many times and jail is no big deal, but a way of life For the white hipster, however, anticipating a bright future in academia, an arrest is a disaster. On his next job interview he has to explain to the Dean about this rapsheet which lists assault on a police officer, incite to riot, rioting, vandalism and disturbing the peace. And that’s not to mention the problem at hand, being locked up at Rikers until bail is made, paying for an attorney, numerous court appearances in front of unsympathetic judges. Suddenly being a street revolutionary is not so much fun)

    Also, a few comments on esteemed Mayor DiBlassio’s handling of the situation from an actual native New Yorker, ‘Being There’.

    brh

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  111. progress4what December 20, 2014 at 1:13 pm #

    ” On a level playing field most American workers cannot compete with immigrants who have superior intellectual ability.”
    – pkrugs goes full-on racist –

    That sounds pretty nasty. You usually keep it a bit more muted here, krugs. Are you striving for a new appellation @ CFN? Something such as “The Resident Racist?”

    ======================

    “Americans believe they are “entitled” to American jobs.” -pk-

    And that’s a strange statement to put into print, as well.

    • BackRowHeckler December 20, 2014 at 1:24 pm #

      P2C, I’ll say it again, he’s (or she) trying to get a rise out of you.

      He’s yankin’ yer chain. And you fall for it every time.

      You need to look at that BS for its entertainment value, and that’s all.

      Good for a few laughs.

      brh

      • progress4what December 20, 2014 at 1:50 pm #

        We could wish, backrow. Sure, he’s yanking chains here. But out in the world at large there are too many who think and speak just as he does.

        Many people let their minds glide right over racism directed against the shrinking majority. More bizarrely, many people seem to believe that American citizens have no right to object to immigration in their own country.

        I’m just pointing it out. Yeah, I know, over and freakin’ over.
        Everybody needs a hobby right?

  112. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 1:31 pm #

    Meanwhile, technological advance continues. Since posters like Dee Jones, Asoka, and Contrahend rarely post on CFN anymore, here is technology news of obvious import:

    FAULHABER has launched a new brushless DC servomotor that is both lightweight and powerful. FAULHABER’s series 3274 BP4 weighs under 320g, which is roughly half the weight of conventional motors with corresponding power.

    The 3274 BP4 has an operational life many times longer than standard DC micromotors due to it being overload-resistant and its ability to operate without wear-prone mechanical commutation.

    The 3274 BP4 performs reliably under demanding conditions, such as at low temperatures or high mechanical loads (for instance in the aerospace industry). This motor has a high flexibility in its design, meaning for example, high resolution optical and magnetic encoders can be easily attached.

  113. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 1:36 pm #

    “Americans believe they are “entitled” to American jobs.” -pk-

    And that’s a strange statement to put into print, as well. –P4W

    Hello? Wake up, P4W. We live in a globalized world now.

    Though you are free to continue to believe in borders… at your own risk.

    What you will continue to do is complain that immigrants are taking “our jobs” … demonstrating my point about American education, as the world passes you by.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 20, 2014 at 2:01 pm #

      In other words, we have no rights since we have no country. Is the UN going to look out for us and enforce our rights? Like they do for the Whites in South Africa?

      This is the end point of Leftism – White Genocide. Does Krugs hate Mexico or say Mexicans have no rights in Mexico? He only says such things about Whites and White Countries.

  114. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 1:41 pm #

    You need to look at that BS for its entertainment value, and that’s all. Good for a few laughs. BRH

    Once again, demonstrating my point about Americans. Thank you, BRH. Keep on laughing… as the world passes you by.

  115. progress4what December 20, 2014 at 1:43 pm #

    OK Q –

    The spell-check software here at CFN is not very unique.

    It accepts the word “irregardless.” Therefore, as an educated person, I am likely to occasionally use this word for emphasis, irregardless of your extra exhortations that I do the contrary opposite.

    Thank you for cognitive understanding.

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  116. FincaInTheMountains December 20, 2014 at 2:22 pm #

    Story with Cuba goes a little bit deeper than just Cuban community in Miami. Let’s see what kind of events preceded recent Obama declaration on Cuba:

    1. Last time the US embargo against Cuba have been confirmed on September 6, 2014, just 3 months ago. Pretty sudden change of mind.

    2. On July 4, 2014 Russia forgave Cuba 32 out of 36 billion dollars that Cuba owe to Russian Federation.

    If Cuba still owed entire 36 billion, it would be US as new patron to help Cubans pay the Russian debt. Now they’d still have to help paying remaining 4 billion dollars which is due by 2024.

    May be Obama has realized that it is cheaper to build bridges first in their own continent, to collect power and influence.

    The easiest way to do this, oddly enough, is to restore relations with Cuba. For the last few years, the member states of the Organization of American States put pressure on the United States to provide a place for Cuba in the ranks of the organization, but the US insisted on the blockade of Cuba and maintain the embargo.

    And yet, why not a year ago, but now? Well, firstly, a year ago, the United States considered themselves much stronger than it is now, and plans were to continue to put pressure on Russia and China, and therefore sanctions were adopted on September 6 this year already.

    However, over the last year, Putin strongly pressed the US and seriously reduced their level of international prestige and credibility. Everyone saw that when Putin said “no” the Syria held.

    During this year, not once US had to break the teeth off Crimea and Donetsk.

    So, may be United States are finally ready to give up their role as the world’s policemen and start being a regional power in their traditional sphere of influence?

