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      Many of us in the Long Emergency crowd and like-minded brother-and-sisterhoods remain perplexed by the amazing stasis in our national life, despite the gathering tsunami of forces arrayed to rock our economy, our culture, and our politics. Nothing has yielded to these forces already in motion, so far. Nothing changes, nothing gives, yet. It’s like being buried alive in Jell-O. It’s embarrassing to appear so out-of-tune with the consensus, but we persevere like good soldiers in a just war.

     Paper and digital markets levitate, central banks pull out all the stops of their magical reality-tweaking machine to manipulate everything, accounting fraud pervades public and private enterprise, everything is mis-priced, all official statistics are lies of one kind or another, the regulating authorities sit on their hands, lost in raptures of online pornography (or dreams of future employment at Goldman Sachs), the news media sprinkles wishful-thinking propaganda about a mythical “recovery” and the “shale gas miracle” on a credulous public desperate to believe, the routine swindles of medicine get more cruel and blatant each month, a tiny cohort of financial vampire squids suck in all the nominal wealth of society, and everybody else is left whirling down the drain of posterity in a vortex of diminishing returns and scuttled expectations.

     Life in the USA is like living in a broken-down, cob-jobbed, vermin-infested house that needs to be gutted, disinfected, and rebuilt — with the hope that it might come out of the restoration process retaining the better qualities of our heritage. Some of us are anxious to get on with the job, to expel all the rats, bats, bedbugs, roaches, and lice, tear out the stinking shag carpet and the moldy sheet-rock, rip off the crappy plastic siding, and start rebuilding along lines that are consistent with the demands of the future — namely, the reality of capital and material resource scarcity. But it has been apparent for a while that the current owners of the house would prefer to let it fall down, or burn down rather than renovate.

     Some of us now take that outcome for granted and are left to speculate on how it will play out. These issues were the subjects of my recent non-fiction books, The Long Emergency and Too Much Magic (as well as excellent similar books by Richard Heinberg, John Michael Greer, Dmitry Orlov, and others). They describe the conditions at the end of the cheap energy techno-industrial phase of history and they laid out a conjectural sequence of outcomes that might be stated in shorthand as collapse and re-set. I think the delay in the onset of epochal change can be explained pretty simply. As the peak oil story gained traction around 2005, and was followed (as predicted) by a financial crisis, the established order fought back for its survival, utilizing its remaining dwindling capital and the tremendous inertia of its own gigantic scale, to give the appearance of vitality at all costs.

     At the heart of the matter was (and continues to be) the relationship between energy and economic growth. Without increasing supplies of cheap energy, economic growth — as we have known it for a couple of centuries — does not happen anymore. At the center of the economic growth question is credit. Without continued growth, credit can’t be repaid, and new credit cannot be issued honestly — that is, with reasonable assurance of repayment — making it worthless. So, old debt goes bad and the new debt is generated knowing that it is worthless. To complicate matters, the new worthless debt is issued to pay the interest on the old debt, to maintain the pretense that it is not going bad. And then all kinds of dishonest side rackets are run around this central credit racket — shadow banking, “innovative” securities (i.e. new kinds of frauds and swindles, CDOs CDSs, etc.), flash trading, insider flimflams, pump-and-dumps, naked shorts, etc. These games give the impression of an economy that seems to work. But the reported “growth” is phony, a concoction of overcooked statistics and wishful thinking. And the net effect moves the society as a whole in the direction of more destructive ultimate failure.

     Now, a number of stories have been employed lately to keep all these rackets going — or, at least, keep up the morale of the swindled masses. They issue from the corporations, government agencies, and a lazy, wishful media. Their purpose is to prop up the lie that the dying economy of yesteryear is alive and well, and can continue “normal” operation indefinitely. Here are the favorites of the past year:

  • Shale oil and gas amount to an “energy renaissance” that will keep supplies of affordable fossil fuels flowing indefinitely, will make us “energy independent,” and will make us “a bigger producer than Saudi Arabia.” This is all mendacious bullshit with a wishful thinking cherry on top. Here’s how shale oil is different from conventional oil:

PP Oil 2

  • A “manufacturing renaissance” is underway in the US, especially in the “central corridor” running from Texas north to Minnesota. That hoopla is all about a few chemical plants and fertilizer factories that have reopened to take advantage of cheaper natural gas. Note, the shale gas story is much like the shale oil story in terms of drilling and production. The depletion rates are quick and epic. In a very few years, shale gas won’t be cheap anymore. Otherwise, current talk of new manufacturing for hard goods is all about robots. How many Americans will be employed in these factories? And what about the existing manufacturing over-capacity everywhere else in the world? Are we making enough sneakers and Justin Beiber dolls? File under complete fucking nonsense.
  • The USA is “the cleanest shirt in the laundry basket,” “the best house in a bad neighborhood,” the safest harbor for international “liquidity,” making it a sure bet that both the equity and bond markets will continue to ratchet up as money seeking lower risk floods in to the Dow and S & P from other countries with dodgier economies and sicker banks. In a currency war, with all nations competitively depreciating their currencies, gaming interest rates, manipulating markets, falsely reporting numbers, hiding liabilities, backstopping bad banks, and failing to regulate banking crime, there are no safe harbors. The USA can pretend to be for a while and then that illusion will pop, along with the “asset” bubbles that inspire it.
  • The USA is enjoying huge gains from fantastic new “efficiencies of technological innovation.” The truth is not so dazzling. Computer technology, produces diminishing returns and unanticipated consequences. The server farms are huge energy sinks. Online shopping corrodes the resilience of commercial networks when only a few giant companies remain standing; and so on. Problems like these recall the central collapse theory of Joseph Tainter which states that heaping additional complexity on dysfunctional hyper-complex societies tends to induce their collapse. Hence, my insistence that downscaling, simplifying, re-localizing and re-setting the systems we depend on are imperative to keep the project of civilization going. That is, if you prefer civilization to its known alternatives.

      Notice that all of these stories want to put over the general impression that the status quo is alive and well. They’re based on the dumb idea that the stock markets are a proxy for the economy, so if the Standard & Poor’s 500 keeps on going up, it’s all good. The master wish running through the American zeitgeist these days is that we might be able to keep driving to Wal-Mart forever.

     The truth is that we still have a huge, deadly energy problem. Shale oil is not cheap oil, and it will stop seeming abundant soon. If the price of oil goes much above $100 a barrel, which you’d think would be great for the oil companies, it will crash demand for oil. If it crashes demand, the price will go down, hurting the profitability of the shale oil companies. It’s quite a predicament. Right now, in the $90-100-a-barrel range, it’s just slowly bleeding the economy while barely allowing the shale oil producers to keep up all the drilling. Two-thirds of all the dollars invested (more than $120 billion a year) goes just to keep production levels flat. Blogger Mark Anthony summarized it nicely:

…the shale oil and gas developers tend to use unreliable production models to project unrealistically high EURs (Estimated Ultimate Recovery) of their shale wells. They then use the over-estimated EURs to under-calculate the amortization costs of the capital spending, in order to report “profits”, despite of the fact that they have to keep borrowing more money to keep drilling new wells, and that capital spending routinely out paces revenue stream by several times… shale oil and gas producers tend to over-exaggerate productivity of their wells, under-estimate the well declines…in order to pitch their investment case to banks and investors, so they can keep borrowing more money to keep drilling shale wells.

     As stated in the intro, these perversities reverberate in the investment sector. Non-cheap oil upsets the mechanisms of capital formation — financial growth is stymied — in a way that ultimately affects the financing of oil production itself. Old credit cannot be repaid, scaring off new credit (because it is even more unlikely to be repaid). At ZIRP interest, nobody saves. The capital pools dry up. So the Federal Reserve has to issue ersatz credit dollars on its computers. That credit will remain stillborn and mummified in depository institutions afraid of lending it to the likes of sharpies and hypesters in the shale gas industry.

     But real, functioning capital (credit that can be paid back) is vanishing, and the coming scarcity of real capital makes it much more difficult to keep the stupendous number of rigs busy drilling and fracking new shale oil wells, which you have to do incessantly to keep production up, and as the investment in new drilling declines, and the “sweet spots” yield to the less-sweet spots or the not-sweet-at-all spots… then the Ponzis of shale oil and shale gas, too will be unmasked as the jive endeavors they are. And when people stop believing these cockamamie stories, the truth will dawn on them that we are in a predicament where further growth and wealth cannot be generated and the economy is actually in the early stages of a permanent contraction, and that will trigger an unholy host of nasty consequences proceeding from the loss of faith in these fairy tales, going so far as the meltdown of the banking system, social turmoil, and political upheaval.

            The bottom line is that the “shale revolution” will be short-lived. 2014 may be the peak production year in the Bakken play of North Dakota. Eagle Ford in Texas is a little younger and may lag Bakken by a couple of years. If Federal Reserve policies create more disorder in the banking system this year, investment for shale will dry up, new drilling will nosedive, and shale oil production will go down substantially. Meanwhile. conventional oil production in the USA continues to decline remorselessly.

 The End of Fed Cred

      It must be scary to be a Federal Reserve governor. You have to pretend that you know what you’re doing when, in fact, Fed policy appears completely divorced from any sense of consequence, or cause-and-effect, or reality — and if it turns out you’re not so smart, and your policies and interventions undermine true economic resilience, then the scuttling of the most powerful civilization in the history of the world might be your fault — even if you went to Andover and wear tortoise-shell glasses that make you appear to be smart.

     The Fed painted itself into a corner the last few years by making Quantitative Easing a permanent feature of the financial landscape. QE backstops everything now. Tragically, additional backdoor backstopping extends beyond the QE official figures (as of December 2013) of $85 billion a month. American money (or credit) is being shoveled into anything and everything, including foreign banks and probably foreign treasuries. It’s just another facet of the prevailing pervasive dishonesty infecting the system that we have no idea, really, how much money is being shoveled and sprinkled around. Anything goes and nothing matters. However, since there is an official consensus that you can’t keep QE money-pumping up forever, the Fed officially made a big show of seeking to begin ending it. So in the Spring of 2013 they announced their intention to “taper” their purchases of US Treasury paper and mortgage paper, possibly in the fall.

     Well, it turned out they didn’t or couldn’t taper. As the fall equinox approached, with everyone keenly anticipating the first dose of taper, the equity markets wobbled and the interest rate on the 10-year treasury — the index for mortgage loans and car loans — climbed to 3.00 percent from its May low of 1.63 — well over 100 basis points — and the Fed chickened out. No September taper. Fake out. So, the markets relaxed, the interest rate on the 10-year went back down, and the equity markets resumed their grand ramp into the Christmas climax. However, the Fed’s credibility took a hit, especially after all their confabulating bullshit “forward guidance” in the spring and summer when they couldn’t get their taper story straight. And in the meantime, the Larry-Summers-for-Fed-Chair float unfloated, and Janet Yellen was officially picked to succeed Ben Bernanke, with her reputation as an extreme easy money softie (more QE, more ZIRP), and a bunch of hearings were staged to make the Bernanke-Yellen transition look more reassuring.

     And then on December 18, outgoing chair Bernanke announced, with much fanfare, that the taper would happen after all, early in the first quarter of 2014 ­— after he is safely out of his office in the Eccles building and back in his bomb shelter on the Princeton campus. The Fed meant it this time, the public was given to understand.

     The only catch here, as I write, after the latest taper announcement, is that interest on the 10-year treasury note has crept stealthily back up over 3 percent. Wuh-oh. Not a good sign, since it means more expensive mortgages and car loans, which happen to represent the two things that the current economy relies on to appear “normal.” (House sales and car sales = normal in a suburban sprawl economy.)

     I think the truth is the Fed just did too darn much QE and ZIRP and they waited way too long to cut it out, and now they can’t end it without scuttling both the stock and bond markets. But they can’t really go forward with the taper, either. A rock and a hard place. So, my guess is that they’ll pretend to taper in March, and then they’ll just as quickly un-taper. Note the curious report out of the American Enterprise Institute ten days ago by John H. Makin saying that the Fed’s actual purchase of debt paper amounted to an average $94 billion a month through the year 2013, not $85 billion. Which would pretty much negate the proposed taper of $5 billion + $5 billion (Treasury paper + Mortgage paper).

            And in so faking and so doing they may succeed in completely destroying the credibility of the Federal Reserve. When that happens, capital will be disappearing so efficiently that the USA will find itself in a compressive deflationary spiral — because that’s what happens when faith in the authority behind credit is destroyed, and new loans to cover the interest on old loans are no longer offered in the non-government banking system, and old loans can’t be serviced. At which point the Federal Reserve freaks out and announces new extra-special QE way above the former 2013 level of $85 billion a month, and the government chips in with currency controls. And that sets in motion the awful prospect of the dreaded “crack-up boom” into extraordinary inflation, when dollars turn into hot potatoes and people can’t get rid of them fast enough. Well, is that going to happen this year? It depends on how spooked the Fed gets. In any case, there is a difference between high inflation and hyper-inflation. High inflation is bad enough to provoke socio-political convulsion. I don’t really see how the Fed gets around this March taper bid without falling into the trap I’ve just outlined. It wouldn’t be a pretty situation for poor Ms. Janet Yellen, but nobody forced her to take the job, and she’s had the look all along of a chump, the perfect sucker to be left holding a big honking bag of flop.

      We’re long overdue for a return to realistic pricing in all markets. The Government and its handmaiden, the Fed, have tweaked the machinery so strenuously for so long that these efforts have entered the wilderness of diminishing returns. Instead of propping up the markets, all they can accomplish now is further erosion of the credibility of the equity markets and the Fed itself — and that bodes darkly for a money system that is essentially run on faith. I think the indexes have topped. The “margin” (money borrowed to buy stock) in the system is at dangerous, historically unprecedented highs. There may be one final reach upward in the first quarter. Then the equities crater, if not sooner. I still think the Dow and S &P could oversell by 90 percent of their value if the falsehoods of the post-2008  interventions stopped working their hoodoo on the collective wishful consciousness.

     The worldwide rise in interest rates holds every possibility for igniting a shitstorm in interest rate swaps and upsetting the whole apple-cart of shadow banking and derivatives. That would be a bullet in the head to the TBTF banks, and would therefore lead to a worldwide crisis. In that event, the eventual winners would be the largest holders of gold, who could claim to offer the world a trustworthy gold-backed currency, especially for transactions in vital resources like oil. That would, of course, be China. The process would be awfully disorderly and fraught with political animus. Given the fact that China’s own balance sheet is hopelessly non-transparent and part-and-parcel of a dishonest crony banking system, China would have to use some powerful smoke-and-mirrors to assume that kind of dominant authority. But in the end, it comes down to who has the real goods, and who screwed up (the USA, Europe, Japan) and China, for all its faults and perversities, has the gold.

     The wholesale transfer of gold tonnage from the West to the East was one of the salient events of 2013. There were lots of conspiracy theories as to what drove the price of gold down by 28 percent. I do think the painful move was partly a cyclical correction following the decade-long run up to $1900 an ounce. Within that cyclical correction, there was a lot of room for the so-called “bullion banks” to pound the gold and silver prices down with their shorting orgy. Numerous times the past year, somebody had laid a fat finger on the “sell” key, like, at four o’clock in the morning New York time when no traders were in their offices, and the record of those weird transactions is plain to see in the daily charts. My own theory is that an effort was made — in effect, a policy — to suppress the gold price via collusion between the Fed, the US Treasury, the bullion banks, and China, as a way to allow China to accumulate gold to offset the anticipated loss of value in the US Treasury paper held by them, throwing China a big golden bone, so to speak — in other words, to keep China from getting hugely pissed off. The gold crash had the happy effect for the US Treasury of making the dollar appear strong at a time when many other nations were getting sick of US dollar domination, especially in the oil markets, and were threatening to instigate a new currency regime by hook or by crook. Throwing China the golden bone is also consistent with the USA’s official position that gold is a meaningless barbaric relic where national currencies are concerned, and therefore nobody but the barbaric yellow hordes of Asia would care about it.

     Other nations don’t feel that way. Russia and Switzerland have been accumulating gold like crazy at bargain prices this year. Lat year, Germany requested its sovereign gold cache (300 tons) to be returned from the vaults in America, where it was stored through all the decades of the cold war, safe from the reach of the Soviets. But American officials told the Germans it would take seven years to accomplish the return. Seven years ! ! ! WTF? Is there a shortage of banana boats? The sentiment in goldville is that the USA long ago “leased” or sold off or rehypothecated or lost that gold. Anyway, Germany’s 300 tons was a small fraction of the 6,700 tons supposedly held in the Fed’s vaults. Who knows? No auditors have been allowed into the Fed vaults to actually see what’s up with the collateral. This in and of itself ought to make the prudent nervous.

     I think we’re near the end of these reindeer games with gold, largely because so many vaults in the West have been emptied. That places constraints on further shenanigans in the paper gold (and silver) markets. In an environment where both the destructive forces of deflation and inflation can be unleashed in sequence, uncertainty is the greatest motivator, trumping the usual greed and fear seen in markets that can be fairly measured against stable currencies. In 2014, the public has become aware of the bank “bail-in” phenomenon which, along with rehypothication schemes, just amounts to the seizure of customer and client accounts — a really new wrinkle in contemporary banking relations. Nobody knows if it’s safe to park cash money anywhere except inside the mattress. The precedent set in Cyprus, and the MF Global affair, and other confiscation events, would tend to support an interest in precious metals held outside the institutional framework. Uncertainty rules.

 Miscellany

      I get a lot of email on the subject of Bitcoin. Here’s how I feel about it.
      It’s an even more abstract form of “money” than fiat currencies or securities based on fiat currencies. Do we need more abstraction in our economic lives? I don’t think so. I believe the trend will be toward what is real. For the moment, Bitcoin seems to be enjoying some success as it beats back successive crashes. I’m not very comfortable with the idea of investing in an algorithm. I don’t see how it is impervious to government hacking. In fact, I’d bet that somewhere in the DOD or the NSA or the CIA right now some nerd is working on that. Bitcoin is provoking imitators, other new computer “currencies.” Why would Bitcoin necessarily enjoy dominance? And how many competing algorithmic currencies can the world stand? Wouldn’t that defeat the whole purpose of an alternative “go to” currency? All I can say is that I’m not buying Bitcoins.

     Will ObamaCare crash and burn. It’s not doing very well so far. In fact, it’s a poster-child for Murphy’s Law (Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong). I suppose the primary question is whether they can enroll enough healthy young people to correct the actuarial nightmare that health insurance has become. That’s not looking so good either now. But really, how can anyone trust a law that was written by the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry? And how can it be repealed when so many individuals, groups, companies, have already lost their pre-ObamaCare policies? What is there to go back to? Therefore, I’d have to predict turmoil in the health care system for 2014. The failure to resolve the inadequacies of ObamaCare also may be a prime symptom of the increasing impotence of the federal government to accomplish anything. That failure would prompt an even faster downscaling of governance as states, counties, communities, and individuals realize that they are on their own.

     Sorry to skip around, but a few stray words about the state of American culture. Outside the capitals of the “one percent” — Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, etc. — American material culture is in spectacular disrepair. Car culture and chain store tyranny have destroyed the physical fabric of our communities and wrecked social relations. These days, a successful Main Street is one that has a wig shop and a check-cashing office. It is sickening to see what we have become. Our popular entertainments are just what you would design to produce a programmed population of criminals and sex offenders. The spectacle of the way our people look —overfed, tattooed, pierced, clothed in the raiment of clowns — suggests an end-of-empire zeitgeist more disturbing than a Fellini movie. The fact is, it simply mirrors the way we act, our gross, barbaric collective demeanor. A walk down any airport concourse makes the Barnum & Bailey freak shows of yore look quaint. In short, the rot throughout our national life is so conspicuous that a fair assessment would be that we are a wicked people who deserve to be punished.

Elsewhere in the World 

     Globalism, in the Tom Friedman euphoric sense, is unwinding. Currency wars are wearing down the players, conflicts and tensions are breaking out where before there were only Wal-Mart share price triumphs and Foxconn profits. Both American and European middle-classes are too exhausted financially to continue the consumer orgy of the early millennium. The trade imbalances are horrific. Unpayable debt saturates everything. Sick economies will weigh down commodity prices except for food-related things. The planet Earth has probably reached peak food production, including peak fertilizer. Supplies of grain will be inadequate in 2014 to feed the still-expanding masses of the poor places in the world.

     The nervous calm in finance and economies since 2008 has its mirror in the relative calm of the political scene. Uprisings and skirmishes have broken out, but nothing that so far threatens the peace between great powers. There have been the now-historic revolts in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and other Middle East and North African (MENA) states. Iraq is once again disintegrating after a decade of American “nation-building.” Greece is falling apart. Spain and Italy should be falling apart but haven’t yet. France is sinking into bankruptcy. The UK is in on the grift with the USA and insulated from the Euro, but the British Isles are way over-populated with a volatile multi-ethnic mix and not much of an economy outside the financial district of London. There were riots in — of all places — Sweden this year. Turkey entered crisis just a few weeks ago along with Ukraine.

      I predict more colorful political strife in Europe this year, boots in the street, barricades, gunfire, and bombs. The populations of these countries will want relief measures from their national governments, but the sad news is that these governments are broke, so austerity seems to be the order of the day no matter what. I think this will prod incipient revolts in a rightward nationalist direction. If it was up to Marine LePen’s rising National Front party, they would solve the employment problem by expelling all the recent immigrants — though the mere attempt would probably provoke widespread race war in France.

     The quarrel between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands is a diversion from the real action in the South China Sea, said to hold large underwater petroleum reserves. China is the world’s second greatest oil importer. Their economy and the credibility of its non-elected government depends on keeping the oil supply up. They are a long way from other places in the world where oil comes from, hence their eagerness to secure and dominate the South China Sea. The idea is that China would make a fuss over the Senkaku group, get Japan and the US to the negotiating table, and cede the dispute over them to Japan in exchange for Japan and the US supporting China’s claims in the South China Sea against the other neighbors there: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

     The catch is that Japan may be going politically insane just now between the rigors of (Shinzo) Abenomics and the mystical horrors of Fukushima. Japan’s distress appears to be provoking a new mood of nationalist militarism of a kind not seen there since the 1940s. They’re talking about arming up, rewriting the pacifist articles in their constitution. Scary, if you have a memory of the mid-20th century. China should know something about national psychotic breaks, having not so long ago endured the insanity of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966-71). So they might want to handle Japan with care. On the other hand, China surely nurtures a deep, deadly grudge over the crimes perpetrated by Japan in the Second World War, and now has a disciplined, world-class military, and so maybe they would like to kick Japan’s ass. It’s a hard one to call. I suspect that in 2014, the ball is in Japan’s court. What will they do? If the US doesn’t stay out of the way of that action, then we are insane, too.

     That said, I stick by my story from last year’s forecast: Japan’s ultimate destination is to “go medieval.” They’re never going to recover from Fukushima, their economy is unraveling, they have no fossil fuels of their own and have to import everything, and their balance of payments is completely out of whack. The best course for them will be to just throw in the towel on modernity. Everybody else is headed that way, too, eventually, so Japan might as well get there first and set a good example.

     By “go medieval” I mean re-set to a pre-industrial World Made By Hand level of operation. I’m sure that outcome seems laughably implausible to most readers, but I maintain that both the human race and the planet Earth need a “time out” from the ravages of “progress,” and circumstances are going to force the issue anyway, so we might as well kick back and get with the program: go local, downscale, learn useful skills, cultivate our gardens, get to know our neighbors, learn how to play a musical instrument, work, dine, and dance with our friends.

     As it happens, the third in the series of my World Made By Hand novels, set in upstate New York in the post-collapse economy, will be published in September by the Atlantic Monthly Press. It’s a ripping yarn. Whether anyone will have enough money to buy a copy, I can’t predict. Happy 2014, Everybody!


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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.

499 Responses to “Forecast 2014 — Burning Down the House”

  1. rckrueger January 6, 2014 at 9:47 am #

    first

    • Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:22 pm #

      THAT LL GET YA BANNED!

      In any case, what are readers predictions on 2014?

    • wtom95831 January 6, 2014 at 4:40 pm #

      Add to the forecast slight problems for California, Nevada and Arizona if the drought continues. What do you mean we don’t unless supplies of water?

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/us/colorado-river-drought-forces-a-painful-reckoning-for-states.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0

      • wtom95831 January 6, 2014 at 4:43 pm #

        What do you mean we don’t have an endless supply of water?

      • earltwitty January 6, 2014 at 7:57 pm #

        I read a similar article months ago along with the depleted aquifers under Texas.. One of the scarier articles of the year.

  2. Neon Vincent January 6, 2014 at 10:01 am #

    “Nothing has yielded to these forces already in motion, so far. Nothing changes, nothing gives, yet. It’s like being buried alive in Jell-O.”

    The big things, no, but the guy who writes The Hipcrime Vocab blog compiled a list of phenomena that show that the smaller things are adding up. Suburbia is foundering, people are moving back into cities, people are driving less, the average age of cars is increasing, and grad students are giving up on their advanced degrees and taking up farming. You should take a victory lap on those. I reproduced that list over at The Archdruid’s blog on New Years, and his response was that it was “not half bad.”

    I also pointed out how the superstition level appeared to be increasing. He replied that it was because Americans had begun to figure out that the end of progress had come and they were turning their backs on science and the other fruits of the Enlightenment. That’s not a good sign for continuing the project of civilization.

    http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-conversation-with-archdruid-about.html

    • CancelMyCard January 6, 2014 at 10:23 am #

      “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

      — Yogi Berra

      In his latest posting, Archdruid John Michael Greer makes some pithy observations about the whole annual predictions ritual among many bloggers. It’s worth a read.

      Many followers of the Doom & Gloom blogger circuit were energized by the Financial Crisis starting in 2007 with the collapse of the stock markets. They saw this event as a historical pivot point that vindicated thier expecations of a dismal future. The subsequent unveilings of bank subterfuge, government complicity, political posturing, and the vast transfer of wealth to the 1% — led many to expect an imminent implosion of the entire world economy.

      So . . . many of the same followers began prepping for an upcoming World Made By Hand. But as days morphed into weeks, months, and years, no implosion materialized. And the markets continued a seemingly endless, Fed-fueled, upward spiral — and while the middle class drowns, the rising tide unabatedly lifts all yachts.

      What to do now? Continue to predict the Imminent Implosion?

      Or simply resign oneself to the inevitable long, slow, downward grind that may take decades to hit bottom?

      • K-Dog January 6, 2014 at 10:59 am #

        That rational predictions failed to come true in an irrational world is not the fault of the predictor. Someone who could actually predict how our society is going to respond to our social problems and sustainability issues over the next year would do well to take a trip to Vegas or Atlantic City.

        And predicting that it is just going to be more of not dealing with the clusterfuck, more of nothing and the same shit sandwitch, is too easy and a cop out.

      • Helen Highwater January 6, 2014 at 3:02 pm #

        I started prepping for a “World Made By Hand” somewhere around 1967. People thought I was crazy, but I had a lot of crazy friends so we had a really good time learning how to do things for ourselves that most people pay money for, and how to take care of each other. I still live a very simple life, small house, no debt, grow a garden and put food by every year, drive an older car (when I don’t walk or bike), live in a place I love so I don’t need to travel, have friends and family close by. All in all, it has been a very satisfying way to live, even if the big crash I was expecting still hasn’t happened, and may not in my lifetime. Maybe it will just be a long descent, as the Archdruid predicts.

    • K-Dog January 6, 2014 at 11:07 am #

      “The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true.” – James Branch Cabell

  3. swmnguy January 6, 2014 at 10:12 am #

    ” Nothing has yielded to these forces already in motion, so far. Nothing changes, nothing gives, yet. It’s like being buried alive in Jell-O. ”

    I’ve been feeling exactly this way for 11 years, since I refinanced my tiny starter home. My cautious, conservative credit union offered me $135,000 in debt for the house for which I’d agreed to assume $49,500 in principal only 6 years before. The house hadn’t changed. People’s income hadn’t nearly tripled. So clearly something else had changed. Either my deal in 1996 was crazy, or the deal I was being offered in 2003 was crazy.

    Once I fully understood that, everywhere I looked I saw craziness that nobody would tolerate piecemeal, but when presented as a complete worldview, people adopted wholesale.

    I’ve been waiting for it all to collapse, any day now, ever since.

    Well, I’m sure the insightful Roman citizen of 250 AD knew what was going to happen, and it took another 200+ years to become obvious to the unobservant. Things move faster now. Still, the level of unraveling over the past 11 years is remarkable. Things I said 11 years ago got me labeled as a kook. Now they’re part of the conventional wisdom that “Everybody Knows.

    11 years can be a pretty long time while you’re living it. If you’re in prison it might be unbearably long. But in historical times, it’s a blip.

    This unraveling only feels like it’s taking along time. It’s moving pretty quickly as these things go, however.

