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“There is no other endeavor in which men and women of enormous intellectual power have shown total disregard for higher-order reasoning than monetary policy.
                                                                                                      — David Collum

American Notes

Apart from all the ill-feeling about the election, one constant ‘out there’ since November 8 is the Ayn Randian rapture that infects the money scene. Wall Street and big business believe that the country has passed through a magic portal into a new age of heroic businessmen-warriors (Trump, Rex T, Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, et. al.) who will go forth creating untold wealth from super-savvy deal-making that un-does all the self-defeating malarkey of the detested Deep State technocratic regulation regime of recent years. The main signs in the sky, they say, are the virile near-penetration of the Dow Jones 20,000-point maidenhead and the rocket ride of Ole King Dollar to supremacy of the global currency-space.

I hate to pound sleet on this manic parade, but, to put it gently, mob psychology is outrunning both experience and reality. Let’s offer a few hypotheses regarding this supposed coming Trumptopian nirvana.

The current narrative weaves an expectation that manufacturing industry will return to the USA complete with all the 1962-vintage societal benefits of great-paying blue collar jobs, plus an orgy of infrastructure-building. I think both ideas are flawed, even allowing for good intentions. For one thing, most of the factories are either standing in ruin or scraped off the landscape. So, it’s not like we’re going to reactivate some mothballed sleeping giant of productive capacity. New state-of-the-art factories would require an Everest of private capital investment that is simply impossible to manifest in a system that is already leveraged up to its eyeballs. Even if we tried to accomplish it via some kind of main force government central planning and financing — going full-Soviet — there is no conceivable way to raise (borrow) the “money” without altogether destroying the value of our money (inflation), and the banking system with it.

If by some magic any new industrial capacity were built, much of the work in it would be performed by robotics, not brawny men in blue shirts, and certainly not at the equivalent of the old United Auto Workers $35-an-hour assembly line wage. We have not faced the fact that the manufacturing fiesta based on fossil fuels was a one-time thing due to special historical circumstances and will not be repeated. The future of manufacturing in America is frighteningly modest. We’ll actually be lucky if we can make a few vital necessities by means of hydro-electric or direct water power, and that will be about the extent of it. Some of you may recognize this as the World Made By Hand scenario. I’ll stick by that.

Similarly for “infrastructure” spending touted by the forces of Trump as the coming panacea for economic malaise. I suspect most people assume this means a trillion-dollar stimulus spend on highways and their accessories. Well, that also assumes that we expect another fifty years of Happy Motoring and suburban living. Fuggeddabowdit. We’re in the twilight of motoring anyway you cut it, despite all the chatter about electric cars and “driverless” cars. We won’t have the electric capacity to switch over the Happy Motoring fleet from gasoline. The oil industry itself is already headed for collapse on its sinking energy-return-on-investment. And our problems with money and debt are so severe that the motoring paradigm is more prone to fail on the basis of car loan scarcity and unworthy borrowers before the fueling issues even kick in. Every year, fewer Americans can afford to buy any kind of car — the way they’re used to buying them, on installment loans. The industry has gone the limit to help them — seven-year loans for used cars! — but they have no more room to maneuver. The car financing system is broken. Bear in mind the original suburbanization of America back in the 20th century — along with its accessory automobiles — must be regarded as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. So, a rebuild of all this stuff would represent more and possibly even greater malinvestment. We could have applied our post-WW2 treasure to building beautiful walkable towns and cities with some capacity for adaptive re-use, but we blew it in order to enjoy life in a one-time demolition derby. Life is tragic. Societies make poor choices sometimes, and then there are consequences.

We also might have been in better shape now if, beginning twenty years ago, we began a major rebuild of our railway infrastructure. But we blew that off, too, and shortly it will be very difficult to get around this geographically large country by any mechanical means. It may be too late now to do anything about that for the financing reasons already touched on — and which I will elaborate on next. The bottom line is that President Donald Trump will be overwhelmed by a sea of financial troubles from the very get-go, and here’s why.

Designated Bag-Holder

The American people have been punked by their own government and their central bank, the Federal Reserve, for years and the jig is now up. In 2017 both will lose their authority and legitimacy, a very grave matter for the survival of this republic.

Insiders surely have seen this coming for a long time. The people running this so-called Deep State of overblown and overgrown institutions probably acted at first with the good intentions of keeping the national lifestyle afloat. But in the end (now approaching) they stooped to too much duplicity and deceit in the desperate attempt to not just preserve the system, but to protect their own reputations and personal perquisites. And now there ought to be some question with the election of 2016 that they have engineered all of this system fragility to blow up on Mr. Trump’s watch, so they can blame him for it. It was going to blow up anyway. But had Hillary Clinton won the election, at least the right gang would have had to take the blame — the people in charge for the past twenty years. Instead, Donald Trump has been elected Designated Bag-Holder.

About That “Big Fat Ugly Bubble” and its Consequences
Part 1: History Lesson

The USA ran out of growth capacity around the turn of the millennium because we ran out of affordable energy to run our techno-industrial economy. It was hard to see this with seemingly plenty of oil available. And, of course, the computer tech fiesta was blossoming, but for all that glitzy stuff to attract dwindling real capital, other old stuff had to go, and did go, and when all was said and done the computers did not generate much wealth or social value. In fact, the diminishing returns and blowback of computer tech were arguably more damaging than beneficial to society and its economy. Look at where the middle class is today. Computer tech gave the magical appearance of growth while actually undermining it.

By affordable energy I mean energy with a greater-than 30-to-one energy-return-on-investment, which is the ratio you need for the kind of life we lead. That’s what the now-ridiculed Peak Oil story was really about: not running out of oil, but not getting enough bang for our bucks pulling the remaining oil out of the earth to maintain our standard of living. I’ll return to this issue in more detail later. But that was what provoked America’s 21st century economic malaise. Everything we’ve done in finance since then has been an attempt to compensate for our fundamental problem with debt — borrowing from the future to maintain our current (unaffordable) standard of living. Our debt has grown ever larger and faster each year, and our methods for managing it have become more desperate and dishonest as that occurred.

The culprit at the center is America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, which is actually not a government agency as it seems, but a consortium of the nation’s biggest private banks, lately known as Too-Big-To-Fail. The Fed was created in 1913, when the complexities of capital finance were multiplying in step with the complexities of industrial production, which, remember, was a new and evolving phenomenon of human history. Mankind had no prior experience with industrialism. We discovered toward the end of the 19th century — decades of unprecedented industrial growth — that the system’s dynamic produced booms accompanied by very destructive busts. The operations of banking usually outran the cycles of trade, industry, and war that were coloring evolving Modernity. So the Fed was created to smooth out these cycles. It had two basic mandates for this: acting as the lender of last resort between banks during financial panics so that some money would always be available in an emergency; and stabilizing the money supply and prices in the system. The Fed failed spectacularly to smooth out the cycles of boom and bust and to maintain the value of the dollar over time.

Sixteen years after the Fed’s creation, America entered its worst economic downturn ever, the Great Depression, which was only mitigated by the colossal abnormality of World War Two. America emerged from that episode as the last industrial society standing amid everyone else’s smoldering ruins. That gave us an extraordinary advantage in world trade lasting roughly thirty years. That high tide of the era of seeming “normality” — the 1950s and 60s, which the Trumpian-minded might recall as “great” — started unraveling in the 1970s, which was not coincidentally the moment of America’s all-time oil production peak.

In 1977, the Fed was given a third mission of promoting maximum employment with a trick-bag of tools for manipulating the money supply and credit creation that have proven to be fatally mischievous. This new task elevated Fed officials, and especially its chairperson, to the status of viziers — magicians using occult mathematical models and formulas — to cast spells capable of controlling the macro economy the way wizards are thought to control external reality. Their pretenses seemed to work for reasons unrelated to the spells they were learning to cast.

It is still largely unrecognized that America recovered from the financial disorder of the 1970s not because of the charms of “Reaganomics” but for the simple reason that the last giant finds of oil with greater than 30-to-one energy-return-on-investment came on line in the 1980s: Alaska’s North Slope, Britain and Norway’s North Sea fields, and Siberia. That allowed the USA and the West generally to extend the techno-industrial fiesta another twenty years. As that bounty tapered down around the year 2000, the system wobbled again and the viziers of the Fed ramped up their magical operations, led by the Grand Vizier (or “Maestro”) Alan Greenspan, who worked the control rods of interest rates as though the financial system were a great nuclear powered pipe organ that could be revved up and tamped down by a wondrous Fed control panel. This period of Fed spell-casting was characterized by ever more systemically complex finance, growing systemic fragility, pervasive institutionalized accounting fraud, and ever-greater bubbles and busts. Deregulation, especially the 1998 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, sealed America’s financial fate.

Debt was the meat-and-potatoes of the Fed’s wizardry, but the “secret sauce” of Fed magic was fraud, in the form of market interventions, manipulations, regulatory negligence, and just plain systematic lying about the numbers that defined the economy. It amounted to nationalized financial racketeering. Under the consecutive Grand Vizierships of Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, control fraud (using official authority to cover up misconduct) was perfected by banking executives, eventuating in the mortgage securities fiasco of 2008, which took down the housing market and the economy. (That housing market, by the way, was made up mainly of suburban houses, the sine qua non of the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.)

Of course, nobody paid a criminal penalty for any of this misconduct besides the maverick Ponzi artist Bernie Madoff, and a few other small fish. The regulators looked the other way, on orders from their bosses. Unlike the earlier Savings and Loan bank crisis of the late 1980s, none of the leading bank officer perps went to jail. The damage of the 2008 crash was epic and never repaired, only papered over with more debt, more deceit, and more racketeering.

The supposed remedy, the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, was a cover for continued pervasive fraud and the institutional “capture” of government by the banking industry and its handmaidens, really a fascist melding of banking and government, a swindle machine in which anything goes and nothing matters. The frauds have only been rechanneled since 2008 into college loans, car loans, corporate stock buyback monkey business, currency arbitrage shenanigans, private equity asset-stripping, and the gigantic black box of derivatives trading.

About That “Big Fat Ugly Bubble” and its Consequences
Part 2: 2017, the Year of Living Anxiously

      Under Bernanke’s successor, UC-Berkeley Professor Janet Yellen, the emphasis in Fed policy has been an elaborate game of “data-dependent” foot-dragging — a lot of talk with no action — with the data itself largely fraudulent, especially the easily gamed employment and GDP numbers that supposedly determine the rise or fall of interest rate policy. In short, the racketeering continues while the authorities quail in the face of accumulated and now inescapable debt quandaries ever more certain to end in systemic collapse.

Get this: the Fed is completely full of shit. It is terrified of the conditions it has set up and it has no idea what to do next. The “data” that it claims to be so dependent on is arrantly fake. The government’s official unemployment number at Christmas 2016 was 4.6 percent. It’s a compound lie. The 4.6 percent does not include the 95 million people out of the workforce, most of them able-bodied, who have simply run through their unemployment benefits and given up looking for work. Nor does it figure in the fact that roughly 90 percent of the new jobs created are part time jobs, many of them held by people working several jobs (because they have to, to pay the bills). Nor does it detail the quality of the jobs created (minimum wage shit jobs.)

That 4.6 unemployment figure is the main pillar of the Fed’s “data.” They interpret it as meaning the economy is roaring and has their full confidence. They‘re lying about that, of course. They have been touting “the recovery” (from the crash of 2008) continually and heralding a program of “normalizing” interest rates upward for two years. In 2015 they didn’t do anything until the very last Fed meeting of the year when they raised the Fed Funds rate 25 basis point (that’s a measly one-quarter of a percent). They raised, they said, because they were “confident” about the economy. No, that’s not why. They did it because they talked about it all year without doing anything and their credibility was on the line. They also promised four rate hikes altogether in 2016, which they then failed to carry out.

After that December 2015 rate hike, the stock markets tanked 10 percent. By springtime, the markets appeared to be bouncing back, so the Fed started talking about more rate hikes again. They talked it up all year without acting, an impressive act of fakery. The surprise Brexit vote gave them the heebie jeebies. They laid low. Meanwhile, the US election season was on. The Fed denies this, but they did not raise interest rates for eleven months in 2016 solely because they wanted to make the Democratic administration look good heading into the November vote, and they knew the economy was fragile. Once Hillary was nominated they were determined to usher her into the White House on a high tide of fake good economic news.

When she lost the election the stock markets surprised everyone by entering a super-bubblicious Trumpxuberance rally. There is a narrative for that too in the media chatter and it is simpleminded nonsense based on the sheer hope that Trumponomics will be great for business. More on that below.

Roaring stock markets were a secondary pillar of the Fed’s economic world-view. The post-election 2000 point upsurge in the Dow, along with the historically low 4.6 unemployment number, gave the Fed the opportunity on December 15 to do the same thing they did the previous year: cover their asses and preserve some credibility by hiking the Fed Funds rate one-quarter percent. You’d think if they were really confident in the economy — especially given the year–end rally — they would venture to raise by half a percent or more. They are not confident. They are lying with their fingers crossed.

The Fed Funds rate is one thing. As it happens, the Fed does not directly control the interest rates on US treasury bonds, and they have been rising shockingly through the second half of 2016. The crucial ten-year treasury rate has gone up a hundred percent since the summer. Because bond values move inversely to bond rates, the price of treasuries has tanked, inducing trillions of dollars in losses to bond-holders around the world. The bond market is many times larger than the stock markets. Bonds have been in a bull market since the early 1980s and that bull rolled over in mid-2016. A bear market is now on, meaning bond-holders are dumping their bonds. China and Saudi Arabia are among the leading dumpers of US Treasuries because they need the money for one reason or another. They will dump more in 2017 because both countries are in deep economic trouble. Too many bond sellers and not enough buyers in the market drive interest rates up. Rates have a lot room to move up, since they started at near-zero. Accordingly, their value has a long way to fall.

Bonds, of course, represent debt. Total US debt has doubled under President Obama from around ten trillion to twenty trillion dollars (as it doubled under Bush Two from five to ten trillion dollars). The reason, as stated above, is that we don’t produce enough to cover the cost of our national way of life, so we have to borrow continually at ever-greater volume. Every year, the Treasury has to pay interest on all that debt. It’s a lot of money. This year, with interest rates starting out at historically unprecedented lows (not seen ever in recorded history), the Treasury paid over a quarter-trillion dollars in interest. By the way, the government borrows money to make these interest payments too. An interest rate rise of one percent, would drive the annual US debt higher by $190 billion. As the late, great Senator Everett Dirkson (R-Ill) once pungently remarked: “…a billion here, a billion there, sooner or later you’re talking about real money.”

A sharply rising interest rate on the ten-year Treasury bond will thunder through the system. A lot of other basic interest costs are keyed to the ten-year bond rate, especially home mortgages, apartment rentals (landlords hold mortgages), and car payments. When the ten year bond rate goes up, so do mortgage payments. When mortgage rates go up, house prices go down, because fewer people are in a position to buy a house at higher mortgage rates, and rents go up (more competition among people who can’t buy a house). Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP), in force for ten years, has driven house prices back to stratospheric levels. They are now primed to fall, perhaps severely, leaving many homeowners “underwater,” with houses worth way less on the market than the amount of mortgage left to pay off. The re-financing market is dead. Housing starts were already down by a stunning 19 percent in November. Automobile sales are rolling over. Manufacturing and retail sales numbers are down at year end. What’s up: stocks, stocks, stocks.

Yet investors did not execute the usual end-of-year profit-taking in the expectation that Trump would lower the capital gains tax in 2017, so why sell now? You can wait until January 3, 2017 to sell, and then not have to pay tax on your profits until April of 2018. Will investors start dumping in the first trading days of 2017? I think so. And will that selling beget a stampede for the exits? And what will happen if the interest rate on the ten-year bond hits three percent? (It doesn’t have far to go). Or maybe even four percent? What happens is the stock markets go down in the first quarter of 2017. My forecast is 20 percent down on the S & P. That will only be a preview of coming attractions once Trump gets his mitts on the levers of power. A still bigger crash ahead later in the year!

Why Trump Can’t Pull a Reagan

             When Reagan came into office in 1981, inflation was raging largely because of the effects of the oil crises of 1973 and 1979, which had produced the “stagflation” that confounded the reigning economists’ models (they knew nothing about the relationship between energy dynamics and capital formation). The Fed Funds rate was almost 20 percent in 1981. It had a lot of room to move down. The national debt was less than one trillion (Reagan eventually ran it up to $2.8 trillion). Reagan was able to endure a sharp recession early in his first term — and voodoo economics got him through all the rest of his tenure, with both inflation and interest “normalizing” — as mentioned earlier, he enjoyed the bonanza of the last great non-OPEC oil discoveries coming on-line during his two terms, which ramped up economic activity and growth.

Today, the US is in a box and Trump comes on the scene with nowhere to move. Too much debt can only be managed if interest rates are kept low. Everybody and his mother around the world is dumping US Treasuries. With a bear market in bonds on, the Fed as buyer of last resort will have to sop up whatever comes on the market to keep the interest rate from rising above three percent on the ten-year, and even that may not prevent it. Trump’s vaunted infrastructure stimulus plan will be impossible to carry out without the Fed monetizing the necessary debt. So stimulus implies bigger deficits, which means more bonded debt that nobody wants to buy. The result will be inflation and accordingly further upward pressure on interest rates. Higher interest rates, in turn, will negatively impact economic activity, lowering tax revenue, inducing larger fiscal imbalances and greater instability.

Trump may never even get the stimulus he seeks. The Republican controlled-congress has vowed not to increase the national debt. How can Trump fulfill his pledge to cut taxes and bring on stimulus without hugely increasing the debt? If there is war over spending between Trump and Congress, Congress is likely to win, since they control the fiscal purse strings. Of course, Donald Trump cannot abide not winning. Hostilities between them may become permanent early in Trump’s term and bring on even more dangerous paralysis of governance.

Also early in 2017, the Fed will abandon its “dot plot” talk about further interest rate hikes. They may also surrender their credibility in the process. The system can’t take the strain of three interest rate rises in 2017. It may be that Janet Yellen has raised the Fed Funds rate a total of one-half a percent in two years solely to be able to lower them again when the real economy finally tanks under that strain of incessant central bank chicanery. By the second quarter of 2017, following a 20 percent stock dump, the Fed will start making noises about Quantitative Easing 4 (QE), or they will cook up some other program that accomplishes the same thing under a new cockamamie label. More QE (or something like it) will drive the dollar back down and gold back up. The housing market will be in the toilet and the rest of the economy will follow it down the drain. By the end of Trump’s first year in office, there will another, greater, dump in the stock markets after the initial 20 percent drop in the first quarter. America will be great again, all right: we’ll be entering a depression greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Desperate Measures

One of the other big and dark trends of the past year has been the move of governments around the world — and among the economist / necromancers who advise them — to ban cash from the scene in order to herd all citizens into a digital banking system that will allow the authorities to track all financial transactions and suck every possible cent of taxes into national coffers. It would also be an opportunity for the bank-and government cabal to impose negative interest rates (NIRP) on bank accounts so that money herded into the digital system could be surreptitiously “taxed” by charging account holders just for being there (against their will). It’s a little hard to see how that might happen just now in a broad rising rate environment, but it would be the natural accompaniment to banning cash — and renewed aggressive QE (QE forever!) might do the trick.

Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff literally wrote the book on this (The Curse of Cash; Princeton University Press, 2016), a mendacious argument that cash money merely enables drug dealers and terrorists to operate and has no useful place otherwise in a regular economy. Rogoff appeared to be angling for the Treasury slot in Hillary’s cabinet, and would have fit in perfectly with this totalitarian assault on the public’s financial liberty — but, as we know, Hillary didn’t make it.

Efforts to eliminate cash are already underway around the world. The EU officially discontinued the €500 note from circulation. Ken Rogoff’s Harvard colleague, Larry Summers, was calling for abolition of the $100 bill a year ago. Sweden is successfully herding its people out of fiat krona. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled a fast one in November by banning the 1000 and 500 rupee note (worth respectively $14 and $7), and threw India’s economy into a epileptic seizure. The idea was to discipline tax evaders who operate in a cash economy. The catch was that more than 85 percent of India’s economy operates on a cash basis among people too poor to have bank accounts and credit cards — including millions of truck drivers and ordinary laborers. Naturally, the Indian economy froze. Nobody could get paid. Food rotted in stalled trucks. ATM withdrawals were limited to a few day’s walking-around-money. Citizens could not even exchange their 1000 and 500 rupee notes at the banks without going through onerous time-consuming bureaucratic rigmarole, including fingerprinting and the submission of tax records. The process caused discouraging long queues to form at the banks, and was probably designed to discourage the exchange of the 1000 and 500 rupee notes altogether and instead just retire them from circulation — which means a lot of poor people lost the minimal cash savings they had.

It’s hard to see the US government banning cash as clumsily as India did, but they have other ways to herd the multitudes into the black box of all-digital banking. Financial author James Rickards calls this the “Ice-Nine” program, in reference to the isotope of water in Kurt Vonnegut’s sci-fi novel Cat’s Cradle that freezes the world in a horrifying chain reaction. Rickards’ Ice-Nine financial nightmare would include features like freezing bank accounts, bail-ins (confiscation of accounts), limits on ATM withdrawals, and the “gating” of investment funds. Ice-Nine would be invoked in a banking emergency — say, a derivatives “accident” that took out some Too-Big-Too-Fail giant, or really anything that triggered the extreme fault lines in the ultra-fragile system that the world’s money elites have cobbled together to keep the garbage barge of global finance from sinking. In his recent book, The Road to Ruin, Rickards reminds readers that the emergency act signed by Bush Two after 9/11 has remained in effect under Obama, so that America is “just one phone call away from martial law.”

Another method for depriving citizens of their financial liberty would be for the government to declare that retirement accounts had to contain a set percentage of US Treasury paper — once again herding people into a financial corral against their will — in order to prop up the value of bonds and tamp down interest rates. David McAlvany (his excellent podcast here) makes the interesting point that if herding the public into the digital financial corral was a key ingredient to “making America great again,” who could object? — because now you’d be opposing American greatness! Trump inherited a much bigger problem than Barack Obama did in 2009. Obama still had enough soft-soap left in the machine to blow more bubbles. Trump arrives on the scene with the machine out of bubble-blowing mojo. He’ll be overwhelmed by financial disorder in 2017 and then the nation’s focus will turn to a tumultuous political scene

Wild in the Streets

The public is just plain pissed off, and remains pissed off after the Trump Victory. Their anger has been fermenting for decades as their economic prospects dwindled and they began to understand how it all worked against them. The battered middle class might have gotten a temporary thrill from the election, but an awful lot of them are still out of work, or working at the humiliating shit-jobs that replaced their old lost jobs in the old real stuff economy. Worse is coming their way in 2017. Theirs is a true existential crisis.

Even under the most favorable circumstances, a stimulus program would not likely get out of congress until much later in 2017, and I personally doubt that it will get through at all. The so-far-fortunate retirees plugged into pensions represent another potential trouble spot. Pension funds are going bust all over the country from the incapacity to stay solvent in a near-ZIRP environment. In 2016, fissures started to show in places like the Dallas Police and Firemen’s Pension fund, when pensioners’ redemptions were shut down. There are pension funds all over the country floundering from the same conditions, since the Fed took the “fix” out of “fixed income.” In the absence of decent “yield,” the pension funds have been herded into risky stock markets, and if those markets blow up, the pension funds are going to blow with them… and then the pensioners’ lives are going to blow up… and then maybe civil order dissolves around the country.

That may be the moment when President Trump and his militarily-weighted cabinet appointees opt for martial law. What a goddamned mess that will be. There is no civilized country on earth with as many small arms per capita than the USA, and despite the fearsome appearance of militarized police forces, you cannot overstate how much deadly mischief a small number of pissed-off people can make with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled-grenades, Semtex plastic explosive, and other fun stuff. It could morph easily to a literal war on bankers and Wall Street in particular, especially if Ice-Nine goes into effect. Bear in mind that a lot of veterans of the endless Middle East wars belong to this suffering economic class, and they actually have some training in the warrior arts.

Their political counterparts in the Democrat / Prog coastal elite, hardcore Hillary, PC-and-unicorn crowd are moving through their post-election Kubler-Ross Transect-of-Grief from denial to anger too. So both sides are quite pissed off and primed for conflict. The Left will certainly do everything possible to oppose Trump and try to make him look bad, whether it’s in the public interest to do so or not. They will throw every monkey-wrench possible into the machinery of governance, up to and including the (mostly Democratic Party weighted) Federal Reserve hierarchy, whose interest rate “dot plot” could be truly a plot to exact revenge on Trump. Of course, that would blow up in their faces since proportionately the coastal elites own much more stock than the Trumpenlumpenprole red-staters, and they could be wiped out in a significant market crash triggered by rising interest rates. But that’s the thing about political rage: it’s the opposite of rational.

There’s no sign that the Democrat / Progs have recognized that their poisonous identity politics played a significant role in their electoral defeat. They will not abandon that endeavor in 2017. They will double-down on it. And as that happens, the Democratic Party will go the way of the Whigs in 1856 — with a whimper, not a bang. God knows who or what will replace them as a credible opposition to Trumpist crypto-Republicanism, although Trump himself stands a good chance of leading that party to oblivion, too, if my forecast of a big financial blow-up comes to pass.

The Red Guard-like action on campus may continue, though it’s hard to imagine the “Snowflakes” besting their infantile hijinks of 2016. What they are demonstrating now is that coercive identity politics is just a new form of leisure-time recreation on campus, like Ultimate Frisbee and the beer blasts of old! Have fun wrecking faculty careers and basking in the Facebook feed! A few still-sane people of all political persuasions are sick of their censorious attacks, reckless persecutions, and insults to reality — such as the mandatory “white privilege” trainings and gender identity personal pronoun crusades. I predict that there will be a revolt among the university trustees and boards of directors against college presidents and deans who pander to the Maoist hysteria, as the damage to higher education and intellectual freedom more generally finally manifests in dropping enrollments and the loss of public funding.

There is every sign that black and white racial conflict will grow worse in the year ahead. The week after Christmas 2016 saw an impressive number of shopping mall mass melees of black teens all over the country. For years, the media went along with the hyperbolic story that innocent black men were being killed by police for no reason — when the overwhelming majority of those cases involved victims brandishing guns or grossly misbehaving in some way liable to get themselves in trouble. Victimology still rules in America. It’s a psychological defense mechanism to relieve the Dem / Prog’s shame and anxiety with the outcome of the long civil rights campaign — namely, black family disintegration, educational failure, and a shocking rate of black-on-black murder. A subsidiary grievance industry, lately led by Black Lives Matter, fans the flames of vengeance against the universal villain, Whitey, whose “privilege” keeps other people down (except, notice, immigrants from China, Korea, Vietnam, India, and other places where Whitey is absent.)

So, now Left and Right are both equally pissed off. It also means you have two adversarial groups who might give themselves permission to turn violent to justify their grievances. If the financial markets tank and the economy freefalls, it is easy to imagine the potential for violent conflict between the Dem / Progs with their Black Lives matter proxies against the Trumpista lumpenproles. It would be a terrible tragic distraction from the business of repairing the common weal, the economy, and the common culture — but so was the Civil War

The Oil Quandary

The reports of Peak Oil’s death are exaggerated, to borrow a gag from Mr. Twain. It’s just been playing out in ways that many of us didn’t quite anticipate and it is still at the heart of our economic predicament — which is that you can’t rationalize an annual debt growth rate of 8 percent if your actual economic growth rate is under 4 percent (paraphrasing Chris Martenson at Peak Prosperity.com).

We haven’t run out of oil, but we have run out of oil that is rationally economical to pull out of the ground. The so-called “shale oil miracle” extended the oil age a few years by debt-financed legerdemain. Yes, we drove US oil production way up, almost back up to the 1970 peak production level around 10 million barrels-a-day (b/d). The trouble was that the companies producing it didn’t make a red cent in the process. They just ran up a huge amount of debt to pursue the shale project. The pursuit was on wholeheartedly beginning around 2006, because 1) the Peak Oil story was scaring folks, including folks in the oil industry, and 2) the market price of crude oil soared after 2004 and shale looked like a possibly winning venture — especially since conventional exploration in recent years was turning up almost nothing of significance.

From 2004 the price of oil skyrocketed from around $40-a-barrel until 2008, when it reached a high point of about $140-a-barrel. Then, of course, the price crashed catastrophically for a year, along with Wall Street and the economy. But, by then, the fracking industry was all ramped up in the Bakken fields of North Dakota and the Eagle Ford range of Texas. Plus the industry was learning some additional new fracking tricks to goose more oil out of the “tight” rock. So they were full of confidence, despite the price crash. Then, in 2009 the oil price turned sharply upward again — with central bank ZIRP and QE and other maneuvers to prop up the economy with more debt at lower interest rates. And the price of oil just climbed and climbed again back into the $110-plus range in 2011, and lingered there until 2015, when it crashed again.

Of course, most of the producers weren’t making any money even at the $110-a-barrel, but they expected improved technology to mitigate that eventually. In the meantime, they just produced too much shale oil and the market was flooded and OPEC got into the act and pumped all-out trying to crash the price further to put the US shale producers out of business, and then nobody made a red cent fracking for shale oil. So, you can see there was a pattern.

The pattern nicely describes the dynamic advanced by Joseph Tainter in his seminal work, The Collapse of Complex Societies: namely that over-investments in complexity lead to diminishing returns. That is, as you keep making your systems extra-hyper-complex, you get less value back for doing it, until you get to the point where there’s no benefit whatsoever, and then the system implodes. And that is exactly what has happened with oil and the economy that was engineered to run on it, and the financial system that evolved to manage the wealth it used to produce.

A few other things happened the past few years on the oil scene. The American oil companies bowed out of Arctic drilling. The Canadian Tar Sands went bust. The overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi choked off Libyan production, which was offset by Iran coming back onto the international market, which was offset by political mischief in Nigeria that choked off production, which was offset by increased Iraqi production, which was offset by the collapse of Venezuela. Most of the world’s oil producers had entered decline anyhow.

Don’t be fooled. The low prices at the gasoline pumps only mean that US oil companies are going broke fast, as are American “consumers.” There’s a basic equation I’ve repeated a few times on this blog: oil over $75-a-barrel destroys industrial economies; oil under $75-a-barrel destroys oil companies. That’s were things stand when the energy return on investment falls to 5-to-1, as is the case with shale oil. Steve St. Angelo over at the SRSRocco Report makes the excellent point that it takes at least 30-to-1 energy return on investment to maintain plain vanilla modern life. Anything below that and parts of the economy have to be sacrificed. Trucking, air travel, commuting, theme park vacations, your job…. It’s just another way of describing the pernicious effects of the diminishing returns of over-investments in complexity.

In the fall of 2016, OPEC members tried again to agree on an oil production output limit, as they have done many time before. Each time, they all managed to cheat in order to sell greater volumes of oil and make more short-term money — a classic Tragedy of the Commons story. Consequently, the price of oil went up to about $53-a-barrel by Christmas 2016. Don’t expect that to last. Unless, of course, there is a geopolitical event somewhere out on the oil scene, most likely in the Middle East, though Venezuela’s economy is approaching total collapse. The forecast here is for oil prices to follow the stock markets down in the first quarter of 2017. A lot of junk bonds in the oil space will default as a result, leading to a general crisis in shale oil investment.

Vagrant Thoughts on Geopolitics

As I write just before New Year’s Eve, President Obama is trying to start World War Three with Russia as a parting gift to the voting public. I’m among the skeptics who think that the “Russia Hacks Election story” is a ruse to divert the public’s attention from the stupendous failure of the Democratic Party to win, as expected. Rather, Wikileaks should get the Pulitzer Prize for revealing so much about the nefarious workings of the Clinton Foundation and the Democratic National Committee.

      Regular readers know I didn’t vote for Trump, that I heaped considerable abuse on him in the campaign commentaries. But I didn’t take any comfort in the nostrum about being “better off with the Devil you know (Hillary) than the one you don’t know (Trump).” Both candidates were awful, and the condition of the country is pretty awful as we turn the corner onto 2017. Readers also know from these commentaries and from my books that I expect we will have to make big changes in our living arrangements up ahead as the techno-industrial fiesta winds down. I won’t reiterate the particulars here, but 2017 is the hinge year for that. The strains on global finance are so spectacular that something’s got give. President Trump is sure to be overwhelmed by epic dislocations in markets, currencies, debt, and misguided central bank efforts to hold back the tides of a necessary re-set — a re-set which will see a lot of wealth vanish and a lot of pain inflicted on the losers of wealth, including whole societies.

We have three major European elections to look forward to in 2017: The Netherlands and France in the Spring, and Germany in the fall. Geert Wilders (a member of the Trump Big Hair Club), is virulently against the “Islamisation” of his country. He has campaigned previously to leave the European Union and for the return to the old guilder currency. Should the right-wing Marine LePen win in France, the EU experiment will likely end — she has made express promises to take France out of the EU. Angela Merkel has made herself impressively unpopular by opening the gates to a flood of immigrants fleeing the breakdown zones of the Middle East and Africa. And then, because of the Schengen Agreement (free passage across EU borders), the immigrants were unleashed on the rest of Europe.

Those of us paying attention may have easily lost count of the terror atrocities carried out across Europe by Islamic fanatics. Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, the Brussels airport, the Berlin Christmas Market were only the most recent and spectacular. For years, individuals have been stabbed, had their heads cut off, throats cut, been blown up, machine-gunned. Take a look at this comprehensive list going back to 2001. You may be astonished. In that light, it’s pretty hard to keep waving the “diversity” banner, and I sense that Europe has had enough of it. One big question is whether the new European right-wing leaders will actually move as far as mass deportations. I rather think they will.

The UK “Brexit” vote was surprise all right. (I hit a white-tailed deer on the Maine Turnpike at 70mph that June morning, uccchhh, and lived to tell about it.) Now there’s a fair chance that Parliament will find a way to wiggle out of Brexit. Noises are also emanating out of Brussels to the effect that the EU could loosen up some of their rules — e.g. the Schengen Agreement — to induce Britain to stay in the EU. But there are so many other fissures and fragilities in that system that the Brexit may not matter anymore. The European banking system is melting down and there is absolutely no way to rescue it on the macro EU scale. Italy was heading for a banking crackup before Christmas. Deutsche Bank has been whirling around the drain for a couple of years. When the US markets and banks shudder in 2017, Europe will get the vapors. Hence, I’ll forecast breakup of the EU by this time next year.

We’ve come to the pass where “all that is solid melts into air,” in the poetic phrase of old Karl Marx. Marx was referring to the “specter” of communism that loomed over burgeoning industrial society of the mid-19th century, and indeed it turned into quite a world struggle through the century that followed. But now communism is down for the count and we begin to see what is truly melting into air: Modernity itself, this colossal, hulking, grinding, machine of destruction that threatens the global eco-system, and all its sub-systems including the human realms of money and politics.

