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The #Resistance has been losing bigly in recent days as each new “bombshell” it manufactures turns out only to reveal its modus operandi, which is that the end justifies the means — the end being to evict the wicked Mr. Trump from office and the means being dishonesty and bad faith in its use of the government’s prosecutorial machinery. The New York Times has a Friday op-ed, The Mueller Report Is Coming. Here’s What to Expect, declaring, “A concise report will probably act a a ‘road map’ to investigation for the Democratic House — and to further criminal investigation by other prosecutors.”

Translation: prepare to be disappointed by Mr. Mueller’s report and microwave a giant tub of popcorn for an extravaganza of sequels and re-boots. Beware of what you wish for. If the baton is passed to House committee chairs Jerrold Nadler, Maxine Waters, and Elijah Cummings, then in Act Two of the show, the country will be treated to something like the Spanish Inquisition as performed by Moe, Larry, and Curly.

Meanwhile, their antics may be eclipsed by the now inevitable inquiry around the misdeeds carried out by public officials in Act I of the show: the Russia Collusion Ruse. Based just on the current Andy McCabe book tour, there will be an awful lot to get to, and it is liable to be far more compelling than the nonsense conjured up by the Three Stooges. Mr. McCabe, in his quest to hand off the hot potato of culpability to his former colleagues, and to sell enough books to pay his lawyers’ retainers, has neatly laid out the case for his orchestrating a coup d’etat within the FBI.

It’s an ugly story, and it’s all out there now, like so much spaghetti hurled against the wall, and it won’t be ignored. There are many other spaghetti wads already plastered on that wall ranging from Hillary Clinton’s Fusion GPS hijinks, to Loretta Lynch’s written assurances to the Clinton campaign that the email server matter would be dropped, to the rather complete failure of the FISA process, and much much more that needs to be ventilated in a court of law.

I suspect that Barack Obama and his White House confidents will enter the picture, too, sooner later, and to the great dismay of his partisans who do not want to see his legacy tarnished. Whatever your view of all these dark events, it would be pretty awful for the country to have to see him in a witness chair, but it may be unavoidable. Ditto Hillary, who is liable to go all Captain Queeg-y when she finally has to answer for her campaign’s turpitudes.

Most of this cast of characters has seemingly gone-to-ground in recent months, laying low, staying out of the news, probably spending much of their time conferring with their attorneys — Brennan, Clapper, Comey, et al, all keeping their traps shut in recent days as Andy McCabe takes his hangdog road-show around the Cable Networks and the NPR fluff chamber, spelling out the “stress” that prompted the FBI’s desperate attempt to cover its ass following the unbelievable 2016 election results.

I don’t pretend to know what the new Attorney General William Bar might do. He must realize that if he lets all this slide, the institutional damage will be permanent and severe. He is reputed to be a good friend of Special Prosecutor Mueller. Mr. Mueller’s reputation as the straightest of straight arrows seems at odds with the actual exercise of his office: generating rinky-dink “process” crimes against bit-players in the story, often via malicious prosecutorial tactics. The likely truth is that he was brought into the scene to protect the very characters who misused the terrible powers of the FBI and the Department of Justice. His investigation has been hermetically sealed against leakage. For all I or anyone else knows, he has spent some time preparing a case against the very officers who cooked up the Russia story in the first place. Perhaps not a high-percentage bet, but there it is for consideration.

It’s going to be an interesting month. Have you forgotten that General Michael Flynn will be returning to Judge Emmet Sullivan’s courtroom after three months in the doghouse that the judge sent him to for the purpose of reconsidering his guilty plea? Perhaps Gen. Flynn rediscovered that he has a spine this winter and will venture into a trial of the Mickey Mouse charge against him: that, as incoming National Security Advisor to the President, he had preliminary discussions with the Russian ambassador — in all other transitions-of-power, a completely normal procedure — and supposedly lied about it to the FBI. To the very people orchestrating a coup against his boss, the chief executive.


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645 Responses to “Great Expectations”

  1. seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 10:20 am #

    Donnie Deutsch said it best. The guy cheated in the worst ways possible to win, he has obstructed the investigations of his shenanigans every chance he could, he has lied continuously and without hesitation about everything, he has alienated our allies and embraced our enemies, completely overturning the world order that took 70 years to build and in the opinion of many worked very well, he is tearing the country apart with his stupid, retarded wall, he is challenging the very foundations this country operates on for the sake of his own vanity, and most importantly he has cheated the Federal Government to the tune of hundreds of millions of tax dollars, something he considers smart… well if ever there was a guy to be made an example of it is him. Trump will be stripped of his wealth and will be the first American president to go to jail after his time in office.

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 10:29 am #

      You were a big JimmyV (Jim Valvano) fan, I take it?

      NEVER give up SeaWolfy, NEVER GIVE UP!

      By the way, give the Lil’ J’Bot my best. I kinda miss having her to kick around.

      • K-Dog February 22, 2019 at 11:54 am #

        How do you go from where you are to where you wanna be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. And you have to be willing to work for it. -Jim Valvano.

        Curious irony, some statements in here are not subject to Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. Upshot being wild utterances by some would be protected. Any bait can be put on the hook which they desire.

        Sometimes that bait does wiggle.

        • vengeur February 22, 2019 at 2:16 pm #

          LOL . And Hillary cheated in the worst possible ways TO LOSE….

          • Walter B February 22, 2019 at 2:42 pm #

            I thought she lost because she was a shitty, evil candidate.

          • montsegur February 24, 2019 at 3:51 am #

            I thought she lost because she was a shitty, evil candidate.

            Hello Walter,

            I submit that equally galling was the notion of it being her turn, and the poorly smelling trend in American politics of placing family dynasties in the White House. Our … eh … elite has learned all the wrong lessons from Europe.

            Cheers

    • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 10:35 am #

      The globalist stranglehold on my country is being revealed and dismantled for all to see. Your worldview was created by globalist propaganda, lies and deception. It is all melting away. You need to see that there will be no globalist socialist utopia and we will fight for our constitutional republic to be saved. I suggest you seek therapy because there is much more to come. Seek out Q for coming events.

    • newworld February 22, 2019 at 10:45 am #

      Were you waving a flag while you typed that out?

      Let us start over shall we? I am your equal, equal in all matters so with that said I think you should reconsider your high handedness towards people you disagree with. You are simply going to have to learn to deal with equality.

      Build the Wall, where needed of course and will do the most good like it does in El Paso and the San Diego area.

      • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 10:49 am #

        We need a lot more flag waving in my country to offset the likes of you.

        • newworld February 22, 2019 at 1:39 pm #

          Q is a Larping joke.

          I’ll give seawolf some credit he did not for some reason mention that Acosta guy who gave Epstein a pass on prosecution. Some moral superiority that seawolf has, a chance to highlight another crook in Trump’s admin and for some reason he takes a pass.

          I don’t want to fight seawolf’s moral authority I want to question seawolf’s moral authority, social justus sure.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 2:09 pm #

          You’re for the Republic but against defending its borders? How does that figure?

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 10:45 am #

      Uh -huh!

      Mueller’s report this week, with a sane cast to deal with, should put a lid on the whole thing.

      O-o-h no. It will be repudiated from many directions and by many deluded people and their nefarious activities will be directed in a thousand other directions.

      As long as the American public is deluded enough to vote for the Deep State, this will continue. The loading of the judicial system under decades of Liberal domination will make nailing the real culprits nigh on to impossible.

      I look forward to political battling until 2020, when a polling of America will make a big decision on the direction of the country.

      I am not optimistic, the big immigration push right now is aimed at the jugular of this country’s voter base, they, the Liberals, are going to take over by assimilating socialistic immigrants and giving them the vote.

      IMHO, it is inevitable. The coup is in progress.

      • butter56 February 22, 2019 at 11:19 am #

        That is exactly what is happening John. By the turn of the next century we will have Brazil like conditions here and that doesn’t count the long emergency’s synergistic effects.

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 11:24 am #

          Next century? My oh my, you are optimistic, aren’t you?

        • benr February 22, 2019 at 11:50 am #

          Have you driven through North East Los Angeles in the last twenty years?
          More Mexican flags in peoples yards then the old stars and stripes. San Fernando valley looks like Tijuana now.

          • marcus1 February 22, 2019 at 2:49 pm #

            Yeah we should’ve put all them Mesicans on a Gaza Strip type of reservation that would’ve nipped the problem in the bud MAGA

          • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 4:45 pm #

            and more on the way,from there or the maternity wards.

          • Kafkaesque February 23, 2019 at 12:30 pm #

            and, um, LA, and Cali, and the whole SW wasn’t stolen, right, by that Treaty even Polk wasn’t happy with?!

            Please……..and, btw, the city’s name tell you anything?!

            Lincoln, Thoreau……..ring any bells, and I don’t mean Taco; yep, they opposed that Trumped up…….(beat) Mexican War.

            And, please, no retorts about the Alamo and ‘if’n we’d had us a wall……….’

      • RB February 22, 2019 at 12:15 pm #

        @johnaz

        Delusion is the coin of the realm. Reality will have to bite hard and so far it hasn’t. Mr. K has been trying to bring reality into the conversation for years and so far it gets nowhere.

        • Majella February 24, 2019 at 3:53 pm #

          “Mr. K has been trying to bring reality into the conversation for years and so far it gets nowhere.”

          I agree with the general sentiment expressed, but would have to disagree with it over the last year or so.

          For someone famous for saying he’s allergic to Conspiracy Theories, JHK has become a leader in the field.

          And to now be defending ‘Mr. Trump’ in most recent posts as being the poor pitiable victim of the heinous FBI/Obama WH Conspiracy against him, while failing to decry the blazing dumpster-fire obscenity that is the Trump Administration has been extremely disappointing to me.

      • ozone February 22, 2019 at 6:23 pm #

        JohnAZ,
        I’m not optimistic either.
        I agree with your post, aside from the one yuge elephant that has taken one yuge stinking dump on the living room carpet.

        “The loading of the judicial system under decades of Liberal domination will make nailing the real culprits nigh on to impossible.”

        The loading of the judicial system was/is for the protection and promotion of the wealthy, the powerful, and the undeservedly privileged.

        If you adjust or remove your ideological blinkers, you’ll find that there’s more to be “reformed” than just a purging of duh lib’ruls. There are plenty of conservatards that are bent on separating you from your “inalienable” rights as well, y’know.

        • ozone February 22, 2019 at 6:27 pm #

          (Turns out, those rights are quite easily “alienable” when putch comes to schlub.)

    • Nightowl February 22, 2019 at 11:35 am #

      Donnie Deutsch had one of the most epic TDS-induced meltdowns witnessed to date.

      Not quite Olbermann levels of comedy, but close.

      • Majella February 24, 2019 at 3:58 pm #

        Huh? It sure seemed like a reasoned cogent description of the Fool-In-Cheif. Why is it that anyone who criticizes this idiot presidency is suffering from TDS? …seems weird to me, when in fact it is those who support this administration are clearly the deranged ones – deranged by their love of Trump, therefore suffering from TDS.

        • Nightowl February 24, 2019 at 5:04 pm #

          The last time I saw him, he was yelling about Hitler and Russia.

    • zekesdad February 22, 2019 at 11:41 am #

      Every point in your post is wrong. Trump cheated to win. Really? How? Where? It’s already been proven that the so called “collusion” was orchestrated by Hillay’s campaign. The wall is not Trump’s stupid retarded idea, but something ordered by Congress about 10 years ago. Now some in our government are openly saying that the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives should be ignored along with our laws regarding immigration. We should allow unrestricted access to our country, and allow people here illegally to put a strain on our social services and drive down wages. Trump cheated the government out of millions of dollars? You must be refering to the New York Times article that claimed that Trump’s father’s estate somehow cheated the federal government out of millions of dollars. Yet somehow an army of IRS agents went over a return worth hundreds of millions of dollars and signed off on it. Trump is not going to be stripped of his wealth and go to jail because it’s all bogus, the statute of limitations has expired, and a sitting president cannot be charged with a felony.

      • benr February 22, 2019 at 11:53 am #

        Just understand that seawolf is heavily brainwashed into the zombie cult of Democrat lies.
        He can’t see reality while absorbing every talking point and meme ever coined.
        Poor Seawolf watching Obamas house of cards fall will be tough.
        Carry on though their is hope that the progressive mantra has been beat into every millennial soggy THC laden brain enough they don’t see the truth or common sense anymore.

        • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 4:48 pm #

          Then think of him as sea slug.

      • Majella February 24, 2019 at 4:03 pm #

        “Trump is not going to be stripped of his wealth and go to jail because it’s all bogus, the statute of limitations has expired, and a sitting president cannot be charged with a felony”

        That’s about as logical as a Trump Tweet! If the first statement is TRUE then surely the second & third are irrelevant & redundant. But, as Trump himself plays it, you first deny doing anything wrong, but as a back-up when caught out, you then say it’s too late, but if that’s not true, then you fall on the ‘nya-nya – you can’t touch me’ argument.

        Hey Seawolf – I admire your persistence in what is becoming a Trumptard Heaven blogsite.

    • benr February 22, 2019 at 11:46 am #

      You live in a rich fantasy world.
      How does it feel to be wrong about well everything?

    • vengeur February 22, 2019 at 2:14 pm #

      LOL . And Hillary cheated in the worst possible ways TO LOSE….

    • amb February 22, 2019 at 2:46 pm #

      BS. Your delusional.

      • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 4:48 pm #

        you are, not your.

        • sprawlcapital February 22, 2019 at 7:00 pm #

          Or, you’re (the contracted form).

          I’m back. Had a health problem–a series of heart attacks this past October that would have been fatal in, say, 1950–before open heart surgery was developed.

          • Majella February 24, 2019 at 4:05 pm #

            Wow. You actually got healthcare! how much out-of-pocket even after the insurance, if I may ask?

    • stretch23 February 22, 2019 at 3:27 pm #

      Your delusion is so through I don’t know where to begin.

      • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 4:47 pm #

        then dont

  2. TiredOfTheTreadmill February 22, 2019 at 10:21 am #

    Yawn….

    Looks like the collapse of legitimacy in our institutions and their leadership has preceded the peak oil collapse. Too bad we have a culture that abhors adulthood. Otherwise we might have moved through these turbulent times with some feeling that someone in a leadership role has a clue. But this America in 2018 so adults are hard to find.

    Although, it is interesting to watch the Boomers obsess over this whole dearth of adult behavior in their beloved institutions, even though I am a ’61 Boomer myself. I always figured these institutions would be withered husks consumed by self-absorbed locusts by the time I reached my retirement years anyway. Looks like that idea is right on track.

    • shotho February 22, 2019 at 10:24 am #

      Yep, right on track! That’s what a good dose of nihilism and positivism will bring you.

      • TiredOfTheTreadmill February 22, 2019 at 11:17 am #

        Just observation and assessment. I prefer them to all of the ‘isms everyone else seems to need to make quirky, omniscient comments.

    • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 4:51 pm #

      But this America in 2018…….not on my calendar.

      • TiredOfTheTreadmill February 22, 2019 at 7:52 pm #

        Oops. My bad. Add on one more year of childish antics.

  3. Walter B February 22, 2019 at 10:21 am #

    “He must realize that if he lets all this slide, the institutional damage will be permanent and severe.”

    At long last Jim, you have said something that I totally disagree with you on, sort of. There can be NO institutional damage because there is nothing left to damage, it is already a stinking, steaming, pile of bobbed out wreckage. I do believe that those Americans that are not in fact employed by either of the two “parties” know this, but in their daily struggles to live through their death defying commutes, the struggles to make payments on their leases SUV’s, and the growing expenses of taxation and child care, they simply cannot care about it anymore. It has all become a sad, sorry joke and one that we have to pay for at great cost on top of that.

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 10:34 am #

      That’s it Ol’ Walt. Institutional damage is a moot point at this stage. It’s time to start living dangerously again. Could even be a lot of fun!

    • Bill7 February 22, 2019 at 5:35 pm #

      Agreed. Mr. Kunstler’s notion that anything of significance to those in
      power is going to be sorted out from within the System is mistaken, I think. Who or what would act as “honest broker”?

      All that’s left are pure Power Relations, playing themselves out as we
      speak, with Mother Nature’s final say lurking in the background.

      • montsegur February 24, 2019 at 3:44 am #

        Yeah, it is a bleak view. But like all societies, very few people really understand how badly broken things have become. Situations degrade gradually, but catastrophic failure is very swift.

        Cheers

  4. shotho February 22, 2019 at 10:21 am #

    Trump surrounded himself with seedy characters, many of whom will spend time in the slammer. So, Mueller found them and brought them to justice. So what?
    Is that all he has to show for two years of investigation with all the power in the world? Is so, then the American people should ask some serious questions about the nature of ‘justice’ in our polity and where we are heading as a bankrupt system; bankrupt in more ways than financial.

  5. Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 10:26 am #

    Great expectations? Come on now Jim, have we learned nothing from all the theatrics these past many months? I’m expecting more nothing burger served up with a generous helping of cheesy fry special effects goodness. All topped off YUGE! helpings of rumor and innuendo that can be interpreted whichever way the partisans like, so that this shit show can continue on, at least through the 2020 elections. Should this “report” ever see the light of day to the general public I anticipate it will be so heavily redacted as to be little more than a solid sheet of black paper.

    By the way, I believe “Larry, Moe and Curly” is the generally accepted proper form of address for the culturally iconic stooges, who had they been living today, might well be the current front runners in the 2020 sweepstakes. What the hell, I might just write them in anyway! It’s’all good man! Let’s all at least take some comfort from the heat as this 21st century sociopolitical cultural nightmare burns to the ground one final time!

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  6. Catconspiracy February 22, 2019 at 10:31 am #

    Always a good read here…thank you JHK

    “Beware of what you wish for. If the baton is passed to House committee chairs Jerrold Nadler, Maxine Waters, and Elijah Cummings, then in Act Two of the show, the country will be treated to something like the Spanish Inquisition as performed by Moe, Larry, and Curly.”

    Nadler, Waters and Cummings actors just like Larry and Curly Howard and Moe Fine. It’s all of S H O W. With a script that is predicted. What kills ratings? Stop watching. Maybe stop voting. If there is one thing 2016 proved the election process and political process is permanently trashed. “RECLAIMING MY TIME!” ugh.

    I lived for the Three Stooges. Watch this with an eye to the Dems. LOL

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w166-ljnIMU

    • K-Dog February 22, 2019 at 12:16 pm #

      Excuse me for not being a fan.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 12:43 pm #

      Is Waters crazy or just retarded? With an IQ that low it’s hard to tell. And it really doesn’t matter since low IQ people believe all kinds of crazy stuff – as do high IQ people like Seawolf and Kdog. The Left is a brother/sister hood of Madness that transcends rationality and objective reality.

      Their goal is Utopia – and Utopia means Nowhere.

      • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 4:53 pm #

        Waters crazy or just retarded? Perhaps neither.
        An insider told me that she got cheap houses [repos?, maybe thru her hubby] and got rich filling them w addicts on the mend.

        I dont know. I would call her a Black provocateur.

        • elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 5:52 pm #

          Malthuss,
          Maxine Waters is the ebony succubus that haunts my dreams….

          Oh Mother!

  7. EvelynV February 22, 2019 at 10:33 am #

    Hopefully Jim will miss the mark on his predictions about this matter by as much as so many others he has made. We need to see Trump gone, sooner than later. The contemptible deep state has been doing so many bad things for so long it has broken no new ground in this matter. For once maybe they’ll do something with at least some beneficial results.

    • DEFCON1 February 22, 2019 at 10:37 am #

      All depends on what wealth decides about the contemptible Trump. If they feel he is still useful, he will remain. If not, he will be replaced by the wind-up toy Pence. All this inane jabber about the sacred ‘Rule of Law’ and our precious ‘democracy’ is low kabuki theater.

      • Walter B February 22, 2019 at 1:26 pm #

        There is no doubt that those who own the strings pull them in such fashion that they continue to profit from the results. They will continue until there is a better act to play for greater profit. In the meanwhile we waste our time arguing with one another when we should be assaulting them even if they do occupy the high ground. It is us and them just as the song says….

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 10:39 am #

      I think the Mike Pence show might be interesting for a while (is he or isn’t he still breathing?), but in the end, he’s no substitute for side-splitting humor of GGG and those lovable Dems.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 2:12 pm #

        Yes, he’s so mainstream America that he’s very weird. The Gays are terrified of him!

        He never lets himself be alone with any woman but his wife. No honey traps for this boyo.

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 7:48 pm #

          He’s the 21st century Ward Cleaver! Wonder if he’s “too hard on the Beaver?”

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 10:58 am #

      You call down the Deep State for the evil they represent, then want them to destroy the only group holding them in check, led by Trump.

      Huh?

      • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 2:13 pm #

        You’re forgetting about the two factions, again. Trump is in with the Neo Con Deep State. You know, War industry, Oil, Israel, Evangicucks, etc. Sorry if that hits too close to home….

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 6:04 pm #

          Still not sure that’s true, Ol’ Boy. It definitely seems that way at times, but I’m still not sure he’s not fighting a holding action against the Deep State from within, which from outward appearances sure looks like total capitulation. I’m willing to extend him the benefit of the doubt for now, especially in light of my current read, In the Shadows of a Presidency by Daniel Estulin (shoutout to Pucker for the recommendation). Trump continues to be so all over the map politically that it’s still impossible to get a definitive read on him two years in. Regardless, he’s remains the preferred option to the globalist HRC and her witches coven, so no regrets.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 6:11 pm #

            He has yet to mention White people in his speeches or pressers. How’s that for a coordinate? Or how about the Holocaust story at the State of the Union? Reminded of Ronald Reagan’s story about the old salt who instead of parachuting out of a doomed plane, told the injured young pilot “‘let’s ride it down together”. It was a script from one of his movies but he had long since accepted it as real.

          • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 7:45 pm #

            We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out. Worse comes to worse, he’s one and done. No telling what we get next. Nothing better currently in sight, but a whole lot worse.

    • Bill7 February 22, 2019 at 7:40 pm #

      What Good Things would or will happen if President Trump is forced
      to prematurely leave office?

  8. rackslope February 22, 2019 at 10:42 am #

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2018/04/19/the-top-four-reasons-california-is-unsustainable/#6570827b3a23

    They know what’s best for our Country?
    Pelosi > CA rep since 1987
    Waters > CA rep since 1991
    Schiff > CA rep since 2001
    Feinstein > CA rep since 1992
    Harris?
    Lieu?
    ………………
    Lead by example?
    CA estimated $2T in debt?
    Homelessness population on the rise?
    Highest tax rates in the Country?
    Undocumented Immigrants in California vs Nation?
    Uncontrollable state gov spending?

    If you can’t fix your own home state, what makes you think you can fix the Country?

    “If you are living in one of the 49 other states, you should learn from the lesson that is California.??If you are living in California, there is always the lesson of how Michigan came to be governed by a more centrist government.??Of course, that came after the failure of the prior government. For now, however, for all its concern for sustainable foods and products, California is on a high-speed rail to unsustainability.”

    #FactsMatter

    Q

    • newworld February 22, 2019 at 10:48 am #

      Well said, they are in no position to upbraid anyone with their supposed moral superiority.

      What was once a prosperous first world state is now a tech kleptocracy for the few while the state rots.

    • thenuttyneutron February 22, 2019 at 10:52 am #

      I am still trying to figure out which state first attempts to get a Federal bailout or state bankruptcy.

      The front runners are Kentucky, Illinois, and California. Hopefully these fuckers are told no and forced to fix their own piles of shit.

      • BackRowHeckler February 22, 2019 at 11:08 am #

        Connecticut is right up there too.

        Public sector unions and welfare recipients sucking the body politic dry, have the state by the shorthairs, and in this little state running deficit is in the multiple billions.

        Brh

      • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 11:24 am #

        Any gen xer who is counting on any of these liberal paradises for their pensions better be saving their money as that is where the hit is going to be made. Just keep voting those liberal parasites in.

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 11:07 am #

      California has been a bellwether State for three generations. They are a product of their socialistic policies, and open borders. They are Venezuela. When Newsom’s empire gets out of control, he will just hit up the Feds for more bail out money. Right now, he is having a hissy fit over Trump wanting the high speed rail money back.

      California needs to be cut off until they get their spending vs. revenue stream under control. And get rid of the Sanctuary baloney. They are sucking the rest of us dry. Bad enough fighting off the globalists, fighting California is bad news.

      • Exscotticus February 22, 2019 at 2:12 pm #

        Unfortunately, California exports its failures to other states, in the same way that South and Central America export theirs to the USA. Your own state of Arizona is deluged with Californians who flee the overcrowded, expensive, crime-ridden cities, only to relocate and demand the same suicidal policies.

        Hence AZ has gone from red to purple…

        • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 4:16 pm #

          You are right! Florida is having the same problem with people from New York and New Jersey.

          You know, what is wrong with folks who get burned by something and then jump right back in again for more.

          Something about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a definition of ———-?

          Maybe AZ can get rid of Madame Butterfly next time, six years from now.

          BTW, Mark Kelly, the astronaut has announced to run for McCains seat as a Democrat, gun control.

    • benr February 22, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

      I live in California and it is a sh1t show.
      Everything is so expensive one can barely live here anymore.
      Everyone knows Californians are crazy except there are so few of us actually born here.
      Most of the nuts have been imported from elsewhere!
      Worse when these same nuts get tired of being broke from taxes and the insane cost of living here they go elsewhere seeking relief and then screw up where they move to with the same progressive policies that are destroying California!
      I look around wonder why is everyone so insane now?

      • EvelynV February 24, 2019 at 7:51 am #

        benr, my guess is that if you leave California and move to a place like Alabamy or Arkansas the California shit show will be a noticeable bit less so while of course wherever you go will make up the difference.

  9. finuch February 22, 2019 at 10:47 am #

    Trump is not the problem. The people behind him telling him what to do, what to say, and when, are the problem.

    Donald Trump doesn’t have a thought in his head, is a puppet, a liar, speaks and acts like a petulant child, knows nothing of foreign policy, is in over his head and way out of his league.

    But, sadly, getting rid of him solves nothing.

    • DEFCON1 February 22, 2019 at 11:00 am #

      All true and yet the world still hangs on his childish utterances. Still, he does need to go. There might arise a true crisis where real leadership is needed and you certainly can’t rely on that ignorant gasbag to be of any use.

      • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 11:13 am #

        Real leadership? Give me a break. The last five presidents have been Namby pambys that have shown no leadership, just political flip flopping. Maybe the problem is that you have not seen real leadership for so long, you do not recognize it.

        • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 11:20 am #

          Korea, leadership, China, leadership, NATO, leadership, Russia , leadership, North American trade, leadership.

          Leadership is doing what you think is right, and not caving to the opposition. The ability to make a deal is integral. Trump is a leader, so is Pelosi, so is Schumer. As a matter of fact, so is AOC.

          Leaders put out “ dreams” to accomplish and then make things happen to accomplish the “dreams”.

          Something like “Build the Wall”.

        • EvelynV February 22, 2019 at 12:32 pm #

          You’d be delusional to believe a President has the kind of power you suggest.

          George Bush jr. had the guiding hand of Cheney and Rumsfeld not to mention Wolfwitz (sp?) crowd to ensure he towed the line.

          If Obama could only tell what he undoubtedly knows. It has been understood he did not want to attack Libya or bomb Syria but he knew full well after they showed him the never before seen footage take from the grassy knoll he had to operated within the confines of the box he entered when he stepped into the seat of power. With the likes of the three harpy war mongers (Rice, Powers, Clinton) ready to sic the dogs on him he had to let matters outside his power control slide, to protect his and his family’s safety.

          • EvelynV February 22, 2019 at 12:34 pm #

            Yes I know, I need to proof read before hitting submit.

          • benr February 22, 2019 at 12:38 pm #

            ROTFLOL only the delusional speak words like the above.
            Obama was a crook and con man his entire life was carefully crafted lies hidden by court decrees sealing his schooling.
            Come one you can’t be this partisan and obtuse.
            Oh wait yea you probably can and that is the problem.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 2:21 pm #

            Obama was carefully groomed by the Deep State from his earliest years, the way made smooth before him and his records sealed after him. How anyone can believe in this vicious fraud is beyond me, but I know why: Because he’s “Black”. Thus do the Evies worship him.

          • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 4:21 pm #

            FDR did for 15 years.crises breed strong presidents. Lincoln too.

        • Majella February 24, 2019 at 4:21 pm #

          “The last five presidents have been Namby-pambys that have shown no leadership, just political flip-flopping.”

          The last five? You mean Obama, W, Slick Willy, Pappy Bush and St. Ronald Raygun?

          I’ll give you W & Clinton, but I’m surprised to see Reagan in your list of feckless leaders.

      • Nightowl February 22, 2019 at 11:25 am #

        If only he’d done something impeachment-worthy, eh?

  10. PeteAtomic February 22, 2019 at 10:50 am #

    There has gotta be some smiling, Byzantine official somewhere in his bony grave, watching these serpentine maledictions of our deeply malevolent bureaucracy.

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    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 11:35 am #

      You’d better speak reverently when you invoke the name Lord Cheney. The Dark Master’s existence transcends mere physical bounds. In our terms, he’s both dead and still very much alive and well.

      • montsegur February 24, 2019 at 3:39 am #

        . . . comes the CheneyGun, a multi-barrelled Gatling-type affair that shoots you in the face and then claims it was an accident!

    • BackRowHeckler February 22, 2019 at 1:54 pm #

      There is Pete.

      Niccolo Machiavelli is looking on — from hell.

      Brh

  11. BackRowHeckler February 22, 2019 at 10:57 am #

    Jim, you insult Moe.

    One of Moe’ nephews was a friend and co worker. When he was a young kid he spent summers at Moe’s house in Los Angeles, and had some great stories to tell. He said Uncle Moe lived in a modest house, drove a Dodge Dart, liked to cook out. He said he always had time to sign autographs in the grocery store and hardware store they went to, and never turned anybody way.

    Moe Howard was a good guy who entertained millions over many decades. The congress people you mention are amoral rats looking for the main chance.

    Brh

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 11:09 am #

      No, they are mentally ill. Just watching Maxine Waters is a disgusting spectacle.