    • KDI January 6, 2014 at 10:50 pm #

      Nothing changes, nothing gives – the reasons and suggestions follow:

      All you can change is yourself, but sometimes that changes everything!” –Gary W. Goldstein
      Activists trying to fix society can become discouraged, because they misunderstand a basic truth: our social system is not broken.
      That is, our society does what it has evolved to do. For all of our lifetimes, most of us have enjoyed great benefits from the story of Progress through Growth, and its institutions. Now, we are profoundly threatened by the same strategies that have succeeded in the past.
      We cannot fix society because it’s not broken; it’s obsolete. We need a new social paradigm, new cultural stories, new understandings, and social intuitions built upon them.
      Fortunately, we citizens have a powerful way to change the story: we can change our minds.
      WHAT DO WE WANT?
      There is a spirit in the Universe drawing us toward a peaceful, just, sustainable and beautiful future for the whole human family.
      By cooperating with this Universal spirit we can have:
      A world peace system based on democracy, justice, and freedom. Sustainable prosperity. Technology protecting clean air and water, and enhancing long-term life. Both economy and government serving humanity.
      Friendly people, loving parents and engaged citizens. Satisfying work, healthy food, adequate housing, and a doctor when we need one.
      Oceans teeming with life. Diverse humankind cooperating to increase global happiness, health, vitality, goodness, and beauty.
      Most people want to do what’s right. That generally means following the shared understandings of society. But what if society is following a game plan that has become dysfunctional?
      It is no longer enough to “do good deeds” or “succeed” or to “make a difference.” We need a new story that is Global, Peaceful, and Sustainable (GPS). It must be Global, because the problems are global. It must be peaceful, because we humans are all in the same boat. And it must be ecologically sustainable so Earth can continue to support life.
      The goal is Global Peace and Sustainability. We have lost our way, and GPS will guide us.
      PROBLEMS
      If Global Peace and Sustainability sounds impossibly idealistic, it means you are adapted well to the current society. We have all been taught that our way of life is as good as it gets. And it has been very good! But business-as-usual has led into interlocking global problems, which it can’t solve.
      Ten (sic) key problems (alphabetical order):
      Climate change
      Corporate controlled government
      Corporate media, “personhood”
      Extinctions
      Federal Reserve, threats to monetary integrity
      Inequality of wealth
      National debt unpayable
      Nuclear threats
      Overpopulation
      Peak oil
      War system is obsolete
      These problems are massive, global, interlocking, and systemic.
      Reasonable people avoid thinking about global problems, and live in denial. (Unreasonable) activists can become disillusioned and discouraged.
      WHAT’S THE STORY?
      Why do we have these serious problems?
      Our problem set comes from a paradigm, or cultural story, which served us for generations: Prosperity through Growth. The story of Prosperity through Growth, that gave us successes for our whole lives, now threatens our future.
      The problems are actually symptoms of our obsolete cultural story.
      A century ago, America had a small population, abundant resources, and government responsive to “we the people.”
      Now a larger population competes for dwindling natural resources. Now banks and corporations serve themselves rather than ordinary people. The system is not just in decline, but unsustainable, and unstable.
      Decision makers in banks, corporations and government especially benefit from and promote the story of endless growth. The corporate media keep the public ignorant and misinformed.
      Our society doesn’t criminalize revolutionary thought, but drowns it in distractions. The TV, Internet and cell phones of our time have, so far, made critical thinking almost irrelevant. If the public is sufficiently distracted and apathetic, free speech doesn’t threaten the status quo.
      Prosperity through Growth is a self-reinforcing system. Our teachers, corporations, religions, governments, media, friends, and families have told self-congratulatory stories about our exceptionalism. We are not taught to question whether the status quo is normal, healthy, or sustainable.
      The present system is stable, like an orange in a bowl. We must think not just outside the box, but outside the bowl.
      TRANSFORMATION
      We are taught to divide overwhelming problems, into smaller, less intimidating parts. We can protest, urging our leaders to adjust the system.
      Activism to adjust the system strengthens the system, by suggesting that there is no alternative; we endorse the status quo when we try to make adjustments to it. The status quo includes adjustments!
      The idea that each of us can “make a difference” by working on personably manageable symptoms of world problems, encourages a FALSE model: that the system in which we live is OK, lacking only some adjustments to get us (back) to an ideal state.
      This notion is comforting, but FALSE. No politician can be elected who could change the system. The problem is not individuals misbehaving, but everyone following our cultural story to its logical conclusion.
      Despite excellent work in many areas, our (national and world) society is unraveling. Patching it up is necessary, but cannot address the large-scale issues fast enough. Tinkering with the present problems is too slow to save our society from COLLAPSE.
      Any way of life based on continuing exploitation of resources, and continuing growth, cannot even theoretically be sustained. It must change or COLLAPSE.
      The alternative to COLLAPSE is TRANSFORMATION.
      The system is a caterpillar, voraciously consuming resources in pursuit of growth and profits. We try to adjust the caterpillar, but it cannot change. Growth on finite Earth must end either in collapse – or transformation. We cannot get to Global Peace and Sustainability without rising to a new level. Caterpillar society must be transformed into the butterfly.
      We have lost touch with the Universal spirit. The world is waiting for a new paradigm to emerge. Something inspiring, science-based, reasonable, practical, and hopeful. We need a new story to support Global Peace and Sustainability.
      BUTTERFLY!
      We have a social logjam. People can still question whether anything is wrong. If uncomfortable, we can simply “change the channel” and stay in denial. But as we “stay the course,” our unsustainable practices make things worse, so more people become dissatisfied, and pressure for collapse grows.
      Collapse is not the objective, and would not necessarily lead to the butterfly future. But change is inevitable, because the status quo is unsustainable.
      Global Peace and Sustainability are the structure on which the Butterfly future can and must be built.
      To succeed, our get-well plan will require nearly universal support. To earn that support, it must be peaceful, reasonable, just, and with an honest intent to materially benefit virtually everyone on Earth.
      Bright people have ideas for building a butterfly future that is Global, Peaceful and Sustainable:
      Overpopulation. We must have policies that limit human population. Education, rights and jobs for women reduce population. So cultures must change.
      Capitalism. Current capitalism confuses money with the good things in life. We cause problems by rewarding unsustainable and sustainable occupations alike. Let sustainable farming pay, but political corruption not pay.
      Political Corruption. We need publically financed elections, so non-corporate candidates can run; instant runoff voting to give third party candidates a chance, an end to Gerrymandering, and honest vote counting.
      The war system. The world spends $2 trillion per year for ongoing wars, future wars, and maintaining the ongoing nuclear threat. We citizens have invested our sovereignty in national security, but global security has become necessary. We need democratic world government, with laws binding on individual war criminals.
      Society finds these issues too radical to address. It is (unrealistic, crazy) Utopian thinking to even consider changing the underpinnings of our way of life, which have done so much for so many for so long.
      HOPE
      Then why should we hope a transformation to a positive and sustainable future is possible?
      Our planet has a 3 billion year investment in LIFE. Long before we humans appeared, chemical, biological and planetary forces set the stage for us. Whether one believes we evolved or were created, clearly we find ourselves in global circumstances supportive of rich and abundant life. Why would the Universal spirit bring us this far, but not farther?
      We are surrounded by models of transformation. Consider the discovery of fire, tools, and the wheel. Consider airplanes, and global communications. Transformation happens!
      As noted, people are already working on many aspects of a Global, Peaceful, Sustainable future.
      We are creatures of STORY. Cultural evolution is slow, but cultural stories can transform rapidly. When the US entered WW2, it took just months to switch from mass production of cars to planes and tanks. A compelling story releases great energy!
      Negativity saps our power. We are most effective when working systematically toward an inspiring goal.
      The Internet has made us all nodes in the web of the world. An idea whose time has come can circle the world overnight.
      We can have a New Story, and new institutions for our positive future, because we get to choose the stories webelieve.
      WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DO?
      As counterintuitive as it sounds, the most powerful thing an individual can do to transform the world is to change his or her personal story.
      Our power lies in our ability to create heaven on Earth, the Butterfly future, in our thinking. This frees us from the distraction of preserving and perfecting the unsustainable caterpillar system.
      Is what we “know” consistent with Global Peace and Sustainability? Is it Caterpillar, or Butterfly?
      When you read the news, or watch a movie, or converse with friends, is the underlying story Prosperity through Growth, or Global Peace and Sustainability?
      As long as we believe that the American way of life can be adjusted to continue indefinitely, we will dismiss efforts at transformative change.
      In these troubled times, the question is not so much what we need to do, but how best to invoke the Universal spirit, and cooperate with the Universal intent.
      “Don’t believe everything you think.” We are separate from our beliefs. Not everything we “know” is true.
      The individual can accept and prepare for transformation, while living honorably in the outside world. There is a way to live on the inside in the new story, and on the outside in the old story.
      Envisioning the Butterfly future allows us to support, instead of oppose, transformative initiatives when they appear.
      Changing someone else’s cultural stories about how to live in the world is, by enlarge, impossible. But changing our own stories is possible. Demonstrating new thinking encourages others, who may then change their stories.
      We are the “imaginal cells” with the pattern for the Butterfly inside us. We are Johnny Appleseeds of the New World Story.
      We honor the investment the Universe has made in us when we accept the Story of Global Peace and Sustainability.

      • 99 cent nation January 7, 2014 at 9:58 am #

        “We honor the investment the Universe has made in us when we accept the Story of Global Peace and Sustainability.” You understand quantum reality which all this is held together by agreement. For the story to be so we all need to agree on that type of reality. The question is can we do it?

      • sooty January 7, 2014 at 1:32 pm #

        You rock. The story we’re looking for is already here, as you suggest–in the evolution of life on Earth and of energy and matter in the universe.

        The whole “growth” thing requires humans to see themselves separate from the natural world and forces on which we all rely. That separation is brought to you by Plato, the Abrahamic religions, the Enlightenment, and a country founded during the Enlightenment–the USA. It had its good side in the ability of humans to stand back from Nature and examine it through science. And then, in the early 20th century, what did science find? That we’re all related and interrelated with everything (and that there is no such thing as a “thing”). Quantum stuff that indigenous people have known for eons in their own ways, but now we’ve got data for those who don’t feel that in their bones.

        This story tells us that diversity is a property of a complexifying universe, that we all share in a cosmic heritage, and that this planet is where we come from–it’s not a waiting room until we die and go to “our home in heaven.” And even if you don’t actively believe that, it’s what the culture runs on. (Next time you converse about someone who’s dead, see how long it takes for someone to pipe up “I know she’s watching me from above” or something similarly silly).

        As Thomas Berry said, “We’re in trouble right now because we don’t have a good story. The old story doesn’t work anymore and
        we have no yet learned the new story.”

  4. privateman January 6, 2014 at 10:33 am #

    I have been feeling this way for a long time, but I often feel like speaking it to others is useless. This is really apparent when I try to share these things with my wife. What most people don’t think of is that sometimes the worst ones to share this with are the ones closest to you.
    Trying to have a conversation about the whole peak oil thing and the inevitable contraction of the economy with my wife has turned out to be a big stressful event. Since I have been unemployed for over a year and prospects dont look too good, she is very sensitve to any threat to her long term security.
    So my advice to all the married people out there is to be quiet about it and go about learning new skills, gardening, and trading locally without a fanfare.
    Just trying to keep families together in the long emergency will be a challenge.

    • K-Dog January 6, 2014 at 10:50 am #

      Sometimes the worst ones to share this with are the ones closest to you.

      “Only show your sword to another swordsman.”

      It is a bitter truth. I hope this helps a little, I know it can’t help much. I feel for you.

      • casualobserver January 6, 2014 at 11:50 am #

        Is anyone else getting tired of K-Dog trying to dominate the discussions on this blog? Perhaps he should be be putting more time into updating his own blog?

        JHK, I’m surprised you put up with this.

        • sauerkraut January 6, 2014 at 12:22 pm #

          “Is anyone else getting tired of K-dog …”

          Not me.

        • beantownbill. January 6, 2014 at 2:34 pm #

          Not me either.

          K-Dog, don’t listen, just keep posting.

    • Hands4u January 6, 2014 at 12:03 pm #

      Hey Pvtman; I’ve been where your at and am still working through it. Thats what The Long Emergency is about. But another way to possibly look at is as “The Long Emergence”. It is difficult but you will find “your answers” as you and your family find your way through this. Since I don’t know all your details; the things that have helped my family-
      1- find neighbors (mine were 2-miles away in the city) that share some of the same concerns.

      2- Go on-line and look for a Transition Town group that might be accessable.

      3- Stay away from negative media when possible, 90% of what is reported in the news is actually 10% of reality (which is awfully negative) and 90% of reality (which is neutral to positive) is only 10% of what is reported. (Turn off the Tube/flat screen- It only enables you to avoid life/living and your loved ones.

      4- Continue to network while looking for work- go (physically) to the place you’d like to work and apply, ask questions, meet people; Most places aren’t interested in hiring a 3 dimensional person from a 2 dimensional presentation.

      These are some of the things that Jim K. has recommended all along but when things aren’t going well it’s very easy to get pulled into the “darkside” of day to day living.
      It is helpful for others (like yourself) to see and hear that you’re concerned and willing to work on it rather than just sit back and “sit in the mess”.
      And most of all, don’t lose hope and if you feel like it’s slipping away, try and work that much harder because thats what you can do.

    • chipshot January 6, 2014 at 1:00 pm #

      Thanks p-man, comforting to know I’m not alone.
      Trying to “enlighten” family members results
      in being viewed as a hopeless pessimist and
      ultimately disregarded.

      Surrounded by in-laws for the holidays made me
      feel living in an alternative universe.

      I’m convinced people would rather have their
      heads in the sand and be optimistic than be
      informed and realistic. Sad and frustrating…

      • Helen Highwater January 6, 2014 at 4:05 pm #

        Other suggestions – while you are not working use your time to do everything you can to save money. Plant a garden – even a few tomato plants and some salad greens will save you money. Buy food in bulk and cook big quantities of things (learn if you don’t know how) and freeze them, Learn to can seasonal produce for sauces, jams, etc. Buy a used freezer if you haven’t got one, then you can take advantage of seasonal specials, Use a toaster oven to heat frozen meals up if you have a small family (saves on electricity/gas in a large stove). Insulate your house more if you can afford to, make insulating curtains for the windows (materials are cheap at second-hand stores). Take classes online ,or free if possible, to learn useful skills. Think of ways you can make money (under the table whenever possible) without a job – shovel snow, do yard work, help people move, etc. Put up ads in local laundromats etc. Have a garage sale to get rid of stuff and make some money. Don’t think of this kind of work as demeaning in any way. While unemployment doesn’t bring in money, it does allows lot of time to do other things besides go to work.

        • Karah January 6, 2014 at 9:54 pm #

          Cute play on Hell and High Water…

          When did you pay off your house and car?

          How much are your property taxes and do you have to pay state taxes?

          Do you have any health insurance? How do you pay for healthcare?

          How much money have you invested in the stock market?

          Do you live by yourself and if not, does your partner have a regular job?

          Has your small world had anyone suffer a crisis and how do you deal with it?

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 3:15 pm #

      Women have an entitlement mentality. You talk Truth and she wonders why she married a loser. Typical. Now that things are getting really bad, it’s time for Men to take back their natural position as Leader of the Household. If a Woman wont surrender, don’t marry her or dump her. Download the Promise Keeper Script and memorize it. Or just read from it: Honey, I’m taking back control of the Family….

      There will be no shortage of hungry women once this whole thing gets going. A man will be in a position to choose. Why waste resources over a product of the old Feminist hate Men culture? Or the gimme culture of consumerism, either conventional or welfare? Go for the ones who have no tattoos or kids. And of course, young enough to adapt to the New Ways.

    • swmnguy January 6, 2014 at 3:38 pm #

      “Privateman”: I know what you mean. I’m known in my large family as the tinfoil hat guy. Never mind that almost every one of my doomer hypotheses has already happened; I’m still the crazy pessimist guy. I’ve learned to keep my reasoning and my darker premonitions mostly to myself unless I’m looking to get a laugh.

      My wife and I both grew up very poor; me in the country, she in the city. So a lot of the “prepper” things I do are things po’ folk have always done because we didn’t have the money for store-boughten. We had to fix our own stuff when it broke, so when we bought tools or whatever, we looked for things we’d be able to fix. We didn’t commit to paying back debt we weren’t sure we’d be able to manage. It turns out that survival skills for poverty are also the survival skills for when our system gets simple in a hurry.

      Plus “DIY” has a cool, hipster punk-rock cachet. You don’t have to tell everybody WHY you want to grow your garden, or can your excess produce, or have all your own tools (with hand-powered options), or not depend on you car for everything, or do business locally. You can just be a cool hobbyist guy who really believes in supporting local entrepreneurship, or just gets off on making things yourself, or finds that your body feels better when you do work and eat your own food and ride a bike.

      It’s not “Doomsday Prepping;” It’s Fiscal Prudence, especially if you don’t have a paying job.

      I differ somewhat from JHK and some others in that I don’t think Americans are really all that stupid. We are ignorant and unobservant, but that’s not new or exclusive to us. All my life I’ve noticed that people usually have pretty good sense in matters that relate to them directly and personally, but can go along with the most ridiculous things if they are at too large a scale. People know that half-gallon of ice cream is now 1.5 qts. at the same price, but can’t process that economic growth at all costs is destroying us and won’t last.

      So don’t bother giving them the whole scenario. There’s an old story of a traveling preacher who sets up but only one guy shows up. The preacher doesn’t know what to do, so he gives the one guy his whole spiel. Afterwards, the guy says, “That was pretty good, Reverend, but if I call the cows for supper and only one shows up, I don’t give her the whole pile of hay.” Or whatever the line was. Point is, if people think you’re a nut for observing what most of us on this site observe, that’s fine. No need to become a pontificating bore. Just do what you’re doing, and something you’re doing will ring a bell with them. There will be an internal consistency to what you’re doing that will become apparent enough after a while, and when people suffer enough from the cognitive dissonance that is increasing in our system, they’ll be very curious about what you’re all about.

  5. Greg Knepp January 6, 2014 at 10:40 am #

    Jim,

    Two quotes stand out: “horrors of Fukushima” and “They’re [the Japanese] never going to recover from Fukushima”. I’ve researched
    the Fukashima disaster as much as I can, and I must conclude that it has the potential to pale the effects of all else that is going wrong in the world today.

    Orlov has an interesting link on his site this week relating to this event, and there’s plenty of other information available on the net – some of it paranoiac drivel, but much of it chillingly convincing.

    Generally, I’m not an alarmist, but this Fukushima problem could prove catastrophic well beyond Japan itself.

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    • CancelMyCard January 6, 2014 at 1:08 pm #

      FYI,

      Orlov has removed the link to the Fukushima story from his posting.

      When questioned by a reader on why he did so, Orlov replied —

      “The story was from a dubious source and uncorroborated. There were some indications that it was fake.”

      • Greg Knepp January 7, 2014 at 10:56 am #

        Thanks for the heads-up.

        There is certainly a great deal of misinformation out there regarding this topic. Still, some serious physicists (I’ve checked their credentials) are very alarmed about the situation at Fukushima – particularly regarding the Pacific Ocean and the US West Coast.

        I could be wrong, but I think Fufushima is a sleeping giant – a killer.

  6. K-Dog January 6, 2014 at 10:43 am #

    “It’s embarrassing to appear so out-of-tune with the consensus, but we persevere like good soldiers in a just war.”

    No it is embarrassing to be the pet of a species so clueless. As the peak oil story gained traction around 2005 rational minds were salivating with anticipation of understanding and proactive action.

    It was mystifying when nobody except for an tiny minority of contrarians and thinkers “got it”. The situation was obvious from a scientific point of view and the few of us who made it through high school without falling asleep could understand the harsh reality well enough. The mistake of the thinkers was thinking that the majority of Americans had rational minds like those of who actually did. In the intervening years the good soldiers of us who plod forward found the irrationality of society as engrossing or as frustrating as the issue of peak oil itself. Which is why many of us have ‘given up’.

    What we have learned: Americans are comfortable with being lied to. It establishes our social order. The confidence man is a ingrained feature of American life and he appears in many forms. The preacher, the salesman, the politician and countless others.

    Decades of lullaby advertising broke our rational spirit long ago and we became weary in the search for any truth. It is a fact of life that America has been dummed down. The continual onslaught of information in our digital age causes us to get all our ideas from others and everybody is too busy texting and trying to deal with the demands of our treadmill lives to bother with any critical thinking.

    Americans are a species of followers and they are not alone. The human race follows what authority dictates and without being aware of it. Humans live under the illusion that they are free agents unaware that we are manipulated and live in an age of manipulation. To some extent everyone is trapped by the quagmire.

    A society built on lies cannot endure but America is doubly dammed because the zeitgeist is that only a tiny few are aware that lies have become the true lifeblood of the land. America lives in fantasy. Lies and fantasy have become essential to keeping the social fabric from unraveling and we have learned to worship those who lie best. Tortoise-shell glasses make you appear smart and actual smarts do not matter.

    The realization that man is irrational and rationality is as rare as a warm January wind is bad enough but another sad reality is that people are incredibly stubborn.

    The true state of affairs being too horrible for most to contemplate much less accept cultivates ever more ingnorance..The collapse of American material culture in spectacular disrepair is ignored and a religion of energy and material renaissance pushed by the media which seeks not to inform but manipulate pervades the land and prevents Toto from looking behind the curtain.

    My fear is that the false faith of irrational hope will lead to the sacrifice of the rational minority by the ‘true believers’. Such things have happened in the past and future witch burnings are possible. I hope 2014 is not the year of that renaissance.

    • ozone January 6, 2014 at 4:17 pm #

      K-dog,
      I think you’ve nailed the prevailing direction (if you can call it that) about right. I’ve ceased discussing what I already have learned and know, and the only useful course for me now is to do what I know to do and develop current skills to the best of my abilities.

      The only thing I feel that is important to watc h for is the explosions when cognitive dissonance can no longer be maintained. All I seek to know in this regard is who my friends are… and who I can easily write off as bad risks and bad actors.
      Carry on.

      • ZrCrypDiK January 6, 2014 at 4:46 pm #

        Stay quiet – the sock puppets will surely silence us all!!! 🙁

        • prettykitty January 6, 2014 at 5:34 pm #

          How do we know YOU are not a sock puppet?

          • ZrCrypDiK January 6, 2014 at 5:44 pm #

            Ahaha! The *irony* of it all! Just keep spammin’, like last week (400+ poasts? nice *GOAL*)…

            *WE* know who you *R*!!! (maybe not?) C – U seek to disrupt, yet all you do is give credit. I too give credit – if JHK whuzn’t the *MASTAH*, I’d not bother…

    • ozone January 6, 2014 at 7:48 pm #

      …And thank you for your advice; much appreciated.

      • ozone January 6, 2014 at 7:50 pm #

        (Directly above for K-dog.)

        • ZrCrypDiK January 6, 2014 at 9:40 pm #

          OMG!!! Could you *REALLY* play me a *diddy*?!? I thought *NOT* – show your true *colors*… (and *HEAR* I thought you banned)

          Ain’t it a *BYOTCH* being *BANNED*?!? Fscking IP!!!

          • ozone January 9, 2014 at 8:38 am #

            Z.,
            When you can stand up in front of a crowd [on your own] and entertain them with songs for 4 hours, get paid well for it and be asked to return to do it again, THEN you can feel free to issue public, back-handed insults. (Although it’s considered extremely rude and just “not done” amongst ourselves… but I doubt you would know that.)

          • ZrCrypDiK January 11, 2014 at 2:48 am #

            “Z., When you can stand up in front of a crowd…”

            When did I say I whuz an entertainer? You seem to confuse me with something in your IMAGINATION.

            I’ve asked, AD NAUSEUM, for you to play us all a diddy – and, at BEST, you tell us it’s out there SOMEWHERE. Nothing “legitimate” from you, PERIOD (“money” [“money”]). So I ask again, where’s your tune, Mr BANNED?

            And – BTW – whut were my back-handed insults?!? Where they “”, and “”?!? (without explanation?) Again, you seem to CONFUSE me with someone else…

  7. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 6, 2014 at 10:48 am #

    I’ve researched the Fukashima disaster as much as I can, and I must conclude that it has the potential to pale the effects of all else that is going wrong in the world today.

    Baloney! Fukushima is over-hyped and alarmists everywhere have folded it into their sky-is-falling arsenal. Resource limitations and financial chicanery are real concerns. Fukushima pales in comparison to permanently empty gas tanks and bellies.

    • K-Dog January 6, 2014 at 11:10 am #

      Your kind are supposed to wait until noon before you pollute the blog.

      • Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:25 pm #

        and you shoulda been neutered long ago!

  8. Smoky Joe January 6, 2014 at 11:07 am #

    Jim, you end a bleak forecast with a call for us all to “go local, downscale, learn useful skills, cultivate our gardens, get to know our neighbors, learn how to play a musical instrument, work, dine, and dance with our friends.”

    I’d like that very much. But I don’t think most of us reading this blog would live through the transition to Union Grove, NY. So I’d rather do what I can to make the currently unsustainable system work.

    With national government impotent, it will be up to localities to rewrite a livable social contract. Right now, that contract lies in the hands of our 1% and the 9% trying to imitate them. That’s going to be very hard to undo, since I don’t see a rapid crisis of the sorts you have often predicted (erroneously) in these forecasts. I do see a slow grind that destroys whatever remains of the Middle Class in the US and the movement of many formerly affluent citizens into near poverty.

    All that said, you really do exaggerate the state of “Main Street” as wig-shops and check-cashing joints. Around here, the central city has recovered and done so nicely, at the expense of the near suburbs. As young people, usually white and highly educated, move into the Portlandias of the USA, who moves out? The uneducated, the poor, the people of color.

    Go to a 1960s-80s strip-shopping hell to find the wig-shops and easy-loan places.

    In town around here, you’ll find cafes, boutiques, local merchants, some “hip” chains, and bike shops on our old commercial streets. The customers live nearby and often walk or bike or car-share to get there. That gives me a lot of hope, because it is the young people who will have to save us geezers from our and our fathers’ sins.

    Even though the kids may hate us for the shitpile we are leaving them. Ever seen “Millennials: We Suck and We’re Sorry”? Wait until the end, when the kids rip in the Boomers:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4IjTUxZORE

    • K-Dog January 6, 2014 at 11:27 am #

      That is a great video!

      • Greg Knepp January 6, 2014 at 12:00 pm #

        K-Dog, Typically I don’t click on videos embedded in comment sections, but on your recommendation, I’ve made an exception. And I must say, it was well worth it…Great stuff!

        • djc January 10, 2014 at 10:45 am #

          Yes, I agree—-a great video.

          djc

    • KDI January 6, 2014 at 4:27 pm #

      In one of Morris Berman’s lectures, he mentions the GOP presidential debates, when Ron Paul was asked if a person without insurance should simply die. The audience burst into applause. Ditto applause when Rick Perry boasted about how many death row inmates had been zapped under his regime. He’s very perceptive and raises the notion that the problems in the US aren’t all top-down and that many are bottom up. Most people are just nasty, ignorant, greedy, stupid and cruel – and they get the society and government that they deserve.

      Tea-Baggers are a serious symptom of social collapse in that many of them will cheerily wish you dead, to your face, with a smirk….as though they’re doing you a favor. It’s really something when you see it.

      This is the fly in the ointment that pops up when socially conscious societies are proposed. There are so many self serving scumbags out there that the good would be overwhelmed by a tsunami of psychopaths.

  9. Hands4u January 6, 2014 at 11:27 am #

    Today I sit in an office that is void of clients due to the cold; stay home, stay warm. Don’t endanger yourself or loved ones. Drink deeply from Mother Earths’ Addiction-Whithered Petroleum Breast. Ahhh…colder than a witches “you know what”. If only there were an “AA” for our petroleum addicted culture.. shared anonymity without personal identity there is little accountability… to first solve a problem we need to admit that we are the problem.

    Yes, the world is ending, it has ended, and as long as we’re around it wil continue to end… though this means it is always “beginning”.
    Thought I’d share a couple of “positive” articles into this blackhole of myth making and anxiety.

    Two local articles that caught my attention this past weekend in the frigid death of winter (which turns jello into a sweet summer popsicle)

    In Twin Cities metro, more young people are moving to the urban core, while suburbs age.

    http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/238734151.html

    And-

    Massive solar plan for Minnesota wins bid over gas

    http://www.startribune.com/business/238322571.html

    (You might have to cut and paste the links for your browser.)

    It may too little too late. But at least we’re looking in the “better” direction. Yes I am an addict. Let the renaissance begin!

    • lsjogren January 6, 2014 at 11:50 am #

      Solar energy has negligible ability to replace fossil fuel use.

      Maybe there will be scientific breakthroughs that change that. So far there is nothing on the horizon that is going to make solar viable for much more than an eco toy for left wing one percenters.

      • Hands4u January 6, 2014 at 12:15 pm #

        You may be right, but if your boat has a hole, a bucket is better than nothing. And I’m not looking at it as a replacement; I’m looking at it as a better option. Most of us can exist just fine and live on alot less energy than we currently use. I am under no delusions of some “god-like” science savior to make humanity’s self inflicted boo-boo’s go away.
        I don’t consider myself a one percenter; but if multiple 70 acre eco-toys built by hundreds/thousands of people that might enhance potential thousands if not millions rather than rely on a gas addiction. I’m for it. Pls read the article.

      • KDI January 6, 2014 at 10:26 pm #

        According to the researchers’ calculations, New York’s 2030 power demand for all sectors (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) could be met by:

        4,020 onshore 5-megawatt wind turbines
        12,770 offshore 5-megawatt wind turbines
        387 100-megawatt concentrated solar plants
        828 50-megawatt photovoltaic power plants
        5 million 5-kilowatt residential rooftop photovoltaic systems
        500,000 100-kilowatt commercial/government rooftop photovoltaic systems
        36 100-megawatt geothermal plants
        1,910 0.75-megawatt wave devices
        2,600 1-megawatt tidal turbines
        7 1,300-megawatt hydroelectric power plants, of which most exist

        No mention of the capital cost, or where the capital could be found, and no mention of the physical resources required to build the infrastructure (or convert/build the transport fleet to run on – presumably – electricity)

        http://www.pddnet.com/news/2013/03/alternative-energy-future

        Sadly geothermal assist was not even mentioned. I installed a vertical geothermal assist in 2008 in frigid upstate NY aided by a small 2.3 Kw solar array. Works real good – and that’s worth repeating many times. If I had to do it all over, I would have made serious attempts at getting this done for about 30 of 40 other residences. That would have substantially lowered the initial cost and community carbon footprint.

        It’s extremely important to know the vast difference between geothermal and geothermal assist! When geothermal is used by itself, it refers to the technology that creates electricity out of underground heat like they do in Iceland. Not feasible in a lot of areas!! Geothermal assist however is feasible in any land mass. You would be able to shut off your natural gas service, but you’d still need to draw from the electric grid on cold overcast days. But, that amounts to about one quarter of the total bill before the upgrade. The biggest argument against geothermal assist is by those fooled by cost effective analysis which intends to completely marginalize the environment and greater and greater number of people that the elites consider a drain. Anyone remember the concept of paying it forward ??? If not that your a victim of brainwashing that makes you think it’s OK to cheat your children and grand children out of any useful infrastructure.

  10. George January 6, 2014 at 11:34 am #

    Good one James!

    I maintain that the proximate event that will set off a Dmitry Orlov style collapse will be related to this cold weather we’re now experiencing. There have been “signs” that this would be an especially severe winter. In August there were a series of news reports about nasty encounters between bears and humans (bears have been were forced to forage where humans roam – most recently in central Florida). My relatives who reside in the North Country tundra and hunt game for dinner report that the back fat and both the deer and geese harvest this year has been the thickest they’ve ever seen. My guess is that this latest artic vortex is but the first of several that will be suffered upon us. I reckon that the third or fourth may be severe enough to bring about a cascading collapse of all the technological complexity we’ve setup around us. We lost power for just a few hours last night and it sparked enough confusion to prompt a visit from a sheriff’s deputy. Imagine what it would be like if the entire northeast corridor from Boston to D.C. lost power during an arctic blast for a week.

