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Money Worries

The cynicism among the informed classes has never been so deep. Even the pompom boys in the cheerleading clubs like CNBC and The Wall Street Journal express wonderment at the levitation of stock indexes and bond values. They chatter about a “correction” of 20 percent being a healthful tonic that would clear away some dross and quickly usher in a new episode of “growth” — or growthiness, which, like truthiness, became an acceptable approximation of the real thing. The truth, as opposed to truthiness, is they no longer believe their own bullshit about growthiness.

The suppression of interest rates and pervasive accounting fraud has thundered through the financial system, and the deformities caused by it have emerged in currency war, currency instability, trade collapse, and political crisis. Years of central bank intervention have stolen the capital of the future to construct a Potemkin economy meant to conceal the sickening gyre of diminishing returns strangling business as usual.

Until it collapses by a great deal more than the wished-for mere 20 percent, more perversities will be piled onto the already existing burden. Is it not a wonder that professionalized interest groups like AARP have not screamed bloody murder over the suppression of interest rates which deprives its members of bank account and bond interest on savings? Instead AARP, like virtually every enterprise in America, has turned to racketeering. Don’t worry, they’ll be gone from the scene soon enough.

The next shoe to drop will be various forms of bail-ins and attempts to prevent bank account and money market holders from getting access to their cash. A withdrawal above $2,000 already can trigger a report to the IRS. The next step will be to put a simple ceiling on withdrawals. Will that trigger public ire? Who knows? Nothing yet has in the USA. The meme currently circulating is the fear that government would like to abolish cash altogether and put in a regime of all-electronic money. Being allergic to conspiracy ideas, I’m skeptical about this idea, but I really can’t dismiss it.

A cashless society would conceptually allow government much more leak-proof control of all citizen money transactions. Mainly it could funnel tax revenue into the treasury much more efficiently. It raises some obvious practical concerns, such as: would such a program lead to an enhanced  colossal skim of credit card company off-creaming?  And what about the percentage of poorer Americans who don’t have credit cards or bank accounts now, either because they don’t understand how it all works, or they’re forced to function in the “gray” economy for one reason or another (e.g. a drug felony rap). And what kind of as-yet-unknown perverse work-arounds would this new system provoke?

I put the question to a table of college-educated people last night and their response was surprising: utter complacency. They’re already used to paying for most things with plastic, they said, and their employer already withholds a big part of their regular paycheck for taxes, so what does it matter? They couldn’t grok the possibility that a cashless money system might easily deprive them of access to whatever reserves they have. Or perhaps, more specifically, they couldn’t imagine an economic or political emergency that might provoke such a situation.

They might find out sooner than they realize. As I suggest in the lede, apprehension is growing that some kind of “corrective” event is at hand on the financial scene. Even the supposedly salubrious 20 percent S & P drop could set off a chorus of margin calls that would make the trumpets of Jericho sound like a kazoo concert. What will Americans do if they can’t get their money out of the banks? The last time this happened, 1933, we were a hard-up but polite and highly-regimented society, and the automatic rifle was a novelty restricted to a relatively tiny army and Al Capone’s crew. Behind the financial jitters of the informed minority is the greater fear of social unrest.

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James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency and the four-book series of World Made By Hand novels, set in a post economic crash American future. His most recent book is Living in the Long Emergency; Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward. Jim lives on a homestead in Washington County, New. York, where he tends his garden and communes with his chickens.

484 Responses to “Money Worries”

  1. peakfuture April 27, 2015 at 10:39 am #

    Complacency? Jim, who are you hanging out with these days? Were they just pulling your leg, or were they “seriously complacent?”

    College-educated? Seems like their education hasn’t even begun.

    How old were these folks?

    • Arrow April 28, 2015 at 11:03 am #

      Simple. Complacency + college-educated = well indoctrinated. They’re slaves… and while they might subconsciously know it, they’re not aware of the fact. Perfect scenario for the “informed classes”.

      • Neon Vincent May 1, 2015 at 11:40 am #

        Happy May Day, everyone!

        On the topic of complacency, we’re getting a weird case of it here in Michigan. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in a comment here that the voters in Michigan can’t seem to be bothered to raise taxes to improve their infrastructure; they’d rather legalize pot. Sure enough, the latest polling has the sales tax losing badly while a majority favor legalizing marijuana. In addition, most of Michigan’s state legislators couldn’t be bothered to say what their position was on the taxes for infrastructure measure. In the case of the politicians, I would guess cowardice or expediency. In the case of the voters, I guess they really do subscribe to Freewheeling Franklin Freak’s philosophy–“dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you though times of no dope.”

  2. BackRowHeckler April 27, 2015 at 10:41 am #

    Jim, the ‘informed classes’ — Hollywood Scum, Big Media Whores, Hedge Fund Swindlers, Corrupt Politicians, were yukking it up at the White House Correspondents Dinner the other night in DC, while 20 miles away Baltimore City was burning down and people were being dragged from cars and beaten. This ‘Informed class’ — the elite of every stripe — is grabbing all it can before this whole goddam thing goes down in flames!

    brh

    • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 2:48 pm #

      Brilliant as usual.
      I have tried to ‘zone’ out [pun intended, stay a few zones away]
      urban conflicts.

      I turned on the radio today and hear Barry at the event, trying to be funny. I didnt listen long.

    • Arrow April 28, 2015 at 11:04 am #

      Ah yes. They fiddle while it burns.

  3. goat1001 April 27, 2015 at 10:46 am #

    All it would take is a cyber attack aimed at the right targets to take the monetary system down (even if temporarily) and cause a run on banks. It is easy to envision (or even expect) an abrupt declaration of martial law and immediate blocks put on all electronic accounts (which are pretty much all accounts). The system is so fragile any earthquake, volcano or other catastrophic event (even relatively “minor”) could trigger a financial collapse followed by a total period of chaos and anarchy. No complacency here…

    The millennials and even some Gen-Xers seem to get it. Boomers are the ones who seem to be totally complacent (as a group), from what I have experienced recently.

    • Arrow April 28, 2015 at 11:06 am #

      Ditto on the last paragraph.

    • bob April 28, 2015 at 7:30 pm #

      The gangsters used to rob the banks now they own them;this is a viscous crew with a goodly number of high functioning psychopaths.
      Remember rule number 1 , ” given a certain time frame all monetary price systems will be controlled by the most sociably undesirable aka criminals. ” They espouse doctrine such as “human wants are unlimited and resources are limited ” so get thee out there and exploit and get all you can hey it’s economic growth and that’s very very good.Rule number 2 is the longer the price system is operational the greater the power of those gaining control until it becomes one big racket aka the corporate state”.When they asked Bugsy Seigel why he robbed banks he said “that’s where the money is”. Maybe it wasn’t Bugsy but it was one of those guys.

  4. peakfuture April 27, 2015 at 10:55 am #

    Recent immigrants might get it; especially if they were from countries that have experienced collapse of their financial systems. Anyone have friends/neighbors/acquaintances from the former USSR, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Greece, Zimbabwe?

    • lsjogren April 27, 2015 at 11:15 am #

      I had a colleague who was Serbian. She had experience hyperinflation. Nevertheless, in 2006-2007 when I discussed investments with them they had all their money in US dollars.

      And in that particular era (crash of 2008), that turned out to be the best place to be. I was in cheap gold and silver mining stocks, being paranoid about a crash of the US dollar. I lost 75% of my money, double what the average person lost in the crash. They presumably came out well, since in hindsight the US dollar was the best place to be during that timeframe.

      One would think that sooner or later the dollar will crash, but who knows when? If there is one thing that we have learned in this millenium is that financial markets are totally unpredictable.

      • peakfuture April 27, 2015 at 11:20 am #

        “If there is one thing that we have learned in this millenium is that financial markets are totally unpredictable.”

        I’d say “rigged” as well…

        • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 3:01 pm #

          A friend – expecting collapse- at that time bought ‘Couer D’ Alene mines’ stock.
          It had a Bush on its board.

          The stock dropped by 90%.

          • seawolf77 April 27, 2015 at 3:20 pm #

            All miners got creamed.

      • Arrow April 28, 2015 at 11:22 am #

        One hundred years ago you could buy a nice suit with an ounce of gold… today, you can buy a nice suit with an ounce of gold. Arguably, the best place to be in ’08 was not in paper (stocks) or any other financial instrument… it was in tangibles. Just prior to the crash, one here cashed-out of paper and bought silver and gold, so was not affected by their theft. Granted they rig the commodities market(s) as well but in 2008 the low-hanging fruit was the securities bubble that was created for the very purpose of stealing wealth.

        The markets are only as “unpredictable” as the sumbitch with his finger on the button. He pushes the button, the whole house of cards collapses. But this time, it will be the grand-poobah of collapses, if not, just a test-run prior to draining the coffers.

  5. K-Dog April 27, 2015 at 10:55 am #

    In a relative sense a table of college-educated people are not doing badly and they deep down know it. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and that’s how that tired old phrase goes. That the reaction to more loss of freedom and another helping of government/corporate surveillance is utter complacency does not surprise me. It is too be expected.

    People trade freedoms (Yes that word can be plural, George Bush made it so.) willingly in times of plenty and for a table of college-educated people these times are indeed times of plenty. They are not living in snap card hell. The fact that all they can have can be wiped out by a simple shift of of decimal points by an agency such as the FBI or IRS simply does not occur to them. They are privileged and can’t imagine they have anything to worry about. Cherished ideas of freedom and democracy seldom survive to a third generation of elites.

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    • K-Dog April 27, 2015 at 11:02 am #

      Not that there is anything wrong with being college or otherwise educated.

      It is simply that when one is of an elite class it engenders feelings of complacency and superiority, not a hungry passion it excites in those who are hail from a modest background to whom pangs of want are well known.

    • hineshammer April 27, 2015 at 11:16 am #

      First, college-educated means nothing today. I know plenty of college educated people that can’t string together coherent sentences or do simple arithmetic in their thick heads. I have one friend, in his early 40s, who hasn’t read a book since college. “I don’t have time for that” is his excuse. Yet he has time to watch ESPN for hours. He’s a fucking dolt. Second, having a college degree does not allow you an extravagant income, necessarily. I have a college degree, am at least two standard deviations to the right of the mean on the Bell curve, yet I make a meager salary. Third, today there are millions of people making high five-figure or low six-figure salaries that are living virtually paycheck to paycheck for various reasons, some of them their own doing, but not all. Millions of Americans are college-educated but can hardly be described as “elite”.

      • Ragnar April 27, 2015 at 11:20 am #

        Spot On !

      • SteveO April 27, 2015 at 11:23 am #

        Let me add that most of the under 30, college educated people that I know are carrying 6 figure debt loads in student loans. They may be making $50k+ but with loan payment skyward of $700 a month they are, as you say, living hand to mouth and the next crash will sink them.

      • K-Dog April 27, 2015 at 1:06 pm #

        All of what you say is absolutely true. The question is what flavor of demographic soup did our illustrious wordsmith dine with? As to people making in the low six figures having money problems that would be their own damn fault. With that income adjusting lifestyles and eliminating expenses will make financial problems go away. With that income problems would go away with or without a $700 a month student loan payment. Plenty of people with lesser means manage to avoid chronic debt and even have some left over even to buy some Chronic after they pay their bills.

        There is a difference between attending college and getting an education. Of that there is no doubt.

      • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 3:04 pm #

        ‘I have a college degree, am at least two standard deviations to the right of the mean on the Bell curve’.
        So what is yr IQ? 120? 130? 140?
        What is yr degree in?

        • hineshammer April 27, 2015 at 6:41 pm #

          Typically, a standard deviation on the bell curve is 15. The mean is 100. You can do the math.
          Economics. Pretty much useless unless you go on to get a Masters or PhD. I’m an underachiever.

  6. BackRowHeckler April 27, 2015 at 11:00 am #

    And Jim Social Unrest is already here.

    Its shaping up to be one helluva summer.

    Stay out of the cities, that’s my advice.

    brh

    • EvelynV April 27, 2015 at 11:30 am #

      Sho’nuff.

      Cowering beats living in the now every time.

      Find a nice dark corner in your basement and if you dare risk it dig a hole in the corner and scrunch yer self down into it. You’ll feel much more secure than just hiding behind your draperies where any random bullet could pick out your eye.

      • Beryl of Oyl April 27, 2015 at 2:26 pm #

        I live in the now. I also live in the flight path of the helicopters that take the shooting and stabbing victims to the trauma center at Albany Med.

      • Helen Highwater April 27, 2015 at 2:32 pm #

        You seem to be unaware that there are other options than cowering in the house if you don’t want to risk being involved in urban violence. There are lots of friendly small towns and rural areas where you can definitely “live in the now”.

      • BackRowHeckler April 27, 2015 at 9:54 pm #

        OK Ev.

        See you in Baltimore. I understand its a hot time in the old town tonite. No, really. Its on fire. I just saw video of it on CNN.

        brh

    • WannaBleave April 27, 2015 at 11:46 am #

      BRB, don’t believe everything you read in Breitbart or DrudgeReport… there is no race-war. That is the red-herring meant to distract you from the real issues like the collapse of the middle-class (both white and black) and the ever expanding game of rackets run by Big-Oil, Big-Finance, Big-Pharma….

      • bossier56 April 27, 2015 at 12:44 pm #

        You may not wannableave but low intensity war is going on between the races. It is hard to see when one side is brow beaten into passivity and the media only reports one sides point of view

        • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 3:06 pm #

          Yup. The Trillions of dollars wasted on the ‘great Society’ made things worse.
          It paid low IQ people to breed and be lazy.
          The ‘Fergusons’ and “Baltimore beat backs’ are the most obvious signs.
          Rush played recording of Baltimore [mayor?] talking about ‘allowing the riots a space to destroy in’.

          wtf?

      • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 3:17 pm #

        That’s right. Race War, Inc. A division of Divide and Conquer LLC!

  7. Pogo April 27, 2015 at 11:11 am #

    Great essay today and right on “the money”.
    Fits right in with book I’m reading: “The Gold Wars: The Battle for the Global Economy” by Kelly Mitchell.

    Two other books worth reading about why we are in deep do are Jim Rickards “The Death of Money” and “Currency Wars”.

  8. orbit7er April 27, 2015 at 11:27 am #

    All the more reason to move your money to a Credit Union(s) if most of your money is in a bank. findacreditunion.com can find Credit Unions in your area.

    As for the college educated’s complacency – I attended the Wedding of my nephew over Easter and got to meet some of his geeky, college educated, grad school tyro professional friends. One I met from Colorado was particularly tuned in to Climate Change, global warming, the need for major change. But I asked him if he ever heard of “Peak Oil”. This millenial had never heard of it!

    The Climate Deniers have nothing on the Peak Oil/ Limits to Growth deniers! Many so-called “progressives” and Environmentalists are still in the grips of the endless growth, Saudi America meme. But of course Peak Oil and Climate Change are two sides of the same Limits to Growth modeled way back in 1972. One is the Limit posed by resource depletion with infinite material growth, the other is the Limit of waste from infinite material growth. And Auto Addiction is bad for both.

    For instance while Gov Christie has slashed the NJ Transit operating budget 90% and is proposing another 9% fare hike and additional service cuts on top of his 22% fare hike in 2010, his own DEP reports that Transportation in New Jersey is the biggest greenhouse emitter! 47% of all greenhouse emissions in New jersey are from Transportation ie Auto Addiction. Also acknowledged in the DEP report.

    New Jersey, more densely populated than China, with already millions of transit riders and the #2nd,3rd,12th, and 21st cities with carless households, under Gov Christie, in collusion with the Democratic
    bosses is spending $60 Million on one Exit 105 interchange – the total of the NJ Transit deficit…
    New Jersey should be the US State leader in Green Transit but its leadership (ha!! thats a joke!) is content to screw those people who cannot afford cars or take Transit (like myself) for Green reasons.
    Feb 10th there was 41 car smashup with 61 injuries and 1 person killed when Gov Christie’s Administration could not manage to safely plow the 170 road lanes miles added for $2.5 Billion to the NJ Turnpike while driving is declining. Now NJ is hiring 23 new people just to maintain this stretch of road costing about $3 Million a year in perpetuity….
    Brilliant!

    • Zoltar April 27, 2015 at 1:01 pm #

      I have avoided banks and done business with credit unions my entire adult life and appreciate the distinction, but if the government illegally confiscates its citizens’ funds from banks, I have no confidence that holders of accounts in credit unions will be immune from similar abuse. It’s not as if the rule of law prevails any longer.

      • Fan of Entropy April 27, 2015 at 2:24 pm #

        You’re right, Zoltar. I too use credit unions, and the advantage is what it does for me and my community. The advantages disappear when the state wants to ‘lock it down’, and freeze your assets. The teller might be friendlier, but your money is still just a series of zeros and ones…

      • Majella April 27, 2015 at 5:40 pm #

        …and don’t the credit unions actually BANK with larger deposit takers, i.e. they are just large CUSTOMERS? If so, then it makes zero difference.

        • Fan of Entropy April 28, 2015 at 10:03 am #

          Depends on the credit union… there is a network of credit unions here in Canada, sort of a series of cooperatives that run independently but are loosely connected. They’re independent of big banks.

      • Q. Shtik April 27, 2015 at 11:21 pm #

        I have no confidence that holders of accounts in credit unions will be immune from similar abuse. – Zoltar

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

        Bingo!

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 3:30 pm #

      But, but, this is government inspired by the efficiency of the private sector!! How can this be?

      Similar issues in the SF Bay Area. SF itself is building massive office buildings with no thought to how the folks working in them will get to and from work. Young workers are increasing ridership on all public transit, and government is either in a coma or just plain bought off. Plans that should have been made ten years ago not even being discussed. Same obviously goes for water in CA!

      UCSF is opening a new hospital and research facility in Mission Bay near AT&T Park, and already the traffic issues are horrendous. Nobody gave a thought to any of this. NBA’s Warriors have moved their proposed stadium’s location to this same area and the uproar has begun – no transit access and no parking.

      And politicians squawk about “energy efficiency”! Christie should go down in flames over the mess he’s created.

      Morning commuters sit in 1-2 hour traffic jams in every direction.

  9. woe April 27, 2015 at 11:30 am #

    The older “college educated” types are afraid to use any of their critical thinking skills ( if they have any) to examine anything outside their narrowly focused expertise. They are too busy or scared trying to help a multinational buy back stock before the next round of layoffs. They still believe in the god of globalism and free markets in it’s current form, despite all of the evidence of the damage that it’s doing to our society. I think the stock market will “correct” about the time for the presidential elections. Then fear will elect our next presidential candidate. It’s simple, we forgot how to be citizens, we are just consumers. We won’t call something bullshit, like the QE’s because they put a well groomed PHD in front of the camera, surely they must know more than us. We have been getting played in this country for the last 40 years, but the people who see through the BS aren’t on the TV. The folks Who are called the “experts” are just cheerleaders for a losing team. I try to stay connected to the margins of our society, the working poor and working class, because that’s where you can smell the shit before it hits the fan. I don’t listen to the complacents, they increasingly don’t have a grip on reality. I started buying canned/dried food and storing it up while it’s relatively cheap, because broke beats broke and hungry all day long. QE will destroy the retirement system in this country, so I’m trying to adapt to a future where I will continue to work until I can’t.

    • Ragnar April 27, 2015 at 11:35 am #

      woe, by chance did you attend a small college in North Carolina ?

      • woe April 27, 2015 at 11:44 am #

        No, I’m a moderate mid southerner from “FOX COUNTRY”. A Razorback, but I like to think with a brain.

        • Ragnar April 27, 2015 at 11:58 am #

          Just wondering, a good buddy of mine back in the day went by that moniker, thanks. cheers to the mid south, a great location to be for the great unraveling some day !

    • peakfuture April 27, 2015 at 12:45 pm #

      “I try to stay connected to the margins of our society, the working poor and working class, because that’s where you can smell the shit before it hits the fan.”

      This is what I’ve been thinking/writing about more and more. All in CFN and like-minded worlds (i.e, those on JMG’s blog) “get it”, but figuring how and why we got our mindset is an important issue.

      “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” as the saying goes. Different breeds may need different training tactics.

      Who here has made any progress on this front?

      • Fan of Entropy April 27, 2015 at 2:42 pm #

        I certainly can’t claim any progress on that front – I can’t even get my wife to listen for more than 90 seconds when I bring it up… maybe it’s my delivery…. 😛

      • woe April 27, 2015 at 3:40 pm #

        I’m trying, but it’s hard. I think you will have more of a chance with younger people. They have less invested in the system, and they’re the ones not getting anything out of it.

        • ozone April 27, 2015 at 6:21 pm #

          woe,
          This is where I’ve made some allies too. You’ll find that those who actually do real work and create real lasting value will be receptive because they’ve already seen many examples of the general direction of ‘the current system’. (More and more grift; less and less benefit.)

          As some of us keep repeating here (without much success of it being internalized):

          “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair

          In other words, don’t waste your time with those who are utterly dependent on the system; if it should fail, they fail (in the very worst meaning of the word). …Most cops; most military; most gov’t. workers of a thousand toady-ing stripes. Fear is the mind-killer, thus these people cannot allow themselves to envision a world that doesn’t include their present “duties”.

    • BackRowHeckler April 28, 2015 at 12:57 am #

      Woe, the “working poor and the working class”, the Proles, is where Winston Smith put his faith, too. Whether or not that faith was misplaced we never really find out.

  10. teddyboy46 April 27, 2015 at 11:32 am #

    If our money backed only by Public Confidence than it would seem that all that needs to be done is adjust the Propaganda to keep people believing it is worth something.

    Which is already been done. Money used to be worth a lot more, but inflation of 2% a year has creeped up. It takes a lot more money to get even the simple things, but it happens so gradually that is becomes the new normal.

    The Propaganda tells you it is all your fault anyway. You did not work hard enough , did not save enough, were not clever enough in your investments. So you only have yourself to blame for your failure.

    Pretty clever way of getting you to take the loss while the Big Money Boyz take the profit. That includes former politicians who paid their dues in public service and are now getting their real reward.

    The cashless society will be another trick to make you believe you have more when you actually have less. George Orwell was a prophet.

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  11. FincaInTheMountains April 27, 2015 at 11:33 am #

    US has now a choice between inflationary and deflationary collapse.

    The first choice is a deflationary shock. Deflationary spiral starts to spin, if the Obama administration begins to seriously save. Kill obviously pork-belly projects, cancel a number of particularly heavy for budget Pentagon projects, in general, reduce the supply of dollars in the market.

    This option would benefit the financial elites of the United States. The whole country in this scenario would be in the deepest abyss, but when America will fall to the bottom, the financial elite will be at the top of this heap as the “kings of garbage.” Well, like now in Ukraine: the whole country is rapidly sinking into poverty, but some oligarchs continue to grow new valuable assets.

    Appreciation of the dollar will drop dramatically effective demand, both domestically and abroad. Following the demand the prices will fall. Dollar at some time will fly up to heaven: it is likely at this time a barrel of oil will cost only $5-10. Other assets (gold, rare metals, real estate) will be also very cheap.

    The expensive dollar will press down the US economy as an industrial press crushes a rat that accidentally ran inside. Within the United States will begin the massive bankruptcies, on the streets will be hordes of people that have lost their jobs, and the state, in addition, will cease to pay the normal benefits.

    The inflationary scenario is clearer to Russians, as we have experienced a similar catastrophe after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. In this scenario, the printing press is turned on to the maximum, dollar depreciates tenfold. Owners of shares, pension savings and other financial assets in a matter of months become beggars. Effective benefits are also reduced many times: as it was in the 90s in Russia.

    Oil under this scenario is worth not $5 per barrel, but $500 or $5000.

    Hyperinflation makes the “kings of garbage” another part of the American elite. “On horseback” are oil companies, farmers, owners of factories for the production of vehicles and weapons. All those who will benefit greatly by cheap labor to lift their business.

    America in this scenario is thrown 150 years back. The average American is poor again, and must do a lot of hard work to get a piece of bread without butter.

    Under this scenario there will be no FEMA concentration camps for the unemployed, because the government will not have the money to finance FEMA. The poor and the unemployed will be just shot on the spot – as recently by historical terms was done in England.

    • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 3:10 pm #

      When? when will oil be $5 a barrel?

    • seawolf77 April 27, 2015 at 3:28 pm #

      Those 2 scenarios are not mutually exclusive. People have been crying for inflation for 10 years now. What happened was all that cheap money has caused a supply glut in numerous places, oil the most prominent. Deflation always proceeds inflation for that very reason. But not always. The same thing happened in 1929, most oil in history 540 million barrels (480 million today). Very deflationary. Couple that with a contraction in the money supply…very deflationary. The bankers always surprise. Which way to they turn now?

      • Q. Shtik April 27, 2015 at 11:40 pm #

        Deflation always proceeds inflation for that very reason. But not always. – Sea

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

        Come on Seawolf, stop playing with our heads, which is it…always or NOT always? And by the way, it’s precedes, not proceeds.

    • sprawlcapital May 3, 2015 at 1:09 pm #

      Finca: Kill obviously pork-[belly] projects,

      That should be pork barrel. The metaphor is very old. I’m not sure of the details of its origin, but it usually refers to a legislator getting an expensive construction project for his/her home district in order to gain votes.

  12. AKlein April 27, 2015 at 11:37 am #

    JHK makes a powerful case that we have finally, after decades of legerdemain and dissembling, reached “Peak Bullshit” in the financial sphere. Some may argue that the spinmeisters can eke out a few more time units (weeks?, months?, years?) from the creaking financial artifice (AKA the economy). Who knows? I certainly didn’t think it could last this long. But frankly, that’s not the big question – which is, what happens post “Peak Bullshit”? Seems to me that there are two possibilities. A long, bumpy, decline or an acute highly disruptive catharsis, followed by the unknown. The former would be better for most of us, since a longer timeframe allows for controlled adaptation. Unfortunately, that is probably not what will happen. So much elasticity has been squeezed out of the financial system that catharsis may well be unavoidable.

    • Zoltar April 27, 2015 at 1:13 pm #

      Hunger isn’t very gradual; it’s more binary. Here’s the equation as I see it: millions of proles who have kept their heads in the sand and have no clue that the arrangements they are used to can’t last forever, suddenly starving – but they still have their guns. That sounds more like “acute highly disruptive catharsis” to me. Good luck guarding your vegetable garden from armed, starving hoards.

      • woe April 27, 2015 at 1:44 pm #

        that’s the thing about cans, you just need a can opener and a spoon or fork. They don’t even have to smell the food cooking. The better strategy is to try to enlighten elements of the horde, before they become the starving horde with guns.

      • Helen Highwater April 27, 2015 at 2:50 pm #

        Grow lots of root crops. Most urban people wouldn’t recognize a potato plant. And in the winter you can cut the tops off and cover the crops with leaves and dig them up as you need them.

        • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 3:11 pm #

          I read that freezing raw taters ruins them.
          Or do you live so far south the ground doesnt freeze?

          • gryffyn April 27, 2015 at 8:31 pm #

            People who live high in the Andes use a process of freezing, thawing and squeezing the water out of potatoes to preserve them.

          • Helen Highwater April 29, 2015 at 2:02 pm #

            Actually I live on the west coast of Canada, where the ground never freezes very deeply. This technique might not work in colder places, but there are other ways of storing food that would not be obvious to looters, such as root cellars with camouflaged entryways.

    • Q. Shtik April 27, 2015 at 11:50 pm #

      So much elasticity has been squeezed out of the financial system that catharsis may well be unavoidable. – AKlein

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

      Are you sure “catharsis” is the word you intended here? Catharsis is usually thought of as a good thing. Here’s the definition:

      ca·thar·sis

      the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.

      synonyms: emotional release, relief, release, venting

      • AKlein April 28, 2015 at 8:02 am #

        I mean “catharsis” in the medical sense. Figuratively, of course.

  13. CrusherMuldoon April 27, 2015 at 11:54 am #

    Jim’s writing this weeks will send shivers up the spine of a Greek statue. No pun intended.

  14. charlesbasak April 27, 2015 at 11:58 am #

    Hi Jim and Friends,

    I thought I had enough relevant and recent blog posts to warrant letting you all know about them. Trying to think about how things would be (and will have to be!) when fossil fuel availability wanes more rapidly. I guess a sluggish economy equals sluggish downturn… stagnancy is the new progress!

    https://subversesjournal.wordpress.com/

  15. 99 cent nation April 27, 2015 at 12:12 pm #

    Peak Bull shit. I like that one Aklein, All these mutant business school lying robots will eventually get theirs one of these days. I keep wondering when that shoe is going to drop. Very soon I hope. All these corporate share holders along with the rat bastard politicians and rotten bankers when this does go down need to be keel hauled and hung from the nearest yard arm for all to see. All those mentioned above have already destroyed any semblance of a life where everyone can thrive and enjoy life. The hell with them and the horse they rode in on. The horse is a metaphor meaning a pile of bullshit.

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  16. Beryl of Oyl April 27, 2015 at 12:21 pm #

    My parents, the World War II generation, did everything “right”, working hard, saving, etc. They’ve been robbed by the low interest rates. Nobody talks about that side of the mortgage meltdown.
    The riots in Baltimore relate to the meltdown as well, in that we brought in increasing amounts of legal immigrants because we didn’t have enough suckers to sell overpriced houses to. At the time, I wondered how all these new developments going up in every last bit of open space were going to sell, because after a certain point in a real estate boom, everyone has a house; and how could people making $40,000 a year buy these ‘luggsury’ houses anyway? I got my answer to how the masses could afford the houses pretty quickly (they couldn’t), but I only recently realized where the masses came from. So the immigration not only drove down wages, it enabled the real estate racket to keep going. So it’s resulted in unrest and rioting amongst the underclass. They only live in places the ruling class won’t go.
    In Schenectady, we saw “college students” at a tax-payer subsidized dorm, stab each other over food.