  117. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 2:48 pm #

    Does Krugs hate Mexico or say Mexicans have no rights in Mexico? He only says such things about Whites and White Countries.

    I advocate workplace democracy, regardless of nationality. If Sony sets up a sweat shop in Tijuana, I want Mexicans to organize and defend themselves against Sony’s exploitation. BTW, Sony is a Japanese corporation with maquiladoras in Mexico and all over the world, national borders be damned.

    I support unions, organized by the exploited, for self-defense and economic justice. Do you?

    On the other hand, if Americans want to go to Tijuana to compete with Mexicans for $5.00 PER DAY jobs, they should be free to compete with Mexicans. If Mexicans want to come here to compete with Americans for $50 PER HOUR jobs, they should be free to compete here. Immigration quotas should be increased to allow this.

    Don’t you believe in a free marketplace, Janos? Or do you only dream of a government of elite “guiding” corporations in interest of the [white] nation. A dream that is a complete fantasy.

    But the qualifying factor is not what nationality you have, or how much debt you have. It is whether, for any given position, you have the preparation and ability to do the best job.

    American jobs are not just for Americans anymore. Americans must compete globally with immigrants. May the most qualified win.

    • FincaInTheMountains December 20, 2014 at 3:35 pm #

      A lot of preference in hiring H1Bs is due to the fact that qualified person costs 20 – 30% less than for comparable native candidate, however after paying some legal fees to obtain the visa that are roughly equal to first year advantage in compensation.

      I have some mixed experiences in hiring H1Bs for the hi-tech startup: some of the H1Bs performed better than average, some did not, mostly due to cultural shock during the first year of work in a new environment.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 21, 2014 at 4:56 am #

      Your granting Americans the right to be global campesinos is beyond generous – it’s downright sick. In other words, No I do not believe in “Free Markets”. There’s nothing free about them. Someone has to pay the price so I say let it be the Corporations not the American People who subsidize their exploitation of workers out of their taxes.

      If one guy hires illegals to undercut Americans, other contractors have to as well. Soon the whole industry is “captured” by illegal labor. I don’t blame men who have to compete in this way, I would merely step in and stop the process so they don’t have to be traitors anymore just to survive. And anyone who hires illegals then, I would ruin them both by heavy fines and public exposure. Do it again and they get taken out of their office or factory in handcuffs.

      I remind you again the Mexico does not suffer itself to be invaded by illegal aliens. Or overstay your Visa in India and see how efficient the usually lethargic Indian Bureaucracy suddenly becomes. India belongs to Indians. They have enough problems of their own without supporting Western parasites. We should take a leaf from their playbook and go after Brown skinned parasites who overstayed their welcome here in America.

  118. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 4:22 pm #

    Right, Finca. CW says H1Bs work “cheaper” but the employer has to look at all associated legal costs for visas. Native candidates have an obvious advantage over immigrants. Still, the Americans complain about “unfair” competition. They have an unreal sense of entitlement that does not mesh with how employers actually work.

    An employer can hire an H1B but there is always the possibility the visa will be denied and there are costs to denial. If a company hires a candidate and discovers that her H1-B is denied after a few months (for instance when transitioning from OPT to an H1-B) the cost of replacing the worker can be enormous.

    If a small employer sold a contract assuming he had two engineers to work on it and now only has only one, the whole contract could be lost.

    As you probably know, Finca, startups in particular are especially vulnerable to the loss of key employees. Put simply, losing a key hire can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue or, for some startups the loss can end the company.

    Even for large firms (companies for whom the loss of individual employees is part of day-to-day business), the cost of recruiting looms large. Finding incremental replacement mid-year may be impossible.

    Buck Stud oversimplifies: immigrants work cheaper, ignoring the real reason: immigrants are superior and that is why companies are willing to gamble on them and pay higher initial legal costs and take the risk of visa denial.

  119. Buck Stud December 20, 2014 at 5:03 pm #

    pkkrugman writes:

    “It is a fact that the USA has fallen behind and is now 14th in global education rankings.”

    I only have a brief moment but this particular statement has me wondering: when exactly did the U.S fall so far behind in education? And since I’m a inquisitive sort not wrapped up in a politically correct straight jacket, is it possible that recent illegal immigrants have actually pulled down the U.S. educational system?

    These are important and honest questions to ask in order to apprehend the dilemma and possibly correct it. For instance, I have read that student graduate rates in the Los Angeles are far below the national average and it is a phenomenon that occurs with similar frequency in other densely populated Latino school districts such as Denver and Albuquerque etc.

    So if this correct, I assume that you are championing H1b visas in order to import better educated individuals –‘more intelligent’ to use your words– and to nullify the negative impact of illegal immigration on the U.S educational system as a whole?

    But again, to answer these questions some timelines would be appropriate to better document your claims of a failing U.S. educational system.

    And while your at it perhaps you could post a link or two that cites your below assertion:

    “And it is not just in cognitive skills that immigrants excel. They also surpass Americans in non-cognitive skills, such as communication, leadership, emotional intelligence, teamwork, entrepreneurship, global citizenship, and problem-solving.”

    Moreover, how is the ‘superior intelligence’ of the H1B workers being determined? IQ/aptitude tests?

    And if that is the case, you seem to be pointing to a pure meritocracy system in the U.S where quota hiring is eliminated in favor of hiring the ‘most intelligent’ worker.

    But again, how will this intelligence be determined?