    That noted, it’s generally accepted by most in the circles I keep that the economy is paper thin and could rip apart at any moment by the slightest mistaken caress. It kind of reminds me of when my dad had a rather nasty heart attack when I was a young lad and afterwards an appointment was made for me to see his doctor whereupon the doctor informed me that my dad could go “anytime” and to take “appropriate precautions”.

    Anytime Dmitry Orlov?

    http://www.thesisa.org

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:06 pm #

      Yes it’s getting Orwellian or Reaganinian: weapons of peace, ketchup a vegetable, the ice age as global warming.

      The Earth and the Sun are dancing. But the Earth, being a Lady, allows the Sun to lead. In fact, she has no choice. And the World Candle (Norse), Mr Daymaker (Hindu) has thanked her for a wonderful 100,000 year dance and now is heading for the sidelines for a rest. Or even a snooze. A cooling if the former, and ice age if the latter. An Ice Age would give us a real rest. But I don’t know about learning an instrument or dancing. That takes leisure. And refugees swarming Southwards wont have too much of that.

  11. Kreditanstalt January 6, 2014 at 11:38 am #

    We’ve certainly learned one thing over the years…that changes that appear to us imminent and pressing actually manifest themselves glacially s-l-o-w-l-y and perniciously and arrive as evolutionary occurrences.

    Nothing happens as fast as we’d like, but “the mills of God grind slow and exceeding fine”…!

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:07 pm #

      Cotton Mather – is that really you?

  12. lsjogren January 6, 2014 at 11:41 am #

    “Many of us in the Long Emergency crowd and like-minded brother-and-sisterhoods remain perplexed by the amazing stasis in our national life, despite the gathering tsunami of forces arrayed to rock our economy, our culture, and our politics.”

    It is because unconventional oil and gas resources have postponed the collapse of modern society for a few decades.

    • Karah January 6, 2014 at 10:33 pm #

      Now that a Fellowship of the LE has been established…

      it seems their debate is focusing on which of the three gauges of nationalism (economy, culture and policy) will be the most disruptive to their lifestyle:

      How to make a living?

      Where to establish oneself?

      Vote for whom?

      It’s interesting that JHK has introduced points that put the USA’s current empirical stance into question. The nations are being forced to look for answers amongst themselves; not only from the Leader of the Free World. The vibrations and shifts in the jello are primarily economic since we can ignore policy and avoid certain aspects of our culture.

      How does one maintain a residency or citizenship without state currency or without relying on state monetary support?

      Oh yes, there will be a dissolve, but it won’t be like anything anyone has ever witnessed before or ever will again!

  13. sauerkraut January 6, 2014 at 11:50 am #

    It’s hard to predict how long an unsustainable situation will persist. The consensus about World War 1 in 1914 was that the troops would be home for Christmas.

    Kitchener amazed his colleagues by predicting a three year war. “… three years (estimate) will do to begin with. A nation like Germany … will only give in until it is beaten to the ground. That will take a very long time. No one living knows how long.”

    Of course, the situation is different today. But no-one living knows how long the pretence can persist, and the detailed course of the unwinding. But, unwinding it does seem to be.

  14. Bertha January 6, 2014 at 11:57 am #

    @George said: “Imagine what it would be like if the entire northeast corridor from Boston to D.C. lost power during an arctic blast for a week.”

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

    I can envision the headlines now. All the the major news outlets will claim it’s yet another sign of global warming.

    As far as moving back to the cities, apparently NYC’s de Blowsio is going to provide free housing. Cabrini-Green’s going to make a comeback. Apparently we have to pass through the 1970s and 1960s before we get to the 1500s. I’ll have to break out my Good Times dvd collection to prepare myself mentally for what’s to come. DYNOMITE!

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/367374/bill-china-shop-we-wont-wait-well-do-it-now-john-fund

    The cheers were saved for de Blasio, who proclaimed a “new progressive direction” that will “take dead aim at the ‘Tale of Two Cities’” injustices he emphasized in his campaign.

    He then recited the key elements of his platform: affordable-housing projects, an end to hospital closures, reform of the “broken” stop-and-frisk policy, and a tax on upper-income earners. After each item, he would say, “We won’t wait, we’ll do it now.”

    • sauerkraut January 6, 2014 at 12:08 pm #

      “I can envision the headlines now …”

      This sounds like an assault on the AGW theory. Just in case it is, I would point out that Global is part of that theory, and global is even larger than a few thousand square miles in the US northeast.

      So, you ask, why aren’t the multinationals taking advantage of global warming? They are. The Norwegians (I think it was) just put a cargo, repeat cargo, ship through the Northwest Passage. Saved days and big bucks. Caught the Canucks right off-guard.

      • Bertha January 6, 2014 at 12:38 pm #

        Ah, the Arctic canard. Typical. When it comes to Arctic sea ice melt and extent, there is nothing new under the sun. You give man to much credit or discredit. When it comes to climate, our impact is simply not significant when compared to “natural” fluctuations.

        http://judithcurry.com/2013/04/10/historic-variations-in-arctic-sea-ice-part-ii-1920-1950/

        Warming, yes…manmade warming, no. Arctic sea ice naturally melts back every summer, but that meltback was observed to reach a peak in 2007. But we have relatively accurate, satellite-based measurements of Arctic (and Antarctic) sea ice only since 1979. It is entirely possible that late summer Arctic Sea ice cover was just as low in the 1920s or 1930s, a period when Arctic thermometer data suggests it was just as warm. Unfortunately, there is no way to know, because we did not have satellites back then. Interestingly, Antarctic sea ice has been growing nearly as fast as Arctic ice has been melting over the last 30+ years. ~Dr. Roy Spencer

        • sauerkraut January 6, 2014 at 1:07 pm #

          Not so. Just because there were no satellite photos in the old days doesn’t mean that there were no observations. The Inuit were there. European explorers were there. People died trying to get through the northwest passage. The problem was that the ice was too thick, because most of it didn’t melt in the summer.

          Winter ice area may be similar, but it is all ephemeral ice, not permanent. It is thin. So you see, you are confusing area with volume. One foot of ice can be broken by a big ship. Thick ice takes an icebreaker. Now the Canadian shipping people are realizing that they missed the boat, in their own backyard. It’s right there in the business press.

          As far as the “Arctic canard” goes, you would do well to read the IPCC reports. Don’t worry, the summary is in lay-man’s language, not too intimidating. The real goods are right there.

          But since your certainty in this matter shows how scientifically minded you are, go on to the body of the report, and read it carefully. Then you can criticize the methodological errors, if you can find any.

          • capt spaulding January 6, 2014 at 2:38 pm #

            Certainty is the product of a closed mind.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:09 pm #

          And the Globos caught in the Southern Ice? Priceless.

          • sauerkraut January 6, 2014 at 4:43 pm #

            Priceless, eh, Janos?

            Then why don’t you reply to my rebuttal of last week? No time yet?

        • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 1:35 am #

          “Dr. Spencer is on the board of directors of the George C. Marshall Institute, a right-wing conservative think tank on scientific issues and public policy. He listed as an expert for the Heartland Institute, a libertarian American public policy think tank. Dr. Spencer is also listed as an expert by the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project (ICECAP), a global warming “skeptic” organization”

      • Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:49 pm #

        Via Drudge: That Liar Obama on AGW:

        “Excessively high temperatures” are “already” harming public health nationwide, Pres. Obama declared on Nov. 1, 2013, two months before today’s assault by record low temperatures.

        In his executive order on climate change, Obama warned that too much rain – and not enough rain – also dictated that executive action against climate fluctuations.

        • sauerkraut January 6, 2014 at 4:46 pm #

          I defend science. I won’t defend Obama.

          • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 12:26 pm #

            What’s to defend? I almost did not hit submit on this one because it is nothing but snarky but leadership he does not give. He is nothing but a rubber stamp to what already is.

  15. djc January 6, 2014 at 12:09 pm #

    Ah, what could be better? I’m sitting in my favorite Lazy-Boy recliner with a hot cup of tea after just getting in from x-c skiing ready to read JHK predictions for 2014. I don’t care if there’s a blizzard starting along the shores of Lake Erie—–this is some serious enjoyment for the next few minutes.

    Happy New Year to all.

    djc

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  16. BackRowHeckler January 6, 2014 at 12:27 pm #

    Not much about the Middle East, but as the European and British press pointed out this weekend, with the retreat of the United States, the middle east and the whole Muslim World is going down in flames.

    Meanwhile, Secretary Kerry is working hard on an Israeli-Palestine peace agreement, which is a little like painting the kitchen while the house is being consumed by termites.

    When the disorder and chaos reach the Arabian Peninsula — as it surely will — then we’ll find out for sure how ‘energy independent’ we’ve really become. Or was it just a load of bullshit?

    –BRH

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 12:22 pm #

      The consequences of nation building. Rip their society apart and attempt to rebuild it in our own image and shit happens.

  17. hugho January 6, 2014 at 12:29 pm #

    Thanks Jim for your always darkly witty commentary on contemporary civilization. For most of us who read this blog you are preaching to the choir. I think you are slowly realizing that prediction with timelines is a fools errand. It all has to do with the concept of time. There is current time perhaps measured by the movement of planetary bodies within elliptical orbits. There is geologic time etc. There is the NY minute. So when do the fan blades become chunky and brown? No way to know. WHAT IS CERTAIN IS THAT ALL EMPIRES FAIL. Were there Kunstleresque scribes in the Mayan temples warning the Virgin killers of unsustainability of their societal models? Were there pre bloogers on the Palatine Hill whispering in Senators ears that it might be time to get outta town? Maybe start a real oilve garden somewhere away from the massing Visigoths peering over the Alps?
    Probably. Mark Buchanan in UBIQUITY says that the sand grains continue to pile up and pile up. As the slope steepens a critical mass is eventually achieved and the avalanche begins.
    The trend lines of society, politics, finance , economics, and climate projections certainly seem to point to a Kuntleresque future but it may be very different from a World made by hand. Or not. It may be apocalyptic or it may end with a whimper.It may be catalyzed by a volcano, an asteroid, an earthquake or a miscalculation in Asia, Washington or the Middle East. Of one thing you can be sure. Our esteemed elites with their tortoiseshell eyewear in whining testimony on the Palatine Hill will certainly lament that there was no way anyone could have known. There may be clues to the endgame if anyone is reporting. Maybe Taibbi will notice. The SS elites were scooting down to the Vatican with their Jewish booty and clutching Argentinian passports long before Hitler and Eva splattered their dendrites into the bunker walls. When people start clearing out their desks at Goldman Sachs, get nervous.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:21 pm #

      Jewish Booty? You mead Goldman Sachs, right?

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 12:18 pm #

      Were there Kunstleresque scribes in the Mayan temples warning the Virgin killers of unsustainability of their societal models? Were there pre bloogers on the Palatine Hill whispering in Senators ears that it might be time to get outta town?

      I don’t think so. There may have been a few wise souls but no network of informed citizens demanding change. And no organized network or praetorian guards to silence their voice either.

      We are the first collapse aware society for we have science which makes us aware of collapse and they did not. We could save ourselves but with an organized network of praetorian guards watching our every move it can’t happen.

  18. volodya January 6, 2014 at 12:46 pm #

    I saw at zerohedge that Bill Dudley (el supremo at the New York Fed) gave a speech where he said that they don’t fully understand how large scale asset purchase programs work. By this I guess he’s saying they don’t know how QE works.

    Just prior to that he said that they don’t have well developed macro models that incorporate a realistic financial sector.

    Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy don’t it. So the question is do these guys have any real idea what they’re doing? What if they don’t? Maybe it’s safe to assume they don’t. Maybe this explains the Chinese buying every loose bit of gold they can find.

    So the Fed dumped out trillions of US bucks into the financial sector. I used to hear talk about the Fed walking this stimulus back. But I haven’t neard any talk like this for a long time. So you wonder, how will they walk it back? Maybe they can’t. Maybe they don’t know how.

    JHK mentions deflation, that big scary bogeyman that Bernanke is so afraid of as are all good and proper central bankers.

    But let me ask you, assuming it’s consumer prices we’re talking about, isn’t deflation in the consumer price index a likely outcome after all that’s happened? They gutted US manufacturing capacity through offshoring and gutted the US middle class and its purchasing power. Maybe deflation is what you’d expect ie a movement of consumer prices to where the average consumer can actually afford to buy.

    Maybe deflation is a necessary product of this collapse in middle class purchasing power. And not only that but the collapse in production costs in places with slave wages and no labor or environmental standards. A compressive deflationary spiral may be one way to look at it. But maybe the downward movement in CPI may be a move to a sustainable economy.

    • zaphod42 January 6, 2014 at 1:28 pm #

      About that missing deflation. With almost every central bank pumping money into the system, my view is that the only reason we do not have hyperinflation is that we are seeing simultaneous deflation of similar magnitude, and the only reason we don not have deflation is the magnitude of fiat currency printing going on.

      Normally I believe that a crash would be accompanied by incredible deflation – normally needed to call the event a depression rather than a recession. Afterwards, we might see hyperinflation (e.g. Depression era Germany).

      The first without the second, like seen in the US in the 1930’s, results in long term depression. Either is bad – those who have nothing notice chaos. Those who have asset back debts note disasterous consequences, foreclosures and bankruptcy rampant. And if the debt is non-dischargeable we will see a new class of serfs – those with college debt – and probably a new type of slavery. Or is it really new?

      For the wealthy, values of assets will diminish with great gnashing of teeth, and relative wealth will remain unchanged. If I own property valued at ten million dollars, and the value drops by 90%, my property is now valued at one million dollars. However, if levels of pay valued in dollars drops by 95%, my relative net worth is doubled. So long as what you own is not subject to debt, no problem. It is only those who pretend to have much by borrowing who will be injured, mostly the alleged middle class.

      Craig

      Craig

      • Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:18 pm #

        I wuz listening to an expert on Youtube and they noted that

        FOOD PRICES IN USA ARE UP 50% IN 10 YEARS.

        On average folks are spending 10$ a day on food.
        I kept track last year and I spent 300-4000$ a month on food.
        Prices include 1$ for an apple. 1$ for a parsnip. 8$ a pound for cheese.
        I was at a farmers market 2 days ago, they offered ’12 free range eggs for 8$ [or was it 9$?].

        • zaphod42 January 6, 2014 at 3:04 pm #

          Ah, but in “newspeak” inflation does not include what every day people must purchase – food and energy – only toys. And the price of toys continues to fall.

          Watch those unreported components carefully. If the prices in food, gas, oil, electric and the like suddenly zoom upwards, grab something and hold on. It will be turbulent.

          Interesting times in the year(s) ahead.

          Craig

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:24 pm #

        As Lord Greystone told Tarzan, never sell the Land. Wear tattered rags if you must, even work, but hold on to it. Esta la vida. It is Life.

  19. SteveO January 6, 2014 at 1:03 pm #

    Jim, a most interesting forecast.

    I disagree about the time frame on the pending market collapse. Since this is an election year, albeit only the midterms, the rainmakers at the fed will find some way to paper over the pending crash until after (or maybe right before, October has a history of market crashes) the election.

    The “fly in the ointment” so to speak is Greece. They are having elections in May and that could easily bring to office people who have no intention to support the current parliament’s cooperation with (extortion from) the ECB.

    Anyway, a happy and healthy new year to all of you.

    • Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:15 pm #

      Say when ? 2015?

      • SteveO January 7, 2014 at 3:29 pm #

        Sure. I get tired of everyone saying it’s going to happen this year. 2015 is a good a guess as any.

  20. Startdigging January 6, 2014 at 1:13 pm #

    For anyone who believes the doomers are wrong we recently had an ice storm and subsequent power failure here in Ontario. There was a large outcry from the urban crowd as many of them lost food in the process…… It seems that their refrigerators failed and the food spoiled…. while outside air temperatures hovered around 0 degrees F. If you can’t see the irony in this give up.

    In my area we went without power for only 30 hours and you would have thought it was 30 days.

    If you think we are going to emerge from this financial/energy crisis unscathed you are an idiot.

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    • swmnguy January 6, 2014 at 1:28 pm #

      So did your neighbors have any trouble using their Bitcoins in the absence of electricity for 30 hours?

      • Startdigging January 6, 2014 at 1:37 pm #

        lmao

      • Startdigging January 6, 2014 at 1:46 pm #

        Funny but you touch on a serious subject. People do not understand the physics of the real world. They think everything can be fixed with an “App”

        • swmnguy January 6, 2014 at 3:21 pm #

          Oh yeah, I meant to be funny but I wasn’t kidding. “Kidding on the square,” I believe they used to call it.

          Where I grew up in the country the power lines were all above ground and power went out every time the wind blew too much, which was pretty much all the time. So we got used to the idea that these things weren’t permanent or reliable. Heck, I still keep the basement chest freezer half full of water-filled milk jugs. Our old house here in the city was on a sketchy leg of the local power grid and we’d have outages at least every other month. The ice kept food frozen, or at least cold, until they got the power back up and running. We’ve moved to an area only 10 blocks away, but a much more stable part of the grid. Still, we had violent storms this past June and no power for about a day; the ice jugs kept all the frozen stuff just fine.

          I keep trying to teach my kids all this wonderful luxury might go away at any moment. They think I’m nuts. But they were impressed this past summer when I could drill holes and drive screws with a “Yankee Screwdriver,” when the batteries on my rechargeable drill had drained and the power was still out.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:25 pm #

          Appy Idjiots.

          • jarleb January 8, 2014 at 8:59 am #

            iDiots, that is!

  21. Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:07 pm #

    HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Hope y’ all are well.
    Anyone here watch ‘Doomsday Preppers’? I guess the road to hell is still lined with good intentions.

  22. Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:14 pm #

    Re. January 5, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    progress4what / Backrowheckler / Janos…………

    250,000 a year + benefits for a Female Police Officer.

    http://smdp.com/breakdown-of-highest-paid-city-employees/126939

    http://smdp.com/letter-overpaid/129034

    Whereas Pasadena has many more people, it has 3 or 4 city employees that make 200,000+. SM has about 50? 70?

  23. Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:21 pm #

    This gal is on You tube and she knows ‘even more than B R Heckler and Janos’!

    http://www.youtube.com ANN BARNHARDT

    [I removed link as JHK does not link links to movies]

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:29 pm #

      I love Ann. Prog introduced me to her. I write furious emails to her which she ignores. Check out her Koran burning. It’s outta this world. She can be very ignorant but when she hits, no one is better. Her “We are the gold” piece is transcendental.

  24. Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:24 pm #

    Back Row Heckler……California has a new ‘transgendered kiddie law’.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:32 pm #

      Blame the parents. Many children have identity issues as they establish their identities on this plane. Some may say they are a boy if they are a girl or vice versa. The Parents, overjoyed at having someone with a Big PC Problem, immediately set out to consolidate the momentary confusion. It’s all about points. Having a Transgendered Child is even bigger than adopting an African child. It’s the new big thing.

  25. budizwiser January 6, 2014 at 2:24 pm #

    Good job on the essay. You delineated the current events just enough to reveal the “cause and effect” relations the govern the new global realities.

    Like many of your readers – I’m exasperated with the apparent confidence the masses have with the hierarchical status – the status of quo of the rich screwing pretty much the rest of the entire earth.

    Couple of things – I had the same idea about the “golden bone” for China. But the entire world is a “stage” – who really knows?

    Hey whatever happened to deep water wells – they are supposed to be saving the world about now…….

    Remember my mantra – “discretionary energy consumption.” it is what makes the world’s rich people rich – when it stops – TSHTF

    Submitted for discussion – attempt to discover the top years for Interstate highway construction – discover the mean “working life” of the concrete used in these roads and bridges – then predict what year “happy motoring” meets “gas revenue reality.”

    That may be the year of the beginning of “peak bullshit.”

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  26. jim e January 6, 2014 at 2:49 pm #

    ” I think you are slowly realizing that prediction with timelines is a fools errand.” ………Auburn tonight.

    • Panic January 6, 2014 at 2:56 pm #

      I predict more ‘die versity’ and its consequences.

      Like….http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/anti-muslim-hate-crimes-on-the-rise-in-britain_899820.html

      Nice how they’re whining about a pig’s head left on the doorstep of a mosque “five days after soldier Lee Rigby’s murder” by 2 muslims.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:35 pm #

        Yes, how dare Whites resist their dispossession and genocide. Anytime a White is slaughtered, the media worries about a possible backlash against the offending minority – ignoring what did just actually happen to a White person.

  27. drpiper January 6, 2014 at 3:06 pm #

    Doom and gloom. Great website. I always love Jim’s predictions. We are perpetually going to fall apart. He’s my guy!! Happy New Year Jim….looking forward to your latest book…Hope we have enough energy to publish it..>DR

  28. gellen with yellen January 6, 2014 at 4:01 pm #

    Janlos says: “Go for the ones who have no tattoos or kids. And of course, young enough to adapt to the New Ways.”

    also, make sure she has a nice pair o’ baps.

    as far as 2014 predictions go, it will be a boring, dull and uneventful year much like 2013. in fact, it will be difficult to distinguish the two. same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

    once in a lifetime

  29. Art Myatt January 6, 2014 at 4:40 pm #

    Jim,

    Here’s one big problem with Japan going medieval. The ” mystical horrors of Fukushima” are the result of 3 nuclear reactor meltdowns. Japan has a total of 54 nuclear reactors, of which “only” 3 have melted down so far. The only thing that keeps the other 51 from similarly melting down is, in nuclear industry parlance, “station power.” That is, each reactor and spent fuel pool needs a supply of electricity to run pumps which circulate cooling water to prevent a meltdown.

    This is true even at Fukushima reactor #4, which did not have fuel in the reactor at the time of the tsunami. It had fuel rods in the cooling pool, and that cooling pool has pumps to circulate cooling water to prevent a meltdown. It’s true that a cooling pool meltdown in the absence of circulating water might take longer to get started. This is a matter of something like a month for a cooling pool as opposed to a day or less for an operating reactor core. However, when a cooling pool does melt down, much more highly radioactive material gets involved than with a reactor core meltdown.

    As bad as the mystical horrors of Fukushima are today, 51 more meltdowns, all of which would eventually involve spent fuel as well as reactor cores, would be worse. Most of these other reactors are not located on the coast, so that runoff goes into the ocean, either. Many are located upwind and upstream of major population centers.

    If going medieval means complete collapse of the electrical grid, then Japan is in for a 54-reactor meltdown which will leave the entire country uninhabitable. The same is true for the United States, which has over a hundred reactors. It seems to me that most of the United States, including the upstate New York area in which your novels are set, would be uninhabitable for this reason.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 4:53 pm #

      Is there a way out of this nightmare? Can they be decommissioned before the power goes off? What about shooting the waste into outer space? Not as an ongoing policy but as a final measure to save ourselves and the Earth.

      • SteveO January 7, 2014 at 3:56 pm #

        The irradiated fuel assemblies have to be actively cooled for about 5 years before they can go into dry cask storage. At least the Japanese have been putting fuel in dry storage. Here in the US, almost all of the fuel collected up over the last 40 years is in wet storage. If that water goes away, the zirconium cladding will catch fire throwing cesium 137 and strontium 90 into the air.

  30. Ozymandius January 6, 2014 at 5:04 pm #

    Some people here are not impressed by the new Jellomeister. Count me out. She co-authored a book in 2001, and has had 2 reader reviews since then on amazon.com. Both are 5 star and are worth a read in themselves. So count me in as a fanboy!

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  31. mook January 6, 2014 at 5:07 pm #

    First time here in a long time. Looks like I didn’t miss much but still see some names from the past. One question : Did TrippTicket get a job yet?

  32. BackRowHeckler January 6, 2014 at 5:39 pm #

    You are (all of you) failing to take into account the International Electronics Trade Show in Las Vegas this weekend. Many fancy new Gizmos are being introduced, some of them capable of MAKING GODS OF MEN!, and SAVING THE WORLD!

    Michelle Obama, Valery Jarret, Oprah and Mrs. Eric Holder are getting together this weekend at O’s mansion in Hawaii. Just a girls soiree, that’s all. Tues. they’ll be flying back to the mainland on an Air Force 777.

    –BRH

  33. Dražen Divac January 6, 2014 at 5:52 pm #

    The wise and sage Janos opined: What about shooting the waste into outer space? Not as an ongoing policy but as a final measure to save ourselves and the Earth.

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

    I think this is an excellent idea, Janos. It sure beats the hell out of spending precious lucre ferrying Blacks and LGBTs into space. Sure, there’s a risk the rockets and their respective payloads could explode before leaving Earth’s atmosphere and spray the lethal radioactivity all over Kingdom Come, but it’s also a risk if we just leave it as it is. Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign. If enough of us write letters and/or stop using nuclear power, they’re bound to listen to us. They always do when you engage such influentially brutal tactics. The pen is mightier than the sword, or in this case the keyboard is mightier than the sword.

    Since we’re prognosticating about 2014 and beyond, I predict hermaphrodites will become thee hot item. Soon enough, maybe as early as the end of 2014, hermaphrodites will be coveted by the Liberal and/or LGBT community. They’ll be adopting hermaphroditic children and training hermaphroditic astronauts for Mars missions.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2014 at 7:06 pm #

      So you counsel being reasonable. Which is another way of saying being predictable – and easy to defeat. No we must be wild and carefree and only possibly car free. Why not ride motorcycles a la Mad Max?

      The Stolid Solid Saxon Shield Wall held twice against the Norman charge. The third time it crumbled and England was lost. If they Saxons had counter attacked either time, they might have taken the day. They were too civilized. They had lost the Barbarian edge. Your counsel is simply wrong for the times.

      There’s a great movie of Knight Bikers who joust on their bikes. Can’t remember the title. Help me out since I am your Liege Lord.

      • Dražen Divac January 6, 2014 at 8:00 pm #

        The part about the letter writing was sarcasm. Come on, Janos, I expect more of you.

  34. Pucker January 6, 2014 at 6:14 pm #

    With all the poverty headed for America, trailer parks may be making a Big Comeback?

    What would the Trailer Park of the Future look like? Cyber-Trailer? The Virtual Redneck?

    I heard that the rednecks have diversified out of moonshine into metha-amphetamine and crank, which shows entrepreneurship.

  35. Dražen Divac January 6, 2014 at 6:17 pm #

    Janos, that radix journal article was excellent. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I agree with the author completely. I’m reminded of a movie directed by and starring Paul Newman called
    Sometimes A Great Notion
    .

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  36. Pucker January 6, 2014 at 6:21 pm #

    I read somewhere that it’s estimated that up to one-third of U.S. federal government employees are expected to retire in the next 3 years. They’ll be expecting their retirement checks for decades.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 12:05 pm #

      I hope you are one of them.

  37. zz January 6, 2014 at 6:33 pm #

    I’m about the same age as Kunstler. I’ve seen a lot. I bought into a lot of this doom and gloom stuff.

    Well, I’ve reached a point where I pretty much don’t believe I’m going to be around to see it come to fruition. At least not on the scale many of these folks have been “predicting” for many years.

    So, I’ve been clearing out the crap. Sold the Berkey Light Water Purifiers. Cleaned out the firearms and the thousands of rounds of ammo. Slimmed down the food stash to a dozen buckets and a large pantry of useful food supplies. Gave the kids all the camping gear. Craig’s Listed all the large water storage vessels, etc etc.

    Also, cut down all my fruit trees (12) which were just too damn much work to keep up on and reduced my “survival” garden to manageable proportions.

    I’ve also slimmed down who I read to this and four other blogs (no more SurvivalBlog).

    Guess I have moved toward Greer’s view of a very slow decent of civilization, centuries, not years. I empathize with what’s coming, but ain’t gonna see it.

    I find all this urgency to do something now very entertaining, but it’s kind of like watching the WWE, it ain’t real.

    Happy New Year.

  38. carstars January 6, 2014 at 8:11 pm #

    Watching ice melt, drip drip drip. But then I go and watch folks rushing around at the store. I live about 60 miles from actual stores and civilization so only go to ‘town’ about once a month. My wife does the shopping and it can take her hours so I just sit in the car and watch people going in and out of the stores. What is amazing is most people are only buying a few items each trip. Then driving off to the burbs. Hundreds of cars and hour moving in and out of the parking lot. The 20 pump fueling island is selling gas most hours of the day.

    So what is the problem looks like a well oiled machine. Tick Tock Tick Tock.

    I predict that human nature will not change at all and all that will survive 2014 will toast in a new year. We? I will continue to explore the frontiers of the Zen of parking lot meditation.

    • KDI January 6, 2014 at 10:44 pm #

      We will always run with the pedal to the metal right into Jevon’s paradoxical brick wall. One minor example is this. Make a car that gets 360 mpg in the 50’s ,make it last like a fiat panda. The result would be 1.75 billion cars on the roads around the world today. So, enjoy the fruits of the ten thousand car supply train , pulled by 3 billion groaning emerging economy peons , while it lasts

      You have a better chance of winning the lottery than the world does of voluntarily stopping discretionary consumption.

  39. earltwitty January 6, 2014 at 8:12 pm #

    Concerning the fracking debate and limited cheap gas era, can anyone point me to some truthful websites on the safe fracking debate? I have seen “Gasland” and immediately googled “Gasland Inaccuracies” and it seems that you can come up with any information you want to hear. I seem to be pointing towards unsafe and have read the new EPA update for Dimock, Penn. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-official-links-fracking-and-drinking-water-issues-in-dimock-pa/2013/07/29/7d8b34b2-f8a1-11e2-afc1-c850c6ee5af8_story.html
    Conservatives say we need those jobs!! (Bill Nojay, talk show host in Rochester is one of them among many).

  40. ZrCrypDiK January 6, 2014 at 9:45 pm #

    OMG, d00d – yer (blog is) *INFESTED*!!! I have no advice – but me, like Ozone and P2C, *R* your best *FRIENDS*. We’re here, to the *END*…

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  41. progress4what January 6, 2014 at 10:21 pm #

    “Iraq is once again disintegrating after a decade of American “nation-building.” Greece is falling apart. Spain and Italy should be falling apart but haven’t yet. France is sinking into bankruptcy. The UK is in on the grift with the USA and insulated from the Euro, but the British Isles are way over-populated with a volatile multi-ethnic mix and not much of an economy outside the financial district of London. There were riots in — of all places — Sweden this year.” – JHK –

    Yeah, zero doubt, JHK. Will it all go down this year? No one knows, but it does stagger along with considerable inertia.

    Riots in Sweden are mostly due to US-backed corporate multi-culturalism; unless due to something more evil altogether.

    Regardless – the West is done, DONE – unless something stops this madness pretty soon.

