JHK’s Three-Act Play
Guess what? There is none. Rather, the Federal Reserve practice of Delphically divulging its intentions ought to be understood as the master pretense of US economic life — the delusion that wise persons are actually in control of anything. The result of this guidance continues to be the mis-pricing of everything, especially the cost of money as represented in the operations of debt, and hence the value of everything denominated in money.
The interventions of our central bank have really been aimed at one objective: to compensate for the contraction of real wealth in an economy that replaced purposeful activity with Kardashian studies and tattoo art. Purposeful economic activity provides surpluses that allow for the repayment of debt. Kardashian study and tattoo art lead to entropic entrapment, aka, a death spiral of culture and economy. That’s where we are at. The debt is now eating us alive, and the central bank trick of piling on additional debt to mask the failure of repaying old debt is losing its palliative punch.
One big problem with the Fed’s policies is that the mis-pricing of everything ends up being expressed in the very statistics (GDP, unemployment, inflation) that are used to justify further interventions that produce ever deeper perversities. That is, the Fed distorts prices, which distort statistics used to make policy, which prompt the fed to ramp up policies that further distort prices, a dangerous recursive dynamic. Since prices are the basic information for running an economy, we end up in a situation where nothing really adds up. The antidote to that has been pervasive accounting fraud — the covering-up of mis-pricing, pretending that things add up when they don’t.
The poster child for that, of course, is the US government, the operations of which are so saturated in falsity that the inspectors general in every branch and agency might as well just fling linguini against the wall to arrive at whatever conditional reality suits their bosses. The pretense extends to the largest financial institutions including the TBTF banks (their vaults stuffed with the detritus of epic swindles), to the giant pension funds, which were among the chief victims of the swindling, to the corporations dedicated to producing this-and-that, whose cost structures are so fatally impaired by all the aforesaid mis-pricing and accounting fraud, that they must resort to massive stock share buy-backs to maintain the illusion of being going concerns, to the millions of ordinary households running on maxed-out plastic.
These perversities have been in force for five years now, and “folks” — to use our president’s fond locution for the diabetic masses — are beginning to get nervous about the five-year duration of the so-called bull market. This refers to the stock markets collectively, which have generally only gone up since 2009 in an economic environment that can only be called unconvincing. The word “bubble” is heard more and more in casual chatter. Events like Friday’s tanking of the NASDAQ put people in mind of the ominous Four Horsemen.
One thing we really do know, as good old Herb Stein put it, is that things go on until they can’t, and then they don’t. Sighs of relief were heaved all last week when it appeared that the Obama / Kerry response to doings in Ukraine amounted, more-or-less, to a policy that might be called “Oh… nevermind.” Personally, I’m relieved that our leaders decided not to start World War Three over that, since in the aftermath there might be no human historians left on planet earth to record our monumental stupidity for the cosmic annals — something for our successors, the sentient cockroaches, to meditate on. But a certain nagging emptiness remains in that void of initiative. The spring zephyrs are finally caressing the tender hills and vales of upstate New York. Something is in that wind. I think I scent revolution.
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Hey All,
When the collapse happens, lets make sure we’re ready to not let the feckless parasites continue.
Critiquing Society, One blog at a time – http://subverses.org/
The federal government will not survive the loss of reserve status intact; it’s really just that simple.
Without the ability to print $multi-trillions to pay for (oil) imports, along with a global & domestic security apparatus, and of course, a comprehensive social infrastructure (SS, Snap, WIC, and millions upon millions of gov’t and quasi-gov’t [banking, law, accounting, etc] jobs), the whole ball of wax comes undone.
Once you understand this basic dynamic, then everything begins to makes sense. It’s also why I wouldn’t be surprised if the PTB threaten nuclear annihilation as the time draws near. After all, once the institutions by which they derive their power no longer exists, what exactly is the point?
In so many ways, this is beginning to resemble Hitler’s (sorry Godwin, but really, has there every been a better set of twin metaphors than Hitler & the Titanic?) last days in the bunker, when he was ordering reserve ghost divisions, armed with top-secret weapons, to repel the Soviet army.
How many people throughout history have actually lived through the end of an empire? After all, it really doesn’t occur that frequently; a truly unique experience. What will the 10s (100s) of millions of Americans who don’t do anything productive do in response?
Wait a minute B9K9. Tonite on the PBS Newshour there was an entire segment on a political movement to give every person in the United States a guaranteed minimum income of $6000 per year, no matter what. All economists interviewed, various experts, and the PBS reporter himself, backed this idea wholeheartedly. They didn’t say how much it would cost, but among other benefits it would “increase fairness”.
Whether or not illegals would get their cut, or where the money would come from, they didn’t say that either. Evidently its 1959, and the US Government has buckets of cash to pass out to everybody. At least according to PBS.
–BRH
charlesbasak
What makes you think the parasites are feckless—and how are you going to stop them from taking everything they want?
Through chaos and destruction, they can really get out there and steal. It’s the perfect set-up for disaster capitalism.
charlesbasak
What makes you think the parasites are feckless—and how are you going to stop them from taking everything they want?
Through chaos and destruction, they can really get out there and steal. It’s the perfect set-up for disaster capitalism.
“Kardashian Studies!” I need a big grant to open an academic department do engage in that. It’s right out of Delillo’s White Noise, a novel that covers some of the same territory at JHK’s work.
I wonder, at this time of year, if discussing the Byzantine maze of US tax law might be be a bit of fun. Talk about “purposeful economic activity.” Whatever one’s political stripe, it seems apparent that the tax-system has one hidden purpose: make-work plan for tax professionals.
I have never seen a more complex system, and complex systems are bound to fail.
The tax structure exists for rich people to hide in and as a substitute for purposeful government investment. Everything nowadays must be subsidized through the tax code rather than invested in directly. So whatever weak efforts at “Greening” the economy we have are buried in the tax code.
Glad you used the word Byzantine, because that is where, I think we are headed. Military historians for over a century now have been revising and critiquing the “barbarian hordes” meme to show that the armies that overran Western Rome were actually modest in size. What seems to have given way was the inertia that had kept Rome going for two bleak centuries after the brutal civil wars of the 200s and the willingness of anyone to die for it without being paid serious cash on the barrelhead–and for various reasons after 400 the cash in the West had run out.
Some chunk of Western Civilization with a productive tax base is likely to emerge over the next century as our new Byzantium. It will likely be theocratic and despotic, but also keep alive for a small minority the learning of the past and the trappings of an earlier age (ours). It will be, to my eyes, a melancholy place, but perhaps that is all we can hope for looking down the road.