      • Eoin February 22, 2019 at 12:09 pm #

        Inquisition, Maxine Waters, Jerrold Nadler, Elijah Cummings, Moe, Larry & Curly….; so much information.
        Enter the Grand Inquislingator Torquemaha !!!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76IKFlhJWo

        Thanks Jim !
        I haven’t thought about the Stooges since I was trying to expose my youngest millennial to humor. They really did make growing up fun, and still they are relevant.

  12. mow February 22, 2019 at 11:17 am #

    She would need a boxcar of metal balls to cure her megalomania.

  13. ElectricTrojan February 22, 2019 at 11:19 am #

    How did Loretta Lynn get mixed up in this?!

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 11:37 am #

      Good catch. I did a double take on that as well, before realizing he meant Lynch. But who knows, maybe she’ll take up country singing as well?

      • K-Dog February 22, 2019 at 12:25 pm #

        Other way around, county singers take up governance. Daniel Earle got involved with one in ‘A History of the Future’. One of those World Made by Hand books.

        If they can keep the trains running why not. But we need more than a prayer and a song to keep this pack moving.

    • James Howard Kunstler February 22, 2019 at 12:08 pm #

      Typo…repaired — JHK

      • elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 12:27 pm #

        “Typo…repaired”

        Mr. Kunstler,
        Wish we had that option….

      • benr February 22, 2019 at 12:41 pm #

        James is there a way we can edit our posts?
        I’m a terrible typist.

        • capt spaulding February 22, 2019 at 8:21 pm #

          Proofread it before submitting. Best thing to do. Anyway, who doesn’t enjoy re-reading their own posts?

          • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 2:44 am #

            I used to bitch too but then I had an epiphany. Real writers actually have deadlines. When they ‘submit’ they will read their mistakes after they are published too. Forcing the same standards on us is not a bad thing because it will cultivate good habits.

            Yes their are proofreaders but you can’t count on them getting everything right. It is on real authors to get it right before a work can be called finished.

  14. volodya February 22, 2019 at 11:23 am #

    EvelynV

    I can’t agree that a de-facto coup is on balance beneficial. If you want to live in a rules-based system, in part based on precedence, and especially one that respects election results, what you do now has repercussions down the line.

    The way they got rid of the Kennedy Bros was at least decisive. Boom, boom, gone. The way they subsequently painted things – deranged losers with guns – at least showed some regard for appearances and gave Mr and Mrs Middle America some comfort that the rule of law prevails. It wasn’t the Deep State, no, it wasn’t. You know, it was those hippy, radical, commies that were always squawking about conspiracies and so good, God-fearing Americans could ignore them. I mean, didn’t the Warren Commission settle matters? Didn’t they have trials for Jack Ruby and Sirhan Sirhan?

    In the case of Trump there’s been no rifle shot to re-set the clock. If there had been, at least Pence would be in the Oval Office, a card carrying member of the Establishment, someone who believes fervently in what Pelosi and Schumer and Schiff and Warner believe. And maybe things could move forward.

    As it is the proceedings to get rid of Trump look and smell entirely discreditable, a shambles, a nonsensical charge of collusion driving the coup attempt, having no benefit of logic or weight of evidence behind it. Much more than those gunshots of long-ago, what this tells everyone is that election results need not be definitive, that you could concoct whatever story you wanted to upend the winner, that the courts are malleable, that law enforcement is a joke, that institutions of state are the ultimate deciders of elections.

    Of course, if they manage to unseat Trump, what it says to people down the road is that his successors can also be unseated by dishonest and corrupt means. What the Democrats and Never Trump Republicans apparently forgot is that presidential elections happen every four years, congressional elections every two years and if you want to win those elections put forward credible candidates.

    Trump may have stunk as a candidate, but to a lot of people Hillary stunk worse, and if you’re being fair, you have to grant that they had a point and that the winner in 2016 maybe was the one that smelled least worst.

    • Eoin February 22, 2019 at 12:21 pm #

      Very good of you to riposte such blather. I could only think, WTF ?
      So very glad that one of the smartest guys in the room could muster something to say to that.
      Bravo.

      • volodya February 22, 2019 at 1:19 pm #

        Glad to help.

    • Bill7 February 22, 2019 at 7:45 pm #

      Very fine comment. Thank you.

    • montsegur February 24, 2019 at 3:34 am #

      Hello volodya,

      Pretty much the situation as you stated re: the election, the choices, and the danger posed by the endless post-election maneuvering of the losers.

      I have the sense that the crew pushing these actions learned a lesson in 1968: keep The Establishment scared (by the ever-present threat of disorder on the streets) and they’ll give you a cut of the action [political power]. For 50 years, this has been a subtext of American politics.

      What has now changed is that the old radicals, and importantly, the new Dems, no longer simply want a cut of the action. They want the whole shebang. Whatever happens, I think they’ll either lose big or win big come 2020.

      “What the Democrats and Never Trump Republicans apparently forgot is that presidential elections happen every four years, congressional elections every two years and if you want to win those elections put forward credible candidates.”

      Big Picture take on this. Has the speed at which public discussion takes place and with which ideas are exchanged outstripped the public image games of traditional politics? That is to say, will all candidates now seem to lack credibility under such conditions? That Change thing, again.

      Cheers

      • volodya February 24, 2019 at 2:39 pm #

        Montsegur, fascinating points you make.

        In the old days of head-busting socialists and fascists, there used to be pamphleteers. Today the internet serves as the connector or disseminator. And so, to your question, has the speed of communication, especially communication outside the usual channels of the main-stream media, and outside the deeply rutted paths within traditional institutions, outstripped the usual modes of politics?

        In other words, is the huffing and puffing of Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Shumer, and Adam Schiff and Mark Warner, never mind the daily blatherings of Trump and the double-jointed mouth of Kelly Ann Conway completely besides the point? Are they about to be inundated by tsunamis they never saw coming?

        People used to listen to what the parish priest said. But in wide areas of the world, the Church has become an irrelevancy, the pews empty, churches abandoned. Maybe this is one place that serves as the example of what you refer to, where the speed (and ease) of public discussion overwhelmed the power of the pulpit. Maybe politicians ought to take heed.

        And you’re right about this threat of disorder on the streets, and you’re right about this too, the mob is something to be feared.

        As an aside, I think that the Chinese leadership, that being the billionaire communists running the show in Beijing, are very conscious of the power of the mob, in their case 1.5 billion strong. The way they maintain political legitimacy is to make sure there’s adequate levels of economic growth and a reasonable distribution of the wealth because against the weight of that number of people the Communist Party would be like a moth in a bonfire,

        In the USA, in my view, the “old radicals” as you call them, worked their way into positions of power, running the edu-crat establishment, the teaching profession, the civil service, the judiciary, many positions in elected office. In other words, for all their posturing as being “adversarial” and “oppositional” to the Establishment, to a very large degree they ARE the Establishment.

        In the intervening fifty years, the Democrats transformed themselves into the party of the college educated elite, looking after elite interests, while giving shout-outs to Blacks, Hispanics, women, gays, etc., merely pretending to work for the very people whose interests they are actually working against.

        To put it another way, their path to power is now no longer harnessing class interests, but rather those of “identity” groups, people who for their own reasons harbor discontents.

        As for their former power base, the industrial working class, they seem to have re-evaluated these people as being unworthy, with no legitimate interests, with severe attitudinal and educational short-comings. “Deplorable” in other words.

        As far as threatening with the power of the mob, this is still a valid approach as there’s no shortage of excitable young men looking for meaning in their lives and a cause to rally around. “Antifa” seems to be the flavor of the day, but competing groups could rise up, themselves looking for validation, recognition, a slice of power and money. Could the Democrats con this restless demographic into action?

        The Democrats might, but then there seems to be a flourishing opposition to the mob on the “left”, that being one the “right”, all those armed militia groups dotting the country-side. Would the bid for power by Democrats (or the “Left” or “progressives”) via threats of public disorder, be met by competing bids by those on the “right”?

        As far as disorder on the streets goes, there can be more than one player. It’s one thing to instigate disorder, it’s quite something else to control it once it’s started.

  15. oilie February 22, 2019 at 11:24 am #

    Jim still holds out hope that William Barr might expose the ills of the deep state, but I think it just as likely that he will help to cover up its worst sins. Being a good friend of Mueller is a poor starting place for the cleanup that needs to take place. Mueller’s merry band of Clinton lawyers and Democrat donors will probably still be going strong in 2020 while Larry, Curly and Moe are still trying to figure out how the coffee machine works.

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    • PeteAtomic February 23, 2019 at 2:00 am #

      nice post, thanks 🙂

    • Bill7 February 24, 2019 at 4:05 pm #

      Yes, good comment.

      “It’s theater, all the way down.”

  16. rackslope February 22, 2019 at 11:27 am #

    If you seek out validation of your political beliefs from corporate media, maybe you should think about that a little more.

  17. JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 11:30 am #

    Here is an idea.

    Maybe the global commodity of exchange to keep the international leveraged paper in business, oil, has been replaced due to the peak oil situation stating to affect the supply and demand curves.

    The replacement, easy, drugs. The main impediment to the Change?

    That dirty rotten wall builder.

  18. rackslope February 22, 2019 at 11:31 am #

    If you think California is a model state, you are in the enemy camp. You will never persuade those like me to bend to your socialist/communist/statist views. If you think you are our “equal”, know this: you are our enemy. Time will tell if you are our equal or not. We are more than ready.

  19. capt spaulding February 22, 2019 at 11:37 am #

    The Fourth Turning seems to be proven right again. One of the predictions it made was of a loss of faith in our institutions, which seems to express itself very well in the postings here. What has produced this, has been the gradual corruption of our government by the plutocrats, with the attendant anger from both liberal and conservative groups against politicians expressing itself in the popularity of both mavericks, namely Trump and Bernie. Love ’em or hate ’em, they both signal the distrust of Americans when it comes to our government, and how it currently functions. I think this is the real lesson to be learned from the last election. NOBODY trusts any of these assholes anymore, and with good reason. The trouble is, the 1% has taken control, and isn’t about to let go, so where do we go from here?

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 11:47 am #

      All true, but the corruption of public institutions and attendant loss of faith was no accident, it was all by design. Very clever, too. There won’t be any coming back from this without a complete breakdown and total rebuild from scratch. In our case, SEVERAL rebuilds, as the US as a single entity will be a total non-starter next time around. The next civil war will be a possibly somewhat reluctant, resigned divorce. We’ll know it’s arrived when even the plutocracy finally gets on board.

      • capt spaulding February 22, 2019 at 12:26 pm #

        If the plutocracy gets on board, they’ll keep on running the show. nothing will change. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is all that does. The other thing I wonder about, is, during the upheaval, who’s gonna keep things normal in the rest of the world? Trump is alienating the rest of the world, and they will move on without us. Confusion and upheaval in the US will leave a vacuum, and who will fill it? I doubt it will be us. With climate change, and all the attendant problems that come with it mixed in, one would expect a wild and tumultuous future to present itself, with no easy solutions apparent.

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 12:59 pm #

          I think their long term plan is to push us overboard and then sail on in a smaller, lighter ship. Massive population reductions are what’s for dinner, and guess who’s on the menu? Silly Americans imagined that they were exempt, but I think we’re oh so gradually waking up now. Not fast enough, unfortunately.

          • Bill7 February 22, 2019 at 7:48 pm #

            Yes, this has been my thought for quite a while, now.

            Immiserate > rent-extract > exterminate as necessary

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 12:13 pm #

      Trump and Bernie, ha!

      The difference is paramount.

      Trump sees a problem with the Deep State and he wants to Drain the Swamp. Ie, make government less powerful

      Bernie sees a problem and wants to make the Deep State deeper.

      • DEFCON1 February 22, 2019 at 12:52 pm #

        Trump – the Thing that Ate D.C. wants to drain the Swamp – priceless.

        AOC et. al. – coming for your stuff, John. They will take it all and redistribute it to all those darker than yourself. It’s coming, Wonder Bread.

      • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 1:01 pm #

        The Deep State is deeper than just the Gum’int. It has always transcended public/private boundaries.

      • Exscotticus February 22, 2019 at 1:58 pm #

        You nailed it. The socialists’ answer to every problem is more government. The consequence is less individual freedom.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 2:27 pm #

          Unless the people control themselves they will be controlled by others. Unless the people serve each other in love, they will be dependent of the government to help them to make up the deficit of love. And yeah, they’ll lose their freedoms – because they abused them.

          • Exscotticus February 22, 2019 at 2:43 pm #

            I have no problem with personal accountability. If YOU break the law, then YOU should lose your freedom. My problem is with those who say that if YOU break the law, then EVERYONE should lose their freedom. And that is pretty much the liberal way of solving problems.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 6:13 pm #

            I’m talking at the level of culture and ethos or folkway. These are senior to or uphill of Politics and Laws. But I’m afraid you can only see skeletons and never the whole body, much less a living body.

      • capt spaulding February 22, 2019 at 7:29 pm #

        John AZ: There’s a HUGE difference between Trump and Bernie. The point I was trying to make was, they were popular because they weren’t seen as being part of the regular Washington crowd, that was how they were seen by each side, that’s the only way they are similar. I wasn’t commenting on their philosophies , which are miles apart, and that’s not what I’m talking about now, either. Just the fact that they were both considered to be different from the rest of the field on both sides, (not in the control of the oligarchs), and because of that fact alone, both rose in popularity with their respective sides.

  20. 100th Avatar February 22, 2019 at 11:46 am #

    “I suspect that Barack Obama and his White House confidents will enter the picture, too, sooner later, and to the great dismay of his partisans who do not want to see his legacy tarnished.”

    Precisely why nothing will happen.

    The god to skin-deep change must not be blasphemed.

    It would be spun as a vast racist right wing conspiracy to degrade and deny another “black” leader.

    The irony that he cannot be treated as just another filthy politician, he must be treated differently on account of race is not lost on them, it’s the re-insurance policy they all banked on, and that is now paying out as their insurance policy, HRC, went down.. bankrupted.

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  21. stelmosfire February 22, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

    Typhoon Cobra here we come!
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Cobra

  22. K-Dog February 22, 2019 at 12:10 pm #

    K-Dog,

    Do you have now or have you ever had fleas?

    I look to the left, I look to the right. I look at the pink flesh of his neck taut against the collar of his bleached white shirt. The shine of the homeland lovin polyester suit makes me look away. Then I stick out a paw.

    Do you have a business card? My attorney will be in contact with you.

  23. elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 12:30 pm #

    “Ditto Hillary, who is liable to go all Captain Queeg-y when she finally has to answer for her campaign’s turpitudes.”

    Yes, the question remains, however, who’s balls she will be rolling?

    • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:39 pm #

      Whose balls will she be baoding?

      • elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 5:58 pm #

        “Whose balls will she be baoding?”

        Wolfie,
        Ben Wa’s I would opine.

  24. venuspluto67 February 22, 2019 at 12:58 pm #

    I have to be honest, JHK, sometimes I wonder where you’re getting all this stuff about the people trying to nail Trump on collusion getting nailed themselves by what they did in the process of their attempt. I suppose it would be justice served and all that, but we live in an age in which it is increasingly unusual for the powerful to be called to account for their misdeeds. That’s why I suspect when I read these posts that you might be indulging in wishful thinking.

    (Though it’s not as though I never engage in wishful thinking. I voted for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate here in Wisconsin because legalizing marijuana is one of his policy-proposals. But do I think it’s going to happen, even though he won? Naah, probably not.)

    🙂

    • Exscotticus February 22, 2019 at 1:55 pm #

      >>> we live in an age in which it is increasingly unusual for the powerful to be called to account for their misdeeds.

      As opposed to what age or era when the powerful were held to account?

      Technology marches on. People?—not so much.

  25. fugeguy February 22, 2019 at 1:09 pm #

    One must realize that the opposition is not liberal they are leftists.

    Big difference.

    All you have to go is read the timeline and hi-jinx of one Jussie Smollett here:

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jussie-smollet-chicago-attack-hoax-empire-actor-full-timeline-live-updates/

    He is another leftist just of a more punkish and common variety, it seems, but of the same mentality and soul as those who looked to kill the current King for daring to upset the agenda.

    Look to history for comes after a failed coup.

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    • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 2:32 pm #

      Rush was talking about that today: his mother is personal friends with Angela Davis and has been all his life. He was raised in the hotbed of high level Leftism and Minority Grievance. He wasn’t seeking more money, or not just that, but rather the fame of becoming a Leftist Superstar.

      • fugeguy February 22, 2019 at 3:07 pm #

        Good old Rush. Not afraid to talk about what is going on behind the scenes even if it has his spin on it.

        Did he cross the Rubicon and discuss the rumor that LP has talked and offered that the big O initiated the whole thing over a WH dinner in December 2016? Seems to be common knowledge amongst the spooks of the world.

        Using concocted means to achieve ones goals is well documented now.

        O perp walking will not be a good day for this nation so it might be a necessary evil to sweep it all under the rug. Trumpatarium might even get a second term as the parting gift.

        Once that pin is pulled it might end the current reality.

      • elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 6:00 pm #

        “Angela Davis”

        Janos,
        If wishes were fishes…she’d be sleeping with them….

        • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 6:16 pm #

          Did you lose someone to the evil machinations of these people? Panthers or Weathermen?

          • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 11:15 am #

            Janos,
            No…they were just playing in our backyard….

      • SpeedyBB February 23, 2019 at 3:33 am #

        (Funny error of reference: I was startled to think ‘Rush Limbaugh’s mother was a leftist radical?!’ Then, upon closer study, I realized the pronoun ‘his’ referred to the mother of the hapless bumbling Smollett.)

  26. seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 1:27 pm #

    I’d really like to see one thing Trump has done to dismantle the evil, invisible, all-powerful and omnipotent… uhhh I can hardly bring myself to type these words… my fingers they’re feeling stiff and languid at the same time… I try to type a “D” but it comes out a… a “D” oh my God the DEEP STATE? Just one thing. One tiny little thing? WTF has he done to earn it? Crickets. Where are you when we need you? Oh right here in Trump’s Answer Land. A land teaming with fantastic and non-sensical ideas like debt = wealth, born rich =self made man, big crowd = little crowd, pay taxes = dumb, cheat IRS = smart, toupee = not bald, fat = skinny and ripped, golf = executive time, orange = tan and other puerile gems.

    • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 2:34 pm #

      The single most important thing he has done to derail the DS, if even temporarily, is defeat their chosen one in the last Presidential election. There have been many other things, but it is obvious you have not been following closely enough to even discuss those.

      • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 2:39 pm #

        So by that measure Barack Obama is on par with Donald Trump in vanquishing the Deep State.

        • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 2:55 pm #

          Like I said, you are not ready. Do you own research. Think for yourself. The truth can never be denied.

          • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 2:58 pm #

            I’ll probably be ready the minute you can think of something he’s done. In other words never.

        • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 6:45 pm #

          Wow SW

          We agree.

          I remember the good vibes when Obama was elected. He was going to fix up Washington DC, the Deep State.

          Just like Carter, Ford, Bush 1&2,

          Like them, the Deep State et al, sucked him up and spit him out.

          Trump IS the latest attempt to Drain the Swamp.

          ?????

    • fugeguy February 22, 2019 at 2:57 pm #

      Not sure about DS if it even exists, but the crew trying to pass themselves off as journalists has been exposed, even if, not acknowledged it is obvious to all ‘cept the observed.

    • Nightowl February 22, 2019 at 3:48 pm #

      Not dissolving our national border.

      It took me 5 seconds to come up with something that seems to have eluded you for 2 years.

      Ponder that.

  27. The Trump tax fraud investigation by the New York Times just won the Polk award.

    “David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times are honored for Political Reporting for an 18-month study of President Trump’s financial history revealing that, far from the product of his business acumen, Trump’s personal wealth derives from his inherited fortune and what the paper called “dubious tax schemes.” Starting with three pages from a 20-year-old tax return, the reporters produced a 13,000-word account demonstrating the mythology of Trump’s persona as a self-made business leader who turned a $1 million loan from his father into a fortune. In fact, the paper reported, starting when he was just three years old, Donald Trump inherited at least $413 million.”

    I thought it was blockbuster. At least a Pulitzer, maybe next time.

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 6:30 pm #

      First of all, what in the FUCK is the Polk… oh, nevermind.

      Second, the NYT selectively investigating a single particular political figure for tax fraud in a veritable ocean of such schemes is like… oh, nevermind again.

      I can and have watched similar exposes on NetFlix anytime I wish. Needless to say, they didn’t prevent GGG or anyone else from getting elected, and they’re not going to prevent any more of the same from continuing to happen in the future.

      Words fail me Lil’ Snack Pack. Your naivety continues to be beyond breathtaking. What troubles the empire currently is just SO FAR beyond the routine garden variety financial corruption you speak of here, I fear it would make your head explode were you to grok it for the briefest of instants. My recommendation? Drugs and/or alcohol in copious amounts until the voices subside.

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 6:49 pm #

      $413 million, wow.

      I wonder where the other billions came from, he must have sat on a street corner with a tin cup.

      The man is a businessman, successful in the baddest area in the world.

      The NYT is a rag!

  28. Exscotticus February 22, 2019 at 1:49 pm #

    >>> For all I or anyone else knows, he has spent some time preparing a case against the very officers who cooked up the Russia story in the first place.

    If this comes to pass, I fully expect to see nothing less than a repeat of 2016 POTUS election madness. The entertainment value would be incalculable.

    • BackRowHeckler February 22, 2019 at 2:04 pm #

      Yeah, its gonna be great!

      Like 1828, 1860 and 1912.

      Beside entertainment value, the comic possibilities will be bottomless.

      Brh

  29. messianicdruid February 22, 2019 at 2:42 pm #

    a new verb.

    “Jussie” (verb): To promote a bigoted lie about conservative Americans that faithfully supports the liberal narrative while being so transparently false that only the stupidest of the people pushing it actually believe it.

    We should be thanking JP for exposing the media and certain candidates. Nice job – it cost you your career – but thanks.

  30. Don February 22, 2019 at 2:46 pm #

    I detest Trump, and as far as I’m concerned, I would prefer the Deep State get rid of him in any way possible. He is an American Tragedy, and if it takes a coup to oust him, so be it. I think a military dictatorship would be better than having him as president.
    If Trump prevails and stays in office, look for more wars, complete neglect of the environment, and more tax breaks for the rich. Even generals would be smarter than doing that kind of shit to us.

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    • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:02 pm #

      Every time I read the whiny words of a leftist, I do the Snoopy dance. Thank you, the last two years have been filled with so much joy! Six more years!!!

      • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:20 pm #

        Every time I hear the gloating words of a white supremacist I am reminded of Supremes and the way they used to sing “You Just Keep Me Hangin On.” Poor Trumptards. They’ll just keep on hangin on.

        • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:31 pm #

          Snoopy Dance!

          • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:33 pm #

            Ummm, Where do you get white supremacist? Facts matter.

          • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:36 pm #

            I just pick one out of the sea of white faces at a Trump rally. I mean it’s not like flipping a coin. It’s more like trying to find the gnat shit in pepper.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 6:17 pm #

            There ya go. A bunch of Whites with no Blacks? Racists. That’s the level of “discrimination” these people have. Black Lives Matter but the Truth doesn’t.

        • Nightowl February 22, 2019 at 3:50 pm #

          You support a corporate-backed resist movement.

          Is there anything sadder?

          • Don February 22, 2019 at 4:59 pm #

            Sadder? A continuation of the Trump presidency. He is so fuc&ing inept he will probably get us into WW3. The guy doesn’t read, has no clue as to history, political science, or anything of substance, has appointed crazy war nuts to high positions, so does not get intelligent advice, and he is unhinged as well. Not a great formula for us being on earth with that dickhea& at the helm.

          • Nightowl February 24, 2019 at 9:29 am #

            Sadder is that you can’t back even one of those statements with concrete evidence.

            Your entire post is based on a fantasy in your head.

  31. S M Tenneshaw February 22, 2019 at 2:49 pm #

    https://thebaffler.com/latest/lies-damn-lies-prosecutions-pelletier?utm_campaign=enjoy&utm_source=scream-time-meyer

    Trump’s toast. Fuggedaboutim.

    • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:04 pm #

      You’ll be eating those words. At least one of them is “toast”. Do try to get something more nutritional, though.

  32. Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 2:52 pm #

    BREAKING NEWS: Lil’ Bobby Kraft, 77, owner of the NFL Champion New England Patriots, has allegedly been caught red-handed (his third hand in this case) scoring some of that sweet young ‘tang in a Jupiter FL house of doing the dirty. Lil’ Bobby, true to form, is vehemently and categorically denying the charges (thus assuring everyone of his guilt), while the Jupiter FL constabulary insist that they have the whole thing, as it were, on video tape. Should be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks and months, as yet another rich and powerful aging white male gets caught doing something we’re all evidently prohibited from these days.

    My only question is, if you can’t unapologetically rock out with your cock out at his age and station in life, you have to wonder exactly when it’s ever going to happen for the old fool. A more fruitful approach might be to obtain the police videos and then post them online for all to see with some suitably tawdry commentary added to the effect of lookout Roger (Goodell), I’m looking to make you my bitch next. No word at this time how Tom and Giselle Brady are taking all of this.

    • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:15 pm #

      Penises do not age. Mine is still a spring chicken. Bu-Kaw!

      • Walter B February 22, 2019 at 4:09 pm #

        Maybe not but scrotums go South for the Winter, way South as in below the knees!

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 4:16 pm #

          Maybe that’s why Lil’ Bobby took a road trip all the way down to FL to get him some strange? ESPN had his photo posted like he was a common child molester or something. Looks like he’s gonna have some real ‘splainin to do to make the NFL – the No Fun League – curmudgeons happy. TOO funny!

        • Tate February 22, 2019 at 6:07 pm #

          Speak for yourself Walter.

          • Walter B February 22, 2019 at 7:40 pm #

            Not me bro, tight Whiteys have saved me from that malady. However at my retirement job at the Y, the old men seem to have an affinity for using the blow driers to dry off their parts with one foot on the counter. After walking through on my way to another task and witnessing this first hand, I made it a habit to avoid the men’s locker room unless I am called in for a specific issue. It is really a shame that unseeing things is not possible.

          • capt spaulding February 22, 2019 at 8:28 pm #

            Having never been circumcised, mine always looks like it’s wearing a turtleneck.

          • Tate February 22, 2019 at 9:08 pm #

            Blow drying yer nuts? Never seen that, hope I never do, LOL.

      • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 4:18 pm #

        For crying out loud SeaWolfy, don’t be puttin’ the damn thing in no spring chicken! Even in Looosiana, they’ve got laws against that kind of shit!

        • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 4:40 pm #

          Hey, they don’t “Love that chicken from Popeyes,” for nothing you know.

    • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 10:16 am #

      What we need to know, and will come out eventually:

      “Is Bob Kraft a good tipper?

      Brh

    • Slack February 23, 2019 at 11:11 am #

      No one with an ounce of common sense has any problem with Mr. Kraft getting his rocks off. The issue here is with whom. Surely a billionaire, doughy, septuagenarian can afford someone who is knowingly and willingly engaged in the flesh trade, which, if not for puritanical morons, would be legal in this country outside of Nevada. No, the issue here is Mr. Kraft getting his rocks off with what is essentially a sex slave brought here under false pretenses by disgusting human traffickers who should, if there were any justice in this world, spend copious amounts of time in the basement with Zed, Maynard and The Gimp.

  33. amb February 22, 2019 at 3:01 pm #

    Our respected agencies have been infiltrated and degraded by intelligence and law enforcement thugs and criminals. They’ve destroyed these US institutions. Symptom of a declining nation.

    Collectivism has been in collapse mode for a long time, centralized governments are eroding and will soon be history, major restructuring is on the horizon (speaking in nation life-times, not human life-times).

    Martin Armstrong’s Socrates computer makes the most sense to me: no Armageddon, Mad Max or Dark Ages coming. A collapse of the unworkable and destructive systems. Humanity will reorg and adapt. Most technology will not go away. It has been hard won and are the tools we’ll use to course correct.

  34. seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:12 pm #

    Most of us live in a world where facts and truth actually matter. How long could you survive if your business partners could not rely on your representations? Would your friends stand by you if you couldn’t be trusted to level with them? Ordinary Americans won’t risk the reputational harm that comes with lying. But that’s never been Trump’s real-life experience. His relationship with the truth has always been transactional and fleeting.

    When fudging the books to understate your income can substantially reduce your tax liability, why not falsify? When fibbing about the true value of your real estate holdings makes it more likely that banks will loan you more money, lie away. When falsely quantifying the number of condos sold at one of your properties brings more future purchases and more revenue, double down with the untruths. When grossly overstating the education and benefits you will provide at your for-profit university that will potentially make you millions, just make it all up on the fly. Trump’s brand of habitual dishonesty has became a de facto business plan because the consequences of his failure to tell the truth in the past have cost him, at most, a few shillings. In Trump’s ethics-free world, you pay the speeding ticket and move on to the next mark. Caveat Emptor has been both his bible and his cudgel. Not so for the prosecutors on Mueller’s team, whose bible is the federal criminal code in all its black-and-white splendor.

    Prosecutors will demand the complete and unvarnished truth about the Trump campaign’s contact and coordination with Russian officials; Trump’s version will be critically evaluated through the sole prism of objective truth. What actually brought about the fateful June 2016 Trump Tower meeting is vitally important to Mueller’s team; any attempt to misrepresent its purpose will be viewed harshly. And the existence of concealed financial relationships with Russian officials—together with the broader initiatives that motivated such contacts—have extraordinarily significant ramifications. Any purposeful obfuscation of the truth preventing prosecutors from understanding those events fully will bring heavy sanction. Finally, Mueller will demand to know the degree of Trump’s direct participation in hush-money payments to his two alleged paramours late in the campaign; if Trump persists in repeating the series of false statements he has previously made to the public about those events, there will be no option but to find a criminal-law violation. Trump’s history and longstanding habits of prevarication almost ensures that calamity lies ahead.