The idea that Modernity itself might go down is inconceivable to those in thrall to the Religion of Progress, which declares that the world (and life in it) only gets better and better every year. This would appear demonstrably untrue, just in the visible damage to the landscape and the living things that struggle to dwell there. The most obvious problem with Modernity has been human population overshoot. The truth is, we’re not going to do a darn thing about it. There won’t be any policy or protocol, despite the good intentions of the groups inveighing against it. It will just go on… until it can’t, to paraphrase the late Herb Stein. Of course, people still have sex under conditions of hardship, so the population may plateau for a while until we are well into the long emergency. But the usual suspects of starvation, disease, and war are all still out there, doing their thing, and will only ramp up their operations.

The reason the Middle East and North Africa are melting down most conspicuously is because they are geographically among the places least well endowed for supporting the swollen populations they acquired over the past two hundred years. Iraq, Syria, the whole Arabian peninsula. Egypt, Libya, et. al. are all deserts artificially supported by the perquisites of Modernity: cheap energy, fertilizers made from that, irrigation,  money derived from it, and continuing life-support subsidies from even wealthier modern nations outside the region. In recent years that life-support has flipped into deadly violence imposed from both within and without, as homegrown Sunni ad Shiite vie for supremacy and their puppeteers in the First World rush in with bombers, rockets, and small arms to “help.”

Iraq and Libya were already goners in 2016. They’ll never be politically stable again in the modern sense. Egypt is still headed down the drain despite the grip of General al-Sisi and his army. In all these places the “youth bulge” has no prospects for earning a living or supporting a family. The young men, especially, put their energy into Jihad, revolution, and civil war because there’s nothing else to do. Making war may be thrilling, but it won’t lead to a better future because those benefits of Modernity are running out and there’s nothing to replace them.

Syria is the current goner-du-jour. Whatever it ends up being, either under Assad or someone else, it will not be stable the way it was. The USA ended up arming and funding the Sunni Salafist “bad guys” there because they opposed Shiite Iran and its regional proxy Hezbollah plus Assad. Russia eventually came in on that side on the theory that another failed state is not in the world’s interests. President Obama blinked after he drew his infamous “line in the sand” years ago and now America is too spooked to act directly. In fact, the Russians and Assad have the best chance of restoring a semblance of order, but America’s support for the “moderate” Salafists will necessarily keep undermining that. In the meantime, all this activity has sparked a demographic emergency as refugees flee the country for Europe and elsewhere, creating greater tensions where they land. Trump could stop the flow of US arms to our favored maniacs in Syria. He may see the practical benefit of letting Russia be the policeman on the beat there, and maybe he can sort out the underlying competing interest between the Russian-sponsored gas pipeline proposed to cross Syria and the American-sponsored one — a dynamic underlying all the mayhem there — and make some kind of “deal.” Or maybe he’ll just fuck it up even more.

The situation will grow increasingly acute in Saudi Arabia, where population growth outstrips the ability of oil production to pay for it. Their old “elephant” oil fields are aging out and they know quite well that they cannot depend on oil wealth many decades ahead. The trouble is, they have no realistic replacement for it, despite noises about creating other industries. The truth is, the country was cursed by its oil. It grew its population too much too fast in one of the most inhospitable corners of the globe, and it will take only a modest decline in oil income to destabilize the place altogether. To buffer that, Saudi leaders plan an IPO for shares in Saudi Aramaco — which was originally composed of American and western oil companies nationalized decades ago. That may get them a few hundred billion or so in walking-around money that won’t last very long considering that just about everybody in the nation is on the dole.

The big news in that corner of the world last year was the collapse of Yemen, which occupies a big slab on Saudi Arabia’s southern border. That poor-ass country is the latest Middle East basket-case and Saudi military operations there continue to date, using airplanes and weapons supplied by Uncle Sam — just another case of feeding Jihadist wrath.

Make no mistake — as our Presidents like to say — all these countries are heading back to the Middle Ages economically, maybe even further beyond. Their culture is still basically medieval. The main point is that Modernity inflated them and now Modernity is over and they’re either going to pop or deflate. One wild card for now is what effect climate change may have in ME/NA. If the trend is hotter, than that’s not good news for a region so poorly watered and so hot that air conditioning is mandatory for the pampered urban elites. Last one out, please turn off the lights.

Then there’s Turkey, for decades known as “the sick man of Europe.” Now, of course, it can’t even get into Europe, the EU, that is, and it’s probably too late to sweat that anyway. Back when it was “sick” it was quiet at least. You barely heard a peep from the fucker through the entire cold war and beyond. But now that the countries on its border are breaking down, things have understandably livened up in Turkey. It was, until World War One, the very seat of the Islamic Caliphate, and it controlled much of the territory now occupied by the nations creatively carved out of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Turkey is still a power in the region, with a lot of well-watered, habitable territory and a GDP half the size of Italy’s, though shrinking. Its current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has shown twinges of megalomania in recent years, no doubt in fear of the radical Islam epidemic so close at hand. Lately, Kurdish extremists have been planting bombs around the country, too. Turkey has a lot to be paranoid about and Erdogan wants to change the constitution so he can act the strongman without a wimpy, pain-in-the-ass parliament weighing him down. He endured a coup last summer and came out of with consolidated power. But he’s capable of making another bonehead move like shooting down a Russian jet (2015). Meanwhile, Turkey’s currency is collapsing. The population is over 80 million. In the event of serious political upheaval, how many of them will try to flee to Europe?

Russia? It’s apparently stable. We hear no end of complaints about “Putin the Thug,” but in this time of altered reality and disinformation fog, it’s honestly impossible to tell what the fuck the score is. Has he bumped off some journalists? So they say. But, not to get to baroque about it, consider the impressive trail of dead bodies said to be left in the wake of Bill and Hillary. That story was so toxic that Google squashed searches for it during the election campaign. Putin seems to me, at worst, a competent and capable Czar, in a country that likes to be ruled by them. That’s their prerogative. He’s hugely popular, anyway, and it’s one of the unsung miracles of recent times that Russia transitioned out of the fiasco of communism into a pretty much normal modern society, with shopping, movies, tourism travel, and everything. The Russian people may look back at these decades as a golden age. They’ve been punished by Western sanctions for a few years now, but it has prompted them to promote their own version of a SWIFT Code for international banking transactions, and their own counterpart to the EU, the Eurasian Customs Union, and to manufacture some products of their own (import replacement).

Personally, I think the meme of “Russian aggression” is not born out by actual recent geopolitical reality. They are castigated constantly for wanting to march back into the Baltic States, Ukraine, and other former Soviet territories. Ukraine was made a basket case with direct American assistance. (Remember Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland: “Fuck the EU!”) Ukraine was rendered an instant failed state. As far as I could tell, the last thing Russia wanted was to take on Ukraine as an economic dependent. Same for the Baltic States. They need to subsidize these places like they need a hole in the head. Russia’s 2015 annexation of the Crimea was a special case, since it had been part of Russia one way or another for most of the past 200 years, except for the period after Khrushchev gifted it to his homeboys in Ukraine around 1957. Anyway, the Crimea was the site of Russia’s only warm-water naval ports. They’d rented it from Ukraine before the US pranged the country. The Crimean inhabitants voted to join Russia (why do we assume that was not sincere?).

Finally, as renowned Russologist Stephen Cohen has said, wouldn’t it make sense for the US and Russia to drop all this antagonism nonsense and make common cause against the real threat of our time: Islamic Jihad? How many Westerners has Russia killed or harmed the past twenty years compared to the forces of Jihad? The tensions in Syria are admittedly complex, but why are we making them worse while Russia attempts to stabilize the joint? Perhaps The Donald can start there….

As I write, Mr. Putin just announced that his country would not take any reciprocal action against American diplomats in retribution for Mr. Obama’s fugue of punishments meted out last week for the still-unproven “Russia Hacks Election” story. Personally, I’m content to wait three weeks and see if relations improve after Mr. Obama departs the Oval Office.

Finally, there’s China. I’m among those who believe China is running the most farkakta banking system on God’s green earth. We should not be surprised if it implodes in 2017, and does so pretty badly, in a way that might shake the foundations of the entire banking system. On that note, I confess that I have run out of forecast mojo for the year, and anyway this bulletin is long enough. If you’ve gotten this far, I commend and admire you hugely for your remarkable patience. Have a happy 2017 everybody, and don’t let our Trumpadelic president get you down.

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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.

625 Responses to “Forecast 2017: The Wheels Finally Come Off”

  1. dannyboy January 1, 2017 at 7:28 pm #

    ‘Or maybe he’ll just fuck it up even more.’

    MY CURRENT THINKING IS CITIZENSHIP IN PORTUGAL.

    • pequiste January 1, 2017 at 7:48 pm #

      I was just in Lisbon and Porto.

      Great food, seafood in particular, but great all around alimentation.
      Wines that rival Spain and Italy I think and really inexpensive. Super beach places around the whole country.
      Lovely culture, tho the language is a bitch, and such wonderful people.
      Nicest in Europe to my mind. English widely spoken.

      You could do no better than Portugal…

      And as I understand N.Y.C.’s legendary Carnegie Deli is closing forever you may want to seriously consider a place with outstanding charcuterie (although a pastrami on rye is near impossible to find.)

      It is really hard to think that Trump could “fuck it up even more.” than Barry O. or “W.”

      • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 8:45 am #

        pequiste,

        Thank you for the beautiful description; it’s encouraging. About: “It is really hard to think that Trump could ‘fuck it up even more.'”…

        …sure can

    • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 3:18 am #

      Did you see Sixty Minutes? Citizenship is just another commodity now, with passports like credit cards. How many passports do you already have? Two at least, right?

      Well, sincerity is the ultimate value and it can never be a commodity. As Machiavelli and Plato said, mercenaries can’t replace the citizen soldier because no matter how good they are, they run when things get too bad.

      Anyway, as things get bad, and as Globalism collapses, Nations will rationally ban all dual citizenships. The Cosmopolitans are going to have to choose – assuming anyone wants them at all at that point.

      • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 8:46 am #

        Spain, Portugal…

        …all offering warm welcomes.

        Why be so nasty, when people can be so nice?

      • Ishabaka January 2, 2017 at 12:19 pm #

        You might want to take a look at how difficult and expensive the US government has made renouncing US citizenship recently.

      • Frankiti January 4, 2017 at 6:34 pm #

        Passports are keys on a keychain.
        Humans are migratory.
        Shudder to think if they were not Janos; you’d be black and in Africa.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 7:05 pm #

          Humans are also territorial and try to keep out the migrators. The Indians tried but were unable to keep us out. We will share their fate unless we shape up. But what do you care? You’ll just go to China. You have no attachment to America except insofar as it serves the International Race.

    • Cold N. Holefield January 2, 2017 at 7:54 am #

      Nice forecast, Jim. I can see a lot of thinking went into it. We’ll see how it all pans out. The specifics may vary somewhat, but np doubt you’re close in a general sense. The Fat Lady is singing and the song is nearly over. If they don’t blow it all up. That’s a really BIG IF and one that shouldn’t be overlooked.

      45 Red Balloons

      Duginism

      Tell me true, tell me why, was Jesus crucified?
      Is it for this that we’ll all die?
      Was it you? Was it me?
      What did we fail to see?
      Is that a hint of accusation in your Glued Shut Eyes?
      If it wasn’t for The Rich
      And their Chronic Avaricious Fits
      The Grain would still grow golden in the Sun
      And it can’t be much fun for them
      Amidst the ruins & toxic scum
      With their Golden Goose having committed suicide
      What have you done Donald, what have you done?
      What have you done — to The World?
      Should we shout — should we scream
      “What happened to the Post-Soviet Dream?
      Oh Donald, Donald what have you done?”

      • BeerBarrel January 3, 2017 at 1:08 pm #

        Aww, give credit where it’s due – Roger Water’s Post-War Dream from Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut.

        “What did we fail to see” replaces “Did I watch too much TV?”

        • Cold N. Holefield January 3, 2017 at 2:39 pm #

          If you read the blog post at my blog, the credit is there. I changed more than just that line. Anyone who respects Pink Floyd’s music and is a supporter of Donald Trump, is a fuck up extraordinaire.

          Effectively, what I’m saying to you is, shut the fuck up, douchebag.

          • BeerBarrel January 3, 2017 at 3:04 pm #

            Aww Cole.

            What did you want? Hillary? A line of queers like Faggot Barney Frank lining up for the Cabinet? Elton John? Ellen? What the fuck is wrong with you?

          • BeerBarrel January 3, 2017 at 3:14 pm #

            That said – WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOUR BLOG??

    • orbit7er January 2, 2017 at 10:43 am #

      I think Kunstler underestimates the vast waste and resources in the American Empire. For example, the $1 Trillion per year wasted on the endless Wars… is this really fated to continue forever? The Pentagon is the world’s biggest fossil fuel organization accounting for 6% of US gargantuan oil usage. Or the 90% of cars with a single passenger- besides actually inexpensive restoration of running trains and public transit car-pooling is a possibility which may be the reason Uber is so successful. Uber is just commercialized car-pooling.
      Likewise the armadas of landscaping trucks pulling trailers full of huge riding lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other oil pollution spewing motorized equipment run by immigrants – will all those pristine lawns need to continue growing grass to emulate ancient English aristocrats?
      Or can they grow edible vegetables and herbs mostly by hand…
      I do think the stock market and financial system is in dire straits..
      But even just accounting for the real physical resources waiting to be mined in America’s junkyards dwarf the resources of many countries…
      I live in a very tight knit Transit Village community – we will get by…

    • Horzabky January 2, 2017 at 10:54 am #

      Retirees of other EU countries who settle in Portugal pay no taxes for ten years:
      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/special-reports/11519095/The-ultimate-pension-freedom-Retire-in-Portugal-and-reduce-your-tax.html

      I don’t know if it’s also true for Americans, though.

      The population of Portugal is declining, both because of a very low birthrate and negative immigration. The government is trying to attract wealthy foreign retirees.

      My wife has been in Portugal and found it great. One caveat, though: I know Portuguese people who live in France, as I do, and they all told me that the Portuguese health care system is not so good as the French one. The Portuguese who can afford it fly to France for major surgery operations.

      • Ishabaka January 2, 2017 at 12:22 pm #

        Portugal has also had stunning success in reducing drug addiction, drug crime, and overdose deaths since legalizing all drugs in 2001, and using money formerly spent persecuting addicts for addiction treatment and job training.

      • orbit7er January 2, 2017 at 2:27 pm #

        My brother is moving to Spain…
        Luckily he has a guest house there

  2. pequiste January 1, 2017 at 7:55 pm #

    Nice clear prognostications here but we will need Mother Shipton to get down to brass tacks.

    I’ll make a side wager that the next on-line banking scheme/scam will be an entity known as simply The Far Cock Tar Bank, the genius merging of legendary Chinese and Jewish fiduciary skills.

    2017: May you live in interesting times. Going to be for sure.

    Gong Hey Fat CHoy y’all.

  3. BackRowHeckler January 1, 2017 at 8:15 pm #

    Phew, a lot here to digest! One thing is for certain, Jim: you probably won’t be invited to speak at too many college campuses in 2017, and, if invited by say a club or org. interested in energy and sustainability issues, will be shouted down, pilloried and demonstrated against in a most hysterical manner by snowflakes, pajamas boys and precious pearls.

    brh

    • davidreese2 January 2, 2017 at 8:54 am #

      The Academy rejects Kunstler at its own peril.

      • routersurfer January 5, 2017 at 3:55 pm #

        True. Ideas are the mortar of higher education. To ban any is to ban all. One more western idea trunks to dust.

  4. Pucker January 1, 2017 at 9:47 pm #

    They’ve gone Insane.

    “This is obviously a win-win in real life.”

    “As any porn junkie knows, the more porn you watch, the more you need and the more hardcore porn you need to feel fully aroused.
    “Your Brain on Porn”, Gary Wilson

  5. BackRowHeckler January 2, 2017 at 3:09 am #

    Chicago is starting the New Year off with a bang: already 28 shot and 3 dead.

    And we’re only one day in. The final tally for 2016 was 795 dead, 3500 shot.

    brh

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    • pequiste January 2, 2017 at 9:11 am #

      Chicago’s South side is where Barry O.’s presidential library will be located:

      https://www.barackobamafoundation.org/the-center

      Will make for an interesting environment with all that gunfire in the surrounding ‘hood going on.

    • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 10:46 am #

      BANG!!!

      Thats a pun, right?

    • Ishabaka January 2, 2017 at 12:23 pm #

      What Chiraq needs is a good community organizer.

    • elysianfield January 2, 2017 at 2:17 pm #

      “Chicago is starting the New Year off with a bang: already 28 shot and 3 dead. ”

      BRH,
      Your comment reminded me of the daily tallies reported by the news agencies on TV, of the Vietnam war casualties in the early years….

      • abbybwood January 3, 2017 at 1:02 am #

        I recall being a Senior in high school back in Ohio in 1968 and watching the nightly news with the “body counts”.

        Cronkite would say, “5398 NVA killed, 259 Americans” and I would cheer inside and think, “Yeah! We’re winning!”

        • routersurfer January 5, 2017 at 4:00 pm #

          I was sitting at a table watching vets from Nam talk to other Vets at my dads VFW Post in 1968. They would take a sip and look at my young ass with great sadness. I knew then it was lost. Follow the “NEWS” with caution.

  6. Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 4:16 am #

    Enough about oil and gas – the future, if there is to be one, is Coal, Black Gold, Appalachian Tea. We have enough to last us for centuries. The only question is, can it be made clean? How clean? Authorities differ. But in any case, there are worse things than dirty air – like freezing in the dark. Most people raving about Global Warming have never been cold in their lives. Let’s get some perspective. Put them outside in a t shirt right now and they’d be huffing bus fumes in fifteen minutes in order to get warm.

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

    Warmth is life. Cold is death. Get it straight, “liberals”! Survival is the first morality as Jefferson said. All sane people agree. You don’t? Then you’re not sane.

    • JimInFlorida January 2, 2017 at 2:18 pm #

      Coal’s superiority will become visible in a World Made By Hand.

      To use coal, it only needs to be dug out and minimally processed to burn. The steam engines that convert coal heat into mechanical energy require far less skill to manufacture and maintain than diesel engines or gas turbines. They don’t have to be the heavy iron castings of a century ago but, can be made with modern lightweight casting processes that might survive the slide into modern medievalism.

      As for the air pollution caused by coal, a reasonable compromise will have to be made on what is acceptable. The Long Emergency will force such an accommodation in order to move people and freight, and to power the factories. The very coal dug out by steam-powered mining machines can be processed on site and fed back into the local coal supply to keep the operation going. No other fuel can do that!

      Finally, the higher labor participation required in a coal-based economy going will greatly reduce unemployment. But, the biggest win is that a coal-based macro-economy CANNOT support the ZOG-NATO Imperial War Machine! That last benefit will quell the lust for war almost as well as a pile of dead billionaires stacked up in Times Square.

      • elysianfield January 2, 2017 at 2:21 pm #

        JIF,
        Glad to see you back.

      • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 4:53 pm #

        HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MAZEL TOV

      • BackRowHeckler January 2, 2017 at 7:49 pm #

        Welcome back Jim.

        Recently watched a PBS program about the 20th Century Limited New York Central train, NYC to Chicago, narrator commented on the many hundreds of employees required to keep just that train running smoothly.

        In 1950 the Pennsylvania RR had over 300,000 employees. In 1970 they had none.

        brh

    • elysianfield January 2, 2017 at 2:20 pm #

      “Put them outside in a t shirt right now and they’d be huffing bus fumes in fifteen minutes in order to get warm.”

      Janos,
      Yes, what they need is a bit of perspective.

      Kudos also for last weeks construct…”Demon Sow”…still gives me a warm glow.

    • monkey_flower January 2, 2017 at 7:35 pm #

      Janos-you got that right, except backwards. The instant Globalism collapses, coal will become too valuable to use for heating homes. It will be relegated to factories for industrial production. Probably guns. I can see weapons manufacturing being the number one industry in post-collapse America.

      People will just have to snuggle with their pets to stay warm.

      By the way… happy New Year !

      • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 7:10 pm #

        We’ll just use our phasers to heat rocks, strategically placed. That will keep the house warm.

        What is a diamond but coal that has evolved? If you love your kids, put a lump of coal in their stockings. If you love your fiancé, give her a coal ring. The diamond is the end result. She has to earn the diamond by becoming it.

        Have a Graduation to attend? Don’t whisper “plastics” to him, but rather, “Coal”.

  7. tucsonspur January 2, 2017 at 5:07 am #

    Big banks like Wells Fargo and J P Morgan were looking into digital “currencies” like bitcoin years ago. The fiascos at Mt. Gox and the Silk Road were part of the digital learning process, and financial institutions like Goldman Sachs eventually became interested in using the so called blockchain internally, even extending it to stock trades.

    We’re on our way.

    Of course the government had to eventually get involved to some degree, just the thing the founders of bitcoin were trying to avoid in the first place. The original cypherpunks were looking for a universal money free from the scrutiny and burdensome costs of the current financial system.

    It would be ironic indeed if their brilliant efforts ultimately wound up helping the government impose digital financial enslavement.

    A good intro to this stuff is Popper’s, “Digital Gold” (Bitcoin And The Inside Story Of The Misfits and Millionaires Trying To Reinvent Money).

    Ice-Nine. Man, that would be cold. Cold man, really cold. I’m shivering just thinking about it. Sexy, but frigid.

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 8:51 am #

      “It would be ironic indeed if their brilliant efforts ultimately wound up helping the government impose digital financial enslavement.”

      a replay of the Technology Revolution

      or the Industrial Revolution

      or the Agrarian Revolution

      or…

      • elysianfield January 2, 2017 at 2:24 pm #

        “or…”

        d,
        Or the French Revolution…(Listen carefully…can you hear the tumbrels?).

  8. FincaInTheMountains January 2, 2017 at 5:42 am #

    Finca’s forecast for 2017

    Trump winning in the US (today I can say that with overwhelming probability, he will take the White House in perfect health and will try to implement the declared policies quite actively. This can be considered, though obvious, but still the first forecast) will mean the inevitable radical change in US domestic and foreign policy.

    Trump in the person of Clinton dealt a severe blow to the Western Black Project, or “The Forth Reich”, the Axis powers, the coalition of American Clintonoids, Angela Merkel Germany and the Salafi Saudi Arabia. Defeated but not destroyed. And therefore this Project to survive in the competition needs revenge, or at least the attempt at such.

    Otherwise, its resources (huge, by the way) will be quickly looted by the winners – American isolationists and British financiers.

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

    And this is also my prediction (about the attempts, and about suppression). Generally in the first half of the year, until the situation finally settles down (isolationists without a doubt will bend over the globalists), it will be quite uncomfortable in the United States. Then the globalists will start singing the traditional song of the Russian liberals, “it’s time to get the hell out” And some will do it.

    Where? To Europe. For only Europe can provide the “Reich” with real, albeit low, chances for a rematch and the revival of the project. Especially, that the ground for this has already been prepared and fertilized by the sheer number of ME “refugees” and their massive shameless behavior in the host countries, and pointless flutter of ruling European elites.

    So attempt at the revival of Nazism in Europe will more than likely happen this year. For Merkel it is almost the only opportunity for re-election. And before that there will be an attempt to take France under the leadership of Marine Le Pen.

    In Russia there are a lot of imbeciles who sincerely believe that the possible victory of Le Pen in the spring elections in France will be success of Russian foreign policy. She has even been partially financed from Russia. In fact, Le Pen’s victory is a victory of the Black Project – the Reich – which is the worst enemy of Russia. Thank God, the probability of such event is relatively low.

    Britain is concern that its influence in Europe is in serious danger and that could turn to a huge problem for the Island Kingdom. Therefore England just has to be actively involved in European continental politics. Especially in France, where London is actively promoting Makron, who has all chances to win.

    And what about the dollar? Nothing bad with the dollar. On the one hand, the dollar after Trump winning has a strong chance of survival. Fortunately there are NO major parties interested in dollar dramatic collapse.

    The prospect of dollar losing its global status is no longer a possibility but a reality. The world is no longer hiding, at full steam rushing to the new gold standard. Recent draconian measures in this field in India speak for the fact that there is no much time left.

    In the Middle East situation will become more or less determined by the end of this year. US interests under the Trump administration will require solidarity with Russia and Turkey for the speedy elimination of ISIS. If only because it could be done relatively quickly and with little effort/expenditure.

    Even destroying of ISIS is NOT required. All it takes is just squeeze it out from Iraq/Syria to Saudi Arabia. In fact, this is the most likely direction of development of the conflict in the interests of all actors involved (except, of course, the sheiks). For Russia, it will be a symbol of success and at the same time a blow to the most outspoken opponents in the region. Plus the rise in oil prices. For the US, the same increase in oil prices in the interests of the American oil producers and as an indirect blow to China, the possibility of arrest of the Saudi capital in the US as understandable revenge for 9/11, the ability to adequately get out of the ambiguous situation in Syria. For Turkey it is the elimination of the strongest competitor in the region, and for the ISIS itself an opportunity to continue to exist (albeit very temporary).

    Heralded by all the upcoming economic conflict between the US and China is far less obvious. Fast and hard deterioration of relations is not really in the interests of both sides. For China, it is important to save the capital already invested in the US, and the US can not physically instantly reject the economic relations with China.

    The process of return of real production to the United States or to Mexico will take at least several years. Therefore, the two countries will actively try to bargain for their interests, but would not rush to beat the fist on the table. Both countries are actively trying to drag Russia to their side, which gives Russia once again chances to remain above the conflict and act as an objective and impartial arbitrator, consistently forging relations with both countries.

    Britain will take an ambiguous position regarding the US-China confrontation. On one hand, China’s final victory is critical for the City Of London financiers, who invested there almost all the capitals of the Crown. On the other, some China’s weakness in this confrontation is in the interest of London, which will allow it to strengthen its position in tandem London – Beijing, as in recent years, China began to show excessive independence.

  9. Georges1202 January 2, 2017 at 6:33 am #

    Well, I got out of USA Inc. In August and now happily consume vast amounts of hot melted cheese over in Switzerland. My wife and I were shoveling $1200/mo down the the Obama care rathole for the worst bullshit ‘coverage’ imaginable. We have replaced that with $425/mo. insurance that is excellent and meaningful, not just another corporate subsidy.

    Switzerland does not shovel 60% of its treasure into a cornball Empire it cannot sustain but rather ensures that its people have great schools and trains that run on time. Politics is mostly local here and the idea of a 2-year election circus gives the Swiss the dry heaves.

    Glucklich Neue Jahr USA!

  10. ejhr January 2, 2017 at 6:45 am #

    What the fuck happened here??? My comment magically disappeared.

    Let me just say in a short burst that the federal government never borrows to pay interest on the national debt or any other debt it has on it’s books.

    Mr K you need to understand what Monetary Sovereignty means. You clearly don’t, unfortunately. It means the government, through Treasury, has total control over the currency. It can NEVER go bankrupt in its own money. It never has to borrow or spend even a dollar. But it can if it so chooses.

    The massive debts will never be repaid. A chase your tail scenario.
    Michael Hudson writes about it in “Killing the Host” It does change your marketing potential.

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  11. ejhr January 2, 2017 at 7:12 am #

    Regarding the implosion of the Democrats and Republicans there’s this forecast about the succession, by Donald Tepper;

    https://www.quora.com/In-twenty-years-will-there-be-more-conservatives-or-liberals/answer/Donald-Tepper

  12. michael January 2, 2017 at 7:43 am #

    Excellent read, we should carve it in stone and bury it somewhere for future archeologists to exhume to obtain proof that whilst we knew we did nothing.

    I agree that we are driving toward some sort of cataclysmic rearrangement but not necessarily so soon as claimed. In particular the energy situation isn’t as dire as depicted. As stated in the article several oil producing countries are disfunctional and not producing at capacity. The mere fact that output has to be limited proves that we are far from shortage.

    The total absence of moral values and lack of rational goals in economic theory is the basic problem. “Growth” cannot be an end in itself. We should also reflect upon what it is that is actually growing.

    Inasmuch as the current economic system is on a linear trajectory to destroy the biosphere any sort of cataclysmic setback might just be our saving grace.

    We can count on human stupidity to bring it about. The West is now positioning its forces to achieve nuclear primacy, the ability to conduct a first strike and absorb whatever retaliation is able to put to the air from the dead zone of the afflicted.

    There is no other purpose for the missile defense system.
    It has no defensive purpose. Now we may or may not actually intend to kill a billion “enemies” but these enemies must now take that possibility into account. This is extremely destabilizing.

    In this regard I want to draw you attention to the writings of one Elias Cannetti (“Crowds and Power”) where he describes the personality of the survivor. The survivor draws great satisfaction from general death an destruction so long as he survives it. His survival is proof of his exalted and favored condition giving him a feeling of invulnerabilty.

    The original survivor (hero) did not shy away of exposing himself to danger to obtain a more authentic certificate of his exceptional condition. However the now degenerate humanity has produced survivor types that are perfectly content to watch the carnage from distant and secure places.

    Many of our “leaders” are psychopaths and some of them are survivors. Cannetti considers this survivor as the principle threat to human survival. He believes that currently the survivor is too afraid to push the button as he himself has no prospect of survival.

    Exactly this state is being abrogated by the belief that we can take out all but a handful of enemy warheads in a first strike, then deal with the meager response with the missile defense system. In this calculation the survivor is willing to sacrifice some on his own side
    – if indeed he cares what side he is on.

    The survivor can even fancy himself to be a defender of the biosphere as the many nuclear explosions create instant radiative nature preserves into which the surviving humans will not venture for a long time but in which the natural world can thrive (as now in the vicinity of Chernobyl or the many areas salted with land mines).

    With these cheerful thoughts I wish you all a productive and pleasant year.

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 8:59 am #

      you got me at: “Many of our ‘leaders’ are psychopaths”

      • Ishabaka January 2, 2017 at 12:41 pm #

        I dunno, this morning I compared pictures of Hillary, Stefan Struik, and Nguyen Thanh Dung smirking – the expressions were remarkably similar.

        • daveed January 2, 2017 at 10:26 pm #

          Wow, people are still wringing their hands over Hillary?!

      • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 2:43 pm #

        He had you at “survivor”.

        • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:26 pm #

          you know that my line goes back in time before your stinkin’ books..

          the first thing we do, when resettling is build schools

          because we look to the future and prepare

    • DrGonzo January 2, 2017 at 11:20 am #

      Kunstler’s past annual forecasts are already effectively “etched in stone”, here on his own blog. And they are laughingly inaccurate. I don’t know why anyone takes his short-term prognostications seriously.

      Dow 4,500, anyone? At least he finally dropped that annual forecast tradition.

      • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:27 pm #

        help me understand why you read a lengthy essay that you think is a waste of your time

      • TravisT January 2, 2017 at 4:10 pm #

        Not inaccurate, just pushed back another six months!

      • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 4:55 pm #

        JHK did not know or underestimated how crooked and powerful the Federal reserve and The Bankers are.

        Thats all.

        A lot of us did that. We were wrong.

      • DrGonzo January 3, 2017 at 12:13 am #

        I see he did predict one year ago that the S&P index would crash to 1000 by June 2016, and that oil would fall to below $30/barrel by the end of the year.

        He’s a regular prophet, that JHK.

    • dweebus January 2, 2017 at 1:54 pm #

      “We can count on human stupidity to bring it about. The West is now positioning its forces to achieve nuclear primacy, the ability to conduct a first strike and absorb whatever retaliation is able to put to the air from the dead zone of the afflicted.

      There is no other purpose for the missile defense system.
      It has no defensive purpose. Now we may or may not actually intend to kill a billion “enemies” but these enemies must now take that possibility into account. This is extremely destabilizing.”

      Yes, it is destabilizing. Modernizing the nuclear arsenal. All well and good. But, if Star Wars is your goal, it is very, very dangerous. The definition of nuclear stability is no first strike capability and a secure second strike. MAD still reigns supreme.

      What is worrisome is that the Donald did not know what the Triad was. That means he is unfamilliar with even the basics of nuclear strategy. Hopefully, all these Generals, with which he likes to surround himself, will educate him.

      On a positive note, however, unlike HRC, he doesn’t have a hard on for Putin. Perhaps then, they can calmly reactivate nuclear discussions. Until such time as total disarmament becomes feasible, a reinstitution of the ABM treaty would be advisable, with modifications, allowing for terminal phase force protection ABMs around silo complexes and even airfields from which the B52s, B1s, and B2s operate.

      Again, no first strike capability, but a secure second strike is the goal.

    • abbybwood January 3, 2017 at 1:22 am #

      “Nuclear winters can be a bitch”:

      http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-winter.htm

  13. rapier January 2, 2017 at 7:48 am #

    No, this long laundry list of misfortune probably won’t happen this year nor in any one year nor all over the globe in unison. The US is the last Ponzi standing and trillions upon trillions of dollars or other currencies eager to be traded for dollars are headed this way. This abundance of liquidity makes any kind of meltdown either financial, fiscal or GDP sort very unlikely.

    Apocalypse Now sells and JHK is a vendor. He’s come by his ideas of decline honestly it seems and they are a synthesis of what others are saying and count me among the believers. However, sadly, his thing has become shtick aimed at riling emotions in the manner of Rush.

    Even when the catastrophes enumerated here become manifest, most likely in some evolutionary and incremental ways ,it has to be considered probable that the technosphere is ready to accommodate them. In 2 or 5 or 25 years many humans even in the USA may meet their premature end but the end of you doesn’t mean the end of everything.

    *technosphere
    https://www.newsociety.com/Books/S/Shrinking-the-Technosphere

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 9:01 am #

      “the technosphere is ready to accommodate them”

      so it going to be ok?

      i guess i’ll just sit tight then

      more equities, perhaps?

      • BackRowHeckler January 2, 2017 at 1:41 pm #

        Dan, to pick up an earlier thread …

        I am acquainted with quite a few Portugese people here in CT — for the most part they’re in the construction trades and live middle class lives. Also, they are quite conservative. After just 1 generation their kids appear fully assimilated. After 2 generations the old country language disappears. I’ve never known an immigrant from Portugal to return to Portugal to live, but many do keep 2nd homes there. I understand the winters are mild. Someone posted that the language is difficult, but my wife, a Spanish speaker also from the Iberian Peninsula, has no trouble talking to speakers of Portugese. One Portugese guy I know who spends time there told me that immigrant labor has to be imported into the country to work on the farms because all the young people want to do is sit around cafes in the sunshine and drink port wine.

