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In case you wonder how our politics fell into such a slough of despond, the answer is pretty simple. Neither main political party, or their trains of experts, specialists, and mouthpieces, can construct a coherent story about what is happening in this country — and the result is a roaring wave of recursive objurgation and wrath that loops purposelessly towards gathering darkness.

What’s happening is a slow-motion collapse of the economy. Neither Democrats or Republicans know why it is so remorselessly underway. A tiny number of well-positioned scavengers thrive on the debris cast off by the process of disintegration, but they don’t really understand the process either — the lobbyists, lawyers, bankers, contractors, feeders at the troughs of government could not be more cynical or clueless.

The nation suffers desperately from an absence of leadership and perhaps even more from the loss of faith that leadership is even possible after years without it. Perhaps that’s why so much hostility is aimed at Mr. Putin of Russia, a person who appears to know where his country stands in history, and who enjoys ample support among his countrymen. How that must gall the empty vessels like Lindsey Graham, Rubio, Schumer, Feinstein, Ryan, et. al.

So along came the dazzling, zany Trump, who was able to communicate a vague sense-memory of what had been lost in our time of American life, whose sheer bluster resembled something like conviction as projected via the cartoonizing medium of television, and who entered a paralysis of intention the moment he stepped into the oval office, where he proved to be even less authentic than the Wizard of Oz. Turned out he didn’t really understand the economic collapse underway either; he just remembered an America of 1962 and thought somehow the national clock might be turned back.

The industrial triumph of America in the 19th and 20th century was really something to behold. But like all stories, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and we’re closer to the end of that story than the middle. It doesn’t mean the end of civilization but it means we have to start a new story that provides some outline of a life worth living on a planet worth caring about.

For the moment the fragmentary stories of redemption revolve around technological rescue remedies, chiefly the idea that electric cars will save the nation. This dumb narrative alone ought to inform you just how lost we are, because the story assumes that our prime objective is to remain car-dependent at all costs — when one of the main features in the story of our future is the absolute end of car dependency and all its furnishings and accessories. We can’t imagine going there. (How would you, without a car?)

The economy is collapsing because it was based on cheap oil, which is no longer cheap to pull out of the ground — despite what you might pay for it at the pump these days. The public is understandably confounded by this. But their mystification does nothing to allay the disappearance of jobs, incomes, prospects, or purpose. They retreat from the pain of loss into a fog of manufactured melodrama featuring superheros and supervillains and supernatural doings.

Donald Trump could never be a Franklin Roosevelt or a Lincoln. These were figures who, if nothing else, could articulate the terms that reality had laid on America’s table in their particular moments of history. Mr. Trump can barely speak English and his notions about history amount to a kind of funny papers of the mind. A sinister host of adversaries who ought to understand what is happening in this country, but don’t, or can’t, or won’t, are coming after him, and they are going to get rid of him one way or another. They have to. They must. And they will.

And then what?


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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.

119 Responses to “Do You, Mr. Jones…?”

  1. DurangoKid May 22, 2017 at 10:37 am #

    Want Trump out of the White House? Remember those whom the gods would destroy they first grant wishes.

    • capt spaulding May 24, 2017 at 2:06 pm #

      If memory serves me right, the correct quotation is: Whomever the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” I forget who said it, but the quote sticks in my head.

      • SteveO May 25, 2017 at 2:48 pm #

        Sounds like both apply to Trump’s core base.

  2. JimInFlorida May 22, 2017 at 11:01 am #

    Amazing. A tech glitch.

    I was convinced beyond all doubt that I had been banned and blocked!

    To answer JHK’s second paragraph of why things have come to this, the answer is simple.

    REAGANOMICS… and its companion, Thatcherism.

    Reaganomics represented a paradigm shift of scale and depth that most will never grasp.

    The idea that a nation-state exists to convert the dividends of national progress into public benefits for those who contributed to it was almost achieved with the New Deal. Even as it was undermined and picked away until the late 1970’s, it still yielded positive fruit.

    Reaganomics was the siege engine that took the public’s right to the dividends and gave that to the plutocrats who could monetize it, convert those dividends into security for debt, and then offshore the wealth engines to slave labor countries to “unlock value” for shareholders.

    Reaganomics unleashed forces in the same manner that fire is unleashed. When money and fire are CONTAINED and COMPELLED to do useful work, then you get progress.

    When money and fire are freed from their fetters, then you get wildfires and destruction. Arson can be both economic and malicious.

    Economic arson is done by those parties who have found a way to capitalize on the destruction. It’s been going on for so long that the idea of using money and fire to priomote the general welfare and ensure domestic tranquility sounds alien and can’t be done.

    • Elrond Hubbard May 25, 2017 at 1:55 pm #

      JimInFlorida, there’s not a word of this I would disagree with. I could add more, particularly about who was very emphatically excluded from the New Deal, by what means, and how that has continued playing out to this day; I might emphasize some things and de-emphasize others. But in the main, you’ve pretty much articulated my view as well.

      … Just don’t try and get me to buy into your anti-Semitic delusions, and we’re cool.

      • JimInFlorida May 25, 2017 at 3:19 pm #

        O.K Elrond, I’ll make the effort to blindfold myself to the obvious.

        I don’t try to make anybody buy into anything. My past comments merely pointed out what was knowable and provable by just doing a little homework.

        I’ll turn a new leaf. I’ll be like a reporter covering a Black Lives Matter riot and refuse to point the common characteristics of all involved. To point out those characteristics is *profiling*. Heaven Forbid the Top 1% should be profiled, even though their mischief involves TRILLION$… as opposed to the petty losses caused by ordinary street punks.

        **********************************************************************************

        As far as those who were excluded from the New Deal, that was just the tragic necessity of the times. Whites were (and still are) the economic engine of the U.S. and they had to be helped first.

        It’s the very same reasoning when the oxygen masks drop in an airliner that suddenly depressurizes. The capable passengers must FIRST don their masks. THEN they can help the less capable.

        However, the rescue of the lesser citizenry has become an established racket and the White Males are being required to, not only give up their oxygen but, apologize for even being on the same plane!

        “janet” would have all White Males bail out without a parachute but, before we leave, get everybody some booze and peanuts out of the galley!

        • DA May 25, 2017 at 9:43 pm #

          However, the rescue of the lesser citizenry has become an established racket and the White Males are being required to, not only give up their oxygen but, apologize for even being on the same plane!

          “janet” would have all White Males bail out without a parachute but, before we leave, get everybody some booze and peanuts out of the galley!

          Amen brother!

  3. FincaInTheMountains May 22, 2017 at 11:22 am #

    Trump reads Saudis the Riot Act, hands over a yuuge bill for reparations

    From Sunday’s network political shows it became clear to me that all this Media frenzied attacks on Trump, which turned last week into a year, aimed to disrupt his first foreign tour of the US allies.

    And it is not yet clear why these trips are so dangerous for the Black Project (the Sect), but the fact that Trump did not accidentally end up in Saudi Arabia at the time of announcement of the results of the elections in Iran is simply evident, especially considering that it was Saudi Arabia that through the Clinton Foundation financed the electoral campaign of the Sect.

    Trump did not seem to threaten the Saudis, but instead he threatened Iran, in response to which Iran immediately promised to strike at the Saudis.

    And now Trump takes from the Saudi king if not yet capitulation, but a large-scale reparations – for the starters $110 billion, and then promised twice and a half as much!

    For a long time everyone understands that the inflated price/effectiveness ratio makes the American arms sales a method of charging tribute from the allies.

    Iran actually acted in favor of the US against the sheiks. Exactly the same was in the previous round with a “run on Pyongyang”, as a result of which it was necessary for Japan and South Korea to shell out a lot of dough. And Trump, following the looting results, quite frankly praised Kim for his determination.

