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The fourth and final book of the World Made By Hand series.

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T here’s really one supreme element of this story that you must keep in view at all times: a society (i.e. an economy + a polity = a political economy) based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up. Its institutions will stop functioning. Its business activities will seize up. Its leaders will be demoralized. Its denizens will act up and act out. Its wealth will evaporate.

Given where we are in human history — the moment of techno-industrial over-reach — this crackup will not be easy to recover from; not like, say, the rapid recoveries of Japan and Germany after the brutal fiasco of World War Two. Things have gone too far in too many ways. The coming crackup will re-set the terms of civilized life to levels largely pre-techno-industrial. How far backward remains to be seen.

Those terms might be somewhat negotiable if we could accept the reality of this re-set and prepare for it. But, alas, most of the people capable of thought these days prefer wishful techno-narcissistic woolgathering to a reality-based assessment of where things stand — passively awaiting technological rescue remedies (“they” will “come up with something”) that will enable all the current rackets to continue. Thus, electric cars will allow suburban sprawl to function as the preferred everyday environment; molecular medicine will eliminate the role of death in human affairs; as-yet-undiscovered energy modalities will keep all the familiar comforts and conveniences running; and financial legerdemain will marshal the capital to make it all happen.

Oh, by the way, here’s a second element of the story to stay alert to: that most of the activities on-going in the USA today have taken on the qualities of rackets, that is, dishonest schemes for money-grubbing. This is most vividly and nauseatingly on display lately in the fields of medicine and education — two realms of action that formerly embodied in their basic operating systems the most sacred virtues developed in the fairly short history of civilized human endeavor: duty, diligence, etc.

I’ve offered predictions for many a year that this consortium of rackets would enter failure mode, and so far that has seemed to not have happened, at least not to the catastrophic degree, yet. I’ve also maintained that of all the complex systems we depend on for contemporary life, finance is the most abstracted from reality and therefore the one most likely to show the earliest strains of crackup. The outstanding feature of recent times has been the ability of the banking hierarchies to employ accounting fraud to forestall any reckoning over the majestic sums of unpayable debt. The lesson for those who cheerlead the triumph of fraud is that lying works and that it can continue indefinitely — or at least until they are clear of culpability for it, either retired, dead, or safe beyond the statute of limitations for their particular crime.

Of course it says something about the kind of society we’ve become that such racketeering has become so normative and pervasive, and that evading responsibility for its consequences has been elevated to a sort of enviable skill-set. In fact, the art of evasion has taken the place of what used to be called honor. We live in a low time that honors only low men. Ironically, we affect to admire only “superheroes” because it has become impossible to imagine mere humans showing courage, fortitude, and respect for truth. All conduct is provisional and equivocal. Every law can be parsed to serve what it was created to oppose. Anything goes and nothing matters.

In this year’s go-round, I’ll try to describe what happened so far, where we stand, and where I think things are going. My method is emergent and heuristic. I’m allergic to charts and graphs, which are among the prime tools of the racketeers and the wishful thinking impresarios for bending the truth. Sadly, also, statistical analysis plays into the fantasy that if you can measure enough things you can control them. (And if you mis-measure things on purpose, you can pretend to be in control.) This illusion of control is the weakest ingredient in the financial system. When it does finally reach failure mode, it tends to produce calamity.

I’m more interested in the longer view than the moment-at-hand. The swirl of events generally includes more vectors and factors than any calculus can manage. Outcomes easily slip away from the linear. Ultimately this is a exercise that might be called a history of the future — that is, just a story.

Banking and Markets

The big event of the year past was the Federal Reserve’s Waiting for Godot act concerning the fed funds rate. When Godot finally showed up two weeks before year’s end, it was in the expected-but-pitiful form of a 25-50 basis point hike — which gives the impression of a possible 50 point rise, but with the way more likely probability of actually sticking to the lowest end of the gradient (and actual overnight lending rates were already a few basis points above zero, so the net was really less than 25 basis points.)

The background of this charade was pretty clear to anyone not brain damaged from the rigors of playing Candy Crush on their phone: the Fed was hiking rates into a wobbling global economy; they were forced to act at year’s end or surrender the last shreds of their credibility (i.e. being taken to mean what they say); and they left the door open to retreat in 2016 if necessary. But the damage to the Fed had already been done. They were unmasked as a propaganda machine powerless against the real tides of economy, creating only mischief and misunderstanding, and ultimately undermining all soundness in the relationship between money and real human activity. Anything they do in the election year ahead will be viewed with suspicion, specifically of pimping for Hillary Clinton’s coronation. And her relationship with the biggest banks is well-understood. So they had to make their grand gesture in December.

The stock markets skidded a little below sideways this year (except for the Nasdaq) which glided up more than 5 percent (techno-grandiosity rules!) — with one upchuck at the end of the summer that was remedied by China bailing out its own janky stock markets and playing games with its currency.

Gold and silver continued their four-year swoon thanks to repeated massive wee hour dumps of futures contracts before the traders in New York even got out of bed. The charts conclusively show this shady activity, raising the question: why would any seller want to hugely undercut the price of what he seeks to sell by selling into a market where no buyers are present… or even awake? The answer seems to be: to make the dollar appear more firm than it really is.

The many years of ZIRP (zero interest rate policy), combined with the previous accumulation of debt unlikely to be paid back has made it ever more difficult to issue new debt with any likelihood of being paid back. But ZIRP has also nullified the relationship between interest rates and risk. In a system unencumbered by central bank interventions, interest rates would have to go a whole lot higher on instruments with such poor prospects. Of course, higher interest rates would only make new bonds that much less likely to be serviced by their issuers, especially governments laboring under Himalayan-scale debt loads. The tension in this equation has been provisionally papered over by the use of interest rate swaps, reverse repos, and other abstruse machinations and derivatives aimed at suppressing true price discovery.

The corporate stock buyback fiesta of 2015 was the perfect example of an anything goes and nothing matters ethos. It happened in full view of everyone, and it happened solely to assure corporate executives that they would enjoy their bonuses and fringe benefits and nobody complained about it. Even so, it barely accomplished anything index-wise. The markets went sideways even with all that insider action because the fundamentals suck and the global economy was obviously sinking into a deflationary contraction.

My auditors derive no end of mirth from my attempts to predict the stock markets each year. So, to add to their enjoyment, I’ll be even more precise this time around. I predict that the S & P will top on January 15, 2016, at 2142, and then crumple below 1000 by June. Carnage at the margins of the bond market — high yield paper — will spread to the center and we’ll finally see the re-pricing of risk back in the European sovereign market. French, Spanish, UK, and Italian 10-year paper below 2.0 percent? What a colossal joke that’s been! Fasten your seat belts and check your pension funds.

Oil and Deflation

The oil picture has bamboozled both the broad public and the smaller cohort of supposedly sentient observers. I maintain that the deflationary contraction underway worldwide is largely due to the fact that the world has run out of a particular form of oil: affordable oil. Turns out the peak oil story is still true, just playing out differently than a lot folks predicted. We’re at the mercy of a pretty basic equation: oil over $75-a-barrel destroys industrial economies; oil under $75-a-barrel destroys oil companies. There is no “just right” Goldilocks place on the gradient.

The public got bamboozled by the Ponzi scheme of shale oil. It seemed like a fabulous techno-rescue: the “fracking miracle!” It operated by converting mountains of cheap leveraged capital into a very rapid bump-up in US oil production. It got full traction after a couple of years of $100 oil squashed economic activity — and then squashed demand for oil. Whoops. The problem was that shale oil was very expensive to produce even if reduced demand drove the market price very low. Back at $100-plus a barrel, hardly anyone made any profit on shale. At $40 a barrel shale was a laughable loser. So, in 2015, the shale oil companies laid off thousands of workers, idled the drilling rigs, and kicked back to pray that the price would go back up. Which it didn’t. Incidentally, all kinds of associated ventures went bust with that. The landscape of North Dakota is littered with unfinished garden apartment complexes that may never be completed, and the discharged construction carpenters and roofers drove back to Minnesota ahead of the re-po men coming for their Ford F-110s. Sad, I know….

The rapid ramp-up in shale oil production from 2010 to 2014 was intended as a demonstration project to convince Wall Street to stuff ever more investment capital into oil companies. It was also part of an enormous PR campaign to allow the people running things in business and government to pretend that America’s oil problems were behind us. The “shale miracle” was going to make us “Saudi America,” It was going to boost us into “energy independence.” It played into the Master Wish beneath all the wishful thinking in America: Please, God, let us be able to drive to WalMart forever. It wasn’t so much an evil conspiracy as a feckless collective effort in denial and self-delusion

It happened that a lot of that Wall Street finance came in the form of high-yield (junk) bonds issued by the oil companies — with fat commissions for the big banks to cream off in creating the bonds. So when the price of oil crashed below $50, a lot of oil companies — especially the smaller ones with no cash flow — couldn’t service the interest payments. What lies ahead in 2016 is a debacle of bond defaults and corporate bankruptcies in the US oil patches. What’s more, because of the peculiar geology of shale oil and the rapid depletion of the fracked wells, it is necessary to incessantly drill and frack new wells to keep production even level, let alone rising. That calls for evermore rounds of new financing. But since the current financial obligations can’t be serviced, new financing will not be not forthcoming. And so neither will additional production. All of which means that shale oil production is going to crash in 2016 when the backlog of previously-drilled but untapped wells runs out. I’ll predict that US oil production will go down a million barrels a day before 2017. That includes the roughly 5 percent annual decline of conventional oil.

Some might suppose that such a crash would drive prices back up again as the supply necks down. There are a couple of problems with that supposition. One is that the previous round of $100-plus oil did a lot of permanent damage to the economy, in particular to small businesses and households (i.e. middle-class workers). That damage looks more and more permanent, meaning a smaller aggregate economy and still-shrinking demand base as businesses and citizens go broke and stay broke. If oil prices do return to a level that would justify exploration and production of expensive, hard-to-get oil, (probably north of $110) it will only crash industrial economies again — and there are only so many times this can happen before the system is so damaged recovery is no longer possible. Another problem is that the oil price crash has done significant damage to the oil industry itself, including its credibility as a viable target for investment. Contrary to hopes and expectations, current low oil prices are doing nothing to re-stimulate economic activity. It all has the look of a self-reinforcing feedback loop, a downward spiral in a global complex networked system getting clobbered by the diminishing returns of its principal activities.

Hence I would predict that the price of oil will fall further in 2016, below the $30 mark, and that it will lead to more carnage in the oil industry, in banking and debt defaults, and to new manifestations of geopolitical trouble that could lead to profound oil scarcities and rationing. We can’t seem to face the fact that our techno-industrial paradigm was designed to run on cheap oil, which is just no longer available.

Geopolitics

People are getting very nervous. They can’t help harking back a hundred years to the mysterious lead-up of the First World War, which brought an end to the first iteration of globalism with a bang. The great nations of 1914 just seemed to get haplessly drawn into a debacle that no one had bargained for — the slaughter of the trenches, bankrupted national treasuries, the fall of three dynasties, the rise of the fascists and Bolsheviks… ugh!

Many people with more than half a brain are seeing similar motifs today — a general movement toward major war by way of sheer fecklessness. For instance, the ongoing effort led by the USA to antagonize Russia for no apparent good reason, dragging the dupes of NATO along with it. I won’t rehash our stupid operation to destabilize Ukraine. David Stockman covered that so nicely last week in his blog. Anyway, that Ukraine action was all back in 2013-14. Ukraine is now a failed state. I predict that in 2016 Ukraine will beg Russia to take it back into the Russian sovereign fold, to become once again a province of greater Russia. However, Russia will demur. Russia actually can’t afford such a woebegone, unreliable, and expensive ward. So Ukraine will then go begging back to the US and NATO to dole out financial life-support. By that time, the US and western Europe will be so economically distressed that they will only pretend to bail out Ukraine, just as they pretend to bolster their own economies via smoke-and-mirrors central bank shenanigans. Ukraine will sink into a World Made By Hand level of neo-medievalism, blazing the trail for everybody else in the world. Think: lawlessness, banditry, gangster autarky, neo-serfdom. Sounds harsh, I know, but it is what it is.

In 2015 the action between the US and Russia shifted to Syria. Our monumental blunderings in the Middle East, which included enabling the creation of ISIS, left us bereft of any coherent way to counter the barbarism and animus of radical Islam. So, our “adversary” Mr. Putin stepped in, on the premise that destabilizing what remains of the Syrian government under Mr. Assad was not such a good idea — as he explained very clearly to the UN General Assembly. It remains to be seen whether Russia will be able to pacify Syria, much of which lies in ruins now. But unlike the USA, Russia doesn’t have ambivalent intentions where ISIS is concerned. We’ve pretended that any old freelance gang opposing Assad is our friend. Russia’s aims are pretty straightforward: prop up Assad, rescue whatever governing institutions remain in Syria, and smash ISIS. In exchange they get a warm-water naval base on the Mediterranean. That’s supposed to be an existential threat to the USA.

The basic regional beef there, anyway, is between the Sunni and the Shi’ite, which is to say Arabian-sponsored Islamic maniacs versus Persian-sponsored Islamic maniacs. Unfortunately, that translates into the Saudi Arabia / USA and Iran / Russia contest of wills. Throw in some league wild-card players like Hezbollah and Israel and you have a pretty yeasty mix for rising animosities. Sadly, the US can’t seem to formulate a strategy that doesn’t make things worse for people in the region or for the US homeland (or for our allies in Europe, plagued by refugees they cannot comfortably absorb and the awful threat of terror events).

I expect in 2016 that Obama’s policy will be to just get out of the way of Putin and see what happens. He doesn’t have much left in the kit-bag for now. The worst thing to come out of this for Obama, really, is if Putin can succeed in pacifying Syria, America’s leaders will look bad — incompetent and foolish which is the actual case, of course. Maybe sometimes you just have suck up your mistakes. Much as Obama dislikes Hillary, I doubt he wants to upend the whole groaning Democratic Party Washington DC patronage pyramid, so he might be careful to not start World War Three during the election year. He can leave that to Hillary, should her coronation actually occur on Jan 20, 2017.

Anything might happen across the Islamic world in 2016. Every Islamic nation is grossly overpopulated, given the poor quality of the terrain. Most of them occupy territory that has been horribly degraded during the population explosion of the past hundred years, and stand to suffer hugely from climate and weather abnormalities ahead. Governments will fall and may not be replaced by anything resembling a coherent polity. Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq (fuggeddabowdit), Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia are all only marginally stable for now. Afghanistan is hopeless. We will never control the terrain or the people who live there. But we will continue to maintain a garrison to defend Kabul, pretending that control of the capital city is enough.

And then there is the Big Kahuna: Saudi Arabia, with its dwindling oil income and growing multitude of dependant layabouts. King Salman’s misadventure in Yemen’s civil war has birthed another failed state and dented Saudi Arabia’s resources. If the other clans of Arabia, whoever they turn out to be, overthrow Salman, they will also create an opening for ISIS-flavored non-royals to incite a multi-dimensional civil war. An upheaval in KSA would surely produce profound disorder in the oil markets. The USA would get suckered into this tar-pit wrestling match. The attempt to stabilize our old “ally” with troops on the ground would probably work out about as well as our adventure next door in Iraq did. The further result will be more conflict in this broad swathe of the world over remaining scarce resources, especially water, along with hot war at various scales, and ever more massive movements of populations fleeing the turmoil. If they journey to Europe, they will be turned away. The Camp of the Saints becomes a reality show.

Turkey, with the second-largest military in NATO, could have been a force for stability in the Middle East, but strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an can’t get out of his own way. He can’t decide whether he’s on the side of the Islamists or the West and his attempts to play footsie with both, while piling up private booty, have left him suspect among both camps. Lately he has ventured into such misadventures as shooting down a Russian warplane and receiving stolen goods in the form of ISIS oil shipments from Syrian and Iraqi wells. He was unable to enlist NATO into joining the argument over Turkish airspace and has fatally alienated his western auditors by his actions. He’s lucky that Putin didn’t turn Ankara into an ashtray. The Kurds on Turkey’s southern border threaten to start a civil war by asserting their own nationhood, now just de facto. Meanwhile, the Turkish economy is faltering again, reinforcing its longtime status as “the sick man of Europe.”

Europe’s decades as the West’s delightful tourist theme park are over. The continent is back to being a dangerous free-for-all of nations, tribes, and factions, with the overlay of alien Islamic intruders making things worse. Who knows who or what will blow up next over there. When it becomes obvious in 2016 that the 2015 refugee influx was not a one-off that the Eurozone could comfortably absorb, the individual nations will commence the deportations. Getting to that has been a difficult road, with the headwind of the memory of the Holocaust. But then, unlike the Jews of the 1930s, the Islamists are slaughtering concert-goers, booby-trapping subways, shooting civilians in restaurants, beheading journalists, and explicitly threatening the existence of European society. This business with Islam is different and we are now four generations past Auschwitz. Europeans may just have to get real about defending their respective and collective cultures.

2016 will be the lead-up to the French presidential election of 2017. François Hollande has the whole of the coming year to demonstrate his weakness. But can the French stomach Marine Le Pen’s demi-fascist National Front. The French right wing is not for reduced government, just for pushing people around differently. As 2016 goes on, look for good ole Sarko (Nicolas Sarkozy) to flank them both. Sarko is a bit crooked, but as strong-willed as Le Pen, and not as crazy. French voters will be fed up Hollande-style squishiness, but unready for a female Hitler. Sarko is the Devil they know and they will want him back.

The same election time-line goes for Germany. Voters there will increasingly revolt against what Mutti Merkel represents: how she jammed a million Islamic refugees down Europe’s craw. They’re not shopping for another Hitler, either, but they will be looking for a strong-willed someone to protect the volk against the foreign hordes, of whom they are getting good and goddam sick. There is also the matter of Germany baby-sitting all the bankrupt nations to the south.

As 2016 unfurls, the PIIGS will spin back into financial intensive care. Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece will eventually have to face the absence of buyers for their bonds and the falsity of their low interest rates. Spain, for one, is not finished with the Catalonian secession problem. Portugal needs to return to the 18th century. The clowns in Brussels have no plan to repair the finances of Euroland beyond massive QE that cannot be endless. Whoever replaces Merkel as chancellor may be the one who senses that Germany ought to lead the way out of the Euro currency fantasy and all the awful liabilities it entails.

Great Britain is a basketcase in search of a basket to land in. It has no economy left besides the swindlers of “the City,” its version of Wall Street, and that janky establishment is losing its grip as a desirable financial capital after years of sharp practice, with much of its action moving to Shanghai. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is a catamite for the big banks. The Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn is an old-school romantic unionist Leftie in a nation with little remaining industrial workforce. Unlike France or Germany, Britain’s parliamentary system can route a government on short notice. The debt implosion of 2016 and rescheduled Great Depression 2.0 will thrust UK Independence Party’s Nigel Farage into the spotlight to salvage what remains of Old Blighty.

The big question around Asia is whether China can navigate its way out of the blind alley it’s trapped in: a banking system steeped in crony corruption, bad debt everywhere, and malinvestment like unto nothing the world has ever seen before. The country is choking on excess industrial capacity just as the world enters its epic Peak Everything contraction. Can they keep on pumping out salad shooters and Han Solo dolls to a world drowning in plastic crap and too broke to buy more of it? They still have $3.4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to theoretically bail themselves out. But that starts affecting the value of their pegged currency, and their main trading partner (us) can play endless currency war games with them to dissuade them from dumping the rest of their accumulated US treasury paper, which, of course, only pisses them off more and makes them look for surreptitious ways to fight back — which is what currency war is all about. Which is also exactly why China (with Russia and others) has started up its own Asian version of the IMF, the BRICs Development Bank, and an alternative to the SWIFT international clearing system.

Chinese economic and financial statistics are even less reliable than the overcooked sludge offered up by the US agencies, but the tanking of commodity prices worldwide tells enough of a story: China is sure not expanding as much as the good old days, if at all. It’s been a great ride, but it was super-quick, and it happened just prior to the world reaching the bona fide limits to growth. China’s contraction may be as quick as its rise, and if that is the case, it will be rough ride into the same vortex of contraction that everybody else is entering.

My one wild-hair prediction about China for 2016: after Kim Jong-Un pulls some bonehead move against his neighbor to the south, China invades North Korea and installs a more rational management regime there. Kim Jong-Un ends up as a lounge singer in Macao. Lucky boy.

Homeland Frolics

            Be very afraid. Donald Trump isn’t funny anymore. He’s Hitler without the brains and the charm. But he’s gotten where he is for a reason. He expresses perfectly the depravity of the culture he springs from: narcissistic, morally rudderless, vulgar, shameless, lost in fantasy, and sadistic. Hillary (last name unnecessary) is not much better, but she’s not nearly as dumb, only more thoroughly corrupt. These are the avatars of our two major political parties. Be very afraid and weep!

The good news is that political parties do occasionally blow up and vanish from the scene, and that would be an interesting possible outcome of the 2016 national elections. Trump could accomplish this much more briskly with the Republicans. He’s made it clear already that he feels zero loyalty to the Red Team, and noises offstage can be heard that the party faithful would find some way to either expel or end-run the Donald Creature. Given our litigious society, one outcome of this would be an election held hostage by the courts. Oy vey is mir. Another possibility is that a message would be transmitted to the Trump Team from some combination of rogue elements in the NSA and the US Military that he’d better drop out or else. It would be done in such a way that Trump would not be able to use it for further narcissistic grandstanding. Were that not to happen, and were Trump somehow able to get elected, I predict there will be a coup d’état against him inside of April 2017. Hello constitutional crisis. Where it might go from there, no one can say.

Of Trump’s opponents for the Republican nomination, the only one I can grudge up any interest for is Rand Paul, who is a truly disruptive figure without being a maniac. In fact, I think he would make a good president, sober, thoughtful, unencumbered by obligation to the forces of racketeering. But he appears to have a near-zero chance of winning the party’s nomination.

Hillary is the opposite of a disrupter; she is the racketeer Godmother. As things proceed, however, she would merely preside over Great Depression 2.0. Unlike FDR in GD 1.0, Hillary would inspire no trust among a fractious population out for revenge against the very enablers of Hillary’s election, namely the Wall Street bankers. The nation would fall into factional fighting and possibly even regional breakup under Miz It’s-My-Turn. But I get ahead of myself…. The question at hand for 2016 is: Can Hillary be stopped. At this point, I don’t see how, given all the weight of the party machinery calibrated in her favor by the equally odious National Party Chairperson, Congressperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Bernie Sanders mounted a noble opposition campaign, and perhaps it is too early to write him off here before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Perhaps something can happen and he can at least slay the candidacy of Rodan the Flying Reptile – my other nickname for the Hillary Creature. Apart from that is my basic aversion to Bernie’s political philosophy as a self-proclaimed “socialist.” I know it sounds like a glib dismissal of a cartoonish political label, but Bernie’s self-applied label implies ever more intrusion by ever bigger government into the life of this nation. History wants to take us in another direction now, away from so much hyper-centralized control, and we go against the flow at our peril. While I admire Bernie’s presence as a vocal opposition to Hillary, I’m not keen on what he’s actually selling.

I know that Martin O’Malley is still “out there,” but he appears to be a blank cartridge, or a six-pack in search of worldview, and I don’t believe as some observers have averred that this is the fault of the media. In the few Democratic “debates” held last fall he offered next to nothing outside a conventional punch-list of shopworn center-left ideology — that is, no recognition of the extraordinary problems this country faces in the climax of the techno-industrial idyll, and the long emergency that is following it.

And that’s all you get on the Democratic side for the moment: a powerful sense that the fix is in. Yet there is the very real problem of Hillary’s loathsomeness and how that would go down at the polls. There’s even a pretty good chance that many women would vote against her. So my provisional conclusion / prediction for the November contest is that Hillary runs and loses against some as-yet-unknown un-Trump person. President Cruz? Ach! Rubio? Back in the playpen! Christie? Leave the body, take the canoli…! Jeb? El pendejo supremo! To be continued….

Race Relations and the Cowardice of the Thinking Classes

2015 was sure a bad year for different groups of Americans trying (or not) to get along, especially black people and white people. American society is feeling the full force of the identity ideologies cooked up on the college campuses over the past several decades, now boiling over into an orgy of victim-pleading, identity grandstanding, sexual hysteria, scapegoating, intellectual despotism, juridical blackmail, and (let’s not forget) careerist posturing. The more irrelevant higher education gets, the more strenuously the social justice inquisitors mount their persecutions against those who don’t buy the race-gender-privilege party line. In 2015 it has morphed into a campaign against free speech and free inquiry. The “diversity” deans multiply like fruit flies.

I made the “error” last year of suggesting that black Americans would benefit if the teaching of spoken English were made a high priority of primary and secondary schooling — and I was vilified for saying that. My opponents have not offered any useful counter-ideas beyond name-calling. I suspect that many people of good intentions are running out patience with this racket — and it is a racket for extorting preferential treatment and money from guilt-tripped white people.

In the arena of crime and policing, the situation is especially bad. Black lives matter, but not so much for black people themselves, who are ardently slaughtering each other in places like Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, and “Chi-raq” at a rate proportionately much greater than other ethnic groups in the land. The martyrs of the movement act in ways likely to get them in trouble, for instance the hapless 12-year-old Tamir Rice, shot brandishing a BB gun designed to look exactly like the US Army 1911 issue .45 caliber ACP, Michael Brown thugging out on officer Darren Wilson, Trayvon Martin beating down George Zimmerman. The cops present at several notorious incidents include black officers; a black female sergeant who was supervising the action on the sidewalk in Staten Island when her colleagues choked Eric Garner. (she did nothing to intervene); the several black policemen in Baltimore who took Freddy Gray on his fatal ride in the paddy wagon. It’s a scene fraught with ambiguity, to be generous.

Where are we going with race relations in this country? For now, not in a favorable direction. The trend will be for police to regard certain neighborhoods as “no-go” areas — if only to avoid the gigantic multi-million dollar litigations that grow out of these ambiguous confrontations. Some may view that as a good thing, but it will only play into the decadent ethos that anything goes and nothing matters in this country. The larger question going forward is whether Black America will continue to insist on being an oppositional culture. That is what it has become, though the cowed thinking classes will not acknowledge it. They also will not recognize the need for a common culture in this nation, a set of truly shared values and standards of conduct.

Climate Change

This is the underlayment of despair that reflective persons cannot avoid thinking about when all the other petty issues of human relations and the project of civilization are disposed of. Weird weather? Biblical Floods? Melting icecaps? Sea level creep? It was 70 degrees on Christmas Eve here in upstate New York, dandelions blooming in the yard, just a week or so ago. Some people I know can’t stop thinking about climate change. Somehow I manage to put it out of mind and ruminate on other things, or even feel good about something that is happening in the present — a good meal, a gathering of friends, an evening of live music…. but it’s always lurking there in the background like some hooded reaper in a New Yorker cartoon.

Despite the hoopla of the Paris climate change talks, I’m not persuaded that national governments will really do anything, or even that anything they might do would avail to make things better. I’m not even so concerned about whether climate change is man-made or not. I just accept that something is up and that as things change, we will have to adjust. It seems to me that the adjustment will not be easy and five hundred years from now there will be far fewer human beings, if any, around. From the point of view of the planet’s well-being, that is probably a good thing.

In the mean time, let’s do the best we can to carry on and be as kind as possible to one another. Good luck in 2016!

Coming in 2016
World Made By Hand 4 (and final)

Harrow_cover_final

The third World Made By Hand novel

!! Is available !!

(The Fourth and final is complete
and in production for May 2016 publication)

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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.

644 Responses to “Forecast 2016 : Pretend to the Bitter End”

  1. Htruth January 4, 2016 at 9:24 am #

    Great timing! The markets are down big time:

    • Doug January 4, 2016 at 9:49 pm #

      Down, big time, although the most serious Saudi-Iran (etc.) conflict in three decades has just erupted — a conflict which, BTW, constitutes a big “Fuck you!” from the Saudis to the West.

      We live in interesting times.

      • Neon Vincent January 5, 2016 at 1:43 pm #

        The markets are down today, too. So was oil, despite the conflict between our frenemies the Saudis and the Iranians. That fall in oil leads to this comment from our host.

        “The landscape of North Dakota is littered with unfinished garden apartment complexes that may never be completed, and the discharged construction carpenters and roofers drove back to Minnesota ahead of the re-po men coming for their Ford F-110s. Sad, I know…”

        The plight of the oil workers and those dependent on them isn’t getting much attention. In fact, it’s going to get less attention, if only in fiction. The TV series “Blood and Oil” was supposed to be a 21st Century version of “Dallas” and “Dynasty” set in North Dakota during the shale boom. The show went ten episodes and is likely to be cancelled. People switched over from the fractured fairy tales of “Once Upon A Time” to “The Walking Dead” then back to the national security theater of “Quantico,” which is “Homeland” meets “How To Get Away With Murder.” Viewers who would rather watch Rick Grimes kill zombies than a soap opera about oilmen and their women.

        As for other things that went bust, one can always go back to the collapse of the real estate bubble. The Big Short turned that tragedy into a comedy. In fact, it’s such a good comedy that it got nominations for Best Movie Comedy at both the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards. The protagonists cried all the way to the bank as millions cried their way to bankruptcy and eviction.

        Speaking of award-nominated movies, our host wrote about “Spotlight” a few weeks ago. I commented then that I hoped the movie got the recognition from the critics and awards show voters that it didn’t get from the moviegoers. It did. Like “The Big Short,” “Spotlight” got two nominations at the SAG Awards and three nominations at the Golden Globes, although it was nominated for Best Movie Drama, not Comedy. It edged out “The Big Short” by one nod at the Critics’ Choice Awards for a total of eight. It also has a 50+% chance of winning Best Picture at the Oscars, at least according to the betting markets. At 40% higher than the next movie, that makes it a prohibitive favorite.

        • Neon Vincent January 7, 2016 at 11:26 am #

          One might take those odds with a grain of salt. The same betting market gives better odds for Rubio and Cruz to win the nomination than Trump. They don’t seem to think that the interest in Trump will translate into votes. Maybe, but it certainly yields page views. Four of the five most shared stories I wrote about elections had Trump as a subject. As long as that’s the case, he’ll get covered by the media.

          • Doug January 10, 2016 at 9:50 pm #

            “The same betting market gives better odds for Rubio and Cruz to win the nomination than Trump.”

