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In case you’re worked up about the looming federal government shut-down, this is exactly how we’re supposed to roll in the long emergency: everything organized at the gigantic scale is going to wobble and fail. It’s nature’s way of saying, “get smaller, get realer, scale down, and get local.” The catch is, we probably won’t listen to nature. Instead, we’ll just behave like bystanders and do nothing until the full force of failure is upon us, just as we’re doing with climate change — the tragedy of the commons at planetary scale.

The failure of national party politics is deep and systemic, as you would expect from activities nurtured in a shit-hole called Washington, corruption being the manifestation of sepsis. The lethal vector of this illness is money. There’s the money flowing into the “campaign funds” (so-called) of congressmen and senators, of course, but there’s also the “money” that is flowing in and out of the leviathan government — a whole lot of it is not really there. It’s a figment of promises to pay back loans on top of a monumental heap of past promises that will never be kept. The threatened government shutdown is just a symptom of the illness: a society doing things out of scale, trying to run its excessive activities by check-kiting and accounting fraud. What could go wrong?

Not the stock and bond markets, I’m sure. Though… wait a minute… that hockey-stick surge in equities looks a little bit like the action of a thermometer measuring the rising body temperature of a very sick patient. From 25,000 to 26,000 on the Dow — in what? seven days? — is kind of like the flu victim going from 98.6 to 105 after onset. And we know what happens to humans up around the 105 Fahrenheit body temperature level: the brain starts to sputter and smoke. Soon, it’s lights out and don’t let your karma smack you on the butt going through the exit.

Will a government shut-down be the final insult to the matrix of extreme fragility that holds itself together on little more than inertia and faith? (Oh, you’ll get paid back… don’t worry.) The hubris around this delusional state of affairs seeped over the swampy Washington landscape this week like one of those malaria-laden miasmas of old. The president crowed about the lowest unemployment in decades and the lobotomized media just swallowed it like a wad of masticated pepperoni. Nobody notices the roughly 100 million adults out of the work-force. Do they even figure into the statistical picture? Lowest black and Hispanic unemployment ever. You’re kidding, right? Well, we make our own reality. Karl Rove and Oprah agree on that.

I had a lot of fun last night, after the Thursday evening fiddle jam, clicking back and forth between CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. Anderson Cooper was trying — with flagging conviction — to sell another “Trump Dossier” story. Over at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow was in full snide fulmination mode about Russians infiltrating the NRA to get to Trump. Rachel’s clarion call, “we now know,” is beginning to sound like Senator Joseph McCarthy’s battle cry, “I have in my hand a list of fifty-three communists…!” On Fox, Sean Hannity almost busted a cerebral blood vessel over the unspooling shenanigans in the top ranks of the FBI-DOJ. With each click of the remote control I felt like I was arriving and departing different planets.

Expect the turmoil to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. The Mueller investigation is festering into a constitutional crisis. The bond market is having a heart attack with the Ten-Year shooting above the 2.6 percent interest rate line. The dollar is flirting with a sub-90 DXY hashmark. Risk has supposedly been banished — only to come screaming out of the attic like Norman Bates’s mother at the last moment, slashing your misplaced confidence to shreds.


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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.

335 Responses to “Fever Pitch”

  1. venuspluto67 January 19, 2018 at 9:50 am #

    Purple prose at its most violaceous. 🙂

    We’ve been waiting for that other shoe to drop for so long, it’s difficult not to take any new predictions of an imminent {thud} with a grain of salt. Of course, one of these times, somebody’s prediction will be right. Until then, life shuffles on!

    • FallenHero January 19, 2018 at 11:37 am #

      The DOW/DJIA is looking a lot like the bitcoin price as of late before the recent crash. But…crypto is already starting to recover, will be very interesting to see what happens when ‘real’ stocks either explode or get to 100k and totally disjoined from reality.

  2. hmuller January 19, 2018 at 9:50 am #

    The federal government shutting down and never opening again – we should be so lucky!

    • Walter B January 19, 2018 at 10:04 am #

      It is not like they are functional anymore anyway, unless you count lining their own pockets at taxpayer’s expense. And they no don’t need to open the government buildings in order to do that, do they?

      • ricksinger January 19, 2018 at 7:16 pm #

        In case you haven’t noticed, there has been quite a show on C-span and other media. A dozen or so Dems take the podium to pledge not to accept their salary during the shutdown. Why pretend that the poor government workers who are being furloughed will be suffering. During all previous government shut down the CR or the final budget includes their back-pay.

        So we taxpayers are left holding the bag as usual. I’m happy for the federal workers. They will receive a bonus another week or two of paid vacation. Little known fact: Those who were on annual leave or sick leave will have those days restored to their ledger.

    • pequiste January 19, 2018 at 10:30 am #

      There is no way on God’s little, extremely-polluted, Human-corrupted and over-populated, plasticised and sewaged, radio frequency suffused orb, that Mitch, Chuck, Paul, Nancy and the whole gang over at Baghdad-on-the-Potomac will jeopardize their gravy train (under any circumstance.)

      They settle the “tense” budget issue with just another continuing resolution so everyone from Capitol Hill, and every other gubbermint building, law office, consultancy and lobbying firm or embassy, can go out to relax after all the stress of a busy work week to the Hay-Adams or the Jefferson for Friday evening cocktails.

      In Celebrity Perv (TM) news; this week’s contestant, even tho’ married to one astonishingly beautiful woman – Catherine Zeta-Jones, is non-other than Michael Douglas.

      https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/michael-douglas-alleged-harassment-media-metoo-moment-1075609

      • dplainview January 19, 2018 at 11:04 am #

        Caitlin Jenner claims Bruce fondled her for sixty years.
        Seeks protective order in case he comes back

      • outsider January 19, 2018 at 12:09 pm #

        I understand that Michael Douglas did admit to sex addiction, but I thought that was before he met his much younger beautiful wife. Zeta-Jones, and before he got old.

  3. Ron Anselmo January 19, 2018 at 9:54 am #

    Jim,

    One of your best. Thanks.

    Ron

  4. ccm989 January 19, 2018 at 9:55 am #

    I will accept whatever the outcome of Bob Mueller’s investigation. I want the truth about Trump and his administration. Mueller seems like a fellow who dots his “i”s and crosses his “t”s — a real Boy Scout. Lots of people call the whole Trump scandal a nothing burger. Don’t see how that makes any sense — after all, there have been 4 indictments already. More are rumored to be coming.

    And then there’s all the sex scandals going on. Not in the least surprised by Trump’s continuing adultery — but the hush $$$$ that may have been paid from the GOP’s campaign funds — whoa — that’s criminal. Plain and simple. And if the FBI proves that the NRA was involved in laundering funds, I believe most people will stop donating to them out of disgust. And without donations the NRA is kaput.

    All of this is because Putin wanted to put Trump in to screw up our country. The irony is now that we are forced to examine our government and cut out the rotten parts, we will be left with a cleaner, less corrupt government. So the jokes on Putin. And life goes on.

    • Ron Anselmo January 19, 2018 at 10:17 am #

      How do you cut out the rotten parts, when it’s rotten to the core?

    • Jigplate January 19, 2018 at 10:24 am #

      The problem with Mueller’s investigation is mission creep. so far , the indictments have very little to do with “collusion”, and more to do with normal swamp shenanigans. Two things come to mind when looking at the activities of the special council – “Show me the man , and i’ll find you the crime” , as well as the fact that we all commit 3 felonies a day. Can you imagine the uproar from the press if Mueller ended his investigation with no indictments ? It was a forgone conclusion that they would charge someone. But I doubt in the end that it will be about collusion- Russian or otherwise.

    • outsider January 19, 2018 at 12:31 pm #

      This Mueller investigation is sick-making. Trump’s campaign promise of seeking better relations with Russia was an existential threat to the Military Industrial Complex, so it needed to be nipped in the bud. It’s nothing but a high-priced scam, and the media puppets like Rachel Maddow, who keep selling it, have lost all credibility in my eyes. Trump was never given a chance, and this country is all the poorer for it.

    • hmuller January 19, 2018 at 3:29 pm #

      CCM, it appears you not only watch the mainstream media, you believe them. But how much of a big, bad, bogeymen can Putin be when your ideological soulmates in the Obama administration trusted him enough to sell him 20% of North American uranium production?

      How terrible can the Russians be if Bill Clinton took half a million dollars from a Russian bank for one little luncheon speech? Some people not brain dead from watching CNN would recognize that as a bribe.

      Yes, indictments are coming, just not the people you’re expecting. Tell Hillary ‘orange is the new black’ and who cares if it makes her hips and thighs look supersized.

      • Ron Anselmo January 19, 2018 at 4:26 pm #

        hmuller, nice.

      • ccm989 January 21, 2018 at 11:59 am #

        You need to get better news sources than tired old FOX — Hillary sold uranium — disproven 100% a bunch of times — https://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-uranium-russia-deal/

        • hmuller January 21, 2018 at 7:16 pm #

          Oh yes, Snopes, the CIA funded disinformation site where prostitutes work as fact checkers. http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/21/snopes-co-founder-accused-of-embezzling-company-money-spending-it-on-prostitutes/

          “The founder of myth busting website Snopes, which was recently tapped by Facebook as one of four “fact-check” organizations patrolling the site for “fake news,” embezzled $98,000 in company funds before spending it on “himself and the prostitutes he hired,” according to legal documents filed by his ex-wife reviewed by the Daily Mail.

          After divorcing from his first wife, Barbara Mikkelson, David Mikkelson married Elyssa Young, a former porn star and current escort who now works for Snopes as an administrator, according to the Daily Mail.”

          CCM, Uranium One is real, Pedogate is real, Clinton Fund corruption is real. Your understanding of the world is going to change so hard in the near future, you may need to be institutionalized. It’s not your fault, you’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid they force fed us all our lives. Embrace the winds of truth and freedom.

      • cbeard January 21, 2018 at 7:20 pm #

        There will be no indictments. Just business as usual.

    • The Articulate Infant January 19, 2018 at 11:57 pm #

      Janet? That you?

  5. Hands4u January 19, 2018 at 10:03 am #

    “Life is like a box of chocolates” Nothing like the media getting all frothy; unfortunately there isn’t a lot of flavor in the froth. Just a lot of “colored” air to get us excited about we’re about to drink. I wonder if it were stirred up for long enough there would only be the “froth”. Keep stirring Jim!

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  6. FincaInTheMountains January 19, 2018 at 10:10 am #

    The Mueller investigation is festering into a constitutional crisis.

    Finca:

    The joke is stale. Distraction’s what I want, so find me some.

    What’s that white spot on the water?

    Scratch:

    A Spanish three-master, clearing the sound,
    Fully laden, Holland-bound;
    Three hundred sordid souls aboard her,
    Two Flying Monkeys, chests of gold, a lot
    Of fine expensive chocolate,
    And a fashionable malady
    Bestowed on your kind recently.

    Finca:

    Sink it.

    Scratch:

    Right away. (Disappears)

    • Ol' Scratch January 19, 2018 at 11:54 am #

      Typically cryptic. But since it’s you, I’ll allow sympathy points for effort.

  7. JohnAZ January 19, 2018 at 10:20 am #

    The same stories spin out in the media in so many different tacks. The difference between the media sites is amazing. The sites employ large groups of people to pull their slant on every event and only their viewpoint. The bias is appalling. One tries to blame the Russians for casting dispersion on the American scene, These idiots in the media need no help in trying to tear apart the US. Somewhere there is a group of folks manipulating the media in the US and therefore the public opinion base. The persona of Trump has been totally manipulated by the media, JHK,’s adventure with flipping channels is a good indicator. I wonder if the source of this has a name of Soros, Murdoch, or Rothschild rather than a Russian surname.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 19, 2018 at 10:22 am #

      <i.Somewhere there is a group of folks manipulating the media in the US and therefore the public opinion base.

      Yep. It’s called CIA Mockingbird division.

      • Walter B January 19, 2018 at 1:26 pm #

        Yes the so called media is not only manipulated, they are entirely owned and told what to say and not to say. The saddest part of it all however is that the American people WANT to be lied to. They WANT to be deceived so that they can go back to doing whatever it was they were doing before they were interrupted. Charles DeGaulle, the despised French president put it succinctly after he was told about the assassination of JFK and openly stated that he was convinced that Jack had fallen victim to the same forces that had tried repeatedly to kill him (Dulles/CIA). He said…

        “America is in danger of upheavals. But you’ll see. All of them together will observe the law of silence. They will close ranks. They’ll do everything to stifle scandal. They will throw Noah’s Cloak over these shameful deeds. In order to not lose face in front of the whole world. In order to not risk unleashing riots in the United States. In order to preserve the union and to avoid a new civil war. In order to not ask themselves questions. They don’t want to know. They don’t want to find out. They won’t allow themselves to find out.”

        America can never admit that the murdering scum that have ruled this world since the end of WWII and have kept us all Fat & Happy are as evil and as murderous as they really are or we would be held accountable for allowing it. No. not allowing it, WANTING them to continue doing it. It is scary and sickening all at the same time and I have a very bad feeling that it will NOT end well.

        .

        • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 1:58 pm #

          Quite so. The still living Citizens of Dresden ran for the lake in the middle of the City to escape the fire storm that was liquefying the pavement. Seeing this, RAF fighter bombers flew low and strafed them. Utterly demonic.

          • thwack January 19, 2018 at 2:59 pm #

            there are no civilians in a race war.

            Just sayin

        • hmuller January 20, 2018 at 12:32 am #

          Walter, I hear you. For example: I think a lot of people sense there’s something “not quite right” in the 9-11 story we’ve been told. But they’re afraid to open that Pandora’s box by researching it or even asking any questions.

          But the time for hypocrisy and pretending is ending, and the wall of denial is crumbling. It doesn’t require everyone. When 3% have awoken a roar arises across the land; when 10% have awoken the Walls of Jericho will shatter and crumble.

          • Walter B January 20, 2018 at 6:32 pm #

            I must say hmuller, that I am running into more and more people that ARE aware of more than we are wise to know and understand that what is and has been being done to elevate our lifestyle so far above the norm. It actually costs people in other places dearly and has negative side effects, like mass, uncontrolled immigration from South and Central America for instance. Once you understand what our government and especially the shadow government has done for decades to these countries to keep the peasants mired in slave labor existences as fruit and vegetable pickers, for example, you really have to question the morality of what has been done in the name of profit. I just explained to my young daughter yesterday when she asked where the banana she was eating came from being that it was in January and all. I left out the details of how United Fruit was able to retain it’s monopoly on production there through the work by Allen Dulles and the CIA and how many political leaders in Guatemala had to be murdered to keep 90% the countries land owned by the mega fruit company and keep profits flowing. In fact, when you study the US “foreign policy” in South and Central America it all makes sense that the populations are all migrating to America, they are just following the food chain they produce and send here. It actually makes more sense than staying in the squalor that they left behind. Perhaps if the systems they were born into had more rewards, they would prefer to stay there, no?.

  8. Paulo January 19, 2018 at 10:23 am #

    Well said, JHK.

    I had a chuckle looking at the images of Stormy Daniels, yesterday. Of course, most billionaires just pay $130,000 to an aging/sagging porn star via a hidden ltd company through a personal lawyer….in the dying days of a Presidential campaign (no less), just for the hell of it. Just because, but nothing here, folks. Whew. And now the Govt is shutting down for a bit and a trip to Mar a Lago had to be cancelled. Ygads…no fricking Golf this weekend! My God, the horror. Meanwhile, as you pointed out, the Govt just borrows more money to paper over the holes in the living room wall, while Trump asks for more money for his Wall.

    If this isn’t a segue into some kind of corruption-based collapse, then what is it? It’s beyond crazy. It has to be a symptom of collapse. There really is no other explanation.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:00 pm #

      Trump could get a lot better for a lot less or gratis, any day of the week, day or night, 24/7, for the last fifty years at least.

      • daveed January 19, 2018 at 7:53 pm #

        Right. Whatever. Remind me why we’re wasting electrons on this (?). Check, please.

  9. mdl17576 January 19, 2018 at 10:26 am #

    I don’t pay much attention to macro events at this point. I prefer investing my time into obtaining or developing things of real, tangible value. I’m buying a little PM while it’s still on sale. My big project this year is converting two acres on some family property from a field left to plant succession for 20 years into a mixed fruit (accumulating some disease resistant rootstock and Scion varieties) and nut orchard. I also planted a bunch of ginseng seed in the woods, so that when the dollar falls there will be something the Chinese value highly we can exchange for the currency of the new hegemony. It’ll take 3 to 5 years to start seeing a payback. What’s the ROI on food production when the system breaks and most people don’t have any?

    • Hands4u January 19, 2018 at 11:09 am #

      Watch for fungus that has been sitting dormant in the soil. It will greatly reduce your output until your stock come into maturity and the multiple factors of the environment you’re planting them in.

      • mdl17576 January 19, 2018 at 11:27 am #

        This year I got my hands on some Geneva 890 rootstocks for apple. They are supposed to be resistant to replant disease, fireblight, phytophthora and apple aphid. I’m going to bench graft some varities also bred for disease resistance on to them, such as Enterprise, Freedom, Liberty and Gold Rush.