    As an American, I can see where doom, despair, and agony are personally deserved – because of those Indians I killed and those slaves I owned.

    But the SWEDES?? What the hell did they do?

  42. progress4what January 6, 2014 at 10:28 pm #

    There are a bunch of folks on CFN who are talking about the bad outcomes that come from trying to talk about collapse with family members and close friends –

    I feel your pain, truly. And I’ve been there.

    And all I can say is persevere. And be prepared.

    And FOR-GOD’S-SAKE – – ENJOY LIFE NOW!

    And try to keep a sense of humor about it all.

    • Karah January 6, 2014 at 10:49 pm #

      Actions speak louder…

      Guys: Don’t sit in the car while your wife shops, take half the list and another shopping cart and get in another line to check out.

      Gals: Carpool and cut down on beauty products; go for the NATURAL look.

      Dependents: Ask your parent(s) what you can do around the house for money and save it until you’re at least 32. Yes, you can still help your parents when you move out AND get paid for it!

    • progress4what January 6, 2014 at 11:01 pm #

      Back in 1981, I was newly married to a tolerant Southern Belle who is, remarkably, still with me.

      My dad had come up pretty hard in the great depression – and he and I and a couple of uncles had fairly well convinced ourselves that the End was getting near.

      And we had a plan – that we would all meet up at an area in middle Georgia with some family and friends – and make things work going forward.

      Now – I didn’t have a whole lot of extra money in those days. But I had blundered into a couple of cases of good canned peanuts for the nascent “food storage” program. (along with some beer, of course)

      At that time my wife and I were living at an apartment complex within an easy rifle shot of Dobbins AFB and Lockheed/Martin Marietta. Ronald Rayguns was making a lot of noise about the Evil Empire, and we were, most definitely, in the Soviet cross-hairs.

      I let it slip at work about the peanuts. And for a couple of weeks, I was subject to some serious harassment to the effect, “Yeah, when it goes down – we’ll meet over at Prog’s apartment and eat peanuts and watch the mushroom cloud over Dobbins.”

      Enjoy life, remember. Good humor. Be prepared.

      Fast forward to today. I’m trying to help one of my sons pick out a house. He wants to live close to the big city, as many of you are suggesting. So – while he’s talking square footage and neighborhood amenities – I’m looking for defensible terrain and natural water sources.

      My kid may think I’m a little bit crazy. But he’ll take my advice.

      And who knows, one day, we might all end up in his basement, defending his perimeter, and drinking water out of the creek behind his house.

      Somebody better remember to bring some peanuts.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2014 at 1:10 am #

        You must have been a big Jimmy Carter supporter. Remember Billy? Too bad Jimma only had one term. Despite his weirdness and limitations, I think he really believed in changing our energy policy. Who can forget his cardigans and the fireplace? He’s really shined since leaving office in his opposition to Israel.

        The sinister part is his mentor Brezinski. Make no mistake, your guru is an insider – one of the CFR faction.

  43. Q. Shtik January 6, 2014 at 10:49 pm #

    Tonight’s annoying football pronunciations:

    Ahburn……..Brent Musburger

    Runeen the baw……..Halftime talking head

  44. Q. Shtik January 6, 2014 at 10:56 pm #

    “…cut down on beauty products; go for the NATURAL look.” – Karah
    ==============

    Ha. Good one. Try telling that to my wife.

  45. Arn Varnold January 7, 2014 at 5:07 am #

    “…I heard that the rednecks have diversified out of moonshine into metha-amphetamine and crank…” Pucker

    Meth and crank are one and the same. Please get yourself informed before posting drivel, thank you.

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    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 12:01 pm #

      Good move. Getting pucker informed could take a really long time and he could be gone for quite a while.

  46. Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2014 at 5:23 am #

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/03/us-army-drone-roadmap_n_4535425.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

    Insect drones. Perhaps the Locusts with long hair and sharp teeth described in Revelations? Or is that just Ozone’s heavy metal band?

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 11:58 am #

      I don’t have to wait that long for the government to ‘bug me’, they already are.

  47. Dave January 7, 2014 at 7:50 am #

    “…Back in 1981, I was newly married to a tolerant Southern Belle who is, remarkably, still with me…” progress4what

    I hate to misuse my team’s productivity, but I could swear you have posted here before that you are married to a woman who is an émigré from Great Britain. Now I have to assign one of my men to comb the archives and pull that out, and when that team member finds it and we document it for all to see, you can explain the discrepancy.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 11:56 am #

      But which archives exactly? The real ones or the ones which have been ‘massaged‘.

  48. nosauerkraut January 7, 2014 at 9:05 am #

    Disagree with Bitcoin statement: (1) it is impervious to government hacking at the moment, that is, until NSA gets a workable quantum computer which could be 5,10, or 15 years down the road -but by them we’ll have strengthened the encryption, it was innovation that helped start Bitcoin and it will be the same quality that will make it impervious. It will one day put the banks out of business. We don’t need banks. (2) the trend may be toward real but if one likes to lug their gold and silver around to engage in commerce – that will cause problems at border crossings and a host of other issues. Bitcoin can be backed by gold. And no, Bitcoin may not be dominate but another cyrptocurrency will. So what does it matter if Bitcoin dominates or not? But if you love the banks and the complete control over your fiat money then by all means keep on banking.

    “If it was up to Marine LePen’s rising National Front party, they would solve the employment problem by expelling all the recent immigrants — ” A close look at the Lisbon Treaty as well as the huge unelected powers of the Brussels EU, says that\s not possible. EU members have lost most off their sovereignty and will not be allowed to make decisions like that. Heirloom seeds will be crimmialised and only gmo certified EU seeds will be used by home gardeners in the EU. Presidents and ministers of member EU countries will only be “managers” of their countries because rules will come out of Brussels. Welcome to the EUSSR.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 11:51 am #

      What next? An avitar called noK-Dog?

    • sauerkraut January 7, 2014 at 1:03 pm #

      Why, thank you for the compliment, nosauerkraut.

  49. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 9:42 am #

    There were riots in — of all places — Sweden this year.” – JHK

    yeah kunstler always does blow things way outta proportion. a couple of folks in sweden riot and LOOK, things are falling apart.

    he said the same thing about greece

    he said the same thing about brazil (“the quants are shaking in their boots”)

    weak, as usual.

    You have a better chance of winning the lottery than the world does of voluntarily stopping discretionary consumption.

    not true. europe’s been anti-consumption for decades. they recycle 80% of garbage in germany/switzerland.

    they’re all about reuse and saving.

    Regardless – the West is done, DONE – unless something stops this madness pretty soon.

    typical erroneous extrapolation of the situation. the vast majority of immigrants acclimate well to the West. the shitheads do stand out though

    Guess I have moved toward Greer’s view of a very slow decent of civilization, centuries, not years.

    the most cogently thought out of the comments i have seen today. although the ever increasing acceleration in the rate of technological progress will overcome all problems. and those it doesn’t will find adequate workarounds.

    it is the nature of progress, in the great Western civilisation. science is tackling all the major problems, pollution, food production, medicine, energy.

    It is because unconventional oil and gas resources have postponed the collapse of modern society for a few decades.

    proves my previous point. when one source of energy/food etc. dries up, innovative people find another. it is the nature of scientific progress.

    we are talking about space based solar for years now. because it is coming. as is space mining. futuredwellers will find your energy concerns amusing.

    some of you here will be enraged by my unrealistic comments favourable to technology and the certainty of solutions. even as you sip on your machine-made tropical grown coffee in comfort as winter rages outside and you communicate across the globe by pressing a few buttons.

    yes. the future certainly does look bleak.

    peace peaceniks

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 11:38 am #

      You lying pile of wattle and daub:

      “Hundreds of youths burnt down a restaurant, set fire to more than 30 cars and attacked police during a fourth night of rioting in the suburbs of Stockholm, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers.”

      That is not a a couple of folks rioting. And Greece:

      “Violent clashes broke out in several Greek cities last night after an anti-fascist activist and musician was stabbed to death by a man claiming to be a member of far-right Golden Dawn party.”

      Your distortion of facts never stops.

      Europe’s been anti-consumption for decades.

      ” Consumption of goods and services in EEA member countries is a major driver of global resource use — and associated environmental impacts. European consumption (food and drink, housing, mobility and tourism) is resulting in an increasing share of environmental pressures and impacts worldwide owing to burgeoning global trade. Achieving significant reductions in these effects calls for a change in private and public consumption patterns to supplement gains from improved technology and production processes.

      Between 1990 and 2010 in the EU-27, consumption expenditure increased by 33%. The West Balkan countries and Turkey saw a steeper rise – by 120% and 63% respectively for the same period. Households spend between two and six times more than the public sector. The negative environmental effects of goods consumed in Europe are global – resource extraction, production, processing and transportation impact other regions.

      Our eating and drinking habits result in significant environmental pressures: we cause these directly, by travelling to the shops, storing, cooking and generating waste; and indirectly – and even more importantly – by food production, processing and transportation.

      We buy increasing numbers of electric and electronic goods (such as TVs, PCs, laptops, mobile phones and kitchen appliances), and we also replace these more frequently than previously. Household electricity consumption is on the rise. Our houses are getting more energy-efficient, but as we also build larger homes for fewer people, energy consumption for heating is only slightly decreasing. Every European citizen threw away roughly 445 kg of household waste in 2008.

      Car travel and aviation are on the rise, inflating energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions; increased car traffic is a major contributor to air pollution and also causes noise problems in cities. Today’s trend towards living in low-density urban areas is resulting in urban sprawl, in turn elevating consumption of energy, resources, transport and land.

      Tourism is growing fast, and travel to and from our destinations is most often by car or plane. In tourist destinations, water and energy consumption, land use, and waste/wastewater generation often have considerable environmental impacts.”

      Elevating consumption of energy, resources, transport and land is not anti-consumption .

      Guess I have moved toward Greer’s view of a very slow decent of civilization, centuries, not years.

      So you quote another sock puppet maybe even yourself. Greer is intelligent and perceptive but he is only a man. He is not right about everything. I further think that he is being taken out of context and merely criticises the reactionary doom and gloom crowd who like you reacts overemotionally to every stirring of the tea leaves. Mother nature is going to do what she is going to do and our thoughts, wishes, and emotional reactions have no effect on her actions. The only thing that affects her actions is what we actually do. And if enough Arctic methane gets released it will not be centuries but years and consuming khat and betel nut will become new American pastimes with which to beat the heat.

      The rate of technical progress is not on the increase. It is on the decrease. Diminishing returns slow the return on innovation down giving ever less bang for the buck. Technical progress turns out to be an oxymoron as it plods forward blindly without regard for human needs or the human condition.

      It is because unconventional oil and gas resources have postponed the collapse of modern society for a few decades.

      This is not true as the ‘few decades’ is in great dispute. At best it may only be one decade but if we have to put up with your sock puppetry for another decade it may well enough seem like several. You generalise and deceive. Tight oil is expensive and in a decade may be too expensive to get out of the ground. Unconventional oil and gas resources have postponed the collapse of modern society not for a few decades but at best for only a few years.

      We are talking about space based solar for years now.

      The only thing worth saying about space based solar is that it has an ERORI that is out of this world. It makes less economic sense than pumping tight oil which will soon be too expensive to produce.

      Some of you here will be enraged by my unrealistic comments.

      Finally an admission of what you are really doing here, a Freudian slip, and the only thing you say which is true. The future looks bleak and your intent is to do nothing but block discussion on how it can be made better.

      peace peaceniks

      And with this your passive aggressive closing, you insult us, for you mean the exact opposite for there is nothing peaceful about your sociopathic ass Mr. mud hut.

      • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 11:53 am #

        You generalise and deceive.

        I want to change this to:

        You generalise deceive and omit.

  50. Q. Shtik January 7, 2014 at 12:07 pm #

    “You lying pile of wattle and daub:” – K-Dog to Rube
    ===========

    Where the hell did you find THAT expression? If it’s supposed to be an insult, I don’t get it. See definition below:

    Wattle and daub – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattle_and_daub

    Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material …

    Then again, calling someone the male offspring of a female dog doesn’t seem particularly insulting either.

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    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 12:53 pm #

      I did not find it anywhere. It is my own creation. Research what ‘sticky material’ refers too and it will make more sense. And I agree with you. If someone wants to call me a ‘son of a bitch’ all I can say is.

      So?

  51. Free Butch DeFeo January 7, 2014 at 12:28 pm #

    “You generalise deceive and omit.” – K-Dog

    ===========

    There should be a comma between “generalise” and deceive. In addition, please make up your mind as to whether you’re European or American. You claim to reside in the Northwest United States but on occasion will spell things like a European/Brit. This is one of those occasions where you’ve used an s instead of a z in generalize. I’ve also seen you add, like Brits/Europeans, the u to vior to make it viour as in behaviour. Choose one or the other. Either you’re a European or you’re an American. You can’t have it both ways Dawg.

    That being said, you’ve been quite mean-spirited of late. Do you have an impaction or something? If so, let your owner know and he/she can help alleviate it. Please don’t take it out on the rest of us here. We’re all friends and your incessant use of ad hominems is no way to treat friends.

    Pursuant to rube’s point, technology will allow the car culture to continue well after the oil runs out. This is just around the corner. I can’t wait.

    Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century

    There are now over one billion cars traveling roads around the world directly and indirectly costing trillions of dollars in material resources, time and noxious emissions. Imagine all these cars running cleanly for 100 years on just 8 grams of fuel each.

    Laser Power Systems (LPS) from Connecticut, USA, is developing a new method of automotive propulsion with one of the most dense materials known in nature: thorium. Because thorium is so dense it has the potential to produce tremendous amounts of heat. The company has been experimenting with small bits of thorium, creating a laser that heats water, produces steam and powers a mini turbine.

    Current models of the engine weigh 500 pounds, easily fitting into the engine area of a conventionally-designed vehicle. According to CEO Charles Stevens, just one gram of the substance yields more energy than 7,396 gallons (28,000 L) of gasoline and 8 grams would power the typical car for a century.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 1:13 pm #

      Yes I agree about the comma sort of, I still like it better my way. But this:

      You can’t have it both ways Dawg.

      But I can and I am, Sam I am. You are someone to tell me otherwise how?

      Remember I’m not under any disclosure agreement or contract and I am not being paid to be here. I paid for this computer myself and did not get it for free after I filled out a questionnaire, was approved, and then given a list of web sites to harass. This dog is a free citizen who has no master.

      A big barrel of tightly packed dog treat Benjamins could change that but until that happens get used to my mean-spirits. I speak my mind and embrace my truth without any restriction.

      Pursuant to rube’s point, technology will allow the car culture to continue well after the oil runs out. This is just around the corner. I can’t wait.

      A nuclear powered car right around the corner? Excuse me for a while. I have to stop roll over on the floor and pee on myself. I feel a laughing fit coming on. I am already starting to snort.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 1:15 pm #

      I also did calculations on this sort of thing years ago and 8 grams powering a typical car for a century is inaccurate. More than 8 grams would be needed.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 1:25 pm #

      Ooops we had a fender bender here. Avoid this intersection for the next 20,000 years.

  52. Free Butch DeFeo January 7, 2014 at 12:33 pm #

    I thought Wattle & Daub was a new hedge fund spun off from Cerberus? If so, Dawg was calling rube a pile of cash. Definitely not an insult. Well, not yet at least until the hyperinflation hits and that cash becomes worthless.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 1:18 pm #

      “Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw.”

      • WW January 7, 2014 at 1:40 pm #

        Ah K-dog you bear me to it. Daub is usually clay or heavy clay soil, straw and, normally, horse or cow manure. However the saying is usually meant to imply flimsy third rate construction shoddily done. Never heard it said outside of the potteries though!

        • WW January 7, 2014 at 1:41 pm #

          Sorry beat me to it!

    • Neon Vincent January 7, 2014 at 6:33 pm #

      “a new hedge fund spun off from Cerberus”

      Speaking of Cerberus, here’s a bit of trivia K-Dog might appreciate. Cerberus is a Latinized version of the Greek Kerberos. One of the common ideas about the origin of that name is that it comes from the Proto-Indo-European word meaning “spotted.” Now, think about it. The fiercest dog in classical mythology is named Spot. Someone in ancient Greece had a sense of humor!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus#Etymology

  53. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 1:37 pm #

    the sweden riots lasted for all of 8 DAYS, yet for you they signify the creaking sounds of civilisation about to come crashing down. what a little joke your thoughts are (in the main). they were back in MAY of last year.

    where are the violent brazilian clashes that are rattling the mental cages of the West with fear, and are the harbinger of society coming crashing down as well? they lasted weeks. brasil is all quiet, it amounted to a hill of beans.

    Regarding Greer:

    So you quote another sock puppet maybe even yourself. Greer is intelligent and perceptive but he is only a man. He is not right about everything.

    this is the weak puppydawg’s refrain to any good point….ok, well maybe so, maybe he is a recognized expert, but still, he’s only a man…

    great point you got there. might apply to your hero jim kunstler as well, and his tyred shtik about energy descent and learning to farm.

    so what if europeans produce 500kg of trash a year. they recycle – in germany and switzerland – 80% of it. why don’t you respond to that fact? doesnt fit your patmos mentality.

    peace peaceniks

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 2:06 pm #

      Great point you got there. might apply to your hero Jim Kunstler as well.

      And to you and to me. And the moral is; question everything and everyone. You should try it some time.

  54. sevenmmm January 7, 2014 at 1:37 pm #

    The fellow in this interview talks about Japan at around the 53 minute mark:

    http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-01-07/countdown-slowing-population-growth-our-last-best-hope-for-a-future-on-earth

  55. Q. Shtik January 7, 2014 at 2:12 pm #

    “What next? An avitar called noK-Dog?” – K-Dog implying (I think) that sauerkraut and nosauerkraut are one and the same person
    ==========

    I don’t think so Dog. I read all 7 or 8 of sauerkraut’s comments and didn’t spot ANY errors but in the one comment by nosauerkraut I found all these……see brackets:

    … a workable quantum computer which could be [5,10], or 15 years down the road

    -but by [them] we’ll have strengthened the encryption[, I]t was innovation that helped start Bitcoin and it will be the same quality that will make it impervious.

    And no, Bitcoin may not be [dominate] but another cyrptocurrency will.

    A close look at the Lisbon Treaty as well as the huge unelected powers of the Brussels EU, says tha[t\s] not possible.

    EU members have lost most [off] their sovereignty and will not be allowed to make decisions like that.

    Heirloom seeds will be [crimmialised] and only gmo certified EU seeds will be used by home gardeners in the EU.

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    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 2:15 pm #

      No I was not implying that they were the same person.

  56. Free Butch DeFeo January 7, 2014 at 2:30 pm #

    “Ooops we had a fender bender here. Avoid this intersection for the next 20,000 years.” – K-Dog

    ===========

    A comma after “Ooops” would make a more appropriate cadence.

    As for the content, what can I say? You’re such a pussy about everything. Is there anything that doesn’t scare you shitless? It’s a little radioactivity, Dawg. So what. Have you never had an x-ray? Flown in a plane? Eaten a banana? I bet you used to pee in your pants when you watched Godzilla. Lay off Heisenberg’s blue meth. It makes you paranoid. Perhaps you should read some Kottmeyer.

    http://aliens.greyfalcon.us/A%20UNIVERSE%20OF%20SPIES.htm

    • JMR January 8, 2014 at 9:51 am #

      Seriously? You think it’s a good idea to have several hundred million automobiles driving around with radioactive materials as fuel? So you’re one of those people who think a banana is as radioactive as reactor core 3 at Fukushima?

      • Karah January 8, 2014 at 9:53 pm #

        Give them a dedicated lane?

  57. Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2014 at 2:53 pm #

    http://news.yahoo.com/african-asylum-seekers-third-day-israel-protests-000951998.html

    Israel must become Multi-Cultural and Multi-Racial. Jews have asked all other Western Nations to do so. Not to do so would be hypocritical. And they fancy themselves the most moral of all….

    • Panic January 7, 2014 at 3:28 pm #

      A few days or weeks back, JHK chided you for yr ‘Jews got there by nepotism’ riff. He coountered with ‘education and achievement’.

      And I thought of Elena Kagan, THE MOST UNQUALIFIED SCJ EVER.

      More on her at ‘Occidental Observer’:
      http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/category/elena-kagan/

      But as smart as JHK is, no one bats 1000!

      Today at Yahoo News I clicked on this link to ‘Poisonous Foods’ but these are additives, not foods. And to be avoided.
      cognizine.com/report/?subid=ghj27hsj00_banners_mf_cognizine_article

      • Panic January 7, 2014 at 3:28 pm #

        oops, didnt proof. its ‘countered’.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2014 at 12:43 am #

        These people don’t care. They like her because she has short hair and likes women.

  58. volodya January 7, 2014 at 3:09 pm #

    Re this notion that there will be a long, slow descent of civilization

    I have severe doubts about this idea of “long” and “slow”. It could be short and fast.

    Look at past events. On the one hand (and in support of JMGs idea) the world of the year 2000 looked in many ways like the world of the year 1900. But you might object to this. You might ask, what of the British Empire? Well, many people would say that the military might of Britannia was replaced by the might of its former colony. In the minds of these people, the capitol city of the empire moved from London to Washington.

    Personally, I don’t subscribe to the argument that the UK and US are basically interchangeable pieces of one empire. Too simplistic. But I think there is some merit to the idea that the world looked much the same in 2000 as in 1900.

    On the other hand the intervening 20th century was one of upheaval and catastrophe. So, history, it seems, can move on two tracks.

    Historical developments look so obvious in retrospect. But what’s coming? Like people living in the past, nobody knows future events or the timing. However, if recent history is any guide, it will be turmoil and calamity. Caused by what? Soon, we will be 9 billion. Caused by that simple fact, that is to say, competition for usable land and water and resources. What were Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan all about, if not that?

    Except tensions in the future will be exacerbated by worse shortages. Armies, however, are never the first to go without, and so, compared to the past, conflicts will be more ferocious and more barbarous simply because shortages will be more dire and weapons more advanced.

    And IMO it will be the same old powers butting heads over the same old shit. China vs Japan over offshore resources, China vs Russia (over ownership of Siberian resources), Russia vs Germany (just because), with the US trying to placate its isolationist element but nonetheless getting drawn in.

    What of the Middle East and Muslim world? Right now they’re embroiled in age-old sectarian and tribal divides. But the unavoidable fact is that the Persian Gulf has oil. Given their backwardness, they will suffer most atrociously.

    In short, they’re fucked. It’s one thing to deploy the odd suicide bomber or to possess some nukes, it’s quite another to confront desperate and enraged advanced nations armed to the brim with the latest weaponry. Will it be the end of Islam? No, but IMO if Muslim nations mis-play their cards, wide swathes could be turned into ashtrays, most severely nuclear-armed Pakistan.

    Never mind India, in Russia and China (with restless Muslim minorities), patience with unstable and terrorist infested nuclear states will go to zero especially if any are boneheaded enough to use their nukes or threaten their use.

    The Iranian Mullahs should think long and hard before acquiring such weapons. Oil makes Iran a target. IMO Iran with nukes makes Iran doubly a target. These backward but militarily ambitious places will have to walk a fine line. I don’t think their fate will be good. It’s a question, rather, of how bad it will be. Howling mobs presided over by bearded imams routinely chant for death to these guys or death to those guys. I think they should in the future very carefully watch their words. I think there will be more than enough death to go around.

    If the “advanced” West and Far East have been shy about inflicting mass slaughter because of bitter memories of past wars, I think they won’t be too reluctant in the future. Especially the Far East. People are notorious for forgetting history. And in large areas of Asia human life is cheap. Sixty million WW2 dead? So what, in a world of eight or nine billion, this is rounding error. Two hundred million, three hundred million (or more) dead may be more in line with current and future capabilities and may settle matters for a while but not for long.

    They will eventually make peace. And, after a breather, just like in the past, it will be back to war. Maybe a more energy deprived, less technologically advanced war, but the impetus, resource scarcity, will be worse, and so back to the trenches it will be.

    Do I think that Hitler and Nazi-ism were the embodiment of Evil? Sure, absolutely, they made the worst use of the technology and organizational skills that were available at the time. But, compared to the black-guards in our future, I think that Hitler will look like a minor emissary.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 7:09 pm #

      I hope you are wrong but you have thought things out very well. All the more reason we should try some enlightened honest leadership while and if there is still time. A society bent on making new living arrangements while still having the power to deal with evil could save the day.

      IMO it will be the same old powers butting heads over the same old shit.

      I hope you are wrong but fear you are right.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2014 at 12:42 am #

      Zen Enlightenment is both slow and fast. Drop by drop the bucket is filled by joriki – concentration. Then when full, the Koan breaks the bottom of bucket in a moment of no time. It doesn’t break because it’s full but it wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t. The pressure of the fullness allows for new laws to come into play. Ones that happen in a blink of an eye.

      Always remember the Nazis fought the Bankers. They expected just what has happened and tried to prevent it.

    • Karah January 8, 2014 at 10:20 pm #

      Interesting posit. Your assumption is that war will wipe out more people than pestilence and famine.

      Smallpox killed an estimated 60 million Europeans, including five reigning European monarchs, in the 18th century alone. Up to 30% of those infected, including 80% of the children under 5 years of age, died from the disease, and one third of the survivors became blind…

      the death of 90 to 95 percent of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases…
      Smallpox was responsible for an estimated 300–500 million deaths in the 20th century. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year…

      In 1918 and 1919, the Spanish Flu pandemic killed more people than Hitler, nuclear weapons and all the terrorists of history combined.

      Black Death (1340 – 1771):
      Killed 75 million people worldwide
      The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 1700s.

      Malaria (1600 – today):
      Kills about 2 million people per year

      AIDS (1981 – today):
      Killed 25 million people worldwide

      Cholera (1817 – today):
      8 pandemics; hundreds of thousands killed worldwide

      Typhus (430 BC? – today):
      Killed 3 million people between 1918 and 1922 alone, and most of Napoleon’s soldiers in Russia

      During World War I typhus caused three million deaths in Russia and more in Poland and Romania. De-lousing stations were established for troops on the Western front but the disease ravaged the armies of the Eastern front, with over 150,000 dying in Serbia alone.
      –http://www.oddee.com/item_90608.aspx

      160 million people died in wars during the 20th century
      –http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/massacre.html

  59. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 3:22 pm #

    great word, emissary.

    peace peaceniks

  60. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 3:55 pm #

    btw, we’re all still waiting for noiddawg to reveal our locations via our ip addresses.

    you know, cuz some of us are paid by j.edgar hoover to snoop and disrupt. by golly noiddawg’s gonna put an end to that, i tell ya.

    peace peaceniks

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  61. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 4:18 pm #

    right, no ip addresses, just the paranoia. what we all knew.

    peace peaceniks

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 4:53 pm #

      Your the one talking about IP addresses not me. It seems that you are the paranoid one not I. I guess the gentle readers will have to decide who is paranoid and who is not. Curious you should bring this up out of nowhere. Have there been developments of which I am unaware?

      hiho hawk

  62. K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 5:14 pm #

    What the frack?


    Fracking contamination more common than US states report, says new review

    starting in 2011, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection aggressively fought efforts by the AP and other news organizations to obtain information about complaints related to drilling. The department has argued in court filings that it does not count how many contamination “determination letters” it issues or track where they are kept in its files.

    Does the word ‘coverup’ come to mind and if so is $$$ involved?

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 5:16 pm #

      Or should that be ‘are $$$’ involved?

  63. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 5:19 pm #

    Your the one talking about IP addresses not me./i>

    haha, not only are you a juvenilian twerp, you’re a outright prevaricator as well. you know darn well you claimed you can track IP addresses a few weeks ago, but like usual you can’t produce the goods, just like most of your rationale.

    here is a comment by another poster besides myself from a recent blog entry:

    Panic
    December 16, 2013 at 3:39 pm #
    kdog says he can track ip addresses..yes, where do asoka, karah, carol post from?

    sorry, twerp, you lose again. you are a mere poseur.

    peace peaceniks

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 5:40 pm #

      Wait a minute right there. This here ‘kdog says’ states that somebody is putting words in the dogs mouth.

      And another poster you say. How many sock puppets are there exactly?

      And it is not prevaricator. Provocateur is what you are; although you do prevaricate without end.

      In more blog related news.

      Polar Vortex in U.S. May be Example of Global Warming

      I’ll not be diverted from advancing true clusterfuck awareness so early in the week. Intentional cornicopian diversions will have to wait for the weekend before they get any play from me. The nation has serious issues to deal with and I will stay focused.

  64. bob January 7, 2014 at 5:27 pm #

    To get true data you usually have to go outside the mainstream media.
    CNN’s Piers Morgan is doing a piece on climate this evening. It would be interesting if he would have Guy McPherson as a guest. Guy would explain with charts and published peer reviewed data how humans have pulled the climate change trigger resulting in an increasing number of positive feed back loops and human extinction in as soon as sixteen years from now.
    That would get folks talking around the water cooler. How good would that be for your corporate state?
    Watching Piers tonight might give some insight how matters of collapse significance will be dealt with,remembering the status quo power structure will try to maintain itself at all costs human and non human.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 5:56 pm #

      Piers Morgan and Guy McPherson on the same show could be an example of a feedback loop in action! One that might not warm up the globe but it would surely warm up the room.

      That the status quo power structure will try to maintain itself at all costs would probably prevent the two from getting together.

  65. rube-i-con January 7, 2014 at 6:03 pm #

    And another poster you say. How many sock puppets are there exactly?

    precisely. the sick never recognise their illness. it’s always someone else’s doing….

    tally up another lie for the noiddawg!

    no further commentary required

    peace peaceniks

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    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 6:35 pm #

      No, I’m asking a question that I don’t know the answer to and there is nothing sick about that.

      At this point I wish JHK would beam in and tell us both to shut up. But that personal desire is not as strong as my wish that he is using his time wisely and using his connections to find out more about what is happening in the world and advancing the cause in other ways and getting new material to write about.

      From a personal point of view I have something to say meaning what I am about to say is between you and me and nobody else. Anybody else please skip down to the hiho hawk at the end of this comment. If I had your personal email address I would use it.

      I think you know what I was put through because of being on this blog last spring. That you would continue to bait me here knowing what I think you know leaves me with zero regard for you. And having zero regard for you there is nothing you can type that is going to get under my fur, get under my skin, or make me go away. You are a cold heartless sociopathic bastard and the casual reader who should not be reading this does not know what I am talking about but a better plan would never have been to reveal yourselves to me and play the games you boys did. You tried to scare the wrong dog and it did not work. Yanking on my chain and rattling my cage was a fools errand and you still have not learned your lesson. It is no wonder there are jokes about military intelligence. There are times when brute force does not get the job done. Something brutes are slow to learn.

      hiho hawk

  66. JRM January 7, 2014 at 6:26 pm #

    When everything comes crashing down and folks have to begin to face reality, what will become of American “politics,” James?