            Do you think that might be partly because the punters don’t think the Republican establishment is going to let Trump be the nominee, no matter how well he does in the primaries?

          • Neon Vincent January 11, 2016 at 8:51 am #

            That may be a rhetorical question, but yes, I do. Trump will need an outright majority of delegates coming into the convention to be nominated. Otherwise, we’ll get a brokered convention that will give the nomination to one of the Establishment candidates.

  2. FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2016 at 9:56 am #

    In the midst of all that gloom and doom, allow me a little joke I heard today:

    Three leaders are on board an airliner – President Vladimir Putin, King Salman and President Rouhani.

    The zone of turbulence, a clap of thunder, appearance of the Creator.

    – My children, I cometh to you so the peace could descend on the glowing East, where every one of you plays a great role. I shall fulfill one wish for each one of you. First you say, Salman.

    – Let there will be no Persians on Earth!

    – Now you, Hassan!

    – Let all Saudis disappear from the face of the earth!

    – Your word, Vladimir!

    – Are you going to fulfill the wishes of my respectable colleagues?

    – Of course, the Word of God!

    – Then – a cup of coffee, please.

    Cheers!

    • routersurfer January 4, 2016 at 10:01 am #

      Black. No cream or sugar 🙂

    • Layne January 5, 2016 at 7:22 pm #

      JHK used to be good for a laugh–at one time I thought the one person I wanted to be there as the world went to hell. In fact, Trump is a Wharton graduate who built a multi-billion dollar global empire and has single-handedly turned the American political process on its head–yet he is “much dumber” than the corrupt, politically correct, pant-suited fat ass in search of a moral compass Hitlary?

      Also, in his constant condemnation of human technological ingenuity and accomplishment, JHK has disqualified himself from participation in the thinking class. He wants us to go where?…a time before electricity and the machine age?…before iron and all the way back to bronze? Why stop there, we can grow food with a wooden plow, and what for antibiotics and vaccines when we can just bleed the afflicted to release evil tumors? Does Kunstler even realize that the science of optics leading to the microscope, and the electro-mechanical advent of refrigeration were necessary to bring these gifts to fruition?

      I do think that many of his insights are valid and he is a gifted writer, but he should stop at pretending to know everything. He really does not know that much.

      • bobinboiseid January 6, 2016 at 10:11 am #

        I wondered where he came up with all of his thoughts about what the future would look like too after reading THE LONG EMERGENCY back when it was first published. It took me a while to realize he was just looking at our recorded history. (Head slap) If you want to know the future, just study history.
        Those who write about what is coming don’t want the future they see. It is just the most probable future.

      • Danny jr2 January 10, 2016 at 12:00 am #

        you sound as if you think he desires collapse. He is saying that collapse is inevitable. I agree with him. How do you propose there can be a different outcome?

      • Doug January 10, 2016 at 9:53 pm #

        I = P * A * T

        EROEI

        Learn them, internalize them, fear for your children and grandchildren.

  3. ozone January 4, 2016 at 9:57 am #

    “I’ve offered predictions for many a year that this consortium of rackets would enter failure mode, and so far that has seemed to not have happened, at least not to the catastrophic degree, yet. I’ve also maintained that of all the complex systems we depend on for contemporary life, finance is the most abstracted from reality and therefore the one most likely to show the earliest strains of crackup.”

    [sidebar] — Although the degree of my surprise and puzzlement toward many of your posters to avoid understanding this simple point is diminishing as the foundations of finance dissolve before our very eyes, it still persists. …I’m thinking that someday it will become darkly comic. —

    ” The outstanding feature of recent times has been the ability of the banking hierarchies to employ accounting fraud to forestall any reckoning over the majestic sums of unpayable debt. The lesson for those who cheerlead the triumph of fraud is that lying works and that it can continue indefinitely — or at least until they are clear of culpability for it, either retired, dead, or safe beyond the statute of limitations for their particular crime.” – JHK

    — This epidemic of the tolerance of cheating is now openly displayed in the actions of the wealthy, powerful, politically installed and politically connected. Documentation of same for future reference would be advisable. (In the unlikely event that someone might actually want to find out wha-happened in that long ago and far away.) —

  4. routersurfer January 4, 2016 at 10:06 am #

    Good Monday morning read. In complex systems – strange things happen. Fewer and fewer people rally against the fall. Just the fine points. Wish you well Jim. Look forward to book four and other projects you may have in these interesting times.

  5. K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 10:08 am #

    Pretend to the the bitter end and don’t stop there. Today’s was a much longer rant than usual but the world has a few problems and a rant extrapolating all the current horrors besetting our planet would take hours to read.

    The tired phrase ‘the more things change the more they stay the same‘ turns out to be quite true for those with enough brains to perceive the oncoming clusterfuck remain the minority they are. Those without the metal horespower to imagine a thought that was not planted in their head by someone else won’t see any problems until the big bad wolf decides that they have been culled from the bah-bah herd as the next meal no matter how big the problems get.

    The good news for the copy cat sheep is that they won’t be worrying about who will be the next dinner until they are actually selected to supply the mutton. To imagine that their good times might actually end would require turning off the video screen and thinking. That won’t happen and in Star Wars reality no matter how bad things get there is always rescue. Until knife actually cuts sheep throat good outcomes will be imagined.

    My prediction is that I will continue to prepare for collapse but should a black swan event bring it upon us quickly I won’t be ready.

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    • Ishabaka January 4, 2016 at 12:41 pm #

      I like reading this blog, and the comments, but the “We’re the only Ubermensch who understand, and will survive this clusterf#ck (and we’re the only ones who deserve to survive, let the mud people die by the billions)” comments remind me a lot of “The Turner Diaries”, which I read with great disgust some years ago, in an effort to figure out why some White Christian American veterans would turn terrorist.

      • John Howard January 4, 2016 at 12:50 pm #

        Yeah, that frustrates me too.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2016 at 2:17 pm #

        Big Kipling fan, eh? White Man’s Burden? Except this time we’re absolute shit and as we serve them we do so as abused servants? You see, it doesn’t work that way. We serve others out of a sense of our own goodness and strength. Men gave up their seats to Women and accepted their own death when the Titanic went down because they were Men who had a Civilization and the respect of their women. When the Italian cruise ship went down, it was every man for himself and the Devil take the hind most.

        The New World Order just spent 700 million promoting Homosexuality in Kenya. Now the Kenyans are totally freaked out, correctly feel they are under attack, and up in arms against Gays. What do you propose we do? Go on a Crusade against Black Africa to make them safe for Homosexuality? Or just let them all come here to the Promised land and serve them as they attack us on the streets?

        Where does one start with someone with your complete lack of common sense and dignity? One with zero historical understanding? In other words, a product of our public indoctrination system. There’s no saving Black Africa. They had their chance and they blew it. If we allow them to come here, we will simply share their fate. Ditto any and all of Islam. They are alien and evil. They see us in the same way. Why is this so hard for you?

        • SpeedyBB January 6, 2016 at 7:03 am #

          Janos is on the warpath against the evil homos. Now how did we get there, on some contorted detour, from discussion of the failing world economy?

          Poor old Grandpa clearly has a fixation and that causes him to utter such absurdities as “…spent seven hundred million dollars promoting homosexuality in Kenya…”

          Not likely, sir. Please don’t insult our intelligence.

          Gay rights was most probably embedded in some lofty human rights declaration that the unworldly Europeans proffered, as a carrot-and-stick for the wannabe-westernized Africans, brainwashed by their evil colonial desert death cults (be assured that same-sex relations were found everywhere in Africa in ancient times, before the imams and pastors invaded with their repressive alien ideologies).

          If half the Africans suddenly decided to turn gay that would still not prevent the continent going down the drain – the devastation is too far advanced. But it would be an interesting and positive move, were they able to untangle their programming and prejudices.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 11:49 pm #

            http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/203104-the-ugandan-anti-gay-bill-and-the-limits-of-us-influence

            Homosexuality is against the Nature you think you revere. Can you at least admit that anal sex is physically harmful? Small steps.

          • K-Dog January 7, 2016 at 9:36 pm #

            Janos is here to dissemble meaningful discussion. There are some people who eschew an informed public and these same people are decidedly interested in getting anyone with fringe ideas to expose themselves. Those who do provide excited utterances which provide work for Janos and crew.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2016 at 7:03 pm #

            In other words, you have nothing to add. You can’t disprove the fact that anal sex is bad for the body. You just too PC to admit it. So your only recourse is to say that I am bad.

        • Doug January 10, 2016 at 10:03 pm #

          “You can’t disprove the fact that anal sex is bad for the body.”

          Well, I haven’t done the research, but . . .

          You definitely can’t disprove the fact that drinking sweetened, carbonated drinks is bad for the body and Coca Cola has invested $US17 billion in its efforts to, umm, penetrate the African market.

          Are you just as outraged about that?

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 3:24 pm #

        I do not consider myself Ubermensh and have not claimed to be. Nor do I think some deserve to survive and that some do not.

        My point is that a controlling majority do not have the mental horsepower to understand our predicament. I contend that this majority has and will continue to prevent those who can understand from taking any action to prevent our demise and possible extinction.

        If you are feeling special and superior that is your thing, not mine.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 6:54 am #

          Some are more fitted for survival. That Darwinism, one of the chief planks of your naturalistic world view. Oh, it doesn’t apply to people? So we’re not animals then? Have souls?

          Make up you mind – if you can.

  6. fodase January 4, 2016 at 10:22 am #

    Given Jim’s abysmal record of predictions regarding the main premise undergirding the bulk of his prognostications – the price of oil and its effect on our industrialized machinations – I am not going to worry too much about his soothsaying for 2016.

    Other than that, Jim is a wonderfully entertaining and insightful writer. Not too many of him out there.

    The world economy keeps chugging along despite $100 oil, and despite $30 oil.

    It’s that old Newtonian thing about motion, I reckon.

    Matter of fact, I think Jim’s citing of all that will not happen –

    “Thus, electric cars will allow suburban sprawl to function as the preferred everyday environment; molecular medicine will eliminate the role of death in human affairs; as-yet-undiscovered energy modalities will keep all the familiar comforts and conveniences running; and financial legerdemain will marshal the capital to make it all happen” –

    is already happening, minus the hyperbole he jumps to.

    Of course, he doesn’t want it to happen. I get that.

    But Jesus isn’t coming back, the world’s not going to end, and technology has already solved fundamental problems.

    • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:17 pm #

      Electric cars are a way for rich folks to parade around in a faux green cloak, while hiding their exhaust emissions from casual observers, they do nothing for our future prospects.

      “…technology has already solved fundamental problems…”
      Technology solves a specific problem, while creating several others. Technology will be our downfall, not our salvation.

    • shotho January 4, 2016 at 1:54 pm #

      Yes, the world economy keeps chugging along and will always do so as long as there are chuggors to make it chug, because people will always want to exchange goods and services. The question is, at what level will it chug? The future doesn’t look good in that regard. I believe the decline has already begun and will become increasingly manifest.
      And, yes, I believe Jesus will come again in glory.

    • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:23 pm #

      I think it’s the time frame. Things just take a lot longer to come to pass than one might think. Until they start to unravel in earnest, at which point things happen a lot faster than one would ever have guessed.

      I do differ on one point. JHK sees collapse. I see feudalism. Perhaps these are the same thing from some perspective, but I don’t share the view. Collapse implies anarchy and a devolution of power and control. I see the exact opposite. The crises in our future will serve to tighten the grip of the elite on the rest of society until it becomes literally a death-grip, at least upon the useful members of society. The rest may be simply cut loose to fend for themselves so long as they pose no threat to productive land and enterprises.

      • wonky January 5, 2016 at 10:49 pm #

        You may well be right Helix, certainly that is a valid and likely point of on our present Capitalist (for want of a better word) philosophy – or at least what it has become. Feudalist self serving?
        Modern technology does provide a vision of alternatives that might serve us well and it may be Japan, or somewhere in the East, that points the way like they did with their democratic cheap reliable cars.
        The Japanese might now give us the equivalent democratic robotics built to serve people rather than protect the privileges of the UBER behind their secured private estates living off the flesh of their once civil societies. The American way is so yesterday and USA leadership is problematic for anyone with eyes to see.
        We are all in this together and usury and exploitation without end may be finished, we only have to choose – do we want a civil society or a permanent militaristic suppression with fear and surveillance driving the cogs of our existence.
        This is not the 13th Century nor no longer the 20th. Lets hope we don’t have to have WW3 first, on this I am not optimistic as USA hubris and financial power will not be given up easily – we have plenty of examples in history of the death throes of hegemonic privilege.

    • toktomi January 4, 2016 at 2:36 pm #

      I can conceive of no way that the entire global industrial human society cannibalizing itself in the form of mass austerity and ubiquitous war with accompanying mass insanity equates to “the world economy keeps chugging along”.

      “Yup! This airplane is falling nearly straight down, but we are still in the air. Apple, anyone?”

      Maybe I’m just a Debbie Downer.

      ~toktomi~

      • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 3:38 pm #

        When food gets too expensive for the average American to afford, all bets are off. Food, water and shelter are already becoming problematic, and that trend will only get worse.
        We like to think this process can somehow just amount to belt tightening, but about 6 billion people need to die to rebalance our long term prospects as the temporary gift of oil recedes.

    • Cheesewhiz January 4, 2016 at 3:27 pm #

      I agree. As long as I’m one of those with the skills and social connections to keep my head above water, I think the world’s fine. There’s no reason for me to see a bigger picture. Like this one:

      – Half of Americans make less than $30K per year and cannot raise a few hundred dollars for a car repair.
      – Food prices and child hunger are through the roof.
      – Both political parties seem discredited and dysfunctional.
      – The entire Middle East has turned into a war zone and we’re at the verge of direct military confrontation with Russia, courtesy of a Saudi/Iranian war.

      My credit rating is 839, I have 20K in cash savings and more than a quarter million in stocks, and I make 6-figures. No reason to think America is anything other than a land of limitless prosperity. Just ignore the fact that I’m lucky and turn a blind eye to most people’s predicament.

      • Sticks-of-TNT January 4, 2016 at 6:38 pm #

        Lose the 6-figure job and watch how fast $20K evaporates. The quarter mil in stocks is a mirage and you’ll be living on its after-tax remnants when the bank cash is gone. The credit rating quickly adjusts to the new reality. Life is precarious. -Sticks

    • Doug January 4, 2016 at 10:10 pm #

      “The world economy keeps chugging along despite $100 oil, and despite $30 oil.”

      No, actually, it doesn’t. The financial shenanigans of the 0.1% are still chugging, for the moment, but the real economy and the lives of the masses are somewhere between stall and nose-dive and have been for quite some time.

      “[Electric cars and abundant energy] is already happening, minus the hyperbole he jumps to.”

      Don’t be silly. Electric cars are toys for the rich and a sideshow for the masses and, if it were somehow possible to replace all the ICE vehicles on the roads and in the pipeline with those electric cars, you’d learn in a big hurry just how abundant energy isn’t. But there’s no chance that replacement is going to happen, so that won’t be the way you learn the truth about energy limitations — although you will learn, if you don’t die soon.

      “. . . the world’s not going to end . . .”

      Perhaps not. It mostly depends upon how many of the nukes we launch during the final resource wars, but global industrial high-tech civilization’s days are definitely numbered, and it’s not a large number.

      “. . . technology has already solved fundamental problems.”

      And created many more than it has solved, due to our reckless tendency to believe that, if we can do it, we must do it, as big and fast as possible.

      I = P x A x T

      Learn it, understand it and internalize it. EROEI would be a good one for you, also.

      • ozone January 5, 2016 at 11:32 am #

        Doug,
        Well, that’s fodase* the Braziliero and his fervent misunderstandings and constant misdirection done and dusted quite handily; thanks for that! The new year is better already. 😉

        *Fittingly, fodase means, “fuck it” in Portuguese.

        • Doug January 5, 2016 at 4:07 pm #

          “*Fittingly, fodase means, ‘fuck it’ in Portuguese.”

          Fittingly, indeed. ;^)

    • Danny jr2 January 10, 2016 at 12:09 am #

      YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. IF YOU CAN”T SEE THE UNRAVELING ALL AROUND, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY…….CHUGGING ALONG, HAH, HAH

  7. George January 4, 2016 at 10:24 am #

    Banking and Markets

    Historians typically record events but underlying events are countless trends and subtle evolutions. Trends and evolutions may auger dire future events but we’ve no way of knowing when or, more precisely, what. As I type commodities prices are generally tanking everywhere. Some trend has reset some indicator past some point that obliges those who hold derivatives to sell commodities short and more recently unload the only interest-bearing thing left: junk bonds. So far this activity has largely gone unreported but eventually, assuming what’s happening can’t be reversed, that which is hidden will spawn something that can’t be hidden. Perhaps when that happens there’ll be events worthy of history?

    Oil and Deflation

    Well said!

    Geopolitics

    We could do without all these “False Flag” events thank you! If we’re not careful this march towards war may soon be transformed into an express train bound for oblivion. Those who care seem content as long as the defense contractors get paid. They will won’t they?

    One interesting note: should ISIS eventually prevail in the Middle East, there’ll be no need to rename the Burj Khalifa for though it was named after the ruler of Abu Dhabi, that name is Arabic for “Caliphate”.

    Homeland Frolics

    The party conventions are so choreographed these days that it’s unlikely that any outsider will get nominated. Trump will probably not have enough delegates to win the nomination on the first vote and then, as other candidates drop out, one of those that remains will get the GOP nomination. Hillary may have enough delegates to win the nomination and even if looks like it will too close to call, her tight connections to the Wall Street and K-Street irks will ensure her a series of coronations.

    Race Relations and the Cowardice of the Thinking Classes & Climate Change

    The Thinking Classes are fighting an uphill battle to fathom how the vast majority has been brainwashed by a multitude of means.

    • wonky January 5, 2016 at 11:15 pm #

      Thanks George, the vast majority might awake but then again, that might not be a good thing. In all the ignorant flailing around the Thinking Classes might be a target if they do not act soon.

  8. Daphne DeMuir January 4, 2016 at 10:30 am #

    Health care. As in the Affordable Care Act is becoming not so much. The insurance racketeers, with all of their actuaries, somehow missed the fact that they were going to be insuring more sick people?!?!?! No. But as more and more people opt to pay the fine, rather than $600 per month with a $6000 deductible we will snail it closer to Single Payer. Something like 36 million got access to health care due to the ACA. But since many are now unable to afford it after only two years I believe that they will not remain silent.

    Also, here in Chicago black people have finally woken up. I have never understood how ANYONE could vote for Rahm, especially people of color. Now he’s even made the New Yorker for being an arrogant, lying criminal. http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-sudden-but-well-deserved-fall-of-rahm-emanuel
    Way to go Chicago. Daley wanted nothing more than to gentrify Chicago into Manhattan on the Lake. Rahm was going to finish the job. He is the victim of his own Neo-Lib hubris.

    • Beryl of Oyl January 4, 2016 at 5:19 pm #

      Health care for those who still have “good” insurance is rapidly getting worse. Hospitals aren’t doing one thing more than they are legally required to, probably for fear of incurring a cost that doesn’t fall under a code for reimbursement. In other words, someone checked boxes and that determines your fate. A woman goes to a hospital by ambulance, gets removed by policy, and collapses, in handcuffs, in the parking lot. Nobody notices.
      I’ve been watching the Rahm drama with interest. It seems to me the protestors aren’t getting the support they should get from some of the people who have claimed to be supportive of this type of cause in the past.

  9. orbit7er January 4, 2016 at 10:43 am #

    While I have long shared Kunstler’s emphasis on the role of Peak Oil, the absurdity of US Auto Addiction in suburban sprawl, and the general dire state of the world in terms of Climate Change, banksterism and foolish Wars I have never shared his view of a stone age future. In fact things can be turned around very quickly with the political will to begin doing what needs to be done. Kunstler no longer mentions California because, despite all its predictable problems with water, earthquakes, wildfires etc Jerry Brown has actually turned things around. In a few short years California by restoring some taxation has gone from the US worst debtor State to a fiscal credit.
    Despite Kunstler’s pessimism about High Speed Rail it is the only way to maintain mobility as the airlines fall apart despite cheap oil and Jerry Brown has pushed for this in California despite all the Koch Brothers and Auto Addicts opposition. A course Jerry Brown advised 20 years ago! The costs of High Speed Rail and along with it restoring urban transit killed by the Great Trolley Conspiracy are miniscule compared to the costs of maintaining green destroying Auto Addiction. LA is finally taking steps to restore its public transit.
    The same thing can be done nationally but on a much bigger scale when the political will to do it finally reaches critical mass.
    When the US elite decided to stop Auto Addiction in its tracks to redirect its resources towards the War effort from 1942-45 they managed to quadruple intercity Rail, bus, and local transit ridership in just 3 years! The $1 Trillion per year wasted by the US on the endless Wars could easily fund High Speed Rail, and restoring Green Transit all over the US which could easily cut US oil consumption 10% per year. It would not be that hard to get people out of their cars faster than they already are – simply restore the operating subsidy for existing Green Transit systems and actually RUN THEM 24×7 instead of letting most of them do nothing over the weekends or during offpeak hours. The wasted resources in the US are enormous – before electric cars, which I totally agree are a fantasy, it is not foreordained that 90% of cars must have only 1 person! Just sharing cars would do a huge amount in itself.
    We already have dense development occurring product of the banksters and developers themselves who have realized they killed the single-family suburban home and are now mostly building rental Apartments. Which is precisely one of the calls for Transit Oriented Development – again it is a matter of GOVERNMENT public policy –
    why are so many of these dense rental Apartments going up next to highways instead of with access to the 233,000 miles of existing Rails in the US? In my own affluent Morris County, New Jersey, there are 257 condo and Apartment units in what used to be the portrait of suburban sprawl. Many of these are next to already existing Rails which were foresightedly preserved by New Jersey in the 1970’s but doing nothing except some freight.
    In the UK Jeremy Corbyn very well understands these issues –
    has Kunstler ever actually listened to Corbyn’s speehes and interviews readily available on DemocracyNow?
    Likewise Bernie Sanders finally appears as a blip on Kunstler’s radar. Bernie Sanders amongst other things like Single-Payer, financial transaction tax to go to college funding, breaking up the big banks, – also supports High Speed Rail and Green Transit which I have long agreed with Kunstler are absolutely critical to deal with Peak Oil and Climate Change.
    The issue is Main Street versus Wall Street and this issue goes across right AND left. Bernie Sanders is the real deal and has a lot more potential than the pundits ever say. He already broke Obama’s small donor record and raised $33 Million in the last quarter. But more than that there are Bernie grassroots volunteers popping up all over which are never counted by the journalists moneybags tallys.
    Bernie succeeded for the first time in history in allying with Ron Paul to finally get the Federal Reserve to open its books for a period after the fiscal meltdown of 2008. Which shows like Net Neutrality and other right/left alliances, the power of populism across the normal political divides…

    • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:21 am #

      I’m curious. What energy source will replace fossil fuels that can prevent a stone age future? With as many people as there are now in the worlds nothing renewable can possibly fill the need!

      How will we get to the autocratic dystopia nightmare which is the only social organization the world knows which can possibly adapt to a low energy future? That we will get dragged to collapse kicking and screaming is for sure. Yet is collapse in anyone’s forecast for this year or will tectonic forces simply build for an inevitable earthquake of collapse further down the pike.

      What will the coming year bring? Place your bets!

      • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:33 pm #

        I’m still in favor of the slow grinding descent scenario. As fossil fuels become scarcer, they will be reserved for the uses essential for maintenance of power and control — military, police, agriculture, mass transit (yes, it will make a comeback, under control of the elite, of course — the worker bees have to get to work, after all!), perhaps some emergency services such as fire departments in wealthy areas, and the wealthy and well-connected. Private automobiles will once again be luxury items.

        In the far future, we’re talking wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, animal power, and perhaps nuclear if fusion ever becomes a reality. (I have my doubts about that last one, but who knows?) Managed woodlots will once again become prized real estate. If you want to know what the future looks like, go to Amish country.

        • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 10:35 pm #

          “military, police, agriculture, mass transit (yes, it will make a comeback, under control of the elite”

          Stepping stones to the autocratic dystopia nightmare. In time an aristocracy emerges. I wish it could be more Amish like but that would mean planning.

          Better the autocracy be this:

          Amish daily life is governed by a set of rules known as the Ordnung. Ordnung German for rules, regulations, and order.

          Than elite ass-holes who live above the law and all order is established only so they get what they want. All renewables can really do is support one of these two précis.

      • orbit7er January 4, 2016 at 2:44 pm #

        We do NOT need all that energy currently being wasted.
        The key Ecological Principles are REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
        Somehow REDUCE gets totally eliminated.
        Do we really need to waste $360 Billion on rearming nuclear weapons for the US which can already destroy the planet?
        Do we really need to waste $1 Trillion for the boondoggle new F35 aircraft? Why are the taxpayers of the US paying to subsidize all sides including the Saudis with weapons they then use on each other or fall into the hands of groups like ISIS?
        US citizens use 2-3 x the energy of Europe or Japan but get no better lifestyle with suburban sprawl Auto Addiction, huge useless lawns and 33% obesity from endless driving rather than walking.
        The latest aptly named “Highway Bill” includes $70 Billion of our general taxes to try to maintain US’ unsustainable Auto Addiction.
        We do need to buy endless consumer junk which end up in ever expanding landfills. We do not need gas powered lawnmowers, electric can openers, the legions of landscaping trucks dragging trailers of gas guzzling polluting riding lawn mowers ridden by cheap immigrant labor.
        In the past year with no decline in my lifestyle I have cut my electricity use by 30% and that electricity is mostly solar powered. I use a push lawn mower and it works just fine, I live in a walkable community close to a train station so I may go weeks without driving at all. My biggest problem which is endemic to the US is that NJ Transit has relentlessly slashed Green Transit with the latest blow a cut to the last trains from New York City.
        As Lester Brown wrote years ago we know what has to be done.
        The question is summoning the political will to do it…

        • chipshot January 4, 2016 at 4:20 pm #

          Seeing how aware and enlightened you are orbit, have to wonder what are you still doing w a lawn?

        • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 10:49 pm #

          Without being part of a larger plan increased efficiency reduces resilience and only postpones the grim reaper.

          You may have reduced your electricity use by 30% but someone else will be glad to use it. I fear while your example is good it will not inspire fundamental change. Even if it everyone followed your example without fundamental change in living arrangements and attitudes the end result would be the largest possible population using a minimum of resources at which point having run out of wiggle room everything collapses.

          That collapse, should it happen will be evident by Peak Tattoo. That point in time when there are the maximum number of tattoos that will ever be on the Earth at one time.

        • abbybwood January 4, 2016 at 11:31 pm #

          Get out of the materialism trap now:

          http://www.zengardner.com/get-out-of-the-materialism-trap-now/

        • basil January 6, 2016 at 9:35 am #

          orbit7er-
          I think the recent holiday season can answer some of your thoughtful comments. even otherwise intelligent people who try to use less and recycle more find themselves immersed in the most wasteful and gluttonous annual ritual in human history. americans, in particular, spend two months each year repeatedly filling their “green” vehicles with useless junk to hand out at Christmastime. I shudder to think how much of this junk is simply discarded along with the megatons of useless wrapping paper. most of this is done to make sure none of “the babies” is left out. what a terrible waste.
          I live in a section of middle America where new highway construction is a constant annoyance. once completed, each project fills with vehicles immediately, and is soon in need of repairs. resources needed to make repairs are, of course, funneled toward new highway construction. the average driver’s answer?-we need more highways.
          around here, military expenditures are not part of the national budget. weapons programs are not questioned. the more, the merrier. the military/industrial complex has it made. I remember thinking how stupid it was in the mid-1980’s to send stinger missiles and other heavy weaponry to Osama bin Laden’s militias. the Charlie Wilson/Ronald Reagan tradition continues to this day.
          I use power from my solar powered workshop to charge my cordless electric lawnmower, but each year more of my lawn is converted to vegetable garden space. my truck stays in the garage while I walk four miles round trip each day to work. I don’t know anyone who even makes these small efforts to conserve resources. until our society can break through its culture of greed, stupidity, and simple laziness, none of this can be solved.

      • patrickd January 4, 2016 at 4:40 pm #

        Personally, I think that as long as there are fossil fuels available, civilization will keep on mucking about, and the super-rich ruling class, which I think is the banking families and all their servants in government and corporations, will keep on making a fabulous living. The peons class will expand to include everyone but the rulers and their servants, and they will become poorer by the year. In 50-100 years, when all the oil, gas and coal is used up, then civilization will collapse and the hordes will get on with their murdering and pillaging, starving and dying. It will be horrible. Before the collapse, there will be mini-collapses of all sorts of things, which nobody can predict. Those who are smart will be taking steps, as I type, to become able to survive whatever the future brings, which will be a World Made By Hand. That future could arrive for some of us sooner than for others.

    • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:28 pm #

      Strip away the techno-hopium, and reality shines through.
      The simplest example is the discovering oil for humans was the equivalent of tossing nutrients into a pond.
      Algae quickly multiply until they devour the available food, then mostly all die off when the food is exhausted. That is almost exactly the trajectory we will follow, with the addition of a few tricky moves that will actually accelerate our demise, since the tricks will use energy that could have been used for food.

      • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 2:08 pm #

        Sugar in a petri dish. We are yeast.

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 3:26 pm #

        Excellent analogy and the bitter truth!

    • toktomi January 4, 2016 at 2:57 pm #

      Now, if you were to take apart piece-by-piece Duncan’s “Olduvai Theory” and totally debunk his evidence, analysis, and conclusions, then I would not now be chuckling out loud over your truly unique and dazzling perspectives.

      It is quizzical that there is a single soul on board that can look at a graph of human population trending vertically asymptotic among a mountain of other convincingly bleak evidence and conclude that the next stone age is not imminent.

      Are we all being honest here?

      ~toktomi~

    • seawolf77 January 6, 2016 at 12:20 pm #

      Your optimism is enchanting. While I am less convinced of California’s turnaround, certainly there is progress on many fronts. The water problem is something that I think will worsen. Still you are probably right. If push came to shove and oil went to $300 barrel, the transition to rail and public transportation would surge.