  4. FincaInTheMountains May 22, 2017 at 11:39 am #

    At the same time, another way of levying a tribute is being used: the resumption of purchases of US Treasuries by Chinese, Koreans and Japanese in exchange for reducing the deliberate US-North Korean tensions in the area of the most intensive trade routes.

    However, Russia also contributed to the stabilization of US finances, slightly increasing investments in US Treasuries. Does this mean that the Kremlin was also frightened, for example, by a single blow to Syria or some other threats? And has also renewed the payment of tribute?

    On the surface it seems to be the same, but in fact and scale – a qualitative difference.

    Under the George W. Bush Kremlin diligently paid US their share (by buying US Treasuries) on Russian oil revenues, which were provided by the Middle East policy of the United States. Even then it was a mutually beneficial partnership, where the junior partner, paid tribute for participating in the business.

    Now, the appointment of Iran or North Korea as the main threats pushes them into Russia’s embrace, as, however, pushes all other subjects of the global empire to purchase weapons from the Kremlin.

    In these circumstances, the Kremlin is an equal partner and beneficiary of the US policy. Kremlin could have avoided buying treasuries, but it need to at least symbolically support a secret ally in its domestic political fronts.

    And besides, it is a signal to all other powers to maintain global stability, not to let the former hegemon fall on an uncontrollable trajectory.

  5. FincaInTheMountains May 22, 2017 at 12:05 pm #

    Prognosis for this year is cautiously optimistic with 75% chance of oil being between a $100 and $125 a barrel by the end of year, which will not only improve the bottom line of US oil and gas producers, but also reduce the National debt in half (in terms of tangible physical units of value, such as barrel of Brent oil).

    There still remains a “small” question of 20 trillion dollars which were printed by the Clintons in the 90s and distributed among the Sect adepts through the fraudulent dot com companies – that 20 trillion could come very handy for investment into US aging infrastructure and providing for almost full productive employment for US work force.

    May be Trump’s trip to Riyadh shows the roadmap for solving that problem as well?

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  6. FincaInTheMountains May 22, 2017 at 3:34 pm #

    Finca May 19, 2017 at 1:35 pm
    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/monster-eating-nation/#comment-304464


    And as a cherry on the cake, the speech of Senator Graham, chairman of the Senate Committee on Control over the Justice Department, in which he very popularly explained that the appointment of a special prosecutor practically stops all investigations of the Senate and Congress on a similar topic, since the very fact of the ongoing criminal investigation allows general Flynn to take advantage of the 5 amendment to the Constitution and refuse to testify.

    Fox Business Published May 22, 2017:

    Source says Flynn to invoke 5th Amendment

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/05/22/source-says-flynn-to-invoke-5th-amendment.html

  7. FincaInTheMountains May 22, 2017 at 4:02 pm #

    A dollar for an entry, a hundred for an exit
    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/monster-eating-nation/#comment-304489

    I hope everyone understands that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alexander Pushkin, John Kennedy, Ioan Petru Culianu, and closer to our time, Stanley Kubrick, David Carradine and Boris Berezovsky were all members of religious sect, such as Stanley Kubrick described in the movies “Shining” and “Eyes Wide Shut”.

    And all of them are united by a shameful execution connected with treason, not a political but religious betrayal. Mozart’s funeral in the common grave, vile letters to Pushkin about his wife, a similar story with Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, death in public restroom of Culianu is all a payback for believing in God and splitting with the sect.

    But Kubrick apparently bought himself the freedom through participation in the project Apollo 11, but this did not save him after the release of the movie “Eyes Wide Shut”.

    And I really want to hope that the shameful execution of David Carradine and Boris Berezovsky is also connected with their exit from the sect, and not with the disclosure of its vile secrets – after all, David Carradine starred in “Kill Bill”, and I know for sure that in the last monologue his impromptu went beyond the script and Tarantino’s plan, striking the latter to the depths of his soul.

    I can mention a few more names of our very famous and almost brilliant contemporaries, who by all accounts fall into this category, but I do not want to upset their admirers – I, for one, was very upset when I realized this about Pushkin and Culianu, although I read enough vile verses of the first and the esoteric writings of the second.

    Meanwhile, now I understand that in fact it means that these people died for Christ, that in fact they are holy martyrs. And it is important. Very important.

  8. FincaInTheMountains May 22, 2017 at 4:15 pm #

    Can you please give us some inkling of exactly what it is you are talking about??? == CancelMyCard

    I am talking about the esoteric anti-Christian Sect that traces its origins to at least the Fourth Crusade and probably earlier, much earlier, which I call a Western Black Project.

    The Russian historians working in the area of political history of arts came across the distinct traces of the Sect activity during various periods of European and world history. This area of knowledge is complicated and requires special training.

    The sect was behind the ideology of the Nazi Germany – the Third Reich – and did not disappear with the defeat of Hitler, but to the contrary, inherited all the NSDAP Martin Bormann money.

  9. FincaInTheMountains May 24, 2017 at 9:17 am #

    If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and YOUR SOUL WILL BE CONDEMNED

    These are the words of President Trump, addressed to the leaders of Islamic countries, gathered in Riyadh.

    After listening to this speech, it became clear to me personally that hundreds of billions of dollars (rumored to be worth one and a half trillion dollars) of arms and other contracts signed by American businessmen in Riyadh is in fact an indemnity for Hillary Clinton’s support in the elections.

    And he used or rather threw them in the face such an expression: “Islamic extremism, Islamism and Islamic terror”!!!

    CNN immediately declared this speech a mistake and explained the use of these expressions by Trump’s fatigue.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/trump-islamic-islamist/

    It is clear that a lot of pressure was put on Trump so that he does not use such expressions in Riyadh. And use of word “Islamism” in such an environment in Saudi Arabia, where Islamism is the state religion, is something to behold!

    Now, if the CNNs and other shit will keep attacking him the creation of the militia in full accordance with the Second Amendment to the Constitution is guaranteed.

    And his speech can not be interpreted otherwise, as the demand for surrender, presented by the winner.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZcjjx6qHAQ

  10. FincaInTheMountains May 24, 2017 at 9:21 am #

    The Nazi Germany represented by the 4th Reich of Angela Merkel through its agents in the US is trying to overthrow the Constitutionally elected President and provoke a nuclear war between the two powers that defeated it in the World War II.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/new-book-safe-happy-place/#comment-304582

    All is well my beautiful marquise

    In continuation of the previous post:

    Germany Is Quietly Building a European Army Under Its Command
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/22/germany-is-quietly-building-a-european-army-under-its-command/

    NATO hit by Turkish veto on Austria partnership
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40013507

    Britain will go to war over Gibraltar’s sovereignty, say senior Conservatives
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/britain-defend-gibraltars-sovereignty-way-120340453.html

    Guess who the UK is going to fight for Gibraltar

    “That was some weird shit” – George W. Bush said regarding the inauguration of D. Trump.
    https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/george-w-bush-sums-trump-185628679.html

    I remember the inauguration of George W. Bush after a 3-month count of votes in 2000, when the newly-sworn 43rd US President in a long black coat stood on a platform in front of a roaring cursing crowd and, pretending to be dancing, hammered quite unambiguously his pelvis in front of everybody. And I recall the memoirs of one of the participants in these events about how Bush’s election headquarters was barricading in Miami and was preparing to shoot off Clinton people like Salvador Allende. And yet he believes that Trump’s inauguration was very strange.

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    • S M Tenneshaw May 24, 2017 at 11:10 pm #

      “The Nazi Germany represented by the 4th Reich of Angela Merkel through its agents in the US is trying to overthrow the Constitutionally elected President and provoke a nuclear war between the two powers that defeated it in the World War II.”

      Uh, no…way too much radioactive fallout.