    • K-Dog April 27, 2015 at 4:20 pm #

      Yes, bring in more of the foreign affluent to prop up the economy. It’s the American way. And as payment for patriotically propping up the status-quo they get the right to cut you off in traffic and jump the freeway que in their Porsche Cayennes. One does not get the half million it takes to be legit after being born in a communist country from being nice and playing fair now do they.

  17. Beryl of Oyl April 27, 2015 at 12:33 pm #

    I think the push to eliminate the Postal Service is a ruse to make cash transactions more difficult, and also to eliminate correspondence that can’t be tracked. There are other government agencies that don’t fulfill whatever their purpose is efficiently and nobody is trying to rid us of those. Look at Education. Arne Duncan calls white mothers racists and nobody says anything. He’s on welfare. Ho doesn’t do me any good whatsoever, but I use the Post Office fairly frequently. Every time I go there, there’s a line.
    Another reason to eliminate cash that I just learned of – someone I know was going to apply for a job with a cosmetics chain. They informed applicants that they would be developing a ‘consumer profile’ of their employees. When they can use your credit report, and use ‘profiling’ services, they can learn everything about you according to what you spend your money on. People are complacent about this stuff too.

    • capt spaulding April 27, 2015 at 12:51 pm #

      Creating an electronic trail of money will just make it easier for the thought police to keep track of you. Along with that, they already track your cell phone, keep tabs on what you look at on line, and in general, keep track of your life. The list of ways to watch you is getting longer and longer. Is this paranoia on my part? Well, yes, but only because they’re watching us. I refer you to the NSA among others, and that’s only one of the few that we know about. I think that the ability to keep tabs on every activity that you engage in, will make this the world that George Orwell warned us about.

      • K-Dog April 27, 2015 at 4:43 pm #

        You can take my word for it that they do more than watch with their toys. People seem to be stuck on the ‘watching’ part and like to pretend that nothing else is going on. I guess the truth is too much to deal with. If you have out of the mainstream ideas you can and will be perceived as dangerous. In which case they can and will fuck with you. For Real!

    • K-Dog April 27, 2015 at 4:32 pm #

      All mail is tracked. That’s what computers are for. Where did you get the idea that sending mail is a private protected activity? Tracking mail is part of full spectrum surveillance and has been so since it became possible. The next time you enter a word in a CAPTCHIA online form box to log in or buy something somewhere you may be helping the scanning algorithms do their job.

      For which you won’t be getting a thank you or anything else.

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:16 pm #

      Complacency, indifference. Saw it in the sixties. It was maddening. And millions died. Nothing new. It’s the real “American Way.”

      History teaches that a lot of suffering results from this mentality. I hope the Millennials don’t learn this the hard way. I know it all looks hip & cool. That’s just advertising.

  18. shabbaranks April 27, 2015 at 12:40 pm #

    JK wrote “And what kind of as-yet-unknown perverse work-arounds would this new system provoke?”

    How about using all that gold and silver that people are hoarding? To what end is the ownership of Au & Ag if not to serve as money? Neither pays a dividend but both have served as money for thousands of years.

    The notion that the world of money will be LIMITED to a series of electronic flashes on a computer hidden somewhere that isn’t geologically active (for instance, eastern Oregon) is not only laughable and foolish but certain to fail. Almost anything can be bartered and as we all know, monetary systems have risen and fallen throughout world history, right up to present failures of a host of Eastern European currencies and the Zimbabwean dollar. I suggest that Harvard Econ professor Ken Rogoff’s idea of a cashless society is just that: an idea whose time has not and never will come.

  19. islander800 April 27, 2015 at 12:52 pm #

    I’ve been reading a lot of history recently, the rule of empires and all that.

    The take-away from it all? Regardless of the ruling powers of the day, be they Romans, the Muslims in Spain, the Incas in the Americas, they all had one thing in common: they always thought that they had reached the natural “end of history”, as we say today, and when the shit hit the fan collapsing their empires, THEY NEVER SAW IT COMING.

    Without fail, the elites are the last ones to realize the gig’s up.

    Seems like history is about to echo once again.

    • Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 12:04 am #

      the gig’s up.

      ========

      jig

    • seawolf77 April 28, 2015 at 11:39 am #

      I am not so sure. The Boer’s War is generally considered the beginning of the end of the British Empire. I would say in our case it will be the Vietnam War that will be looked back on as the beginning of the end of the American Empire. Did the elites know? Absolutely. England fought off both Napoleon and Hitler but they would not have beaten them without Mother Russia. Napoleon had his Waterloo. Hitler had his Stalingrad. England had no epoch battle where the mantle was seized from her. It kind of slid out of her like a greasy turd. I suspect her love child America will be the same.

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:25 pm #

      I think that history also shows that there are always a few who did SEE IT COMING.

      If they speak out at all they are ostracized, imprisoned, tortured – all in the name of some notion that serves that belief of being “the end of history.” Which is the same as seeing yourselves as somehow having reached that “city on a hill,” or as a master race, or on a mission to save the rest of the world. Which means that, yes, the elites will always find some mumbo jumbo to justify their last-ditch efforts to save the empire.

      We get “American Exceptionalism” from the Tea Party and “America the indispensable nation” from Hillary. Same bilge we got from LBJ and Tricky Dick, just different vocabularies.

  20. pequiste April 27, 2015 at 12:53 pm #

    “…Potemkin Village…” isn’t that a wonderful subdivision somewhere in the great urban sprawl of the Florida Gold Coast — yeah, somewhere north of Boca Raton and south of Jupiter so the locals, and some ex-pat Noo Yawkas say.

    When “housing” can be advertised, via billboards, on a route adjacent to a major highway ( what was once Florida’s Turnpike, and now by grace of John Ellis Bush the Ronald Reagan Turnpike ) for “from the 900Ks to $5 millions” then its everything back to normal in Bubbleland.

    Looking forward to a summer of festering resentiment made into street theater spectaculars writ large…in more than a few places.

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    • ozone April 27, 2015 at 6:37 pm #

      Why worry? There’s $$ to be made! We don’t need no steenking fresh water or dry land… did I mention there’s $$ to be made? 😉

      http://www.floridatrend.com/article/15814/a-rising-concern

      • russ April 27, 2015 at 11:00 pm #

        Didn’t Florida make it illegal to use the phrase “climate change” or “global warming” in any official State communications these days? I think they did.

        Because, gee, if they did some of those ‘ $ 900K to 5 million’ suggested home or estate values might get reduced just a teensy-weensy bit.

        Now the thing that concerns me personally in the link you provided is the picture of the Budweiser track slogging down the road through the water having just made it to Sloppy Joes Bar.

        When the beer truck can no longer make it through, that is the end of civilization as we know it.

        The driver will probably be standing on top of the truck tossing free beers down to the alligators and pythons, trying to make friends with them in case he has to wade through.

        What a world, what a world…

        • ozone April 28, 2015 at 7:53 am #

          Ha! Good one, Russ.

          “When the beer truck can no longer make it through, that is the end of civilization as we know it.”

          Yep, I’d suggest that as the prime indicator of just having lost the paddle while trying to navigate Shitz Creek!

          As well as a couple others here, I make beer, but I can’t say it’s my own ’cause it’s made with a can of extract; I just add water and yeast to make a 5-6 gallon batch. Even ‘true brewers’ use grain that is bought and shipped, along with spray malt, etc.!

          To be truly beloved in the near future, get off the vaporous digital services and into the brewing arts, start to finish! Nothing says community like a “public house” with a nice ale on tap. 🙂

          • ozone April 28, 2015 at 8:02 am #

            …..Now, as to how that ale gets *paid for*, we’re landed right back into JHK’s topic o’ the week. ‘Acceptable’ medium of exchange? After an ending of the present financial fraud and shenanigans, I don’t think a rectangle of plastic, representing a digital pile of ether would get anyone a tankard of the landlord’s finest, do you?

          • pequiste April 28, 2015 at 9:32 am #

            Yes, Ozone, let’s return to the discussion of how that golden brew, gets paid for.
            In a concrete-hard reality of barter (in FLorida at least,) it would be in exchange for a red snapper, a lobster, an orange, a coconut, a tomato (from Immokalee) or some pretty shells. A pony keg in trade for cut coral or maybe boa constrictor boots. Real market forces and actual price discovery.
            Not possible with 8 million humans jammed into a thin strip 100 miles long.
            So currency is used to represent money.
            With the incredible legerdemain of the “money masters” plus the technology of the 21st century, we have a situation where the end of actual money is contemplated ( also becomes a distinct possibility) and an embedded chip or retina scan becomes a meal ticket and the ultimate form of coercion.
            Now I need a 12 pack.

          • russ April 28, 2015 at 12:08 pm #

            Well done, ozone – Sounds like you’re taking a page out of the Archdruid’s book – he is always advising people to find their own craft niche.

            The quality control varies wildly, but at our place trying to make some dandelion wine has come to be a ‘rite of spring’. I couldn’t care less about having a putting green lawn – consequently amongst the grass we have some clover, some plantains, and of course the dandelions. You pick the blossoms on a bright sunny day, boil them and let them steep for a couple days. Then 2 days later you heat the batch up again, add peels and juice from – usually oranges but lemons will do, too – add the sugar, let things cool, and add yeast.

            A 4 liter or gallon bottle with the stopper/vent to let the CO2 bubble away, and you’re off and running.

            6-8 weeks later, it is time to decant into regular sized wine bottles. If I were serious, I would have to really improve the filtration process, but I like pulpy orange juice so what the heck. Put it away for a few months, and by the Thanksgiving or Christmas time period, it’s ready to drink.

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:29 pm #

      Florida is now a money-laundering state for the world’s criminals. Cash deals encouraged!

      To be expected from another Bush Country state. Anglo Saxon Mafia. The one you never hear about.

  21. Cold N. Holefield April 27, 2015 at 12:57 pm #

    Beryl of Oyl said: I think the push to eliminate the Postal Service is a ruse to make cash transactions more difficult, and also to eliminate correspondence that can’t be tracked.

    They’ll never eliminate it entirely. The Junk Mail lobby is too powerful and the Post Office has effectively become its distribution arm.

    JHK said: I put the question to a table of college-educated people last night and their response was surprising: utter complacency.

    That’s not surprising. We all know a college education doesn’t teach you to think objectively, independently or critically. In fact, quite the opposite — especially these days. Just ask Jordan Spieth — he knows. Smart boy. He knows how to count to a $100 million and that’s all that matters.

    Take Your College Education And Shove It

  22. PeteAtomic April 27, 2015 at 1:01 pm #

    The description “utter complacency” sums up the totality of intellectual thought & action in the US today.
    People in America today are more concerned with the condition of Bruce Jenner’s penis, than banking reform or campaign finance laws.

    • hineshammer April 27, 2015 at 6:45 pm #

      Utter complacency coupled with utter stupidity. We’ve had several generations churned out by a school system that doesn’t know what it means to teach critical thinking.

      • Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 12:13 am #

        churned out by a school system that doesn’t know what it means to teach critical thinking. – hines

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

        Since I became involved in the blogosphere some 10 years ago I must have read the term “critical thinking” 10 thousand times but I have never heard anyone define it.

        Anyone want to have a go at it?

        • pequiste April 28, 2015 at 9:48 am #

          Here is a definition for you Q; from the Foundation For Critical Thinking:

          “Critical thinking is that mode of thinking — about any subject, content, or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, as well as a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.”

          Sound like some steaming pile of bullshit excreted from America’s premiere collegiate institutions with the U.S. Department of Education providing guidance and funding.

          I generally prefer non-linear (lateral) thinking as proposed by the extraordinary Edward De Bono.

          What I love about the CFN is the wonderfully realistic, sarcastic, and scornful optique that JHK and his minions use to deconstruct our FUBAR situation.

          • hineshammer April 29, 2015 at 9:04 am #

            Yeah, what he said.

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:32 pm #

      Like I said, nothing changes. Bruce Jenner’s penis. Bill Clinton’s penis.

      George Carlin is even outdated.

  23. volodya April 27, 2015 at 1:05 pm #

    All these threads. The trick is to un-tangle the tangle.

    One thread: Jamie Dimon doesn’t want yer steenkin’ money. No, if you have more than a certain amount, you pay his bank a one percent fee per year. This applies to big depositors. What of this? Negative rates coming soon to a place near you?

    So, you might ask, what are the implications of negative rates? What does this mean for pension funds? Bye-bye pension fund? I don’t know, I’ll bet the actuaries have their underwear in knots trying to scope this out.

    Another thread: the IRS is apparently pulling in its horns. Why? Cuts in funding supposedly. Fewer agents, fewer prosecutions of evaders. And not only that but far less chance of your being able to phone in and contact somebody to make an inquiry.

    Is this the green light for wealthy tax evaders? Is this the signal they need? Offshore your money to the Cayman Islands, you have no worries. Go ahead, do your thing with transfer pricing, move your profits to tax havens, IRS enforcement capability is much diminished.

    Another thread: the Bundy affair. After the debacles at Waco and Ruby Ridge, it seems that there’s some reluctance to risk armed confrontation. So now there’s rancher Bundy with a thousand guys showing up armed and ready for a showdown.

    And what happens? The feds back off. But what are the implications? If you have enough guns, you get your way? How many others took the example?

    Is this what collapse looks like? Armed confrontation, bureaucratic dishevelment, a shortening of institutional reach, in the end, a withdrawal of government, a loosening of its clutches.

    A withdrawal of bad and corrupt and dysfunctional government may be salutary. But what happens if swathes of territory or population live beyond governmental laws and law enforcement?

    What happens when duly constituted authority withdraws? The question is what takes its place? Because as sure as we’re sitting here something will.

    • Smoky Joe April 27, 2015 at 1:32 pm #

      “What happens when duly constituted authority withdraws? The question is what takes its place? Because as sure as we’re sitting here something will.”

      Loving Morrow will help you. Praise her!

      Read JHK’s third World Made by Hand novel, lad.

    • Beryl of Oyl April 27, 2015 at 1:35 pm #

      I’m trying to think of how this relates to what we just saw happen in Ferguson. Duly constituted authority didn’t withdraw. If you don’t have a gun, you get your way too. Except of course you don’t.

      • volodya April 27, 2015 at 1:51 pm #

        Sure, granted, however I don’t think that the institutional brick-work comes down all at once, or uniformly across the geography. It cracks and breaks but in my estimation it comes down in bits and pieces, in some places it gets patched and in other places it stays down.

        And there is societal inertia. For example, supposedly the Roman senate continued to meet for a couple hundred years after the last Roman emperor was shown the door. Roman catholic clergy supposedly wear the garb of Roman officials from 1,500 years ago.

        Maybe what we saw in Ferguson (and other places) is a symptom of decline. Maybe police over-reaction is a sign of weakness and not strength.

        Maybe so is the militarization of police forces. Maybe governments realize that the sight of a uniform isn’t adequate to instill compliance. Now they need police infantry. Let’s not forget also that despite the supposed precipitous decline in crime rates(does anyone believe the official stats?) there’s more guns than people in the US. Cops justifiably fear for their lives.

        • Beryl of Oyl April 27, 2015 at 2:44 pm #

          I can’t articulate it. Ferguson to me represents some sort of winning out by the people who are heavily invested in pretending the institutional brick-work hasn’t already collapsed, despite all evidence to the contrary.
          How is that baby doing? What baby? The baby who was having trouble breathing, the call the cop answered just before he answered the call that ruined his life. I think the mother of that baby, and also the proprietor of that mini-market, have a different attitude toward the police than we were led to believe Ferguson residents have.
          I do see police over-reaction as a thing, a bad thing. But why does it only get reported on when it can be politicized? There’s a family in Ballston Spa whose loved one was killed by police, but nobody cares unless it can be used as a cover for what the decline is doing to those at the bottom, first.

      • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:43 pm #

        It wasn’t, isn’t, duly constituted. Authority has done what only it can do — undermined itself. And when authority has no legitimacy, has lost it through its own actions, it has no choice but to escalate. That is the real danger. Because despite all the rhetoric about freedom and democracy, this country’s leadership, its elites, will do what it has always done and come down hard on anyone who raises an objection.

        We are moving closer to the conditions of the late nineteenth century, and we were led in this direction by China’s willingness to turn its country into a forced labor camp. Now American working people are expected to knuckle under to that same kind of regime. As someone mentioned the WWII generation fought and sacrificed to build what the elites re destroying. The promise made to Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” has been abandoned. By both parties.

    • seawolf77 April 27, 2015 at 3:21 pm #

      The trick is always to unscramble the egg.

    • Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 12:30 am #

      What happens when duly constituted authority withdraws? The question is what takes its place? – Volodya

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

      That’s easy………UNduly constituted authority.

  24. lostinspace April 27, 2015 at 1:08 pm #

    Great point about aarp, Me and my wife unsubscribed years ago but still get junk mail for insurance to this day.
    My dad is 81 and has made money on a reverse mortgage somehow otherwise he and I have lost a lot of interest money. I think they have changed the rules on reverse mortgages so you can’t do it anymore. Anyone who can add to this.

    • Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 12:34 am #

      Anyone who can add to this. – lost

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

      Give Henry Winkler a jingle…he’ll give you the straight skinny.

  25. russ April 27, 2015 at 1:09 pm #

    Hmmmm… Years of near zero interest rates; some apparent push to move as closely as possible to a credit card only, no-cash society…

    A few links; a few observations –

    After the Civil War, robbing banks could be a strong political statement. The war was not over; you could hit the assets of the victors. Kind of the same thing in the Depression years of the 1930s, with some of the notorious bank robbers being likened to a new breed of Robin Hood.

    http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/biography/jesse_james.htm

    http://abcnews.go.com/Business/traditional-bank-robbery-decline-back-greats/story?id=23056521

    We keep hearing about how great the economies are. Yet some governments know this is hogwash and know that some significant part of the economy must be in cash only dealings. These petty dealing are not taxed. The governments want in; why pass up a revenue source?

    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cashinhand-economy-is-costing-public-billions-20121020-27y5t.html

    The greatest fear of those in power these days is losing power. That’s why we have these massive data collections, where nothing is private. Cash is private. The solution? Minimize cash transactions, so you can more easily see what the people are up to.

    http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-the-world-become-a-cashless-society

    Notice this last link goes to a page where readers were asked to give their reasons as to whether society should be cashless or not. The great majority said “no”, and frequently cited some means of protecting privacy as a leading reason.

    Seems to be today’s issue boils down to the PTB seeking still another layer of control over the average people in society.

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  26. Smoky Joe April 27, 2015 at 1:28 pm #

    Way way back in ’85, Michael Swanwick and William Gibson (the man who gave us the term “Cyberspace”) wrote “Dogfight,” an outstanding story about a near-future American dystopia that includes a cashless economy, PTSD vets, and helicopter-parenting so intense that yuppies install neural blocks in college kids to keep them from having sex before graduation.

    Well worth CF Nation readers’ attention, if you can find a copy. Old laminated paper money and coins are the norm for criminals and the gray economy of this future. The Big Banks and our governments would just LOVE that.

  27. newworld April 27, 2015 at 2:07 pm #

    I’ll tell you of a few people with no money worries today, the Clinton gang and Eric “show me the money” Holder 77 million dollar annual salary. How bout them bones?

    Thank you progressives for such a wonderful era of poverty, political correctness and race riots.

    But honestly is that mayor of Baltimore the dumbest person on the planet? Hey I get it he hates whites, but to chase out harmless hipster whites from their gentrification work to turn your city into Detroit on the Sea, that is a special kind of dumb.

    And lastly you progressives have so corroded the order of our society that the next two years this whole ball of yarn can come unspun and we could possibly elect another Bush. Thanks

    • BackRowHeckler April 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm #

      Baltimore might be the worst sh-thole on the east coast already. Camden, NJ is pretty bad too, but my money is on Baltimore.

      (Hometown of Poe, Menken, Scott Fitzgerald, John Waters … would they recognize Baltimore of today? Could they walk down a Baltimore street without getting their throats cut or a boot in their face?)

      brh

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:51 pm #

      Please do not think these things were done by progressives. We have been railing against that Quisling, Mr. Obama, and his party of spineless nonentities since 2009! These yokels couldn’t even pass a small increase in the minimum wage.

      Way back when he made it crystal clear that we were going to get more of the same from him, that he would not fight back against this right-wing onslaught, and let the country continue to unwind economically while he makes pretty speeches about “principles and values” that just ring hollow. And he doesn’t get it.

      Next up: More of the same, but this time a woman. Ms. Guns & Ammo!

    • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:54 pm #

      That’s actually the point, isn’t it? Especially when the difference between Jeb and Hillary is hardly worth discussing.

      One thing: We’ll get a major war from either of them. And more economic chaos.

  28. Don April 27, 2015 at 2:27 pm #

    I don’t think that use of cash will be made illegal. It will just be made more expensive- a surcharge (more than what credit card companies charge) on cash purchases will push most of the remaining people who still use cash into using plastic. This will be sold to the public as a way to control employee theft and lower prices as well.

    Go into most big box stores and write a check and the store clerk is amused because it’s so antiquated and only old people use them. Cash purchases are almost as antiquated. Hell, store clerks are now obsolete in many of these stores, replaced by a kiosk with a bunch of electronic crap for the customer to do his own purchase.

    The losers in this will be people who are unable to get plastic. And it won’t be long before plastic is obsolete, and purchases are made with a smart phone or other electronic device. Welcome to a Brave New World.

    • malthuss April 27, 2015 at 3:16 pm #

      Perhaps the future is cash.

      DID ANYONE SEE THE RECENT ‘American Greed’ show w the LA [el segundo area, if I recall] Black guy who made millions of Hundred Dollar Bills on one home printer?

      The Most Notorious Counterfeiter Albert Talton: News + …
      http://www.details.com › Culture & Trends
      Details
      He made more than $7 million in phony currency—on ink-jet printers. … anyone with a scanner and a copy of Photoshop the means to print money. … office in Los Angeles discovered a fake $100 bill of remarkably high quality. … So he bought himself a Bose setup from Circuit City for $2,500, went home, and took it apart.

      • GutenbergGuy April 30, 2015 at 4:54 pm #

        Maybe cash is the new vinyl?!

  29. toktomi April 27, 2015 at 2:39 pm #

    blah, blah, blah

    Personally, I don’t care about any of the repeated descriptions of the failings of industrial human society. Be not confused, all of this wailing is repeated endlessly these days across the ether-zone. It’s tired.

    Someone come up with some predictions of the methods and timing of the impending Great Collapse and the Great Dieoff. Let’s have some prognostications, however feeble, that we can get our teeth into.

    Even Jamie Dimon and mouthpieces for the BIS are predicting financial meltdown. Will that be the trigger for the Big One?

    There are a few of us who have this overwhelming and irrational compulsion to be able to get the hell out of Dodge before martial law is imposed. We simply do not need to hear how sick the old bitch is anymore. We need a feel for when she’s going to kick the bucket.

    And don’t bother with lecturing me on the impossibility of predicting the future. Just get busy doing it. Cheers!

    • Helen Highwater April 27, 2015 at 3:04 pm #

      I’ve been waiting for collapse since 1969 when I first realized that western industrial civilization was so ridiculous it couldn’t possibly go on for much longer. And here it is almost 50 years later and the powers that be are still propping it up. So who knows how much longer it will be before the whole thing goes down. But that said, I did get out of dodge way back then, and along the way I’ve had a lot of fun and learned enough skills to keep myself alive and healthy under just about any circumstances. So get out now, avoid the rush.

      • seawolf77 April 27, 2015 at 3:19 pm #

        Wow! 50 years! Unbelievable.

    • RocketDoc April 27, 2015 at 5:09 pm #

      When you watch a boa constrictor suffocate a small animal, all you can see is a little ripple when the coils tighten. Ms. Hightower has me beat by 10 years–I left the international development community in 1978 expecting Paul Ehrlich, Lester Brown, Limits to Growth problems by 1990. Being right seems to require being wrong a very long time.

      Did you know you can’t use a $100 bill in Starbucks? I heard that and tried. I had to speak to the manager–it’s policy. I get his problem–$98 in change for a small cuppa joe but I pointed out that if a debt is offered to be paid in legal tender (and is not accepted) the debt is forgiven. He reflected on that a minute and went with policy. It was all very friendly with a lot of puzzlement from the barristas.

      Several years ago (18) I went to get a pager when my wife was pregnant. They wanted my SS # and a credit card. I said no I’m kind of a jerk, can I just pay a deposit I only need it for a few months, it’s only$10/month, I’ll just prepay it. No, they said we need your credit score. I said BS, why? To see if you are good to return the pager which is worth $100. What if I prepay AND give you $100 which you can refund to me when I return it. Sorry–No can do–policy requires a SS#. I could not contract for a pager with this employee.

      I asked my banker for a $10,000 line of credit. I have 3 accounts with them: a business checking, a credit card deposit account, and a CD at .6% for a total of $100,000. We’d love to loan you money at 4% but we need your tax returns for the last 3 years. I said you know my returns are about 40 pages and I’d rather not do that, and when you get right down to it you owe me a lot more than I (possibly) might owe you. What’s the deal? We need it for regulatory purposes. OK. Will you give me the credit line because you know me (for the last 15 years), you know my account history, and you are holding 10x more money than I could conceivably owe you? No. No tax returns–no line. No lie.

      So I go to the teller. How much cash can I take out of my accounts–TODAY, they are checking or demand accounts. She said as much as you want. OK I said, I have a safe deposit box here, give me $40,000 and I’ll put it in there–I don’t really need the .6% interest. She said you have to talk to a manager. So I did. What are you going to use the money for, she asks? What difference does it make? I said. For large dollar amounts we require a request and then we can order the funds from the Fed Reserve. That is what I am getting at, says I, how much can I have today and when can I get $40,000, less than 1/2 of what I have ON DEMAND at your bank. We can give you $8,000 today and 3 or 4 business days for the $40,000 but you need to sign a paper detailing why you need the money–to prevent fraud. I get that. Bunch of old people get hit up for the pigeon drop and the bankers want to “help”. My take is that these ‘numbers’ could be adjusted as needed.

      I would be OK with all these shenanigans if someone said yes we desire to provide trustworthy money. We think ours is the most convenient and useful so we will allow you to use in your private dealings whatever you want–gold, fuel vouchers, or Swiss francs. With us, we take dollars, but we will not punish you for using another medium of exchange. That’s freedom. We know that is not going to happen–your money is not yours, it is a “claim” that will be honored if you follow the rules.

      Cash is already suspect. I sold my car on Craigslist. Somebody tell me how much I should send in to the city for the privilege? 9% sales tax? 4% motor vehicle tax (for dealers)? My mother needed home health care–I couldn’t find anyone to work IF I was going to give them a 1099–they would lose their disability payments. The loss of cash will eliminate the shadow economy and dissenters will have to go all the way to resistance. The authorities will gain power to have every transaction recorded. You don’t need to do a tax return–what you owe will be deducted. I have fought that fight before. The IRS agreed they owed me a refund BUT could not figure out how to quit billing me for a state unemployment discrepancy from a relative so they just took the refund to settle the bill. I could of course take them to court…..

  30. fodase April 27, 2015 at 2:56 pm #

    There are a few of us who have this overwhelming and irrational compulsion to be able to get the hell out of Dodge before martial law is imposed.

    98% of folks who say that never pack up and leave.

    plenty of places to go, btw, world’s yer oyster.

    mite want ta pick a low-tax place.

    fodase

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  31. FincaInTheMountains April 27, 2015 at 2:56 pm #

    Rostislav Ishchenko: How Kremlin Fooled Washington and bought 10 years of unhindered preparations

    Four years in Washington had hoped that Dmitry Medvedev would be elected for a second term. And hoping for a reason – they received all the appropriate signals from Moscow. Only in 2012, when Putin returned and Medvedev, in spite of all the liberal hopes and all the rumors about the fierce competition within the “tandem”, has not taken a single step for the sake of power, Americans seem to have started to realize that they had been had. But still not fully believe. After all, the Patriots remained so annoyed with liberal Medvedev’s Government. The story of the struggle of the liberals and the “siloviki” around Putin remains true for many Russians, but not to Washington anymore.

    But they realized it too late. Russia has won its 10 years. If the level of confrontation, which was achieved in 2014, the United States would manage to hype in 2004, Moscow would have had a very little chance to survive. Then the economic sanctions would not pass for the general population as a light breeze, half of today’s allies would have been in a hostile camp, and the EU, which is now openly sabotaging an American “crusade”, without further ado would have joined anti-Russian front with America. And the fifth column in Russia was still strong. And a lot of other things have been achieved.

    For us it is important that Russia has almost a decade delay to full-scale confrontation with the United States and during that time managed to prepare for this confrontation. Not entirely. US are still not exhausted enough, and Moscow has not strengthened enough.

    Yes, warring Donbass gave Russia an additional year and paid for this year with their blood. There was simply no time to repay debts. The moment of truth has arrived. Russia could not continue to play cat and mouse with Washington far beyond 2015. Russia strengthened and eliminated critical dependence on the dollar economy. US weakened so much that economists that year ago authoritatively explains that with the size of the economy like America’s the idea of its collapse is absurd, suddenly saw the light and argue now about whether the US economy will collapse as early as this year or in 2016 and which particular scenario the collapse would take.

    Now the United States is on the verge of economic collapse and possible territorial destruction against the backdrop of the collapse of the political and administrative structures. This variant is real and it threatens America in the coming years. Obama will be very happy if it happens not within his presidency. That is, the US has already strategically lost the war to Russia, without firing a shot. But Germany, in the summer of 1943, strategically lost the war. But Hitler still attempted to win it on the tactical level near Kursk. Germans have created a major crisis and almost broke through the front.

    Similarly, the Americans are now trying to tactically win the strategically lost war. The basic decision has not changed – Russia must fight. Only now, in addition to Ukraine the Americans are trying to involve the EU, at least its eastern European members.
    Neither I nor you nor economists, neither Putin nor Obama, no one but the Lord knows when to collapse the US economy will occur – in 2016 or in 2020 – the US should organize war later this year.

    Themselves, of course, they are not going to fight. But the war should start, or otherwise US does not have a chance to survive.