    • Danny jr2 January 10, 2016 at 12:26 am #

      Forgive me, but you are typically optimistic. It’s a normal state of mind for someone who is affluent. I assure you, the shit is hitting the fan and the hour is much too late for any real chance of extending the current set of living arrangements for much longer. The time to act was 30 yrs ago, when the necessary changes could have been implemented in time to extend mankind’s presence on planet Earth. I believe we are going to suffer greatly in the not too distant future as a result of our burning up the planet.

  10. Georges1202 January 4, 2016 at 11:14 am #

    Jim,

    A readable and eminently sensible way to say ‘I don’t know…’
    The real stone in our shoe is endless and increasing complexity, which has as its endgame a rush toward the simple. We have not evolved quite as quickly as some might think. We need a time out – a thing the military does called a ‘stand-down’ to figure out what to do with this hairball we have created an love so dearly.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
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    • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:24 am #

      We need time out I’ll agree, but we won’t get it, and even if we got it the time would not be put to good use. Complexity makes things hard to understand and hides the precarious fragility of our existence.

    • Pogo January 4, 2016 at 11:40 am #

      “The real stone in our shoe is endless and increasing complexity, which has as its endgame a rush toward the simple.” – Georges1202

      I agree and let us recall Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem: the better adapted a system is to a given environment, the less adaptable it is to a new one.

    • baird January 4, 2016 at 2:43 pm #

      Most here seem to understand the basic issues and there are many intelligent, insightful observations. My problem with all of this is and has been for a very long time, how does one evaluate in any substantive and meaningful way all of the forces at work. For me it’s that old problem of one’s inability to “see” in real time when immersed at any moment in history. One can sometimes point retrospectively with some precision but that’s about it. While we may think it is useful to speculate about what our current condition implies the ultimate course is fundamentally unknowable. The rate of technological, environmental, social, etc change now is accelerating so rapidly that even rough guesses about outcomes are highly problematic. And I for one don’t have much confidence in our ability to ultimately alter whatever is coming although this kind of stance is particularly out of favor now and the great danger is that when confused and scared we revert to the usual diabolical solutions. I’m hardly a prepper but I do think it may be wise to get out of the way to the extent possible. And as K-dog says keep uppermost in mind the ageless existential questions and our “precarious fragility” and very brief moments we have.

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:23 pm #

        “While we may think it is useful to speculate about what our current condition implies the ultimate course is fundamentally unknowable.”

        The ultimate course may only be unknowable because the truth exhibits such horror that we must Pretend To The Bitter End!

        Some visions men are loath to look at. Some visions of coming times may repulse and dizzy those who would hazard a glance at their loathsome and terrible geometries.

        We pretend to the bitter end because the madness of adult pretend is more palatable than the mind ripping madness looking at the twisted truth may bring.

        What would two cows talk about as they climb the ramp into the execution chute. Would they tune it out, not talk at all. Would they think of their loved ones before the bullet makes them think nevermore. Our future may bring us the end of birth and the end of death. Pretending is pleasant and easy to do. Living with the terror of the truth is harder.

        • baird January 5, 2016 at 11:13 am #

          I suspect, as you say, that we are indeed in dire straits, perhaps worse than dire. Try to do good things whatever they may be.

    • Danny jr2 January 10, 2016 at 12:34 am #

      simple. We cannot do simple. There are nearly 400 nuclear power plants all around the globe, with more on the way. You cannot maintain nukes in a simple world. It requires an intact electrical grid for cooling the fuel rods. No simple way to keep them from igniting once the electrical grid goes down. Once the grid fails, you have a extinction level event. No way out of this one. DO the research, if you don’t believe what I’m saying.

  11. home-to-roost January 4, 2016 at 11:25 am #

    One of the reasons that you don’t get any useful counter-ideas regarding spoken English and black Americans is that you still have not detailed the “benefit” that would accrue to anyone in the apocalyptic scenario you have just outlined for 2016.

    My earlier suggestion (made without any name-calling) was that every American learn to speak and write (see some of the posts to this blog) Standard English.

    But even that is just wishful thinking, since The War Party (David Stockman) will all but guarantee that there will be no money for schooling of any sort for anyone in this country except the super wealthy.

    As for an oppositional culture, well, yes. You’re the one who keeps writing about how dysfunctional and bankrupt the dominate culture in America is. Why would anyone want to be a part of it??

    • elysianfield January 4, 2016 at 12:30 pm #

      Home,
      I would opine that the culture is dysfunctional and bankrupt BECAUSE everyone is a part of it….

      • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:35 pm #

        I would say our ‘culture’ is a morphing reflection of our endless consumption of media that strives to constantly increase shock value, violence, and depravity.

        • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:35 pm #

          Like

        • S M Tenneshaw January 4, 2016 at 5:42 pm #

          Yeah, but Kim’s azz is outasite!

    • Cavepainter January 4, 2016 at 2:09 pm #

      Well,…..what motive for corporatist/globalist to fund education in the US when the children of the super rich of all those otherwise impoverished, destabilizing nations obtain the best education money can buy at their own expense, then anxiously immigrate to the US as H1-B engineers at wages lower than domestic engineers so as to be platform for chain migration of their families away from the home country’s rising instability? Oops, I forgot; nationalism and patriotism is not PC.

    • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:39 pm #

      I think JHK did allude to the benefit of learning to speak and write Standard English — cultural integrity. Cultural diversity is a worthy goal, but within a framework of a common cultural background. Otherwise, fault lines appear along cultural lines when the going gets rough, and that can spell the demise of a society.

      • messianicdruid January 5, 2016 at 10:17 am #

        The background IS the culture.

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 4, 2016 at 7:16 pm #

      Are you implying David Stockman is part of “The War Party”? Anyone doing that doesn’t know David Stockman.

      I heartily recommend his blog to CFN shitizens at: http://www.davidstockmanscontracorner.com

      -Sticks

  12. hmuller January 4, 2016 at 11:34 am #

    Malthusians like Kunstler have been arguing the imminent mass starvation of mankind for 200 years, starting circa 1800 when world population was under one billion. They can’t believe that technology will increase food production or find new energy sources, so they continue with the same old claptrap, pseudo-logic. Can anyone cite a major famine in the last 200 years not directly linked to war and it’s disruption of the food production and distribution system?

    This Malthusian bullshit is the NWO justification to cull the population. The elitists who brought us the current failed, unjust financial and governmental system claim they want to eliminate all us “useless eaters” to preserve mother earth (ref: the Gaia religion and Luciferianism). They devalue and despise human life, and they endeavor to poison our thinking as well.

    • hmuller January 4, 2016 at 11:48 am #

      But to clarify, I agree with 95% of what Kunstler says. I just don’t believe technology has hit a wall and further progress is impossible. Neither do I accept any “solution” which calls for killing off billions of people.

      • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 2:06 pm #

        Of course it has. Jet engines, internal combustion engines are basically the same as 100 years ago. Sure it is the information age now, but mechanically there is not much new.

        • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 2:32 pm #

          Yes. We are making the same consumer-crap, but it is smaller and cheaper.
          OH BOY, I’m so futuristic! I’m driving an electric car! (Invented in 1834)

    • Pogo January 4, 2016 at 12:01 pm #

      Oh No, Her Muller! Not the Boogeyman…the NWO! God help us all!

      You ask “Can anyone cite a major famine in the last 200 years not directly linked to war and it’s disruption of the food production and distribution system?”….

      Heck yeah. Actually, it is quite easy to look up. In 1876, the extreme weather caused by El Nino led to the most deadly global famine of the 19th Century. It is now thought that the current El Nino may be the strongest ever. So look for the monsoon rains to be disrupted in India, drought in southeast Asia and the horn of Africa. That means a better than even odds that there will be famine. Not to worry though. We’ll just jet some of our grub to those folks. We waste about 40% I’m told. So let’s all pray that jet fuel will be available…like forever. No need to change any behavior. The NWO will be serving up Soylent Green once they take change.

      • hmuller January 4, 2016 at 12:13 pm #

        I’m glad you inadvertently brought up the geo-engineering issue, another NWO favorite project. Or do people of your ilk think it’s just cow farts and carbon breathers messing up weather patterns?

        Please, continue with your dance of a thousand mockeries; it proves nothing.

        • daveed January 4, 2016 at 3:02 pm #

          Speaking of cow farts and the like, the natural gas leak near Los Angeles is estimated to be belching out about 110, 000 lbs. of methane per hour, and the Gas Co. doesn’t expect it to stop (or be plugged) for a month or two. Now, that’s a lot of gas. NWO-related…or NWA?

      • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 12:26 am #

        The NWO is real. And they planned the Environmental Movement to rope in all mankind. One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. Environmentalism primed the pump and “global warming” is the coup de grace.

    • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:41 pm #

      hmuller-Troll Alert!

      • hmuller January 4, 2016 at 4:31 pm #

        You bobin ,earlier wrote that “6 billion people need to die”, yet I’m the troll. No, I’m not going to argue value systems with you. What’s the point?

        • bobinboiseid January 5, 2016 at 12:25 am #

          Values?? 1 billion people is thought to be the carrying capacity of Earth without cheap oil to transform into food. The future is not about what we hope and wish for, but what our available energy will allow.

    • Cavepainter January 5, 2016 at 7:18 am #

      Wrong; the NWO wants population ever growing so that demand for resources is ever increasing, resulting in ever greater political pressure for opening up for resource extraction whatever remains of wildlife habitat, wilderness, estuaries, etc. Plus, that pressure also forces industrial ag’s further take-over of food production and GMO. Funny huh, trendy veganism plays right along with forcing browsers and grazers off the land (which, by-the-way, is responsible for always increasing need for chemical fertilization because the microbial health of the soil is being destroyed by lack of nourishment that heard animals on the land provide. Oh, and food has lost over 50% of nutritive value since the 1950s). So, yes, there is limited carry capacity which is shrinking due to loss of specie diversity.

    • wonky January 5, 2016 at 11:41 pm #

      In the last 200yrs we had the Irish potato blight amongst other (minor?) failures in agriculture – not to mention drought and depletion of species with thousands or millions or billions of years of survival strategy.
      Our defence is to industrialise or push the margin with a series of novel scientific solutions (thank you Monsanto!).
      Unfortunately for the serial innovators and exploiters of this earth the biomass of bacteria far exceeds our own (even within our own bodies) and (they) will probably get their revenge (unless of course we end their lives at the same time as ours). 🙂

      • Cavepainter January 6, 2016 at 5:34 pm #

        Got that right. Turns out too, eliminating all the hoofed browsers and grazers from the landscape has led to degradation of soil vitality as much as industrial ag. The microbial substrate of survival is dependent upon the vast range of interdependent species — now mostly gone. That combined with GMO and hybridization for shelf life, etc. has reduced nutritional value of crops to less than half since the 1950s. Funny, veganism — which really isn’t a healthy alternative — will soon be forced by circumstances. But,……population just keeps being urged through unlimited immigration, and too according to PC which militates 3rd World people who bear a 9th Century perspective of reality and so have as many children as a woman’s uterus makes possible.

  13. malthuss January 4, 2016 at 11:46 am #

    Google sure is anti White.

    https://fuhrerious88blog.wordpress.com/category/media/page/2/

  14. malthuss January 4, 2016 at 11:56 am #

    Great Britain is a basket case in search of a basket to land in.
    [Best Sentence]

    ‘Climate Change’ – worst part of this weeks offering
    [as well as calling DT Hitler].

    Jim, Nature is ever in flux. Hence there is no ‘climate change.’

    California had record lows Christmas week. that is nature and is good.
    New highs, new lows. Life goes on.

    DONT PANIC.

    • Pogo January 4, 2016 at 12:05 pm #

      Did you miss the report of the north pole being above freezing last week? That means about 50F degrees above long time average. Is this not cause for some concern…like in WTF is going on?

      • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:46 pm #

        I think we all know pretty much WTF is going on. We also know that neither those in charge nor the general public are going to do anything at all about it. People are going to keep driving their cars as long as they can afford to, and everyone wants the lights to come on when they flip the switch. So it’s pretty clear to me that we’re just going to live with the consequences. Nothing new in that.

      • malthuss January 4, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

        If the Poles melt and go green [as they were before] GREAT.

        Dont Panic. There is no ‘climate change’ there is only climate.
        and it will fluctuate.

        THE POLES MELT–THEY ARE MOSTLY LIFELESS NOW.

        • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 6:37 pm #

          Mal, the polar oceans are one of the most fecund on the planet. They are not lifeless.

          But they might become so. The oceans absorb CO2, and it becomes carbonic acid. Similarly with the sulphur oxides forming acids. The higher the concentration of these oxides in the air, the more is absorbed by the oceans. That makes the oceans acidic.

          Acidic oceans kill plankton. Plankton make oxygen. Get it now?

    • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 12:50 pm #

      Mal, I was intrigued by your reasoning, “Jim, Nature is ever in flux. Hence there is no ‘climate change.’”

      Following your lead, I reason thusly, “Mal, traffic is ever in flux. Hence there is no ‘traffic jam’.”

      A few new lows. Lots of new highs.

      TIME TO ACT

      • malthuss January 4, 2016 at 3:02 pm #

        Al Gores ’10 year warning’ is up.
        So what to act on?

        Back Row gave us a run down on ‘Energy Hogg Al’ some time ago.

        • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 5:02 pm #

          I think it is inescapable: act on greenhouse gasses: CO2, methane. Act on profligate energy use. Act on pollution.

          As for Gore’s “10 year warning is up”, there is a concept in science called ‘significant figure’. It refers to how exactly one should interpret a given quantity. For example, “See you in ten years” does not mean “See you in exactly 315,576,000 seconds”. This is discussed in most any elementary physics book, if you want to learn more.

          As for ‘Energy Hogg Al’, do you think that the messenger can disprove the message? A parallel thought: if Hitler said “2+2=4”, do you think that makes it false?

          A footnote to Gore’s movie. President Bush’s press secretary, while panning Gore’s movie, admitted that the President thought that AGW was real (reported by the Associated Press in 2006). Look it up.

      • elysianfield January 4, 2016 at 7:21 pm #

        Sauerkraut,

        You opine that it is time to act. What, exactly would make you satisfied (to your standards)…actions the government could do to solve this disaster? If you were a benign dictator…give us our marching orders, please. I expect a level of commitment from you commensurate with the issue.

        On commitment…I am an Agnostic…but if I truly believed that there was a God, I would be wearing a hair shirt and living in a monastery. If I believed myself complicit with the ecological disaster that might be upon us, I would react to a similar degree.

        • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 10:09 pm #

          Fair question, Elysian.

          There are quite a few measures which are quite painless to the population, which could buy us quite a bit of time. I suggest,
          1. it has been estimated that the greenhouse effect could be much reduced simply by painting roofs, walls, and roads. Accordingly, I would mandate white.
          2. mass transit was deliberately killed off throughout North America to raise sales of cars and fossil fuels. Reverse it.
          3. it has been estimated that 40% of food in the USA is wasted. Conserve it.
          4. it has been estimated that 30% of all fossil fuel use in the USA is military. Stop it.
          5. ceaseless advertising is required to bolster consumption. Stop it.
          6. many trucks are vanity symbols. Tax them, with a sliding scale of rebates for honest working trucks.
          7. fossil fuel companies are subsidized. Stop it.
          8. nuclear power companies are subsidized. Stop it.
          9. economic measures can accomplish quite a lot. Tax wasteful behaviours (such as flaring gas wells, buying new cars) and fossil fuel use.
          10. massive incentives for solar power.
          11. planned obsolescence is a wastrel. Replace it with quality product and superior engineering.

          For starters. You can see, Elysian, that little is required but removing market distortions from the equation. For example, black shingles could be taxed to reflect (sorry) their true cost to the environment, thus removing a market distortion (wealth redistribution from the public to the private citizen).

          Capitalism, if actually practiced for a few years, would solve quite a bit of our problem. Don’t forget that Adam Smith was very very keen on the strict rule of law regulating interest rates, advertising, etc. etc. That is my definition of ‘capitalism’, and I think that we should practice it for a change.

          • sauerkraut January 5, 2016 at 12:51 am #

            Of course, these are my opinions only, off the top of my head, and not a prescription for action. Before anyone takes them remotely seriously, detailed analysis is required, unintended consequences examined, and assumptions (and memory!) checked for accuracy. I am all too fallible, and this post may contain errors of fact or opinion.

          • LRacine January 5, 2016 at 8:08 am #

            I like your reply, however, there is a long standing relationship between GDP and per capital energy consumption.

            I think if you go over to Gail’s blog, Our Finite World and read some of her work, it will give you more insight.

            Bottom line… technology is not going to save us.. the world has exceed it’s caring capacity for Homo Sapiens and reduction in consumption of energy crashes our economy and our society. Has resources (energy and food) become “constrained” there will be wars.

            TPTB are playing for time… moving their lips (COP21) but in the end it will be a case of “he who remains stand wins”.. the question is what exactly do they win? And what kind of world will our children inherit?

            It really is a “moral” issue.. but psychopaths/TPTB don’t have “morals”.

          • elysianfield January 5, 2016 at 10:53 am #

            Sauer,
            Thank you for your reply…and effort. What, in your opinion, would be the throughput of these actions vis climate change? Understanding our oft cited overconsumption, we are but 5% of the world’s population…there are roiling billions of humans/consumers that would not become “enlightened”, nor be willing to give up their lifestyle. While many of your suggestions I would embrace(for more practical reasons), I fear that they would be of little consequence in impacting the climate to a quantifiable degree.

            Paper or Plastic? Hobson’s choice….

          • sauerkraut January 5, 2016 at 11:31 am #

            Elysian, I think that those actions would buy us time. It would also give a good example to the world. The USA still has much influence in a good cause, and such a program would help to defuse the poor international situation. Did I mention, buy us time?

            But I suspect that cannot happen with the present level of disinformation. So I try to do a little in small ways.
            1. stay awake and pay attention.
            2. infer what is really going on.
            3. contribute financially to sane politics and good causes.
            4. vote.
            5. confront propaganda.
            Not much, and tiresome, but there it is.

          • ozone January 5, 2016 at 12:01 pm #

            sauerkraut,
            Well, there you go; malthuss and elysianfield appear to ‘advocate’ for doing nothing. (IMHO, that is *exactly* what a vampiric totalitarian bureaucracy would most desire from their victims/populace.)
            Our host wrote a bit about that non-response:

            “But, alas, most of the people capable of thought these days prefer wishful techno-narcissistic woolgathering to a reality-based assessment of where things stand — passively awaiting technological rescue remedies (“they” will “come up with something”) that will enable all the current rackets to continue.” – JHK

            I think that would about cover those posters ‘range of opinions’. Done and dusted.

          • sauerkraut January 5, 2016 at 2:11 pm #

            Racine, good suggestion. I have been reading and admiring Gail the Actuary from the times of the old Oil Drum. Remember that?

            Where Gail and I part company is that she seems to believe that markets exist in 2016, while I do not. Classical markets can only exist in the absence of market distorting monopolies and manipulations, and market destroying national actors. In my opinion, there is evidence of each of these. Hence my view that there are no markets to function in a classical sense.

            In my view, this makes some of her conclusions suspect.

          • sauerkraut January 5, 2016 at 2:22 pm #

            Ozone, thanks for your support. Sometimes I feel a little alone.

            But I think that Elysian is tottering towards the side of the angels. As for Malthuss, he seems rational, so who can foretell when the final piece of evidence overwhelms the daily doses of disinformation?

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm #

            Malthus is mine. I made him say that the Oceans will freeze!

          • sauerkraut January 5, 2016 at 4:14 pm #

            Very, very funny, Janos. Laugh out loud indeed!

          • elysianfield January 5, 2016 at 6:30 pm #

            Ozone,
            I do not advocate simply doing nothing…I advocate doing nothing that provides only a feel-good moment, an action without substance. I do not fool myself into believing that “I can make a difference by sorting my trash, etc.”. I ask you now…what actions are YOU doing that will make a difference?

            As I continue to “totter towards the angels”, please brighten my day with your wisdom…I’m old, and need to be cheered….

          • sauerkraut January 6, 2016 at 8:06 pm #

            Sorry Elysian. I re-read my post mentioning you, and I cringed – it is about the opposite of what I intended. What I posted was hurtful, and I apologize.

        • wonky January 6, 2016 at 12:01 am #

          In the final analysis we are all prisoners. Assuming Mars is not an option (it isn’t no matter what we are fed by the equally imprisoned elites.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma

          What that means might or might not be good depending somewhat on, that we act, and on how we act.

        • elysianfield January 7, 2016 at 11:14 am #

          Sauer,
          Thank you for your reply. There does not a day go by that I do not reassess my obvious “cynicism” in context with my age (69) and predisposition of the aged to become cynical…how much of what I “see”, as against what I “feel”.

          Cynicism…could it be hardwired into the aged, or could it be a product of wisdom…or a bit of both? The young, dumb and full of “precious bodily fluids” have no yardstick with which to evaluate any global or national event in the perspective of what we see as corrupt, criminal or at least under-handed. My vote counts! I’m gonna join the Army and kill our enemies! She loves me…and the kid is mine!

          I quote Bob Seger…”wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then…” Ignorance is not really bliss, but certainly can promote a less cynical outlook.

      • basil January 6, 2016 at 3:38 pm #

        mr. kraut-
        yes, the science is clear and almost universally accepted by those who study climate from a scientific perspective. anthropogenic global warming is real. deniers only delay the efforts needed to minimize the catastrophic effects of rapid, human-caused climate change.

        • 439 January 7, 2016 at 8:20 pm #

          Glaciers in the alps were much smaller in Roman times:
          http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/the-coming-and-going-of-glaciers-a-new-alpine-melt-theory-a-357366.html

          At selfsame time north africa was the grain basket of Rome.
          No generally dire conditions are reported in historical writings.

          Beware of fear mongering.
          Beware especially of geoengineering schemes which will be a great lure for industrial activity on a giant scale to kill us all.

          • sauerkraut January 8, 2016 at 2:46 pm #

            Well 439, local conditions are not much of a guide to global conditions. You might have experienced a cold snap, for example. It is called a cold snap precisely because it is anomalous.

            Or, perhaps you have experienced a heat wave. It is called a heat wave because it is anomalous.

            While the Alps are pretty big, my atlas shows them at about 50,000 square miles. The globe is a little larger: 200,000,000 square miles. The Alps are 0.025% of global area.

            You say that North Africa, which is rather larger than the Alps, had a climate suitable for grain. NA is too hot now. That means that your two pieces of “evidence” tend to show global warming.

            This confusion of yours is exactly why you should trust scientists. They understand things like local effects and time series analysis, which is a type of statistical analysis which is expressly designed to differentiate small fluctuations from long term trends.

            You say, beware of geoengineering schemes. I agree. Let’s not make them necessary, and by necessary, I mean a last forlorn hope.

    • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:47 pm #

      Pretty much everyone studying the climate agrees man made climate change is happening.
      I find it sad that some feel free to pick and choose which confirmed science they believe.
      If you folks were consistent, you’d never fly in an airplane, drive a car, or own a telephone since you would argue that the scientists are wrong and these things can’t possibly function.

      • messianicdruid January 5, 2016 at 10:38 pm #

        How does “pretty much everyone” explain the warming of the other planets in the solar system that is happening concurrently?

        • bobinboiseid January 6, 2016 at 10:22 am #

          “…The effect of adding man-made CO2 is predicted in the theory of greenhouse gases. This theory was first proposed by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896, based on earlier work by Fourier and Tyndall. Many scientist have refined the theory in the last century. Nearly all have reached the same conclusion: if we increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the Earth will warm up…”

          https://www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-co2-enhanced-greenhouse-effect.htm

    • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 2:04 pm #

      While I agree weather will never be predictable, you cannot overlook the fact that we are pumping billions of tons of gas into the atmosphere every year, for at least 100 years. It has to change something.

      • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:49 pm #

        Those with eyes to see have already been convinced. For those who don’t, no amount of evidence will suffice.

        • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 3:45 pm #

          So true! Folks spend immense amounts of precious time arguing back an forth with those who can’t be educated.
          There is a side benefit though of educating all those who read the comments with an open mind and can recognize a reasoned opinion from a dogmatic reflex.

          • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:25 pm #

            I have dogmatic reflexes.

  15. venuspluto67 January 4, 2016 at 12:23 pm #

    It’s painfully obvious shit is going down at the dawn of the mid-decade, so I read your New Year’s forecast in spite of myself. The only thing I have to say is that if Hillary was running against Ted Cruz, I suspect Hillary would win. Cruz has proven himself rather too fond of the kind inflammatory statements that are just red meat to the Stupid Angry Straight White Male, and that demographic is no longer strong enough to help one win an election if one insists on alienating so many others in the process. Which has a thing or two to do with why this demographic is currently choking on its own bile.

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    • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 12:30 am #

      Trump is our man, Bluto. Cruz wants war in the Middle East. Trump wants to help America.

      • LRacine January 5, 2016 at 8:16 am #

        ROTHLMAO!!!!!!

        I think you forgot to put at the end of your sentence.

        Thank you for the laugh, I always appreciate a dry sense of humor.

        • Sticks-of-TNT January 7, 2016 at 8:19 am #

          I’m familiar with ROTFLMAO. What is ROTHLMAO? Roll Out of The Hammock…?

          (Also, “you forgot to put at the end of your sentence” Put what?)

          Sorry. You weren’t “talking” to the rest of us, but it’s a public forum so we were “listening.”

          -Sticks

  16. Newton Finn January 4, 2016 at 12:30 pm #

    I have always thought that Mr. Kunstler’s interesting and original thinking is somewhat myopic, that he sees the forest with unusual clarity but loses focus when it comes to the trees. Because it will be another portrait of the big picture that Mr. Kunstler believes awaits us, I look forward with excitement to the May publication of his next “world made by hand” novel.

    Unlike other dystopian fiction, this handmade world envisioned by Mr. Kunstler has heroic hope intermixed with overwhelming tragedy, a hope which springs from the irrepressible human spirit. It is this human spirit that gives me faith that when the global capitalist house of cards collapses, the extraordinary crisis will eventually culminate in a more ethical civilization, in the sense that Albert Schweitzer described it, whatever the level of technology that necessity forces upon us.

    The most dangerous problem we face right now as a species, as this rapidly aging boomer sees it, is cynicism, an ingrained inclination to mock and malign the very idea of civilizational progress–a superficial, know-it-all cynicism which has led to endemic apathy and loss of self-confidence, often masked as a perverse and defeatist form of “realism.”

    Do we really believe anymore that we can somehow work our way, two steps forward, one step back, into a more humble, more harmonious, more humane way of life, which no longer immiserates masses of our brothers and sisters and rapes Mother Earth?

    My prediction is that 2016, in its totality, will be a step toward, not away, from the ethical civilization proposed by Schweitzer, premised on the elementary principle of reverence for life. And speaking of such reverence, if you haven’t yet watched the new documentary that is shaking up the environmental movement, do yourself a favor for the price of a Big Mac.

    The flick (available on the internet) is called “Cowspiracy” and, despite the cutesy name, is not only entertaining but also deeply disturbing and empowering. The ripple effects of an amateur movie like this, now professionally remade and distributed worldwide thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio, have yet to be seen, but big industrial-ag is justifiably worried.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2016 at 8:45 pm #

      Schweitzer, the Mother Theresa of his day, was thrown down the memory hole because he wouldn’t bow down to Blacks and the Liberals who worship them. He told the truth: the spirit of service is almost completely lacking in them. The few willing to work hard do so for themselves and their family.

    • dannyboy January 5, 2016 at 10:33 am #

      Newton

      Agree.

      I suggest that you try to ignore the Indignation that is the lifeblood of the resigned. (“The most dangerous problem we face right now as a species, as this rapidly aging boomer sees it, is cynicism, an ingrained inclination to mock and malign the very idea of civilizational progress–a superficial, know-it-all cynicism which has led to endemic apathy and loss of self-confidence, often masked as a perverse and defeatist form of “realism.”)

      As a prime example, see just above.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 3:17 pm #

        Yes, Schweitzer opposed your carefully crafted cult of Negro worship. So you ditched him.

        Lindbergh opposed the entrance of America into WW2. So you trashed him.

        Mearsheimer and Alt opposed your influence in American politics so you called them “David Duke with footnotes”. The books of David Duke are abundantly footnoted.

        • daveed January 5, 2016 at 11:33 pm #

          Meerschaum opposed the austere Anti-Pipe Tariffs of 1907.So you you smoked him.

          Eldridge brandished his Cleaver. And you clove him.

          History is littered with many such indignities.

        • Sticks-of-TNT January 7, 2016 at 8:25 am #

          Janos,

          “Mearsheimer and Alt”? Did you mean (Stephen) Walt?

          “The Israel Lobby” is truth. Footnotes and all.

          -Sticks

      • elysianfield January 5, 2016 at 8:05 pm #

        Dannyboy,
        Indignation that is the lifeblood of the resigned… Ingrained inclination to mock and malign the very idea of civilizational progress…superficial know-it -all cynicism…endemic apathy…loss of self confidence…defeatist.

        What you wrote is totally demeaning and dismissive.

        You know, Dannyboy, one of us is correct in his worldview, and one of us is full of shit. I would suggest that if we ever were to sit down together (in your admittedly upscale neighborhood), have a beer and really discuss our feelings…perhaps find common ground, I believe that we could learn to truly loathe one another….

        But I will withhold judgment. I will, however, be looking for positive, life-affirming incidents in National and World news offerings. Laughter of little children, perhaps even Israel and Palestine rapprochement…I will share in your joy regarding our cultural and national achievements…I will call them “Dannyboy Moments”….

  17. farmerhunt January 4, 2016 at 12:32 pm #

    Rare tulips for sale.

  18. peakfuture January 4, 2016 at 12:35 pm #

    Jim, you mention you are allergic to charts, but you reference a chart!

    In all seriousness – charts aren’t all that bad, provided you don’t fall into chart-junk land (Edward Tufte has something to say about this, as well as others; i.e. http://www.mrexcel.com/tip142.shtml). Charts with a non-zero floor are one of pet peeves. The chart of rising CO2 levels and federal debt are quite illuminating.

    Reality will catch up with us, no doubt, but making predictions for a specific time frame is a tricky business. The folks in the Big Short, if they had timed it wrong, would have lost lots, for example.

    • Frankiti January 4, 2016 at 7:12 pm #

      Steve Jobs hated charts and power-points. He said they were for people who didn’t know what the f**** they are talking about.

      I’d add to that.
      They’re also for an audience that a speaker believes can’t understand what the f**** he is talking about.