  11. FincaInTheMountains May 24, 2017 at 10:09 am #

    Cover of a fresh issue of “Time”

    https://scontent.fhen1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18485592_1553256368018983_7154921793637907808_n.jpg?oh=10e6dde05bc4eaee1cd5e36944e56eae&oe=59AC1C31

    Pay attention that mamafakas carefully fotoshopped out the Crosses of St. Basil’s Cathedral Towers:

    http://st.rublev.com/churches/02/2-590-650.jpg

    • zizzybalooba May 24, 2017 at 10:37 am #

      StincaInTheMountains, go easy on the consecutive posts. It’s like spam.

  12. FincaInTheMountains May 24, 2017 at 1:13 pm #

    The West is startled: Russia has stopped shedding tears over the terrorist attacks in NATO countries

    Manchester terror attack will teach UK ‘a lesson for not co-operating with Russian intelligence’

    A Russian politician has said that the Manchester terror attack will teach the UK security services a “lesson” for not cooperating with Moscow and for playing political games instead.

    Senior senator Viktor Ozerov, head of the Russian upper house’s defence and security committee, made a number of controversial comments about the suicide bombing that left 22 dead and 59 injured.
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/manchester-terror-attack-teach-uk-000751814.html

    And in the above link the reference to the words of the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security Viktor Ozerov is empty, but what I managed to find in Russian sounds quite different:

    Russian special services and law enforcement agencies are ready to provide Britain with all the information they need to investigate the explosion at the stadium in Manchester, despite the fact that Britain was the first country that refused to cooperate with Russia in intelligence matters. … Unfortunately, what happened in Manchester was a lesson to British intelligence that without the help of other countries their work could fail

    https://ria.ru/world/20170523/1494856191.html

    It would seem that it is another anti-Russian action, but in fact it is an attack on Trump’s foreign tour, who used the need to jointly combat terrorism as a key to break information bans in the public consciousness imposed during the time of Hillary’s absolute power to discuss any possibilities for cooperation with Russia “as long as it continues criminally occupying the Crimea”.

  13. thwack May 24, 2017 at 10:47 pm #

    JHK suspects Trump won’t last a full term as president.

    But its possible his marriage is the thing that won’t last 4 years.

    Does anybody really know what she is like?

    If you look closely you will see how she smacked his hand away on that red carpet.

    What was she thinking?

    As a top shelf model she had to have known her action would be caught?

    Very interesting.

    • thwack May 25, 2017 at 5:47 am #

      I kinda feel sorry for Melania because despite access to all that wealth, she is still in a difficult situation.

      She may disagree with a whole lot of his behavior, but what can she really do about it? She basically has a big gun, but it only carries one bullet, and that bullet is called divorce. Should she pull the trigger?

      If she does it could really mess up their sons head?

      Maybe make him turn gay or something?

      Imagine if your dad made it to the very top of the male success ladder, and then your mom divorced him?

      How do you spin that to a 10 year old boy?

      Well it wouldn’t be the first time.

      Neil Armstrong’s wife divorced him AFTER he walked on the moon?

      Just sayin

      • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 7:00 am #

        The pressure of deceiving the American people and the world was too high to handle for Neil Armstrong, as it was for Stanley Kubrick, who made the movie “Shining” as his cryptic confession to the world.

      • Q. Shtik May 25, 2017 at 2:33 pm #

        I kinda feel sorry for Melania because… – thwack

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

        I feel sorry for Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway. At least nobody seriously expects that Melania will ever be called on to verbally defend one of her husband’s inane and inarticulate statements.

  14. FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 6:41 am #

    REAGANOMICS… and its companion, Thatcherism == JimInFlorida

    Thatcherism is the withdrawal of industry from the highly developed countries to the Third World countries, and consequently the elimination of the working class, the transformation of the national economy of these countries into a service economy, that is, the hyped up development of the financial sector and services, and neocolonial wars in the interests of transnational companies, to tame those Countries and Peoples who try to break out of this new world order.

    In literature, the friendship between Thatcher and Ronald Reagan is discussed, and probably they were really united in their desire to destroy the Soviet Union, but in fact in the field of economic policy they were opponents, since Reagan did everything in his power to stimulate material production, and Thatcher was engaged in closing mines and other “money-losing” enterprises and all manner of belittling the workers of Great Britain.

    She was really friends with Alexander Haig, who, after the attempt on Reagan, did not hesitate to take over the President’s powers, without any regard to the procedures prescribed by the Constitution.

    And there really is some kind of mysticism in it, since he was also buried with a big scandal (as was Thatcher).

    In particular, it was at that time that the Bolivarian Congress was held in Mexico, at which delegates reaffirmed their support for Argentina’s desire to return the Falkland Islands, for which Thatcher began the war. Moreover, this death would serve as an excuse to recall that it was Alexander Haig, contrary to the direct order of the US President, handed over to the British Navy, which was going to liberate the Falkland Islands from the Argentine occupation corps, the data of US tracking satellites about the location of the Argentine cruiser “General Belgrano”, which was sunk by the British nuclear submarine.

    And together with Alexander Haig, the Monroe Doctrine was finally buried, according to which there is a commonality of interests of the American countries, forcing them to jointly confront the European countries.

    • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 6:54 am #

      On the other hand, the Reiganomics was a short term strategy of American elite aiming at winning the Cold War with the Soviet Union not by military means or economic pressure, but by sharp increase in Western standards of living based on “borrowing from the future”, thus making the Soviet elite envious and willing to destroy their own country to be able to join the “Western Paradise”.

      Under that strategy, the spoils of the Cold War – reparations from USSR and Soviet bloc – would pay down debts accumulated during Reiganomics and then some.

      And then came Clintons and fucked up everything.

  15. ozone May 25, 2017 at 9:36 am #

    James,
    I enjoyed this truly classic Kunstlerism: “In case you wonder how our politics fell into such a slough of despond, the answer is pretty simple. Neither main political party, or their trains of experts, specialists, and mouthpieces, can construct a coherent story about what is happening in this country — and the result is a roaring wave of recursive objurgation and wrath that loops purposelessly towards gathering darkness.”

    As you ask for the finale:
    Then what? Well, all ‘selected’ politicians must either cleave to the single-minded “deep state” (permanent war/division; one-way flow of wealth) or be a bona fide lifelong member *of* it.

    John Whitehead puts it pretty succinctly as to where we are now and where we’re heading.

    “The Deep State – a.k.a. the police state, a.k.a. the military industrial complex – has taken over.

    The American system of representative government has been overthrown by a profit-driven, militaristic corporate state bent on total control and global domination through the imposition of martial law here at home and by fomenting wars abroad.

    When in doubt, follow the money trail.
    It always points the way.”

    Interestingly enough, in his article he quotes Bertram Gross, who noted in “Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America” (circa 1980, Enter The Reagan):

    “…a new despotism creeping slowly across America. Faceless oligarchs sit at command posts of a corporate-government complex that has been slowly evolving over many decades. In efforts to enlarge their own powers and privileges, they are willing to have others suffer the intended or unintended consequences of their institutional or personal greed. For Americans, these consequences include chronic inflation, recurring recession, open and hidden unemployment, the poisoning of air, water, soil and bodies, and, more important, the subversion of our constitution. More broadly, consequences include widespread intervention in international politics through economic manipulation, covert action, or military invasion…”

    I find this analysis and prediction of direction THE essence of our predicament.

    As an aside: Finca, please establish your own “institute”; you’re wasting a huge amount of JHK’s comment space with your hokey medieval ravings, because, “…Something’s happening here, but you don’t know quite what it is; do you, Mister Jones?…” — Zimmerman of the Robert

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    • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 9:59 am #

      Neither main political party, or their trains of experts, specialists, and mouthpieces, can construct a coherent story about what is happening in this country == Ozone

      Neither can Mr. Kunstler, not to speak of you, Ozone.

      And I’ll tell you exactly why you can’t in principle

      You all are trying derive that picture based on an extremely narrow period of time (best case scenario, last 17 years, worst case – a week of CNN coverage) and based on a stand alone country – the US of A. No matter how truly important USA is in the hierarchy of things in the Universe, it boggles my mind that you think you could succeed.