On a visit to a museum along Hadrian’s Wall, I found out that archeologists think that the legions just walked off to their villages and formed armed bands, once the Roman gold stopped reaching the far corners of the Empire in the early 5th century.
These soldiers were local men, by then, not Italians. They had no ties to the distant Imperial capitol, and also had blonde-haired hairballs descending upon their little green-and-pleasant land.
As for Byzantium? They had an early peak followed by a long, steady loss of energy and empire. By 1453, when Mehmet breached their walls, he and his Ottomans found little more than a beat up town. Much of intramural Constantinople was open land, farmed by the locals. The rest was crumbling or in ruins.
Sad to see how far that last remnant fell even before the conquest. I wonder if our Interstates and malls won’t look that way in a few decades: the stuff being more prone to crumbling that good Roman brick and concrete. Yes, they had concrete and yes, the secret vanished until–I think–the 19th century and the invention of Portland cement.
“As for Byzantium? They had an early peak followed by a long, steady loss of energy and empire.”
One of the things that blunted that early peak was an early outbreak of the Black Death known as Justinian’s Plague. That was pretty much the end of the expansion of the Eastern Roman Empire into the territory once occupied by the Western Empire. It also serves as a warning that pandemics could be in our near future, too.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/05/pandemics-and-collapse.html
Speaking of collapses of civilizations, if someone here mentioned the NASA report that got published in “Ecological Economics” about how we are on a path to crash Western Industrial Civilization, I missed it. It certainly made a splash in the comments over at The Archdruid Report a couple of weeks ago.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2014/04/nasa-warns-about-collapse-of-industrial.html
You missed it. I linked to it two weeks ago. Now it looks like TPTB strings have been pulled and ignorance once again triumphs.
NASA Clarifies Its Role in Civilization-Collapse Study
I should have figured you would have posted it, as you are both a regular over at The Archdruid Report and a good dog. 3:-P I also should have expected this kind of reaction from NASA. When I posted the link to my entry at my Facebook page, two of my more conservative friends were outraged by it. One said it had nothing to do with NASA’s mission and the other suggested that NASA’s funding should be cut. Of course, without the NASA connection, the study would probably not have gotten the attention that it did (and deserved). It’s quite a shock to have the U.S. agency most associated with a better future from technological progress deliver the message that we, too, are no better than the Romans. American Exceptionalism? What American Exceptionalism?
That dog emoticon didn’t come out very clearly in this blog’s default font. Let’s see if this is better. 3:-p Also, let’s see if it’s better when it smiles. 3:-9
Breaking Develpments :
Ugo has this to say. He links to Nafeez Ahmed’s article about the study right away.
What can you say, it’s science!
‘Bound to fail’, yes, unless its backed up by men with badges, warrants and guns, with the authority to confiscate whatever property you have, and throw your ass in jail. Then the system works pretty good.
–BRH
Unfortunately, it seems that you do not need a big grant for that
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/miley-cyrus-studies-not-the-gimmick-it-might-sound-9244829.html
“Sighs of relief were heaved all last week when it appeared that the Obama / Kerry response to doings in Ukraine amounted, more-or-less, to a policy that might be called ‘Oh… nevermind.’”
I see the spirit of Emily Litella lives on, long after Gilda Radner has left us. Good, as it’s not only funny, but useful.
“Since prices are the basic information for running an economy, we end up in a situation where nothing really adds up. The antidote to that has been pervasive accounting fraud…”
Your use of antidote reminds me that I’ve heard you use that before in “The End of Suburbia.” I showed that to my students again last week, and they all heard the recorded you of a decade ago say “The antidote to city life was going to be country living for everyone.” They also heard you say that suburbia was “a cartoon of country living in a cartoon of a house.” They were also really amused by your calling the situation a “clusterfuck” and a “shitstorm.” Congratulations, you are still managing to shock people and get their attention, more than a decade after that interview was filmed.
My students immediately started searching the web for answers to the questions I asked, and they found them at my blog, where I’ve posted the worksheet and scattered the answers throughout the entries. I even composed a special entry this past week leading my students to all of my worksheets on my blog, not only for “The End of Suburbia,” but also for “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Food Inc.” What can I say? One stop shopping.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2014/04/student-worksheets-for-second-and-third.html
JHK,
Whatever money gets generated by the real economy is being syphoned-off by those entities placed in the right positions to do so.
They steal through all kinds of rigged systems and are now getting involved in what the neoliberals crow as public/private enterprise. This was all done for their precious ideology of globalism.
Goldman Sachs is just the one to get involved with hard assets, social security and education. Just keep watching for all that the subservient government hands over to them.
As I’ve said before, I saw once and only once on MSNBC Lloyd Blankfein followed by a gaggle of reporters on the street. He turned around and stated: “The American people will have to get used to living without entitlements.”
I keep asking over and over again—What about your entitlements, Mr. Blankfein. Why do you get all that you do. Why are you entitled to the ss trust?
There is capital, but not put back into nation states. No Taxation no regulation or the rule of law for the top tier….the money is in private international bank accts. of misers who couldn’t possibly need all that money for themselves and it’s not coming out!
Ah, revolution this spring? So the world didn’t end last fall? Oh wait, my mistake JHK predicted it would end before that…and before that. I do think that at some point, possibly soon, JHK will be right. But really he should avoid prophecy at this juncture. The trends all point to disaster but to scream or even whisper: “This time for sure!” is just silly. It might not even come in the total collapse form he prefers to fantasize about…it probably will come in a slow evolutionary contraction and re-localization. Evolution rather than revolution.
My reply was. Posted below. I agree with you…JHK needs a new boogie man…
Revolution, I think not. Revolution would require more than one in ten having a clue that there is even a need for a revolution. We have yet to reach peak ignorance and still climb the upwards slope of that peak. The delusion that wise persons actually exist remains widespread as is the belief that man controls his destiny. We are overdue for a bitch-slap from mother nature while near everyone walks around with a don’t worry be happy attitude echoing in their inner cranial cavity..
Your Democratic illusions are showing. Revolutions are fomented by a few and supported by some. Only when they begin to succeed do they gain majority support – and important step I admit. You have to add some degree of elitism into your calculation or remain forever in illusion.
But no longer can any revolution succeed without majority approval. With the state now having enormous powers of surveillance and control ‘a few‘ will be unable to foment any revolution. It would be stopped before it starts.
What’s that? My iPhone is ringing. Just a moment.
Back, it was the FBI. They wanted to know if I am going to build a bomb with that stuff i got at Home Depot yesterday. But it’s cool; I said no.