      Indignity for all.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2016 at 8:49 pm #

        It just means you’re not a visual thinker. Not oriented to engineering or science. The answer to bad graphs is good graphs, not no graphs.

        • Frankiti January 5, 2016 at 4:56 pm #

          Artists think visually.

          Graphs are almost always used to visualize a point that someone can’t succinctly make. They’re for non-thinkers.

  19. pequiste January 4, 2016 at 12:39 pm #

    Nice distillation of the current situation from Kunstler’s alembic…..lots to ponder and digest.

    I do not share Jim’s distaste and disrespect for Donald Trump – the guy is smart, speaks his mind (articluates what is bothering so many Americans) and uses his own money unlike the courtesans, prostitutes, streetwalkers from the “establishment” parties. He is playing the new political equivalent of UFC championship fighting. He is the only hope against the utter moral, ethical and leadership bankruptcy of the USA. He will get to see the Zapruder film later in the silly season however.

    Dow headed way down today so, yeah, the financial system is sitting under the sword of Damocles and anything could cut the string, anything at anytime (after the evil bastards take their funds out of harms way.)

    Rendering the British P.M., David Cameron, as a catamite…naughtily delightful. Sarkozy, notwithstanding his relationship to the exquisite Carla Bruni, is also a catamite and would happily sell off the remainder of France’s patrimony for a million or 10 more yzlamik invaders. Nigel Farage would be a splendid antidote to the vile Euro-political machine and is a very fine speaker as it happens – love his harangues in the European Parliament.

    Sweden becomes the first yzlamik republic in what was once protestant Scandinavia. Sweden’s royal house abdicates and an Ayatollah assumes complete control of the once home of Bergman, Victoria Silvstedt and Absolut vodka.

    Everything else I have to take it one day at a time. Not so good for my blood pressure.

    • Helix January 4, 2016 at 2:56 pm #

      “Dow headed way down today so, yeah, the financial system is sitting under the sword of Damocles and anything could cut the string, anything at anytime (after the evil bastards take their funds out of harms way.)”

      Yep. Getting their funds out of harm’s way is what today is all about.

  20. Cold N. Holefield January 4, 2016 at 12:40 pm #

    What comes down, must go up. ~Dubya & Frazier

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  21. BackRowHeckler January 4, 2016 at 12:41 pm #

    One point puzzles me, and I’ve never seen it sufficiently addressed. Even before the massive inflow of migrants into Western Europe the EU unemployment rate stood at 12%. Here in the USA its really unclear what our true unemployment rate is because of obfuscation and outright fudged statistics. The question is then, the millions entering the United States each year (about 2 million), and the unabated flow into Europe from Africa, Syria and Afghanistan … where will these people find jobs to support themselves? And if there is no work available, are these western nations sufficiently capitalized to put all newcomers, tens of millions of them, on the dole, forever?

    That’s the question.

    brh

    • elysianfield January 4, 2016 at 1:59 pm #

      “where will these people find jobs to support themselves”

      BRH,
      Without an increase in growth in the US economy, there will be no solution. The government REQUIRES economic growth, and all of the Fed’s efforts have gone into trying to jump-start the economy to provide that needed growth. It is a crap-shoot…the government has to believe in job/economic/GDP growth…then the new bodies will become tax payers…they are rolling the dice with, not only the house payment, but our economic viability.

      It is said that Generals fight the last war. Systemic problems prevent former solutions to economic perturbations any success. I just finished Bernakke’s book on his 8 years chairing the Fed, and there are no issues other than growth and confidence, that they were ultimately concerned with.

    • swmnguy January 4, 2016 at 2:00 pm #

      All these people turning up with nothing but the clothes on their backs, if even that, need a lot of stuff, right? Food, shelter, clothes, all manner of belongings?

      We, who’ve been here (wherever we find ourselves) longer than the newcomers, haven’t created such a huge surplus that we can just take in these newcomers and meet all their needs out of what we’ve got on hand, can we?

      So there’s plenty of work for everyone to do, obviously.

      If our system has gotten so screwed up that we can’t figure out how to put people to work, who need work, and need to convert that work into the materials of survival, what’s the real problem here?

      Is it the people? Is it what they need to survive? Or is it a system that doesn’t seem to be working to achieve any of the goals for which we rely on our system?

      The problem isn’t the obfuscation, the fudged statistics, or even the illogical notion that somehow a large proportion of a society can be on “The Dole” for any period of time. The problem is a system that simultaneously can’t find anything for people to do, while being unable to provide them with the things people need. At that point, what the hell is the point at all?

      Have we created a system that does nothing but create abstract debt obligations? Have we then held those abstract notions to be more important that real, physical needs? When the abstractions and the realities have come into conflict, have we chosen for the abstractions time and time again? And when our devotion to abstractions puts us in a position where multitudes have to die so a tiny group can sit around and be served, have we not rebelled against such an offensive and evil way of thinking and behaving and ordering our world?

      I’m not worried about people moving from place to place. I’m worried about crazy people, valuing abstract nonsense above physical reality, and what those crazy people might start doing in the name of a made-up and failed way of seeing the world.

      • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 2:55 pm #

        I do so agree, SWM.

        Galbraith wrote that we had solved the production problem, but had failed miserably with the distribution problem. A generation or two ago. And the only thing that has changed is that Reaganomics has mutated into ever more anti-distribution pathologies.

        It is interesting how the population has been mobilized to support their own destruction. It looks like Goering’s strategy – at least, he spelled it all out at Nuremberg – but the strategy has been applied to economic warfare against the public.

      • Helix January 4, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

        Re “We, who’ve been here (wherever we find ourselves) longer than the newcomers, haven’t created such a huge surplus that we can just take in these newcomers and meet all their needs out of what we’ve got on hand, can we? So there’s plenty of work for everyone to do, obviously.”

        True enough, but the economy needs a rational monetary system and a government that meets the needs of its citizenry to function properly. Until that happens, our economy is going to continue to sputter and work for everyone will remain elusive. Skimming off an economic system chokes it, and in our case, the skimming is aided and abetted by government policy and inaction.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2016 at 8:54 pm #

        Abstract things like culture and religion? Those things are as hard as rock – more important and thus more real in a sense.

    • malthuss January 4, 2016 at 2:59 pm #

      I guess USA unemployment is 20-50%. 100 million or more working part time [and wanting full time] or not working even PT.

      Check this, Daddy,
      http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/03/full-story-on-whats-going-on-in-oregon-militia-take-over-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge-in-protest-to-hammond-family-persecution/

      • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 5:09 pm #

        I don’t want to speak for SWM, but I think he might agree with you about employment. He does write that our inability to absorb a few refugees is the symptom of a major disease in how we have structured our economy.

        But I suspect that he doesn’t think that more of the same Reaganomics will do the trick.

    • Frankiti January 4, 2016 at 7:08 pm #

      Don’t ever, ever, trust any statistic provided by the government.
      In the government world the metrics, not the process, is changed to get desired results. It is completely opposite any accepted method of scientific inquiry. It is ignorance promulgated and disseminated for a political, not factual, outcome. Always.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 12:39 am #

        Now that makes sense. I think that’s how it goes. When they do get real statistics, it doesn’t seem to make any impact on them. My city published a projection: 165,000 more people expected in the next twenty years. And 65,000 new jobs. Nothing jumps out at them about the disparity between these two numbers. Ordinary people see it immediately as a prescription for a slum. Thus education is now little more than the development of a psychic limiting valve to ignore unpalatable facts.

  22. teddyboy46 January 4, 2016 at 12:55 pm #

    I always read JHKs annual predictions twice and refer back to it as the year progresses. I would like to point out to JHKs auditors who find endless mirth in his stock market predictions.

    the growth in the value of the swindle named mutual funds have mostly been paper gains unless one has actually withdrawn money which for most people who use them as retirement vehicles will result in tax’s and penalties if under 59.5. so that wipes out any money they have made on their funds.

    So they will keep the money in and reinvest it. We have been brainwashed into believing this is smart investing. But every time the market tanks which it does every time the Dow reaches a new high. What is really happening is the Big Boyz are taking the profit and everyone else is taking the loss. This is referred to as a Market Correction.

    So my point is JHK has been right. For everyone invested in mutual funds We have not made any money at all and if We are Lucky we still have our principle.

    if most people had used the money they put into retirement vehicles and saved in the bank and paid cash for everything or paid debt off as fast as possible they would in Real World Money be much farther ahead.

    • DrGonzo January 4, 2016 at 1:55 pm #

      TeddyBoy,

      There are so many falsehoods, feints and misdirections in your post, it’s hard to know where to begin. I’m sorry your equity investments didn’t increase around 250% since 2009 like mine did. I’m just glad JHK is not my financial advisor.

      I agree that this year is likely to be a tough one for the stock markets. JHK predicts a loss of at least 51% in the S&P by June. I predict a loss of 10% to 15% by June 10. Will check back in on the following Monday to see which one of us wS closest. But YOU don’t get to arbitrary later dismiss the numbers as meaningless; that is the metric JHK chose, not me.

  23. Sandero January 4, 2016 at 12:56 pm #

    JHK

    I have been enjoying your blog for years especially the eyesores… precious!

    I am wondering with the sh*t hitting the fan for virtually everyone but the 1% or is it the .1%… when will the 99 or the 99.9% storm the Bastille?

    When will the palace guards decide to stop protecting the palace and perhaps decide they are not in the palace but used and abused by the palace and abandon their stations?

    I see all manner of rumblings around the world and it seems like many things could start the great unraveling.

  24. hugho January 4, 2016 at 12:58 pm #

    Thanks JIm. I must say I really look forward to your January prediction post and this one was pretty fine and amazingly broad and useful and thankfully devoid of detailed prediction timelines which has marred your earlier efforts IMO. In such a well done and through missive I find little to quibble with and much to smile at but I would add a few bullet points if I were your editor. The low world oil prices are not only killing the shale miracle going on in the badlands of texas and the dakotas but in the failed oil lands of South America and the middle east. I think the real powder keg will be from the Middle East, much like Serbia was in 1914. Your guess is that it will be KSA which could easily lose the “K” in a Manhattan minute.
    You did say that the low gas prices has had minimal impact on the US consumer but you would never know that from the extra miles driven and the big trucks flying off the shelves in car dealer showrooms.
    Maybe those new truck buyers know something we don’t. Trucks are better at negotiating potholes, gravel roads and useful fleeing across cow pastures. Kinda hard to mount your 50 cal on a Camry and if you need to get outta dodge, a pickup might come in handy.
    Now buckle down at your keyboard on that 4th and hopefully not last installment of World made by hand which could be the literary high point of my year.

  25. sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 1:02 pm #

    Jim, I think that is a very good analysis of the oil situation, if one assumes that classical economics is applicable.

    But classical economics assumes no monopolies and no interests which can overwhelm markets and price discovery. However, national interests are swamping the puny effects of economics and the markets.

    Based on my reading, I suspect that the following is nearer the truth.

    The Saudis want to break the frackers and cripple investment until a consumption – production gap opens so wide that it can never close. Then the price will go up up up.

    The USA goes along with this to hurt the Russians and hurt the Republican oilmen.

    Russia goes along with this to hurt Western financiers.

    China goes along with this so that the rest of the world can implode before its (China’s) environment sinks.

    Just a suspicion.

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    • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:56 pm #

      I’m guessing the low oil price is mainly due to everyone being broke and feeling poor. Last time I checked the ‘dry baltic’ index was breaking new records on the way down.

      • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 2:06 pm #

        I agree that BDI is very worrisome. Looks like Russia is weathering the storm better than the West – which is, I suspect, Putin’s strategy.

        • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 2:38 pm #

          Yes. Russia has oil, we have ‘The Kardashians’, and a bunch of citizens that think they somehow deserve whatever they want because they are special little snowflakes.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 1:45 am #

            Snow is racist because it’s White. How can we make Boise less White and more good?

      • wonky January 6, 2016 at 12:29 am #

        But the Chinese are building roads – long ones all the way to Europe. (to spite Pax America?)

    • Helix January 4, 2016 at 3:07 pm #

      Classical economics also tends to overlook barriers to entry into the market, especially the very high cost of entering a market already dominated by huge firms enjoying very large economies of scale. I’m sure work on this has already been done, but it’s funny how this point is overlooked in the usual present-day “free-market” screed.

      • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 5:11 pm #

        Quite so.

    • wonky January 6, 2016 at 12:23 am #

      Cynic?.. but well read!

  26. volodya January 4, 2016 at 1:13 pm #

    The choice: Hillary Gargantua or The Donald. Which is worse? Will it be tragedy or will it be farce? Maybe both. But in what proportion?

    If we imagine Donald as a possible Prez, well then, the sky’s the limit. We may as well imagine a Kardashian Administration.

    No seriously, would the prospect of President Kris Jenner be such a stretch? Can you picture Secretary of State Kim Kardashian? What about the Fed Chairman? I don’t know, maybe Kourtney. Or Rob. Or Caitlin. And why not? I mean if nothing matters and anything goes….

    Now just imagine Hillary Gargantua in the White House. Too hideous? It could happen. But then what about Bill? What’s his state of health? Would we need a White House Special Assistant to line up chicks? Because assuming his circulatory system is in reasonable working order I CAN’T otherwise imagine Bill getting what he NEEDS. Can you? So then what?

    • bobinboiseid January 4, 2016 at 1:59 pm #

      Nobody for President!
      Shut down the Federal Government and distribute the assets among the states.

    • ozone January 5, 2016 at 12:27 pm #

      V.,
      It’ going to be Jeb! vs. Rodan, mark me on that. Reading between the lines and listening between the lies, one can hear the telltale markers of “reasonable”, “not radical”, “centrist”, “experienced” (you know the rest of these commendations for Jeb! that are slyly slotted in when the talking-heads and experts are discussing the GOP line-up/clown car).

      These two are the “acceptable” and “vetted” candidates by those that finance the government in the quid pro quo business. (Yes, this is fascism, but never mind that.) They both represent the same interests and parties, so the coin remains, whether heads or tails… and we lose.

      Ps. The reason that the press corps seems so peevish about the whole deal is that they aren’t controlling the narrative as their handlers promised they would. Don’t forget, there’s great gobs of loot involved in political advertising. Yo, Ho, Ho, etc.

  27. bukowskisghost January 4, 2016 at 1:27 pm #

    Jim,
    I disagree with your term”fiasco” re: WW II. Destroying Hitler and his gang was hardly a fiasco. Also , your excessive use of grotesque adjectives and adverbs reminds me of all the arrogant and supercilious sophomore essays I had to read. So smugly clever, but so exhausting and exasperating to read, let alone grade. Baroque.

    • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 1:54 pm #

      He is a little heavy on the sauce.

    • CrusherMuldoon January 4, 2016 at 1:54 pm #

      Flat baroque

    • daveed January 4, 2016 at 2:47 pm #

      “So smugly clever, but so exhausting and exasperating to read”

      And yet, you’re still here, honorable paper grader.

    • Frankiti January 4, 2016 at 7:01 pm #

      English is a rich language.
      A colorful language.
      His words are alms for the impoverished starved in a world of reporting of superfluous superlatives.
      And you beg for prose?

      • wonky January 6, 2016 at 12:41 am #

        Before Central Banking, the pen was mightier than the sword.

        Still, Shakespeare is the king.

  28. zaphod42 January 4, 2016 at 1:29 pm #

    “… a society (i.e. an economy + a polity = a political economy) based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up.”

    Right out of the box, a statement that correctly states the truth. In fact, in a society (which includes most or all of the nation-states on Earth) for which all money is created by issuing debt, it becomes logically impossible to repay the interest – without issuing more debt. And that does not solve the problem,

    Even the ‘money accelerator” inherent in fractional reserve banking creates inflation by using debt!

    RIP

    Craig

  29. vengeur January 4, 2016 at 1:37 pm #

    Kunstler previously referred to Trump as “a clown”. Now he is calling Trump “Hitler”. This is liberalism at its most unimaginative laziness. Resort to simplistic demonization and hope nobody actually looks any further. You can do better Mr. Kunstler. P.S.: how is the Nobel Peace Prize President doing spreading peace in the Middle East?

    • swmnguy January 4, 2016 at 1:47 pm #

      I see what you mean, but it’s hard to describe Trump’s emergence on the public scene, and transition to a political figure, without referring to “a clown,” or “Hitler.”

      Indeed, it was hard to describe Hitler’s emergence on the political scene without very similar descriptions, at the time that was happening.

      It’s not a simplistic demonization at all, unless you give no thought to Hitler, his relevance, how he came to power, what situation he was able to capitalize on, and how he appealed to the environment that created him and thrust him to the fore.

      Not sure what you mean about President Obama. He is, as most of us have always known, the figurehead of the merger of Corporate and State power. That is to say, a Fascist, by the definition given us by Mussolini, whose word carries some weight on the topic. As a Fascist, Obama has delivered pretty much exactly what all Fascists deliver. Death, destruction, looting, and thievery by them, their pals and sponsors. Right?

      • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 1:59 pm #

        Hitler had the backing of the Catholic Church, as did all the Catholic dictators. He was not organic. Nor was Franco, Mussolini , Stalin, or Pavelic. Now does Trump? It would certainly appear so, with his demonization of Muslims. On the other hand Mexico is as Catholic as it gets. We need one armed racists I guess.

        • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2016 at 9:10 pm #

          Pope Pius the 12th wrote a number of encyclicals against German National Socialism. But of course you don’t care to know things that contradict your pet theories.

          • seawolf77 January 5, 2016 at 1:52 pm #

            Pet theories? Isn’t that a Beach Boys album?

          • Sticks-of-TNT January 7, 2016 at 9:04 am #

            Seawolf77,

            Funny. Laughing made me feel good vibrations which, God only knows, should have been included–wouldn’t it be nice?

            -Sticks

        • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 5, 2016 at 8:55 am #

          That the catholic Church was pro-nazi is a folk wisdom that just happens to be completely false.

          First of all, Catholics are a minority in Germany. Around 30% of the population. The Kulturkampf was a reminder that they could be a persecuted minority again.

          In the 20s and 30s, the catholic Church position on nazism was that Nazis were pagans, that catholics were forbidden to become members of their organizations, and that they should not receive sacraments. That was public knowledge, the german bishops for instance gathered annually in Fulda, and then issued their condemnations on nazism. Some backing the catholic Church gave Hitler!

          In each election leading to the election of Hitler, the catholic bishops would recommend not to vote nazi but rather Zentrum, to vote Hindeburg rather than Hitler. Nazis got their vote in the protestant north, not the catholic Länder. Look it up, it’s a matter of record. The Nazis were saying again and again that they were just implementing Luther’s program of persecution and destruction of Jews preached in his book “Of Jews and their Lies”. Is Luther catholic? Hmm…

          Having failed to prevent the rise to power of Hitler, they had to cope with a popular government legitimated by elections. Catholic pesonnalities and leaders were murdered, for instance Erich Klausener during the Night of Long Knives. You could also look up the encyclical ‘Mit brennender Sorge’, secretly smuggled to all german parishes in 1937 and read aloud. A few quotes:
          – Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community – however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things – whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God
          – None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are “as a drop of a bucket

          That’s a ringing endorsement of nazism, isn’t it? Actually, it incurred the wrath of the Nazis – kids distributing it were thrown in jail.

          • seawolf77 January 5, 2016 at 1:50 pm #

            The Catholic Church was not pro-Nazi, it was pro-Catholic Church. It puts men in power to do its bidding. Germany produced Martin Luther and France produced John Calvin. The Catholic Church produced Napoleon and Hitler and had both men attack a Russian Christian Orthodox country called Russia to kill as many French, Germans, and Russians as possible. Why? Because they were not Catholic. Duh. Hitler confiscated all the wealth of European Jewry, because…you guessed it, the Jews are not Catholic. Today the Muslims are the enemy. Why? I’ll give 3 guesses and the first 2 don’t count. They’re not Catholic.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 3:09 pm #

            No, wrong again. Hitler let the Jews leave with their wealth, ill gotten or not. Just admit you’re an anti-Catholic bigot. America produces many such creatures.

            Like the way you shifted your ground when confronted with the Truth though. So now you admit the Church didn’t like Nazism – that’s not what your first post said. You shameless eel.

          • seawolf77 January 5, 2016 at 3:21 pm #

            I think next you’re going to start capitalizing all your words and using copious quantities of exclamation points. There’s a new verb forming here…you’ve been Janosed. It means to be attacked ad hominen with specious arguments and patronizing dribble.

          • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 6, 2016 at 12:55 am #

            @seawolf77

            I’m sorry to bring some semblance of connection to reality to the world inside Seawolf77’s mind, but Hitler became chancellor of Germany not through some Vatican hocus-pocus, but because he got increasingly more votes from Germans in the many elections in the increasingly unstable late Weimar republic. During those elections, the catholic church made clear its preferences. As I said above, the German episcopate publically condemned Nazis as pagans and Wotan-worshippers who should not be given sacraments (communion, marriage etc), Catholics were to not be members of the nazi party or its organizations and not vote for them. By and large, that is what German Catholics did. You can look at election results. The regions in which the nazi party did worse are the catholic ones, Bavaria to the south, and west (http://brilliantmaps.com/nazi-votes).

            What started WWII is the invasion of Poland. Poland being, of course, a catholic country. Poland is the country that lost most of its population in the war. The Nazis went full medieval on Poland. In their attempt to eradicate the country and its intelligentsia, it sent hundreds or rather thousands of priests, monks, nuns to the concentration camps. Yep, there were over 2500 catholic priests in Dachau alone.

            So clearly, the pope used its superhuman powers to make protestant german voters to vote for Hitler so that catholic personnalities such as Fritz Gerlich, Erich Klausener, Adalbert Probst could be murdered, the catholic institutions of Germany could be attacked and dismantled, and a catholic country and its priesthood be liquidated.

            Stay tuned, folks. In the next Seawolf77 intervention, you’ll learn how Osama bin Laden was a Jesuit priest from the Riyadh seminary. Then, seawolf77 will tell us all how the Vatican secret agent Genghis Khan killed everyone in his path because, you guessed it, they were not Catholics.

          • seawolf77 January 6, 2016 at 9:41 am #

            Statistics don’t tell the story. Deeds do. Leadership does. The Vatican’s Concordat with Nazi Germany was a huge coup for the regime and gave it instant credibility. Seated at the table with Von Papen was Emilio Pacelli who would become Pope Pius XII and Giovanni Montini who would become Pope Paul VI. The Gulf of Tonkin may have started the Vietnam War, but only a simpleton would actually believe that. The people who agree with me that the Church and the Jesuits are a scourge on humanity number Lincoln, Madison, Napoleon. Who exactly is on your side? Big Bird and Ernie. I mean arguing the Catholic Church was not behind the Nazis because German Catholic’s didn’t vote for Hitler is like arguing Americans believe in torture because we re-elected George W Bush. I can’t wait for your next gigantic non sequitur. You’ll probably say that the sky must be falling because a bird shit on your head.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 7:08 pm #

            He’s also ignoring or forgetting (some forgetting is willed too) the Catholic Officers who tried to assassinate Hitler. They even made a Hollywood movie starring Tom Cruise about it. But alas, his ignorance is well nigh invincible.

          • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 6, 2016 at 11:31 pm #

            So first you claim that the Catholic Church was backing Hitler. I provide instance after instance of how, on the contrary, it took pretty much all the limited measures it could to oppose them coming to power. Listening to Vatican radio could get you killed in Hitler’s Germany. You have nothing to answer but claim that Hitler was still, somehow, the Church’s tool to murder as many people as it could – just because it likes to murder all non-catholics it can. I counter that this makes no sense whatsoever since Hitler in fact went on to destroy catholic institutions, countries and kill its priests. Why would a Vatican puppet do that? Left again with no rational counter-argument, you are left to babble something about the Concordat.

            While the nazis were only an opposition party, the Catholic Church was still free to tell anyone who would listen (not the Protestants!) what it thought about them, or that Hitler was a madman who would “walk over corpses” (those words were from Pacelli – Eugenio not Emilio – in the 1920s) to get his ways. Having failed to prevent them from coming to power, it was left with a completely different situation. The Nazis were now the legitimate german government – and a popular one. One that could crush the Church if it wanted to – Bismarck had nearly done it in the recent past. The Church could no longer tell the german Catholics that they should refuse to deal with what was now the government of their country. They reached an agreement with the government. Do not kill us, and we will stop telling the truth about you. That’s all it was, not a love letter.

            Your obsession with the catholic church is curious. Catholics were a minority in Germany, and yet apparently it was up to them and them alone to stop Hitler. Intellectuals could not stop them. Jews could not stop them. Neither could the communists, the socialists or the conservatives. Poland, France and the UK could not stop them. It took Stalin (curiously, according to you, a Jesuit priest!!!) and 20 million dead before the Red Army rolled back the Wehrmacht all the way to Berlin.

            The other point of comparison is with the Protestant majority. Protestants voted Hitler in power. Pastors called for Germans to vote nazi. When the Nazis decided to take control of the churches in Germany, and create Deutsche Christen, protestants, mostly meekly went along, some enthusiastically and few protested. That is not surprising. The Roman Catholic Church, for all its faults is also “catholic” – universal. It is unlikely to be whipped in a nationalist frenzy about the superiority of the Aryan race, or in the more august words I quoted earlier of Pius XI, that the nazi press was calling half Jew (*), “None could attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe (etc)”. To a totalitarian regime, this is intolerable. Ask Alfred Rosenberg.

            (*) For a sample of what the nazi press actually thought about Pacelli, check out http://www.defendingthebride.com/sn/pius.html

          • seawolf77 January 6, 2016 at 11:56 pm #

            When you say first you claim, there is normally a then. You did not provide instance after instance, you provided a street level answer to what was an ivory tower decision. The concordant was the official position of the Church. Ignoring it only demonstrates a willful disregard of the facts, facts which run contrary to your position, a position which is untenable at best, and shameful at worst. Your patron Catholic saints who died in the Night of the Long Knives were likely buggering young children, along with the other brown shirt dick smokers. As ringing endorsements go, you should remember the Church gave us the Inquisition and the Crusades. I know that’s ancient history. Pedophilia seems to be the abomination de jours. What exactly would be required for you to reject the Church? I am sure you can provide me with instance after instance of secular masturbation which will illuminate us all.

          • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 7, 2016 at 9:55 am #

            I am not ignoring the Concordat. I am trying to give the context in which it was reached. And you have no idea what a concordat is. Similar Concordats had been signed with other Länder before: Bavaria, Baden, Prussia. They are administrative contracts that define what are the rights and obligations of each party. Can the church name anyone bishop or does it need the approval of the state? Are catholic schools allowed and if so, who pays for them? Etc. They don’t mean that the catholic church thinks that Prussia is the greatest state on planet Earth. When you sign a mortgage with First American Greedhead Bank, you don’t mean that you think that bank is the kindest benefactor of mankind in history. It means that both parties agree that they will give you X amount of money, and you will pay it back, plus x% interest over Y period of time. That’s all. Well, the Church did sign a federal-level Concordat. It agreed that it would stop treating nazis like lepers as it had until then and in exchange the German government would not close all the catholic schools. Catholic youth organizations would disband so that Hitler youth could brainwash little german kids into turning into SS. Yeah!

            BTW I am not a Catholic but historical truth is historical truth, no matter what discomfort it gives to people who boast of being anti-catholic bigots and then go on to rant about dicks, buggering and masturbation.

          • seawolf77 January 9, 2016 at 12:40 am #

            A concordat is another name for a treaty. That’s all you had to say. But you didn’t. You rambled on and on and on and what did you ever say. Nothing.

        • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 5, 2016 at 9:09 am #

          Hey wait a second, are you claiming that Stalin was a roman catholic? On what evidence are you basing this crazy notion on?

          • seawolf77 January 5, 2016 at 1:45 pm #

            He attended a Jesuit Seminary for 8 years. As crazy notions go, it’s rather factual.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 3:11 pm #

            And Obama is a Christian because he attended Reverend Wright’s Church for twenty years?

            Neither of these dictators were Christian despite their affiliations.

          • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 5, 2016 at 11:50 pm #

            seawolf77:
            “He attended a Jesuit Seminary for 8 years”

            Where do you get such nonsense? No he did not. He did attend a russian orthodox seminary:
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbilisi_Spiritual_Seminary

            You do understand that russian orthodox are not catholics, don’t you? You are aware that Jesuits are not russian orthodox, aren’t you?

            “The Tiflis Theological Seminary, although a religious institution, did not limit its instruction to Church teachings: it was also Georgia’s principle center of higher learning, drawing upper-class students from all across the region”
            http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/stalin/section2.rhtml

            But attending a school run by orthodox priests does not mean that Stalin was an Orthodox. That school was simply the best Georgia had to offer to get an education. The student body, as noted above, was often secular if not radical.

            DEATH ONLY WINS: THE STALIN TRILOGY: Early Stalin by Ravi Ravindranathan
            https://books.google.ca/books?id=5puDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT83&lpg=PT83&dq=Tiflis+Theological+Seminary&source=bl&ots=0GybwyHA5m&sig=U4YCLyPDlWX3eYhJACAoEsi6bHk&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=CFerVLneKcSyyASa1YLoCg&ved=0CFIQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=Tiflis%20Theological%20Seminary&f=false

            “with no universities in the country, the Tiflis Theological Seminary was also Georgia’s leading academic institution of higher learning.”
            “the business took a turn for the worse and the family was forced to return to Georgia. Neither Dmitri nor his parents wanted him to be a priest. He was at the Seminary to acquire the best education in Georgia.”

            Stalin would move on to a life of communism, and head a government opposed to religion that would try to control, suppress, and eliminate all religions, including the Roman catholics.

            seawolf77:
            “As crazy notions go, it’s rather factual”
            As “facts” go, this one is farcically incorrect.

          • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 7, 2016 at 8:28 am #

            seawolf77:
            “He attended a Jesuit Seminary for 8 years”

            Where do you get such nonsense? No he did not. He did attend a russian orthodox seminary:
            en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbilisi_Spiritual_Seminary

            You do understand that russian orthodox are not catholics, don’t you? You are aware that Jesuits are not russian orthodox, aren’t you?

            “The Tiflis Theological Seminary, although a religious institution, did not limit its instruction to Church teachings: it was also Georgia’s principle center of higher learning, drawing upper-class students from all across the region”
            sparknotes.com/biography/stalin/section2.rhtml

            But attending a school run by orthodox priests does not mean that Stalin was an Orthodox. That school was simply the best Georgia had to offer to get an education. The student body, as noted above, was often secular if not radical.