    • Walter B February 22, 2019 at 4:14 pm #

      Have to argue that one seawolf, facts no longer exist and every idiot out there maintains their own version of “truth”. I see it every day, especially with the 30 and 40 something’s who even when confronted with transcripts and audio recordings of their own lies go all in to deny anything that they care to trivialize. It is amazing as it appears that the modus operandi of the national politic has found roots in the hinterlands as well. It is part of the agenda o chaos. Admit nothing – deny everything.

      • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 4:33 pm #

        That may be true, but we’re talking the law. The law is the law, Epstein aside, who is rich, connected, and his last name ends in stein, ala Franken. Trump is already guilty of obstruction of justice. That’s a given. It’s a high crime by definition since he holds high office. He fired the man who was investigating him, admitted it on national television. He fired the guy who recused himself from the same investigation. He put in a lackey who is on record dissing the investigation. This law is as black and white as an “I Love Lucy’ rerun. Now if there is no fire there, which is unlikely given the aforementioned behavior, will it be enough to remove him from office. Probably not. But remember the 3 articles of impeachment against Nixon were obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of congress. That’s not a stretch, that’s a stand in place.

        • elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 6:06 pm #

          “obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of congress.”

          Wolfie,
          Obstruction of Justice? Me? Not yet…
          Abuse of Power…I haven’t any to abuse…
          Contempt of Congress? Ok, you got me….

          Who among us would say otherwise?

        • Walter B February 22, 2019 at 8:00 pm #

          Once again seawolf, not any more as far as the “rule of what used to be the law”. Even in my own small central West Jersey Township when our Township Committee wanted to do something that was specifically not permitted by law, our Township attorney advised us that because we were the enforcement authority, we could ignore our own ordinances and do it anyway. I kid you not. And he is a super by the book, retired major general from the Air Force.

          We also had a case years back where Trenton violated the law in the budget that they passes. The NJ Supreme Court later ruled that the breaking of the law was acceptable because the following of the law would cause a financial hardship on the state.

          I kid you not, it has happened. The laws are only for the little people.

    • Bill7 February 22, 2019 at 7:53 pm #

      But Trump! Heh.

      It’s *all* broken, dude.

  35. rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:15 pm #

    Meet some of the Deep State.

    https://qanon.pub/data/media/e18818a37410ecd43c757c7e47864af107959b68d618e63a1bdf365c9ce5e93c.jpeg

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    • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:23 pm #

      Where’s the list from “The Apprentice?”

      • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:28 pm #

        I’m starting to understand you now.

        • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:29 pm #

          Fantasy vs. reality.

          • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:30 pm #

            Snoopy dance!

          • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:33 pm #

            Real news- you have a fake president.
            Fake news-you have a defender of truth, justice and the American way, like the kids in “Lost Boys.”
            That’s the difference between fantasy and reality.

          • 100th Avatar February 22, 2019 at 3:44 pm #

            Seadolt always with some cringeworthy (embarrassingly stupid) wool-gathering In written form.
            And as the epitome of the dull and easily influenced Democratic Party members, always a some lowbrow pop culture reference.

            Painful

          • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 3:53 pm #

            Numero Culo has a turd he wants to add. As usual, hardly relevant, but turdly redolent.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 6:26 pm #

            These two men hate each other. More and more the Enemies of White America are going for each other’s throats – as if we were already dead and buried. These are the green shoots of a possible rebirth for our People and Nation.

          • 100th Avatar February 22, 2019 at 8:29 pm #

            I’m too apathetic to actually hate anyone

          • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 9:08 pm #

            I’m too apathetic to actually hate anyone

            DING DING DING!!! We have a WINNER!!!

          • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 9:17 pm #

            I’m not a hater, I’m a lover.

  36. rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:25 pm #

    Q !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 54fc2d No.4633937 ?
    Jan 6 2019 18:57:01 (EST)

    Remember when D’s and the FAKE NEWS media [+FAKEWOOD] pushed mass fear that POTUS would start WWIII re: North Korea?

    POTUS > PEACE on the Korean P > NO further missile tests or U enrichment.

    New narrative created.

    Refusal to provide coverage of successes.

    Remember when D’s and the FAKE NEWS media [+FAKEWOOD] pushed a stock market collapse if POTUS was elected?

    POTUS E + policies > largest gains recorded in market’s history

    New narrative created.

    Refusal to provide coverage of successes.

    [Use FED to inc rates to counter growth and project POTUS blame]

    Remember when D’s and the FAKE NEWS media [+FAKEWOOD] pushed complete economic collapse if POTUS was elected?

    POTUS E + policies > lowest unemployment records in history + record jobs/GDP growth

    New narrative created.

    Refusal to provide coverage of successes.

    [Deploy and use ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and every other ….’ism’ to counter potential Black/Hispanic pop support]

    Why do D’s and the FAKE NEWS media [+FAKEWOOD] continually push the ‘IMPEACH’ narrative if impeachment requires 2/3rd SENATE VOTE TO ENACT (odds of that?)?

    Do they push this FAKE NARRATIVE to project a supposed ‘supportable w/ evidence’ wrongdoing to their BASE (confirmation bias)?

    Accusations never supported by facts?
    Group-Think.
    The list goes on and on…..

    PANIC IN DC?
    WHY?
    WHAT WAS LOST?
    POWER OF THE PURSE.
    COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY.
    POWER TO REPLACE SENIOR OFFICIALS WITHIN CRUCIAL GOV POSITIONS (DEPT’S) WHO CAN THEN REPLACE SR+MID+LOW POSITIONS (TRICKLE_DOWN REPLACEMENT).
    POWER TO APPOINT SC JUSTICES.
    (What if HRC won and appointed 2+ crooked SCJs?)
    (The Last Resort)
    POWER TO DIRECTLY UNDO HUSSEIN/PREV EO’S WHICH HARMED-GREATLY LIMITED THE US IN MANY VITAL/NEC WAYS.
    POWER TO REBUILD THE UNITED STATES MILITARY (BACK) TO A GLOBAL SUPER POWER.
    (CHINA PAYOFFS (BRIBE $) FAILURE)
    POWER TO ENACT LAWS BY EO TO COMBAT AND PROTECT OUR PEOPLE.
    POWER TO SHIFT FOREIGN POLICY THEREBY REDUCING OUR ENEMIES ABILITY TO PROSPER AND SOMEDAY REIGN.
    (IRAN DEAL – PARIS ACCORD – CHINA TRADE – SYRIA – ………………….)
    POWER TO DECLAS CRUCIAL DOCS TO PROVIDE THE PUBLIC W/ THE TRUTH (TRANSPARENCY).
    POWER TO GIVE BACK POWER TO THE PEOPLE (AS INTENDED BY OUR FOUNDERS).
    LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD.
    …………………
    Q

    • fugeguy February 22, 2019 at 4:55 pm #

      In the end the answer might be we see nothing.

      Both sides are posited to raise cain should the side they back get dealt any injustice.

      The much beloved deep state might let everyone walk in the end to avoid a potentially bloody conflict.

      Better the reality you have and such.

      So as long as no one pulls a Jussie (getting caught red handed) and Trump might be the only one reckless enough to pull it off. Bad news for us as I suppose his core backers might run off the rails anyway even faced with compelling evidence.

      Are there any serious adults left?

    • Majella February 24, 2019 at 5:16 pm #

      Raving lunatic.

  37. 100th Avatar February 22, 2019 at 3:37 pm #

    More and more suddenly have: Great Expectations

    https://amgreatness.com/2019/02/21/the-greatest-constitutional-crisis-since-the-civil-war/

  38. rackslope February 22, 2019 at 3:39 pm #

    “West Wing” was a fake president. Ours is very real!

    • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 6:49 pm #

      rackslip,

      He’s a very real liar, cheat and general scumbag. Other than, he’s OK.

      JDH

  39. jdhines February 22, 2019 at 3:47 pm #

    It’s not so good to be back. Wow, what you many of you believe is breathtaking!

    I have learned that the hard right wing cannot be persuaded of anything. It comes under the heading of “there are none so blind as those who will not see and none so deaf as those who will not hear.” One of the sides is totally delusional. I don’t think there is any middle ground here. Either my side, the left, is correct and Trump is the flake and miscreant he appears to be, or he is not. If it quacks like a duct, etc., etc.

    My money is on the establishment, or the “Deep State” as you would have us all believe. As for the Deep State, I think what you all are referring to as the Deep State, has always existed in any long-established government. It’s the very nature of those in power, not something peculiar to our situation. Now, I do agree that the Rs and Ds are two sides of the same coin and both are no damn good, but that is a different matter entirely. The Deep State, the “Establishment,” is just a fact of life; period.

    The question here is if Trump is a positive force or a negative force. To me, it is abundantly clear that he is a very negative force that leads to more disharmony, hatred and eventual violence. I may be wrong, but I doubt that very much. I am quite certain that my prediction will be born out, unlike many of you here, and that most of you will rue the days you’ve spent supporting this loser. I might add that many of you were VERY wrong about the mid-terms and I was correct. Sorry for the “I told you so,” but I could not resist.

    I would like to ask you a few things though. I’ll preface the questions with this. I believe that anyone who supports this creep is not a patriot, is probably a racist and is no doubt confused about a lot of issues. OK, here we go. How can you support someone who lies incessantly? Someone who is a known “cheat” in business? Some who expects loyalty, but never, ever gives it? Is known to do underhanded things and surround himself with those of dubious character, R. Stone, M. Cohen, and P. Manafort, to name a few? How do you account for the white supremacist and racist support? Don’t you find that distasteful? One last thing, do you still believe that the immigration crisis is a bigger crisis than gun violence in America? Please, no “whataboutery” in your answers.

    JDH

    • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 4:11 pm #

      Muh Feelings!

      Orange Man Bad!

      Guns Bad!

      Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

      * *

      ?

      • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 6:22 pm #

        Slope,

        Orange man is a disloyal liar who knows more than the General’s because he had an uncle that went to MIT. Guns don’t kill people – people with guns kill people. You are welcome to the loser. Enjoy.

        JDH

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 6:48 pm #

          And you know this how? Because you read it in the lock-step M-E-D-I-A. My oh my, aren’t you “informed?”

          Do tell us some stories about the alternative who was on offer, Her Majesty HRC.

          • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 7:00 pm #

            Hi Scratch,

            Are you asking me how I know Trump is a liar or does your question pertain to someone else?

            As for how I know he lies, he opens his mouth and provable lies come out. No mystery here, no MSM needed, either. I am not here to defend Her Majesty HRC, either. I’m here to suggest that Trump is a no f*&#ing good loser prick who only brings pain and suffering to those who get involved with him. Just ask Flynn, Manafort, Stone, et al.

            Sorry if your comment was meant for someone else.

            JDH

          • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 7:06 pm #

            You got it right, ol’ Scratch.

            All you hear from the antiTrumpers is what the Media has told them. The real Liars are all left of center. The amount of BS they write about Trump is amazing. Any negative story gets CNNed and all the good things that have happened are thrown in the trash

            A lie said enough times becomes the truth.

            The credo of the Left.

          • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 7:13 pm #

            John AZ,

            One doesn’t have to listen to the Lame Street Media to know that Trump is an inveterate liar. Are you kidding me? Just listen to some of the shit this prick tries to pass off as legit. At least don’t try to make us believe he is a truth teller. That would be absurd.

            If you adore him so much, own it. Admit that you love a lying,
            using, a selfish prick of guy because you hate the left so much.

            You do remember Orange used to be a Dem (leftist) which even if he was at the head of the Dem party, he would still be a lying sack of shit. You are welcome to him, you may even deserve him. Enjoy.

            JDH

          • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 7:18 pm #

            jdhines,

            Do I have to explain the whole two party, take it or leave it, dichotomy thing to you, or what?

            You make your choices from those on offer (by design), and you live with them thereafter.

            Wanna bitch about Trump? Either offer a genuine alternative (there isn’t one) or become a genuine anarchist, like myself.

            Complaining about Trump being a mere “liar” is so naively childish it could only be uttered by a died-in-the-wool democrat, the recognized leaders in lying for expediency’s sake.

            For what it’s worth, I didn’t vote for Trump, but I certainly celebrated his victory, even though I fully realized it would be a decidedly mixed blessing.

    • seawolf77 February 22, 2019 at 4:23 pm #

      Well I knew you were gonna get a word salad but Jesus. He even threw in anchovies.

      • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 8:11 pm #

        Scratch,

        He’s not just a run of the mill, garden variety liar, he’s on a whole new plateau of deceptive falsehoods. Besides that, his ideas are those of a fucking fruit cake. This guy is a dangerous nut. I know you’re an anarchist and all, but what a vehicle to put your faith in.

        I do agree, there is no alternative now and anarchy does have it’s own attractive possibilities, but it could be, er “physically demanding.” At my age, I’ve become accustomed to a certain comfortable lifestyle and I’m not sure I want to live the rest of my days humping backpacks, ammo boxes and weapons somewhere out in the bush waiting for another firefight.

        JDH

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 9:06 pm #

          We get the reality we deserve (and which we knowingly or unknowingly asked for), and not the one we wished we had. We Americans (westerners) have been living rapaciously delusional for so long now that sympathy for our plight is no longer possible, even among our own.

          In the end, life is the same as it’s always been, and which all of the current third world knows intimately: short, brutal, and harsh with only one certain outcome: death and dissolution, almost certainly anonymously and/or ignominiously.

          • jdhines February 23, 2019 at 9:47 am #

            Ol’ Scratch,

            I must agree with your assessment wholeheartedly. Truer words may have never been spoken. I’ve spent considerable time in the bloody third world and I can attest that it is short, brutal and harsh. It is clear we are headed to that unfortunate end; I suppose it was always inevitable, due to flawed human nature, just a question of timing.

            At least we can be thankful that we spent our lives during the halcyon days of the Western world. It’s been a truly lucky run we’ve had from post-WWII until (pick your date). It will be one for the history books and remembered with awe, I predict.

            JDH

    • vengeur February 22, 2019 at 5:55 pm #

      I have learned that the hard LEFT wing cannot be persuaded of anything.

      • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 6:40 pm #

        vengeur,

        True enough when it comes to the Orange One. We suffer from TDS. I have a particularly bad case of it and wouldn’t have it any other way. If I started liking Trump even a “micro-give-a-shit” I’d take something for it and see a specialist.

        I don’t mean to be rude, but anyone who supports this prick should have a check-up from the neck up.

        JDH

        • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 7:08 pm #

          So your opinion is the only one that counts huh? Unfortunately, all the Lefties never have anything concrete to bring out, just a bunch of feelings and the latest BS from the MSM.

          • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 7:33 pm #

            JohnAZ,

            If your Far Right Wing, hogwash opinions were in the least bit reasonable, I would give them ample consideration. They fail that test because it is clear that you, and many others, have been sucked in by the hard right’s BS about religion, guns, socialism, trickle-down economics, etc. when the truth of the matter is that you are just being fleeced by the rich and you are a willing participant due to your hatred of the left.

            Anything decent in this country like social security, Medicare, fair wages, income equality came from the Dems. Hoover, a right-winger, gave us the great depression, FDR gave us a social safety net that even hard core right wing types are fond of.

            Please, by all means, continue to be a patsy for the monied interests if that trips your trigger.

            JDH

          • Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 8:30 pm #

            Such things are possible in rich White or East Asian nations. Lower races want in but don’t pull their weight, but take far more than their share.

          • Nightowl February 24, 2019 at 9:55 am #

            Clinton was, far and away, the corporate candidate of choice. Never mind how her team with Obama legalized domestic propaganda shortly before O left office in ordrer to turn the full weight of the corporate media against any candidate from the outside.

            Aside from Trump and Bernie, Tulsi Gabbard is the next victim.

            It never ceases to amaze me how uniformed some progs are. You speak in platitudes and seem to have no concept of how corrupt the Democratic party is. It is simply one half of the Uniparty.

          • jdhines February 24, 2019 at 10:59 am #

            Nightowl,

            >>> “It never ceases to amaze me how uniformed (sic) some progs are. You speak in platitudes and seem to have no concept of how corrupt the Democratic party is. It is simply one half of the Uniparty.”

            Good point. You must have missed that I said: “Now, I do agree that the Rs and Ds are two sides of the same coin and both are no damn good…” which I mentioned a few posts earlier.

            I realize that the Dems (and the Rs) are no earthly good, the question is do you realize the Repubs are no damn good? Your vitriol seems to be aimed at the left (the progs and Democratic party). Do you think the Republican party is just as jacked-up, or do you have a warm, fuzzy feeling concerning the right wing and Fox News?

            Maybe YOU need to be better informed.

            JDH

          • Nightowl February 24, 2019 at 5:15 pm #

            JD,

            Vitriol. LOL. Sad laughter perhaps.

            I am a registered Green Party member. I recall Jill Stein being smeared with the same nonsense as Trump because she once sat at the same table as Putin.

            Trump has faults, but they are rarely covered by corp. media, who are too busy with identity politics, cheering on Neocon wars, and fantasy “news.”

            Since you seem stuck on parties, I wonder if you’ve even looked at Trump’s political history prior to becoming Prez. The man isn’t a Repub. He’s an indy who ran on the R ticket.

    • Tate February 22, 2019 at 6:01 pm #

      I have to question the racial realism criticism in your comment. Also, characterizing gun ownership as a crisis fit to be compared to the illegal entry crisis.

      • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 6:31 pm #

        Tate,

        You misunderstand. The crisis is not gun ownership, it is death by guns.

        “Approximately 1.6 million people have died from firearms in the U.S. between 1968 and 2017. This number includes all deaths resulting from a firearm, including suicides, homicides, and accidents.”

        The death of one person is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic. No problem, right?

        By the way, this leftist owns several guns and I am not suggesting we ban firearms. What I am saying is that there is no comparison to the carnage of illegal immigration and gun deaths. It is clear to all, but the willfully blind, where the true crisis is. Let’s at least face facts.

        JDH

        • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 7:36 pm #

          So what do you suggest we do about the “death by guns” problem? And why do we have to compare it to the illegal immigration problem, anyway? Are you saying we should take the money being used to build the wall and give to the inner city punks to buy paint guns?

          • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 7:55 pm #

            Rackslope,

            >>> Are you saying we should take the money being used to build the wall and give to the inner city punks to buy paint guns?

            That’s funny. Good one (paintball guns, lol).

            I think a good start would be banning high-velocity assault weapons made for military personnel. They create a lot of havoc in the hands of a nut job. You could look at the gun show and relationship sales loopholes too.

            Also, I strongly object to private business (AKA the NRA) dictating policy in this country. The gun manufacturers are just rich global elite industrialists that everyone on this forum professes to hate. Why let them call the tune?

            As for why the wall is stupid, it’s that Trump found it to be a hit with the base and ran with it. It was something for him to remember to talk about “border security.” The base, bless their little hearts, does love the wall, but really it’s the dumbest of ideas.

            Really, I don’t give it shit if they build three walls on the southern border. They can knock themselves out. It is stupid, but we’ve spent trillions or dumber things. Give the Dems DACA and the wall (in all its glory) is yours. It seems like a fair deal, no?

            JDH

        • Tate February 22, 2019 at 7:59 pm #

          I agree there’s no comparison to the carnage of illegal immigration & gun deaths. Gun deaths, most of which are from suicide, are a manageable problem for our society, comparable in that respect to deaths by automobile accidents. Illegal immigration, on the other hand, if left unchecked, is an existential threat to Society itself, threatening to destroy the underpinnings of everything we hold dear.

          Of course, the elite internationalists don’t care about this. They can abscond by helicopter & private jet to their remote compounds in New Zealand & elsewhere. To these creeps, national loyalties are so twentieth-century.

      • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 7:10 pm #

        Besides, gun smuggling is one of the items the border wall folks want to stop. Gee, maybe stopping the flow of guns might help the excess gun problem.

        Gun control sure doesn’t.

        • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 7:38 pm #

          JohnAZ,

          If you believe that hogwash about the border, I implore you to talk with some of the border residents that actually own land on said border. Yesterday, even Texas (Texas, for God’s sake!) filed suit to stop Trump’s overreach on the “national emergency!”

          Do you know how much land is going be taken from people who have lived along that border for generations? Do a little research and you’ll see how they feel about. Ask the REPUBLICAN house members like Rep. Hurd how they feel about it. This is just another scary sucker deal to pull right-wing nuts in. Wise up.

          JDH

          • rackslope February 22, 2019 at 7:58 pm #

            I lived two miles from the border for 17 years. No-one feels the way you do. We WANT the wall! Illegals are seen as a very dangerous nuisance. No one is afraid of losing any land. It’s not even a topic of conversation around here. Any lawsuits are from globalist cronies and never-Trumpers.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 23, 2019 at 2:03 pm #

            Snoopy dance!

    • elysianfield February 22, 2019 at 6:13 pm #

      How can you support someone who lies incessantly? Someone who is a known “cheat” in business? Some who expects loyalty, but never, ever gives it? Is known to do underhanded things and surround himself with those of dubious character, R. Stone, M. Cohen, and P. Manafort, to name a few? How do you account for the white supremacist and racist support? Don’t you find that distasteful? One last thing, do you still believe that the immigration crisis is a bigger crisis than gun violence in America? Please, no “whataboutery” in your answers.

      JDH,
      Because Hillary was not a choice…. How can we support? I am not necessarily a Trump supporter…but found Hillary so repugnant that I paid the ticket and will now take the ride.

      I have been also referred to as an athletic supporter, even though I do not follow Major league teams…go figure.

      • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 6:34 pm #

        elysianfield,

        Fair enough, but why not simply abstain rather than throw-in with such a despicable prick?

        JDH

        • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 6:52 pm #

          Because he’s the alternative that genuinely offers a chance to burn this mother down for once and for all. And yes, that’s a thing that needs doing at this point.

          • jdhines February 22, 2019 at 7:07 pm #

            Scratch,

            That is at least a rational way to look at it and I agree that we do need a fresh start. This system (guberment) is way past redemption and it is completed and irrevocably broken.

            I just think Trump is more interested in what benefits Trump than trying to tear down said guberment for the people. He may be enough of a klutz to cause it to collapse, but I think a short military coup with a constitutional convention might be more expedient.

            JDH

          • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 7:15 pm #

            Bull, if his own interest was all he cared about, he would have been long gone rather than having himself and his family put up with the crap from the Left. Civility is a lost art in DC. And on this blog it seems.

          • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 7:31 pm #

            jdh,

            Trump is opposing forces larger than himself, whether he fully realizes it or not. It’s still unsure which way a military coup would go at this point, but it seems likely it would go the globalists’ way, since they are their primary sponsors. Not a good outcome at all. Things are not as simple and innocuous as they seem on the surface.

    • EvelynV February 23, 2019 at 3:48 am #

      jdhines, another maxim that applies especially to the redneck dummies is:

      “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled”.

      • jdhines February 23, 2019 at 9:54 am #

        EvelynV,

        So true!

        JDH

  40. fugeguy February 22, 2019 at 5:29 pm #

    On another subject- the big board is back above 26K.

    New highs soon possibly.

    More evidence that the status quo has not lost its mojo yet.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 6:33 pm #

      Hold that thought.

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 7:33 pm #

      Now, we have got to figure out how to blame the good news on Trump, how higher taxes will improve things, and how having more people on the dole will help the economy. Go ahead, we are listening.

  41. Tate February 22, 2019 at 5:54 pm #

    “So they [the experts] might absolutely love the idea of frying someone but they’d still have to bend to the evidence showing that the prior awareness of the death penalty doesn’t stop people killing. Because when people kill they have other things on their mind. And they don’t expect to be caught.

    You’re not familiar with holding two things in your mind at one time? That’s strange. It’s impossible to weigh the odds of getting caught when contemplating the crime of murder? After all, not all murder is committed in the heat of the moment.

    And as for not expecting to be caught, how do you account for those who do fear the law & of getting caught which thereafter stops them from killing? Those instances don’t even enter into the statistics, do they? Those are crimes not committed; they are counter-factual events, having never occurred. Therefore, the only samples the ‘experts’ have gathered are incomplete, consisting of that set of individuals who went on to murder & then later admitted they were never afraid of getting caught & suffering the death penalty. So any empirical evidence that doesn’t recognize that particular flaw of selection bias can’t be trusted.

    Another issue that comes up is the relatively sanitized methods of execution devised in the twentieth century. Additionally, executions in modern times have not been allowed to be viewed by the general public. If the public doesn’t get to see the results, why of course, many of the criminals among it won’t be deterred from murder. And that’s even more the case if the executed criminals are briefly displayed & then removed from public view.

    If the old methods of execution & lengthy public display of their decomposing bodies were reintroduced, things would have to be viewed in a different light.

    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 6:44 pm #

      I know, right? I’ve always believed that if we’re going to do executions, we should at least do them right. Make them public, and make them graphic, within good taste at least. Public hangings seem to be a good compromise. Graphic and in your face, yet still pretty humane. Leave the bodies up for 24 hours or so for everyone to get a good look, then move on. Still not sure it’s an effective deterrent for most, but it’s a good practical compromise.

      All that said, the truly effective killers – the rich and powerful financial and war criminals among us who hide in plain sight – are never caught or brought up on charges in the first place, so one should suffer no illusions that capital punishment is actually solving anything.

      • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 7:07 pm #

        To add: I’ve always taken wry amusement from the fact that “good Christian” victims’ family members (ain’t they all?) take such unmitigated joy at the execution of their adopted objects of hate, almost always to find that that joy fades to further misery shortly after the fact when they realize that nothing at all has really changed. Their loved was dead before and they’re dead still, regardless of whatever act of “divine retribution” they might have foolishly thought they saw enacted.

        Doubly funny, because their own Abrahamic faiths tell them that vengeance belongs to their gods, and yet, they just can’t help themselves. And I won’t even go into the whole forgiveness thing.

        Bottom line: No one’s yet devised a means to effectively stop determined people from killing each other, especially through punishment, so maybe it’s one of those “divine mysteries” we’re just not meant to understand. Or, better still, maybe it’s not divine at all, and just part of humans’ basic animal nature. I’m going with the latter. We’re not NEARLY as good as we imagine ourselves to be.

        • Tate February 22, 2019 at 7:38 pm #

          But many of them don’t react with vengeful hearts & do try to forgive those who wronged them. Sometimes they go too far in this, setting a bad example. You can forgive someone in your heart but still allow justice to take its course within the system. It is better to personally forgive in order to let go of the bitterness. But not before you’ve done your part to bring a criminal to justice. Some have forgiven beyond the call of Christian duty, abasing themselves in an unseemly display of virtue-signalling & thus inspiring even greater rage among members of the public who witness it & redirect their animosity upon those ones.

          • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 8:55 pm #

            Forget all of that. Forgiving is ultimately not a duty, it’s the only way forward for the one who is wronged. Carrying that weight is always at least as harmful as the original wrongful act itself ever was. But forgiveness has to be first complete and unconditional.

          • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 11:32 am #

            ” But forgiveness has to be first complete and unconditional.”

            Nick O Demus

            I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with that oft offered premise. Forgiveness is often weakness…it is one’s unalloyed hatred ground down by time to a nub of remaining memory which can be ignored…or worse, finally verbalized for that “feel-good” moment.

            It is sometimes in the news…the bereaved parents openly “forgiving” some brutal animal of a rapist or murderer who killed their daughter. It makes me cringe…it makes me feel sick as I write these words.

            When the Jews forgive Hitler,
            When the Palestinians forgive the Jews,
            Maybe then I will forgive Jane Fonda, or Angela Davis.

            The Sicilians got it right the first time….

          • Janos Skorenzy February 23, 2019 at 6:22 pm #

            Agree. Real forgiveness is a great mystery. The people who shout out in courtrooms “I forgive you” haven’t even mourned yet. They’re just too weak to hate – or to really live.

      • Tate February 22, 2019 at 7:21 pm #

        It solves something. For rich & powerful criminals, it would probably be much more of a deterrent than it would be for the lower strata of society, if it could be reliably applied against them.

        But that’s a big if.

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 7:30 pm #

      Ya know Tate, I hear you.

      I am against the death penalty for two reasons, First, the really bad things that killers do to get the DP deserves much worse that the DP. The kid killers in the schools, multiple killers etc deserve much worse than just putting them to sleep.

      My picture of what to do with them parallels Alexandre Dumas. Put the SOBs into a hole in the ground, with a door on top. Three plain Jane meals a day, no entertainment, no outside time, solitary confinement, hell on earth until they die, no chance of parole. Then hang them out to rot if you want to. The cost? No chance of appeal, no extended ten year waiting periods for executions. Cost is a wash!

      The second reason is tied into Islam. These killers want to be martyred. Put them in the same hole in the ground but wipe it down daily with pig fat.

      You want to deter killing behavior, deter it.

      BTW, Supermax in Florence is very close.

      • Tate February 22, 2019 at 9:19 pm #

        You have a good point, JA. You can’t deter someone from killing who’s intent on dying anyway. It seems to me that since we have advanced psychological tests that can suss out the preferences, in addition to the evidence presented from the circumstances of the crime itself (concealed or in broad daylight), that what we do is we take those who have been adjudged afraid of dying and sentence them to death, & then take those who want to die, & throw them in the oubliette, never to see daylight again.

    • GreenAlba February 22, 2019 at 8:33 pm #

      Tate, I’m afraid it’s quite widely known that in your country it’s the states with the death penalty which consistently have higher murder rates than the states that don’t.

      https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates

      So it seems your idea about all those people out there who have genuinely been deterred but that no-one has interviewed, just doesn’t add up.

      “If the old methods of execution & lengthy public display of their decomposing bodies were reintroduced, things would have to be viewed in a different light.”

      Not the first time I’ve found the contents of your head disturbing and egregious. Some excessively authoritarian religious personalities just like gory vengeance.

      • Tate February 22, 2019 at 10:10 pm #

        And yet some death penalty states have lower murder rates than some non-death penalty states. For example, New Hampshire, a death penalty state, has a much lower murder rate than Maryland, in the non-death penalty group. It looks like New Hampshire has a murder rate of about 1-2 per 100,000 whereas Maryland has a murder rate of about 8 per 100,000. How do you account for such a large disparity in that pairing? Do you think I would argue that it’s solely because of the death penalty in NH vs the absence of one in Maryland? Of course not. We all recognize that a large part of the difference is due to demographic differences in the composition of their respective populations.