      Now regarding the reason for my subsequent posting during this particular week

      Actually, if you take a look at the average number of posting on a normal week (and this week was NOT normal and marked by malicious attacks on the site, which Mr. Kunstler considers to be just a gross negligence of the hosting company – just like Hillary with her emails), I posted not more than my usual share.

      Not my fault that it never occurred to you to just “refresh” your browser or clean up the cached browsing history, so you’d be able to support traffic to the site during that difficult period – site lost at some point up to 20% of its Google ranking and was about to fall off of the magic first 100,000 top sites.

      • ozone May 25, 2017 at 12:57 pm #

        More speculative bullshit on your part, Finca. You haven’t any idea what my “browsing habits” are, and your assertions are FALSE.

        You may end using your “share” of posting space right now; others will thank you for it.

    • Elrond Hubbard May 25, 2017 at 2:12 pm #

      While JHK is paying attention to pretty much the right things, it’s inaccurate to say that the two parties “can’t construct a coherent story about what is happening.” In fact they have constructed two competing stories, each coherent enough on its own terms, but incommensurable.

      It’s not hard to see how this happened: both parties sold themselves to big-money interests — including the banks, the military-industrial complex, the medical-pharmaceutical complex, among others — and dedicated themselves to serving those interests exclusively. With broad areas of policy thereby walled off from any real public debate, the parties pursued divide-and-rule strategies based on culture-war issues and social resentments. The result: today’s two solitudes, eternally pitted against each other, while the real benefits of the society end up in ever fewer and fewer hands.

      So I would revise JHK’s basic diagnosis as follows: “Neither main political party, or their trains of experts, specialists, and mouthpieces, actually represents the needs, desires or interests of most of the American people.” I think this is both more accurate and more hopeful, since it points the way to a solution: the American people need to take back their government.

      • pequiste May 25, 2017 at 6:22 pm #

        The only way that could ever happen; American people taking back their government, at this juncture and beyond, is, sadly, by F.O.A.

  16. volodya May 25, 2017 at 10:53 am #

    They will get rid of Trump. Buffoon or no, he represents too much that threatens them. I mean, Trump can count on a “bombshell” revelation every time he opens his mouth, even in private, even with people he’s supposed to be able to trust. So who CAN he trust? It’s incredible that a heart-to-heart with high-ranking Russians gets spilled. And ludicrous.

    What cracks me up are the absurd story-lines that Blue State America swallows. Among them it’s considered a mark of elite sophistication to regard Russia and Iran as “enemies” of the US and, more hilariously, the Saudis as US “friends” and “allies”.

    Now, to people NOT ensconced in their echo-chamber, these are propositions that are preposterous on their face. Or this notion, that the American military is needed to defend Europe against the Russians.

    No, they can’t see how NATO expanding to Russian borders might be seen as a threat by the Russians. That their eyes do discos of incomprehension when they’re asked to put themselves in Russian shoes mocks their intellectual pretensions. Don’t ask them to do it because they can’t.

    To people living in American coastal Bubble-Lands, it’s just too mind-twisting to ask them to think about this: that even if the Russians threaten other European countries, that doesn’t necessarily and automatically make Russia an enemy of the US. The fact that European countries have more than enough men and resources to defend themselves is beyond Blue State ken, no matter the advanced degrees on their walls. They can’t fathom the notion that it’s nonsense that American men are obliged to accept a burden that European men refuse.

    Trump, the foreign policy neophyte, had the clearer take on things: NATO is obsolete. No, seriously, this isn’t 1946, Europeans are no longer starving, their countries are re-built, Germany is re-united, the Iron Curtain is down, the Berlin Wall is dismantled, Checkpoint Charlie is a tourist attraction.

    Imagine NATO as obsolete. It’s to imagine history getting out of a rut. It’s to imagine saluting those brave soldiers and turning the page. I’ll give Trump credit, he verbalized what is Thought-Crime to the US foreign policy establishment. Do they want Trump gone? Are you kidding?

    If Blue State people are nostalgic for the Cold War they should get together and have George Smiley movie nights. Have you seen those programs? Great stuff, the BBC opposite of James Bond, starring Alec Guinness and other luminaries. And, aside from one scene in a seedy German sex-club, no broads, no big explosions, just gritty depictions of neurotic and paranoid people grappling with the wily Soviets. And for some “atmosphere”, they can do what we did back then, light up pipes and cigars and cigs.

    And raise a glass (or two) to the old days. Prost!

    • thwack May 25, 2017 at 1:45 pm #

      “They will get rid of Trump. Buffoon or no, he represents too much that threatens them.”

      ******************

      Slo your roll bro.

      I think a lot of us must admit Trump’s bark is much worse than his bite.

      He seems to fold up like a cheap Walmart lawn chair when you check him?

      Even many of the racists are starting to get disappointed.

      Just sayin

      • malthuss May 25, 2017 at 3:33 pm #

        Hello, Thwack the Black.

        • thwack May 25, 2017 at 6:41 pm #

          Hello Malpuss who rides the short bus driven by the Chinese man.

          • malthuss May 25, 2017 at 9:31 pm #

            ? short bus? chinese?

          • thwack May 26, 2017 at 5:53 am #

            Your teeth?

  17. volodya May 25, 2017 at 11:21 am #

    Seeing as Russia occupies so much air-time, this is the first song I can remember, Midnight in Moscow. Chokes me up every time I listen but I listen anyway:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvUq3BwW4vo

    • pequiste May 25, 2017 at 6:27 pm #

      Absolutely a great Russian tune.

      Are you familiar with the Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen version?

      Sublime American southern Dixieland interpretation by an Englishman:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SD6qQWxMrM

  18. janet May 25, 2017 at 12:07 pm #

    “The economy is collapsing because it was based on cheap oil…” –JHK

    The economy may be based on energy, but oil is not the sole source of energy. Energy can come from oil, or natural gas, or hydropower, or wind, or coal, or nuclear, or solar, or geothermal, or a combination of any or all of those, or an energy source yet to be discovered.

    Just as people don’t see The Long Emergency, it is difficult to see The Green Transition. Here is an example: Australia’s “green fuel” exports — powered by wind and solar — could reach $40 billion a year in the next few decades, a market equivalent in size to the export coal industry, and essential if Australia is to maintain its pivotal position as a major fuel supplier in a decarbonised world.

    Hydrogen is also being pushed as an alternative to battery storage and pumped hydro to store “excess” wind and solar output in Australia, particularly in wind and solar rich South Australia, and is also seen as a potential transport alternative to electric vehicles as petrol-fueled internal combustion engines are phased out. Meanwhile, oil is more expensive as the low-hanging fruit has been picked.

    • Elrond Hubbard May 25, 2017 at 2:31 pm #

      Solar can already generate more energy than oil, says major scientific review

      https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/solar-is-already-producing-more-energy-than-oil-says-major-scientific-review-873d5f779f03

      If what the above article claims really holds true, then the energy transition away from fossil fuels is already locked in. The fossil fuel dinosaurs may try to use their current overwhelming political influence to keep the game going a while longer, but the smart money will already be starting to recognize that alternative energy will provide, if not increasing returns, then at least losses that are less overwhelming.

      From then on it’s a Darwinian process: things that can’t survive won’t survive, and whatever’s left over will, by definition, be providing a return that someone somewhere still finds worth their investment.

      • Elrond Hubbard May 25, 2017 at 3:02 pm #

        Then again, there’s this by the same writer:

        Brace for the oil, food and financial crash of 2018

        https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/brace-for-the-financial-crash-of-2018-b2f81f85686b

        “New scientific research suggests that the world faces an imminent oil crunch, which will trigger another financial crisis.