            According to Early Stalin by Ravi Ravindranathan:

            “with no universities in the country, the Tiflis Theological Seminary was also Georgia’s leading academic institution of higher learning.”
            “the business took a turn for the worse and the family was forced to return to Georgia. Neither Dmitri nor his parents wanted him to be a priest. He was at the Seminary to acquire the best education in Georgia.”

            Stalin would move on to a life of communism, and head a government opposed to religion that would try to control, suppress, and eliminate all religions, including the Roman catholics.

            seawolf77:
            “As crazy notions go, it’s rather factual”
            As “facts” go, this one is farcically incorrect.

          • seawolf77 January 9, 2016 at 12:46 am #

            Yes I know the difference between Russian Orthodox and Catholic. Do you know that the Russian Orthodox Church does not have a reputation or history of political intrigue? If they do, can you cite an example? Are you aware that the Jesuits have a reputation for political intrigue? I can cite examples. But you would have us believe that Stalin was the first. Is that what you are claiming? Stalin came to power and just started killing everyone. His agenda was what exactly?

          • seawolf77 January 9, 2016 at 12:52 am #

            Stalin would move on to a life of communism, and head a government opposed to religion that would try to control, suppress, and eliminate all religions, including the Roman catholics.

            Wrong. Stalin brought back religion during the Nazi blitz to improve morale. Why do you insist on rewriting history according to your bullshit ideas? Do you think we can’t see through you. I can. You’re as transparent as your motives. You admit Stalin was in in a seminary, but that seminary was for good. Is that what you are saying? A man who killed 20 million of his own people was in a good seminary? Is that your position? And you expect people to take you seriously? Good luck with that.

          • jean.baptiste.moquelin January 10, 2016 at 11:51 am #

            seawolf77,

            I was curious to see how anyone could have such outlandish beliefs that Stalin was a catholic dictator, sorry, a Jesuit priest? This exchange has given me an answer. It all makes sense if you are a proud anti-catholic bigot ranting about buggery farcically misunderstanding the one tidbit of fact propping up his esoterical beliefs. Apparently, if you are an atheist who attended a Russian Orthodox school, the catholic church will officially make you an honorary Jesuit priest. Because… Policial Intrigue! It’s been entertaining. Looking forward to your next hallucination.

      • vengeur January 4, 2016 at 2:05 pm #

        Trump publicly opposed Bush Jr.’s illegal invasion of Iraq way back in in 2003-4. And he calls it out today for the total and monumental fiasco that it was. That is VERY Hitler like , LOL. But just keep repeating nonsense .

        • malthuss January 4, 2016 at 3:06 pm #

          Thanks. I dont follow news on DT so I appreciate that.
          Hitler JHKs ass.

          • S M Tenneshaw January 4, 2016 at 7:40 pm #

            Fuck off and die, Nazi filth.

          • vengeur January 4, 2016 at 10:21 pm #

            LOL . Typical crazyhater – leftist comment by SM Tenneshaw!

          • S M Tenneshaw January 4, 2016 at 11:33 pm #

            Excuse YOU, vengeur? Did you not catch malroach’s scummy Nazi death wish to the host of this site? I was just returning the favor.

            Do they have mirrors where you’re from?

          • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 1:48 am #

            It wasn’t like that. Hitler is not a verb. But for the record, JHK did wish Trump be assassinated – as have a number of Jewish and Liberal columnists.

          • S M Tenneshaw January 5, 2016 at 6:49 pm #

            “Hitler” may not be a verb, but malthuss used it that way.

      • Frankiti January 4, 2016 at 6:47 pm #

        Obama is a totem.
        A symbol of national self-castigation.
        Brought out by a late appreciation of what 2 terms of Bush had wrought.
        Skin-deep change to assuage a soul crushed conscience.

        Fascists and Hitlers and communists are meaningless invectives. Worn through overuse and misallocation by the ignorant.
        The ignorant deserve the leaders they get.

        • wonky January 6, 2016 at 1:06 am #

          Hey Frankiti, right-on, except that the leaders organise the elections and choose the candidates. Try running if all you have is intellect.

          • Frankiti January 6, 2016 at 4:56 pm #

            I believe the candidates are picked early on by the plutocrats. They bring them to the party leaders attention, or make the party leaders acutely aware of their interest in a candidate (if the party wants that player’s donations they follow suit). In most cases, we are left choosing between the 2 candidates that they put forward and more or less can live with. Except this time. Nobody wants Trump, he’s a man from the oligarch class 9at least in terms of wealth as opposed to influence) with his own hat in the ring. It’s a big hat that hopefully breaks the ring, and perhaps all 3 in this circus.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 4, 2016 at 9:07 pm #

        In Fascism, Government is the senior partner. In Plutocracy, the Corporations are. Apart from his rhetoric, is there any proof that Obama is riding herd on the Corporations and Banks? Isn’t the opposite more like it? But certainly his regulations do wonders for finishing off small and mid size businesses – exactly what the Corporations want.

    • lsjogren January 4, 2016 at 2:27 pm #

      I respect the point of view of an independent thinker even when he was expresses harsh sentiments toward someone like Trump f o r whom I believe those sentiments are largely unfounded. That goes for Kunstler, as well as a Muslim human rights activist I friended on facebook who earned my respect through his condemnation of the destructive role the political left has played in thwarting the fight against Islamic extremism. In contrast, when someone who is a fashionable leftist who has never had an original idea in his life criticizes Trump, I have no respect for his opinion.

  30. swmnguy January 4, 2016 at 1:42 pm #

    As usual, we find ourselves in a truly absurd situation. Throughout history, most of our attentions and energies have revolved around interests of survival and greed in one way or another.

    Our physical needs haven’t changed at all. Most of our psychic discomfort stems from the fact that we’ve created this great abstract system for keeping score, and that system’s inherent self-contradictions have finally overtaken the system’s advantages.

    Unfortunately, we haven’t yet figured out how to change the rules to account for that well-predicted difficulty, without dispossessing the elites who really don’t want to be dispossessed.

    So we have absurdities like gold plunging in value in abstract paper dollar terms, while supply shrinks and demand surges. Same for silver. Even if demand for oil has declined or stayed steady, there’s no legitimate reason its price has declined as much as it has. Either oil has never been properly priced, or the denominator, the value of money, doesn’t make any sense anymore.

    Most frustrating are our attempts to explain what we see failing. We keep using the rules of our system to explain the collapse of our system. By collapsing, our system is trying to tell us that the rules we hold to be so important aren’t relevant to anything real. It’s the height of pointlessness to complain that our abstract system of using debt as money isn’t working very well because it isn’t based on anything concrete. That’s kind of the basis of the whole system.

    Just as we use abstract notions of value to distract from whether or not we have as much as we want and need, we also use religious constructions to divide ourselves into groups and justify doing what we think we need to do in order to survive. Funny, isn’t it, how people with different religions seem to need the same sources of water and food? So they say their rival gods, or rival interpretations of the same exact god, tell them to do whatever they need to do to get the water and food. The foolish thing to do is to accept the bizarre explanations when there are perfectly reasonable motivations right in front of us.

    Yes, it’s going to become increasingly apparent to everyone that our finance/economic system no longer works properly. That will lead to a lot of trouble, as some try to maintain and extend their current advantage, some try to take advantage going forward, some just try to survive, and some just look to prey on whatever and whomever they can.

    Let’s not give it undue portentiousness. This is what happens every time a dominant cultural theme loses its relevance. It’s messy for a while until a new dominant theme emerges. It will, though. It always has. That doesn’t mean the transition will be easy, or pleasant, or that many of us will live through it. Things may turn out quite well or not; we’re not guaranteed any results nor pre-cognition of those outcomes.

    But we mustn’t allow the irrelevant abstractions of a system doomed by its internal self-contradictions to re-set our moral compass and blind us to our real wants and needs. Those are of far longer duration and are far less subject to change. Horse in front of Cart, everyone.

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    • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 2:33 pm #

      Yes, while it is comforting to analyze a situation in familiar terms, it may not be useful. As you are pointing out.

      Trying to explain an economic failure in terms of the prevailing economic orthodoxy, when it obviously does not apply, is not useful IMO. Yet this is what we see. Economic ‘laws’, such as The Law of Supply and Demand (less grandiloquently summarized as “The rich will gouge you if they can”), are invoked to explain why chimerical paper contracts for gold determine the price of physical gold. Oil is being ‘priced’ by markets which are irrelevant in the face of monopolies and powerful nations.

      Eerily, that was also the view in 1914: the markets had intertwined the economies of the Great Powers to such an extent that a protracted war was impossible. The corpses took vast comfort in that, I am sure.

      But now, even Nobel Laureates in Economics are editorializing on the inapplicability of classical models; wasn’t it Krugman in the NYT who wrote that the US dollar was backed, not by assets, but by the US military? To paraphrase, it’s not economics, stupid, it’s organized crime.

      • MisterDarling January 5, 2016 at 3:03 am #

        @ Sauerkraut:

        “…wasn’t it Krugman in the NYT who wrote that the US dollar was backed, not by assets, but by the US military? To paraphrase, it’s not economics, stupid, it’s organized crime.”

        And that is the plain truth of it. We don’t have a free-market or a global financial network. That died in 2008. What we have now is a rationalized system of tribute-taking by a tiny fraction of one-percent of humanity… And they expect the rest of us to be grateful.

        Furthermore, as of last Winter the world’s tangible-goods commerce is in collapse. When Walmart can’t make it, even Amazon isn’t too far behind. Consumer demand, employment, demand for raw materials are on a deflationary death-spiral and nothing in the past 8 years has changed that. Either you take care of The Market or The Market takes care of you. Like a shark it strikes once – fatally – and then slowly circles, waiting for your circulatory system to do the rest…

        Sauerkraut, I experienced my review of the material on CFN today as a meditation on the nature of Destruction. It then occurred to me _why_ most posters and professionals I deal with don’t seem to be unable to sense when something – animate or inanimate – is clearly on it’s way out: without the experience of being a destroyer you don’t see clearly when something has been mortally wounded, and you don’t understand clearly how the thing wounded – animal, person or organization – is the last to know and accept that other than a few more gasping breaths, outcries, a word or two, a last smile or gesture, it is over. Death always arrives as a surprise, no matter how much pain or preparation beforehand.

        Cheers!

        😉

        • ozone January 5, 2016 at 12:41 pm #

          Excellent stuff, youse guys! I would submit that these ruminations are far beyond the comfort level of most, but that’s what makes them profoundly important. Thanks, and yes, many re-thinks are in order; time grows short.

        • sauerkraut January 5, 2016 at 2:53 pm #

          MD, your comment merits a more elegant response than this one, and I was going to respond with irony, when I remembered current reality.

          You write an interesting take on death and destruction, but I’d like to add that I don’t think of myself as a destroyer; a cruiser, perhaps.

      • wonky January 6, 2016 at 2:05 am #

        One answer? Ask Putin how to control the Plutocracy (organised
        crime) with organised fear and ‘appropriate’ crime backed by the State.
        At least there is some equality of power but nothing that would appeal to our democracies swamped by well funded ‘advisors’ to our mostly well fed representatives comfortably provided for with the promise of a future full of grateful (paid for) privilege.

        Our social models are inadequate and we could do with a bit of real freedom where our (every-persons) assets can be converted to coinage free from state influence and the domination of elites. Then WE have control of expenditure and wars – and politicians would have to be democratic.

        Isaac Newton, though flawed, had some clues on hunting down of counterfeiters but unfortunately Britain was on a path to Empire and later founded a Central Bank to fund it.

    • lateStarter January 4, 2016 at 3:23 pm #

      swmnguy – that was one of your best comments. If we had a best comment catagory, I’d vote for that one.

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 4, 2016 at 9:03 pm #

      Excellent post, swmnguy. -Sticks

    • MisterDarling January 5, 2016 at 2:25 am #

      @ Mister ‘Swmnguy’:

      RE | “So we have absurdities like gold plunging in value in abstract paper dollar terms, while supply shrinks and demand surges. Same for silver. Even if demand for oil has declined or stayed steady, there’s no legitimate reason its price has declined as much as it has. Either oil has never been properly priced, or the denominator, the value of money, doesn’t make any sense anymore.”

      The last line in this paragraph is a beautiful thing. It strikes at the dark core of the travesty.

      “Most frustrating are our attempts to explain what we see failing. We keep using the rules of our system to explain the collapse of our system. By collapsing, our system is trying to tell us that the rules we hold to be so important aren’t relevant to anything real. It’s the height of pointlessness to complain that our abstract system of using debt as money isn’t working very well because it isn’t based on anything concrete. That’s kind of the basis of the whole system.”

      The second sentence in this paragraph is a gem. It’s pithy and dead-spot-on.

      Mister Swmnguy, you have done something here. Sure, it’s ‘just’ a comment on ‘some blog’ on the supposedly god-forsaken internet ‘somewhere’, but _All Endeavors are Great if Greatly Done_. [*]

      Commendable!

      Cheers!

      — — —

      [*] to paraphrase O W H

      😉

  31. seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 1:54 pm #

    That’s why it’s called “bitter.”

  32. RocketDoc January 4, 2016 at 2:03 pm #

    I became a gold bug on Sept 1, 2007 based on this type of thinking. It has been wrong a long time but its “truthiness” is still enticing. Someday soon the evil manipulators and banksters will get theirs. But you know, I just spent the Holidays in Steamboat with my large family and all are doing very well (and the young people OK) and no one cares. Shouldn’t Eric ($70 million) Holder be prosecuted with God’s work Blankfein? As well as 30-50 others like Thain, Mozillo, Dimon, Phil Gramm, C Dodd, B Frank, J Corzine, and the heads of AIG,MBIA, Standard and Poor’s, etc.? The answer is yes but will never happen. The only answer is to leave the party early. Slowly close the retirement accounts, forget the golf retirement and cruises to Alaska, buy local, and quit feeding the beast. It is eventually going to get loose and eat a lot of innocent people but don’t ask me where to cower–those who pay the army will arrange things to their satisfaction.

    • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 2:53 pm #

      Yeah it’s been rough being a PM bug. As you state, the argument is sound.

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 4, 2016 at 9:07 pm #

      Amen/Fist Bump, RocketDoc! -Sticks

  33. lsjogren January 4, 2016 at 2:10 pm #

    Wow, a lot of material there. Just read a bit on this go around. As usual Kunstler’s predictions are probably more dire and immediate than what we will see. The meltdown of oil stocks and bonds is liable to be no exaggeration. I guess some air is out of the balloon already since many oil stocks have lost most of their value. It will be interesting to see whether even the stronger oil companies like Exxon and Chevron go bankrupt during this slump in oil prices.

    • sauerkraut January 4, 2016 at 5:44 pm #

      I agree. I wonder how much of it was planned, and by whom? As for my suspicions …

  34. patrickd January 4, 2016 at 2:15 pm #

    I was looking up so many words in the early paragraphs that I made a list. I had to find out exactly what these words meant in order to figure out what you were saying. Usually I have to look up one or two words each week, but this week your big brain made me look up this big bunch of words:

    Woolgathering
    legerdemain
    Equivocal
    emergent
    heuristic
    impresario
    calculus
    abstruse
    cohort
    debacle
    autarky
    animus
    demi-fascist
    demi-
    PIIGS
    catamite
    oy vey is mir
    el pendejo supremo
    juridicial

    I started reading your books back in 2007, Jim, and following your Clusterfuck Nation blog at the same time, and writing you fairly regular emails, and over the years I have come to better understand what’s going on in the world. Looking up the big words over the years has expanded my vocabulary, but the strokes are preventing me from getting any smarter. Whoops!

    Your explanation of why oil prices are low is terrific, reasonable, logical, and I like it!

    Your middle east analysis is astounding. Simple, straight-forward, concise. No wonder you get the big bucks.

    Your analysis of China’s economy is excellent, and your joke about Kim Jong-Un is funny.

    It was great reading your take on Trump. I’ve been saying for months that he would be killed before or after the election, by black ops.

    Your nicknames for her holy highness Hillary are funny, and appropriate!

    Hey, now I can curse in Spanish!

    I applaud your insistence in speaking your truth about black culture. In truth, many of the killings of blacks by police are suicides, not murders. Suicide-by-police takes many forms, including pulling a weapon (or what looks like a weapon) on a cop, approaching a cop with a knife (or what looks like a knife), fighting a cop and trying to get his gun, resisting arrest to the point that multiple cops have to jump on your body and head with choke holds, or simply mouthing off to the point that cops want to kill you, and then do. Probably most hangings in jail cells are by pissed off cops who just want to get that guy/gal to stfu, so they spike the dinner, turn off the cameras, and hang up the offender. Whoops! That last one is actually murder, but it’s also a form of suicide.

    The Paris climate change conclusion was that we will limit the rate of increase of the amount of greenhouse gases going into the environment. HA! So, yeah, we’re gonna burn up all the fossil fuels until they are gone, and then the collapse of civilization and the industrial way of life will be over, FOR EVER! And good riddance to poor trash. F*ck Walmart.

    Great forecast, Jim, right on!

    I am on a budgetary time line to purchase remote property and start building my homestead, in 20 months. Maybe we can all pretend everything is fine until then, to keep my SS checks coming? Actualy, I’ll need those checks for at least 3 years after that time, if possible, to get all my tools and equipment purchased so I can live 100% independent of fossil fuels.

    • lateStarter January 4, 2016 at 3:49 pm #

      Patrickd, I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but getting the homestead started 20 months from now seems a bit late (not that I’m doing much better – see login -> lateStarter). Maybe at this point you should just try to hunker down where you are. Do you have extended family nearby that are onboard? Best wishes for the new year…

    • uslabor January 6, 2016 at 1:04 am #

      Many of the killings of black people by police is actually suicide a not murder? Seems like a delusional, but reassuring, thing for a probably white person to tell herself.

  35. ffkling January 4, 2016 at 2:21 pm #

    Jim, I truly hope your prediction of a 2016 Republican in the White House turns out to be wrong. In that the GOP has masterfully gerrymandered the congress, it’s a safe bet to assume control will remain with the fanatics, and should your prediction come to fruition, there will be no checks and balances against the insanity, including the supreme court where Republicans also have control (we learned in 2000 that the justices are far from being impartial in their decisions).
    What frightens me most is the Republican assault on the environment. Two examples should scare any reasonable person to death. Firstly, Republicans are supporting legislation that would sanction the sale of America’s parks and wilderness areas to the highest bidder!!!!! Then there is the Republican proposal that would repeal the highly successful Endangered Species Act. The motivation behind these proposals is to enrich corporate Republican paymasters.
    It’s all about making a few more bucks while the world burns.

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  36. wayfarer January 4, 2016 at 2:23 pm #

    James,

    Good column this week, lots here. I expect a slow decline with bumps but it could happen in an instant. I think we, the specie, will live through our madness and grow saner but it always takes pain.

    Take care of yourself and yours and those you can help and know the difference. Our specie has to grow.

    • ffkling January 4, 2016 at 2:45 pm #

      How do you square your optimism with the fact that every 24 hours 150 species, on average, are being driven extinct while during this same time period the global population expands by an additional 220.000?

      The canaries in the coal mine are dying with increasing frequency. White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious and pernicious condition that originated in the North East has caused the deaths of millions of bats and since its emergence 10 years ago has spread to the South and Midwest. Bats are Mother Nature’s most important insectivore as a bat consumes its body weight in insects every night. The Agriculture Department estimates that the loss of bats will cost farmers billions and require a large increase in the application of pesticides, which will serve to exacerbate Colony Collapse Disorder. Honey bee hives are now dying at a rate faster than their replacement. Similar declines are occurring with native pollinators as well. One final example is the fungal disease named chytrid that originated in the area of Israel and has since spread worldwide. The chytrid fungus is deadly to amphibians, and has resulted in many extinctions with the most notable example being the national symbol of Panama (former symbol)- the colorful harbinger of good fortune named the Panamanian Golden frog.

      The signs are everywhere so i can’t share your optimism.

      This quote from The Matrix sums things up nicely:

      “I would like to share a revelation I had during my time among the human race. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you are not true mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium- a symbiotic relationship- with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and replicate without any natural limits to population growth until every natural resource is consumed and all other life is extinguished. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same destructive pattern- a virus. Human beings are a pernicious disease- a metastasizing cancer on Mother Earth. You are a plague and we are the cure.”

      Finally, this prediction from Kurt Vonnegut prior to his death:

      “The good Earth- we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy.”

      • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 2:56 pm #

        Yes it is bleak. We need a fundamental break in the paradigm. You cannot continue to trash the planet and expect everything to remain the same. There is a tipping point.

        • malthuss January 4, 2016 at 3:08 pm #

          So BDI being at an all time low is good? Less ‘goods’ [and bads] from China.

  37. chipshot January 4, 2016 at 3:37 pm #

    Don’t forget about plankton, possibly the most important life form in the oceans and perhaps on the planet, which is in steep decline and will not respond well to warming seas.

    • ffkling January 4, 2016 at 3:54 pm #

      Good point. Watch this excellent presentation by Dr. Jeremy Jackson titled, “Ocean Apocalypse”. Dr Jackson was asked to address the US Naval Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMN3dTvrwY

    • seawolf77 January 4, 2016 at 3:56 pm #

      So true. Such a beautiful world ruined and for what? The canaries are screeching and no one is listening because our ipods are dimed.

      • elysianfield January 6, 2016 at 7:42 pm #

        Wolfie,
        Start worrying when the canaries stop screeching….

    • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 4:21 pm #

      Soylent Green!

      • ffkling January 5, 2016 at 6:03 pm #

        Brought to you today by Soylent Red, and Soylent Yellow. And, new, delicious, Soylent Green. Due to its enormous popularity, Soylent Green is in short supply, so remember—Tuesday is Soylent Green day!

    • malthuss January 4, 2016 at 10:09 pm #

      Seas may get much colder, soon.

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:26 pm #

        WTF, Global Warming cooling seas, get out of town.

  38. retired guy January 4, 2016 at 3:42 pm #

    Jim; Wow! A depressing, frightening, but sadly true assessment of the present and the future for mankind. Do you wonder, as I often do, how so many seemingly smart people can be so oblivious of the current state of our world and where we are headed? What is really happening seems so obvious to me, and as I gather from your writings, to you also. I think most people don’t want to acknowledge the truth. It is too terrible to contemplate for them. I have friends who get angry with me if I ever present the idea that because we live in a FINITE world there are serious consequences ahead for mankind. I don’t argue with them. I try to stay low key and quietly explain my conclusions about what is happening now and where we are headed in the future. They say I’m a pessimist. That technology will be our savior. They refuse to consider the clues and facts describing the demise of our current global economy.

    Hey, people in Dubai kept on partying as that super tall building was covered with huge flames on New Years Eve. The fact that there are hordes of people who are eager to stay in the top floors of that building, makes one wonder about the future of our civilization. Talk about being clueless. Great article, Jim. You see things others miss, and you share your observations very well through your writing. Have a good 2016. Keep cranking out your thought provoking articles.

    • chipshot January 4, 2016 at 4:30 pm #

      “how so many seemingly smart people can be so oblivious of the current state of our world and where we are headed? ”

      You mean like my brother-in-law, with a PhD in physics, who insists humans will be living in space within 50 years and driverless cars will solve congestion in the next decade?

  39. lateStarter January 4, 2016 at 4:15 pm #

    Nobody has a better PPT than the US. But still, how long can they hold the inevitable off? At least in th UK edition of google news there was some mention that people with pensions should be concerned since FTSE just lost 34 billion pounds in the opening hour.

  40. chipshot January 4, 2016 at 4:37 pm #

    I predict Bernie wins the election in Nov.

    Clinton fatigue and low enthusiasm leading to low turnout of Hillary supporters this spring.

    Emphatic enthusiasm and momentum plus tons of support from traditionally non-voting 18-30 leading to high turnout of Bernie voters.

    Rubio may offer more of a challenge than Trump in Nov, but can’t see any R beating Sanders.

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    • Beryl of Oyl January 4, 2016 at 5:08 pm #

      Why would any young person want any Clinton or Bush in the White House? I see the headlines, about Hillary bringing out her “secret weapon”, Bill, and I think “Really?”. When was Bill last in office? Sixteen years is ancient history to younger voters.
      Bernie is more popular than anyone wants to let on. I do believe that the Democratic establishment doesn’t want him, just as bad as the Republicans don’t want Trump, though.

      • BackRowHeckler January 4, 2016 at 10:08 pm #

        Yeah, it’d be like Mary Todd Lincoln running for president in 1880, Martha Washington in 1816, or Eleanor Roosevelt in 1960.

        and think of how absurd that sounds.

        brh

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:28 pm #

        They wouldn’t. But they are a highly suggestible bunch and they sway with the wind.

    • ozone January 5, 2016 at 12:53 pm #

      Let’s not forget about something called, “Diebold”. Voting machines and ATM’s.

  41. fodase January 4, 2016 at 4:39 pm #

    well here’s the next step in europe’s cultural suicide, mass rapes in germany in broad daylight.

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/04/revealed-1000-migrants-brawl-rape-sexually-assault-steal-one-german-train-station-new-years-eve/

    of course, must be White men’s fault.

    this is hell in realtime, courtesy of liberal ‘policy’

    • BackRowHeckler January 4, 2016 at 10:13 pm #

      pretty much the end of Europe, similar to the 5th century went Rome went down. Visigoths, Vandals, Huns, Rome invited all them in, too, just like Angela ‘Burkha’ Merkel invited in the Muzzies.

      brh

  42. Beryl of Oyl January 4, 2016 at 5:27 pm #

    China can keep going selling plastic junk as long as we keep importing ‘migrants’ to buy the stuff. If they can’t find work we give them the money they need. Why else is there so a divide between the American people and the politicians of both parties, on this one issue (immigration)? They don’t dare slow it down to help Americans find employment, it’s all that’s propping up the economy.
    I’m not supposed to notice this, or say so, that means I’m “xenophobic” according to the official state religion of PC.

    • uslabor January 6, 2016 at 12:43 am #

      Xenophobic? It sounds like your more delusional than xenophobic.

  43. FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2016 at 6:15 pm #

    “The entire Middle East has turned into a war zone and we’re at the verge of direct military confrontation with Russia, courtesy of a Saudi/Iranian war.” == Cheesewhiz

    US and Russia ganged together against the sheiks

    If you look at a map of the region, it is obvious: Russia will turn ISIS from the coast and the north, where there is currently a very fierce fighting between government troops, ISIS, the Syrian opposition, Kurds to the south, but not in the direction of Damascus, from which they will be pushed out towards Palmyra and on, and towards the western border of Iraq, where they will be met by Iraq and Iran.

    And ISIS will have only one way – to Saudi Arabia! Home, sweet home!

    All this time was going bargaining and mutual pressure between Russia and the West against each other, including in Libya, Egypt, Syria and Ukraine.

    Then, after the entry of Russia to Syria, loomed very interesting “squiggle” – there was some configuration that allowed in a consistent manner and to the mutual satisfaction of Russia and the United States to resolve existing problems and to agree on global matters.

    But as they agreed, unleashing war between the two “sworn friends” (Saudis and Iran) proved to be a matter of just two days (!).

    Not a bad combination.

    By the way, Americans have an iron-clad excuse – in fact according to the official version of 9/11 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudis. That should return the favor.

    And Russia will return the favor for all the Wahhabi terrorist nutcases, which for many years were drinking Russian blood.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2016 at 6:44 pm #

      “Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United States and Europe – all are completely indifferent to ISIS. Nobody seems to have any interest in destroying it” == me

      Now it’s clear why Russia and United States had no interest in destroying the ISIS fighters – they were saving them for the sheiks!

      Speaking of poetic justice!

    • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2016 at 6:46 pm #

      By the way, your TV picture will catch up with real events in the World, just give it some time.

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:41 pm #

        Like the Boston Bombing. Events that were known about by some before they happen on TV. Sometime TV does indeed catch up!

  44. Frankiti January 4, 2016 at 7:18 pm #

    Jim even tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek believes that some black ops military/intelligence cabal is around that will take out Trump?

    Sorry Jim, but that country you said won’t be worth caring about is here. It has been here for some time. The people that cared, well, they met their ends through firings, reassignments, scandals and forced retirements.

    Perhaps we wouldn’t be this far into a truly imperial presidency if they had not been.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 4, 2016 at 7:47 pm #

      In the US, Donald Trump represents the conservative-patriotic part of society, who really is a bit like Mussolini, and before him was headed by Barack Obama and George(s) Bush.

      And the liberal-Nazi Party is led by Hillary Clinton since the time of the Watergate revolution.

      It is in this sense the famous photo of assassination of Osama-bin-Laden, that was published on Barack Obama’s order, who was preparing an operation in Pakistan without the knowledge of Hillary Clinton and invited her to the Situation Room at the last moment when the helicopters were ready to depart, and the operation was in its final stage and it was impossible to hide it from the neocons, in the hope that in front of everybody, she will not be able to call bin-Laden or Bandar bin Sultan, and warn them about impending raid.

      http://static.infowars.com/2012/04/i/general/Situation-Room-phony-bin-laden-raid.jpg

    • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:39 pm #

      The dark forces of the deep state dark side would take out Bernie in a heartbeat but not Trump. Trump can be used. They would tell Trump what the score is and he will play along like the second coming of Ronnie RayGun. Trump is only despicable and is no threat to the established order. Trump does not use the ‘S’ word.

  45. BackRowHeckler January 4, 2016 at 9:22 pm #

    I was watching the Nightly Business Report this evening on PBS after dinner, and despite the rather large selloff today in the markets, a whole line of financial experts and economists appeared stating the US economy is strong and robust, and the year ahead is bright. Not one issue Jim wrote about today was addressed or mentioned. It seems like we can ride the line of BS, self deception and fraud right to the end of the rainbow, where a pot of gold sits just waiting to be claimed.

    brh

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    • ozone January 5, 2016 at 1:01 pm #

      LOL!
      (We know that what waits at the lend of that rainbow is an overflowing *chamber*pot, but don’t tell anyone. 😉 )

  46. BackRowHeckler January 4, 2016 at 9:27 pm #

    Hey Finca, how about a comment on the friction between Iran and KSA.