        • Ron Anselmo January 19, 2018 at 2:12 pm #

          Look into the product line of Eden Solutions. For robust yield, pest resistance, organic composition, you’ll be glad you did. Amazing supplements.

          http://www.edenbluegold.com

    • elysianfield January 19, 2018 at 11:55 am #

      ” My big project this year is converting two acres on some family property from a field left to plant succession for 20 years into a mixed fruit (accumulating some disease resistant rootstock and Scion varieties) and nut orchard.”

      MDL,
      You do know that the best time to plant fruit and nut trees was…20 years ago.

      The ROI? Peace of mind.

      • mdl17576 January 19, 2018 at 12:28 pm #

        I do indeed. The second best time is now.

    • Eoin January 19, 2018 at 12:16 pm #

      What’s the ROI on food production when the system breaks and most people don’t have any?

      @mdl17576

      Try the following formula long known for its intrinsic tangible value
      :
      60 thousand postal workers X 3500 meter readers+ 250 million expendable integrated community workers divided by the seasonally adjusted population of Washington D.C..
      Did you remember to carry the bum ? Good!

      Consider the possibility that the “Macro Events”, that you seem to take such fashionable pride in ignoring, will loot your garden and eat you and your family.

      Good luck with the ginseng.

      • mdl17576 January 19, 2018 at 12:33 pm #

        Events beyond my control could definitely bring my work to nought. However, I need to do something between now and the day I croak, and growing stuff holds more appeal than Netflix.

        • thwack January 19, 2018 at 12:40 pm #

          where if anywhere in the U.S will opium poppies grow?

          And how difficult is it?

          I mean, do I hafta first convert to Islam or something?

          • ozone January 19, 2018 at 12:45 pm #

            In order to grow anything, the first order of business is getting off one’s ass….

          • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:03 pm #

            It might be illegal. Call the Police Chief and ask him. Don’t forget to carry sugar cubes for the Police Horse.

          • aibohphobia January 19, 2018 at 7:59 pm #

            Sorry Thwack, Janos is right, it is illegal to grow opium poppies anywhere in North America, though it probably would grow anywhere that other varieties of poppy will grow.
            Poppy fields have developed a clever strategy for fertilizing themselves. If an animal or human wanders in and the wind is not blowing, the fumes will put them to sleep and shut down the respiratory centre of the brain. Dead people and animals make great fertilizer for poppies…

            And while we are talking, don’t even think about growing coca bushes– Besides being illegal, the coca bush is actually the same plant as a differently-named giant Amazon Jungle tree with poison sap, which is used by the locals down there for poison darts. Somewhere in prehistorical times, someone must have moved to the mountains and taken seeds with him for poison darts. In the mountain climate the poison tree still grows, but it is a sickly bush that produces cocaine, a somewhat less deadly poison. People who have gone to the trouble of trying to grow coca bushes in their grow rooms are, if successful, usually found dead after sampling their first batch.
            There are 16 chiral centres in the cocaine molecule (sort of like 16 options for the molecule to be left-handed or right-handed at that spot). Only one combination of the approximately 65000 variations of this molecule does not usually kill you immediately. That’s the one we call cocaine.

          • jloughrey January 19, 2018 at 11:51 pm #

            I grow opium poppies every year; they are not illegal as long as they are grown in small quantities as ornamentals. It takes a lot of poppies to make even a small quantity of opium, so unless you’re growing fields of them, it’s not a problem. It won’t yield you any opium, though.

          • elysianfield January 20, 2018 at 6:35 pm #

            Janos/Thwack

            Growing opium poppies is, indeed illegal…a felony. It is a fact that they are grown along the pacific Coast and inland in Oregon.

        • ozone January 19, 2018 at 12:44 pm #

          mdl,
          Thanks for the updates and specifics. Don’t forget, you may be doing a large favor for future occupants of your patch after the croak-age… so there’s *that*! Be well and a productive new year to you.
          (Myself, I’m just experimenting with gnarly local plants that will grow in the gnarly local “soil” with minimal amendments.)

          • mdl17576 January 19, 2018 at 1:04 pm #

            Thanks, I wish you luck with your experiments.

          • aibohphobia January 20, 2018 at 2:50 pm #

            @jloughrey,
            Those probably aren’t opium poppies– Real opium poppies grow to about 3 to 4 feet with a flower slightly bigger than your palm. I can just about guarantee that you have never seen one in North America. The ornamental varieties are perfectly legal, much smaller, and not deadly even in large monoculture fields.

        • daveed January 19, 2018 at 7:57 pm #

          I salute you, mdl17576. Keep on keepin’ on! I have two 5 gal. peach rootstock trees. I don’t know what to do with them.

      • Doc Holliday January 21, 2018 at 1:34 am #

        Why does this formula sound as if it was created by Firesign Theatre??

  10. TiredOfTheTreadmill January 19, 2018 at 10:29 am #

    I am watching and waiting for the big shut down, although I am doubtful it will happen.

    The big government expenditure I am watching in all of it is the military. Wondering how well it will go if those paychecks get held up. I live around military families and the wives of the enlisted men know about every possible teat of money they can milk for a few bucks. It will be interesting to see how the social order is affected when these entitlements run dry. From what I gather, most would move back to their home state, heavy represented by southern states, if they can afford it. For it seems many of these military families burn through money like a wildfire with new cars, electro gizmos, and all the other consumerist trappings of McMansion ‘Murka. It may be like a reverse Sherman’s March as hoards of former military march back to their home state shitholes, taking what they need along the way. Or maybe not. Just watching and wondering.

    It’s a fun exercise, but I am doubtful of a shut down, let alone non-payment to the Pentagon mafia. The crew of idiots in government aren’t that bright, but even they know you don’t cheat the mafia out of their protection racket money.

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    • shotho January 19, 2018 at 10:46 am #

      And while we’re at it, let’s not forget the legions of social workers and community organizers that infest a vast bureaucracy of waste and corruption, rendering half the population inert and restless. On the one hand, you have the welfare state and, on the other, the warfare state; all of which equals one vast state that crushes the spirit of the people who would still like to be responsible and productive.

      • TiredOfTheTreadmill January 19, 2018 at 10:52 am #

        It is across the board. Ag subsidies, road repair crews, wildfire suppression, lock managers along riverways, air traffic controllers, DEA, coast guard, border patrol, wall builders, etc…

        Lots of busybodies with idle time on their hands. It should be interesting.

        • Hands4u January 19, 2018 at 11:02 am #

          Personally, I work as a part of the “welfare state” which benefits the rich, middle income and poor. Paying bills and having a stable household are important to me. Just like (I assume) doing the best we can with what we’ve got.

          • Hands4u January 19, 2018 at 11:03 am #

            Miss stated- Just like “You” (I assume)…

          • TiredOfTheTreadmill January 19, 2018 at 1:28 pm #

            You assume correctly. I usually bring up my list of “welfare” programs to counter the usual targets of said buzzword. A healthy government should strive to make life as good as possible for all it’s people, not just the loudest whiners. The free market ideologues who bitch about “welfare” the loudest are Utopian idealists with nothing by theories and unsubstantiated beliefs to back their position.

          • Minimum income guaranteed, replace all subsidies with cash payments

            Not just for rich kids. Let’s unlock kids Potential before we sentence them to slaving away for a system that is destroying the future

            I’m not optimistic but hopeful America can pull it’s head out of it’s ass …. And by that I mean old people

    • Cavepainter January 19, 2018 at 6:39 pm #

      If the worse case civil chaos should emerge with all emergency service personnel refusing to leave their own families in peril, military bases will become the only secure places, and don’t look to be welcomed in to access the vast stores of survival goods.

  11. sprawlcapital January 19, 2018 at 10:29 am #

    . . . only to come screaming out of the attic like Norman Bates’s mother at the last moment, slashing your misplaced confidence to shreds.
    ==============================================
    I’ve never seen the movie Psycho. Now you’ve spoiled it for me, Jim. Dang. So it was Norman’s mother?

    • Walter B January 19, 2018 at 8:54 pm #

      No, it was not so it looks like you will have to watch the movie anyway. Sorry.

      • sprawlcapital January 20, 2018 at 1:43 pm #

        The famous Psycho shower-curtain scene has been on tv many times over the years. That’s about all I’ve seen of the movie.

  12. thwack January 19, 2018 at 10:35 am #

    And we know what happens to humans up around the 105 Fahrenheit body temperature level: the brain starts to sputter and smoke. Soon, it’s lights out and don’t let your karma smack you on the butt going through the exit.

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

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6txL1seSN0

    Thats a very good painting Jim; it makes makes savages feel calm and pleasant when they look at it.

    • Ol' Scratch January 19, 2018 at 11:57 am #

      Nice!

  13. JohnAZ January 19, 2018 at 10:36 am #

    Fincain

    Just ran off and read up on Mockingbird division, holy shit. What is appalling me the most right now is the loading up of the intelligence community with globalist loving liberals over the last thirty years and what the impact on the media that has caused. I think the current state of the media is self indicative. The average American does not have a single source of news presentation that is not heavily influenced by the media PTB.

    The loading up of the intelligence community is being exposed currently, the Mueller investigation is about to blow up in the Left’s face. When this goes full circle, I wonder if anyone will be left.

  14. sprawlcapital January 19, 2018 at 10:45 am #

    About three months ago, my wife started playing the stock market with some of her meager savings. I keep telling her to be careful, very careful.

    • pequiste January 19, 2018 at 10:59 am #

      Next stop for the Dow got to be 30,000 by the Spring equinox. 40K by summer everything is so darned good.

      And while you are at it load up on some Bitcoin and other assorted crypto-currency, (buy the dip don’t you know) should you and the missus be feeling like you are missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

      Sarc off.

      • sprawlcapital January 19, 2018 at 12:07 pm #

        Thanks for the excellent advice, What could go wrong? sarc off

        • outsider January 19, 2018 at 1:29 pm #

          OH, the bottomless greed of humankind! Casino capitalism makes us all money-grubbing slaves to Wall Street. No wonder the sages said that money is the root of all evil.

  15. volodya January 19, 2018 at 10:48 am #

    There’s another metric. Interest rates measure the economy’s blood pressure. Given the economy’s dangerously low blood pressure plus the fever in the financial sector, I would say it’s time to call the priest.

    To anybody that’s not blind or not born yesterday or not delusional, the vast interior of the country is in a depression. But do you think the Fed gives a fuck? Nope, it’s all good news according to the Fed.

    What about Congress or the White House? The Democrats are busy with the nuts-‘n-sluts agenda or working full time for people that aren’t even citizens. And the Republicans just delivered a whacking tax cut to the country’s richest.

    But what happens when febrile financial markets push Wall Street banks into cardiac arrest? The Fed, Congress and the White House would spare no effort to make sure their donors’ fortunes are safe and sound. They did it before and they’ll do it again.

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    • SteveO January 19, 2018 at 11:05 am #

      Yep, those folks at the top will only their comeuppance when the ropes and the pitchforks come out.

    • jloughrey January 19, 2018 at 11:57 pm #

      “To anybody that’s not blind or not born yesterday or not delusional, the vast interior of the country is in a depression.”

      Those are the Trump voters, who saw no chance of their lives ever improving under the status quo, so they took a chance on the Orange Cheeto. In three more years, if not sooner, they’ll realize they were conned.

      • jloughrey January 20, 2018 at 12:00 am #

        What do you call a Depression that never ends? A third-world nation. We’re almost there.

  16. JohnAZ January 19, 2018 at 10:48 am #

    Thwack

    Thank you for your service. To answer you question, I was in the Navy on gun line support and plane guard support for carriers, so the answer to your question to me is ???.

    • thwack January 19, 2018 at 12:43 pm #

      Huh?

      I was never in the military?

      and I don’t remember asking you any questions?

      • outsider January 19, 2018 at 1:34 pm #

        If I recall correctly, thwack, you asked John about his Vietnam service in Monday’s edition.

        • thwack January 19, 2018 at 1:40 pm #

          hmmmm?

          Can I get a do over?

          I can’t remember what I asked

          I know I asked somebody if they killed anyone; and I was read the riot act for it.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:16 pm #

            You are an inspiration to all of us. Can’t remember your own wooly head, so full of black wool it is.

          • thwack January 19, 2018 at 2:55 pm #

            Thats right, black sheep, lamb of God; not some goat faced, cloven hoof, pale skinned devil like you.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 3:00 pm #

            Good comeback! Bless your nappy head!

          • S M Tenneshaw January 19, 2018 at 9:17 pm #

            Can’t we all just get along, haw haw haw?

    • janet January 19, 2018 at 1:15 pm #

      “I was in the Navy on gun line support and plane guard support for carriers” –JohnAZ

      IOW, you collected pay from taxpayers for servicing an obsolete weapon. Carriers haven’t faced naval combat against a worthy adversary since the end of World War II. Carriers are useless nowadays, vulnerable to new carrier-killer ballistic missiles. The Chinese have the missiles…. with ranges of up to 2,500 miles. Against that, the most common aircraft aboard ship, the F/A-18E/F ($70.5 million each) has an unrefueled combat radius of about 500 nautical miles and the F-35C ($94.6 million each) has a best-case range of 615. They both can be refueled inflight, but the tankers ($241.1 million each) are themselves vulnerable.

      Against China a carrier would face an impressive barrage of cruise missiles, launched from the shore, aircraft, surface ships, and submarines. The carrier’s escorts, such as Arleigh Burke destroyers ($1.843 billion per ship in 2012 dollars), defending the carrier would fend those off for a time, but facing a serious, technologically capable foe on its home turf, any carrier will eventually be targeted by so many weapons that it will succumb. The number of nations able to do this is only going to increase.

      So let’s be honest and admit that the carrier is really obsolete. It’s only around so that the United States can drop JDAMs on insurgents, terrorists, and third-rate “shithole” countries without worrying about basing rights. Is that worth $13 billion a ship?

      Carriers: A giant waste of taxpayer money.

      • thwack January 19, 2018 at 1:43 pm #

        The Chinese could convert some dolphins to Islam and train them to carry mines on suicide missions against U.S aircraft carriers.

        • The Articulate Infant January 20, 2018 at 12:06 am #

          Either that, or just broadcast Janet going on about how much she hates Trump, bore them to death. Your dolphin plan is good, but the dolphins wouldn’t be up for it, Islam is the religion of peace, don’cha know?

      • patrickd January 19, 2018 at 1:50 pm #

        Good argument about carriers being obsolete. Your only mistaken statement is the one about the US dropping JDAMs on insurgents, terrorists, and “shithole” countries. The US trains and supports terrorists, it doesn’t drop bombs on them. It drops bombs on civilians and their infrastructure. Insurgents are patriotic citizens of the countries the US targets, who are resisting illegal occupation of their countries. And the targeted countries are beautiful countries until they are turned into piles of rubble by the US. The piles of rubble are what’s called shitholes.

        • thwack January 19, 2018 at 2:48 pm #

          Alright, let not go crazy now?

          once a population reaches a certain density, you just can’t have people shitting in the street anymore; its not politics, its fucking MATH.

          When too many people are shitting in the street, or anywhere they want… you end up with a fecalized environment, because the shit dries up, turns into a powder, then the wind blows it all over the place, traces of fecal matter on your clothing and everywhere else.

          don’t get it twisted.

        • outsider January 19, 2018 at 3:44 pm #

          Patrick,

          And the Imperial City calls the indigenous freedom fighters terrorists. How dare they kill American soldiers who are only fighting to liberate their countries?

  17. JohnAZ January 19, 2018 at 10:53 am #

    The interest rate at 2.6% is trivial. Interest rates in the 70’s were greater than 15%, and mortgage rates were higher than that. These perturbations are small now in comparison.

    • Bruce E January 19, 2018 at 1:29 pm #

      It’s not so much the absolute rate as much as it is the relative change in the rates. Being so low the last few years you need to plot them on a log scale and realize that going from 1.5% to 2.6% is a bigger move than going from 11% to 15%.

      Also don’t forget to subtract off inflation first before you do the ratio. Makes a big difference.

      • outsider January 19, 2018 at 1:37 pm #

        In other words, Bruce, you’re losing money every year on bank accounts. Hence, the endless market surge, which has no bearing to economic reality.

  18. SteveO January 19, 2018 at 11:02 am #

    “The president crowed about the lowest unemployment in decades and the lobotomized media just swallowed it like a wad of masticated pepperoni. “

    I wonder if that was any comfort for those poor rubes in Indiana that used to work at the Carrier plant? Hopefully they are starting to figure out that they’ve been conned, just like they were by the previous president who was going to make America great again.

  19. Robert White January 19, 2018 at 11:07 am #

    Bankruptcy of the Third World Banana Republic of the United States of America is evident to all throughout the world in so far as Congress cannot seem to solve the debt ceiling conundrum on a YoY basis. Each year the world witnesses how irresponsible congress, and the party politicians, have become. The collective groupthink is designed around the political requirement for plausible deniability so that all the politicians can avoid personal responsibility along with government bureaucrats like the Treasury Secretary who is essentially the principle architect of all national financial misery on an ongoing basis going forward, and backwards historically.

    Clearly, the finance charade in Congress will not be solved this year or next, and the prospect of the USA losing more credibility on the world stage increases every year because the Corporation of the United States of America is insolvent, and in denial. What is evident to all throughout the world is that the USA cannot pay back it’s debts that are now completely unmanageable from an interest rate perspective on debt, and unsecured liabilities. No amount of political shenanigans skirting the hard facts of finance liability on a national basis will make the debt more manageable or easy to deal with politically.