  120. progress4what December 20, 2014 at 5:05 pm #

    PK, you stand in at CFN for Bill DeBlasio, for Pres. Obama, and for the Al Sharpton gang. You appear to think and speak much like they all do.

    This is where it is leading the United States.

    http://pix11.com/2014/12/20/breaking-2-nypd-officers-shot-in-brooklyn/

    May God grant some eventual peace to these men’s families.
    And for you Atheists, well

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    • BackRowHeckler December 20, 2014 at 5:19 pm #

      Yup. Two NYPD Officers executed while sitting in their car in Brooklyn around 3pm.

      Let’s see if Sharpton shows up with his bullhorn.

      Let’s see what Obama and Holder have to say now.

      brh

    • nsa December 20, 2014 at 6:15 pm #

      Hey Prog,
      What’s your problem with atheists….as opposed to you nitwits cringing before your invisible all knowing all powerful vengeful Sky Fag…..?

  121. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 6:56 pm #

    Buck, I think you are on to something. I had not considered how immigrants might be responsible, but it makes perfect sense. The first immigrants, in the 1600s, were the most uneducated, violent, and psychotic criminals in the English prisons, as well as debtors, political dissidents, prisoners of war, common thieves and other low-lifes.

    The king opened the doors, put them on boats and shipped them to America. This is why America is the most violent Nation on Earth. It will remain that way until these types of Caucasian immigrants are removed from all levels of government and exiled to Iceland, or Greenland, where there are only white people. Otherwise their uneducated attitudes will result in the downfall of this could-be GREAT Nation.

    Good catch, Buck Stud!

    • Buck Stud December 20, 2014 at 10:47 pm #

      Is America really ‘the most violent Nation of earth’? I don’t know that’s why I’m asking. What I do know is that when entire school districts have to educate non-English speaking immigrants the educational scores will naturally drop.

      On the other hand, the young Latino’s who come out the other side of the language tunnel really have a competitive leg up on the competition if they take seriously their educational pursuits. I always emphasize whenever crossing with the young pups.

      • malthuss December 21, 2014 at 7:38 pm #

        Do you consider abortion violent or peaceful? Or is this too tough a question?

  122. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 7:17 pm #

    Today Rev. Al Sharpton condemned the killing [of the police officers in Brooklyn], saying “any use of the names Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases.”

    Why did CFN’s white racists think there would be no response from Al Sharpton? It took him a matter of minutes to condemn the killing.

    • malthuss December 21, 2014 at 7:39 pm #

      Tawana, Freddies Fashion Market, etc etc. Reverund has blood on his hands yet points a finger at YT [whitey].

  123. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 11:00 pm #

    Is America really ‘the most violent Nation of earth’? — Buck Stud

    No other country comes close. The United States has carried out 32 distinct and separate bombing campaigns on 24 different countries between 1945 and 1999.

    Can anyone name any other country which has violently attacked so many other countries in the same time period?

    • BackRowHeckler December 20, 2014 at 11:28 pm #

      “The US has carried out 32 distinct bombing campaigns etc etc etc” – Asoka

      So? Who gives a sh#t?

      What we want to know is will the concerned and poitically active (and precious) students at Yale, Smith and Wesleyan be performing any lefty street theater ‘die ins’ this weekend, disrupting traffic and commerce, in honor of the slain police officers in NYC?

      Or do they do that only for criminals and thugs?

      brh

  124. Buck Stud December 20, 2014 at 11:37 pm #

    Back to the H1B visa thing for a moment, perhaps immigration will soon be more of a moot point or at least according to Gary North (and somehow I don’t think this variation on the theme will please Pat Kelly Rugman):

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/gary-north/no-need-for-immigration/

  125. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 11:41 pm #

    What I do know is that when entire school districts have to educate non-English speaking immigrants the educational scores will naturally drop. — Buck Stud

    More than half a million 15-year-olds around the world took the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2012. The test, which is administered every three years and focuses largely on math, but includes minor sections in science and reading, is often used as a snapshot of the global state of education.

    Not much has changed since 2000, when the U.S. scored along the OECD average in every subject: In 2012, the U.S. ranked 17th among the 34 OECD countries. This year it ranks 14th. Thank you, President Obama, for educational policies that eventually resulted in improvements, educated our children and improved our ranking this year. Obama has never lost his focus on the importance of education.

    Between 2000 and 2012 immigrant children entered our education system and scores remained average. Between 2012 and 2014 more immigrant children entered our educational system. I think P4W would confirm this. Yet, with more immigrant children, the United States achievement scores have improved compared to OECD countries. My conclusion is that immigrants to the USA did not have a negative affect. They had a positive effect.

    Educational systems in many other countries are superior to the USA and that is why H1B adult immigrants are desirable.

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    • Q. Shtik December 21, 2014 at 1:13 am #

      My conclusion is that immigrants to the USA did not have a negative affect. They had a positive effect. – Krug concocting a positive view of immigrant educational prowess that flies in the face of reality.

      ================

      New Brunswick, NJ is a city of about 55,000 people, home to Rutgers Univ, the world class company J&J, and several large medical facilities and schools. Yet New Brunswick HS is among the worst performing schools in the state.