    Will Russia come to Iran’s aid if a shooting war erupts? Its interesting that Iran is armed up with Russian weapons and equipment, and KSA is brandishing weapons from the US. We might get to see how they match up with one another before the month is out.

    brh

  47. SomeoneInAsia January 4, 2016 at 10:21 pm #

    ***Kim Jong-Un ends up as a lounge singer in Macao.***

    This was so hilarious, I laughed until my sides hurt. XD

    • uslabor January 6, 2016 at 12:45 am #

      Really?

  48. Q. Shtik January 4, 2016 at 10:44 pm #

    “My auditors derive no end of mirth from my attempts to predict the stock markets each year. So, to add to their enjoyment, I’ll be even more precise this time around. I predict that the S & P will top on January 15, 2016, at 2142, and then crumple below 1000 by June.” – JHK

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

    Even starting from the 12/31/15 S&P 500 close it would have been a tall order for the index to gain 98.06 points (4.8%) in 10 trading days to reach 2142 on 1/15/16, but after today’s debacle (down 31.28 points) it is all that much more difficult. It would require a 6.4% gain in just 9 trading days.

    And even if it reached 2142 in mid-January it would then need to drop more than 53% in 5.5 months to reach Jim’s second goal (under 1000). This would be a greater percentage decline than the May 2008 to March 2009 decline and would have to occur in half the time. Barring a nuclear detonation over some major US city, I don’t see this happening.

    Thus I don’t think these are serious predictions and accordingly Jim’s mention of our mirth.

    • uslabor January 6, 2016 at 12:46 am #

      Agreed.

  49. bobwise32952 January 4, 2016 at 11:05 pm #

    Nice post– a complete list of those serious problems that didn’t go away when the big ball dropped in Times Square. Who could predict what will come of these various messes? Perhaps you make your predictions mainly to add some suspense to what would otherwise be a recap.
    I noticed one nit:”.45 ACP” is the cartridge, not the pistol that fires it, even though the acronym stands for “Automatic Colt Pistol.” Pistol and cartridge were adopted by the Army in 1911. They were famous for making Moro warriors fall backward when hit, rather than falling forward, sword in hand, to slash their killers.

    • BackRowHeckler January 5, 2016 at 12:06 am #

      Not too many know about that ‘Moro War’, where General Pershing earned his bars, our first adventure against Muslim Insurgency, second actually if you count the Barbary Pirates.

      Pershing, Leonard Wood, Patton, George Marshall, MacArthur, Collins … they all fought the fanatical Juramentados on the Philippine Island of Luzon.

      “Krag ’em and bag ’em!”

      brh

  50. beantownbill. January 4, 2016 at 11:18 pm #

    JHK, your ascerbic commentary is always a pleasure to read. I can’t disagree with you because talking about the future is always problematic.

    Can we really blame Americans for being lazy and entitled and ignoring reality? After all, the middle-class has been well-off since WW2 compared to the rest of the world, at least until relatively recently. No wonder we are spoiled – and with the indulgence afforded us to engage in quotidian fantasy, the national brain power has atrophied considerably.

    Economic issues can be summed up simply: No one can spend more than they take in without ultimately destroying their financial life; that’s elementary school Econ 101. Why this state of affairs has come about is the more complicated part.

    Politically, corruption of the politicians by powerful interests has reached such an extreme that it doesn’t matter if the public knows about it or not. The result is an apathetic and demoralized populace which still feels a residual duty to vote, so they listlessly pencil in a candidate mostly by party affiliation, because to do otherwise requires the application of mental energy, which apparently is in short supply, what with all the tweeting, texting and computer game playing.

    Finally, I agree with Jim about Bernie the S. Decent guy willing to fight the good fight, but whose political philosophy

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    • beantownbill. January 4, 2016 at 11:24 pm #

      …philosophy is 180 degrees from reality – socialism is far too advanced for people at this stage of human social evolution. Forcibly taking money away from citizens and giving it to others just doesn’t make it in this world.

      • K-Dog January 4, 2016 at 11:30 pm #

        Maybe the plan is to just take it away and not give it to anybody!

        • Walter B January 5, 2016 at 12:08 am #

          Now you’re talking! The useless parasites at the top will let all of those of us that have marketable skills and talents below them do all of the work and create all of the value so they can siphon it off and live the high life at our expense. One of the problems that the American Experiment has brought to light is that in the giant game of Monopoly that we are all in, those who own the good stuff, those who have the stockpiles of cash, will always be able to utilize those assets to not only control the game, but to bankrupt any of the small players out there. Eventually everything gets owned by the Big Boys and everybody else sucks wind. Then we pray for collapse, but will it ever come? Can the endless slow burn torment go on forever? Damn, I hope not. For death, even the death of just a system brings blessed relief.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

        Read my post about social credit below. There is a strong input of National Socialism, but without the elimination or banning of Capitalism, which of course is natural. People wouldn’t have to work, but of course most would want to supplement their stipend and having a job would continue to be a status symbol. None of the good things about Capitalism would go, but only the really bad things, of which there are many. Ditto about Socialism.

  51. dweebus January 5, 2016 at 12:51 am #

    What a fun read. It is easy to pick apart and laugh at all the predictions. They are all wrong until one day…they aren’t.

    “One is that the previous round of $100-plus oil did a lot of permanent damage to the economy, in particular to small businesses and households (i.e. middle-class workers). That damage looks more and more permanent, meaning a smaller aggregate economy and still-shrinking demand base as businesses and citizens go broke and stay broke.”

    And here we cut to the chase. It is the slow, ragged, relentless decline of the MC that drives much of our discord. We thought it (growth) was a permanent condition. Now the rug was pulled from under our feet. We don’t know why and search for scapegoats.

    As to the Trumpistas, if he should win the election (a possibility at this point), would the Electoral College give it to him? They are not required to vote as their state did.

    My daughter says you are being unfair to reptiles. They don’t want HC either. 🙂

    As to ACC, I went through my grieving a few years ago. Paris COP21 is inconsequential. The Die Is Cast!

  52. HowardBeale January 5, 2016 at 1:13 am #

    “Think: lawlessness, banditry, gangster autarky, neo-serfdom. Sounds harsh…”

    Think: Dentistry without novocaine…

    • MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 1:37 am #

      @ HowardBeale:

      I really do not envy Ukrainians at this juncture. Such a pity.

  53. KL Cooke January 5, 2016 at 1:33 am #

    Good writing, Jim. Sums it up better than anything I’ve read to date.

  54. MisterDarling January 5, 2016 at 2:06 am #

    I READ Mister Kunstler’s prediction post with interest, and a growing sense as I neared it’s end that something was missing. I found that ‘something’ in the discussion thread at: [swmnguyJanuary 4, 2016 at 1:42 pm]. Do yourself a treat and check it. Here are the items in today’s uplifting & gentle missive to the masses that caught my eye:

    “In fact, the art of evasion has taken the place of what used to be called honor. We live in a low time that honors only low men.”-J H K.

    This simply captures the essence of the age we live in. Every dog has their day and every type of person has theirs. There’s a time & place for “low men” – generally at the end of a lifecycle, when those in ownership prioritize ‘loyalty’ (or a soothing facsimile) and the kind of ‘competence’ that gets the results they want to see – never-mind *how*. I’m completely over feeling resentful about this situation. I saw how the story ends in Afghanistan, and I must admit that it soothed me with a certain frosty tranquility…

    “Gold and silver continued their four-year swoon thanks to repeated massive wee hour dumps of futures contracts before the traders in New York even got out of bed. The charts conclusively show this shady activity, raising the question: why would any seller want to hugely undercut the price of what he seeks to sell by selling into a market where no buyers are present… or even awake? The answer seems to be: to make the dollar appear more firm than it really is.”-J H K.

    I’m glad that JHK brought this up – not for the sake of encouraging people to buy precious metals, simply to point out how obvious price discovery has been suppressed for 30 years – first in silver, and since the Spring of 2013 also gold. It’s blatant, and it shows just how far we are from experiencing anything like a ‘free market’. I doubt there’s anyone still working who has – outside of the black market.

    “We’re at the mercy of a pretty basic equation: oil over $75-a-barrel destroys industrial economies; oil under $75-a-barrel destroys oil companies. There is no “just right” Goldilocks place on the gradient.”-J H K.

    This is a simple and true statement. I’m interested in the way that discussing _demand destruction_ is avoided or downplayed by JHK and the CFN Commentariat, but further exploration of that will keep. [*]

    Regarding JHK’s assessment of France, Germany, the UK, PIIGS & Greater Eurasia: I found it interesting, amusing and reasonably accurate.

    Now – in the interest of personal accountability I’ll review what I was saying would happen one year ago, and what actually happened.

    1.
    A year ago _Finca in the Mountains_ and I had this exchange:

    >>“Well, I presume your data is coming from extremely objective and trustworthy American press that have no interest in putting down the main economic rival.”-fitm.

    >>“Nope, not entirely. I know capital-flight when I see it. There’s been an exodus of cash in large amounts to all parts of the world for the past ten years at least. In my experience there are only two real reasons why people migrate en masse: 1) Starvation, 2) Mortal Terror… Since China’s wealth-concentrating elite isn’t starving (not by a long-shot) we understand that there’s an *expectation* of mortal threat to come… Wouldn’t it be funny if the weakest link in the G20 was *everybody*?”-MD.

    What actually happened? Well, China did redline and meltdown – and now a lot of former high-rollers are disappearing. I guess there was a very good reason for that capital to take flight: the smarter, warier Chinese investors got while the getting was good.

    2.
    Regarding Ukraine:

    >>[Regarding Ukraine] “By Xmas they figured out that they’d been de-prioritized and left to dangle in the breeze by the State Dept… And there they will stay. Their fifteen minutes is up.”-MD.

    And so it was, and is. The action moved on to more important areas of the world.

    3.
    Regarding Oil:

    In February and March of 2015 I said that the price collapsed because Demand for it had, which spoke volumes about the state of everything else in the real economy. I also said that it would ratchet up into the 60’s, then drop lower, and it did (into the 40’s) and then did again into the 30’s, which is where it is now. I agree that we can expect it to go lower.

    Wow! Maybe I’m good at this stuff! [/s] It doesn’t take a crystal ball. What I said was based on the time, resource and *infrastructural wherewithal* burn-rate, minus any wishful thinking. That is all.

    What did I get wrong last year? The Greek elections and the result. Once again the democratically expressed will of the voter was trampled. Obviously someone sat Tsipras and his cabinet down… And that was that.

    Which was really too bad for Germany and the Troika, because months later that same un-funded country was in no shape to stem or control the flood of refugees using it as a springboard.

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] It’s not just the BDI, SCFI & CASS international shipping indices, it’s also the American Rail and trucking industry stats. In addition, commodities (steel, coal, copper, etc.) flat-lined. Beyond that there’s the import tariff the US recently slapped on steel from China – because they’re liquidating their overstock… Because no one is buying at or above the breakeven price. So it turns out that price discovery can’t be postponed forever… Whodathunk!

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 5, 2016 at 5:57 am #

      @MD, You ARE good at this stuff!

      And lots of other stuff, too–history, philosophy, geo-politics, military tactics/strategy and more! All delivered with grace, wit and humor.

      Hope 2016 is good to you and yours. -Sticks

      • MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 1:27 am #

        Many Thanks Sticks!

        And to you and yours, with vigilant optimism (and a little bit of luck).

        Cheers!

  55. Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 2:09 am #

    Isolationism and Self Sufficiency as a Nation, Eugenics, and Social Credit – the keys to a Higher Civilization, one of leisure, beauty, health, pleasure, and the search for knowledge. After all the conquest of nature was supposed to be about making things god for everyone. And “good” means freedom from necessity and want leading to the positive freedom to do some of things you want to do. Needless to say, that takes responsibility and a high level of social capital, the kind that only comes from homogeneity.

    http://www.counter-currents.com/2015/12/money-for-nothing-3/

    The insights here parallel in a less manic form those put forward by Tobor, the Eight Ape of yesteryear. Or we can just keep rich, selfish vulgarians sell us junk – including our own currency. Believe it or not, we shouldn’t have to buy our own money.

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  56. FincaInTheMountains January 5, 2016 at 2:27 am #

    “Will Russia come to Iran’s aid if a shooting war erupts?” == brh

    I don’t see it that way. What I see is a joint American-Russian-Iranian anti-terrorist operation (ATO) that will push ISIS militants out of Syria and Iraq into Saudi Arabia, splitting Saudi Arabia into 3 parts – The Holy Muslim State with Mecca and Medina, the Sunni part and the Shia part with subsequent mopping up the remains of the ISIS.

    But look at the bright side. I guess American kids and grand kids won’t be saddled with debts owned tho the sheiks.

    You guys are totally missing the big picture – Putin and Obama are on the same team (at least for now) and they have a bigger fish to fry – a managed reset of the Global Financial dollar pyramid that threatens to bury the world’s economy.

    Obama and his FinControl armed with FATCA law (The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) from US side and Putin and his FSB from the Russian side are managing the processes.

    And now that:

    The UN Security Council resolution 2253, sponsored by the United States and the Russian Federation, and co-sponsored by a broad array of Governments, covers asset freeze, travel ban, arms embargo and listing criteria for ISIL, Al-Qaida and “associated individuals, groups, undertaking and entities” — measures that the Council decided it would review in 18 months or sooner, with a view to their possible strengthening.

    http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12168.doc.htm

  57. Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 6:44 am #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/mass-cologne-sex-attack-1000-attackers/

    Rape gang 1000 strong, all Muslim. The new normal. What madness has come over Western Man? It is found in Political Correctness, a unique kind of madness masquerading as convoluted idealism. Everything you believe is wrong until you renounce it. That’s why you must vote Trump – for your sanity and very existence. It’s not complicated. Until you get well, all your complicated theories just serve your masochistic complex of winning by losing. Keep it simple, stupid. Borders, Country, Jobs, etc. We matter, minorities don’t. That’s mental health on a social/societal level.

    • malthuss January 6, 2016 at 12:31 pm #

      The cover of [Bilderberg] ‘The Economist’ predicted the story, right?

  58. fodase January 5, 2016 at 10:25 am #

    http://news.yahoo.com/germany-stunned-rash-years-sex-assaults-132433588.html;_ylt=AwrC1zHqyotWHRQAeavQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByNXM5bzY5BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMzBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg–

    german politicians are ‘stunned’ by coordinated muslim gang rapes, stunned by it!

    HAHAHAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa….

    [b – i – g s u c k i n airrrrrrrr…]

    HAHAHAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa….

    gotta love the quote from one who said “this has nothing to do with where they’re from”!!!!

  59. nsa January 5, 2016 at 10:55 am #

    Ground Floor Business Opportunity: a new porn franchise could be very popular all over the western world……Muzzies Gone Wild. Slutty western women demand to be gang raped by roving bands of illiterate muzzies while their lib boyfriends and husbands look on and applaud…..all live streamed by netflix. There could even be a San Francisco version with effeminate males replacing the girls…..

    • CrusherMuldoon January 5, 2016 at 11:40 am #

      Sounds better than Nude Dues At The Bar Nothing Ranch

      • elysianfield January 6, 2016 at 7:48 pm #

        “Sounds better than Nude Dues At The Bar Nothing Ranch”

        Was that the flic directed by the great Mexican film director “Juan Tibonya’?

  60. Q. Shtik January 5, 2016 at 12:38 pm #

    Where is wpa-ccc?

    Perhaps in the midst of an e-conference with his handlers on this week’s talking points?

    Maybe I can draw him out and stir the pot………take a look at this NYT article:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/world/middleeast/q-and-a-how-do-sunni-and-shia-islam-differ.html?_r=0

    Being the typical American shlub that I am, I don’t know a Sunni from a Shia from third base. And so this article was of interest to me. I DO like to learn new things.

    Among certain facts I picked up (for example that 85% of 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide are Sunni) was that Muhammad’s body had barely cooled in the year of his death, 632, before the assassinations began over who was to be his rightful successor. This would be the equivalent in the U.S. of a Methodist deacon murdering a Presbyterian pastor. Or, on a purely political level, having John Adams rub out Thomas Jefferson.

    An update to this very day, 1384 years and oceans of blood subsequent, shows a Shiite cleric in Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia having been one of 47 people in a mass execution (not sure but I think they were beheaded) and his crime was outspokenness, i.e. he gave speeches allegedly “inciting violence against the state” (here in the US we call that freedom of speech).

    But wpa will remind us that “Islam is a religion of peace”.

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    • ozone January 5, 2016 at 1:21 pm #

      Q.,.
      Very funny and enjoyable provocation there! 😀
      Perhaps he’s been reassigned. His handlers must have noted (while gazing through our web-cams) that eyes were running on by his postings as soon as the moniker was recognized. The scrolling, oh the horrid scrolling; there must be a way to prevent that for the good of the country’s morale. 😉

      • wpa_ccc January 5, 2016 at 6:33 pm #

        “Perhaps he’s been reassigned.” –ozone

        Funny, ozone! Maybe I have been promoted by my “handlers”?

        • S M Tenneshaw January 7, 2016 at 10:53 pm #

          Hey, if I knew Chelsea Handler I wouldn’t spend much time here either.

  61. fodase January 5, 2016 at 1:08 pm #

    Where is wpa-ccc?

    Too funny Q! I was just thinking the same thing!

    I think heshe is sputtering attempting to find hisher defense of the religion of peace…..

    all we hear is how islam is so peaceful……

    ….after every islamic atrocity

    where are all the pro-women libs on this one?

    even the NWO can’t keep the lid on this stuff….

    oh they’ll try, under the guise of net neutrality etc.

    laughable

  62. volodya January 5, 2016 at 1:41 pm #

    IMO the raging insurrection at Europe’s south-eastern edge will be the story. Sunni vs Shia has been a centuries old fire in that giant garbage heap of Islamic dysfunction.

    Can’t get out of tribal mode, can’t accept modern science, can’t ignore mad mullahs, can’t think outside particular sectarian views of a 1400 year old book.

    In that neck of the woods it’s can’t, can’t, can’t. Can’t they maybe accept that the inferior West has some good ideas?

    Nope, can’t. Modernize finance? Nope, can’t. Modernize governance? Nope, can’t. Modernize education? Nope, can’t.

    It’s un-Islamic. They’d sooner eat pigs. End of discussion.

    Who was Mohammed’s true successor? Who gives a shit. No, seriously, why does it matter? Mohammed last walked the Earth 1400 years ago. It’s been fourteen centuries. Time to give it a rest.

    Negotiate? Nope, can’t, only pussies negotiate.

    So should a gringo bother telling the locals what’s what? Would it do any good? But look at it like this, they’re in a box and they can’t get out. So here it is, for starters, this Arab-Persian squabble is all about power and money. Power and money, nothing more. Now go at it. Too many morons in those desert hills. Time to cull the gene pool.

    It’s the Arab and Persian princes and their uncountable oil billions funding this. I wish I had guns to sell them. I mean, somebody’s making money off this disaster. Why can’t it be me? Or is being an arms-dealer, even a small-time seller in the world-wide guns bazaar, beyond the pale? No, can’t go there, can’t take dirty money, what was I thinking.

    And soon the oil runs out.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 5, 2016 at 2:55 pm #

      Hirshi Ali, the brave and beautiful defector from Islam is willing to admit all these things – and preach them to her Somali country men. But she wants Europe to stay open to more and more Somalis and Muslims in general, even when there is no guarantee whatsoever that they will change. Thus in the last analysis, she is not on the side of the West but rather on the side of her own people. Anyone willing to gamble with our heritage and our lives is not our friend

  63. volodya January 5, 2016 at 1:43 pm #

    Ozone, the TV pundits all say that people aren’t really focusing on the election so don’t get fussed about Trump.

    And, besides, Jeb speaks Spanish, he’s got a Mexican wife, brown-skinned kids, all the things that should make him Latino friendly. His bro picked up over 40% of the Hispanic vote if I remember right and his Spanish wasn’t good. So Jeb ought to do better.

    So, after the auditions are done, maybe it really will be Rodan vs Jeb. Maybe Jeb with all his Oligarch money really will be the nominee.

    In any case, as you say, whether one or the other is in the Big Chair, what the hell difference will it make.

  64. Q. Shtik January 5, 2016 at 3:36 pm #

    ……….and the discharged construction carpenters and roofers drove back to Minnesota ahead of the re-po men coming for their Ford F-110s. Sad, I know…” – Neon Vincent quoting from JHK’s blog post

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

    I don’t think any F110s have been built for many years but I was unable to determine this for certain using Google. I think maybe Jim was thinking of F150s.

  65. Q. Shtik January 5, 2016 at 4:00 pm #

    and patronizing dribble. – Seawolf

    =========

    Google “dribble vs drivel.”

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    • seawolf77 January 5, 2016 at 4:52 pm #

      Thanks

  66. BackRowHeckler January 5, 2016 at 4:08 pm #

    Even tho the girls raped in Cologne on New Years Eve were native German and the gang rapists spoke Arabic and looked like Arabs, Angela ‘Burkha’ Merkel warned Germans not to jump to any conclusions.

    Gentlemen, in more plain-spoken times, this is what used to be called ‘Soldiers Pay’.

    brh

    • MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 1:45 am #

      And Germany is “shocked” that this is the result of throwing open the doors to a stream of refugees that’s over 60% young unaccompanied males… Well, any wakeup-call is as good as any.

  67. Q. Shtik January 5, 2016 at 4:45 pm #

    “Hitler let the Jews leave with their wealth,” – Janos

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

    “‘We’ offered them Madagascar but, NO, they had to have Palestine.” – one of Janos’s more memorable/amusing lines from yesteryear ….. not that it’s inaccurate.

    I love the ‘we’ part.

    • seawolf77 January 5, 2016 at 4:53 pm #

      It’s not true. There was a 90% Exit Tax. That’s why most stayed.

      • K-Dog January 5, 2016 at 11:54 pm #

        seawolf77

        I read Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander which you referenced a few weeks ago.

        You were right, Mander and I do have similar ideas. To see some of my own ideas elaborated on in more detail was very good. Mander’s conclusions are quite valid though the arguments he used in his book need to be updated to reflect our times. Times have changed a lot since 1977 but Manders’s conclusions apply to our video world.

        Technology is shaping us and moving us into totalitarianism. Video destroys the rational mind and turns people into passive spectators; hollow shells of humanity who are unable to think for themselves. Video has and is creating emotional adolescents of us and now we are unable to deal with our future in part because of what technology has done to us. Technology is much to blame for our predicament.

        Few are aware of what is going on. The situation is similar to the link between cigarettes and lung cancer before the Surgeons Generals report was ever published. People were putting themselves at risk and did not know it.

        Thanks for the recommendation.

      • elysianfield January 7, 2016 at 5:39 pm #

        “It’s not true. There was a 90% Exit Tax. That’s why most stayed.”

        There was one segment of the old Jack Benny show where he was accosted by an armed thief with the demand…”Your money or your life!…Jack Benny was silent for several beats, and the thief demanded…”WELL”? To which, Jack Benny responded…”I’m Thinking about it!”.

  68. BackRowHeckler January 5, 2016 at 4:45 pm #

    Its worse than I thought. Apparently there were thousands of these NAfrican ‘migrants’ storming thru the streets of Cologne assaulting any German female they could get their hands on.

    The question is, where are the German men?

    brh

    • San Jose January 5, 2016 at 5:12 pm #

      A troubling story and a good question.

      Jen in San Jose

    • ffkling January 5, 2016 at 6:22 pm #

      A systematic campaign of brainwashing the German people into becoming a population of self-haters explains why, for example, a German court recently ruled that Muslim Sharia Law enforcement police are permitted to condemn and apprehend Muslims not observing the letter of the law. From the BBC: “A German court ruled Dec. 10, 2015 that “Shariah police” can operate on city streets
      A German court has given the green light to “Shariah police” who “patrol” city streets in search of Islamic-law violators. A judge ruled Thursday that Salafist men who were arrested in Wuppertal, Germany, in September 2014 did nothing wrong when they harangued passers-by attempting to enter clubs, casinos and bars. Members of the Islamic group wore vests with “Sharia police” printed across the back and carried “Sharia Controlled Zone” signs”.
      Even bestiality is a permitted behavior (why are there no rights afforded to the innocent and defenseless non-human animals).

      • MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 1:50 am #

        As I’ve been told many times by German friends, instructors & acquaintances: whatever the Germans do they do “200%”…

        Beware the backlash hostile Muslim immigrants & don’t say that you weren’t warned.

    • K-Dog January 6, 2016 at 12:09 am #

      German men – Watching and spanking the monkey?

      .
      .
      .

      There was only one alleged rape and a number of assaults. Probably copping of feels I suspect. Perhaps the drama was not ‘as worse as you thought’ and the reports are more a result of emotional tensions the refugee situation has produced than anything else. There seems to be little detail and with widespread violence there certainly would be.

      If there were a lot of women that were indeed violently assaulted there would be pictures. They do have cell phones in Cologne don’t they?

      You exaggerate the numbers.

  69. Q. Shtik January 5, 2016 at 5:53 pm #

    WPA’s latest favorite thing is to tweak NSA for his bullish call on the dollar and specifically UUP as the preferred investment/speculation vehicle.

    What NSA said in the morning of Nov 27, 2015 was “As predicted, the dollar has taken off again (long UUP). Get on board….the U$D express is leaving the station.”

    The average share price of UUP that day was $26.04. A few days later it began a downward swoon but in recent days has been recovering and closed at $25.84 today for a net decline of 20 cents over the 40 day period.

    I’ll let you be the judge whether NSA was rash when saying “the U$D express is leaving the station.”

    It DOES show that making predictions, as Yogi said, is very hard “especially about the future.” There is a lesson in this tale for our host.

  70. wpa_ccc January 5, 2016 at 6:13 pm #

    “I’ll let you be the judge whether NSA was rash when saying “the U$D express is leaving the station.” –Q

    We have waited 40 days in the UUP station, waiting for the train to leave the station when nsa said it would. 40 days. After such a waith, it is not “rash” to judge nsa.

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  71. wpa_ccc January 5, 2016 at 6:52 pm #

    “Forcibly taking money away from citizens and giving it to others just doesn’t make it in this world.” –beantownbill

    Who is proposing “forcibly taking money”? Bernie is proposing a 50-cent tax on every $100 of stock trades on stock sales, and lesser amounts on transactions involving bonds, derivatives, and other financial instruments. Don’t want to pay the tax? Don’t engage in high frequency trading.

    Bernie’s Robin Hood tax would slow the growth of automated high frequency trading, which makes the stock market more dangerous. A small tax would make risky HFT unprofitable, and help reduce the excess speculation on commodities like food and gas that drives up prices, which will protect the economy from computer-generated collapses and market manipulation.

    Besides, upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich. These redistributions are hidden inside the market. The only way to stop them is to prevent big corporations and Wall Street banks from rigging the market.

    For example, Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than do the citizens of any other developed nation. That’s partly because it’s perfectly legal in the U.S. (but not in most other nations) for the makers of branded drugs to pay the makers of generic drugs to delay introducing cheaper unbranded equivalents after patents on the brands have expired.

    This costs you and me an estimated $3.5 billion a year — a hidden upward redistribution of our incomes to Pfizer, Merck and other big proprietary drug companies, their executives and major shareholders.

    We also pay more for Internet service than do the inhabitants of any other developed nation. The average cable bill in the United States increases by 5 percent or more annually, nearly triple the rate of inflation.

    Why? Because about 80 percent of us have no choice of Internet service provider, which allows providers to charge us more.
    Internet service here costs 3½ times more than it does in France, for example, where the typical customer can choose among seven providers.

    Likewise, the interest we pay on home mortgages or college loans is higher than it would be if the big banks that now dominate the financial industry had to work harder to get our business.

    As recently as 2000, America’s five largest banks held 25 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Now they hold 44 percent — which gives them a lock on many such loans.

    If we can’t repay, forget using bankruptcy. Donald Trump can go bankrupt four times and walk away from his debts, but the bankruptcy code doesn’t allow homeowners or graduates to reorganize unmanageable debts.

    So beleaguered homeowners and graduates don’t have any bargaining leverage with creditors — exactly what the financial industry wants.
    The net result: another hidden upward redistribution — this one from us to the big banks, their executives and major shareholders.

    Why have food prices been rising faster than inflation, while crop prices are now at a six-year low?

    Because the giant corporations that process food have the power to raise prices. Four food companies control 82 percent of beef packing, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of pork packing and 53 percent of chicken processing.

    Result: a redistribution from average consumers to Big Agriculture.

    Upward redistribution is the order of the day. I suppose we could not buy medicine, not get an education, not buy a house, not eat, etc. and avoid socialism for the rich. But the 99% are “forced” to pay outrageous prices for basic necessities and the redistribution upward increases the wealth gap between rich and poor. Bernie just wants to level the playing field a little bit.

    • Buck Stud January 5, 2016 at 7:40 pm #

      Absolutely outstanding post WPA, the BEST post of the week thus far, IMO.

      And try to ignore the Miller Moths flopping dirty wings and obscuring the reading light.

      Bravo!

      • wpa_ccc January 5, 2016 at 8:50 pm #

        Thank you, Buck Stud. 🙂

      • BackRowHeckler January 6, 2016 at 6:50 am #

        Hey Buck, I’m a little puzzled, how could an independent artist like yourself, in essence a ‘small businessman’, who lives by his own talent and hard work, back redistribution and socialism? What does it mean to you but higher taxes on the commissions you get when you sell your sculptures, and parasites living off your labor?

        brh

        • malthuss January 6, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

          Like, wow.

          After 100 years of BIG GOV, who but gov workers and welfare check cashers could be for it?

        • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 2:50 pm #

          He works in an office now and just does the art on the weekends. The mighty have fallen. Kali Yuga is really bearing down on us.

    • dvautier January 6, 2016 at 12:58 am #

      Yes, Senator Rand Paul is the best option for President in 2016. I give money to his campaign every month. Do you contribute to the campaign for the person that you say is the best choice for President? I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. Are you? The rest of your post, under “Homeland Frolics”, is right on the money, with one great exception. You wish that the NSA and the military would get together and scare Donald Trump so badly that he would choose to drop out. Now, you know that there is no way to scare Donald Trump out of running for President. You know that you are putting “assassination” on your wish list. I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to put your thinking cap on. The question is: what kind of country do you get when you have government by assassination? That’s right, a country governed by tyranny. Think China and the Gang of Four. Think Russia and Lenin and Stalin. Think Banana Republics. You do all your other excellent posts a disservice when you recommend government by assassination. You do your readers a disfavor. You do the United States a disfavor. Trump has never recommended government by assassination. You have. Who has the more muddled thinking, you or Donald Trump? Is your thinking cap still on?