    At this late stage in the global finance game we can see that the USA is spread thin financially, politically, and strategically. At some point in the new year we will see more threats from the US war machine that is managed by a Pentagon that is by far the worst abuser in the entire world when it comes to theft of taxpayer money
    for Military Industrial Complex largesse. With over 800 USA Military Bases worldwide to fund on national deficits that will never be paid, we can accurately conclude that the specter of thermonuclear hot war is certain based on the premise that Congress will want to cover up their collective incompetence out of sheer embarrassment on the world stage.

    MOU

    • elysianfield January 19, 2018 at 11:49 am #

      “What is evident to all throughout the world is that the USA cannot pay back it’s debts that are now completely unmanageable from an interest rate perspective on debt, and unsecured liabilities.”

      RW,
      Well said. Further, it has never been the perception of paying the debt, but rather the plausibility of servicing that debt, that The US attempts to maintain. The Potemkin Village of Debt service requires that bond interest rates remain low, and that our GDP continues with moderate growth…hence the manipulation of GDP “growth” figures and the canard of various inflation indexes….

  20. volodya January 19, 2018 at 11:14 am #

    mdl17576

    Couldn’t tell you about the ROI on food production but I suspect that you and your fellow farmers will be organizing patrols to make sure your fields don’t get pillaged.

    Look at the archeological record and surviving written accounts of the last really big collapse – the western Roman Empire. Piece by piece the constituent tribal components and client kingdoms reverted to running their own show. The archeology doesn’t attest to sudden mass violence but rather an abandonment of cities over time. Trade broke down, Rome went from a city of a million to about 12 thousand according to one source.

    But you still had the Senate in Rome meeting until sometime in the 7th Century. I have no idea what the Senators were doing or discussing. There was still an emperor in Constantinople so maybe the Senators thought they reported to him. Maybe a shadow institution going through the motions. Who knows.

    In those days most people were farmers. That gave the economy some resilience. When Roman authority went off-line, when the last emperor was told to take a permanent holiday, other people took over but it was locals calling the shots. The faces in the manor house may have changed but crops were still planted and harvested. I doubt that the average villager and farmer much gave a shit. For the average guy busting his ass in the fields it was all to the good if the local baron was taxing less than the old regime.

    I read that only a couple percent of people nowadays are farmers. In my view that gives the modern economy less of a shock absorber than in Roman times.

    What happens if central authority breaks down and states hive off and tell Washington it’s been a slice but time to say bye-bye. I don’t think it will be pleasant.

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    • capt spaulding January 19, 2018 at 11:40 am #

      Whatever comes bubbling up to the surface, things have changed enough that events will happen rapidly. Technology makes everything move faster, and that will include the collapse of the economy. It’s not like the good old days a thousand years ago. Nowadays events (especially financial ones), can change in nanoseconds. Look at the companies who use computers to trade. Holding stock for 6 seconds is a long term investment. Of course when the financial house of cards collapses, it will impact everything. When change comes, it will come quickly.

      • Ol' Scratch January 19, 2018 at 12:07 pm #

        Good points all above. I think the initial breakup will be swift and sure, after which we’ll probably be in for a long period of gradual but totally miserable decline. The wealthy will simply abandon the place altogether and leave everyone else to fight it out for what’s left or be swallowed up by serfdom.

        • ozone January 19, 2018 at 12:22 pm #

          Ol’ Scratch,
          I’m in agreement.
          Interestingly, there seems to have been a concerted effort [on the Grand Wurlitzer’s part] to manufacture a theme than nothing can be done/changed/truly affected without some mass “movement”. I beg to differ (even as the move is on to ban-the-bumpstock, legislatively). Lone-wolfism will become a larger factor in the contraction than “they’d” wish us all to consider. “You can’t do it without lots and lots of help.” Well now, that all depends on what one would specifically want to affect.

          • Ol' Scratch January 19, 2018 at 1:18 pm #

            Agreed. As people run out of options (as they are right now), they’ll have less and less reason to fear the consequences of fighting back. Suicide by cop will go mainstream, but more than
            a few cops will go down too.

    • mdl17576 January 19, 2018 at 12:17 pm #

      In a fast collapse, it may revert to the farmers in a valley banding together for protection. At some point, either those groups will combine or a warlord will gather enough support to exert some kind of order. In the long run people will support the organization that gives the most protection at the lowest cost. A warlord might arise and take half my valley’s production, but when a rival group comes along that only takes a quarter and doesn’t even rape the women, support would shift. Right now the US govt is a protection racket and offers less security every year, though the tax bill remains high(unless you’re rich). The government will lose power a bit at a time, like you said, as other upstarts begin offering a better alternative. I wouldn’t want to be the first to split off though. While declining the feds still have enough resources to kill a lot of people.

    • You are correct. But America produced far more food than it consumes. In fact we Waterhouse vast amounts and destroy surplus on a regular basis.

      Agriculture is boring but food is spectacular here in McFatland. Unable to smoke pot and fuck without guilt and prison sentences, the main pleasure circuit is alcohol tobacco fat and sugar. Very bad for the Constitution…. We make sure every kid is in indoctrinated to insipid customs like the personal holiday (birthdays) which we celebrate by delivering massive amounts of sugar and introducing involuntary gifting to introduce the concept of impressing on someone the duty and obligation of maintenance of the social prestige games that have employed so many young Chinese people over the last five decades… And their poor relatives, sorting the garbage as those unwanted gifts come back on trash barges.

      But I digress. Food stamps, sugar and diabetes, the drop out rate, a shitty economy of demoralizing “work”, illegal immigrants to pick your veggies and slice up your beef, increasing numbers of young people out of work and on psychiatric meds, the dysfunctional politics, and the crapscape- all connected all the way back to how we’ve strip mined the land, drained the aquifers, poisoned the rivers, decimated the wildlife, and ruined the soil.

      Worrying about who is going to come rape your wife, kill your children, and eat your crops in a global starvation event is so far beyond practical considerations that it’s proper description is as doomer porn.

      When shit his the fan the military will take over and food production and distribution will be federalized. A simple transfer of authority from the USDA to the DOD. Dems to Reps. From their farms to your table.

      • aibohphobia January 20, 2018 at 3:07 pm #

        @jloughrey,
        Those probably aren’t opium poppies– Real opium poppies grow to about 3 to 4 feet with a flower slightly bigger than your palm. I can just about guarantee that you have never seen one in North America. The ornamental varieties are perfectly legal, much smaller, and not deadly even in large monoculture fields.

  21. Dumbedup January 19, 2018 at 11:27 am #

    I wonder how long it will be before there is a confrontation between a state and the federal government. For example, the California AG has said he will arrest and charge executives of businesses which share information about employees with federal immigration officials. The DOJ is said to be looking at whether they can charge state officials with interfering with the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

    That sets up a scenario in which Federal Agents enter the offices of a state employee with the intent to arrest him/her. In response, a state (like California) sends in state law enforcement officials to arrest the federal agents. All it would take is for a single over zealous agent to open fire and you have the making of a serious constitutional crisis. I can see an armed standoff between federal and state law enforcement officials escalating to tanks in the streets.

    That ought to pop this bubble.

    • elysianfield January 19, 2018 at 12:02 pm #

      “That sets up a scenario in which Federal Agents enter the offices of a state employee with the intent to arrest him/her. In response, a state (like California) sends in state law enforcement officials to arrest the federal agents. ”

      Dup,
      Just a wild ass guess, but I would opine that most local law enforcement personnel would not interfere with Federal law enforcement or military.

      • ozone January 19, 2018 at 12:28 pm #

        EF,
        I see that as the perspective of a true authoritarian. Serving and protecting their masters and betters. All present, correct and comfortable.
        Depends on who’s handing out the payment for the skills of oppressive coercion and directed violence.

        • outsider January 19, 2018 at 1:56 pm #

          That would set up a very interesting standoff with local and state workers (especially cops) caught in the middle. The cops know, or should know, that the feds are in charge of immigration policy, and they are supposed to cooperate with ICE, but, if they follow the law, they could lose their jobs and their pay checks. What to do? I’d say the feds could start by arresting Jerry Brown.

          The feds are also in charge of drug policy, but that another matter.

          • elysianfield January 19, 2018 at 5:09 pm #

            Ozone/Outsider

            Well, consider that the cops are there to enforce the law, and what laws would be broken? Some fucking bureaucrat (up to and including the Governor) attempting to avoiding a legal arrest by the Feds has no ability for force the local cops to do ANYTHING other than enforce existing laws…and there ain’t any that would render the FB immune from existing Federal Law…Hilarity would ensue….

            If you were ever in the military…The bureaucrats have no line authority….

    • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:22 pm #

      Trump has an effective tactic: a Census which will lessen their influence on the Nation since such a huge portion of their population is illegal and won’t take it. This will leader to few seats in Congress, fewer funds, etc. Of course the real answer would be to drive out the illegals using federal troops if need be.

      • Ivehadenough January 20, 2018 at 7:40 am #

        Dilly dilly Janos!!1 They (federal troops) need the practice !

  22. amb January 19, 2018 at 11:32 am #

    What a joke. We have to go through this theatre and drama every time. How can a government that has a printing press and creates its own currency ever have to shut down? It’s illogical.

    The media? Why would anyone waste time watching, listening or reading them? Liberal, Conservative or in-between. They are just propaganda machines. Subjectivity and honesty no longer exists.

    There will be no collapse. This circus will continue for decades and decades to come. It takes a long time for a leviathan to die.

    • volodya January 19, 2018 at 11:35 am #

      It may take a while to die, like the Roman Empire.

      Or not. Nobody saw the Soviet collapse coming. From the perspective of circa 1975 it was solid as a rock.

    • BuckP January 19, 2018 at 12:26 pm #

      We, the USA, are not the top dog anymore! The rest of the planet is looking for a new monetary system that is more stable and does not involve the fiat dollar. When those trillions of unwanted dollars come washing back ashore and bread costs $10,000 a loaf, the gig or con, will be up. I’m sure we will try to extort the world into using our currency with our nukes and military, but I don’t think they are afraid of us anymore!
      Summer is nice, but in the real world, the cold north winds of winter will eventually blow in.

    • elysianfield January 19, 2018 at 5:12 pm #

      “. How can a government that has a printing press and creates its own currency ever have to shut down? It’s illogical.”

      Venezuela

  23. FincaInTheMountains January 19, 2018 at 11:53 am #

    written accounts of the last really big collapse – the western Roman Empire == volodya

    You better ask what happened to the East Roman Empire – it was destroyed by “God loving” Western Crusaders, the ideological heirs of which are now trying to destroy US and impeach Constitutionally elected President.

    • amb January 19, 2018 at 12:22 pm #

      You are operating off of false data Fincain; missing historical facts. The Moslem world had been terrorizing the Christian world for decades and decades. The tolerance point was finally reached by Western Europe (much too late in my opinion) and they finally mounted up and went East to “take care of business”.

      The data you are operating off of is that false narrative of how evil and bad the white Europeans were/are. Bunch of BS. They are/were no different than any other race or nation.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 19, 2018 at 12:48 pm #

        I am not talking about the race, I am talking about The Sect – the sect that uses a thin layer of pretend Christianity as a cover, the Sect that kills whites, blacks, browns, Christians, Muslims just to assert its “birth righted” lordship over the rest of Humanity.

        That Sect manifested in various ways over the last millennia – from the Knights orders of Templars and Teutonic Order to Eastern India Company to Ahnenerbe and NSDAP, to ODESSA and NeoCons, to Hillary Clinton.

        One of the call signs of this sect – which I personally call The Western Black Project – is human child sacrifice.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:28 pm #

          This is outright slander, demonic slander. Your Dad’s “sect” killed tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians just recently. Funny how you never talk about that. You are nothing but a shameless Liar.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:29 pm #

            Thousands? I meant to say millions. That is the Truth of “Russian” Communism.

  24. Ishabaka January 19, 2018 at 11:58 am #

    Actually, the human brain is cooked between 107.5 – 108 degrees F, and, once cooked, like an egg once boiled, cannot be uncooked.

    • thwack January 19, 2018 at 12:07 pm #

      does size matter?

      • elysianfield January 19, 2018 at 5:18 pm #

        Funny

    • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm #

      Ditto the Horror House kids – some of them adults who look ten. They can never be normal because they were starved during their development phase. What’s done cannot be undone.

      • outsider January 19, 2018 at 4:09 pm #

        Why does terrible shit like this keep happening in the dreadful USA? Why are people like that allowed to home school their too many children (13 total) without the school authorities coming in to check? What an indictment of the school system and no doubt child protective services too. They were Pentecostals, and it’s usually religious fanatics who home school.

    • ZrCrypDiK January 20, 2018 at 8:28 pm #

      Methinks we’re at about *1* minute to midnight (no longer 1.5 minutes, nor 3)…

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYK0HD4p8F0

      • Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 8:40 pm #

        The lead singer looks demented and spastic.

  25. K-Dog January 19, 2018 at 11:59 am #

    Douglas does seem like the type to push until people say no to him, but this situation seems fabricated to me.

    “Michael unzipped his chinos and I registered something amiss. Still complimenting my additions to our E.T. imitation, his voice lowered at least half an octave. I peered at him and saw he’d inserted both hands into his unzipped pants. I realized to my horror that he was rubbing his private parts. Within seconds his voice cracked and it appeared to me he’d had an orgasm.”

    Braudy writes that she closed her notebook and rushed for the door: “I said nothing. I was surprised I wasn’t falling to pieces even though I was humiliated. I realized he thought he could do anything he wanted because he was so much more powerful than I was. Michael ran barefoot after me to the elevator, zipping his fly and buckling his belt. ‘Hey, thank you, you’re good. You helped me, thank you, thank you.’ ”

    Braudy says she jogged 13 blocks home, locked her front door, got into bed and crawled under her quilt: “I vowed I’d never be alone with him again.”https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/michael-douglas-alleged-harassment-media-metoo-moment-1075609

    But……… This is bullshit.

    Once it used to be called ‘he said she said’ because we all knew that ‘he’ and ‘she’ each had different ideas, both wrong, about what had happened.

    But I’ve gone around the sun on this rock for a few decades and never have I ever encountered any guy who gets his rocks off by jerking off in front of women. Louis CK likes it apparently but he is the first one I ever heard about. Most men want the penis in the woman, that is the goal. I’m sure there are a few guys out there who choke it in front of women, it is a big world after all. But they have to be as rare as July snow.

    And this:

    ‘Hey, thank you, you’re good. You helped me, thank you, thank you.'”

    Michael saying this makes no sense. It sounds like a story.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:53 pm #

      This was his greatest role. I believe it. It’s alien to you and to me because we’re Aryans. Muslim women say that Muslim men in the Camps urinate on them while they’re sleeping. Is this a way of marking them as theirs? Or just humiliation? I have no idea, thank God. If I automatically knew, I would be one of them and not an Aryan.

  26. amb January 19, 2018 at 12:23 pm #

    You are operating off of false data Fincain; missing historical facts. The Moslem world had been terrorizing the Christian world for decades and decades. The tolerance point was finally reached by Western Europe (much too late in my opinion) and they finally mounted up and went East to “take care of business”.

    The data you are operating off of is that false narrative of how evil and bad the white Europeans were/are. Bunch of BS. They are/were no different than any other race or nation.

  27. janet January 19, 2018 at 12:27 pm #

    Excellent writing today, Jim!

    Republican Lindsey Graham says voting for a fourth CR is damaging to the military, according to Gen. James Mattis. That is why neither Republicans nor Democrats want to vote for yet another CR. With only 12 hours to go I am waiting for Trump’s leadership to solve this.

    “I am your voice. I alone can fix it. I will restore law and order.”

    –Donald Trump, 2016 Republican National Convention

    After a year of Trump things are not looking very orderly right now.

  28. ozone January 19, 2018 at 12:35 pm #

    Really good visuals today that really put an edge on your contextual bayonet, Jim!
    Best of luck with the website. Try to stay away from the flu that has become a nation-wide epidemic; it’s a real “pissah”! (From personal experience. Whew!)
    Gotta git. Burnin’ daylight.

  29. 100th Avatar January 19, 2018 at 12:40 pm #

    “I had a lot of fun last night, after the Thursday evening fiddle jam, clicking back and forth between CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. ”

    Nothing like ending an extended jam of Appalachian Hymn with the Talking Heads.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:56 pm #

      Right from dueling banjos to dueling networks! It’s fun watching the genetically challenged talking heads on the Tee-Vee.

      Ever try shape note singing? It’s an old American way of sacred choral singing. Beautiful stuff.

  30. volodya January 19, 2018 at 1:10 pm #

    Ozone brings up a point that isn’t considered very often or even ever, the “lone wolf”, as he puts it, that takes matters into his own hands.

    Cliven Bundy told the Feds to go fly a kite. Now, you can argue back and forth as to the merits of his gripe, but the fact is that a thousand guys showed up from all over, armed to the teeth, to back him up. I doubt that many of those guys really gave a shit about the legal intricacies, rather they were disgruntled about a large number of other matters, and were itching for a fight.

    As things get shittier “lone wolves” will act simply in their own self interest or to provide for their families. And in so doing will inevitably step on the toes of the PTB and violate some of their prerogatives. Inevitably, the kerfuffle that STARTED with one lone wolf ramps up and the PTB send in their boys with guns.

    But as Petrograd showed us a hundred years ago, the Tsar sending in his troops to quell dissent had the effect of his troops taking the side of the dissenters. Which is a phenomenon that our own PTB ought to be familiar with seeing as they’re practitioners of the very same thing: class solidarity.