    • bossier56 April 27, 2015 at 3:36 pm #

      I understand Chinese immgrants are streaming into Siberia and unless Russia can stop it they will be in the same geographic fracture senario as the US.

  32. morose April 27, 2015 at 3:12 pm #

    i think that cash is on the way out although not for the reasons suggested. when bond yields and bank interest rates are negative it is tempting just to hold your funds in cash. this makes it more difficult for central bankers to use negative interest rates as a policy tool. expect cash to disappear within just a few more years. european governments are already denying large depositors the right to move their cash into private vaults.

  33. seawolf77 April 27, 2015 at 3:18 pm #

    The end of an empire is never pretty. Just ask the English. But they kept us under their thumbs by infiltration. MI6 morphed into the CIA. Carried on their drug dealing ways. The transition to China is not going to be as seamless. This is TITANIC. It is the first time since Genghis Kahn that the East will be stronger than the West, that Asia will be stronger than Europe/America. It may spell the end of the Catholic Church.

    • djc April 27, 2015 at 8:05 pm #

      Actually the Catholic Church in China will someday be the largest in the world passing Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines and the US.

    • RocketDoc April 27, 2015 at 10:37 pm #

      Lynn Marcus (Labor Committee) aka lyndon larouche came to campus in 1973 recruiting and said he had proof the queen of england was the head of a world wide drug dealing ring. I had never heard anything so idiotic. “MI6 morphed into the CIA” and we got drugs for arms to fund the Afghan resistance to the Russians. Iran-Contra was just another “extra-legal” action. Once it got hard to target “hot money” for special projects I guess we said screw that we will just print/borrow whatever we need. I have listened to “the debt” BS my whole life. Debt is for little people….

  34. seawolf77 April 27, 2015 at 3:36 pm #

    I was betting Kunstler was going to skewer “Brucie” Jenner. Alas what a missed opportunity to highlight the utter absurdity of celebrity America.

    • vengeur April 27, 2015 at 4:31 pm #

      Jenner’s uncertainty as to whether he should sit or stand while peeing should be left in the bathroom.

  35. rapier April 27, 2015 at 5:57 pm #

    The Journal pretends not to understand the financial markets rise and fall on liquidity. I hope they are pretending anyway. In all such cases it’s more comforting to believe they are fibbing as opposed to ignorant. With the BOJ still printing like mad, the ECB trying to and the Treasury flush with cash as tax receipts are exploding, up 17% for the first 3 weeks of April over last year, meaning a lot of Treasury Bills are going to be paid down and needing a home so the financial market liquidity is as strong as it has been since QEIII started.

    On the surface anyway. The money flows to and from China are opaque and the worlds of the criminal rich and and perhaps not exactly criminal super rich could be abandoning financial assets a bit and we would no know. Still what we do says it should be up up and away for stocks and ‘good’ bonds for he foreseeable future.

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  36. fodase April 27, 2015 at 6:36 pm #

    cash will get squeezed to the sidelines very gradually because it’s one of the last nebulous areas they can’t fully control.

    they consider you nothing more than a unit to pay them with your money and your life, you are worth little to nothing in their eyes.

    they could repeal the income tax tonight at midnight and simply electronically balance the budget.

    don’t believe it?

    then explain how the treasury was able to give the banks $4 trillion in 2008-09 to square their ‘debts’?

    but we need to maintain the illusion that folks needs to contribute taxes to keep things running. don’t want them poking around worrying their heads about things….

    all of a sudden the $17 trillion national debt doesn’t seem so big….
    it can be electronically paid off at will.

    gotta keep the slugs occupied with things to think about, while we steal all the wealth they create. let them earn a little money, but don’t pay them any interest, and don’t let them withdraw it even though it’s theirs, it could be terrorist related, drug related, tax evasion related etc.

    all a nice ruse.

    now that you know what you are and your place….

    fodase

    • russ April 27, 2015 at 9:28 pm #

      I find myself agreeing with every word you just wrote, fodase. That doesn’t always happen, but when you nail it, you nail it.

      I think part of what we’re seeing is an evolution undertaken by the PTB to make themselves as much of a nebulous cloud that is immune to retaliation by an outraged public.

      Hence a push towards forever zero interest rates which play havoc with the little people. And a push towards a cashless society which is another way of throwing another chunk of society off the sled and to the pursuing wolves.

      Consider the pastime of bank robbery. Once upon a time, back in the days of Jesse James, robbing banks was a way of continuing the Civil War guerrilla style. In the developing West, the banks and the developing railroads were largely owned by Union supporters. If you hit them, you hit an old enemy and something tangible. To a lesser degree, same thing during the worst of the Depression years – the 1930s that is – the Depressions of 1873 and 1896 were right up there too.

      Hence some bloody and notorious people got reputations as Robin Hoods among some elements of the public.

      Even Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because ‘that’s where the money is’.

      In a way yes – and in a way no, these days.

      The main thing about cash is that it doesn’t leave nearly as much of a trail as an electronic transaction, and I’ll bet that is a source of great irritation to the PTB. Hence make a concerted effort to minimize cash usage.

      Also, I’m sure that if they can leave their propaganda behind for few moments, some members of the PTB would admit that some of the recovery figures are overblown, and that some people are likely paying cash to friends and relatives to do some odd jobs now and then to help out.

      The PTB don’t want people stepping out of the control system and actually getting by. Nope.

      I can see a kind of inverted usage of the phrase ‘when guns are illegal, only criminals will have guns’ applied in this instance.

      Instead the meme will go, ‘when cash is illegal – or sufficiently frowned upon officially- only criminals will use cash’. Just wait.

  37. Pucker April 27, 2015 at 8:40 pm #

    They could shut down GPS and the international banking system and claim that the Chinese knocked out a couple of satellites in deep space. Do the Reset and claim Force Majeure.

  38. fodase April 27, 2015 at 9:02 pm #

    But the war should start, or otherwise US does not have a chance to survive.

    lol, Finca i love you man but that’s just a bit overexaggerated

    lol

    you suffer from preference bias or whatever it’s called, towards mother rossiya.

    US rules the world, if you hadn’t noticed.

    all your base are belong to us friend.

    resistance is futyle.

    intertia is the best ally of tyranny.

    go somewhere while you can.

    fodase

  39. beantownbill. April 27, 2015 at 10:31 pm #

    I’ve had a lot of disjointed thoughts today, kind of like doodling on a piece of paper:

    Sorry, but it’s not too difficult to earn 100k+ per year … If you have ambition, focus, determination (what used to be called stick-to-it -iveness) and the ability to get right back up after you fail.

    As H.L. Hunt used to say, college is only to gain refinement, not to achieve personal success.

    America has experienced severe deflation (the 1930’s),so it’s afraid of it, but hasn’t yet experienced hyperinflation a la Germany in the early ’20’s (although Continentals in the 1770’s became almost worthless), so is more willing to go through such a period, rather than depression.

    We’re now seeing the beginnings of the next American revolution. So far we’re one for two – a win in the 18th century and a loss in the 19th.

    The reason we haven’t detected intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is either because the aliens are scared shitless of us and are hiding, or they’re so disgusted with us that they can’t bear to be in our presence.

    Pretty soon a professional athlete will sign a billion dollar contract. In the same vein, a desperate government will launch a national lottery that will result in the first billion dollar jackpot.

    One of these days a series of limestone caverns will collapse in Florida, resulting in a miles-long gigantic sinkhole. Either that, or South Florida will become the Venice of North America as sea levels keep on rising.

    Or as an alternative, in 2 years the federal government will say “Fuck it, why bother continuing this sham?” and cancel the Constitution.

    • BackRowHeckler April 28, 2015 at 12:09 am #

      The Marlins gave Mike Stanton a $350 million contract, and he’s not even that good. Probably the first billion $$$ contract will be in the NBA. I read recently that every MLB team is making money, even the Houston Astros. Where it all comes from i don’t know.

      brh

      • Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 1:13 am #

        I read recently that every MLB team is making money – BRH

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

        I find baze – a – ball incredibly boring.

        • Helen Highwater April 29, 2015 at 2:18 pm #

          That’s “baseball” Q. Shitik.

  40. Pucker April 27, 2015 at 11:38 pm #

    According to news reports, the largest criminal gangs in Baltimore are the Crips, Bloods, and Black Guerrilla Family.

    Why are they called “Crips”? Shouldn’t it be spelled “Crypt”?

    https://www.google.com.hk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=black+guerilla+family

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    • malthuss April 28, 2015 at 1:47 am #

      Are they the gang that controlled a prison?

  41. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 2:04 am #

    “US rules the world, if you hadn’t noticed”

    It definitely tries, with poorer results. US has no choice, but to instill chaos in the rest of the world, including Europe where US is trying to build a Caliphate, but it has less and less resources to do that.

    Policies of current US elites are incompatible with civilizational development.

  42. Pucker April 28, 2015 at 2:36 am #

    I just saw a photograph of a fat woman in Baltimore coming out of a store carrying an armload full of about 20 bags of Doritos corn chips.

    Why Doritos?

    If I was going to pillage a supermarket, I’d probably grab a few gourmet cheeses, some salami, black olives, and a few bottles of red wine. Not F..ck’n Doritos.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 28, 2015 at 4:13 am #

      Many Negresses are running down the street in triumph clutching their boosted 12 packs of toilet paper to their ample bosoms. Hey, at least they use it. A better choice than Doritos.

      • Helen Highwater April 29, 2015 at 2:19 pm #

        Negresses? What century are you living in?

  43. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 2:38 am #

    On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the United States openly changing their military doctrine, creating conditions for the outbreak of the Great War in the Middle East and Europe. All this is happening against the backdrop of the territorial spread of military conflict to the other countries of the Middle East and even Europe.

    The Islamists that got the combat experience in Syria are being shifted to other countries. More than two thousand of Russian-speaking fighters from the former republics of the Soviet Union from the beginning of April are being moved to Russia, directing most of them to Bashkiria. Militants from the Middle East are sent to Yemen.

    In Ukraine more than a thousand military trainers from NATO countries have begun to prepare Ukrainian commando units according to Jordanian scheme . Three hundred soldiers of 173rd Airborne Brigade of the United States in western Ukraine, two hundred Canadian military trainers, etc. Thousands of mercenaries from Poland, Lithuania, Academy occupy fighting positions in Novorossia and on the border with the Crimea.

  44. Pucker April 28, 2015 at 2:58 am #

    I don’t know anything about Crimea or Ukraine. I read part of “Where the Iron Crosses Grow”, and they seem like a bunch of tough Motherf…cker’s.

  45. Pucker April 28, 2015 at 3:26 am #

    That would be rather scary for an old person to have his/her assisted living facility ransacked by a bunch of black people.

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  46. Pucker April 28, 2015 at 3:31 am #

    I first learned the word “Motherf…cker” from the black kids on the boat on the Potomac that my parents and I took to Mt. Vernon in the 1970’s.

  47. Janos Skorenzy April 28, 2015 at 4:09 am #

    https://storify.com/smaulz/national-divorce

    Liberals and Fake Conservatives only believe in the diversity of color, not ideas, money, or power. They only believe in things like “state’s rights” when they don’t have the majority vote on an issue. They only believe in a “living constitution” for as long as they don’t have it the way they want it. Once they do, no one will be more passionate about Platonic Perfection.

  48. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 6:34 am #

    Kiev’s Maidan social media revolutionary technologies applied in Baltimore

    In Kiev, it was a call to go to the Maidan Nayem for European integration. In Baltimore, it was a call on social networks to repeat the scenario of the film “The Purge”.

    If you missed last year’s low-budget horror-thriller hit “The Purge,” don’t worry about feeling lost with this year’s new, awful “The Purge: Anarchy”

    This isn’t a traditional sequel, so much as a separate story set in the same world. In a near-future America, a new government has risen promising a violence-free country with one exception: during an annual “cleansing” ritual, law and order take a 12-hour hike as citizens are allowed to loot, rape and kill without legal consequence.

    The Baltimore Sun reports:

    “The incident stemmed from a flier that circulated widely among city school students via social media about a “purge” to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly among city school students, based on the film “The Purge,” about what would happen if all laws were suspended.”

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-university-of-baltimore-closes-amid-high-school-purge-threat-20150427-story.html#page=1

    Plots of these two events (Kiev, Baltimore) are different. Manual is one. I do not make conspiracy conjectures to whom and why. That is not the point. But for me it is obvious that someone has applied in Baltimore technology that year and a half ago, has been applied in Kiev. With its American specificity of course.

    It is just inevitable that the shit America spreads all over the world using its special agencies, will finally come to bite unsuspecting Americans up their collective asses.

    • FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 7:42 am #

      Something similar in Kiev began only after when a gang of nationalists realized that they will not be held accountable. That’s the idea of the friggin Hollywood movie.

  49. Pucker April 28, 2015 at 7:40 am #

    They’ve got the blacks so pumped up full of grievance and race hate that it’d be easy go wind ’em up and to manipulate them. It’s probably a false flag?

    • FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 7:43 am #

      No, I am afraid it is a true flag of America

  50. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 7:57 am #

    In the sane news: China will be the main partner of Russia on the lunar station

    The Russian Space Agency discussed to attract China as a major partner in the project for lunar research station.

    “We have informed China about our plans for the establishment of a national Russian space station “- RF Deputy PM Rogozin said after a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

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  51. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 8:06 am #

    The uncovered Mossad agent was withdrawn from the leadership of Islamic State. Region goes into total chaos

    Leader of the terrorist group “Islamic State” “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi” – a Mossad operative by the name of Simon Elliott, embedded in an operation to create chaos in the area where there are plans to create a “Greater Israel”, was taken out of the game.

    Information about this was leaked on April 24 by Iraqi Waradana agency citing “an informed source in Mosul” (northern Iraq), “on condition of anonymity out of fear for his life.” According to this source, high-ranking members of the IS confirmed that al-Baghdadi, “died in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where doctors fought for his life” – after the “injury”.

    The source also said that the successor of al-Baghdadi became Abdurrahman Mustafa Al Sheyhlar, nicknamed Abu Ala al-Afri.

  52. Frankiti April 28, 2015 at 8:13 am #

    Well, at least some brave Marylanders in Baltimore are protesting GMOs in the food supply, or some noble cause… right?

    So long as they don’t act peacefully and call themselves “Occupy Wall Street” they’ll be spared the boot to their neck.

    • ozone April 28, 2015 at 9:03 am #

      That’s all fine and dandy snark, but why don’t we get this matter of ‘demonstrations’ straight and be done with it?

      It’s not the tearful pleading of huge masses of non-violent volk that gets social change done (out of the righteousness of their cause, you understand); it’s the threat of those masses turning *violent* that makes change (or a handout of calming goodies) by surprised and frightened masters essential.

      As always, historically, Hubris has cancelled this basic understanding. Thus will the lockdowns and official violence escalate in a vain attempt at maintaining the established hierarchy until Nemesis follows to sweep away the supposedly impregnable order. …Including managers of “money” and how that “money” is managed.

      Consider that the ranks of “poorer Americans” are swelling rapidly; soon to become an outstanding and irrefutable majority in this slice:

      “A cashless society would conceptually allow government much more leak-proof control of all citizen money transactions. Mainly it could funnel tax revenue into the treasury much more efficiently. It raises some obvious practical concerns, such as: would such a program lead to an enhanced colossal skim of credit card company off-creaming? And what about the percentage of poorer Americans who don’t have credit cards or bank accounts now, either because they don’t understand how it all works, or they’re forced to function in the “gray” economy for one reason or another (e.g. a drug felony rap). And what kind of as-yet-unknown perverse work-arounds would this new system provoke?” — JHK

      We’re soon to find out that, yes, Virginia, this is a *class* war, first and foremost. It’s what ‘they’ are afraid we’ll discover before the lumpenprole get around to cheerfully destroying each other.

      • Frankiti April 28, 2015 at 9:10 am #

        The haves also have no worries. Not with mega-yachts, pied-à-terres in world class cities, and a passport collection that resembles a janitor’s keyring. Global elite.

        • ozone April 28, 2015 at 9:52 am #

          Frankiti,
          One possible worry I hadn’t thought of before…
          Here’s hoping they’ve got a nicely bought-off collection of smugglers to keep ’em well supplied! 😉
          Okay, gots ta git.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 28, 2015 at 2:03 pm #

        You’re not alone, Zone.

        http://clashdaily.com/2015/04/liberal-chick-i-believe-black-teens-luting-and-rioting-is-the-way-to-bring-about-justice/

        As far as I can see, it’s about Race. Why else are they attacking Whites who have nothing to do with police brutality? Do you think they would have cared if a Black Cop killed a Black kid? Very little if at all. And of course most of the rioters are just out for fun and loot. You seem to miss that completely. A willful blindness.

      • Exscotticus April 29, 2015 at 12:44 pm #

        It’s not the “tearful pleading of huge masses of non-violent volk” that gets social change done, but neither is it the “threat of those masses turning *violent*”. Rather, it’s the institutionalized violence directed at peaceful demonstrations that seems to do the trick, as evidenced by the Indian independence movement (Gandhi) and the American civil rights movement (MLK). Compare these to the feckless Occupy and Umbrella movements, which were admittedly contained but otherwise left alone to dissipate in a frisson of wasted energy. Imagine where these movements would be now if the tanks had rolled in and crushed them in their grubby tents? It’s Orwell’s vision of a boot repeatedly stomping on a human face that seems to tug the collective heartstrings toward change.

  53. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 8:42 am #

    US government budget balance

    United States managed to seriously reduce the budget deficit from a peak of 1.48 trillion in February 2010 to 480-510 billion currently. Reduction of the deficit was due to revenue growth. Costs since that time have not changed, and revenues increased by 50% (a little more than $ 1 trillion per year growth).

    This increase was provided by the three components of the budget – taxes on incomes (+ 572 billion), corporate taxes (+200 billion), Payroll Taxes (+158 billion).

    Expenditures from April 2014 to March 2015 inclusive are the same as in 2010-2011. However, the cost structure has changed. Defense spending is 90-100 billion less (at par value, in real terms, even more reduced). But social security (pensions), assistance to veterans and expense items related to health and medical care (Medicare) expenses increased by $ 400 billion in total compared to 2010 (then, as the budget deficit was the highest).

    The greatest burden on the budget – it’s retired people, and the trend of an aging population will continue, and social security – is a potential time bomb. Now the social part of the budget – is 2.4 trillion per year from 3.6 trillion of total expenditure, excluding education, science and infrastructure (such as the cost of transport infrastructure).

    Annual increase in spending on the elderly in the US in the next 3 years will be at least $130 billion.

    At best, the net increment of budget expenditures will be no less than 200 billion per year across all categories – only to keep the system afloat, provided inflation below 2%.

    Wall Street pays almost no taxes at all. The only solution to have the fuckers start paying a small transactional tax on all their friggin speculations – say 1%. Remember, the Wall Street creates almost no new payroll – all they need is a couple of computers and a lot of political connections.

    • FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 8:48 am #

      But also US banks will suffer a great loss of income due to closure of some of their games with “carry trades” – short term lending to economies of the Third World countries – China significantly lowered its interest rate and now could credit its economy in national currency, Russia is doing the same by using the leverage of US Financial Sanctions – essentially Russia has repaid around 190 billion in corporate loans in 2015 alone, without borrowing a red cent from the States.

      I wonder, were the fuck Putin got that $190 billion?

      • FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 8:58 am #

        No doubt that Putin amassed a significant “war chest” during that 10 years preparation period he swindle out of American suckers. Remember all those talks of “Putin’s billions?”

  54. Greg Knepp April 28, 2015 at 10:17 am #

    Baltimore’s collapse has been both a long-time comin’ and absolutely inevitable*.

    Southern Blacks and poor whites (mostly from West VA) began migrating to the city en masse at the onset of the Big One in order to take jobs in wartime industries. The process continued during the post-war economic boom, and Baltimore became a prosperous town while maintaining a local flavor and diversity that made this “hidden city”** arguably the most fascinating of all American bergs….H. L. Mencken dubbed it “the last great medieval city.”

    Conditions began to sour in the sixties as unreasonable union demands in concert with cheaper and often more reliable foreign imports forced some of Baltimore’s larger industries to either cut back or close down entirely. Advanced technologies took a toll as well – the advent of containerized shipping alone destroyed a thousand stevedore jobs.

    Meanwhile Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs acted in such a way as to support rising birth rates among the disadvantaged by paying them in welfare checks, food stamps, free medical care and cheap public housing simply for the act of reproduction…you get what you pay for!

    The ’68 riots, though dramatic, were more symptomatic than causal. The riots exacerbated an already rapid middle class flight to the suburbs. And while yuppies moved into certain marginal but potentially ‘cutsie’ neighborhoods, their impact did little more than turn these areas into elite islands in a sea of growing squalor.

    I left the city in 1968 (Post-Peak Baltimore, if you will) as the town’s movers and shakers were busy turning what had been a wonderful, textured and truly ancient inner harbor into a glitzy, cheap-ass tourist trap replete with shopping malls and the obligatory Hard Rock Cafe.

    I love Baltimore the way a man loves a beautiful whore dying of syphilis – I can’t get her out of my soul but I can’t marry her either…and I can’t save her.

    *redundant – I know
    **National Geographic, 1964

    • Greg Knepp April 28, 2015 at 10:52 am #

      Correction – I left the city in 1986, not 1968.

    • stelmosfire April 28, 2015 at 11:25 am #

      GK, I’ve been in inner Baltimore twice, the last time in ’77. I saw a young black kid hit by a car right in front of me. I was coming a roundabout route form the oil patch in west Texas. The people poured out of the public assisted housesing looking for who knows what. I told my girl at the time, ” We better beat it out of here and pronto!”. I blew a couple red lights and never looked back!.

    • hortonz April 28, 2015 at 4:06 pm #

      I feel your pain. Was born in Detroit just after the riots and am at a loss to explain what has transpired since, except to say that what was once one of America’s most interesting and beautiful cities has become a post-industrial wasteland where the majority of her citizens’ are engaged in an Orwellian struggle for survival while a small minority are reaping the rewards of what’s left of the cheap-oil economy.

  55. barbisbest April 28, 2015 at 11:25 am #

    AMERICA, AMERICA the GREAT SPIRIT SHINE THY GRACE ON THEE AND CROWN THY GOOD WITH BROTHERHOOD FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA. Used to be a pretty moving song didn’t it. Well indoctrinated, gotta love that.

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    • pequiste April 29, 2015 at 8:34 am #

      O beautiful for patriot dream
      That sees beyond the years
      Thine alabaster cities gleam
      Undimmed by human tears!

      Those are the opening (original) lyrics of the fourth stanza to the song America the Beautiful. Words by Katharine Lee Bates and the
      melody by Samuel Ward.

      “patriot dream?” Anyone considering the offshoring of 10s of millions of jobs for a few extra bucks knows that isn’t very patriotic of our captains of industry and political leaders.

      “…alabaster cities gleam…?) looking more like London after the Blitz, Dresden post fire-bombing or the current place called Detroit.

      I think we need to consider a version 2.

      Mournfully it will go something like this:

      O miserable for gangsta life
      Where hate and vi’lence grow
      Thine cities burn with hate and strife
      With no place left to go

      I do not enjoy mocking the country I love – – it’s just the facts on the ground are irrefutable.

  56. FincaInTheMountains April 28, 2015 at 11:34 am #

    There are no fools in Washington

    In order to understand that the “shale revolution” in the United States comes to an end just look at the graph of the number of oil rigs in the US and the following news from Bloomberg: 50% of shale companies will die or be sold by the end of the year. Drilling numbers are very sad: “The total number of the remaining drilling in the United States now stands at 932, or 48.2% of the maximum in September (1931 drilling) is the level of July 2009. Drilling for oil is now left at 703, or 43.6% from last year’s peak (1609 ) – historically it rolled back to the level of October 2010. Given how fast shale wells deplete their resources, production decline is not far off.”

    And now the bad news: there are no fools in Washington. There are crazies, like John McCain, and a lot of them. There are bunch of radicals, such as representatives of the Clinton clan, but that’s not a lot of fools. This does not mean that Washington knows, maybe foresee everything. This is not so. But something that Washington knows and anticipates. US is already preparing for the death of the US shale, which from the start was only temporary, but terrible toy in the hands of the American economic elite. As evidence, we bring a report of Advisory Council of the US Department of Energy, which is very clear that the shale boom in any case ends at the beginning of the next decade.

    What is the solution proposed by the American experts? Simple and complex at the same time: if the United States does not want to get into a serious dependency on oil-exporting countries they must NOW begin to develop projects in the Arctic, despite low oil prices. And here is a major problem for US: Russia and the fact that most of the Arctic’s oil resources are under its control.

    Estimated by the Geological Society of the United States in the Arctic there are about 90 billion barrels of oil, at a price of $ 100 per barrel (namely a minimum price of oil will be in a few years) indicates the size of the “Arctic jackpot” is in the $9 trillion and this is the minimum score, excluding natural gas reserves. Given the fact that cheap and easily accessible oil is getting smaller, and the Arctic is the last “unexplored” area of the world where it is still the chance of discovery of giant fields, the value of the control on the region increases many times. What’s the use in dollar printing press, if the sole owner of a valuable resource does not want to sell it for greenbacks?

    Collective West does not like the current situation in the Arctic at all. Russian policy in the region is felt by the West as “nail in the ass”. This explains absolutely illogical hysteria of Norwegians on the visit to Svalbard of Deputy PM Rogozin and other similar incidents. If “Crimea-is-ours!” humiliates the Western ego, the situation “Pole-is-ours!” just causes existential suffering. Nothing compares to the pain of the American oilman, who understands that someone else will pump the oil, which he considers his own.

    Knowing the logic of the United States, Moscow takes action in the style of the well-known American political scientist Alfonso Gabriel Capone (infamous Chicago’s mobster), who formulated the main principle of successful negotiations, “a kind word and a gun can get you more than kind word alone”

    The struggle for the Arctic can be divided into two plans: the diplomatic and military. The main action on the diplomatic front are within the Arctic Council – an organization that can be very roughly described as “Arctic UN” and which is very actively trying to get in the countries which have nothing to do with the Arctic, but who also want to take part in the “Arctic pie “. It should be noted that absolutely unexpected moves in this area has been made by Ukraine. It would seem that it has no relation to the Arctic, but because of the position of the European Union in Ukraine, there is a high probability that Russia would veto the EU’s attempt to enter the Arctic Council as an observer.

    On the military front, the Kremlin continues to spend considerable effort and resources to strengthen the Russian military presence in the region. Moreover, being a very active preparation of the material base of the Russian military forces for combat operations in the Arctic. The logic is simple – the better to be prepared and equipped with the Russian military group, the less likely it is that someone will want to arrange a provocation, a local conflict or other form of “test of strength” of Russian interests in the region. Ideally, you need to achieve the technical superiority to any scenario.

    Technical superiority in the Arctic region requires navigation systems, weapons, electronic warfare, aviation and air defense, capable of operating at extremely low temperatures. It is necessary that the entire military infrastructure to function in all weather conditions.

    Some experience in this regard, Russia inherited from the Soviet Union, but now has to solve more complex problems. State-owned company supplying the Russian Arctic KRET groups Special navigation devices – BINS, which operate under the impossibility of other traditional navigation systems (magnetometer, radio engineering, astro and mechanical). The same KRET complement Russian new arctic air defense systems “Krasuha 4”, which allow to “blind” enemy aircraft, covering a few hundred square kilometers.

    Taking into account the presence in the area of special radar, the prospects of any military intervention in the area of the Russian Arctic are elusive. If Russia can create a military group that will be able to fight in the conditions in which the US military is not able to fight, the risk of American intervention in the Arctic can be reduced to zero.

    The liberal press has written much about that because of the sanctions on oil technology Russia will not be able to use Arctic resources. This is not so. Nowadays, the main technology necessary to protect the interests of the oil field – it is not drilling technology from the American company Schlumberger, but technology for defense from hostile military aircraft. Russia, fortunately, has the technology and is willing to use it.

    http://politrussia.com/world/arktika-posledniy-475/

    • Frankiti April 28, 2015 at 8:13 pm #

      Seriously, this is obnoxious. Get your own blog.

      • Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 8:35 pm #

        Spot on!

        • capt spaulding April 30, 2015 at 8:34 pm #

          One should never post messages that are longer than the host’s articles.

  57. barbisbest April 28, 2015 at 11:44 am #

    And be sure to watch the Merryweather fight. There’s not enough violence in the brain numbing video games and our streets! The pom pom boys in the cheerleading club, that’s just too much.

  58. volodya April 28, 2015 at 11:56 am #

    This is what appeared in zerohedge today and USA Today and probably a multitude of others about the Baltimore situation.

    Well worth two minutes to read this:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-28/baltimore-riots-stunning-comments-orioles-owners-son

    He decries what American elites did to middle class and working class America in shipping jobs to third world dictatorships like China and thereby ruining the economic prospects and lives of millions of Americans across the country. And not only that but putting them under the boot of an oppressive surveillance state.

    Good for you Mr. Angelos.

    Like Tyler Durden said, not what the US Department of Truth wants to hear.

    But facts are exceedingly stubborn things.

    So, in answer to the ever-asked question: what does collapse look like? This is what collapse looks like.

  59. volodya April 28, 2015 at 12:27 pm #

    Toktomi wants predictions about when this sucker goes down.

    There’s several suckers goin’ down, some are more under water than others.

    When does a unified United States of America sink beneath the waves? I give it twenty years.

    Hillary has a good chance of becoming Prez. But Americans enjoy electing divided governments. And if you thought that Republican obstruction-ism was bad with Obama in the Oval Office, you haven’t seen anything.

    If Hillary has some priorities she’d like to see enacted she can forget it. President Hillary won’t be able to pass gas.

    I doubt it will be much better with President Jeb. Just wait, Jeb will have to contend with a Congress with one body solidly Democrat. This means nothing passes. Nothing.

    Debt ceilings? It will be a herculean struggle to agree on the time of day.

    In the one or two term Hillary or Jeb administration it will look like just the usual Washington dysfunction. But only for a while. What follows will be the unravelling.