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 2:53 pm #

        Well said. Trump is an alpha unreconstructed White Man – exactly what we need right now. And of course the Establishment hates him and wants to keep driving towards the cliff at 120 mph.

  72. fodase January 5, 2016 at 7:13 pm #

    well wpa_CCC, what say you about the mass 1000+ muslim coordinated rapes in germany?

    we know from previous lessons that this has *nothing* to do with islam, so what’s the deal then?

  73. nsa January 5, 2016 at 8:43 pm #

    Awkward entries and graceless exits are the hallmarks of this kind of gambling. UUP stop set at 25.0 below support. Added to the position at 25.50. The dollar index should make it to 120 in 2016 (roughly UUP 30). Also, gold to $860, silver below $10, and oil spike down to $20. Place your bets when sober, no leverage, and always use stops…….

  74. Pucker January 5, 2016 at 9:21 pm #

    What do you think about the Xiong Nu barbarians to the North against whom it was necessary for Qin Dynasty General Meng Tian to join different existing sections of wall to create the Great Wall. Emperor Qin said: “Build that Wall!”

    • MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 2:01 am #

      They probably were the progenitors of the Huns and Turks? That their descendants tore a swathe of destruction westward across thousands of miles of steppe, Asia Minor, the Bosporus and delivered a ‘booty call’ up the Danube River Valley? That they very likely displaced the Scythians from their ancestral steppe homeland? That the Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan/Pakistan are probably descended from those ancient refugee Scythians?

  75. trypillian January 5, 2016 at 10:12 pm #

    I’m delighted to hear the state of the nation is expiriencing what amounts to a proverbial dead cat bounce. The flawed Yankee logic of solutions provided with the fewest moving parts the better, has inevitably given up the ghost. It is reasonable to assume rigor mortus will coalesce at any time. The buzzards are circling.

    If only you could do something about the pesky quadrillion dollar derivatives snake oil……

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  76. Q. Shtik January 5, 2016 at 10:54 pm #

    How does “pretty much everyone” explain the warming of the other planets in the solar system that is happening concurrently? – Messianic

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

    This is something new to me. I have never heard this before. Please provide your source(s).

  77. KL Cooke January 5, 2016 at 11:39 pm #

    “My one wild-hair prediction about China for 2016: after Kim Jong-Un pulls some bonehead move against his neighbor to the south, China invades North Korea and installs a more rational management regime there. Kim Jong-Un ends up as a lounge singer in Macao.”

    Looks like NK tested their new Hydrogen Bomb today. This could make for some good TV. While the electronics last, that is.

    • MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 2:16 am #

      @ KL Cooke:

      Vietnam invaded Cambodia back in 1979 and put an end to Pol Pot’s reign, so there is a precedent. Maybe China will do humanity a solid and stop the madness in nK? Here’s hoping!

      (Tang Il!)

      Cheers!

  78. PeteAtomic January 6, 2016 at 12:13 am #

    Here is a very prescient article for your perusal there, Mr. Jim,

    http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2015/12/30-saudi-arabia-economic-time-bomb-alkhatteeb

    A snippet from above article: “Two-thirds of the Saudi population – of 30.8 million – are under the age of 30. According to official statistics, the unemployment rate for Saudis aged 15 to 24 is 30 percent. A published paper by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2011 suggests that thirty-seven percent of all Saudis are 14-years-old or younger! Saudi Arabia needs to create at least 3 million new jobs by 2020.”

    LOL! Maybe they could all be put to digging holes in the sand for water. Just as good a use as any.

  79. uslabor January 6, 2016 at 12:48 am #

    “My opponents have not offered any useful counter-ideas beyond name-calling”

    I don’t remember calling Jim any names.

  80. K-Dog January 6, 2016 at 3:41 am #

    If you are going to predict the future lets have some panache!

    380 days until the inauguration of President Trump and Vice President Oprah.

    When Trump announces her as his choice Rodan the Flying Reptile will team up with Bernie as a last ditch effort to be his VP since we know it can’t happen the other way around. They will loose.

    You can pretend to the bitter end the election will make sense but that is exactly what you will be doing. Pretending to the bitter end.

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  81. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 5:31 am #

    The unbridled operation of the printing press in the Clinton era, must now be offset by a decrease in the standards of living and social security of the people who have not received a thousandth of the 20 to 30 trillion dollars, which have been printed at that time.

    And that money hit the pockets of a very few people who today do not want to part with a tenth of that figures sitting in their accounts and that does not mean anything but imaginary size of their dicks.

  82. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 6:12 am #

    It seems clear that the Bush Clan represents the interests of US citizens who through their citizenship are debtors, and the Clintons – the interests of the creditors of the United States.

    In order to understand it enough to take as a first approximation the US Federal debt expressed in physical terms, such as a barrels of Brent, and look at the chart:

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?height=480&width=800&id=GFDEBTN,DCOILBRENTEU_GFDEBTN,GFDEBTN_DCOILWTICO&scale=Left,Right,Right&range=Custom,Custom,Custom&cosd=1985-01-01,1985-01-01,1985-01-01&coed=2012-01-01,2012-07-24,2012-01-01&line_color=%230000ff,%23ff0000,%23006600&link_values=false,false,false&line_style=Solid,Solid,Solid&mark_type=NONE,NONE,NONE&mw=4,4,4&lw=2,2,2&ost=-99999,-99999,-99999&oet=99999,99999,99999&mma=0,0,0&fml=a,b%2Fa,a%2Fb&fq=Quarterly%2C+End+of+Period,Quarterly,Quarterly&fam=avg,avg,avg&fgst=lin,lin,lin&transformation=lin,lin_lin,lin_lin&vintage_date=2012-07-30,2012-07-30_2012-07-30,2012-07-30_2012-07-30&revision_date=2012-07-30,2012-07-30_2012-07-30,2012-07-30_2012-07-30

    However, $20 to $30 trillion has not gone away, even though their strength has been reduced by inflation to a certain ratio. They left the stock-markets to increasing property prices in full accordance with the cycles of business activity, known since the days of Carthage. Except for the Real Estate, they had nowhere to go – a further increase in oil prices would not only strengthened Russia, but could cause a dangerous slowdown in business activity.

    All charges on the issuance of subprime mortgages are just a smokescreen, because it was the only possible financial policy that allowed spreading over time the effects of the dot-com crisis.

  83. BackRowHeckler January 6, 2016 at 6:45 am #

    2016 is getting off to a rocky start, I’ll tell you what.

    Jim, I think you understated the gravity of the situation, but how could you have predicted NKorea detonating a Hydrogen bomb, a meltdown of world markets, and Iran and KSA on the brink of hostilities. And this is all within the past week.

    Incidentally, the assault of German women in Cologne and Stuttgart looks to be planned and coordinated (coordinated by who?) but in the European press is being framed as a ‘violence against women’ issue. The fact that the men were young newcomers from NAfrica is irrelevant. The press in Europe appears to be every bit as mendacious, obfuscating, lying POS as the press here in the US, and that’s saying something.

    brh

    • malthuss January 6, 2016 at 12:21 pm #

      Better the attacks on Whites happen now than later.

      That tnuc [spell that backwards] may be planning on bringing in another million ISIS guys.

  84. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 6:55 am #

    North Korea Says It Successfully Tested Hydrogen Nuclear Bomb

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/north-korea-nuclear-test_568c8085e4b0a2b6fb6dd21d

    The population of North Korea is 25 million, and this mountainous country has successfully overcome the difficulties associated with the extremely unfavorable conditions for the development of agriculture and now no one going hungry there, but on the contrary, North Korea successfully exports high-tech weaponry, as well as missile and nuclear technologies.

    Besides a couple of years ago, they announced the successful creation of experimental-industrial thermonuclear reactor, and if that’s true, then North Korea is probably the only country in the world where oil companies are not able to prevent the North Koreans to build on that success.

  85. venuspluto67 January 6, 2016 at 7:02 am #

    It’s worth noting that respected electoral politics forecaster Nate Silver gives Trump a 25% chance at most of winning the Republican nomination. He also forecasts that Trump is more likely to get the Republican nomination than Sanders is to get the Democratic nomination. As I said previously, Cruz is too much of a rhetorical bomb-thrower, so I foresee Rubio getting the Republican nomination.

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  86. BackRowHeckler January 6, 2016 at 7:04 am #

    Gentlemen, these are historic times; what you’re witnessing is the end of Western Civilization. What replaces it is an open question. It might not be to your liking, even you lefties out there.

    The Day of the Hyena is upon us.

    brh

    • FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 7:23 am #

      brh, stop whining like a Hyena and calling its days upon us. Bad omen.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 2:48 pm #

        You don’t understand. He’s fighting the normalcy bias both inside himself and the rest of us. We’ve had it so good we find it hard to believe how bad things are and how bad it’s going to get. And how bad the Establishment has screwed us over.

        As a Russian Jew, you are used to tragedy and blood, both your own and others. We haven’t seen it on our own shores for 150 years.

  87. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 9:19 am #

    Where are all fans and strategists for renewable energy? Solar energy adds 35 GW per year and currently holds about 1% of the global electricity generation. Wind is doing three times better – the leader is defined?

    The situation depends on the planning horizon. For example, the most famous science fiction writer meditates about the future of humanity in twelve thousand years, but it’s safe to say that there no space for wind power in a society described by him.

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

    Today, the most advanced “wind” state is Denmark, which produces from it almost half of its own power, but everyone usually silent, that in this country of 15,400 square miles they had to put 5,000 windmills. That is, each windmill, on average, has a square of 1.75 x 1.75 mile.

  88. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 10:04 am #

    Czech president Zeman: Mass migration organized by the Muslim Brotherhood

    Czech president says that migration is part of a planned gradual takeover of Europe

    In an interview broadcast live from Prague Castle on Czech Radio Plus, Zeman said that the Muslim Brotherhood cannot start a war against Europe, but they can gain control of the Continent through gradual migration.

    “They do not have the power to start a war in Europe, but what they can do is prepare an increasing migration wave and by degrees dominate Europe, just like they have done in some Western cities, where already policemen are afraid to go at night,” Zeman said.

    The president cited as a source of his information Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar, who Zeman said recently claimed the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to dominate not only the entire Muslim world, but not the entire world.

    Another source Zeman mentioned was the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, whom he claims called the Muslim Brotherhood an umbrella organization of Islamic terrorist groups.

    “On the basis of these two sources of information, in both cases from Muslims and from prominent Arab politicians, I believe that this invasion is organized by the Muslim Brotherhood, of course, using the funds from a number of states,” Zeman said.

    The Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni organization founded in 1928 in Egypt and has claims to be based on political activism combined with Islamic charity work. It supporters can be found throughout Muslim countries.

    It has been controversial and in 2003 Russia banned it as a terrorist organization.

    http://www.praguepost.com/the-big-story/51384-zeman-mass-migration-organized-by-the-muslim-brotherhood

    • FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 11:47 am #

      As usual, after reading Mr. Orlov article with advises what to do during collapse, I did’n find any that make practical sense.

      Guy just keep milking same cash cow he stumbled upon 10 years ago.

      • ozone January 6, 2016 at 12:14 pm #

        Finca,
        After reading your curt dismissal, I found myself wondering if you understand the difference between “before” and “during”.

        …And I found this prophylactic paragraph most applicable:

        “Not too many people, I expect, will want to follow my prescription; not too many of my family members, or friends, or acquaintances, or you who are reading this. And that’s fine because, as I have learned over and over again, there is no strength in numbers. Quite the opposite: the probability of any given trick working is in inverse proportion to the number of times it is tried, or the number of people who try it. And so, if you are reading along and think “I can’t possibly do this because of [insert lame excuse]!” then—good! Fine with me. Fewer people equals more oxygen.” — D.O.

        Since you’re not in my neck of the woods (and are unlikely to ever be), consider us foreign to each other and not in need of each others’ advice. (I’ve been to the D.R., and not to lay around on a resort beach; suffice it to say, I would consider it as a move “out of the frying pan and into the fire”.) Just because you and I [supposedly] create heat in much the same way doesn’t mean that we share much else. So be it.

        • FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 1:13 pm #

          “Not too many people, I expect, will want to follow my prescription” – D.O.

          It doesn’t seem that Dmitry follows his own prescriptions – he doesn’t make his living off of “chicken coop in the back yard”.

          • K-Dog January 7, 2016 at 12:15 pm #

            He expects you to raise the chickens, sell them for him and then send him the money.

        • K-Dog January 7, 2016 at 12:04 pm #

          This is the essence of Dmitry.

          “Since you’re not in my neck of the woods (and are unlikely to ever be), consider us foreign to each other and not in need of each others’ advice.”

          This asshole is full of himself. But next time he needs a part for his boat expect him to have another big fund-raiser on his blog. He will gladly spend any contributions you send him from your neck of the woods in his neck of the woods. If he farts in the wind and you wind up getting a good wiff he will consider it a fair trade.

          I don’t suffer people who consider themselves to be superior life forms very well. Dmitry hates America and loves Russia and it will be a good day when he moves there and we don’t have to hear from him ever again.

          I had a teacher in high school truth be told who made the exact same comparisons between the U.S. and Russia that Dmitry made concerning collapse YEARS before Dmitry decided to write a book about them so as to avoid real work. A fact his entitled ass freely admits. My teacher couched his comparisons in terms of war and conflict with Russia, not collapse but the comparisons were absolutely identical with Russia being far more resilient and patriotic than America can hope to be.

          I used to be a fan but I saw his true colors some time ago. Dmitry considers everyone else to be idiots and his entitled ass is no fan of democracy. He is too full of himself to see others as being equal but if you have one of his ideas first he will be glad to take it back from you.

  89. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 1:57 pm #

    Dmitry Orlov is giving interview to RT channel

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

    The closest analogue I could find to describing this interview, is the Russian turncoats working for Nazi Germany propaganda units during the WWII:

    Put down your weapons and come out with your hands up! You will be provided with warm soup and porridge.

    He’s doing disservice to the Russian people as well, rising ridiculous hopes of ‘soon to occur collapse of America’

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  90. Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 2:44 pm #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/norwegian-police-oslo-is-lost/

    Don’t pretend that the situation is moderate, or Ok, or it’s going to get better. It wont. And don’t pretend there is a silver lining – there isn’t. And don’t pretend there is a moderate answer – there is none. The people who enabled this mass invasion aren’t going to give up easily. The new people are their Orc Soldiers. Face it: the only answer is War now.

  91. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 3:06 pm #

    In Russia now there is quite a lot of people who believe that the course of world history after Watergate, including luring of Russia into Afghanistan, the introduction of technology of separable nuclear warheads, the collapse of the Soviet Union and even wanton killing of civilians in Donbas, was quite natural, and must be accepted as a fact, responding to embrace of global Anaconda with sword strikes cutting its stars and stripes body.

    It is difficult to argue with these people, but still it is worth remembering that they do not have optimistic forecast, and that in the course of the World War II the United States was an ally of the Soviet Union.

    And this position has nothing to do with defeatism of those who welcomed the total Nazification of Ukraine, demanding the return of Crimea to Ukraine, and by the way, in every way belittling really fraternal alliance of Stalin’s Soviet Union, and Roosevelt’s America, which there are many reasons to believe was the true face of the historical United States, as well as the Soviet Union in World War II was undoubtedly the true face of historical Russia.

    http://regnum.ru/news/polit/1928989.html

  92. wpa_ccc January 6, 2016 at 3:35 pm #

    “[Now in the 30s] … I agree that we can expect it to go lower.” –MD

    If you look back at the CFN archives, you will see that year after year JHK maintained that we were going to $150 to $200 a barrel oil, due to “peak oil.” Especially if there was any sign of “unrest” in the Middle East, JHK said oil prices would go up. He also said oil prices would go up in any case due to increasing population creating increasing demand for a finite resource.

    Obviously, instead of going up to $200 a barrel, prices have continued to go down… in spite of increased car manufacture, increased population pressures, continued industrial activity, and abundant unrest in the Middle East. I do not agree that we can expect it to go below $30 a barrel. Gas at the pump is already going down to near $1.00 a gallon, but I do not expect it to go below $1.00 a gallon.

    Meanwhile, though the Middle East is in turmoil, the USA has experienced an economic recovery. Instead of LOSING 700,000 jobs per month, as we did under the Republican Bush administration, we have had POSITIVE private payroll employment growth for 69 consecutive months, thanks to President Obama.

    That’s 13.5 million private sector created by the “socialist, Muslim, Kenyan” president, with the strongest month being last month, Dec. 2015.

    Obama is the best president in my lifetime… to fight back from the economic and military disaster Bush left us, in spite of no cooperation from Republicans, who said on day one of Obama’s presidency: “we want him to fail.” Sorry, Republicans, Obama’s legacy will be affordable health care, the Iran deal, and the climate change deal. A true global leader and a statesman who has gracefully weathered ugly Republican attacks for seven years.

    Thanks to Obama, the manufacturing sector is no longer contracting, and the USA national economy is on a roll, despite what CFN believes.

    The US economy is sound, but the world economy is another question. The USA cannot avoid being affected by a stock market nervous about North Korean hydrogen bomb tests.

    JHK’s very specific prediction about Jan. 15, 2016 will also not come true. The market is in a tailspin…. including UUP.

    • ffkling January 7, 2016 at 1:12 pm #

      A voice of reason in a sea of madness.

  93. Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 4:02 pm #

    Meanwhile in the Oregon Wilderness, a great man works – with malice towards none and charity towards all.

    https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/mvt-on-malheur/#comments

    Cliven Bundy is a name never to be forgotten – but perhaps to be exceeded by his son Ammon Bundy.

    • Frankiti January 6, 2016 at 5:13 pm #

      Yes, they have liberated a derelict BLM maintenance shed.
      Patriots in search of a purpose.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 6:55 pm #

        When a pickpocket sees a saint, all he sees is pockets. In fact it’s a very nice little building. The media – whose face is black and eyes are red – called it a “compound”.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 7:38 pm #

        From another angle:

        Epic by Patrick Kavanagh

        I have lived in important places, times
        When great events were decided, who owned
        That half a rood of rock, a no-man’s land
        Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.
        I heard the Duffys shouting “Damn your soul”
        And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
        Step the plot defying blue cast-steel—
        “Here is the march along these iron stones”
        That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
        Was more important? I inclined
        To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
        Til Homer’s ghost came whispering to my mind
        He said: I made the Iliad from such
        A local row. Gods make their own importance

    • ffkling January 7, 2016 at 1:16 pm #

      Cliven Bundy is the definition of Republican hypocrisy. Bundy the master socialist demands that the American people subsidize his cattle operation. Why should Bundy be required to pay for grazing rights on public land? Because he is special.

      • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 2:30 pm #

        Why should Bundy be required to pay for grazing rights on public land? Because he is special. – ffkling

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

        I think you meant ‘because he isn’t special.’

  94. FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 4:41 pm #

    The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has turned into fiction.

    Cartel, created in 1960 under the influence of anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist romanticism, loudly announced itself with three epochal events: the oil embargo of the Arab countries in 1973, the US ban on the export of crude oil in 1975 and the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.

    The global politics and energy production have changed dramatically: the Sunni monarchies of the Persian Gulf can not impose an embargo on the United States and the EU since Moscow has become the leader in oil production and Washington comes on the heels of Riyadh; Tehran is on the verge of getting rid of crippling economic sanctions.

    It is no coincidence president of the American Petroleum Institute Jack Gerard says of the “American Renaissance”.

    “The United States has become a key player in the global oil market, which reduced the impact of Saudi Arabia and Iran”, – quotes Gerard Associated Press.

    Russia and the United States accounts for about 21 million barrels (daily) total production. Moscow came to a record high of 10.83 million barrels per day (more than in Soviet times), and Washington already boasts 9.9 million barrels per day. If a hypothetical union of Russia and the United States will be joined by Iran, who plans in six months to increase production to 3 million barrels, the Saudi Arabia will have pretty hard time opposing this onslaught. Hope evaporates every day: the market is saturated so that the value of Brent on January 6 dropped to $34.35 per barrel.

    http://regnum.ru/news/polit/2049452.html

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  95. fodase January 6, 2016 at 6:59 pm #

    g an

  96. fodase January 6, 2016 at 7:03 pm #

    with this mu slim invasion in full hell-on mode, someone’s going to crack on the afflicted side and pull a ma chine g un attack, i fear

    these ghastly leaders really need to be dr on and kwar trd for their treason.

    just goes to show just how easily, how very very easily, people will side with evil while acting like they’re being compassionate

    like m. moore hugging mu slim s and condemning the rest of us for being x enofo bic, because he knows respectable americans will tolerate him.

    he wouldn’t dare stand with a sign condemning women-killing mus lim s out in public, because, being the coward he is, he knows they’d come and get him.

    major, major shitstorm brewing, i’m betting the NWO have played their hand too early and will be beaten back once again

  97. fodase January 6, 2016 at 7:04 pm #

    wpa_ccc,, what’s your take on the mass mus lim rapes going on in europe?

    just cuz you’re out here again, albeit hiding a bit from making pronouncements in this regard

    • wpa_ccc January 6, 2016 at 7:49 pm #

      fodase, stop reading Breitbart and Alex Jones. It makes you seem gullible… believing everything you read. I do not believe what you are referring to is anything more than a smear campaign against Muslims. Muslims do not “rape” European women because that would be violence against women… and Islam is a religion of peace.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 6, 2016 at 8:34 pm #

      Just look at that sweet couple – fodase and wpa – could someone tell me who is inciting more anti-Islam hatred?

  98. Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 7:11 pm #

    Some of the German Men tried to protect the women they were with. Outnumbered, they were stomped by the Muslims. One 6 foot 5 German Bouncer and Martial Artist was able to throw the Muslims out of his club. They told him “We will return and make you cold” – a threat I would not discount if I were him.

    http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/nonwhite-cologne-attackers-like-an-army/473/35

  99. MisterDarling January 6, 2016 at 9:25 pm #

    So, who didn’t see this coming?

    http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/burns_piaute_tribe_militants_s.html#incart_river_home

    The local Indian tribe wants the ranchers to get off of *their* land.

    😉

    Cheers!

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    • wpa_ccc January 6, 2016 at 11:44 pm #

      On Wednesday, a reporter asked protester Ammon Bundy about the Paiute claims. “They have a right to be free like everyone else,” he said. But, he acknowledged, “I really don’t know much about that.”

    • Janos Skorenzy January 6, 2016 at 11:54 pm #

      Their land. Fat, coddled, obnoxious, welfare losers who need a lesson in manners.

  100. Dumbedup January 6, 2016 at 9:56 pm #

    One of the primary things we need to do to “right the ship” whether it be the ship of state or the ship of commerce is to start punishing fraud and criminal conduct. Doing the right thing is now the exception and lying cheating and stealing is almost expected in every profession at every level. People in government and private enterprise lie, cheat and steal with impunity because it has been codified as policy.

  101. Pucker January 6, 2016 at 10:43 pm #

    Catherine Austin Fitts predicts that in 2016 the US will begin a big push into outer space on the back of private cheap disposable rockets and 3D printing technology. This is inevitable since there are unlimited resources in space while the Earth now confronts serious resource limits and over population. It is probably good news for robotics, but perhaps the swan song for human animals who cannot reasonably function in space.

  102. Pucker January 6, 2016 at 10:48 pm #

    Under situations of Collapse, is it particularly advantageous to have a lot of stored body fat?

    They say that there tends to be a bigger turnover with fat women.

  103. Pucker January 6, 2016 at 11:19 pm #

    Are zombies now passé?

  104. Pucker January 6, 2016 at 11:26 pm #

    “That whole Zombie-thing is now dead. It’s not come’n back.”

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    • Pucker January 6, 2016 at 11:34 pm #

      You need a “New Look”!

  105. Pucker January 6, 2016 at 11:30 pm #

    Would you say that “Collapse” is a bit of a “letdown”?

  106. KL Cooke January 6, 2016 at 11:53 pm #

    “The population of North Korea is 25 million, and this mountainous country has successfully overcome the difficulties associated with the extremely unfavorable conditions for the development of agriculture and now no one going hungry there…

    This from Al Jazeera, not notably a grandstander for the U.S.

    “Conditions for ordinary people in North Korea, meanwhile, are persistently grim. The country suffered a severe drought last summer, followed by flooding, and the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that the country faces a shortfall of 1.2 million tons of food in 2016. North Korea also recently cut its food rations by 21 percent to an average of 250 grams (8.8 ounces) per day — about the same as the daily bread ration in 1942 for children under 12 during the siege of Leningrad.”

    • FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:24 am #

      Developing a hydrogen (fission) bomb requires not only advanced science, but developed industry. Also, there is an advanced hacking incident into Sony database last year.

      You have to agree that the mainstream media is not telling the whole truth regarding N.Korea.

      From information I get on the Russian internet, including people who frequently visiting N.Korea, it is a very rigid society, but far from the picture that Western media is trying to paint.

  107. wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 12:10 am #

    The European countries with the highest murder rates, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, have the least non-white immigration, the lowest percentage of Muslims in Europe, and the purest European stock.

    Janos, fodase, etc…. all those on CFN who complain about the supposed “Problem of Islam” in Europe… Why don’t you focus on ways to help out white Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians who are killing whites?

  108. Pucker January 7, 2016 at 12:17 am #

    [The Great Wall of China]

    Emperor Qin said: “Build that Wall!”

    • wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 12:55 am #

      Trump said: “Build that wall!” and he will make the Mexicans pay for it!

      There is also a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in buying.

  109. auntiegrav January 7, 2016 at 12:29 am #

    Thanks, JHK. Another good read for the annual rant-fest. 🙂
    The Creature bugs me, too. Just a lot of head-shaking for this latest “election” show.
    I especially like the hints behind this: “Another possibility is that a message would be transmitted to the Trump Team from some combination of rogue elements in the NSA and the US Military that he’d better drop out or else. ”
    Those rogue elements (are they rogue if it’s the foundation of the system of Systems?) waited until after naive Hope was elected to shut down his plans for open government. They came down on him like a hammer upon inauguration.
    I think we need both a deeper and a tangential discussion of the racial issues. It’s not an education “problem” if all of the cultures are embracing racketeering: the excluded wage-suppressing ‘units’ are doing exactly what should be expected for a society without resources: competing for the bottom of the value barrel just like our farmers do, but with fewer resources to support themselves.
    Ending the drug war would disrupt the system of poverty vs. the cheap ‘white man’s burden/let-them-eat-corn-syrup Decency’ illusion of America’s business of busyness, where the flow of resources is exactly 180° from natural reality.
    Societies are built by barbarians that get tired of being barbarians. The laws and fences have to be maintained with engaged commons work, or everyone becomes too civilized (lazy specialists) and random violence breaks out, usually triggered by food issues (most recently in N. Africa and Syria).
    America is designed for easy maintenance, but narrow prosperity and blind anti-government rhetoric is selling the tools to the oil pushers and car sellers (news) because that’s what the “greatest generation” did.
    What more fun can be had than the collapse of a species in its inflated ego bouncy tent?
    Overpopulation is only possible if people are useless to the world. The hen is just a way for the egg to make another egg. Society is a way for people to make more people. It fails when they do nothing else for the world. Capitalism is just a way for money to make more money: etc.

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  110. Pucker January 7, 2016 at 12:34 am #

    My advice for young people today is “to stay focused.”

    Because young people are always getting “Foked”.

  111. nsa January 7, 2016 at 1:28 am #

    Sick pervert asoka supports the vile inbred muzzie cultists and their degenerate practices. Clit cutting. Head chopping. First cousin marrying. Infidel murdering. Baby raping (they call it marriage). Camel fucking (underage camels at that). These sick perverts buy live lambs from NZ so they can torture them upside down and slit their throats. They have wiped out most the migrating european songbirds with their nets strung across the coastline. Arab muzzies make even africans look civilized…….eventually it will be necessary to take them out entirely. Where is Richard the Lionheart now that we need him?

  112. wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 3:05 am #

    Thank Muslims for their service in defense of the United States. Service by Muslims in the United States military dates back to the American Revolutionary War where records indicate that at least a few Muslims fought on the American side. Muslims have fought in all major US wars including the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. More recently they have served in Gulf War, Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan. Thousands of Muslims are currently serving in the US military.

    • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 7:15 am #

      Yesterday wpa was a pacifist, today he’s a warmonger.

      Yesterday Obama was the perpetrator of crimes against humanity, today he is our greatest president.

      A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

      Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

      • wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 10:41 am #

        Small minds? This is how western civilization ends: poor quoting. Emerson is rolling over in his grave.

        “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

  113. wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 3:55 am #

    “An official recession is defined as two consecutive quarters with negative GDP growth. Right now, we have GDP growth of 2.5%, along with low energy prices (which help consumers). It would be unprecedented for the economy to fall into recession given that backdrop. It’s difficult to imagine an unforeseen headwind — geopolitical tension, for example — that could have that kind of severe and protracted impact.

    Bull markets “are born on pessimism and grow on skepticism,” as the saying goes. The fact that there isn’t euphoria out there is one of the most reliable signs that prices remain reasonable, and that the long-term trajectory remains positive.”

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

    5 dumbest forecasts for 2016 — plus the 5 most intriguing
    By Oliver Pursche

  114. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:31 am #

    From Wolf Blitzer interview with Trump: apparently, he gave up on peacefully removing Hillary from the race using Servergate. Also he tells about wanting to write a book about genesis of Barack Obama that, according to his words, would instantly become a bestseller.

    May be he will confirm my version of Obama being a grandson of JFK.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4cXVxCrqPc

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  115. BackRowHeckler January 7, 2016 at 7:38 am #

    Well, BBC got around to interviewing some of the German girls assaulted in Cologne, Germany by NAfricans (honored guests) on New Years Eve, pretty, soft spoken young 19 year olds mostly that you would see walking around any American college campus.

    “They surrounded me and were reaching between my legs. I couldn’t get away”.

    “They were yelling ‘Alihu Akbar. They dropped a firecracker down my shirt”. (burns showed on camera)

    “Suddenly, I was in a crowd of them, they stripped off my clothes …”

    The Mayor of Cologne, a woman, has issued a ‘how to behave’ list for German women, which includes ‘keep men at arms length in public spaces’, and ‘don’t dress provocatively’, and ‘don’t look strangers in the eye’.