    Of course the modern-day PTB are so full of themselves they wouldn’t consider such a possibility. Armed men with minds of their own? People siding with people like themselves? All remote possibilities, at best. That’s what the highest among us will say. Petrograd? Where’s Petrograd? History? Bah! That’s how the highest among us will think. But the highest among us make an almighty big mistake, maybe a fatal mistake, in not learning the lessons of history.

    One thing is for sure, when people get hungry they get awfully irritable.

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    • tucsonspur January 19, 2018 at 3:47 pm #

      I actually have a t-shirt that says “lone wolf”, with the wolf howling at a full moon.

      I’ll have to reconsider wearing it, target priority and all.

      • tucsonspur January 19, 2018 at 4:10 pm #

        PTB are always suspect.

  31. PeteAtomic January 19, 2018 at 1:27 pm #

    2 interesting Bloomberg articles I see today that tie into some of the current frenzies out there:

    “Gun theft is sweeping America”, and ” Retailers see glut of stores despite holiday rebound”

    It isn’t surprising to understand that if economic contraction in a society is occurring, that fear & tension & anxiety rise in an inverse relationship.

  32. PeteAtomic January 19, 2018 at 1:48 pm #

    CNN has a Government Shuts Down headline in real time with red numbers counting down LOL

    🙂

    If people aren’t feeling stressed out enough with their lifestyle obsessions & situations out there.

  33. amb January 19, 2018 at 1:51 pm #

    FAKE government, FAKE Congress, FAKE media, FAKE education, FAKE religions. What is one to do?

    • outsider January 19, 2018 at 2:15 pm #

      Get comfortable in your recliner, grab some cheetos and a 6-pack, and watch Tom Brady win another Super Bowl, perhaps? Ain’t life a Bitch!

      • tucsonspur January 19, 2018 at 3:22 pm #

        Jags have to come up the A-gaps. Dump Brady on his ass.

    • pequiste January 19, 2018 at 2:43 pm #

      So many to choose from! (What do you expect from a system of near-universal mendacity?)

      Pick one-It’s easy- then become a true believer.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 19, 2018 at 2:58 pm #

      The huge fake tits of Stormy Daniels are more real than any of these. Fake Labor movement too. Real Labor would be against the illegal Scab immigration. When Labor was real, it was.

      • outsider January 19, 2018 at 4:16 pm #

        African-American Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was against it in the 60’s & ’70’s. She knew immigration was bad for blacks.

    • Robert White January 19, 2018 at 5:17 pm #

      Sharpen the tines on your pitchfork, and wait for the Zombie Apocalypse of the Western Empire. Currently, we don’t have long to wait given social & political volatility. FAKE Stock Exchanges will crash given the FAKE finance metrics, and rigging of PMs, Crypto, et cetera. Government will shut down, and a new debt ceiling will be imposed. Neither house of Congress will ever do anything but increase the debt ceiling every year at this time. Only World War Three will bring about a re-write of government borrowing & indebtedness. The Pentagon is a much worse abuser of taxpayer money than Congress. And as we have witnessed how the Pentagon likes to arbitrage finance auditors, and forensic accountants, with weaponized aircraft, and supersonic missiles–it’s probably best to assume that they will do it again on a much larger scale.

      RW

  34. janet January 19, 2018 at 2:11 pm #

    “I read that only a couple percent of people nowadays are farmers. In my view that gives the modern economy less of a shock absorber than in Roman times.” –volodya

    Don’t believe everything you read, volodya. Times are different now.
    While today 2% are engaged in agriculture, millions are engaged in horticulture and permaculture: 117 million gardeners in 2017. There’s your shock absorber. Things are getting local: more than half of farmers travel less than 10 miles to their market. The number of small community farmers’ markets is booming. There’s your shock absorber.

  35. tucsonspur January 19, 2018 at 3:18 pm #

    Tonight, CNN is airing “Reign of Chaos”, about Trump and his first year supposedly “disrupting the presidency forever”.

    Hail the Great Gladiator of Gotham. Whatever his faults, it was he who uncovered much of the hidden cesspool of politics for the unknowing public, and fumigated the stink of political correctness.

    One wonders about Democratic payback after Trump’s term(s).
    Government may require a paradigm shift.

    MAGA not MAKA.

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  36. RobH January 19, 2018 at 3:27 pm #

    James

    If you had three TVs on at once like Mr Trump, you wouldn’t have to switch realities; it would be more like a quantum reality, or a multiverse

  37. 100th Avatar January 19, 2018 at 4:15 pm #

    this whole dreamer shut-down battle is pantomime. trump was always against deporting them. he has a role to play for his constituency. ultimately, big-corporate is going to keep their perpetual in-limbo TPS labor pool (they’re illegal, but they can work, isn’t that something?), the dreamers without grievous crimes will be able to stay and be put on a path, and trump will get some enhanced security promise that only means money for drones, cameras, sensors, vehicle, planes, helicopters. This is how it works. There are more $ at play than lives.

    • outsider January 19, 2018 at 4:28 pm #

      I wonder how many dreamers work at Trump’s Mira Lago resort, and if they are paid under the table in cash?

  38. 100th Avatar January 19, 2018 at 4:18 pm #

    but capitulating only to preserve “security” with a functioning government is a proven safe exit. again, we deserve the government we have. foolish people are meant to be duped, and it is quite all right.

    • janet January 19, 2018 at 7:25 pm #

      #ReleaseTrump’sTaxReturns

  39. janet January 19, 2018 at 5:14 pm #

    “I wonder how many dreamers work at Trump’s Mira Lago resort…” –outsider

    Dreamers have grown up in this country. This is the only country they know. They speak English. For many Dreamers English is the only language they know. Dreamers are not criminals, they are citizens in every sense of the word (except papers).

    Dreamers should be legalized immediately. Dreamers should be given immediate citizenship, with no hoops to jump through.

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    • Cavepainter January 19, 2018 at 6:53 pm #

      Oh my Janet, you’re leaving out the wonderful ‘diverse culture’ experience awaiting them in the country of their parents’ origin. Think of it this way; since JFK’s formation of the Peace Corps thousands of American’s have been urged to share advantages acquired through the American experience — would not doing that simply be a gesture of gratitude for the advantages the ‘Dreamers’ have….uh, misappropriated from the American taxpayers?. But I’m forced to ask the question: Have they not known their parents were illegally in this country?

      • janet January 19, 2018 at 7:23 pm #

        “thousands of American’s have been urged to share advantages acquired through the American experience” –cavepainter

        After giving Dreamers full citizenship they should be “urged” the same as everyone else. Nobody should be forcefully deported. Legalize the Dreamers and their parents to preserve families. We are pro-family, aren’t we?

        • outsider January 19, 2018 at 8:40 pm #

          If you legalize the parents, who broke the law to get here, and are therefore criminals, then you might as well give amnesty to all the millions who came here illegally. That is the goal of you far left Open Borders crackpots anyway. Isn’t it, Janet?

          BTW, are you the one who said that it would be great for the economy if we had a billion people living here?

          • elysianfield January 20, 2018 at 11:25 am #

            “BTW, are you the one who said that it would be great for the economy if we had a billion people living here?”

            #WeAreAllBangladeshiNow

  40. janet January 19, 2018 at 6:40 pm #

    “They settle the “tense” budget issue with just another continuing resolution…” –pequiste

    Six hours away and no vote is scheduled. Are you sure pequiste that there is “no way” the PTB will jeopardize their gravy train (under any circumstance?

    • pequiste January 19, 2018 at 8:07 pm #

      The politicians get their palms greased whether the Gubbermint has a budget or not.
      Just think about what other revenue streams exist for those folks. That is why politicians – of all political persuasions – turn professional and never desire, if not convicted of a crime (or Celebrity Pervedom (TM)) to leave the hallowed Sanctum Sanctorum on the Potomac.

      And, by the way, the politicians are NOT the powers that be – the politicians are the bought-and-paid-for actors for powerful monied interests, the Military Industrial Complex and even Evil Fuckers themselves.

      The 10 P.M. vote will git ‘er done so everyone may retire to salons and bedrooms from Georgetown to Fairfax County for some well-deserved apres travail refreshments.

      • janet January 19, 2018 at 8:40 pm #

        I’ll believe they stop paying the MIC when it actually happens, especially stop paying the soldiers on the ground in the Middle East. Bring them home… now!

        • Ol' Scratch January 20, 2018 at 8:26 am #

          Temporarily. They get made whole once again once the spigot gets turned back on.

  41. janet January 19, 2018 at 8:39 pm #

    If the 10 pm vote doesn’t get ‘er done, if the government shuts down this weekend, or, indeed, at any point until the midterm elections, it will be the first time a true, honest-to-God shutdown has happened with a single party controlling the White House and Congress.

  42. Phutatorius January 19, 2018 at 8:40 pm #

    It’s been my feeling that Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” expressed some deep and general truth beyond that mere thought experiment. Trouble is it can be interpreted in at least two ways: privatize everything seems to be the preferred interpretation. Regulate for the public interest would be the second, less preferred interpretation – the one I myself would advocate.

  43. Pucker January 19, 2018 at 8:47 pm #

    For most of the human experience, female psychology would have been dominated by pregnancy and the high likelihood of pain and death in childbirth. A failed childbirth might last as long as 4 days of intense pain, agony, and exhaustion before the woman finally expired. In the antebellum South, after a lengthy childbirth, the big headed baby might pop out caramel-colored into the hands of a big “Mammy” mid-Wife with the father dressed like Colonel Sanders high on whiskey waiting nearby?

    • Pucker January 19, 2018 at 10:19 pm #

      But if the Wife “pulls it off”, and the big-headed baby comes out white, then she doesn’t have to worry about her husband (“The Colonel”) dump’n her for another woman.

    • Elrond Hubbard January 20, 2018 at 12:51 pm #

      For most of the human experience, what has male psychology been dominated by?

      My guess is, knockers. We men are simple creatures.

  44. Pucker January 19, 2018 at 8:49 pm #

    When I was a teenager my dick would sometimes get hard while reading my Dad’s “Playboy” magazines.

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    • thwack January 20, 2018 at 2:26 pm #

      When I was a teenager my dick would get hard for no reason at all?

      Now that only happens when I wake up in the morning.

      • elysianfield January 20, 2018 at 6:40 pm #

        Thwack,
        And knowing you, you probably piss it away…

  45. janet January 19, 2018 at 9:08 pm #

    it will be the first time a true, honest-to-God shutdown has happened with a single party controlling the White House and Congress. –janet

    That is because Trump does not know what he is doing. Neither do his “advisers”, his cabinet, his colleagues, his appointments to head agencies, etc. It is a know-nothing government “run” (into the ground) by a failed racist businessman/narcissist who will not release his tax returns.

  46. Bro Jobe January 19, 2018 at 10:01 pm #

    This is what the early stages of Collapse will look like. Good call, JHK.

    We may wobble through this one, but each crisis makes the USA look like the stumbling, tired giant it is.

  47. Pucker January 19, 2018 at 10:35 pm #

    Why did King Ithobaal I of Tyre name his daughter “Jezebel”?

  48. janet January 19, 2018 at 10:42 pm #

    “there is “no way” the PTB will jeopardize their gravy train (under any circumstance) –pequiste

    “the politicians are the bought-and-paid-for actors for powerful monied interests, the Military Industrial Complex” –pequiste

    THE POLITICIANS JUST SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT. According to pequiste, the Military Industrial Complex just paid the politicians to cut off funding for the Military Industrial Complex!

    The 10 pm vote did NOT get ‘er done. The PTB are not in control

  49. Pucker January 19, 2018 at 10:43 pm #

    Ask a big fat woman in the supermarket: “Do you worship “Baal”?”

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  50. janet January 19, 2018 at 10:48 pm #

    TRUMP BLAMES HIMSELF FOR SHUTDOWN

    “Well, if you say who gets fired it always has to be the top. I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top and the president’s the leader. And he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead…. when they talk about the government shutdown, they’re going to be talking about the president of the United States, who the president was at that time. They’re not going to be talking about who was the head of the House, the head the Senate, who’s running things in Washington. So I really think the pressure is on the president.” –President Donald Trump

  51. Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 12:03 am #

    Ohhh. Nooo!! “The Situation” has been cheating on his taxes.

  52. Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 12:10 am #

    Stop the pay of all federal politicians and all federal employees ……………………. except my son who is a civilian employee of the Army.

    • janet January 20, 2018 at 1:09 am #

      Trump says he will not talk (but he will play golf) until the Trump Shutdown is over. Trump is not a deal maker. He is not a legitimate president.

      Your son, Q, is a victim of Trump’s intransigence and incompetence, and the Trump Shutdown… which means no DACA, no CHIP, no border wall, and no pay for civilian employees of the Army. It only took Trump one year to crash the government and give his billionaire friends big tax cuts.

      Q, you always say the less government the better, so you should be happy about the 2018 Trump Shutdown and no pay for your son.

      • Cavepainter January 20, 2018 at 7:45 am #

        Oh, oh Janet, enforcing immigration law on behalf of national sovereignty and the intended exclusive entitlement of citizens to determine national destiny you say will ‘break up families’. No, no, whether a family breaks up is a decision that rightfully resides within the family itself, not within government on behalf of surrendering laws legislated on behalf of the citizenry, broken by foreign national and certainly not on behalf of moral sentiment of one particular political faction such as yours. ‘Moral arguments’ such as the one you are ‘virtue signalling’, to be truly moral, can’t be bounded by pragmatic considerations, so to be true to it the national budget should become a charity fund for paying passage of all the world’s desperate to the US rather than sustaining the advantage of those who can simply walk north across our border. And on that note, how many families of illegal aliens are you supporting?

  53. FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 9:21 am #

    Ode to the Great Player

    The story about Barack Obama I will probably start from the moment I learned about his existence. I was at a real estate agency in the Wall Street area and the office was a hall divided into about 20 cubicles. In each of these cubicles sat an agent receiving $150 an hour and a client wanting to rent a room at a price of $150 a square meter.

    On one of the walls of the office hung a large TV showing Bloomberg’s stock reports. And suddenly I see that everybody have dropped their studies and started watching TV where Barack Obama in the insinuating voice speaking about the way out of the crisis, which then just started.

    And I, too, have abandoned everything and listened to his speech.

    This guy is endowed with oratorical talent like no other and very specific talent. The timbre of his voice and facial expressions make people concentrate on his words more and more, and even those who are not at all interested in what he says, but this prohibitive concentration makes his words to store in your consciousness under the highest priority. And even after a few days you suddenly catch yourself thinking about what he said. In general, Cicero, and even more truly Kennedy – I have recently watched his record in the televised debate in 1960 and was struck by the similarity in the manner to speak.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QazmVHAO0os

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT0b_baBxFE

    But the most interesting is that having such talents, Barack Obama uses them very rarely, only to solve vital issues in critical moments. And as an organizer, he prefers to settle problems quietly, through back-room negotiations.

    In particular, he managed to put in place his healthcare reform program. And all was quiet, no debate in Congress. But the most important thing is that somehow he constantly, even while resisting, but makes decisions more appropriate to the heir of the political philosophy of George Bush than Bill Clinton. In particular, when leaving Iraq, he left enough troops there to cool hotheads in the government of this unfortunate country.

    And this cooling action was reinforced by a US military doctrine that displaced the US Army’s center of gravity to the Middle East – a decision worthy of Colin Powell. In addition, he allowed the use of drones to eliminate the enemy’s manpower, including the commanders of the enemy (to compensate for the cuts in the appropriations for the army?) – and this already reminds General Schwarzkopf. And, most interesting, the pre-election promise was fulfilled – the troops withdrawn from Iraq. And the removal of the arch-villain Osama bin Laden – the most impressive action of military PR! It’s not like voluptuously moaning WOW!, watching on iPhone the lynching of Gaddafi, while pretending that you have nothing to do with this!

    But even more impressive was the decision to reduce the federal deficit.

    Old Joe Biden began these negotiations, failing them miserably with surprising speed. In my opinion, he did not understand that even this failure played into the hands of his boss and was probably part of the already planned intrigue worthy of Cardinal Richelieu or Minister Fouquet in their best years.

    Although both of them fall far behind Obama – none of them have fought so victoriously in such a hopeless situation.

    The essence of this intrigue was that the Republicans led by Boehner wanted to cut spending, and the Democrats led by Obama to increase budget revenues by repealing the tax breaks of the times of President Bush the Younger. At the same time, Obama was well aware that the abolition of tax breaks would not help the revival of the economy, but he wanted to negotiate with the Republicans under the table, as the Establishment of the Democratic Party used these demands to force Obama not to run for a second term.

    On the part of the Republicans all these negotiations were also the height of hypocrisy and they, perfectly aware of Obama’s situation, did not concede to any deals under the table, but only agreed to raise the limit of borrowing, which will make Obama under the current rate of growth of the national debt to face the bankruptcy of the federal government again just at the height of the election campaign, which categorically did not suit him.

    No, of course, they were ready to give in to him if Obama cuts all social programs completely, which meant for him electoral suicide.

    Naturally, the negotiations came to a deadlock, as both parties tried to use them in order to set Obama up. But he, knowing full well what was going on and securing the reputation of a flexible negotiator who was ready, unlike his negotiating partners to make reasonable compromises, waited until the leader of the Republicans demonstratively left the negotiations a few days before the federal government went bankrupt, went on television, turned on his brilliant oratorical art, and the leaders of both parties began to look like enemies of the people in the pay of the recently deceased Osama bin Laden.