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 6:45 pm #

      I can’t speak for James but he has said that there will be a time when a corn-pone dictator emerges from the chaos. His prefix of corn-pone suggests to me that he expects this dictator to have but a brief moment in the sun before everything goes local and we go medieval. Corn-pone attitudes do not reflect reality and Mother Natures reality humbles all. That is why the moment in the sun will be brief Mother Nature does not suffer fools and tolerates them only as long as they amuse her.

      • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 6:49 pm #

        There should have been a period after the moment in the sun will be brief But I’m not proscripting for a banal period. I wanted to add that we will go medieval only if the corn-pone dictator does not incinerate us all.

        • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 9:09 pm #

          postscripting !

  67. JRM January 7, 2014 at 6:57 pm #

    “And when people stop believing these cockamamie stories, the truth will dawn on them that we are in a predicament where further growth and wealth cannot be generated and the economy is actually in the early stages of a permanent contraction, and that will trigger an unholy host of nasty consequences proceeding from the loss of faith in these fairy tales, going so far as the meltdown of the banking system, social turmoil, and political upheaval.”

    It’s the phrase “political upheaval” that concerns me most here.

    Where is Plan B being discussed?

    How can we rescue the best potentials from the worst potential outcomes should Humpty Dumpty come crashing down?

    Can a breakdown lead to a breakthrough, instead of madness, chaos and violence? — How?

    How can we use whatever collective intelligence remains to smooth a transition — somewhat — in the face of “upheaval”?

    Obviously, we can’t rely on the mainstream (corporate) media to help. But as long as we have the internet, maybe we can begin the discussion?

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 7:14 pm #

      I don’t intend to be cryptic and seriously mean this.

      Plan B won’t happen unless we make it happen.

  68. Pucker January 7, 2014 at 7:02 pm #

    Does anyone know of any parent who has actually named their daughter “Lolita”?

    Thanks.

  69. Pucker January 7, 2014 at 7:02 pm #

    Does anyone know where I can get a “Tepco” t-shirt and baseball cap?

    Thanks.

  70. JRM January 7, 2014 at 7:12 pm #

    In his essay, “Cooperative Economy in the Great Depression,” Jonathan Rowe said:

    “When the casino crashed, there was no fallback, just destitution. Except for one thing: The real economy was still there — paralyzed but still there. Farmers still were producing, more than they could sell. Fruit rotted on trees, vegetables in the fields. In January 1933, dairymen poured more than 12,000 gallons of milk into the Los Angeles City sewers every day.

    The factories were there too. Machinery was idle. Old trucks were in side lots, needing only a little repair. All that capacity on the one hand, legions of idle men and women on the other. It was the financial casino that had failed, not the workers and machines. On street corners and around bare kitchen tables, people started to put two and two together. More precisely, they thought about new ways of putting two and two together.”

    ….

    In other words, productive capacity didn’t collapse with the collapse of the financial system. Soil remained as fertile as it had been before things slid off a cliff, financially. Shovels and other tools were about. People had the ability to meet their own and one another’s real needs. It was just that “jobs” and money were no longer abundant. So the question becomes, how can we coordinate human activity after a financial catastrophe? That’s the political question. And I don’t mean “political” in the usual sense — for perhaps David Graeber’s observations in “The Democracy Project” will be all the more salient in the face of social and political upheaval following financial collapse.

    The time to think and talk and prepare is prior to things sliding down into a pit of chaos. We’ll be needing to discuss Plan B. Plan A won’t work, as Kunstler shows.

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    • JRM January 7, 2014 at 7:40 pm #

      Here are some words from David Graeber on revolution –

      http://www.thebaffler.com/past/practical_utopians_guide

      • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 8:22 pm #

        I took a break in the middle of my comment. You posted yours first but I did not know you did. I was not meaning to step on your foot.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 8:08 pm #

      Of course making it happen can’t happen without discussion and an organized effort based on common ground.

      I was unfamiliar with David Graeber. I thank you for bringing him to my attention.

      From: A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse

      “What would happen if we stopped acting as if the primordial form of work is laboring at a production line, or wheat field, or iron foundry, or even in an office cubicle, and instead started from a mother, a teacher, or a caregiver? We might be forced to conclude that the real business of human life is not contributing toward something called “the economy” (a concept that didn’t even exist three hundred years ago), but the fact that we are all, and have always been, projects of mutual creation.”

      • Geoff Graham January 8, 2014 at 9:57 am #

        Thanks for the great read. I can appreciate your skepticism of Bitcoin. Personally, I think it brings a lot of opportunity for decentralization and positive disruption: https://medium.com/future-of-currency/73b4257ac833

        Graeber is an interesting fellow. Am in the middle of his recent book *Debt* now.

        • Karah January 8, 2014 at 10:33 pm #

          The subject of the economy and more particularly what acts like money draws in a lot more readers.

          I wish JHK would stick to the humanities and flat ignore the chicaneries of finance though it do be entertaining from a distance.

  71. beantownbill. January 7, 2014 at 7:53 pm #

    JHK wrote a great article this week, one of his best in a long time, IMO. But I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says. I think it is very interesting that he apparently studied Joseph Tainter’s work; it explains where a lot of his opinions come from. I have one major disagreement with Tainter’s theories:

    Most of the laws of physics are based on the assumption that what we observe on Earth and in the nearby space environment is exactly the same throughout the universe. Up until recently, this assumption was assumed to be inviolate; but in the past several years, some leading physicists question this. Not that universal consistency is wrong, just that it may be.

    In the same manner, Tainter’s claim that hyper-complexity ultimately brings collapse to civilizations isn’t necessarily true in our case, as it has been in the past. I’m not saying Tainter is wrong, just that what has happened in the past isn’t a guarantee that the same cause and effect applies in the present. I see no one being skeptical about his assumption, that’s all. Economic and social theories can’t be verified in the present like scientific principles. Only if the zero points are the same for different events can one claim a theory may be valid.

    And that’s my point. Our present civilization is really unprecedented. Most people compare us with the Roman Empire, but is that valid? Sure, there are similarities, but are the initial conditions (the zero point) the same? If not, then Tainter’s collapse may not be inevitable.

    Carrying this further, Jim feels that the technological civilization in which we have been living is a unique, relatively short-term phenomenon whose ark of history is ending. Based on the above, I wouldn’t be so sure. That’s why I prepare for the worst and hope for the best. No cornucopia, no disaster.

    • K-Dog January 7, 2014 at 8:19 pm #

      Most of the laws of physics are based on the assumption that what we observe on Earth and in the nearby space environment is exactly the same throughout the universe.

      Even if the assumption is wrong I’m not going to jump off a cliff and assume I will float gently to the ground any time soon. Our civilization is unprecedented but there are similarities between ours and those of old. If hyper-complexity destroyed them it is reasonable to question if it could also destroy ours. And if there is any basis to that claim that complexity engenders fragility ours hands down has more complexity than all civilizations of the past put together.

      • beantownbill. January 7, 2014 at 9:48 pm #

        Yes, and that’s why I say prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The discussion of what kind of action we should take will be another topic.

      • JRM January 8, 2014 at 1:31 pm #

        Tainter’s theory of “social complexity” defines “complexity” in a particular way, and this is not the only way to understand complexity or social complexity. So, if Tainter’s theory is correct, it’s correct in relation to his definition of social complexity.

        Societies which exhibit the type of “complexity” Tainter is speaking to also create a great deal of simplification! Take, for example, the utter biological simplicity of industrial agriculture’s monocropping. Take the single dominant currency system (e.g., dollars in the USA) … (Well, some folks are creating “alternative” local currencies in response to this very same simplification. And, often times, they’re doing so with full knowledge that the ecological risks embodied in monocrop agriculture (think Irish Potato Famine and other blights) apply to mono-currency systems as well. If the dollar goes down, what will be in its place?

        Diversity is not always weakness. Sometimes diversity is strength — and diversity is a form of complexity.

    • Karah January 8, 2014 at 10:52 pm #

      “Our present civilization is really unprecedented.”

      Rome conquered the “known” world. That world now encompasses the entire globe…all is “known” in relation to the Earth. If you want to bring in alien life forms and space travel…go ahead…but it’s a failed escape plan. We must deal with our current reality which follows the same basic foundations as other past empires. The demands on Rome are the same demands on the Anglo-British empire.

      They must be able to rapidly quell or contain any and all rebellion through a highly advanced military.

      They must have allegiance to ONE authority, a central government, not necessarily located in one physical place (duality).

      They must have the moral authority to install leaders and maintain leadership all over the World.

      • Karah January 8, 2014 at 10:53 pm #

        Almost forgot…

        They have to have some form of slavery or class system.

        and…

        They have to smell good.

  72. Pucker January 7, 2014 at 8:08 pm #

    Does anyone know where I can get a “Tepco” t shirt and a roll of duct tape? Thanks.

  73. meadowlark January 7, 2014 at 9:49 pm #

    i think this is the best prediction ever – it is realistic, rather than wishful. excellent work.

  74. sgilmore62 January 7, 2014 at 11:00 pm #

    nice work

  75. sgilmore62 January 7, 2014 at 11:02 pm #

    I wonder about something that you never hear anyone write or talk about.

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  76. sgilmore62 January 7, 2014 at 11:13 pm #

    peak oil is similar to global warming in that those most interested in maintaining the status quo blah blah blah

  77. sgilmore62 January 7, 2014 at 11:22 pm #

    Who is most interested in maintaining the status quo of infinite growth and why is there such vehement hatred of anyone who questions said infinite growth models?

    Individuals?
    Governments?
    Corporations?

  78. sgilmore62 January 7, 2014 at 11:31 pm #

    just drink beer with germans and buy momo stocks and be happy?

  79. sgilmore62 January 7, 2014 at 11:32 pm #

    germans that werk wit goldman sachs?

  80. frosty January 7, 2014 at 11:37 pm #

    “barbaric yellow hordes of Asia”?

    Fuck you.

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  81. Wu January 8, 2014 at 7:07 am #

    Since we’re on the topic of “barbaric yellow hordes of Asia,” tell me cocksuckers, when are we going to get an Oriental U.S. President? I think it’s time. The zeitgeist is right. Let’s put a yellow man in the oval office. In fact, why not create a lottery for the position of POTUS? A nationwide drawing every four to eight years where everyone has an equal chance. What difference would it make? At least this way, peeps would feel the process is more democratic.

  82. Wu January 8, 2014 at 7:12 am #

    Here’s a campaign slogan for the “yellow” candidate:

    Wu says “no ju”

    • capt spaulding January 9, 2014 at 12:08 pm #

      I voted for an oriental once, and an hour later, I felt like voting again.

  83. rube-i-con January 8, 2014 at 8:00 am #

    saying our current state of civilisation has parallels with the Romans and therefore is tottering on the edge of collapse is preposterous.

    the romans were literally faced with peoples attacking them on all sides. they couldn’t print money the way the US can (yeah i know they diluted the silver content), and have everyone accept it.

    they didnt have the ability to intercept any communication anywhere at any time, which nsa has (i know i work here in the blackberry department)

    their weaponry was nothing like the united states american weaponry, in terms of it being light years ahead of anything else and not requiring physical presence to be used.

    it is precisely advanced and advancing technology that permits the united states to maintain its global hegemony, along with the ability to print wealth at will

    the empire is nowhere near being threatened. just keep china happy – and they have to keep the united states happy too – and all your wealth are ours.

    peace peaceniks

  84. PseudoBulbar Affect January 8, 2014 at 8:28 am #

    “saying our current state of civilisation”

    It’s civilization.

    “their weaponry was nothing like the united states american weaponry, in terms of it being light years ahead of anything else and not requiring physical presence to be used.”

    Any currency or valuation is worthless today without Lithium-6 Deuteride to back it up. Lithium-6 Deuteride is the REAL currency. Gold is a weak and shallow emissary.

  85. rube-i-con January 8, 2014 at 8:48 am #

    it’s civilisation & civilization, as ennyone knows

    peace peaceniks

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  86. PseudoBulbar Affect January 8, 2014 at 9:01 am #

    If you’re a born & raised American, it’s civilization. I understood you to be a born & raised American expat. If so, for you it’s civilization unless, of course, you prefer to be a poseur like K9. Why would anyone want to pretend they’re British? How boring.

    • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 12:39 pm #

      How many Avatars does one Government Troll need?

      FYI I am a native American. Never lived anywhere else and my ‘British’ affectation is nothing more than the curse of having a large vocabulary and having an over reliance on spell checkers because I am a phonetic speller. Spell checking software has an international flavor and is not localised to America.

      Try it yourself: The American spelling of my fifth to the last word is flavor which comes out marked as misspelled. The correction software in the CFN comment box wants to change it to ‘flavour’.

      Normally I’d accept the correction but Government Agents:

      “the romans were literally faced with peoples attacking them on all sides. they couldn’t print money the way the US can (yeah i know they diluted the silver content), and have everyone accept it.

      they didnt have the ability to intercept any communication anywhere at any time, which nsa has (i know i work here in the blackberry department) (sic erat scriptum)

      Want to harass and mess with me, mislead you and turn this blog into a government propaganda show.

      Beware those with blank spaces in their nicknames. The blanks are there for a reason. And for those wondering what the references to sock puppets mean, now you know.

      And don’t presume their influence stops at this blog. They have toys and power and if you piss them off they can make your life unpleasant. That said; standing up to bullies is better than backing down. The power they have, while great, is not without limit.

  87. rube-i-con January 8, 2014 at 9:11 am #

    i thought this was an end times blog? is there a spelling standard in force? i thot that was q’s shtick.

    peace peaceniks

    • Arn Varnold January 8, 2014 at 9:33 am #

      yess, yor xactli corect. Hou te fuk is PseudoBulbar Affect?

      Eye cud cair les. Fuk im, kno?

      • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 12:44 pm #

        Dey wont to make de yoke on youze but the yokes on dem.

        Fuk im, yess!

    • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 12:51 pm #

      So ‘end time blogs‘ make the target list. Thanks for sharing.

      dude droney

  88. JMR January 8, 2014 at 10:12 am #

    Great essay. I think a lot more emphasis should be placed on Fukushima though because it isn’t just Japan that is affected by the ongoing radiation leaks into the pacific and the atmosphere. The US and Canada are greatly affected by this too, and there is quite a bit of evidence that the ecosystem of the Pacific is on the verge of collapse.

    The MSM is not talking about what is going on at Fukushima and in the Pacific and even the West Coast of North America.

    Anyone who is concerned about this should visit Enenews:

    http://enenews.com/

  89. George January 8, 2014 at 10:13 am #

    “The truth is that we still have a huge, deadly energy problem. Shale oil is not cheap oil, and it will stop seeming abundant soon. If the price of oil goes much above $100 a barrel, which you’d think would be great for the oil companies, it will crash demand for oil. If it crashes demand, the price will go down, hurting the profitability of the shale oil companies.”

    No argument whatsoever with the first point. While there’s linkage between the price of oil (or more generally energy expenses) and demand, I don’t think that demand will crash sufficiently to also bring about precipitous oil price reductions, at least not until some alternative energy infrastructure is developed to the point where it can supplant and or replace petroleum. Assuming no Dmitry Orlov catastrophe intercedes, that may take decades. Until either event occurs, I maintain that supply and demand dynamics will likely keep prices within a fairly tight range which, when adjusted for inflation, will not change appreciably.

    What I’m certain is happening is that it’s become clear to many who first invested in the shale oil and gas energy renaissance that there will be no long-term returns and for that reason there’s been an abundance of hoopla generated to promote this renaissance so that these initial positions can be unloaded at some profit to rubes who believe the hoopla.

    http://www.thesisa.org

    • sauerkraut January 8, 2014 at 3:08 pm #

      You make thoughtful points, George.

      I agree about the narrow price range for one more reason: both Russia and Arabia need current prices to maintain their social programs. And the Arabs, at least, have shown themselves able to maintain an effective cartel.

      The analysis holds unless someone gets silly (but where the middle east is concerned, that seems unlikely), or someone gets revolting. Then oil could get expensive, and quickly.

      • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 1:36 pm #

        This is humor. Or as the spell checker would have me anglicise it ‘humour’.

        someone gets revolting

        I’m finding many people to be revolting right now. Some I find so revolting they give me dry heaves.

        • sauerkraut January 9, 2014 at 7:56 pm #

          Hello K-Dog.

          Glad to see that I was throwing my pearls before dogs.

    • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 1:11 pm #

      At least not until some alternative energy infrastructure is developed to the point where it can supplant and or replace petroleum.

      And who will do this? The answer is No Such Activity.

      A most relevant fact of Peak Oil is that the peak marks an end to Cheap Oil. And the end of Cheap Oil destroys society’s ability to function and as we are sadly learning now à la rube-i-con, Janos, Obama and Q it also destroys society’s ability to change.

      Like and old slap stick comedy of a model-T car careening out of control the steering wheel is pulled off and like strumming on an air guitar we spin our air steering while government and media puts the pedal to the metal.

  90. rckrueger January 8, 2014 at 11:57 am #

    Speaking of con jobs in the shale oil and natural gas tracking plays, the company ECT Marcellus Trust (ticker symbol ECT) is proof positive that depletion rates are seriously understated. This “stock” has always boasted a 20% “dividend” to attract investors. And last year this time it was trading at $18+ a share. It’s financial reporting is something that would make the Byzantine Empire proud. The long and short of it is that they understated their “reserves” by a factor of two and the stock crashed to $7 later last year. By the way this is one of the poster child stocks for the fracking industry. For something that was suppose to operate as a bond with predictable cash flows for ten years, ECT is more like a high flying internet stock back in 1999 – unlike the later, however, there is no promise of future revenues. The investors will be left with nothing more than a poisoned hole in the ground.

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    • Q. Shtik January 8, 2014 at 1:12 pm #

      The long and short of it is that they understated their “reserves” by a factor of two and the stock crashed to $7 later last year.
      ===========

      ^This^ sentence makes no sense to me. Surely you meant they overstated their reserves.

      If the company had been UNDER-stating their reserves and then it came to light that their reserves were in fact double what they had been reporting, that sounds like a reason for the stock price to advance, not crash.

      Please explain how I am not ‘getting it.’

      • rckrueger January 8, 2014 at 2:18 pm #

        I meant overstated – i wrote this in a hurry

        • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 1:15 pm #

          I knew what you meant.

  91. volodya January 8, 2014 at 1:37 pm #

    Nazis fought the “bankers”? I judge people by what they do. They did a lot more than fight “bankers”. And what the Nazis did was the theft of land and resources and the massacre of millions for the purpose of what we now call “ethnic cleansing”.

    And BTW not all Germans were Nazis but more than enough Germans, Nazis or not, supported the war effort and supported Nazi policies. Millions of people couldn’t otherwise have gone up in smoke, millions in death camps, because of the efforts of just a few at the top.

    So let’s be honest, to “fight” a handful of “bankers”, death and destruction on the scale of WW2 is un-necessary. Wouldn’t you say? If you’re saying that there was an abusive criminal element in the financial industry of the time, the application of law and due process would have been sufficient. Logical, no?

    Maybe I’m reading too much into your post. Do let me know. Because I suspect that when you say “bankers” you don’t really mean “bankers”, I suspect that you really mean “Jews”. I hope this isn’t the case.

    Anway the number of actual “bankers” in the community of European Jewry would have been quite small. So does “fighting” this small number of “bankers” require the eradication of European Jewry?

    • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2014 at 8:13 pm #

      You think the Bankers would go easily if we tried the same thing? They’d tear down the whole country first.

      The final solution was to remove the Jews from Europe – as the Zionists themselves were trying to do. The Nazis and the Zionists were cooperating in fact. That’s on record and you can research it.

      And Germany prospered once the parasite class was removed. Obviously they had to be crushed before other countries got smart and did the same.

      Try it, start talking about Bankers and you’ll be called an Anti-Semite faster than you can say Tralfamadore. The Jews stand behind the Elite to the hilt.
      I

  92. kyoto motors January 8, 2014 at 4:47 pm #

    If I may, Mr. Kunstler, I would just like to congratulate you on a very succinct analysis, that is both gracious and insightful, without being too presumptuous. I think the shale bubble is going to catch far too many people sleepwalking. They’ll wake up from their fantasies to face the real nightmares of their own making, without ever really understanding why… Like you say. history is tragic. But life goes on!

    • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 1:58 pm #

      But more injustice, those doing the making will be better off than those doing the sleepwalking! At least for a while.

      So, are those who have been deceived responsible? I’m an adult and must say yes but IMO, I consider them less responsible than those doing the deceiving.

      The spectacle of the way our people look —overfed, tattooed, pierced, clothed in the raiment of clowns — suggests an end-of-empire zeitgeist more disturbing than a Fellini movie.

      As disturbing as that image is. The image of the man fiddling under the light of burning Christians as Rome goes to ashes remains more disturbing.

  93. Pucker January 8, 2014 at 6:30 pm #

    Since everyone’s particular situation is different, Collapse is likely to affect some people first leaving others believing that everything is “Normal”.

    Speaking of Collapse, have you ever actually seen a big fat redneck woman fall out of one of those centrifugal force spinning wheel rides at the State Fair when the bottom of the ride falls out?

    Or is this just another Urban Legend?

  94. rube-i-con January 8, 2014 at 7:13 pm #

    i generally lean to the opinion that technology will save us. however, i think folks out here are fairly spot on as regards fracking – it’ll be a short term fix that will collapse very quickly, and do a lot of environmental damage.

    peace peaceniks

  95. Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2014 at 8:41 pm #

    Support the Juggalos against Federal over-reach.

    http://music.yahoo.com/news/insane-clown-posse-sue-fbi-over-juggalos-39-153022908-rolling-stone.html

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    • Q. Shtik January 9, 2014 at 12:25 am #

      Support the Juggalos against Federal over-reach.
      ===========

      I have never heard of them but I picture “the Juggalos” as a heavily tattooed and pierced, aging, 3-member girl band known not for their music but for their large bouncing breasts……not that there’s anything wrong with that.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 9, 2014 at 1:46 am #

        Hah, not quite. Juggalos are groupies of the Insane Clown Posse. It’s like Rap for low life loser Whites.

  96. rube-i-con January 9, 2014 at 8:57 am #

    this police state shyte reminds me of the harrowing state of society in kubrick’s clockwork orange.

    you people mite want to scout out a little country somewhere where manners and courtesy yet abound. maybe in the interior of some state like vermont or kentucky. or mexico.

    i was going to get andorran citizenship but you have to give up all your other ones.

    peace peaceniks

  97. bigpete55 January 9, 2014 at 11:46 am #

    Regarding the opening statement in your current rant :

    Many of us in the Long Emergency crowd and like-minded brother-and-sisterhoods remain perplexed by the amazing stasis in our national life, despite the gathering tsunami of forces arrayed to rock our economy, our culture, and our politics. Nothing has yielded to these forces already in motion, so far. Nothing changes, nothing gives, yet. It’s like being buried alive in Jell-O.

    Jim, I’m really surprised you would say this, completely valid as it is. Shock and awe never gets old I suppose. But really James did you learn nothing from watching the video clip of the guy on the beach in Thailand in 2004, waiting for the approaching wave after the seaquake in Banda Aceh? That man probably knew what was coming and welcomed it, the only way one can when death approaches.

    But most people stood in awe as they watched unfold a curious natural phenomenon, theretofore unwitnessed by most. Such grand-scale events cannot but leave one, I suppose, somewhat paralyzed, perplexed. Such is the case with the epochal shift underway in human civilization. I believe most would rather succumb to the wave, rather than escape to higher ground. Suicide by default, by acquiescence, by surrender for to come terms with the scale and scope of what’s happening is too frightening and too vast a subject for most. I pity the sheep Jim, but I won’t suffer them. We will see, in the end, that Darwin was right.

  98. volodya January 9, 2014 at 12:38 pm #

    So then to stop the corruption and fraud in the financial sector and restore the rule of law, what do we do? If by your logic what the Nazis did was necessary, what do we do now? Do we build concentration camps and crematoria and dust off all those old canisters of zyklon B? Is that the solution? Oh, I know, don’t tell me, let me guess, these being modern times and offshoring being all the rage, maybe genocide can be offshored too.

    And what’s this? Are you saying that Jewish Zionists willingly and knowingly helped Nazis murder millions of European Jews? Where do I look that up?

    Hmm, let’s go over the usual stereotypes, you have the Jewish deli owner, the intellectual Jew, the Jewish doctor, the Jewish lawyer, the Jewish banker, the Jewish gangster, the neurotic Jew, the self-loathing Jew. But now you have a new category, previously unknown, at least to me, the genocidal Jewish Zionist. Jews that conduct mass murder of Jews.

    So let’s think about this. These genocidal Jews, if they indeed existed, had to be Nazi wannabes. Wouldn’t they? I understand though. I mean, on the one hand you had stereotypical Jewish boys, short, pale, skinny, sickly, anxious and conflicted and complicated and full of neuroses and self-doubt. And who liked books. And who were frustrated by their incompetence with girls.

    And on the other hand you had the sterotypical German boys, tall, blond, bold, vigorous, healthy, exuding energy and vitality, who could kick a soccer ball, who could run, jump and wrestle. And who wowed the girls. Right? I can see where the Jewish kid might have an issue. I mean, the SS looked pretty sharp on parade didn’t they?

    But were there actually special units? A Jewish SS? Yiddish speaking Einsatzgruppen? Jews dedicated to the eradication of Jews? Including their own families? I hadn’t heard. If so, this is self-loathing of a higher order.

    Well, in a way not surprising, Jews never do anything half-assed, do they? I mean you had Moses, Jesus Christ, Saint Paul, Albert Einstein and Karl Marx. Jews that didn’t do things half-way, Jews that turned the world on its head. But still. You see, most genocidal psychopaths direct their malice towards people not of their own affiliation.

    Well I guess my schooling deficient in certain respects. Maybe the product of another Jewish conspriacy, this one to re-write history. And to sanitize the complicity of Jews in their own extermination.

    Yes, Germany prospered once the parasite class – the Nazis – were removed and the Marshall Plan implemented. And once Americans and British re-taught German society the fundamentals of civilization.

    Sarcasm off.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 9, 2014 at 3:04 pm #

      No, the Revolution has already happened – from above this time. We’re in a Russian situation now. The Camps are already built. And we’re the Kulaks. The Judeo-Masons and the Communist allies are in charge. Nice reversal attempt though. As you know, the so called Russian Revolution was lead by non-Russians. Jews were in the fore-front just as they are this time.

      Now, you really believe that Jews don’t control International finance? Are you naïve? Or Jewish and therefore completely unwilling to say anything bad about your own?

      Now if the Nazis had won, do you really believe they would have turned Europe over to Islam on a silver platter? Is that your idea of a thriving civilization?

      I don’t countenance everything they did, but the six million is slander. Remember, at one point the Jews tried to convince us that Palestine was uninhabited. And that Jews never persecuted Christians. There’s no reason to believe them – since they are unwilling to ever admit Jews have ever done anything wrong.

  99. BackRowHeckler January 9, 2014 at 1:08 pm #

    Dennis Rodman, now there is a Statesman! And he’s surrounded himself with equally competent Statesman, former NBA players. Right now they’re on a mission in NKorea … to do what?

    Truthfully, I’d be happy if the whole goddam NBA moved itself to NKorea. How long would those thugs, gangstas and felons last in a repressive police state like the peoples republic? You’d be surprised. In Communist states, run by criminals, lesser criminals thrive. That’s what happened in the Soviet Union, where true criminals were allowed to prey on the ‘politicals’.

    –BRH

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  100. Dražen Divac January 9, 2014 at 1:20 pm #

    K-Daub said: “FYI I am a native American.”

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

    Figures. I should have known you were an Indian. The chip on your shoulder defines you. Tell me, if you were genocided, how are you still here? An Indian who wants to be a Brit. Are you related to Pocahontas? Didn’t she have an English connection? By the way, how ’bout those Redskins? Best name ever, imo.

    • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 2:07 pm #

      You have misunderstood but I see no reason to clarify the situation which you can correct by simply reading my file.

  101. Q. Shtik January 9, 2014 at 1:32 pm #

    Oh what a pile of wattle and daub. I speak of the Chris Christie traffic scandal, of course.

    The chubby pol has had his face plastered on the flat screen for the better part of the past two hours and my poldar tells me he was loving every minute of it.

    Does anyone think for a minute this is going to actually harm this guy?! Of course not. This is an opportunity sent from heaven on many levels….firstly the humanizing heartfelt apology. I mean it’s not like he was caught blowing somebody in the park.

    By the time the thermometer next touches 90F this incident will be totally forgotten.

    And by the way, did you see the pic of the female political operative who perpetrated this stunt, one Bridget Anne Kelly? She has the smallest eye openings I’ve seen since Fu Manchu squinted…not that that’s relevant to anything.

    • Dražen Divac January 9, 2014 at 1:37 pm #

      Cool! You have a poldargeist too? I thought I was the only one. Mine doesn’t like to discuss politics though. Pity that.

  102. Asoka.... January 9, 2014 at 1:51 pm #

    Richard Nixon: I am not a crook

    Bill Clinton: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

    Chris Christie: I am not a bully.

    • K-Dog January 9, 2014 at 2:02 pm #

      Asoka: I’m a black man living in a mud hut in South America.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 9, 2014 at 3:06 pm #

      If you like your policy, you can keep it.

    • Neon Vincent January 9, 2014 at 3:07 pm #

      It’s time to run the Chris Chistie bridge-closing kerfuffle against Nate Silver’s checklist for a good scandal.

      1. Can the scandal be reduced to a one-sentence soundbyte (but not easily refuted/denied with a one-sentence soundbyte)?

      Yes–Christie closed down a bridge on-ramp to punish a political adversary.

      2. Does the scandal cut against a core element of the candidate’s brand?

      Yes–Christie is supposed to be a competent straight-shooter. Instead, this scandal plays against both his compentence and his honesty, as he either didn’t know what was going on in his own office or he’s lying.

      3. Does the scandal reify/reinforce/”prove” a core negative perception about the candidate, particularly one that had henceforth been difficult to articulate (but not one that has become so entrenched that little further damage can be done)?

      Yes–it reinforces the widely held perception among Christie’s critics that he’s a bully.