JS, I think JHK has a point when he says he senses revolution in the air. For one thing, the term “revolution” can now be seen in the media, maybe not the hard-core MSM, but I certainly see it used more and more. So that ice has been broken. Another thing. We must not have preconceived notions about how a 21st century revolution in the US will appear. Personally, I think a critical percentage of the masses will simply stop complying with the “powers that be”. That won’t be as hard as it may seem, because the “powers that be” are drowning themselves in extreme complexity; recording so much, for example, that there are insufficient ears and time to listen to it all. From my perspective, the Feds et al are fuguing out, thrashing about finding enemies, emitting bloviation to keep their frauds alive, all at a greater and greater frenetic pace. It can’t be sustained, and when they stop to take a breath, it will collapse. One thing is for certain; the course we are on is becoming increasingly unsustainable and a greater percentage of the populace is becoming aware of that. At some point, the weight of it brings down the curtain on the troupe presenting this theater.
I’m with you….JHK needs some new stuff… He really just goes through the motions anymore. This article doesn’t even really have a point. Bad stuff, no energy, dumb youth..TV bad..disaster around the corner.
Yes, Jesus will show up before we run out of oil so all Kunstlers articles are for amusement only. Do you have something against amusement?
If there’s ‘revolution in the air’ then I’m afraid that’s where it’s going to stay. We haven’t enough of a discernable center to revolt against. No easily identifiable entity or enemy: no Louis XVI, Nicholas II or George III.
The culture is fractured into numerous irreconcilable factions. The lower classes are kept stupefied on drugs and handouts, and our middle class has no stomach to bring the resources and ideological clarity necessary to fire a revolutionary cause. Even that reliable fomenter of rebellion, the academe, is tied to the purse strings of various governmental institutions, and, in turn, those institutions function at the indulgence of the nameless, nebulous corporate behemoth that seems to rule all.
Mayhem and disentegration, perhaps. Revolution?…I don’t think so.
Greg, I think that it’s worse than that at academe. Ever since Reagan, government research grants have been mainly of two kinds: for government directly, or for business directly (with matching government funding).
Government funding has been corrupted by ideology and religion, while business funding always has been for narrow, immediate, short term goals. Those goals do not include rocking the boat.
A good example is the research on flax seeds. A researcher found what she referred to as (IIRC), “the most promising anti-cancer drug” she had ever seen (fresh ground flax seed), but could get no money to research it fully, because no-one could make a buck from flax seeds. So no private investment, so no matching funds from government, so no great new anti-cancer drug, for want of few hundred thousand. If that is not systemically corrupt, I do not understand the definition.
I conclude that academe is cowed, bought, and paid for, and will provide a wet blanket rather than a spark. Then there are the drones and the surveillance, provided by the other smart folks who don’t want to be victims of the coming global resource collapse.
I therefore agree with you when you say, “Revolution”?… I don’t think so.”
“The spring zephyrs are finally caressing the tender hills and vales of upstate New York. Something is in that wind. I think I scent revolution.”
James, one can only hope that you’re correct. There is a hopeful sign. A consensus is forming among a growing number who are intellectually capable, formerly well-connected and haven’t decided to whore themselves to promoting the empty narrative that a revolution is necessary. It remains to be seen if that consensus will resolve itself into a cohesive political movement that can overcome the obstacles put in place by the Patriot Act and the chaos that will inevitably accompany the collapse.
http://www.thesisa.org
Hear Max Keiser who covers the stock market: high frequency fraud, picking prices and then filling in the trades to get to that price.
He also interviews Jim Rickards in 2 parts. New book, The Death of Money. I mutually assured financial destruction, the US dollar and the danger of insolvency.
http://www.maxkeiser.com/#3e3EmbxCuevTY0fm.99
Jim:
People ask you and others when the collapse will, happen. We are on the down slope, the collapse is a creeping one, but I think you need to look no further than the petro dollar, which is the world’s reserve currency. The Dollar is already under attack, with various countries doing side deals to trade without the $.
The US Dollar has been propped up not by the Fed, but because all the other countries need to hold dollar denominated assets to use to settle foreign trade.
When not if the Dollar is dropped as the world reserve currency, then there will be no reason for other countries to hold those dollars. They will be repatriated, by buying assets in the US, probably things like farm land, timber, basically our natural resources, because we have little else to sell.and when all those dollars are returned to the US, the dollar will collapse, but first there will be a massive inflation that crushes the average US consumer.
In the end our natural resources will be owned by foreign powers, and we ail be broke and working for them.
The Fed will not be able to save us from this.
>>”In the end our natural resources will be owned by foreign powers, and we ail be broke and working for them.”
Over my dead body! (unfortunately)
Off the farm and into the wide world for an Interstate road trip this past weekend and some things never change….people drive like maniacs and the roadways are deteriorating. If the revolution comes it will be led by pot smoking tattooed know nothings and will not be informed by any ideals from the 18th century…it will not be pretty.
Off the farm and into the wide world for an Interstate road trip this past weekend and some things never change….people drive like maniacs and the roadways are deteriorating. If the revolution comes it will be led by pot smoking tattooed know nothings whose sense of family values is created by viewing Sons of Anarchy and will not be informed by any ideals from the 18th century…it will not be pretty.
Smoking, shooting, snorting or ingesting meth would be far more effective in motivating a reaver. Pot-smoking tends to have a calming and inward-looking effect on the user. ( FYI. I get a little tired of cannabis use being mischaracterized as a spur to violence and aggression. It just ain’t so, unless, of course, one happens to be in the law-enforcement field; in which case, one is entitled to one’s own facts.)
I agree with you but at least he admits that pot smokers can be leaders even if he does have great disdain for them. Most haters won’t even admit a pot smoker can get off their couch.
Much less spell disdain.
If you are upset about “potholes” in the roads, then do something about it. The state DOTs decide how to prioritize budget. Make your state prioritize maintenance over building new roads, like Vermont, Tennessee, and Michigan have done.
Vermont now devotes about 77 percent of its road budget to maintenance. Between 2008 and 2011, Vermont increased the share of its roads in “good” condition from 23 percent to 42 percent.
Tennessee is another state that’s setting a good example. Steve Allen, strategic investments director at Tennessee DOT, said his state is recognized for having its roads in the second-best condition of any state in the country. And, even better, Tennessee is one of just four states that has no transportation debt.
And even though Tennessee’s population is growing pretty quickly, the state keeps costs under control through careful prioritization, he said.
“We used to fund projects first and what was left over would be our maintenance budget,” he said. “Now we move the maintenance money first. We say that money is not going to be able to spent on projects.”
Michigan is another leader. The state is known for its “asset management” program, which predicts the rate roads at which will deteriorate and makes an effort to time repairs at the least expensive juncture in the life cycle. In 2004, Michigan began a program with municipalities called the Multi-Jurisdictional Asset Management Council, which helps local communities strategically balance spending as well.