    Boehner very quickly returned to the negotiating table and a few days later the deal was concluded, and US bankruptcy did not take place.

    Now you see how all sorts of commentators in US and Russia, do not understand shit in American politics and how they fool you with all sorts of political propaganda about what untalented presidents Obama, Putin, and George W. Bush were.

    By the way, I suspect that you already lost a lot of money for a very dubious pleasure to get acquainted with all this rubbish. And in the near future will lose even more.

    • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 11:17 am #

      I like Green A’s idea of having Trump do the time now that he is in. Trump is probably finding out being president is not the cakewalk he thought it was and probably wants a day off or two by now. Too bad sucker, you did not think you would win but you did. Ha ha.

      I like the idea of people disturbing Trumps narcissism every day. If Trump is removed he will have an easier life just being rich and eating and fucking and flying around in helicopters and doing whatever else he wants to do. Just like his life was before he was elected to be chief pussy grabber. Endless green fields of grass and plenty of people to polish his balls. Shrimps on the barbie and gold trim everywhere. His biggest problem, bunnies on his golf courses that hop around and don’t pay dues.

      The fact is Trumps life is far more miserable as president than it would be if Trump were removed. This makes me want to keep this mustard topped ham sandwich behind the oval office desk as long as possible.

      But a good parasite does not kill its host. A good parasite keeps it’s host around as a living meal as long as possible, and as it appears Trump is not being a good parasite.

      He has to go.

      • tucsonspur January 20, 2018 at 3:04 pm #

        And be replaced by whom? Give me the president who would make things right.

    • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 11:35 am #

      Sorry there Finca. I did not mean to step on your ‘Ode’ I had the wrong button pushed when I made my comment. Mine comment above this should have been top level.

      Obama was a smooth talker. And Obama got Osama. I saw a list where Obama was listed as the third best presidential orator of all time only behind JFK and FDR.

      Obama is definitely behind those two because there is a difference which transcends skill. To be truly great you have to believe in what you are saying so your skill in delivery reflects passion and understanding. Subtle clues give away if an orator truly understands an issue and is invested in the issue or the orator is just performing like an actor. Obama was a performer, and an excellent one, but that is all he was.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 12:13 pm #

        Dog, you didn’t have to emphasize one more time how much Americans are clueless in politics.

        Too much prosperity over the last 70 years?

        • Ol' Scratch January 20, 2018 at 2:44 pm #

          At what price numb-nut? Oh that’s right! You’re a Russian defector that somehow managed to “capitalize” on the situation.

  54. FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 12:17 pm #

    Obama is definitely behind those two because there is a difference which transcends skill == Dog

    The key phrase in my post about Obama is:

    Although both of them fall far behind Obama – none of them have fought so victoriously in such a hopeless situation.

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  55. volodya January 20, 2018 at 12:43 pm #

    Lil Debbie sez we’re spouting doomer porn.

    Let’s examine this using some historical examples.

    What if you had told a German living in the year 1900 that very soon Germany would suffer crushing military defeat at the hands of France, the UK and the US? What if you said that Germany would then spawn the Nazis who would try to conquer Europe and eradicate European Jewry in industrial scale death camps? What if you told him that Germany would then suffer another complete and ignominious military defeat mostly at the hands of a Russian communist regime? Would the German call you a crackpot?

    What if you had told this German that the butchers bill for all this would be somewhere in the vicinity of 60 million dead?

    What if you told this German that Japan would embark on an empire building spree in Asia that claimed roughly 20 million lives and then would suffer the utter demolition of two of its cities by means of just two bombs before it surrendered?

    What if you went on to tell this German living in the year 1900 that Germany would be divided and ruled by Americans and British and communist Russians?

    What if you went on to tell this German that China would be taken over by a communist regime which would go on to kill tens of millions of its own people?

    Enough about the hypothetical German.

    What if you were to tell an American living in the year 1965, at roughly the height of American prosperity, that within the next 50 years the American business elite would relocate American factories to China and Mexico thereby wrecking the American economy?

    What if you were to tell this American that within 30 years the USSR would collapse and that China would start its rise as a global military and economic behemoth thanks to this same American business elite?

    The point is that all of the above would have seemed outlandish to the German in the year 1900 or the American in the year 1965. Yet all of this actually happened.

    So Lil Debbie, before telling us what’s beyond the realm of practical consideration, maybe should bone up on these few facts of history and consider how any of these would have sounded to someone living not long before they actually took place. All would have sounded preposterous. You know, Doomer Porn.

    The military will take over? Food distribution would be “federalized”? A “simple” transfer of authority? From farm to table? Really? A wave of the magic wand, a snap of the fingers, just like that? Seen Washington in action lately?

    Given the wrack and ruin visited on the vast American middle in the past two generations, and given the disastrous military adventures in the post WW2 era, why would anyone think that 1) anybody in Washington or the Pentagon even remotely gives a fuck or 2) the competence exists to actually do this?

    The military “taking over” assumes that a coherent nation state and centralized military would still exist. If it does exist (does it exist even now?), would top military brass take action to avert a food disaster? Or would they support the powers that be and play down signs of encroaching shortages, accusing people of panic mongering and spreading public disorder? How willing would the hats be to take measures such as federalized food distribution? Or would they just do the expected thing and listen to bankers and bought-and-paid-for economists and let Wall Street interests rule?

    But, even IF the top soldiers would be inclined to act, would they have the ability to take on such a monumental task?

    What I do is look at the state of things and try to scope out possible trajectories. Debbie can do as Debbie likes.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 1:33 pm #

      France, the UK and the US?

      It is “nice” of Volodya to mention France and not to mention the role of Russia in Entente and defeat of Germany in WWI – I say Russians played a heck of a bigger role than the US did.

      And France, whenever it fights Germans, just looking for the first chance to surrender.

    • sprawlcapital January 20, 2018 at 1:57 pm #

      Great comment, Volodya! Made my day.

      • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 6:38 pm #

        Yes, a great comment. Definitely worth dropping in for!

    • Eoin January 20, 2018 at 2:00 pm #

      @volodya
      Thank you for your comment. I often enjoy your insight as much as I do Kunstler’s, and have for quite some time. Since I have no other way to contact you, this will have to do. My apologies to other commenters.
      I too get annoyed with “Doomers”, but only to a point, joining them for the same reasons/events that you touch on. Many “doomers” sound more like self-hypnotized paranoiacs who live in an echo chamber than rational people. They are just as silly as the Lil’Debbie types of people who think that they can, at the drop of a hat, start farming, or create a city “farm”, and all will be well, ignoring the massively corrupt system that they believe can be renovated with censorship and the erasing of history. There seems to be no limit to the amount of hallucinatory smoke that they are willing, and able, to blow up their collective asses. To me, they seem the most dangerous to what is left of our society; the overly negative “doomers” are more like drunk uncles.
      When I consider the end-game of current events, I form a vision of a situation that is a synthesis of “The Iron Heel”, “Brave New World”, and “Apocalypse Now”. I resort to analogy for the sake of brevity, and the fact that I know, due to our common culture, that you know what I’m talking about; not completely doom, but chock-full of banality, venality, and outright indifference. In a sense, something that is much, much worse that “doom”, yet seems perfectly tolerable. That is what gives me the creeps about the “walkin’ on sunshine” people.
      Ala, “Brave New World”, perhaps there will be a primitive place to which certain of us may escape, or construct. Other than that, the final words of Kurtz remain…… ‘The Horror, the Horror”.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 21, 2018 at 7:13 pm #

        A stick sharpened at both ends. What good are you? You can’t hunt. Do you at least have specs?

    • Ol' Scratch January 20, 2018 at 2:42 pm #

      Vol,

      I guess you’re talking about the Lil Snack Pack? Might I suggest that you guys try to organize your arguments by replying in kind to the original comment directly, rather than posting separately clear at the end and forcing some of us to go in search of the original comment. Thanks.

      The Devil

      • Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 3:10 pm #

        Might I suggest that you guys try to organize your arguments by replying in kind to the original comment directly, rather than posting separately clear at the end and forcing some of us to go in search of the original comment. Ol’ Scratch

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

        But sometimes there is no reply button.

        • San Jose January 20, 2018 at 3:20 pm #

          Q. Shtik,

          McDonald’s coffee is the best deal in town. A large is $1. I enjoy their café mocha. Forget about Starbucks, way too expensive for my taste.

          Jen in San Jose

          • elysianfield January 20, 2018 at 6:51 pm #

            Jen,
            You got it all wrong…Ask for a small senior coffee…80 cents, and unlimited free refills. McDonalds sells mostly crap, but they do have the best coffee in my area of So. Oregon.

          • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 6:54 pm #

            I each lunch in the Starbucks Headquarters building. I work very close. There is a nice restaurant inside of it. Between 11:30 and 2 pm a few hundred people cycle through. I often must get Starbucks because I have no choices but I’ve been a fly on the wall in their holy of hollies long enough to know that as soon as they have you trained to pay $2.75 they will be messing with your head to drive the price up to $3.00. They are a company dedicated to parting you from your money and not much else is one way to look at it.

            Good you have held out as long as you have but it is only a matter of time. If McDonalds goes up in price you can’t say no though it will still be cheaper. $1 looks like a teaser to me.

    • In a TSHTF situation the military would take over. Guaranteed (centralized, even). Plans are sitting there in 3 ring binders ready to be deployed.

      The American military would mobilize the national guard. Competence proof: 2000s Iraq Gulf war, LA riots, Katrina… etc.

      The American military would commandeer food distribution: Competence: USAid.

      Thats after, of course, taking over energy distribution. Competence: Strategic reserves. Worldwide network command and control. Chain of command.

      Centralization and consolidation of the food production, processing, and distribution has already occurred. USDA keeps extensive and probably the most comprehensive library of inventory and data in government.

      Government knows that food, unlike the dollar, is the ultimate and final unit of account. Democrats and republicans, not to mention town fathers, will obviously realize there is no such thing as political credibility in the face of starvation.

      The military is the absolute core of government. Two bullets separate the military from absolute power (Joint chiefs of staff).

      It doesn’t matter what the scenario is, they’ve all been wargamed and studied. Nuclear war, climate change… whatever.

      The civilian population is all the same no matter where you go. As per calories, every human being is essentially the same. So they will wait for their airdrops and food deliveries like they wait for USAid deliveries in the Sudan.

      We aren’t a nation of yeoman farmers anymore. Our populations and foodsheds all depend on networks easily federalized. Eminent domain, don’t ya know. And no one is going to be complaining when the hunger comes. They will be cheering for cheerios(tm).

    • elysianfield January 20, 2018 at 6:49 pm #

      Volodya

      If you want to know the future, imagine a boot stomping a human face forever…Orwell paraphrased.

      …but that might not be a bad thing?

  56. janet January 20, 2018 at 12:58 pm #

    Minimum income guaranteed, replace all subsidies with cash payments. Not just for rich kids. Let’s unlock kids Potential before we sentence them to slaving away for a system that is destroying the future” –Debbie

    Excellent suggestion. On its way to becoming reality.

    “Basic income is, as the name implies, simple and earnest in its intentions. It assumes that a society thrives when its members are cared for and so seeks to provide them with the means to care for themselves. A robust economy — with jobs, yes, but also the freedom to advance and innovate — allows most people to prosper on their own. But skills become obsolete. People are laid off or get sick. Basic income furnishes a regular stipend so their fundamental needs will be met no matter what.”

    What If Everyone Got a Monthly Check From the Government?

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-11/what-if-everyone-got-a-monthly-check-from-the-government

    • FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 1:21 pm #

      Personally, I smell a rat in that idea. It’s like here, have your few bucks and get lost, we wash our hands.

      The goal of the Society should be developing each and every individual’s God given potential to the fullest extent possible.

      For example, when I was growing up in the USSR, the were no welfare payments per say, but there were plenty of free educational facilities that taught kids music, math, crafts and various sports – all free of charge.

      • Ol' Scratch January 20, 2018 at 2:33 pm #

        Personally, I smell a rat in that idea. It’s like here, have your few bucks and get lost, we wash our hands.

        For once, you’re exactly right. That’s the only way BIG-U (Basic Income Guarantee-Universal) could ever be sold. And of course we all know that in a fairly large percentage of the cases – especially considering these are for the most part people who have been conditioned to be rescued – the money would be squandered and the state would be put into the awkward position of either rescuing them or officially sanctioning their abandonment and subsequent elimination by whatever means.

        Not that I think the current alternative – corporate welfare – is any better, but it all comes back to paradigms – the current basic operating program/assumptions. For better or worse, the US population has been conditioned to believe that government assistance programs (a “bad” thing) only apply to the poor, when in fact, in sheer dollar amounts, they overwhelmingly apply to the rich and the powerful. But such is the nature of unfettered capitalism. Might as well complain about the air that you breath for all the good it will do. Even the poor would be likely to overwhelmingly reject any form of BIG-U.

      • To be fair you smell rats in every idea. I welcome your skepticism.

        I try and think of arguments to convince people of the Minimum income concept… always looking for that silver bullet that wins someone over.

        The envelope math, to me is pretty convincing. Taxpayers would save money hand over fist. Businesses on every side would get a shot in the arm (except businesses who refuse to pay fair cost of labor or already depend on semi-dependent coerced labor). Society would turn toward wellness.

        The disparities of outcome between those kids with “guaranteed income” – kids whose life is funded during college whether via grants or stipends – i.e. the rich privileged kids- and the unprivileged- you know, diagnosed as stupid, lazy, worthless, etc. as 6-9 year olds, maybe abused /tortured at home, being poor, malnourished, diseased, crippled, or otherwise handicapped- are obvious.

        Anyone who thinks society would have been better off if Bill Gates had been forced to “gain” exceptional life skills flipping burgers for 40 hours a week instead of thinking up disk operating systems-
        might want to explain how this waste of time and energy benefitted the taxpayer, the society, or humanity. Right now his daughter is at an ivy league school. Studying to work with children, in public health or something. She has a guaranteed minimum income. Do you think she is gaining knowledge and has goals and prospects because she doesn’t worry about making rent, and wasting her time flipping burgers? Of course she does.

        I had a valedictorian friend in high school. Could have been exceptional in his contributions to society. But he was poor and soon, had a small child to support. So society instead got a hard working guy making signs in a shop, eventually running the place.

        In the evenings he’d sell weed. Sure, he owned a condo, gassed up his Honda nd commuted to work 2 hours a day. He raised two kids. Paid taxes. But his work didn’t produce capital equal to his potential. In the end some benefitted, including his employers who fired him shortly after he got cancer, probably from the chemicals used in the shop.

        Society could have instead cultivated this guy into a PhD doctor, politician, business owner, or something unpredictably beneficial that couldn’t be predicted. Instead society got much less.

        Undercutting kids is how society eats its feedstock. How in the world did we end up with such income stratification? It is not a mystery. Why the economy made of “Jobs Americans don’t want to do”? It is not a mystery. Why are the kids stressed out, dropping out, doing so badly. No mystery.

        People pull out all the old canards they used to attack the concept of welfare as we know it but it doesn’t map onto what minimum income does. We need to free minds to create, to explore, and grow ideas… not be forced to work for businesses that don’t pay the fair cost of free labor.

        Coersion is coersion at the end of the day. These welfare reform arguments coming out of the Senate are all just doubling down on the old, sickly notion that being forced to work is better than being given less than the minimum and expected to survive.

        Its slavery. Don’t kid yourselves. The cost is always and forever far too high a price.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 2:01 pm #

      The most likely scenario is that “Basic income” check would be immediately turned around to pay for legalized pot – e.g. goes back to the perfecti who lobbied so hard for legalization of marijuana.

      They even smoked pot on live TV on CNN on the New Year eve through a gas mask! Muzerfukers!!

      • Ol' Scratch January 20, 2018 at 2:36 pm #

        Legalized pot could solve a great many issues that plague the west today, although forcing it on our leaders would likely be at least somewhat problematic. Forcing it on the people who actually pull the strings would no doubt be even harder.

      • Steve Jobs said, hey dad, I need some bread….

        Freed to figure out his life he went down to Haight Ashbury to score some doobie. Later in a haze he sat on a park bench and wrote some poetry.

        Inspired, he hitched a ride to the airport and bought a ticket to India. There, he dropped acid, meditated, and hung out for a while.

        “What a total loser. What a waste of money. Obviously this guy is just a punk pothead scumbag and waste of potential.”

        Minimum income would indeed pay for innumerable bong hits as they certainly do in every college dorm in the United States today.

        Those pot heads went on to create America’s largest wealth generating innovations.

        Even if minimum income failed (and I don’t believe it for a second) you would enable some proportion of people to vastly exceed their potential. And it would be worth it because if you could enable one doctor it would be worth 100 pothead poets. Minimum income says to those potheaded poets… society believes in you because you are society. And poetry, like being a pothead has a sort of self-limiting returns over time. Poets are creative people- after a while words on a page will not be enough. They will employ their creativity in other ways.

        Minimum income is especially important to cultivating creativity. Complex and novel ideas require long consideration, deep thought, careful research, and cycles of trial and error. All of these things represent mental energy that is otherwise squandered in our system by requiring work to survive. The system as it is is set up and calibrated to take ALL available energy at the LOWEST possible expense (naturally). So the system destroys social capital wherever it can and under the status quo, can do so when and wherever it wants.