      Why? Perhaps this breakdown of the school’s population might shed some light:

      As of 2013, the school’s population is 82.3% Hispanic, 16.2% African-American, 0.8% are Asian, 0.7% are White.[1] Among students, 70.1% speak English as their first language at home, while 28.5% speak Spanish; 17% of students have a disability, 89.2% are economically disadvantaged and 10% of students have limited English proficiency.[11]

      The .7% White figure comes to 11 students out of 1555 but even this figure is bogus. These are 11 students who for whatever reason choose to identify as White (the one drop rule??). A good friend of mine has taught science there for many years and he tells me there are zero white students. Why, when the city’s population is 40 some percent White, are there NO, NADA, ZIPPO whites in its high school? Because they flee as fast as their legs will carry them to anywhere else they can find where there aren’t so many Hispanics and blacks.

      Please Krug, get real. Do you actually believe that these Hispanic immigrants are not responsible for the academically shitty showing of New Brunswick.

      • Q. Shtik December 21, 2014 at 1:17 am #

        … did not have a negative [affect]. They had a positive [effect]. – Krug

        ============

        Make up your mind, which is it?

  126. pkrugman December 20, 2014 at 11:51 pm #

    Skype will soon announce to the unemployed, college-educated, 20-something workers of the world: “Y’all come!”
    From China, from India, from Singapore, from Latin America, from Spain, and from Greece they will come. They will offer their services to America’s businessemen. “Hire us. We speak fluent English — digitally.” They will not be living inside America’s borders. So, they will not be illegal aliens. They will be legal aliens.

    Why would Pat Kelly Rugman not like this, being a globalist and not a nationalist. People are getting hired. Children are being fed. Services are being provided. Win-win-win.

  127. pkrugman December 21, 2014 at 12:10 am #

    Students at Yale, Smith and Wesleyan have been protesting abuse of power by police and calling for police reform. The murder of the two armed police officers in Brooklyn, while repugnant and reprehensible, was not a case of police abuse of power, and does not warrant a call for police reform.

    If you want students to protest homicides by gang members, they would be in the streets every day of the year.

    What students were protesting was the killing of unarmed Blacks by armed police, which does not happen every day, but has happened all too frequently these last few years.

    • malthuss December 21, 2014 at 7:35 pm #

      Wrong again. Every day a Black is killed by police. Every 20-30 hours.
      However the police get millions? a billion calls a year.
      How many arrests a year?

  128. michigan_native December 21, 2014 at 12:56 am #

    Paul Craig Roberts, the “father of Reagonomics”, is usually honest and accurate in his assessment of events both at home and abroad.

    People actually think Russia is going to sit back and allow the Rothschilds to fuck them up the ass. Guess who will have the last laugh in this one? Read about the “black swan” event that Russia will soon use. Russia has had Europe’s nuts in a vice, but have tried peace and diplomacy. Now the US sends millions of lethal military aide to the neo Nazis in Kiev, and Obama tightens up sanctions on Crimea. Here is the inevitable Russian response, according to Dr Roberts http://kingworldnews.com/paul-craig-roberts-russia-unleash-ultimate-black-swan-west/

    Meanwhile, why is Obama suddenly trying to be friendly with Cuba? Do the neocons actually think they are stupid enough to trust us? Is there some small pocket of oil off the coast of Cuba that Russia was planning of helping them develop?

    • michigan_native December 21, 2014 at 1:17 am #

      All of the cards are in Russia’s hands….http://kingworldnews.com/dr-paul-craig-roberts-12-20-14/

      • malthuss December 21, 2014 at 8:38 pm #

        The Secret Life of Angela,A biography focusing on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s time growing up in East Germany is making headlines because it suggests she was closer to the communist system than hitherto known. Her spokesman has denied she has covered anything up.
        A new biography covering Chancellor Angela Merkel’s life in East Germany has caused a stir by suggesting she was closer to the communist apparatus and its ideology than previously thought.
        Published this week and written by journalists Günther Lachmann and Ralf Georg Reuth, the book quotes Gunter Walther, a former colleague of hers at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin, as saying she had been secretary for “Agitation and Propaganda” in the Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ) youth organization at the institute. Merkel, a trained physicist, worked at the academy from 1978 until 1989.
        Excerpts from the book, “The First Life of Angela M.,” were published in the news magazine Focus on Monday. The mass-circulation Bild newspaper has also given the book prominent coverage in recent days.

        .

    • FincaInTheMountains December 21, 2014 at 4:45 am #

      Somehow I doubt that Russia will assume responsibility for crushing the worlds financial and economic systems. Besides, there is no need – judging by latest developments Americans are successfully doing that on their own.

      Russia (as well as China and others) just trying to protect themselves in the event that would happen.

  129. FincaInTheMountains December 21, 2014 at 4:18 am #

    People just stopped dreaming

    Behind the current routine and everyday crises and shocks it is very easy to forget about some higher goals and objectives, being fully immersed in the short-term problems. But in my opinion, you should never forget about your dreams…

    In the middle of the last century, mankind, despite the unfolding Cold War and the nuclear arms race has reached a peak of its intellectual and technical development, and in fact was on the verge of the Golden Age.

    Soviet and American economy showed unprecedented rates of development. Scientific discoveries fell in abundance. Science fiction confidently dominated the literature – Efremov and Strugatsky in Russia, Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov and other writers of the same level in the West. Philosophy was developing the theory of comprehension of the Other and studied the possibility of establishing an understanding with extraterrestrial forms of intelligence. Mankind came into space!

    At the grassroots level there was a similar phenomenon. Children dreamed of becoming astronauts. “I have the space suit, ready to travel.” The students who have not read Nietzsche were ridiculed and considered inferior.