      4. Can the scandal readily be employed by the opposition, without their looking hypocritical/petty/politically incorrect, risking retribution, or giving life to a damaging narrative?

      So far, yes. Democrats in general and Hillary Clinton’s people in particular are already doing so.

      5. Is the media bored, and/or does the story have enough tabloid/shock value to crowd out all other stories?

      Yes. It’s the first full week of the year and the press needs something new to write and talk about.

      Five yes answers–the last time I did this analysis, I got four and a half, and the politician in question was recalled. This does not bode well for Fat Bastard.

      http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2011/12/troy-mayor-janice-daniels-shows-how-to.html

      • Q. Shtik January 9, 2014 at 4:10 pm #

        1. yes
        2. yes
        3. yes
        4. yes
        5. yes………..Neon V. opining that the Christie ‘scandal’ will prove politically damaging.
        ==========

        I say the whole thing blows over in no time like a fart in a windstorm.

        • Neon Vincent January 9, 2014 at 11:09 pm #

          So, Cue Schtick, which one of those should be a no?

          • Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 12:07 am #

            #5 “Yes. It’s the first full week of the year and the press needs something new to write and talk about.”

            The next weather event, power failure or terrorist action (at the winter Olympics??) will bump the Christie ‘scandal’ to a small space on page 22.

          • Neon Vincent January 10, 2014 at 8:36 am #

            Thought you’d say that, and I have four words that support 5 still being yes–“New York Media Market.” Check out all the front page covers from NY/NJ papers featuring the scandal at the link.

            http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/chris-christie-bridge-jokes-newspaper-covers.html

  103. ajmuste January 9, 2014 at 6:27 pm #

    “I say the whole thing blows over in no time like a fart in a windstorm.” –Qstik

    Too late.

    Rachel Maddow reported this in December of last year. Christie tried to cover it up saying it was a “traffic study” …. then it turned out there was no “traffic study” … now he says there still could have been a “traffic study” …

    One thing is sure: what there are going to be now are hundreds of lawsuits against New Jersey for all the damages/deaths caused by the vindictive move to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie.

    The bully will now never be able to hold national office. He will be lucky to stay on as governor of New Jersey.

    This will not blow over like a fart in a windstorm. It will grow until it becomes a political/legal hurricane that sweeps Christie from office.

    Rachel Maddow’s reporting is taking down the governor of New Jersey.

    • Arn Varnold January 10, 2014 at 4:08 am #

      God’s be good, I do hope you’re correct.
      We’ll see…

  104. Pucker January 9, 2014 at 6:35 pm #

    Which American universities have the TOP (as in “TIP TOP”) academic departments in the field of gay, lesbian and transgender studies? And are there any such programs out there that offer football or basketball scholarships? Thanks.

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  105. Pucker January 9, 2014 at 6:45 pm #

    At what point in his career did he find it necessary to change his name from “Heinz Alfred Kissinger” to “Henry Alfred Kissinger”?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger

  106. Mad Dawg January 9, 2014 at 7:12 pm #

    Hey, CFN folks, here’s a new dog on the block, decloaking:

    Woof! I’m “Mad Dawg” — and I’m quite mad — as in “Mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

    Came upon an interesting link that is germane to Jim’s topic this week — check out the page below, “Summary of Four Climate/Energy Decent Scenarios” but also look at the overall premise of this site, maybe some food for thought to chew on?

    http://www.futurescenarios.org/content/view/44/60/index.html

    Let me know what you think of these.

  107. Pucker January 9, 2014 at 8:26 pm #

    I ask this question re: gay athletic scholarships in retrospect of Dennis Rodman’s telling Kim Jon Un that Rodman loves Kim Jong Un in North Korea yesterday. Also, why is he called “Rod Man”

  108. rube-i-con January 9, 2014 at 8:34 pm #

    Perovskites : a radical improvement in solar efficiency at a dirt cheap cost

    “The material is dirt cheap,” says Michael Grätzel, who is famous within the solar industry for inventing a type of solar cell that bears his name. His group has produced the most efficient perovskite solar cells so far—they convert 15 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, far more than other cheap-to-make solar cells. Based on its performance so far, and on its known light-conversion properties, researchers say its efficiency could easily rise as high as 20 to 25 percent, which is as good as the record efficiencies (typically achieved in labs) of the most common types of solar cells today.

    yet another demonstrable technological achievement that is driving solar power to below fossil fuel costs – a fulcrum moment in making its acceptance and dominance all but given.

    http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517811/a-material-that-could-make-solar-power-dirt-cheap/

    peace peaceniks

    • beantownbill. January 9, 2014 at 11:23 pm #

      You ain’t never gonna change the doom mongers’ minds, no matter what. If we were to experience the Singularity tomorrow, the day after that,the doomers would have a list of 20 reasons why it would cause the end of humanity.

      I was reading an interesting article about asteroid mining. Two companies have started up in order to bring extraterrestrial resources to Earth as soon as possible. The primary issue is that not all the technology has been developed yet. It could take a while.

      The article got me thinking. Yes, technology can save us. But can we save ourselves from ourselves? Can our civilization last long enough to give us the time to successfully develop all the R&D we need? I feel we are in a race for our existence.

      Humans are the problem, not technology.

  109. Q. Shtik January 9, 2014 at 9:17 pm #

    “The bully will now never be able to hold national office. He will be lucky to stay on as governor of New Jersey.” – ajmuste
    ==============

    Hah. As political scandals go, this is a tempest in a teapot. Glad to have your prediction in writing. I’ll print it, pin it to my bulletin board, and check back on it periodically.

    Rachael Maddow is an annoying pinko commie fag who couldn’t ‘bring down’ a balloon with a stickpin. She would do well running a women’s studies program in East Bumfuck Community College.

    When Occupy Wall St was born I gave it about 3 months to fizzle out. I was wrong…it took about 6 to 12 months.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 9, 2014 at 10:30 pm #

      Bravo for taking down the abominable Mr Mad Cow.

  110. Q. Shtik January 9, 2014 at 10:51 pm #

    I wonder how much it would have cost Christie for this much TV face time if he had to pay for it. Manna from heaven.

    He loved it……no rush to end the questioning and leave the podium. As they say, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

    His visage must have been on CNBC at least 3 hours before all was said and done. Then two of the CNBC journalists, both with extensive experience in local political reporting prior to switching to financial reporting, provided additional analysis. They agreed that they would never even be discussing this minor political dirty trick if it involved your average politician who wasn’t a viable potential 2016 presidential candidate.

    I think Hillary and the Dems (and ajmuste) are already nervous about this blimp.

    • beantownbill. January 9, 2014 at 11:29 pm #

      Come on, Clinton got caught after he got a blow job and then impeached, while Hillary stood by humiliated. Did it cost her any future political advancement? I agree with you, by the time the 2016 election campaign is in full swing, the voting public will be wondering what bridge the Democratic media is talking about.

  111. beantownbill. January 9, 2014 at 11:40 pm #

    @Janos:

    If our hi-tech civilization can last another 100 years or so, just think, you and all the White nationalists could gather funds and build an orbiting space colony where only your people could live and follow your ideals. No Jews and Blacks and inferior groups of people to contend with.

    I’d say let the Jews do it, except we’re kind of emotionally attached to our original land. Whereas the Aryans are attached to the purity of their gene pool, not any particular land – so you go.

  112. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 12:33 am #

    Bridget Anne Kelly gave the order, emailing David Wildstein of the Port Authority: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

    One question………who watches over this woman’s four kids all day, her husband? Well, she’ll have plenty of time for them now.

  113. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 1:05 am #

    The next weather event, power failure or terrorist action (at the winter Olympics??) – Q.
    =========

    …or market swoon.

    • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 9:29 am #

      Q, I think you’re wrong. The DNC, NYTimes and MSNBC will not let this story die. They’ll will be hammering on this for the next 2 years at least. This will be the worst goddam thing to have happened since Joe McCarthy’s hearings. Especially in NJ expect to have your nose rubbed in the GW Bridge Affair into the far, far future.

      –BRH

  114. rube-i-con January 10, 2014 at 8:04 am #

    World`s population problem is lessening – Japan`s population declined by a quarter million in 2013.

    Japan isn’t alone in demographic contraction: Russia, Romania and Hungary all follow the trend. For many more, it is bein

    g delayed by immigration. But the global population bomb is slowly being defused. As Swedish statistician Hans Rosling first noted, the world recently reached “peak child” – the point where the number of children aged 0 to 14 around the globe levels off. Global fertility rates have halved in 40 years – they are now below 2.5 children per woman – and global population may peak soon.

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24822-japans-ageing-population-could-actually-be-good-news.html

    sorry, patmos pals, yet another factual indication that educational / technological advancement is saving us. things are improving, the flames are being put out, the smoke is gradually clearing.

    so, less resources used, less strain on mother nature, which can then rebound marvellously.

    we salute you as we soar high above you into a future of physical and mental abundance. you chose to be left behind.

    peace peaceniks

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  115. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 9:11 am #

    I think Q has it nailed as it relates to Chris Krispy Kreme. Nobody cares about Obama’s Benghazi or the IRS scandal and nobody cares about this. It will be an unmentionable by summer.

    Speaking of Krispy, is he now able to see his dick without a mirror since he’s lost all that weight? I can’t imagine what it would be like to not see your dick without a mirror. Emasculation comes to mind. I bet MadDOW can see her (or is she a he?) dick without a mirror. Hell, I can see her dick without a mirror when she’s fully clothed in front of a camera.

  116. BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 10:07 am #

    Hey Paul Krugman could get his wish!

    A high ranking ChiCom is looking to buy the NYTimes from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

    Krugman, if you recall, expressed admiration for China’s Command and Control economy, and wished to see it emulated here.

    –BRH

  117. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 10:43 am #

    “Check out all the front page covers from NY/NJ papers featuring the scandal at the link.” – Neon V.
    ==========

    Yes, it’s all very entertaining. And be sure to read all the comments that follow those newspaper front pages….they’re the best!!

    My take is, people actually like a no-nonsense take-no-prisoners tough guy for their Governor…….a bully, if you will. They like it when an open mic catches their leader using the F-word. They hate political correctness. They dislike people who speak like Truman Capote. They hold a limp wrist in disdain. They like violence. Why do you think so many people watch WWE and pro football.

    People don’t like namby-pamby in their politicians.

    • Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 2:05 pm #

      And what those comments show me is a lot of clever references to Christies weight – ‘a Bridge too fat’ – but nearly zero outrage.

      • Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 2:06 pm #

        Christie’s

  118. ajmuste January 10, 2014 at 11:07 am #

    “people actually like a no-nonsense take-no-prisoners tough guy for their Governor…….a bully, if you will. ”

    Did you miss the 2012 election? We had a bully running, a guy who held someone down and forceably cut off his hair… people don’t like bullies with a proven record of having a temper and acting impulsively having the power to initiate nuclear warfare.

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

    RECAP OF CHRISTIE NEWS CONFERENCE

    The staff I hired and worked with for years lied to me. I had no idea what my staff were doing. I did not like their tone and fired them without speaking to them first. I did not even want to hear their “excuses”. I am not a bully. I am running for president in 2016 and I love all this attention. Put me in the executive office with an even bigger staff.

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

    It is good to have Qshtik on record. We will see that not even Republicans will nominate Christie for national office, contrary to Qshtik saying people want bullies, not namby bamby politically correct politicians. Maybe Qshtik missed the last two elections. Politically correct is in. Bullies are out.

    Rachel Maddow has taken Chris Christie out of contention to be president, or even to to receive the Republican nomination for president.

  119. rube-i-con January 10, 2014 at 12:14 pm #

    Rachel Maddow has taken Chris Christie out of contention to be president, or even to to receive the Republican nomination for president.

    press + non-event

    the folks who rule must be chuckling to see how americans get emotionally caught up in ‘events’ that have no meaning & dissipate the energy they could use to effect real change.

    all while what little rights they have left are stripped away and it doesn’t make a damn diff who is in the oval office.

    nice work, comrades. keep it up.

    peace peaceniks

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  120. volodya January 10, 2014 at 12:17 pm #

    Six million is slander? Not even remotely. The trouble is that the slaughter is too well attested because, among other things, the Nazis were great administrators and record keepers. Not even modern day Germans, whose ancestors’ honor is at stake in this and who are three generations removed from the events in question, dispute this number.

    The Jews control international finance? Really? Well, “international” finance starts within national boundaries.There’s a lot that goes into modern day finance involving (for example in the United States), the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Presidency, the judiciary, the Supreme Court, regulatory bodies and law enforcement bodies. But none of these bodies are majority Jewish nor, in the final analysis, controlled by Jews.

    Even if Wall Street was “controlled” by Jews nothing that happens on Wall Street nor in the international realm can happen without the complicity and acquiescence of all the above institutions and elements of society. And, like the US, other countries have analogous bodies and these can act as regulating and countervailing forces. Whether or not they do so is within their own power to collectively decide. And Jews are not strong enough numerically within these bodies, nor within American society, nor other societies except Israeli, to supercede majority will nor the majority consensus.

    Nobody is disputing that Wall Street is corrupt and foul. Jews to the extent they participate get their share of the blame. But to blame it all on Jews is ludicrous. There’s a lot of others involved.

    There’s a lot of stuff that happened that accounts for the current disheveled state of America and the world. Things too numerous to go over in one post and which Kunstler goes over every week anyway. But, all that happened, happened under the gaze of multiple presidential administrations, a multitude of elected representatives, multiple generations law enforcement and regulators and educators and society in general. There’s a lot of blame to spread around. To pin it all on one ethnic group has no basis in fact nor in justice.

    Could financial abuses have been expunged without inflicting mass death in the 1930s-1940s? If a cabal of Jewish financiers and bankers really had been behind the unfolding calamities of the 1920s and 1930s, how hard would it have been to tell them to stop, to put them in cuffs and drag them in front of the courts? Do we seriously think they’d have pulled down Germany? I mean, Jews went in their multitudes to the gas chambers with hardly a peep. And, when they were rounded up, did they pull down Germany? Or Poland? How difficult would it have been to arrest a few cigar smoking fat men? Same thing goes right now. How hard would it be today? Abuses are so widespread and so well known that it would be child’s play.

    Stopping Wall Street is easy. It could be done tomorrow. Or, given the hampering effects of snow and ice, next month. You don’t need 2,000 page acts of Congress nor tens of thousands of pages of regulation. This is nonsense and deliberate obstruction. Things really are not that complicated. And Holder is full of shit, no banker is too big to jail.

    But the fact is that it won’t happen. For the reason why, look to the corruption in the institutions that have it in their power.

    • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 1:04 pm #

      Well put, V.

      That about sums it up.

      Nothing need more be said.

      –BRH

      • Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 2:03 pm #

        I didn’t take you for a Liberal. Nothing surprises me anymore. I can’t believe all the Liberals in this comment section. Janos is one of the few Conservatives. Most others are commie, pinko Liberals.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2014 at 3:04 pm #

        Even Churchill get a whiff of the truth as the years went by. “We killed the wrong pig”, the fool said. He also campaigned against the plan to darken Britain – after destroying the very power that stood for a White Europe and supporting the very power that planned to darken it.

        He did know the Truth in his younger days. I’ll dig up his famous quote for you. But he got in debt and then mysteriously got out of debt. After that he kept his mouth shut. Need I say more?

    • beantownbill. January 10, 2014 at 2:29 pm #

      You and I know this, and hundreds of millions of other rational people, but you can almost never get people like Janos to change their opinions. Believe me, I’ve tried, but it is a waste of time. I used to be concerned others would be influenced by this claptrap, but those who don’t hate, in general, are reasonable enough to know the truth, so I let Janos rant on without comment anymore, except when I make a joke of it, or I get tired of hearing the drivel over and over.

      One of my first memories of first-hand, anti-Jewish behavior was when I was 11 or so. This kid who I went to school with, came up to me and said he hated Jews (including me). WTF? I didn’t hardly know him, how could he hate me? Well, I got angry, grabbed him and shoved him against a wall. He said, ” You can do anything you want to me, but I’ll still hate Jews.” I really didn’t know how to reply to that. I remember feeling frustrated. I then kneed him in the groin, slammed him against the wall harder and walked away. I never had a problem with him after that. I guess I have a temper and have the capacity for physical violence, even though I really, really despise it. I’ve been working on controlling my temper most of my life, and I’ve had a great deal of success doing that, except for a few notable times when I was pushed too far and lost it.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2014 at 3:09 pm #

        That little boy was me! Ouch! You and Arn should get together: he’s gloating over the knock out game and our coming genocide. Why? Because a little Black boy got slapped in the face by a White teacher at his Schoo.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2014 at 3:00 pm #

      You’ve got it all ass backwards. The Fed is Private – owned by the Rothschilds and related Bankers, nearly all Jews and nearly all foreign. Nothing happens in Wall Street without the approval of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Presidency? No, nothing happens in any of those without the approval of the International Bankers who own the United States since 1913.

      The power of the purse is the supreme in commercial cultures. George Bush the first was amazed one morning: hundreds of Jews were at the Capital lobbying against him. He had gone against one little thing Israel wanted. American Jews? Whatever. Jews are a Nation without borders. Did I make that up? No Herzl and many other Jews have said it. Since Jews control much of the West, they are in effect the strongest Nation of all.

      The one thing I agree with: there is lots of blame to go around. Our elite handed the financial system over to the Rothschilds. They sold us out to the foreign bankers who know use America as an ATM card and a Janissary force.

      So you imagine 6 million names, not one more, not one less? Balderdash. No one believes such a thing anymore. You probably also believe in the lamps and the soap – which even Jews admit was a lie now. And also no comment about the Palestinians? Was Palestine empty: a Land without a People for a People without a Land? Jews lie a lot, don’t they? Truth by Jewish definition is the story that makes the Jews look the best.

      During the “Sitzkrieg”, some Nazi agents pretending to be German resistance approached British agents. They asked what they could do the end the war. The British Agents got back to them saying, Asassinate or arrest, try, and execute Hitler, suppress the Nazi party, and go back on the gold standard with centralized banking. It all comes down to economics – that’s how they are conquering the world. The Nazis asked the Jewish Bankers to step down. They refused. The were forced and they left hissing and cursing. World Jewry declared war against Germany years before the outbreak of open hostilities – and boycotted Germany as well. But we only hear about Nazis boycotting Jewish shops. Why is that? Could it be that Jews or their accomplices write the history books as well?

      Here’s a video on the Transfer Agreement to get you started on the Zionist/Nazi connection.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2v2VSAgFAY

  121. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 1:58 pm #

    My take is, people actually like a no-nonsense take-no-prisoners tough guy for their Governor…….a bully, if you will.

    I think you’re right Q, but people also don’t like fat fucks who can’t see their dicks without a mirror and who can’t reach around properly to adequately wipe their butt, so Krispy, while a take charge and take no prisoners bully, is too fucking fat for the job. Scott Walker’s the man. He’s proven himself worthy. We can’t let DC and the Liberal Press determine who our candidates will be. Krispy is a Centrist Republican and in this sense he could as easily be a Blue Democrat. The U.S. doesn’t need another Democrat, Blue or otherwise, in 2016. It needs a conservative populist reformer who will break the Democratic party machinery once and for all. Walker can do that just as he’s done, and is still doing, in Wisconsin.

  122. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 2:43 pm #

    “They’ll will be hammering on this for the next 2 years at least.” – BRH
    ==========

    Nah, people have short attention spans these days.

    BTW, take your pick, it’s either:

    1. They will be hammering
    or
    2. They’ll be hammering

  123. ajmuste January 10, 2014 at 3:07 pm #

    “… it doesn’t make a damn diff who is in the oval office”
    — Rubicon

    LOL! No one will ever convince me it doesn’t make any difference whether Republicans or Democrats are in the White House.

    The deficit goes up under Republicans. It comes down under Democrats. Look it up if you don’t believe me.

    Republicans get us into wars. Democrats get us out.

    Republicans take away rights. Democrats expand rights.

    For example, health care rights. If we had President Romney he would have abolished Obamacare. That is one reason Romney lost the election.

    If we had President Romney I would still be paying for a junk health insurance policy with an $8,000 deductible, higher premiums due to “pre-existing conditions” and paying $55 co-pays for medical appointments.

    Instead, with President Obama, I have a top-notch health insurance plan with ZERO deductible (that means $8,000 in my pocket because my policy works right now, not after I pay the first $8,000). I have ZERO co-pay for doctor’s visits whether it is a family doc or a specialist. That means $55 in more in my pocket. And my premiums are LOWER and the plan cannot be cancelled and they can’t jack up prices for pre-existing conditions, etc. RIGHTS (and money in my pocket) I now have because Obama is president and not Romney.

  124. Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2014 at 3:13 pm #

    http://www.fpp.co.uk/bookchapters/WSC/WSCwrote1920.html

    Churchill on the Jews – before he got ambitious and before his debt problem was mysteriously solved.

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  125. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 3:16 pm #

    “but people also don’t like fat fucks” – Blaby
    ===========

    What are you talking about, people love fat fucks. They provide comedic grist for the late-night talk show mill. And they make people feel good about their own pathetic obese selves.

    • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 3:27 pm #

      Wait a minute, Q. Didn’t William Howard Taft get only 8 electoral votes when he tried to get re elected?

      –BRH

      • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 3:28 pm #

        And back then everybody was thin. I know, I’ve seen the photos.

  126. Mad Dawg January 10, 2014 at 3:37 pm #

    Woof! So, Jim, and CFN gang, while Gov. Chris Christie is desperately trying to save his “brand” and the swarming piranha-like MSM judge his speeches — like a spectator sport ( I know we all enjoy the shadenfreude of once again watching a Republican electoral hopeful publicly self-destruct in plain sight) — I think that too much attention is being placed on this obese, narcissistic buffoon while intelligent national media discourse about our declining American Empire and the dire environment state of the world is lacking.

    So, to this end, I’d like to steer folks around here to a timely follow-up to my post from yesterday on David Homlgren’s “Future Scenarios” and specifically his “future energy descent scenarios” I found on the Automatic Earth site. This is a a very penetrating analysis of the likely scenarios and their implications:

    http://www.theautomaticearth.com/crash-demand-response-david-holmgren-3/

    Perhaps this link can add some intellectual fuel to the fire that JHK has ignited in this week’s perceptive essay, “Burning Down The House”.

  127. ajmuste January 10, 2014 at 4:28 pm #

    Mad Dawg, the problem with Holgrem’s analysis is the same problem with most of the CFN analysis (with exceptions like Rubeicon and Asoka).

    There is an assumption on CFN of continued population increase, and an assumption of continued current level or even increased level of energy use, and an assumption that there is no possibility of technological advance that could provide radical solutions.

    Those assumptions are clung to in order to spin out doomsday predictions, but we should be questioning those assumptions, based on what humanity has achieved to date. At the root is a Malthusian/Hobbesian view of human beings which should also be questioned.

    • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 6:14 pm #

      You are Asoka.

    • Mad Dawg January 10, 2014 at 9:27 pm #

      Woof! woof! Ah, Reverend Mus-tee, I see you’re reincarnated after all your years as a Christian Pacificist ;-0

      Ha! Ha! I hope you’re not — as I suspect– just another garden-variety cornucopian, “Jiminy Cricket”, magic techno-triumphalist-in-sheep’s-clothing trolling for some action?

      As I’ve only recently arrived in this neighborhood I’ll leave its defense to long time resident dogs and such, and as I don’t really know you — I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt — be careful not to wake sleeping dogs — they might bite you in your ass!

      You say, to paraphrase: “the problem with Holgrem’s (actually it’s David Holmgren, — I misspelled it, too, but differently) analysis is the same problem with most of the CFN analysis…” And then you go on with even more sweeping generalizations about assumptions of continued population increase, levels of energy use and that of “no possibility of technological advance that could provide radical solutions…” and so forth…

      Please clarify if you have any evidence otherwise: barring some precipitate plague, sudden worldwide collapse or variation on an energy decent scenario as was analyzed by the esteemed Nicole “Stoneleigh” Foss in the Automatic Earth article commenting on David Holmgren’s blog essays I alluded to — the facts *are*: the Earth already has an overshoot capacity of over 7 billion people and growing, and an ever increasing energy use and absolute *no* sign of the kind of radical technological advance in sight that you allude to — but it does has decreasing real and sustainable energy resources to meet these crises — please show otherwise with links to your backup references.

      As you say, “those assumptions are clung to in order to spin out doomsday predictions, based on what humanity has achieved to date…” As if all CFN’s television sets are broken and we can’t watch the latest episode of “The Walking Dead”, huh?

      Yes, please show me the wonders that we’ve (?) achieved to date and why you think that they could go on indefinitely on a finite world. In case you haven’t noticed — to paraphrase both William Gibson and Dimitry Orlov together: “the (Future) or collapse process has already arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed.” Just look around you.

      Cordially yours,
      Mad Dawg

  128. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 4:39 pm #

    “Republicans get us into wars.” – aj – soak – muste
    ==========

    Except for the largely meaningless:

    World War One
    World War Two and
    Vietnam war

  129. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 4:47 pm #

    And back then everybody was thin. I know, I’ve seen the photos.

    Back then, those who were fat were wealthy. Poor people couldn’t afford to be fat in those days. But that’s all changed. Everybody’s fat these days…especially the poor. In fact, it appears more poor are fat than wealthy are fat. Weird. I credit government cheese and Jane Fonda for the flip flop.

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    • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 6:16 pm #

      Also, Foodstamps, the currency of the ghetto.

  130. Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 4:50 pm #

    “and global population may peak soon.” – Rube
    ===========

    That would be a good thing…….then all the planet needs is a die off from 7B to 500M in 100 years focused primarily on the old.

  131. ajmuste January 10, 2014 at 4:55 pm #

    When World War I erupted in 1914, democratic President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position favored by the vast majority of Americans.

    Under democratic President Roosevelt America passed the Neutrality Acts in 1935-37. These created an embargo on all war item shipments. Americans were not allowed to travel on belligerent ships, and no belligerents were allowed loans in the United States.

    Q, you are right about Vietnam. That was Kennedy’s war.

    The anti-Vietnam War movement has been more closely aligned with the rank and file democrats who eventually forced Johnson out of office over the war. Then Nixon initially escalated America’s involvement in the Vietnam War until he was also forced out of office.

    ~ ajmuste

    • Q. Shtik January 10, 2014 at 5:37 pm #

      Q, you are right about Vietnam. That was Kennedy’s war.
      ==========

      Oh for Christ’s sake, your implication here is that I’m NOT right about WW1 and WW2.

      Wilson/Dems were in charge during the entirety of U.S. involvement in WW1 and Roosevelt/Truman/Dems during entirety of U.S. involvement in WW2.

      No need to spin this any other way.

  132. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 5:02 pm #

    This about sizes it up.

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/07/article-2491024-1942209000000578-932_308x413.jpg

  133. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 5:05 pm #

    Q, you are right about Vietnam. That was Kennedy’s war.

    Nah, it was Johnson’s war. We don’t know exactly what Kennedy would have done had he not been assassinated. We do know what Johnson did; he turned it into a war.

  134. ajmuste January 10, 2014 at 5:43 pm #

    Nah, it was Johnson’s war. — Blaby

    Technically Q is wrong about the world wars and vietnam.

    In the world wars the entire congress (not the sitting democratic president alone), followed the constitution and made formal declarations of war.

    In Vietnam there was no declaration of war.

    In Vietnam there was a fake gulf of tonkin incident and then the “Vietnam conflict” to keep us safe from falling dominoes. Didn’t work.

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  135. ajmuste January 10, 2014 at 5:52 pm #

    In the world wars the entire congress (not the sitting democratic president alone), followed the constitution and made formal declarations of war. — ajmuste

    Compare to President Reagan secretly selling arms to Iran to finance a covert war in Nicaragua in express defiance of Congress, after Congress had passed laws to try to stop Reagan’s secret wars.

  136. progress4what January 10, 2014 at 6:23 pm #

    Here you go, people.
    http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/07/nsa-insiders-reveal-what-went-wrong/
    Anyone care to comment?

    • BackRowHeckler January 10, 2014 at 8:27 pm #

      After the ’65 immigration act, opening the US up to massive 3rd world immigration, bringing in 100 million new people, many of them hostile, how could the govt.not try to keep track of everybody. The constitution and bill of rights was written for and by Judeo Christians with roots in the enlightenment. To try to apply it to everyone who successfully sneaks across the border is lunacy.

      P2C, I got this book for Christmas, ‘General Lee’s Army’, by Joseph Glatthaar. Some new stuff in there, for example, the depth of hatred Confederate soldiers had for the north, Yankees, the United States, and the Federal Government. Also, in letter after letter, the amount of patriotism they had not only for their home state but for the Confederacy itself Southerners are often portrayed as ignorant, but these letters are highly literate, poetic, even.

      –BRH

      • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2014 at 11:49 pm #

        I’ve been telling you all this for years. The bad guys won – both the Civil War and WW2.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2014 at 11:35 pm #

      Remember, our credit is their debit. Who says anything went wrong? Remember how the Patriot Act was already written and waiting for 9/11 or a 9/11? Remember those targets of ordinary Americans that the DHS practices with?

      The glove is coming off the mailed fist. Realizing it isn’t enough to make it stop – or else “Jim” Clapper would have been fired by now.

  137. Pucker January 10, 2014 at 9:15 pm #

    “I wish they all could be California girls…”

    – The Zodiac

  138. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 10, 2014 at 9:20 pm #

    In Vietnam there was a fake gulf of tonkin incident and then the “Vietnam conflict” to keep us safe from falling dominoes. Didn’t work.

    I agree with you there. Obama is proof the Cold War was won by the Communists.

  139. Pucker January 10, 2014 at 9:22 pm #

    I tend to be a rather “Open Minded” bloke, but this “Thang” between Dennis Rodman and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un seems a bit “Homo”. I wonder what people in the American black community make of it?

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-09/an-dennis-rodman-sings-happy-birthday-for-kim-jong-un/5191502

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  140. rube-i-con January 10, 2014 at 10:26 pm #

    “and global population may peak soon.” – Rube
    ===========
    That would be a good thing…….then all the planet needs is a die off from 7B to 500M in 100 years focused primarily on the old.

    q, i thot you were not one of those tone deaf patmos perps. what a failure of imagination. this is the fatal flaw with this board, you show bright sunshine and you losers turn it into a tornado of doubt.

    epic fail. like all jhk’s predictions.

    peace peaceniks

  141. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 11:09 am #

    “Also, Foodstamps, the currency of the ghetto” — BRH

    The average SNAP household has a gross monthly income of $744; net monthly income of $338 after the standard deduction and, for certain households, deductions for child care, medical expenses, and shelter costs; and countable resources of $331, such as a bank account.