        Perhaps those states that have the death penalty simply recognize a greater deterrent need for the death penalty than those that don’t. Maybe you’re confusing cause & effect. Isn’t it possible that without the death penalty, those death penalty states would have even higher murder rates? So you see, those vaunted statistics presented in your link prove nothing at all.

        Oh, & just because I’m trying to offer helpful solutions to curtailing the worst abuses of our time, & trying to push back a little against Jared Kushner & his ilk, the contents of my head are “disturbing & egregious” & I like “gory vengeance.” I should tell you that I have resolved to never again stoop to your level of argumentation no matter what you say about me.

        • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 5:32 am #

          “Perhaps those states that have the death penalty simply recognize a greater deterrent need for the death penalty than those that don’t. Maybe you’re confusing cause & effect. Isn’t it possible that without the death penalty, those death penalty states would have even higher murder rates? So you see, those vaunted statistics presented in your link prove nothing at all.”

          Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

          Perhaps you should read what the people who made their judgements on the empirical evidence actually said, and assess their methodology and their assumptions once you’ve done that. You know, like a peer review, you being their peer – sort of. That would be more useful than just telling us what you imagine goes on in a potential murderer’s head, the truth of which he isn’t necessarily even going to disclose to an interviewer.

          And I obviously exactly predicted your cause and effect counter-argument. But your main hypothesis remains unproven. Perhaps you think people who’ve worked in the field all their lives somehow wouldn’t have thought of that and have no academic training whatever in statistics.

          ” I should tell you that I have resolved to never again stoop to your level of argumentation no matter what you say about me.”

          Good. Stick with looking properly into the studies you assume a priori are flawed before you categorise them as flawed and take it from there. Infinitely more useful.

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 5:51 am #

            And I do hope you’re not confusing ‘the empirical evidence’, i.e. all the evidence of all the types currently available, with one graph that I sent you. I mean that would be silly, wouldn’t it?

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 6:11 am #

            And the point is in any case not just to prove that the death penalty reduces murders, but to prove that it reduces murders compared to the penalty of a life sentence without parole, i.e. the murder dying in jail unless his conviction is subsequently proven to have been flawed, as in the cases of Timothy Evans, the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, whom I mentioned already.

            Obviously I haven’t mentioned the people who have been wrongly convicted without their flawed convictions ever having come to light – they’re in the same hypothetical category (although it would have been real enough for them as the noose tightened) as those you presume to have been deterred by the death penalty when they wouldn’t have been deterred by dying in prison.

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 6:12 am #

            *murderer* dying in jail

          • Tate February 23, 2019 at 1:53 pm #

            Another thing I’ve resolved is to avoid responding to your condescending posts altogether.

          • Tate February 23, 2019 at 2:11 pm #

            And the chart was contained in your link, the first thing I looked at. If they can’t do better that, why should I or anyone take seriously the rest of their research?

          • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:50 pm #

            Its racial. Norway V El Salvador.
            Sweden [of 30 years ago] V Congo.

          • messianicdruid February 23, 2019 at 6:12 pm #

            Forgiveness is about turning the judgement over to another who is trustworthy since we are biased.

            Men’s “ justice “ is about punishment and retribution. God’s system of justice is about restoration to the lawful order.

            The death penalty is not about vengeance. It is simply protecting society from further lawlessness because what the person took cannot be restored by him.

            A murderer forfeits his own life and is set on a shelf until he can be brought before the Throne.

            Because some do not believe in resurrection, they feel all payment must be extorted here, now, by people who are themselves sinners: not impartial.

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 7:50 pm #

            “Another thing I’ve resolved is to avoid responding to your condescending posts altogether.”

            ‘Condescending’ says the person who wants his wife to have her voting rights removed, except maybe if he condescends to leave his to her on his death. You’re funny, Tate, I’ll give you that.

            “And the chart was contained in your link, the first thing I looked at. If they can’t do better that, why should I or anyone take seriously the rest of their research?”

            I don’t expect you to do anything other than make excuses for not doing the research you’d need to do to prove them wrong. It’s so much easier just to keep believing what you want to believe. There’s plenty of other research out there. Peer review whichever bits you want.

      • EvelynV February 23, 2019 at 4:13 am #

        You have no way of knowing whether or not the death rates would be even higher without executions.

        If nothing else death penalties reduce recidivism among those who have it applied to them.

        It’s only natural christians thrive on gory vengeance.

        In their inane belief system an omnipotent deity whose relative relationship to humans is perhaps infinitely times more superior than a human’s relationship to a microbe but is nonetheless reverentially proclaimed to be bursting at the seams with love for it’s lowly creations, this all loving omniscient deity will inflict pain and horrors more horrible than the most vile tortures dreamt up by Vlad the Impaler, and he will inflict them on his subjects for incredibly trivial acts regarded by this sick deity as him being dissed, and the fact he created the flawed organism that would do such a thing to someone as self important as himself cuts them no slack whatsoever, thereby ignoring every stupid tweet he ever sent his worshipping flock of nincompoops that preached the importance of forgiveness and turning the other cheek. Christian beliefs are so arrogantly stupid it is no wonder they regard hypocrisy as a virtue.

        • Tate February 23, 2019 at 2:49 pm #

          “You have no way of knowing whether or not the death rates would be even higher without executions.

          If nothing else death penalties reduce recidivism among those who have it applied to them.”

          Well, people who compile statistics on crime have discovered one useful fact at least. Crime occurs in clusters. Hot spots, if you will, & also in the person of repeat offenders. Therefore, if you execute those few trouble-makers, you will have significantly lower violent crime going forward.

          The rest of your comment appeared to be an unhinged attack on Christians, most likely fueled by projection of how you would like to treat the world at large.

        • Q. Shtik February 23, 2019 at 7:35 pm #

          his worshipping flock of nincompoops – Eve

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

          I like the word nincompoop…probably because it has the word poop in it.

      • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 11:36 am #

        ” it’s quite widely known that in your country it’s the states with the death penalty which consistently have higher murder rates than the states that don’t.”

        Alba,
        …maybe the higher murder rate is WHY they have the death penalty?

        Perspective

        • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 12:12 pm #

          EF

          I think you’ll find that gets taken into account in the consideration of the empirical evidence. One of the things they rather obviously do is compare states (and countries) with comparable demographics. They’d really need to be truly stupid to think that wasn’t the first imperative.

          I know ‘experts’ aren’t universally a panacea for everything, but when people refuse to acknowledge that anyone with years of actual expertise in anything has any knowledge or insights they don’t have, there’s little point in discussing such matters.

          What actually lowers crime rates is high rates of apprehension and conviction.

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 12:16 pm #

            And crime rates were much higher and society much more violent back when we had public hangings than they are now. Which you would expect, since the lack of public hangings is not the main factor that leads to crime or to its reduction.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 23, 2019 at 12:13 pm #

          Ever do their passions get the best of them and they fall from the Heaven of Philosophy to the Hell of Partisanship. The Ancients were right: Character must come first – and that means sublimation of the passions and control of the tongue. The Pythagoreans forbade new students to talk in class for years.

          Few Women ever got past the portico for obvious reasons. She thinks public execution causes murder!

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 12:18 pm #

            ” She thinks public execution causes murder!”

            I’m not going to answer that because I know that even you aren’t that stupid. You try your best, I know.

        • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 12:29 pm #

          EF

          As you know, people have been arguing about the deterrent value of the death penalty for a very long time. There is as yet no convincing evidence that, overall, it lowers murder rates.

          So – and even without that factor being taken into consideration – the issue of false convictions weighs heavily.

          I don’t know anything about your family circumstances, EF, but for the sake of the discussion, I’m going to hypothesise an EF Jr.

          I’m also going to hypothesise that EF Jr gets fitted up for a murder he did not commit (let’s assume the involvement of dodgy police and very effectively doctored evidence) and that he is to be judicially deprived of his life because of it.

          I’m trying very hard to picture you – or Tate in the same circumstance – saying, ‘I know it’s hard son, but we did the best we could, and now we need you to take one for the team. And I’m sorry that you’ll be hanging in the public square rotting for a month, covered in maggots, for your mother to see, but that’s what we signed up for. It’s for the greater good, boy. Try to look at the bigger picture’.

          And yet I can’t. It’s like the surveillance argument – if you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve nothing to fear. Until you have.

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 12:32 pm #

            Not that I don’t expect the quality of evidence, proof, justice, mercy and a whole lot of other related qualities to deteriorate as society hits the skids. I’m talking about now. While we have the privilege of due process, we have the duty to use it as diligently as we can, with the best insights that we have.

            Maggots and gibbets can wait.

          • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:06 pm #

            Alba,
            There are many valid issues regarding Capital Punishment. My earlier comment suggests that society may, at times, become so fed up with violent crime, that the death penalty is called for…in effect, crime could be a causal effect of Capital Punishment.

            Whether or not capital punishment is a deterrent begs the question to the whole of human existence…does incarceration beget deterrence? Does corporal punishment? Does shaming your mama, or harsh words promote deterrence? If not, then why jails, fines, and printing your mama’s name in the paper?

            Same argument, save for the issues of mistaken punishment. Should a thousand be let free lest one man be mistakenly punished? Can our society, what remains of it, survive the thousand ferals on the street? At one point does the survival of the innocent balance? Who speaks for them?

    • GreenAlba February 22, 2019 at 8:50 pm #

      And the other thing, Tate, if I were going to dump a comment from a previous thread on to a totally new thread where it had no context whatsoever, just because I couldn’t let go, and then use the appellation ‘you’, I think I’d start with the person’s screen name. Don’t ask me why…

  42. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 8:04 pm #

    Good summary of RussiaGate by Daniel Estulin in his book “In the Shadows of a Presidency”.

    Not that anybody really cares….

    According to Estulin the Banks supported Hillary in order to continue money printing in order to avoid Bankruptcy of the banks which would be the inevitable outcome with Trump raising interest rates. According to Estulin the banks wanted a war with Russia in order to write off their debts, but another Elite faction, which supports rebuilding the real American economy (rather than finance), demurred.

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 8:19 pm #

      Yup.

      The real issue is that the dollars generated by the American economy, both the real one, what is left of it, and the black market, lots of which are crossing the border, are needed by the international finance guys to give some liquidity to the leveraged paper the banks sell back and forth. Ie, make the interest payments.

      The banks need the US economy to prosper, but be open for exploitation. But not too much because the American elite will take their money and run leaving the globalists high and dry. A continuous balancing act.

      Now we know what all the hoopla in Davos is all about.

      Also, do you get why so many of the PTB are sacrificing lots to make sure that Wall at the border is not built.

      Hope you are enjoying Estulin, a truly unique viewpoint.

  43. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 8:12 pm #

    There’s that word “Free” again….

    “Whatever the Russians are accused of doing with respect to American elections is chump change when compared to what the US has done, through Soros and National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in engineering regime change in country after country throughout the world, all in the name of “free” elections. “

    Daniel Estulin
    In the Shadows of a Presidency

    • JohnAZ February 22, 2019 at 8:22 pm #

      In a truly free election here, should any country, candidate or political group be able to use any means to influence voters.

      What does “free” election really mean?

      Russiagate is a sham.

      • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 8:49 pm #

        Excellent points. In a truly “free” election, all marketing strategies are viable and allowable – “truth” be damned. Generally speaking, those who decry the use of “lies” the most, are the ones most guilty of using them in the first place. Propaganda 101, right there.

  44. Janos Skorenzy February 22, 2019 at 8:23 pm #

    Best Black History Month ever. Thank you Jussie!

    • malthuss February 22, 2019 at 8:27 pm #

      Yawn.

      I have never been a fan of Fred- F.o.e.
      He has a riff about the Mayan [remember where he lives and who he lives with].
      He mentions them in the past, their greatness.

      What about focusing on present day Mexico and CA?
      Why did the civilization fall? Why so much cannibalism?
      Why are brown skinned Mexicans so primitive?

      • 100th Avatar February 22, 2019 at 8:38 pm #

        Visit the museum of anthropology in DF
        It’s jaw dropping.

        The precolumbians accomplishments are many and are spectacular.

        You need to educate yourself, and not just through books and rote memorization of someone else’s gathered facts.

        You are in dire need of tacit knowledge.
        Born from discovery and experience.

        It would be very sad and shameful to travel through this world in one place with one point of view and with one big chip weighing you down

        • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:52 pm #

          Heres my question, again,

          Why did the civilization fall?

      • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 11:41 am #

        “Why are brown skinned Mexicans so primitive?”

        Malthuss,
        I do not accept your premise.

        • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:43 pm #

          Ive loved in the same building with them.
          Baby at 14. The 14 year old was technically an Merikan. Probably born here, not borne here.
          I like facts.

          A Mexican american told me stories and declared the Central Mericans were even dirtier and dumber.

          • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:52 pm #

            lIved.

            .I thought I corrected that. Sorry.

          • 100th Avatar February 23, 2019 at 6:35 pm #

            Sincerely, are you a genuinely racist troglodyte, or are you a piece of fiction, here to perhaps paint this site as a place that peddles or sympathizes with unsavory supremacist types?

          • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:10 pm #

            Malthuss,

            Some? Many? Most? Certainly not all…such a statement as yours without qualifiers is not defendable….

      • Janos Skorenzy February 23, 2019 at 12:19 pm #

        Yes, people like this didn’t create anything. On the other hand, look at how East Asians view Whites now. Our drug addled mentally ill homeless hordes are hardly a ringing testimony to our Greatness. Is it possible that all the Old Central American Elite were either killed off or died childless – the elite females being taken by the Spanish Conquerors to help create a new people and culture?

        I don’t automatically dismiss the idea of White “Gods” coming over either. But even they would have had a hard time doing much with the current lot.

        • Tate February 23, 2019 at 2:55 pm #

          “They’re not sending their best, I can tell you that!”

          • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:45 pm #

            Read Buchanan and Brimelow.

            The migrants are ‘negatively selected’–meaning the poorest and lowest IQ, education, criminal….
            .sounds like I cribbed from that commies poem on the LIBERTY Statue.

        • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:53 pm #

          Yes, people like this didn’t create anything.

          They are destroying USA and to a lesser degree, Spain.

        • 100th Avatar February 23, 2019 at 6:44 pm #

          No Janos, you need an other. Always an other.
          Us and them.
          Mine and yours.

          Granted, you are certainly eloquent and rather sharp, but you are deeply flawed nonetheless.

          But you’re not he first coward in the face of the unknown.
          In the face of a different face.
          Not by a country mile.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 24, 2019 at 11:28 am #

            Yeah, cuz Whites don’t exist and a people who don’t exist have no rights – certainly not the right of “having an other” since they don’t even have themselves.

            Only one People have a right to exist and have self identity – yours. Everyone else is just generic mongrels of lumpen humanity – untermensch material.

          • 100th Avatar February 24, 2019 at 12:20 pm #

            ?
            This idea of yours, of me, again, is all in your head

    • Tate February 22, 2019 at 10:18 pm #

      Wow, thank you Jussie! And we still have a week left. What riches may lie undiscovered.

      • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:12 pm #

        Tate,
        Worry not…it is the gift that keeps on giving….

  45. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 8:35 pm #

    Estulin posits that the end result will be the end of Capitalism with a new economic system akin to corporate feudalism arising, with the world divided into monopolistic economic zones controlled by corporations, such that the US Corporations will control their economic zone, the Chinese state corporations will control their zone, etc. I think that this is what Estulin is saying? There will be largest cities in each zone that will be the control centers, with 90% of the population living a harsh, grim existence on the periphery, somewhat reminiscent of that movie “The Hunger Games”. Charming….

    Daniel Estulin
    In the Shadows of a Presidency

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    • Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 8:46 pm #

      I’m right with him so far (Chapter 3 or thereabouts). I’ll be interested to see if he addresses the great elephant in the room – 9-11. The unquestioned preeminence of global capitalism I’ve accepted as truth for some now. That’s pretty much a done deal already. The nationalist imperialist mask adopted in the 20th century is at this point a mere cultural relic of a myth we tell ourselves to feel better about our fate.

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:20 am #

        He presents the BIG picture with a fairly unbiased viewpoint. As he goes, he gets into stuff that I get most of but not all. But he will get into the mechanizations of what the American-British economic axis ( Breton Woods) is up to and why Trump is getting in their way. The chapter I just read gave the reasons the big boys are driving us towards a cashless society.

  46. Ol' Scratch February 22, 2019 at 8:37 pm #

    Ahh, the sweet smell of fresh nothing burger cooking on an open flame grill! There’s really nothing like it!

    It nearly offsets the rather more acrid nose of timid Dems pissing the floor of their respective chambers in mock outrage.

    Move along now people, nothing to see here!

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/robert-mueller-wont-submit-report-to-attorney-general-next-week-nbc.html

    KEY POINTS

    Special counsel Robert Mueller will not deliver a report to the attorney general next week, as was previously reported by multiple outlets, a senior Department of Justice official told NBC News on Friday.

    Attorney General William Barr was preparing to announce the completion of Mueller’s investigation into any links between President Donald Trump and Russia as soon as next week, CNN reported Wednesday.

    In a letter to Barr dated Friday, the chairs of six influential House committees suggested that withholding evidence uncovered by Mueller could be the means for a “cover-up.”

  47. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 9:51 pm #

    The ancient Greeks were into female “Soothsayers” Big Time. Alexander the Great went out of his way to visit the famous Oracle at Delphi, and the Oracle at the remote desert oasis at Siwa in Egypt.

    Do they still have those 30 second ads on late night American TV that invite the viewers to call a telephone number to talk to some crazy, middle-aged white woman who claims that she’s Some Big Soothsayer? Have you ever noticed that it’s always middle-aged white women? Why is that?

    • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 11:47 am #

      ” Have you ever noticed that it’s always middle-aged white women? Why is that?”

      A blast from the past…

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

      • Tate February 23, 2019 at 2:29 pm #

        Blackest-looking middle-aged white woman I ever saw.

  48. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 10:02 pm #

    Have you ever seen “Corn Dogs” on the menu at a restaurant?

    “I’d like your Corn Dogs and a glass of red wine.”

    • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 3:06 am #

      Gourmet Corn Dogs

      • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:18 pm #

        Dog,
        Corn Dogs are merely an enabler for mustard consumption.

        Get yourself to the Quickie Chickie near closing time and they sell them for 1/2 price…50 cents around here…pile on the yellow mustard and debase yourself without shame but away from the observation of anyone that might know you….

  49. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 10:06 pm #

    Ulysses S Grant was a bit of a “Rube”. When he became POTUS he hired his US Army “Cook” to be the White House “Chef”. It didn’t work out, so his wife with the “lazy eye”, Julia, eventually had to hire an Italian “Wop”.

    • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:46 pm #

      haha

  50. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 10:31 pm #

    Is there such a thing as “Black Talk Radio”? Can White People call into a Black Talk Radio Show and “Sound Off”? What about segmented ethic Talk Radio, like a Korean Talk Radio Show, or a Jamaican Talk Radio Show, or a Ukrainian Talk Radio Show? Can I call into a Ukrainian Talk Radio Show and start ranting about Russian people? Can I call into a Persian Talk Radio Show and start ranting about Arabs?

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  51. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 10:36 pm #

    I’m going to call into the Alex Jones Show and claim that I’m a “Chicom” and start speaking Mandarin and tell Alex Jones how fantastic his health supplements are.

  52. Like Measles, there is blowback in TDS. Think it won’t affect you? Why? Cause of your super duper immune system?

    Measles is effective because it hijacks that system. TDS is a host-agnostic condition.

    Don’t become deranged. You’ve got to check your own bullshit meter on a daily basis. The only practical method I’ve found is to keep a few things in perspective.

    1. The major problems are structural. They can’t be fixed with a mandate, or winning a court case, or scoring points in the media arena.

    2. There are all kinds of bullshit out there, but a specific type is yours. Know your own bullshit the best.

    3. In the end there is no penultimate figure, no keystone event, no landmark, no achilles’ heel that represents total victory or defeat. Life is a process.

    4. In the grand scheme of things the common denominator will have the most persuasive reach. Qanons will only reach other Qanons and the rest of the population won’t care.

    5. There are things that matter more than what happens during this lame duck session of CFN in your life. Or, at least there should be. Do more of that.

    6. The New York Times’ reportage is world-class. For only $3 you can get the print edition on Saturday and it will include everything you need to know until the omnibus Sunday edition ($6). Try 4 weeks free online for a limited time only.

    • jdhines February 23, 2019 at 10:06 am #

      ‘Lil Deb,

      Wise words. Good counsel.

      JDH

  53. Pucker February 22, 2019 at 11:41 pm #

    Daniel Estulin seems like a clever bloke.

    Daniel Estulin
    In the Shadows of a Presidency

  54. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 1:14 am #

    The Macedonians, with Alexander the Great’s encouragement, all took foreign wives and had foreign kids. But when it was time for the Macedonian soldiers to return to Macedonia, they abandoned their families to start new families with Macedonian women in Macedonia. They knew that “Diversity” wouldn’t work. The Macedonian Officer corps freaked out when Alexander the Great trained the Persian boys in the Greek language and Macedonian warfare techniques. The Macedonians complained: “What’s the use of conquering the World if we are abandoned for foreigners?!”

    • AKlein February 23, 2019 at 9:53 am #

      Pucker, with that point of view you will certainly be at odds with Corporate America, which has ardently supported “diversity.” One wonders what ever happened to “E pluribus unum?” In addition to that you relate about his soldiers reaction to Alexander’s perfidy, it ultimately, and quickly, earned him an early grave. Alexander’s glorification after his demise brings to mind the words of Caracalla upon hearing of his brother Geta’s apotheosis by the Roman Senate after Caracalla had had him murdered: “Deus sit dum mortuus.”

  55. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 2:13 am #

    Rock ‘N Roll!!!!!!

    “Every day there are two or three teenagers on the corner dealing drugs across from our home in Philadelphia. We figured that if they had a 50% deal with a supplier, did $ 300 a day of sales each, and worked 250 days a year that their supplier could run his net profits of approximately $ 100,000 through a local fast food restaurant that was owned by a publicly traded company. Assuming that company has a stock market value that is a multiple of 20-30 times its profits, a handful of illiterate teenagers could generate approximately $ 2-3 million in stock market value for a major corporation, not to mention a nice flow of deposits and business for the Philadelphia banks and insurance companies…. “So if I have a company that has a $ 100,000 of income and a stock trading at 20 times earnings, if I can find a way to run $ 100,000 of narcotics sales by a few teenagers in West Philadelphia through my financial statements, I can get my stock market value to go up from $ 2 million to $ 4 million. I can double my “pop.” That is a quick $ 2 million profit from putting a few teenagers to work … The total stock market value generated in the Philadelphia area with $ 20-40 billion in narco retail sales would be about $ 80-160 billion. If you add all the things you could do with debt or and other ways to increase the multiples, and you could get that even higher, say $ 100-250 billion…. The problems this presents to people trying to run an honest business are numerous. The problems it creates for our work ethic and culture are numerous too. It increasingly puts the low performance people in charge, and everyone starts to behave like and follow them….” 18“What does this mean in the world of high finance? If firms like Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Scotland, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, or General Electric were to have an additional $ 40 million in earnings from the drug trade, with a price-to-earnings multiplier of 20, the net increase in their company’s equity would be $ 800 million. If you still believe that there cannot really be major, hands-on, institutional involvement in the drug trade, you will be surprised to hear that in late June 1999, numerous news services, including the Associated Press, reported that Richard A. Grasso, then Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, flew down to Colombia for a jungle encounter with a spokesperson for Raul Reyes of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). FARC is Colombia’s major narco-terrorist outfit, with which the United States government is unofficially at war. The purpose of the trip was “to bring a message of co-operation from US financial services” 19 and to discuss foreign investment and the future role of US businesses in Colombia. What does Colombia have that the United States could possibly want? Money –drug money: over a trillion dollars in equity that has been building up in Colombia for over thirty years now.“

    Daniel Estulin
    In the Shadows of a Presidency

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  56. DurangoKid February 23, 2019 at 2:30 am #

    When does the regression to the mean start?

    • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 3:34 am #

      Well now, let me say this about that. To regress to the mean implies a return from excursion from a norm produced by chance. But as chaotic as these times appear to be chance had little to do with abounding the iniquitous national nonsense.

      Egregious national nonsense is the result of a cascade of very bad decisions and the greatest misallocation of resources of all time. Random chance is hardly involved, stupidity is involved. Actual manifestation of the inevitable is our experience but as it is novel to our history, we don’t see it for what it is.

      The train has been moving for a while. Durango is behind us!

  57. tucsonspur February 23, 2019 at 3:18 am #

    Great Expectations that won’t be met any time soon. Barr and Mueller being friends, if that’s the case is bad enough, and to think that Mueller would flip the switch at this time and throw the high beams on the Clinton clan is like thinking that the lottery ticket in your pocket will cover this month’s mortgage.

    But like Chuck Berry said, “You never can tell”.

    It’ll take a lot of heavy clubs to clobber that clan, and it’s doubtful that there’s enough muscle around to swing them. That and possible Left-Right tradeoffs, along with perhaps a near desperate clan of well connected connivers makes indictments and prosecutions seem unlikely.

    So far it’s been a chaotic two years, and the battle for the presidency in 2020 is underway. People are weary, worn out. And Trump may still be caught in Mueller’s web and unable to run again.
    If he can run and wins again (with the help of CYA Dems?), that’ll be the time for justice IF he wants it. Better keep the Senate.

    As much as I would like it, I just can’t picture the Hillary horde being prosecuted. Maybe a small fry fall guy?

    Great Expectations, meet a Tale of Two Cities:

    “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way –”

    The institutional damage is already severe and probably permanent, I hate to say. No one now could carry these words:

    “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

  58. SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 4:12 am #

    I absolutely do have great expectations. But it’s impossible to have great expectations in something that is broken and irreparably damaged. In that respect, I am afraid that justice will be elusive for now. Where there is no trust and good will there is no justice. The prophets say that a new world is to come that will replace the one we know. A new world from the ashes will rise, and there will be a chance to build that world on foundations of trust, love and justice. I used to believe that we could repair our civilization. But with each passing day it becomes clear that it’s an impossible task. And there are those who are invested in and profit from disunity and destruction. So we must shed this current world as a moth sheds its cocoon. And with dawn comes a new day. And those who dream, but are awake, long for that new day.

    • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 4:43 am #

      “We are friends,” said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench.

      “And will continue friends apart,” said Estella.

      I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

      The End.

      • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 2:34 pm #

        That is a beautiful moment and there is hope.

      • Tate February 23, 2019 at 3:09 pm #

        That was during the heyday of Romanticism, which was a reaction against Rationalism. Unrequited Love was a popular theme, as in Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of the Young Werther’ which was a “smash hit” at the time. Goethe ‘made his nut’ on that one, so to speak, & went on to greater things such as “Faust, part 1.”

        Romantic Love is a distinctively odd idea, at least to adopt as a societal standard for marriage. The parents should at least have a say in the matter if not absolute sway. They know what’s best for a prospective match among their daughters. Of course, the girl should have veto power. But the choice should be limited to a few carefully chosen suitors.

        • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 9:38 am #

          Like I said, excessively authoritarian religious personalities… 🙂

          Some problems over here with Pakistani parents who think like that. Not too many, thankfully, but it is a problem for the girls, obviously. Sometimes some of the unlucky ones escape their unpleasant fate, sometimes they don’t.

          “Romantic Love is a distinctively odd idea, at least to adopt as a societal standard for marriage. ”

          Other standards exist. Many have co-existed with high levels of hypocrisy and of syphilis. Which – as in bygone days – won’t be curable in The Long Emergency.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 2:12 pm #

            Wow that is so sweet Alba. Many have coexisted with high levels of hypocrisy and syphilis. Why are you saying that here? It was so nice and pleasant before that.

    • tucsonspur February 23, 2019 at 4:46 am #

      Good for you, SSL.

      I’m reminded of the last line in Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”.

      “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

      • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 2:40 pm #

        Well maybe. Or maybe dreams are like the paranormal like we talked about on the last thread. Paranormal incidents don’t occur everyday just like dreams don’t come true everyday, at least for most people. But sometimes dreams do come true, just like sometimes paranormal things do happen. I think you understand what I mean.

  59. K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 4:41 am #

    I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

    And so they live happily ever after. Great Expectations realized. But what about real life. In the original ending all Pip was going to get from Estella was the picture of her in his head as he choked his chicken alone. She had remarried after her abusive husband was kicked to death by a horse. Holy Nietzsche Batman. Originally she gave no rip about Pip!

    Dickens sanitized the ending to make everybody feel better. Made it less like real life and more like sugarplum faries, whatever those are.

    What kind of Expectations are a reasonable end for our tale? Trump gone like Compeyson, drowned at Mar-a-Lago instead of the Thames. Hillary burned in a wedding dress wearing one shoe?

    In a warm pleasant dream, a harmonious blacksmith could emerge from some distant savage lair and with a rushing like wind from the sea, Make America’s Expectations Great Again.

    Or the cold reality could be, we just end.

    • tucsonspur February 23, 2019 at 5:28 am #

      Choking chickens, like the Dickens! Why Not make everybody feel better?

      Trump leaves office, drowning in an ocean of dollars and a sea of real estate. The entire Hillary clan is clad in irons by the hairy, hulking, harmonious blacksmith.

      The cold reality is that we Will end. So what. Say a prayer and meet the Maker.

      MAGA is the SAGA and the DOGMA

      • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 2:54 pm #

        Ok that is good and I smiled. So we have a hulking and hairy and also harmonious blacksmith. So you are saying he is balanced, just, but isn’t going to put up with bullshit. Sort of like a Greek tyrant of long ago. It’s a traditionally Western reaction to the power vaccum. So maybe go with the natural instinct then. Something will fill up the void either way.

    • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 11:59 am #

      ” as he choked his chicken alone.”

      …and who says “romance is dead”?

      • Janos Skorenzy February 23, 2019 at 12:26 pm #

        I saw two examples of homeless love yesterday. The first was a woman screaming to her Man, How do I convince you that you’re the only one I want? She proceeded to hit herself in the head as hard as she could a few times. It was both beautiful and disturbing. I for one, was convinced.