    All the “discoveries” of the last few decades – it is just a development of the ideas already existed at the beginning and middle of the last century. After that, we have created almost nothing new, only putting some finishing touches. Satellites, mobile phones, computers, the Internet, and even microwave ovens – all those inventions are more than fifty years old!

    We have replaced dreams and goals for hundreds varieties of cereal, a mortgage and a car loan, which rust put and crumble faster than you are able to repay the loan. You have been robbed: they took The Priceless and gave in return some consumer goods.
    It turned out that Wernher von Braun, Tsiolkovsky and Korolyov launched first astronauts into space so we could have satellite television and GPS navigational systems!

    The American space program is rapidly degenerating. First abandoned lunar program, then stopped flying “shuttles”, and then began to talk about the complete cessation of human space flight and replacing them with remote-controlled robots. As a result of the constant cuts in NASA space exploration is no longer able to launch a conventional booster – the last month alone two accidents. Russian Space feels better, but it survives mainly due to old Soviet heritage.

    And literature? Science fiction has been entirely superseded by low-grade fantasy about gnomes and elves. And it is an escape into the past instead of the dreams of a realistic future.

    People do not expect Neo, most are longing for the Matrix!

    Science Fiction as a genre of modeling paths of development, as a representation of a possible future – is dead.

    We stopped dreaming, with our head turned up and looking at the night sky at the stars. And in a city you will never see how they are actually a lot. The first time I saw the Milky Way when I was away from the big cities.

    And young of this world dreams of stars, feats and accomplishments, and old dreams of peace and comfort. Physical age does not matter, and someone who still knows how to dream, is much younger than most twentysomethings whose world is limited to iPhones and sports cars.

    Speaking of age. When I write about achieving physical immortality (which due to modern development of science is no longer a distant fantasy, and will be achieved in the next decade), most do not think about the many benefits that long life gives of a more experienced person in fully capable body.

    Most immediately everybody start to talk about the problems that longevity can cause – overpopulation, birth control and the struggle for resources. And this is a question of “old thinking”. Someone sees the ruins and groans of the lost greatness, when I see the ruins I think you can build something that will surpass the old building in all respects. And the old bricks will come handy in the course of construction.

    People, why have you gone mad? How is it that you betrayed your dreams? Do not tell me that you’ve never dreamed of – I just do not believe it! Wake up! Be realistic – demand the impossible!

    http://alexandr-rogers.livejournal.com/260551.html

    • Janos Skorenzy December 21, 2014 at 4:43 am #

      Yes Aryan Man was about to embark upon the exploration of the Solar System. But as he rose, the Jew leapt up, grabbed his heel, and threw him back to Earth. Now we are nurse maids to masses of hopeless dark skinned inferiors and they call it Progress – but warn us sternly about how far we have to go. I mean there are still White Neighborhoods and Whites marrying other Whites! But know this: your people will not escape unscathed from all this – not by a long shot.

      Perhaps the quest for physical immortality was deemed more important than Space exploration? A few Billionaires getting to live forever, consolidating their power more and increasing their wealth for centuries – this was more important than the expansion of the Human Race?

      • FincaInTheMountains December 21, 2014 at 6:28 am #

        You, Janos, remind me of an old Russian joke:

        A military captain is greeting some young recruits in front of the huge Soviet red flag

        “So, comrades, what do you think while looking at that magnificent flag?”

        “I think about great sacrifices our Fathers suffered in order to defend that flag!”

        “Very good. You?”

        “I think about great achievements we are going to accomplish under that flag!”

        “Excellent!. You?”

        “I think about pussy”.

        “Why the hell you think about pussy?”

        “Because no matter what I always think about pussy”.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 21, 2014 at 2:51 pm #

          Yes, welcome to the new paradigm comrade. Jews, Japs, Chinese, Hindus, Arabs, etc are all obsessed with National, Ethnic, and Racial pride. Guess what? All successful peoples are. Whites used to be to – back when we were successful. Starting to get it S(ch)low mo?

          In other words, welcome back to the Old Paradigm, the Eternal Order.

          • Q. Shtik December 21, 2014 at 3:23 pm #

            Whites used to be [to]

            ============

            [too] …… groan

          • malthuss December 21, 2014 at 7:32 pm #

            Is the correct phrasing ‘Whites were as well’?

            I sense 1.1 BILLION poor Indians. Many of them Muslim.

    • Buck Stud December 21, 2014 at 9:55 am #

      “Speaking of age. When I write about achieving physical immortality (which due to modern development of science is no longer a distant fantasy, and will be achieved in the next decade), most do not think about the many benefits that long life gives of a more experienced person in fully capable body.”

      Modern medicine is still grappling with the most common maladies, much less achieving/arriving at a stage of dispensing “physical immortality” in the next decade. That fantasy, though, could provide science fiction writers a nice hook for, say, decades and decades well into the future.

      But it’s pleasant to contemplate. I have often thought of stepping into one of those ‘beam-me-up-Scotty’ Star Trek tubes and presto, all aches, pains and illnesses gone for good! I once mentioned this to a female friend are her immediate response was “no more wrinkles”!

      So just as any potential ‘Golden Age’ was subverted by the scientific commercial dividends of space exploration, “physical Immortality” will result in a state of perpetual vanity, a narcissistic nightmare of thick lips and wrinkle free faces proudly preening and posing like soulless mannequins in department store windows . Escape from such a self-absorbed world will replace immortality as the new goal for minds with any residual and lingering “Golden Age” sentiments and death itself will become a coveted medical prescription. Of course, those same old people who would charge you for the air you breathe if only they could, will deem death itself as a very expensive medical procedure to be paid for in advance.