        “A report by HSBC shows that contrary to the commonplace narrative in the industry, even amidst the glut of unconventional oil and gas, the vast bulk of the world’s oil production has already peaked and is now in decline; while European government scientists show that the value of energy produced by oil has declined by half within just the first 15 years of the 21st century.

        “The upshot? Welcome to a new age of permanent economic recession driven by ongoing dependence on dirty, expensive, difficult oil… unless we choose a fundamentally different path.”

        This year, next year… Fun times are coming.

      • JimInFlorida May 25, 2017 at 4:46 pm #

        All well and good but, wind and solar are supporting power sources at best and regional as well. It is counterproductive to use wind and solar as centralized power generators. Solar and wind have to be part of a DISTRIBUTED GENERATION paradigm where power is primarily generated at the end user and with some limited supplementary co-generation by area solar and wind farms.

        While solar electric power generation can be scaled up on a per unit basis but, wind power cannot. Windmills DECREASE DRAMATICALLY in efficiency as they get bigger!

        The swept area of a single giant windmill would be more efficient if replaced by many smaller windmills within the same area. For the slow-turning, and poorly designed NASA mega-windmills,you MIGHT get 3% conversion. Those machines just prove that NASA isn’t the scientific standard that they used to be decades ago.

        Smaller windmill that turn much faster have a vastly greater efficiency. Stacking them in a matrix taking up the same space will yield much greater output.

        Solar and wind cannot replace oil, coal, or nuclear but, they can greatly reduce the need for those high-density power sources. The new paradigm cannot allow current grid-tied systems because such systems feed power back onto the grid and that makes it difficult to maintain stable voltages on the lines. What’s needed is a distributed system where the end-user generates his own power and connects to the grid only for a recharge. If every house and commercial property had its own local energy source and large lead-acid battery storage system, then the only time the system connects to the main grid will be to recharge the batteries.

        THAT way the main lines voltages are kept stable and the legacy on-demand generation/distribution paradigm can be reduced.

    • janet May 25, 2017 at 2:59 pm #

      Investors are increasingly turning away from fossil fuels. Prices for solar and wind power are falling sharply, and speeding the transition to green energy. Markets eat politics for breakfast, so the anticipated changes in US energy policy under the Trump administration won’t stop this trend.

      • DA May 25, 2017 at 10:53 pm #

        And blog commenters are increasingly turning away from the janet bot.

  19. volodya May 25, 2017 at 12:40 pm #

    About this disintegration, you may have noticed the so-called alt-right movement, if it can be called a movement, given its incoherence and disparate views, from the nationalist to the overtly racist, to mule-skinners like me who are horrified at what happened and grieving for a time when guys like my dad had a job.

    Anyway, this alt-right thing is the product of disintegration. Our betters at the apex can stand tall and superior and condemn it and us all they like, they can throw out insults, they can disparage our moral and intellectual and behavioral shortcomings, they can enlist the academies of the insane that masquerade as institutions of higher learning to re-write history to tell us the bygone good times never happened. This is pointless because we can see their game: this is all in aid of concealing their role in the collapse and their attempts to profit from it. Nobody’s fooled. So they might as well own up to what they’ve done.

    • ozone May 25, 2017 at 1:18 pm #

      V.,
      I agree that these “peculiarities” are a product of the Great Crumbling, but I’m having a bit of trouble imagining your last sentence.

      Although the tactic of lowered expectations has been employed to great effectiveness (in that we frogs haven’t any idea that we’re very near to being boiled to death), owning up to what they’ve done (and colluded with) would be ripping away the veil of anonymity and plausible denial — but I am glad to see that many are doing just that. Regardless of lowered expectations and a burgeoning sense of hopelessness in the general population, there still exists a spark of resentment and (as always) the quest for revenge. If I were one of the oligarchical ‘they’, I wouldn’t be poking my head out of the secure undisclosed location just yet! 😉

  20. volodya May 25, 2017 at 1:01 pm #

    There he goes, Obama as the mouthpiece of the Oligarchs. He disparages people ruined by the Globalist agenda. He sez there’s competing narratives of fear and xenophobia, that we can’t hide behind a wall blah blah blah.

    The usual swill. What he’s saying is that he supports the destruction of living wages via the importation of desperate and impoverished immigrants, legal and illegal alike, into western countries, and by the offshoring of industry to third world sweat shops where people get worked to death.

    He stands tall and superior just having scored 400 grand for a “speech”. But no, we’re not fooled, Obama’s trying to stay on the good side of Wall Street and the Davos people to score more big paydays. No, it’s not enough to have failed to prosecute Wall Street, he still has to go through these farcical speech-giving exercises, he has to debase himself more and cover himself with more disrepute and more dishonor before they’ll give him money. What people won’t do to make a buck.

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  21. Q. Shtik May 25, 2017 at 1:45 pm #

    This is a test.

    • thwack May 25, 2017 at 1:46 pm #

      If this had been an actual emergency…

      • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 2:08 pm #

        … your ass would be flying to the Moon at the Second Cosmic speed…

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity

        • thwack May 26, 2017 at 4:07 pm #

          A coon on the moon in June?

          Say it ain’t so

  22. Q. Shtik May 25, 2017 at 1:59 pm #

    Honors for sentence-part of the day (or perhaps the week) goes to “the result is a roaring wave of recursive objurgation and wrath that loops purposelessly towards gathering darkness.” Also, a special thanks to Jim for the above italicized addition to my vocabulary.

    I had no sooner mentally sounded out this word’s pronunciation than I was reminded of my last conversation over lunch with brother-in-law, Peter. A thought he was expressing contained the word regurgitate which he pronounced rejergagate…something Paulie Walnuts might have said. The field of linguistics has a name for this propensity (to ball-up pronunciations) that some people suffer from, but damned if I can remember what it is.

    From somewhere, I summoned an uncharacteristic level of restraint to stop myself from correcting him with an exasperated “Peter, it’s pronounced re-GUR-gi-tate.” Probably for the simple reason that I knew from long experience it would have zero impact and because Peter, frankly, does not give a shit. It is the not-giving-a-shit part that is MOST exasperating.

    Likewise, I refrained from mentioning the glop of mayo and tuna caught in his recently grown mustache. As I have mentioned before, Peter takes inordinately huge mouthfuls of whatever he is eating and invariably will get some on one or both cheeks, unawares, as if his cheek skin contained no nerve endings to detect it.

    • DA May 25, 2017 at 10:18 pm #

      Have you ever considered that someone you know, right in the middle of one of your many extended soliloquies about one of their many peccadilloes that irritate you so much might consider you clocking you over the head with whatever heavy object presented itself at the time?

      I hear you about totally the irritating minutiae of day to day life, and I too tire of them, even as I can’t help but focus on them, but especially in light of modern TV, I often catch myself wondering that if I just clocked the dipshit I’m listening to at any given moment, would they even know they were dead? BTW, where is that great American icon the ashtray when you really need it?

  23. FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 2:35 pm #

    Here are a few hints that are useful for understanding the main news about which I will write after them:

    1. Interrogation of Brennon by Trey Gowdy

    2. Barack Obama secretly met with Trump and it was him who was charged with laying out for Merkel’s terms of surrender and payment of indemnities and reparations for Hillary’s support.

    3. Trump presented the budget with which he wants to buy the loyalty of the American elites on the main issue – the issue of “war and peace”

    4. The US Army can not find more than $1 billion in weapons.

    5. Railgun, F-35 and combat laser are finally recognized as fraud.

    6. The goal of Trump’s meeting with the Pope is to show that he too can follow the protocol when he wants, but Ivanka and Melania wore veils not only because of the protocol requires it, but also to emphasize that they were NOT wearing Veils in Saudi Arabia accidentally.

    7. The huge amount of materials about the nuclear war that suddenly appeared in the American press is the answer to the article in the main organ of the Clintonoid headquarters “Foreign Policy”, and aims to scare Americans of this atomic war, which is constantly being provoked by the Clintonoids (= “party of war”). And NOT a conflict on the Korean peninsula.