        I don’t know if you’re serious about renouncing your American citizenship. It sounds like a crazy thing to do. And you don’t sound like a crazy person.

        brh

        • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 2:46 pm #

          No, the Elite collect citizenships now, much like credit cards. They have no loyalty to any of them, typically – on in some cases, to just one.

          David Brooks is a dual citizen – and which country does his son fight for? America? Guess again.

        • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:32 pm #

          duel citizenship allows for missing the Madness.

          What if there were more Janos’, for example…

          …and what if they were all suffering at the same time during Trump’s administration?

          and ugly sight

          I prefer to enjoy my life

          (I guess it’s a personal choice, but, as i always say, to each his own)

          • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 8:50 pm #

            So which country are you loyal to? That of the second passport you acquired, right? You’re still better than your White allies – who are loyal to nothing beyond themselves.

          • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 8:38 am #

            that compliment is a good start

  14. Loneranger January 2, 2017 at 8:25 am #

    When cash becomes illegal, barter will be king. Expect yard/garage sales this Spring to exceed our most generous expectations.

    • ozone January 3, 2017 at 9:54 am #

      Loneranger,
      For the short term (say, 5-7 years), I’m thinking heavy equipment: diesel; cheap; paid for in FRNs before they get “absorbed”.
      Beyond that, I’d be seriously looking in the direction of some sturdy, tractable and local mules. Some cheap Chinese tools aren’t badly made, so there’s that for the present…
      (Don’t forget chains; they’ll become quite dear due to the

      • ozone January 3, 2017 at 9:55 am #

        …expensive manufacturing process.)

  15. Petro January 2, 2017 at 9:02 am #

    I have a long-time environmental activist, who, beside being obsessed with the local coal fired plants, is consumed with worry over a planned new nuke plant in the region. I tell him not to spend so much energy on it—it ain’t gonna happen. They will never scrape together the billions of $$ needed to build it. He is not convinced.

    Anyway, that may be one of the up sides of the destruction of credit and available capital.

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    • Petro January 2, 2017 at 9:02 am #

      …activist friend…

    • abbybwood January 3, 2017 at 1:27 am #

      No problem.

      The U.S. government will “insure” the nuke plant. Since no reputable insurance corporation can ever afford to do so.

      If nuclear power plants “had” to get their liability insurance privately there wouldn’t be any nuclear power plants.

    • Billy Hill January 3, 2017 at 9:35 am #

      Aside from the basic flaws of the original designs which were oriented toward nuclear weapons production, it is impossible to forecast the costs to build these stations, much less the costs to decommission them. Compare with natural gas-fired stations: a recent project in Florida (Next Era) came in under budget and ahead of schedule.

  16. RobH January 2, 2017 at 9:10 am #

    James

    No one tells it quite like you!

    Somehow I am laughing but feel sick at the same time

    A very happy 2017 to you!

    I hear the future is Trumptastic (can’t remember where, but maybe it was a tweet from himself) and it’s a show we can only sit back and watch. In glorious 4K with Dolby 5.1 in selected living rooms, and on YouTube in the rest

    Robert

  17. RaymondR January 2, 2017 at 9:12 am #

    Very good post Jim. I enjoy your writing even when I disagree with you. My take on all this: we are entering the territory of phase shifts. In many areas of life things will go on as normal until one day they aren’t. This will be the pattern for the coming year and beyond. Expect rapid dislocations.

    Last comment, loved the use of the word farkakta. A perfect adjective for more than just the Chinese banking system

  18. bukowskisghost January 2, 2017 at 9:30 am #

    Well thanks Jim. I don’t have to heat my house this winter as there is enough hot and angry air in your forecast to keep me toasty warm until we all go to hell.

  19. johngalt January 2, 2017 at 9:40 am #

    In the New Republic, members enjoy resuming the restoration of the Constitutional republic from JFK’s point of interruption, can see for miles and miles, and enjoy Liberty in building out properties and the local means of production, with the capability to sow, nurture, grow, harvest, store, cook, engineer, design, program, automate, construct, process, raise, teach, hunt, defend, provide, debate, organize, compose, worship, dance, laugh, love, celebrate, and sustain.

    We are the sheepdogs.
    And we are old fashioned and sentimental.
    And we don’t require others for border protection or building bridges.
    And we have undying love and devotion to the Constitution.
    And we belong to the longest serving Civil Rights organization in the Republic.
    And we are happy to participate in the proper pursuit and offering of due process under the Constitution to the NETWORK globalist class charlatans who sold out the old republic in their lust for power and the love of money.
    And we are ready for what’s next.
    Sent from the New Republic.

    http://www.got-truth.com

  20. AKlein January 2, 2017 at 10:00 am #

    “The American lifestyle is not negotiable.”
    Get with the program, JHK.
    Leadership has spoken on this. You haven’t been paying attention.

    Happy New Year, nevertheless.

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  21. Ishabaka January 2, 2017 at 10:27 am #

    Things that cannot go on forever don’t. That includes Western governments ( and the Japanese government) that spend more than they take in.
    That being said, things that cannot go on forever often go on much longer than one would have suspected. Not convinced 2017 will be “The year the wheels fall off”.
    Couldn’t hurt though, to have a little cash in hand, and precious metals in case we do go full-Venezuela.

  22. PostPeakRancher January 2, 2017 at 10:47 am #

    Great forecast Jim.

    I would add that the Victimology of America is widespread across all segments of society, not just the Dem/Progs. For example, the Christian rightwing constantly plays the victim, under siege from secularism, feminism, etc.

    As for Russia, most people seem to forget that 8 years ago PEOTUS Obama was all cordial and nice to Russia and pledged to “press the reset button” after all the sour relations from the Bush administration.

    The Bush administration pushed NATO allies to take on the new missile defense systems aimed to neutralize Russian nuke arsenal all the while claiming it was to protect Europe from non-existent Iranian nuke missiles. Russia didn’t take it well. Bush admin continued to make moves to isolate and surround Russia. Obama got elected, pushed a ruse of “reset” and continued the NeoCon policy of Russian containment.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a big U-turn from Trump in regards to Russian relations. The wild card is all the debt Trump owes to Russian banks. Putin may think he has Trump by the balls b/c of this. That may play out in wild and unpredictable ways.

    Anyway you slice it 2017 will be an interesting year: more breakdowns, more chaos, more decline. On the bright side, I’m hoping for a strong, healthy crop of calves this spring, good hay harvest, a good honey harvest and a good harvest from the garden.

    I hope you have a great year, Jim. I’m looking forward to your blog posts and podcasts. I’m also hoping that you may surprise us all with a new novel soon. I loved the World Made By Hand series.

    Cheers!

    Post Peak Rancher

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:34 pm #

      the new boss and his cabinet will make money with putin

      • PostPeakRancher January 3, 2017 at 9:34 am #

        I think that is a very likely outcome. Unless Congress causes the Trump administration grief over warming up to Russia.

        I also think it could sour if Putin starts pushing his advantage too hard and Trump decides enough is enough. Putin could start demanding things like removing excess NATO forces from Eastern Europe or removing the missile defense shield. Trump could balk at that. Or if he did try and go along with it he may face massive opposition from within his administration (Pentagon) and in Congress that may cause all sorts of issues.

        Anyway you slice it, the next 4 years are going to be very interesting.

        • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 7:43 pm #

          “money talks, NOBODY walks”

          – Moe Ginsberg

  23. malthuss January 2, 2017 at 10:53 am #

    As the late, great Senator Everett Dirkson (R-Ill) once pungently remarked: “…a billion here, a billion there, sooner or later you’re talking about real money.”

    I have seen the quote attributed to a Fidelity Funds manager.

    Can the interest payments on USA debt be made? I guess at .5%, yes.

  24. Beryl of Oyl January 2, 2017 at 11:03 am #

    An added plus of the effort to ban cash, is that by taking away the means to shop by mail from those who still use cash, you also get to take away the post office, and our remaining means of untraceable communication.
    I’ve noticed for a while now, the Amazon workers using the USPS vehicles on Sundays. I believe the reason, one reason, for the government to take away the more affordable shipping option for overseas mail, is to force the consumers into using the electronic shopping option for the particular country you wish to ship to, which would most likely be Amazon.
    This administration in particular likes to reward the corporations which do its bidding relating to social issues/politics. I notice Amazon had a nice little heartwarming ‘commercial’ out there, with two clerics, one Catholic and one Muslim, learning to get along or something. Amazon is going to soon be sending drones throughout your neighborhood, I wonder if we will get a heads up in order to make sure our kids and pets are safely indoors, or will we just wait for someone to be killed by one of those things. Then we can see our feeble politicians spring into action to save us from yet another danger they created. Probably require Amazon to do a PSA about the importance of looking up at all times.
    Speaking of dangers they created, just how desperate will the people responsible for Syria/Aleppo become, as they know what they’ve done is going to be exposed. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t be able to put shattered legacies back together again.

    • lsjogren January 2, 2017 at 11:45 am #

      Yeah that was a cute little propaganda piece about the nice Imam getting the Christian pastor a set of kneepads for Christmas.

      Clearly the progressive corporate establishment have about as sophisticated a notion of global issues as some airhead with a “coexist” bumper sticker on their car.

      Lest I be misunderstood, I should make it clear that I believe there is such a thing as islamophobia (albeit far less widespread than the left would have us believe), but any rational person is going to have a more nuanced view of Islam than islamophobia or the much more dangerous opposite (because of its much greater prevalence), islamophilia.

    • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 4:59 pm #

      Bezos is the enemy.

      two clerics, one Catholic and one Muslim, learning to get along or something. —yes, I saw that sh–.

      JHK—-have you seen?
      https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-drones-meet-your-mothership/

  25. AHtheHumanity January 2, 2017 at 11:14 am #

    Wow..Kunstler is the first journalist/reporter of the mass mall hysterics to fearlessly and unashamedly describe the youth directly involved as black. Wow. Violent young black mobs across America. What are they angry about? Who organised them? Where are the individual interviews/background checks? Why are we only seeing the scared black women in interviews? Why are they scared of their own group? Why was she there and what does she know about the network of youth? Are adults really that out of touch with their minors? No parents were shopping that day? Give me a fucking break mass media!

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    • TravisT January 2, 2017 at 4:24 pm #

      They weren’t rampaging, they were at Barnes and Noble, pre-ordering Rachel Dolezal’s new book.

      • AHtheHumanity January 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm #

        I’ll have another cocktail please…

        Pewdiepie of Youtube fame self identifies as English. As soon as he could afford to (2011), he left Sweden for Italy, then Britain and regularly associates with American Youtubers and fanbase in ONLY English. He has been kicked out of two apartments for being too loud and one of his former landlords called him a faggot while he was still filming. Yet, he is determined to stay in Britain and has recently acquired a very expensive office suite encompassing two floors of a building. He will not move to Los Angeles like most celebrities because he never wanted to be a celebrity, he only wants the freedom to have fun while making a living. A recent vlog of him working with his girlfriend in LA revealed how difficult it was to go about daily tasks outside his temporary residence because of how many people recognized him on the street and leave packages on his doorstep for him to open on camera. 24/7 security was provided by Youtubes production company and Felix (aka pewdiepie) was discouraged by them to film their operations and personnel.

        If I had a great, great, great grandfather who was black…would that disqualify me from declaring white on my application and OH BTW…declaring ones race on any application is OPTIONAL. However, I can see the conflicts of interest when applying for a scholarship or job created to primarily promote and help black people or people of color or mixed race or however the hell you want to be identified. Does it make the NAACP feel better or Rachel’s parents feel morally superior now that she has been relegated to professional hairdresser as opposed to the leader of a movement in civil rights? Oh…excuse me…she has to be colored and deacon of a church to hold that level of esteem and moral fortitude.

        What were we talking about again? Rampaging youth…rampaging black youth…rampaging privileged black youth with the new samsung smartphone they just bought at the mall after their parents dropped them off for a few hours in order to do what?

  26. George January 2, 2017 at 11:25 am #

    Farkakte!? Yiddish word that means simultaneously crazy, screwed up, gone bad and the only word that will do. Thanks James, I learned a new word today!

    • Q. Shtik January 2, 2017 at 12:06 pm #

      Thanks James, I learned a new word today! – George

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

      I also liked the new coinage Trumpenlumpenprole.

  27. lsjogren January 2, 2017 at 11:36 am #

    Hey guys, Portugal sounds really nice, I just hope you guys realize that what you are talking about is akin to what quaint little bistro might it be pleasant to hang out at sipping lattes until the apocalypse hits.

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:37 pm #

      “apocalypse”

      not There’s a Forecast!

  28. retired guy January 2, 2017 at 12:25 pm #

    Jim; A terrific forecast. You are right on target, as usual. I can understand how the average person is so caught up in their daily life that they are unaware of how our presence in the “Hydro Carbon” age is truly a temporary thing. But… How can the so called leaders and intellectuals be so ignorant. I can’t believe they are knowledgeable about our precarious situation. They seem to exhibit no signs of concern or worry or fear about our future. (And, I’m not talking about only the people living in the United States. I’m including all the citizens of the world.)

    For instance, I don’t recall any mention of “peak oil” or “peak rare earth minerals”, etc during the primary and general election cycle. I never seem to see those terms mentioned by foreign leaders either. Surely they can’t all be playing, “let’s pretend”. I’m afraid when the collapse comes, it’s going to be quick, devastating, and a surprise to just about everyone. There are scary times ahead. But hey, maybe we’re wrong, Jim. After all the unemployment rate in the USA is down to 4.6%

  29. Q. Shtik January 2, 2017 at 12:25 pm #

    Jim’s essay contained all sorts of forecasts for the coming year but the two most specific, that I made special note of, were:

    . S&P down 20% in the first qtr of 2017 beginning tomorrow, 1/3/17, and an even bigger crash later in the year.

    . Breakup of the EU “by this date next year” (1/1/18).

  30. MDG January 2, 2017 at 12:35 pm #

    “But, not to get to baroque about it, consider the impressive trail of dead bodies said to be left in the wake of Bill and Hillary.”
    It’s also been said that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre is a hoax.
    Please cite some credible sources for your not-too-baroque utterance, Mr. Kunstler.

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  31. Ishabaka January 2, 2017 at 12:45 pm #

    If you’re really worried about collapse, consider this – in the tropics, temperatures are relatively constant. At an altitude of 5,000 feet in the tropics, temperatures will range from high 60s to low 80s year round – and fruits and vegetables tend to grow really well.

    • Bro Jobe January 2, 2017 at 1:27 pm #

      At times like these, a palm-frond hut does sound magical, though I hate losing modern medicine and putting myself into the hands of those not governed by the rule of law.

      Of course, after a collapse, rule of law will be intensely local, anyhow.

  32. Bro Jobe January 2, 2017 at 1:21 pm #

    It’s bad here. It’s going to get worse in 2017. But I differ with JHK’s sense of timing. Still, even at Bloomberg the “Pessimist’s Guide” to 2017 sounds as if it were written here at CFN.

    If you want a preview of something that will ripple through the EU and across the Atlantic, watch Turkey. I have traveled there on business a few times, having a great time but also noting the tensions so visible in Anatolia’s more conservative cities and at the edges of life in Ankara and Istanbul.

    Right now, as a Turkish secular academic put it, “the intellectuals and artists are all trying to get out.” That’s a bad sign of things to come. When Turkey falls into chaos, look for the Balkans to militarize their borders even more and the refugee crisis to intensify as Turks join the Syrians and Iraqis and Libyans trying to get the hell out (with some radicals sprinkled in among the suffering civilians).

    Then you will see the EU splinter over the issue of border controls. And it will re-militarize; one wonders which way Germany may go in such a future.

    Smells like WW III to me.

    • BackRowHeckler January 2, 2017 at 1:46 pm #

      in TLE a dozen years ago Jim suggests that sometime in the foreseeable future Germany will rearm and remilitarize again, and wonders also what it will mean for the balance of power in the world.

      brh

      • Bro Jobe January 2, 2017 at 1:53 pm #

        Turkey also has a large, modern, and well-trained military. they have a good native industrial base, including heavy machinery and weapons. They can grab oil in Northern Iraq.

        If the country goes into civil war or Erdogan becomes an imperialist, Turkey could, in JHK’s words, cause a lot of “mischief.”

        Mostly it would be directed at the Levant and the Kurds, but I’d not rule out Cyprus and Greece, either, if an Islamic government wants to settle old grudges. Then there is the old rivalry with Persia.

        Yikes. What a mess we are facing.

  33. elysianfield January 2, 2017 at 1:53 pm #

    Mr Kunstler,
    Bravo. Thank you for your effort in this gift to your readership. We certainly live in interesting times. You, I and others of our vintage have reaped the untoward benefits of the oil culture…we have lived reasonably well.

    A small honorarium to follow.

  34. charlesbasak January 2, 2017 at 1:54 pm #

    Happy 2017 everyone? In a year shrouded in mystery by among other things, the pulling and tugging of the oligarchs—instead of a prediction I offer a creation:

    https://subversesjournal.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/a-new-year-a-new-day-for-a-32-of-may/

    A “new day” for humans in this late hour, perhaps, not a very good work of poetry, but it rhymes and that’s what’s important! Really doing such a thing is very symbolic (rather than substantive), but so are money/religion, and those make us do all kinds of destructive things. So perhaps we can do some regenerative things with this new day (and new year), as we harvest legitimacy for ourselves instead of freely doling it out to lackluster politicians.
    Peace and solidarity to you all!

  35. MrFreeze January 2, 2017 at 2:28 pm #

    I have been living and working in Italy for almost 3 years. As you can imagine, I have been watching U.S. history unfold from a distance (thankfully), and I have some thoughts as a happy (and I believe fortunate) expat:
    1) My Italian friends and colleagues have seen this movie before in the form of Silvio Berlusconi. They are not engaged in any schadenfreude regarding the election of Mr. Trump. They know here probably better than anywhere how alluring a rich, con-man can be and how willing people are to believe in magical thinking. I predict that Mr. Trump’s honeymoon will be over very quickly. Even though Congress is now in the hands of the republicans, Trump will not want to play by the rules. He and congress are headed for some huge confrontations.
    2) Living overseas gives one a far deeper understanding of the affects of globalization. Most of the supposed angry white people in the U.S. have been living in a fantasy world for a long time. This is why it was so easy to sell the idea that all those jobs are coming back. The sad truth is, if Americans are dissatisfied with their situation, they have no one to blame but themselves. Most of the country is now solidly run by conservative, republican politicians and they are in office because people vote for them. Nothing like voting against your own self interest!
    3) Chances are, once Mr. Trump and Congress can’t put together a viable economic plan, the U.S. will end up picking a fight with Iran or some other country and, as usual, the new job program will be the Military Welfare Complex. Nothing stimulates the economy more than a good old war or two.
    4) I have a sinking feeling that there will be some very ugly trouble in the U.S. There are too many people with guns. There are too many militarized police departments. There are too many animosities among Americans (of all different backgrounds). It’s a powder keg just waiting to explode.
    5) With a leader who is clearly a capricious, lying, tax-cheat at the helm, I wonder what new (low) standards will be set for the country’s values. I foresee a total lack of accountability at the highest levels of government that will trickle down to every day life. It’s going to be an “anything goes” world.
    I know, I know, you’re thinking, “Italy is pretty fucked-up,” and, indeed, Italy has some of its own problems. What I can say is this: Regular Italians are not living with mountains of personal debt. They live far more frugal (and I believe realistic) lifestyles. As Jim mentioned in this piece, towns are set up for people to live without depending on their cars so much. Their houses are smaller. They aren’t living in the hyper-consumeristic whirlwind of the American “dream.” They are, for the most part, happier with less.
    In the end, I hope that Mr. Trump doesn’t help destroy the best parts of the New Deal, but I fear that greed and a lack of empathy will conquer all in the years to come.
    Cheers and Happy New Year!!! Buon Anno!!!!!

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 2:55 pm #

      The Italian Coast Guard is now ferrying Black Africans in. Unless a new Mussolini rises to Power, Italy has no future.

      Unless and until the West is comfortable with Africans drowning at sea, they simply haven’t the Life Force to survive.

    • TravisT January 2, 2017 at 4:38 pm #

      You may have noticed the USA has been at war the past 15 years; thousands of economies have been stimulated, all located within 50 miles of Washington DC.

      Let me help you out: nothing like voting against your self-interest by voting Republican OR Democrat.

      Something ugly is gonna happen in the US? Yeah, it’s called Tuesday.

    • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 5:05 pm #

      2) Living overseas gives one a far deeper understanding of the affects of globalization.

      Living in Italy should give you a sense of the Black population explosion.

      Good luck.

      How did things [or thugs] go for Ms Karcher?

    • BackRowHeckler January 2, 2017 at 9:19 pm #

      Hey Mr. Freeze any ‘ugly trouble’ coming in Italy?

      What we’re seeing here is hundreds of thousands of Muslim ‘refugees’ washing up on the Italian coast, not only from the ME but from deepest darkest Africa.

      don’t be too smug there, Mr. Freeze. At some point soon you’ll wish you had some of our guns. I’m wondering how much longer Vatican City will go unscathed? We’re also reading Italian women are afraid to show their faces on the streets of Italian cities. Sounds great! Good luck dealing with your Muzzies, Mr. Freeze; Hundreds of thousands have arrived and perhaps millions more are on the way … and every one of them want what you got. It doesn’t sound like they’ll have much trouble wresting it from the likes of you.

      brh

      • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 11:46 pm #

        RELIGIOUS STATUES BEHEADED.

        • BackRowHeckler January 3, 2017 at 12:17 am #

          That’s step 1.

          Step 2 is CHRISTIANS BEHEADED.

          brh

          • bibliomaniac January 8, 2017 at 9:37 am #

            “There was only one Christian, and they caught him, and crucified him—-early.” Mark Twain

      • MrFreeze January 3, 2017 at 3:21 am #

        As I read your comment, I couldn’t help but think of how nice it is to be away from quarrelsome, low-information Americans. Everything in the States seems to boil down to a) some kind of racist rant designed to attack “political correctness” or, b) macho American exceptionalism wrapped in the flag and sprinkled with gun powder.

        At least people can go to the theater or out in the piazzas or send kids to school here without wondering if some hillbilly, “lone wolf” domestically grown nut won’t start blasting away. I suspect you’re going to see a lot more of this in the near future. If not that, it will be your own militarized police that will do all the dirty work.

        Hey, I sincerely wish you luck there in the United Chamber of Commerce of States.

        • BackRowHeckler January 3, 2017 at 4:42 am #

          Ok then Mr Freeze. When you’re strolling thru the piazza headed to see Moliere at the theatre, watch out for lone wolf muzzies driving big trucks. They seem to like running them into people like yourself, not a ‘low information American, but a sagacious, wise, worldly high information ex-patriate.

          brh

        • michael January 3, 2017 at 8:15 am #

          @FrozenMr

          The total energy of a system determines the possibilites of its evolution.
          Europe is a now a region of low energy – its Life Force drained away, spent.

          We can see that in many ways but maybe the most convincing is the declining birth rate.
          Despite all the socialism and desperate measures of governments to counter this trend
          people feel unable to raise a family. But people raise families in places like the
          Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela and other,
          seemingly more challenging, places.

          How about scientific advances. From being the source of the overwhelming majority of scientific discoveries
          (Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism, relativity theory, quantum mechanics) now we are at best an also ran
          on a downward trajectory.

          Let’s see how Europe is now faring in the (annual) International Mathematical Olympiad (high school students).
          Here are selected rankings of the last 5 years:

          USA: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3
          China: 3, 2, 1, 1, 2
          KOR: 2, 3, 7, 2, 1
          CAN: 12, 9, 9, 11, 5
          GER: 19, 27, 16, 27, 31
          ITA: 15, 29, 26, 20, 38
          UK: 7, 22, 20, 9, 22
          FRA: 25, 14, 45, 21, 38
          Spain: 49, 72, 48, 59, 60

          But how is this possible if European high schools are so much better
          and safer than those in the US?

          We must conclude that the quality of the human being itself has deteriorated
          by going into a low energy state of reduced ambitions, contracting radius of activity,
          shrinking horizons and declining hopes.

          Of course that is exactly what this website advocates as a desirable end state.
          It is presented as (a possibly unfortunate) condition forced upon us by reduced
          energy sources. But below it all is a desire to reach this seemingly more humane
          existence where objectionable mass manufacturing, canned industrial design and
          the unending din of sales pitches is replaced with quiet moments of fulfilling
          individual creative acts such as sharpening your own personal and individualized
          stick with a knife artefact or a shard of flint stone or drilling through a polished
          axe head of stone by means of a rotating stick and drilling sand.

          That is why the meme of energy scarcity is maintained despite all evidence to the
          contrary.

          • MrFreeze January 4, 2017 at 12:17 pm #

            “Europe is now a region of low energy.”
            Nothing “low-energy” about the region where I live. People are procreating. I would argue that the family structure in Italy is as strong if not stronger than than in the U.S. Families here are smaller because people know their limitations. (can’t say that about most of the world). Many of my friends and colleagues are scientists and engineers (very smart folk). The basic home kitchen here produces better food than good restaurants in the U.S. (or anywhere for that matter). There is universal health care access ( here it’s considered a right and we all pay into the system). People here walk more, ride their bikes more, engage with each other nightly in the streets and participate in festivals that date back hundreds (some over a thousand) years.
            You seem to be confusing the frantic, frenetic and frivolous for “energy.” The pace of life here is quite balanced.

            In my original comment, I was quite clear that Italy has problems. All countries do. Then, of course the low-informational responses started (Muslim bashing, “black Africans…waves of murderers and statue decapitators, etc.). The usual “exceptional America” nonsense that people in the U.S. feed themselves from propaganda radio, TV and now the Internet.

            It’s interesting that many of the things that Jim Kunstler talks about here on this blog, especially a longing for more sustainable, tighter communities exists here in Italy (I’d argue in a lot of Europe). My friends and colleagues often wonder why Americans are so angry. “What have they got to be angry about?” is a constant question.

            So, allow me to say again that I wish all of you in my former country the best of luck. I hope you have an opportunity to see the world for yourselves rather than make things up here on the Internet.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 3:44 pm #

            So you’re in favor of mass Muslim immigration? How does that contribute to the balance? And you think they aren’t raping and murdering? That’s shows you’ve very out of touch with things and are in fact, a Fool who doesn’t understand limits, be they Italy’s or his own.

  36. Mike Patrick January 2, 2017 at 2:44 pm #

    Good analysis on Russia. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is probably the real leader on the world stage. He never raises his voice and despite all the western antagonism, diplomatically refers to the West and Japan as “our partners.”

    There is a power struggle in Russia between the Eurasians and the Atlanticists, the latter of which are holdovers from the disastrous western “management” [rape] of the Russian economy of the 1990’s. Putin is purging these individuals.

    Western bungling has driven China and Russia into each others’ arms. The West’s senseless antagonism toward Moscow has violated Sir Halford John Mackinder’s rule of never allowing hostile powers to consolidate their control of the “World Island,” i.e. Eurasia. Neocon hubris has resulted in the economic integration of Russia and China, which would have been unthinkable a couple of decades ago. The rapidly growing trade completely outside the US dollar system in rubles and renimbi drives the Western financial institutions nuts, because it is likely the beginning of the end for dollar hegemony. This is the real reason behind the Western MSM hostility towards Russia. It is the US and EU’s own fault that their irresponsible actions have created « une cause commune » between China and Russia.

    • ozone January 3, 2017 at 10:15 am #

      Mike,
      That’s some clear thinking about real cause-and-effect. (…And generally shouted down by paid provocateurs here.)
      The Chinese and Russians have proven themselves to be long-term thinkers, which is clearly to their benefit. Hubristic American hegemons? Umm, not so much. (The term, “reactionary” seems to fit well though.)

    • bibliomaniac January 3, 2017 at 8:21 pm #

      You got it, Mike. Trump is playing checkers. Putin is playing chess.

  37. Snowdenisahero January 2, 2017 at 2:44 pm #

    Howard – of course you are correct that we are out of cheap to extract oil and BAU is in final death throes because of it.

    But did you ever consider that the desperate acts of the Fed were meant to extend BAU for as long as possible — rather than acts of incompetence, venality and/or stupidity?

    Did you ever consider that the reason that nobody has been prosecuted is because they were simply loosely following edicts from above?

    For instance – we are all aware of Liar Loans — do you really believe that the Fed and regulators did not know this was going on?

    They obviously were — yet they allowed it — knowing full well that this would result in total calamity at some point.

    As we know all the same practices that caused the 2008 crash including subprime everything — are back in play – and then some

    The central banks are loaning billions to insolvent companies to keep them alive.

    The PBOC in fact threatened short sellers with jail last year

    The list goes on.

    ‘Whatever it takes’ means ‘Whatever takes to keep civilization going for a day – a month – a year longer’

    That is the big picture – that is why the Fed is doing what it is doing.

    Rather than mocking them — I would suggest we applaud them — these policies are the only things between us and the abyss.

    And without them — we would not be here discussing this now

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:44 pm #

      “Rather than mocking them — I would suggest we applaud them — these policies are the only things between us and the abyss.

      And without them — we would not be here discussing this now”

      Extend & Pretend and Foaming the Runway only made correction impossible

  38. dweebus January 2, 2017 at 2:57 pm #

    JHK-

    Good essay, definately food for thought. I suspect you are entirely right on the gist of your predictions, just off on your timeline. I suspect that Greer has it about right- things that got worse in 2015 will continue to get worse in 2016. The same can be said for 2017.

    That doesn’t mean that a sudden shock in bonds/derivatives or other obscure instruments couldn’t be a tipping point, a phase change, a sudden non-linear discontinuity, I just feel the odds are against it.

    3 – 1 that BAU continues for another year.

    As far as the Progs demise, well, it depends who wins the fight within the DNC. The Sanders wing never really signed on to the identity bandwagon. The little socialists were more concerned with universal health care, universal education, banking reform, campaign finance, and so on than they were with BLM and transpotty problems.

    It was HRC who latched onto the social stuff and ignored the working class, to her demise.

    Can someone merge the necessary elements of social justice (criminal justice reform and equal protection under the law for example) with economic reform (reinstating Glass-Steagle and a indexed to inflation 15/hr min wage, trade reform)? Golly, we shall see. If not, a Dem party as a permanent minority leading to implosion is not out of the question.

    Someone mentioned clean coal. Ain’t gonna happen. Particularly when CCS uses 40% of the energy in the coal.

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:45 pm #

      “BAU continues for another year.”

      BAU won’t continue for a day

  39. Walter B January 2, 2017 at 3:06 pm #

    Wow James that was a lot of work, thank you. You helped to fill the void in my life that appeared once I finished the Harrow’s Of Spring last week. I must confess to now be suffering from a still great appetite for more, wink, wink. You have wrapped up the entire world scene well here today, and while more simple fellows might cry “wall of text” I found it all very much enjoyable.

    Your assessments of unemployment, specifically underemployment are exactly accurate from my personal experience at least. in 2007 I too became a victim of the decreasing wage pool, losing my 6 figure position, being compelled to accept a replacement job at half that rate subsequently. This was followed by downsized unemployment and than finally a part time job for $15k as the best that could be mustered. Sound catastrophic and cash management planning allowed me to make it through unscathed until last May when I reached 62 and was able to start collecting the money taken from me against my will for the last 45 years by our buddies at the SS Administration. I know far too many younger folks all around me here in the “wealthiest” country in NJ that are far worse off and unfortunately far younger with poor finances to keep going much longer. The future, both short and long term holds, little to NO hope for jobs, careers and income of sufficient size to be able to avoid the oncoming Third World Lifestyle for the Average Joe.

    Yes our governments have seen it all coming and have squandered all of their income and more creating duplicity for profit and profit for COG preparations instead of changing the course of the doomed ship of state. They have left the rest of us to fend for ourselves as the last rodents huddled at the stern of the Titanic did so long ago.
    I would argue with you that the true and primary function of the Federal Reserve was and remains as the control mechanism for the wealthy world bankers to be able to own de facto the governments to whom they are attached. A back door for the looters, robbers, and serious thieves to reach into the vaults of common stored value to allow them to take our lives and our futures, remove the current and the future values and lie back and assume the worthless, parasitic, lie there, feed and fornicate lifestyles of the truly rich and infamous. After all, none of them really possess any marketable skills or values of their own you know. Unfortunately for us all, in the end the parasites kill the host and lacking new healthy hosts on which to feed certainly perish as well. There will at least be some justice in that I think.

    Lastly I agree wholeheartedly with your feelings on Vladimir Putin. He is an EXCELLENT Czar, one of the finest and most benevolent IMHO, ruling a nation that is happy to be so ruled. He would not make a very good American president, but then there are probably not any men here that would do so either. Eventually every nation ruled by shit becomes shit. THAT is my prognostication for what lies ahead, even though I am happier to NOT have to be in a position to soon be ruled by the Murdering Scum Clinton Crime Family once again. We can only pray that the King and Queen of Trailer Trash are nowhere to be found four years from now. Above all I applaud your statement that 2017 will be a PIVOTAL year – absofriggentively my friend, how can it be anything less?

    Happy New Year.

    • sprawlcapital January 2, 2017 at 11:38 pm #

      Walter wrote– absofriggentively

      I have been known to say something similar, sort of a pig-Latin anagram: absoluckingfutely.

      As to the Social Security retirement benefits that some of us are collecting (in my case while I continue working), we earned every penny of it. SS is a forced savings plan, and I think it’s a very good thing.

      Happy New Year!

  40. dweebus January 2, 2017 at 3:36 pm #

    Oh, and as to potential civil war, armed insurrection – the war on cash and bail-ins would be a fine way to get that started. Yet again, it may happen later than folks suspect.

    But I don’t think it will shake out quite the way people believe. A race war or a regional war (North vs. South) seems unlikely to me.

    I suspect it will be very class oriented. Urban blacks, mexican chicken cutters and poor white trash have far more in common than seperates them. It will be the Banksters and hip Googlers and roboticists (Elon Musk) that end up dangling from the proverbial lamp posts.

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    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 3:54 pm #

      Trump picks Elon Musk for advisory committee http://www.autoblog.com/2016/12/14/donald-trump-elon-musk-advisory-committee/

      …and you’re thinkin’ that your President-elect is all about the “Urban blacks, mexican chicken cutters and poor white trash”?

      hope he doesn’t let you down too hard

      • dweebus January 2, 2017 at 10:41 pm #

        My president elect? Nah, noot so much. I didn’t vote for the silly sheister. There ain’t much he can do anyway, things are too far gone…

    • TravisT January 2, 2017 at 4:47 pm #

      They do? Do you by chance teach?