    So, what happens? At some point somebody, maybe an as yet unknown, somebody regarded as a maverick the way that Rand Paul is seen as an outlier, will state the obvious: that the way the United States is constituted is in fact un-workable. For cultural, historic or political reasons, it just ain’t working.

    I think that, at first, the argument will be scoffed at, the pundits will engage in a month of Sunday mornings of brow-furrowing and condescension. Politicians will stand up and proclaim themselves proud Americans.

    But in the end, facts are stubborn things. It just ain’t happening.

    Like a couple that finally realizes that co-habitation is corrosive and un-healthy, there will be regret and resignation: time to split.

    And then the fun stuff starts. If togetherness was impossible, how to dissolve the marriage? Where do you draw the lines, what about currency and banking and trade arrangements? What about national defense, how do you divide up assets?

    It will be a mess and maybe violent. But, in the end, it will get done.

  60. fodase April 28, 2015 at 12:36 pm #

    It will be a mess and maybe violent. But, in the end, it will get done.

    whats happening in Balti(no)more is nothing compared to the 60s riots.

    america’s been thru this dozens of tymes.

    that said, it is sickening to see the level of surveillance and police brutality, and the idiotic draconian banking laws that catch 0.5% of illegal transactions and make things disgustingly difficult for 99.5% of the population that just wants to park their money for convenience sake.

    find a nice quiet, law-abiding little country that respects your privacy and move there.

    the question arises more and more as to the value of a US and A passport.

    maybe panama?

    triple-passported fodase

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  61. volodya April 28, 2015 at 12:47 pm #

    Oh, yeah, nearly forgot, demographic change.

    See, the Republicans are headed for oblivion because their southern redoubt (the States of the Old Confederacy) are changing. Hispanics, hipsters, you know, the people walking around grinning at their smart-phones, those being the people friendly to Democrats, would never vote for evolution-denying, woman-hating, cave dwelling Republicans.

    Don’t be too sure. I’ll throw out a few Republican names to consider: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Susana Martinez.

    And there’s other, non-Hispanic but non-white Republicans: Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley (who I will remind you was born Nimrata Randhawa).

    Jeb speaks Spanish, his wife is Mexican. That’s the first thing. The second is that the “Hispanic-ness” of American Hispanics is melting like snow on a hot day. They’re more comfortable in English than Spanish. Bye-bye ethnic particularism, hello Coors guzzling, burger eating ‘mericans.

    The point here is that while Democrats think that these folk share their liberal values I think that maybe Democratic hopes are misplaced. I think that there may be more commonality between Hispanics and the white people that usually vote Republican. Not to mention between traditionalist white people and non-white Asians. I think that reports of the death of the Republican Party have been greatly exaggerated.

  62. Buck Stud April 28, 2015 at 1:39 pm #

    Has anyone noticed some of the law enforcement/ National Guard females donned in riot gear but running a few steps too slow and arms dragging their gear a little too wearily?

    I have and it’s not a comforting sight to watch some chunky, dumpy out-of-place individual desperately pretend to be what they’re clearly not capable of being.

    • stelmosfire April 28, 2015 at 1:53 pm #

      Follow that BuckStud, do you want a 250 lb pregant woman “Haulin your ass out of a house fire”? I’ll go with the 225 lb. buck any day!.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 28, 2015 at 1:57 pm #

      You’re against women in the military? Real retro, man. You probably part your hair on the side and drink beer out of a glass.

  63. Janos Skorenzy April 28, 2015 at 1:51 pm #

    Found! A good Black Mother.

    https://gma.yahoo.com/baltimore-mom-smacks-son-taking-part-violence-142918402–abc-news-topstories.html

  64. Janos Skorenzy April 28, 2015 at 2:39 pm #

    Black Judge was grossly offended by victim impact statement when a White Mother said her three year old was now afraid of Blacks after being held at gun point by Black home invaders. The Judge ended up giving the armed robbers probation.

    In the minds of Liberals and Minorities, racial attitudes or bad words on the part of Whites outweigh actual crimes by Blacks – up to and including rape and murder. This, this is the evil fruit of Liberalism, planned assiduously by the mind controllers employed by the Elite.

    http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/04/13/outrage-judge-hammers-white-victims-of-armed-home-invasion-for-racism-lets-criminal-go-free-195263

  65. hortonz April 28, 2015 at 3:55 pm #

    Watching the events unfolding in Baltimore. Can’t help but wonder if America 2016 will be a repeat of Germany 1933 or Russia 1917. Am certain the current occupants of the White House are the most incompetent and corrupt group of politicians to govern a western democracy since poor old president Hindenburg handed the reigns of Germany over to Hitler. Reminded of a Lenin’s famous quote about the situation in Russia in 1917: “the power was lying in the streets waiting to be seized.” Couldn’t believe the Mayor of Baltimore’s comment about the need to provide space for people to engage in “creative destruction.” Do these idiots have no idea what lies ahead?

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    • sprawlcapital April 29, 2015 at 12:17 am #

      That’s reins of Germany.

  66. BackRowHeckler April 28, 2015 at 3:59 pm #

    Comrades, be advised!

    A dossier has been compiled and is being handed over to the Thought Police at 1800.

    Expect a sharp knock at your door anytime between 3:00 am-5:00 am.

    Prepare yourself for Room 101.

    INGSOC

  67. wpa_ccc April 28, 2015 at 4:51 pm #

    “So, in answer to the ever-asked question: what does collapse look like? This is what collapse looks like.” — Volodya

    This is irresponsible and inaccurate. We are not even close to collapse.

    There are not tanks on the streets of ALL American cities, there are no stadiums full of “subversive” prisoners, no FEMA camps, no runs on banks, no dollar devaluation, no confiscation of private gun ownership, no martial law imposed, no plague reducing the population (anyone remember Ebola? Bird flu? H1N1? etc.?), no widespread famine resulting in millions of deaths, no civil war resulting in thousands of deaths daily, etc.

    Anyone using the word collapse to refer to the Long Emergency (a supposedly slow decline) is engaging in hyperbole that is not helpful.

    Volodya, your comments do make for interesting fiction reading, kind of like science fiction or alternative history novels. Interesting, but not reality-based. Look at the larger picture, Volodya. In your fun international scare commentary you are good at imagining things more globally.

    The reality is that Ferguson and Baltimore are rational responses to decades of racial discrimination that has escalated from police brutality to routine police killings of unarmed Black Americans. Partial decapitation by police violence toward a handcuffed prisoner (80% of spine severed)…

    No protestors have burned or looted in Baltimore. People using a crow bar to open a CVS to loot it are NOT protestors. They are thieves. Thieves are thieves, but don’t confuse a few dozen isolated incidents of rage and theft with general anarchy or “societal collapse”… remember the U.S. is a country of about 325 million people, and only a few were looting stores this week. Almost all 325 million were going about their business in an orderly law-abiding fashion.

  68. Q. Shtik April 28, 2015 at 6:34 pm #

    You pick the blossoms on a bright sunny day, boil them and let them steep for a couple days. Then 2 days later you heat the batch up again, add peels and juice from – usually oranges but lemons will do, too – add the sugar, let things cool, and add yeast.

    A 4 liter or gallon bottle with the stopper/vent to let the CO2 bubble away, and you’re off and running.

    6-8 weeks later, it is time to decant into regular sized wine bottles. If I were serious, I would have to really improve the filtration process, but I like pulpy orange juice so what the heck. Put it away for a few months, and by the Thanksgiving or Christmas time period, it’s ready to drink. – russ

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

    Orrrrr………you run into Rite Aid and pick up Five Oaks Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Merlot, or White Zinfandel for $3.99 a bottle. Even wine snobs don’t know it’s the cheap shit.

  69. Cold N. Holefield April 28, 2015 at 6:48 pm #

    Don’t squeeze the Charmin!

  70. ozone April 28, 2015 at 8:52 pm #

    Tuesday, April 28, 2015

    Nothing to see here, Folks; move along; remain calm and return to your homes and shelter in place. All is well. Repeat commercial and governmental slogans to suckle yourselves into somnolence and lethargy.

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  71. Pucker April 28, 2015 at 9:42 pm #

    It’s going to be a long hot Summer. And by the end of Summer most people will be tired of the hackneyed “Black Lives Matter” slogan, and they will support martial law in the US.

  72. wpa_ccc April 28, 2015 at 11:23 pm #

    Ozone: “Nothing to see here, Folks; move along; remain calm and return to your homes and shelter in place”

    CFN has quieted down quite a bit about Ebola. But there always has to be drama. So now people of color who act badly are the new threat to the mostly aging white CFN. Sheltering in place (in xenophobic fear) is part of the problem. Get out and mix with ordinary folks of all colors and classes and countries. You have nothing to lose but your paranoia.

  73. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 12:17 am #

    Read “The Limits of Propaganda” on http://www.cluborlov.com Some of my relatives are now censoring themselves by cutting themselves off from me because they have to undergo security clearance for US government jobs. I live overseas. Totally insane.

  74. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 1:12 am #

    I think that the N,,a,z.is referred to the phenomenon as “Coordination” (Gleichschaltung)?

  75. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 1:29 am #

    How online flier used Ethan Hawke horror film ‘Purge’ to encourage students to run riot

    In the hours before Baltimore erupted into riots on Monday, an online flier swept across social media inciting high school students in the area to ‘Purge’ – a reference to a movie, starring Ethan Hawke, where all crime is made legal.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3058956/The-Ethan-Hawke-movie-inspired-call-Purge-helped-instigate-Monday-s-Baltimore-riots-spreading-message-crime-legal.html

    It was a planned provocation, just like in Kiev year and a half ago. Welcome to new Social Media engineered riots. Very efficient.

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  76. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 1:58 am #

    China Adding Nuclear Plants at Record Pace

    China may start operating 8 reactors this year, according to Zhao Chengkun, the vice chairman of the China Nuclear Energy Association, citing an estimate by the National Energy Administration. This puts the world’s biggest energy consumer on track to install 58 gigawatts of atomic power capacity by 2020, said Zhao. That would exceed Japan’s nuclear resources before the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-27/china-adding-nuclear-plants-at-record-pace-in-fight-against-smog

    Russian scientists estimate that using “closed nuclear fuel cycle” – where U-238 is burned, there is enough fuel on our planet to last for 800 years with 10-times increased electric production. Using that technology – first plant “Brest-300” went operational in 2014 – it is possible to use existing nuclear “waste”.

  77. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 2:20 am #

    Advertising of renewable energy sources – is mostly just PR, aimed at using of government subsidies by the “Green Companies”. According to the World Energy Outlook 2013 subsidies amounted to 120 billion dollars, and according to the Global Wind Energy Council the total amount of investments only in wind energy by 2020 will be 149.4 billion Euros. Why not to use that massive pork-belly projects?

    And Europe, with open mouthed, listens to “green” renewable energy lobbyists who demand privileges for “advanced technology.” How stable is the operation of solar and wind farms? They can be a great help in the windy sunny desert during the day with a connection to the battery in a private house, but what about in industrial quantities and industrial facilities that require stability ?!

    This factor everybody conveniently “forget”. Now, when the proportion of “green” energy – just a few percent, and mostly for small local consumers you can ignore the instability of generated power, but if you go seriously, the costs of stabilization will lead to a sharp increase in prices due to the complexity of the entire energy infrastructure, also lower its reliability.

  78. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 2:24 am #

    What a fascist Crock!

    http://news.clearancejobs.com/2010/09/05/foreign-influence-and-security-clearances/

  79. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 2:48 am #

    F-35 flies into the ground?

    (Reuters) – The Pentagon’s internal watchdog on Monday said it found 61 violations of quality management rules and policies during an inspection of Pratt & Whitney’s work on the F-35 fighter jet engine and warned the problems could lead to further cost increases and schedule delays on the biggest U.S. arms program.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/united-tech-fighter-engine-idUSL1N0XO1KE20150427

  80. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 3:14 am #

    What a Crock!

    Standard Form 86: Questionnaire for National Security Positions – There has to be both close and/ or continuing contact and a bond of affection, etc. before you are required to list the person on the SF86.

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  81. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 4:27 am #

    Read the bizarre questions addressed to the “expert” on the security clearance process on the website. For example:

    “I had a security clearance when I was working for a mercenary contractor company. Since then, I had a short relationship with a Thai transgender hooker, but I I no longer get bloke jobs from him. Will this affect my chances of getting a security clearance?”

    “No, Thailand is an ally, so you’ll be fine. Thai hookers are ok, but Russians hookers may raise suspicions.”

    • Q. Shtik April 29, 2015 at 12:29 pm #

      A “bloke” job is what they call it in the UK, right?

  82. BackRowHeckler April 29, 2015 at 6:29 am #

    Baltimore today, yes, but which American City is next to go up in flames, torched by existential ‘Youfs’ with I phones and and molotov cocktails. (What remarkable devices these cell phones are when you consider in WW1 a Commander would lose contact with his frontline troops, a million strong and a half mile away, 5 minutes after the battle had begun.) Forget about Detroit, already a burned out shell, there’s nothing left to burn after 50 years of Devils Night and Democratic rule, ha! DC? Atlanta? Omaha? Cleveland? All good candidates with strong possibilities; it wouldn’t take much to set them off, one misstep by police caught on video would do it. No, my money is on Chicago, $50 billion in debt, and a large african american population crowded out by millions of 3rd world immigrants from Latin America. They almost elected one of their own in the past mayoral election. One can suspect The Godfather’s victory wasn’t exactly on the level if you know what I mean. We are astounded by the weekend Chicago body count on any given summer weekend, 50-60 dead, scores wounded, and that’s just random killing; imagine the potential carnage when this violence gets organized?

    It wouldn’t have been too hard, if anyone had cared to do so, to predict the destiny of our American Cities 50 years ago, with Ted Kennedy’s 1965 immigration act, millions of unassimilated minorities, and a comprehensive welfare state. The question is, who benefits from all this chaos, violence and poverty?

    brh

    • Buck Stud April 29, 2015 at 11:46 am #

      “Forget about Detroit, already a burned out shell, there’s nothing left to burn after 50 years of Devils Night and Democratic rule, ha”

      BRH, why do people from the right end of the political spectrum such as yourself always forget to mention the role of outsourcing and global wage arbitrage as a huge contributing factor to the demise of cities such as Detroit?

      I suspect that it simply doesn’t jibe with your preconceptions and ideological prejudices so you create your own specific narrative.

      Similarly, Volyoda from Canada writes as if were an expert of the Latino population of America. Does he live on a day to day basis with recent immigrants from Mexico? How does he know so much about the Latino(a) mind/psyche?

      JHK mentions the “informed classes” this week and what seems to pass for an ‘informed mind’ in these parts is how adroitly one regurgitates the memes of Orlov, Greer, “Ilargi/Stoneleigh” etc, etc. etc.

      On the other hand, and as WPA just mentioned, CFN is not a bad place to visit if one is craving a health does of fantasy and delusion. And nobody is serving up the bullshit like Fincal these days.

      • Q. Shtik April 29, 2015 at 12:42 pm #

        simply doesn’t jibe with your preconceptions – Buck

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

        Thank you for NOT saying jive.

        • capt spaulding April 29, 2015 at 3:02 pm #

          What I have never been able to fathom is how true blue right wingers could let the Bush presidency come close to destroying the country, and never stop beating the drum with the same old refrain: Lower taxes and deregulate. I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again, They haven’t changed their tune regardless of what happens with their same old tired rhetoric. How can people be that pigheaded when the facts of what happened in 2008 are there for anyone to see? Don’t get me wrong, the Dems are in the pockets of big business as well. I used to be a Democrat, but that was before the 1%ers bought the gov’t lock stock & barrel. It makes me laugh when I hear ideology being argued back & forth between both groups. Where are the people who see through this bullshit? Don’t they vote? Of course there isn’t a viable 3rd party candidate out there, so we are stuck with the same old tired shit from both sides. Probably the only good thing you can say about the Dems is that they don’t shove it in as deep as the Republicans, and they might respect you in the morning.

      • FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 1:54 pm #

        “And nobody is serving up the bullshit like Fincal these days”

        I’m glad you’re enjoying my grandma recipes.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 29, 2015 at 3:10 pm #

        Is the war economy why Latin American and Black African and Caribbean cities are mostly slums? Forgot about that, didn’t ya?

        It’s nature of the people, Buck. Once these races take over a neighborhood, they make it over in their image. It’s happened a million times in America yet still you people refuse to see it. Latin Americans create “vibrant” places full of life, both good and bad. Blacks create Black Holes, places of death. Of course you love the Blacks the most since they need you (liberals) the most. See the co-dependent relationship?

        • SteveO April 29, 2015 at 4:20 pm #

          The right wing need them too. There is nothing better for scaring their base to polls than the image of that big black man raping a white woman or selling drugs to an angelic white child. Additionally, they need them to populate the ranks of the army, they make great cannon fodder.

  83. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 6:44 am #

    Is somebody paying the rioters in Baltimore to spread the violence?

    http://www.wbaltv.com/news/gang-members-we-did-not-make-truce-to-harm-cops/32609810

  84. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 7:02 am #

    Russian bloggers familiar with “Color revolution” techniques think that the events in Baltimore is false flag aimed at installing the martial law and channeling the collapse into “deflationary scenario”.

    “With high probability the unrest in Baltimore is caused by the most experienced in that sort of dirty business – US intelligence agencies. However, the aim this time is not holding an orange revolution in Washington, but creation a pretext for the imposition of martial law in the country.”

    “A deflationary scenario assumes that the dollar for some time will become very expensive, and ordinary Americans will lose their jobs en masse. The government will be forced to invoke very rigid measures – including the creation of a huge labor camps in which vagrants and unemployed will rot behind barbed wire.”

  85. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 7:11 am #

    Thousands of Saudi Forces Flee Bases

    The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups,” diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq’s Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.

    The European sources said that the Saudi forces’ mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.

    Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.

    Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.

    http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940206000666

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  86. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 7:23 am #

    AARP commercial predicts MARTIAL LAW

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOP4DRdW-m4

    The message played on TV in the background:

    “riots nationwide have prompted local governments to declare martial law the president is asking that citizens find safety and remain calm
    authorities are working their hardest to contain the outbreak”

    The commercial still could be found on AARP website (linked from Youtube channel).

  87. wpa_ccc April 29, 2015 at 9:43 am #

    Finca, English may not be your first language. So you may not understand that to “predict” implies future tense verbs. The AARP ad does not use future tense verbs, so they are not predicting martial law. They are describing a current temporary reality in one U.S. city.

    CFN directs criticism at MSM, so let’s not turn CFN into the National Enquirer of the minority paranoid nation.

    • FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 10:29 am #

      Stick to lobbying the “green energy” revolution.

      • wpa_ccc April 29, 2015 at 12:19 pm #

        Stick to your broadcasting of Russian propaganda.

  88. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 10:23 am #

    The Soviet inflationary collapse scenario is highly unlikely in the United States

    In the Soviet Union the state owed a lot of money to the population of the country, but all production assets were owned by the state. That is why hyperinflation was beneficial to the elite: on one hand to devalue debts of the state to the people, on the other hand to devalue the state banks loans that were used by former Communist elite to buy state productive assets and become the owners of factories, newspapers, oil rigs.

    In the US, the situation is fundamentally different. There 99% of the population owes to upper 1% of the population, and of course the power of all branches and all levels is completely controlled by the 1% as well. The productive assets in the US do not belong to the government, but to the same elite. In such a situation, it is clear that to preserve the elite complete control over the power and situation in the country, power definitely will not allow debts that Americans owe to be devalued.

    Therefore, at the initial stage of collapse is guaranteed deflationary scenario with all the amenities described in my previous post, including the S&P-500 at levels below 2009 (i.e. below 666 points), and a drop of oil price to 10-15 dollars per barrel. Also we will see a slight drop at first, and then the strong rise in the price of gold.

    But further options are possible and depend on the ability of the American elite to answer the challenge. If they find the strength to bring to power a new version of F.D.Roosevelt, then we will see the launch of the printing press and the transition to the inflation scenario that in about 20 years will revive the US economy. Otherwise, the deflationary scenario would be brought to its logical conclusion.

    • elysianfield April 30, 2015 at 10:30 am #

      “… then we will see the launch of the printing press and the transition to the inflation scenario that in about 20 years will revive the US economy”

      FTM, Please explain the mechanics of the 20 year revival.

  89. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 11:58 am #

    Ukrainian radioactive nuclides are integrating into the European Union

    Fire near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant threatens radioactive contamination of large parts of Europe.

    Kiev officials say that everything is under control, but who believe them? Under the control they had Ilovaysk, Debaltsevo, Donetsk Airport, the hryvnia … And what happened?

    Because of the strong wind wildfire erupted with renewed force, covering more and more areas. The fire epicenter is about 20 kilometers from the infamous nuclear plant, gradually moving directly to Chernobyl. About 400 hectares (1000 acres) of forest is being burned.

  90. volodya April 29, 2015 at 12:31 pm #

    Pequiste’s understatement of the decade:

    “patriot dream?” Anyone considering the offshoring of 10s of millions of jobs for a few extra bucks knows that isn’t very patriotic of our captains of industry and political leaders.”

    Pequiste sez:

    “…alabaster cities gleam…?) looking more like London after the Blitz, Dresden post fire-bombing or the current place called Detroit. ”

    Places like Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland and Baltimore are the corpses.The oligarchs killed these cities. And Wall Street was the undertaker.

    As Pequiste says, the facts on the ground are irrefutable.

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  91. volodya April 29, 2015 at 12:33 pm #

    BackRowHeckler, cui bono you ask. The Oligarchs would benefit from a populace divided, beset by ethnic factionalism, with a large, unassimilated group marginalized by lack of legal status. What they wanted was a large contingent of desperate people that they could exploit. That’s the idea of the unguarded southern border and declining to enforce immigration laws.

    Both Republicans and Democrats were in on it. No matter whether it was a Republican or Democrat administration, border enforcement wasn’t happening. No accident that. Both parties answer to the Oligarchs.

    The Oligarch strategy is divide and conquer. Democrats, in fulfilling their role, have been particularly adept. They denigrate America, they encourage new arrivals to hang onto their foreign identity and culture. As justification, Democrats tell you all about the evil of America. What Democrats fail to tell you about is the evil of all the others.

    Democrats put on a great act. Holy as can be, they talk about immigration reform. Republicans do their part in this farce. As patriotic Americans they stand in the way of any “amnesty”. Yeah, well, did you notice the millions of illegal Hispanics still living within US borders? See, that’s the point of it all, to keep them here, to exploit them, to pay crap wages, to ignore labor laws, all the while knowing these guys won’t complain. A great wage suppressor it is, to have these millions of people.

    As to assimilation, there’s hope. Univision (the Hispanic television network) started an English language service for Hispanics.

    In two generations the American – cough – “Hispanic” population will be Hispanic in name only. Sure, they’ll have Hispanic surnames. In all other respects it will be American, speaking English and doing what other Americans do. Their Hispanic identity will be like a sweater that they put on once in a while. In four generations their skin tone will be bleached white by inter-marriage.

    I know a chap named Hernandez. A senior exec at the company, brown as a walnut, United States born and raised, American educated, university grad, brilliant, highly respected. As American as can be. With Hernandez the Oligarch scheme failed. The point is that what the Oligarchs want the Oligarchs don’t always get.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 29, 2015 at 3:03 pm #

      No, it wont be the same. Many psychological traits have a strong genetic component. Hispanics have a different temperament and a significantly lower IQ. American will be a more “vibrant” (like a Pitbull show) place and a far less intellectual place. Kind of like Latin America, you know, like where they’re from.

  92. fodase April 29, 2015 at 1:27 pm #

    Stick to lobbying the “green energy” revolution.

    it’s green energy “revolution”, since it’s both virtually pollution free and is revolutionizing energy availability.

    in case you hadn’t noticed.

    i refer to my previous umpteen posts backed by the appropriate links/hard data.

    this talk of wage suppression by oligarchs, them wanting to divide and conquer –

    it doesn’t add up – what benefits them more, high salaried professionals who buy everything they offer and spur the economy and innovation, or baltimoron types who can’t afford any of the oligarchs’ wares?

    wage suppression is for people with minimal to no skills.

    get a fucking SKILL and you’ll all of a sudden be rising in society.

    why are all CFNers morbidly focused on the fantasy that everyone makes minimum wage and that there’s no way to advance?

    that oligarchs rule our lives?

    you know i’ve made in the neighborhood of $200k in a year recently, but in 2009 i cut grass for $10 a yard in the extreme heat because i was out of work from highflying positions in the downturn.

    since then i’ve obtained a new skill that’s helped me boost my professional worth more.

    i mean, learn to fix appliances or something.

    fodase

    • sprawlcapital May 1, 2015 at 5:32 pm #

      this talk of wage suppression by oligarchs, [them] wanting to divide and conquer –

      . . . their wanting to divide . .

      Ten dollars for mowing a lawn is very cheap, even for 2009.

  93. wpa_ccc April 29, 2015 at 1:35 pm #

    For nsa, whose heart cries for the birds and the bats, there is a new blade free solution for wind energy that is more efficient and quiet. Here is a two minute video:

    http://www.saphonenergy.com/site/en/our-film.72.html

    • FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 2:02 pm #

      At last!!! Somebody found a way to eliminate ALL problems with wind turbines. They just SIMPLY NOT USING THEM – they found a way to plug into power line from the nearest coal power station.

  94. Cold N. Holefield April 29, 2015 at 2:29 pm #

    Jockeying between this world of the-sky-is-falling doomsday-any-day-now and the sports world where yesterday-is-today-is-tomorrow and it will never end so help me God is like traveling back and forth to two different planets in two different galaxies. They’re that far apart in every conceivable way — two mutually exclusive realities that cannot fathom the other’s existence. And yet somehow I’m managing, just barely, to straddle both of these disparate realities and many more and still maintain a semblance of sanity — knock on wood — what little is left (of wood and sanity). Here’s my latest at trying to create seismic tremors for those who have shrouded themselves in the shock-proof containment vault of 24/7 Bread & Circuses.

    Dafuq?

  95. fodase April 29, 2015 at 3:52 pm #

    wpa_ccc, i think the saphon has the trappings of a scam. not 100% certain but after some perfuncktery invesstigaytion it sure feels like it.

    that said, the problem of windblades killing birds is being addressed, just off the top of my head i’d wager they could put high or low frequency transmitters that birds hear but humans dont that would divert them out of harms whey.

    hold the scam alert – just found this on microsofts site:

    At this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Morocco, Microsoft has signed a new collaborative agreement with Tunisian startup Saphon Energy, a company that specializes in the research and development of wind energy.

    in any case, here are some huge advances in technology in the wind area:

    http://wattnow.org/1891/flodesign-wind-turbine-theres-change-in-the-wind

    we are simply marking time until wind + solar take out fossil fuels. we are approaching critical mass, with entire countries now getting half their electricity on a regular basis from the air and the light.

    CFN crowd dont bother responding unless you have something factual/scientific to report as to why this isnt so.

    this is ostensibly an energy blogg, isn’t it?

    Heres a telling quote from Jeremy Grantham:

    Legendary hedge fund investor Jeremy Grantham says there is no doubt that solar and wind energy will “completely replace” coal and gas across the globe, it is just a matter of when. The founder of $100 billion funds manager GMO Capital is known as a contrarian. But he suggests that the pace of change in the fuel supply will surprise everyone, and have huge implications for fossil fuel investments. “I have become increasingly impressed with the potential for a revolution in energy, which will make it extremely unlikely that a lack of energy will be the issue that brings us to our knees,” Grantham writes in his latest quarterly newsletter. “Even in the expected event that there are no important breakthroughs in the cost of nuclear power, the potential for alternative energy sources, mainly solar and wind power, to completely replace coal and gas for utility generation globally is, I think, certain.

    fodase

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    • FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 4:47 pm #

      “they could put high or low frequency transmitters that birds hear but humans dont that would divert them out of harms whey”

      Excellent idea!! They could also overlay the transmission with subliminal green energy ads (or preparation for martial law ads), so to embed idiotic green energy into feeble human minds.

  96. fodase April 29, 2015 at 4:03 pm #

    “The idea of “peak oil demand” as opposed to peak oil supply has gone, in my opinion, from being a joke to an idea worth beginning to think about in a single year. Some changes seem to be always around the corner and then at long last they move faster than you expected and you are caught flat-footed.”

  97. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 4:40 pm #

    Recently, the United States threatened sanctions on Germany, if it chooses to give asylum to Ed Snowden. Let’s remind, that Snowden leaked to the Germans about how their politicians, businessmen and political leaders are being under close surveillance from US intelligence agencies.

    Last week was the continuation of wiretapping scandal of German Chancellor Angela Merkel by Americans. Two years ago, an agent of German intelligence service BND got arrested under that case, for being a double agent. Now it turns out that Americans are spying on defense corporations, government agencies and European politicians with the help from this very BND, which simply does not inform the Office of the Federal Chancellor of that moonlighting activity.

    The funny thing is that the Americans threatened to sanction Germany by termination of cooperation with this very BND. The Americans are openly having Europe and despise it for that. The piquancy of the situation is that Europe also pays for it.

  98. wpa_ccc April 29, 2015 at 6:31 pm #

    “The Washington/national press has trained all of us to worry about these questions of financing on behalf of candidates even at such an early stage of a race as this. In this manner we’re conditioned to believe that the candidate who has the early assent of a handful of executives on Wall Street and in Hollywood and Silicon Valley is the “serious” politician, while the one who is merely the favorite of large numbers of human beings is an irritating novelty act whose only possible goal could be to cut into the numbers of the real players.” –Matt Taibbi, “Give ’em hell, Bernie!”

  99. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 7:11 pm #

    What’s a bit scary is the fact that if most people will “coordinate” to parrot the ridiculous party line about Political Correctness, transgenderism, etc. just because they want to conform or to get some crappy government job, then they’ll just as easily “coordinate” to throw everybody into internment camps or murder everyone also just to conform or to get some crappy government job. During the Cultural Revolution in China, relatives would often renounce and throw rocks at family members who got into political trouble. Sick….