      But there will be ironical results in a world of immortals. People will travel far and wide to worship a Rodin sculpture that portrayed a time when physical decay was the visual equivalent of golden leaves shimmering brilliantly one last time before the longest winter arrived for good. They might even term it, the Fall of the Golden Age.

      http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4986/984/1600/rodin_belle_heaulmiere.jpg

  130. FincaInTheMountains December 21, 2014 at 9:23 am #

    Fleshmob Russian style:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNGyWbaOD44

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  131. FincaInTheMountains December 21, 2014 at 10:59 am #

    The traffic cop Dmitry Shpak has shielded buses with children with his own car in Nizhnevartovsk.

    He noticed a truck burning up the road towards a line of traffic and promptly reacted without a second thought: he blocked the road with his own patrol car to prevent collision of the heavy truck with the buses full of children.

    The road accident ended up with serious bodily injuries of the police officer who was hospitalized. None of the children in buses suffered. According to physicians, the man is presently in critical but stable condition and has already recovered consciousness.

    For the heroic act Dmitry Shpak will be singled out for a state reward. The police office is preparing the appropriate documents to be sent to Moscow.

    http://www.znak.com/hmao/news/2014-12-17/1033226.html

  132. progress4what December 21, 2014 at 1:43 pm #

    “What’s your problem with atheists….as opposed to you nitwits cringing before your invisible all knowing all powerful vengeful Sky Fag…..” – nsa –

    Damnation, nsa! You’ve hardly said an unkind word to me – and then you let go with this fusillade! And I won’t take the Lord’s name in vain by requesting that a lightning bolt come out of your internet connection to strike you dead. Must be your lucky day! haha.

    However, I will point out that using homophobic insult isn’t going to earn you any internet brownie points, as the system is presently constituted.

    In my journeys around comment forums on the open internet I observe several constants. One of these is an absolutely virulent Godphobia (godphobia?) which will be visited upon any poster who dares to make mention of god in any sort of positive or large “G” sort of manner.

    Well, OK – so be it. I certainly do not come here to proselytize for any particular religion, nor for my subset of one particular religion. Consideration of death is one of the things that brings God to the front of my consciousness, nsa. That’s why I mentioned that spirit (Spirit?) in conjunction with bringing eventual peace to the families of those New York Cops, killed yesterday afternoon.

    Nothing will ever beat the religion out of me – it forms an important part of my life, and prayers to God will be among my last thoughts in my human form on this Earth. No amount of internet insult will change that. And I’ve got no particular problem with any atheist. I do have a problem with Atheists, which your insulting post apparently shows you to be. But we’re not going to settle that here, are we?

    Why is religion a worthwhile topic of discussion on a peak everything comment forum run by an atheist, you ask?

    Because I witnessed, with my own eyes, that the Christian faith enabled my forebears to organize themselves in the difficult work of maintaining a sustainable farming community. There may be other ways to organize for very hard times – but this is the one that I know for a fact will work.

    I come here to get ideas?
    You got any better ones for really hard times?
    NSA? Q? Anybody?

    • Janos Skorenzy December 21, 2014 at 3:01 pm #

      Let’s recall St Bernard’s four different takes on religion.

      The lowest love Man for Man’s sake.
      Next are those who love God for Man’s sake.
      Then those who love God for God’s sake.
      Finally, those who love Man for God’s sake.

      nsa is at the first level, the level of secular idealists and Marxists. You seem to be at the second, though perhaps willing to admit that God might really exist and have claims of His own. But primarily, your interest in religion is for its utilitarian or social benefits. Social Gospel in other words. It’s good that you kick at nsa’s hand as he tries to pull you down. Now why don’t you climb up higher, beyond his grasping reach. The weather is fine up here. The Sun is always shining above the clouds.

  133. progress4what December 21, 2014 at 1:54 pm #

    Isn’t it strange that you have to go outside US “news” sources to get a thorough discussion of yesterday’s events in NYC?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2882268/Quite-simply-assassinated-NYPD-commissioner-slams-tragic-murder-two-cops-five-days-Christmas-reveals-one-recently-married-13-year-old-son.html

    And, outside the US “news” we find that all this cop-bashing is having an impact on garden variety “innocent” bystanders.

    “Eyewitness claims ‘people were CLAPPING AND LAUGHING’ at the scene where two cops were killed” – excerpt of article –

    There is an absolute arrow-straight line that runs from President Obama to Mayor DeBlasio to the deaths of these two NY police officers. Pres. Obama was elected with such high hopes for a post-racial America. He has, instead, caused race relations to get much worse, and with seeming deliberateness.

    Do you suppose it’s not too late for him to walk some of it back?
    It’s getting pretty close to too late, from what I’m seeing.

  134. progress4what December 21, 2014 at 1:59 pm #

    Excellent analysis in this article, although a little bit wordy.
    This excerpt doesn’t do it justice:

    “The lesser evil case for (hillary) Clinton is therefore easily as flimsy as the lesser evil case against Obama. Even those who think it somehow passes muster ought to concede that no one need pull any punches on its account.

    Yet punches will be pulled – on its account and because, in just the way that Obama broke a color line, a Clinton presidency would break a glass ceiling.

    These are not irrelevant considerations in a racist and sexist society. But they are far from compelling.