        The second was during the evening: a woman going down on a man right out on the street. Never saw that before. I can only hope it was the same couple after they had made up.

        • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 1:16 pm #

          So was that his answer to her question? Here, now, in public…

          Crikey, and people worry about gay people holding hands. Weird place you live.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 23, 2019 at 2:07 pm #

            Sure Mum.

            https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6733619/Man-36-appear-court-accused-propositioning-woman-WINKING-pub.html

            In Dundee no less. The Sun has set on the British Empire and the jackals are circling in for the kill. This “Rose” is both symptom and a cause, one of the smaller jackals to be sure but taken in the aggregate with her fellow roses, a most profound creator of decline.

          • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:04 pm #

            So it is curious how you turned the ill intent on the man Alba. Looks like you made a remote guess. You know like the remote guesses I like to indulge in :-). I’ll make another remote guess. You think it is unacceptable for a woman to really express love because it may give the impression she has lowered herself for her man. Not of course that there should be public displays like that lol. I mean why isn’t it possible that the woman meant it? Love has never made you make questionable decisions or act out of character?

          • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 3:26 pm #

            SSL

            Line 1 was a joke. Seriously.

            So I won’t bother with the rest because I can’t begin to imagine how you could read all that into a joke.

          • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:34 pm #

            Oh, I guess I couldn’t tell it was a joke so my bad.

        • seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 9:09 pm #

          She gave herself head, then she gave him head. Double head. It’s like 2 aces, you gotta split em.

    • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 2:44 pm #

      Well we definitely all come to an end one day unless they come up with a cure for death. But it doesn’t mean we can’t try to make things better while we are here. But that means we would have to agree on a path forward and that is where we are having problems.

    • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 2:48 pm #

      And I don’t like the original ending. So you say it is more realistic. And maybe, ok probably, that is the case. But it still doesn’t mean all the time. It isn’t like a natural law or something.

  60. Cavepainter February 23, 2019 at 6:50 am #

    James: Again I’ll assert, there’s something insidious about the effect of living within communities governed under the additional level of government known as “HOA” — code enforced by local governmental jurisdictions. The guesstimates are that something like 70 million Americans live under such regimes. There’s a profit driven industry known as “community management ” that provides “service” that is much like that of the party official in a Stalinist commune, making sure that no one displays personal identifying effects to exterior of one’s own “living unit”, nor exhibits lifestyle difference (for instance type of vehicle driven) beyond the diktat within the “CC&Rs” even if doing so is without material consequence to other residents. Its a peculiar contradiction of the very definition of the term “community”.

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    • Cavepainter February 23, 2019 at 9:14 am #

      Anthropologically; within the “community” emerges an underlay of informally coerced conformity much like the court etiquette within the isolated, privileged communities of ruling class through history, living in castles perched defensively high above both the underling masses below and invading foreigners (same with dynastic China’s “forbidden cities”). Modern era gated communities come to mind?.

  61. FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 7:14 am #

    To the male audience of CFN: Happy Defender of the Fatherland Day!

    I do not remember where and when I heard this song – probably then I was two years old. This is amazing, but I remember some episodes of that time better than yesterday, and this song seems to have been connected with my grandfather, who according to family legends played an important role in the fact that the caravans with Studebakers on which MRLS Katyusha were set, reached Murmansk and managed to take part in the battle for Moscow.

    We are flying, hobbling in the mist – in both English and Russian
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-FIgW1TdDY

    And on November 9, 2016, immediately after Trump’s victory, it turned out that he knowingly loved this song, and I will give you reasons why I thought it necessary to include it in a post dedicated to Defender of the Fatherland Day.

    Song “Bye, Bye black bird” was written in 1926 by Ray Henderson on the words of Mort Dixon and was immediately recorded by Jean Austin, becoming a super hit, as it apparently expressed the spirit of the times, which then began to take possession of America.

    And not only America. It was this year in Berlin that an agreement was signed on friendship and cooperation between the USSR and Germany, including military cooperation, and Western Corporations, including Ford, General Motors but especially the Rockefeller Fund began to actively support Hitler.

    And the great knight of the World Revolution, Trotsky, was dismissed from the Soviet Politburo this year and began to carry out a plan that Ilya Ehrenburg described in his novel Trust DE – The Destruction of Europe.

    This plan in 1940 forced Hitler to express his admiration for Trotsky, 6 years after Alexandre Stavisky in France tried to realize it, and the failure of this attempt actually served as an occasion for a Grand Ball in Spaso House, which was convened by a fan of Trotsky and part-time first US ambassador to the USSR, William Bullet. He invited not only Karl Haushofer, but also his favorite author Mikhail Bulgakov, thus contributing to the writing of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, since this ball was described by Mikhail Bulgakov as the Ball of Satan in Master and Margarita.

    The plot of the song is vague, and I would even say symbolic, but contemporaries who thought in terms and symbols of those times understood it in the sense that it was a song about a prostitute who decided to quit her profession, say goodbye to New York and return home to her mother in the countryside.

    And now she says goodbye to the difficult times that the Black Bird personifies in the song, and this makes this song not only an answer to the song about “Blue Bird of Happiness”, but also a kind of negative of the folk song “House of the Rising Sun”, about the prostitute returning to work.

    Moreover, the most famous performer of the song “House of the Rising Sun”, Alan Price, considered “Bye, Bye black bird” to be the granddaughter of an English ballad of the times of Enclosure and even the great-great-granddaughter of the times of “Ruin of the North” by William the Bastard.

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

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

    For many years I sang this song behind the wheel of my Delta-88 driving across the vast spaces of the US. And for me, too, it became a symbol of hope for better times, when it will be possible to quit this job, this city and this country, and end up in Moscow, the capital of the USSR.

    And once I was home, in the sense in the place where I lived in Chicago, the first thing I wanted to do was look for it on the Internet. Or rather, not just this song, but its quite definite arrangement from “Melvin and Howard” – one of the first films that I saw in the USA.

    And I was very surprised to find that the performance of this song by the famous Jason Robards is absent there, despite the fact that it is undoubtedly one of the best, despite the fact that it became the focus of attention of such geniuses as Bob Fosse, Liza Minnelli and Ella Fitzgerald, occupying the central place in their work. The only thing that I was able to detect is a very bad recording from a TV camera confirming that such a recording exists:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VN7f4bPYLo

    It seemed that someone specifically erased the song from this film, and I decided to investigate this issue more closely, after which the abyss, really leading to the 12th century, opened up before me. In particular, it turned out that it was not by chance that Goebel’s propaganda used this song performed by the so-called “Charlie Orchestra” to demoralize the British pilots of the time of the battle for London.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML–h2YV9Ho

  62. FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 7:25 am #

    And I do not mention Hillary Clinton accidentally, because the film “Melvin and Howard” describes the circumstances of the death of Howard Hughes, whom Donald Trump calls his teacher and who was not only a major builder, but also one of the creators of the first commercial aircraft capable of flying over thunderstorm fronts.

    And in 1953, he almost brought to its knees the very mass media that were formed after the anti-communist and anti-Semitic pogrom in Hollywood, organized by Senator McCarthy, and which had just nearly brought Hillary Clinton to power.

    But most importantly, Howard Hughes financed the organization of the American soldiers who liberated concentration camps, who even after the pro-Nazi coup by Truman continued to catch members of the SS who fled to the Middle East.

    These Nazis created the secret organization ODESSA, which was financed by the “discoverer” of Arab oil, Jean Paul Getty, who made his “discovery” after instructions received from Nazi geologists. In addition, with the help of his museum, he provided substantial assistance to the Nazi in the monetization of the treasures of art that they had looted in the conquered Europe.

    But the circumstances of the death of Howard Hughes are very mysterious – suffice it to say that 30 broken needles were found in his body, which he allegedly forgot to remove after taking the drugs. But on the other hand, it is known that he was associated with President Roosevelt’s son, whose life is very similar to the life of Vasily Stalin and who, together with General Omar Bradley, created the very anti-Nazi organization, the unofficial anthem and call sign of which, in the spirit of controversy of Goebbels propaganda, became the original song “Bye, bye black bird”.

    In recent years, Howard Hughes has been directly linked to the Watergate scandal that has buried the first detente of international tensions, and the fact that Donald Trump financed remakes of Howard Hughes films and the film “Aviator” gives hope that he will not succumb to intrigues and will not cooperate with those who dealt so harshly with Howard Hughes and Richard Nixon.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVjyZvzpgp4

  63. Elrond Hubbard February 23, 2019 at 8:40 am #

    Nike just bricked its self-lacing shoes by accident

    https://mashable.com/article/nike-app-connected-shoe-bricked/#mOyVnlbblsqs

    “This is the future we deserve.

    “Owners of the newly released $350 Nike app-connected Adapt BB self-tying shoes have taken to the Google Play store to complain that an update left their fancy kicks bricked. That’s right, the self-lacing shoes reportedly no longer connect to the accompanying app — essentially transforming them into regular old shoes (buttons on the side of the shoes means you can still tie them). And people are pissed.

    “Here’s how, according to a press release, the shoes are supposed to work: An internal ‘advanced power-lacing system’ combines with an ‘app and continually updated firmware’ to tie and untie your footwear. The app lets you choose your perfect fit, and the shoe adjusts to your foot’s changing size as it theoretically swells throughout a basketball game. Again, that’s how it’s supposed to work.”

    “Some customers using Android phones to pair their Adapt BB’s encountered a slightly different reality, however.

    “‘app wont pair with left shoe,’ reads one such review from Feb. 17. ‘paired with sneakers right after unboxing then completely crashed after last update.’

    “Others encountered a similar problem.

    “‘the app has less functionality than the iOS app, and the first software update for the shoe threw an error while updating, bricking the right shoe,’ reads another. ‘needs serious work.'”

    No word yet on when we can expect Internet-connected asswipes.

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:32 am #

      I wonder about the mentality of the people that design these concepts. They must really think we are really dumb that we cannot even tie our shoes, or wipe our butts.

    • GreenAlba February 23, 2019 at 12:37 pm #

      My first reaction was to check it wasn’t 1st April.

    • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:06 pm #

      Such a purposeless use of resources…

    • tucsonspur February 23, 2019 at 3:09 pm #

      First, we need internet connected toilets.

      https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/04/toilet-role-internet-things/

      Maybe they’ll put cologuard out of business and I won’t have to worry about shitty mail service anymore.

      Actually, mail service is pretty good. Here, at least.

      • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:32 pm #

        LOL – getting down to the basics and being monitored and recorded at all points. We might as well be machines!

      • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 9:48 am #

        Is there an Australian version that warns you if there’s one of those redback spiders lurking in wait for an exposed rear?

    • Tate February 23, 2019 at 3:19 pm #

      But Elon Musk promises we’ll all have self-driving cars within a couple of years.

  64. Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 9:27 am #

    For those of you, like myself, who have had trouble following all this Russiagate nonsense, as documented here by Jim these past many months, here’s a slightly more concise summary (but still quite lengthy) that brings it all into focus with the “deep understanding” required to make sense of what the media and a few of their well-meaning, but foolish acolytes here have alleged to be a slam dunk case of “Russian Collusion” (oh, the horror!!!). This will take a couple posts, but it’s an excellent read. The in-text numbers are endnotes to the original text.

    Estulin, Daniel. In the Shadows of a Presidency (Kindle Locations 654-771). Trine Day. Kindle Edition.

    The Russians Have Landed’ – Whoops, It’s the British, Once Again

    “According to the “narrative” provided by the media to the American population, around June 2016, two weeks after Donald Trump was declared the Republican nominee, the Democratic National Committee discovered that its computers had been “hacked.” It immediately called in a private company, “CrowdStrike,” which declared the source of the attacks to be Russian, particularly Russian state entities. “On July 22, shortly before the Democratic Party convention, Wikileaks published internal Democratic National Committee documents which showed that the DNC19 was conspiring to destroy the candidacy of Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders. Barack Obama’s DNC Chairman, Debbie Wasserman Shultz, was forced to resign over the ensuing scandal, along with other DNC employees. In October, Wikileaks published emails from John Podesta,20 Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and the leader of the Center for American Progress, the “idea” factory for the Obama Administration.21 The Podesta emails elaborated on Hillary Clinton’s fawning Wall Street speeches22 and the scummier financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation. “They also showed that Donna Brazile, a commentator for CNN and the then Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party, who is also a creature of the NED, helped Hillary cheat in the CNN-sponsored Presidential debates, by feeding her questions beforehand. “There are several anomalies lurking beneath the surface in the media’s official “narrative” about the alleged Russian hack attack:

    “1. It has never been established that whatever happened at the DNC or to John Podesta’s gmail account had anything to do with the damning Wikileaks releases.

    “2. CrowdStrike is run by a violently anti-Putin Russian émigré, the Atlantic Council’s Dmitri Alperovitch,23 and one George Kurtz. Kurtz is a personal computer security veteran who founded CrowdStrike as a special project of the long-standing Deep State investment entity known as Warburg Pincus. CrowdStrike has multiple security contracts with US and foreign intelligence agencies.24 The DNC refused to let the FBI examine the hacked computers25 and relied solely on CrowdStrike for its forensics and conclusions. “The rest of the intelligence community appears to have done the same. Alperovitch alleged, shortly thereafter, that the same hacking gear used by the Russians to hack the DNC had also been used by the Russians to hack various guidance systems of Ukrainian government missiles in Ukraine, a claim that was instantly debunked by almost the entire international computer security community.

    “3. One of the alleged internal alarms at the DNC that there was something wrong with its computers “was the April 2016 report of staffer and consultant Alexandra Chalupa that her computer had been hacked. She was allegedly investigating the ties of then Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to Russia and Putin, working with “journalists” and intelligence officials in Ukraine to discredit Manafort and Trump.”26 In other words, she was a Clinton opposition research consultant – in the vernacular an “oppo” operative gathering intelligence against Hillary’s rival for the presidency – working with Ukrainian and other intelligence agencies, who otherwise collaborate with MI6, the CIA, and with George Soros and the NED’s Project Democracy apparatus.

    “4. The FBI and the intelligence community initially didn’t buy the Obama/Clinton “oppo” line about Russian interference in the elections and deep Trump ties to Russia. The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, for example, stated that he did not know “what all the hyperventilation is about. Clapper alluded to the fact that cyberwar cyberwar is simply what state intelligence agencies do, the US included. Clapper also knows that the US has intervened to rig elections throughout the world and was probably suspiciously reluctant to open that door, absent significant preparation. So, after their initial Putin demon gambit landed with a public thud, and put, ironically, war and peace squarely on the public’s agenda, Clinton and Obama produced yet more leaks from anonymous sources. They claimed that election systems in Illinois and Arizona had been hacked by the Russians, and that the Russians were the source of major hacks at media organizations including the New York Times and CNN. These stories appeared and disappeared from public view in short order.

    “5. According to media accounts, and FBI Director Comey’s testimony on March 20, 2017, the FBI opened a counter-intelligence investigation in July 2016, into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia and Russian “interference” in the election. The media accounts state that it had been abandoned by October for lack of evidence. Comey stated in his March 20 Congressional testimony simply that it had opened in July and continued. A counter-intelligence investigation often involves targeted surveillance and national security wiretaps which cannot be discussed under the law. “The penalty for disclosure is ten years in prison.”27 Under Executive Order 12333, governing much of this type of surveillance, officials can lie about its existence in order to protect, “sources and methods.”

    “6. In October and November 2016 a new escalation of the Trump/Putin demonization campaign was begun. A dodgy and salacious dossier was circulated from the Obama/Clinton opposition research team, claiming that the President-elect engaged in perverse sexual acts while in Russia,28 and could be blackmailed by Putin as a result. The dossier amplified public statements by candidate Clinton and a Washington, D.C. whisper campaign to the effect that Donald Trump was a “Manchurian candidate,” a Putin puppet. By October 29, Harry Reid, the now retired American politician who served as a Democratic Party Senator from Nevada, had already gone before Congress to declare that the FBI was withholding devastating information about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and that he had received classified briefings about the matter. The dodgy dossier also provided numerous allegations to back up the phony Russian election “interference” claims, as well as providing new claims about Manafort’s29 alleged Russian ties. The dodgy dossier had so little credibility that most media outlets, who otherwise bit on every hysterical morsel fed to them about Trump, refused to publish it.”30

    “7. But then, in January 2017, Buzzfeed, which had frequently published raw Clinton/Obama “oppo” stories, published the fake dodgy dossier in full.31 The US intelligence community, particularly Obama’s ghoulish grand inquisitor, CIA head John Brennan, proceeded to give it credibility by leaking that both President-elect Trump and President Obama had been briefed on its contents. “The author of the dodgy dossier was Christopher Steele, a “former” British intelligence agent who, the Guardian reported32, once headed the Russian desk of MI6, and was on contract to the Clinton oppo team. “Thus, the effort to delegitimize the Trump Presidency emanated from the highest levels of Anglo-American intelligence – the authors of endless coups and political assassinations. It was accompanied by a “unanimous” but factless public “official assessment” by the US intelligence community (reportedly dragging both the FBI and the NSA reluctantly along). It “assessed” that Putin had personally directed a hacking campaign to interfere with the election and tip it in Trump’s favor.”33 Rather than provide facts to back this “assessment,” the appendix to the official report is an attack on Russian press outlets, particularly RT (rt.com), for successful “propaganda” efforts in the United States. As we shall see, this targeting, which seemed so McCarthyite and plainly weird at the time, was hardly accidental. “The Democrats, the news media, and Senate Republicans, led by McCain and Graham, went berserk, demanding special prosecutors and Congressional investigations,34 and sneering that “other shoes” were about to drop. Democratic Senator Mark Warner, his voice shaking, and looking in every respect like the overgrown adolescent that he is, solemnly declared that investigating and pumping these allegations was the most important moment of his life. Other Democrats and allied media, like the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, having clearly lost it, claimed that Russia had committed an “act of war,” presumably seeking to invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty.”35 However, Bill Binney, one of the best analysts in the history of the NSA, from the outset said that DNC could not be a hack; it had to be a leak. A hack goes over the network. The Russians are accused of hacking into the Democratic National Committee emails, and they’re also accused of surfacing the Podesta emails. But Binney says, “Here are the slides that Ed Snowden brought out; here are the trace points, the trace mechanism. And there are hundreds in the network. So, everything that goes across the network, you know where it starts and you know where it ends up, everything. So, if this were a hack, NSA would know about it. NSA does not know about it.”36

    • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 9:32 am #

      Not sure where the follow on post went. Seems to be hung up in the ether.

      • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 9:43 am #

        OK Jim, I tried to post the second part three times to no avail, so if it ever goes through, please delete two of them. Thanks.

        • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 11:17 am #

          Make that four and three now.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 9:57 am #

      It is very dangerous to underestimate the significance of the “Russian Collusion” narrative, which is the surface part of the deep divide in the ranks of American Elite how to deal with the refusal of Russia to obey by the surrender agreements signed at the end of the Cold War by Gorbachev, who apparently, was a double-agent of Anglo Saxons and Germans at the same time.

      Your Estulin character is just throwing a shadow on the dead hedge.

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:52 am #

        Huh? Estulin is just putting a chronological big picture on what happened. The numbers in the text are references that are documented at the bottom of the page, he is not pulling anything out of his backside. It was a leader of the NSA that cried foul on the Russia hack, one of our guys. “ It had to be a leak”. Anyone remember Seth Rich?

        • FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 11:04 am #

          Those, of course, are very important details, which does not give you a “big picture” of what is happening.

          Constant arguing about these details without having access to actual documented information will lead to utter frustration, just like was the case with “911 truth movement”.

          Only the “Shakespearean Artistic Truth” is the way out of this frustration.

          • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 11:13 am #

            To understand the big picture, you must first understand the small picture details. Most people, to their credit, can intuit that this whole Russian Collusion nonsense was fabricated from the start simply by knowing who was behind it and the rather curious timing involved. Granted, “Shakespearean Artistic Truth’s” are often informative to consider when looking at events in retrospect, but they generally don’t deliver the mail when it comes to establishing actual facts in the present.

          • FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 11:17 am #

            The “actual facts” of the matter is that we are in the middle of a new “Caribbean Missile Crisis”, much worse than in 1962, and I was waiting in vain for either our host or someone from the commentariat to bring up the matter.

          • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 11:18 am #

            Venezuela, I take it?

          • FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 11:20 am #

            No, Bahamas.

            Of course Venezuela, god damn it!

      • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 11:05 am #

        You’re smoking some of that good shit again, I see, Finc.

        • FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 11:07 am #

          Yeah, yeah, I was accused of that before. I wish…

          • Ol' Scratch February 23, 2019 at 11:18 am #

            Well then maybe you should START, old boy!

    • ozone February 23, 2019 at 11:19 am #

      Scratch,
      To set the scene properly, all one needs is Bill Binney’s very well-informed opinion. Of course it was a *leak*, but what was leaked was derived from a stone-simple DOWNLOAD of the information on-site.

      Any snooping/digging that does not include this starting point should be considered a red herring (at best).

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 11:59 am #

        Bill Bonney said that in his assessment, there was no hacking coming from Russia to probe the DNC and Podesta. There was no “talk” on the internet detected by the NSA. The source of Assanges data was a leak in the DNC and surveillance of an idiots emails protected by a really great password, “ password”.

        The entire credibility of the intelligence agencies in the US and the Democratic Party is at stake right now with the repudiation of the Russia gate scenario. IMHO, the Mueller fiasco will never be released because it is going to reverse public opinion on the whole Deep State, Trump confrontation. The FBI especially and the entire saturation of DC by the Dems is going to take a huge hit as their lies, cheating and maybe murder comes to light through the further GOP investigations in the Senate of The Whole fiasco. The intel group is currently trying to tear down Binney’s and Snowden’s credibility on the NSA. As well as Assanges credibility.

        Personally, I hope things continue and the corruption of the Deep State is fully exposed, and Bonney, Snowden and Assanges emerge as heroes. I also hope the three of them have good security as whistleblowers like them have a history of committing suicide.

        • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

          Darn spell check, Binney, not Bonney.

          • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 12:36 pm #

            Bill Bonney.

            That ‘s Billy the Kid!

            The Kid was photographed carrying Whitney–Kennedy 44/.40 lever action rifle and a Colt 44/.40 Single Action Army revolver, both mfg. in Ct. The ‘Kid’ knew his guns.

            The iconic photo of him — the only photo — has been detailed and colorized, the Kid gazing back at you thru 140 years of American history.

            Brh

      • volodya February 23, 2019 at 12:24 pm #

        Yeah John AZ, I remember Seth Rich. That is one loose end that’s still wrigglin’.

        It would behoove us mightily to listen to those shouting from the roof-tops, Binney being one of those shouters, if only because main-stream “truth” is manifestly codswallop. Actually, Binney isn’t just some bearded loon but maybe someone with something worthwhile to consider.

        Now, I’ve heard it said that political parties are private organizations so they can run their internal affairs as they see fit. So, if they saw fit to undermine Bernie’s campaign, well, they can have at it. If they want to promote a candidate as obviously compromised as Hillary, they can fill their boots.

        But they do a wider disservice when their own crookedness and idiocy trips up the process of winnowing out the unworthy in favor of the worthy and then embroils the energies and attention of the country in a corrupt process of dislodging a sitting president.

        There’s no measuring how full of shit the Republican Party is and was and how beholden they were and are to moneyed interests whose interest it was and is to plunge the USA into wrack and ruin. But that does not in the slightest excuse the howling malfeasance on the Democrat side of the political ledger. In any event, it should be clear that as vile as the Republicans are, the Democrats are in the service of the same pockets as their opponents. Both are parties of Wall Street and Davos and set themselves in direct opposition to the well-being of the great mass of the American electorate.

        • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 12:50 pm #

          Right on!

          Think, maybe both sides owe allegiance to powers larger than themselves.

          The vile element comes from the higher power and is infecting both sides.

          The vile element is fighting the common foe, the Populists in the US. Trump is under siege from both sides, ie the Deep State.

          Just look at the GOPers fighting Trump, they are more attached to the vile element than they are to their own country.

          Trump is providing a valuable service. By being a focal point of attack by the Vile Element, he is exposing their presence to the folks. Hopefully, the American voter will shut down the globalists and their subject, the Deep State. If not, ???

        • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:35 pm #

          SETH X 130 = Body Count.

  65. FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 11:24 am #

    No, Bahamas.

    And today, Putin stressed that Russia does not want a repetition of the Caribbean crisis.

    “If someone wants it, then be my guest. I told them what would happen,” the president concluded.

    And it suddenly occurred to me that, by analogy, Putin could only say this after a couple dozen of Topol-M and a couple of dozen of Iskander-K were already in Venezuela guarded by Cuban divisions.

    Iskander from there just to reach Florida, where is the main US naval base, and Topol to Washington!

    I would not even rule out Avanguards in refrigerated containers in such a situation.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/scott-pelley-commits-career-suicide/#comment-399097

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    • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 12:08 pm #

      “Iskander from there just to reach Florida, where is the main US naval base, and Topol to Washington!

      I would not even rule out Avanguards in refrigerated containers in such a situation.”

      …Oh Mother!

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 12:37 pm #

        Come on folks.

        Venezuela being backed by Russia, China and Cuba.

        The cartels active in Columbia, Venezuela, Central America and Mexico.

        Caravans flooding our border with poverty class folks from the South, Syria and China. Evil trades crossing the same barrier.

        Now, potential missiles in Venezuela.

        Does the offensive aimed at the US have to be any more apparent.

        The real problem is that 50% of the Americans are on their side, trying to open the border to let all the slime balls in. It is hard enough to keep the wolves at bay, with elements of the wolf pack living next door.

        • seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 2:53 pm #

          It’s not slime you jackass. It’s people trying to make a better life for them selves. Just like the Germans, and the Irish, and the Italians and any other number of people before them including your ancestors. I heard WOP literally means “With out papers.”

          • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:10 pm #

            Ms13 traffickers and mules, human traffickers and slave coyotes are slime balls. I stand with my statement.

          • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:12 pm #

            And why do you always pick one little detail of a post instead of addressing the main point.

          • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:36 pm #

            No, they are not just like Europeans who entered legally and kissed the ground upon arrival.

            got it?

  66. JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 12:25 pm #

    Think about the world from Russian perspective.

    Both sides of the political spectrum in the US are opening economic avenues into Russia’s oligarchs of which Putin is one. Dems through Bill and Hill and GOP through operatives that later came to work with Trump. Bill and Hill are also soldiers for the globalists. Things were going very smoothly, so much so that the American public had no idea what was going on.

    Then Trump walked down the steps and declared for the Presidency.

    The Dems and the never Trumpers immediately declared war on Trump by trying to tie him to those evil Russians. All the investigations started up by the FBI and the DNC. The intel group have kept at it until today. Bill, Hill, The DNC, Soros et al have been using the forces of the DOJ under Obama and Sessions to attempt to disqualify the people”s choice, through the primary season and the general election. Once he won, the just shifted the Russiagate over to a special prosecutor.

    Russia, Putin, watches all of this, figures out that there are oligarchs in Russia siding with Bill, Hill and the globalists, in and out of America. He went on the defensive. He sided with the Trump side here as he saw the threat to himself from the Deep State. What he did in reaction, we shall soon see, hopefully.

    Collusion during the campaign? Putin’s shift happened later.

  67. BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 12:42 pm #

    And speaking of detailed and colorized film, we went and watched ‘They Shall not Grow Old’ the other night. When the film transforms from black and white to color, as the Expeditionary Force ships out to France, you could hear the audience gasp. It was that dramatic.

    Brh

    • Tate February 23, 2019 at 3:25 pm #

      We saw that last month. It was amazing.

      • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 4:31 pm #

        As I recall you wrote a succint little review about the film, which is one of the reasons we went to see it.

        This blog influences people in many ways.

        Brh

        • Tate February 23, 2019 at 6:54 pm #

          Did you stay after the credits to watch how the old film was brought up to modern standards?

    • A great movie about a stupid war…. interesting.

      I wonder if Peter Jackson’s interest grew out of his familiarity with Tolkien and his experience in WWI

  68. seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 2:42 pm #

    If walls stop drugs, how do drugs get into prison? Osmosis?

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:07 pm #

      No, it is because the Deep State running things wants the drugs unimpeded. 50 billion dollars and adequate surveillance Manning and technology could put a huge dent in the trade. And be a drop in the bucket in a welfare budget it is taking to take care of the illegals

      Stop the drugs and start WW3.

    • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:11 pm #

      Oh now seawolf you already know the answer to that question. Corrupt cops and guards no? The point is its not one its everything. Walls definitely work, and so does thorough house cleaning.

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:35 pm #

        SSL

        When you read Estulin, you will understand why the Deep State does not want a wall and why they have to do anything possible to keep up the drug trade.

      • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:30 pm #

        SSL,
        Corrupt cops? Really? Do you have any idea how stupid it would be for a cop to deliver himself into the hands of some skel in prison for a few bucks? You cannot sound the depth of contempt a cop has for a predator…in prison or out.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 1:56 pm #

          There was once a police officer who kept pulling this girl over when she would drive through this one area of town. He kept propositioning her and she always said no. It became really uncomfortable so she never goes there anymore.

          • elysianfield February 24, 2019 at 6:24 pm #

            SSL,
            It is not that there are corrupt cops…they can be as corrupt as anyone else…it is just that cops develop “street-smarts” as do the criminals…cops know they would be delivered up by the criminal the first time it would be profitable to do so.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 9:11 pm #

            I see what you mean EF. And I think most cops are definitely the good guys. From everything I do know its a very tough job and not one just anyone has the strength for.

    • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:27 pm #

      “If walls stop drugs, how do drugs get into prison”

      Wolfie,
      uhh…butts? Actually visitor’s butts.

      The immigrants want to…visit the USA.

  69. seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 2:47 pm #

    Why would a drug czar decide to cross an open border when if he goes through a port of entry there are literally thousands of containers full of furniture, toys, appliances, food of every kind including meat. cheese, vegetables, fruits, grain, beans, not to mention cars boats, motorcycles, trucks, electronics and literally everything under the sun? Why would he make a caravan out in the desert when he could use safety in numbers, the impossible task of searching every single container cost effectively? It’s just butt fucking stupid to think he would. That is why the wall is stupid and retarded. It is counting on drug czars to be stupid and retarded, which I can assure you they are not.