    The average monthly SNAP benefit per person is $133.85, or less than $1.50 per person, per meal

    Those ghetto folks are just rolling in dough, trading foodstamps like they were gold. Can you imagine having as much as $331 in the bank?

    And they already have a gross monthly household income of $744 so that $1.50 per meal is just icing on the ghetto cake. They sure are lucky. [sarcasm off]

    Foodstamps are the currency of the ghetto?

    What do you know about the ghetto?

  142. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 11:28 am #

    I’ll tell you what, ajmuste, when poor ghetto Blacks start looking like they’re starving, perhaps I’ll have some pity and empathy. But what I see instead are fat, lazy, arrogant criminals. Once upon a time, being poor was a humbling experience. Not anymore. Liberals have made it a badge of honor to be worn proudly as a burgeoning waistline.

    • K-Dog January 11, 2014 at 11:36 am #

      I can’t be gone for a day and blatant sock puppet racism returns, disgusting.

      • Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 11:43 am #

        Where were you? Teepee repairs on the honey do list? Learning some more British with Rosetta Stone? Orgy with friends from the gym? Session with your psychiatrist to adjust your meds? Carrying water and chopping wood? The suspense and mystery are killing me.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 5:04 pm #

        Kdaub! How are you?

  143. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 11:29 am #

    “Please clarify if you have any evidence otherwise” — Mad Dawg

    Mad Dawg, you are new here. Citing peer review science is not appropriate for the blog. CFN is not data-driven. As JHK says this week, statistics are bogus and numbers can be ignored.

    “all official statistics are lies of one kind or another” — JHK

    So providing reams of data and citing links to the original sources of the data does not change anybody’s mind on this blog.

    What cannot be ignored are the laws of physics. If there is no more oil, you will know it without reading about it. When Nature smacks you up the side of the head, then you wake up and smell the coffee. Citing numbers and sources is not necessary.

    In spite of over 200 years of doomster talk, that is not happening. Malthus was saying the same thing in 1798, that the world would run short of food. Malthus believed, during his lifetime, that population was already outstripping food supply in 1798. As a result, he expected massive die off. The sixth great extinction didn’t happen. Malthus fail.

    You want evidence? You will know when the roads are empty, when the parking lots are empty, when the store shelves are empty … but that is not happening. Just use your eyes. Your eyes will provide you with the evidence you seek. You don’t need scientific research cites.

    • K-Dog January 11, 2014 at 11:34 am #

      “Citing peer review science is not appropriate for the blog.”

      Why not? You don’t make the rules. Nor do yo speak for JHK.

  144. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 11:50 am #

    “You don’t make the rules. Nor do yo speak for JHK.” — Kdog

    Please read my post again. I let JHK speak for himself by quoting him directly. ALL OFFICIAL STATISTICS ARE LIES says JHK. Either you believe JHK or you don’t.

    I also clearly stated that the rules are already made and they are called the “laws of physics” … I elaborated that Nature makes the rules. Either you believe in the laws of physics or you don’t.

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  145. volodya January 11, 2014 at 11:54 am #

    I am asked, do I really believe Jews don’t control “international finance”? Am I really that naive?

    Well, to answer the second question first, no, I am not naive in the slightest.

    As to the first question, what do we mean by “finance”? The shortest answer might be that “finance” is the deployment of money for the purpose of earning a return to fund business ventures, government operations, household consumption. But that’s the short answer. The longer answer might also refer to financial speculation involving a complex array of legal and financial instruments.

    What do we mean when we say “international finance”? Again, to be brief, the short answer might be the deployment of money across national boundaries for the above purposes. It might also refer to the legal and regulatory context (or lack thereof).

    There are a multitude of businesses and institutions active in “finance”, from many different countries, that conduct their business across national boundaries, employing a large number of people representing various interests, from a wide variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, with varying levels of operating authority, such authority sometimes coming out of ownership stakes, or alternatively, from employment contracts or via appointment to government and regulatory bodies.

    There are Jews active in this thing called “international finance”, some with a lot of authority, some with not so much. But this field is large, involving large money flows, involving many players with conflicting interests, with power widely dispersed. And so to say that Jews “control” a field as sprawling as “international finance” is, well, not real.

    Jews are a miniscule proportion of the world population. Israel is a very small place. So while some Jews might feel flattered at the unintended compliment, some (especially those with knowledge of “international finance”) might laugh. But the laughter would ring pretty hollow.

    You see, such assertions ie that Jews control “international finance”, have with them a long and tragic history and, consequently, more than a sinister edge. No need to elaborate, agreed?

    One other thing, what would have come out of Nazi rule, if the Nazis had won (and it might have happened if the dice had fallen a little differently), IMO wouldn’t have resembled anything worthy of the term “civilization”. Just talk to anyone who lived under the Nazi boot, Poles for example. But do it quick, they’re getting old and dying off.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 2:46 pm #

      The Nazi Boot! How about the Jewish one? Check out what Ben Gurion said.

      http://thinkexist.com/quotation/we_must_use_terror-assassination-intimidation/346611.html

      You never responded about the Palestinians so I decided to start without you. The best form of “Anti-Semitism” is just to quote the Jews themselves.

      No honest person thinks the Jews are just another ethnic group – least of all the Jews themselves. They admit to owning Hollywood. Sharon said they owned America. What’s the big stretch to controlling finance? It’s a Pyramid: a few people can control it. I mean if you print the money or can raise the interest rates, it’s pretty obvious isn’t it? It’s not what the Founders wanted obviously. It is the right and the duty for the American Government to print its own money backed by gold and/or silver. The abdicated that right and in effect, sold us into slavery in Babylon. And the Apostles themselves said Jerusalem is spiritual Babylon.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 3:10 pm #

      Apparently Sharon died last night. Read the Comments: We’re winning. The Folk are awakening. Israel has proved your undoing. You can’t post as under-dogs and oppress people at the same time. Not for long. The word does get out.

  146. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 12:04 pm #

    Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. “Herr Altmann,” said his secretary, “I notice you’re reading Der Stürmer! I can’t understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew?”

    “On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we’re on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!

  147. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 12:24 pm #

    Oh, what fun! It’s time in the show to quote the rabbi. Here’s a good one; there’s so many good ones from this infamously martyred rabbi.

    The Jewish nation is indeed the heart of the world and there is no reason for the existence of empires, kings, rulers, masses or systems aside from their reaction to the Jewish people.

    `Meir Kahane

    • gellen with yellen January 11, 2014 at 12:57 pm #

      yes, kahane was a real piece of work. and of course some stupid egyptian arab by the name of el sayyid nosair proved kahane’s point by assassinating the provocateur. in an ironic twist, a lawyer named kunstler helped acquit nosair although the assassin was tried again years later for the murder and found guilty.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 3:16 pm #

        What’s so strange? That kind of attitude is the classic Jewish one as encouraged by the Torah and even more so by the Talmud. Jews are People and everyone else is an animal meant to serve the Jews. That’s their religion and their culture – traditionally. Many have moved on to some extent. But they backslide very quickly when any Jew anywhere is criticized for any reason.

  148. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 3:02 pm #

    “there is no reason for the existence of empires, kings, rulers, masses or systems aside from their reaction to the Jewish people.” — Kahane

    So Blaby reacts to Kahane to prove Kahane’s point!

    Kahane may have had his faults. We all do. We are all works in progress. But Blaby cannot see anything good about Kahane. Those who met Kahane did see good in him.

    Woodie Guthrie’s son Arlo described Kahane as “a really nice, patient teacher” who tutored him for his Bar Mitzvah. However, he felt that Kahane subsequently “started going haywire”. Woody and his wife Marjorie had both met Kahane, and separately decades later Bob Dylan referred to him as “a really sincere guy”

    In general Jews are intelligent, humane, have a great sense of humor, and possess creative genius. They are a great people who have done much to contribute positively. We are so fortunate to have the Jewish people on the earth. So much good has come from their service to humanity. And humanity’s hatred and jealousy and racism and antisemitism are slowly diminishing. It’s all good.

    May Jews live long and prosper!

    ~ ajmuste

  149. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 3:14 pm #

    So Blaby reacts to Kahane to prove Kahane’s point!

    Since when is an observation and acknowledgement a “reaction?” I didn’t realize I exhumed Kahane’s corpse and assassinated him again from the my chair sitting in front of my computer terminal.

    Kahane may have had his faults. We all do. We are all works in progress. But Blaby cannot see anything good about Kahane. Those who met Kahane did see good in him.

    Fair enough. But now you must wear that shoe too, and agree that the same applies to Hitler. So let’s apply your wisdom for posterity’s sake. According to ajmuste, the following is necessarily true and he’s found common ground with his nemesis, Janos:

    Hitler may have had his faults. We all do. We are all works in progress. But Jews cannot see anything good about Hitler (except for the Zionists). Those who met Hitler did see good in him (including the Zionists).

    ~ajmuste

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  150. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 3:35 pm #

    Truth be known, I admired Kahane as Michael King and respected his July Fourth Movement in exposing surreptitious Communists until he infiltrated the John Birch Society for the FBI. He showed his Jewish colors with that little stunt. Who was Kahane? He was whatever he needed to be at the moment, apparently, and that’s why all gentiles (goyim) need to be suspicious of Jews. They have the capacity to be whatever they need to be to get you to react to them. That’s why in my mind, they do not exist as a people. I don’t subscribe to that propaganda. They’re no more a people than Christians are a people but they use that cover of “a people” to pull the carpet out from under the unsuspecting.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 4:49 pm #

      Not a people? Clever Blabs. You don’t deny the Blame, just the Subject. Because they are protean, they don’t exist? That makes no sense at all. They’ve been practicing the shuffle for a long time. A people? No, we’re a religion. A religion? No we’re a people. We’re just like everyone else. We’re nothing like anyone else. Etc.

      If you want the Truth, you read what they write for each other. It’s not hard. It’s in English now days. To summarize: They consider themselves a People – a Nation without Borders. And since they control much of the Western World, they are arguably, the most powerful Nation on Earth. The refusal of the Goyim to invade Syria for them is a very good sign. But they haven’t given up on that by any means. They have “Kerry” (real name Kohn) hard at work on it.
      Kerry isn’t a real Irish name you see.

  151. Shlomit January 11, 2014 at 3:43 pm #

    It’s a sad day for many of us here in Israel. A great man has passed from our midst but he will be recalled fondly for all of history. He brought our people respect. He was a powerful man but also very loving. Love without power is weak and feckless. All blessings to you Ariel Sharon. There aren’t many like you and that’s what made you so special.

    ~Shlomit

    • ozone January 11, 2014 at 4:33 pm #

      Vlad,
      Nice of you to take on yet another fake persona to please your benevolent overlords in your weak attempts at provoking distractionary piffle. It is no wonder this place has become an intellectual desert. Seek help and productive work.
      (BTW, Sharon brought his rabidly genocidal state nothing but the slow grind of karmic destruction and retribution. Goose, meet gander. One Hell of a legacy.)

      • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 4:53 pm #

        Can you prove that slander? Go crawl back under your rock, stoner.

        The place sucks because people like BRH kiss the hand of light weights like Volvoya or whatever his name is. It’s not worth going back to check. People have to challenge themselves when challenged. You never do. You’re the last one to talk on this.

    • Q. Shtik January 11, 2014 at 4:35 pm #

      “He brought our people respect.” – Shlomit
      ==========

      Hey Fastmit, you’re saying this to bust Lord Blaby’s chops, right?

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 5:00 pm #

      Rabbi Kaduri said the Messiah would manifest after Sharon’s death. And that His name was Yeshua.

    • Snowdenisahero January 12, 2014 at 9:45 am #

      What is sad is that the gangsters that run Israel offed one of their leaders.

      Does anyone really believe that such a blatant mistake was made during a routine surgery on such an important official?

      Surely he had the best of the best in the medical profession.

      Give me a break.

      Next people will be telling me that Kenneth Lay did not commit suicide.

  152. beantownbill. January 11, 2014 at 4:44 pm #

    It’s so nice that this blog is peopled (probably I should say “infested”) with Jew haters. Hey, you guys must feel really powerless to be so afraid of a group representing 14/7000 of the world’s population, and I’m so lucky to be a member of that group. I feel great wielding all that power and having so much wealth and influence, like all of my people.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 4:57 pm #

      Any criticism of Jews is automatically wrong. They have never done anything wrong to anybody. How could they since wrong by definition means wrong for Jews. Right means what’s good for Jews. So they simply CAN’T ever be wrong. Saying so makes you an Anti-Semite or a bad Goy (cow).

      Muslims have the same philosophy about themselves btw. The two religions are amazingly alike in many ways.

      • Snowdenisahero January 12, 2014 at 9:46 am #

        I consider anyone who believes in any god to have the same amount of logic as a person who believes 1+1=3

        • Karah January 12, 2014 at 8:19 pm #

          Making the seemingly impossible a reality is what gods are for.

    • WW January 11, 2014 at 4:57 pm #

      Oh come now, aren’t you a teensy bit worried that the razor sharp mind of Vlad has seen through your dastardly designs. Why, if it wasn’t for him, you’d be supreme overlords of the planet by now!
      Seriously, how retarded would to you have to be to believe the demented bilge he spouts. Still it keeps him entertained and I suppose if he’s on here he’s not burning crosses on someone’s lawn. I think JHK keeps him on here for entertainment value, must be like owning a pet monkey……..

      • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 5:08 pm #

        Good. If dynamic silence doesn’t work, then mockery. If mockery doesn’t work, then slander. If slander doesn’t work, only then try and argue. Bill jumps too soon to slander. And argument is really the last resort – since you may well lose. The Truth isn’t on your side after all.

        Who does own the Fed and therefore the United States? If not European Jews allied to Rothschild, then who? This should be interesting.

        • WW January 11, 2014 at 5:33 pm #

          Always mock a delusional idiot vlad. They are too set in their own make believe world to comprehend reality, so you might as well get some mileage out of it. Keep ironing those bedsheets, you know the grand wizard likes sharp creases. Oh, and don’t use the ones you wet having nightmares about jews in your closet. The stains never really come out. They look dayglo in the torchlight and make a good target lol!

          • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 8:04 pm #

            You people always go too far and end up getting thrown out. Looks like a pattern. Of course you object – the guy whose been thrown out of every bar in town always does.

    • WW January 11, 2014 at 5:25 pm #

      It must eat Vlad up to know that his ancestors own irrational hatred of Jews helped them achieve a far greater proportional representation in the arts, sciences, law and banking. Without European countries restricting land ownership, membership of guilds and professions, they would never have gone into law, the performing arts, banking and medical practice in such numbers. Then when they became wealthy it was their fault again! More than one king loaned money from jewish bankers that they had no intention if paying back. When the payments were due just institute a pogrom! Many jews ended up in the new wirld for that reason and they were sucessful because they had to adapt and work harder every time one of vlad ancestors took time off from molesting livestock to chase jews again. That knowledge must torture the poor sap!

      • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 7:58 pm #

        So you admit that Jews own the United States and thus responsible for driving it to ruin.

        • WW January 12, 2014 at 6:43 am #

          They certainly own you, well your psychotic irrational idiocy anyway. 330 million americans and you’re all powerless because of the big scary jew. Just read your comments vlad. Above because I disagree with you your assumption is I am jewish, lol. You are a walking, talking, case study for every psychology student on the planet. I can see why JHK keeps you around, its better than dilbert cartoons.
          The reason why the US is declining is that like every empire it has become corrupt and lazy. It spends more than it generates and it has fallen faster than most empires because most americans believe they are entitled to a better living than the rest of the world and will gladly sell their neighbours job for a cheap dvd player.
          No needed to bring down america, you were quite happy to do it yourselves.
          Just curious, your congenital idiocy, is it hereditary? Is it caused by incestuous interbreeding? Or are you a one off?.

  153. Neon Vincent January 11, 2014 at 5:09 pm #

    “Our popular entertainments are just what you would design to produce a programmed population of criminals and sex offenders.”

    Case in point–revenge porn, a 21st Century crime. California has criminalized it, but the state is finding out the hard way that it’s difficult to prosecute because of the protections in the Communications Decency Act for web site operators against prosecution for what third parties post on their sites. California will have to concentrate on what the web site’s owner did himself to get a conviction.

    http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/12/scifi-is-now-revenge-porn-21st-century.html

  154. Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 5:23 pm #

    Any criticism of Jews is automatically wrong.

    It appears Germany is taking organic strides to overcome this and so the Jewish-controlled press, and more specifically the NYT, must come to the rescue to snuff out freedom of expression.

    Can Germans finally tell Holocaust jokes around Jews?

    I understand your critique of my post above and think it’s valid. I’m trying to find a way around Kahane’s reaction paradox, but I now realize that was his intent; to get you so twisted in trying not to react that you’re rendered incapable of resistance as he and his ilk make off with the family jewels and your birthright.

    As the article from Haaretz above reveals, there are not a few younger Germans who believe Jews no longer exist. When they do discover one of the few in their midst, they treat them as a fragile novelty…at their peril.

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    • Lord Blaby of Lawson January 11, 2014 at 5:41 pm #

      Go figure. Haaretz put the article behind a pay wall but it wasn’t when I first read it. Money always comes first. Here’s the focus of the Haaretz piece in the NYT. I guess the reason it’s not behind a pay wall at the NYT is because of Carlos Slim’s influence.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/opinion/sunday/german-jewish-and-neither.html?_r=0

      • WW January 11, 2014 at 5:57 pm #

        God forbid a business wants to make money if it interferes with your ‘rights’ eh!
        Young Germans are no doubt embarassed when the meet jews. They are intelligent enough to realise that in all probabilty one of their great grandparents aided in the systematic murder of 6 million plus people and starting a war that killed many millions more.
        Just as well that jews are not as malicious as us. How many cities should a nuclear armed Israel toast to even the score? One Berlin perhaps!

        • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 8:08 pm #

          Us? You’re one of us? Jews always pretend to be Gentiles to get away with shit. Trotsky was really Lev Bronstein for example.

          I hope you’re not one of us. Because if you are, you are one sick puppy.

          And yes folks, several high level Israelis have said Israel will nuke Europe if things don’t go down right for them. Nice. How utterly stupid Germany and France were to help these people out of some false sense of guilt.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 8:15 pm #

          Amazing we have rights in our own countries. You’ll have to do something about that, eh?

          In much of Europe, speaking out about Jews, Muslims, or Blacks will put you in prison. They dearly want to bring these hate crime laws here as well.

  155. beantownbill. January 11, 2014 at 6:30 pm #

    You Jew-haters are just jealous and frustrated. Jealous because we are smarter than you (the Jew-haters), more capable and more successful; whereas you guys never succeed in most of what you do, then blame Jews for your failures. Frustrated because despite your attempts to stop them, Jews still succeed, and most people don’t mind them at all. We produce Albert Einsteins, and you guys produce shining examples of humanity like George Lincoln Rockwell, Adolph hitler, hermann goering, and the chicken farmer psychopath.

    You people are sick jokes. Now go ahead and start telling false facts, otherwise known as lies. Spew baby, spew.

    • WW January 11, 2014 at 6:41 pm #

      Jews are smarter than jewhaters? Beantown I’ve got fenceposts smarter than them! It’s people like vlad that give village idiots a vad name…..

      • WW January 11, 2014 at 6:42 pm #

        Oops sorry bad name(don’t want Q after me).

      • beantownbill. January 11, 2014 at 8:21 pm #

        Lol. I dunno, I’ve run across some very dumb fence posts myself. We’d have to test both groups to see who’s more dumb. It’ll be close.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 8:02 pm #

      Are you proud of Hollywood? Of the Legal Industry? Of the Banking fiasco? You can’t just be proud. If you’re going to identify with your people, you have to take the shame too.

      Einstein was a bit of a fraud in that he took from other men’s work without giving them credit. Of course the World’s media lauded their own. No one is better at blowing their own shofars than the Jews.

  156. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 6:56 pm #

    “You Jew-haters are just jealous and frustrated.” — BTB

    And dangerous, BTB.

    Why would JHK permit so much venom to be spread here against Jews, immigrants, Blacks, gays, etc.? I thought when Asoka was banned that things would improve but the bickering and ignorant discrimination comments continue.

    Somebody must be benefiting from people being so distracted by all the infighting black/white, straight/gay, illegal immigrants/citizens, Jews/Arabs, etc. As long as we are not united we cannot take unified action and are no threat.

    The antisemitism on this blog is disgusting and sickening.

    • WW January 12, 2014 at 6:52 am #

      The best way to expose a fool is to let them do so in their own words. Vlad and co constantly do so. It also has great entertaiment value lol!

    • Looongerbeard January 12, 2014 at 9:00 am #

      Amen to that! All bigotry is a stupid waste of time!

  157. gellen with yellen January 11, 2014 at 7:04 pm #

    billfromboston said: “frustrated because despite your attempts to stop them, Jews still succeed, and most people don’t mind them at all.”

    =======

    right. berkowitz and einhorn managed to succeed despite attempts to stop them, and you’re right, most people didn’t mind or quickly forgot about it because the jews who own and run the media to include entertainment distracted them with a flood of trivial stimulation. you must feel awfully proud of david and ira.

  158. Q. Shtik January 11, 2014 at 8:47 pm #

    Hey, how ’bout dem Seahox!

    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 9:05 pm #

      Did you hock your brains or just your balls? You could contribute to this discussion but you refuse. Is it fear of the Jews or just plain cussedness?

      • BackRowHeckler January 11, 2014 at 9:38 pm #

        Vlad what the hell is wrong with you?

        You sound like a maniac for Chrissake.

        Why don’t you lighten up a little instead of hammering the same goddam thing every day? You’ve made your point. Let it go.

        –BRH

        • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 11:50 pm #

          That’s what’s wrong with America: people have no attention spans and move on before anything is decided. You will be a White Nationalist once 50.01% of the people are.

        • WW January 12, 2014 at 6:45 am #

          That’s because he is a certifiable maniac.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 4:12 pm #

            I wouldn’t say he’s a maniac, just weak.

          • WW January 13, 2014 at 4:21 am #

            Nope vlad you are definitely certifiable. Its a good job you live alone in your trailer. That way when you forget to take your meds you only vent online. You’re a definite danger to women and children.

  159. Pucker January 11, 2014 at 10:00 pm #

    “I wish they all could be California girls.”

    – Ted Bundy

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  160. Pucker January 11, 2014 at 10:07 pm #

    They say that “TEPCO” stands for “Tokyo Electric Power Corporation”, but what does it really stand for? Does “TEPCO” really mean “Godzilla”? What does “Godzilla” mean? The “god” part of course, I get. But what does “Zilla” means? What-the-f…ck is a “Zilla”?

    Don’t you think that it’s a bit weird in a sort of dark spiritual way the relationship between the Japanese people and nuclear energy? It’s like some dark evil Voodoo curse. And what really freaks me out is that the Japanese people seemed to have a premonition of Fukashima in making those weird 1950’s and 1960’s Godzilla movies.

  161. K-Dog January 11, 2014 at 10:36 pm #

    Where were you? Teepee repairs on the honey do list? Learning some more British with Rosetta Stone? Orgy with friends from the gym? Session with your psychiatrist to adjust your meds? Carrying water and chopping wood? The suspense and mystery are killing me.” – Lord Blaby of Lawson

    Where am I? I’m where I want to be. There is more to life than Clusterfuck Nation, or in your case, a job.

    If you think you know me. Do tell everyone how. Put an end to the suspense and mystery. I’m sure everyone would find genuine details far more interesting than wild-assed guesses from 30,000 feet or what can be presumed from reading personal emails, or surmised from watching where I go on the net, and hypothesized from listening to phone calls or excogitated from monitored texts.

    Whatca going to do with a dog that won’t back down or heel and is not afraid of you? I’m sure you have a much easier time with dogs who have things to hide and who are not comfortable with the dogs they are.

    But that’s not me.

  162. Pucker January 11, 2014 at 11:05 pm #

    Don’t you think that it’s a bit weird that Americans have all been brain washed into thinking that nuclear energy is “clean” energy?

  163. Pucker January 11, 2014 at 11:07 pm #

    Has anyone seemed to notice that in respect of the ongoing Fukashima crisis that people are only concerned about radiation from Fukashima reaching California and the West Coast of the U.S., and that no one seems to give-a-shit about Alaska? What gives?!

  164. ajmuste January 11, 2014 at 11:10 pm #

    Q said the Chris Christie BridgeGate was like a fart in a windstorm. Yet it looks worse for Christie every day and he remains in the headlines news cycle after news cycle. His chances for national office are looking more remote. Rachel Maddow’s reporting on BridgeZilla’s actions did it.

    New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D) told NBC News Saturday that if Christie was at all aware of his aides’ actions, impeachment could emerge as a potential issue.

    “Using the George Washington Bridge, a public resource, to exact a political vendetta, is a crime,” Wisniewski said. “Having people use their official position to have a political game is a crime. So if those tie back to the governor in any way, it clearly becomes an impeachable offense.”

    “It’s hard to really accept the governor’s statement that he knew nothing until the other morning,” Wisnieswki added.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 11, 2014 at 11:47 pm #

      Yeah didn’t he joke about “working the cones” awhile back?

  165. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 12:03 am #

    “Yeah didn’t he joke about “working the cones” awhile back?” — Janos

    Janos, that was back when Christie believed the lane closures were like a fart in a windstorm.

    Christie tried to shrug it off and make a joke out of it, chastising the press for even asking about it. He said: “I moved the cones, actually. Unbeknownst to everybody.”

    Right up to when the emails came to light last Wednesday, Christie had continued to insist that nobody in his office or campaign was involved in the bridge closings.

    He was lying then. He is lying now. His staff (which Christie has said is close like family) is taking the 5th, the first sign of a coverup, a bad sign for Christie’s future. It just makes journalists more curious when the witnesses refuse to tell what they know. But now that they are being put under oath they are clamming up.

    It is turning out to be a long lasting fart.

  166. Pucker January 12, 2014 at 1:21 am #

    I’m still collecting recipes for my Collapse Cookbook. Orlov suggests lobsters gathered from the bottom of Boston harbor.

    What do you think about Possum? Do you know of anyone who makes a “Mean Possum”? Thanks.

    • Karah January 12, 2014 at 8:22 pm #

      Some say that tonsilectomy girl is playing a ‘mean possum’.

  167. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 1:34 am #

    “Q said the Chris Christie BridgeGate was like a fart in a windstorm. Yet it looks worse for Christie every day and he remains in the headlines news cycle after news cycle. His chances for national office are looking more remote.” – aj-soak
    ========

    Interestingly I am not the only one who has considered that “this to shall pass.” None other than long-time op-ed writer Gail Collins had a column today in the NY Times titled Imagining President Christie. The first paragraph reads as follows:

    Let us count the ways that this week’s traffic-jam scandal is actually good for Chris Christie’s presidential prospects.

    Of course Ms Collins style is one of mocking humor but she obviously recognizes the possibility this whole affair could work in Christie’s favor.

  168. Arn Varnold January 12, 2014 at 4:56 am #

    Interestingly I am not the only one who has considered that “this to shall pass. Q

    Nice one pedant. This *too* shall pass; a bit better, no?

  169. Pucker January 12, 2014 at 5:59 am #

    What kind of wine goes well with possum? What kind of wine would impress a woman at a candlelight possum dinner? Cabernet Sauvignon? Shiraz? Bordeaux? Pinot Noir? Maybe a Malbec from Argentina? Thanks.

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    • Looongerbeard January 12, 2014 at 9:07 am #

      I gotta go with dandelion wine!

  170. Snowdenisahero January 12, 2014 at 8:34 am #

    This is the best summary of the situation we are facing I have seen.

    I’ll throw a theory into the ring — very obviously the default position of the central banks and governments is to lie – pretty much everything they say is a lie.

    Was it Juncker who said ‘when it gets bad enough you have to lie’

    Well – it must be pretty, pretty bad – when everything you say is a lie.

    As for what appear to be insane policies — perhaps they are no so insane — surely the think tanks have played out the scenarios that are likely when this thing busts ….

    And they have concluded that what is coming is such a nightmare (i.e. famine and death by the billions – a situation worse than ‘Mad Max’) that they have come to the conclusion that they must to absolutely anything to hold this off for as long as possible.

    They know that if the only thing holding back the demons of hell is QE and ZIRP (and just barely) — and they that this is their last tool in the box.

    Since they have far more info on the likely outcome I am not so quick to criticize what they are doing.

    Bernanke is not an idiot – he surely knows what he is doing will end badly — so why is he doing it?

    I think because the powers that be have determined that the end game is dystopian no matter what they do – so anything that buys another day – or another year – is worth doing.

    I tend to agree with that. I do not think there is anything they can do to soft land this. When the next boot falls it will be every man for himself — all hell is going to break lose — it truly is the end of days as billions will starve and die of disease.

    Print Ben Print – and you too Janet.

    The industrial revolution (and fossil fuels) are the worst things that every happened to this planet.

    • Arn Varnold January 12, 2014 at 8:51 am #

      Not to be too unkind; have you thought about spreading that in your garden?
      Surely it would make your garden grow with cockle shells and silver bells, no?
      This vehicle is going down, regardless; the only question is the glide path.
      Nobody seems to know, the angle of repose…

  171. Shlomit January 12, 2014 at 9:50 am #

    Mr. Q Shtik, I wasn’t thinking of busting Mr. Blabby’s balls with my comment, but if I did, bully for me. I am superior to Mr. Blabby and this is why he and Janos are sore. They are inferior and they can’t deal with it like the rest of you. At least the more moderate voices at this forum can accept that my people rule the world and therefore you can live in gracious acquiescence to that very real and certain fact.

    It is a marvel that the American people do not rise up and drive every last one of my people from the U.S. We Jews continue to be amazed with the ease by which Christian Americans have fallen into our hands. While naive Americans watch sports 24/7 or wait for the next Jihadi terrorist attack, we have taught you to submit to our every command. Americans have not had a presidential choice since 1932. Roosevelt was our man; every president since Roosevelt has been our man. The policy of every administration since 1932 has been a Zionist-Communist policy and yet the American people are brainwashed to believe this policy was legislated to benefit America. My people have put issue upon issue to the American people. Then we promote both sides of the issue as confusion reigns. With their eyes fixed on the issues, they fail to see who is behind the scene. We toy with the American public as a cat toys with a mouse. We can even be so brazen as to admit this publicly and know the American people are too stupid to believe it and so it’s become easier to hide in plain sight.