    No good has come from letting racists and other retrogrades stifle all but their own brand of anti-Obama activism.

    Neither will any good come from abandoning struggles against war and inequality and impending environmental catastrophes, or efforts to restore and strengthen basic rights and liberties, just because there are idiots out there who hate Hillary for the wrong reasons.

    No good came from giving Obama a pass. Because Clinton is even worse, the consequences of giving her a pass would be worse as well. Her better half set the Bush-Obama era on its present track; now she is poised to accelerate the pace.

    She is a horror waiting to happen.”
    http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/19/hillary-the-inevitable/

    • Buck Stud December 21, 2014 at 9:24 pm #

      Prog,

      I no longer believe that Hillary will win the presidency. Call it intuition or even a bit of analysis. For example, in Cory Garder’s win over Mark Udall he garnered a certain percentage of the white male vote and Udall was unable to win no matter his support among woman, Latino’s etc. And I seriously doubt that Hillary will be able to capture enough of the white male vote to pull out an election win. So it hardly seems inevitable that Hillary will prevail especially given the last election and the utter annihilation of Team Blue, although to be fair, the author also mentioned that.

      And now that more H1B visas will be issued and more progressives unemployed, the message issued by libertarian economic types clothed in progressive pretense will wear very thin. Put another way, displaced Democratic voters are not going to be inspired by the pkrugmans of the party who chalk up undercutting foreign labor as a lack of intelligence on the part of American citizens/voters.

      But politics is not pkrugmans strong suit; rhetoric is his strength. And after predicting that the Dems would retain control of the Senate a week before the election, I’m sure that Pat Kelly Rugman himself would not dispute my claim.

  135. nsa December 21, 2014 at 3:58 pm #

    Prog,
    You, Jan, Beanie, Krugie will all be united up there in your “city on the shining hill”……a pleasant thought? But your earthly canine pals will not be allowed to join you…..as all the other mammals lack a “soul” according to those annointed with the ability to communicate directly with the invisible, all knowing, all powerful, all creating sky mommy…..

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  136. pkrugman December 21, 2014 at 5:29 pm #

    “But your earthly canine pals will not be allowed to join you…” –nsa

    Hey, nasa, I am a small a atheist. I will become compost and my dog will be allowed to join me as compost under the apple tree. There is no invisible sky mommy that you keep mentioning. Remember the law of conservation of mass (physics not metaphysics).

    Beanie seems fairly scientifically minded also. I think the only retrograde is P4W, and he admits he will continue believing in hocus locus until his dying day.

  137. progress4what December 21, 2014 at 6:35 pm #

    “I think the only retrograde is P4W, and he admits he will continue believing in hocus locus until his dying day.” – pkrugs –

    Ah, wonderful – we can end the week with a pointless insult. Months ago, pkrugs helped to prove that there is a limit to the number of people we can love. Now, his gratuitous insult provides concrete proof that Jean Paul Sartre was correct when he stated, “Hell is other people.”

    ====================

    And Janos, stages 1,2,and 3 make some sense, and certainly fall in line with my own Baptist beliefs. I tend to emphasize the practical uses of religion here at CFN because I know it can actually work to burnish down the sharp edges of human wants and needs during genuine hard times, again, because I’ve seen it work toward those ends – up close and in person.

    Stage 4 is problematic for you, or should be, because it should negate your tendency to favor one race (yours) over others, since all are “man,” meaning human.

    Stage 4 troubles me because it elevates humanity above the environment that makes life worthwhile, or even possible. Your Catholics, for example, are among the worst for pushing global overpopulation, and excessive immigration into (still?) sovereign nations, such as our own US.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 21, 2014 at 7:21 pm #

      Well obviously Man is higher than the beasts of the field. And all religions say our ultimate destiny is beyond this world and material universe. We shouldn’t trash it though. And that means to respect its limits. And yes, none of this is explicit in scripture. We need to use our own intelligence on questions like this.

  138. pkrugman December 21, 2014 at 7:17 pm #

    “Ah, wonderful – we can end the week with a pointless insult.” –P4W

    Don’t you say that pointing out a fact is not an insult?

    If you had said you were Mormon, I would believe your post-apocalypse dream of helping each other out. But Baptists preach individual salvation: you are on your own.

    Baptists do not need Sartre. Baptists believe all men are sinners and are in need of salvation, else they will be under judgment in Hell for all eternity.

    However, Christ has purchased our salvation through His death and resurrection. He now offers this free gift of salvation and the promise of an eternity in Heaven to all men. We receive salvation by believing wholly on Him and trusting in His finished work and the veracity of His offer. There is nothing we can do to merit salvation nor any other means of entrance into Heaven except through accepting Christ’s offer.

    If you think people who actually believe that are going to help you in the Long Emergency, I wish you good luck. Baptists don’t need no damn social works or nicety nice attitudes to be saved. They only need to believe in the saving grace of someone who has been dead over 2,000 years now.

  139. pkrugman December 21, 2014 at 8:06 pm #

    “Wrong again. Every day a Black is killed by police. Every 20-30 hours.” — Malthuss

    Malthuss, I was referring to police killings of unarmed Blacks. Some of those you refer to are probably armed. If the police are being shot at, then they can claim self-defense. But the police are killing unarmed Blacks who are not a threat to the life of the officer, and that is what the protests are about.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 21, 2014 at 11:06 pm #

      Jimi Carter is a Baptist. Shame on you for stereotyping Baptists. Jimmy is for Energy Independence and against the Zionists.