Good advice, AJ.
well today we have Paul Krugman talking about ramping up inflation to foment economic growth. Like many “liberal’ Keynesian economists Krugman for all his good writings about class warfare of the plutocrats against the 99% is still stuck in the old New Deal “grow the economy” mindset. As opposed to investments like Green Transit and shared public assets like libraries etc which shrink private consumption but
aid shared consumption for the good of all.
And worse yet we have Larry Summers back with this recent advice:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101558487?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=101558487%7CLarry%20Summers%20calls%20on%20US
========Larry Summers quote===
” U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has urged global leaders to form a global growth strategy to combat economic stagnation and has called upon the U.S. government to ramp up investment expenditure.
…..
…..
“In the U.S. the case for substantial investment promotion is overwhelming. Increased infrastructure spending would reduce burdens on future generations, not just by spurring growth but also by expanding the economy’s capacity and reducing deferred maintenance obligations,” he said.
“Government could do much at no cost to promote private investment including authorizing oil and natural gas exports, bringing clarity to the future of corporate taxes, and moving forward on trade agreements that open up foreign markets.”
===== end Larry Summers quote ===
Oh wow! More brilliant advice from one of the main architects of
the Degulated derivatives meltdown and wild expansion of exurban sprawl!
These guys really have drunk their own Kool-aid!!
Unbelievable!!
And yet, orbiter, infrastructure spending is a first class suggestion. It’s been done before, it’s popular, it’s needed.
As you point out, it is interesting that Summers should say this, because it amounts to bypassing the big banks. It could even be done while bypassing the fed. Who would have cast Summers as a closet revolutionary?
Yes infrastructure investment is absolutely critical but WHICH infrastructure investment? LNG terminals to export fracked shale gas which will probably see declining production just as they are finished? And will then increase US natural gas prices?
More and more highways or restoring Rail and investing in Green Transit? Investing in insulating and making existing houses and buildings more energy efficient or in fracked gas drilling?
That Larry Summers explicitly mentions gas and oil exports shows
he is still clueless…
Yes, quite correct orbiter.
Yup, around and round and round it goes, why the same economists? Nobody knows!
Anything but to break up the global banks and monopolies to assure more competition. So since TINA (There are no alternatives) we’re stuck with very few plays.
Chinese checkers instead of chess is what I always say.
Listen to what Greenspan said a while back, that there shouldn’t be laws against fraud, that the market would take care of itself.
Can you imagine? This was the guy running the Fed. Did he actually say this? The mind reels.
So I guess, according to this view, criminals should get the run of the place uninhibited and un-bothered. The oligarch steals, the oligarch walks.
Which, in reality, is how things work. What if Greenspan’s sin, if he actually said it, was to merely say out loud what was and is elite consensus?
So was this an attempt to give lawlessness some theoretical legitimacy? I wouldn’t have bothered because, practically speaking, Wall Street banksters are untouchable. Holder said so.
Maybe the Greenspan show was all just a distraction, an irrelevance, a two decade long theater of absurdities, of “profundities” uttered by the great and mighty Wizard, the “Maestro” of the “Great Moderation”. Did anything change under Bernanke and Yellen? Did I miss it?
Because if you’re a Wall Street insider, that is, an oligarch, it’s BAU and nobody bothers you. What a sad fucking joke.
The heavens declare the glory of the free market and the firmament showeth its handiwork. As it shall be. A free market with out end, now and forever more.
I would like to extend Jim an offer to buy his first tattoo, ideally of the Kardashians! Perhaps depicting them eating Cheez Doodles (or corn pone), while texting.and driving an SUV emblazoned with a Dixie flag?
No, a simple big black and white one of the horse pulling the car. Taken from the top of this blog. Between the shoulder blades.
Jim’s imagery is exquisite: meditating cockroaches.
Pity this busy monster…
The role of global resource depletion is key. As JHK has pointed out before, the attempts to disguise resource depletion result in the mispricing of those commodities, then everything dependent upon them, i.e. everything.
The mispricing of money, i.e. debt and capital, is just a special case.
…Leading right into the knock-on effect of the Orwellian transposition: Inflation, GOOD; deflation, BAD!
Now, who gets hurt the worst in that scenario? (3 guesses, and the first 2 don’t count.)
I like the Herb Stein quote, but I prefer the pithy one from that other American philosopher-sportsman Ray Lewis.
“everything that starts has an end”
Thank you Mr. Kunstler for a smooth dose of sanity every Monday morning!
In fact Paul Krugman mentions ‘oligarchs’ in his column just today, the 1% of the 1%, the .01% if you will. But I’m thinking Krugman himself, while not a 1%er, lives pretty well himself, what with his New York Times expense account, big salary and whatnot, jetting 1st class all around the world, mostly to China, a country he greatly admires. Krugman and his ilk is ready to man the ramparts and take on these greedy 1%ers, providing the ramparts are in the new Tavern on the Green restaurant, there are other wealthy NY and Hollywood celebrities standing in solidarity, shoulder to shoulder, the TV cameras are rolling, the Kobe beef is polished off, and the Times is picking up the tab.
–BRH
How many times jimmy has predicted revolution?
Don’t know, but we can count on you to keep track of his murmurings. You play right into his hands.
Don’t know, but we can count on you to keep track of his murmurings. You play right into his hands.
Sure you don’t know, or don’t wish to know, since it’s several times over squared, and all wrong.
As far as playing right into his hands, lol, what, is he concocting some grand scheme that’ll nab those of us who don’t agree with him?
Let us all know when you have an answer, if it’s a non-paranoid one.
“The revolution is near.” lol
peace peaceniks
A grand scheme that’ll nab those who don’t agree with him?
Now that is seriously paranoid! You did not play into his hands you played into mine.
Gotcha
love lawman
lol, some folks are juuuust a waste of time.
by the way, what happened to all the handwringing over ukraine?
another failed end tymes rap.
que the next failed prediction and jimmy’s sycophants.
jimmy is so bereft of ideas that he ends his screed on a glaring inanity.
“and the beat goes on…and the beat goes on…”
peace peaceniks
Since it seems you’re so dearly beloved of changing the subject and muddying the waters, here’s your daily dose of Ukrainian Kerfuffle. (Yes, no problem, you’re welcome, any time.):
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38150.htm
Are your predictive powers still telling you that a relocation trek across the seas to Greece is a fine idea? (I would agree.)
Purposeful economic activity provides surpluses that allow for the repayment of debt.