  100. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 7:16 pm #

    “The Red Guards have accused my Dad of being a Capitalist because he started a sideline toufu business. So I’ve got to ridicule him in public and throw rocks at him so that I don’t get a bad record at school which would affect my chances of going to university.”

    This is the way that most people think—They don’t think…..

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  101. fodase April 29, 2015 at 7:24 pm #

    …so to embed idiotic green energy into feeble human minds.

    well i think that says it all.

    Spain, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Scotland on track to replace 50-100% of their electrical power production with wind+solar…….

    yet it’s idiotic.

    foaming nonsensically ad nauseum about russia, on the other hand, is so appropo.

    Jeremy Grantham, who founded a $100 billion fund management company, says solar and wind are on track to wholly replace fossil fuels within a few decades – much faster than previously thought.

    he puts his money where his mouth is, and has made a fortune being right.

    but fincal knows better

    can it get any more comical out here?

    come on CFNers, where are you with your naysaying about the revolutionary gamechanging fossil-fuel replacing successes of solar and wind (and other alt energies)?

    do you have any factual rebuttal to Spain getting HALF its electricity from WIND + SUN….Spain being Europe’s 5TH-LARGEST ENERGY CONSUMER with a pop. of 50 MILLION?

    Nevertheless, we salute you CFN acolytes – and your AWOL leader – as we soar high, high above you into the dawning age of energy ascent, which is only in its very infancy of tectonic leaps forward in material, societal, medical, biological and intraspecies progress…as you cling to your typewriter-age thoughts and count your stores of beans, guns and gold laid up beside your kunstlerian-inspired mule.

    fodase

    • beantownbill. April 29, 2015 at 8:57 pm #

      You techno-fantasists are very wrong. First of all, the sun has only been shining for 4.6 billion years. What makes you so sure that it will continue to do so? What if the sun goes “off the boil” tomorrow, and we don!t have any more solar?

      Furthermore, well-respected climatologists state that global warming is causing the equatorial doldrums to expand into temperate zones so ultimately there won’t be any wind whatsoever by the end of the 21st century.

      With no wind, no solar and peak oil, we are so fucked!

  102. nsa April 29, 2015 at 7:42 pm #

    WPA,
    Didn’t see you at the Audubon Society meeting this week. What’s the matter……guilty conscience?

  103. fodase April 29, 2015 at 8:05 pm #

    the killing birds problem will be solved , just like all the rest of the problems

    http://grist.org/climate-energy/for-the-birds-and-the-bats-8-ways-wind-power-companies-are-trying-to-prevent-deadly-collisions/

    notice that windpower kills far fewer birds than pesticides, utilities etc.

  104. fodase April 29, 2015 at 8:27 pm #

    AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD
    Global solar dominance in sight as science trumps fossil fuels
    Solar power will slowly squeeze the revenues of petro-rentier regimes in Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. They will have to find a new business model, or fade into decline

    There are already 19 regional markets around the world in which PV solar panels can match or undercut local electricity prices without subsidy

    Solar power has won the global argument. Photovoltaic energy is already so cheap that it competes with oil, diesel and liquefied natural gas in much of Asia without subsidies.
    Roughly 29pc of electricity capacity added in America last year came from solar, rising to 100pc even in Massachusetts and Vermont. “More solar has been installed in the US in the past 18 months than in 30 years,” says the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). California’s subsidy pot is drying up but new solar has hardly missed a beat.
    The technology is improving so fast – helped by the US military – that it has achieved a virtous circle. Michael Parker and Flora Chang, at Sanford Bernstein, say we entering a new order of “global energy deflation” that must ineluctably erode the viability of oil, gas and the fossil fuel nexus over time. In the 1980s solar development was stopped in its tracks by the slump in oil prices. By now it has surely crossed the threshold irreversibly.
    The ratchet effect of energy deflation may be imperceptible at first since solar makes up just 0.17pc of the world’s $5 trillion energy market, or 3pc of its electricity. The trend does not preclude cyclical oil booms along the way. Nor does it obviate the need for shale fracking as a stop-gap, for national security reasons or in Britain’s case to curb a shocking current account deficit of 5.4pc of GDP.
    But the technology momentum goes only one way. “Eventually solar will become so large that there will be consequences everywhere,” they said. This remarkable overthrow of everthing we take for granted in world energy politics may occur within “the better part of a decade”.

    If the hypothesis is broadly correct, solar will slowly squeeze the revenues of petro-rentier regimes in Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, among others. Many already need oil prices near $100 a barrel to cover their welfare budgets and military spending. They will have to find a new business model, or fade into decline.
    The Saudis are themselves betting on solar, investing more than $100bn in 41 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, enough to cover 30pc of their power needs by 2030 rather than burning fossil fuel needed for exports. Most of the Gulf states have comparable plans. That will mean more crude – ceteris paribus – washing into a deflating global energy market.
    Clean Energy Trends says new solar installations overtook wind turbines worldwide last year with an extra 36.5GW. China alone accounted for a third. Wind is still ahead with 2.5 times old capacity but the “solar sorpasso” will be reached in 2021 as photovoltaic (PV) costs keep falling.
    The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory says scientists can now capture 31.1pc of the sun’s energy with a 111-V Solar Cell, a world record but soon to be beaten again no doubt. This will find its way briskly into routine use. Wind cannot keep pace. It is static by comparison, a regional niche at best.
    A McKinsey study said the average cost of installed solar power in the US across all sectors has dropped to $2.59 from more than $6 a watt in 2010. It expects this fall to $2.30 by next year and $1.60 by 2020. This will put solar within “striking distance” of coal and gas, it said.
    Solar cell prices have already collapsed so far that other “soft costs” now make up 64pc of residential solar installation in the US. Germany has shown that this too can be slashed, partly by sheer scale.
    It is hard to keep up with the cascade of research papers emerging from brain-trusts in North America, Europe and Japan, so many brimming with optimism. The University of Buffalo has developed a nanoscale microchip able to capture a “rainbow” of wavelengths and absorb far more light. A team at Oxford is pioneering use of perovskite, an abundant material that is cheaper than silicon and produces 40pc more voltage.
    One by one, the seemingly intractable obstacles are being conquered. Israel’s Ecoppia has just begun using robots to clean the panels of its Ketura Sun park in the Negev desert without the use of water, until now a big constraint. It is beautifully simple. Soft microfibers sweep away 99pc of the dust each night with the help of airflows.
    Professor Michael Aziz, at Harvard University, is developing a flow-battery with funding from the US Advanced Research Projects Agency over the next three years that promises to cut the cost of energy storage by two-thirds below the latest vanadium batteries used in Japan.
    He said the technology gives us a “fighting chance” to overcome the curse of intermittency from wind and solar power, which both spike and drop off in bursts. “I foresee a future where we can vastly cut down on fossil fuel use.”
    Even thermal solar is coming of age, driven for now by use of molten salts to store heat and release power hours later. California opened the world’s biggest solar thermal park in February in the Mojave desert – the Ivanpah project, co-owned by Google and BrightSource Energy – able to produce power for almost 100,000 homes by reflecting sunlight from 170,000 mirrors onto boilers that generate electricity from steam. Ivanpah still relies on subsidies but a new SunPower project in Chile will go naked, selling 70 megawatts into the spot market.
    Deutsche Bank say there are already 19 regional markets around the world that have achieved “grid parity”, meaning that PV solar panels can match or undercut local electricity prices without subsidy: California, Chile, Australia, Turkey, Israel, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain and Greece, for residential power, as well as Mexico and China for industrial power.
    This will spread as battery storage costs – often a spin-off from electric car ventures – keep dropping. Sanford Bernstein says it may not be long before home energy storage is cheap enough to lure households away from the grid en masse across the world.
    Utilities that fail to adapt fast will face “disaster”. Solar competes directly. Each year it is supplying a bigger chunk of peak power needs in the middle of the day when air conditioners and factories are both at full throttle. “Demand during what was one of the most profitable times of the day disappears,” said the report. They cannot raise prices to claw back lost income. That would merely accelerate what they most fear. They are trapped.
    Michael Liebreich, from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says we can already discern the moment of “peak fossil fuels” around 2030, the tipping point when the world starts using less coal, oil and gas in absolute terms, but because they cannot compete, not because they are running out.
    This is a remarkable twist of history. Just six years ago we faced an oil shock with crude trading at $148. The rise of “Chindia” and the sudden inclusion of 2bn consumers into the affluent world seemed to be taxing resources to breaking point. Now we can imagine how China will fuel its future fleet of 400m vehicles. Many may be electric, charged by PV modules.
    For Germany it is a bitter-sweet vindication. The country sank €100bn into feed-in tariffs or in solar companies that blazed the trail, did us all a favour, and mostly went bankrupt, displaced by copy-cat competitors in China. The Germans have the world’s biggest solar infrastructure, but latecomers can now tap futuristic technology.
    For Britain it offers a reprieve after 20 years of energy drift. Yet the possibility of global energy deflation raises a quandry: should the country lock into more nuclear power stations with strike-prices fixed for 35 years? Should it spend £100bn on offshore wind when imported LNG might be cheaper long hence?
    For the world it portends a once-in-a-century upset of the geostrategic order. Sheikh Ahmed-Zaki Yamani, the veteran Saudi oil minister, saw the writing on the wall long ago. “Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil – and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil,” he told The Telegraph in 2000. Wise old owl.

  105. FincaInTheMountains April 29, 2015 at 9:36 pm #

    “The technology is improving so fast – helped by the US military”

    If its being helped by US military, then they’re really f*cked, US Military spends quadrillion dollars for every hole in the ground they make.

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  106. wpa_ccc April 29, 2015 at 10:43 pm #

    fodase, you have won. The CFN sycophants have no facts to refute you, yet they refuse to see the great transition happening before their very eyes from fossil fuels to alternative, sustainable, clean energy in many forms: solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, hydropower, etc.

    It seems that JHK has therefore decided to shift from “peak oil” as the drama stirrer to “money worries” because prices and reserves of oil are knowable quantities, whereas macroeconomics is not.

    Therefore, JHK can wax lyrical with phrases like this one this week:

    “apprehension is growing that some kind of “corrective” event is at hand on the financial scene… [that] could set off a chorus of margin calls that would make the trumpets of Jericho sound like a kazoo concert.”

    We are back in the land of speculation, fear mongering, and personal opinion… fact-free opinion that nevertheless stirs up those who think money is important. Unlike peak oil, this kind of weekly monetary commentary can go on indefinitely.

    As they say on CFN, “we are so fucked” … until we aren’t!

  107. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 10:52 pm #

    In today’s NY Times, Hillary is quoted as saying that now is “a time for honesty about race and justice in America.”

    Now is a time for honesty about Eichmannism in America.

  108. Q. Shtik April 29, 2015 at 11:10 pm #

    guns and gold laid up beside your kunstlerian-inspired mule. – fodase

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

    haha, good line

  109. Pucker April 29, 2015 at 11:14 pm #

    They’re talking about another “Great Society” fetish to help young black males.

    What’s this rubbish about “giving” them jobs?

    You don’t “give” a job to someone. You “hire” someone because you need them to perform an act of labor.

  110. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 12:19 am #

    Hillary to Bill Clinton: “Now is the time for honesty about husbands f…ck’n around in America.”

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  111. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 12:46 am #

    Janos: “Found! A good Black Mother.”

    Janos, there was not a single white mother out there, slapping the police and saying to their white sons who are police: “Stop killing Black kids, stop shooting unarmed Blacks in the back, stop severing Black kids’ spines, Black lives matter.” Not a single white mother had the courage.

  112. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 12:49 am #

    Now is the time for honesty about the emails that Hillary erased off of her email server.

  113. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 1:19 am #

    Hillary: “Now is the time to be honest.”

    George Carlin: “If Americans had to be honest, they wouldn’t know what to do!”

    • Pucker April 30, 2015 at 2:00 am #

      What does Hillary mean by “Now” when she says “Now is the time to be honest.”?

      Does she mean that any time other than “Now” is a time to be dishonest?

  114. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 2:20 am #

    Hillary to her supporters: “When I yell ‘Now’ everyone start being honest until I give the signal to stop. Got it?!”

  115. FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 5:48 am #

    Why FED cannot print money forever

    In 2008, the United States had to use the printing press to the maximum: without it they would not have gotten out of the crisis. Cash flows thus divided into two parts – the Fed purchased from the market, not only government bonds, but also “mortgage bonds” that were on the balance sheet of private banks. This scheme is called Quantitative Easing.

    For a time, the Quantitative Easing allowed the Americans to stay afloat and somehow breathe. However by 2014 the scheme firmly ran into certain restrictions, due to which States had to slow down the printing press.

    Why?

    Maybe the US economy has recovered? Unfortunately not. The problems in the US economy only growing, the United States needs money desperately. However, printing them with each month becomes harder and harder.

    The fact is that the Fed is not a single buyer of US Treasuries: there are plenty of other players. When the Fed buys bonds on the open market, bond prices go up, and coupon payments (the “Interest”) on the bonds, respectively, are going down. For the government (Treasury) it is good because you can get money at a lower rate, but for other buyers of bonds, which in contrast to the Federal Reserve do not have a dollar printing press, this is very bad news.

    In addition to foreign holders of US Treasuries that have to get a very low rate (China, Japan, Russia, the Arab oil producers, India, etc.), three very important categories of investors suffer:

    1. Pension funds (private and public).
    2. Public funds of social assistance.
    3. Insurance companies.

    All these institutions need money to make significant payments. They are buying “risk-free” government bonds of the United States. While interest payments on these bonds were high (that is, until bond prices were low), funds make ends meet.

    However, after the Federal Reserve began Quantitative Easing, all these organizations had to buy bonds from the market at very high prices and settle for very low income.

    In 2008, the portfolios of pension funds and insurance companies have been filled with a normal income bonds, but in the five years of QE most of their portfolios turned into a dummy that bring about 2.5% per year – while these organizations need at least 5-7% (in some cases, 9%), just to continue to pay pensions, to pay for the operation, give medication and food subsidies.

    If the printer will continue to spit out new dollars, thereby cutting the yield of the bonds, the US economy is waiting social disaster. Pensions will stop (and this is a significant source of consumption), the health system will collapse completely, much of the social programs and subsidies will remain without funding.

    If the printer stops and bonds will rise, the government will have much less money and, therefore, will have to cut back the huge public spending, which, in fact, the only thing that keeps the United States going.

    The question may arise: why not print the dollars and give them directly to the Pension Funds, Social programs and insurance companies?

    Answer: because then US will need such a large one-time liquidity infusion that will tilt the balance of US Dollars between the International holders and domestic holders toward US, forcing the international dollar holders to start getting rid of them, increasing inflation in the United States. This will start a chain reaction, after which the dollar can depreciate a hundred times.

    All options are disastrous for US. That’s why Americans have to indulge in creative terrorism all over the planet. Ignite the planet – the last option for Americans. After all, if the rest of the world is even worse off than the US, capital will flow to them in search of a “safe harbor.”

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  116. FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 6:40 am #

    What happened to “Currency Reset”?

    Let’s go back a few years ago and remember how elegantly global political elite was preparing to overcome the impending second wave of global economic crisis. The scheme was beautiful and mutually beneficial: the US would lower itself to the level of the owner of North and Central Americas and, in exchange, the rest of the world would insure (financially) a “soft landing” for the US economy.

    The most important marker of this scenario, in addition to the famous Obama’s “tell Vladimir that after the election, I will be more flexible,” was agreement by the United States to yield control over the blocking stake in the IMF shares to the rest of the world.

    In many conflict areas have been made significant compromises: the Americans, to the great joy of Chinese, would cut their financial support for certain African politicians and Mark Mobius, the special purse of Democratic Party, would invest into Ukrainian regime of Yanukovych.

    For the first time in the history, the world was going to witness a peaceful transition of power from global American hegemon to the supporters of a multipolar world.

    And then everything collapsed.

    I’m afraid we’ll never know the details of the invisible revolution in the American elite, which occurred about two years ago. From the visible effects we need to emphasize the following: there was an agreement between the most radical Democrats (including Joe Biden) – the so-called “Clinton clan” and the most radical Republicans, i.e. Neocons and the Tea Party. Obama failed to become America’s Gorbachev.
    As a result, instead of the supporters of the “soft landing”, some key positions were captured by the supporters of “War to the end”. However, what was left of Obama’s team still hold crucial positions in the economic block of the US government.

    In this new configuration, the US is trying to implement two plans:

    1. Plan minimum – to loot Europe via the so-called “free trade agreement” (TTIP) and ignite the rest of the world

    2. Plan maximum – to loot Europe, set fire to the whole world, to seize power in Russia and to use it as a battering ram against China with a mandatory nuclear war between the two major geopolitical enemies of the United States.

    In the implementation of these plans Ukraine should play the role of a tool that forever separates the EU from Russia and bury any hope for a “Continental union” between Berlin and Moscow – the eternal fear of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Everything else are just secondary, though pleasant for US bonuses.

    Washington’s main problem is a terrible lack of time.
    Obama negotiated the surrender of American hegemony not out of goodness of his heart, and also made Americans to rush the Kiev Maidan. US do not have even a few years, to play all the games in which they got involved; the economy may fall into a uncontrollable spin at any time.

    In terms of implementation of the strategic objectives the operation in Ukraine has failed. If Neocons and Clintons had left at least ten years, it would be a success, but they need a blitzkrieg, and blitzkrieg failed, and most likely will not happen.

    Despite the enormous pressure and attempts to play a scheme “Give us your economy, and we will protect you from the terrible Russians, who captured the Crimea and is about to take over Kiev. Europeans do not want to sign a TTIP and destroy its economic elite for the benefit of the United States. Worse, even an embargo on Russian energy could not be pushed through. Americans still dream about the seizure of power in Moscow, but the chances of that happening are very little, and the clock is ticking and ticking monotonously counting time before the US economic collapse.

  117. BackRowHeckler April 30, 2015 at 7:11 am #

    Forget about the riots, 5 people were gunned down, one fatally, in Baltimore on Tuesday alone, which I gather is not that unusual.

    It turns out Freddy Gray was not an Eagle Scout on his way to Sunday School, but a criminal with 20 prior arrests, and a mid level heroin dealer, which was probably why he was running from cops. Now I hear on the news this morning that he most likely injured himself in an attempt to stay out of jail and go to the hospital, and perhaps sue the City of Baltimore. I asked my DA neighbor about that and he said its a common strategy employed by criminals under arrest, as desperate as it might seem. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if it turns out to be true, this self mutilation, which caused a whole city to burn down? Trevon? The Gentle Giant? Freddie Gray? All scams! Anybody see a pattern here?

    brh

    • AKlein April 30, 2015 at 3:56 pm #

      It always been a popular belief that the police know who the real troublemakers are and who are those who just fell off the wagon. Accordingly, the real troublemakers are given the “full treatment” whereas the incidental lawbreakers are pretty much left alone or given perfunctory grief, enough to disincentize them from further antisocial activity. Some may not think this is a reasonable way to handle the maintenance of social order. Is there any other choice, in reality? Most of the recent recipients of what seems at first blush police brutality are as pure as the driven snow. Yes there is certainly police brutality. But to be fair and honest, there are also quite a few not nice people out there on the streets who “work” the system in every way possible.

      • AKlein April 30, 2015 at 3:58 pm #

        correction: “…are not as pure as the driven snow. Y

  118. FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 8:53 am #

    The separation of society into rich and poor increases, the traditional industrial centers as a result of the policy of building a “post-industrial society” closing production, the number of unemployed (and poor) in these cities is growing rapidly.

    The reason for rioting – an inherent contradiction in the Western system, the real lack of rights of millions of ordinary Americans and accumulated over the years of social tensions, in which you can use any pretext for the explosion, especially the killing of the innocent.

    • BackRowHeckler April 30, 2015 at 10:44 am #

      what lack of rights?

      You can pretty much do any goddam thing you want here.

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 11:03 am #

        The most important of all – the right to meaningful employment

        • pequiste April 30, 2015 at 3:06 pm #

          BINGO!

          And so we return to JHK’s central thesis – of a “world made by hand.” And the discussion of its occurrence due to the end of fossil fuels or from the vehicle of social disintegration is not important.

          When confronted by a post-industrial, technotronic, hyper-capitalist system, that employs robots and computers to make staggering amounts of shit, and workers of every stripe are displaced to “enforced leisure” then the definition of meaningful employment for humans becomes, well, close to meaningless.
          At least when the people passengers on the blue planet number roughly 8 billions .

          Hence a metamorphosis from a civilization that could employ excess labor to make everything from the Pyramids to the Pantheon (Rome) and Philadelphia. Now we transition to the backside of the mountain of Progress and everything: systems, institutions, beliefs, start to combust, implode, fall apart or rot.

          In the final analysis friends, the only work let to do is to make peace and clean up the mess we’ve made.

        • Exscotticus April 30, 2015 at 3:21 pm #

          Why not just add the right to happiness while you’re at it?

          Even if we could all agree on what “meaningful” employment means, it would certainly necessitate a coercive socialist government for its (temporary) achievement.

          The only true liberties are the ones that don’t involve coercion (i.e., negative liberty). Got any ideas that don’t involve an even larger government controlling every aspect of our lives?

  119. ozone April 30, 2015 at 9:31 am #

    We should assume there aren’t going to be enough keyboard-clacking psy-ops jobs and boots on necks to ’employ’ everyone in exchange for banker-consortium-issued scrip; in turn exchanged for the necessities of life.

    Get busy; don’t wait for cargo-cult saviors. This guy isn’t:

    http://craftsmanship.net/drought-fighters/

    I understand that social breakdown exacerbated by financial and commercial collapse is extremely and life-threateningly serious, but we’ve got to start thinking beyond ‘money’ and the associated profit motive and into the realms of food, clothing and shelter. …And, of course, attempting to secure these as best we can.

    Just to finish up [literally], I take this person’s analysis in consideration, as the comment section has devolved from a place where effective mitigating stratagems were discussed into a bog of mistrust and provocation. You know’im, you love ‘im (and I hope he doesn’t mind too much):

    ” James is allergic to conspiracy theories and it gives him plausable deniability should anyone ever make a case for his website being a honeypot. How convienient. He will claim to know nothing and won’t have any idea how it came to be that half the ‘commenters’ at his website are government employees or under contract to the government. Like tigers waiting for victims to engage in dialog while collecting their IPs for further investigation or dining.

    I make no accusation but invite you to draw your own conclusions.”
    — A Poster

    Oh, but you *do* make an accusation, Poster, and I don’t think it’s off the mark. Belaboring the point won’t change the ‘demographic’ (that’s gov’t.-speak, son), so utility is assiduously denied.

    • FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 10:40 am #

      “but we’ve got to start thinking beyond ‘money’ ” — ozone

      That is the right approach. Unfortunately, only sufficiently large society could afford to do that, having sufficiently large market of labor separation.

      Small groups and individuals are unfortunately bound to live under the laws of “market economy”, where money drives everything.

      We need to somehow to stick it out as a society and that requires very strong and dedicated leaders, like FDR.

    • BackRowHeckler April 30, 2015 at 3:19 pm #

      I like that Oz, Sebastopol, California.

      Think the founders were from the Crimea? Russia had a rather large presence in Cal starting in 1776.

      brh

  120. fodase April 30, 2015 at 9:42 am #

    but we’ve got to start thinking beyond ‘money’ and the associated profit motive and into the realms of food, clothing and shelter. …And, of course, attempting to secure these as best we can.

    just go out and buy food, clothing and shelter.

    what’s the problem?

    the comment section has devolved from a place where effective mitigating stratagems were discussed into a bog of mistrust and provocation

    haha, i think the last mitigating strategem was Trippticket in ought 09 or so.

    he’s actually doing something other than bloviating nonsensically about the endtymes, which will never arrive.

    the peak energy debate is over, by the way, technology is rapidly solving it.

    fodase

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    • malthuss April 30, 2015 at 10:25 am #

      Every 12 years Earths human population does what?

  121. BackRowHeckler April 30, 2015 at 10:59 am #

    If Freddy Gray did indeed commit suicide, I’m eager to see how The Ministry of Truth, aka The MainStreamMedia, scrubs this weeks comments on the event made by Obama and Hillary Clinton at Columbia. They’re feverishly working on it right now, cutting, looping, adding and subtracting words and phrases. Incidentally, the word ‘Thug’, is now forbidden if you haven’t heard. Yes, the language is being pared down little by little, word by word, which is what the PC movement is all about.

    Soon, however, not using the word ‘Thug’ will not be enough.

    “There are therefore two great problems which the Party is concerned to solve. One is to discover, against his will, what another human being is thinking, and the other is how to kill several hundred million people in a few seconds without giving warning beforehand. Insofar as scientific research still continues, this is its subject matter”.

    Thinking of the word thug, not just speaking it, is a crime. A ThoughtCrime, if you will.

    brh

  122. sharonsj April 30, 2015 at 11:32 am #

    My father dabbled in the stock market and anything he bought on the advice of the broker turned out to be shit. Keeping that in mind, I put my money into tangibles: house, property, antiques, jewelry. I may not have as much as friends currently in the market, but to me their money is floating somewhere in the ether while I can use (or fondle) mine.

    • sharonsj April 30, 2015 at 1:34 pm #

      P.S. Re a craft niche–as I have told many a prepper, making your own clothes from scratch is a real pain in the ass. You need a sheep, you shear it, you card the fleecel, you spin the wool into thread, and then you weave the thread into cloth on a loom. If you don’t own a loom you better know how to make one out of tree limbs and rope. After which you need an old treadle machine (in case there’s no electricity) to sew it into something wearable. I know how to do it all and even I don’t want to do it. I bet nobody wants to do it when it’s so much easier to loot and pillage.

  123. fodase April 30, 2015 at 11:52 am #

    Every 12 years Earths human population does what?

    what’s your point?

    explain it.

    the world produces much more food than it needs, population growth velocity is screeching to a halt (negative population growth in japan, russia, western europe) and is on course to level out at 8 billion and start reversing in the next 2.5-3 decades or so.

    https://overpopulationisamyth.com/content/episode-5-7-billion-people-will-everyone-please-relax

    Once seemingly unstoppable, India’s population juggernaut is finally slowing down. The country’s total fertility rate—the average number of children expected to be born per woman—fell to 2.3 in 2013, marking a significant slowdown in population growth, compared to 3.6 in 1991.

    that is remarkable since replacement level fertility is 2.1 chillun per woman, and foretells that world population growth is like that tennis ball you throw up before you serve – we’re fast approaching the point where it stops in mid-air, “it” being population growth, and starts to come down.

    you can thank technology advances for this, along with global education and women’s access to it.

    there is plenty of fact-based study indicating that the world’s population growth is slowing considerably, and that it has reversed in many areas.

    The country with the highest decrease in the natural birth rate is Ukraine, with a natural decrease of 0.8% each year. Ukraine is expected to lose 28% of their population between now and 2050 (from 46.8 million now to 33.4 million in 2050).Russia and Belarus follow close behind at a 0.6% natural decrease and Russia will lose 22% of their population by 2050 – that is a loss of more than 30 million people (from 142.3 million today to 110.3 million in 2050).Japan is the only non-European country in the list and it has a 0% natural birth increase and is expected to lose 21% of its population by 2050 (shrinking from 127.8 million to a mere 100.6 million in 2050). The streets of Tokyo won’t be as crowded in a few decades as they are today!

    A List of Countries with Negative Natural Increase

    Here’s the list of the countries with negative natural increase or zero negative increase in population… Ukraine: 0.8% natural decrease annually; 28% total population decrease by 2050
    Russia: -0.6%; -22%
    Belarus -0.6%; -12%
    Bulgaria -0.5%; -34%
    Latvia -0.5%; -23%
    Lithuania -0.4%; -15%
    Hungary -0.3%; -11%
    Romania -0.2%; -29%
    Estonia -0.2%; -23%
    Moldova -0.2%; -21%
    Croatia -0.2%; -14%
    Germany -0.2%; -9%
    Czech Republic -0.1%; -8%
    Japan 0%; -21%
    Poland 0%; -17%
    Slovakia 0%; -12%
    Austria 0%; 8% increase
    Italy 0%; -5%
    Slovenia 0%; -5%
    Greece 0%; -4%

    This population timebomb nonsense is yet another utterly failed CFN premise…

    Your sides’ ships are all going down in flames to the bottom of the dustbin of eschatalogical musings.

    Nevertheless, we salute you as we rocket into the golden age of cornucopia, fueled by limitless clean energy, boundless exploration of Earth and space & untold human potential.

    fodase

    • Q. Shtik April 30, 2015 at 2:56 pm #

      Your sides’ ships are all going down in flames to the bottom of the dustbin – fodase

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

      Whew! Talk about your mixed metaphors…

  124. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 12:07 pm #

    brh, why don’t you take the Food Stamp Challenge for a week? The average food stamp allotment is approximately $1.45 per meal ($31 a week). Of course, the Food Stamp Challenge rules do not allow you to “do any goddamn thing you want” with your weekly $31; you are not allowed to buy a Cadillac or a yacht. But your mind will probably be on food, just to survive. You might even change your mind about how generous government SNAP assistance is.

    In Connecticut, 8.6% of households are hungry or food insecure. 42% had to choose between paying for food or utilities; 34% had to choose between food or paying rent; and 30% had to choose between food or medical care.

    Established in 1939, the Food Stamp Program helps more than 26 million low-income people purchase needed food each month. Eligibility is based on income and assets depending on household size. Eligibility in the Food Stamp Program also includes work requirements, with all non-elderly adults required to be employed or to register for employment. Many are also required to participate in work training and job search programs.

    http://shorelinesoupkitchens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89:take-the-food-stamp-challenge&catid=61:latest-news

    • BackRowHeckler April 30, 2015 at 3:14 pm #

      Foodstamps are the currency of the ghetto, tradable for guns, sex, drugs, booze and gasoline, and redeemable for cash .40 cents on the dollar. That’s in Hartford, maybe they get a little more where you are, whatever the market will bear.