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:02 pm #

      Seawolf, instead of trying to fight the drug traffic with every tool that can be created, you seem to favor letting all that poison just stream in.

      ?????

    • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:20 pm #

      Of course they are not stupid! They are using our own broken system and laws against us. We are the stupid ones to allow such a travesty to happen in plain sight. But you make a great point regarding ports of entry. I am good with shutting down those too plus having the Wall. The country is going bankrupt anyway so once it does go belly up there will be no attraction to heading north and many of the refugees may just go back home because they don’t love this country they want in on the buffet. It’s human nature. Can’t blame them since we are the retards with the door open.

      • The USA standard wage is 7.5x Mexico, 15-20x central America. In America a dishwasher makes in 1 hour what a laborer in Mexico makes in a full day.

        Even in bankruptcy, its hard to imagine the USA contracting by 7.5x to parity with Mexico. If it does it means that categorically the world would be in a depression.

        That is why they are coming. Employers. Politicians don’t want to hit agriculture, hospitality, construction, landscape, and restaurants. Especially if they are going to be called racists.

        Trump had his chance, he blew it, and signed the Dem deal.

        • 100th Avatar February 23, 2019 at 6:59 pm #

          The wall is not going to stop anything.
          It’s a monument to a line drawn in the sand.
          A monument to the idea of secure borders.
          Nothing more.

          Stopping illegal immigration is essentially very simple:

          -no jobs
          -no schools
          -no bank accounts
          -no hospital care

          But stopping illegal immigration is something nobody wants.
          They want a roadblock. A speed-bump.
          A trickle, not a flood.
          A constant trickle… that will become a sea(change)

          Y que le voy a hacer si yo, de pequeño encontre la fuerza de mi mundo
          Y que le voy a hacer si yo, si yo pienso que ellos y nosotros sumamos uno
          Que le voy a hacer
          Y es que gota sobre gota somos ola que hacen mares
          Gotas diferentes pero gotas todas iguales
          Y una ola viene y dice

          Somos una marea de gente todo diferente remando al mismo compas
          Y es que somos una marea de gente todo es diferente remando al mismo compas

          • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 11:43 am #

            Y A W N

            bostezar

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 1:43 pm #

            I agree with you. No access to jobs and banking for non-citizens. No access to any public benefit or services. I guarantee you they would essentially disappear. But I don’t agree in withholding hospital care. That’s cruel. But you can heal em and ship em. And we do need a wall. It’s a basic component.

          • 100th Avatar February 24, 2019 at 6:18 pm #

            I’m not advocating it, but it’s an easy step as hospital emergency care is used as a clinic by illegal aliens.
            Why so many border hospitals have gone bankrupt.

            My feeling is that humans are migratory.

            There is no stopping it.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 9:03 pm #

            Well humans have a capacity to be migratory but are not necessarily so in my opinion. There have always been pressures to migrate and pressures to stay put. So it comes back to the war of things and whose will ends up prevailing. It is stoppable at the national level in my opinion.

  70. JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:15 pm #

    SSL

    Ol’ Scratch is reading Estulin’s book and commenting on it much better than I. Good posts.

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    • SoftStarLight February 23, 2019 at 3:25 pm #

      I ordered a real copy (real books are cool) and am waiting on it. I avoided the post cuz a spoiler alert went off :-). So it won’t spoil it if I read the posts?

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:31 pm #

        Nope. He presents so much info that I will read it twice. I am shocked by some of his research just like I was by JHK’s The Long Emergency. Both are very good at popping naivety balloons.

  71. JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 3:39 pm #

    Just heard that the sting of Kraft with Orchids of Asia Day Spa is going to expose lots of folks and some bigger than Kraft. The sting was aimed at human trafficking. I hope the cops that have exposed this have their life insurance paid up.

    • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 4:38 pm #

      and if they dont have a weinergate life insurance file, then what?

  72. tucsonspur February 23, 2019 at 3:54 pm #

    A great drug was falling from the sky. Not quite a white powder, but giving me a glorious high. Not blow, but magnificent snow.

    2 to 3 inches in Southern Arizona yesterday. Had to sweep the Junipers and Oleanders before the freeze. Elemental fire tonight, burn away the false yet all too real world of politics.

    • ” Had to sweep the Junipers and Oleanders before the freeze. ”

      Any excuse to work. I swear… white people

      • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 1:35 pm #

        And that’s why his house is so much nicer and way more inviting than yours. You need to step your game up Captain Planet. You are getting better with each passing day ;-).

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 1:27 pm #

      I hope you were able to stay warm! Enjoy the desert snow :-). I bit it is really neat.

  73. seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 4:13 pm #

    While we’re talking about the stupid fucking wall China is leaving us in the dust. Nio will rule the automotive world one day.
    https://www.cbsnews.com/video/electric-cars-will-china-win-the-race-to-dominate-the-global-electric-car-industry-60-minutes/

    • Meh. There is a ton of competition in this sector.

      Now, about that wall…

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 6:07 pm #

      Exactly, build the damn thing, and get on with business. The cost is trivial compared to the upkeep of another ten million immigrants.

      We already have an expert at electric cars, Musk et al. The problem is batteries, they do not last long enough. The problem pervades the alternative energy field. Wind, solar generation are both hamstrung with battery storage issues.

      Want the government to invest in something useful, pour money into a battery that can store four days worth of energy for a household and can get an electric car up to 600 miles on a charge that lasts for an hour. And costs $30000.

      Until then, fill er up will be the word of the day.

      • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 9:06 am #

        You all have no idea what’s about to happen.

  74. PFAS.

    The New York Times reports its been found in the drinking water of 50 US military bases. Cancer clusters rising in places like Colorado.

    The New Agent Orange, they are calling it, but that is disingenuous- they didn’t put PFAS in food wrappers.

    Still being produced all over the world, in places like China and of course, Russia, with much less oversight and governments incentivized to ignore it.

    In the US, the EPA was weakened by generations of Republicans and their lobbyist handlers.

    The result is a widespread toxic problem, the kind of ultimate perversion, where yuppies buy stain-resistant carpet, poison their kids, then put them in a school system which flogs them for being stupid. My condolences to everyone who grew up in the lead-laced, chemically polluted, post-sustainable world we’ve created.

    Today, the average person in America with all the accoutrements the middle class is a walking sponge filled with toxic chemicals. They’ve ruined the environment, and destroyed their children’s futures. And most are so ignorant they have no idea they did this to themselves. Meanwhile the weakened EPA is organizing a Trump study of Climate Change. What they will report is presaged by the placement of a climate change denier and industry flack on the committee.

    The perversions never end, but there is hope.

    The older generations are beginning to die off, and the youth are the largest demographic in American History. I sometimes worry that the Boomers are setting themselves up to be kicked to the curb. I have been following the nascent organizations being created that are recruiting enormous grassroots support from this demographic, the type of demographic AOC and the New Green Deal speaks to.

    The NYT reported this week the NGD contains nothing that wouldn’t be implausible or imprudent considering the size of the market and the fallacies of staking our future on the success of fossil fuels. We’ve ceded market share in renewables, but the potential exists for regaining that edge, and converting domestic energy to these sources. These are consistent with the resolutions the US signed to meet carbon goals under the IPCC to restrain warming to 2 degrees.

    The 15-18 year olds meeting across the country in large numbers represent the leading edge of a demographic with everything to gain and nothing to lose. That makes me optimistic that this movement can go worldwide, because the demographic is even larger around the world.

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    • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 4:48 pm #

      They have a lot to lose. For one, a steady and reliable supply of electricity to keep the lights on, the food refrigerated, and their houses warm.

      Do these kids even know where electricity comes from, how it is generated, what kind of energy it takes to spin the massive turbines that generate power we rely on?

      They don’t know sh-t? They’re just being used by cynical and manipulative adults, which they will resent later on in life.

      Brh

      • How are they being used and by whom?

        • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 6:14 pm #

          Not sure.

          Trying to watch this film ‘Mars Needs Women’.

          It appears to be one of those movies that’s ‘so bad its good’.

          Kind of like Ed Wood’s ‘Planet 9 from Outer Space’, but not as charming.

          Brh

          • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 7:45 pm #

            I thought you might mean,

            Mars Needs Moms is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated motion-capture science fiction adventure family film based on the Berkeley Breathed book of the same title.

            The film is centered on Milo, a nine-year-old boy who, after being grounded, finally comes to understand the importance of family, and has to rescue his mother after she is abducted by Martians. It was co-written and directed by Simon Wells. It was released to theaters on March 11, 2011 by Walt Disney Pictures.[3]

            The film stars both Seth Green (motion capture) and newcomer Seth Dusky (voice) as Milo. This was the last film by ImageMovers Digital before it was absorbed back into ImageMovers.[4]

            The film grossed $39 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, making it a massive box-office bomb.

          • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 8:02 pm #

            No, Malthus, ‘Mars Needs Woman’, 1967, B movie sci fi classic starring Tommy Kirk and Yvonne Craig. Stripper Bubbles Cash also makes an appearance.

            Brh

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 6:33 pm #

      The real truth to the GND is exemplified by what Dianne Feinstein said to a group of school kids, there is no way that GND can be done. AOC has already gone after Feinstein on the subject saying that AOC will be in charge in DC now.

      Ha!

      The millennials and Gen zers do not have a clue what to do and the proof of that is the GND. The proposal is impossible, try to put it in place and this country will be GOP forever. AOC knows that and has to have a coup in the government to get the dictatorship she needs to carry out the fiasco. The backlash against her has already started in her own district.

      The coming Long Emergency is going to slow the use of fossil fuels no matter what happens now. Your youth will be spending their energy trying to figure out the alternatives to today’s heating, cooling and transportation techniques. And they have a huge problem, there isn’t any at the population levels that will exist.

      The NYT shows it’s ignorance of the situation if it says the GND is feasible.

      The Dems and GOPers have been working the issue for 20 years and nothing has happened. Why?

      Because what will happen if the GND would be implemented to any degree is so politically disastrous that a revolution will occur.

      The answer, there is no short term answer. The long term answer will be so awful, I am glad I will not be here for it. But I feel for my grandson.

      • “The Dems and GOPers have been working the issue for 20 years and nothing has happened. Why?

        Because what will happen if the GND would be implemented to any degree is so politically disastrous that a revolution will occur.”

        The goals could have been met with just a 2% per year drawdown 20 years ago. Now they need roughly 10% a year. Inverse compounding interest. Anyway, the technicals discussed in the article have a variety of opinions on its feasibility.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/politics/green-new-deal.html

        The reason nothing gets done is filibustering politics and avoidance of responsibility. Everyone is implicated, of course. People don’t have any idea what real sacrifice is or how to do it. Plus they’re dumb, fat and lazy. How hard is it to scare ignorant savages like these with the vague threat of “harm to the economy”? Its not hard.

        I read recently the average American wouldn’t even volunteer $1 to mitigate the effects of climate change. Its truly pathetic that science and technology put all this wonderful power in their hands, but in the end, maybe it was all hubris. What did we expect? The market only cares about annual profit, politicians 2, 4, or 8 years out.

        Feinstein’s execrable intolerance and discrimination toward 12 year olds is typical of most adults in America. Imagine if the voting age WAS 13. Feinstein would have been singing a different tune in front of those kids. What a creature she is…

  75. K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 5:03 pm #

    I’m curious, does anybody know where the humanitarian aid being stopped at the Venezuelan border is coming from? Who’s paying for this. Magic trucks just appear with stuff? How does this happen. How much is there. How much cash went to buy that stash!

    What color is this revolution?

    If Trump is involved does that make him complicit in the two deaths? Aaaaaaarrrr, never mind that last question. It is silly.

    The money should not be too hard to follow but it seems none of the news agencies want to do that. Why is this?

    And how many South American leaders does it take to suck one POTUS off? They are climbing over each other to be in the center of the news photos. It is disgusting! More than just money for food and medicine I’ll guess.

    • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 5:15 pm #

      Christ on a crutch. Finally found something.

      Venezuela’s military is braced for a showdown with opposition supporters at the country’s border crossings with Colombia and Brazil ahead of a US-backed effort to bring aid in.

      But what else would Aljazeera say. I guess what matters most is nobody else dares say who paid for the sausage. That says plenty.

      • Of course USAID has sent stuff.

        The Navy sent the USS Comfort last November and they’re headed back.

        The UN has been on the borders for years.

        • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 5:56 pm #

          The wait may soon be over. History may soon rhyme.

          Justinian and his fair Theodora. Justinian’s building projects included aqueducts and bridges. He built the fair Hagia Sophia of Istanbul. We can say of him, no wall too tall! Theodora a courtesan originally, was the daughter of entertainers. A bear-keeper father and an acrobat mother. Justinian inherited conflict with the Persians and alienated the Roman Pope. Curtailed government postal operations he did. A bit of a shutdown that was. Protracted war in Italy. As far away as Venezuela is from us it was. Down and left from him and down and right from us.

          Restoration activities to Make the Empire Great Again. The Ostrogothic kingdom seemed easy pickins. Not too big and no military match. Nobody to start a WW over defending it. Easier than a Persian war and a way to get ready for one.

        • ozone February 23, 2019 at 6:15 pm #

          “For decades, USAID, and its Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI), supplied the opposition with funding and training to defeat the Venezuelan socialists. This included funding and training for opposition students and their organizations, sending NGO representatives critical of the Venezuelan government abroad to drum up international resistance to Venezuelan government policies, and reaching out to Venezuelan government-supporters through neutral-looking, but opposition-led, community groups in an effort to direct them towards opposition political parties.”

          What? No, can’t be.

          • Soon Maduro will be humiliated as the USS Comfort’s 60mm Spam cannon warms up and unleashes a fusillade of processed meat onto targets across Caracas.

            The smell of sizzling ham and cookfires will permeate the region, and the peasants’ eyes will glow, their cheeks turning a healthy red, and a newfound strength will gird their loins for what will be an epochal uprising that will be sung generations from now about the day when Senor Trump’s Spam cannons defeated Maduro’s authoritarian regime and ushered in a new era of Walmart’s low low prices for everyone, praise Jesus, Amen.

    • ozone February 23, 2019 at 5:59 pm #

      K-Dog,
      ” Venezuela is not in need of U.S. aid. It is need of an end to the economic sanctions that put it under a medieval siege. There is no current lack of food or medicine like in Yemen though some products may run short.

      The UN, the Red Cross and Caritas already have aid distribution projects within Venezuela. They reject the U.S. aid delivery as a political stunt. The International Committee of the Red Cross recently doubled its budget for Venezuela to $18 million and is ready to provide more. Last week 933 tonnes of medicines from Cuba and China arrived. Another 300 tons from Russia is supposed to arrive today.”
      — Moon of Alabama – 2/21/2019

      Remember the fucking Maine, the fucking Tonkin Gulf, Kuwaiti babies thrown out of fucking incubators, Nine fucking Eleven, Weapons of Mass fucking Destruction in fucking Iraq, Maidan fucking Square………. and on and on and on. Not to worry, Boobus Americanus will fall for this one too. Fuck ’em; they deserve every rotten thing that blows back their way — including the poisons they’ve been encouraged to use and ingest.

      • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 6:14 pm #

        My readings led to to a fact indigestible to American suits. The military is a big deal in Venezuelan history and also in Venezuela’s current politics. Maduro has their support. Trying to out-aid the opposition as a battlefield tactic will totally backfire. The people of Venezuela will see it as an affront to sovereignty and an insult to the Venezuelan military. A very traitorous act that usurps their popular authority. Orange Gibbon types will be unable to appreciate the insult or the subtleties of the situation. Sponsoring a hothead is not helping.

        Conclusion. Very bad Mojo.

        • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 6:51 pm #

          I do not think the people give a damn about Maduro and his sovereignty while they are struggling to get their next meal. If the people defend Maduro as you suggest, who is in all the protests that are happening?

        • BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 7:50 pm #

          What they’re in short supply of in Caracas is toilet paper. If we could just deliver tp and other sanitary supplies it would go a long way.

          Brh

          • seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 8:53 pm #

            In Caracas, toilet paper is money.

          • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:49 pm #

            As it was in Russia for a long time.

      • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 6:49 pm #

        Venezuela is a non-shooting war between Russo-China and the US, at least so far. Just like all the others you mentioned, non-shooting or mini wars. So of course, Maduro is going to refuse aid from us and take it from the others.

        The real problem is that the economic system represented by socialism. DOES NOT WORK. Never has never will. Venezuela will go on the dole to the world just like all socialistic countries eventually do.

        The fix for the people is the removal of socialism and some good old fancy Yankee exploitation. Prior to the advent of socialism, Venezuela was the richest country in SA.

        By the way, what is the status of Venezuelas oil reserves? Are they past peak?

      • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 1:11 pm #

        It’s not very nice to wish harm on others for things they are not responsible for. You know better than others how powerless most people are in stopping the maniacs. Powerless however does not always translate into complicity. I for one don’t want to be a part of it. Your anger may be righteous but when channeled in the wrong direction is very hurtful.

    • ozone February 23, 2019 at 6:10 pm #

      …And a differing opinion about supplies:

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51150.htm

      Who owns the controlling interest in Venezuela’s largest producer of flour? (So that the population doesn’t have the correct flour to make traditional arepas…. boo hoo.)

      We could ask about fiscal policies that are making their currency worthless, if we actually gave a shit.

      • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 1:23 pm #

        I am glad you posted this. It educated me to a completely different perspective. It certainly makes me question what we are being spoon fed. And I do care.

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 6:35 pm #

      The USA is sending at least some of the aid. That is why Maduro is stopping it.

  76. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 6:42 pm #

    The Christians think that Trump’s the big “Savior” sent by God. But Trump’s been literally slurring his speech lately, and he’s surrounded himself with lunatic Neocons like John Bolton. Trump may have a Loose Nut?

    Have you ever been to the “Holy Land Amusement Park” in Orlando, Florida?

    “Orlando’s Holy Land Experience amusement park may be the only place on earth where you can watch a violent, mock-crucifixion of Jesus, climb a rock wall, play Bible-themed mini golf and eat a “Goliath Burger” all in the same day.

    Owned by Trinity Broadcasting Network, the park is a weird mix of Florida-amusement park-style fun and Bible lessons: It’s not only home to mini-golf and turkey legs, but also a “Scriptorium” Bible museum, televangelism studio and theaters that show Bible-themed productions.”

    https://relevantmagazine.com/culture/6-christian-amusement-parks-and-crazy-attractions-have-actually-existed

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 6:55 pm #

      What do you think Jesus, The Father, Mohammed would think of this fiasco. Just like everything else, there is no respect for anything anymore.

      Just $$$$$$.

      • ozone February 23, 2019 at 8:27 pm #

        Try to remember that when you decide that it’s in the vast majority of the people of Venezuela’s best interests to be ruled by the fucking oligarchy of skimmers and thieves…

        Everywhere I turn, I see *willful* hypocrisy of stunning proportions. On proud display too!

      • seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 9:24 pm #

        Mohammed just left Medina
        And He’s bound for Istanbul
        Well now, Mohammed just left Medina
        And He’s bound for Istanbul
        Working from one end to the other
        And all points in between
        Danow, danow, danow, duum
        Danow, danow, danow, duum

    • Pucker February 23, 2019 at 7:03 pm #

      Towards “The End” in Jonestown, Reverend Jim Jones was slurring his speech. People speculate that Reverend Jones was on pharmaceutical drugs that affected his speech and his mental faculties. A lot of the Americans now are medicating themselves on pharmaceuticals and “Recreational” Drugs.

      • Pucker February 23, 2019 at 8:11 pm #

        The Deep State may have Trump all-drugged-up to control him?

    • K-Dog February 23, 2019 at 7:17 pm #

      I was by it a few months ago. A Goliath Burger! If I had only known.

  77. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 7:18 pm #

    A Christian bloke commented on blog recently: “I wish that Jesus would just hurry up and get it over with.”

    He seems to be expressing frustration that Jesus is “Too Slow” and that Jesus needs to administer Justice and retribution more efficiently and stop wasting everyone’s Time?

    This Christian bloke must be one of those blokes who gets bored watching soccer because, unlike American football, there is not much scoring in soccer?

    • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 7:42 pm #

      And some doomers feel similar.
      Bring on collapse.
      The human race is destroying the planet, let its end happen,

      etc

      • seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 9:17 pm #

        Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Tap them bakes Mario Andretti. The human race is destroying the plant??? Let’s give credit where credit is due. The Republican Party is destroying the planet. It’s doing it while the whole world is saying you’re destroying the planet. They shrug and say fake news, fake science, and smile to themselves, and suck on their pinkie, and stroke their Mini Me’s head. They know they’re destroying the planet because they’re saving their little part of it with deliciously stupid ideas like building a wall. That’s right, a political party with an IQ just north of freezing is doing all this damage because we elect presidents with an electoral college. Don’t think it’s intelligent, it’s dumb as a box of rocks.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 12:57 pm #

          So then you don’t believe in democracy?

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 7:42 pm #

      Alternative theory.

      God in his covenants with Man signed a non-interference treaty with us, or else the intelligence, rationality and speech he allotted to Man meant nothing. He then kicked us out of Eden, figure of speech, to manage the Earth.

      Main thing, his non-interference.

      If God, as Jesus, comes again, will he come as a conquering warrior.

      Or as a garbage collector, cleaning up the mess we left behind after we created Armageddon. And creating a new world.

      • malthuss February 23, 2019 at 7:55 pm #

        Is God human or human like? Like an angel?

        • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:45 pm #

          Nope, even Jesus could not describe what God is all about. God sent Jesus to relate to us in human form. I guess when we die we will enter the spiritual world.

          Something I think is amazing. Matter in very small packages called stars or planets exert attraction called gravity over trillions of miles. How? Whatever gravity is, is invisible. We do not understand it but it is there. Does it exist? Guess so we are here. Same with electrical magnetic force. Iron filings follow force lines that are invisible without the filings. They are invisible but they are there.

          We are beings of matter. God’s kingdom are beings of spirit. Like gravity, we(matter) are here because they(spirit)are there.

          Physicists are having a hard time with what the universe acts like and have invented dark matter and dark energy to explain their observations. Both are invisible but like gravity are exposed with mathematics.

          Hmmm? Just like the spiritual world of God. The closer the physicists get to explaining the theory of everything, the closer we are to understanding God.

    • elysianfield February 23, 2019 at 7:47 pm #

      “I wish that Jesus would just hurry up”

      Puck,

      This should explain everything….

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsWg0bt9kp4

      • Pucker February 23, 2019 at 7:51 pm #

        I should probably read Emile Durkheim’s book “Suicide”?

  78. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 8:08 pm #

    On his deathbed, Alexander the Great’s followers asked him who should be his successor? With his last dying breath, Alexander the Great replied: “The Strongest….”

    So, after much debate, the Macedonians appointed Alexander the Great’s retarded brother as King. It didn’t work out….

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 9:55 pm #

      Interesting

      Did you know when Mohammed died, the two Muslim factions argued over whether the successor should be appointed or a descendent?

      They are still arguing about it, the Persians being the Shia, the Arabs being the Sunni.

      Ethnicity is the war causer, aided by religion, as an excuse.

  79. BackRowHeckler February 23, 2019 at 8:24 pm #

    Mama, take this badge off of me
    I cant use it anymore
    Its gettin dark, too dark to see
    I feel im knocking on heavens door

    Knock, knock knocking on heavens door
    Knock, knock knocking on heavens door
    Knock, knock knocking on heavens door
    Knock, knock knocking on heavens door

    Mama put my guns in the ground
    I cant shoot them anymore
    That long black cloud is coming down
    I feel im knocking on heavens door

    Bob Dylan,
    From ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’

    The reviews for the film weren’t too good, maybe one of Sam Peckinpah’s lesser efforts. Almost like a parody of some of his earlier westerns.

    Dylan didn’t really want to be there or be in the movies at all. He agreed because of the generous pay, which is a good enough reason for anybody.

    Brh

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    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 2:00 am #

      Zero Hedge has an article on riche towns.
      There are comments about NJ and Connecticut.

      heres –Canada,
      Toronto’s Bridle Path is a pot-hole riddled street of many of Canada’s richest families.
      Homes in the 10’s of millions of $ range, some with guard booths at the gates.
      They like the streets to be kept like the surface of the moon to discourage the riff raff from driving along gawking at the opulence. I drove down there once and said, bewildered, to my passenger … “A bus stop!?
      Why would there be a bus stop here! As if any of these people actually take public transit.” Of course he was correct in his reply: “The staff. The bus stop is only there so the paid help can get to work each day.”

      • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 3:36 am #

        That sounds like the situation down on the so called ‘Gold Coast’ from Greenwich out to about Westport. Not so much in the suburbs surrounding Hartford.

        What’s happening out here recently is ‘youths’ coming out at night into the towns to steal cars out of driveways and sometimes garages, were in our neighborhood last month and took two cars from ‘Mafia Hill’ (where Paul Manafort’s house was, mansions, yes, but not everybody up there is in the mafia, mostly nightclub and restaurant owners, and construction company moguls) Anyway, the next day there was a police shootout in Hartford near the Capital, two minority ‘Youths, in a stolen car shot, and my neighbor who works in the court said it was the same guys who were out here the previous night.

        That’s about the size of it right now. I expect the raids to continue in the future as civilization disintegrates and the rule of law crumbles. Sometimes my neighbor who is a prosecutor tells me about what really happens not far from here and it is chilling. We are surrounded.

        Brh

        • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 11:46 am #

          I cant keep up with all the progress USA makes as it moves forward.

          I read Imam Gay Barry sent 40k Somalis [IQ average 60] to Minnesota.
          Now there are 80k of these things there.

  80. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 8:29 pm #

    According to Daniel Estulin, John Podesta is into UFO’s. Podesta looks like a “UFO”.

    Daniel Estulin
    In the Shadows of a Presidency

  81. seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 8:42 pm #

    Jesus walks into the psychiatrists office and looks around. He looks out of place in his long flowing white robe and leather tie belt.
    “Hello Mr. Christ. We usually have you lie down on the couch there. Can I get you some water?” Dr. Evil says, signaling toward the garish red couch.
    “You can call me Jesus,” he replies lying down. He notes the soft comfort of the supple leather, rubbing his hand over it in soothing back and forth motion.
    “So Jesus how long have you had this Messiah complex?” Dr. Evil begins.
    “It began around puberty I think. I could not get erections like other young boys.” Jesus replies. “All I could think of was pleasing my father.”
    “Oh yes what does he do?”
    “Why he’s God.” Jesus says incredulously. “Didn’t you know?”
    “Uh no. I didn’t.” Dr. Evil was without speech.
    “He wants me to submit to a crucifixion.”
    “A what?”
    “He wants me to be tortured and then nailed to a wooden cross.”
    “But why?”
    “To save the world.”
    “To save it from what.”
    “From sin.”
    “What’s that?” Dr. Evil really didn’t know.
    “It’s doing what you know in your heart is wrong.”
    “Well being Dr. Evil, I can’t really comment on that. But I do know that crucifying someone is wrong. Can there be anything more evil?”
    “Yes, turning evil into good. Only God can do that. Not even you Dr. Evil, can do that.”
    Dr. Evil looked defeated. Finally he says, “Hey Jesus, why don’t we go grab a couple of beers and call it a day. I know a little tavern down by the park.”
    “Does this tavern have wenches? And milk of the poppy?”
    “It’s got it all. There’s a Blue Light special at 6 PM. Kinda like a happy hour, except it only lasts 15 minutes.”
    “14 minutes is all I need.”
    “Good. Let’s go.”

    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:04 pm #

      You just do not get it. God put his son through the worst thing that power and mankind could throw at him. Jesus’ faith to go through it ended up with God resurrecting him and converting the world. God is much more powerful than any human or human empire.

      Your lack of awe and respect for Jesus is offensive.

      • seawolf77 February 23, 2019 at 10:46 pm #

        I’m sorry you feel that way. I feel that pushing that horseshit on children, less than 5 years old and accompanied with presents and candy and the specter of midnight mass is tantamount to child abuse. It’s a bullshit story that only survives by the most heinous methods i.e. feeding the horseshit to children and bribing them with presents, candy, memories. To hear you talk about what God wanted, and what he splendidly did for us by having his son crucified is like listening to Charles Manson talk about his family and his apostles and his murders. It’s pornographic and you know it.

        • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 11:00 pm #

          And I feel sorry for you, having no faith in something larger than yourself when the world is approaching an apocalypse or even just your own death.

          • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 11:46 am #

            you can ignore it. sea pup that is.

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 11:56 am #

      What do you believe in seawolf? You asked for the ball of lightning and it manifested. We did have a genuine moment when you told me that right? So isn’t God real?

  82. FincaInTheMountains February 23, 2019 at 8:47 pm #

    Venezuela, Libya, Bushes, INF Treaty and the Threat of a New Cold War through the Prism of the Theory of World Projects 4

    This post is a continuation of a series of posts in which Venezuela is the center of world politics and allows not only to understand the difference between the Cold War and the threat of a hot war, but also to realize how the Russian-American confrontation in the early 21st century reflects the confrontation between York and Lancaster in medieval England of 15th century.

    At the same time, following the events, I wrote another series of posts about Bushes, the Great Schism and the World War of Roses, in which I described how the struggle of the union of Trump and the Bush clan for the US Department of Justice captured by the Clintonoids, the War of Roses reflected in another aspect – as a struggle of quasi-Christian England against the anti-Christian dynasty of Valois, who provoked the War of Roses in order to destroy the dynasty of Plantagenets.

    And in the last post of this series, I showed that the clan of 41st and 43d of the US presidents is a conscious attempt to connect the two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty that still exist, while promising that after another post about Venezuela, that is, the post that you are reading now, I will write another post that will combine both of these series and allow them to finish.

    And by the will of fate at the moment when I started writing this post, it was reported that clashes between Black and Red world projects began on the border of Venezuela and Colombia

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/feb/23/venezuela-police-and-protesters-clash-as-border-tensions-rise-video-report

    Naturally, after Putin’s appeal to the Federal Assembly and the phrases about Russia’s readiness for the new Caribbean crisis, the value of Venezuela increased even more.