    8. FOX seems to have finally taken the side of Trump and demands the resumption of the investigation of all sorts of crimes by Hillary Clinton, including political murders.

    9. Trump wants Flynn back in the White House.

    And now the main news:

    Britain is furious that the top secret information about the investigation of the Manchester attack, which British Intelligence has shared with the US intelligence, was leaked into the press, and Trump in reply says that those who leaked this information and those who published it (the New York Times) have previously eavesdropped on his talks and leaked them into the press in order to accuse him of cooperation with the Russian intelligence.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40029358

    • DA May 25, 2017 at 10:03 pm #

      Only fitting that they leaked it, since they almost certainly had a hand in planning it as well, don’t you think?

      By the way Finca, you should just stop with all this pro-Trump propaganda already. He’s a puppet being used to prop up what little “legitimacy” remains of a US Government that’s out of answers and out of options. BEWARE of what comes next!

  24. janet May 25, 2017 at 3:03 pm #

    Federal appeals court maintains freeze on Trump’s Muslim ban.

    Courts … 13
    Trump …. 0

    Somethin’ happenin’ here… but you don’t know what it is… Do You, Mr. Jones?

    • JimInFlorida May 25, 2017 at 3:23 pm #

      Tyranny of the Counter-Culture?
      Suicide of The West?

    • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 3:31 pm #

      that’s an oooooold nooze nobody could make any money on…

      wanna bet how the Supreme Court case turns out?

      • janet May 25, 2017 at 3:45 pm #

        “that’s an oooooold nooze…” –Finca

        Old in the sense that Trump loses, then loses again, then continues losing. The court ruled TODAY that Trump’s travel ban would remain blocked after Washington and Minnesota had challenged the ban.

        In the old nooze he said: “It’s a political decision, we’re going to see them in court, and I look forward to doing that … It’s a decision that we’ll win, in my opinion, very easily.” Then he lost again.

        The administration eventually came out with a different version of the travel ban. That one was also blocked, and a federal appeals court upheld it TODAY. Trump lost again.

        • thwack May 25, 2017 at 6:47 pm #

          Lets not go crazy Janet.

          we all know Trump is one major terrorist attack away from dissolving congress, sending you to Guantanamo and your cat to NIH.

          • DA May 25, 2017 at 9:36 pm #

            Go easy! “janet” only exists to oppose Trump and support her Queen.

  25. malthuss May 25, 2017 at 3:28 pm #

    Thanks to all of you.
    Tyranny of the Counter-Culture?–Its not a book, but sounds like one.

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  26. FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 3:39 pm #

    Manchester bombing: NY Times defends coverage as Trump calls leaks ‘deeply troubling’

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/25/manchester-bombing-theresa-may-to-confront-trump-on-investigation-leaks.html

    Trump: Got you, suckers!

  27. volodya May 25, 2017 at 3:40 pm #

    Ozone, that’s the thing with these guys isn’t it? JHK sez recursive objurgations and wrath, you say wrath and revenge, I say they can hardly conceive of such things happening to people as special as themselves. One in a billion they are. One in a BILLION? Oh dear, oh my, my obsequity knows no bounds, I meant TRILLION….

    Objurgations they give a shit about, especially from no-accounts like me. Assuming I could get a second’s worth of face-time with one of them, they’d take one look at my pants and they have the measure of the man, that is, I’m worth a barely mumbled “excuse me” as they shoulder their way past with their retinue of goons.

    Wrath? Pah. L’etat, c’est moi, said Louis Quatorze. And they all think they’re Louis Q. Actually, BETTER than Louis Q. They have BETTER food, BETTER booze, the silkiest whores that Louis couldn’t imagine. And they have the Pentagon and the FBI (as Comey most abundantly illustrated with respect to Hillary) and all the intelligence agencies at their collective disposal.

    And that’s the thing. While Louis could only dream of having such massive might at his finger-tips, Big Lou was the one and only, an absolute despot with nobody at the apex but him.

    That’s their weakness. While the Deplorables are many headed throng that can’t walk in a row, numbering in the tens of millions is their strength with irresistible momentum once they do start. And while the Oligarchs are a relative handful and so theoretically can more easily co-ordinate their actions, they constantly hear sycophants whisper in their ear, you are the ONE, Neo. Given their inborn egotism and narcissism, each one of them believes it, that he is the One. And that’s how they’ll go down.

    So far they’ve had their way but serious trouble hasn’t started. And while Trump and Le Pen and others are the harbingers, that’s all they are, signals and portents and omens. Angry crows, nothing more.

  28. FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 3:59 pm #

    4. The US Army can not find more than $1 billion in weapons == me

    for those who are still in the bunker that’s the weapons stashed by refugee-loving Clintonoids for incoming wave of ME militants through the gates left wide open by the decision of the 9th circuit court of appeals.

    kinda nice killing Americans with the weapons provided by US taxpayers.

  29. malthuss May 25, 2017 at 4:23 pm #

    This country has oil and the people are already in PANIC,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ove_aHOO3Tc

  30. janet May 25, 2017 at 6:54 pm #

    “This country has oil …” –malthuss

    For the moment. Putin wants the emergency strategic oil reserves to be sold, to weaken America, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Trump goes along with Putin in another act of collusion with Russia. Trey Gowdy’s effort to throw cold water on Trump-Russia collusion backfired spectacularly. Trump says Russia probe is a “witch hunt.” John Brennan says it’s anything but. There is now evidence of both the collusion and the coverup. Trump are staff are lawyering up. See what the deplorables have wrought?

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    • JimInFlorida May 25, 2017 at 8:25 pm #

      “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
      — H. L. Mencken

      For a time, we all thought it was George W Bush who fulfilled that prophecy. As Karma continues to unfold upon the land, the Cheeto-haired One puts “W” to shame.

      BTW, I voted for Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party and said so on CFN on Election Day.

      But, I digress. I shudder to think that I may end up agreeing with janet more and more on the narrow subject of Trump. Especially as his presidency continues to betray its supporters and inflict malicious acts upon what’s left of We Teh Serfs.

      • DA May 25, 2017 at 9:34 pm #

        GWB (aka Bush the Lesser) was a mere figure head and a rather transparent stand-in for our Dark Lord Cheney, who exercised power somewhat less than surreptitiously “behind the scenes.” His “brand” (aka, his family name) was always his primary appeal. Trump is of course similar, in that his name brand is of course instantly marketable, albeit for entirely different reasons.

        Once upon a time at least, the Bush brand stood for, if not actual competence, at least not downright malfeasance. Of course anyone in the know knew the truth of the matter: this was just a high class family of multi-generational mega-wealth and affluence who managed to hide their crimes in plain sight and defy anyone of lesser means to do anything about it. We of the plebeian classes had to admit a grudging respect for such soft-spoken audacity, especially since we were entirely powerless to stop it.

        Trump, on the other hand, is the bare-fisted reminder that even the hurly-burly working classes can play this game if they’re just persistent and lucky enough. His charade is almost entirely without substance and merit, and in truth, owes all of its rather meager marginal “success” to the even greater vapidity on the other side of the US political “aisle.” Trump’s by design legacy will be that of “be careful what you wish for.” Indeed! A pompous idiot playing at the job of being president!

        As for the janet bot and her/its foolish posturings of “if only Hillary,” one can of course go on and on torturing themselves with the infinite number of imagined possibilities that might have been, but never were for VERY GOOD REASONS!, or one can simply move on and try to anticipate what’s next. And unfortunately, none of the remaining options appear to be good either. That’s what happens to hegemonic empires who are out of ideas and options. They fail. First quietly, then spectacularly. And we’ve just completed the quiet stage.

    • malthuss May 25, 2017 at 9:13 pm #

      This country refers to Venezuela. Did you look?

      • janet May 25, 2017 at 9:44 pm #

        The warning at the beginning said it contained disturbing images and you should not look.