      The rioters and looters in Baltimore seemed pretty well fed.

      brh

      • BackRowHeckler April 30, 2015 at 3:20 pm #

        Some were fat, even.

      • malthuss April 30, 2015 at 4:36 pm #

        Crack for EBT.
        Amazing how far USA has sunk.

        And will continue to.

  125. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 12:09 pm #

    Right now Bernie Sanders (Independent, VT) is announcing his run for president. Are any of the major networks covering it?

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  126. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 12:36 pm #

    “I don’t represent large corporations and I don’t want their money” –Bernie Sanders

    Can any other announced presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican or Conservative or Libertarian, say that? Can a president make a difference? Did FDR’s WPA and CCC make a difference? We are still using FDR’s infrastructure.

    http://berniesanders.com

  127. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 1:34 pm #

    House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that President Barack Obama “needs to step up his game” to rally more Democrats behind legislation that would give him fast-track authority on trade deals. Boehner told reporters that “there will be strong Republican support for trade promotion authority.”

    Your Stepin Fetchit not moving fast enough, massa Boehner?

  128. FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 1:41 pm #

    fodasse_CCC – founders of new sect “The [Jehovah] Green Power Witnesses”

    • wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 1:47 pm #

      We are the Green / Panther / Guerrilla / Gang … your worst nightmare, comrade Finca. 🙂

  129. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 1:46 pm #

    On a very basic level, the worship of Toya Graham by whites like Janos is built on a misunderstanding of her motivation.

    Many in the media have presumed she was furious at her son for taking part in a riot, and dished out the blows that police and pundits think young black men need to get them back in line. But that’s not what she says drove her.

    Young black men, like Graham’s son, are 21 times more likely than young white men to be shot dead by police. Graham was scared for her child.

    “That’s my only son and I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray,” Graham told CBS. “Two wrongs don’t make a right, and at the end of the day I just wanted to make sure I had gotten my son home.”

  130. FincaInTheMountains April 30, 2015 at 1:51 pm #

    As you know, “If you want to make money – go into religion, but if you want to make a lot of money – invent the religion of your own”.

    In the US, it has become almost a national industry. The US view on spiritual matters is very rational, and equally immoral.

    US believes that if some people are willing to give their property, their houses, and even themselves with their families almost as slaves to the cult, to yet another “prophet”, people will still do it.

    So they are accommodated. And you just have to set a level playing field for all participants in the “business” to force all “prophets” to pay the required taxes, etc. So even better: all the freaks and half-crazies voluntarily doom themselves to enter into the walls of the sect, saving the government the trouble of control of all these half-witted.

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  131. fodase April 30, 2015 at 4:31 pm #

    this is just the kind of technofantasy that laughs at endtymers predictions of collapse. notice how the human body itself provides all the needed energy – ergo no need for fossil fuels or any other energy source –

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/sensors-shrink-watch-wearables-disappear-170929276–sector.html

    CFN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE CFN.

    FODASE

    • malthuss April 30, 2015 at 4:37 pm #

      Yr data was cherry picked.
      Population is exploding, worldwide.

  132. fodase April 30, 2015 at 5:40 pm #

    you know it’d really help if you guys would provide maybe a link or two to YOUR data, instead of calling mine cherrypict.

    i back everything i say up with plentiful sources.

    i’m willing to concede i’m wrong, but you’ve got to give me something more than your opinion to show me as much.

    it really is tiring having to debate on these terms, i.e. where one side provides sources/data and the other just ejaculates personal opinion.

    CFN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE CFN.

    FODASE

  133. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 6:21 pm #

    Republicans like Rick Perry and Chris Christie have been hinting at and positioning themselves for running for president for over a year now. Bernie Sanders, on the day he annouces, has more national voter support than either Perry or Christie.

  134. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 6:22 pm #

    Republicans like Rick Perry and Chris Christie have been hinting at and positioning themselves for running for president for over a year now. Bernie Sanders, on the day he announces, has more national voter support than either Perry or Christie.

  135. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 6:38 pm #

    “i’m willing to concede i’m wrong, but you’ve got to give me something more than your opinion to show me as much.” –fodase

    Here are some facts, fodase, to support your position on population. Most of the world is stabilizing its fertility rate or lowering their fertility rate. Only a few of the world’s countries still have high fertility rates.

    The reasons are technological. Electricity, education, development, and TV all contribute to reduced population growth. We should spend more on foreign aid to help spur development in the Third World.

    In today’s world, high fertility rates are increasingly confined to tropical Africa. Birthrates in most so-called Third World countries have dropped precipitously, and some are now well below the replacement rate.

    Here is some news for our CFN racists: Chile (1.85), Brazil (1.81), and Thailand (1.56) now have lower birthrates than France (2.0), Norway (1.95), and Sweden (1.98).

    To be sure, moderately elevated fertility is still a problem in several densely populated countries of Asia and Latin America, such as the Philippines (3.1) and Guatemala (3.92). But even the Philippines has been experiencing a steady fall in fertility rate. The same is true of Afghanistan, the most fecund country outside of Africa, at least for the past 15 years.

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  136. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 6:52 pm #

    Japan going medieval! They had iPads in medieval times, right?

    NEW YORK — Apple and IBM are getting into the senior care business. The two companies said Thursday that they plan to give 5 million iPads to seniors in Japan over the next five years. The iPads will come with special software designed to help the elderly manage health care and other needs.

    CFN, we salute you as we soar high above… beyond your medieval scarcity mindset.

  137. fodase April 30, 2015 at 7:04 pm #

    The fertility rate in CHINA is roughly 1.6
    The fertility rate in INDIA is roughly 2.3

    So two of the largest countries are under the replacement rate and just above it – and falling, according to data.

    Africa is unlikely to linearly increase to the meganumbers being touted for it for the simple reason that the continent would become literally overcrowded, trumping traditional large family reasoning based on the large amount of open space there.

    People will certainly question the utility of having huge numbers of children when resources there get scrunched and it becomes visually apparent that no more can fit.

    This is normal animalistic reaction to population explosion.

    Factor in increasing education, family planning and urbanization – all of which are taking place there and all of which are demonstrated to lead to dropping fertility rates – and you have a strong argument that Africa will not be the population timebomb predicted.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24303537

    For more on this, see the above link.

    Glad to see some decent counterarguments finally.

    CFN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE CFN.

    FODASE

    • malthuss May 1, 2015 at 9:18 pm #

      The highest TFR is seen in desert Niger at 6.89 babies per woman. You could argue that Niger in the southern Sahara is an unimportant wasteland, with only 8 million people back. (Oh, wait, that was back in 1990. Now it’s up to 18 million.)
      “It’s important for naïve white people to understand why black Africans aren’t terribly inclined to limit their own numbers, at least not without strict immigration restriction and constant hardheaded prodding by Westerners to undertake family planning.”
      Even more worrisome are giant Nigeria (177 million people) at a TFR of 5.25, Ethiopia (97 million) at 5.23, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (77 million) at 4.80.
      And that’s assuming that chaotic Congo is actually counting its vital records properly. UN demographers recently discovered that they had been understating the current total fertility rate in Africa by 0.25 due to shoddy record keeping by African governments. Thus, two years ago the United Nations Population Division released a shocking update to their population projections, revising the forecast for the continent of Africa upward to 4.2 billion in 2100 from 1.1 billion today.

      Please share this article./ Taki’s Magazine.

    • Janos Skorenzy May 1, 2015 at 11:51 pm #

      They’re all be coming to Europe and America since the do gooders wont let Nature take its course in Africa. Their strategy is known as R as opposed to k: high reproduction and low levels of care. That’s what they do and will do if we are there helping or not. But since we are, they babies will live and go to White Countries as per the Will of the Elite.

      You think that because Whites don’t have babies they can’t take care of Black Africans wont. Wrong. Maybe if they live in relative luxury for a few generations the birth rate will fall. But the world can’t give them that option.

  138. wpa_ccc April 30, 2015 at 8:14 pm #

    brh: “Foodstamps are the currency of the ghetto, tradable for guns, sex, drugs, booze and gasoline, and redeemable for cash .40 cents on the dollar. “

    An average foodstamp payment equals $31 per week, or $1.45 per meal. “Redeemable for cash .40 cents on the dollar.”

    You won’t get fat or rich on foodstamps. Take the Food Stamp Challenge. Live on $1.45 per meal (without accepting any gifts of free food). Do you really believe the racist crap you write, brh?

    Let us know how much of that $1.45 per meal you can save to trade for “sex, drugs, booze and gasoline”

  139. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 11:08 pm #

    How ’bout this as a political cause de jour?: “Stop the Bullshit!” “End the Bullshit Now!” “Just Say “No” to Bullshit!”

  140. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 11:27 pm #

    The new book “Clinton Cash” comes out on May 5th.

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  141. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 11:37 pm #

    What is candidate Hillary’s position on “Pussy Farts”? “Now is the time to be honest about Pussy Farts in America.”

  142. Pucker April 30, 2015 at 11:43 pm #

    Most Americans are the kind of people who would willfully run up a big credit card debt before deliberately committing suicide.

    • Q. Shtik April 30, 2015 at 11:52 pm #

      before deliberately committing suicide. – Puck

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

      I believe suicide HAS to be deliberate or it’s not suicide.

      • Pucker May 1, 2015 at 12:10 am #

        I suppose that it goes to the subject’s mental state? The problem is that most Americans and the System are totally insane.

  143. wpa_ccc May 1, 2015 at 12:11 am #

    Pucker: “How ’bout this as a political cause de jour?: “Stop the Bullshit!”

    Who decides what is bullshit? What are your criteria for recognizing bullshit?

    • Pucker May 1, 2015 at 12:18 am #

      Are you asking for a definition of “Bullshit”? I recall that several years ago an American academic and philosopher wrote a treatise entitled “On Bullshit”. I recall that he decided to focus on the topic of “Bullshit” because of the ubiquitous presence of Bullshit in American society.

  144. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 12:14 am #

    Watch the interview about “Geoengineering” on http://www.usawatchdog.com

  145. wpa_ccc May 1, 2015 at 12:28 am #

    “Are you asking for a definition of “Bullshit”?”

    Do you have a definition of bullshit, Pucker? Or is it like art: you recognize bullshit when you see it? Do you have any objective critieria? Or does each one decide subjectively?

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    • Q. Shtik May 1, 2015 at 12:01 pm #

      It’s like porn…I can’t define it but I know it when I see it. (Some judge back in the day said that.)

  146. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 2:15 am #

    Amazon editorial review of the book “On Bullshit”.

    http://www.amazon.com/On-Bullshit-Harry-G-Frankfurt/dp/1419348876

    Amazon.com Review

    “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit,” Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. “Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.” This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge–what it is, what it does, and why there’s so much of it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can’t be denied; part of the book’s charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word “bullshit.” More pertinent is Frankfurt’s focus on intentions–the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it’s true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter’s complete disregard for whether what he’s saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he “does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”
    This may sound all too familiar to those of use who still live in the “reality-based community” and must deal with a world convulsed by those who do not. But Frankfurt leaves such political implications to his readers. Instead, he points to one source of bullshit’s unprecedented expansion in recent years, the postmodern skepticism of objective truth in favor of sincerity, or as he defines it, staying true to subjective experience. But what makes us think that anything in our nature is more stable or inherent than what lies outside it? Thus, Frankfurt concludes, with an observation as tiny and perfect as the rest of this exquisite book, “sincerity itself is bullshit.” –Mary Park –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

  147. wpa_ccc May 1, 2015 at 2:51 am #

    “part of the book’s charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word “bullshit.”

    Thank you, Pucker. This is revealing about you.

  148. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 3:09 am #

    “Bullshit” is basically the disregard of Reality and “Coordinating”. Americans don’t care about the truth provided they get some benefit. For example, many Germans knew that the N,,a,zi propaganda about the Jews was “Bullshit”, but they didn’t care because they wanted some crappy government job—Eichmannism. Similarly, Americans know much of the PC and terrorism propaganda is Bullshit, but they don’t care because they want to conform or to go get some crappy government job—Eichmannism.

  149. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 4:48 am #

    New trade initiatives to spur gold demand

    Gold demand is expected to rise in China and other Asian countries along the “Belt and Road” routes in the coming few years, the China Gold Association said on Tuesday.

    In a report on the likely impact on the gold market, officials estimated that the 65 countries along the routes, and their combined 4.4 billion population, currently account for more than half of the world gold production, and 80 percent of consumption.

    http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/29/content_20574206.htm

    Essentially, China Daily semi-officially announced that China is ready by the end of this year to launch a new trade settlement system based on gold clearing of trade deficits. Obviously, the new Chineese gold settlement is set to compete with existing, highly unstable and suspicious Bretton Wood monetary system based on the US dollar and American debt obligations.

    In my opinion, the “new” Chinese trade currency will resemble highly successful Bretton Wood system before American default on gold payment in 1971.

    Chinese are gradually purging their economy from the US dollar as an investment vehicle – Chinese Central Bank lowered their key interest rate to just 2.5%, and every month is lowering lending reserve requirements – unthinkable strategy for “developing” Nation.

    China is making a good use of the fact that US got itself bogged down in Ukrainian conflict with Russia.

  150. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 7:37 am #

    “FTM, Please explain the mechanics of the 20 year revival.” — elysianfield

    Pretty much the FDR New Deal for our days condition:

    1. Measures to reduce speculation and minimize the burden of fictitious capital

    2. Measures to nationalize the Federal Reserve, cut federal borrowing, and provide 0% federal credit for
    production

    3. Measures to re-industrialize, build infrastructure, develop science drivers, create jobs, and restore a high-wage
    economy

    4. Measures to defend and expand the social safety net

    5. Measures to re-launch world trade and promote world recovery

    http://tarpley.net/docs/five-point-program.pdf

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    • elysianfield May 1, 2015 at 10:30 am #

      OK,
      Those are rational approaches to the issues in our current economy. I would presume, then, that the 20 years-in-the-making would involve massive cultural, institutional and political changes that would be impossible today…and probably in the future, without a certain amount of hellish adversity, population re-education, and, following that, an enlightened electorate and Government…or a benign dictatorship….

      Wish I could remember the name of the US Major, (In Vietnam) who said that …”Sometimes you have to destroy the village to save it.

      • FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 11:34 am #

        “would involve massive cultural, institutional and political changes that would be impossible today”

        Next wave of economic crisis should pretty much take care of that. The bad economy is like an aching tooth – the sooner you take care of it, the less pain and damage you suffer.

        However, we allowed it to go far enough.

        And yes, strong leadership – “benign dictatorship” – is a must.

  151. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 8:37 am #

    “Even if we could all agree on what “meaningful” employment means,
    it would certainly necessitate a coercive socialist government for its (temporary) achievement.” — Exscotticus

    By “meaningful employment” I mean mortgage-paying, highly professional position you could constantly improve your own skills on.

    Such positions usually requires a lot of capital investment per work place. May be not “coercive socialist government”, but dirigiste government, promoting hi-tech infrastructural projects.

    American School (economics)

    1. protecting industry through selective high tariffs (especially 1861–1932) and through subsidies (especially 1932–70)

    2. government investments in infrastructure creating targeted internal improvements (especially in transportation)

    3. a national bank with policies that promote the growth of productive enterprises rather than speculation.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_School_%28economics%29

  152. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 8:46 am #

    But of course, US have to first fulfill its obligation of yielding the IMF blocking voting package to broader world community.

    After 2008 crisis and subsequent robbery of international dollar-denominated reserves through QE program, US lost its moral right to be the leader of world economy.

    • malthuss May 1, 2015 at 9:19 pm #

      Whats 2015 -2016 gonna be like?

  153. BackRowHeckler May 1, 2015 at 8:54 am #

    Peas coming up nicely, despite leaden skies, cold temps, and intermittent snow squalls. Also Rosebushes look like they’re doing well, altho struggling a little bit.

    Nature will win out every time.

    I don’t have a crystal ball, but demonstrators marching out onto the freeways in Philly last night, disrupting traffic and causing chaos. I saw it coming, a way to bring the fight to white suburbanites without actually having to make the inconvenient and possibly dangerous trip to suburbia. Expect more of it, ‘specially as summer comes and temps heat up.

    It doesn’t matter that Mike Brown didn’t have his hands up but was struggling with a cop for his gun, or Freddie Gray was a convicted felon and heroin dealer with 20 prior arrests who might have harmed himself to stay out of jail and spend a few easy days in the hospital. Facts and truth are irrelevant. There’s something else going on here, perhaps a situation and condition that is unsolvable and unfixable.

    brh

  154. fodase May 1, 2015 at 9:21 am #

    It doesn’t matter that Mike Brown didn’t have his hands up but was struggling with a cop for his gun, or Freddie Gray was a convicted felon and heroin dealer with 20 prior arrests who might have harmed himself to stay out of jail and spend a few easy days in the hospital. Facts and truth are irrelevant. There’s something else going on here, perhaps a situation and condition that is unsolvable and unfixable.

    what’s going on is that people behaving very badly cannot be reasoned with & want more and more from civilized folks of all stripes.

    there is no end to that cycle of pathology.

    the rioters are undoubtedly victims of centuries of self-snowballing disadvantagement, but there comes a time when no one is killing you any longer that you have to say fuck it, get an education, get a job and rip yourself out of that and create a generation of success that will never revert to what you came from.

    it can be done. negroes in Harlem in the 1850-1960 era had literacy rates well in excess of 80%.

    this course of treatment works equally well with poor disadvantaged whites who are going nowhere.

    black culture is gravely ill and needs shock therapy.

    fodase

    • Janos Skorenzy May 1, 2015 at 11:38 pm #

      Remember though, they were the light skinned Black/Mulatto elite and Harlem was the place to go for such people. Today this tiny elite is scattered in every large and fairly large city in America, reaping the benefits of Affirmative Action.

      You can’t judge Blacks by such people. You’ll never get that kind of literacy rate again, for these reasons.

  155. fodase May 1, 2015 at 9:35 am #

    How stable is the operation of solar and wind farms? They can be a great help in the windy sunny desert during the day with a connection to the battery in a private house, but what about in industrial quantities and industrial facilities that require stability ?! This factor everybody conveniently “forget”.

    ….about as wrong as can be.

    Check out Spain, Denmark and Germany’s ability to get up to HALF their electricity from wind+solar at times.

    The ‘problem’ of intermittency – the sun only shining at times and the wind sometimes not blowing – is being handily solved with new storage strategies and grid-level applications.

    Check out Harvard University with its new organic molecule batter that is able to store solar+wind energy at hugely reduced costs and release it back into the grid to smooth the intermittency problem.

    Solar+wind are already cheaper than traditional fossil fuel based energy in numerous locations – and their cost is falling like a rock as their efficiency rises.

    Are China and India also conveniently ‘forgetting’ the intermittency problem in forging ahead with massive solar+wind projects? I would venture to say that those countries would not be spending megabucks on it if they weren’t convinced that intermittency does not pose a major problem.

    Solar and wind speak: All your bases are belong to us.

    Spain getting ca. 40% (!!!) of all its electricity from the WIND as we speak:

    https://demanda.ree.es/eolicaEng.html

    …and Spain is an extremely sunny country, so factor in the solar they have their as well. You get the picture.

    fodase

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  156. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 9:55 am #

    “Check out Spain, Denmark and Germany’s ability to get up to HALF their electricity from wind+solar at times.

    The ‘problem’ of intermittency – the sun only shining at times and the wind sometimes not blowing – is being handily solved with new storage strategies and grid-level applications.”

    Exactly. at times – or once in a blue moon. New storage strategy – essentially a battery pack (very expensive, don’t last long) and power inverter – very capricious and requires constant maintenance – will guarantee 30-fold increase in your home electric equipment cost – from cheap fuse box with easily and rarely replaceable fuses to a mind-boggling computerized system that will need a qualified repairmen every few months.

    And the best part – you could drain that storage system in just 2-3 hours of use, and what do you do then? Run a gasoline generator

    • FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 10:06 am #

      Tesla launches home, business and utility battery storage range. Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has unveiled its long awaited battery storage offerings, including a “Powerwall” home battery storage systems that will sell for $US3,000 for a 7kWh system.
      http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/tesla-launches-home-business-and-utility-battery-storage-range-74034

      7kWh means it will run at 3.5 kW (average consumption of the house WITHOUT the A/C) for pitiful 2 hours – after that your shit out of luck. And you pay $3,000? How much the fuse box cost? $20 – $30?

    • FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 10:31 am #

      Living on the Island, where only one thing is guaranteed about local electrical grid – it will go down at the most inconvenient moment – I have plenty of experience with electrical storage units – batteries and power inverters.

      I f*cking hate those things.

  157. Cold N. Holefield May 1, 2015 at 11:18 am #

    The Baltimore State’s Attorney General just said there was probable cause for murder in the Freddie Gray case and is issuing indictments for a litany of charges. She’s 35 years old and only 4 months on the job — and, of yeah, she’s Black.

    I think the message is clear from the establishment elites — if you’re white you need not apply for a position as police officer within the confines of any American urban area. Those jobs will now be relegated to Blacks and Blacks only. No, not even Hispanics because as we saw with the Zimmerman case, he was labeled a White even though he is clearly Hispanic.

    Battle lines are being drawn — very slowly like the Long Emergency, but they are being drawn. Most people living today don’t know a world without that Thin Blue Line. Without it, people will defend themselves and take justice into their own hands, and let’s not forget Whites have most of the guns so the Blacks clamoring for a Loretta Lynch mob and calling it Justice? You better think twice about what you’re clamoring for because Justice isn’t what you think it is or whatever you want it to be on any given day depending upon how feel.

    • BackRowHeckler May 1, 2015 at 12:05 pm #

      You said it, Cold!

      From what I understand so far is the homicide stems from Freddie Gray not being snapped securely in a seatbelt when he was placed inside the Paddy Wagon.

      Who the hell would want that job (urban police officer) anyway?

      brh

      • Cold N. Holefield May 1, 2015 at 12:24 pm #

        Not me — I wouldn’t want it. But some do apparently as weird as that is to you and me.

        I’m still not understanding how he gets a broken neck even if he wasn’t snapped securely in the seatbelt. It’s not like the van rolled over. If he was getting thrown around, why not just get down on the floor? How about the other prisoner with him? He contends Freddie didn’t try to bring harm to himself but why didn’t he try to help Freddie by telling him to get on the damn floor if he was sliding all around? Shouldn’t they also charge him with manslaughter or murder even since they’re giving away charges like free cheese?

        When I was a kid my Uncle has this huge Cadillac — it was black with bordello red leather seats that he would Armor All every other week. They were so slippery we would slide from one end of that sucker to the other end every time this titanic of a car made a turn. It was great fun — we got a real kick out of it and he would play along and make sure to make as many sharp turns as possible with us laughing and giggling our asses off. I don’t know why these two criminals couldn’t have done the same thing in the back of the paddy wagon. Sure, it might not have had Armor All’d bordello red leather seats, but you make do with what you have and make the most of it. Nobody knows how to have improvisational fun anymore.

    • malthuss May 1, 2015 at 9:21 pm #

      Zim looks Latino but his last name is Russian Jewish and part of his heritage is that, yes?

    • Buck Stud May 1, 2015 at 10:33 pm #

      One has to wonder if the Scales of Justice are being weighed and measured with dollars and cents? In other words, burning metropolis’ are bad for business. Thus the threat of a riot is a very real factor in who gets prosecuted or exonerated.

      Lady Justice? She’s just posing with a very transparent blindfold–same as it ever was.

      • Buck Stud May 1, 2015 at 10:36 pm #

        Actually before Q ‘weighs in’ the Scales of Justice are not being weighed for they are doing the weighing as in weighing dollars and cents.

  158. wpa_ccc May 1, 2015 at 11:37 am #

    Cold: “Those jobs will now be relegated to Blacks and Blacks only.”

    Is this your fear speaking, Cold. Because it is not true.

    Poor, poor whites, losing their dominance and crying about it. Do you want some cheese with your whine? Do you want an affirmative action program… now that it would benefit you? Can’t get a job? Want some food stamps, Cold? Are you being frequently arrested and harrassed by an all-Black police force? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and stop buy Cadillacs, booze, etc. with that $31 a week of food stamps. After about 250 years of whites being oppressed we’ll talk reparations.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 1, 2015 at 12:11 pm #

      Fear? Me? I have no fear. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’m scared to death of bunnies. But that’s the only thing I fear. Oh, and fear itself — I fear that too. Also, I fear polio even though it’s been largely eradicated I still fear its return. Come to think of it, I also fear top hats and cigarette holders and Warm Springs, Georgia. Those are just a few of things I fear.

  159. Q. Shtik May 1, 2015 at 12:26 pm #

    the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word “bullshit.” – Pucker quoting a review of the book On Bullshit

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

    I grew up in an era very different from today. People rarely cursed in public. The year was approximately 1956 when I was a high school sophomore. A question was posed to a classmate, one Sam Stubbs (this was the same individual who when asked during the semester’s initial roll call how his name was spelled, answered S-A-M) and he, in full-on cover-your-ass-mode, responded with a lengthy nonsensical verbal dissertation at the end of which the young male teacher said “in other words, ‘bullshit.'” The class roared with laughter.

  160. Q. Shtik May 1, 2015 at 12:39 pm #

    the new [Chineese] gold settlement – Finca

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

    The misspelling of the bracketed word above reminds me that some people think Chinee is singular and Chinese is plural as in “one Chinee and several Chinese.” Have you ever noticed this?

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    • malthuss May 1, 2015 at 9:25 pm #

      over at Conservative Treehouse.

      There is a Baltimore paper called City Paper and they were attempting to blame the violence of the riots– not on the black rioters– but rather on the white people fighting back.
      They showed a picture of a red-headed woman struggling with a black male (holding a stolen bottle of vodka in one hand– and you know it was looted from a bar because it still had its pourer on it– and a big pink bag he’d stolen from someone else) over her purse. Also in the picture were two other white-looking people, behind the woman, somehow involved in the melee.

      The paper actually wrote the caption that this white woman was attempting to STEAL THE BLACK MAN’S BAG!!! They called her a drunk and one of the City Paper’s writers, a woman called… Caitlin Goldblatt… said she was one of the people in the picture– and she was attempting to pull this woman away from the poor black man who was being robbed by the “shitfaced” redhead.
      One problem… unbeknownst to Ms. Goldblatt, the entire incident was also captured, on videotape, from another angle. And it’s crystal clear that the black man was trying to steal the redheaded woman’s purse. And at the time, Ms. Goldblatt was actually trying to help the woman, it seemed.

      But then Ms. Goldblatt gets back to her desk at the City Paper and just can’t print the truth if it would make blacks look like violent animals, so she completely lies and recharacterizes the entire incident to make the white female victim look like the instigator against the black male. She is aided by her editor, a Mr. Soderberg.
      Fortunately, they’ve been caught in their lies and are facing a backlash for it.

  161. Q. Shtik May 1, 2015 at 1:17 pm #

    black culture is gravely ill and needs shock therapy. – fodase

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

    An article that I have not read yet on today’s NYT op-ed page is titled “Black Culture Is Not the Problem”

    and a subtitle says “Baltimore’s woes stem from the continued profitability of racism.”

    I suspect Janos will disagree.

    • BackRowHeckler May 1, 2015 at 1:25 pm #

      The NYT, like PBS and NPR, is supremely predictable, but never fails to disappoint!

      I can tell you what they’re going to say 3 days before they say it. Just try me!

      brh

    • elysianfield May 1, 2015 at 7:11 pm #

      “Black Culture Is Not the Problem”

      I think it would be preferential to address “Black Culture” as “the problem”…for if not, then there is a very short list of what might be the “problem”…and “Blacks” would head the list.

      I would like to think that Blacks, when raised in a civilized environment would attain those attributes associated with civilization. “Black Culture” is anything but civilized, and hence the lack of civility in the Ghetto.

    • Janos Skorenzy May 1, 2015 at 11:58 pm #

      Blacks ruin their neighborhood by either vandalism, arson, or just lack of maintainance and then complain they have to live in a dump and that they are being discriminated against. Basically their argument is the same as a monkey in a cage: Gibs me mo.

      http://www.amren.com/news/2015/04/new-york-times-stumbles-onto-the-truth-about-baltimore/

      As Mr Kersey points out, White flight left some beautiful homes in Black hands. Is it our fault they didn’t keep them up?

  162. nsa May 1, 2015 at 1:21 pm #

    WPA / Fod,
    You both would prosper by buying a decent VOM and some stray silicon photo cells from Digi-Key or Mouser……and actually playing with them to get a feel for the problems involved. First, you would find the cells to be feeble things, generating very little current or voltage……so you have to string them in series or parallel (or both) to beef up the output. And no light…no output. Cell output is DC which is convenient enough for slow battery charging, but battery output must be chopped up by an inverter contraption to power AC appliances or backfeed the grid. The batteries are the weak link, as they have a useful life that ends with much diminished capacity…and must be replaced periodically. The overall efficiency of ACTIVE SOLAR is abysmal….and many of the costs hidden.
    PASSIVE solar makes a lot more sense….especially for heating water and homes……hence the concept is avoided by the bulk of humanity and their ruling elites.

  163. fodase May 1, 2015 at 1:52 pm #

    First, you would find the cells to be feeble things, generating very little current or voltage

    Tell the 550MW CSP utilities how feeble their power output is, that powers 452,000 homes.

    I mean come on, companies don’t build these megasolar utilities unless they are profitable, viz. can compete with fossil fuel rivals.

    Also, tell the millions of Australians, Germans, Spaniards, and increasingly the US Americans, that their rooftop solar arrays are feeble.

    Why oh WHY do you think the OPEC countries are installing GWh of solar capacity when they can sell oil?

    Maybe because the writing is on the wall, and they have more solar than petroleum.

    At the point we’re at in worldwide solar+wind energy production, with entire countries getting enormous contributions from these two sources, as I continually cite complete with links, and these two sources routinely accounting for the absolute lion’s share of new installed power capacity, anyone telling me that solar is a feeble alternative deserves an F for research.