Tell it to Vladimir Zhirinovsky who wants to kick McDonald’s out of Russia. Apparently, he yearns for the good ‘ol days of endless breadlines. It’s economic activity (McDonald’s) that provides surpluses for the Russians to pay their debts and further clog their arteries and destroy their livers. It’s not just The Fed. This mentality of destroying purposeful economic activity like feeding a population not-so-cleverly reconstituted fecal matter in the form of a patty on a bun called a Big Mac is ubiquitous regardless of the country and its controlling financial institutions.
Na Zdorovie (Nostrovia) – You Deserve A Break Today!
McDonald’s is disgusting. Just because we’re unwise enough to eat it, it doesn’t mean it has to insinuate itself in every country many multiple times over.
A McDonald’s a day takes you straight to the doctor with many pharmaceuticals to keep Big Pharma in the black.
Do you prefer Soylent Green? How ya gonna feed all them darkies you bringin’ in?
You’ve got to do your own Thing. (And I don’t mean “Fracking”.)
This blog is a kind of Forward Guidance, and much more realistic than that of The Fed. 😉
The only thing ‘wise persons are actually in control of’, is ensuring you remain delusional, so don’t see this –
THE BUSINESS OF KNOWING YOUR PLACE
http://thereisnodebt.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/the-business-of-knowing-your-place/
Guidance? Why, yes, guided right into the maws of ravenous sharks…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-08/fed-sharks-part-1-robbing-purchasing-power-matter-policy
“If the Fed is so powerful, why is it so cowardly and fearful that it has to cloak its theft of our money and its transfer of the wealth to the banks? What’s it so afraid of? That we might wake up to the fact that we’re being Fed to the sharks, every day, one morsel at a time?” — Charles Hugh-Smith
That’s tin hat stuff! The papers say so! Now I axe you Zone: how do you still believe in Democracy after generations of sheep who just walked into slaughter pen? Sure they are waking up now as they hear the sounds of slaughter. But the pen is shut and it’s too late. It was always too late for them and always will be in the future. The ordinary man can’t think, nor does he want to. And he hates those who try to make him.
I’m a little off-topic here but I think that an article appearing this morning on money.msn.com is worth noting.
Apparently Harley-Davidson is coming out with a new motorcycle that will be smaller, simpler, and a lot less costly than its typical ‘hog’ offerings. The cycle is dubbed ‘the Street’ and will start at $6,500 and sport a 500cc engine…Small? Well, at least by American standards.
HD’s marketing consultant, Neil Howe, reports that ‘the Street’ is aimed at millennials who exhibit “brutal pragmatism” in their purchasing choices. He continues, “it’s one of their most impressive characteristics, the urge to simplify.”
As I’ve stated many times on this page (and others) THE YOUNG GET IT!
I’ll bet Harley sells a lot of those, GK.
I wonder if they’ll still keep the iconic V twin engine. Years back they built a 750cc V, which was used primarily for dirt track racing.
Id be interested in that bike and I’m not that young any more. Time to retire this old 1954 British Army bike of mine, which isn’t too reliable anymore, and exceedingly hard to start. But fun to ride around town on.
–BRH
Recursive dynamic. Yes, and a financial official-dom fully on board with this recursive dynamic with said financial asshole-dom touting circular illogic to provide some bogus intellectual underpinning for the scam.
You remember don’t you? Like, do you remember financial asshole-dom telling everyone that the debt loads of households, especially mortgage debt, was high but it was OK because it was offset by growing household wealth as manifested by growing house prices?
Try not to think about this because if you do a question will naturally arise: isn’t this growing household wealth (as manifested by growing house prices) dependent on people getting ever bigger mortgages to pay those ever higher house prices?
I guess they weren’t all that wise to the practical world of actual money and actual mortgages. Or maybe they were wise to it and they just lie like hell.
But I digress. Do we all remember what happened next? House prices crashed. But the mortgages on those houses OTOH were still due and payable each and every month.
Very interesting piece anent our discussion last week. Mixed race people Hate people who aren’t. Or as the Mutants on Dr Who said, “All Norms must die.” Thus the metis or mestizo is the natural ally of that group who makes war on all other advanced peoples.
http://www.wvwnews.net/content/index.php?/news_story/europes_mongrelization_through_immigration_is_a_deliberate_plan_the_coudenhove_kalergi_plan_the_genocide_of_the_peoples_of_europe.html
I like the word meme, and memes are interesting things. For example, there’s the meme of Peak Oil, or if you prefer, Peak Everything, and then there’s the meme of Infinite Growth. It’s difficult to choose between memes, though. I feel like a child in a candy store, or a dictator in a WMD store. There’s so many to choose from, I freeze up and can’t choose. I need a vacation.
A HREF=”http://catcherinthelie.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/a-trip-down-memeory-lane/”>A Trip Down Meme…ory Lane
Oops. Screwed that link up. Here it is again.
A Trip Down Meme…ory Lane
http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/85158/ugo-bardi-banquet-consequences
Check out this podcast on resource depletion. This speaks to what JHK wants discussed on this blog.
BT,
Thanks for the link.
I’m glad he’s included that salient quote from one of my favorite authors.
Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
One of my own operating principles has always been, “actions have consequences”. Of course, RLS’ quote is much more eloquent. So is his epitaph on his gravestone. He is also one of my favorite authors.
I’ve been very surprised over the years that most people don’t realize or utilize this principle. Oh, well, I guess thinking is too much a luxury these days. Maybe that’s good because if the government realizes this, they would tax it.
There’s no shortage of reminders on this blog concerning ” a banquet of consequences.” In short, this a real Old Testament kind of place. What’s amusing though, is the continual finger wagging on that count: “we’re going to get what’s coming to us one day”.
Whatever. Maybe the real irony of it all is a life obsessively anticipating the fallen sky downturns the corner of one’s mouth, never to be lifted upward due the imminent reckoning to come. And that’s a real banquet of consequences,too, living one’s life like a pussy quivering in the corner.
You write well but not with much power. You’re polite and light and very informing at times. In short, a real gentleman sort. Some of us have discovered that words really do have power but even the talisman needs to duck when the boomerang comes whizzing back around. Hence the lack of posts and writing.
Interestingly, “Carol” — now “Cold N. Holefield — makes mention on their blog of the ‘energetic’ dynamics of internet communication. Put another way, these words we type are not always empty and harmless, but energetic manifestations. It’s a very good blog BTW.
BS,
The satisfactions or solace of mischaracterizations are brief, at best.
This “response” says a whole lot about yourself (and perhaps your fellow uber-dependent denizens of the urban illusion) and less than nothing about me.