  140. pkrugman December 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm #

    “And yes, none of this is explicit in scripture. We need to use our own intelligence on questions like this.” — Janos

    Janos, use your intelligence. You are talking to P4W, who is a Baptist.

    Baptists are Biblical literalists. Baptists believe that the Bible and its clear, literal teachings are the final authority for faith and practice. They back up everything with “Chapter and Verse”, and hold that anything that is contrary to the clear teaching of the Bible is not true.

    Shame on you, Janos, so suggesting intelligence is an option.

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  141. pkrugman December 21, 2014 at 10:17 pm #

    Something for the Obama haters who are accusing DiBlasio, Obama, Holder, Sharpton, etc. … everybody except the shooter … for the deaths.

    President Barack Obama strongly condemned the killing of two New York City police officers, calling on Americans to “reject violence.”

    “I unconditionally condemn today’s murder of two police officers in New York City,” Obama said in a statement. “Two brave men won’t be going home to their loved ones tonight, and for that, there is no justification. The officers who serve and protect our communities risk their own safety for ours every single day – and they deserve our respect and gratitude every single day.”

    Obama continued: “Tonight, I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal – prayer, patient dialogue, and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen.”

    I agree with President Obama. To blame anyone other than the shooter is … heavily irresponsible.

    I can’t breathe.

  142. pkrugman December 22, 2014 at 12:40 am #

    Jimi Carter is a Baptist. Shame on you for stereotyping Baptists. Jimmy is for Energy Independence and against the Zionists. –Janos

    Janos, I am talking about the real Baptists of the Southern Baptist Convention, the ones who are Biblical literalists. In 2000, Jimmy Carter severed his membership with the Southern Baptist Convention, saying the group’s doctrines did not align with his Christian beliefs.

  143. FincaInTheMountains December 22, 2014 at 2:47 am #

    Pushing into America’s backyard

    Nicaragua’s $50 billion transoceanic waterway set to break ground today. Nicaraguan officials will start building access roads on state-owned land as the first step in creating a canal expected to rival that of Panama — a project supporters say will directly employ 50,000 people and dramatically boost the country’s GDP.

    Chinese government and Hong Cong Company, Nicaragua Canal Development Investment are behind the $50 billion construction project, now joined by Russian Federation.

    Russia continues to take strategic initiatives that put the United States on the defensive; Russian President Vladimir Putin is teaming up with China to help construct a trans-oceanic canal in Nicaragua that gives Moscow an even greater foothold in Washington’s area of influence.
    The prospect comes as Moscow not only intends more massive arms sales in Latin America but moves to establish a base in Nicaragua besides using existing facilities for refueling for aircraft and port calls for Russian warships.

    Today the controlled American press ran multiple, but similar stories against the construction. Usual suspects: Environmentalists groups and fringe political parties financed by State Department are raising their voices against the construction.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rising-anger-nicaragua-canal-break-ground-143215166–finance.html

    The event puts into a different light recent change of Washington’s heart regarding restoring diplomatic relationship with Cuba and lifting a 50-year embargo on the embattled island Nation – apparent panic attempt by US to restore its influence in Latin America.

  144. FincaInTheMountains December 22, 2014 at 4:02 am #

    Anglo Saxons hitting the breaks in escalating Russian conflict?

    Many of today’s global problems are hangovers from bad, ungenerous decisions at the end of previous conflicts, writes Jeffrey Sachs.

    1914, 1989, 2014. We live in history. In Ukraine, we face a Russia embittered over the spread of NATO and by US bullying since 1991. In the Middle East, we face the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, destroyed by WW1, and replaced by the cynicism of European colonial rule and US imperial pretentions.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30483873

    Russia will certainly not become the Friend of the West. The West in its present form requires no friends: only colonies and vassals. However, apparently, the West is so impressed with the failure of its sanctions and Russian willingness to defend their freedom, that it practically already lost hope to defeat the hated bear with a little blood.

  145. FincaInTheMountains December 22, 2014 at 6:21 am #

    Michigan’s black civil rights defender gets jail time in apparent frameup

    Benton Harbor’s most prominent political activist will spend a minimum of two and a half years behind bars for crimes he insists he did not commit.

    “I’ve committed no crime and unfortunately, if I was anybody else, I wouldn’t be here,” said Rev. Edward Pinkney today in court. “I can’t say if any dates were changed, but unfortunately I’m here.”

    The 66 year old Pinkney was sentenced to spend a minimum of 30 months in prison(that is if shuts the f*ck up)—and a maximum of 120 months (if he does not) on five felony counts related to election forgery. The convictions stem from a petition drive that sought to force a recall election for mayor.

    “So how can you convict a man without evidence? I ask that question today to Judge Schrock, and Berrien County.
    All I know is it was racism: that was the deciding factor of Reverend Pinkney,” said protestor Marcina Cole, who lives in Detroit.

    Cole was among some 50 or so protestors who chanted “free Pinkney” in the courthouse parking lot after today’s sentencing.

    http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Benton-Harbor-activist-sentenced-for-election-fraud-285834711.html

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  146. pkrugman December 22, 2014 at 10:22 am #

    If unarmed Blacks are not being killed, they are being imprisoned. The Reverend is obviously guilty of starting a petition drive while Black. Still it is 20 months in jail and he did nothing life threatening. The USA has more prisoners than any other country, a large number of whom are people of colour who have not done anything violent or illegal. Yet none dare call it racism.

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