      • dweebus January 2, 2017 at 10:42 pm #

        Economically, yes they do . Nope.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 5:40 pm #

      Do you call poor Blacks and Mexicans trash? Do you see what we loathe you? Because you loathed us first.

      Trump once fired a guy from Celebrity Apprentice who referred to himself as White Trash – and it’s one of the reasons I voted for him.

  41. FincaInTheMountains January 2, 2017 at 4:21 pm #

    This era that historians of the future will call the era of Hillary Clinton, with the help of God is sent to the dustbin of history.

    Although the New 2017 Year humanity celebrates with Bastinda, still occupying the White House, but due to the prayers of millions of people her days are numbered, her deeds are weighed, and all the nastiness and wickedness that she hurries to make at the last bell, are trifles in comparison with her plans, the symbol of which has become a red button labeled “Overload”, that she presented Minister Lavrov with instead of the “Reset” of Barack Obama.

    And no matter how horrible were the last days of this age, they still do not go to any comparison with the Year of the Red Fire Rooster (according to Chinese calendar), which inevitably 2017 would have become if she became president.

    https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/new-year-fire-rooster-chinese-calendar-numbers-individual-creative-performance-color-blurred-background-74137512.jpg

    And he best guarantee of that are the Russian nuclear submarines, which, according to tradition established in recent years, are being transferred to the Russian Navy on the New Year Eve, sometimes even on 31 of December. This year the Navy received the APL Moscow following the successful completion of the tests on December 23, and it is possible that in the remaining hours of 2016 the fleet was handed over after a very significant modernization the APL K-44 “Ryazan”.

    And overall, since the beginning of various Ukrainians and Arab Springs, Russia put on combat duty 12 new Nuclear Submarines, plus the Status 6 system.

    The latter is very important, since in 2006 the magazine «Foreign Affairs» published an article The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy, the essence of which is that the United States at that time had the ability to launch a first disarming strike against Russia. And the Russian leadership should have discovered this strike only after all the charges of US missiles will explode on the launch pads of Russian rockets and retaliatory counter-strike of the few surviving missiles will be intercepted by a European missile defense system.

    This article was perceived as a threat by the Kremlin, which is not surprising when you consider that this kind of threats is prohibited by the UN Charter. There is little doubt that this article was written under the influence of a candidate for the US presidency, Hillary Clinton, as she any contract or statute perceives as a challenge that must be overcome or circumvented by means of one or other intellectual somersault.

    However, then the Higher Power intervened in the story directly by sending on US hurricane “Sandy”, which flooded New York and New Jersey and “chosen” for US President Barack Obama for the second term.

    And Barack Obama is a religious person and such hints of Higher Powers regards with utmost respect. He began his second term with the dismissal of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from his Administration, and then refused to allow a no-fly zone in Syria.

    And while she organized a coup d’etat, Donald Trump suddenly realized his true call, and Russia largely restored parity in nuclear arms, which is also a kind of miracle that has no precedent in history.

    So now all her assistants will have to go through a job-training process, and Bastinda will become just an old woman Shapoklyak.

    Also not a gift, but still better than the Lady of the Flying Monkeys with nuclear grenades in both hands.

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZevjVkZEulw/hqdefault.jpg

    • amb January 2, 2017 at 5:08 pm #

      1) I’m afraid that, like most, JHK does not understand our current monetary, fiscal, financial and banking systems in this country. Nor does he understand how the Federal Reserve actually operates and interfaces with the US Treasury. This old “gold standard” mindset about fiat money, debt, spending, hyper-inflation, etc. is totally an unworkable and irrelevant point from which to view economics today. Jim I suggest you read Michael Hudson and also some of the top MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) people today for a re-education and modernization of your economic thinking.

      2) Jim has also lost his faith in the genius, innovation, creativity and general magic of human beings. Save some natural planetary disaster, or a world wide nuclear war, we will not go down so quickly, nor go out with a whimper. We have a lot of resources on many levels to extend the survival of mankind.

      3) No need for the doom and gloom, as it only enervates the spirit and distracts us from our focus of living, predicting consequences, solving problems, etc. (Many inroads are being made daily in so many areas of life that will continue to improve conditions.)

      4) Yes, it is a crazy planet with all sorts of nonsense in motion. Yet, it has always been so and it has always been that the world has been carried on the shoulders of the few–and it will always remain so.

      Yes, we have booms and busts, depressions, wars, droughts, disease, etc. Yet… we’re still here.

      Happy Holidays and a healthy and prosperous 2017 to all. Make your own economy, make your own life and don’t go into agreement with the merchants of chaos. The people are more powerful than any government or globalist cabal could ever hope to be. We are the Family of Man.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 2, 2017 at 5:12 pm #

        Amen to that!

        • RB January 2, 2017 at 5:24 pm #

          This country endured 4 years of a civil war and one on a horrendous scale in terms of killed, wounded, maimed and long term consequences which remain today. A generation or 2 of young men were wiped out. A large part of the national economy, the south, was crushed and the currency of that “almost a country” was erased. Yet, here we are still enduring. With very minute exceptions, the population lives well. We give poor people phones. We give them food. We give them cheap public housing. We give and give. If so many are out of work how do they live? Without a doubt something(s) awful can occur and will. We are long overdue for a nuclear power plant disaster, for a disease outbreak e.g. spanish flu, for an accidental but catastrophic war and of course an individual is subject to the catastrophies offered by the daily social interaction with psychopaths and drug/booze addicts or the run of the mill idiot using a smart phone. Such disasters are part of the human condition. Perhaps everything that Mr. Kunstler predicts will come to pass. The nation will go on perhaps limping but it will go on.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 5:45 pm #

            How similar the Whites of the North and South were – yet they could not get along. Ditto the Flemish and the Walloons, and the British and the Quebecois. Yet you think we can get along with Muslims, Hispanics, and Blacks – all of which have deep grudges against us? How about once we become a minority?

            You’re not thinking it through. Where is Yugoslavia now? Can you find it on a map? The Land is still there, yes, but not “Yugoslavia”. Race, Religion, Ethnicity, Culture – any one of them can do it. Each of the above groups are twofers at least.

          • amb January 2, 2017 at 9:37 pm #

            Right. And if we kept a log of all of these doomsayers’ predictions over the last 10 years and published it, 99% of them would have zero credibility now.

      • malthuss January 2, 2017 at 11:38 pm #

        2) Jim has also lost his faith in the genius, innovation, creativity and general magic of human beings. /

        A joke. Only White Males move civilization forward.

      • Cavepainter January 3, 2017 at 10:16 am #

        OMG, such platitudinous BS, the same “up beat” delusional non-think that has allowed humanity to waltz into its current — maybe inextricable — dilemma.

      • ozone January 3, 2017 at 10:26 am #

        “3) No need for the doom and gloom, as it only enervates the spirit and distracts us from our focus of living, predicting consequences, solving problems, etc. (Many inroads are being made daily in so many areas of life that will continue to improve conditions.) ”

        Sorry, amb, I have to call bullshit on that. Unrealistic optimism, leading in turn to complacency and lazy-mindedness, has gotten us into the fix we’re in now. Only looking clearly at predicaments that might lead to extinction leads to “predicting consequences, solving problems, etc.”
        I truly feel you’ve got this part *exactly* the wrong way ’round.
        Howsomever… Cheers!

  42. QQQBall January 2, 2017 at 5:25 pm #

    Great read. Thanks

  43. Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 5:56 pm #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/new-italian-government-says-it-wants-mass-deportations-of-half-a-million-invasives/

    I said it and then it happens. Or more likely, it happened and subconscious picked up on it before it was announced. I didn’t make it happen. Only Danny talks that way.

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 6:43 pm #

      “I didn’t make it happen. Only Danny talks that way.”

      i totally agree

      you have probably NEVER made anything happen.

      spending your life blaming others for your do-nothing life

      • Janos Skorenzy January 2, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

        “The Wise see action in inaction and inaction in action.” Bhagavad Gita.

        You’re a tool, Dan. Try and be a good one. Stop pretending that when it rains, you’re the one doing it.

        • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 9:36 pm #

          “Stop pretending that when it rains, you’re the one doing it.”

          only you could blame a person for some fucked-up shit you imagined.

          that’s delusion

  44. dolph9 January 2, 2017 at 7:33 pm #

    A few predictions:
    1) Trump won’t change anything at all in 2017 much less further on, and will be wildly unpopular…though that won’t affect the political divisions in the country

    2) There will be no great financial crash, but more lies, obfuscation, and life support

    3) Not much changes in our world until the 2020-2030 period, and even then the most drastic changes will still be in the future

    • janet January 2, 2017 at 8:20 pm #

      dolph9, these are predictions I can agree with.

      The wheels finally came off, but they were just training wheels.

      • amb January 2, 2017 at 9:34 pm #

        Ha! How foolish to make those sort of predictions such as dolph9 has. He has no basis in which to draw such conclusions.

        The world is too big and complex at this time, with many moving parts, dynamics and variables for an individual to make such predictions.

        At least Martin Armstrong is drawing from a data base of historical occurrences and cycles as a guideline for attempting to make forecasts.

        • malthuss January 3, 2017 at 10:11 am #

          Armstrong has years or decades of professional experience in the study of the economy [as opposed to ‘being an economist].

    • dannyboy January 2, 2017 at 9:39 pm #

      “won’t change anything”
      “Not much changes in our world”

      that does not jibe with human existence
      or pre-human existence

  45. Therian January 2, 2017 at 9:08 pm #

    It’s been over a year since I’ve been around here but I’m glad that James is here to call bullshit on”Trumptopia”. Those manufacturing plants will NEVER come back. Who will fund them? Who will invest in them? Shareholder values have so taken over America that no one wants to participate in any project if the gains don’t come rolling in within a calendar quarter.

    The Trump vote was an effete vote by angry white guys lusting for the 1950s and 1960s. One problem with the Trump dream can be witnessed in white millennials. In a word, they’re pathetic. That’s why all the valedictoria in schools with sizable Asian majorities are almost entirely Asian. The race going downhill the fastest in America is the white race. Instead of achieving they’re just going to mewl.

    Where, in a country $19T in debt, is Trump going to get the dough to fund WPA/TVA types of projects, assuming there’s real willpower behind this. The Trump vote was a vote to bring back Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

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    • amb January 2, 2017 at 9:30 pm #

      Therian: your analysis and predictions leave a lot to be desired. I’m hoping that you and many others will have to eat your words.

      There is a movement occurring in industrialized-technological-first world countries to throw off the yoke of globalism and return to a newer form of nationalism. Socialism is in its death throes.

      A Renaissance or Reformation might be in our future after all of the disruption runs out.

      • Therian January 3, 2017 at 7:33 pm #

        You don’t say anything to refute my analysis. You just declare me wrong and then leave. No individual points in my post are analyzed so I have no idea what you’re pooh-poohing.

    • BackRowHeckler January 2, 2017 at 9:34 pm #

      If Trump can get BLM thugs to stop killing cops, appoint a few like minded Supreme Court judges, and get a handle on illegal immigration … most of us will be satisfied.

      brh

      • elysianfield January 3, 2017 at 5:57 pm #

        BRH,
        BBC reported this PM that Ford has cancelled a $1.6BN factory build in Mexico and, instead, will expand a US plant with a $700Mn upgrade…done in response to Trump criticism. I am already satisfied….

        • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 7:51 pm #

          gotta’ watch the 3 card monte game.

          Donald and Fred Trump made their money from Government programs.

          Donald has told Ford that they will be receiving outsized tax and deregulation favors in return. Donald’s still playing with your money.

          • elysianfield January 5, 2017 at 3:46 pm #

            d,
            …don’t care.

  46. Therian January 2, 2017 at 9:32 pm #

    The reason the stock market is at nosebleed levels is simple: There’s no other sensible investments. Buying bonds is like playing financial Russian Roulette. Monetary velocity in 2017 is lower than it was at the bottom in 2009. But James is correct i.e., it will be the BOND market that will take this stock market down because a massively leveraged culture requires near-zero interest rates to exist.

    The Fed cannot continue to buy 70% of the Treasuries at auctions. It’s portfolio is leverage now by about 60 to 1. The stock market, for the last seven years, has given a zombie (the economy) all the appearance of life and good health. Trees do not grow to the sky. The stock market and the general economy will not refute financial common sense forever. It just SEEMS like forever.

    • messianicdruid January 2, 2017 at 10:29 pm #

      “There’s no other sensible investments…Trees do no grow to the sky.”

      They grow in it. Gold is a sapling, silver is an acorn. 

  47. With all due respect, the title “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world” must be transferred to China as it is pouring more concrete than we ever did.

  48. janet January 2, 2017 at 11:29 pm #

    “Not much changes in our world”

    that does not jibe with human existence
    or pre-human existence
    –dannyboy

    “And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter, – we need never read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?” –Henry David Thoreau

    • bukowskisghost January 2, 2017 at 11:49 pm #

      All of you ( and yours truly) have become nothing more than the trolls we complain about….would love to see how long all of us commentators would last in the same room heatedly discussing everything until physical violence ensued…

  49. Buck Stud January 3, 2017 at 12:22 am #

    While reading JHK’s yearly forecast a Carlos Castaneda crow came flying across my computer screen: Caw caw, caca –“Oh Ohoooo
    shit!”

    I have not read one mention of the health care system and the potential havoc that could wreak. Of course, JHK has written many times about health care so perhaps he does not want to be redundant. Or perhaps he considers it an ancillary symptom (sort of reads that way.)

    What type of privilege and personal largesse spurs one to yearn for a disastrous economy in the name of partisan politics? If “trickle down” is the ticket then let it pour like a June thunderstorm all year long. Hope for the best, IOW and not the suffering of others less privileged/situated in life. Time will tell.

    I watched Sixty Minutes last night and apparently the cops, according to some local residents/activists, aren’t doing a good enough job in preventing murder in Chicago : Damned if they do; damned if they don’t. For most cops anyway.

    Oh and on the dating front it looks like it might be another tumultuous year for opposite genders. According to one female dating “expert” when a woman showers a man with too much attention they are “overfunctioning”. IOW, a twist on that old ‘the worse you treat em the better they like you’ theme.

    Too much thinking and not enough feeling.

    • messianicdruid January 3, 2017 at 12:32 pm #

      Check out the cover of the current National Geographic special on Gender. About nine or ten people on the cover with all different labels but none that says ‘female’ or ‘woman’. One “male”, but no ‘man’.

      • Jigplate January 3, 2017 at 4:54 pm #

        Nat Geo is heavy into identity politics. Another recent broadcast piece from Nat Geo , involved African Migrants in Italy , and how they are single highhandedly boosting the Italian economy – yeah right. Where is the national geographic magazine of my youth, when I secretly longed for an article showing south sea native women?

  50. venuspluto67 January 3, 2017 at 7:05 am #

    It’s worth pointing out that one big reason the international financial Ponzi retained some degree of stability in 2016 is because the European and Japanese central banks have been operating an ongoing “quantitative easing” scheme to the tune of $180 billion dollars a month.

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  51. barbisbest January 3, 2017 at 7:15 am #

    Yes, WE blew it. 115Th congress agenda: Repeal Obama care. Priaize veterans care. Large tax cuts for the rich. Repeal Dodd Frank. Cut Medicaid. Roll back Independence Ethics office so they will be policing themselves. You wanna know what Donald Tump is read David Cay Johnston’s The Making of Donald Trump.

    • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 9:27 am #

      “The Making of Donald Trump” is also just the tip of the iceberg. 30 years of hearing about his shit has left me feeling dread about our prospects.

  52. Gherry January 3, 2017 at 9:16 am #

    I’am sure most of us round these parts would agree that growth as we’ve know it,especially 20th version was and will be never to be repeated.
    However,that as we all pretty much agree round these parts was deeply titled toward the material/external version…our own internal models you could say didn’t or haven’t caught up-and as we see,it’s been a bit too demanding for many of the religions in part(or larger part)to keep up.

    I reckon this century will be the one we’re we develop internally as a part equilibrium movement from the last century.

    Happy(fill in black whatever doenst offend you)

    • Q. Shtik January 3, 2017 at 1:29 pm #

      Gherry, rather than tackle the daunting task of pointing out your innumerable errors let me simply ask: is English your first language?

  53. FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 9:40 am #

    The CIA story-line about Russian hackers using the Cyrillic keyboards in their attack against DNC is in the best traditions of Islamist terrorists leaving their miraculously preserved passports in the ruins of a blown up vehicles.

    To me, as a professional, the story is a total crap – why would I use a Cyrillic keyboard for penetrating a Unix or Window Server with English (US) operating system installed where you can’t find a single system command spelled in Russian?

    • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 10:41 am #

      because that’s the keyboard you have?

      • FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 11:34 am #

        Actually, I don’t. When I need to type something in Russian, I just use On-screen Keyboard.

      • elysianfield January 3, 2017 at 11:46 am #

        “because that’s the keyboard you have?”

        d,
        You hit the nail on the head! I hear most Russians don’t even wear shoes….

        • FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 12:01 pm #

          E, are you mixing us up with Indian Dalit (untouchables)? Russian without shoes is a dead Russian due to pretty freezing temps in the place.

          • elysianfield January 3, 2017 at 6:02 pm #

            Finc,
            I am well aware of what you say…but Russians are a hard people in a hard land…yes?

          • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 10:11 am #

            E, we have our Achilles heels, so Russian articles of war dictates mandatory shoes.

            I got 10 days once in military jail for carrying the duties with Kalashnikov, but without shoes – was pretty hot.

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 1:29 pm #

            you must be proud of such an accomplishement

    • FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 12:05 pm #

      By the way, India with its Caste System is the “perfect” fascist society in the modern world – Janos’s dreams come true.

      • Q. Shtik January 3, 2017 at 1:54 pm #

        To one degree or another a Caste System exists in all societies, unofficial though it may be. Check out England, for example.

        • San Jose January 3, 2017 at 3:50 pm #

          I just finished a book, “White Trash: the 400 year untold history of class in America,” by Nancy Isenberg.

          If anyone needs winter reading material, I highly recommend the author Simon Sebag Montefiore. Just finished his book on Stalin. His book on the history of Jerusalem was eye-opening and really depressing.

          My favorite book of his is the history of the Romanovs–published in 2016.

          Just my two cents,

          Jen in San Jose

      • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 6:37 pm #

        i thought janos was for Pure Arayn race. Kinda’ surprises me that he chooses the U.S.

        guess it gives him a reason to complain and blame others for his problem.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 8:11 pm #

          Icons of Hitler were sold in Indian marketplaces at the time. They knew that He was the Hope of the their world, the World of the Bhagavad Gita as opposed to the Bible.

          And Indian National Socialists did puja to picture of Trump before and after the election. He is the Hope now.

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 1:27 pm #

            you, Hitler, and some fanatical Indians

            it’s beautiful!

  54. Cavepainter January 3, 2017 at 9:54 am #

    Peculiar to me are the glaring omissions in this discourse. One, most notable, is that our population — preponderantly concentrated in cities – is much more manageable for being totally dependent upon the elaborate system of production and supply that was necessarily evolved to make such concentration feasible in the first place. While discontent will most certainly arise as material/resource capability of sustaining supply decline ever lower (agricultural land is wearing out too) the recognition of being without options will force the public to abide. While the “prepper” phenomenon comprises a very small segment of the population, most others out of fear of risking survival for their families will avoid disrupting the order of their dependence. Shenanigans sighted by JHK are always at play in the human drama – human fallibility. The cities are product of “seeking a better life”, that they’ve come to be imprisonment is just one more signifier to how subject we are to self-delusion – refusing to see only the “upside”.

    Well, there is no upside from this point on; at best we can only hope for spotty survival of our specie as the earth’s carry capacity shrinks, bringing ever more societal collapse with reigning disorder and mayhem. For the time being though here in the US (where remains possible glimmer of survival) I look for all productive land to be nationalized – taken out of private hands. Essentially, all resources will come to be rationed by central government, and that includes disallowance of even harvesting fire wood for those who yet entertain self-sufficient independence “living of the land”. Ain’t going to be allowed, drone surveillance will see to it .

    • dannyboy January 3, 2017 at 10:44 am #

      yes

      a recent property survey included descriptions of wooded property. And it is already monitored by aerial surveillance.

    • elysianfield January 3, 2017 at 11:51 am #

      “I look for all productive land to be nationalized – taken out of private hands. Essentially, all resources will come to be rationed by central government, and that includes disallowance of even harvesting fire wood for those who yet entertain self-sufficient independence “living of the land”. Ain’t going to be allowed, drone surveillance will see to it .”

      …this is ‘murica, dammit!

  55. ozone January 3, 2017 at 10:51 am #

    JHK,
    Excellent outline. Of course, the actual timeline for any event is unknowable (until imminent). I do believe the Vizers of Finance will pull some other “fixes” out of their asses; they’ll then build a large bonfire out of them and blow the smoke up ours, ensuring that the wizards retain their control on the levers of trade and the grifting thereby… for now.

    The complexity that has been built into most modern systems (whether by an attempt to cover frauds or a sincere thought toward the “betterment of mankind”) has made just about everything very brittle. It will be interesting to see (to say the least) whether things begin to collapse in a domino-like fashion or sort of disconnectedly. If disconnectedly, massive efforts will be made to prop things up; if domino-like, Chicken Little will finally have his day.

    I must say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed “The Harrows of Spring”. Well done sir! A ripping yarn set in a small region just trying to get by and get on. (I obtained a copy by the simple subterfuge of a few well-placed hints. Fortunately, the copy was purchased, rather than stolen or traded for worthless pink Berkie bucks… or a contribution to WAMC, of sawdust-stuffed-head fame.)

    Continued health, happiness and curmudgeon-ing in the coming years of Trumptopia. All hail Trumpy the Clown; Hallelujah!

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  56. FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 11:46 am #

    The real Chinese Threat

    For Americans and Russians alike:

    Chinese mothers are switching their children from clarinet lessons to robotics courses (from a very early age).

  57. messianicdruid January 3, 2017 at 1:08 pm #

    PostPeakRancher says, “I would add that the Victimology of America is widespread across all segments of society, not just the Dem/Progs. For example, the Christian rightwing constantly plays the victim, under siege from secularism, feminism, etc.”

    I make the “rightwing” look like punks, so in a sense they are “under seige” by me as well. Conflict is God’s corrective method.

    “As iron sharpens iron, so does a friend the countenance of his brother.”

    But, just so you know 90,000 christians were martyred in 2016, down from 105,000 in 2015. That is one every six minutes.

    https://www.rt.com/news/372184-christians-killed-faith-study/

  58. 3D January 3, 2017 at 1:39 pm #

    JHK,

    You’re one of few alt-media bloggers who remain on my read list for 2017. Thanks for still producing content that mostly parallels with my own perspective about the continuing LE. However, I’m not sure things fall apart in 2017; rather, I believe the machine simply continues to remain stuck in the mud. The system itself is still an ever-morphing human fiction with chapters that can be, for a short time still, re-imagined by hopelessly competitive Elites more than happy to keep making shit up. They’ll continue finding ways to dig the American Monster Truck out of the morass by adding more moving parts. After all, the Petro-dollar still reigns, and if the system’s engine blows… there’s still the IMF, World Bank, and SDRs (credit: Rickards).

    Anyhow, Trump’s early publicity stunt nomination bid and subsequent election was mostly a fortuitous ploy he never intended to take all the way but tentatively embraced at the end. His immediate about face on sibilant campaign promises and cold shower humility was revealed for all to witness the moment he sat with Obama before the cameras post-election. That was the real Donald Trump; I’d bet anything on it.

    The Trump Train though, despite the on-the-fly ploy he imagined, cast him as a try hard patsy for an “easy” Clinton victory. Legacy media footed his campaign bill during the primaries, then tried to milk the orange cow for too long and were squirted in the eye for their arrogant greed. I have no doubt that a calculated assessment made by overlords hastened a redirection of the somewhat unwieldy populist energy building between Trump and Sanders constituents. Thus a last-second play change by Deep State puppet masters served to perhaps temporarily quell the weird mixture of lesser evil hypocrites and puffy chested patriots who needed the usual empty affirmation associated with the voting sideshow. A total boss move by the Deep State; they deserve some credit for deploying sleight of hand brilliance exactly when needed, don’t they?

    F. William Engdahl and Pepe Escobar called Trump’s manufactured Triumph clearly just before game day. Although poignant insights in media, alternative and what not, are becoming harder to come by for obvious reasons, and I believe bloggers and academics like yourself are going to have a harder and harder time narrating events accurately in the future. Even so, here’s an interesting take on The Donald and some of his quieter presidential moves:

    https://attackthesystem.com/2016/11/13/donald-trump-and-the-return-of-liberalism/#more-43689

    Happy New Year,

    3D

  59. capt spaulding January 3, 2017 at 2:27 pm #

    Over a period of time, things that used to be considered abnormal by the majority of society, are becoming the norm. A lot of this can be accredited to the changing position of the US in relation to the rest of the world. Because things are changing so rapidly, there is not enough time to settle into the new realities. Anyone who is willing to stand back and look at the situation that is developing, can see that things are devolving into a whirlwind of change, with an unknown outcome. Using history as a measuring rod, it probably will not be good. I can hear the uncertainty in JHK’s posts. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind as far as their particular beliefs are, but I don’t really know if beliefs matter anymore. The only thing that I am sure of, is that things are gonna get chaotic and crazy before they get better. I have prepared as well as I can, and if that’s not good enough, then I did my best. I will continue to follow this blog, but I understand that half of what I read her is unrealistic bullshit uttered by people who have a viewpoint to get across. Those viewpoints have nothing to do with reality, which is my first concern. The way I see it, if you can’t discern what’s going on without filtering it through your own belief systems, and letting your desires affect your judgement, then you have a real problem. Me, I’d like to think I keep it simple, & let me tell you, brother, it ain’t gonna be good.

    • ozone January 3, 2017 at 9:10 pm #

      “… The way I see it, if you can’t discern what’s going on without filtering it through your own belief systems, and letting your desires affect your judgement, then you have a real problem. ”

      Mon Cap-i-tan,
      sssssSSWAK! Right dead in the center circle. A good sentence to live (or die) by in the coming years. Thanks for that. Best o’ luck.

      • ozone January 5, 2017 at 8:12 am #

        And so, right away, we get a statement of “beliefs” from a paid provocateur! That’s just perfect, and provides a freshly butchered carcass to examine for the captain’s trenchant point.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 10:47 pm #

      Blacks being our equals isn’t reality. A lot of things YOU PEOPLE believe isn’t real.

      U2 Zone.

  60. Q. Shtik January 3, 2017 at 4:37 pm #

    A bad start for JHK’s 2017 predictions: All major market averages up strongly this first trading day of the year.

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    • janet January 3, 2017 at 4:45 pm #

      Yes, markets go up… until they go down. Today they went up but tomorrow who knows? Black swans are never expected. JHK could be right about the overall trend and by the end of 2017 we should know. The Ponzi schemes he has written about are not sustainable forever.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 10:49 pm #

      Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in on little cat’s feet. Just axe Mr Rogers.

  61. janet January 3, 2017 at 4:42 pm #

    “I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind as far as their particular beliefs are, but I don’t really know if beliefs matter anymore.” –CS

    Well said. Beliefs don’t matter. But reality does matter. Here is one things I think is real: overpopulation.

    Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. The benefits of population growth and of growth in the rates of consumption of resources accrue to a few; the costs are borne by all of society. If, for whatever reason, humans fail to stop population growth, Mother Nature will stop it.

    As you say, CS, it “ain’t gonna be good.” Extinction is forever.

  62. janet January 3, 2017 at 5:05 pm #

    Bravo, Mr. Trump for defending us!

    “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”

    –Trump [on Twitter], defending us from congressional antics

  63. Billy Hill January 3, 2017 at 5:56 pm #

    I’m sure most who inhabit this space noticed the WaPo reportage of the Russian hack of the Burlington Vermont Power Co. laptop and electrical grid. I was flying Sunday and by then the WaPo had already begun to retreat from the story. But CNN, as of noon CST, was still running a crawler repeating the fake news.

    That’s a fact, Jack.

    Two apropos items from Quinn’s Burning Platform this week:

    1. Mark Twain is reputed to have said: “It’s not what you don’t know that kills you, it’s what you know for sure that ain’t true.”

    2. “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.” – Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

    • FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 6:35 pm #

      The Hillary Clinton war against the Jeffersonian democracy turned into a tragicomedy…

      … and threatens to turn into a farce. Bloody farce, but a farce:
      Clintonoids vehemently demand that Trump acknowledged Russian interference in the election process by the method of “hacking” into the campaign of Hillary Clinton and the exposure of her crimes against Democracy, Constitution and Humanity.

      However, they argue that the mere fact of obtaining this information through Russia, making it unfit for trial on its own merits.

      This Sunday, when the so-called journalists pushed him again regarding the Russian hacking and his ignoring of the CIA, he said that he knew something pro-Russian, which no one yet knows, and promised to declassify this information either today or tomorrow.

      You should have seen the skewed faces with which “journalists” discussed the news!

    • FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 6:58 pm #

      Hillary Clinton lie song

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY6I2vuarUs

  64. FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 6:01 pm #

    “To one degree or another a Caste System exists in all societies, unofficial though it may be. Check out England, for example.” — Mr.Q

    Yes, may be, but only India has a Caste System enforced deeply on the First Priority of the Human Management – Information of worldview nature

    First Priority of Human Management:

    Information of worldview nature, or methodology, which, once adopted, allows one to build – individually and socially – their «standard automations» of identification of particular processes within the completeness and integrity of the World, and to define in their individual perception the hierarchical order of these processes in their mutual interconnection.

    Basically, the “Untouchables” in India are content with their very low social status.

    Other societies – like American – enforce their Caste System mostly on the Fourth PriorityEconomic processes, as an instrument of influence subordinated to purely informational instruments of influence through finances (money), which embody a totally generalized type of information of economic nature.

    According to Sufficiently General Control Theory, there are total of 6 priorities of Human Management, lowest being the brute force – weapons in the traditional sense of this word.

  65. FincaInTheMountains January 3, 2017 at 6:21 pm #

    Russian scientists working for military intelligence, developed the Sufficiently General Control Theory in the ’90s, but essentially rediscovered what was probably originally created by the Egyptian Priests.

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  66. Cavepainter January 3, 2017 at 7:05 pm #

    Kind ‘a on basis of doing an anthropology study I attended a number of services and prayer breakfasts conducted by the Unity Church, one of those “prosperity faith” organizations that are gaining congregations on characterizing God as a big sugar daddy ready to shower unlimited wealth (yes, material wealth) upon anyone who has had a true “coming to Jesus” moment. In each church’s entrance foyer is a gift shop where, among other things, are coffee cups sold having on them inscribed the church’s chief prayerful phrase, “God is my instant, constant, abundant supply?” Close resemblance, wouldn’t you say, to the pronouncements we hear from Janet Yellen and the Wall Street side.

    • ozone January 3, 2017 at 9:02 pm #

      Cavepainter,

      Holy Shit!! (…literally)

      The rubes that fall for this one deserve every goddamn thing they get.

  67. Cavepainter January 3, 2017 at 7:19 pm #

    Diversity, really? Yeah, sure,….more the hybrid artifice. YES, I DO MEAN ARTIFICE! There is very little in America of substantive difference (material, practical) between how people live. Over 90% of our nation’s population live in exurbia, which translates to all being reliant upon common infrastructure; utilities, governmental services and mercantile supply. What people eat all comes from grocers supplied by distant agriculture; all rely on the same transport matrix for commuting and supply; all living quarters rely on electricity, indoor plumbing and controlled atmosphere. Public schooling aims (at least) toward standardized education while private schools are chartered under regulated standards propounded toward uniform grasp of civic responsibility in modern, Western society. Emergency response, medical or otherwise, draws upon personnel “board certified” in keeping with modern conventions, not shaman or witch doctors.

    In essence, organic connection with indigenous origin becomes dimmed immediately through the osmotic like effect of prevailing social circumstance. Native practices in animal husbandry, subsistence agriculture and/or wilderness foraging — and even native nomenclature – become but a fading shadow on the face of day-to-day existence, bearing no true practical significance except in mercantile novelty reflected on the shelves of ethnic food markets, menus of so labeled restaurants, in the fickle flair of fashion “runway” exotica, and (most familiarly) at local weekend arts/crafts fairs.

    (BTW: Regarding diverse ethnic food choice now available on market shelves and restaurants, that all goes away with growing population pressure which will push all into an ever more uniform scramble for calories in any form – as demonstrated elsewhere.)

    ARTIFICE!! Heirloom diversity is scrubbed of functional value by the homogenizing effect of everyday exurbia necessity, leaving only a vague whisper of the authentic. But,…recognizing a political market niche in the anomie of lost identity that arises in exurban anonymity the Democratic party has cultivated a Franken-polity, fertilized by a meme of victimology that grows under a constant protective fog laid down by PC truth-i-cide.

    The resulting seed head is the political equivalent of GMO, and as with agri-industry tax payers are hooked with the costs of government subsidies set-up to provide entitlements exclusive to groups sheltered under the victim class umbrella (including, importantly, “aid” programs tailored in accommodation to religious practices of newly arriving refugees and immigrants).

    Might be good to recall that our Constitution was the first time in human history that governance and religion were walled off from one another.

    • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 10:35 am #

      “The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 10:55 pm #

      Yes, we maintain diversity, not only for the sake of gustatory pleasure or aesthetics but because such diversity has survival value, each strain being adapted for it’s locale.

      The same applies to human diversity. The Races are Heirlooms – and yes, that includes White People. We’re not just failed Blacks like you people love to imagine.

      The Wall between Church and State is another imaginary thing you believe. As Adams said, the Constitution was meant for Christians of European origin. It won’t work with other peoples.

  68. Q. Shtik January 3, 2017 at 10:09 pm #

    The beginning of a new year seems as good a time as any to list

    Shit that I have really become sick and tired of

    . the early deaths of pop celebrities of questionable sexual orientation that force our inordinate attention
    . fingerless gloves
    . fashion
    . man-buns
    . people who don’t read/edit what they’ve typed before clicking Submit
    . people who do not capitalize the first letter in a sentence (and all similar failures to adhere to what they have been taught for good reason about written communication since pre-school) as if they don’t have time for such nonsense.
    . eternal optimists
    . people who imagine inconsistency is a virtue
    . the unnecessarily very black vernacular of the otherwise smart sports commentator, Stephen Smith
    . Beyonce, J. Lo and Mariah
    . the ubiquity of two to four weeks of beard stubble on men in their 20s to 40s
    . tattoos
    . biracial advertising out of all proportion to societal reality
    . the Clintons
    . Nutrisystems ads by Marie Osmond and her fake tits
    . 15 inch dreds hanging out the back of football players’ helmets

    • malthuss January 3, 2017 at 11:03 pm #

      Beyonce, J. Lo and Mariah.