        Survival and competition is stressful and diminishes human energy and creates depression. Nothing damages happiness like forced labor. Happier people tend to make better choices. Better choices by happier people go farther in fulfilling potential.

        More potential unlocked, more dividends to society.

        But does society really think that we can design a system that reliably cultivates the Steve Jobs people and selects out “Cheech & Chong”? Not this system. The error rate is way too high and not hard to figure out. An equitable system realizes that for every Steve Jobs you have 100 Cheeches, but even then, given enough time and the support- rather than the condemnation- of society, cheeches become assets, too.

        • elysianfield January 20, 2018 at 6:59 pm #

          Debbie,
          You do not have to try to sell the “Minimum Income” concept on its positives…Government will soon have very few choices, and none of them good…it will occur eventually to maintain order.

    • Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 2:39 pm #

      What If Everyone Got a Monthly Check From the Government? janet

      ===========

      Boo, hiss, janet.

      I say nothing concentrates the mind like wondering where the hell the money for your next meal or insulin shot is going to come from. 😉

      • Ol' Scratch January 20, 2018 at 2:53 pm #

        But imagine the ways this would be abused Q., and I’m not even talking primarily about the poor, who would no doubt benefit tremendously from it. Even assuming such an idea could ever pass in the current political environment, it would without a doubt tantamount to full-on “SOCIALISM!!!”, prompting a great many capitalist brains – rich and poor alike – to melt down completely in the process.

        • FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 6:17 pm #

          I am afraid I have some bad new for “capitalist brains” – capitalism in its “romantic” or chemically pure form is dead already, haven’t you heard the news from the Club Of Rome?

          https://www.clubofrome.org/

        • FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm #

          For those who are still in the bunker, the Club of Rome is much older and by far more influential than the Bilderbergs.

  57. Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 2:58 pm #

    Today I had lunch at a McDonald’s: a muffin with egg and sausage (listed on the sign as $4.59) plus a cup of coffee, $1.00 and tax. The tab came to $4.04. I know, whut’s up wit dis, right?

    Every time I go to McDonald’s the tab is always less than the posted price. I ate my meal (quite excellent BTW) and decided this time I’m going to find out why it’s always cheaper. I went back to the counter and said “I’m not complaining but why is the total only $4.04.” The counter man tried to explain in a very heavy Hispanic accent. I didn’t understand but it apparently had something to do with my having had a “balue meal.”

    • tucsonspur January 20, 2018 at 3:28 pm #

      Senior discount?

  58. tucsonspur January 20, 2018 at 3:25 pm #

    It seems that some here could use a dose of Ayn Rand.

    “The word “We” is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.

    What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?

    But I am done with this creed of corruption.

    I am done with the monster of “We,” the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.

    And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride.

    This god, this one word:

    “I.”

    Obama was the embodiment of the false, empty “I”, with his narcissistic ego. He put up a good front by saying things like, “you didn’t build that, you didn’t make that, that’s not your creation, we all did that, etc.”

    Trump. The anti Obama and the antidote to the poison of political correctness and destructive diversity.

    Hail the Great Gladiator of Gotham!

    • Is weed legal in Arizona yet or do your idiot masters still have you all by the choke-chain?

      • Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 6:18 pm #

        Our idiot masters have us by the short and curlys (curlies?).

      • tucsonspur January 20, 2018 at 7:13 pm #

        I dunno, but Flake and McCain had many of us lassoed, maybe getting us ready for some branding iron.

        Kate Gallego is running for mayor of Phoenix, so I’m bound to take some big hits soon. State ain’t goin’ right.

        Gonna Bogart that joint all day long.

    • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 7:10 pm #

      It seems that some here could use a dose of Ayn Rand.

      Rand persuaded an adulterous affair with a disciple of hers exactly as her objectivist bullshit dictated she should as a ‘reasonable decision’. Then she went batshit crazy when her paramour made his ‘reasonable’ decision to start up with a younger woman.

      Then to die alone and hated living on welfare. No thanks.

      • tucsonspur January 20, 2018 at 7:29 pm #

        Yeah, she Was human and her message, though extreme at times, inspired many.

        Out of St. Petersburg. Finca should be proud.

        What a scene in the “Fountainhead” with Gary Cooper (Roark) in the quarry with the jackhammer and Dominique looking on.

  59. janet January 20, 2018 at 5:28 pm #

    “that’s not your creation, we all did that, etc.” –tucsonspur

    Well? Did you build the interstate system? Did Trump build the interstate system? Or did “we” build it? Seems like Obama was right.

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  60. FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 5:33 pm #

    Those pot heads went on to create America’s largest wealth generating innovations.

    So, you say that being high on mind-altering substances equals being high of inspiration and creativity?

    I doubt it.

    • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 7:12 pm #

      Regardless who did it.

      It is all going up in smoke!

  61. FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 5:39 pm #

    How do you know that some Monsanto lab is not working hard on producing genetically-modified marijuana that will inadvertently cause something worse that current opioid crisis – some zombie apocalypse.

    Of course, Monsanto guys, being real gentlemen, after confronting such a dismal outcome will apologize and say “we are sorry”.

    • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 7:26 pm #

      Ahh — the opioid crisis that is preventing patients who need pain killing drugs just to get through the day for things like chronic back pain from getting what they need. That opioid crisis?

      A crisis that is allowing insurance companies to drop coverage for legitimate prescriptions written by non-hack legitimately licenced doctors for covered members with genuine real needs in droves. A crisis where pharmacies then take it on themselves to refuse to fill prescriptions once insurance has denied since insurance companies have taken it on themselves to make medical decisions and are considered as legitimate by the pharmacies.

      A case of anything goes and nothing matters and nobody cares.

      Do you mean that opioid crisis?

  62. janet January 20, 2018 at 6:04 pm #

    “It seems that some here could use a dose of Ayn Rand.” –tucsonspur

    That would be the same Ayn Rand who applied for and received government benefits? Instead of “I” it was “we” who paid for her benefits and entitlements. Obama is still right and right again.

    • Q. Shtik January 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm #

      Do you mean social security?

      • elysianfield January 21, 2018 at 10:56 am #

        Q,
        I believe she was in her 50’s and suffering from lung cancer when she applied for Social Security disability and Medicare.

        • Q. Shtik January 21, 2018 at 11:29 am #

          So I assume she had to pay into SS like everybody else…not the “we” who paid for her benefits and entitlements as mis-characterized by janet.

    • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 7:32 pm #

      The same one whom her parents moved out of Russia because they knew she was such a snooty loose cannon that she would surely be killed. Having a child who chronically pisses people off in times of revolution must be a hard thing.

  63. FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 6:05 pm #

    You’re a Russian defector that somehow managed to “capitalize” on the situation. == Scratch

    I don’t like to think of it in such harsh word as defector, I’d rather use a much more affectionate traveller.

  64. janet January 20, 2018 at 6:14 pm #

    “Taxpayers would save money hand over fist. Businesses on every side would get a shot in the arm (except businesses who refuse to pay fair cost of labor or already depend on semi-dependent coerced labor). Society would turn toward wellness.” –Lib Debbie

    Well said, Debbie. The problem is there are too many people who do not believe taxpayers will save money. They seem to want huge bureaucracies that means-test so only the “deserving” get help.

    These non-believers in Universal Basic Income don’t think it is right to give people money for nothing. You have to “earn” it… unless you are passively getting it given to you through your capital investments, in which case you expended zero effort.

    UBI would apply to Warren Buffet as well as Donald Trump and everyone else. Those opposed to UBI think like this: “There is no such thing as free stuff: somebody is paying for it.” Duh. Yes, of course, but they don’t understand that by instituting UBI the costs would be so much less that they would end up paying less than they are now paying.

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    • janet January 20, 2018 at 6:17 pm #

      The idea of universal basic income is today backed by a right-wing think tank. The Adam Smith Institute says the Government should look at paying everyone in the country a flat wage regardless of whether they are in work. It says governments risk a populist backlash if jobs are replaced by machines and robots and people are left without money or employment.

      A report last year warned that 4million private sector jobs in the UK could be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence (AI) in the next ten years. Tory government crushes calls for a Universal Basic Income when robots take our jobs

      “Basic Income could help secure popular support for the changes that automation and globalisation will bring, while cash transfers allow the unemployed to retain the dignity of personal choice,” the report says.

      • Walter B January 20, 2018 at 7:51 pm #

        First of all Jan, anyone that thinks that the US government can operate ANY kind of system of income or finance HAS to be delusional. The US government is totally incapable of dealing with finances in any productive way and the state of decay of this nation’s system is ALL the evidence I need to present. A great example is the legalization of MJ that New Jersey will very soon enact. The lying political scum tout an “income” of $300M from taxation and the crowd goes wild! They then turn it over to guys like me who are charged with the task of setting up what has to be set up to operate this new system. What the data we have is showing us right now is that after we establish all of the bureaus, agencies, field ops, certification and regulation requirements to deal with legal pot distribution, sales, use and “enforcement”, we will be spending around $800M to deal with the $300M “income”. For those of you that no not understand math or what I just said really means, it is going to cost us far more to do it than we will bring in, period. Trenton plans to deal with this buy “leveraging”, or borrowing money from Wall Street to “fund” the “start up” operation using the “income” as payment on the debt. Recipe for disaster from the number one worst run state in the union.

        The idea of Guaranteed Income is a great idea at least as far as it would cover government mandates. If the government can make it a law that a family of four HAS to buy $15K a year medical insurance then the least the bastards can do is guarantee that they can make enough income to cover the mandated purchases, since jobs cannot be mandated apparently. Yes, this will create a class of “professional” couch potato/fornicators, a class of working slobs, a class of managing superiors and a class of wealthy ruling elites, but that’s pretty much what we have now anyway, isn’t it? I believe that the only question that remains is how this would all be financed and here is where I would say we could make a huge change for the better. Taxation of the classes can never be fair because “corporations are people too”, and they and the wealthy elite can afford to own more politicians than any working class could every pay for so taxation is really not the answer IMHO. Since the government spends many more times more cash than they take in every year anyway, I really do not see the purpose of taxation (besides keeping the workers in line) so why not eliminate it altogether? That’s right, jus print the shit up as quickly as they need it and hand it out, I mean, isn’t that what they have been doing for decades now anyway? And it’s working right? I mean we haven’t collapsed or anything have we? And some say we never will, so print damn you, PRINT!. That is your answer. .

        • There could be a new token redeemable 1:1 on the dollar: The rent token. Or the food token. Food stamps, Rent scrips, Monopoly money. Whatever. Bitcoin. But in the end the easiest thing to do is just give the minimum amount in dollars. Because it will be cheaper than the existing system in the long run. And common currency is common courtesy. We give people nontransferable scrip called a “food stamp” and it is nothing but a badge of shame we make people who won’t or can’t work to afford the minimums necessary to survive in some decent fashion. Its the wrong currency, and creates direst costs far more than the dollar value when you add up all the (vast) apparatus of subsidies that it represents to food producers, processors, distributors, and retailers, and then tally up all the negatives therein.

          In the short run of establishing Minimum Income, all kinds of weird effects will occur requiring some amendment.

          People will, with cash in hand have to figure out whether to buy unnecessary things or necessary food (and the attendant responsibility of all our civic and religious institutions… oh dear… they’ll have to get up off their asses and help the poor unfortunates.)

          Pissed off apartment owners will be writing angry Ayn Rand filled emails to their senators demanding to charge whatever they want for their tenants.

          But for most people life will go on as usual. And for those that need it, life will start feeling like it is worth living… which will feel like a life worth contributing to. Its not going to change overnight. It might take a generation to unwind all the damage.

      • K-Dog January 20, 2018 at 7:57 pm #

        No surprise. If the conservative class can benefit from a universal basic income they will advocate for it. It is a way to enslave. Give free money with one hand and take it away in rents of all kinds with the other. Conservatives are of the owner class or their wanna-bees, so of course they are for it.

        If the government would come up with ways to make sure that the basic needs of all are met without being so stupid as to give away free money I’m all for it.

        Free money is a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Useless liniment over a festering wound, free money dissipates in rent and would fuel inflation. The poor have to rent or, guess what, they would not be poor. The owner class stays where it is as being owners they set the rents and protect themselves from the inflation which would devastate the less affluent.

        If everybody who lives in an apartment were given free money, $500 a month tomorrow and everyone knew it. All apartment rents would then be up $500 an month by the end of the week. Except where there was rent control. In such a scenario two classes of people would benefit. It is an exercise for the reader to figure out who these classes are.

        • I see what you are saying.

          All that is is just a consequence of a change in some aspect of the entire financial and economic system.

          The effects would be minimal in my estimation because the effects you anticipate are already raging in the system:

          – A real estate bubble

          – Widespread collusion between local governments, developers

          – civic development restricting certain kinds of development (64 lot subdivisions)

          – Large population of illegal and non-citizen residents reducing supply, increasing demand

          – Inflation

          How minimum income addresses each one has short and long term implications

          As I’ve said before the ‘reset’ button needs to be punched, inflation be damned. Its gonna be messy.

        • tucsonspur January 21, 2018 at 1:04 am #

          K-Dog is right on.

          Universal? Doesn’t that mean even the wealthy get money?

          Your response is gobbledygook. Great and Infernal Toothlessness.

          Obviously there are pro sides to the discussion, but here’s just one con:

          UBI is too expensive. Y Combinator, a startup incubator, is going to run a UBI trial in Oakland, California, providing individual participants with $1,000-$2,000 a month. [22] A $2,000 a month per head of household UBI would cost an estimated $2.275 trillion annually, says Marc Joffe, MBA, MPA, Director of Policy Research at the California Policy Center. [23] Some of this cost could be offset by eliminating federal, state, and local assistance programs; however, by Joffe’s calculation, “these offsets total only $810 billion… [leaving] a net budgetary cost of over $1.4 trillion for a universal basic income program.” [23]

          • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 3:41 am #

            a startup incubator, is going to run a UBI trial in Oakland

            How do I enroll? Could I do telecommuting?

          • Q. Shtik January 21, 2018 at 7:14 am #

            By my calculation your figures would mean that Oakland has nearly 94.8 million heads of households.

            Each HofH would be getting $24,000 per year

            $2.275T / 24,000 = 94,791,667

            Something doesn’t sound right.

          • elysianfield January 21, 2018 at 11:23 am #

            Oakland has always been an incubator for social experiments…since the early 60’s. Oakland received the first computer terminals in police vehicles, first probably in the world. They also, pre-section 8, had the first dispersal of welfare recipients into middle class neighborhoods, small 6 unit apartments, called Turnkeys…..many other Federal programs were evident in Oakland…the PD received significant funding from these programs.

          • tucsonspur January 21, 2018 at 2:07 pm #

            My guess is that the trial is in Oakland, but he extended the numbers nationally.

            95 million, guessing again, sounds about right for national recipients?

  65. FincaInTheMountains January 20, 2018 at 7:07 pm #

    I’m getting a sneaky suspicion that Dems shut down the government to create a diversion from the House FISA Intel memo.

    My New York source just came back from vacation, should get in touch soon.

    • Pucker January 20, 2018 at 10:50 pm #

      “Ex-Squeeze Me!” What Intel Memo?

      • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 3:31 am #

        What planet are you on currently? How’s the weather up there?

        It’s just a small 4-pager outlining how the upper brass of the FBI and DOJ conspired to create a false evidence presented to the FISA court to obtain eavesdropping warrant against the Trump’s election campaign.

        Remember Trump’s famous tweet regarding having his wires tapped?

    • Elrond Hubbard January 21, 2018 at 11:29 am #

      Here’s an article about it — not about the FISA memo itself, but about (a) the Republican messaging about it, and (b) the boundless hypocrisy of that messaging.

      TL;DR — If the Obama administration did indeed use warrantless surveillance powers to spy on the Trump campaign and transition, that is indeed a grave abuse of government power for partisan purposes. But it’s a power the present administration has as well, and in fact both parties have just voted together to renew and extend that power.

      The Republicans could easily prove they are serious about protecting Americans’ privacy, by releasing the memo and the evidence behind the memo. If they don’t do that, their complains about it nothing but noise and empty grandstanding — they prove they are only interested in partisan advantage, not in protecting the American people against tyranny (a tyranny that they wholeheartedly participate in).

      The headline:

      Republicans Have Four Easy Ways to #ReleaseTheMemo — and the Evidence for It. Not Doing So Will Prove Them to Be Shameless Frauds.

      https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/republicans-have-four-easy-ways-to-releasethememo-and-the-evidence-for-it-not-doing-so-will-prove-them-to-be-shameless-frauds/

      Read it in full.

      • K-Dog January 21, 2018 at 12:23 pm #

        “The rhetoric issuing from GOP members who read the memo is notably extreme. North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called the memo “troubling” and “shocking” and said, “Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.” GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania stated: “You think about, ‘Is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is.”

        Even if a few details of surveillance do come out there will be no mention of electronic harassment. Going that far won’t be necessary so sober Joe Six Packs will still not know that some dogs are not just looked at but, electronically buggered. Going to use a credit card and finding them all cancelled does not have to happen only in the movies. Then all you have is green paper and no way to get more. These methods are authorized to maintain program security.

        All the Republicans will do is reveal looking-at details. If that!