  31. pequiste May 25, 2017 at 6:57 pm #

    And just to think that Donald J. Trump is having a triumphant first-ever overseas tour. Who could think that the Deep State, Chuck Schumer, the Tisch organization and a cast of tens of millions would want him gone?

    I mean he went to the Wailing Wall in a yamika and everything – first sitting American president to do so. He has made Ivanka and Jared Kushner (slumlord extraordinaire,) AIPAC, Shmuely Boteach and the rest of “those” folks very, very happy. Bibi Netanyahu could scarcely hide his joy and exaltation during his welcoming remarks on the ramp at Ben Gurion airport.

    Adding to the festivities Yzlamik jihadis and other celebrant supporters in jolly old Englandistan had a blast at the Ariana Grande concert.

    Trump is going nowhere except to the WHite House, Trump Tower, MAr-a-Lago and anywhere else he damn pleases. He
    IS the president of the United States.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

    • thwack May 25, 2017 at 7:48 pm #

      Adding to the festivities Yzlamik jihadis and other celebrant supporters in jolly old Englandistan had a blast at the Ariana Grande concert.

      ***************

      Were is all the smart phone footage of the dead bodies and missing limbs?

      Links please or Im calling fake.

  32. Pucker May 25, 2017 at 7:57 pm #

    Whatever happened to The Anthony Weiner Laptop?

    • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 8:09 pm #

      That is a 20 trillion dollar question!

  33. FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 8:06 pm #

    Finca April 14, 2017 at 10:15 am:

    After China will fail to negotiate a settlement between US and N. Korea, Russia will be able to persuade Kim Jong-un to slow down his ballistic nuclear missile program.

    With very high probability – NO military action, mostly in support of President Trump domestic stability and integrity of the US, against out-of-control Neocon Media.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/7396/#comment-301065

    Bloomberg, May 18, 2017, 12:10 AM EDT

    The Key to North Korea Is Russia

    one of the biggest foreign policy problems for the U.S. — that of North Korea — cannot be resolved without Russia’s participation

    https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-18/the-key-to-north-korea-is-russia

    Not yet a 100% match, but close!

  34. tucsonspur May 25, 2017 at 8:10 pm #

    Wonderful again, Jim.

    “…and the result is a roaring wave of recursive objurgations and wrath…”

    Sounds like what my professor in a math class gave me.

    Who today could be a Roosevelt or a Lincoln? Pence? Hillary? Did Obama articulate the realities of our time? Of course not. The harsh truth is that currently any such “articulation” would mean political suicide, and would most likely be ineffective even if heard. The hand has been dealt, bets made and we’re going to showdown. It’s simply too late.

    So they get rid of Trump. “And then what?” Aye, there’s the flub. Yes, this Bashibazouk is certainly besieged, but is he in the “Siege Perilous”? Congress must straighten him up. The courts have blocked him again. He tries. He’s bad on the budget and stinks on the safety net. I pity the poor, if some of his proposals pass.

    If we should know anything today, it’s that we can’t have everything.
    I would like to meet the President called Prince of Priorities, Soothsayer of Satiation and Satisfaction.

    The rectrices of this nation’s Eagle are worn and tattered. What person could possibly guide this great bird through the acrobatics necessary for her long term survival? Tell me, please.

    • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 8:19 pm #

      So they get rid of Trump. “And then what?”

      No need to guess: Finca made a bet already:

      January 2, 2017 at 5:42 am:

      The chances of a rematch [of Clintonoids] in the US are virtually none. Some attempts of this will, in the form of mass protests, riots and even attempts at revolt, when Trump would start the implementation of his program, leading to the destruction of all infrastructure of the Black Project inside the US, but they will be quickly and brutally suppressed.

      And this is also my prediction (about the attempts, and about suppression). Generally in the first half of the year, until the situation finally settles down (isolationists without a doubt will bend over the globalists), it will be quite uncomfortable in the United States.

      Then the globalists will start singing the traditional song of the Russian liberals, “it’s time to get the hell out” And some will do it.

      http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/7396/#comment-301065

      • FincaInTheMountains May 25, 2017 at 8:22 pm #

        Didn’t anticipate that totally ridiculous and outrageous liberal Media hysteria – I was of better opinion of them.

        • DA May 25, 2017 at 8:57 pm #

          What? Finca “didn’t anticipate” something? Say it isn’t so!

          By the way you old scalawag, have you been watching this season of FX’s Fargo? It reminds me of you more and more every week.

    • DA May 25, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

      OK, tell me true. Did you had to look up the word “rectrices” up before using it here, or was that one of your “save for a special occasion” words? If not, my hat’s off to you. As are many of the nation’s rectrices, I’m sure.

      • tucsonspur May 26, 2017 at 1:29 am #

        Oh, so I got your attention. Great. I love to toss up words or bon mots like sweet candies or delicate flowers. I don’t do it enough. Thanks for the doff of the hat good man, (sotto voce) but I no longer confess to a priest and hardly ever to my wife.

    • Neon Vincent May 26, 2017 at 3:17 pm #

      As our host wrote: “Donald Trump could never be a Franklin Roosevelt or a Lincoln.”

      A Gray Champion for the Crisis straight out of Strauss and Howe? Steve Bannon may wish that role upon him, but you’re right, he can’t fill it. Instead, Trump’s performance looks like the worst traits of Warren Harding and Richard Nixon in one person (What about U.S. Grant? Sorry, Grant was a drunk while Trump is a teetotaler). That’s a combination destined for tragicomic distaster.

      “[T]he story assumes that our prime objective is to remain car-dependent at all costs — when one of the main features in the story of our future is the absolute end of car dependency and all its furnishings and accessories. We can’t imagine going there. (How would you, without a car?)”

      Even Detroit is starting to realize the folly of car dependency. Last month, the Detroit Free Press described How miscalculation, market trends doomed Palace of Auburn Hills. The article explained how suburbia is declining, not from Peak Oil, but from changes in tastes of the rising generation, which sees the decreasing viability of suburbia in competition with walkable downtown neighborhoods. As a result, all four major sports teams in the city will be in a three block area surrounded by a “20-minute neighborhood” full of shops and bars and served by a streetcar line. The New Urbanists should be thrilled!

  35. DA May 25, 2017 at 8:41 pm #

    Damn! The Jim blog’s alive and functional again! Glad to hear all you turds out there commenting again! 🙂

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  36. malthuss May 25, 2017 at 9:30 pm #

    US grant to promote ‘positive narratives’ about EU immigration flood
    The US embassy in Belgium has granted a group $200,000 to promote “positive narratives” about migrants flooding into Europe.
    The aim is to use digital platforms to help Europeans integrate Muslims, by producing a “counter narrative, preventative outreach, and capacity building”. A document outlining the grant defines “counter narrative” as alternatives to extremism an violence: “Dispel the narratives of extremist groups that incite violence and provide alternative narratives. Provide positive narratives concerning refugees and immigrant populations.”

    http://freewestmedia.com/2017/05/22/us-grant-to-promote-positive-narratives-about-eu-immigration-flood/

  37. janet May 25, 2017 at 9:50 pm #

    Following a series of meetings between OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Vienna Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s energy and oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih announced that all members will do “whatever is necessary to balance the markets,” even if that means further extending cuts in oil output past March 2018. Do You, Mr. Jones…? The world is so awash with energy that oil production is being cut.

    • DA May 25, 2017 at 11:15 pm #

      With any luck at all, we’ll all be bathing in crude before you know it! Thanks janbot! Think I’ll buy me a Hellcat this weekend!

  38. DA May 25, 2017 at 11:07 pm #

    Sounds like we need to have a Finca v janet, mano a femme, bot v bot, or whatever v whatever showdown for the unofficial title of “Clusterfuck Spam Bot of the World,” or whatever. My money’s on Finca at this point, if only because he’s at least semi-original. janet’s little more than a pseudo-cloistered femme bot put up to regurgitate Demme/femme Hillary agitprop ad nauseum, while Finca’s at least… what’s the word I’m searching for here… moderately entertaining at least.