    • Arn Varnold January 12, 2014 at 10:30 am #

      Now, that is hilarious; nice piece Shlomit. You’re wit is writ…

      • Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 11:52 am #

        You’re wit is writ…
        =========

        Not sure where ^this^ sentence is headed but I believe you meant…

        Your

    • nsa January 12, 2014 at 10:41 am #

      Sales a little slow at your mattress outlet? Running out of retail paying christian dummies?

    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 3:25 pm #

      Yes all true. Jews announced in Time Magazine – which they own – that they control the media. But if someone else says the same thing, even quoting from the article, he becomes an “Anti-Semite” and will condemned by drones like Arn or attack dogs like Kdog.

      In the late 1800’s Jewish power was waxing strong. But even then they said to each other, they’ll never let us directly control their armies. They were wrong: they underestimated our capacity for corruption. There’s no need for revolutions like the Russian now. They’ll just transform Nations to fit their needs – while slowly genociding Whites through mass immigration and miscegenation.

      • WW January 13, 2014 at 4:33 am #

        Would this be the same Time that was sued by Ariel Sharon in 82 for alleging that he planned the massacres  in Sabra and Shatilla. An article they admitted in court was a lie(which was widly known anyhow) and the jury found in Sharons favour. Not very pro jew for jews are they? It’s a wonder they can control you vlad, with such poor planning.
        Seek medical help vlad before your delusions end up making you go postal in a shopping mall somewhere, taking good peoples lives along with you!

  172. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 12:06 pm #

    “Interestingly I am not the only one who has considered that “this to shall pass. Q

    Nice one pedant. This *too* shall pass; a bit better, no?” – Arn V.
    =============

    All apparent mistakes by me are, in fact, made deliberately to see who is paying attention. You win this current test, Arn, Congrats.

    BTW, in quoting me, you forgot to include the closing quotation marks (“).

    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 3:59 pm #

      Yeah the main thing is you being right about your little predictions and grammar. Who cares about the state of the State and the World.? The Game’s on for Chris sake. And the liquid Bread’s in the fridge.

  173. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 12:49 pm #

    This week is petering out. Let’s speculate on what Jim may focus on in tomorrow’s essay. I’ll guess there is some passing reference to Christie but otherwise……………well, I just don’t know.

  174. K-Dog January 12, 2014 at 1:15 pm #

    Phony anti-Semitism and phony racism. Can’t you jingos of distraction come up with anything new. What is happening around that Fort Mead water cooler. With all your connections you have to know some juicy stories you can share. Names changed to protect the innocent, the guilty, and most importantly yourselves of course.

    How about some predictions for next year or sharing how things went over last year. Have you kept readership at ‘end of the world’ blogs down as intended? Have targets been met?

    Your phony anti-Semitism wears thin and may be making some who watch suspicious of your activities. Do you ever discuss that? Pushing the envelope too hard may have consequences. And LBOL what of April 15th? Any special predictions this year?

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 3:19 pm #

      Yeah but what if it’s true? Even if Shlomit isn’t a Jew, that does mean he’s wrong? If so, you need a logic review. Look at Q and Arn: they could (n’t) care less. Even as they comment on his post they are just looking at the grammar. They’re no better than the animals who live for Sports on TV.

      Just so The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Even if they aren’t the actual transcripts of the Geneva Conference, that doesn’t mean they’re false. They keep coming true as anyone who knows who reads them.

      Many a true word is spoken is jest. There are actually Philo-Semitic White Nationalists. If that isn’t insane nothing is.

  175. K-Dog January 12, 2014 at 2:07 pm #

    For anybody wanting something good to read who can’t wait until tomorrow morning try this:

    “People continue to go around and around making all sorts of noise about how economic growth or “growing our economy” is everything, rather than making things work, people making a living, making a life. In the current state of lunacy and pretense, the general pretense presented is that “economic growth” will happen (or that it is happening, supposedly), from some ugly toxic magical brew of combination of increasing levels of debt, usury, and “consuming”.

    Reading John is refreshing; his clarity of mind inspires and restores the soul. He is a revitalizing voice to those coming here for understanding and inspiration but who instead find this blog mired in jingo sock puppet pollution.

  176. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 3:03 pm #

    “I’ll guess there is some passing reference to Christie…” — Q

    Q, it would be a waste of JHK’s talents to comment on Christie.

    Christie is toast, a has-been who no longer has national significance.

    Republicans won’t support him and he won’t get Tea Party support after embracing Obama and taking Obama’s money. Christie has made himself irrelevant through his own public corruption.

    Christie is a small-minded bully. A bully with his temper and petty vindictiveness will never get close to the American nuclear trigger.

  177. BackRowHeckler January 12, 2014 at 3:44 pm #

    Best handle I’ve seen so far in this comments section:

    Jellin with Yellin

    Doesn’t post here often, but every time I see it I chuckle.

    –BRH

  178. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 3:55 pm #

    “Christie is toast, a has-been who no longer has national significance.” – aj-Soak
    ==========

    Other than for the purpose of proving that my poldar is superior to yours, I ‘could give a shit.’

    If they never find “the smoking cone”* you haven’t seen the last of this enormous pol.

    * Sorry, I plagiarized that phrase……it was so good.

  179. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 4:06 pm #

    “I ‘could give a shit.’” — Q., who continues to post on Christie

    If what you say is true, then I respectfully request that you remove the post-it from your computer and destroy it. Who gives a shit, right?

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  180. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 4:17 pm #

    “They’re no better than the animals who live for Sports on TV.” – Janos
    ============

    How ’bout dem ‘9ers!

  181. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 4:27 pm #

    “I ‘could give a shit.’” — Q

    This construction reminds me of “I could care less” which you endlessly and obsessively criticize.

    If you could give a shit, that means you care enough to give a shit.

    What you meant to say was “I couldn’t give a shit”

  182. volodya January 12, 2014 at 4:29 pm #

    They admit to owning Hollywood. Sharon said they owned America. What’s the big stretch to controlling finance? – J

    So Jews talk about owning Hollywood. So what? Let’s say some Hollywood companies are owned or controlled by Jews. Ever been to Hollywood? I have. You should go there. “Hollywood” in geographic terms, is a small place. In money terms, compared to other industries, it is inconsequential.

    Hollywood tells stories mainly about Americans, mainly to Americans. A mirror where Americans look at themselves. In cultural terms, it does have influence. And people from all over the world do see its movies.

    “Culture”, however, like “international finance”, is a very big thing, involving a great many people, from a great many places, including yours truly and everyone reading this blog.

    “Hollywood”, for all the attention devoted to it, is just one component of culture. It is influential. But its influence has limits. There’s a lot of other pieces. Hollywood sells, but if people don’t buy, Hollywood dies.

    And Hollywood, for all its reach, isn’t the only game in town. It’s a big world out there. There’s an Indian entertainment industry. And Chinese. These two serve gigantic populations in their own languages. And they too have global reach. An illustration and aside: did you hear that Bollywood conducted its own splashy film awards gala (like the Oscars I guess) in Toronto of all places. Who would have thought.

    Jews took control of Palestine. A land grab and a turf war. How does that set Jews apart? Is this an event unique in human history? Where have we seen this movie before? How many square miles in the USA? Four million more or less? A pretty big land grab there wouldn’t you say?

    Let’s not minimize the importance of this Palestine thing to the local people involved. But let’s apply a smidgen of perspective: a small patch of desert in the middle of nowhere, with no resources to speak of, directly involving a small proportion of the world’s population.

    So what do we have? In essence, a few old religious monuments, Muslim civilization laid low and bemoaning its sorry state, traumatized Jews wanting refuge. The weak fighting the weak.

    Others have said it and so we’ll say it again, compared to the issues facing the larger world, this Israel – Palestine kerfuffle is really small potatoes. Exceedingly small.

    Ethnic affirmation comes in many forms. What do Americans talk about? The USA as the world’s essential country, the world’s hegemon, the only superpower, without whom there would be global chaos.

    Or ethnic affirmation can take the form of stories about past military victors, for example, Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan. Or past defeats. Ask the Serbs about their losses to the Turks. Or there’s pride in past cultural or intellectual accomplishments. Or, for that matter, talk of a “Master Race”.

    So Sharon talks about “owning” America. Sure. Makes me laugh. Like a 120 pound nerd boasting of being a Green Beret. Like every other people Jews make up stories. Self serving, self glorifying – like people talking shit about the Jewish nation being the heart of the world, like talk about American Exceptionalism (also hilarious). If Jews had been that powerful and influential they would not have had nearly the entirety of their European population annihilated.

    What’s the big stretch to controlling “finance”? I just wrote a comment answering this very question. So I won’t repeat.

    • BackRowHeckler January 12, 2014 at 4:46 pm #

      When Mark Twain visited Palestine in the 1870s he found it largely uninhabited. European Jews created a viable homeland on what was empty barren desert, a wasteland. This is similar to what the Mormons accomplished in Utah.

      Interestingly enough, the southern tip of Africa was very sparsely populated when the Dutch showed up there in the 17th century.
      The Boers made a good showing against the might of the British Empire 1899-1902, but then they couldn’t withstand the political and economic forces that engulfed them in 1992. I’m hoping the Jews are made of tougher stuff than the Boers and manage to hold onto their country and keep the project of western civilization going amidst the chaos, disorder and lunacy that surrounds them.

      –BRH
      ..

      • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 7:43 pm #

        Nonsense BRH. Every Jewish village in Palestine was once an Arab one. Arab Palestine was a food exporter.

        Yes the Jews did drain some swamps and irrigate some new areas, etc. But don’t make it sound like the whole thing was a Waste land. It wasn’t. Hundreds of Thousands of Arabs lived there – not just a few herders.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 7:40 pm #

      So Palestine is no big deal? It is to the Arabs who lived there. If it’s not such a big deal, why did the Jews bother to conquer it? Or better yet, why don’t they leave? As the President of Iran said, if Europe feels bad for the Jews, why didn’t they set Israel in Europe? Why persecute the Arabs? The Soviets did give the Jews a homeland someplace in Siberia. Bigger than Israel. Starts with a B, but can’t remember the name. But Israel was exploding and the Jews lost interest in it – and the Soviet Union. Stalin noticed.

      The Jews were also offered Uganda and Madagascar. The latter is huge and could have held all the Jews who wanted to ever live there. They would have made short work of the locals. But NOOOOOO! Jews wanted to be in the Center of everything. And so from being nothing, Palestine is the burning wick of WW3.

      Hollywood: create an idealized or funny version of daily life. That was early TV and Movies. Then begin to alter it in order to change the way people see themselves. So now Americans are in the fun house looking at utterly distorted images of themselves – and changing themselves to be that. Not too Fun, in fact utterly demonic. How proud are you?

      Sure everyone boasts. But some people actually try to do what they boast about. Some succeed. Jews have been obsessed with World Conquest since ancient times and are making headway in attaining that – by using us as their vehicle. See quotes by Ben Gurion about Jerusalem being the Center of the World. See the evil Talmud. See the new Messianic Judaism. Even when you guys convert, you don’t give it up anymore. You’re even appropriating Christ now.

      To Bill as well: Two men on duty in a missile silo control more energy than tens of millions of people. Likewise, Finance has been weaponized: a few families control more wealth than whole Nations. Mostly Jewish in the West at least. And not just the wealth but the concentration of it in a few guided hands. A fist wielded by a small man who knows what he’s doing can be deadly. Compare that to two big drunk guys too drunk to hurt each other. Apparently the Jews are putting down roots in China and making the kind of partnerships they did with the House of Orange in the West. The bodes very ill for the world indeed. I wonder if the Chinese have any idea of what they are in for? Or do they even care? Our Elite didn’t and they are destined to become nothing once we are ruined.

  183. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 4:30 pm #

    “I wouldn’t say he’s a maniac, just weak.” – Janos
    ==========

    I think he meant YOU, not BRH.

    • WW January 13, 2014 at 4:42 am #

      You’re quite right, I did. Vlad is a orime example of poor reasoning and mental illness combined. At some point his delusions will completely overtake him and at that point we can only hope he is already barred from owning firearms. Going postal will be his final act if madness. Hopefully, as I suspect, he is already well knownto the police and precluded from legal firearm ownership.

  184. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 4:35 pm #

    What you meant to say was “I couldn’t give a shit” – aj-Soak
    ========

    Come on aj, wake up at the switch. I was spoofing myself. That’s why I put the single quotes around the phrase.

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  185. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 4:52 pm #

    “If what you say is true, then I respectfully request that you remove the post-it from your computer and destroy it. Who gives a shit, right?” – aj-Soak
    =============

    Au Contraire. That note stays up until it becomes clear whether the chubby pol has been permanently ruined by BridgeGate.

    The issue here is whether my poldar (political radar) is better than yours………and, by extension, my radar on everything else in life that we have ever discussed.

  186. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 5:07 pm #

    “The issue here is whether my poldar (political radar) is better than yours………and, by extension, my radar on everything else in life that we have ever discussed.”

    ————–

    I believe this is the first thing we have discussed.

    If this is a polder pissing contest, then you have lost because you read (and apparently believe) ironic humor columnists in the New York Times.

    Then again, you may just be secretly enamored of Christie as your favorite son (politically speaking) and that may be affecting your poldar.

    Christie will not be nominated by the Republican party. Christie will not become president. You will take down the note when you poldar fails.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 7:53 pm #

      Wasila means nearness to God in Arabic. Is it just a coincidence that Sarah Palin comes from Wasilla? And that SNL had her say that Global Warming is just God holding us closer?

      It takes a razor sharp mind to see the Source of the Light before it is distorted by the Fun House Mirrors.

      Q may be identified with Christie. He may dream of being a corrupt politician in Walter Mitty style.

  187. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 5:20 pm #

    “You will take down the note when you poldar fails.” – aj-Soak
    ===========

    You missed a letter…….or was that Ebonics?

  188. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 5:25 pm #

    “If this is a polder pissing contest,…..” – aj-Soak
    ===========

    pol DAR as in ra DAR

    not

    pol DER

  189. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 5:28 pm #

    I put mistakes in to see if you are asleep at the switch. You passed the test.

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  190. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 6:04 pm #

    “For anybody wanting something good to read who can’t wait until tomorrow morning try this:………………………………

    Reading John is refreshing; his clarity of mind inspires and restores the soul. He is a revitalizing voice to those coming here for understanding and inspiration but who instead find this blog mired in jingo sock puppet pollution.” – K-Dog
    ===========

    Honest to God, Dog, I really really tried to read this whole essay. I kept plugging away paragraph after paragraph thinking maybe in the NEXT paragraph there will be something profound, something worthy of my time……………but nope…………never have so many words said so little. And to think you believe this essay makes for a refreshing alternative as we await the next installment from JHK….. Whew!

    At about 40% complete I simply could not take it any more and hit the back button to escape.

    It is apparent, Dog, that you and I are on completely different wave lengths.

    • K-Dog January 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm #

      I can’t believe you could not find some grammar to correct in 3574 words.

      I also can’t believe you do not consider quotes from the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, and Bertrand Russell profound. If you made it that far.

      “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts” – Bertrand Russell

      “Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.” – Benjamin Franklin

      I guess your going to ‘carry on’ then.

  191. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 6:21 pm #

    OK, it’s almost 3 hours and nothing from Janos. He’s either pulling his shift at Mickey D’s or is engrossed in the Broncos – Chargers game. ;o)

    • WW January 12, 2014 at 7:12 pm #

      Vlad actually having job! Yeah right, more likely his meds won’t wear off for hours, or they’ve withdrawn his internet privileges.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 7:47 pm #

      Too bad we can’t bring back dueling – and I don’t mean banjos.

      • WW January 13, 2014 at 4:46 am #

        No problem. Are you being buried or cremated? I’ll pay too, I would consider it a matter of public service.

  192. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 8:28 pm #

    “We are after all Burning Down The House!” — Kdog
    ..
    .

    “I think the most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” — Albert Einstein

  193. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 8:32 pm #

    “We are after all Burning Down The House!” — Kdog

    The universe is friendly.

    Human beings are by nature collaborative and cooperative and innately desire the success of the human species and all life.

    When barriers to our natural expression are eliminated (i.e. resignation, myths of separation and scarcity), we cooperate for the common, long-term good.

    Human beings are not separate from each other or Nature.

    We are totally interrelated and our actions have consequences to all.

    What we do to others we do to ourselves. What we do to the Earth we do to ourselves.

    People’s actions are correlated with how they see the world—the story they tell themselves about the world. Transforming how people see and relate to the world and the possibilities they see for the future is a powerful way to effect social change.

    Consciously and unconsciously created systems of ongoing oppression and inequality exist in the world and the outcomes generated by those systems are directly in opposition to our vision of a thriving, just and sustainable world.

    We are accountable to and stand in solidarity with those whose access to material resources and to free and full self-expression is limited by unjust systems of power and privilege.

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  194. Arn Varnold January 12, 2014 at 8:52 pm #

    Yeah but what if it’s true? Even if Shlomit isn’t a Jew, that does mean he’s wrong? If so, you need a logic review. Look at Q and Arn: they could (n’t) care less. Even as they comment on his post they are just looking at the grammar. They’re no better than the animals who live for Sports on TV. Janos
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    And just what do your inane rantings do/add for/to anything.
    You think you’re acting (action)? You’re just a pathetic, hollow, little man using hate and bigotry in your pathetic attempt for attention.
    You thrive on negativity and toxic ingestion. You’re a toxic personality laying waste with a shallow, pseudo-intellectual schpeel.
    You’re a phony and about as deep as a sheet of graphene…

    • K-Dog January 12, 2014 at 9:16 pm #

      A phony a sock puppet and as two dimensional as graphene.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 12, 2014 at 9:17 pm #

      Schpeel? Did you mean Scapel? A Scapel is a blade which gives life. No one said it wouldn’t hurt.

      Read Roy Campbell’s “The Flowering Rifle”. He was a Australian or New Zealander who fought against Sodomites of Bloomsbury and against the Communists in Spain. We heard all about the literary figures who fought for Evil in Spain (Hemingway, Orwell) but nothing about the guys who fought for Good. That means we are an Evil Civilization – or at least one ruled by an evil elite.

  195. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 9:14 pm #

    Thank you, kdog, for fetching the cite as I forgot to provide the link.

    Besides gratuitous ad hominem do you have anything to contribute of substance?

    • K-Dog January 12, 2014 at 9:18 pm #

      Obviously more than you.

  196. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 10:42 pm #

    Rude dog. Woof!

    • Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 11:07 pm #

      Very cleverly written. Everything topsy-turvy.

  197. ajmuste January 12, 2014 at 11:54 pm #

    “Stronger Diversity goals must be instituted at Harvard…” — Q’s link

    Q, not so clever, nor historical. You want to talk diversity? All the presidents have been white, until 2008. All Christian. All males.

    BAPTIST
    Warren Harding
    Harry Truman
    Jimmy Carter (Southern Baptist)
    Bill Clinton (Southern Baptist)

    CONGREGATIONALIST
    Calvin Coolidge
    Disciples of Christ
    James Garfield
    Lyndon Johnson
    Ronald Reagan (also Presbyterian)

    DUTCH REFORMED
    Martin Van Buren
    Theodore Roosevelt

    EPISCOPALIAN
    George Washington
    James Madison
    James Monroe
    William Henry Harrison
    John Tyler
    Zachary Taylor
    Franklin Pierce
    Chester A. Arthur
    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Gerald Ford
    George H. W. Bush
    George W. Bush (later Methodist)

    METHODIST
    James Polk (originally Presbyterian)
    Ulysses Grant (allegedly; his theology is unknown)
    William McKinley
    George W. Bush (originally Episcopalian)

    PRESBYTERIAN
    Andrew Jackson
    James Polk (later Methodist)
    James Buchanan
    Grover Cleveland
    Benjamin Harrison
    Woodrow Wilson
    Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Ronald Reagan (also Disciples of Christ)

    QUAKER
    Herbert Hoover
    Richard Nixon

    ROMAN CATHOLIC
    John F. Kennedy

    UNITARIAN
    John Adams
    John Quincy Adams
    Millard Fillmore
    William Howard Taft
    United Church of Christ
    Barack Obama (later no affiliation)
    Note that the 1957 merger which formed the U.C.C. included the Congregational Christian Churches.

    NON-DENOMINATIONAL
    Thomas Jefferson
    Abraham Lincoln
    Andrew Johnson
    Ulysses Grant
    Rutherford Hay

    How many Jewish presidents has the USA had? ZERO.

    Why is that? According to anti-Semites Jews control everything.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 13, 2014 at 12:33 am #

      A number of those were servants of the Jews. The Jews would rather have Gentiles serving them secretly than be Presidents and have to serve their Gentile constituents.

  198. Q. Shtik January 12, 2014 at 11:54 pm #

    “A Scapel is a blade which gives life” – Janos
    ============

    Oddly, only scalpel appears in my very thick and heavy Random House dictionary but scapel does appear in an on-line dictionary. It’s probably one of those cases where if a word is misspelled and/or mispronounced often enough it takes on a life of its own. In my closeted world I have never heard anything but scalpel……….until now.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 13, 2014 at 12:26 am #

      Scalpel sounds too much like Scalp – which is politically incorrect. The l was dropped for the best of reasons.

  199. Q. Shtik January 13, 2014 at 12:04 am #

    “Stronger Diversity goals must be instituted at Harvard…” — Q’s link – aj Soak mis-attributing something to me
    =========

    That link was posted by Janos, I merely read and commented on it.

  200. ajmuste January 13, 2014 at 12:32 am #

    “That link was posted by Janos, I merely read and commented on it”
    — Q, misrepresenting by omission the nature of his comment

    You commented positively on the link Janos provided.

    White Privilege has ruled this country from the beginning.

    There has been no diversity.

    All presidents have been white. Even the current occupant of the White House is 50% white.

    All presidents have been Christian. No Jews.

    All presidents have been males. No women.

    Most presidents have been heterosexual.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 13, 2014 at 12:35 am #

      Diversity is not a desirable goal. We need the best – which excludes Blacks for example. Or people with doubtful values – like Gays. Or people with no or divided loyalties – like Jews.

    • Neon Vincent January 13, 2014 at 12:52 am #

      “Most presidents have been heterosexual.”

      Who do you have in mind for a president who wasn’t–James Buchanan?

    • Q. Shtik January 13, 2014 at 12:57 am #

      “White Privilege has ruled this country from the beginning.” – aj – Soak
      =========

      I think you are implying White Privilege was bad and now it is good to eliminate it and even the score by replacing it with institutionalized Black and/or Jewish privilege. Is that correct?

  201. Neon Vincent January 13, 2014 at 1:19 am #

    “The spectacle of the way our people look —overfed, tattooed, pierced, clothed in the raiment of clowns — suggests an end-of-empire zeitgeist more disturbing than a Fellini movie. The fact is, it simply mirrors the way we act, our gross, barbaric collective demeanor. A walk down any airport concourse makes the Barnum & Bailey freak shows of yore look quaint. In short, the rot throughout our national life is so conspicuous that a fair assessment would be that we are a wicked people who deserve to be punished.”

    So that explains both the popularity of the Insane Clown Posse (Detroit represent!) and why the FBI has targeted their fans the Juggalos as gang members.

    http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2012/08/fbi-declares-icp-and-juggalos-gang-icp.html

  202. ajmuste January 13, 2014 at 1:35 am #

    “…even the score by replacing it with institutionalized Black and/or Jewish privilege. Is that correct?”

    No, Q. That is not what I am suggesting.

    White privilege needs to be eliminated. No other group should be privileged either. The historical practice of electing ONLY privileged white christian males needs to end.

    There needs to be a level playing field, that’s all.

    People should be elected based on merit, not on privilege, independent of whether they are women, Jews, Muslims, atheists, homosexuals, white, hispanic, black, asian, etc.

    Candidates should be judged by the quality of their proposals to improve the nation, not by the color of their skin or their beliefs regarding existence or non-existence of invisible supreme beings.

    The good news is that this is happening as demographics change and voters have more access to information about candidates. We may soon have a woman president, or an atheist president, or an hispanic president. Most political parties have such members who could run.

    ~ ajmuste

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    • K-Dog January 13, 2014 at 1:46 am #

      And here is the jingo sock puppet ass that made me experienced. Under a different name but the personality is the same. Asoka himself!

    • Q. Shtik January 13, 2014 at 1:48 am #

      The historical practice of electing ONLY privileged white christian males needs to end.
      ============

      I don’t think the article was about elections. It seemed to be about everything else……..like school admissions.

    • WW January 13, 2014 at 3:31 am #

      Will you be advocating the removal of asian privilege in asian countries, black privilege in african countries? Is it not time China had a white or black leader? Are you championing that cause? If not why the obsession with white leaders in prominently white countries? You and vlad are largely the opposite face of the same coin.

  203. Q. Shtik January 13, 2014 at 1:42 am #

    If it weren’t so late in the night (and in the thread) I would open up a whole interesting discussion of a side issue in the BridgeGate affair……namely the flap caused by the Port Authority guy referring to the Mayor of Fort Lee as the “little Serb,” neither of which was accurate, he being a more or less average sized man of Croatian descent.

    Apparently this has stirred up an entire ethnic group both here and in Europe. I wonder if “big Serb” would have been considered offensive.

    Just for fun I Googled up a list of the world’s major ethnic groups – there are hundreds if not thousands – and I inserted a bunch of the more well known group names after the word “little” just to see if I thought this would outrage this group everywhere they exist in the world. In alphabetic order, here are a few:

    little African American
    ” Arab
    ” Czech
    ” Dane
    ” English(man)
    ” French(man)
    ” Irish(man)
    ” Korean
    ” Pashtun
    ” Pole
    ” Russian
    ” Samoan
    ” Scot
    ” Jew
    ” Slovak
    ” Swede
    ” Tagalog

    I cannot imagine myself having taken great offense at “little Scot/German” although at 6′ I might have scratched my head. I concluded every ethnic group name sounds better when preceded by the word “big.”

    Discuss amongst yourselves.

    • K-Dog January 13, 2014 at 1:56 am #

      Mostly I care to ignore jingo sock puppet diversions but this is too good.

      You guys can hum Gonna Try With a Little Help From My Friends while you read it.

      The NSA-inspired explanation: (from the Atlantic)

      Going after a political rival is wrong, to be sure, but it’s important to put this event in context.

      *There are almost 9 million people in New Jersey, and only one was targeted for retribution, an impressively tiny error rate lower than .001 percent.
      * Did a Christie staffer delay thousands of people? Not wittingly. Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich was the only target of non-compliant behavior. No other Fort Lee resident was ever targeted for retribution, and any delays that any Fort Lee resident experienced were totally inadvertent and incidental.
      *This is so despite the fact that an email shows a Christie aide being warned that Fort Lee children would be affected by the lane closures. They were one hop away from Mayor Sokolich, and thus part of the one instance of non-compliance.
      *The bridge closure was vital to national security because [redacted].
      *Since the George Washington Bridge is a potential terrorist target, everything that may or may not have happened near it is a state secret. Adjudicating this controversy on the merits would threaten national security.
      *A panel will be formed to figure out how to restore the public’s faith in Chris Christie.

      • K-Dog January 13, 2014 at 2:08 am #

        Gonna Target An End of the World Blog With a Little Help From My Friends. ♯ ♪ ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪

        Going To Spy On and Harass Comment Writers With a Little Help From My Friends. ♯ ♪

    • Q. Shtik January 13, 2014 at 2:14 am #

      I know I got Jew out of Alpha order somehow. Don’t bother pointing it out.

      • K-Dog January 13, 2014 at 2:21 am #

        You are up late tonight. 🙂

    • jimofolym January 13, 2014 at 3:57 pm #

      Don’t ever call a Serb a Croatian or vice versa. I learned that lesson many years ago.

  204. WW January 13, 2014 at 5:01 am #

    “Too bad we can’t bring back dueling – and I don’t mean banjos.” Vlad replies to me.
    It’s funny vlad banjos are exactly what spring to mind whenever i see your name. Particularly the inbred from the film Deliverance.
    I do happen to have a fine set of Cogswell and Harrison duelling pistols from 1790. Shall I dig out my passport? Would you prefer to be buried or cremated? Don’t worry about the cost, I would consider it a public sevice and happily pay!

    • Arn Varnold January 13, 2014 at 7:06 am #

      Ha ha, vlad wants dueling? I’m a certified firearms instructor (rifle, pistol, and shotgun). I doubt he’d be happy to challenge me.
      He’s a buffoon and your reference to Deliverance is hilarious.
      Cogswell and Harrison dueling pistols; I’m impressed, but not necessarily sucked in.
      My favorite is cartridge; .44 or .45; either will do.
      Cheers.

  205. bloodyrich January 14, 2014 at 4:10 pm #

    great article – but leave us tattooed & pierced freaks alone! I have a feeling there are way more of us reading & following you than you realize! Of course I don’t let my pants sag… i have some standards! I hope your health situation is still improving, and can’t wait to read the book.

  206. Alan Art January 26, 2014 at 9:54 am #

    I wish you’d cut the national health care program more slack. I mean, do you believe that no such program in any form can be created? Is it all doomed? Surely you must allow for a complex thing to take root, and to handle all the scams and so forth that come along from the major players. Truth is, people need health care and some Americans can’t get it at any price, because if you are sick in this country, you’re out of luck. No insurance will cover you at any price. The list goes on, and it is shameful for this nation to leave it to the market. That’s why we ought to support this new law and help by giving it time and the benefit of our doubts.

  207. Vlad the Inhaler June 22, 2014 at 5:05 am #

    A well-written and interesting article Mr. Kunstler.

    For what it’s worth, your sentence:

    “The UK is in on the grift with the USA and insulated from the Euro, but the British Isles are way over-populated with a volatile multi-ethnic mix and not much of an economy outside the financial district of London.”

    is about the most succinct and accurate assessment of the condition of Britain I have seen. In fact, come to think of it, it may be the only accurate assessment of Britain’s condition that I have seen, succinct or otherwise. The fact that it comes from a non-resident makes it all the more remarkable, since a curious fact is that I don’t bump into any residents apart from me who seem to realise it and never see the obvious stated that clearly in the press or tv news.

    I saw this day coming and bought forty acres of good ag. land back in the ’80s. That wasn’t easy in this over-populated loony bin and it would be almost impossible now. But the cities are doomed, full of deliberately under-educated and ill-informed people (the State has a near monopoly on education) who seem to be labouring under the illusion that the (already unpleasant) world they see around them will last forever. The ethnic tinder-box contained therein is never commented upon; it is, in fact, a taboo subject.

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  208. a1abhi December 2, 2016 at 4:32 am #

    Nice information, thank you for sharing it. Termites Control Service Lucknow

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