      Turn the TV off. Beyonce at the Country Music Awards. sick.

      They never meant anything to me.
      I actually know the shrink to one of them.
      $600 an hour.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 10:57 pm #

        Get the transcripts of their sessions. They’ll be worth 6 million to Roger Rock.

    • beantownbill. January 3, 2017 at 11:05 pm #

      Ok – I agree with your list, except I don’t mind the beard stubble; sometimes I don’t shave very often. Also, might you feel better about fingerless gloves if they were called something else, e.g., palm protectors? I am an optimist. I don’t want to live gloomy and doom. Finally, I love J.Lo, she’s hot, even at her age. C’mon Q, tell me you would kick her out of bed.

    • San Jose January 3, 2017 at 11:46 pm #

      “Chocolate diamonds” by Jared
      That creepy blue-eyed ophthalmologist on the Restasis ad
      Jed York, the shit-for-brains owner of the SF 49ers
      Nancy Pelosi

    • Cavepainter January 4, 2017 at 7:00 am #

      Damn Q, your life is inordinately hard, count on me to rearrange the universe more to your liking. “Earth National Park” was a popular poster back in the ’60s, how about “Earth Theme Park” run by Disney, Inc. with constantly looping musical score of John Lennon’s “Imagine”? Just for fun Q and I really do value most of the posts here — for different reasons, of course. Though trite I’ll use the common expression of good intent, Have a Happy New Year.

  69. trypillian January 3, 2017 at 11:12 pm #

    Once again jhk’s revisionism on Ukraine vis a vis Crimea is most amusing. Even Comrade Lenin in 1917 recognized Crimea as the ‘Autonomous Republic of Crimea [ that’s right – no mention of Russia ]. Crimea, Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland waged a four year war beginning in 1917 against the eastern hordes and since they were divided they were conquered unfortunately [ Finland kept out the barbarians due to the terrain ] The point being, Crimea was always an independent entity – full stop. Stalin exiled almost all of the indigenous Tartars to Siberia and Kazakhstan, in 1944 -1945. Almost all died with intent at the hands of Soviet overloads. The precise number is 220,000. jhk seems to think genocide is a democratic method of government. After killing the folks native to Crimea; Russia waltzes in and proclaims – ‘gee whiz all this is ours’ . By the way indomitable Ukraine always has and always will repect the autonomous relationship with Crimea. They same cannot be said of the barbarians who illegally occupy Crimea according to the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands and the United Nations.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 11:05 pm #

      The Tatars are invaders from the Asian Steppes. Stalin merely put them back where they came from. Stalin was great – just ask Finc.

  70. beantownbill. January 3, 2017 at 11:50 pm #

    Since it’s that time of year and everyone’s doing it, ala JHK, here’s my own predictions for 2017:

    1. We won’t have a nuclear WW3.
    2. The US will engage in military action against North Korea.
    3. Trump will improve Russia-US relations, but will engage in heated
    wars of words with China, i.e., China will be the new Russia.
    4. The EU will face more existential crises, if not break up altogether.
    5. Trump will meet major resistance from Congress and the left on
    most everything, resulting in a lot of political and social unrest.
    Confirmation hearings will stall out and Trump will retaliate against
    Congress; things will be a mess. Trump’s EO’s will still get a lot of
    his agendas done.
    6. The economy will slow down and there won’t be any more rate
    increases. Ok, maybe, possibly, one more, but because of the
    slowdown QE infinity will be enacted.
    7. Bush Sr., Jimmy Carter and/or one of the Clintons will die.
    8. The Cubs and the Red Sox will meet in the World Series.
    9. This winter will end up being brutal.
    10. After rising to 22,000, the market will slump down to 15,000.
    11. Some major media organizations will go under.
    12. The murder count will rise and some cities will have long-term
    occupation by the National Guard.

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  71. KesaAnna January 4, 2017 at 12:21 am #

    ” The idea that Modernity itself might go down is inconceivable to those in thrall to the Religion of Progress… ”

    The recognition that this is a dead end, quasi -religion is one of JHK’s chief insights , and a shame he doesn’t look into it a lot more.

    The religion of Scientism and Modernity and its many dogmas , like ;

    Population control / Eugenics — every scheme of population control / Eugenics has only ever ended one way ; with the extinction of its adherents , and the survival of those groups who didn’t buy into it.
    If data is your thing, then the data on this is pretty extensive, and goes all the way back to Sparta , 3000 years ago.
    It didn’t work for Lycurgus, It didn’t work for Clodia Metelli, and it didn’t even require running out of cheap oil.

    ” …it will be very difficult to get around this geographically large country by any mechanical means. ”

    The idea of the United States as a historical footnote isn’t just possible, it is likely. One of the jarring inconsistencies in his view is the failure to see that the large state is part and parcel of that system he sees rightly as failing.

    Large states grow up when times are good.
    But good times are not the norm.
    Subsistence is the norm.
    And in times of subsistence the micro-state is the norm.

    • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:39 am #

      Lucid….

  72. KesaAnna January 4, 2017 at 12:39 am #

    ” Might be good to recall that our Constitution was the first time in human history that governance and religion were walled off from one another. ”

    It might be good to recall that according to some historians the English-speaking world was already in the opening stages of the Industrial Revolution, according to other historians , it very soon would be.

    As JHK has indicated, or come very close to indicating, this 200 year period is unprecedented — i.e. It’s extremely unlikely that any rule of thumb , or even vague indicator, is to be drawn from it.

    If the period itself was an aberration, then it is likely that any lessons drawn from it are not lessons, but, likewise, aberrations.

    • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 11:15 am #

      “Might be good to recall that our Constitution was the first time in human history that governance and religion were walled off from one another. ”

      Governance by men IS a religion. Nicolaitanism, clergy / laity in the parlance of churchianity is no blessing. You should be able to recognize the same dynamic in secular systems as schmuckspert / uninformed or simply “leader” / follower. Only the Creator God does not require the consent of the governed to operate with legitimacy since He is the owner of all He has created.

      We live in a period of grace [ unmerited favour ] and reconciliation wherein we may resign from our personal rebellion and begin having our minds renewed, learning to by-live the good news that Jesus came to free us from the tyranny of other men.

      Lincoln ‘ s “…the last, best hope for mankind.” was short-sighted if referring to the man-made rules. The Constitution did allow us enough breathing room to find the truth.

      I hold no animosity toward those who have not yet heard the call, but have only witnessed the innovations and fabrications of law [ governance ] made to deceive, which are often rightly rejected by thinking people.

      666 + 666 + 666 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 2016 The rulership of man is ending. We are at a turning point.

      • Cavepainter January 4, 2017 at 11:32 am #

        C’mon, cut the sanctimonious BS. The expression of aims by the founders, “…more perfect government” is open recognition of human frailty.

        • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 2:21 pm #

          I’m sorry you see it as “sanctimonious”. This is not my intent, but rather to make aware of a even more “more perfect government”. If the Constitution could not prevent what we see before us perhaps we can be motivated to keep searching.

  73. Jannawan January 4, 2017 at 7:16 am #

    Why would Peak Oil be a major problem? Most US energy comes from natural gas and coal, which are projected to last for more than another century, and from renewables. Converting big petroleum users such as automobiles to use electricity instead is a big effort, but I don’t see why it would be so big as to pull down the entire economy.

  74. FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 7:31 am #

    For The First Time Since World War II, No US Carriers Are Deployed Anywhere In The World

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/12/30/no-us-carrier-at-sea-leaves-gap-in-middle-east.html

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-01/first-time-world-war-ii-no-us-carriers-are-deployed-anywhere-world

    Next time think better before expelling Russian diplomats for made-up reasons.

    • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:43 am #

      “Next time think better before expelling Russian diplomats for made-up reasons”

      Finc,
      Why? the act of expulsion is a message, not an end-result.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 6:46 pm #

        I guess the US carrier fleet too received a message of sorts…

  75. FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 9:57 am #

    The birth of the barbarians from the West’s tears on human rights

    https://regnum.ru/uploads/pictures/news/2017/01/03/regnum_picture_1483442183751706_big.jpg

    In Russian media there is a widespread belief that behind the ISIS stands CIA. However, over time, there is mounting evidence that the ISIS is a project of the British intelligence, which used, where it was possible, CIA assets for the dissemination of terrorist virus.

    Nevertheless, I think, over time, this relationship will not be questioned; it would allow Russia and United States to raise a number of fundamental questions before the British Crown.

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  76. Elrond Hubbard January 4, 2017 at 11:02 am #

    ‘She gonna get shot,’ bystander says, but then watches police wait for woman in crisis to climb off cruiser
    Warning: A video included in this story contains graphic language

    “The video opens to show a woman clearly in distress, weaving in the middle of a crowded Toronto street and yelling as she pulls herself up on the hood of a police cruiser and starts kicking at its windshield.

    “Another cruiser pulls up to the intersection at Finch Avenue West at Milady Road with its lights flashing and the woman moves on to start beating at the new car with her feet.

    “‘She gonna get shot,’ said the person taking the video on Sunday from an upper-storey window.

    “But that’s not what happens.”

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mental-health-crisis-tps-police-finch-islington-1.3919510

    Watch the video. Here’s an example of responsible policing: No needless escalation, no one gets shot, peaceful resolution. Thank these cops and the training they receive.

    (Also thank the fact that these Canadian cops aren’t operating with the well-justified fear that someone will pull a Second Amendment number on them. Hence they don’t feel the need to shoot first before someone shoots them, everyone leaves alive, and this woman will get the help she needs.)

    Kunstler claims that “For years, the media went along with the hyperbolic story that innocent black men were being killed by police for no reason”. The fact is, innocent people do get killed by police. One example suffices to make the case: the infamous killing of Eric Garner, choked to death in broad daylight by officer Daniel Pantaleo using an illegal hold which was caught on video. Nothing whatsoever justifies this use of lethal force against a man who was not “brandishing a gun or grossly misbehaving”, yet office Pantaleo escaped criminal charges. Kunstler brings in irrelevancies like the fact that black people are sometimes killed by other black people, and somehow the attitude toward this kind of police impunity is: get over it.

    The woman in the video I linked above clearly was, in fact, grossly misbehaving, yet lethal force wasn’t necessary to deal with her. When police are using deadly force against people selling loose cigarettes and getting away with it, the problem lies with the police, not with the victims. All the “black-on-black” issues in the world don’t change that.

    • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:54 am #

      “The woman in the video I linked above clearly was, in fact, grossly misbehaving, yet lethal force wasn’t necessary to deal with her”

      Goddamn it Elrond, there is no place in the United States that would have departmental regulations allowing deadly force under the circumstances you suggest. Garner died not from “deadly force” being used, but died while being manhandled in an arrest where a sleeper hold was improperly employed.

      Billions of contacts between US police and citizens yearly, and you still bring up this shit as if it confirms your liberal blacks-as-victims message? Is this all ya got?

      Remind us of your liberal views AFTER you get some experience in crowd control ,or violent encounters with criminals, or other real-world experience that would allow you to have a considered opinion…the TEE-VEE, and the Internets just won’t cut it….

      • janet January 4, 2017 at 12:47 pm #

        “there is no place in the United States that would have departmental regulations allowing deadly force under the circumstances you suggest.” –elysianfield

        Yet Black people end up dead from traffic stops, Black people end up dead in police custody, Black people end up dead in spite of being unarmed. Police get away with assassination that is against “departmental regulations” … regulations that don’t mean shit because police unions always support the officer and there is structural racism in the justice system that favors police. Police plant evidence. Police lie in courst. Police misconduct is regularly ignored. Racism trumps regulations. Elysianfields, you are making Elrond’s point.

        • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 1:19 pm #

          “regulations that don’t mean shit because police unions always support the officer and there is structural racism in the justice system that favors police.”

          Janet,
          Very broad, and mostly inaccurate….

          Police plant evidence…a felony, but does happen occasionally.

          Police lie in court…also a felony, but occurs occasionally.

          Police conduct is regularly ignored…what kind of police misconduct?

          Racism trumps regulations…specific examples, please?

          Janet, your views are too little based upon experience, and too much based on some snowflake’s Masters Thesis…Marxist crap, if I might impugn the Marxists.

          • JimInFlorida January 4, 2017 at 4:45 pm #

            Rather than demand specific examples, which is a weak deflection of the general charge, I’d rather ask, “What is wrong with White Racism in the police departments?”

            Quite some time ago, I pointed out that Racism, in current political context, is simply the Immune System Response of a White body-politic’s reaction to a severe infection, caused by the introduction of tribes, groups, and NGO’s hostile to the well-being of traditional White American social order. “Racism,” is also another name for the thoughtcrime that values pre-1963 America. Our last known good configuration.

            Even though a human body may possess a deluded mind, the immune system operates independently of the mind’s madness and will fight an infection regardless.

            This principle scales up for entire societies. White society requires a much higher standard of living in order to fully express itself. JEWS know the White mass psychology all too well and have spent the last 50-60 years suppressing the natural response to their social engineering schemes. Among them, political AIDS (Acquired Immigration Dysfunction Syndrome). Only now at this desperate late hour, is the Will To Live finally arising to save the White body-politic. Even though the ZOG Establishment maintains the gag which prevents it from articulating the symptoms of its struggle.

            “Racism” in police departments is a necessary override to regulations that prevent them from profiling (same theory as a flu shot). Political Correctness may infect the mass mind but, when the body-politic is in mortal danger, then the Immune System response of White Racism MUST TAKE OVER.

            The Mass Mind may crippled from White Guilt, endorsement of miscegenation, LGBTQ-ism, etc, yet, it fears to investigate the pains caused by the body fighting to save itself. Decades of New Leftism have prevented the West from even being able to articulate the problem.

            Heaven Forbid we scrutinize the ones who spread the New Leftist infection in the first place!

          • Elrond Hubbard January 4, 2017 at 5:15 pm #

            elysianfield, my point about police impunity stands. It’s a serious problem when large numbers of people believe the police are out to get them, and can harass, abuse or even kill them with no fear of meaningful consequences. They are walking on eggshells to begin with, and insisting they have only themselves to blame when in fact there is plenty of blame being dodged only makes it worse.

          • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:45 pm #

            “It’s a serious problem when large numbers of people believe the police are out to get them, and can harass, abuse or even kill them with no fear of meaningful consequences.”

            Yes, a point to be made…but those same people in large numbers believed OJ to be innocent. What is the point?

          • Elrond Hubbard January 6, 2017 at 1:40 pm #

            Here’s some food for thought:

            US Cops Killed 230 Times More People than their British Counterparts in 2016

            http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-america-killed-230-times-people-british-counterparts/

            Since there’s no official national tally of use of force by police in the U.S., the linked article relies on a private website to compile the numbers. The Independent newspaper quotes a lower number of just 957 people killed by police in the U.S. versus 4 in the UK.

            So, a little math: The U.S. population was projected as 323,148,587 people on July 4, 2016. If the killedbypolice.net estimate of 1,152 killings is more accurate, that’s 3.6 people killed by police per one million population; if we use The Independent’s lower figure, it’s 3.0 people killed per million.

            By contrast, the UK population in 2014 was 64,596,800. Let’s round up to 65,000,00 for 2016. That’s 4 out of 65 million or 0.06 per million population killed by police in the UK. In other words, police in the U.S. kill their own population at least 48 times more frequently than those in the UK.

            Sick of me yet? Wikipedia lists five named individuals in Canada killed by police in 2016. Out of 36,286,378 population, that’s 0.14 per million population, or 4.7% the rate at which U.S. police kill U.S. citizens.

            In other words, don’t bore me with talk about departmental regulations allowing deadly force under this or that set of circumstances. These figures are off the charts for a supposedly advanced society. Why in the name of sweet unholy fuck does anyone tolerate this situation, let alone defend it?

          • Frankiti January 6, 2017 at 4:58 pm #

            Elrond the great pasty white privileged schlub from suburban Canada.

            Would you go into the south side of Chicago, at night?

            How about Baltimore? Just a few blocks from the inner harbor and the lovely aquarium?

            Go for a stroll? Would you be afraid for your life?

            We have places in this country that soft pasty men like you would never return alive from.

            You don’t have this in Canadull.

            Police are no different. Training, guns, experience.
            Fear for one’s life is real, something you never experienced… in your soft suburban existence.

          • elysianfield January 7, 2017 at 11:23 am #

            “These figures are off the charts for a supposedly advanced society. Why in the name of sweet unholy fuck does anyone tolerate this situation, let alone defend it?”

            Elrond,
            Read Frankiti’s response, and understand that many parts of our country do not fit the description of an “advanced society”. In many parts of our country, there is little civility, much hostility, and, with firearms, the present ability to promote anarchy…I would suggest you quit kvetching about our racial issues, until you walk the walk…Oakland, Detroit, Hartford Conn., get some experience, and then know of what you speak.

        • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:55 pm #

          ” Racism trumps regulations.”

          Janet,
          Sooo…Racism is at the core of the issue? Riddle me this…Are most police “racist”? If so, why? Do police departments actively recruit people with this flaw, or not? If departments do not actively recruit racists, how come so may of them exist, by your count?

          I expect that you will have the “ovaries” to give me an honest answer. I await….

      • Elrond Hubbard January 4, 2017 at 5:07 pm #

        elysianfield: “Garner died not from “deadly force” being used, but died while being manhandled in an arrest where a sleeper hold was improperly employed.”

        Semantics. Read my post again. I’m not peddling some narrative of “blacks as victims”. I’m pointing out a clear-cut case of police impunity in the face of a wrongful death — homicide with a badge. Garner died because of what the police officer did to him while acting in his official capacity. That’s why the NYPD paid a civil claim to his survivors. But civil and criminal liability are separate and distinct. (Just ask O.J. Simpson.) Criminal liability is measured in prison time or even the perpetrator’s life, not only in dollars. And when the penalty is paid in dollars, it’s the perpetrator who is liable to pay the fine, not taxpayers. This is called personal responsibility, which gets a lot of lip service but was clearly avoided in this case.

        Let’s be generous and say that the officer screwed up by using a hold he’d been instructed against using. How is that a reason why he should escape criminal prosecution? A truck driver who screws up and causes an accident that kills someone will be charged in the death. If a police officer ignores his training and departmental regulation to the point that he kills someone while doing his job, why should he be subjected to no more than internal discipline from his department, if that? Explain it to me.

        • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:39 pm #

          Elrond,
          There is no guaranteed impunity/immunity…BUT law enforcement is given every benefit of the doubt when investigations of officer-involved shootings…and this should be the case. Situations involving police/citizen interactions can become…dynamic. This usually occurs when a citizen fails to accept a lawful order. What to do? Elrond is stopped driving in an erratic manner…refuses to exit his vehicle…attempts to drive off. Situation then escalates, and questions of judgment, training, situational awareness… all impinge on the outcome. Do you let Elrond go? No. Will you stop him from leaving? Yes. Might there be violence involved? Yes. Is it an incident that deadly force might be used? Not at this point, but subsequent actions might require more extreme measures to ensure that the Canadian Arch Criminal Elrond, who might be driving severely impaired, not further endanger the public with the deadly weapon (Nissan Leaf) he currently wields.

          Many questions involving observation, reaction and threat, occur in seconds. Second guessing can take months, and be closely scrutinized by any number of people. If Elrond is shot in an attempt to stop him in a sparsely inhabited Industrial Area…not so good. If Elrond is shot in front of an Elementary School with hundreds of children surrounding the incident, maybe a different perspective.

          Blacks fear the police? Many probably do. Blacks hate the police? Many probably do. Could this fear and/or hatred cause a lack of judgment in a black being stopped by the police, and perhaps engender an untoward incident? Happens every day.

          Internal discipline for a wrongful police shooting is only the first step…an untoward incident involves termination, and often prosecution, if extreme prejudice/stupidity is obvious. Police shooting boards are to determine, by departmental regulation whether a shooting is justified, or not justified. A Not-Justified decision handed down results in termination and usually prosecution. Oh, and with most law enforcement agencies, a police/citizen shooting is never investigated by the parent agency, but rather another agency from another jurisdiction.

          I once knew an RCMP…he was a violent son of a bitch, by the way.

          BRH,
          Demanding examples is not a weak deflection…how can one answer an argument laced with vague generalities?

          • JimInFlorida January 6, 2017 at 10:30 am #

            Actually, it was I who asserted that demanding examples in that case was a weak deflection. I said that NOT to discount your comment but, to give you a stronger weapon! I then presented the weapon and the context that makes it superior to demanding examples.

            Generalities are nothing more than a host of examples bonded together and made into a single larger charge with a name. The generality itself should be sufficient to understand the underlying charges.

            My weapon attacks the generality of many loose parts with one solid weapon that is singular. Demanding examples, as you did, is defensive and only creates a stalemate.

          • geb January 9, 2017 at 5:40 pm #

            Franki and Elysian, your cowardice just goes to show that divide and conquer is alive and well here in the comments section. I’ve walked the streets of Oakland, downtown LA, Atlanta, and the east side of Buffalo alone at night without incident. I’m not saying these places aren’t dangerous, but anywhere that there is extreme poverty, there is danger. And extreme poverty is growing like crazy in this country. If you to fear something, fear that.

        • Frankiti January 6, 2017 at 4:52 pm #

          Elrond the hypocrite extraordinaire. Why don’t you drive your pasty white ass over the Ambassador bridge from suburban Windsor in the early morning hours and find out why. Bring your wife and kids along for the ride. I’ll pick out some neighborhoods you can stop and walk around in.

          Would you?

          Who are you going to call? The police?

          Sh*t the f*ck up you privileged poseur.

    • BackRowHeckler January 4, 2017 at 12:15 pm #

      Most if not all blacks shot by police in the US are resisting arrest.

      Turns out the ‘innocent’ black dude shot by 2 policewoman in Tulsa last summer was all pumped on PCP and had weapons in his car, which he was trying to access. These officers were arrested and are being prosecuted; no doubt they’ll be acquitted same as the ‘Baltimore 6’ in the Freddie Gray case.

      Nobody here has brought up Obama and his Islamist allies in the Dem party back stabbing Israel in the UN, over ‘settlements’, on a sliver of land Israel was able to hold onto after fighting off invasion by the tank armies of 5 Arab nations in 1967. One hopes a President Trump can restore relations with Israel and begin treating it like the valued ally and friend that it is. What puzzles me is why powerful Democrats like Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi let this happen to begin with.

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 4:08 pm #

        Hillary was always an Israeli foe, and she’s sill ruling in the White House – hope not for long, another 15 days.

        But if you guys lose Israel, we would be glad to pick it up and put under the Mama Bear protective arm.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 4:11 pm #

        Israel from the get go was a joint Stalin-Roosevelt venture – they just BOTH died too early and NOT naturally.

    • janet January 4, 2017 at 12:34 pm #

      Thank you for this post, Elrond Hubbard. Consciousness is being raised by the activities of Black Lives Matter. For example, “Black Lives Matter: a Northwestern dialogue,” organized by Danielle Harris, just started two weeks of on-campus programming at Northwestern University that began yesterday morning with raising a Black Lives Matter flag.

      The programming includes various talks and open forums hosted by numerous campus groups such as Black Lives Matter NU; a screening of the movie “13th” hosted by A&O Productions on Wednesday; and a candlelight vigil for lost black lives hosted Sunday by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. at Alice Millar Chapel. The Black Lives Matter flag will remain on a flagpole at Norris for the entirety of the two weeks.

      Danielle Harris said the dialogue is intentionally not run by a single student organization, so students can discuss the Black Lives Matter movement outside the framework of a single campus group’s mission.

      When Black people get free, everybody gets free

      http://blacklivesmatter.com/guiding-principles/

      • Cavepainter January 4, 2017 at 2:36 pm #

        The Left’s cant of victimhood has exploited and damaged the Negro (yes, Negro in the ’60s wasn’t a pejorative) population much more than any trace of 19th Century slavery. Rather than encourage diligence in utilizing the free public education offered in America it has encourage self-defeating recalcitrance and obstreperousness.

    • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 3:13 pm #

      My guess is those Canadian peace officers are getting different training.

      https://www.rt.com/news/372515-israel-shoot-to-kill/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

  77. barbisbest January 4, 2017 at 12:12 pm #

    Here’s a shout out to the Radio City Rockettes for refusing to perform at the Trump’S inauguration. And one to the woman who quit the Mormon Tabernacle Choir because she didn’t want to sing for it! Go girl. To the eagle in 2015 in Trump’S office who was pecking Trump on the arm. Now there’s a symbol. Animals know.

    • BackRowHeckler January 4, 2017 at 12:17 pm #

      Did anybody refuse to perform at Obama’s inauguration back in ’08? or should I say the ‘Immaculation’. Or were the hollywood scum lining up to kiss the ass of the Messiah?

      brh

      • janet January 4, 2017 at 12:40 pm #

        Obama did not come from a celebrity background. Obama did not come with a net worth of billions. Obama did not have a TV show. Those who performed at Obama’s inauguration did so out of respect.

        • Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 12:45 pm #

          Respect for what? Their presence makes it disrespectful, in my opinion. It should be a perfunctory process. A short speech, a few handshakes and hugs and then on to the business of looting.

          • janet January 4, 2017 at 12:53 pm #

            Respect for what? The list is long. Respect for Obama’s vision and his ability to express it. Respect for Senator Obama’s work with Republicans in the Senate to prevent “loose nukes” from ending up in the hands of terrorists?

            Are you incapable of seeing that Obama did anything of positive value? You are an ideologue then.

            I can see positive in some of the positions of the former liberal New York Democrat who is now president-elect. My reaction to Trump is not knee-jerk. Just recently Trump helped reverse the congressional attack on the independent ethics committee. Good work, Mr. Trump! (or good tweeting…)

          • Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 1:03 pm #

            Don’t forget respect for the half a million dead and counting in Syria’s Civil War that wouldn’t have been possible had Obama not supported the Butcher Rebels.

            We’re talking about his inauguration though, before any of that. So the question still remains — respect for what? What “vision?” Hope & Change? I call that a slogan, not a vision, and besides, where’s that Hope & Change now? It’s a pretty sad “vision,” to say the least, if it lasts no more than eight years, if that.

            I called the shot on Obama before he was elected and I’ve been calling the shot on Trump. The only consistently correct person between us two is me. You are a duplicitous demonic propagandist. If there was a hell, my hope is that you would rot in it one day, but alas, you’ll just turn to dust like all the rest of us.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 11:31 pm #

      Your “go girl” ethos is the very essence of toxicity.

  78. Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 12:39 pm #

    The fact of the matter is, no one needs to be performing at inaugurations. It’s not a celebration, or it shouldn’t be.

    Part of the reason for the ascension of Trump is precisely because of the convergence of Politics & Entertainment. All The Dems rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood Jet Set set the stage for the rise of Trump. It is by their own deed regardless of whether or not the election was rigged (Trump’s own words).

    But, that Genie is out of its Bottle and I don’t think it’s going back in any time soon.

    Politics & Entertainment are now one and the same and Fake News is now Real News.

    • Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 12:42 pm #

      FYI, I did not watch the insane spectacle that was Obama’s Inauguration and I will not watch Trump’s. It’s superficial bullshit. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit. Well, at least I don’t have time for it.

  79. Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 12:49 pm #

    However, if there must be entertainment, I think a fitting spectacle would be for Trump to perform fellatio on Putin while this song plays in the background.

    Big Balls

  80. janet January 4, 2017 at 1:18 pm #

    “You are a duplicitous demonic propagandist.” –Cold

    That is rude ad hominem revealing the weakness of your argument.

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    • Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 1:22 pm #

      It’s not an argument. It’s a factual rejoinder. It’s not meant to be rude, unless you consider a mirror to be rude.

    • Frankiti January 4, 2017 at 6:30 pm #

      You are WPAss

  81. janet January 4, 2017 at 1:25 pm #

    “We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing”-oriented society to a “person”-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967

    • Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 1:52 pm #

      Wow, the sadistic temerity. You guys murder him and then use his words in vain. Sick & twisted doesn’t even begin to define what you are. It’s worse than Evil.

  82. Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 2:01 pm #

    janet said: When Black people get free, everybody gets free.

    It should read:

    When Black people get free of The Democrat Party, everybody gets free.

  83. beantownbill. January 4, 2017 at 3:27 pm #

    Regarding Cold’s statement about politics and entertainment, well, tv shows and concerts get cancelled all the time.

    • Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2017 at 3:32 pm #

      Yeah, no shit Sherlock. The Obama Show got canceled and The Trump Show is taking its place. The Obama Show was rated R and The Trump Show is rated XXX because of the Fist Fucking to come.

      • pequiste January 5, 2017 at 12:12 am #

        Er, ‘scuse me Cold.

        Would your statement mean that Rosie O’Donnell and the president-elect are going to have a rapprochement sometime very soon?

        • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 6:33 am #

          It wouldn’t surprise me. Would it surprise you?

          Anything’s possible with The Trumpster. One day he’s calling for the Death Penalty for Julian Assange and the next day Assange is his Intelligence Czar. Today he hates Rosie O’Donnell but tomorrow he’ll be grabbing her pussy. There is never a dull moment with The Donald.

          FYI, I agree with him about the Intelligence Community, except I take it much further. If I were POTUS, I would dismantle the entire National Security State. It’s turning The United States of America into The Warsaw Ghetto with Cable, Internet and Smart Phones to keep us subhumans from noticing the dead bodies piling up on the sidewalks. They’re a bunch of Scumbags and I’m certain “The Founders” would agree, therefore, collectively, they are decidedly Un-American. They’re an Occupying Force.

  84. beantownbill. January 4, 2017 at 3:33 pm #

    @backrowheckler:

    Marlin, excellent and accurate comment on our treatment of Israel – thank you. It’s heartening to find at least one Christian on this site who isn’t anti-Israel. You see things more clearly than most.

    • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 4:33 pm #

      Anti-Israel – no. Anti-Zionist – yes. If you could get the labeling right you might get the issues right, that is if you are interested in such things.

      http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/who-is-an-israelite

      http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/who-is-a-jew

      • beantownbill. January 4, 2017 at 6:42 pm #

        With all due respect, you aren’t Jewish and apparently don’t realize Israel is Zionism. Zionism got a bad name in the early 1970’s when Islamicists campaigned to equate Zionism with racism. Zionism is simply the desire for Jews to return to their homeland, nothing more.

        Ok, people, now lay it on me.

        • Frankiti January 4, 2017 at 7:17 pm #

          People jus’ hatin’ cuz they jealous.
          Who don’t want to live in a place with people just like them?

          If Hipsters could make a place called Hipsrael where fixed gear bikes, craft “wild” beers, manicured beards, and a penchant for gender fluidity was masked by tattoos from Sailor Jerry’s WWII era flash and ironic heavy metal t-shirts… they would.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 11:41 pm #

            People are migratory,
            Palestinians are people,
            Palestinians are migratory.

            Palestinians want to migrate to Israel,
            Israel has no right to say have borders (since people are migratory)
            Therefore Israel has no right to say no to Palestinian migrants.

          • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:42 am #

            rights and wants are not actuality

          • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:44 am #

            … just ask the dinosaurs

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 2:36 pm #

            Why don’t you make that distinction when it comes to America and its borders?

            Cuz you’re Tribe and Israel is your real interest, not America.

          • Wrenching Away March 2, 2017 at 11:14 am #

            They did make that place, its called “Portland”

        • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 10:22 pm #

          No one is an Israelite just because they claim to be. I will use biblical definitions for biblical things. To be a jewish by definition requires acceptance of the leader of the tribe. Rejecting the Anointed causes you to be cut off, not Him.

          • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 7:58 am #

            reading a lot, these days?

            our expert on Judiasm

        • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:02 pm #

          ” Zionism got a bad name in the early 1970’s when Islamicists campaigned to equate Zionism with racism.”

          Bill,
          Not exactly as you describe…Zionism got a bad name in 1948 with the terrorism engendered against the indigenous Palestinians….

          • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 12:52 am #

            Well, if you really want to get technical, then, Arabs in the area were railing against Zionism when the word was first invented before the 20th century.

            In the early ’70’s, I believe, the UN passed a resolution stating Zionism was racist. That’s when I first became aware that the word was being pushed to mean something negative.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 2:46 pm #

            Some of the early Zionists were idealists who wanted to create something WITH the Arabs. And some of the Arabs responded positively to the investment capital. But it became obvious to all fair minded people that when huge numbers of Jews began to pour in that any idealism was out the window and the Palestinians were simply being conquered by the Jews with the aid of the West.

            Many White Nationalists are pro-Israel since we want you folks to have someplace to go – thus fulfilling the amazing Theodore Herzl’s prophecy that hardcore European Nationalists would someday become Israel’s best friends. He also admitted, at least privately, that our concerns and fears about the Jews were often valid. Unlike so many of you, he didn’t play the “poor Jews” con. He knew the power you have and he was willing at time to be candid about it.

            Neither you nor Danny are ever willing to be candid and thus you are impossible to talk to about these questions.

          • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 4:54 pm #

            Janos,

            Yes it IS impossible for you to talk to me about these things.

            Just as it IS impossible for you to talk to me about anything.

            Because you are a dope

            a creep

            degenerate…

          • elysianfield January 5, 2017 at 7:28 pm #

            “Because you are a dope

            a creep

            degenerate…

            Ahhh, Dannyboy, who can argue with that logic? Why, you could be considered the site’s Benjamin Disraeli! Our Ralph Bunche or our very own melanin-challenged Adam Clayton Powell….

            …keep up the good work.

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 10:50 am #

            the brilliance of your comment is blinding:

            “or our very own melanin-challenged Adam Clayton Powell….”

    • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 6:58 pm #

      Russia accurately and on time pays pension to several million Israeli citizens – women age 55 and older and men age 60 and older, former citizens of the USSR.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2017 at 11:35 pm #

      You’re just saying that because you’re Jewish. Allies? What have they ever done for us – besides bribing our politicians with campaign funds?

      • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 7:59 am #

        I feel that I have made a great contribution by just highlighting your insanity.

        And that’s just a more recent contribution.

        Plenty of others

  85. Frankiti January 4, 2017 at 6:02 pm #

    Funny, bitcoin is the currency of choice for hackers, criminal groups, cyber thieves and cartels.

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  86. FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 6:24 pm #

    Obama did not come from a celebrity background

    But Obama did come from the House of Kennedy, he American Royalty.

  87. Frankiti January 4, 2017 at 6:28 pm #

    “The idea that Modernity itself might go down is inconceivable to those in thrall to the Religion of Progress, which declares that the world (and life in it) only gets better and better every year. This would appear demonstrably untrue, just in the visible damage to the landscape and the living things that struggle to dwell there. The most obvious problem with Modernity has been human population overshoot.”