      • outsider January 21, 2018 at 2:35 pm #

        Thank you, Elrond, for posting that article by Glenn Greenwood. I take seriously anything coming from Greenwood’s pen. The GOP must either have the goods or they have stuck both feet in a bucket of quicksand. This is really Trump’s big chance to drive a stake into the heart of his accusers and put an end to Robert Mueller’s Russia witch hunt. I can see zero reason why the President would not release it this coming week, along with all supporting documentation – IF he has nothing to hide. In fact, if he fails to do so, why would his base continue to stick with him?

    • outsider January 21, 2018 at 2:43 pm #

      That makes perfect sense, Fincaln. The republicans always acknowledge that the dems are better street fighters. Every time there is a govt shutdown, the media always manages to convince the masses that it is the GOP’s fault.

  66. Pucker January 20, 2018 at 10:14 pm #

    “I’m With Her!”

    “The Carthaginians in the legend are portrayed as treacherous and deceitful practitioners of doublespeak. Like their Phoenician cousins, they are overly controlled by women and liable to suffer from such dangerous feminine traits as hysteria and envy. They are also cruel and unhealthily obsessed with death, as well as sexually lascivious and with an overdeveloped love of wealth.”

    Richard Miles
    Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization

  67. Pucker January 20, 2018 at 11:00 pm #

    The pervasive Hysteria might be a consequence of the on-going Pussification of American society?

    “The Carthaginians in the legend are portrayed as treacherous and deceitful practitioners of doublespeak. Like their Phoenician cousins, they are overly controlled by women and liable to suffer from such dangerous feminine traits as hysteria and envy. They are also cruel and unhealthily obsessed with death, as well as sexually lascivious and with an overdeveloped love of wealth.”

    Richard Miles
    Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization

    • K-Dog January 21, 2018 at 12:10 pm #

      After a two-year siege of Carthage in the third Punic war, Scipio Aemilianus set the city alight, and for six days and nights his death squads ranged the streets slaughtering men, women and children who had survived the blaze, with teams rotated to maximise efficiency.

  68. Pucker January 21, 2018 at 12:02 am #

    What do you “Bad Dudes” think of the practice of “Molk”, sacrificing one’s first born to appease the gods? This is basically the function of Planned Parenthood, right?

    • Pucker January 21, 2018 at 12:07 am #

      Wasn’t it alleged that Obama’s twin brother was “Molked” by his African father?

  69. Pucker January 21, 2018 at 12:14 am #

    Do they practice “Molk” child sacrifice in Hollywood and Washington, DC?

    “Nevertheless, a number of ancient Greek references to the Carthaginian practice of child sacrifice have survived. 49” Richard Miles
    Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization

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  70. janet January 21, 2018 at 1:03 am #

    Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) tore into President Trump on the Senate floor Saturday, calling him a “five-deferment draft dodger” and slamming him for his comments toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

    “Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm’s way right now, watching him, looking for their commander in chief to show leadership, rather than [trying] to deflect blame?” Duckworth said. “Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?”

    “I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible,” she continued. “Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do — and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”
    “And I have a message for cadet bone spurs: If you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting Kim Jong Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops, and millions of innocent civilians, in danger.”

    Duckworth, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, lost both of her legs when a rocket-propelled grenade shot down the helicopter she was piloting over Iraq in 2004.

  71. janet January 21, 2018 at 1:41 am #

    LOOKS LIKE A VERY LONG SHUTDOWN

    “Negotiating with Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O” –Chuck Schumer

    “Republicans thought they could support Trump and get him to sign whatever they sent him. In the real world, when you need both parties to reach agreement and the president has no bottom line, you have a complete breakdown in governance. When the president is surrounded by a cadre of advisers whose policies sound straight out of the white nationalist handbook you may face a very long shutdown.” –Jennifer Rubin, Right Turn blog

  72. tucsonspur January 21, 2018 at 1:42 am #

    Obama doesn’t deserve a medal. He served in Chicago. But got no purple heart.

    He organized the community or tried to, and while doing so avoided most of the gunfire, since he was up and about during the day and often inside. During his presidency, he allowed the youth of Chicago to be endlessly slaughtered.

    Barack, “the black butcher”, Obama.

    Here’s the Harvard hipster, Hillary tripster:

    “And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honourable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it’s not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”

    “You know?”

    The blackamoor’s barrage. The bullshit of Barack.

    • janet January 21, 2018 at 3:52 am #

      Yeah, it was different for Trump. Went to military academy, had a chance to serve during active conflict, and decided to take five draft dodging deferments. Would have never been a good soldier anyway, what with the silver spoon in his mouth. He is a piss-poor commander in chief. His motto is Semper Fi! to me, myself, and mine.

      • Q. Shtik January 21, 2018 at 1:52 pm #

        When you were Asoka and you were black YOU simply ran off to Canada. Bet you thought I forgot.

        • janet January 21, 2018 at 6:17 pm #

          Who is Asoka??

    • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 4:06 am #

      What people do not understand is that Barack Obama controlled not more than 25% of Executive Branch – the rest was controlled by Hillary’s Flying Monkeys.

      Partially it was due to the deal brokered by Diane Feinstein (the leader of US White Project – the White Witch) in 2008 before Democratic Convention of separation of powers in the future Obama Administration between Barack and Hillary – Barack got to run the internal policy while Bastinda the Great and Terrible got to run the foreign policy.

      But of course you can’t strike a deal with the Black Project leadership that they wouldn’t go bad on at their earliest convenience.

      Barack even didn’t control his and his family security detail:

      Armed contractor with arrest record was on elevator with Obama
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/armed-former-convict-was-on-elevator-with-obama-in-atlanta/2014/09/30/76d7da24-48e3-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html

      Which I think lead to the fact that on June 2016 Hillary overthrew Obama, probably taking his entire family hostage.

  73. janet January 21, 2018 at 3:26 am #

    DACA would not be an issue if Trump had not rescinded Obama’s regulations. Trump made DACA an issue.

    CHIP funding expired in October, 2017. The Republicans have had three months to pass funding for that program. Yet no legislation has been passed to fund this critical program.

    Senator Claire McCaskill (D. Mo) offered a resolution to continue payments to our military Friday night should the government shut down. Majority Leader McConnell would not even consider it.

    Yes, DACA does not become a crisis until March, but why should the Democrats trust that Trump and the Republicans would be willing to support a solution then. Support for DACA or Dreamers is not just supported by Democrats, but by the vast majority of the American people. Legalize them now!

  74. pequiste January 21, 2018 at 6:55 am #

    As it should now be apparent to all but the most Xanax addled prole out in TeeVee land that the entity known as Congress is incapable of doing its job viz. can’t even pay the bills; time to fire all of them!

    Yes, a recall of all 535 members of the national legislature and select all new politicians to finish out the term.

    Anyone, it would seem, could do a better job of making believe the country’s business is being attended to. Anyone,

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    • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 9:41 am #

      Just give’em some time, I think the Dems are negotiating the terms of surrender.

  75. akmofo January 21, 2018 at 9:52 am #

    @realDonaldTrump
    Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked. If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.’s!
    ==

    The reactions to the President’s twit on Twitter are uniformly negative. Of course they are also uniformly rigged. Twitter’s algorithms automatically promote commie collectivist imperialist anti nationalist leftist propaganda and demotes and hides nationalist views. Same for the Google gulag commies and the Facebook asswipe commissars.

    If I were the President I would push to nationalize these monopolies and declare them national utilities to be managed accordingly. Either that, or fine them heavily for their monopolistic positions and give the proceeds to up and coming competitors.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 9:58 am #

      What’s with that “collectivist” obsession? Did I miss anything important?

      I am a collectivist individual.

      • akmofo January 21, 2018 at 10:57 am #

        Collectivism is just another name for big government. Since all government is really gov mafia, I’m opposed to it. The only place where collectivism worked is on the Kibbutz, and even there is was only a partial success, if at all.

        Collectivism, communism, socialism, federalism, imperialism, monarchism, theocratism, fascism, corporatism, etc., it’s all same shit. A central authority that concentrates power and wealth to its bureaucracy and those connected to the bureaucracy. Really it’s nothing but an ideological cover for theft and slavery.

        • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 1:12 pm #

          We should revisit that issue when you will be closer to your retirement and honorary responsibility looking after your grandkids.

          • akmofo January 21, 2018 at 1:53 pm #

            If it wasn’t for social security payments the gov mafia wouldn’t be in such a hurry to kill us with inflation with pharma drugs poisons with corporate agri-chemicals with poison phoods, etc.

            When I reach retirement age (I’m already retired) I would expect my kids and grandkids to take care of me — not the gov mafia. Anyone trusting in the gov mafia in any capacity is an ignorant fool.

            (Phood is shit marketed as food).

  76. FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 1:05 pm #

    The state funding has been terminated just on the anniversary of Trump’s rule, who does not even hide his satisfaction with this circumstance.

    The fact is that US borrow money from themselves (print them) and use this money to finance government activities, but each time they put the limit to borrowing, thus making themselves each time to negotiate a new limit and something else, usually something most important at the time.

    On the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, the most important undoubtedly is the cessation of the systematic sabotage of his presidency, but the Democrats, apparently counting on the Clintonoids in the Republican Party, want to conclude with the Republicans a deal that allows them to continue going after Trump, and US president in drafting an agreement on a new borrowing limit usually plays the role of a mediator between Democrats and Republicans, since this is obviously a nationwide problem and those who refuse to solve it are slowly committing a political suicide, but now thanks to the persecution of the President by the establishment, he is unable to fulfill this function, and this makes it even more evident the destructive role that Hillary Clinton and her flying monkeys played in the crisis of the US political system.

    With this event, another event harmonizes wonderfully: the secret memorandum of the chairman of the House intelligence committee Devin Nunes, with which a number of prominent figures of the Republican Party got acquainted. They partially disclosed the contents of this memorandum, expressing their outrage at the abuses of power that Hillary Clinton allowed herself on behalf of President Obama to sabotage the presidency of a gentleman from Brooklyn Donald Trump.

    After that, in various social networks the hashtag “release the memo” began to spread like a wildfire and after hit count went to tens of millions, Democrats found nothing better to explain the popularity of this hashtag by the intervention of Russian intelligence.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2018-01-19/in-fight-over-russia-memo-republicans-have-unusual-ally

    Among other news, more or less sober assessments of the military-strategic balance, in particular, an assessment of the prospects for equipping 252 available Russian MIG-31 with new electronics, the “unimaginable” capabilities of the S-400 and S-500 to shoot down “invisible” F-22, F-35 and B-2, and “Pantsir” to shoot down drones, attacking in swarms.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/3e97fdeb-ff91-3804-9a8f-5aa2bae84eaf/ss_russia-built-a-mach-3-fighter.html

    http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/could-russias-s-400-do-the-unkthinkable-kill-f-22-f-35-or-b-24114

    http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-just-might-have-the-perfect-weapon-crush-swarm-24144

  77. BackRowHeckler January 21, 2018 at 2:23 pm #

    ” … screaming out of the attic like Norman Bates mother …”

    Now that’ funny!!!

    brh

    • tucsonspur January 21, 2018 at 2:51 pm #

      I thought she was dead.

      • elysianfield January 21, 2018 at 6:10 pm #

        IXNAY!

        Don’t be a spoiler and tell them that Norman Bates was his dead mother in drag….

  78. volodya January 21, 2018 at 3:49 pm #

    Dog, Sprawl, Eoin, thank y’all for the compliment.

    Eoin, your writing sounds familiar but I can’t put my finger on it. Did you comment here on Kunstler’s blog under another moniker?

    I’ve never read that Jack London book (my bad) but I know the gist of it and I know what you’re saying (Ok, I’ll mosey on down to the library and get a copy).

    The book that shook my liver was Orwell’s 1984 and the more time goes by the more it looks relevant. The irony is that we willingly adopt Big Brother-ist tools of mass surveillance including posting commentary on the ‘net.

    I’ll bet you already know of UK government plans to install surveillance cameras in a whole bunch of private residences to make sure people are behaving. The natural reaction from law enforcement and domestic spy agencies would be that if you aren’t doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. Which is what one American official said.

    Privacy, the young ‘uns bray, get OVER it. Which makes me wonder how many are paid directly or indirectly (for example, by virtue of employment in the tech sector) to bray it. The way I see it the more access the government has to personal communications and your personal associations, the easier it is to compile arrest lists. What makes somebody arrestable? The wrong political affiliation for example. Or the wrong attitude on a particular issue. Or maybe not arrestable but harrassable and fire-able from your job. Like that guy that got turfed from google because his political views didn’t square with approved cant.

    Government muscle is mis-used all the time, for example, it can be and is used to white-wash gross malfeasance as in the case of Comey’s investigation of the Clinton email servers or be used as a cover for a de-facto coup as in the case of the Mueller investigations. Or be used to cover up a de-facto coup as in the case of the Warren Commission. You know, nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.

    Scratch, I know what you’re saying about posting right under the last comment in a thread. I guess it’s a matter of how you like it.

    McDonalds really improved their coffee. The shit they used to serve was as bad as the worst work-place bilge.

  79. volodya January 21, 2018 at 4:07 pm #

    Eoin, as far as the erasure of history goes, I’ve read comments from what nowadays passes for Left-wing intelligentsia saying that the white picket fence 1950s never existed. So therefore, if it never existed, the gripe about the prosperity that once was and is no more cannot be valid if the prosperity never was in the first place.

    The unfortunate part for the historical revisionist is that guys like me remember what it was like. Dad had a job (an hourly wage earner job no less) and mom stayed home and took care of everyone. People like us were the forerunners of the much despised deplorables, the clingers to guns and religion, the folk, whose aspirations to some kind of work that enables a guy to support a family without the prospect of imminent homelessness, that are now seen by the oligarchs and their clerisy in terms of “who the fuck do these people think they are?”

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    • janet January 21, 2018 at 5:22 pm #

      ” People like us were the forerunners of the much despised deplorables, the clingers to guns and religion…” –volodya

      Prosperity in the 1950’s? Your dad had a good job? 100 to 1 your dad was white. If you were Black and a woman in the 1950s things were not so rosy. Things are much better today for Black women.

      People like you voted for the Republicans who shipped the factories to China, without any care for American workers. People like you voted for Reagan and opposed unions who fought against management shutting down American factories, unions who fought for better wages and better working conditions for workers.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 6:52 pm #

        Bottom line, the take home pay Volodya’s dad had in the 50s is now shared with him by 2 blacks, 3 latin women, a dozen haitians and 300 chinese.

  80. Q. Shtik January 21, 2018 at 5:52 pm #

    Where’s Janos? His shift started at 2PM.

    • janet January 21, 2018 at 6:04 pm #

      Janos is a Patriots fan. He is savoring the victory.

  81. janet January 21, 2018 at 6:10 pm #

    “Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option)” –akmofo

    Yeah, the Democrats would love that. They will shortly be back in control of Congress and their agenda would only need 51%. They would ride roughshod over the Republicans.

    Instead of the nuclear option the shutdown negotiations need to slide toward common ground. But instead, Trump has again escalated partisan rancor. His latest nuclear option suggestion would indicate not only the ultimate failure in negotiation, but fundamentally alter the way the country is governed… to the favor of the Democrats. But then Trump was a Democrat before he was a Republican. Trump invited Bill and Hillary to weddings!

    • akmofo January 21, 2018 at 8:00 pm #

      Janet, your commies don’t have anywhere the votes they need to win elections. Once their mass voter fraud is exposed and their mafia apparatchiks are in jail on fraud, racketing, espionage, and pedophilia charges, it’s pretty much over for them. Trump would be a fool to give them any political breathing space. He needs to press them to the wall and press the trigger on the legal nail gun to their foreheads.

  82. FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 6:39 pm #

    Where’s Janos? == Q

    1975. USSR. Sverdlovsk.

    The guy walks into a bakery.

    — Excuse me, don’t you have any meat?

    — Sorry, wrong store – we don’t have any bread. That’s the store across the street that doesn’t have any meat.

    Same Year, Communist Party meeting at the local factory.

    The Chair – Dear Comrades, do you have any questions? Please you, comrade Janos.

    Comrade Janos – What happened to the milk in the dairy stores? There ain’t any.

    The Chair: Comrade Janos, thank you for your question, we’ll investigate and provide you with a comprehensive answer.

    A week later. Another meeting.

    The Chair: Dear Comrades, do you have any questions? Please you, comrade Shtik.

    Q.Shtik: Ehrr, I am not too interested what happened to the milk, but where is Janos?

    • Janos Skorenzy January 21, 2018 at 7:05 pm #

      Polish Russian joke: Russian soldiers were out on the street to enforce a 12:00 am curfew. At 11:45 they saw a Pole walking quickly on the other side of the street. One of the Russian soldiers shot him in the back. The other one exclaimed, “Why did you shoot him? It’s not 12:00 yet. The first answered, “I know where he lives. He wasn’t going to make it.”

      Perhaps Janos will be put into the ground as fertilizer – and thus be in the milk, the meat, and yea – all things. I mean if Muslims can put English girls into their Kebabs, how is this a stretch?

    • akmofo January 22, 2018 at 9:32 am #

      Lucky Q didn’t ask about the guy who criticized Castro.

  83. ozone January 21, 2018 at 6:52 pm #

    Now listen up, you partisan pukes that infest the CFN blog-space (that would be damn near *all*):
    The Law is now what the NSA *says* is the Law, not any bullshit handed down as precedent in the vaunted tomes of The Supreme Court of the United States. The Constitution used to be a good idea, but…
    That’s all you need to know now, so don’t trust anyone who represents “lawful authority”, as the APPLICATION of the law is not under the aegis of the Dept. of Justice.