    Technology is fast paving the way to replace huge portions of fossil fuels with renewable energy.

    Do the research, Apple, Google, numerous countries getting 30-50%, etc. ad infinitum.

    When will you wake up and see we’re in an age of energy ascent, whether you like it or not?

    fodase

  164. fodase May 1, 2015 at 2:00 pm #

    Renewable energy in Spain represented 42.8% of total energy generation in 2014. Overall 27.4% of Spain’s electricity was generated from wind and solar in 2014.

    Need anyone say more?

    CFN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE CFN.

    FODASE

    • BackRowHeckler May 1, 2015 at 4:23 pm #

      Fodase, I’ll say it again. We had a place in NE Spain, inherited from inlaws. Spain is a bad example to use as electrical service in Spain is not all that reliable. It would go dark all the time, and at the most inconvenient times. Also, gas was about $8 per quart. Its a lovely country, but Spains population is only about 1/7 of the USA. You really can’y compare the two countries.

      brh

  165. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 3:52 pm #

    Tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Australia for billions of dollars in lost profits because the government took action to reduce teenage smoking. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is suing Canada for $500 million, just because Canada has laws to keep essential drugs affordable.

    Worst of all, these cases are happening in secret international courts to which only corporations have access.

    Now, details are leaking of two global trade pacts (called the TPP and TTIP) that would massively expand the power of corporations to sue our governments. Countries from the US to Australia and from the EU to Canada are negotiating right now — and some could be just days from signing up.

    http://action.sumofus.org/a/tpp-lawsuits/

    Bill Still says that even US lawmakers are not allowed to see the secret trade deals before voting on them

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jh42olinhM

    If this passes you will see another million or three jobs offshored, permanently lost. America, stand up before our entire nation turns into one gigantic Baltimore!

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  166. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 3:59 pm #

    TTIP ‘nightmare’ will lead to ‘European disintegration’

    TTIP will result in one million European citizens losing their jobs and a lowering of EU health and environment standards, warns Tiziana Beghin.

    https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/ttip-nightmare-will-lead-european-disintegration

    Remember:

    1. Plan minimum – to loot Europe via the so-called “free trade agreement” (TTIP) and ignite the rest of the world

    2. Plan maximum – to loot Europe, set fire to the whole world, to seize power in Russia and to use it as a battering ram against China with a mandatory nuclear war between the two major geopolitical enemies of the United States.

  167. FincaInTheMountains May 1, 2015 at 4:49 pm #

    TTIP – economical NATO

    Specialists are convinced that the TTIP agreement is beneficial primarily to transnational corporations based in the United States and will not bring benefit and the Americans themselves. First of all, because it is “prejudicial to the interests of labor resources for the benefit of investors, resulting in a reduction of wages, as well as an even greater share of the redistribution of income in favor of the owners of the business.”

  168. fodase May 1, 2015 at 8:22 pm #

    Fodase, I’ll say it again. We had a place in NE Spain, inherited from inlaws. Spain is a bad example to use as electrical service in Spain is not all that reliable. It would go dark all the time, and at the most inconvenient times. Also, gas was about $8 per quart. Its a lovely country, but Spains population is only about 1/7 of the USA. You really can’y compare the two countries.

    non sequitur.

    CFN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE CFN

    FODASE

  169. wpa_ccc May 1, 2015 at 9:35 pm #

    brh: “We had a place in NE Spain, inherited from inlaws. Spain is a bad example to use as electrical service in Spain is not all that reliable.”

    I once bought a new Ford 25 years ago that died on me at inconvenient times. Conclusion (using brh logic): Cars are unreliable.

    Do you ignore or deny any technology improvements in the last 20 years? Should I ignore my own experience of having a (non-Ford) car that is 16 years old and has NEVER died on me. In fact, it has never had a major mechanical problem in 16 years. It was made in Japan.

    I’ll say it again: brh, do you believe what you write here? Do you absolutely refuse to believe that things are getting better compared to twenty years ago, including improvements in solar technology, storage battery technology, and automobile technology?

  170. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 9:51 pm #

    Do you CFNers support the Hooter Rebels in Yemen?

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    • Janos Skorenzy May 2, 2015 at 12:35 am #

      Puck never got over finding his older brother’s stash of dirty mags. Indeed, sometimes I think he might be typing with one hand.

      • sprawlcapital May 3, 2015 at 9:29 am #

        Nice humor, Janos. But then, you’re always joking, aren’t you. Especially about that national socialist stuff, right? I mean you’re not really a Nazi?

  171. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 9:55 pm #

    With all of the civil unrest coming up this Summer, do any of you CFNers know where I can get a pair of rose colored glasses?

  172. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 9:56 pm #

    Why is it called “Jade Helm”?

  173. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 10:09 pm #

    Why is it called “Jade Helm 15”?

    Jade Helm 15—They’ve obviously gone insane. “The term, unconventional warfare (UW) makes it clear that this exercise is not dealing with a Russian-backed Red Dawn invasion of the Southwestern United States by Russian backedLatin American partners.
    UW speaks to the guerrilla warfare (asymmetrical) nature of the anticipated and rehearsed conflict. Subsequently, it can be conclusively stated that Jade Helm is not preparing for a Red Dawn invasion, rather, they are preparing for a Red, White and Blue invasion.

    This is a massive rehearsal formartial lawimplementation as well as implementing the proverbial and much rumored Red and Blue List and the snatch and grab extractions of key resistance figures from the Independent Media as well as uncooperative political figures.

    SOURCE: THECOMMONSENSESHOW.COMPHOTO: JT ROBERTSON

    The sinister sounding caption ‘Mastering The Human Domain’ refers to the use of the military to engendertrust in order to control“the totality of the physical, cultural, and social environments that influence human behavior.”

    However, these drill will be carried out between 11 pm and 4 am. How much interaction will they achieveduring those hours to practice their trust-building skills?

    Invading and conquering a country is a lot easier than maintaining it under your rule. This appears to be a practiced study in modern domination of cultures….how to use your soldiers as counselors to help keep the people of your conquered land subservient.”

  174. Pucker May 1, 2015 at 10:36 pm #

    Martial Law will be a big US government jobs program with lucrative government contracts, so everyone will support it. Totally insane.

    • Janos Skorenzy May 2, 2015 at 3:50 am #

      The army built a replica small American town down South someplace to practice on. Of course they said it was to practice for the Middle East, despite the Church, Library, Town Hall, etc.

  175. wpa_ccc May 1, 2015 at 11:29 pm #

    Pucker: “…rather, they are preparing for a Red, White and Blue invasion.”

    Pucker, if what you say is true, then the best course of action would be to voluntarily disarm and seek nonviolent avenues for change.

    BTW, what is the difference between “maritial law” and “military dictatorship” because we have had the latter for decades now with half the national budget going to military welfare schemes… in all 50 states… and trillions (off-budget “special appropriations”) going to military misadventures which actually make us less safe, i.e. more prone to 9/11-type attacks… because the military is creating more pissed-off terrorists than the military is killing.

    Violence is not the answer, especially not imperialistic wars of choice. Violence should be reduced. Nonviolence increased. Everywhere.

    Citizens should disarm voluntarily while they can. Any violent confrontation over gun ownership will be won by the State, which specializes in violence, overwhelming State violence which no citizen can resist. I now own no guns at all. Zero guns. I will not be a target if martial law is declared.

    The Armed Forces should be reduced by half. Use the trillions of dollars saved for rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, thereby providing long-term employment for millions of the unemployed, thereby saving our economy from ruin and our society from street riots.

    The Armed Forces should be removed from all foreign military bases. The 50% sized Armed Forces brought home should dedicate themselves to “defense” which is what the Dept. of Defense should be about anyway.

    • Janos Skorenzy May 2, 2015 at 3:47 am #

      Isn’t that the “Fascism” you are against? Or is it only “Fascism” when we do it?

    • Q. Shtik May 2, 2015 at 10:51 am #

      I now own no guns at all. – wpa

      ===========

      “Now” implies that you once DID own guns. I’m surprised.

      BTW, when you cut the military by 50% what are all those unemployed soldiers going to do for a living, become hedge fund managers?

  176. Pucker May 2, 2015 at 1:26 am #

    The Germans jumped on “The Final Solution” bandwagon because it was a big government jobs program and a springboard for their careers—Eichmannism.

    • wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 2:01 am #

      I am sure even you can understand the difference between FDR’s big government programs providing employment to develop infrastructure and Hitler’s big government programs for a Final Solution.

      The USA was not employing people for a Holocaust. Hitler was.

      The problem is not big government.

  177. Pucker May 2, 2015 at 2:07 am #

    Most Americans will support Martial Law as a big government jobs program and as a way to control the terrifying black horde.

    • wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 2:25 am #

      Have you considered the benefits of martial law?

      Martial law will light a fire under all Americans, Black and white and all others, and get them working again on rebuilding big government sponsored education and infrastructure programs. Under martial law Americans will once again be physically fit, focused on improving the Nation, and entering, or re-entering, the middle class. No more riots.

      What else you got, Pucker?

  178. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 2:13 am #

    Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee (orchestrated by Christie)

    Kelly, Baroni, Wildstein and Christie are all going down.

    Bridgegate is just beginning to take its toll. (no pun intended)

    ** Chris Christie ally David Wildstein pleads guilty in the New Jersey bridge scandal case

    ** Federal indictment for Bill Baroni, Christie’s top Port Authority appointee

    ** Federal indictment for Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff.

    ** Federal prosecutor Paul Fisher says Christie is not in the clear

  179. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 2:20 am #

    Jeb hatin’ on gays. His numbers will go down. Christie is toast, brought down by Rachel Maddow.

    Mr. Christie’s approval rating at an all-time low, with just 38 percent of voters saying they approved of the job he is doing. In New Jersey!

    8% of Republicans say they would seriously consider voting for Christie. Republicans!

    Jeb and Christie are both toast. Big Koch money is on Walker.

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  180. BackRowHeckler May 2, 2015 at 2:44 am #

    Anybody up for the Preakness?

    Rumor has it tickets will be real cheap this year.

    The Preakness was on shaky ground to begin with; recent events in Baltimore should just about do it in.

    Upshot of the past weeks festivities in Baltimore: whitey will be clearing out at a rapid pace. Would you stay? Anybody who can get out, will get out. All that will be left as far as whitey goes will be a few pale faced lefty die hards and bitter enders, Govt employees handing out welfare checks, and Owser types waiting for Uncle Sucker to pay off their student loans.

    brh

    • Q. Shtik May 2, 2015 at 11:03 am #

      Yeah, and I would not want to be the owner of a business in the tourist trap Inner Harbor.

  181. FincaInTheMountains May 2, 2015 at 3:35 am #

    The death of the euro zone will support the dollar and, as a consequence, the dictatorship of the United States for quite a long time. It is possible that Washington even dreams about total dollarization of the EU, which will put new life into FED printing press and American mossy financial magnates.

    Some parts of Europe transformed into economic ruin might well run wild to the extent of open armed clashes and attacks on Russia, for which the ideological grounds the State Department has long prepared.

    Sober-minded Western countries are planned to be encircled with enclaves of radical Islamists. Then they simply will not be able to counteract binge Eastern European schizophrenia.

    The American pride, having suffered a strategic defeat in Ukraine, now requires a new grand project in the spirit of Hollywood disaster movies. The sad historical experience teaches nothing politicians in neither the US nor in the European Union.

    Their own mistakes, of course, they take into account, but predators cannot change the matrix of their behavior and will keep attacking the enemy until he loses patience and break predator’s neck.

    Therefore, a brief script for the upcoming blockbuster: “Once, a long time ago, Rothschild, Rockefeller and Morgan decided to grow Hitler in Europe. The finale of this adventure is well known. And whoever they are aiming at growing now, the end of it will be the same. ”

    http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1920902.html

  182. FincaInTheMountains May 2, 2015 at 4:17 am #

    Wait for Baltimore on the shores of the Baltic Sea

    New EU decisions involve placement in Latvia about thousands of African and Asian refugees annually. Zile has already commented on the news: “Such actions may destroy the citizens’ trust in their government, and to stir up the instincts that can even speak of racism.”

    What is the problem? The flow of refugees into Europe is increasing from year to year. But the 2014 had special gains – 200 thousand people, according to preliminary data. There is no reason to hope that in the coming years, this flow will be reduced: the escalation of hostilities in North Africa is forcing people to flee their homes.

    So far, migration policy remains the responsibility of member countries of the European Union, i.e. regulated by national rather than pan-European legislation. But this limited sovereignty comes to an end. The heads of the EU insists on the introduction of stringent quotas for each country.

    Latvian leaders, of course, will try to evade “shared responsibility”. Almost all of them – hardened xenophobes, European politically correct costume they put on only to, God forbid, not get mixed up with Russians.

    The transition to a quota on the planned regulation of immigration is seen by the authorities of the European Union not as a side issue, but as a political priority. The policy of “Europe without nations” is declared and will be implemented. Immigrants are needed to paralyze local nationalism and to undermine European unity.

    There is no doubt that relationships of newcomers from Asia and Africa with Latvian nationalists will be in conflict. It’s not about skin color and shape of the eyes, but that the number of “feeding grounds”, sources of income in Latvia is very limited, it is not prosperous well-fed Scandinavia. And Latvians would not be allowing “outsiders” to take lucrative spaces. Hence, immigrants will join the ranks of those living off random and not very legitimate jobs. That’s the basis for social conflict. Wait for new Baltimore on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

    http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1920841.html

  183. FincaInTheMountains May 2, 2015 at 4:31 am #

    It appears that Saudi Arabia in Yemen fell into the same trap that was prepared for Russia to Donbass

    Yemen rebels attack Saudi border, dozens dead

    Riyadh (AFP) – Saudi Arabia said its forces killed dozens of Iran-backed rebels from Yemen who launched their first major attack on the kingdom since Saudi-led air strikes began last month.

    http://news.yahoo.com/gulf-ministers-meet-yemen-conflict-rages-135648290.html

  184. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 10:54 am #

    “And she’s Black”

    Which is irrelevant. Her family is law enforcement, going back generations.

    She charged with lesser and piled on charges. She wants to see some charges stick. Had she went all murder 1… or 2nd degree without the assault 1 and 2 charges? The cops would walk easy.

    And she knows this. She wants some serious jail time. And she was talking like… Oh people!!! You got no idea what I got. I think there are some bombshells to drop in this case and I think the evidence mixed with a REAL DA like her… Will get justice! Nobody is above the law.

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    • BackRowHeckler May 2, 2015 at 5:40 pm #

      You ever think of moving to Baltimore? You’ll be able to get a house cheap, maybe free. That could use a man like you, if for nothing else someone to blame when sh-t gets even worse than it is now, as it most certainly will. Also the natives will need someone to pound, not in the metaphorical sense, but to really pound on like those white diners in restaurants around Orioles Stadium. Bring your own chow because according to a PBS report all supermarkets, mom and pop stores and bodegas have been burned out and looted. PBS of course presented the story of this ‘food desert’ as being somehow whitey’s fault.

      brh

  185. fodase May 2, 2015 at 11:11 am #

    Among those who spoke in the aftermath of his death were the Rev Jesse Jackson. The veteran civil rights leader described Gray as ‘a martyr’ in the eulogy he delivered at the 25-year-old’s funeral.
    ‘We’re here because we feel threatened, all of our sons are at risk … there’s too much killing, too much hatred, too much violence, too much fear,’ the Christian Post reported Rev Jackson as saying.
    ‘In this community, he was more than a citizen, he was a martyr.’
    Benjamin Jealous, a former president of the NAACP, wrote in the New York Daily News that: ‘Gray’s death comes at a pivotal moment in our country’s understanding of race and police violence.’

    Does it get any more ridiculous than this?

    A guy with 20 arrests is a martyr and a citizen.

    All our sons are threatened – by who, the 3 black cops who ‘killed’ Grey?

    And the black officer to choked Eric Garner in NY? Is she a racist too?

    Yeah, no one ever ‘understands’ ‘race’.

    People behaving badly always leads to incarceration and injury, regardless of skin color.

    There is excessive police force, e.g. Eric Garner, who should simply have been handed a ticket to show up in court.

    It has little to nothing to do with skin color, there are plenty examples of non-white cops injuring or killing whitey.

    It’s time for a national conversation on police force against whites then, right?

    These alleged black leaders are despicable human beings.

    fodase (married to a negress)

    • Janos Skorenzy May 2, 2015 at 1:30 pm #

      Tell them how Blacks are treated and/or kept down in Brazil. The White Man must retain control for the good of all – including the lower races. The thin White line (olive in the case of Brazil) is getting very thin indeed down there.

      You married one? What mercy! To spread the good seed far and wide, is there any greater sacrifice than this? Needless to say I’m trying to be very positive.

  186. Q. Shtik May 2, 2015 at 11:55 am #

    I have now read yesterday’s NYT op-ed piece titled “Black Culture Is Not the Problem” which ties in nicely with the CFN discussion yesterday on “bullshit.”

    The article is a crock of mumbo jumbo from N.D.B. Connolly, a black ‘intellectual,’ and its premise is bullshit on its surface. We all know, but are not permitted to say, that black culture is precisely THE problem.

    If the author’s name is not a household word you might divine his race without the use of Google from the nice touch of three initials before the last name. His forerunner, W.E.B. DuBois, used this same shtick.

    • malthuss May 2, 2015 at 2:43 pm #

      ‘Black Culture’ is an oxymoron.

  187. Janos Skorenzy May 2, 2015 at 1:24 pm #

    Solar panels on the roads and parking lots? There’s lots of those and it would save using acres and acres of land for solar power plants. It’s hard to believe that these panels wouldn’t quickly bedamaged by the weight of the cars. Has material science really come this far?

    http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/apr/19/sandpoint-innovators-solar-road-panels-remove/

  188. Cold N. Holefield May 2, 2015 at 2:29 pm #

    Great article here. Make sure to click the links — especially the one about the surreal press conference with gangbanger thugs.

    Democrat-Run Baltimore is a Gangsters’ Paradise

    What would be really ironic is if the other prisoner in the back of the van with Freddie was the one who severed Freddie’s spinal cord. Not that it would matter. These freaks have so much egg on their faces they can make omelette after omelette for years on end.

    • Janos Skorenzy May 2, 2015 at 5:20 pm #

      A false tangent. Many Democrat cities are fine or at least far better off. The relevant factor is the percentage of minorities, especially Blacks.

      • BackRowHeckler May 2, 2015 at 5:31 pm #

        name one

        • Janos Skorenzy May 3, 2015 at 1:24 am #

          Pittsburgh, with its relatively low Black population, is doing better than Cleveland and Cincinnati with their relatively high ones. And they in turn are doing better than Detroit with its catastrophic one.

          It’s Race. Blood will tell. Individuals vary, but Blacks en masse can only destroy.

      • Cold N. Holefield May 2, 2015 at 5:50 pm #

        Thanks Janos. I’ll sleep better tonight knowing you’re on the case. I sleep well all the time any way, so it really doesn’t matter either way whether or not you’re right. The cities can burn to the ground and I’ll sleep like a baby until they come for me — which may not be long now. I expect it/them any moment and welcome them. I’ve been waiting for death for a while now. We all have — and for some of us, it’s taking a damn long time to get here.

    • Q. Shtik May 2, 2015 at 5:26 pm #

      Great article here. Make sure to click the links – Cold

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

      I read the article and a link or two but, sorry, couldn’t read them all… I couldn’t take it any more.

      • Cold N. Holefield May 2, 2015 at 5:46 pm #

        Elaborate. I never took you for a Democrat. I still don’t. So why did this fella’s analysis rub you the wrong way? I thought he hit it out of the park.

        • Buck Stud May 2, 2015 at 6:40 pm #

          When Crips and Bloods start spouting ‘ stop the bloodshed’ platitudes during heavy media riot coverage one starts to suspect they are being played with pure sensationalist bullshit.

          The truth is ‘Homey’ will say anything to get his mug on TV.

  189. BackRowHeckler May 2, 2015 at 5:29 pm #

    start –

    Q, Janos, Cold, Fodase, Malthus et al

    Your non PC above posts have been duly noted and will be entered into your permanent record at ThoughtPolice HQ in Airstrip One, just outside Toledo, to be used in any possible action against you at a later time (at our choosing).

    -end communique

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    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 8:37 am #

      I’ve been to Airstrip One for reprogramming so many times now I consider it a vacation destination. I suspect they’ll eventually just give up on me. All the bartenders there, they don’t serve alcohol by the way, know me by name. That’s a little too chummy for me — but what are you going to do?

  190. barbisbest May 2, 2015 at 5:55 pm #

    Many of the comments are about Baltimore, as may be expected. It’s noted that a reporter covering the rioting in Baltimore mentioned there were no grocery stores in the vicinity. What has happened in Detroit needs to happen in Baltimore. Baltimore Summer. Rip out some asphalt. Grow some food for crying out loud. Like JHK says, we’ll be doing something important.

    At the edge of forever, the end is the beginning.

    • Buck Stud May 2, 2015 at 6:33 pm #

      “At the edge of forever, the end is the beginning.”

      I was just about to declare you the Sage of CFN after reading this comment but then decided to do a Google search first. Suffice to say, CFN still lacks a real sage in the commentary section

      • BackRowHeckler May 2, 2015 at 9:15 pm #

        You make a pretty good sage yourself, Buck … also a real rarity, someone from the left side of the fence nevertheless grounded in reality and not afraid to call a spade a spade.

        brh

      • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 11:55 am #

        Of fuck, Buck, now you’re insisting that the shit we write be ORIGINAL?!

  191. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 6:02 pm #

    Since a woman in cardiac arrest died because of the gridlock resulting from punishing the mayor of Fort Lee, Chris Christie should be charged with murder for Bridgegate. Alan Zegas, David Wildstein’s attorney, reiterated today that Gov. Chris Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures that led to the Bridgegate scandal. Christie “knew of the lane closures as they occurred” and “evidence exists” that proves it. This will come out at trial.

    • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 11:58 am #

      Chris Christie will be the next president of the United States. ;o)

  192. Buck Stud May 2, 2015 at 8:41 pm #

    “Black culture is an oxymoron”–Malthus

    Well, not exactly:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK5xi-Ep4Q

  193. Pucker May 2, 2015 at 8:52 pm #

    Nouriel Roubini ( http://www.roubiniblog.com )

    Roubini’s interview is blocked.

    “The riots in Baltimore this week may have been triggered by the death of Freddie Gray, but their roots are found in the widening gap between America’s rich and poor.

    That’s the message from Nouriel Roubini, the economist who in 2005 correctly predicted the housing crisis and ensuing financial crash in 2008.

    “We’ve seen race riots in parts of the United States because lots of people are poor and angry and resentful,” Roubini told CNNMoney’s Cristina Alesci at the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles “

  194. Pucker May 2, 2015 at 9:58 pm #

    I wouldn’t hire most black males. They’re too scary.

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    • Buck Stud May 3, 2015 at 11:17 am #

      When extreme economic stratification occurs via the importation of cheap labor, dismantling of labor unions, championing of ‘contract labor’ devoid of benefits or worker protections, undermining economic safety nets for society as a whole including equitable health care access then society inevitably begins to ‘break apart’ as each person or party looks out for their own best interest. Call it the jagged edges of entropy which are very sharp and dangerous indeed as one jagged edge after another acutely fractures from the former whole

      The problem with you Puck, is you only identify the symptom and not the root causes.

      But having an honest look at the results of the “Reagan Revolution’ and the further ideological warpage being perpetuated by the likes of Paul Ryan or Scott Walker—the current GOP as a whole–is perhaps too much truth for you to handle.

      Too many of your types have fallen for the tripe of Limbaugh and forgotten that your grandfathers once stood in labor movement battle lines fighting for economic justice against Gilded Age Robber Barons.

      In your relative comfort and security you have forgotten what made that security possible in the first place and the perverse irony is the right wing /GOP IDEOLOGY you now support is exactly what your ancestors fought against to give you a better current life.

      And that is what is truly scary.

  195. BackRowHeckler May 2, 2015 at 10:05 pm #

    Did I read that right?

    The Crips, Bloods, and Black Guerilla Family appeared onstage today before a large Baltimore crowd with the Mayor, the Police Chief and various Councilmen, vowing to protect the black community?

    brh

    • Pucker May 2, 2015 at 10:45 pm #

      They’ve obviously gone insane.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 8:32 am #

      You heard it right. And rumor has it Charlie Manson is to be paroled so he can protest with Baltimore’s finest and sing Kumbaya with the protestors until the next game or fight comes on — then the protest will have to be put on hold until it’s over. You can’t write better satire than this — it writes itself.

  196. Pucker May 2, 2015 at 10:40 pm #

    What happens to the electric fences when the power grid goes down?

  197. fodase May 2, 2015 at 11:00 pm #

    The riots in Baltimore this week may have been triggered by the death of Freddie Gray, but their roots are found in the widening gap between America’s rich and poor.

    oh yeah, blacks are rioting because of a gap between rich and poor.

    guess they sit around discussing things: “you know, Boomquida, I’m damn incensed about this rich-poor gap”

    when you assuage maniacs by giving in to them for 50 years you get the riots in baltimore. simple as that.

    roubini is a fucking moron.

    god i wish there were a tv channel where you could say what the fuck the real deal is.

    time to put the stake thru the heart of liberalism enabling idiots to run wild because you feel sorry for them.

    buck the fuck up.

    i vote for that black mother for mayor of fucking baltimore. no hyphenated-last-name pussy keesha-williamans ‘look at my hairdo’ who can’t say anything without backtracking it til it means nothing – just like her putrid non-stances that lead to a city being turned to ashes.

    fodase

  198. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 11:23 pm #

    brh, yeah, the po-po has united the Crips, Bloods, and BGF.

    Are you following the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight?

    • BackRowHeckler May 3, 2015 at 12:11 am #

      WPA, not watching the fight at work right now.

      These guys are a little bit old for this to be called the ‘fight of the century’, aren’t they? Both close to 40?

      You’re right when you state people seem to have plenty of money to spend. 170,000 race fans at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby yesterday.

      Unfortunately. the future doesn’t seem to bright for either horse racing or boxing. Tracks allover the country are being turned into housing developments or shopping centers. And professional boxing seems to be overshadowed by the more violent and less artful mixed martial arts.

      brh

  199. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 11:31 pm #

    Thanks for that, Buck Stud.

    I saw Duke Ellington perform live in the late 60s, but never had the pleasure of seeing a live performance by Louis Armstrong.

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  200. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 11:35 pm #

    Apparently so many people trying to buy pay per view in the US at the last minute, the fight has been delayed. Who is watching this? Upper crust white rich men? Or lower class people of color? Either way, money does not seem to be an issue… the economy has recovered and people have extra money to spend. It could be a KO in 5 for Manny.

  201. wpa_ccc May 2, 2015 at 11:42 pm #

    Estimated three million people have bought PPV for this fight. It’s a hundred dollars a pop…

    If there was no economic recovery, if people were in debt with maxed out plastic, they would not have extra money to spend $100 for a boxing match. Unless brh thinks they (the ghetto dwellers) are trading their food stamps for PPV… ha ha ha… it don’t work that way in real life.

  202. FincaInTheMountains May 3, 2015 at 1:34 am #

    Why NATO is terrified of Russia

    Russian defense circles are sure of conventional and nuclear superiority on sea and land. And the Pentagon knows it. Russia would reduce NATO forces to smithereens in a matter of hours. And then would come Washington’s stark choice: accept ignominious defeat or escalate to tactical nuclear weapons.

    The Pentagon knows that Russia has the air and missile defense capabilities to counter anything embedded in the US Prompt Global Strike (PGS). Simultaneously though, Moscow is saying it would rather not use these capabilities.

    The bottom line is that while the Pentagon was mired in the Afghanistan and Iraq quagmires, they completely missed Russia’s technological jump ahead. The same applies to China’s ability to hit US satellites and thus pulverize American ICBM satellite guidance systems.

    The current privileged scenario is Russia playing for time until it has totally sealed Russia’s air space to American ICBMs, stealth aircraft and cruise missiles – via the S-500 system.

    As it stands, the key shadow play is Moscow and Beijing silently preparing their own SWIFT system while Russia prepares to seal its air space with S-500s. Western Ukraine is doomed; leave it to the austerity-ravaged EU – which, by the way, doesn’t want it. And all this while the same EU tries to handicap the US commercially with a rigged euro that still doesn’t allow it to penetrate more US markets.

    http://rt.com/op-edge/254213-nato-eu-russia-economy-swift/

  203. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 1:35 am #

    Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says he raised $1.25 million on his first day but did not reveal how few or how many contributors.

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he raised $1 million on his first day but did not reveal how few or how many contributors.

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told CBS News he also raised $1M on his first day but did not reveal how few or how many contributors.

    Hillary Clinton is not revealing anything. None of them are transparent.

    According to Breitbart … Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders raised $1.5 million on his first official day as a candidate, and that’s more than most, if not all, top-tier Republicans raised. And there were 35,000 people who donated. Who knew there were so many socialists?

    Only brh, I suppose, and the John Birch Society… but they are not celebrating the victory of socialism over capitalist Republican candidates.

  204. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 2:04 am #

    Scientific American, April 22, 2015: The entire world could be powered by wind, solar and water sources by 2030.

    “Fossil fuels are too entrenched, it is said, and renewables too costly or impractical to usurp existing systems. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the share of global energy provided by renewables—a mere 14 percent in 2012—will increase only slightly between now and 2040, rising to just 19 percent.

    But there are good reasons to believe that the transition to renewables will occur much faster than previously assumed, pushing that percentage higher and higher. Indeed, recent increases in wind and solar installations have been running at nearly twice the rate of the IEA’s projections for long-term capacity growth, suggesting that its projections of renewables’ share of global energy are much too low.

    It is hardly surprising, of course, that many experts say we will witness a relatively drawn-out transition from fossil fuels to renewables, given what is known about previous energy shifts of this sort. Any new form of energy initially operates at a severe disadvantage, lacking the elaborate production, processing and distribution networks retained by the prevailing type; before it can overcome that disadvantage and become the new leader the upstart must create a duplicate infrastructure—something that typically requires many decades.