    Bravo! The tip of the spear is a Modernity that still considers the questioning of the notion of human sanctity and superiority taboo. That humans are somehow separate and disconnected from this world. Mars awaits. Mistaking human technological progress (getting a rocket to, and humans living, on Mars or a virtual future where robotic and or augmented, or replaced humans can live on a dead planet) with true progress (preserving and caring for a living planet, a giver and provider of so much life). The earth finally developed the needed ears, eyes, and hands over billions of years… only for (until now) self harm, and to flee? Absurd.

    Indeed, what blade of grass makes the lawn green?

  88. FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2017 at 6:31 pm #

    Russian Spetsnaz in Action

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rhp7Q7Ceq8

  89. Q. Shtik January 4, 2017 at 10:07 pm #

    Shit that I have really become sick and tired of – Q

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

    How could I have forgotten to include on my list

    . religious mumbo jumbo as spoken by messianicdruid and his ilk

    • messianicdruid January 4, 2017 at 10:46 pm #

      I’m just a soul [ a spirit living in a body ] whose intentions are good, oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.

      • elysianfield January 4, 2017 at 11:04 pm #

        “I’m just a soul [ a spirit living in a body ] whose intentions are good, oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”

        Thus spoke Eric Burdon….

        • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 12:57 am #

          Thus spake Burdenthrustra.

    • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 12:55 am #

      Personally, I think MD is ok, even if his religious views seem far out.

      • messianicdruid January 5, 2017 at 11:20 am #

        Some folks think Jesus is “far out”. My concern is whether or not I am more disturbing than “fingerless gloves”.

  90. janet January 4, 2017 at 11:56 pm #

    “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.” –Donald Trump tweet 8:38 AM – 7 May 2015

    Sanders addressed reporters, and used Trump’s 2015 tweet as a reference point.

    “Trump didn’t just say this in passing,” Sanders said. “He didn’t say it in the middle of the night. He didn’t say it in an interview. This was a cornerstone of his campaign. He said it over and over and over again.”

    Trump, Sanders added, “has got to come forward — maybe through a tweet, one of his tweets — and say clearly that [he] will veto any legislation that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid or that cuts Social Security.”

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  91. pequiste January 5, 2017 at 12:25 am #

    “When Black people get free, everybody gets free.”

    Janet (of course) a bit up thread.

    Well now honey chile, listen up close cause in America dose Black people get free food (SNAP) and housing (Section 8) and telephones (Obamaphone) and medical care (Medicaid) and preschool (HeadStart) and half-a-hundred other “free” programs and things.

    They are the Free Shit Army – FSA – and demand, or riots, murder and mayhem (rhymes with B.L.M) will ensue that ensure you, Whitey, pay up.

  92. Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 12:47 am #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/negro-terrorists-livestream-kidnaping-and-torture-of-white-trump-supporter/

    Spread this far and wide. This is why White Nationalism must exist – to defend our People and Culture. Zone, I expect you to work on this too. You’re White and you have a duty to your Ancestors. Bill and Frank are of a different lineage and thus have no such obligation.

  93. janet January 5, 2017 at 1:08 am #

    pequiste, you misunderstand how Black people are not free, how Black poverty and genocide is state violence, how 2.8 million Black people are locked in cages in this country is state violence, how Black women bearing the burden of a relentless assault on our children and our families is state violence, how Black queer and trans folks bear a unique burden from a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of them like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of them, and that is state violence, how 500,000 Black people in the US are undocumented immigrants and relegated to the shadows, how Black girls are used as negotiating chips during times of conflict and war, how Black folks living with disabilities and different abilities bear the burden of state sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to squeeze them into boxes of normality defined by white supremacy, and that is state violence.

  94. janet January 5, 2017 at 1:12 am #

    pequiste, why do Black people have to “get over it”?

    Slavery, “Oh, that was 400 years ago, get over it”

    Segregation, “Oh, that was 60 years ago, get over it”

    Police shootings, “Oh, that was two weeks ago… you still on that?”

    But white folks get killed and it’s like: “9/11, Never Forget!”

  95. janet January 5, 2017 at 1:27 am #

    Trump Now Signaling Immediate Obamacare Repeal Might Not Be So Smart

    Them Republicans better think twice before messin’ with Obamacare and listen to Trump’s warning. No mass deportation. No Muslim database either. No wall. Mexico not gonna pay nuthin’ No elimination of independent ethics committee. It’s true. Trump comin’ around to my way of thinkin’ …

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  96. janet January 5, 2017 at 1:42 am #

    Well now honey chile, listen up close, pequiste… Those programs are means-tested. If you qualify those benefits are available to you, too. Just be thankful if you don’t qualify. Be content with your TRICARE or medicare or social security checks or whatever you are getting from the government.

    If you are fortunate enough to be white and rich, you get your government benefits other ways, like these:

    The mortgage interest deduction for big houses and second homes.

    The yacht tax deduction.

    Rental property.

    Fancy business meals.

    The capital gains tax rate.

    The estate tax.

    Gambling loss deductions.

    The Social Security earnings limit.

    Retirement plans.

    Tax prep.

    All nice and legal to benefit the rich, even though the rich don’t need help. Just like SNAP and Section 8 and Obamaphones and Medicaid and HeadStart are all nice and legal to benefit the poor, except the poor do need the help.

    • elysianfield January 5, 2017 at 11:29 am #

      “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

      Anatole France,

      Janet, your above post is shamelessly disingenuous.

      On my earlier direct question to you, regarding racism in law enforcement…”grow a pair” and answer. Well?

  97. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 6:41 am #

    Sorry, but I have to be consistent, unlike The Trumpster. I believe Muslims who come to America need to assimilate and the same holds true for Jews. Many Muslims have told me that Islam is more than a religion — that it’s a shared culture. Jews claim the same thing about Judaism. It’s an anti-assimilation stance. I’m a former Catholic. For me, it was always just a religion with some cultural overtones, but never fully a culture unto itself. I don’t believe multi-culturism is viable because ultimately it’s Tribalism and in a world of diminishing resources, or a country even, Tribalism means unnecessary conflict. So please, if you’re Jewish, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t criticize multi-culturism and then claim your religion is a culture. If you do, you’re a flaming hypocrite. Assimilate, or move to Israel. Same goes for any Muslim who claims their religion is their culture. Assimilate or go back to your country of origin.

    • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 8:05 am #

      “Jews claim the same thing about Judaism.”

      Cold, you and messianicdruid appear to be competing for The Expert On The Jews.

      You have added Spokesman For The Jews to your credentials, so I guess you’ve got more to offer.

      • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:23 am #

        Are you Jewish? If so, is Judaism a religion for you or is it a culture plus religion? Don’t be shy. This whole “we’re a people” thing has to stop. If you reside in America and are an American citizen, you are an American Goddammit just like me. You are not anything else that supersedes that or that attempts to coexist with it. If you continue to claim you are of a people other than an American citizen, and you’ve had ample time to assimilate, then it’s time for you to leave. You can’t have it both ways. If my ancestors had to assimilate, and they did, so too do you & your’s. No double standards.

        • messianicdruid January 5, 2017 at 12:30 pm #

          Reading is guessing.

          https://adask.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/reading-is-guessing/

          When discussing a word with so many definitions [ jew ], no one can be an expert, and reiterating the definition you are using every time you use it is tiresome [ even makes some folks sick ].

          Confusion of language = planet – wide Babel.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 2:33 pm #

          Welcome aboard the Ship called Reality. They’re not going to stop trying to have it both ways. They’re not “Negro Professionals” but Professional Negroes. It’s immensely profitable for both ethnic groups and they will continue to push until we make it unprofitable for them to do so. And yes, the Jews are the senior partners. Who do you think founded the NAACP?

          Muslims aren’t going to assimilate either. Why would they if they can keeping pushing and ultimately topple us? The price of weakness is immense.

        • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 2:56 pm #

          Cold,

          Judiasm is my religion.

          Full stop.

          Don’t get that Janos fantasm enter your mind. That is too precious to waste.

  98. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 6:51 am #

    Janos: You’re just saying that because you’re Jewish. Allies? What have they ever done for us – besides bribing our politicians with campaign funds?

    Great point. You do make great points on occasion. It’s your conclusions that are totally wackadoo fucked.

    Trump says the same thing you have said here about NATO and yet he doesn’t apply the same standard to Israel. Obama has committed $38 billion to Israel over the next ten years — more than any other POTUS ever — and he and America get ungrateful derision instead of thanks. Seriously, what does America get for that $38 billion? I’ve yet to see a reasonable answer to this question.

    Trump is your Man, not mine. How do you defend this inconsistency in a sea of inconsistencies surrounding this slob?

    FYI, Obama & Kerry are also flaming hypocrites but Kerry’s lengthy speech was brilliant. I didn’t like him licking his lips every several seconds like a Lizard, but it was refreshing to hear a politician speak so intelligently & articulately compared to the grandstanding Obama and the incoherent Trump. Samantha Powers speech at the U.N. was equally impressive.

    • Cavepainter January 5, 2017 at 8:00 am #

      Get over it, there is no solution to the Israeli/Palestinian crisis; Sustain ably, less than 2% of the population there could be accommodated, and at hard scrabble existence rather than 1st World standard to which Israel is accustomed by leveraging resources with the inherent threat of their nuclear arsenal. Israel is realistic on this point — unlike the One-World Utopians. Much less pretty picture than the totally fanciful John Lennon “Imagine” theme.

      • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:18 am #

        Get over what? What the hell are you talking about?

        You contradict yourself within your own paragraph and you support my point. You underscore the notion that America is supporting unsustainable behavior by providing military aid to Israel. I agree. Same goes for the aid America provides to Egypt. Considering resource constraints, neither Israel nor Palestine needs to exist in that space. I say the area be designated as a Global National Religious Park kind of like Jellystone out West and the current inhabitants have ten years to entirely vacate the area. Assistance will be given to aid in that endeavor.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 3:00 pm #

      I am deeply saddened by Trump’s commitment to Israel – all the more amazing after the almost universal slander he faced from American Jewry and their Media. Some of my friends think his whole ascent was a Globalist Con. This obviously strengthens their argument. We’ll see how much of a Nationalist he is in the months to come. He seems serious about bringing jobs back. The border is the real question now.

      In terms of foreign policy, it’s just possible that he is forging his own path – and anything new is rare these days. Who knows? Maybe he really is his own man – friendly to Israel and the Jews but without being their servant. Obviously they wish he’d be another George Bush or McBrainless McCain. But instead he’s forging ties with Russia. But how does that translate to Russia’s ally, Iran?

      • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 10:53 am #

        “Who knows? Maybe he really is his own man”

        you mean like:

        Provoke, back-down, provoke someone else, back-down, provoke…

  99. dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 7:55 am #

    JimInFlorida,

    I can see that you have recovered from your loss and regained your hatred.

    Sorry for your loss

    …and now sorry for your soul.

    • JimInFlorida January 6, 2017 at 10:57 am #

      Well dannyboy, thank you for your kind consideration. If the same happened to you, I would have put aside the joy of political argument and offered the same consolation. Though I greatly disagree with you, I respect your pithy contributions and skillful stimulation of commentary on CFN.

      That said, even though my soul experienced a great shift, and cleansing to the extent that I saw things differently, such an idealized state of mind in a society gone mad is not a good state to be in. Being a white dove was a beautiful experience but, when the hawks are circling, I had better return to being an eagle. I am compelled to see actors and political forces in their actual form and I will confront what is clearly destructive.

      I suppose, “hatred,” is another word for Whites who refuse to surrender to the disease and daring to name those who are spreading it. There is nothing wrong in hating evil.

      • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 10:54 am #

        you are right and i apologize for offending you

  100. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:29 am #

    messianicdruid said: I’m sorry you see it as “sanctimonious”. This is not my intent, but rather to make aware of a even more “more perfect government”. If the Constitution could not prevent what we see before us perhaps we can be motivated to keep searching.

    I agree with this. The Constitution is overrated and is now, effectively, a Paper Tiger. The Rich have found a way around it. It’s only purpose now is symbolic and to keep The Little People in check. It doesn’t apply to those who’s responsibility it is, who have sworn an oath, to protect it.

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  101. Gene January 5, 2017 at 8:33 am #

    What I hear is enormous entitlement in the comments.
    Move to Portugal? So what did you do beside watch and read blogs to stop the madness? And now you want to use your exploited wealth to exit stage left. Make a mess, leave and let someone else clean it up. So American.
    Regarding clean coal. You are dreaming. And you will be cold. (But you can move to Florida!). Coal, oil, plutonium…they become poisons the minute they are removed from the ground, where they were stored because they were poisons. That made Earth safe for the evolution of humans and everything else that lives here.
    Oh, by the way, when the word compromise comes up, I find myself wondering why it is always a compromise about which group of humans is going to destroy what. If compromise does not include representatives of the rest of the living planet, it isn’t compromise and it isn’t going to work (if working means humans get to keep living, it is all connected after all).

    • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:44 am #

      Absolutely, Gene. All these Expats take their money and run, yet they never really leave because they can’t shut up about America and their hatred of it. There is a commentator at Moon of Alabama blog and Ian Welsh’s blog who fits this profile. I think he now goes by the name V. Arnold. He brags about how he got the fuck out (he now lives in Thailand I believe) but he comments incessantly about his hatred for America and Americans. The way I see it is, if you’re going to leave, then fucking leave and that means LEAVE in every conceivable way — both physically & psychically.

      • messianicdruid January 5, 2017 at 12:57 pm #

        Make your Stand right where you are, there is no where else to go.

        • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 2:59 pm #

          i decided Portugal because Colombia has requested NATO assistance and you know what that means.

          Plus, Portugal wants wealthy retirees and especially Jews. They know what’s good for them.

  102. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:39 am #

    And dannyboy, if I’m a spokesman for the Jewish people then you must assuredly be a spokesman for the Irish people. Make your mind up. Either you’re Jewish or you’re Irish. You can’t be both.

    Tell me, dannyboy, who is an adequate spokesman for the Jewish “people?” Who’s an expert on the Jewish “people” and what it means to be Jewish?

    Shlomo Sand? He’s certainly more credentialed than you could ever hope to be and get this; He’s Jewish and he lives in Israel.

    • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:48 am #

      Strike that. He’s not Jewish by his own admission. He’s an Israeli citizen. I’m not sure if he practices Judaism or not.

      • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 3:06 pm #

        You know that you have Jews among you, right. We are very verbal.

        Also, my favorite uncle “Fighting Joe” often told me stories worth hearing (you also must know that the Irish enjoy storytelling?).

        Uncle Joe came to NYC to further his prize-fighting career. As a champion in Ireland he was encourage to fight for great honor of Ireland.

        When he arrived in NYC, his manager hooked him up with the fight promoter. The promoter (who attempted to change Uncle Joe’s name to “Fighting Irish Joe”, but got rebuffed, because Joe explained that everyone would already know he was Irish) explained that the fight would end in round 5, with him the winner. Joe asked a simple question “If this guy is sitting down in the 5 Round, i’m figuring that I’ll be sitting down in a future match.

        With that, he left, AND NEVER FOUGHT A SINGLE MATCH IN THE USA.

    • Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 4:33 pm #

      Who’s an expert on the Jewish “people” and what it means to be Jewish? – Cold

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

      Dr. Frank E. Peters, scholar and former jesuit.

      • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 10:50 pm #

        Capital J?

        • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 10:56 am #

          you two having a Spelling Bee?

  103. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:58 am #

    Hey dannyboy, are you and your rich friends willing to put your money where your collective mouth is? My wife is trying to open her Montessori School by the hardest. She needs Capital. Are you and your wealthy friends willing to pool your tax deductible donations and fund it? She is offering financial assistance to a certain percentage of the children who are refugees from all corners of the planet including Syria. The purpose is to help assimilate these children into American culture so that they can grow up to be productive, creative, critically thinking American citizens rather than criminals & terrorists if left to the devices of the ghetto. What do you say, dannyboy? I think it’s a worthwhile cause. Anyone else want to step up who has deep pockets? If so, I’ll provide the info. via email if you are sincere about it.

    • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 3:08 pm #

      I Chair a multinational educational organization. No salary, but plenty of expenses.

      Find someone you know, it will be satisfying for them.

      • elysianfield January 5, 2017 at 3:34 pm #

        Dannyboy,
        Months ago you wrote that you chaired a multinational charity organization…I’m becoming impressed….

        • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2017 at 3:45 pm #

          Probably has a title like “Love Lives Here”.

        • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 10:58 am #

          A nonprofit education organization serving India, England, Germany, NY, DC

      • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 3:40 pm #

        Just as I expected. The Rich do not part with their money, ever. Do tell us more about this charity, dannyboy? In my experience, The Rich don’t engage in endeavors, charitable or not, that don’t benefit them in some way directly. Charity is shared amongst them since they own and run the charities. Scumbag.

        • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 3:45 pm #

          The irony. She, meaning my wife, and her Board have one guy right now who is funding them to get started. He’s Muslim. A great guy all around. Salt of the Fucking Earth. But he’s not Rich like you, dannyboy, however, he is certainly more generous than you. Unlike elysianfield, I’m not impressed.

          • elysianfield January 5, 2017 at 3:51 pm #

            Cold,
            Allow me a bit of snark, please….

          • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 3:52 pm #

            It’s hard to tell sometimes.

          • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 4:59 pm #

            please don’t be impressed

            please don’t think of me

            it gives me the creeps

          • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 1:17 pm #

            “It’s hard to tell sometimes.”

            Cold,
            Yes subtly offered poorly. I wish I could speak as did William F Buckley, write as well as our Host, and evince the chutzpah of Dannyboy…I am found wanting….

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:00 am #

            Beautiful how you segway from misleading Cold to insulting me.

            I expect that’s what you have to offer.

        • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 4:59 pm #

          “Scumbag.” – Cold N. Holefield

          now that should get you large contibutors

          again blaming other for failures?

          • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:15 pm #

            It’s not a failure. We need a new system of capital formation & distribution. The Rich hold all the cards. They invest in each other, and if they invest in a Plebe, they do so with the aim of robbing the Plebe blind and taking the Plebe’s idea and making it their own. If Man manages to survive the impending Bottleneck coming at us like a Freight Train, and mention of Capitalism will result in instant expulsion and maybe even certain death. It will be anathema to survival.

          • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:15 pm #

            any

          • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 8:43 pm #

            Dummies, Danny boy is a f*cking fraud, he lives in queens with a broad named Maude

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:02 am #

            correct

            still makes me the only one here with a lover

  104. FincaInTheMountains January 5, 2017 at 9:10 am #

    There is little doubt now that Hillary stole several million votes during the election. According to internal data of Trump sociological company her support does no exceed 15 percent of the electorate.

    But the worst thing is that this 15 percent are really supporting her, and to a large extent she is supported by a number of so-called American intellectuals – humanitarian professors, really good artists, musicians, writers and the best representatives of the second oldest profession (no, not the whores, stupid, the journalists).

    These are the 15 percent, especially intellectuals, who call themselves political elite and they provide the seed without which Killary could not have taken credit for these millions.

    Well, Hillary, I think, will leave us be in the near future, but these people are the new “Narodnaya Volya” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narodnaya_Volya and will now become Clinton zombies in their animal roar to exceed their master.

    In particular, on the ABC there is “The View” show, the most striking of anchors is brilliant Whoopi Goldberg. So yesterday this show of five so-called women in “patriotic” frenzy, compared with which the head of the commission on Un-American Activities Senator McCarthy was a pinnacle of tolerance and intelligence, demanded to cancel the results of the elections on the grounds that Trump does not believe US intelligence asserts that Vladimir Putin hackers have brought him to power.

    Moreover, they strongly hinted that Trump himself is a Russian agent who in their view is something like Sauron from the “Lord of the Rings”, and Russians are the real orcs. A mere mentioning of Vladimir Putin name makes them so rabid that I have no doubt that if in front of them at the time turned out to be a red button with the “Overload” inscription they would have rushed to push it like crazy.

    Why is this? This is no longer just madness, there’s obvious need in exercising the rite of witch exorcism.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 3:13 pm #

      Yes, “the View” is Ground Zero of feminine liberal stupidity, raving about Russia like any follower of Joe McCarthy – whom they hate in another part of their mind. But of course the different parts of their minds never meet, that’s why they’re the idiots that they are.

      It does all make sense in that it’s explainable. Liberals loved Russia when it was Communist. Now that’s it’s controlled by White Christians again, they hate it. Needless to say, “the ladies” aren’t smart enough to have this kind of clarity. They’re just foot in mouth soldiers of their higher ups. And those higher ups have the clarity but lack the candor to ever openly admit their motivations.

  105. janet January 5, 2017 at 10:50 am #

    RIP Huston Smith

    HUSTON SMITH: Like the non-Sufi Muslim, [Sufis] are very meticulous in terms of observing the five pillars, the five requirements of being a Muslim, which are first, their affirmation of faith, which is very brief.

    [Huston Smith recites the affirmation of faith in Arabic]

    HUSTON SMITH: “There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.”

    And then there are the prayers five times a day. The third one is the will that we share the abundance of this world. The fourth is the month of Ramadan, where, from the moment of dawn, which is defined as when you can distinguish a black thread from a white thread, until sunset, neither food nor drink nor smoke nor sexual indulgence may be engaged in. And the last is somewhat optional. It is a pilgrimage to Mecca if finances and health make that possible. Now, the Sufis will be meticulous in observing that structure. They’re not-do not consider themselves above that, but they enter into all of this in greater intensity and in symbolism, greater symbolism.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 3:16 pm #

      Like the non-Sufi Muslim [Sufis] – what does this even mean?

  106. janet January 5, 2017 at 11:21 am #

    TRUMP THE POST TORTOISE

    While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Donald Trump and his role as the Republican President-Elect.

    The old farmer said, ” Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a ‘Post Tortoise’.” Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a ‘post tortoise’ was. The old farmer said, “When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that’s a post tortoise.”

    The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor’s face so he continued to explain. “You know he didn’t get up there by himself, he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he’s up there, he’s elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with.”

    • pequiste January 5, 2017 at 12:42 pm #

      Quite funny your post tortoise comedic anecedote.

      One could say the same thing about Barry O. and “W.” — they are/were both post tortoises.

      We will just have to wait and see about Donald J. Trump’s ability to govern, won’t we.

  107. janet January 5, 2017 at 11:28 am #

    Update:

    As reported in the New York Times, President Obama will dismantle NSEERS, the program used after 9/11 to track Muslims in the United States. This is a major victory for blocking a Muslim registry.

    From 2002 until 2011, the National Security Exit-Entry Registration System (NSEERS) was used to register and track hundreds of thousands of non-citizens when they came into or left the U.S. People from selected countries, all but two of them predominantly Muslim, were required to register on arrival, undergo more thorough interrogation than other visitors, and submit to be fingerprinted.

    The NSEERS program has been found to be ineffective as a counterterrorism tool, and has resulted in tremendous harm for individuals who were directly affected.

    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 4:04 pm #

      WPA coward

      • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 10:54 pm #

        Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 8:43 pm #

        Dummies, Danny boy is a f*cking fraud, he lives in queens with a broad named Maude.

        More likely her name would be,

        Sheila
        Anat
        Batya
        or?

        • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:04 am #

          see how popular i am with the ladies:

          Maude, Sheila, Anat, Batya…

          sorry about the losers among you

  108. malthuss January 5, 2017 at 11:36 am #

    The buzz here is Israel.
    How did a Peak Banking site turn into a discussion on Israel?

    And the UN did ‘condemn’ Zionism and equate it with Fascism.
    If I recall. In 1975?

    • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 11:41 am #

      BTB started it.

      Is this exclusively a Peak Banking site? I thought it was a Peak Everything site — Peak Religion, Peak Internet, Peak Technology, Peak-A-Boo.

      • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 12:07 pm #

        And, most important of all, Peak People.

      • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 1:06 pm #

        Sorry, I beg to differ. The whole Israel thread started after I responded yesterday at 3:33 pm to Back Row Heckler’s post yesterday at 12:15 pm. Please don’t make me out as some kind of Israel fanatic. I’m just an American of Jewish background; I dislike comments here on what I consider unfair treatment of Israel. Then I reply to those comments according to what mood I’m in at the time.

        Anyone who has read my posts over the years knows I am technologically-oriented and my main concern is how to insure the human race can thrive into the future (this is where I differ from the doom-and-gloomers). The whole Jewish thing is mostly just a minor annoyance.

        • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 3:12 pm #

          “The whole Jewish thing is mostly just a minor annoyance.”

          beantownbill, you are too generous.

          Many here scapegoat Jews for their problems.

          • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 6:45 pm #

            It’s not a matter of being too generous, Danny. After I leave this site I go back to my life as if nothing happened. Life’s too short to get wrapped up in some strangers’ words. I got more important things to do than replaying any lingering anger over some ignoramus’s thought processes.

            I come here, because believe it or not, I learn from the comments, as well as JHK’s weekly writings. Honestly, despite what Janos claims, dealing with all the unfair Jewish propaganda doesn’t take up very much of my time and energy.Being a Jew is just part of who I am, among many other parts. I realize the world isn’t safe for Jews, but I’m prepared for that.

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:06 am #

            your comment is aligned to my own thinking…

            now let the Jewish Conspiracy commentary begin!

        • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 3:24 pm #

          Not true: you are fanatically pro-Jewish and thus pro-Israel. It is your main Identity and you once admitted to Prog that you would defend them no matter what, be they right or be they wrong.

          America? You support it insofar as it supports Israel and the Jews and not an iota further.

          Btw, I don’t totally condemn your tribalism – I condemn your condemnation of mine. And of course your tribalism doesn’t belong here as Cold said above. Now he would say the same about mine too, btw. But let’s face it, the Universal State is an illusion. And mixing all these different kinds of people isn’t going to work. You support the mixing because it makes us weak and makes you people safe – until it doesn’t that is. That’s where Europe is now.

          Believe it or not Bill, you folks had it better here than you ever did, perhaps since the Roman Empire. You should have supported us, but instead you tried to take it all. Now it’s all going to go to shit for all of us.

          • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 4:51 pm #

            Bill, Dan or both?

          • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 5:02 pm #

            malthuss,

            two hints:

            1. the nesting position

            2. the words

            “Believe it or not Bill…”

        • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 4:54 pm #

          I dislike comments here on what I consider unfair treatment of Israel. /

          Of course you do.
          In any case how anti Israel is the UN?

          • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 6:50 pm #

            There’s 193 members of the UN. How many of them do YOU think are pro-Israel?

      • routersurfer January 5, 2017 at 4:05 pm #

        Religion will never peak. Stupid is endless.

        • janet January 5, 2017 at 4:57 pm #

          Religion (as in beliefs, creeds, etc. in the head) already peaked. Now the focus is on “spirituality” which means real experience, not head stuff.

        • beantownbill. January 5, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

          Unfortunately, we are hard-wired for religion.

          • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:10 pm #

            I don’t believe that.

          • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 10:55 pm #

            2 are pro?

  109. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 11:38 am #

    Q. Shtik, I’d add to your list raking leaves, especially the smaller ones that get caught up in the grass and are a bitch to remove. I wait until they’ve all fallen before raking them and that time is now and I’m dreading it. Everyone else on the block, or most everyone else, has landscapers do it. In otherwords, illegal immigrants. But, I’m of the disposition that you’re not a real Man unless you do your own yard work so I must fulfill my obligation and rake the fucking leaves.

    • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 3:29 pm #

      i too “rake the fucking leaves.”

      my prognostication has been hone to a science (although, i need to the brilliant prognostication strategy of “I wait until they’ve all fallen before raking them.”).

      My Scheme involves first raking the newly seeded areas first. Thus I can delay the rest.

      Then I concentrate on the front yard, indicating that I hold my neighbors in the highest regard.

      I don’t do the back

      nice, huh?

  110. malthuss January 5, 2017 at 11:38 am #

    In the early ’70’s, I believe, the UN passed a resolution stating Zionism was racist.

    Get your facts straight. And you posted that I am stupid.

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    • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 11:42 am #

      Who gives a shit what the U.N. says is racist is isn’t. I don’t need the U.N. to tell me what is or isn’t. I can make up my own mind, thank you. Can you? If so, why bring up the U.N.?

      • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 11:42 am #

        or instead of is

      • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 4:47 pm #

        Thanks but many use the media and World Government to set their personal standards.

  111. pequiste January 5, 2017 at 1:06 pm #

    Near hysteria at the U.S. Senate hearing on the “cyber- hacking” of the election by Russia.

    James Clapper, U.S. Intel chief, saying, with a forlorn face, just how vulnerable U.S. information was and is to foreign actors. How the whole election was manipulated and hacked by those meanies in the Kremlin and suggesting that the response be overwhelming – to send a strong message to the Russkies and Vlad Putin personally, you know.

    Then Admiral Rogers of the U.S. Cyber Command, telling the gimlet- eyed panel of esteemed senators, that the military is doing everything it can to protect America from cyber aggression; that it is a big job; and will require moar resources but there is no way to make things completely safe.

    Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham, were beating the war drums, saying it was a direct attack on American democracy. It was clear to me that they are just itching for fight with Russia over this.

    The entire U.S. government should be ashamed; after all they planned, built and operated the informatics infrastructure in America, from its inception, and have spent trillions of dollars over the last 40 years to have it, the cyberscape, military, governmental, and civilian, “their way.”

    Really fucking pathetic.

  112. Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 1:20 pm #

    My concern is whether or not I am more disturbing than “fingerless gloves”. – messianindruid

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

    Yes, WAAY more. But don’t feel like the lone ranger, you were just a currently convenient example.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 4:00 pm #

      Fingerless gloves sounds just as obscene as hanging chads. Shame on you for pinning this on Messi.

  113. janet January 5, 2017 at 2:37 pm #

    “Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham, were beating the war drums, saying it was a direct attack on American democracy. It was clear to me that they are just itching for fight with Russia over this.” –pequiste

    I don’t agree that their beef is with Russia. McCain and Graham are just patriots who want to defend the United States.

    Russia just happens to be the last country to attack American democracy. If Korea or Iran or any other country had done what Russia did, patriots would be on the warpath against them.

    Yes, Putin is a dictator, but he is a dictator in Russia, which is a minor regional player. Trump (and McCain and Graham) are also on the warpath with China. China is not a minor player. China is a global military and economic power that is growing daily. China matters. China is eating our lunch. Putin is begging for scraps, and needed a puppet like Trump.

    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 4:04 pm #

      WPAsoka bot

  114. PeteAtomic January 5, 2017 at 2:58 pm #

    Thanks again there Mr. Jim for spending your time and energy in a very thoughtful, long essay on America’s future. I think this type of discourse is generally vacant in the mainstream out there.

    I’m barely into my 40s, and I can remember as a pre-teen bringing my nickles and dimes, and maybe if I were lucky– an odd quarter, to our downtown of the small town I grew up. 30 years ago, I could use those coins to purchase candy and smaller sundry items. Maybe a can of pop.
    Now, none of those same businesses exist. The “dollar store” has replaced the “nickle & dime” and I think that’s a real indicator as to where the US has gone is a very short time. It used to be these types of changes in the economy generally took a much longer time into fruition– certainly not within living memory of so many younger people.
    In this same time period, there has been a very real and noticeable change in the quality of goods. What used to be made out of steel is now made out of plastics, and for much more money.
    So, I think we are definitely in this era of diminishing returns which you’ve written so eloquently about. It’s very difficult to see the quandary people are in when they are so deeply involved in a problem. I think we are collectively in a type of new Great Depression period (or perhaps right on the cusp of one), and most people can’t recognize it, because it would be like trying to explain water to a fish. It surrounds us so completely & we are so immersed in it.

    So anyway, a few thoughts there. Thanks again, and Happy New Year!
    Life is anything if not interesting.

  115. janet January 5, 2017 at 3:03 pm #

    Trump got the talk. Now President-elect Donald Trump has suddenly changed his tune. Now he suddenly describes himself as a “big fan” of intelligence agencies. Amazing what a little talk, a little pressure, will do to change Trump’s attitude to make him useful.

    Trump is a useful idiot, easily manipulated. He messed with the wrong people when he started messing with the intelligence folks. He will now start receiving his briefings. He will now behave himself. Trump is now a toothless paper tiger.

    Donald Trump: “The media lies to make it look like I am against “Intelligence” when in fact I am a big fan!”
    6:45 AM – 5 Jan 2017

    Trump has been warned.

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    • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 3:15 pm #

      “Trump is a useful idiot”

      how you do that crossthrough thing, thru ‘useful’?

      Then I can write ‘Fixed it for you’.

      • Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 8:07 pm #

        Well, if you cross through ‘useful’ you must remember to change ‘a’ to ‘an’.

  116. Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 3:56 pm #

    Funny how WPA and Danny returned from hiatus at a he same time

    • janet January 5, 2017 at 4:52 pm #

      Funny how you appeared at the same time, Franksoka troll

    • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 10:56 pm #

      Thanks for pointing that out.
      I zone both out, much of the time.
      You are a sharp one.

      • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:08 am #

        “I zone both out”

        try to be honest

  117. routersurfer January 5, 2017 at 4:10 pm #

    Been following Mr. Kunstler’s work since The Long Emergency. This years crystal ball has the most depth and polish. We are going to see changes the next few years that will make it hard to pretend change is not coming. Life will go on. But without most of us. Peace!

  118. Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2017 at 4:13 pm #

    Thank God for the alternate media. Once Drudge and Infowars reported on the torture of the White kid by four Black adults, they couldn’t keep it under wraps anymore. Deliciously enough, they humiliated themselves at first by saying it wasn’t a hate crime, and that it had nothing to do with politics even though the Black Animals made continuous references to Trump and Race.

    You’re off the hook, Zone. I was just blowing the Horn of Buckland (fear, fire, foes), the horn of Great Emergency in hopes you would respond – or at least something deeper within “you” would. But now that it’s out in the open, you can go back to the altered state of consciousness called “being a private citizen”. It doesn’t have to be horrible, but it generally is nowadays. But still, one of the finest lines in Lord of the Rings is when Barliman Butterbur told Aragorn, a King is all very well, but we want to be left alone. And Aragorn replied, You will be.

    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:00 pm #

      Everyone knows it’s only racism when white people do it. That’s what racism is…

      • dannyboy January 5, 2017 at 5:07 pm #

        is this related to: “Funny how WPA and Danny returned from hiatus at a he same time.”

        and

        what the fuck are you talking about?