All I was saying is that, perhaps, the obsessive reading and typing of doom and gloom prediction on a daily basis just might come with a banquet of its own consequences, not the least being a sapping of life’s joy along with the destruction of one’s health.
And from that you extrapolate that I am an uber-dependent denizen of the urban illusion” speaking of delightful mischaracterization, lol
Don’t take yourself so seriously there Festus. Baxter Black doesn’t and he’s your lyrical role model as I recall.
“And from that you extrapolate that I am an uber-dependent denizen of the urban illusion” speaking of delightful mischaracterization, lol”
Absolutely correct [about the blatant mischaracterization]! And how did you enjoy it?
As to gloomy-doomy: Those I know who are following closely are more cheerful and motivated than those who are only aware of some nebulous creeping malaise and are desperately attempting to “sustain the unsustainable”. Where do these ideas of paralysis and crushing melancholy come from? Personal observations or “hearing about it” — from somewhere?
Never fear. Malicious actions of fraud and theft (not to mention naked coup-promotion) do sometimes goad others into countermeasures to fill that “void of initiative” JHK mentions.
Heard this? If not, ask yourself why not. There are clues between the lines of happy-talk and petulant pundits agitating to let slip the dogs of war. Find them quickly.:
” Russia’s trade in hydrocarbons amounts to about a trillion dollars per year. Other countries, especially the BRICS and BRCIS-associates (BRICSA) may soon follow suit and join forces with Russia, abandoning the ‘petro-dollar’ as trading unit for oil and gas. This could amount to tens of trillions in loss for demand of petro-dollars per year (US GDP about 17 trillion dollars – December 2013) – leaving an important dent in the US economy would be an understatement.
Added to this is the declaration today by Russia’s Press TV – China will re-open the old Silk Road as a new trading route linking Germany, Russia and China, allowing to connect and develop new markets along the road, especially in Central Asia, where this new project will bring economic and political stability, and in Western China provinces,where “New Areas” of development will be created. The first one will be the Lanzhou New Area in China’s Northwestern Gansu Province, one of China’s poorest regions.
During his visit to Duisburg, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a master stroke of economic diplomacy that runs directly counter to the Washington neo-conservative faction’s effort to bring a new confrontation between NATO and Russia.” (press TV, April 6, 2014)
“Using the role of Duisburg as the world’s largest inland harbor, an historic transportation hub of Europe and of Germany’s Ruhr steel industry center, he proposed that Germany and China cooperate on building a new “economic Silk Road” linking China and Europe. The implications for economic growth across Eurasia are staggering.”
Curiously, western media have so far been oblivious to both events. It seems like a desire to extend the falsehood of our western illusion and arrogance – as long as the silence will bear.
Germany, the economic driver of Europe – the world’s fourth largest economy (US$ 3.6 trillion GDP) – on the western end of the new trading axis, will be like a giant magnet, attracting other European trading partners of Germany’s to the New Silk Road. What looks like a future gain for Russia and China, also bringing about security and stability, would be a lethal loss for Washington.” — Peter Koenig
@ozone “Curiously, western media have so far been oblivious to both events. It seems like a desire to extend the falsehood of our western illusion and arrogance – as long as the silence will bear.”
Jim Willie and some others in the blogosphere have been writing and at times screaming about the Eurasian Trade Zone for several years now. But you are correct in that he and the others do not qualify as “serious and polite journalism” or whatever the criteria may be for Senator Feinstein’s definition. Perhaps, “that which sustains the status quo?”
While I agree that losing the petrodollar would be bad for the US, I don’t hear how the negative consequences would play out. Not hearing details, to me, smacks of fear mongering. What are our options, anyway? Anyone? Bueller?
One thing no one seems to be considering is America’s reaction. We are a crazy people. Do you think we just would go quietly into that dark night? The consequences would be very scary for the world.
As near as I understand it, if the dollar loses its near-monopoly status as a trade metric, world demand for dollars will fall relative to other currencies and as demand falls value follows. There are trillions of dollars outside the USA which will ultimately find their way back inside the USA which in theory will create domestic inflation.
Germany cannot at present use the Euro but must buy dollars in order to pay for its oil contracts. If Saudi Arabia, Iran or Russia accept Euros as a metric then Germany will no longer demand so many dollar reserves, and will seek a way to convert these paper promises into real value – at the same time that others, no longer needing so many reserve dollars, will likewise seek to convert from paper to real value. This process could be disorderly, as in a sudden rush of dollars chasing USA goods and services.
The Federal Reserve creates money – credit/debt — out of thin air having no other backing than our promise to show up for work the next day. Lately the process of money creation via QE has increased out of proportion to the quantity and quality of USA worker productivity.
But since the rest of the world’s currencies are about as well managed I don’t think anyone can really predict any specifics resulting from the general comments above. Jim Willie foresees an international dollar and a domestic, drastically devalued dollar. This will support the “full faith and credit” purchasing power of the existing international dollars and quarantines our fiscal and monetary mess as we merrily inflate our way out of the promises that cannot be kept. It will also hopefully keep our foreign creditors from firing missiles at us.
BTB et. al. Just stumbled upon Greg Hunter’s latest with Paul Craig Roberts. 30 sobering minutes of vintage PCR here. He addresses the questions above and from weeks past.
http://usawatchdog.com/gold-us-dollar-fight-to-the-death-paul-craig-roberts/
Dr. Roberts notes that the recent actions of the USA seem to be forcing the rest of the world to abandon the petrodollar. He characterizes these actions as stupid, and therefore the administration as stupid.
I disagree. I just don’t know what their motives are. I see three obvious possibilities:
1. crash the dollar and replace it, so eliminating external debt, just coincidentally enriching the government and the biggest banks
2. crash the global economic system and rule the world with the military
3. rogue elements in the administration allied with outside crazies trying to cause mayhem up to and possibly including WW3.
Anyone else?
“While I agree that losing the petrodollar would be bad for the US, I don’t hear how the negative consequences would play out. Not hearing details, to me, smacks of fear mongering. What are our options, anyway? Anyone?”
Are you really that naïve? Look at the US trade deficit. Add to that another trillion a year US spends on its military abroad. That would, give or take, come to couple of trillion a year in trade misbalance. If USD loses its reserve status – e.g. ability to shove up foreign nations empty promises of Federal Reserve, how are you going to pay for that?
What it amounts to US is having a free lunch, a free ride or whatever you call it having a lot for nothing. You going to have 2 options: 1. reduce the level of consumption – like at least 5 times or increase your industrial output – like 5 times. Which one do you prefer?