    • thwack May 26, 2017 at 11:50 pm #

      My money is always on Godzilla because he’s part of the quadtrinity:

      God the father

      God the son

      God the holy ghost

      and God the Zilla

  39. Pucker May 26, 2017 at 1:32 am #

    The US Presidential Candidate debates were reminiscent of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethons trying to raise money for the pitiful physically and mentally challenged kids hobbling with contorted facial expressions (but trying to smile) across the stage.

  40. FincaInTheMountains May 26, 2017 at 5:14 am #

    2. Barack Obama secretly met with Trump and it was him who was charged with laying out for Merkel’s terms of surrender and payment of indemnities and reparations for Hillary’s support.

    Trump – Obama team pulls a Bad Cop – Good Cop routine on Merkel:

    Barack Obama Throws Shade At Donald Trump: ‘We Can’t Hide Behind The Wall’

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-trump-wall-refugees_us_5926a539e4b061d8f81f6ebf

    No matter what we talk about for the press, but you, Madam Gruppenführer, need to pay up!

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  41. FincaInTheMountains May 26, 2017 at 5:46 am #

    NY Times finally caught with their pants down!

    Manchester attack: Ex-CIA officer says publication of leaked pics ‘goes too far’

    Former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright told Fox News Thursday night that the publication of leaked forensic photos by the New York Times after Monday’s terror attack in Manchester, England was “deeply disturbing” and “not in the interest of the nation.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/25/manchester-attack-ex-cia-officer-says-publication-leaked-pics-goes-too-far.html

    I am starting to think that it was a joint British-American operation against the Fifth Column of the Fourth Reich (the Nazi sympathizers) in American Intelligence community. With high degree of certainty the “leaked” pics were “marked” to identify the traitors.

    • thwack May 26, 2017 at 9:47 am #

      The best way to get your faked photos accepted as real is to “leak” them. That way, people think they “found” something valuable.

      Just sayin

  42. venuspluto67 May 26, 2017 at 9:03 am #

    And then what? This country will eat itself, that’s what.

  43. FincaInTheMountains May 26, 2017 at 9:05 am #

    Very interesting!

    Animation of European map in time from 1000 AD to present:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LfdXoL3Xck

  44. FincaInTheMountains May 26, 2017 at 12:43 pm #

    The first salvo of the American financial war against China

    On the night of May 24, the rating agency Moody downgraded China’s sovereign rating from AA3 to A1, and this was the first decline in the sovereign rating of the PRC since 1989, when the Western world was “concerned” about the events in Tiananmen Square.

    This is at least a financial diversionary operation, and as a maximum – the first volley of the American financial war against China.

    The fact is that for a long time, Western rating agencies have performed a political rather than a commercial role. Attempts to find objectivity in their actions can cause only a smile. Unfortunately, the decrease in the credit rating is not only a propaganda weapon, but also a very serious tool of economic impact on geopolitical opponents.

    The mechanism of this impact works because the vast majority of private and public investment funds, as well as a significant number of large corporations are guided by the ratings when making decisions about investing in a particular country.

    Every drop in the rating instantly cuts off a certain part of international investors from the economy of a particular country, and also forces some of those who have already invested into the country to immediately sell their holdings. If the number of such fugitive investors exceeds a certain critical level, then the market of shares and bonds of the affected country collapses along with its national currency.

    The media giants such as Bloomberg, Reuters and The New York Times joined the campaign to create panic about the prospects for the Chinese economy, which started synchronously bombarding the audience with analytical materials on the “debt bomb”, laid under the foundation of Chinese economic growth.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-rating-idUSKBN18M06Z

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/moodys-downgrades-china-economy-debt.html?_r=0

    Specific contours and planetary scope of the Chinese globalization project “One belt – one way” and a recent summit on this topic in Beijing provoked in Washington mixture of fear and irritation that could well lead to the desire to subvert Chinese ambitions.

    Moody’s attack on China surprisingly coincided with a statement by the director of the budget department of the White House, Mick Mulvaney, who admitted that tax revenues to the US budget began to decline and that the US federal budget may well be without money faster than previously thought.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/24/trump-administration-warns-tax-receipts-are-coming-in-slowly-government-could-run-out-of-cash-sooner-than-expected/

    This means that the US debt ceiling will have to be raised again, and it will have to be done earlier than planned. In these conditions, the influx of “scared money”, running from China, will be just in time for Washington.

  45. wm5135 May 26, 2017 at 2:38 pm #

    Finc,
    As you describe the ratings game, let us remember Moody had rated quite a bit of the subprime mortgages in 2006 as A and above,the plan you describe would work like a charm. The best weapon against the plan would be to declare that all debts would be settled in renminbi. Smile graciously and propose that creditors let the value of the currency to slide as far as they wished. Then offer as an aside that it would be interesting to see any attempt at repossesion of assets. Perhaps a good belly laugh and mention that 6mm is different from 6 inches!

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  46. FincaInTheMountains May 26, 2017 at 3:49 pm #

    “Trump disbanded NATO!” – complain Clintonoids

    “It is Obama who has allowed NATO to run amok!” – answers them Trump.

    They are provoking the war, and not only that the Americans will have to defend them, but the cost of defense with all its weight fall on the American taxpayer!

    Trump:
    No, fluffy Euro-rabbits – first you pay the money you owe, and then you get your Article 5!

    And beside, my daughter is Jewish, and her husband is a second-generation Jewish anti-Nazi guerilla fighter from Belarus. We will arrange such Belarus in your friggin Reich that Operation Bagration will appear to you sweeter than honey

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration

    This Trump says, and I want to remind those who laughed at me 5 years ago when I said that Western Europe is the traditional enemy of Russia, and America is a friend.

    And I already knew then that Germany is just pretending to be fluffy white, and she herself is constantly stirring up her people within the US. And when America elected a President who wanted to establish relations with Russia, Germany behaved with America as with a colony in revolt, not Britain, but the Fourth Reich.

    And now Trump monetizes his and American grievances, and the requirement to contribute to NATO’s common pot money for weapons is precisely the indemnity imposed by Trump for participation.

    But “enormously” rich Russia does not even think to use the Ukrainian insurrection, triggered by the Euro-plan of Angela Merkel, for denouncing the Gorbachev treaty with Kohl to renounce claims for reparations for the World War II.

    And insolent Germany after the USSR allowed it to unite for free, now impose sanctions on Russia for unification with the Crimea!

  47. saharasergei May 26, 2017 at 4:21 pm #

    Donald Trump is Franklin Pierce AND James Buchanan.

    • thwack May 26, 2017 at 7:13 pm #

      AND the white Marion Barry

  48. KesaAnna May 27, 2017 at 10:11 pm #

    I think a better example than electric cars of how lost your country is , is this business of describing FDR and Lincoln as great leaders.

    I’ll skip explaining how writing the American Civil War and WW II into happy endings is such a ludicrous narrative it should embarrass a dumb 13 year old.

    Instead I’ll merely point out that these two guys symbolize how two party rule in your vast union really hasn’t turned out any better than one party rule in Imperial Russia.

  49. thwack May 27, 2017 at 10:47 pm #

    Jordan Peterson drops hammer on contemporary liberal arts

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGkQil14LPQ

    • thwack May 28, 2017 at 6:20 am #

      He better watch out or he’s gonna end up with a cup of hemlock in his hand.

      Just sayin.

  50. thwack May 30, 2017 at 10:03 am #

    This morning I saw a Greyhound that wasn’t grey?

    Am I dead?

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  51. thwack May 31, 2017 at 11:33 am #

    Did I win the election or something?

    Hello?

    Hello?

    is this thing on?

    Is this white flight?

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