      • janet January 5, 2017 at 5:08 pm #

        Exactly. Only when white people do it, because white people have the power to enforce discrimination and racism. Black people can have prejudice, but they don’t have the power to enforce their prejudice through a criminal justice system to, for example, put 3.8 million whites behind bars (a continuation of slavery for Blacks today) and create a myth of white violence to keep whites behind bars. Black cannot kill unarmed whites at traffic stops and get away with it with impunity. That would be racist. Only whites can be racist because they have the power, and they do get away with murder.

        • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:17 pm #

          Ho-ho, hey-hey what is WPAsoka posting today? Crocodile tears for blacks is where this is headed, wish her dad used the rhythm method…

        • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 10:22 am #

          “Exactly. Only when white people do it, because white people have the power to enforce discrimination and racism. Black people can have prejudice, but they don’t have the power to enforce their prejudice through a criminal justice system to, for example, put 3.8 million whites behind bars (a continuation of slavery for Blacks today) and create a myth of white violence to keep whites behind bars. Black cannot kill unarmed whites at traffic stops and get away with it with impunity. That would be racist. Only whites can be racist because they have the power, and they do get away with murder.”

          Janet,
          Digitus Impudicus….

    • janet January 5, 2017 at 5:03 pm #

      Thank God for the main stream media. They will hound Trump to his grave because the man is so corrupt and so conflict-ridden (financially and politically) and so secretive (tax returns?) that he should not be allowed to become president on Jan. 20. He is still not president yet and anything could happen in the next two weeks. He may decide he doesn’t want the job and resign and go away voluntarily like Sara Palin did.

      • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:10 pm #

        Ho-Ho-hey-hey, what is WPAsoka posting today?

        Wrong on bernie, wrong on Hill, wish Janet’s mom was on the pill…

  119. Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:05 pm #

    “As I write just before New Year’s Eve, President Obama is trying to start World War Three with Russia as a parting gift to the voting public. I’m among the skeptics who think that the “Russia Hacks Election story” is a ruse to divert the public’s attention from the stupendous failure of the Democratic Party to win, as expected. Rather, Wikileaks should get the Pulitzer Prize for revealing so much about the nefarious workings of the Clinton Foundation and the Democratic National Committee.”

    Greenwald’s latest should be required reading.
    https://theintercept.com/2017/01/04/washpost-is-richly-rewarded-for-false-news-about-russia-threat-while-public-is-deceived/

    He does better reporting from a laptop in a treehouse in Brazil than any hack from the MSM….

  120. FincaInTheMountains January 5, 2017 at 5:16 pm #

    The fact is that the world that was formed after the Fourth Crusade, the Albigensian Crusade and the invasion of Genghis Khan is no more. And that world began with the era of chivalry, formed around one or other Christian holy treasure stolen by the Crusaders in Orthodox Byzantium.

    And the Order of the Golden Fleece, not the last of the orders of chivalry, also formed around such treasure, but in addition to this treasure there was also a legend associated with this treasure. And this legend is the nerve which the saint Dmitry Rostovsky and Fyodor Dostoevsky have dug out.

    Moreover, this nerve runs through the Albigensian Crusade and Sicilian Vespers, which was a joint operation of the English and the Byzantine intelligence against the very same sect that is now behind Hillary Clinton.

    And about this quite openly writes John Norwich, and I wanted in spite of him to write that this operation was a prototype of not only of the Entente and the United Nations, but also of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump Union, which we, with God’s help, will see in just two weeks .

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  121. janet January 5, 2017 at 5:16 pm #

    “Who don’t want to live in a place with people just like them?” –frankiti

    Exactly. If I had the money I would go to Israel and live with Jews. Jews are wonderful people! Israel is a multicultural haven. Jews per se are the most international multi-cultural of all peoples on the planet. That is because they have been driven and wandered all over the planet, and have picked up bits of every culture in which they have lived.

    So Israel, as the Jewish state, is inherently multi-cultural.

    Moreover, Israel is a land that holds many attractions for many different people – cultural, religious, educational, spiritual, tourist, military, economic, agricultural, etc. etc. etc. Thus many different people come to Israel from all over the world, and by and large every attempt is made to accommodate and to welcome people who come with non-hostile purposes.

    So, yes, Israel is highly multi-cultural.

    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:21 pm #

      ho-ho, hey-hey, what is WPAsoka posting today? Tonge-in-cheek support for the Israeli, just ‘another post amongst her 1000 daily

    • messianicdruid January 6, 2017 at 11:57 am #

      “If I had the money I would go to Israel and live with Jews.”

      How much do you need?

  122. Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 5:21 pm #

    Kerry’s lengthy speech was brilliant. I didn’t like him licking his lips every several seconds like a Lizard, but…… – Cold

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

    OMG, yes, definitely (at least he doesn’t lick his eyeballs) but if I were to include on my list all the ticks and mannerisms (have you ever heard the way Sam Zell, real estate mogul, speaks?) of people (have you ever observed the movement of Dick Morris’s mouth when he speaks?) my list would be endless. (Have you ever watched my former boss eat a bagel with cream cheese [no, of course not] and wash it down with great slurps of coffee….. it’s like looking into the open end of an operating cement mixer).

    Someone stop me before I go off the deep end. (Has Mrs Heinz ever said “John, you REALLY need to work on this lip licking problem?”)

    • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 7:55 pm #

      She probably likes it because he uses that tongue to lick her down there. Most women do.

  123. Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:32 pm #

    The glorious thing about Trump is that his results from 3 weeks of silly tweets probably outperformed the last 8 years of donklephants holding executive and congressional power.

    • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:13 am #

      yes, who else could undermine the US position in such short order:

      Provoke the Chinese, for no gain

      Undermine the Presidency, for no gain

      Alienate the US Intelligence, for no gain.

      Wait a second, I do see a pattern emerging. He fucks up and then follows up with cover-ups of his fuckups by fucking up more.

      This should go well

  124. Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 5:44 pm #

    If you are fortunate enough to be white and rich, you get your government benefits other ways, like these: – janet

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

    All of these ways would go away if we did away with our income based tax system and instead had a single rate consumption tax. (Please DO NOT tell me “yeah, but that would be regressive”…. I know all about that argument.)

    • janet January 5, 2017 at 7:16 pm #

      I will not speak of regressive, but you are not talking about Trump’s actual tax plan. What do you think of Trump’s plan? Instead of a single rate tax, Trump wants a quadruple rate tax plan (four levels) and it goes like this.

      Called the “1-5-10-15” income tax plan–this will likely form the basis of his presidential campaign. Tax proposals consist of the following:

      * Those making up to $30,000 will pay 1 percent.

      * Income from $30,000 to $100,000 results in a flat 5 percent.

      * $100,000 to $1 million income will be taxed at 10 percent.

      * On $1 million or above will be taxed 15 percent.

      • Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 7:49 pm #

        What do you think of Trump’s plan?

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

        No good, because it’s based on income.

        • janet January 5, 2017 at 8:28 pm #

          So you want it based on consumption, on what you do with income… on what you buy, a kind of VAT? So there should be taxation on the trading of stocks, bonds, and other derivative products that are bought, sold, or traded.

          You should be taxed on that consumption, if you are consistent. Or do you want to start making exceptions for the rich right off the bat?

          • Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 1:15 am #

            It would take a good long while for congress to decide what constitutes ‘consumption’ but sure, if your OK with destroying a centuries old way of raising capital to fund business and municipal projects, go ahead and consider buying stocks and bonds to be consumption no different than buying food, clothing or cars.

  125. FincaInTheMountains January 5, 2017 at 5:44 pm #

    McCain and Graham are just patriots who want to defend the United States

    Being in captivity, McCain immediately began working with the Vietnamese and later with Soviet intelligence. Even the names of those who have worked with the future Senator are known – Evgeny Legostaev and Ivan Shport.

    Convinced of his complete controllability, they sanctioned the interview, in which the future Senator, at the very time when his comrades were rotting to death in the “Hanoi Hilton”, told about humanity of Vietnamese, and how well he was treated.

    Actually, they treated him really well.

    And the story of torture is no more than just “artistic whistling”. Why would anybody beat him when he himself willingly and diligently told everything, remembering the smallest details and the names of his comrades.

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    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:50 pm #

      McCain has a velvet lined tiger cage and a silk covered flogging stick for his pal Lindsaaaaaaaaaaayyy

    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 5:54 pm #

      McCain is a ward of the state. His entire life from his pop’s job, to school, to career, to macho military assignment (pilot) all paid for by the tax payer and way paved by pops.

      Stockdale, now that’s a real man… taken prisoner, but never made captive.

      • janet January 5, 2017 at 7:46 pm #

        Stockdale was a coward. He was there in 1964 to witness the fake Gulf of Tonkin incident, yet he kept his mouth shut and did not stop the escalation of the war based on a lie. Stockdale was unethical.

        “In the early 1990s, [Stockdale] recounted: “[I] had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets—there were no PT boats there…. There was nothing there but black water and American fire power.”
        ( “Essay: 40th Anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident”)

        Stockdale had his share of sucking on the government tit, from the time he entered the Naval Academy in 1943, until his funeral service at the Naval Academy Chapel and burial at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery. My taxes paid for Stockdale’s military career and are still paying for upkeep of Stockdale’s cemetery plot.

        Good riddance, James “Who am I? Why am I here?” Stockdale. Could have told the truth about the war, but didn’t have the guts.

        • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 8:30 pm #

          Ho-ho-hey-hey what is WPA posting today?
          Throwing out bait with Stockdale hate, not gonna participate

  126. Q. Shtik January 5, 2017 at 7:41 pm #

    They are the Free Shit Army – FSA – peq

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

    People may misread ^this^ unless a hyphen is placed between Free and Shit.

    • janet January 5, 2017 at 7:48 pm #

      You mean he didn’t mean an Army made out of Shit?

      • pequiste January 6, 2017 at 12:14 am #

        double entendre peut etre?

      • Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 12:53 am #

        Well, you could take it that way but I’m thinking along the lines that a ‘shit army’ is an incompetent army. But with a ‘free-shit’ army the hyphenated two words become one adjective modifying army. There is an army of people getting lots of free shit and you and I ain’t in it (TM: G. Carlin) but we’re picking up the tab for it.

    • pequiste January 6, 2017 at 12:24 am #

      That seems to be a (non)serious problem with the English language: sometimes the wrong punctuation just looks right. Diacritical marks in certain European languages are also often about the “looks.” See the Academie Francais for some real sticklers (the cedilla just won’t work on this keyboard and I ain’t buying a new one.)

      So how does your suggestion look? Free-Shit Army. Hmm…..

      I need some time to masticate, digest and excrete the thought and image. Janet doesn’t like it so that is a bonus that I have to take into consideration.

      • Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 12:36 pm #

        the cedilla just won’t work on this keyboard – peq

        ===========

        Thanks for informing me what that doohickey under the c is called.

  127. janet January 5, 2017 at 7:57 pm #

    “The glorious thing about Trump is that his results from 3 weeks of silly tweets probably outperformed…” –freakenkiti

    This is how Trump snows gullible people. He takes credit for things that never happened, like jobs he didn’t save in in Carrier “deal” and takes credit for things that happened, but which he had nothing to do with.

    His constant “I alone can fix it” rhetoric is ridiculous, yet some folks just don’t have the brain power to see through Trump’s scam… or they just don’t care because he represents a big “fuck you” to the establishment. Those in the latter group have shown an immoral lack of interest in consequences. But they are a minority. Clinton received THREE MILLION MORE VOTES THAN TRUMP.

    • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 8:28 pm #

      Ho-ho-hey-hey what is WPASoka posting today?
      More propaganda from the DNC, while disavowing WPA_CCC

  128. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:04 pm #

    Have you seen Trump’s Spiritual Advisor? She’s a real Hottie — beautiful luscious full lips and perfect legs, although her hair was fale blonde and her tan looked fake too. She could work for Fox News.

    She was just on Erin Burnett and my wife & I fell over we were laughing so hard. She actually said that he’s a great listener. Yeah, riiiiiiight!!!

    She also said that she & The Donald have prayed together many times. I bet they have. Although, I bet it was him doing the preying.

    This is like the comedy The Office. Q. Shtik, if you haven’t seen The Office, you have to watch it. I’m hooked. It’s so close to reality, it’s hardly satire, meaning reality is practically satire. Still, it makes me lol every episode.

    I suggest a new comedy along the same lines. The Oval Office starring Donald Trump versus Steve Carell. All Trump has to do is let the cameras in and he and his staff can just be themselves. Easy Peazy!!

    • Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:08 pm #

      fake

      If I had a Spiritual Advisor like that, I’d have to go to Confession at least twice a day, maybe more.

      • janet January 5, 2017 at 8:22 pm #

        On April 27, 2015, Paula married Christian rock musician Jonathan Cain of Journey fame. Her third marriage… keeping up with the Trumps.

        • Frankiti January 5, 2017 at 8:36 pm #

          Ho-ho-hey-hey what is WPAsoka posting today? Some hate on Steve Perry? Janet’s probably 500 pounds and named Larry.

          • janet January 5, 2017 at 9:34 pm #

            Yawn.

      • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 11:02 pm #

        Confession should be done in a dark booth, pre Vatican 2 style.

  129. Cold N. Holefield January 5, 2017 at 8:06 pm #

    dannyboy, don’t worry, I’m going to ask Trump in a blog post if he and his family will fund my wife’s Montessori School. We can create a string of them all around the Nation. The inaugural one can be opened in D.C. so Ivanka & Jared can send their little ones. The title of the blog post will be Donald Trump, Prove Me Wrong.

    • dannyboy January 6, 2017 at 6:54 pm #

      i donate more than trump

  130. janet January 5, 2017 at 8:29 pm #

    “No good because it’s based on income” –Q

    So you want it based on consumption, on what you do with income… on what you buy, a kind of VAT? So there should be taxation on stocks, bonds, and other derivative products that are bought, sold, or traded.

    You should be taxed on that consumption, if you are consistent. Or do you want to start making exceptions for the rich right off the bat?

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  131. malthuss January 5, 2017 at 10:59 pm #

    Fox has a child in bondage,

    FOX Comedy Features 6yo ‘Trans’ Boy Wearing Bondage Gag
    Discussion about FOX Comedy Features 6yo ‘Trans’ Boy Wearing Bondage Gag … Children on the other hand should and need to be restricted until adult hood.

    • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 11:01 am #

      “FOX Comedy Features 6yo ‘Trans’ Boy Wearing Bondage Gag”

      Malthuss,

      Obviously, then, children should be obscene but not heard?

  132. malthuss January 5, 2017 at 11:07 pm #

    this— Reply
    janet January 5, 2017 at 1:08 am #

    pequiste, you misunderstand how Black people are not free, how Black poverty and genocide is state violence, how 2.8 million Black people are locked in cages in this country is state violence, how Black women bearing the burden of a relentless assault on our children and our families is state violence, how Black queer and trans folks bear a unique burden from a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of them like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of them, and that is state violence, how 500,000 Black people in the US are undocumented immigrants and relegated to the shadows, how Black girls are used as negotiating chips during times of conflict and war, how Black folks living with disabilities and different abilities bear the burden of state sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to squeeze them into boxes of normality defined by white supremacy, and that is state violence.

    or this— Black violence against whites. A recent history.

    https://thevacantthrone.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/black-violence-against-whites-a-recent-history/
    </B<

    • malthuss January 5, 2017 at 11:08 pm #

      The beautiful teen in Carolina who Blacks fed to alligators.

    • pequiste January 6, 2017 at 12:43 am #

      They are also free to leave, just like those ancient Israelites, and regain their birthright in Mother Africa.

      Plenty of room; a huge, rich continent bursting with natural resources; bushmeat galore plus heaping helpings of poverty, ignorance, disease and misery. Racial strife that manifests in astonishing Black on Black violence from both an ethnic (tribal) basis and the ever festering religious hate that stems from Yzlam particularly when it contacts outside (haram) peoples and cultures.

      Robert Mugabe welcomes his brothers and sisters to reconstituted Zimbabwe.

      (I just wonder how LaQuaneesha and Buqflavius would fare in their “aliyah” to the Promised Land? )

      • JimInFlorida January 6, 2017 at 11:26 am #

        When I was in the Cold War U.S. Navy, I actually got to know a few genuine black Africans. One from Uganda, two from Ethiopia, and one from Angola. They have NO RESPECT for American blacks!

        Oddly enough, within Africa itself, Africans on the east coast think they are superior to the losers on the west coast. The west coast Africans see the east siders as sucks ups to Indian and Saudi money. The Angolan thought very highly of Fidel Castro, though. Go figure!

  133. BackRowHeckler January 6, 2017 at 7:10 am #

    A few new laws going into effect here in CT with the new year.

    One, ‘block the box’ prevents employers from enquiring whether or not a prospective employee has a criminal record. For example, say you have a small business that employs local high school girls; some dude just out of the joint shows up for a job — covered with prison tatts — who just did a 15 year stretch for forcible rape; if you ask him about any convictions you can be arrested, shut down and sued.

    Another new law permits persons with felony convictions to serve as police officers. It is said this law will allow the city ‘to hire police officers who look like the people they serve’.

    The is the most lefty state in the union, even worse than Cal. and Illinois. These new laws were passed by Dems to assuage demands by a certain demographic, which will remain unnamed.

    Can you guess who?

    brh

    • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 10:36 am #

      “Another new law permits persons with felony convictions to serve as police officers. It is said this law will allow the city ‘to hire police officers who look like the people they serve’.”

      “History is not a teacher, it is a punisher…” – Finc

      “History may not repeat, but it does rhyme…” _Anon

      “Those who do not understand History are doomed to repeat it…”-Anon

      “Are you fucking kidding me…?” -Elysianfield

      • messianicdruid January 6, 2017 at 12:07 pm #

        “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

        • elysianfield January 7, 2017 at 6:37 pm #

          Druid,
          Well said, and true….

    • malthuss January 6, 2017 at 10:45 am #

      Spread this hashtag #BLMKidnapping.–Black Lives Matter supporters kidnapped and tortured a White mentally disabled man.

      http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/46749_Right_Wingers_Seize_on_Horrific_Torture_Story_to_
      Smear_Black_Lives_Matte

    • malthuss January 6, 2017 at 10:46 am #

      Black violence against whites. A recent history.

      https://thevacantthrone.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/black-violence-against-whites-a-recent-history/

      White women raped, killed, one was fed to gators by the niggaz.

    • malthuss January 6, 2017 at 10:48 am #

      Un named = Illegals?

    • AKlein January 6, 2017 at 12:00 pm #

      I can certainly understand your exasperation regarding these new laws. Your example of the rapist just let out of the joint is realistic, and should be a great concern. That said, the issue is actually more complex. As it stands now, an incredible number of crimes which really ought to be classified as misdemeanors are felonies. Having a felony on one’s record practically insures the person cannot get a decent job for the rest of that person’s life. It’s pretty draconian for, say, income tax evasion (a felony, and federal at that) or other crimes that are really civil law violations. So, the issue is a felony record like rape or murder is equated to a much more non-violent, such as theft of property above a certain amount (in some jurisdictions it used to be any theft of value above $50 was counted as a felony.)

      • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 12:34 pm #

        AK,
        You are correct in that a small number of felons, if chosen wisely, could perform the job with honor and intelligence, and might gain the respect of their peers. However, the devil is in the details…and if race is an arbiter of employment in the Ghetto, your choices become fewer, and then considerations other than qualification come into play…politics, volume-of-hiring pressures, politically correct, but obvious distortions of the hiring process become the norm. This meme has been attempted in the past, on misdemeanor forgiveness…did not end well in Oakland, where this was tried in…1972.

        • AKlein January 7, 2017 at 11:50 am #

          I believe we can both agree that these legal issues are unsolvable and that, consequently, any attempt at solution will not accomplish its objectives but innocents will be abused in all such attempts. No surprise there. The motto of the University of Pennsylvania, founded by none other than Ben Franklin, is “Leges sine moribus vanae” which in English means “Laws without morals (customs) are in vain.” I guess those old white guys knew a thing or two about human nature.

  134. BackRowHeckler January 6, 2017 at 7:51 am #

    Did y’all see the ‘Chicago Video’?

    Puts a nice point on the Obama Presidency, does it not, CFNers?

    This is where we’re at now. I don’t see it getting any better.

    brh

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  135. ozone January 6, 2017 at 9:17 am #

    It appears that we need more truckloads of lies and propaganda near-lie implications, because “duh publick” ain’t convinced of the Clapper lies. (Lest we forget, Clapper, as a *professional* liar, has already been caught blithely lying to Congress… another gaggle of professional liars.)

    So, this stupid fuck, John Harwood, defies the first rule of lawyering: “Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.”

    He twitted: “Who do you believe America? Wikileaks, or US Intel Officials?”

    Not his most brilliant move.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-06/john-harwood-asks-who-do-you-believe-america-gets-surprising-answer

  136. elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 11:16 am #

    Janet,
    Up thread you impugned the police and the entire criminal justice system as being racist. I asked for a clarification, and you have not responded. You understand your position to be unsupportable by rational argument. May I make this easier?

    Circle one or more;

    1)I like you, do you like me?

    2)I think you are cute.

    3)’bout that racist shit…I was just jivin’….

    I eagerly await your response….

    • janet January 6, 2017 at 12:18 pm #

      Sorry I did not see your post. I am not here all the time.

      On institutionalized police racism:

      http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/5-facts-prove-police-departments-america-have-unconscious-racial-bias

      See, rational argument support.

      • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 1:02 pm #

        Janet,
        I read your “argument support”, and can, with argument, dismiss most of what it opines. However, my question did not argue a racist or non-racist police mindset, it questioned your perspective on that issue. I will, for sake of argument accept your premise that all police, as well as the entire criminal justice system is racially biased…I want you to answer WHY this might be the case. Please re-read my earlier question, and respond.

  137. Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 12:19 pm #

    This is like the comedy The Office. Q. Shtik, if you haven’t seen The Office, you have to watch it. I’m hooked. – Cold

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

    Where you been? That show ended May 2013. Yes, I’ve seen several episodes (funny) but was never as hooked on it as some other family members. Favorite character was Dwight Schrute (Sp?) played by Rainn Wilson who I first encountered in Six Feet Under years ago… one of my favorite shows.

  138. Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 12:45 pm #

    THREE MILLION MORE VOTES THAN TRUMP. – janet

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

    The popular vote count difference has now been rounded up in Hillary’s favor until it has achieved a certain immortality……… like Bernie Sanders’ average $27 campaign contribution and the 6 million Jews of the holocaust, no more, no less.

  139. janet January 6, 2017 at 1:31 pm #

    Elysianfield, you seem ignorant of police practice. Use your internet skills to find official investigations. They have been done on a variety of police departments (Chicago, Baltimore, etc.) and support Black Lives Matter charges of systemic institutionalized racism.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-systemic-racism-in-baltimores-police-force/2016/08/10/86ce448a-5f3f-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html?utm_term=.3dde1c102e4e

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    • Frankiti January 6, 2017 at 2:32 pm #

      Ho-ho-hey-hey what is WPA posting today?
      Taking up sides with BLMatters, if she joined a march she’d lay bleeding and battered

    • elysianfield January 6, 2017 at 5:44 pm #

      “Elysianfield, you seem ignorant of police practice”

      You are, no doubt, correct. You have located my fatal flaw…a public school education. I have a BS in Law Enforcement Administration, and completed the majority of coursework in a Masters program of the Administration of Criminal Justice Systems…but this was at a public university…San Jose State U…(sob). My ignorance was then reinforced by 4 years on the Oakland Police Department. My lifetime of study since has made me more ignorant still.

      I will accept your qualifications as superior…now answer my question;

      Why is it that all law enforcement personnel, and the entire criminal justice system (by your observation) racist? What caused this?

      Please do not provide another worthless screed about how the system is racially motivated…I for sake of argument will accept your charges…just tell me how one million law enforcement officers became racists…were they racist before hiring, or did they become that way after a few years on the street?

  140. janet January 6, 2017 at 2:01 pm #

    Q, count all the popular vote that did not go for Trump. The total far exceeds THREE MILLION VOTES.

    Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2,864,974, which is 2.1 percent of the total vote.

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19

    You do the math. Add up all the non-Trump votes. There were over SEVEN MILLION VOTES not for Clinton, and not for Trump (5.7% of the popular vote went to “others”)

    So, the non-Trump vote is more like TEN MILLION VOTERS.

    And those voters are coming together in resistance. You will see it made manifest on Jan. 21, 2017.

    https://www.indivisibleguide.com

    • Frankiti January 6, 2017 at 2:24 pm #

      Ho-ho-hey-hey what is WPA posting today?
      Quick to jump off the Bernie bandwagon it feigns allegiance to the Hillary dragon

      • janet January 6, 2017 at 2:32 pm #

        Love your poetic offerings… keep them coming! Who is WPA?

  141. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2017 at 2:17 pm #

    Yeltsin, Bush, Obama and Trump – the saviors of the Nation

    The most important similarity between Yeltsin and Trump is that they did not become presidents of their own volition, but by the Will from Above. I’ll start from the end, with Trump:

    Trump was not going to become a President, or rather he was going to, and all his life, but in general, in principle. And he was never going to participate in a specific election campaign, up until the time Hillary Clinton, who held him (his business in NYC) by the balls, came to him and said: “You, elderly playboy, will now become Ross Perrot 2.0!”

    And Trump announced his candidacy, but because he did not like this role and couldn’t have refused Hillary at the time, he started to sabotage his mission, including making idiotic statements like: “I will build a wall on the border, and will make Mexico pay for it!”.

    That is why I regard as a confirmation of this theory, his recent abandonment of the desire to force Mexico to pay for this wall.

    Well with Obama everything is clear: just look at this pre-election video released by Obama election campaign in 2008 and marvel at the depth it penetrates to the essence of the Black Project and perfect art of this video, and then remember that Nobel Peace Prize was given to him for the fact that he did not let Hillary to the red button. And then read and listen to his memories of how he decided to be a candidate. He certainly exaggerates … but the fact that he correctly regarded his chances without a doubt.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo

    Bush is generally a brilliant politician, whom the Lord has supplied with this talent, quite miraculously pulled him from the depths of alcoholism, and called to be the head of the only super-power in the most critical point of this drama, or rather tragedy. I realized it when I saw his interview with Tom Brokaw at the beginning of 1999. I missed the Tom Brokaw question but still remember George Bush’s answer:

    “What do you suggest? Smart Al against dumb Bush? You know what ?! I’ll take it !!”

    And Yeltsin … Besides the fact that it was on Yeltsin’s daughter recommendation he pulled Putin out of this … after Putin rescued Sobchak from the killers of governor of Russian criminal capital, that he made him first the head of the FSB, then prime minister, and finally acting President after the unprecedented TV repentance at 7 am on 31 December 1999. That Yeltsin derailed the plan of the collapse of Russia six months before the putsch, refusing to sign a treaty of alliance, in which the autonomous republics were equated to Union republic.

    In general, in addition to the common enemy, they all share one thing: they do not really understand what was going on, including with them, but they heard the Call and do what the Voice told them to do, without hesitation. And the Lord delivered them to righteousness. To understand their mode of action at the time is absolutely impossible, and only in many years, it became clear that these actions were the only right actions at the time!

    And in general, for any unbiased consideration of the past 25 years, it becomes crystal clear that all these years have been a continuous Christmas fairy tale!!!

    • FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2017 at 2:52 pm #

      In principle, Vladimir Putin should also be on this list, but, in contrast to all the above, he understands what is happening, and this is a very different mission and a different responsibility.

  142. fodase January 6, 2017 at 2:25 pm #

    B&D now going to build a plant in the US and A.

    • Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 3:57 pm #

      Black and Decker?

  143. Q. Shtik January 6, 2017 at 2:42 pm #

    Why in the name of sweet unholy fuck does anyone tolerate this situation (high rate of killings by police), let alone defend it? – Elrond H.

    ===========

    . We suck at math and science
    . We have lousy health care
    . Our longevity scores poorly among advanced nations

    At least we rate high in SOMETHING! 😉

  144. capt spaulding January 6, 2017 at 2:54 pm #

    Megyn Kelly has left Fox & is now signed in with NBC to host a couple of news shows. My question concerns the fact that she never had any problem with espousing the views of the Fox network (You know, fair & balanced) all the time she was there. Does anyone really think that she will be able to present the news in a neutral fashion? She either believed in the bullshit she was presenting on Fox news, or she was just another right wing whore who said what they paid her to say. Personally, I won’t believe a fucking thing she says, and her opinion means nothing to me. I don’t forsee me watching or listening to anything she says. I can’t believe that NBC could be so naive as to believe that people will treat her as an objective reader of the news. I don’t care where she bleeds from, as far as I’m concerned, she’s just another right wing cunt.

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    • FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2017 at 2:56 pm #

      Best representatives of the world’s oldest profession (no, not the whores, silly)

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2017 at 3:41 pm #

      You still believe in “left” and “right”. Most people here don’t. Meg worked for a Neo-Con network that worships Dr Krauthammer (for example). Neo-Liberalism isn’t really that different. Any differences are mostly just marketing to different target audiences. To the extent she has any real beliefs, she will be perfectly at home on a Liberal network. She certainly believes in Feminism – so that checks. She got the commando haircut awhile ago, so she’s right in step. She’s been transitioning for awhile now – even as Fox has. They fired Judge Napolitano who was a traditional Conservative. Guess she was just transitioning faster perhaps. Or perhaps her contempt for Trump has queered her for Fox’s audience. Again, not that Fox had a problem with that – just optics, marketing, and making money.

  145. janet January 6, 2017 at 4:19 pm #

    “You still believe in “left” and “right”. Most people here don’t.” –Janos

    Good point, Janos. Ralph Nader’s book, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State, seeks to craft a left-right alliance capable of challenging corporate welfare. Given the media’s focus on cronyism and the ire over continued bipartisan support of special favors to special interests.

    Nader talks of “corporatism.” But many other labels have been suggested: cronyism, crony capitalism, crony socialism (coined by Cato Institute President John Allison), and crony statism (the term preferred by Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist). Whatever label it goes by, it should end. Nader outlines the difficulties that must be overcome to realize a left-right alliance.

  146. janet January 6, 2017 at 4:29 pm #

    Q., the U.S. ranks high in several areas:

    According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, there are 2,228,424 prisoners in the United States. That is more than China. That is enough to make the United States rank first in that category.

    I think the U.S. ranks #1 in global wheat production.

    The U.S. ranks 1st in women’s Olympic figure skating gold medals.

    The U.S. ranks 24th in foreign born. Where the U.S. is falling behind is in immigrants. We need to open the borders to more immigrants.

    According to Pew, 14% of the population of the United States was born outside of the United States. That is enough to make the United States tied for twenty-fourth (with Latvia, Spain, and Norway) out of one hundred fifty-five countries ranked in that category.

    The United Arab Emirates ranked first, with 84% of its population being foreign born.

    • janet January 6, 2017 at 4:30 pm #

      I was wrong about wheat production. The U.S. is #5.

      • Frankiti January 6, 2017 at 5:02 pm #

        WPA has been wrong about a great many things…

        • janet January 6, 2017 at 5:18 pm #

          Who is WPA? Did he or she admit being wrong, like I just did?

    • Therian January 6, 2017 at 6:12 pm #

      Oddly enough, your main point cannot be disputed. I would add that Caucasian millennials aren’t picking up the ball which is why 55% of American graduate students are foreign nationals. If a goodly percentage of these foreign nationals stay and participate in the US labor force, the government’s tax revenues go up. Caucasian millennials, who aren’t nearly as educated as their parents, will get lower paying jobs which won’t add to tax coffers.

      If Trump shuts the borders, he shoots America right in the foot. If White millennials don’t get their act together, they’re going to join blacks and Hispanics as the new permanent underclass. It pains me to see it but as a former college professor (now retired), from my point of view the ethnic group plummeting the most are Caucasians.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2017 at 9:19 pm #

        Whites are ruthlessly discriminated against in admissions. How could you have missed this? There are other reasons, of course, including your cherished idea of self indulgence. But even that has been promoted in all kinds of ways.

        A Nation is the people. A foreign elite means America no longer exists. The Chinese were well on their way to taking over Malaysia but then Chinese heads started being kicked thru the streets. The Malays made it very clear that Malaysia was theirs.

        Likewise, the American Indians weren’t the first Americans. They were just living here.

        • malthuss January 7, 2017 at 3:19 pm #

          Asians need higher points to get in?

          UCLA— u c Lotsa Asians.

          Check UC admission standards.
          Blacks get points for being, well, stupid.

        • Therian January 8, 2017 at 12:01 am #

          When you look at Chinese and Indian young men, what do you NOT see? Tattoos is what you don’t see. Caucasian young people are adopting the “prison chic” that is so common among blacks and Hispanics. History is full of growth-and-decay curves of various ethnicities. American and European Caucasians are on a steep downslope. Better to face facts than live in delusion.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 12:52 am #

            And who made them hate themselves like that, eh? Who told them they were trash? Who took their jobs and gave them to others? Who put Howard Zinn’s book in every college in the land?

            You’re blaming the victims – your own people in this case. But of course, you don’t feel anything special for them, right? Maybe you’re attitude is part of the problem? And because your lack of feeling is common among the Mandarin and Chattering Classes, the Elite were able to do what they did – make Whites third class citizens, confident that their Mandarins would blame White Youths themselves. Congratulations, you did as expected. YOU DID YOUR JOB! You danced for your dinner.

        • Therian January 8, 2017 at 12:03 am #

          I’d sooner live in China than Malaysia.

      • elysianfield January 7, 2017 at 6:52 pm #

        Therian,
        I recall, in posts of months ago, that you wrote you lectured at SJSC…what subjects?

        • Therian January 8, 2017 at 12:03 am #

          Right idea, wrong college. I taught at De Anza in computer science.

  147. Therian January 6, 2017 at 6:05 pm #

    The Economic Cycle Research Institute’s (ECRI) current reading is that we are in a period of strong growth. So all is well, right? The problem with a strong recovery is that interest on Treasuries skyrockets which will clobber the recovery. That’s the corner we’re backed into … the recovery will be the cause of the end of the recovery.

    ECRI’s inflation targets are upwards of 4%. That’s why I feel that the next downturn will implode the economy. We can’t afford to pay the interest on debt if the 10- and 30-year Treasuries get to, say 4 and 5%. On the other hand, if you buy shares of a reverse Treasury fund that goes up when Treasury prices go down, you’ll earn a king’s ransom.

    • janet January 6, 2017 at 6:50 pm #

      Markets don’t like uncertainty. Trump’s Twitter wars with both domestic and foreign corporations are creating uncertainty. Under Obama the U.S. Weekly Leading Index growth rate increased to 11.8%, a 347-week high and the USFIG is near November’s 8½-year high. It will be under Trump that the Obama economic recovery will end.

      Trump wants to increase spending on infrastructure, cut taxes, and increase the military budget. He cannot do all three. Where will the money come from?