You have to admire average Americans. Theoretically they know that something exists outside their borders, but only in theory. They do not realize that the outside world is providing the means for their existence – at least 70 – 80%, that ALL Americans regardless what they do are hopeless welfare cases on the World body, that their country is a giant leach sucking the life blood from rest of the world.
Yes, America runs a giant cover story – Federal Reserve, the various stock exchanges, IMFs and World Banks, the Washington Consensus. But that’s just one giant lie, propaganda machine to make collection of their military loot much easier.
You have to admire that racketeering machine – took hundreds of years to build one – but that’s coming to an end. And it is coming to end not on the New York stock market, but in the burned cities of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine.
FTM — why are these options? There will be both. The Chinese have been buying up vacant industrial property and even some NYC trophy property. Their apparent intention is to manufacture from within the US borders. In Alabama a small town has given a property to a Chinese company so that they will locate there to manufacture copper tubing. As for the inflation option that will very likely occur depending on the extent of foreign content in the good or service. Food and energy inflation are already in place but not because of US imperialism. PSR and others foresee 200% inflation when the Fed loses its war on gold. The transition to the next equilibrium will have its perils, but I don’t think we can proclaim with certainty food riots, cash riots, and energy riots — yet. In any event the DHS is well armed and the geniuses in charge can always hire Greystone to assist in the slaughter.
Yes, of course there would be and should be both options. What I am afraid of is how the modern generation of Americans will take the hardships that are coming their way, would they be able to get to hard and dirty work that is required to put the country back on the right track? Or will they just go berserk making difficult situation intolerable and ungovernable?
Besides I do not see even on horizon ANY ideas with wide enough traction how to put the country back on track – for instance, nobody even demands that at least part of money FED prints for its client-banks be diverted on States Infrastructure Bonds – that would bypass the dysfunctional US Congress and force at least half of the State Governors to initiate some productive project and put their constituents back to work.
A good president, like FDR for instance, would’ve turned unconstitutional independent position of FED to the country’s advantage and send some marines to surround their headquarters and force them to start buying the State Bonds.
Personally, I live outside the United States and staked my family survival on medium-sized dairy farm located in the Caribbean mountains. I think I have not more than a year to make it fully functional.
Back in the 1970’s, Arabs had a lot of money and began buying up a lot of American assets; people feared we were losing the country. In the 1980’s, it appeared Japan was more capitalistically advanced than America and began buying up lots of American assets; people feared we were losing the country. Now China seems to be more economically powerful than us and the fear is that they will take over the country.
In reality, Americans are inherently xenophobic, no matter how much the feds try to push for globalism. China may begin buying up our assets, but if this continues,at some point our society will say, “Enough!” Besides, China is really shaky, financially. Much of the country has been ravaged by pollution, hideous working conditions prevail, and they are one dry spell away from disaster.
Think about why the normally phlegmatic Chinese, who historically have conquered their conquerors through absorption, are pushing to control Asia. It’s because their own country is bursting at the seams, and they need an outlet, otherwise they will explode. No, I’m not worried about China, except for their nuclear weapons. Just as I’m concerned about any country who has the bomb. I’d even be afraid of Martinique is they had nuclear weapons.
Anyway, according to Russian Internet Kiev is conducting a punitive expedition against the rebel city of Donetsk, spearheaded by mercenaries from private military “Greystone International” (frmr Blackwater). Donetsk rebels are not kids, but Afghan vets hardened by 10 years of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Shit’s about to hit the fan.
80,000 Russian Soldiers lined up on the Ukraine border, phew,ready to roll … and 900 tanks. It takes a lot of money, chow and fuel to keep an army in a state of readiness like that. They’ll have to do something, soon, make a move, west … Meanwhile, Obama’s New Model American Army prepares, an Army that ‘looks like America’, not much like the army that fought at Antietam, Normandy, Yalu river, no, this army forms up for inspection,’pre-sent, what’? Arms? Heavens No! (the enemy might get the wrong idea. Remember when President Bush was charged with making the muslims madder?) prepare your kit for inspection: nylons, Korans, cell phones, mascara (many shades) sanitary napkins, makeup, and 50 gallon drums of vasolene … above all, the EEOC manual, which you must know like former soldiers knew the manual of arms, yes, we are read sir … yonder across the border stand 80 000 drunken, undisciplined, brutal Russian Soldiers who hate you and everything you stand for, bent on rape and murder. Advice to the lady soldiers: if captured, read out relevant passage from EEOC manual about sexual harrasment. Ivan will be impressed with your perspicuity if nothing else.
–BRH
Oh, c’mon BRH, those guys from Greystone International are not THAT bad, they’d probably last a few minutes against GRU SpecNaz.
Undisciplined? You wish. You are succumbing to archetypal thinking, the old “Mongol Horde” vision. The Mongols were superbly disciplined. Their SMALL armies (not hordes) routinely beat much larger forces. The Teutonic Knights laughed a the little men on their little horses. Then the strong little men on their strong little horses took out their strong little bows and began to slaughter them. The Knights charged. The Mongols just rode around the charge, shooting all the while. Remember? Patton used to remember such battles.
Your disgust at our army is completely justified of course. The English used to save a bullet to kill in case they were left lying on the field in Afghanistan when the women came out to cut up whoever wasn’t dead or even those who were. Perhaps “our girls” can do the same.
“Something is in that wind. I think I scent revolution.
Perhaps wishful thinking but a lot of thinkers this week are thinking so. A consensus is emerging.
from: Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt
“Mass uprisings of people – along the lines of the abolition movement, the civil rights movement or Occupy Wall Street – represent the likeliest source of “friction” to slow down an economic machine that is careening out of control.”
Ok, your right. Not this week for her. Her article is from 29 October, 2013 but I just found it.
Revolution, revolution, revolution. I hope not.
Because if it is allowed (and I suspect that it will not), it will be for only one purpose: depopulation.
The Truth bats last. We can probably get rid of Obama as President at the end of this term, but he is only a symptom of the disease. What do we do about the countless millions who voted for him? We can’t get rid of them. Nor can we educate them as most as set in their ways.
http://thetruthwins.com/archives/100-facts-about-the-moral-collapse-of-america-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe
This just in!
For the first time ever, Ohio regulators have halted fracking in eastern portions of the state where numerous earthquakes have been linked to drilling near Youngstown. New, stricter regulations will be enacted for hyraulic fracturing projects statewide.
news.yahoo.com/ohio – regulators
I didn’t mean to give short shrift to the Army’s Gay and LBGT shock troops … Elite Battalions, the point of the spear if you will. We were issued bibles in basic training but I doubt if that’s done anymore. In fact is the day coming when possession of a Bible is a punishable offense under the UCMJ? Korans will be permissible of course, maybe even encouraged, so as not to offend the ‘religion of peace’.