    “Energy transitions take a long time,” observed Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba in Scientific American. It took more than 50 years for coal to replace wood as the world’s leading source of energy and another 50 years for oil to overtake coal; the shift from fossil fuels to renewables, he argued, is not likely to occur any faster.

    Under ordinary circumstances, Smil’s forecast would no doubt prove accurate. But these are not ordinary times: Growing concern over climate change is leading to increasingly strict controls on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while a continuing cascade of innovations in renewables technology is lowering their price and speeding their installation. (In a 2009 Scientific American cover story Stanford University engineering professor Mark Jacobson presented a detailed plan showing how the entire world could be powered by wind, solar and water sources by 2030.”

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    • sprawlcapital May 3, 2015 at 11:16 am #

      WPA: Scientific American, April 22, 2015: The entire world could be powered by wind, solar and water sources by 2030.

      Fine. It’s possible. But for a world with how many humans–2 billion or 10 billion?

      When my father was born, in 1911, global population was about 1.9 billion. That was more than enough to give us a very high level of science and technology, as well as mostly intact ecosystems. (Yes, the passenger pigeon had been made extinct, and the bison nearly so. A low population does not guarantee wisdom.)

      For this renewable energy future to work we need a lower population–under 2 billion. Otherwise we will see the last of the Amazon rain forest cut down, and multiple other environmental catastrophes.

  205. FincaInTheMountains May 3, 2015 at 2:07 am #

    Even according to official statistics, based on the skewed pricing environment and outrageously inflated prices of services and development, compared with the prices of tangible goods, the United States of America now consume twice as much as it produce.

    Consequently, given the inevitable changes in current world economic system, the standard of living in the US will almost instantly fall at least twice. And given the necessary restructuring of the US economy and creation of new industries the decline could be much deeper.

  206. Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 8:28 am #

    wpa_ccc said: Who is watching this?

    I landed on CNN at approximately 8pm while channel surfing and of course it was providing 24/7 coverage of the race war it’s been diligently trying to inculcate for the past several years. One of the “protesters” said when asked if he was prepared to break the curfew imposed by the Black mayor, “I’m going to go watch the fight.” He was Black too just like the mayor and three of the officers who were charged by the Black prosecutor (one of them a Black female Sergeant).

    Immediately after this interview, CNN had a prepared propaganda video they showed that had to have been crafted by communists — I kid you not. Its focus and message was how advantaged Whites are versus Blacks in America. All the Blacks who are suffering in Baltimore because of White privilege need houses, cars and then maybe, if they have time, some education and a career if they feel so inclined. I’m telling you folks, the set-up for all this is so obvious and transparent it’s blatant in-your-face provocation. Nothing good can come of any of this, and it’s clear America is being set-up for what happened in South Africa. If you’re White and not an Elite, now’s the time to make plans to get the f*ck out if you’re young enough and able enough. Germany’s a good destination if you have something to offer it in the form of productive and/or creative value. If you stay in America you face one of two outcomes and most likely both. A civil war based largely on race and/or the throwing of middle class Whites and lower class Whites under the bus for good to be persecuted and genocided for the sins of White Elites at the hands of their now Black masters.

    The irony. That “suffering” Baltimore Black fella, who could not articulate properly he was intending to watch the fight but I was somehow able to decipher that’s what he was trying to say, was able to afford to view a $100 fight that I could not afford. I watched the LA Clippers beat San Antonio instead (great game and series by the way) — both teams are mostly Black and those Blacks are making millions of dollars — more irony for the irony mill.

    Okay, I’m lying. I suppose I could have put up $100 for this fight but there was no way I was going to waste money on this over-hyped trash. If they were televising Mayweather beating a woman as is his wont, then maybe I would have paid a $100 to see that, but no way am I paying that much to see him beat up a Filipino. And as I see, the fight was fixed by the judges and they handed it to Mayweather in a unanimous decision to give strength and conviction to the Baltimore Cause.

    So, in answer to your question, wpc about who was watching; Baltimore was watching — the same Baltimore crying poor mouth and persecuted but yet is somehow able to afford to watch a $100 women beater beat up another disadvantaged minority with slightly lighter skin.

  207. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 8:55 am #

    “If you’re White and not an Elite, now’s the time to make plans to get the f*ck out …”

    So, where are you planning to go, Cold? Speak German, do you?

    Yours is empty rhetoric. You are not going anywhere because you do not belive in the so-called Race War you are touting. You are race baiting, just like your boy Jeb is hatin’ on gays, to stir up hatred in the base. Not gonna work.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 9:44 am #

      So, where are you planning to go, Cold? Speak German, do you?

      I said Germany. The better question is how will I get there? Either “I’m Leavin — On A Jetplane” or we’ll do what the Syrians escaping the civil war stoked by Obama & Co. are doing — rely on smugglers to get us there. I’d prefer the former for all the obvious reasons.

      As for speaking German, that’s what Rosetta Stone is for. Keep up, please.

      I’m not race-baiting. That’s CNN’s department and they’re doing a superb job. CNN has told me as the mouthpiece of Obama and the Elite of this country that they have no need for me and my kind and that we’ll be punished if we stay. I appreciate their candor and will make plans accordingly and pull the metaphorical trigger on those plans when the time is right.

  208. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 10:05 am #

    “Obama and the Elite…have no need for me and my kind and that we’ll be punished if we stay.”

    Pure paranoia. White privilege is shrinking a bit, but those you call Black Masters are good moral people who care about you. Everyone gets to keep guns, not just Blacks. Obama’s economic recovery lifts all boats, not just Black boats.. Obamacare is for all races, not just Blacks. Etc.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 10:29 am #

      Obama’s foreign policy is his domestic policy. Societal fragmentation and fracturing and ultimately civil war with Obama backing the thugs in the process (Libya, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and more to come). A boat with holes in it in a rising tide still sinks and Obama is blowing holes in boats across the entire harbor as he foments the rising tide of death and destruction to sink those boats for good. Obama’s mantra is the same as Alabama’s; Roll Tide!!

      • sprawlcapital May 3, 2015 at 10:57 am #

        I overstated my case this morning when I said that Janos is always joking, implying that he should never be taken seriously.

        However, he crosses a line when he says things like (I paraphrase) how can we not admire what Hitler achieved? I for one can only assume that was a sick joke.

        You may take this as an apology, Janos; it’s the best you’re gonna get on this blog.

    • nsa May 3, 2015 at 11:20 am #

      Imagine, WPA, Imagine…..a world of total equality.
      On a visit to Washington DC you could tear up at the Tomb of the Unknown Gangbanger.
      You could then visit the NRA museum and marvel at the gun collection in the inspiring new wing Tools of the Drive By Freedom Fighters.
      You could peruse the JYTime’s best seller list and select a useful book with a title like: Modern Seduction Techniques by Bill Cosby
      You could become a better wigger by studying the self-help shelf at B&N…maybe selecting a tome dedicated to aging white bikers properly wearing a doo rag or dressing like a ghetto rat….er, underprivileged patriot.
      There could be real solutions to curing afro unemployment….like expanding the NBA to 10,000 teams
      Foodstamps and section 8 would be a relic of the past, as every afro household would have a guaranteed income of $100k per year as part of a reparations package and a tract home with a swimming pool…..and all white mofos making over $100k/year would be forced to work at a car wash one day a week as part of a reeducation program.

      Imagine, WPA, imagine a world of total equality……..

  209. FincaInTheMountains May 3, 2015 at 11:06 am #

    In recent years, Germany was actively pedaling commissioning of alternative generating capacity, the main condition for the construction of which was their compliance with the doctrine of RES – Renewable Energy Sources. The result of this policy was the impressive growth of alternative power, “green” energy.

    At the same time, the German government pursued a discriminatory policy with respect to electricity generation capacity, running on fossil fuel, and especially in relation to nuclear energy.

    As a result of a sharp imbalance in the construction of new electricity generation capacity a situation exists where vast amounts of electricity necessary to shift from one point of the country to another. For example, almost all the wind farms are located on the North coast of the Germany and Baltic Sea and the main industrial users, which most acutely affected by the withdrawal of a network of nuclear power – on the contrary, in southern Germany – Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

    In addition, alternative sources of energy, according to the results of operation, are very difficult (or rather – impossible) to control in the terms of providing any consistent power into all-German network.
    In addition, the power of the photoelectric energy turned out to be practically useless for the evening peak capacity. At this time of the day of their production is negligible.

    The result of this change in the production of electric energy was insane pressure on the German distribution network. The situation is complicated by the fact that the German network is the “backbone” for the pan-European distribution network. For example, a planned shutdown of a German line 380 kV wire 4 November 2006 grew into an accident caused by cascading off about 17 GW of power and led to the general system of power grids in Europe were essentially split into three independent islands.

    The result of the analysis of the possible consequences of such accidents was a plan to build new transmission lines, which should, in future, partly stop this kind of problems.

    According to conservative estimates, such a plan will cost in the amount of 30 billion Euros for a period of ten years. For that the money we could build 15 nuclear reactors with total power capacity of over 15 GW.

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  210. FincaInTheMountains May 3, 2015 at 11:11 am #

    It sounds to me that “green energy” that is being pedaling here by fodase_CCC is additional de-industrialization driver, aiming at rising the electric energy prices many times, making industrial production non-competitive.

  211. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 11:13 am #

    “Obama backing the thugs…”

    More hyperbole. The T-word is the new N-word.

    Obama is leaving… You think your boy Jeb, with all W’s advisors on board, will do any differently on foreign policy? Domestic policy is different. Jeb will probably be better on opening the borders and letting in immigrants.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 11:21 am #

      Every word’s the N word these days. Every word you have typed and I have typed is the N word. When I see wpa_ccc typed out in front of me on my screen, I see the N word. When I see FincaInTheMountains — I see the N word. When I see CNN — I see the N word. When I see John Ellis Bush or Jeb, I see the N word. When I see the N word, I seeee the N word.

      Jeb’s foreign policy will be different than Obama’s — he’ll put boots on the ground where they belong — not up on the shoe rack or attending some LGBT convention in San Francisco or Portlandia.

      I’m glad you’ve finally conceded that I’ve been right all along about Jeb being the next Commander In Thief. I knew you’d eventually come around.

      • wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 11:37 am #

        You never did answer my questions about you promise:

        How many hats do you have? The hat you say you will eat when Jeb is not elected in 2016, what is that hat made of?

  212. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 11:34 am #

    Elaborate. I never took you for a Democrat. I still don’t. So why did this fella’s analysis rub you the wrong way? – Cold

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

    No, you got me all wrong. The analysis confirmed everything I already believed. There was no sense in me continuing to read links that I already knew the contents of intuitively.

    • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 11:42 am #

      P.S. I am neither a Dem nor Repub. I am a political atheist. I don’t believe in anything and gave up voting a few years ago, even stock proxies.

  213. fodase May 3, 2015 at 11:36 am #

    It sounds to me that “green energy” that is being pedaling here by fodase_CCC is additional de-industrialization driver, aiming at rising the electric energy prices many times, making industrial production non-competitive

    how paranoid are you? lol

    The price of PV panels had dropped precipitously the past few years, so have storage costs, all while efficiency is increasing.

    This has made solar more and more competitive with fossil fuels. Traditional electrical utilities are adapting to this. If they don’t, they will die.

    Entire countries are getting clean + virtually free energy from the sun and the wind.

    So be sure to tell them they’re wrong.

    Just because your little system in Honduras isn’t working so well…

    fodase

    • wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 11:44 am #

      If Finca wanted to, he could take advantage of passive solar. Hard for even an industrial engineer to screw up passive solar. The Great Transition is already underway. When alternative energies become half the cost of fossil fuels, who is going to be stupid and pay twice as much for coal or oil. The fossil fuels will remain in the ground.

  214. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 11:52 am #

    The truth is ‘Homey’ will say anything to get his mug on TV. – Buck

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

    Spot on!

    These ‘homeys’ are essentially powerless people who see an opportunity to exert their lifetime’s allotted 15 seconds of power and they jump on it.

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    • Buck Stud May 3, 2015 at 5:21 pm #

      But did you see who they brought in to mollify the passions of violence, that pinnacle of morality Ray Lewis?

      In truth, the austere moral asceticism (is that redundant?) of a Louis Farrakhan seems to work wonders with some former bangers, transforming a criminal,ethical laxity embodied by baggy pants and snickering insolence into something more upright and noble, however threatening some find the message to be.

      One of the problems, IMO, is how work and specifically manual labor is viewed in this country. In my view, if a person earns a living as a trash collector that person is still honorable: he is providing a needed service and achieving a certain form of “Gung-Fu” nonetheless. He can still feel good about himself on payday; a honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, to echo that now corny cliche.

      But all of that is passé in the flashy cash, button down shirt, gold chain dangling culture of America 2015. And it seems to be a historical reminder of when labor in the form of slavery was not compensated.

      Which is a tragedy IMO, because the lyrical pathos of a Roger Daltry would be a truly healing force: A metaphorical and ironic prescription of historical, homeopathic tincture. Or in this case, a small dose of historical illness to provide a large dose of current cure:

      “Out here in the fields
      I fight for my meals
      I get my back into my living.”

  215. fodase May 3, 2015 at 11:55 am #

    I came to the same conclusion, that fossil fuels are going to just remain in the ground, a few weeks back in one of my posts.

    The Saudi oil minister recently said the same thing.

    Serendipity? Maybe I should work for them?

    I wonder why countries that get their bread and butter from selling oil are building massive solar power utilities?

    Need anything more be said?

    “Money where your mouth is” is what the Saudis and their cohorts are doing in the Middle East.

    But ultimately, the expansion of solar in the MENA region comes down to dollars and cents. “Saudi Arabia burns over 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day for power generation, which is a huge amount, half a million barrels a day, and 6 billion dollars a month, in terms of crude oil prices,” notes Fotuhi. “That money could go to solar power generation, which requires no fuel. And that’s exactly why the officials in Riyadh are looking up towards a brighter future.”

    I see that as the final confirmation that the age of fossil fuels is drawing to an end.

    It’s really a moot point what Fincal in the mountains of Honduras thinks about solar and alternative energy – it’s being done successfully on a global scale, and only getting cheaper and more efficient.

    Nevertheless, we’ll let you plug your devices into wind and solar electricity, as you’ll undoubtedly do (or are already unknowingly doing, in many cases) and think back to your kunstlerian fantasies with a slight chuckle.

    “Boy that fodase and wpa_ccc, they were spot on”

    fodase

  216. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 12:22 pm #

    The truth is ‘Homey’ will say anything to get his mug on TV. – Buck

    The truth is the protests were nonviolent, the Crips and Bloods cooperated to bring police violence under control, the national guard has been withdrawn, and the curfew has been lifted. Which means the “homeys” have been successful at preventing further police violence.

    Now we need to work on freeing the people of color who are in prison due to bad cops and falsified evidence. We are 4% of the world population with 22% of the world’s prisoners, most of whom are innocent of any kind of violent crime.

    • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 1:05 pm #

      We are 4% of the world population – wpa

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

      We?

      Now you’re black again? Consistency is the bugaboo of small minds, etc., etc.

    • Buck Stud May 3, 2015 at 4:43 pm #

      Lo–I doubt you really believe what you type above.

      After the national media vans have departed Baltimore, how long before Homey Blue and Homey Red are killing each other and terrorizing the hood, never mind the ‘Black Lives Matter’ t-shirts?

  217. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 12:22 pm #

    “The riots in Baltimore this week may have been triggered by the death of Freddie Gray, but their roots are found in the widening gap between America’s rich and poor. – Pucker quoting N. Roubini

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

    The kinds of people who go into the streets and riot I doubt give much thought to the super rich. Somewhere in their psyches lies an ill-formed resentfulness that they would be hard pressed to define.

    In any case, there is this erroneous assumption that the wealth of the .01% is somehow extracted from the pockets of the poor. This, in my humble opinion is incorrect. Their wealth was created ‘out of thin air’ and was never in the possession of the poor, nor did it ever belong in the possession of the poor.

    Consider this, if 75% of the digital wealth of the super rich were instantly erased that group of people would still be super rich and the poor would still be poor, having not one penny more than before.

    If instead of ‘erasing’ 75% of the money of the super rich you redistributed it to the poor there would be one gigantic (and soon to end) sugar rush of consumption and the money would all flow right back to the super rich.

    It’s like a physical law of the cosmos.

    • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 1:08 pm #

      was never in the possession of the poor, nor did it ever belong in the possession of the poor.

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

      nor, I hasten to add, did it ever belong in the possession of the super rich.

      • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 1:51 pm #

        Wow Q, you’re on a roll today. That was rather deep — especially for you.

        But come on, Q. Likker at Rite Aid? What? Rite Aid? Let me guess — you bought some Smirnoff vodka in the plastic bottle. Am I Rite?

  218. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 12:41 pm #

    guess they sit around discussing things: “you know, Boomquida, I’m damn incensed about this rich-poor gap” – fodase

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

    I love the tenor of your entire comment and in particular the line above which drips with sarcasm.

  219. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 12:52 pm #

    “Boy that fodase and wpa_ccc, they were spot on”

    The advantage of passive solar is that it continues to work even if there is a complete societal collapse. And it will work better than it did in the Middle Ages and before, because we now have more knowledge about passive solar.

    See how that works? A complete societal collapse does not destroy our knowledge. Not that I think any kind of collapse is going to happen.

    Things are getting better and better. The data are incontrovertible. Life expectancy is the highest it’s ever been, and getting higher. Global GDP has never reached our present heights. The number of humans in poverty has never been lower. Wars between nations are almost extinct, and wars in general are getting less deadly. Those are facts.

    The notion of human progress isn’t a grand theory anymore; it’s a fact.

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    • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 1:15 pm #

      You have an incredible tendency to put lipstick on a pig.

      • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 1:26 pm #

        There’s some eyeliner and mascara being applied as well and a healthy dose of only the finest French perfume.

        wpc — if I didn’t love you, I’d hate you. But I choose love over hate and I holler because I care.

  220. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 12:55 pm #

    Are you following the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight? – wpa

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

    I don’t know if BRH followed the fight but I treated a few friends and relatives to the pay per view event. I paid $89.95 and supplied copious amounts of beer, likker, pizza, chips, etc and a good time was had by all.

    The fight itself turned out exactly as I predicted to the Rite Aid clerk(who was very much into boxing) who checked out my likker purchase. I said it would be an essentially boring fight… no thundering blows, no knockdowns, no cuts, no blood. It’ll go to the judges and Mayweather will win. And Bingo, that’s what happened.

    The Ukrainian fighter on the undercard was terrific.

  221. fodase May 3, 2015 at 1:09 pm #

    The Ukrainian fighter on the undercard was terrific.

    Aw jeeeeesus, now Fincal will never shut up….

    appreciate the kind boomquidesque remarks Q.

    fodase

  222. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 1:13 pm #

    Talladega Speedway Geico 500… hands on hearts for the national anthem… flags waving… stands filled with NASCAR fans… tickets from $30 to $1935… fans from 24 countries across five continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia), including every state and the District of Columbia in the United States.

    Things are normal, just like before the 2007 Bush economic crash… another sign Obama has brought us an economic recovery. Thank you, Mr. President.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 1:31 pm #

      Not to mention yet another successful NFL Draft where Whiteboys across this great land of ours watched Blackboys being auctioned off to the highest bidder with whooping and cheering at every sale. I’ve been flipping the channels back and forth between The Draft and Roots and it’s hard to tell the difference.

      Auction Block

      • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 2:02 pm #

        Auction block…………..funny piece.

  223. Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 1:23 pm #

    It’s that time of year, no not month, again. Mother’s Day is almost upon us so don’t get caught scrambling for a gift at the last minute.

    Great Mother’s Day Gift Idea

    wpc — my hats are on special order from Cadbury. Some are milk chocolate and some are carob but I don’t think I’ll need them — especially with the Jeb prediction. See wpc, it’s not a prediction. It’s the damn truth in a sea of lies. Jeb will be the next president. Stop being so obstinate and just accept what you can’t change or deny.

    • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 1:55 pm #

      wpc — my hats are on special order

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

      What’s up with calling wpa-ccc wpc? Dyslexia perhaps?

      • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 2:05 pm #

        It’s a hybrid you Rite Aid Likker Purchasing douchebag.

      • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 2:06 pm #

        What’s up with you using a hyphen rather than the underscore? Rite Aid perhaps?

        • Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 4:48 pm #

          Thanks for pointing that out…I had never noticed it was an underscore.

          • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 5:59 pm #

            You’re welcome. Ignore the douchebag comment. It wasn’t meant to be personal, I just like to type douchebag at least once a day and I wanted to get my quota out of the way early. wmca purposely chose that name to f*ck with us. He knew it would be a bitch to replicate from memory. He knew we would have to keep looking back. This is what makes him such a good liar for all the wrong reasons.

  224. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 1:33 pm #

    “See wpc, it’s not a prediction. It’s the damn truth in a sea of lies. Jeb will be the next president.”

    If you are so certain, then why order your hat from Cadbury? Your actions belie your words.

    But then you are dedicated to lying well, according to your website.

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    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 1:47 pm #

      Should I have ordered it from Hershey’s instead? Is that what you’re implying? Made in America? That’s a good point. Perhaps I’ll cancel the Cadbury order and order from Hershey’s instead and maybe just go with the milk chocolate, or maybe even dark chocolate, and drop the carob since it’s no longer fashionable.

      My website, or one of them at least, says lie well for all the right reasons. You have half the equation right — the lying well part. Now, if you’d just lie well for the right reasons, you’d be living by Cold’s credo. Stick with me long enough, and some of my magic (there’s never too much) is bound to rub off on you.

      • wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 1:54 pm #

        “for all the right reasons.”

        Ahhh! Therein lies the problem.

  225. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 1:37 pm #

    “I’ve been flipping the channels back and forth between The Draft and Roots and it’s hard to tell the difference.” –Cold

    In the time of Roots domestic violence against women was accepted as normal.

    In the time of The NFL Draft domestic violence is frowned upon and not accepted as normal.

    • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 1:42 pm #

      Okay, with that exception aside, it was like watching the same thing.

      • Cold N. Holefield May 3, 2015 at 5:11 pm #

        You’re welcome. Ignore the douchebag comment. It wasn’t meant to be personal, I just like to type douchebag at least once a day and I wanted to get my quota out of the way early. wmca purposely chose that name to f*ck with us. He knew it would be a bitch to replicate from memory. He knew we would have to keep looking back. This is what makes him such a good liar for all the wrong reasons.

  226. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 1:38 pm #

    That should be pork barrel. – Sprawl correcting an expression used by Finca

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

    Nice catch Sprawl. I, too, noticed this but I’ve been warned a couple of times by the great man himself about correcting people’s English, spelling, grammar, usage, etc. His very words (sent by private email) if I didn’t want to be banned were to “Cut it out.”

    In any case a pork “belly” is that region of the animal that yields bacon. When you take a guy like Finca who knows English quite well but not well enough you wind up with these humorous usage errors.

  227. FincaInTheMountains May 3, 2015 at 3:33 pm #

    U.S. Missiles Shot Down By Russia According to Al Manar TV Of Lebanon

    Remember the strange story of September 2013, when Obama made a decision to bomb Syria and then changed his mind? And there was a brief info regarding 2 unknown ballistic missiles fired in the direction of Syria.

    A well informed diplomatic source told As-Safir newspaper that “the US war on Syria had started and ended the moment those two ballistic missiles were fired, leaving inconsistent information, as Israel denied and Russia confirmed, until an Israeli statement was issued indicating they were fired in the context of an Israeli-US joint drill and fell in the sea, and that they were not related to the Syrian crisis.”

    The source further told the Lebanese daily that “the US forces fired these two rockets from a NATO base in Spain, and were instantly detected by the Russian radars and confronted by the Russian defense systems, so one of them exploded in the airspace and the second one diverted towards the sea.”

    Why? Because the moment the full military operation was launched, Head of the Russian Intelligence Service contacted the US intelligence and informed it that “hitting Damascus means hitting Moscow, and we have removed the term “downed the two missiles” from the statement to preserve the bilateral relations and to avoid escalation. Therefore, you must immediately reconsider your policies, approaches and intentions on the Syrian crisis, as you must be certain that you cannot eliminate our presence in the Mediterranean.”

    “This unannounced direct confrontation between Moscow and Washington increased the Obama Administration’s confusion and certainty that the Russian side was ready to move until the end with the Syrian cause, and that the US did not have a way out of its impasse except through a Russian initiative which would save America’s face…” he added.

    https://dublinsmick.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/u-s-missiles-shot-down-by-russia-according-to-al-manar-tv-of-lebanon/

  228. fodase May 3, 2015 at 8:15 pm #

    “This concludes our broadcasting day. Stay tuned for our regularly scheduled programming.”

    Oh yeah, energy ascent 1, cfn 0.

    fodase

  229. BackRowHeckler May 3, 2015 at 9:19 pm #

    Hey CNH I didn’t see that CNN program about Baltimore, blaming everything on whitey, looking like it was produced by Pravda c1968, but you gotta cut those lying cable TV media whores from The Ministry of Truth a break once in awhile. i think they’re just trying to buy themselves some time and space, because later on this summer when the riots break out in Atlanta the first thing the enraged natives are going to do is go over to CNN Headquarters and burn the goddam thing to the ground. What a surprise it will be to the twerky little TV pissants as they pour out of the building into the street like rats with stricken looks on their pasty faces thinking, ‘We’re down for the revolution, too. Don’t you watch our shows?’ Too late for them as they get an air Jordan sneaker in the face, and a baseball bat to the back of the head.

    brh

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  230. Q. Shtik May 3, 2015 at 10:00 pm #

    It has only been since recently that I realized there is a watch brand that you “don’t know shit from” and here I thought they only made shoe wax. See full page ad on page 13 of today’s NY Times.

  231. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 10:04 pm #

    brh: “…later on this summer when the riots break out in Atlanta…”

    Could you provide specific dates, so I can alter my travel plans?

    “Too late for them as they get an air Jordan sneaker in the face, and a baseball bat to the back of the head.”

    Seriously, brh, your imagination is overactive, dark, and violent. What up with the hatred? You are going to bring CFN to the attention of government agents.

    • BackRowHeckler May 3, 2015 at 10:17 pm #

      This is just words. In Baltimore last week at least a dozen journalists got pounded pretty good, the real thing! Their credentials didn’t save them; in fact they became targets.

  232. wpa_ccc May 3, 2015 at 11:10 pm #

    “In Baltimore last week at least a dozen journalists got pounded pretty good”

    Some of the journalists were pounded by police. Today there are no riots anywhere in the United States, there is no curfew in any city, there is no occupation by the National Guard, there is no marital law.

    My suggestion, if and when Atlanta becomes Baltimore, is to stay the hell away for those few days of rage. Which is why I asked you for dates, in case I will be traveling that direction on those days.

  233. BackRowHeckler May 3, 2015 at 11:48 pm #

    Anyway, I hope JHK writes about the events of the past week in Baltimore but you never know, there’s a lot of other stuff going on too. We’ll find out in about 10 hours.

    brh

  234. malthuss May 4, 2015 at 1:11 am #

    SHOOT OUT IN TEXAS AT ‘CARTOON FEST’.

    Immigrants fast tracks w-o security checks.

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  235. Cold N. Holefield May 4, 2015 at 6:28 am #

    BRH, CNN has contingency plans in case “protesters” burn the CNN studios in Atlanta to the ground. If that happens, CNN will broadcast from The Kremlin — its true home.

    It’s clear to me now that CNN (should be named KNN for Kremlin News Network) is the new & improved Pravda for the American audience. Putin and his cronies usurped it from Ted Turnipseed and now use it to further fracture and factionalize American society.

    Putin’s smart — he knows it’s far easier and much less messy to destabilize America from the inside out versus the other way around and his plan is working marvelously. You have to admit, wmca_wpga is an implacable machine — it’s too indefatigable to be human. Putin has an Ex Machina army devoted to patrolling and controlling all “free speech” spaces on the American internet to co-opt the conversation and steer those seeking knowledge and enlightenment into a snake pit of despair and destruction gift-wrapped as equanimity and egalitarianism.

  236. FincaInTheMountains May 4, 2015 at 8:32 am #

    Mortal confrontation of Russia and US around Ukraine is in Syurplyas

    “Syurplyas”: Standing on the spot, waiting for competitor to make first mistake. Tactics in bicycle track racing.

    Here the US and Russia are now frozen in a Syurplyas around Ukraine. And waiting, who first makes a mistake. Syurplyas has been unexpectedly delayed for both sides, but its time is coming to an end. Someone will have to rush to the finish.

  237. FincaInTheMountains May 4, 2015 at 8:47 am #

    It is impossible for US to send “heavy metal” to Ukraine: pictures of US Abrams tanks burning on live TV picture would be intolerable.

  238. Cold N. Holefield May 4, 2015 at 8:54 am #

    Finca, you’re damn straight Putin’s got a “Surplus” of “Chutzpah.”

    I must admit, for someone like myself who’s been to the future and back many times over now, I never saw his usurpation and co-optation of CNN. This guy goes beyond stealth if that’s even possible.

    • FincaInTheMountains May 4, 2015 at 8:59 am #

      To me, it sounds more plausible that CNN was co-opted by the British. Perfidious Albion always plays a double game as could be seen from events in Shanghai.

    • FincaInTheMountains May 4, 2015 at 9:03 am #

      British are interested in world’s wealth to be re-numerated in ounces and carats vs US desire to see everything in zeroes and ones.

  239. FincaInTheMountains May 4, 2015 at 9:14 am #

    If anybody is watching what the FED chairwoman or any of US “Economic Nobel” laureates are saying regarding the new wave of crisis, they are out of their f*cking minds.

    Everything is being decided right now around US-Russia confrontation.

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  240. FincaInTheMountains May 4, 2015 at 9:26 am #

    I doubt that Russia plays any hand in US riots – but Russia and US are not the only players in today’s “Game of Thrones”.

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