      The infrastructure won’t kick in for 18 months to 2 years. Bridges and highways take a lot of time. The Trump tax cuts will be filibustered if they are too extreme. In the meantime 30 million workers are at minimum wage (inflation adjusted they are still at 1968 wage levels). Trump is opposed to raising the minimum wage.

      Those 30 million are going to be asking Trump where are our good paying jobs that you promised? Those are workers who voted for Trump.

      What is Trump going to do? He can’t revive the coal industry like he promised because of automation… plus coal is being replaced by alternative fuels. He is not going to bring back the steel industry plants. Nobody on Wall Street takes that seriously. It was just campaign talk to get Democratic workers to vote for him.

      Trump is heading toward being impeached. He promised so much that he cannot deliver. When the Obama recovery ends and the Trump economy tanks, it will be impeachment time.

      So when the crash of the Trump economy comes, having a reverse Treasury fund would be a good idea. Don’t wait too long.

      • Therian January 8, 2017 at 12:09 am #

        Trump won on the backs of angry white delusion that he was their economic savior. In reality, the entire developed world economy is eventually toast because shareholder values trumps any long term projects. So Japan, Europe, and the USA are in deep doo-doo.

        The current slightly stagflationary upturn will run for a couple of years but eventually the singular problem of the developed world will create a permanent structural depression. And what is that singular problem? Too many retirees per worker. It’s going to be a war of young against old. And the young have never been more poorly prepared for such a battle as they are the poorest educated, least literate generation in a century, at least in the USA.

        • messianicdruid January 8, 2017 at 11:24 am #

          “The current slightly stagflationary upturn will run for a couple of years but…”

          That seems incredibly optimistic.

        • cbeard January 8, 2017 at 4:26 pm #

          You may be correct in the assumption of illiteracy among this generation. That is a direct result of racial integration of the schools. I was a sophomore in high school when total integration was instituted and I witnessed first hand the degradation of the quality of education in America. An education can still be attained, but it takes more personal effort from the students and their parents for it to happen. The biggest delusion is thinking you can keep importing 3rd world unassimilable people into our society and not totally destroy our own culture. I am an admitted pessimist and see nothing but more misery and trouble in the future unless big changes are made. Those changes would include ones made in politics, economics, morals and family structure. The nature of crony capitalism and shareholder values surely are among many of the direst problems.

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

            you’re uneducated because of black people?

          • elysianfield January 8, 2017 at 7:36 pm #

            “you’re uneducated because of black people?”

            d,
            Don’t be snarky…he suffered from diminished expectations brought on in an effort to assimilate a then-marginalized group of citizens that could not perform at expected/hoped levels throughout the educational system.

  148. janet January 6, 2017 at 10:17 pm #

    Here is the proof that Putin ordered the hacking of the American election to get his puppet elected.

    https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

    • FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2017 at 1:16 am #

      We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process,
      denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.

      Hmm, I think I perfectly fit the description, with the notable exception of “on orders from Vladimir Putin”. I guess I heard the Call, too.

  149. sprawlcapital January 7, 2017 at 3:56 am #

    Thanks for all the work you put into this 2017 forecast, Jim. We Patreon patrons are certainly getting our money’s worth,

    I will tell my nephew, a young realtor who is thinking about buying houses on speculation to “flip” for a profit after minimal repairs, that this is probably a very bad time to embark on such an enterprise.

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  150. tucsonspur January 7, 2017 at 4:14 am #

    Couldn’t believe my ears. Trump is now saying US taxpayers will pay for the wall, to be reimbursed by Mexico at a later date.

    What later date? Why not beef up the border with more manpower and technology for now, negotiate some great business and trade deals to get the income stream flowing, then build the wall with funds already at least partially in hand? Will not the Mexicans appreciate the “art” with which he adorns the deal?

    I didn’t think that Mexico was going to instantly shower Trump with billions in cash and chant, “build that wall”, but this additional early backpedalling bullshit is making that horizon of promises recede all too quickly.

    James is right. Trump has stepped into it, but that “emergency” phone call will give him enough long boot to step out of it by imposing martial law, if necessary. Trump and the generals won’t hesitate.

    Remember, coyote waits. Coyote always waits.

    • tucsonspur January 7, 2017 at 4:25 am #

      I should have said it earlier Jim, great forecast and many thanks.

      And thanks for the reminder, sprawl.

    • messianicdruid January 7, 2017 at 10:35 am #

      Illegals [ 11 million? ] could be charged 100 bucks a month to remain while working towards 14th amendment citizenship. No bennies. This would fund the wall.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 12:56 am #

        Amnesty is Treason. You would sell our Country for a mess of pottage?

        • messianicdruid January 8, 2017 at 11:33 am #

          We all have been made 14th Amendment citizens. Until whites renounce that, or even better renounce the whole of man-made government, nothing will change. I’m not promoting Amnesty and I’m not selling anything ie: citizenship. We are taught not to despise strangers. That doesn’t mean we let them take over. This is the result of losing our republic and being oppressed in a democracy.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 3:49 pm #

            Ah, “the Stranger” – the much loved Biblical trope. Every Mexican who swam, climbed, cut, or shimmied into America is “the Stranger”. Everyone of them wants to be treated as Individual worthy of love and life and understanding. Everyone of them is liable to meet White Christians who give them some. But in fact, they are all cells of an invading army and White Christians have become the biggest fools on the Planet.

            “The Stranger” is an Israelite from another land. With all your learning, you couldn’t get it straight.

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 6:50 pm #

            ““The Stranger” is an Israelite from another land.”

            IS ALL THIS BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO INDENTITY

            or just a means of hiding your failure?

          • messianicdruid January 8, 2017 at 6:55 pm #

            Okay, teach me;

            Who was to be admitted into the congregation of Israel after the third generation?

            Who was to be admitted into the congregation of Israel after the tenth generation?

            Who was never to be admitted into the congregation of Israel?

          • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 8:29 pm #

            I said, “with all your knowledge” and I wasn’t being snarky. But like most people you simply can’t apply what you know to the present in any kind of practical way. We’re obviously in a crisis, yet instead of talking about War, you’ll start talking about Peace. You have yet to leave the Church of Nice.

          • messianicdruid January 9, 2017 at 4:13 am #

            “We’re obviously in a crisis, yet instead of talking about War, you’ll start talking about Peace.”

            This will be a lot simpler when you realize who you are at war with. Every time God’s people wander away He brings about circumstances to change their minds. He uses those that can be hired to chastise, oppress and subvert until we are driven to reassess our situation. Many die in the process never learning why. My people perish for lack of knowledge, being led by blind obstinate dogs that cannot bark.

            Those you consider enemies could have no power over you unless it is given from above. Unlike Pogo you have not seen the enemy.

            “But like most people you simply can’t apply what you know to the present in any kind of practical way.”

            No one is asking me to because even the believers consider God’s way of doing things impractical, not realizing they are in rebellion to the One they claim to serve. The others just pass it off as sanctimonious religious mumbo jumbo bullshit.

            But I am patient, knowing the Most High will be vindicated.

            “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

             

  151. themisanthrope January 7, 2017 at 11:56 am #

    “…there ought to be some question with the election of 2016 that they have engineered all of this system fragility to blow up on Mr. Trump’s watch, so they can blame him for it.”

    I still say there’s a chance that this “Reagan-Cheney” ticket of clueless and evil can come out of this smelling like a rose (at a cost of yet more down-the-road risk and disaster). You, I, and all the other declinists have been predicting the end for what is now crossing generations, laughed at by the Everything Is Going To Be Fine opposition. The crash of civilization as we know it will happen – that I think we can be sure of – but the when is surprisingly elusive; the road apparently endless upon which we kick the proverbial can. When the toolbox contains nothing but smoke-and-mirrors, you can pack in a lot of tools.

    • capt spaulding January 7, 2017 at 12:17 pm #

      I have the impression of a slow and steady decline of things both here, and in other countries. The question in my mind is whether there is some trigger point that is waiting to happen to us all of a sudden. Kind of like an avalanche, which isn’t there until suddenly it is.

      • janet January 7, 2017 at 3:17 pm #

        In a fraction of a second everything can change. Not knowing when it will happen makes life exciting.

        You ask whether there is some trigger point that is waiting to happen to us all of a sudden. I think the answer is yes. We just needed a catalyst and now Trump is here to bring on nuclear war with Korea, Iran, or Pakistan and to bring on the economic collapse JHK has been talking about for all these years.

        2017 will probably be the year of a 4,000 Dow. Or 2018. We cannot even imagine how bad things are going to be under a climate change denying and saber rattling Trump administration. It may be tragic with lots of suffering to have a complete Trump-caused economic and societal collapse. But it won’t be boring.

        We live in a Christian culture and Christians are experts at suffering. The Christians worship a guy who suffered on a cross, then escaped to India. Jesus never died on the cross. It takes at least forty-eight hours for a person to die on the cross; and there have been known cases where people have existed almost six days on the cross without dying. Because Jesus was taken down from the cross after only six hours, there is no possibility of his dying on the cross. There is also Biblical evidence Jesus did not die on the cross.

        https://www.alislam.org/egazette/articles/Jesus-died-in-Kashmir.pdf

        • dannyboy January 7, 2017 at 6:12 pm #

          The greatest irony is that people believe that Trump is their Savior.

          • elysianfield January 7, 2017 at 6:49 pm #

            ” Trump is their Savior.”

            d,
            Might I suggest you and yours keep your mitts off of this one….

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:20 am #

            OK elysianfield

            I will distance myself.

            Enjoy these fruits of what you have sown.

            Kinda’ Karmic

          • messianicdruid January 8, 2017 at 11:39 am #

            “Enjoy these fruits of what you have sown.”

            Hold on, you don’t get off that easy.

            http://redefininggod.com/trump-and-putin-agents-of-chabad-lubavitch/

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 1:01 pm #

            there was no need to provide documentation of your fanaticism

            i got that already

          • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 4:20 pm #

            C’mon Danny – the Lubavitchers are very powerful and you’re involved, right?

          • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 6:48 pm #

            Janos,

            I figure that you try to align me with every group that you can think of

            TO TAKE THE FOCUS OFF YOU

            but it IS you who is damaged and degenerate

            accept it, it’s your first step

          • messianicdruid January 9, 2017 at 4:24 am #

            “The greatest irony is that people believe that Trump is their Savior.”

            Okay, we will revisit this when Trump puts the Israelis’ interests ahead of America’ s [ becomes their saviour ]. This is one reason judeo-churchianity voted for him.

  152. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2017 at 2:52 pm #

    One of my British friends, a staunch anti-globalist, asked what Russia (Putin?) would demand for joining the anti-globalization coalition of Donald Trump and Her Majesty (all the way up to a military occupation of the Fourth Reich).

    I asked what’s wrong with the occupation, which is taking place now and heard muffled bellowing in the sense that it will be soon asked to leave.

    And after I gave my short answer to the main question – The Straits – I heard a pig squealing that still rings in my ears.

    They earnestly do believe that Putin succumbs under the weight of sanctions and is ready for their cancellation to take his country to war.

  153. Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2017 at 4:03 pm #

    http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/uk-ends-taxpayer-funding-of-ethiopian-girl-band-yegna/75786

    It’s so sad. Elrond weeps. But what’s a yeg to do? Brits need their porridge too.

  154. janet January 8, 2017 at 2:23 am #

    “Couldn’t believe my ears. Trump is now saying US taxpayers will pay for the wall” –Tucsonspur

    You still believe Trump is going to build a wall? Even after he has said you will pay for it and not Mexico? It was a clever vote getter during the campaign though, getting people to chant lies at rallies.

    Have you ever been to the border? I have. There is already a wall there. Since the early 1990s, politicians of all stripes have scrambled to show their commitment to border security. During that time, annual federal funding for border and immigration control mushroomed from $1.5 billion to $19.5 billion. According to one estimate, Washington spends $5 billion more on border and immigration control than for all other federal law enforcement combined.

    And the result? Hundreds of miles of metal barriers have gone up. Technologies initially developed for the military have been adapted for border enforcement. A fleet of manned and unmanned aircraft have been deployed to monitor from the air. Thousands of new agents have been hired. The size of the Border Patrol doubled in the 1990s and has more than doubled again since the beginning of the century, from about 4,000 personnel to more than 21,000.

    This massive enforcement buildup has been lethal for many migrants trying to cross, with thousands of deaths to date, while enriching the smugglers on whom migrants must rely. It has been politically rewarding for both Democrats and Republicans alike.

    Trump is simply taking it to the next level, asking for money from you, the taxpayer, to build an unnecessary wall on an already secure border. Immigration from Mexico has been a net zero for years now. Mexicans are leaving the U.S., going back to Mexico, because Obama is rounding up and deporting millions (more than any other president) and they don’t like the heat Obama is putting on them.

    Whatever Trump manages to build it will not stop migrants from entering the country illegally… going over, under or around it, with many of them dying in the process. But when Trump supporters grumble that the wall is too porous, Trump will no doubt promise to make the wall even longer, taller and stronger. And they will believe him. A complete waste of taxpayer money. Trying to solve a problem by throwing money at it. Our money, not Mexico’s.

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    • tucsonspur January 8, 2017 at 4:58 am #

      I know a good way to put an end to those thousands of deaths that you mention. The enforcement buildup on the border has not been lethal enough.

      I don’t know what kind of wall Trump will build. Personally, I’m for a wall of machine gun nests and helicopter gunships. After a reasonable warning period of full media disclosure, the message will be out. Enter at your own risk. We mean business. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.

      After a dozen or two intrepid “migrants” are perforated with some 50 caliber, and a lot of publicity and gory pictures, the annual death toll thereafter will be close to zero. Many, many lives will be saved.

      Let’s get real. The enemy is also domestic, already inside our borders. Trump must show no mercy to the radical left. He must at least build an impenetrable wall around them, contain their disease and not let their infection spread. So, let’s build two walls and make the left pay. Big time.

      • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 11:22 am #

        maybe trump should build a wall around himself and his

        he’s in the minority; the majority voted against him

    • bibliomaniac January 8, 2017 at 9:44 am #

      Population studies indicate that just as many immigrants from Mexico leave the US every year as enter it. But because Trumpsters evidently do not believe in the science of population studies, or science in general, the taxpayers will be shelling out at least 8 billion for a stupid wall–already named the “Great Wall of Cheeto.”

      Think how far we could go with 8 billion toward energy independence, or toward solving the problems of homelessness and poverty.

      Think about this while you are paying your taxes this year. I will.

  155. janet January 8, 2017 at 3:03 am #

    Resistance to pussy grabbing Trump is building. And the resistance will win. We will win because we are the majority. 74,074,037 Americans voted against the vulgar Trump (cf. 62,979,879 for).

    That is 54% against (11 million, Q, not 3 million)!

    Hillary 65,844,954

    Gary Johnson 4,488,919

    Jill Stein 1,457,044

    Evan McMullin 725,902

    Write-ins 1,103,554

    Other 453,664

  156. janet January 8, 2017 at 3:10 am #

    “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall… think of it, ALWAYS.” — “Mahatma” (Great Soul) Gandhi

      • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 3:56 pm #

        Good article, but narrow. Sure the tactics of the Far Left and Right mirror each other, but they stand for very different things. And seeing the person who fights back against aggression as morally equivalent to the aggressor is the “logic” of female elementary school teachers.

        I had a Jewish friend who said most of the violence in Israel since 1948 was Palestinian. So what? Is that some kind of moral argument? They’re trying to take back what was stolen from them. Likewise, Whites are now fighting back against those who are trying to steal their nations, cultures, and very existence. And let’s face it, Jews are the creators and maintainers of the Grievance Alliance that is against Traditional White Cultures and Countries.

        • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 4:16 pm #

          ” Jewish…Jews” – Janos

          lost?

          alone?

          meaningless?

    • elysianfield January 8, 2017 at 11:23 am #

      “I will accept your qualifications as superior…now answer my question;

      Why is it that all law enforcement personnel, and the entire criminal justice system (by your observation) racist? What caused this? ”

      …crickets…

      • elysianfield January 8, 2017 at 11:30 am #

        Janet,
        Your inability to answer a specific question you begged exposes your rote superficiality…it is a simple question…answer it.

  157. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 3:53 am #

    Not by bread alone

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkstW0EzxUQ

  158. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 4:12 am #

    The Lady of the Flying Monkeys never quits

    From political circles in New York City to cocktail parties on Capitol Hill, on right-of-center Facebook pages and among left-of-center donors, two of the biggest untethered threads in New York politics are being drawn together around a single question.

    Would Hillary Clinton run for mayor?

    The prospect has an obvious, novelistic allure: A run for mayor of New York this year would pit Mrs. Clinton against Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat who managed her Senate campaign in 2000, and, should she win, would put her in charge of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s hometown, ensuring years of potential clashes between bitter rivals.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/nyregion/hillary-clinton-de-blasio-new-york-mayor.html?_r=0

    • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 9:01 am #

      “… in New York City…”

      Despite my repeated requests that “nyc news” be passed by me to check accuracy, this appears on cfn!

      The REAL news is that this propaganda was planted by Right Wing Fanatics and debunked by the nyt (read the WHOLE ARTICLE).

      This Russian Propaganda is transparent.

      • messianicdruid January 8, 2017 at 11:43 am #

        Mayor of Chicago would be better.

        • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 12:59 pm #

          good explanation for the false news

          just make up more shit

  159. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 5:14 am #

    Here is the proof that Putin ordered the hacking of the American election to get his puppet elected. janet

    Once a professional intelligence operative explained to me, in which cases they publish information. A total of three cases: 1) when it is needed by them for operational purposes; 2) for the purpose of disinformation; 3) as required by political leaders for their own purposes.

    So information about the real organizers of the leaks from DNC we won’t find ever. At least, not from the wonderful American intelligence.

    Here is another paradox: in the US today there are 17 intelligence agencies, but none has given a clear explanation of the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. To this day, not explained the chain of preceding events – the shooting of Afghan politician Ahmad Shah Massoud on 9 September, visit to the US of the head of the Pakistani intelligence on September 10th …

    These details are glossed over for 15 years now. Same with the circumstances of the terrorist attack in Libya, on the anniversary of the events of 911 – in order to save the reputation of “no alternative” Hillary Clinton, and then head of the CIA David Petraeus.

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    • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 9:05 am #

      “the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001”

      Finc,

      I have explained that I was there that day, and every day following. You, however choose to plant your own Propaganda.

      No informed person would ever believe you.

      • messianicdruid January 8, 2017 at 11:50 am #

        dannyboy – schmuckspert extrodinaire, believable true witness, detector of falsehood, etc.

        • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 12:55 pm #

          i am delighted to hear this from you

          i wouldn’t want any association with you

  160. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 5:27 am #

    All four years of the Syrian and Libyan civil war there was a growing out of it sectarian product of ISIS, which was constantly fed by smuggling – smuggling in information, oil, people and cultural artifacts.

    All this time “informational powers” of the US – disclosed by Ed Snowden Concordat of the NSA with Zuckerberg and Dorsey – did not interfere with fundamentalist campaign to recruit, train, equip dreamers of the caliphate.

    If it was an accident, the competence of the intelligence and the intelligence of the tech-professionals is not worth a shit.

    If this is a conspiracy operating behind the humanity back, then we must admit presence of the invisible global player, the one that really plays first violin in this Orchestra from Hell.

    • dannyboy January 8, 2017 at 9:06 am #

      “If this is a conspiracy operating behind the humanity back, then we must admit presence of the invisible global player, the one that really plays first violin in this Orchestra from Hell.” – FincaInTheMountains

      you and janos have it all figured out

  161. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 9:54 am #

    Look what Santa Claus brought Jihadist for Christmas!

    During the fighting in the northern Syrian province of Hama security services seized weapons warehouse of militants of ISIS and “Dzhebhat-en-Nusra”.

    Federal News Agency (FAN) sent a video, which documented evidence of the supply of weapons of the Western manufacture to terrorists.

    In particular, in the video you can see dozens of new missiles made in France, as well as mine to 81-mm mortar shells, land mines and other weapons and ammunition. As pointed out by the source FAN, all weapons are brand new and in the original package, and, most recently delivered apparently.

    https://latuffcartoons.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/hollande-syria-paris-shootings.gif

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZbFN-0tBwk

    I wonder what would happen when the captured in Aleppo NATO “instructors” (including US nationals) start singing like John McCain.

  162. Anselmo January 8, 2017 at 12:33 pm #

    I ask your permission for to upload translations to the spanish of some of your posts, to” Foro Crash Oil”

    (foro-crashoil.2321837.n4.nabble.com)

    Thanks

  163. janet January 8, 2017 at 1:30 pm #

    “Janet,
    Your inability to answer a specific question you begged exposes your rote superficiality…it is a simple question…answer it.” –elysianfield

    You are asking why police are the way they are. That is an irrelevant question.

    Unlike citizens or delinquents, police officers swear an oath to uphold the law and are on the public payroll to protect the public. When police officers routinely violate the law they should be punished. Police officers should not be above the law.

    Why they are racist, why they break the law, why they murder unarmed people is not relevant. If they cannot abide by the oath they took (due to fear or racism or whatever) and they are led to violate the law, then they should not be law enforcement officers.

    Read the Justice Dept. reports on the systemic, institutionalized racism in police departments. They are evidence in support of Black Lives Matter. Evidence you appear to be ignoring because you want me to answer for “why” the police commit illegal acts.

    • elysianfield January 8, 2017 at 8:38 pm #

      “You are asking why police are the way they are. That is an irrelevant question”

      Janet,
      No, it is the crux of the issue. If all police are racist, if the entire system is racist, then it was either designed as such, and racists sought out and hired, or police become racist on account of what they experience…and you, in your black little heart, know the answer.

      If the majority of fresh- faced, apple-cheeked recruits become hardened racists through their on-street experience, then how can you overcome racism? Police are taught not to be racist, subjective, nor even judgmental…they are taught to treat people with compassion. Their “graduate school” of the streets teaches them a contempt and loathing of black culture, because that culture is corrosive, corrupt, violent and without much in the way of civil value. They see ignorance on a level you can only imagine, and any sentient being finds it very difficult to resist believing their goddamned lying eyes.

      You find cheap solace in “training and education”. Most progressive police departments provide 16 or more weeks of intensive training, but political correctness does not survive long on the street…double the amount of training, triple it, it would make no difference.

      You can come up with many reasons why so many blacks are shot and incarcerated…there is one reason, however, that you do not mention…some need to be shot, and some need to be in jail. Are there egregious examples of excess? Absolutely…you have one million law enforcement personnel on the street over three shifts, every day. The bell curve works in law enforcement as it does elsewhere. Some cops are excellent, some are worthless, most do their jobs without issue.

      The job shows middle class white guys a lifestyle they could never imagine…the average human reacts to what they see…police become good observers, and the impact of the job, the usual end result is what you call…racism. The cure does not reside in law enforcement training.

      • janet January 9, 2017 at 1:31 am #

        So, why ask me? Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. LOL!

        • elysianfield January 9, 2017 at 11:50 am #

          Janet,
          I’m not asking you, I’m telling you….

  164. volodya January 8, 2017 at 2:23 pm #

    Therian, you’re right, the golden age of the working class (you remember it as well as I do) when dad had a job and mom stayed home and took care of us, is over and ain’t coming back. Monied interests, largely those people that control Fortune 500 companies, have got NO enthusiasm for its resurrection, in fact, quite the opposite.

    Why not? It’s because these aforementioned individuals, commonly called the Oligarchy or the .1 Percent, bought Washington and other national capitols to enact their economic agenda of the past couple of generations. And it cost a great deal of money.

    The result? A massive offshoring of productive capacity to third world sweatshops (and just imagine what THAT cost) and a massive impoverishment of the mid-section of the USA. But also a massive strengthening of China as a global presence and challenger to American power.

    The end-game? You can see it under your nose, political and financial de-stabilization of the USA and world economy. This mess is salvageable only by having Chinese workers paid to buy what they produce and American workers paid to produce what they buy. Of course this will never happen.

    It doesn’t matter in the slightest that it’s abundantly obvious that this system will collapse under the weight of its illogic and contradictions. But having sunk so much money into this “globalized” economic arrangement, the Oligarchy is unwilling to re-imagine it in any other form. Therefore, no matter that it’s unworkable, it’s unfixable. They will ride this sucker (and us) down to zero.

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  165. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 2:31 pm #

    Israel is joining the Russian team in the ME

    A Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four of them in an attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said is likely to have been inspired by Islamic State.

    Netanyahu visited the scene and convened his security cabinet, a forum of senior ministers, to discuss Israel’s response. He said that security forces were controlling access in and out of the neighborhood.

    “We know the identity of the attacker. According to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State,” the prime minister said.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-truck-idUSKBN14S0E3

    What he was really saying is “Screw that loser islamist crazy American bitch – she pushed it far enough”.

    • BackRowHeckler January 8, 2017 at 9:40 pm #

      So far ISIS hasn’t shown much interest in Israel.

      Oh, they can behead Americans, Brits, Aussies and Frenchmen, making a gruesome spectacle of it; rest assured these dishrag, bankrupt western countries wouldn’t do a goddam thing about it except to wring their hands and ask “what have we done to make them hate us?”

      I think Netanyahu would react differently. Say a van load of Israeli citizens was hijacked near the Syrian border and ISIS started in with the video executions straight away. IDF intelligence would desperately try to locate their citizens in attempt to rescue them. If they couldn’t be found, a few surprise tactical nukes lobbed in the direction toward where these people might be located, as well as ISIS HQ, might not be out of the question. Suddenly a part of Syria would go dark — a little bit of fallout would be detected in the atmosphere — and nothing more would be heard from ISIS.

      Kind of like VPutin announcing to the Muzzies last summer “any more terrorist attacks inside Russia and we will kill every goddam one of you”.

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2017 at 3:50 am #

        as well as ISIS HQ

        Here is the rub!

        Where is that ISIS HQ? Berlin? Riyadh? Washington? New York?

  166. janet January 8, 2017 at 2:57 pm #

    Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel claims, “Senior Democrats crafted ObamaCare in lobbyist-filled backrooms, forgoing hearings, markups, even input from their own colleagues—much less Republicans.”

    TRUTH: ObamaCare spent a year working through Congress, eventually passing numerous committees, two full House majority votes, one Senate supermajority vote and, in fact, 130 hearings.

    Now Republicans want to repeal it by meeting in a basement, after-hours, out of public eye. They want to sneak through a vote to go back to skyrocketing health care costs that benefit private insurance companies… with millions denied access to health care… except for Republicans’ fiscally irresponsible preferred form of health care for the poor: the emergency room.

  167. volodya January 8, 2017 at 2:58 pm #

    By the way, these laughable campus “snowflakes”, no matter how entitled they are, no matter how much money their mommy and daddy have, are to put it simply, intellectually lazy and mentally and physically soft. Everything having been handed to them their whole lives, they think they’re untouchable, their top positions in life and in the societal and economic food chain, a given.

    At least, that’s what they think. They may rule on the college green, coddled by gutless, money-grubbing school administrators. But the world outside has different ideas. If some of these cupcakes reach the tip of the pyramid, I suspect that their stay there will be short.

  168. tucsonspur January 8, 2017 at 2:58 pm #

    Want to fund a wall? Or, more broadly, extremely effective border security, among other things?

    Look no further than this. Makes me love the socialists.

    https://www.google.com/#q=us+billionaire+list

    • janet January 8, 2017 at 3:36 pm #

      We already have extremely effective border security, so much so that the net migration from Mexico has been reduced to zero. Let Trump fund the wall from his private funds. Why socialized the costs? Or let those who want a wall so badly contribute to a private fund. I don’t want no stinking wall.

      • tucsonspur January 8, 2017 at 5:30 pm #

        They’re still coming in from central America and even the middle East from time to time. Also Mexico.

        Statistics from this administration are always highly questionable.

        I did not say socialize the costs. The billionaires, if true Americans, would fund the wall or something just as effective, and not grow the debt.

        You don’t want no stinking wall, you just want America to take a stinking fall.

        The left is taking endless Trumpchuks to the nuts. Put on your protector, there’s much more to come.

        Forget the subversion and do the conversion.
        Don a Trump hat and let’s make America great again together.

  169. janet January 8, 2017 at 5:07 pm #

    ” Trump is their Savior.” –dannyboy

    “d, Might I suggest you and yours keep your mitts off of this one….” –elysianfield

    Elsysianfield, do you have a problem with Jews? “You and yours” sounds antisemitic. Jesus was a Jew and a socialist. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus says in Matthew 6:24. “Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

    In Luke 12:15, Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”

    Please refrain from antisemitic comments. Respect our host, JHK.

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    • nsa January 8, 2017 at 5:57 pm #

      To identify your rulers, just pinpoint the groups you are not allowed to ridicule.

    • elysianfield January 8, 2017 at 9:18 pm #

      mshuge goy vayblekh

      Janet,
      I have, months past, mentioned that there were, several generations removed, “Red Sea Pedestrians” in my family. I was not brought up in the culture, nor the religion. With my last name, and genetic history, I often wonder whether, being judged by the RuSHA, I would have been wearing black or stripes during WWII (In my youth, I looked similar to the Hitler Youth singer in the movie “Cabaret” who sung “The World Belongs To Me”. Anyhoo, who are you to judge?

      I thought my comment to Dannyboy topical and hilarious…still do.

      On this, I will accept our Host’s judgment.

      • janet January 8, 2017 at 11:26 pm #

        “On this, I will accept our Host’s judgment.” –Elysianfield

        Yes, please write to Mr. Kunstler and ask him if he objects to antisemitic comments that the person posting considers “hilarious” … if you have the guts.

        Ask him to post his answer publicly for the benefit of all of us. I, for one, am sick of both antisemitic and Islamophobic posts on CFN. You can share that with Mr. Kunstler also.

  170. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 6:02 pm #

    If this is a conspiracy operating behind the humanity back, then we must admit presence of the invisible global player, the one that really plays first violin in this Orchestra from Hell. me

    This invisible party, this notorious “third force” has already received official recognition of the international financial institutions – since income from both drug trade and prostitution were included in the country’s GDP. This recognition is tantamount to surrender of the traditional institutions: the “shadow” came to light, is designated as a shareholder of the corporate world power. And it is most convenient to exist and act in a world where progressively growing number of failed states.

    http://zavtra.ru/upl/31/alarge/pic_271930f6.jpg

  171. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2017 at 6:17 pm #

    Michelle Obama soon to give farewell performance in Chicago!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYS5BROQxw0

  172. Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2017 at 8:31 pm #

    SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM!
    IF YOU WISH FOR PEACE PREPARE FOR WAR!

    • janet January 8, 2017 at 11:22 pm #

      IF YOU WANT PEACE, WORK FOR JUSTICE!

  173. janet January 8, 2017 at 11:42 pm #

    Elysianfield, you may consider your anti-Semitic comment to be “hilarious” but many Jews have been killed because of comments like yours.

    Pope Paul VI issued the declaration Nostra aetate (“In Our Time”), which among other things repudiated belief in the collective Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus.

    Nostra aetate stated that, even though some Jewish authorities and those who followed them called for Jesus’ death, the blame for what happened cannot be laid at the door of all Jews living at that time, nor can the Jews in our time be held guilty.

    Blame for the death of Jesus should not be attributed to Judaism or the Jewish people.

    • Q. Shtik January 9, 2017 at 12:03 am #

      Blame for the death of Jesus should not be attributed to Judaism or the Jewish people. – janet

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

      Correct. He died of old age in Kashmir.

      • janet January 9, 2017 at 1:37 am #

        Exactly, which is why Elysianfield’s comment (which he considers “hilarious”) is even more insultingly anti-Semitic. The Jews had in fact played no role in Jesus’ death.

        According to most historians, it would be more logical to blame the Romans for Jesus’ death. Crucifixion was a customary punishment among Romans, not Jews. At the time of Jesus’ death, the Romans were imposing a harsh and brutal occupation on the Land of Israel, and the Jews were occasionally unruly. The Romans would have had reason to want to silence Jesus, who had been called by some of his followers “King of the Jews,” and was known as a Jewish upstart miracle worker.

        Jews, on the other hand, lacked a motive for killing Jesus. The different factions of the Jewish community at the time — Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and others — had many disagreements with one another, but that did not lead any of the groups to arrange the execution of the other allegedly heretical groups’ leaders. It is therefore unlikely they would have targeted Jesus.

        • FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2017 at 3:57 am #

          My grandma used to say – “Live with the Russians, die with the Jews”

        • messianicdruid January 9, 2017 at 4:46 am #

          “…There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”

  174. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2017 at 4:20 am #

    The same wonderful American intelligence that allowed Clinton and Clintonoids to ignore the Law, the People and the Country and put the policy of the USA on sale to Saudis and other highest bidders.

    So they are thereby trying to defend themselves – according to American law illegally obtained information could not be presented as evidence in court. So they want to stick a label “Russian hackers” on all relevant information and not “pro-London insiders”.

    But some of the insiders themselves have been eliminated, but you still have to prove that it is not they who passed the information to WikiLeaks, but the Russian spies.

    So it is mostly about potential criminal prosecution, and a little Russophobia.

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  175. camike July 18, 2018 at 10:43 pm #

    Thanks to this article I can learn more. Expand your knowledge and abilities. Actually the article is very practical.
    color switch

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  25. Notas al Azar Oeste Verde -6 - Armando Bronca - January 4, 2017

    […] ?  Kunstler avisa que ?2017 es el año que se le caen las ruedas  a este tinglado […]

  26. Kragerø Drone Video – LeveVeg - January 5, 2017

    […] Bear in mind the original suburbanization of America back in the 20th century — along with its accessory automobiles — must be regarded as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. So, a rebuild of all this stuff would represent more and possibly even greater malinvestment. We could have applied our post-WW2 treasure to building beautiful walkable towns and cities with some capacity for adaptive re-use, but we blew it in order to enjoy life in a one-time demolition derby. Life is tragic. Societies make poor choices sometimes, and then there are consequences. – J.H. Kunstler […]

  27. I Ran Out of Time Again | OmegaShock.com - January 6, 2017

    […] Forecast 2017: The Wheels Finally Come Off – KUNSTLER […]

  28. Three PIllars | Doomstead Diner - February 15, 2017

    […] and there is really no way to avoid that. Nafeez Ahmed puts the date at 2018. James Howard Kunstler says don't count out 2017. But make no mistake: the coming collapse is a blessing in […]

  29. Fake News: The Russian Hacker Story | Doomstead Diner - February 20, 2017

    […] —James Howard Kunstler […]

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    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  30. Looted Nation ….. The Sleeping Masses | Trillions Stolen …… Looting of a Nation - August 3, 2017

    […] Forecast 2017: The Wheels Finally Come Off – Kunstler […]