CFNers, if there are any left, if you want to read something beautiful, writing in English of the highest level, also as a loose guide how to live decently under primitive conditions in a remote location, seek out Malcolm Lowry’s ‘The Forest Path to the Spring’. You can write off Lowry as just another drunken Englishman at your own peril, because you’d really be missing something. Ozone especially check out Malcolm Lowry; you’ll like him.
Looks like the markets are finally tanking, as predicted. Who cares?
–BRH
You’re off the hook: it seems that the War will begin in Nevada and not CT. Just in: Harry Reid wants that land so his son and the Chinese can build a solar plant on it. The “tortoise” is just a ruse. Looks like a Ruby Ridge situation shaping up. Patriot troops are deploying so will the Feds dare to cross the line in the sand?
http://www.infowars.com/breaking-sen-harry-reid-behind-blm-land-grab-of-bundy-ranch/
Harry Reid … there’s an inspirational figure! And honest as the day is long! Right up there with Daniel Webster, Henry Cabot Lodge and Thomas Hart Benton.
–BRH
Malcolm Lowry, eh? I shall look into that thar author. Thanks for the “rekkie”. (Is that Newanglospeak for reconnoiter, reconnaissance and recommendation? How convenient, if so!)
In the Ukraine the economy is in the final stages of collapse\_____________
How clever of the US/.EU to organise a takever in what is a failed state…and unable even to pay the gas bill to the Russians
Putin this week warned that if the gas isn’t paid for the Russians may just turn off the tap…such power,,,who needs troops when you have the gas
So the USA and those Eurostates that aren’t broke(like Greece or Spain are ) better pony up with lots of money…the Russians may demand gold…in advance from Ukraine..or the gas will go off..and also may go off to the Euro states,like Germany and Poland and others … if the Ukrainians interfere with the,pipelines which transit their country
Happy days…are the policy makers in W#ashington ever able to get ANYTHING righty…..Iraq/Afg’stan/now Ukraine…ruined and bankrupt
The US taxpayers better get ready to pay their huge gas bill
Wake up before it’s too late. And it’s later than you think. It always has been since before you were born. The Sun is low in the sky, only visible now on the tops of the buildings. Shadows already stalk the canyons of New York and Chicago as the creatures of the dark, both natural and unnatural begin to wake up. Time to get home – fast as you can.
http://www.dailystormer.com/anti-white-attacks-in-france/
This too shall pass.
In itself, the recent throw down between BLM Feds and some disgruntled country bumpkins who decried a trampling of fantasy Constitutional laws, which either never existed or were replaced years ago, likely won’t amount to much after a week. But hot damn! It was interesting to read some of the coverage:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-12/why-standoff-bundy-ranch-very-big-deal
http://www.westernjournalism.com/ranchers-sister-tackled-blm-agent-standoff/
The above video perhaps indicates just why the Feds have backed down, for now. Too many social media reports have taken away control or derailed the propaganda themes regarding BAU corruption abroad, to our government’s dismay. This one hits pretty close to home with regard to news values of proximity and human interest, I suppose; regardless, the facts continue to have no real effect in the FUSA, despite all the available clarity. No public outrage or protest on these and similar types of corruption as yet. Until this?
As things continue to get worse here, as if we haven’t already crossed the point of no return, will this largely be a fruitless victory? Well, maybe not come next prezdenchul ‘lecshun cylce. Prospects are lookin’ good for Republican hopefuls next season, no? The rancher showdown a convenient meme if it remains the innocuous ” non fatal incident” it is now, yes?
Even so, the public has a ridiculously short memory, so this particular “Youtube” likely won’t factor much; however, I’ll guess a Repub prez is already baked in the cake for next go ’round. Maybe. Who cares. I won’t be voting in any case. But it was briefly amusing to entertain the thought that a revolt was finally shaping up, as pathetic a bout it would be. Sheeeaat. Comparatively speaking, the closest the wussy Libs have come to in terms of confronting bureaucratic “evil doers” with any real HEAT is in holding a snooty British style debate at Oxford college. Haaa-haha-haaa-haaa.
This and gay Paree as well……………
http://rt.com/news/rome-austerity-protests-march-172/
Did anyone hear of a reporter from ANY “newspaper of record” attending these proceedings? …..I thought not.
Ahh, thanks for this… hadn’t heard a peep about it… been buried in stats homework since after Spring break.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38217.htm
Great Speech… a little late in the game?
I saw Greenspan in an interview awhile back. He said that prior to the collapse in 2008, he did not believe in regulating the markets, because common sense & good business practices would keep the markets safe. He then admitted he was wrong (he’s a PHD, remember?) and said that it will happen again. Sounds like he learned something. The majority of republicans haven’t changed their tune one bit. Oh well.
Z, this one’s for you.. a bit unrelated to JHK’s focus here, but I figgered at the end of the week we’re all sort of chasing our peripheral interests while waiting for the Monday alignment anyhow. This article is a bit technical, not for the hoity-toity pretend philosophers here, as in Buck’n Dud and the rest, but maybe you’ll have some fun with it.
https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/civilizational-collapse-part-1/
Oh, hey… Get any seeds planted yet? I got some decent sprouts already. Why is it that the bugs get worse year after year in such a small garden… ahh, the eggs go dormant during the winter…. bleh.
Hey, thanks for that referral, I’ll have to give it a good go tomorrow as I can see there are may links.
Not too may seeds popping yet. Termaters just beginning and I had hoped for better germination earlier. (Likewise cabbages as they pay off well in easy sauerkraut benefits for canning.) Bothered by bugs? There again, all a matter of balance and reward. Give ’em something else they like to feed upon in a different area and also create a nice environment for critters that like to predate upon the “undesirables”. (Basically, MORE life to crowd the niches, rather than OUT-selection. Nature always finds an eventual balance. Nope, we ain’t in charge, we’re just simple manipulators and observers.)
A good/successful growing season to us All!
Ps. Yep, wildly off-topic: Tomorrow direct seeding of cabbages; we’ll see how the luck runs………. probably have a huge snow/sleet dump right when they appear! Ha.
Whoa there Oz I wouldn’t be planting anything just yet. The last frost isn’t till May 11-13, maybe a little later up there in north country where you’re at.
Having said that, I put some rose bushes in today. I’m not too confident they’ll actually amount to anything, but who knows?
–BRH
This Land was your land. This Land was my Land, etc. But the sell off of America is underway. At least some of these creeps can be exposed. Harry Reid: a glimpse into the dark, greedy heart of Mormonism.
http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/reid-smelling-anything-but-rosy-in-ranch-fight/