    There no longer is anything like justice in the United States of America, and if you think there is, you’re an apathetic dupe that deserves the horrors to come.

    People get ready…. and I don’t mean for a stinkin’ train to the Promised Land.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 21, 2018 at 6:59 pm #

      You think you have it rough – look at UK, they even do not have a written Constitution(!), and still doing quite nicely.

  84. wm5135 January 21, 2018 at 6:53 pm #

    volodya January 21, 2018 at 3:49 pm #
    “The book that shook my liver was Orwell’s 1984”

    Fahrenheit 451, everytime I smell kerosene I shiver.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 21, 2018 at 7:08 pm #

      I want to be a Fireman. I like witches too, not just books.

      • San Jose January 21, 2018 at 8:20 pm #

        I endured another Sunday at the Presbyloopian church. Let me start by saying that Trump needs to go to charm school and edit his remarks.

        Nevertheless it was amusing to hear a sermon based entirely on Trumps “shithole” remark–without saying “shit.”

        I am sick of the endless virtue signaling at church. I daresay no one at church has actually spent time in a shithole country. I myself would never go to a hygienically-impaired location. (Except for a brief stop in Croatia when my then-teenage daughter encountered a public bathroom with a hole in the floor for shitting in. “I’m going back to the cruise ship NOW–to hell with Dubrovnik!” she whined.

        Jen in San Jose

        • janet January 21, 2018 at 8:39 pm #

          “I am sick of the endless virtue signaling at church.” –Jen

          Jen, I think I might be able to help. I know some people. Just let me know who it is who is forcing you to go to church.

        • MrTibbs January 21, 2018 at 8:44 pm #

          Jen, I am in San Jose and happy to help.

          -T

        • Janos Skorenzy January 21, 2018 at 8:47 pm #

          You’re the Witch now, to “them”!

          • janet January 21, 2018 at 10:04 pm #

            Witches were burned at the stake. They are not ostracizing Jen; they are not threatening her with death. Jen is the one who is rejecting them and publicly lamenting the fact that her church is now following Christ’s example by becoming a welcoming congregation. Jen is the one out of line and out of step with the teachings of Christ. Virtue signaling has nothing to do with it.

        • beantownbill. January 21, 2018 at 9:06 pm #

          I experienced the same thing when I was in Italy – hole in the ground in the public restrooms. Yecch!

          • beantownbill. January 21, 2018 at 9:06 pm #

            But as a qualifier, I love Italy.

        • Q. Shtik January 21, 2018 at 9:30 pm #

          a brief stop in Croatia when my then-teenage daughter encountered a public bathroom with a hole in the floor for shitting in. – San Jose Jen

          ===========

          This is my cue to tell a favorite anecdote.

          It was the summer of 1959. I had just finished my freshman year of college. Our family took a trip to Europe. It was our first day. We were in Paris. On our way back to the hotel in a taxi I had to go sooo bad my green eyes turned brown and my back teeth were floating. I spotted a restaurant and told the driver to pull over. I dashed inside, frantic to find the rest room. I found it and as I entered a woman exited. I was taken aback but stepped into one of two stalls. There was a hole in the floor…basically an open sewer pipe with a kind of funnel shaped opening. I quickly figured out that I was supposed to pull down my pants and back over this hole and pray that my aim was good. And then turn around and wash it all down with a powerful stream of pee. I was so glad that I did not shit myself that I quickly got over the whole traumatic experience.

          • elysianfield January 22, 2018 at 11:26 am #

            ” I was so glad that I did not shit myself that I quickly got over the whole traumatic experience.”

            Q,
            At our age, the issue is always in doubt….

        • BackRowHeckler January 21, 2018 at 9:32 pm #

          Talk about Virtue Signalling, my (former) UCC church still has gay pride flag hanging out front from when homosexual marriage became legal.

          brh

          • janet January 21, 2018 at 10:10 pm #

            Your church is now following Christ’s example by becoming a welcoming congregation. You rejected your church. You are the one out of line and out of step with the teachings of Christ. Virtue signaling has nothing to do with it.

          • San Jose January 22, 2018 at 12:52 am #

            BRH, my church has had the rainbow flag flying for at least 20 years. Back in the days after 9/11 I asked our pastors if we could perhaps hang an American flag up next to the gay flag. (I knew of course, that the answer would be “no”, but I had to ask for the fun of it!) Observing smug behavior is a hobby of mine–and I’m guilty of being smug myself.

            Jen in San Jose

  85. Janos Skorenzy January 21, 2018 at 8:51 pm #

    The News just gushed that Amazon is creating “Fulfillment Center Boomtowns” all over America. But “it’s not a silver bullet” since automation is scheduled to take most of these jobs as soon as is profitable.

    Well then! Good news? Or sugar coated shit?

    • BackRowHeckler January 21, 2018 at 9:29 pm #

      I doubt if this amazon phenomena will last much longer. What a hoax it is! One extended period of disrupted petroleum deliveries, and a spike in gasoline and diesel prices, should put paid to those grifters.

      brh

  86. BackRowHeckler January 21, 2018 at 9:17 pm #

    Big news here is the ‘Woman’s March’ in Hartford. The turnout was quite good. If you can believe the signs that were being displayed it seems to have morphed into a ‘march for ‘LBGTQ Rights’ and ‘Immigrant Rights’ more than anything else. But ‘Me Too’ signs were prominent too, that has to be taken into account as well. The women I know for sure who attended this revolutionary event were friends of my stepdaughter, both wives of local doctors, very well to do. They live in near mansions, and I’m not sure if they car pooled into Hartford in one Mercedes, or they drove in separate individual Mercedes. The important thing is the ladies came home safe, the sisterhood is strengthened, a good time was had by all.

    Speaking of the ladies, closer to home, big female bruhaha blew up without warning like a summer storm when several nieces and a daughter treated themselves to a day spa, on Friday … without telling 3 or 4 other other nieces and daughters. Word got out and feelings were hurt, as you can well imagine. Hot e mails, texts, facebook posts, and phone calls were made back and forth. Tempers flared and i heard imprecations in Spanish, Castilian, Basque and English. It was pretty hot for awhile, but it must have cooled down already because today all of them piled into 2 cars and headed to a mall about 50 miles south of here, on the Sound, for lunch and shopping.

    brh

  87. MrTibbs January 21, 2018 at 10:04 pm #

    ____________________________

    War Games.

    DARK WEB Brit teen hacker posed as CIA boss to access secret military files – and sent lewd rape threats to Homeland Security chief

    Kane Gamble, 18, hacked into John Brennan’s emails, rang his home and took control of his wife’s iPad, a court heard.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/578o0kd9rxysf7v/war%20games.pdf?dl=0

    -T
    _____________________________

  88. BackRowHeckler January 21, 2018 at 11:24 pm #

    Hey, are EBT cards still working?

    If not I’ll be getting out of Dodge tonite a little early.

    We’ve got a situation here in CT. After the hurricane in Puerto Rico — which was Trumps fault — with great fanfare the Dem pols extended a hearty invitation to all beleagured island residents to come here, to Connecticut, and join the 600,000 already extant. Well, tens of thousands showed up. Promises were made, but now there’s no money to keep those promises. We were in dire straits already. Hungry eyes are turning toward the bounty of the suburbs and rural areas, which are still somewhat civilized, and the citizens self reliant. Its not clear how this problem is going to be resolved. Meanwhile, more migrants are still arriving, not only from Puerto Rico, but from the entire 3rd world. The gov. makes a big show of welcoming them with open arms. Somethings gotta give, maybe civilization itself.

    brh

  89. MrTibbs January 22, 2018 at 1:11 am #

    And another developing story on impoliteness:
    “FBI loses 5 months of text messages between anti-Trump agents.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-21/fbi-loses-five-months-text-messages-between-anti-trump-agents-blames-glitch

    -T

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  90. FincaInTheMountains January 22, 2018 at 1:33 am #

    The amazing story behind the whole “Trump-Russian” collusion or how NSA, Admiral Rogers and President Obama saved the Jeffersonian Democracy in the last days of Obama’s administration

    WARNING: Only for those who are still capable of critical reasoning:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuhI7zeanQg

    Finca has always maintained that NSA was on the Trump’s side.

  91. FincaInTheMountains March 30, 2018 at 12:59 pm #

    US patent 3651417

    Google it, smart ass.

  92. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:46 am #

    I really have a hard time understanding the current situation.

    But no matter how little I understand, it’s still an order of magnitude greater than what the so-called experts understand. Yesterday watched Russian TV Solovyov talk show – compete horror! Seems like smart people, but spewing complete nonsense. Fierce anti-Trump propaganda, and if Hillary uses them in the dark as useful idiots, then taking into account their profession, it’s even worse than if she just bought them.

    The agent can be flipped, the idiot is not!

    It is almost impossible to make a sane analysis of changes in the military-strategic balance, including because the Americans, for reasons unknown to me, perceive the threat of war with Russia in a purely humorous tones.

    So, I have already written many times that precisely because Western colored projects are much closer to each other than to Orthodox Russia, inner struggles tend to be much more fierce than the joint struggle against another civilization.

    Since Cain and Abel, it is known that there is no greater hatred than hatred between brothers. In particular, it is clear that the Skripal case in London and the Syrian adventure are provocations of the Western Black Project against Trump, who started reforms that are throwing the Western Black Project back to March-April 1945, when Nazi Germany was already in ruins, and at the head of the power, rapidly turning into a nuclear monopoly, stood Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who at that time was more red than Joseph Stalin.

    And if this is not taken into account, then the inevitable conclusion is that Donald Trump is crazy, as Soloviev’s experts demonstrated yesterday, and the first this thought was formulated by Hillary Clinton in order not to participate in the televised debate on foreign policy proposed by Donald Trump just after he won the Republican primaries.

    Let’s consider for example yesterday’s tweet:

    Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?

    First of all, “worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War” means worse than during the Caribbean crisis, or again Trump is flying over the Cuckoo’s nest.

    Secondly, in my opinion here with electronic black on electronic white it says that hostile actions towards Russia, in particular the previous tweet about new and smart missiles ready to fly to Damascus, are being undertaken under the pressure of a Black Project.

    But tweet about helping the Russian economy means the principled consent of Trump to discuss the issue of compensation to Russia for the artistry of Hillary Clinton, which was an act of war, and such compensation is called reparations. And Putin’s press secretary Peskov’s statement that Russia “does not support Twitter diplomacy” means confirmation that the message that one should not pay attention to tweets about new and smart missiles ready to fly to Syria has been received and taken into consideration.

    If anybody, Russia knows what is Donald Trump’s “Twitter-diplomacy”, which arose when the American media in early 2017 openly refused to bring to the American people the views of the president, in particular, the opinion about the need to have good relations with Russia and also the opinion that the Mueller’s investigation is in fact a McCarthyism and a witch hunt.

    And I understand all of the foregoing, what I do not understand why, for example, Mike Pompeo, who just talked with Russian Senator Naryshkin after successfully cleansing the CIA from the most malignant Clintonoids, “accidentally” revealed during his confirmation hearings in the Congress that about 200 Russians were killed by the US Army two weeks ago in eastern Syria, where the United States is based on an agreement with Russia to jointly fight ISIS.

    Did he really not know about the campaign the Kremlin had undertaken in order to hide this fact from the still living Russians, and that today they would write about him in all Russian media and after that he becomes in Russia not just a persona non grata, but a leper, just about like Boris Johnson.

    What an entry into the office!

    What is it – the attempt to provoke a war and sabotage Trump after moving to the Clinton’s side?

    And this is not the first such case – it is enough to recall Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice, who immediately after the appointment to the post handed Trump over to Clintonoids for dismembering him on the Mueller’s butcher table.

    And who in Russia is interested in the fact that all this moves around Syria occurs during a frank coup d’état in the US, when Trump-Tower is set on fire and the above-mentioned Mueller in violation of his mandate to investigate the links between Trump’s election campaign and Russian intelligence, violates the US laws and raids the office of President’s private lawyer to collect records of Trump’s affair with a porn star a decade ago?

    And Trump’s supporters openly demand that Mueller be fired, and some demand his arrest, since this coup can no longer be stopped without a state of emergency.

    And the rats have already started fleeing the Clinton ship – for example, speaker Paul Ryan, whom Clinton has set to watch over the Republican faction in the Congress!
    And it was clear to me two days ago that Trump was just buying some time with his hooligan tweets. But buying time for what – for Russia to bring a dozen more of its Bastions and SU-35 with Kinzhal missiles to Syria, or to mobilize his supporters and arrest Mueller?

    And most importantly – is there in Russia still some media that does not work for Hillary Clinton for money or are her useful idiots, that is, they work for her for free?

  93. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:50 am #

    I really have a hard time understanding the current situation.

    But no matter how little I understand, it’s still an order of magnitude greater than what the so-called experts understand. Yesterday watched Russian TV Solovyov talk show – compete horror! Seems like smart people, but spewing complete nonsense. Fierce anti-Trump propaganda, and if Hillary uses them in the dark as useful idiots, then taking into account their profession, it’s even worse than if she just bought them.

    The agent can be flipped, the idiot can not!

  94. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:51 am #

    It is almost impossible to make a sane analysis of changes in the military-strategic balance, including because the Americans, for reasons unknown to me, perceive the threat of war with Russia in a purely humorous tones.

    So, I have already written many times that precisely because Western colored projects are much closer to each other than to Orthodox Russia, inner struggles tend to be much more fierce than the joint struggle against another civilization.

    Since Cain and Abel, it is known that there is no greater hatred than hatred between brothers. In particular, it is clear that the Skripal case in London and the Syrian adventure are provocations of the Western Black Project against Trump, who started reforms that are throwing the Western Black Project back to March-April 1945, when Nazi Germany was already in ruins, and at the head of the power, rapidly turning into a nuclear monopoly, stood Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who at that time was more red than Joseph Stalin.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  95. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:51 am #

    And if this is not taken into account, then the inevitable conclusion is that Donald Trump is crazy, as Soloviev’s experts demonstrated yesterday, and the first this thought was formulated by Hillary Clinton in order not to participate in the televised debate on foreign policy proposed by Donald Trump just after he won the Republican primaries.

    Let’s consider for example yesterday’s tweet:

    Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?

    First of all, “worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War” means worse than during the Caribbean crisis, or again Trump is flying over the Cuckoo’s nest.

    Secondly, in my opinion here with electronic black on electronic white it says that hostile actions towards Russia, in particular the previous tweet about new and smart missiles ready to fly to Damascus, are being undertaken under the pressure of a Black Project.

    But tweet about helping the Russian economy means the principled consent of Trump to discuss the issue of compensation to Russia for the artistry of Hillary Clinton, which was an act of war, and such compensation is called reparations. And Putin’s press secretary Peskov’s statement that Russia “does not support Twitter diplomacy” means confirmation that the message that one should not pay attention to tweets about new and smart missiles ready to fly to Syria has been received and taken into consideration.

  96. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:52 am #

    If anybody, Russia knows what is Donald Trump’s “Twitter-diplomacy”, which arose when the American media in early 2017 openly refused to bring to the American people the views of the president, in particular, the opinion about the need to have good relations with Russia and also the opinion that the Mueller’s investigation is in fact a McCarthyism and a witch hunt.

  97. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:52 am #

    And I understand all of the foregoing, what I do not understand why, for example, Mike Pompeo, who just talked with Russian Senator Naryshkin after successfully cleansing the CIA from the most malignant Clintonoids, “accidentally” revealed during his confirmation hearings in the Congress that about 200 Russians were killed by the US Army two weeks ago in eastern Syria, where the United States is based on an agreement with Russia to jointly fight ISIS.

    Did he really not know about the campaign the Kremlin had undertaken in order to hide this fact from the still living Russians, and that today they would write about him in all Russian media and after that he becomes in Russia not just a persona non grata, but a leper, just about like Boris Johnson.

    What an entry into the office!

  98. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:52 am #

    And Trump’s supporters openly demand that Mueller be fired, and some demand his arrest, since this coup can no longer be stopped without a state of emergency.

    And the rats have already started fleeing the Clinton ship – for example, speaker Paul Ryan, whom Clinton has set to watch over the Republican faction in the Congress!
    And it was clear to me two days ago that Trump was just buying some time with his hooligan tweets. But buying time for what – for Russia to bring a dozen more of its Bastions and SU-35 with Kinzhal missiles to Syria, or to mobilize his supporters and arrest Mueller?

    And most importantly – is there in Russia still some media that does not work for Hillary Clinton for money or are her useful idiots, that is, they work for her for free?

  99. FincaInTheMountains April 13, 2018 at 9:53 am #

    What is it – the attempt to provoke a war and sabotage Trump after moving to the Clinton’s side?

    And this is not the first such case – it is enough to recall Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice, who immediately after the appointment to the post handed Trump over to Clintonoids for dismembering him on the Mueller’s butcher table.

    And who in Russia is interested in the fact that all this moves around Syria occurs during a frank coup d’état in the US, when Trump-Tower is set on fire and the above-mentioned Mueller in violation of his mandate to investigate the links between Trump’s election campaign and Russian intelligence, violates the US laws and raids the office of President’s private lawyer to collect records of Trump’s affair with a porn star a decade ago?

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