    I do not know whether Russian medium-range missiles capable of being delivered to the United States are already in Venezuela, but I know for sure that Vladimir Vladimirovich wanted to convey the idea of this possibility to his overseas partners. And this is connected with another topic, which I have repeatedly mentioned in the headlines of this series, but never once described it essentially – about the difference between the Cold War and the threat of a hot war, which temperature will reach thermonuclear temperatures a few hours after the start.

    But before I want to point out that, in addition to oil, Venezuela has religious-mystical significance – suffice it to recall that it was Pence and Rubio’s anti-Venezuelan hysteria that allowed me to understand the reasons for the Great Schism in the Deep State that led to the Trump’s Big Bargain with the Bush clan. And apparently in connection with the new Caribbean crisis, I will have to write another post about Venezuela and the War of Roses 2.0.

    And now about the new cold war.

    Unfortunately now experts speak on these topics, who don’t really know anything about a nuclear war, and even worse are real experts who have dug so much in details on some narrow topic that they have forgotten its basics and carry such nonsense that I can only shrug my shoulders.

    And Vladimir Vladimirovich often has to reckon with this and even use this circumstance.

    In particular, I want to note that there is a huge difference between first and pre-emptive strike, as those who deal the first (also known as disarming) strike simply die because they do not have time to repent, from a retaliatory strike from those whom they have just sent to heaven.

    But a preemptive strike is delivered a few minutes before the first disarming strike and the most famous example of this genre is the Soviet artillery preemptive strike against the position of the German army on the Kursk Bulge an hour before the Nazis began their offensive.

    And it is not known where the striking preventive strike will go, all the more so that the Judge who will be examining this case will know absolutely EVERYTHING, not only actions but also the thoughts.

    But Vladimir Vladimirovich, speaking of the fact that Russia does not have the concept of a preemptive strike, meant the first or disarming strike, since his American partners consider as a direct threat to themselves the very fact of the presence of nuclear weapons with their adversary and are ready to deliver disarming strike even if the potential adversary is just testing nuclear missiles, but in fact does not have them.

    It is precisely this concept of a preventive strike that Russia does not have, and it is on this that eternal life of Russian citizens will be based who has been victims of a “preventive” strike in quotes.

    And in this sense, neither Poseidon nor Avangard missile do not change the strategy of nuclear war, since all these missiles and torpedoes are the means of retaliatory strike, or even retaliatory strike by the Strategic Missile Forces, and this is all a response to the threat of hot, not cold war.

    But Calibers are a means of preventive strike without quotation marks, which the Americans undoubtedly regard as the threat of a first disarming strike on the launch sites of their own missiles, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines of strategic purpose.

    Therefore, Calibers will inevitably provoke a new cold war, which, as the experience of the First Cold War showed, is the same war as hot and its task is the same destruction of the enemy by economic methods, as well as the destruction of the enemy by methods of the military during the hot war.

    It’s just that Russia and the USSR never had such a technical capability, while the USA had it and this circumstance played a decisive role in the coming to power of Gorbachev.

    And now Russia has no such capability, if Avangard is not available in sufficient quantities in Venezuela, but if American missiles appear in Ukraine, then Avangard will appear in Venezuela, 16 ships of the far sea zone, which Vladimir Putin spoke about in his address to the Federal Assembly, with Calibers on board will appear off the coast of the United States, but for Putin this will be an act of Cold, not hot war, since the purpose of this appearance will not be to destroy or disarm the United States, but to force the United States to build a continental missile defense system which will bankrupt them.

    This is how religious considerations influence geopolitics.

  83. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 8:56 pm #

    The Deep State probably doesn’t need to whack Trump if they surround him with corrupt opportunists and ideological lunatic Neocons and have Trump’s doctor keep Trump pumped full of mind-altering pharmaceuticals?

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 11:04 am #

      He surrounded himself with the wrong people from the outset and started straying from his campaign promises early on in a piecemeal way. Again, nobody voted for Jared Kushner but somehow he seems to be in charge. It makes me think of that saying you’ve made your bed now lie in it.

  84. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 9:14 pm #

    “The motto of the CIA is: “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” No truth in an empty slogan, however, only the decadence of power. The deep-seated resentment of the Deep State for the checks and balances of power is becoming more and more evident by the day. With the debt-growth model in the throes of death, the fight is for the ever diminishing resources, natural and human. The world at war with itself. The Deep State at war with itself. Humanity, at war with itself. As they run out of options, the elite and their surrogates are fighting for their own survival. It won’t be pretty.“

    Daniel Estulin
    In the Shadows of a Presidency

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • JohnAZ February 23, 2019 at 10:23 pm #

      As the money declines, there will be fewer elites and more surrogates.

      And no middle class due to a lack of entrepreneurial capital.

      Hey, just like the 1300’s. What a kick.

      Europe in the 1300’s , a domain with a problem, overpopulation moving into cities, homelessness, bad sanitation, sort of like California.

      The result? The Black Death! A massive die off. The Renaissance and the Reformation.

      • Keynes predicted all this. His endgame for monetary policy was permanent deficit spending and the government making jobs.

        Since 1973 the proof is in the pudding. Capital doesn’t create jobs. Capital wants to liquidate jobs.

        The market doesn’t create jobs, it destroys them. They have to be regulated and wealth inequality redistributed. We’re going to have to spend our way out of this no matter what. The alternative is great recessions and depressions ad nauseum, then environmental collapse which is something he never considered.

        He thought that after 50 years annualized 2% growth would create a 3-hour work day and eventually people would have to figure out what to do with their lives. This didn’t happen, because Keynes thought that once people had their fundamental needs met, they would be set. He didn’t anticipate the invention and marketing of needs (advertising) and the tendency for people to strive for things they don’t need. He recognized people evolved from eons of scarcity and the tendency to strive was ingrained, but he never foresaw that government would irrationally allow capital to run roughshod over wages.

        We went against this analysis and kept wages low while increasing capital accumulation. This turned into tearing out the manufacturing sector and shipping it to our enemies, while lining the pockets of people like Mitt Romney at Bain Capital.

        Anyway, these are all just structural problems with technical solutions. They’re doable, and not at all the bogeymen that every reactionary thinks they are. Vigilance is a virtue except when you’re warding off progress.

        • Walter B February 24, 2019 at 5:46 am #

          Wow Lil Deb, sometimes you can make a whole shitpot of sense. I couldn’t agree with all that you have said any stronger. The only catch would be that while you state that solutions are out there, which there certainly are, I cannot see the slightest possibility that any will ever be initiated. The greed that has invaded the hearts of far too many Americans at every level will not allow any solutions to ever happen. Thank you Gordon Gecko, you rotten, evil bastard!

          • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 11:23 am #

            Walter B

            We are entering a period of time when even the greedy elite are facing survival of the fittest scenarios as the world debt load and the resultant reduction of liquidity is going to stifle economies. The folks are going to suffer even more as opportunity declines. The “violence” of the marketplace is going up as competition rises. Historically, when bad times start, there is a rise in religiosity asking for divine answers. This collapses as religion is not an answer. The future is murky as history has no examples of the terminal events that are happening. JHK has presented World Made by Hand as one scenario, who knows what is coming.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 10:24 am #

          So when you were supporting Mitt for 2020 a few weeks ago were you being facetious or have you had a genuine change of heart? Perhaps there isn’t a fix for everything at the end of the day. And maybe that is ok? Things work until they don’t and you aren’t going to be able to spend what you don’t have. But I do like how you are focusing on house cleaning rather than foreign intervention. We need to be totally self-sustainable and make everything that we need here at home. That would create work. And on the flipside, we will make sure that businesses are accountable for behaviors and decisions that go against the greater good and national interests.

          • Self deportation was an idea that didn’t get a fair shake. And I’m not blaming Bain Capital. Like I said these problems are structural. It would be like blaming Robins for being hard on earthworms.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 5:12 pm #

            Right, it’s like human nature and it just needs to be directed in the right way.

        • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 11:12 am #

          Lil Deb

          Good post

          The information revolution is the latest technological driven “jobs reducer” driver. We have just seen the beginnings of it. AI is going to rip the guts out of manufacturing which has been the main employer of folks for 300 years or so. The effects of the labor reduction is being debated right now in Davos as the Elite recognizes that they need to deal with the folks that are being affected. In the past, when technology supplanted labor, a new job direction started up to absorb the job losses. This time is different as the high tech revolution developments are pushing us toward more joblessness.

          Your observation on Capitalism is right on. The drive for competiveness created new technologies to keep the job market active and the folks busy working and happy. The internal combustion engine revolution on the farm in the 1910 to 1930 time frame was partially responsible for the Great Depression. It took WW2 to finally get the displaced farmers to work. The late Middle Ages saw the population of Europe increase beyond technological sustainability, and advances in food production technology drove farmers into the cities being created. The lack of sanitation technology created the Black Death. The killing of a third of Europe reduced the population and that with the reduction of the power of the papacy, led directly to the Renaissance and the Reformation. Anyway, Capitalism is definitely on trial right now as it’s adaptability to new technology is creating a job decline similar to the two histories mentioned. Either something similar to WW2 or the Black Death is going to occur, or stagnation of the job market will create a world wide reaction by the folks that will destroy the financial world we see today

          Discussions of socialism, a gigantic step backwards as it just legitimizes the Elitist root of the problem, Universal Basic Incomes, which is an attempt to anesthetize the folks, are two of the “solutions” being bandied about as solutions to the oncoming failure of the capitalistic debt economic model. Like peak oil, there is no real solution except a repudiation of the model with the revolution ??? That will occur. Things point at mid century and it will be fueled, so to speak, by the failure of the natural resources required to keep the folks quiet. And not just oil, rare earths such as Lithium are integral requirements of our technological world. Things are coming to a head from multiple sources.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 12:45 pm #

            But John we already have quite a bit of socialism in the US now. The problem is that it doesn’t have the national interest at heart. Our system rewards personal enrichments at all costs. We aren’t supposed to be that excessive. If the socialism we already have was refocused for the actual benefit of the people and country things would be so different I believe.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 24, 2019 at 11:41 am #

          Bravo. Thus UBI and National Socialism are indicated. Let the ambitious strive against each other – not more sensible people. And yes, it will cause some personal and social problems, but nothing compared to where we are headed. And YES, most people will still want to earn a bit of extra money. And THUS, having a job will be more of a social and ego boost than ever. In other words, everything John Az loves about America will remain, just minus the killing nature of uncontrolled Capitalism.

        • Tate February 24, 2019 at 3:44 pm #

          Keynes didn’t advocate permanent deficit spending. Also, Finance Capitalism is indifferent to the creation or elimination of jobs. As is “the market.”

          Also, if Keynes “predicted all this” as you claim in your first sentence, then you contradict yourself in numerous ways with what you write further on, writing that he never considered environmental collapse, thought we’d have a 3-day work week, never considered the effect of advertising on the public’s perception of need, or that the government would allow capital to run roughshod over wages. So did he “predict all this” or didn’t he?

          And vigilance is not a virtue when you’re “warding off progress”? I can see how someone who advocates allowing 13 year olds to vote might think so.

      • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 11:47 am #

        The plague was from fleas. nothing more.

        • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 4:41 pm #

          So my dog has the plague???

        • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 5:34 pm #

          The fleas require rats to carry the plague. The rats were the sanitation problem. If there had been no rats, there would have been no plague.

          Cities were a new invention then, as a result of the initial primitive attempts of craftsmanship. Agriculture was becoming more productive driving folks to the cities.

          Sanitation was non existent. People poured their wastes into the street, there were no sewers. Food was stored haphazardly, garbage was just thrown out back. Thus rats.

          At that time, no one had a clue about fleas, rats or sanitation needs. It cost Europe one third of its population.

          • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:43 pm #

            Before the invention of the coil that made refrigerators ideal.

  85. Pucker February 23, 2019 at 10:02 pm #

    C…IA’s motto carved at the entrance at LAN..gley: “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”

    There’s that word “Free” again….

    The Truth shall set you Free, but only on a Need-to-Know basis….

    • Pucker February 23, 2019 at 10:06 pm #

      Free Food and Drinks….Free Entertainment….

      • Remember the animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese? I always thought those civil statues would be retrofitted and Abe Lincoln would drum his fingers on the Monument. Washington would rear up on his horse and wave his sword. The statue of liberty would play air guitar. Mount Rushmore would belt out a 4 part harmony.

        But no, we got a reflecting pool and “Modern Art” geometric shapes

  86. FincaInTheMountains February 24, 2019 at 8:17 am #

    Hillary Clinton is running again in 2020

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qve_zW4DxNQ

    Hillary is perceived by a part of American Elite as a person who has excellent influence and connections among Russian anti-Putin oligarchs who in their opinion have a shot at regime-change in Russia, thus the solution to the “Russian Question”.

    It was not for nothing Hillary presided over privatization of the Soviet property in the 1990s – e.g. distributing it to “her” people almost free of charge.

    Not unlike the Enclosure process in England in 13th – 16th century.

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

  87. BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 10:09 am #

    Reading thru this thread, regarding Venezuela and her people, the consesus seems to be, f-k em, let ’em starve. Cuban security agents, as well as Russian special forces and Chinese cash seem to be what’s propping up Maduro. China has made major inroads colonizing Africa in fact has recently taken over a major seaport on the African southwest coast. Certainly with very little oil of their own they have an eye on the broken down Venezuelan oil fields, and perhaps the Panama canal.

    Conditions are pretty bad inside Venezuela, 4 million have left the country, a mass exodus; apparently its the fault of the US (what isn’t?) One thing I find curious is Chavez’ celebrity backers like RFKjr, Bill Ayers, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, Danny Glover and so on aren’t down in Caracas manning the ramparts, helping out besieged citizens, handing out much needed bread and toilet paper.

    Brh

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 10:40 am #

      Well I think what is happening is very horrible and we should help on the humanitarian front but Maduro’s military isn’t allowing that. The sanctions were too much for the people but Maduro has survived. We need to back off on the sanctions to bring relief to the people and Maduro needs to back off and let aid in. But nonetheless there is a stalemate because we are back to a contest of who has the biggest man stick. Meanwhile the Russian and Chinese vultures are circling and waiting for the best time to swoop in. So in other words its a real pickle!

    • capt spaulding February 24, 2019 at 11:19 am #

      Paper towels, they need lots of paper towels.

    • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 11:38 am #

      Yup.

      The USA seem to be on the defensive throughout the world.

      As we sit here committing suicide with a totally ineffective government being non-reactive to world affairs. Do you think that Russia or China would stop from building a wall to protect itself if it was deemed necessary. Absolutely not.

      Our greatest weakness is that that our worst adversaries are domestic.

      • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 11:58 am #

        Well, I think we wil see in the near future major world powers challenge what they see as a politically weakened United States. The only thing we seem to have going for us is advaned weapons systems, which I for one don’t have much faith in, compared to, for example, a peasant on a hillside with a .303 Lee Enfield bolt action rifle, manufactured in 1915, that can kill you from 1000 yards out.

        Brh

    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:44 pm #

      lets talk tomorrow.

  88. ricksinger February 24, 2019 at 10:28 am #

    Jim,

    As you know, I’ve been one of your readers since your Y2K prediction days. I let failed prediction go, because mea culpa. I should have recognized that you are no computer scientist.

    Then I fell for you Long Emergency trope. Hook line and sinker. Again it’s my fault. I didn’t check all your sources until I realized I was snooker. And again, I should have discounted everything you wrote and said in lectures. You’re not a petroleum engineer or geologist.

    Now with the Trump apologist deep state conspiracy, I have no doubt that you are peddling fiction to your readers again.

    The question is why?

    You do have a series of alt-future fiction books if you enjoy weaving fantasy stories.

    Why do you peddle you Klusterfuck Nation bullshit? Why do you pretend that the following is FAKE NEWS?

    Trump-Russia Investigation
    15 months
    34 Indictments/Charges (Individuals) (and counting)
    3 Indictments/Charges (Companies)
    5 GUILTY pleas (and counting)
    4 CONVICTIONS (and counting)
    Indicted: Roger Stone, Indicted: Paul Manafort, Indicted: Rick Gates, Indicted: George Papadopoulo, Indicted: Michael Flynn , Indicted: Michael Cohen, Indicted: Richard Pinedo, Indicted: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Mikhail Burchik, Aleksandra Krylova, Anna Bogacheva, Sergey Polozo, Maria Bovda, Dzheykhun Aslanov, Vadim Podkopaev, Irina Kaverzina, Gleb Vasilchenko, Indicted: Internet Research Agency, Indicted: Concord Management
    Guilty Plea: Michael Flynn
    Guilty Plea: Michael Cohen
    Guilty Plea: George Papadopolous
    Guilty Plea: Richard Pinedo
    Guilty Plea: Alex van der Zwaan
    Guilty Plea: Rick Gates
    Over 191 Criminal Charges (and counting):
    Conspiracy against the USA (2 counts)
    Conspiracy to launder money (2 counts)
    Bank fraud (8 counts)
    Bank fraud conspiracy (10 counts)
    Subscribing to false tax returns (10 counts)
    Making false statements (6 counts)
    Failure to file reports of foreign bank accounts (14 counts)
    Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (2 counts)
    False FARA statements (2 counts)
    Subscribing to false tax returns (10 counts)

    Based on your posts, it appears that you disagree with the vast majority of your fellow journalists who clearly acknowledge the misdeeds of our fake POTUS.

    FAKE emergency
    FAKE wall
    FAKE Facebook friends
    FAKE War on Christmas
    FAKE repeal and replace
    FAKE Lock her up
    FAKE Wife
    FAKE witch hunt
    FAKE jobs report
    FAKE Hair
    FAKE Crisis
    FAKE deep state
    FAKE Tax Returns
    FAKE Tough guy
    FAKE Twitter followers
    FAKE Tan
    FAKE Infrastructure
    FAKE Christian
    FAKE Tax reform
    FAKE growth
    FAKE self made man
    FAKE Patriot

    I’d close with “shame on you”. But that would be pointless. You clearly have no moral integrity than Trump and his inner circle.

    • Walter B February 24, 2019 at 10:39 am #

      While you are asking “why”, why is it that you come here considering how you feel about it? Are you a glutton for punishment or do you enjoy having people piss you off? Just asking.

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 10:50 am #

      It’s so boring when people come here to moralize and be rude in this way. My mom told me that if you don’t have anything nice to say then keep your trap shut. I mean, why take the time out of your day to do this? And so its safe to say you most likely believe there is no Deep State, there has been no coup attempt, and Hillary should have won. I wish you would have just said it in the first sentence.

      • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 11:43 am #

        My momma told me if you don’t have anything nice to say then flip him the bird.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 12:05 pm #

          That isn’t true and you shouldn’t say things like that about your mom. Based on your behavior sometimes I have to think you were a handful and kept her worried.

        • Tate February 24, 2019 at 3:13 pm #

          Well now we know how you were brung up.

          • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 4:39 pm #

            No, you know how I was brought up.

    • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 11:24 am #

      Oh yeah, Dems surrounding Obama were squeaky clean, no indictments because no investigations.

      Why is it, for example, only Paul Manafort was arrested for shenigans in Ukraine 2003, while Podesta, involved in Ukraine as well at the same time, was not investigated? It seems to work only one way, does it not?

      Brh

      • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 11:50 am #

        u no too mucho

    • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 12:10 pm #

      The problem with Anti-Trumpers is that their TDS blinds them to any alternative possibilities.

      Has Trump improved things, absolutely. The country is stronger now than it has been in a while. Trump is trying to adapt America’s face internationally to a world that is running out of options. No one and everyone is at fault. Was Russia colluding with elements of the US prior to the 2016 election. Absolutely and yes, for their own benefit. The real deal though is that they were colluding with everybody, anyone that would make a deal with them. . Dems and GOPers, equally involved. That is why the Dems currently are fearing that the hammer they started is about to drop on their heads.

      Relating to JHK. I have seen nothing that would indicate to me that his prophesies are not accurate. Like all prophets, he wants things to occur to validate his beliefs. The trends though support his ideas. Is oil showing signs of decline, yes. We are in a high cost recovery phase now, fracking, that sustains prices over $50/bbl. Saudi Arabia is building nuclear power plants to supplant their oil industry. Peak oil is underway and accelerating. Are alternative energy sources showing their weaknesses now when forced into competition with fossil fuels, absolutely. Is the world debt crisis getting worse, yes. The whack a mole Davos crowd are running out of options. Is the effectiveness of America’s government being compromised by TDS, absolutely. Extrapolating the trend lines from all these factors does not look very favorable for the future. Just like the predictions of the Long Emergency. It may not happen next year or next decade, but the change is coming.

      Oh yeah. All your statistics. So What! A whole generation of DC elites got caught up in shenanigans with our traditional enemy trying to advance agendas or make a buck

      If our biased media and judiciary will ever start exploring the Leftist connections to Russia during the same time frame, the executioner’s floor will be littered with just as many Left leaning heads as what Mueller has found up to now on the Right. Two years, three investigations, no collusion.

      Next???

    • K-Dog February 24, 2019 at 12:28 pm #

      Escorted to the small room about nine or ten people waited. A small stack of his mystery 15th novel was sat on a vanity table against the wall for signing. It was a polished well-to-do granola crowd except for that wild eyed critter in the back row. Obviously touched, he presented no threat. His vibrations filled the room with an energy that had less hostility than the gay posturing of the front row.

      The talk went well and the crowd was feeling up. They most definitely did not get the sly snipes that whispered they were part of the problem. This crowd was comfortable with other people having to evolve new lifestyles. The thought that any critical advice was meant for them and not exclusive to the unwashed stupid people in novel number 15 went over their heads like a brand new Boeing jet on a test flight. They dripped narcissism. Their reflections stopped them from looking into water deep. Now for the book signing. Hopefully the flight to the next city could get paid for. The unfocused critter stood before him. He opened his mouth.

      I’ve been reading you since Y2K prediction days. You are no computer scientist but what you say about computational complexity ruining the world is right on. I comment on you website.

      This critter was clearly not as harmless as first believed. Not a well to do homeless that had cleaned up a little or a remittance from upper classes. A few more sentences were said. Yes, bad news, this critter was a ‘fan’ and now his energy was more demanding and lacked the mellowness of his previous back row vibrations. His vocabulary showed this critter up to be a misfit. To smart to fit in with regular folks and too dumb to be genius. Dangereux with loose ends.

      Which one are you?

      The answer came back with some pride and the last thing this critter needed was encouragement.

      I don’t recognized that name. I don’t look at my blog much really. Have you been reading it long?

      Hopefully the response was being delivered with an appropriate dismissiveness. A cup of tea and off to the next city. Not included in those desires was any interest in enduring the random passions of a total stranger.

      • K-Dog February 24, 2019 at 12:33 pm #

        An extra word, another that could get changed and a few typos. The italics to set off the conversation I screwed up. But I like it.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 12:53 pm #

          Yes, I like it too. Good observation. He liked the reaction though. Even if it was just a tiny bit.

    • Damn, I think you sank his Battleship

    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:45 pm #

      no one here bats 1000.

      do you?

  89. ricksinger February 24, 2019 at 10:38 am #

    This is how a journalist with integrity presents his case.

    The 6 essential cons that define Trump’s success: A playbook of deceit starts with the ‘origin lie’ that made him richer than he was. And it’s still being written.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/22/essential-cons-that-define-trumps-success/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.83aa369db6cf

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 10:56 am #

      Lol can’t get to it unless you pay a dollar. And I hardly think the Washington Post can be objective about anything.

      • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 12:52 pm #

        Oh yeah would you pay even 1 penny to read Bezos’ lying, mendacious, deceitful, Trump hate sheet?

        Brh

        • K-Dog February 24, 2019 at 1:17 pm #

          Why do two people who both hate paying taxes hate each other? A frame of mind is not the same thing as a belief. Actors get paid huge sums of money to pretend to be other people.

          But politicians get paid a lot more to do exactly the same thing. Pretend to be other people, and being a politician is rhinestone lettering on a red baseball cap to a ‘businessman‘.

          MAGA baby. Spell it slow and breath it in. If you have $29.95 to send and spend so much the better.

        • Tate February 24, 2019 at 2:45 pm #

          It could be a pass-through contribution to the Covington Boys legal settlement fund.

    • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 11:42 am #

      I prefer if his lips are moving he’s lying.

  90. ricksinger February 24, 2019 at 10:53 am #

    One cannot help but reserve a certain admiration for the Trump troll in one thing if nothing else: they certainly picked their perfect patron saint. Like your canonical troll, Trump pretends to have expertise entirely without evidence, and derides and mocks without cause. He is his own perfect model for the typical Trump troll.

    But, as it turns out, engaging a Trump troll is a waste of time for a reason that might surprise you. It’s called “the backfire effect,” which is the product of a study done at Dartmouth College and answers the question “can false or unsubstantiated beliefs about politics be corrected?” with a definitive “No!” What’s more, the longer you argue with the politically misguided (read: Trump supporter) the more implacably Trump-supporting they will become. In short, you’re wasting your time.

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 10:58 am #

      So then spend your time doing better things – duh.

      • Walter B February 24, 2019 at 11:15 am #

        We are certainly living in an age SSL where the demonic Hate Mongers are getting desperate, don’t you think? They hoist themselves up as the sole authority as to who we must hate and why, and when we refuse to be so manipulated, it is we who are the problem. How many times do we have to decry a love or even a liking of DJT for it to sink into their tiny minds? Oh that’s right it never will because their insecurity is so severe, so disabling that it is either their way or the highway, black or white, love or hate.

        If we are fortunate our host will hit the reject button soon and continue to send the Hate Mongers to some other happy hunting ground where they can seek out new, fresh victims.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 12:29 pm #

          Yeah, you know its interesting Walter because you often hear how terrible Trump and Trump voters are. But the frightening rhetoric ultimately comes from the anti-Trump crowd. Unfortunately, I believe we have come across a disagreement that we will be unable to resolve. Diversity has finally created a condition where different segments of the population want entirely different countries basically so I just have a hard time seeing how it ends well. But I hope there can be peace.

          • Tate February 24, 2019 at 3:04 pm #

            The Progs want raw unbridled Power. It’s as simple as that. Whatever ‘jussifies’ the means i.e., the path to Power, is valid in their eyes. What will they do with it once they attain unchecked absolute Power?

            They will proceed to implement their doctrine of Radical Egalitarianism. First they will ‘Name the Kulaks’ (most all white people & many other prominent non-compliants as well, minorities included). Anyone who falls outside the intersectionality matrix or is low-status on the ‘progressive ‘stack’ become their target. They will introduce industrial-level reeducation camps as the ChiComs have done for the recalcitrant Uighars in Xingiang. Struggle sessions will follow for those who can’t be removed from their jobs, being key players in the productive economy. A social credit system will be installed for all & the absolute reign of terror will begin. Some will resist. Didn’t Bill Ayers say that 25 million would have to die? And that was back in the 1970s. Double that & there you see how it ends.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 5:09 pm #

            That is absolutely terrifying and more reason why they can’t be allowed to win.

          • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 6:03 pm #

            Tate, after they “name the kulaks” what’s the next step? Send their SJW buttpounders house to house to hunt us down? I wonder how far they think they’ll get?

            Brh

          • Tate February 24, 2019 at 7:41 pm #

            They’ll send the police, BRH (it’s irrelevant that many of their ranks are now buttpounders through the auspices of Globo-Homo.)

            The police won’t refuse orders. (Pensions, donchaknow?) They’ll round up all the Kulaks, tovarich, & off we’ll be bussed to the reeducation camps. If you don’t answer your door, that may keep you safe for quite a while, even if they know you’re in there. Procedural niceties will still be observed for some time. But don’t brandish a weapon, even behind glass. Play it cool.

            If you’re unlucky & considered “vital to maintenance of critical infrastructure & productive assets,” like farmers, power line & communication workers, truckers, firefighters, et al, they will probably subject you to endless “struggle sessions” where you will be browbeaten & publicly shamed to admit your moral shortcomings. Think dunce-caps & donkey tails.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 8:12 pm #

            I’m not so sure that it will be that easy for the Marxists to take control. It will cause a civil war because there are too many in the military and law enforcement who wouldn’t go along with it in my opinion. No doubt they are certainly willing to do anything to gain power though. If they ever do then your prophecy will come to pass.

    • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 11:40 am #

      Trumptards United!

      • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 12:12 pm #

        I don’t believe you. You love us, otherwise you wouldn’t stick around.

    • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 11:45 am #

      Dartmouth? What a laugh!

      Backfire effect?

      In other words, politically, there is one correct way to think, and failure to think that way makes one an apostate.

      Is that about the size of it, Ricksinger?

      Brh

      • K-Dog February 24, 2019 at 12:59 pm #

        The backfire effect, however, is very specific. This occurs when people not only reject factual correction, but create counterarguments against the correction that move them further in the direction of the incorrect belief. It’s probably time for us to drop this from our narrative, or at least deemphasize it and put a huge asterisk next to any mention of it. – Steven Novella

        Seems to me it is very specific. When core beliefs are threatened the wagons circle and people go bat-shit. If core beliefs are not threatened everybody gets as reasonable as cinnamon and sugar on apple pie.

        Trump appeals to a lot of people. He is the poster-boy who screams it is Ok not to have any core beliefs. The only things he respects is money and he openly says so. His message is simple. I have shit and you don’t. The I’m a bully and I laugh caricature appeals to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. Some wish they could be as outrageous as Trump is and get by with it just one time. Once would be enough.

        But people always want twice and that is why society has evolved to allow Trump to be an asshole and not you. Just like Noam Chomsky can say anything disrespectful about America he wants cus he has a big MIT brain and get by with it. Everybody has a place.

        “Ours is not to reason why. Ours is but to do and die” – AL Tennyson

        I don’t know who that was but his name is music.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 5:08 pm #

          But in all fairness, there are politicians in both parties that are assholes. There hasn’t been as much noise about any of them compared to Trump. Does that phenomenon make you curious?

        • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 5:50 pm #

          Alfred, Lord Tennyson

          The Charge of the Light Brigade (in the Crimean War)

          Tennyson, 19th century Victorian age poet, Poer Laureate of Sngland and Ireland

    • Tate February 24, 2019 at 2:39 pm #

      The Backfire Effect doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the Trump trolls. The Trump trolls either are real Trump trolls in their minds or they are Trump trolls in your mind but not in their minds. The latter aren’t real Trump trolls, but they are Trump supporters. Since they aren’t real Trump trolls, the Backfire Effect doesn’t apply to them. The former aren’t affected at all by your rational arguments because they are Trolls, get it?

      • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 5:04 pm #

        Could it possibly be just the simple fact that some people like to feel they are better than others?

        • Tate February 24, 2019 at 8:03 pm #

          In a weird twisted way, yes. They think that victimhood status confers a special secular moral sanctity upon them. They think society (read white people) owes them something. This is envisioned as an open-ended commitment on our part to cure their ills.

          We whites can never allow ourselves to assume that attitude even when that day comes when we ourselves are a minority. We cannot allow ourselves to think of ourselves as victims, which is a negative identity, but as the unique & special conservators of Western European civilization, its knowledge, its values, mores & moral strivings.

          • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 8:50 pm #

            Hey that’s a good point. Victimhood is not something to embrace. I mean naturally one would want to avoid becoming a victim.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 24, 2019 at 10:22 pm #

            But we are Victims – and nothing strengthens group identity more than collective suffering and a feeling of being wronged together. You are denying an immense Source of Power. A fatal tactical mistake.

            This has nothing to do with forgetting about our unique Tradition, rather it is the means to preserve it. After all, we aren’t Black losers who have nothing but their victim cards. If there is any White Nationalism like that, I eschew it – but I haven’t seen much of that actually, thank God.

          • Tate February 25, 2019 at 12:38 am #

            There’s no either/or answer to that one although I understand the point you’re making. Should we, the Dissident Right, be collectively emphasizing our grievances as Whites at this historical moment? I really think at this present time the focus should be on ridiculing & lampooning our opponents. That’s much more effective. You don’t think Anglin has an impact? Force the #Resistance & the media whores & the establishment whores to defend their craziest acolytes in the universities & entertainment business & non-profits where they are primarily concentrated, driving their looney-tunes coalition even further leftward as they go ape-shit over every blown-out-of-proportion incident, such as the Covington boys brouhahahahaha. But victimhood always has a place. I just don’t think that should be our primary identity.

          • SoftStarLight February 25, 2019 at 12:48 am #

            Well we are definitely discriminated against and disliked. That can’t be denied. So we are real victims of hate and there is alot of anti-White hate crimes occuring. We have much more than just the victim card but we should learn to use it better than anybody else.

          • SoftStarLight February 25, 2019 at 12:53 am #

            The other thing is that the Diversity advocates are becoming so unreasonable that Whites who haven’t been paying as much attention are now noticing the real discrimination that is actually taking place and being promoted in all forms of media.

  91. seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 11:39 am #

    Thanks to the idiotic climate policy of Republicans, the California wildfires are going to cost the state of California $400 billion dollars. Of course, they could just break out a rake.

    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 11:52 am #

      D E W

      Know what that s about?

    • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 12:20 pm #

      There is no Republican climate policy as they repudiate the existence of CC.

      The idiotic climate policy belongs to the Left as exemplified by the GND. When the public gets wind of what it will entail, the GOP will be locked in for a generation.

      Ironically, I agree with the necessity of a lot of the meat of the GND and acknowledge that when peak oil hits hard, most of the factors to the GND are going to occur.

      Just not in the next ten years.

      Unless of course, TLE hits in the next ten years.

      Politically, eventually, the point is moot. The changes are inevitable.

      • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 3:39 pm #

        I would rather not let myself get dragged into another pointless exchange about climate change, but what we do in the next 12 years will affect our children and grandchildren in 40 to 50 years, when they will already have more than enough to deal with. There’s a 40 year time lag between adding the CO2 to the atmosphere and the manifestation of the climate effects.

        https://www.skepticalscience.com/Climate-Change-The-40-Year-Delay-Between-Cause-and-Effect.html

        So we already have increased warming baked in till mid-century and beyond. And the Republicans closing their eyes, sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting la la la is a policy. And it will have results. Mostly in the non-education of their followers. And so it goes on, generation unto generation.

        Mostly what’s dickish about their policy is that it’s based on their perception that CC is a ‘liberal’ thing, rather than a ‘physics’ thing. You can’t argue with idiocy.

        • Tate February 24, 2019 at 3:55 pm #

          No, you really can’t argue with idiocy.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 3:57 pm #

            Thanks for the back-up, Tate – much appreciated.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 5:20 pm #

            “Ignorance of science and history never disrupts a fallacious emotional argument.”

            Careful. All that gaslighting might add to AGW.

          • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:37 pm #

            Where I am, I cant argue w the rain and cold.

        • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 3:57 pm #

          Like I said, la la la…

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 5:00 pm #

          Yes, solar minimums and ice ages are forbidden.

        • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 5:10 pm #

          GA

          What would happen if you walked down your street and told everyone that they could only drive three days a week, had to buy and drive an electric car, could only heat their house to 68 degrees, had no more access to airline transportation, had to install solar panels on their house at their expense, lose their job because their company had to close shop because of increased expenditures.

          And it all starts over the next two years.

          That is the idiocy of GND.

          Answer, in the US, vote GOP.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 5:27 pm #

            I didn’t say anything about the specifics of GND, JohnAZ, and haven’t said a word about it previously. We’re still at the baby steps on here for a lot of people, who don’t even accept the problem and witter endlessly about a new ice age as if it were going to happen in the lifetime of anyone with any kind of remotely meaningful relationship to them.

            Half my neighbours that have cars could do without one. We’re 20 minutes’ walk from the town centre and there’s a bus stop a minute’s walk away, and two City Club Cars in the actual street. Thankfully most of them don’t have one, probably, because it’s a street with four-storey flats so the maths just wouldn’t work out.

            And my life hasn’t become meaningless just because I choose not to fly more than about once every five years.

            I’m not telling anyone to do anything. I’m one of these simple souls that if you tell me there’s problem I move into problem-solving mode, but I can only do that for me. I don’t know why they’re any different – that’s their issue.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 7:14 pm #

            *City Car Club cars*

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 7:30 pm #

            I just did a conversion of 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The ambiant temperature in the room I’m in is exactly that and I’m wearing a shirt and flip flops and I’m feeling warm. What’s up with you people? 🙂

            It’s 20 degrees Celsius. In the day time it’s much cooler and I dress myself appropriately. When I worked in France decades ago it was illegal to heat an office to over 19 degrees. Which didn’t mean that more recently my friend in Paris didn’t have to work sans climatisation in the summer at 36 degrees (Celsius), but in winter them were the rules. And quite right too. I worked in an office for 16 years and never had a cardi on – the heating used to drive me nuts, as did people who considered it their right to wear a sleeveless top to work in January.

          • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 7:55 pm #

            Remember GA, you and I agree on CC. My point is always that people will not adapt willingly so the politics remain difficult.

            I wish you could see the gas guzzler PUs, SUVs and RVs here in Arizona. I get really pis—d sometimes driving down the street.

            In my Prius.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 7:58 pm #

            BTW JohnAZ, talking of people losing their jobs, Nissan in Sunderland has cancelled their plans for a new car that was going to be made there and the Honda plant is shutting down in Swindon in 2020 or 21, which will eviscerate the town. It’s been there for a quarter of a century and supports a whole lot of satellite jobs as well, as these places do.

            People voted for that, including the people of Swindon and the people of Sunderland, where Nissan are. Well, no, technically they didn’t vote for that, they voted for other people to lose their jobs I suppose, city types and so on, but there we are. Careful what you wish for and all that. And we’ve not even Brexited yet.

            Farmers are up to high doh, terrified of their farms going under. A lot of them believed the lies as well.

            There are many ways to destroy jobs.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 8:03 pm #

            “Remember GA, you and I agree on CC. My point is always that people will not adapt willingly so the politics remain difficult.”

            I agree, JohnAZ. CC changed long ago to being primarily a psychological problem.

          • Tate February 24, 2019 at 8:16 pm #

            We keep ours on 70. I notice a lot of people heat their homes to 72, 73 & above which is way too warm, imo.

            It’s what you get used to. We could go to 68, or even lower. We wear sweaters indoors anyway. Just add another layer. What really drives up the utility bills is the A/C in summer. Even here in Colorado we keep the A/C running throughout July-August & parts of June & September.

          • GreenAlba February 25, 2019 at 6:16 am #

            “It’s what you get used to. ”

            That’s certainly true, Tate. Beyond a minimum level of comfort, being excessively warm is just a habit. If we were deprived of heating we’d develop more brown fat cells. Not that I’m looking forward to that level of deprivation at all, so I hope I miss it. I imagine a time will come when burglars will steal clothes rather than jewellery and electronic stuff.

            Although it’s still the case that as people get very old their body thermostat becomes less effective so they are more likely to suffer from hypothermia or heatstroke.

            And as you mention it’s A/C that’s the biggie in a lot of places. I couldn’t live somewhere like that as I hate heat. Others thrive on it.

        • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 5:17 pm #

          The point is moot over the next twenty years. Fossil fuels are going to decline and folks are going to react accordingly. GND will occur by default. People will not like it but it will be apolitical.

          Sort of like the difference between charity and taxation. One is voluntary, the other is mandatory.

          People hate mandatory.

          • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 7:08 pm #

            Some people need to get over themselves and think of other people.

            I know, what a revolutionary idea for an er…Christian country. A ‘Christian’ country that wants to fight for its ‘Christian’ values no less. What the f*ck are they then, these ‘Christian’ values? Get off my Christian lawn?

            As GKC said, ‘Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

            And I’m not even one of them any more, so why don’t they care?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 24, 2019 at 10:25 pm #

            Yeah Mum, let’s bring back slavery then since the ethos of Christianity drove it out.

            How can one person get so much so wrong?

          • GreenAlba February 25, 2019 at 6:17 am #

            Have a good day, son.

        • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 5:18 pm #

          Not wasting my time or energy, SSL. You carry on.

        • GreenAlba February 24, 2019 at 6:55 pm #

          I’m not getting into the specifics, SSL, because you could look it up on a reputable scientific website if you remotely cared about the issue other than scrabbling around on denier websites to look for sloganistic ripostes to the evidence.

          And it’s not about arguing with me, because who the heck am I? I’m a nobody with no influence over anything in the world. But what makes me laugh is that the ‘ah, but solar…’ brigade actually think that scientists who’ve spent lifetimes studying this stuff would be totally floored if some layperson said, ‘but guys, you didn’t think about solar minima/maxima, did you? Silly you.’

          Honestly I would say I’d pay good money to see one of you one a stage in a televised debate with an actual scientist where you put this proposition to them, but I can’t because I find watching people embarrassing themselves in public too hard to watch, unless they’re actually evil people, so I mostly have to switch over to avoid the cringe.

          I’m not saying it to be mean to you personally, because I don’t want to do that, but the whole idea that people who know nothing have thought of this amazing ‘oh but’ that the scientists bizarrely knew nothing about is just hilarious.

          I’m afraid it’s our friend Dunning-Kruger again. Gets everywhere.

        • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 8:44 pm #

          Well they may have thought about it but they dismiss natural cycles. Many but not all I should say. Perhaps any warming that does occur will create additional cloud cover and precipitation that will actually serve in the end to increase the amount of ice at the poles. Sort of like what some scientists say occurred in the past. But either way it is somewhat irrelevant because there is an ongoing ice age right now.

        • GreenAlba February 25, 2019 at 8:44 am #

          SSL

          “Well they may have thought about it but they dismiss natural cycles. ”

          They don’t dismiss them – they take them into account in their measurements. That’s what scientists do – account for everything and that gives you the difference between what’s happening now and what happened at other times. Models juggle variables. If they don’t come up with the answers that you personally want, that’s a shame, but there we are.

        • GreenAlba February 25, 2019 at 8:45 am #

          “because there is an ongoing ice age right now.”

          So you keep telling us.

  92. BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 12:40 pm #

    June 2018

    ‘China to take over Sri Lanka’s main port’

    August 2018

    ‘China poised to take over Kenya’s main port in Mombassa’

    Don’t be surprised if you read sometime soon ‘China taking over Venezuelan oil fields, and main port.

    I know, I know, its none of our business. The Monroe Doctrine is an ancient outdated document like the US constitution and the bill of rights.

    This is happening whilst in the US we are hotly debating the ins and outs of trangenderism (.025 of 1% of the population) and whether or not ‘whiteness’ should be banned on campus.

    Brh

    • ozone February 24, 2019 at 6:13 pm #

      BRH,
      Well, opening up a can of whoop-ass on Venezuela would be a very bad idea, but that’s just my opinion from some cursory research.

      Here’s an interesting bit of hearsay or who-knows-what from the subject of Kunstler’s peek into the rogue’s gallery:

      “…Page 136 of McCabe’s new book, recounting a 2017 Oval Office meeting: “Then the president talked about Venezuela. That’s the country we should be going to war with, he said. They have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”

      It is not only Trump’s idea to ‘regime change’ Venezuela. Ever since 1998, when Hugo Chavez was elected, the U.S. plotted to ‘regime change’ Venezuela. It was Obama who put sanctions on the country. Right wing economists have for years thought up detailed plans on how to rob Venezuela of its national assets.” La Luna de Abalama

      Don’t forget to look into USAID Red Teams. Most interesting.

      I hope we’re not going to pretend the motives of our “leaders” (both public and assiduously clandestine) are pure as the driven snow. Or we could pull out the old laugher of Freedom and Democracy. I s’pose it would still sell, but it’s gone a bit ripe for me.

  93. FincaInTheMountains February 24, 2019 at 1:40 pm #

    Major Mistakes were made by Bolivarian Socialist Government in Venezuela

    Looking through the pages of the economic history of Venezuela, you can see that the last years of the presidency of the charismatic Comandante Hugo Chávez the ruling political coalition was taken over by a bureaucratic majority who opposed any changes that threatened their well-being.

    Comandante terminal illness did not allow him to solve this problem.

    And instead of razing down the slums, expanding large-scale housing construction using petrodollars, realizing import substitution and diversification of production, investing in science and training of industrial personnel, it was decided to simply redistribute oil revenues, raising the standard of living for slum dwellers through social handouts.

    This led to the fact that the technocrats-modernizers, with their plans to use oil revenues for projects for the development of the country, and revolutionary romantics, who dreamed of changing the people’s way of life, freeing the grassroots initiative and turning the masses into real owners of the country, were successively purged out.

    Redistribution policy replaced the development policy.

    • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 5:03 pm #

      The liberal answer to everything.

  94. FincaInTheMountains February 24, 2019 at 1:51 pm #

    That is why “Socialism” (or Christian Socialism if you prefer) is not free handouts, but creating conditions in society that promotes ability of every individual to reach the maximum of his God-given capacity.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 4:58 pm #

      Not free handouts but there is naturally a certain level of redistribution. A patchwork of redistribution and development is probably the best recipe no?

  95. tucsonspur February 24, 2019 at 4:34 pm #

    Here’s Warren Buffet on gold, debt, doomsday, etc.

    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/warren-buffett-annual-letter-american-tailwind-gold-preach-doom-135852944.html

    My favorite example of perspective on Capitalism, not mentioned by Buffet:

    A guy making 50k per year would have to work 800 years to make what Roger Goodell makes in one, at $40M per.

    I’m with AOC, raise those taxes on the very rich.

    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 4:50 pm #

      And put the money in a special fund for infrastructure?

      • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 5:01 pm #

        SSL

        The Dems will put any extra taxes in a fund to support more illegals to make more Dem voters. Look to California before you buy any of their BS about taxes.

    • JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 4:59 pm #

      The real problem with taxing the rich is creeping rates. If the Libs would hold the line on spending then taxing the rich would work. But they are disciples of “Give an inch and we will take a mile”. Give them 70% of more than $10 million and they nwill spend it. Heck, their proposals have already spent it. So next will be $5 million, then $1 million and then everybody will be filling their tax coffers.

      The problem is not just taxes, it is spending. Spending to buy votes, the greatest weakness of democracy.

      • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 8:32 pm #

        Thus we need to watch our spending too. And let’s dispense with the whole democracy thing. I can see now why voting is so special. I concede that it shouldn’t be so easy to vote after all.

        • tucsonspur February 25, 2019 at 4:11 am #

          Infrastructure would be one, SSL. The money must be properly directed. John doesn’t mention the high spending Republicans.

          I’m talking about good, bilateral government here, with specific mapped out programs and sharp oversight and accounting. Tough to do yes, but you have to work for it.

          John’s knee jerk response to proposed higher taxes by the libs dooms any chance of achieving success from the git go.

          The societal needs are great, and greedy fat cats are more capable of satisfying those needs.

          Tax the rich, tax them heavily, but control those taxes.

    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:40 pm #

      He got a bail out, in 2008.
      Or the corp. he had stakes in.

      some genius.

  96. BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 5:56 pm #

    China has rounded up 1.5 million Uigher Muslims and put them into reeducation (concentration) camps. Heard much about it? What ‘s interesting is Saudi Arabia last week signed a comprehensive trade agreement with China and the matter was not brought up. How can you explain it?

    Brh

    • ozone February 24, 2019 at 6:26 pm #

      $

    • Pucker February 24, 2019 at 6:43 pm #

      “So!”

      Apparently, it has something to do with some bloke named “So”? Since in Mandarin there is no surname of “So”, it could be some Chinese bloke named “Song”, or “Sun”, or “Su”?

      I think that Johnny Cash has a song about a Chinese boy named “Su”?

      Donald J. Trump’s Presidency was prophesied in the Bible.

      • Pucker February 24, 2019 at 6:47 pm #

        Trumpet.
        For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the TRUMP of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. ( 1 Thessalonians 1:1 Luke 4:16 )

    • “Heard much about it?

      Hello- this has been extensively documented by The New York Times.

      Evidently you haven’t got the message. The New York Times is the best newspaper in America, and offers a variety of print and online options.

      In your case I’d suggest the condensed, LARGE PRINT edition. Its a curated selection of the best long-form journalism on all the important issues and events of the day, in a weekly format.

      The New York Times. News stands everywhere.

  97. Pucker February 24, 2019 at 6:57 pm #

    The ancient Greeks didn’t believe in Miracles. The ancient Greeks believed that Life is Tragic, and that things tend to turn out Tragically since Man is fundamentally flawed and delusional.

    “It’s a Miracle. Just Deal with It….”

    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:41 pm #

      I am glad I dont take to their beliefs.
      Nice architecture, however.

      Oh, the ancient Spartans were alleged to bath newborns in very cold streams. Culling the herd.

  98. Pucker February 24, 2019 at 8:00 pm #

    I may be a bit of a Buddhist/ Gnostic?

    Don’t the Gnostics believe that Evil inheres in Matter and, therefore, the World is basically “Fallen” and Evil? So don’t go looking for Miracles in this World.

    “There ain’t gonna be no Divine Intervention.”

  99. seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 8:02 pm #

    Nio on 60 minutes.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhpQ6TEGpZ8&app=desktop

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    • SoftStarLight February 24, 2019 at 8:27 pm #

      Wow you must be a big investor :-). It’s not just a car, no it’s a lifestyle! Mr. K would say this is techno narcissm and a bad investment in happy motoring. You should consider investing in hyper loop trains.

    • Did you hear the part where there are 100 manufacturers?

      This space is filled with players. That means low, low prices and tight margins.

      I really don’t care who wins- electric cars aren’t point-source pollution. If idiots absolutely have to drive, let them drive a heavy, pseudo wheelchair. I’ll be flying by on my bike with a big smile.

      • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 10:10 pm #

        No, I didn’t. I heard the part where there are 100 EV companies. There are only a half dozen or so that are actually manufacturing automobiles.

          • seawolf77 February 24, 2019 at 11:20 pm #

            These are all renamed European and American manufacturers. You have to give up your name when you do business in China, something Tesla has been reluctant to do. Homegrown manufacturers number about a half dozen, as I said before. Nice try.

          • C-wolf, take a point. Yes, they’re all co-invested with each other. These supply lines are so fractured and interconnected that it doesn’t amount to much of a threat to any one country.

            Yes, China has electric vehicle companies and an aggressive government mandate and standards regime, and consumers are adopting it rapidly. These factors don’t make it any more likely that other automakers, conventional or electric, will end up at a disadvantage.

            CBS has your head spinning. Take a Quaalude and buy a copy of the New York Times tomorrow morning and relax.

  100. Pucker February 24, 2019 at 9:25 pm #

    In California, you have all of these weirdo, “New Age” churches. It’s very sad.

  101. Janos Skorenzy February 24, 2019 at 10:30 pm #

    The journey to Wakanda is more important than one to the moon.
    Paul Kersey on American Renaissance

    It was set up so perfectly.

    To kick start the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, 2018’s First Man—the epic story of Armstrong’s journey to become the first man to walk on the moon—would be nominated for Best Picture. Ryan Gosling would be nominated for Best Actor for portraying the heroic astronaut.

    Yet it was not meant to be, as First Man was accused of being anti-American for failing to show the planting of the American flag on the moon. The conservatives the film depended on stayed at home out of patriotism, ironically boycotting a beautiful movie that depicted the finest moment in the history of our nation. It was an insurmountable hole even the powerful engines of the Saturn V rocket couldn’t help First Man escape. Despite an 87 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (meaning top-rated movie reviewers loved the movie), the movie only made $44 million domestically on a $59 million budget.

    The conservative boycott and the film’s resulting lackluster financial performance is a major reason First Man was slighted during awards season. First Man, Ryan Gosling, and Damien Chazelle were not nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor or Best Director, respectively, at the Golden Globes.

    For the 2019 Academy Awards, First Man was also snubbed in these categories, though it did pick up nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, and Best Sound Editing. This is a reminder the Academy was aware of the high production quality of the movie, but something kept it from being sent into orbit.

    The movie that picked up the big nominations instead is Black Panther. The nonexistent technology of a fantasy African kingdom thus trumped what a 90-percent-white nation accomplished in 1969 using computers with less power than an iPhone. The success of Black Panther over First Man in part reflects critics’ desire for multicultural fantasy instead of racial reality.

    Kate Gardner, a movie reviewer at The Mary Sue, blasted First Man for its whiteness, calling it a “technically stunning film made at the wrong time.”

    I’m glad they decided against making it a story of American exceptionalism, but as with most historical films, they decide to focus mostly on white men.

    Already, I can hear the fingers clacking away to tell me that the story had to focus on white men, that Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and the other astronauts at the time were mostly white and all male so what did I expect?

    And then there’s the political context, which hovers over the film like the moon. Singer and Chazelle peel away the idea of American exceptionalism, and instead leave a tale of the exceptional white man. The political climate is stripped away, referenced to in news broadcasts and one scene of protest. We are given a sanitized version of history, and quite frankly, I do not know whether it would have been worse to have raw patriotism or this whitewashed version of events.

    Josh Singer, the screenwriter for First Man, even apologized for his own film. He undermined the extraordinary subject and said it was just a “ordinary family in history story.” He also apologized for the film’s whiteness: “We wanted to be as technically accurate as we could,” he said. “And at the time, it was [all] white men. And that wasn’t right, but that’s what it was. So if you’re gonna be technically accurate—and in part, we’re so technically accurate because we’re trying to shed this new perspective on a narrative that’s been sugarcoated—you’ve got to be accurate and depict the time for all its strengths and flaws.”

    One of America’s future elite opinion makers at Harvard also attacked the whiteness of the movie. “Undeniably, white men are at the helm of this film,” wrote Caroline Tsai. “They cluster around clunky computers and tensely murmur to each other. They take long walks. They sit in backyards and clink bottles of beer, gazing at stars. While their story is a valid and meaningful one, it’s also historically been the only one, and in an age of increasing representation—even in another film regarding this very historical event—it’s hard to view First Man as anything other than regression.”

    Celebrating great moments in American history, if they involve white males, is “regression.”

    Back in 1995, Ron Howard’s brilliant Apollo 13, chronicling the “successful failure” of a seemingly doomed lunar mission that was able to return successfully to Earth, was one of the top grossing movies of the year. It was also nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

    No one complained about the whiteness in the movie. No one associated with the movie apologized for the lack of diversity depicted.

    But 24 years is an eternity in America’s culture war. American whites have been so bruised and battered that even celebrations of universally acknowledged achievements lead to political criticism.

    The two films treat one tragic episode of the space race very differently. Whereas the Apollo 13 briefly mentioned the terrifying death of the three astronauts of Apollo One, First Man invests a great deal of time on Ed White (played by Jason Clarke), who was Armstrong’s neighbor and the first American to walk in space. We get to know his wife and children as well, so when the fire during a routine test takes the lives of White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, the audience feels real horror.

    While the Apollo One astronauts are burning alive, Armstrong is shown pressing the flesh at an event in Washington, D.C. He is talking to a U.S. senator who expresses doubt about the cost of the mission and public support. Especially when juxtaposed with what is happening to Apollo One, Armstrong’s response captures that quintessential Western spirit of discovery and innovation in the face of danger. “We only learned to fly sixty years ago, so I think if you consider the technological developments in the context of history, it’s really not . . .”

    Though he’s interrupted before he can finish his point, one can’t help but reflect on what he said. Within one lifetime, white men traveled from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to the moon.

    Yet this spirit of exploration has been sacrificed to the supposed moral imperative of achieving diversity. The fantasy created by Black Panther was an important step in this effort. Believe it or not, Black Panther is the highest rated movie in the history of cinema according to Rotten Tomatoes. After all, what reviewer would endanger his job by giving it a bad review? In contrast to the criticisms of First Man for being too white, Black Panther was universally praised for its almost entirely black cast.

    Back in 2015, the Academy Awards was attacked for being too white. The Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite took off and Hollywood was condemned for honoring white actors, actresses, and directors, and movies with primarily white casts.

    In 2016, these attacks were deafening as the Academy Awards again dared to honor whites. Thus, behind the rallying cry of #OscarsSoWhite, affirmative action came to the Academy Awards.

    The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science pledged to double the number of “women and diverse members” and undertook a new recruitment effort to find new members “who represent greater diversity.”

    This year’s Oscars represent the fruit of that effort. First Man represents a great American achievement and is criticized and ignored. We aren’t allowed to celebrate America’s greatness because to do so is to celebrate the accomplishments of white men. Instead, we are told to celebrate a fictional ethnostate—that is, as long as it’s black.

    JS: White Wakanda now! As it is, we are headed for a Black/Brown Wakanda sans the high tech and any amenities at all, high tech or low.

    • malthuss February 24, 2019 at 10:42 pm #

      tell me about the Awards [tm] tomorrow if ye can.

    • BackRowHeckler February 24, 2019 at 11:24 pm #

      It means movies will become increasingly irrelevant, and white middle class people will spend their money somewhere else. The welfare crowd will still go, but how much money is left for movies after most of it is spent on hip hop and illegal drugs?

      It appears this amoral Hollywood scum doesn’t yet fully comprehend just how much they’re hated by so many Americans. And, I’d like to know, is there any other business in the world that gives each other so many awards. Its one big circle jerk.

      And really, who gives a f-k who wins and oscar, an emmy, or any other goddam thing?

      brh

    • SoftStarLight February 25, 2019 at 1:11 am #

      It seems like Diversity is creating a growing list of casualties that include movies, industries and whole countries. Perhaps the reason diversity was so quickly established as a civilization-ending vice in the book of Genesis (Tower of Babel). Either way, it is something that is dangerous and corrosive for Whites and must be treated as such. In the short-term I am not certain what will really change. But long-term we are going to need a White media, institutions, civic goups, etc.

  102. JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 10:39 pm #

    Just thinking.

    One problem that is affecting AGW is the inability of the CC group to communicate their panic to the everyday Joe. People are going out of their minds about the end of the world approaching.

    Everyman has no feeling of impending doom. Just because a group of obviously indoctrinated grade schoolers accost Feinstein about GND, does not mean that the average Joe cares one whit.

    Arizona, Tucsonspur’s and my playground, is an example. Folks are projecting the end of Arizona due to a lack of water and runaway heat.

    Reality is the cities rest on aquifers that have enough water for 100 years. The heat is normal over the past few years, and we are finishing up a very cool wet winter that is filling reservoirs all over the west. Is it the end of the twenty year drought? Who knows. The Sierra Nevada are getting snow in feet this winter, their reservoirs are filling. Is it the end of the drought in California.

    I lived in Colorado in the eighties and remember big Albuquerque Low snow dumps and Sierra Nevada dumps in feet. Are we just seeing periodic cycling of the climate? What if the Arctic starts accumulating snow again, is it just a cycle.

    Problem is, no one knows. And until the CC folks can show Everyman how the AGW is going to affect him, he will continue to worry more about feeding his family and where he is going on vacation.

    Human nature is a bitch.

    This is from someone who believes in AGW.

    Until the proof is in place for the populace and it is affecting folks day to day, AGW will not resonate. The National politicos will continue ignoring the issue in their search for anonymity.

    The real factor that will change the world is the declining availability of fossil fuels. The Everyman response will start only when he has to wait in line for gas for hours. In the meantime, combustion will decline and the Earth will readjust itself.

    What it does to mankind is yet to be determined.

  103. JohnAZ February 24, 2019 at 10:51 pm #

    The EV industry is easy. Make a car battery that goes a days drive (600 miles or so) on a charge, with the air conditioner on and make it affordable at 25 to 35 thousand dollars.

    Anything less will limit its sales and the public’s credibility.

    Until then, electric transportation will primarily exist to power people around golf courses.

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    • Maybe true.

      A national pissing contest between Chinese and US / rest of world e-vehicle manufacturers would probably accelerate development to a degree.

      A 600 mile range would require, roughly, doubling the Tesla Model S’s capacity. It would seem easy enough to add a second battery pack although I think it would add another 1000 lbs. And of course probably put the price over $75k

      But the Chevy Bolt has 230 mile range at a $37k price point. These metrics are converging on the (outrageous) demands of a consumer accustomed to the most energy dense chemical storage medium (fossil fuel).

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