    Some of the girls being interviewed looked like they were in shock. Suddenly, their world had changed. Apparently, nobody told them it had changed.

    This is how civilizations end.

    The Day of the Hyena is at hand.

    How do you like it now, Gentlemen?

    brh

    • wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 10:30 am #

      So, zero actual rapes and bad behavior during a New Years party means the end of western civilization? How fragile a flower. Should we look at actual rape statistics, chlid abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence among pristine white Germans?

      • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 12:34 pm #

        Should we look at actual rape statistics, chlid abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence among pristine white Germans?

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

        Yes, I want to look at the chlid abuse stats.

  116. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:38 am #

    All channels showed Obama crying, talking about the victims of gun violence, and he looked at if he himself had just been liberated from the Gestapo torture chambers.

    Hillary wants to take away weapons from the Americans because she is afraid of their resistance to her tyranny after she’ll make a coup, and now makes Obama gradually cancel the Second Amendment.

    I think she also organized all these murders, and Obama knows it.

  117. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:49 am #

    Yesterday was an Orthodox Christmas.

    Andrei Rublev. Nativity.

    http://i0.wp.com/franciscanizedworld.fscc-calledtobe.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Andrei-Rublev1.jpg

    • BackRowHeckler January 7, 2016 at 8:29 am #

      Nice post, Finca.

      Yes, the art the Christian Church has inspired over the centuries, East and West, is truly remarkable, and it continues to this day.

      Maybe its the Eastern Church, the Church of Constantine, that will survive and thrive, and carry the message of Christ into the future. It seems the Protestant Churches here are dying or irrelevant, and the Pope in Rome is now worshipping at the Alter of Climate Change and Global Warming (while Christians are being slaughtered wholesale by ISIS in Syria and Iraq)

      My own local Congregational church recently has an Imam give a sermon on Sunday, and hung out a big congratulatory banner when homo marriage became legal. Oh, how PC, how progressive they are! And they wonder why nobody is showing up for Sunday Service anymore.

      brh

      • wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 10:45 am #

        What did the Imam say?

        • BackRowHeckler January 7, 2016 at 11:08 am #

          I didn’t hang around to listen to it.

  118. fodase January 7, 2016 at 7:51 am #

    thanks for reminding us islam is the religion of peace, even as they utterly destroy all civilization in the countries they were invited into, rape women (where is the liberal standing up for women, strange, no?), yadi yadi yadi

    in other peaceful muslim ways, another muzzie attacker in paris, shot dead before he could kill anyone in his attack

    LIVE WIRE: ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ Knifeman Shot Dead Near Police Station By Paris Cops

    funny how he was stopped by a gun. those things that are so nasty no one can have one

    you barbarian-loving fools will one day thank the men and women who will stand up to these monsters

  119. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 8:07 am #

    One aspect that makes 2016 look like 2007/2008.

    Something strange is happening in the repo market, which was used in large amounts before the first wave of the crisis in order to hide from investors and regulators the presence on balance of major financial institutions of various toxic assets (then it was all kinds of MBS, ABS, CDO).

    The essence of such transactions: for one day (usually the day of the report to investors / regulators, i.e. the end of the quarter) Bank / Fund, which has on its balance various toxic guano gives it to hold to another bank, in return for white and fluffy assets such as US Treasuries.

    As a result, the Bank / Fund may make it appear that it is all right, for which it pays the “holder” some commission. A side effect of such practice is that for one day good paper disappears from the market that can be used to deceive others.

    As indicated by the Western media, at the end of 2015 someone had to so close a hole the size of $475 billion dollars.

    It is very similar to 2007, with all its consequences.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/-475-billion-year-end-fed-auction-suggests-more-problems-in-credit–mutual-funds-023901085.html

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  120. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 8:23 am #

    Saudis conduct an air raid on Iranian embassy in the Yemeni capital

    Iran has roundly condemned a “deliberate” air raid by Saudi warplanes on its embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, which injured a number of security forces guarding the diplomatic mission.

    http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/01/07/444879/Iran-Saudi-Arabia-embassy-Yemen-bombing/

    I guess we should expect the oil price to drop another 5 bucks – the oil futures exchanges are totally in a fantasy land.

  121. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 9:14 am #

    Holodomor, American style

    On the Internet, another scandal inflames. The free encyclopedia “Wikipedia” removed articles by Russian researchers, which is devoted to assessing the loss of the US population as a result of the Great Depression of 1932-33.

    Outraged bloggers began mass distribution of articles in the Russian segment of the popular blogging service Livejournal. Material led to heated debates.

    In its submission Russian researcher Boris Borisov spoke of really “hot” topic – estimates of the number of victims of the American Great Depression, than, apparently, caused such a strong reaction from moderators of “Wikipedia” and the activity of the Russian-speaking bloggers.

    Based on the analysis of statistical data Borisov in the article “Famine in America” estimated the number of victims of the financial crisis in the US in more than 7 million people.

    “According to US statistics, in the decade from 1931 to 1940, the dynamics of population growth the US has lost as many as 8,553,000 people, with population growth changed abruptly, at one time, two times (!)

    Exactly at the turn of 1930/31, it falls and freezes at this level for exactly ten years … no explanation in the vast, hundreds of pages, text of the US report, US Department of commerce «Statistical Abstract of the United States» is not found “, – said Boyko Borissov.

    “Few people know … about five million American farmers (about a million families), at exactly the same time been driven by banks from the land for the debts, but not rescued by the US government: no public work, no social assistance, no old-age pension – nothing” – the article says

  122. beantownbill. January 7, 2016 at 11:04 am #

    I was thinking about how silly national party politics is. With only 2 real parties, citizens just have a winner-take-all choice, so if their candidate loses, they feel they have no representation in Congress. This means large swaths of the population feel alienated.

    If we instituted a parliamentary, multi-party system, then special interest groups could be represented in Congress. For example, now Obama is instituting anti-gun EOs, and there is no effective representation for the significant minority (40%?) that is pro-gun. Under a parliamentary system, there’d be a 2nd Amendment party, which would be part of a congressional coalition giving the leader of such the majority to rule. That leader better listen to the pro-gun people, or else the party pulls out of the coalition and the leader no longer has the majority needed to rule.

    Despite its flaws, parliamentary government would at least allow the citizenry to feel they have some power, no matter the reality. Today, many voters feel powerless ( I understand that no matter what the system, TPTB have the ability to be the final arbiter of policy).

  123. fodase January 7, 2016 at 11:29 am #

    it’s clear that wpa_ccc is all for women’s rights, except when grossly violated by her flavor of the day group she showers compassion on

    when asked about the black female cop that oversaw the strangulation of eric garner, she merely says ‘she should be fired’ (while the evil whites need to be strung up)

    now, when confronted with 1,000+ muslim miscreants debasing women, there were ‘no actual rapes’, it’s just ‘bad behavior’

    honey, pristine white germans don’t go around in groups of several hundred physically violating women. white pristine germans have respect for women, unlike yourself.

    we know where you stand – you stand with women-raping, clitorectomy slashing, child raping muslim ‘culture’.

    you stand against women when it suits your political ends.

    in your mind, it is evil men like republicans and whites who want to ‘control’ women

    we get it

    we’ll just sit back and watch, don’t bother calling out for help when your muslim enlightened hoardes come for you

    deep down you know you are wrong, but you are a coward that will not stand up to evil

    so you take the side of evil and pretend to be compassionate

    thus were the nazis enabled

    • wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 12:23 pm #

      “white pristine germans have respect for women, unlike yourself.” –fodase

      The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released the world’s biggest study into violence against women on Wednesday.

      In Germany, the general figure for women having experienced physical or sexual violence over the age of 15 stood at 35 percent – just over the EU average. Violence against women is a white German problem, not an immigrant problem.

      “These survey figures simply cannot and should not be ignored. FRA’s survey shows that physical, sexual and psychological violence against women is an extensive human rights abuse in all EU Member States,” said FRA Director Morten Kjaerum in a statement.

      “The enormity of the problem is proof that violence against women does not just impact a few women only – it impacts on society every day,” he added.

      Childhood physical assault was reported by 37 percent of Germans – 10 percent over the average. Another 13 percent said they suffered sexual abuse – matching the EU average.

      Despite a third of women admitting to experiencing assault of some sort, just 19 percent of Germans asked thought it was a common occurrence. Maybe you are in that 19%, fodase?

      Fifty-three percent said they thought it happened sometimes, while a quarter said they thought it was unusual. On average, 27 percent of EU women were aware that violence was widespread.

      Across Europe, 22 percent of women had suffered physical or sexual violence from their partner. Of these, 55 percent were sexually assaulted – of which three out of four held management position jobs.

      Just 23 percent of women in Germany had seen or heard of a campaign against violence against women. This put the country right at the bottom of the list. Violence against women is a white German problem, not an immigrant problem.

      • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 12:57 pm #

        psychological violence against women is an extensive human rights abuse in all EU Member States,” said FRA Director Morten Kjaerum in a statement. – wpa

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

        Note: “Morten” is Danish for Muhammad. ;o)

        • BackRowHeckler January 7, 2016 at 1:14 pm #

          The only real ‘rape’ is when somebody looks askance at the purple hair, nose ring and neck tatts of a shrieking undergrad Women’s/Gender Studies feminist at Yale or Berkeley. Then all hell breaks loose.

          brh

  124. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 11:35 am #

    The US can not and never will return petrodollars to the six Gulf monarchies; today the States can’t even pay the interest on those debts.

    Changing the policy followed by the destabilization of the six Gulf monarchies will decide this little financial issue for America. It’s time for sheikhs to trade their Mercedes for the camels.

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  125. wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 12:10 pm #

    Quinnipiac Poll (Dec 22, 2015)
    Bernie Sanders: 51%
    Donald Trump: 38%

    • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 2:15 pm #

      Quinnipiac Poll (Dec 22, 2015) – wpa

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

      I lived in Branford, Connecticut in 1970-71. My office was in Hamden, home of Quinnipiac Univ and the Poll of the same name. Q-piac is about as left-wing as they come, as is its next-door neighbor, Yale. Its student distribution is 61% female and 39% male, discounting all issues of gender confusion. (I once had a tumble in the hay with one of those 61%. She was proud of 3 small moles on one breast that created the image of a teddy bear.) They (the University) are big on Women’s Studies. One of the course offerings is titled “Intimate Partner Violence Seminar.”

      Thus, I am not surprised by their poll results.

      • Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2016 at 4:35 pm #

        Express your outrage at readers@forbes.com. Don’t let your favorite magazine be inundated by the waters of nescience. But rather stick them in to plug up holes in the dikes. Be the little boy who lost his finger but saved Holland. We’re all Dike Men now!

        • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 5:39 pm #

          Don’t let your favorite magazine be inundated by the waters of nescience. – Janos

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

          Where the heck did you come up with that word? Never saw it before. Who do you think you are, William Buckley?

          BTW, do you think it is OK for a gay Hollander to plug the hole in a dyke with his finger? Pucker wants to know.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2016 at 7:30 pm #

            Yes, nescience is such a beautiful sounding word for a horrible metaphysical reality.

            I was very careful not to say dyke but dike. Didn’t want to give dirty little minds ammunition.

            Are you willing to sacrifice your collection of Forbes Magazine for the Cause? Each one could make a formidable cosh or plug. I suppose you prefer to sacrifice digits though. Those zeroes in your account don’t meat squat without the 1 out in front of them. Men matter, women not so much unless they are following us.

  126. Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2016 at 4:21 pm #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/forbes-journalist-i-suspect-anti-immigration-ppl-of-organising-the-cologne-sex-crimes/

    This is why women need to stay out of things. They just can’t get big pictures and try to substitute a simplified and APPROVED cartoon caricature for the real situation. One of the Black Lives Matter female leaders said that Black on Black Crime wasn’t an issue.

  127. ozone January 7, 2016 at 5:40 pm #

    Fee, fie, fo, fum; I smell the fear-sweat of elites, by gum!

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-07/5000-swiss-army-troops-will-protect-worlds-billionaires-during-annual-davos-boondogg

    (Are the attendees paying for this?…. I know, I know, silly question. Pony up, peasants!)

  128. elysianfield January 7, 2016 at 5:50 pm #

    Q’
    At the end of last week’s blog comments you wrote;

    “I am majorly concerned that the ‘carnage’ scheduled to begin January 8 at 2:58 pm might leave the station early without me. God, I hate when that happens.”

    Has this anything to do with the current…”correction” in the market? Does it reference one of those “triple witching” thangs? Inquiring minds NEED to know.

  129. fodase January 7, 2016 at 6:22 pm #

    just sit back and let the mohammedans rape one of the sjw’s family members, for it will oh so certainly come to that

    even then, who knows, they may still not change their opinion, as they are mentally unstable and have been programmed well

    remember the pro-immigration german who was stabbed by six or so arabs in germany?

    even this was not enough to convince him of his folly – he merely felt ‘sad’

    just gotta laugh about it all.

    in actuality, the best thing that can happen is for this ghastly show of non-assimilation cultural suicide to get worse and worse, until even progressives begin to question their sanity (once again, the above proviso….)

    these situations usually have a very small tipping point, i.e. one small incident can set off an unstoppable reaction

    we’ve now had charlie hebdo, the paris slaughter, the san bernadino massacre, and now this massive gang rape

    plus myriad other events

    one senses that the populace of europe is getting mighty fed up

    kristallnacht is kinda in the huns’ blood, which must be a-startin’ to boil

    who knows?

    in the meantime, anyone betting against further atrocities is sure to lose their money

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  130. 439 January 7, 2016 at 6:55 pm #

    Happy new Year to all and in particular to the one and only HJK.

    This is very entertaining reading and spot on in almost all respects.

    The economic breakdown is promised too early again.
    European bonds cannot collapse so quickly since the EZB will buy 30% of the national debt of the Eurozone and this buying will last at least all through 2016.

    They have now distorted the markets o such a degree that short sellers in sovereign issues find themselves in blissful conditions whereby there losses are capped but gains possibly large, a situation not heretofore experienced by shortsellers anywhere.

    The problem is now only one of timing and a great battle of the wits between the short sellers and the EZB is in the making wherein the EZB will have _increasingly less_ room for manouver.
    I intend to join this battle when I feel the time is right.

    As usual the resilience and enormous momentum of not only the economy but the civilization as a whole is underestimated. It will mtake much longer than predicted to reach the conditions envisioned. The prophets are always early.

    Moreover the envisioned destination need not be as dire as foreseen. Surely you will agree that our economy has now for quite a while pandered to stupid and wasteful consumption and energized elements of society which one would prefer to see in more restricted circumstances (I am thinking about individuals as seen on YouTube in their natural state).

    The problems will hit Europe long before the US. Europe is much weaker (in every respect) and endowed with fewer resources but greater problems and is a peripheral area of the US empire.
    The peripheral areas will be consumed before the rot spreads to the center. What this means for you is that you will have ample warning
    and much opportunity to observe to plan you survival or investment strategy (on can also profit from declining prices).

    I urge all of you not to write off oil too early and view its price decline as a secular opportunity. If you plan on investing in oil futures directly you must find out about rolling losses under contango. I myself plan to liquidate personal property should North Sea Brent fall below 30USD per barrel.

    My own theory is that we owe our predicament to the spread of television wherein literally everthing is fraud and nothing is as it seems. Our leaders have now become actors and the idea that appearance is all that matters has become a selfevident, unquestioned assumption.

    Happy New Year,
    may it not be boring.

    • Frankiti January 7, 2016 at 7:16 pm #

      “The prophets are always early”

      uh.. I dunno, perhaps why they’re prophetic?

      • Petro January 8, 2016 at 7:29 am #

        Ha ha. Sounds like something Yogi Berra would say. “The trouble with prophets is they always make guesses before things happen.”

        • Q. Shtik January 8, 2016 at 10:57 am #

          That’s funny Petro…….very clever.

  131. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:37 pm #

    Time to count the beans

    Let’s see how the global economic crisis affects the United States. Let’s look at the major US economic indicators in 2015.

    1. Civilian unemployment rate

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2OCz

    2. Total unemployed plus marginally employed

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2OsO

    Since not more than 2 links could be put in one post, I am going to split it in several posts.

  132. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:40 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    3. Civilian employment

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2TMo

    4. Disposable personal income

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=32G1

  133. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:43 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    5. Real Disposable personal income

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33L9

    6. Average weekly earnings

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33bu

  134. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:45 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    7. Household net worth

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33mc

    8. Household debt service payments

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=30AP

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  135. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:47 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    9. Household debt to GDP

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2jNv

    10. Total debt to equity

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2osb

  136. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:49 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    11. Industrial production (Manufacturing)

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33mp

    12. Industrial production (Mining)

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33Kz

  137. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 7:52 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    13. Real retail and foodservice sales

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2VdC

    14. Autos and light trucks sales

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33lP

  138. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 8:02 pm #

    Time to count the beans (continued)

    15. Total construction spending

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=33bB

    14. New housing starts

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=2VLg

    Inflation in the US for the year stood at 0.5%. Inflation for food products was 0.3%. Gasoline prices have fallen by 24%.

    How about Russia?

    Inflation in Russia from November 2014 to November 2015 was +15.9%, and food products was +19.6%.

    Construction fell by 7.1%, retail sales decreased by 11.7%, car market sank 34%.

    The real gross wages in November 2015 was 9% lower than in November 2014, and the drop in revenues accelerated to the end of the year.

    But Putin, as always, beat schmuck Obama.

    Putin’s approval rating in Russia has reached 87% at the end of the year. And Obama’s approval rating hovered around 45%.

  139. Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2016 at 8:20 pm #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/girl-breaks-down-after-being-told-she-cannot-vote-for-glorious-leader/

    Young hero of the Vater Land.

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    • Sticks-of-TNT January 9, 2016 at 7:38 am #

      This should be used for a campaign commercial. Hilarious!

  140. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 8:30 pm #

    If not for sweat pair Hillary and Bill and their 30 trillion dollars printed during the dot-com boom and necessity now to control-burn that money without burning the entire financial system, US would be in chocolate.

  141. MisterDarling January 7, 2016 at 8:32 pm #

    The biggest news of the day? I nominate the Saudi proposal for an
    ARAMCO IPO:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/saudi-arabia-is-considering-aramco-ipo-deputy-crown-prince-says

    What’s is Aramco? Only the most valuable corporation in the world that’s all – and totally controlled by KSA’s royal family. For them to publicly discuss the idea of offering the public a 10% stake only reinforces my view that destruction of global demand is wider and deeper than anyone admits.

    Consider; The Saudis started out last year with little to no debt at 1.6% of GDP. This year it’s 33.4%. From the standpoint of Greece or the USA (both over 100% loaned up) that’s no big deal, but it does destroy the notion that the Saudis are making money ‘hand-over-fist’ by panic-selling crude oil into collapsing fuel market. [*]

    By the way, I always thought the idea that the Saudis were unloading as much as they were to “crush US shale” was silly. They just didn’t want to be left holding the bag, that’s all.

    Under these circumstances of course OPEC discipline is dead… When the Titanic sank it was every man for themselves, (and ‘to hell’ with chivalry).

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] And of course ZH did a thing about this very news item:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-07/saudi-economy-implodes-fascinating-solution-emerges

    • FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 8:42 pm #

      “By the way, I always thought the idea that the Saudis were unloading as much as they were to “crush US shale” was silly.”

      Agree.

      “my view that destruction of global demand is wider and deeper than anyone admits.”

      Demand is actually growing – I could find some statistical prove. To me it looks like manipulation of oil futures exchanges to “punish Russia”.

      Probably, the Pirates are doing that and it is a dangerous play.

      • MisterDarling January 7, 2016 at 9:20 pm #

        @ FitM:

        RE | “Demand is actually growing…”-f.

        I’m keen to see what you have that supports that!

        Cheers!

    • sauerkraut January 9, 2016 at 1:26 pm #

      MD, I agree that the biggest news of the day (I’d say month) is ARAMCO. But I interpret the news a little differently.

      True oil reserves are a state secret in KSA. The supergiant Ghawar field has been pumped for 3 generations now, and according to a documentary I saw, every branch of every well is individually valved and controlled. That makes it easy to block a branch when it brings up water instead of oil.

      After the fracking fiasco, with its alarming depletion rates even for the successful wells, perhaps the Saudi’s have a rather low opinion of the oil financing crowd. Gnawer is going to dry up – the only question is when. And that is a state secret. Much of the other KSA oil is heavy and hard to refine. Perhaps too many branches of the Ghawar are bringing up water, and the Saudi’s have decided it’s time to liquidate to the Rubes.

      As for OPEC, their discipline has been non-existent for decades.
      Production quotas were based on reserves, and everybody cheated, quite openly. For example, reserves did not change year over year, no matter how much was pumped. When production cuts had to be made, KSA made most of them.

      Now some of the biggest cheats are crying loudest, and pumping hardest. That makes it easy to set a base line of production, and reset quotas accordingly, and realistically. When OPEC has been “disciplined” by the low prices, a quota reset will happen, and it will be obeyed for several years at least. By that time, a demand – production gap will open so wide that no amount of investment will ever close it. Especially if some of that capital has been drawn off by ARAMCO.

      And that, I think, is a best case scenario. If KSA descends into chaos, oil will either hit the ceiling on its way through, or our civilization will end.

      Demand continues it’s year on year increase, according to the International Energy Agency. It forecasts the usual increase in 2016.

      So, brace yourself for a massive price increase in a year or two. Just my take – no inside knowledge or even good memory.

    • sauerkraut January 9, 2016 at 4:10 pm #

      MD, you also write, “I always thought the idea that the Saudis were unloading as much as they were to “crush US shale” was silly.”

      The suite of benefits the Saudi’s expect to reap is, of course, much broader, but “crush shale” is a good shorthand, IMO. I suspect that the Saudi’s expect to
      1. crush the frackers (really);
      2. hurt other expensive oil too: tar sands, offshore;
      3. inhibit oil investment: exploration, development, and infrastructure;
      4. hurt renewables;
      5. demolish coal.

      Since that’s a bit of a mouthful, and not exhaustive, easier to say “crush shale”. That leaves the reader to work out the other similar consequences, as you seem to have done, by inferring that the sole goal of “crush US shale” is insufficient.

  142. MisterDarling January 7, 2016 at 9:12 pm #

    @ FitM;

    I appreciate your FRED-graph round-up. It’s interesting to see which charts they show where – and to whom. I’ve been using a different set:

    Labor participation 2-way, long-trend,

    http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2015/01/LFP.jpg

    Male participation in the labor force (l/t),

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=JD6

    They paint a somewhat different picture while at the same time actually jibing with observable reality. I threw in the second chart just to increase granularity – and shed light on a sea-change in workplace demographics.

    After all, if it were true that workforce engagement AND wages had been going steadily up, then “63% of households” don’t have $500 set aside for minor emergencies, the Retail Sector wouldn’t be folding, auto-sales [*] wouldn’t have collapsed last month, commodity prices (including timber) wouldn’t be flat-lining & shipping of all types wouldn’t be cratering to unprecedented depths…

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] = dependent on sub-prime lending practices.

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 9, 2016 at 7:49 am #

      Eye-popping!

  143. MisterDarling January 7, 2016 at 9:17 pm #

    PETA – Taking Special Care of those hungry rebel-ranchers:

    http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/peta-delivered-vegan-snacks-to-the-hungry-oregon-terrorists–ZyzsB7ELWhg?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100

    I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.

  144. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 9:29 pm #

    “They paint a somewhat different picture ” == MD

    The difference in two pictures is easily explained by the timeframe of the charts: ZeroHedge gives it 1978 – 2014 while the FRED is in 1950-2014.

    But yes, it’s falling and the reason is automation and robotization.

    The problem what to do with extra hands is more a moral, not economic issue, and couldn’t be explored in a single clusterfuck post. We may need another branch of science on top of “political economy” – “ethical economy”.

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    • FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 9:32 pm #

      Obviously, it was not entirely “ethical” for Hillary and Bill to print 30 trillion dollars during the dot-com boom and line the pockets of their close friends with the hot money.

    • Pogo January 9, 2016 at 5:58 pm #

      “The difference in two pictures is easily explained by the timeframe of the charts…” – Fincaln

      This is excellent example of what changing the timeframe can do:

      http://goldsilverworlds.com/investing/gold-vs-debt-the-big-picture/

  145. FincaInTheMountains January 7, 2016 at 10:03 pm #

    M.Khasin: the main issue of 2016 elections in US

    Socio-political system of the United States has a very serious and absolutely objective problem. It is connected with the fact that, within the framework of the Bretton Woods system, the US dollar performs two functions – the national currency and the foundation of the global financial system. When this system was created, in 1944, the problem, of course, was the same, but the US economy was more than 50% of the world and the positive consequences of such system for the US exceeded the negative. But since then, the US economy has dropped to less than 20% of the world – and began to have serious problems.

    That financial system is in crisis and there just not enough internal resources to resolve it. And so – you need to either save the global financial system using the resources of the US economy, or save the US economy using the resources of the global financial system

    Until some time this conflict was outside the public field, but then climbed to the surface within the concept of “the central bank of the central banks”. In fact, this project was clearly formulated in late 2010, as a repeat operation of establishing of the Federal Reserve as a private central bank controlled by the financial elite, but globally. It presumed the withdrawal of the emission of world currency from under the national sovereignty of the United States.

    IMF was proposed as a base – and the story ended with the infamous “Strauss-Kahn vs. Nigerian maid affair”, the meaning of which was that the US National bureaucracy has blocked the withdrawal of emission of global currency from under national jurisdiction.

    A little later, after the 2012 elections, which were quite unexpectedly won by Obama, he fundamentally changed the financial and economic block of the administration, removing from it representatives of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan who determined the US policy for more than 30 years (after the start of “Reaganomics “).

    Today the main “fault” line of the political forces in the United States is not between Republican and Democratic parties, but between the “Imperialists”, who want to protect the global financial system as the basis for US world domination – such as H. Clinton and “Isolationists” who wants to protect the US economy using remaining resources of the world financial system – Donald Trump.

  146. Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 10:17 pm #

    a great battle of the wits between the short sellers and the EZB is in the making – 439

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

    What does the Z in EZB stand for? Zentral?

    • 439 January 9, 2016 at 4:18 am #

      Europaeische Zentral Bank
      Sorry, some German slipped in.

  147. wpa_ccc January 7, 2016 at 10:18 pm #

    For those who think only dictators rule by executive order:

    Executive Orders

    381 .. Reagan

    291 .. Bush

    157 .. Obama

  148. Buck Stud January 7, 2016 at 10:49 pm #

    “He works in an office now and just does the art on the weekends. The mighty have fallen. Kali Yuga is really bearing down on us.”

    I’ll ignore your ridiculously false first sentence and take the second as a compliment–thank you.

    Buck Stud in an office? Ha, none of the women would get any work done. I’ll never forget that time I visited an architect’s office and his receptionist started confiding in me about how much she missed her mom who had passed away the previous year. I commiserated and mentioned that the mother/daughter bond is deep indeed. She then told me that she and her husband were separated and that she was probably drinking a bit too much in order to alleviate her emotional pain/grief but that ‘it wasn’t working’ . At about that time visions of a cozy bar, stone fireplace and frosty mugs danced through my brain while Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight” was playing on the juke box of my imagination. Here she was, revealing her humanity and angst, and there I was, engaging in sultry speculations and reading hidden suggestions spread open between lines contrived of guttural male predation. I wanted to take advantage of her and 21st gender roles be damned, she wanted a male to comfort and care of her, ruggedly,

    Trying to maintain an air of metro-sexual concern and sensitive pretense, along with a little light hearted frivolity, I suggested that maybe she should go to Europe. Surprised at my suggestion she said, “yes I would love to see Ireland”. At that moment it hit me: I was talking to the visual incarnation of my grandmother! She too had that rich dark hair and sky blue eyes typical of County Mayo/ West Ireland women. But just as I was about to ask her to walk with me ‘through gardens all misty wet with rain’ the architect introduced himself and invited me into his office.

    After the meeting was over she was nowhere to be found and I thought: How typical. “Like Clouds Over Fields of May” –thank you Patrick Kavanagh!–the Celtic spirit is transient indeed. The harder you hug it, the more it disperses. Like a seilchidh, her gaze is beyond, to the sea, to the that place that forever smells like the thunderstorm of a dark,moody afternoon. I can’t have it, can’t touch it, can’t possess it. I can only inhale it for an ethereal instant and dream about it for eternity.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 7, 2016 at 11:15 pm #

      There must be more than one Buck Stud. The other one said he worked in an office now.

      Yeah, Pat K is great. Much better than James. Ireland is doomed btw, slated to become a colony of Nigeria. And her aficionados neither know nor care if they are informed. That would be “racist”.
      Real Irishmen are preparing to take up the cudgel and sword against these Black pretenders.

      • Buck Stud January 8, 2016 at 6:48 pm #

        No, there are not ‘two Buck Stud’s”; you’re just being deceitful and disingenuous: Hardly the attributes of a ‘lofty white man’.

        If you keep it up I’m going to have to start calling you “Joco”.

    • Q. Shtik January 7, 2016 at 11:31 pm #

      So, if I get your drift, you can charm the balls off a brass monkey.

      I have my own tale of Irish women but it’s not nearly so artsy. Someday, if I’m feeling Joyceian, I’ll tell it. It takes place in a watering hole called The Bottle and Cork. Appropriate, no? They’re Irish ya know.

      • Buck Stud January 8, 2016 at 6:50 pm #

        Give it up Q—love your writing.

  149. MisterDarling January 8, 2016 at 12:54 am #

    We often discuss ‘returning’ to a simpler time (by choice or not) without thinking what that might mean in the nuts-n-bolts logistical sense…

    Travel in the Age of Steam v. Now:

    http://i.imgur.com/lBHNtcj.jpg

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  150. MisterDarling January 8, 2016 at 12:55 am #

    Linh Dinh – Checking in from Istanbul:

    http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.de/2015/12/turkeys-weasel-problem.html

  151. MisterDarling January 8, 2016 at 12:57 am #

    Remember all the wishful thinking?

    http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/missing-since-10-days-vladimir-putin-overthrown-in-coup_1561882.html

    And then it turned out to be just a few days off for ‘mistress management’?

    Cheers!

    • FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 4:33 am #

      Or sitting in a Sochi bunker with his finger over the red button….

  152. Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2016 at 2:44 am #

    It might end up being Joe after all – a four year feast for comedians and cartoonists. The man is non-stop flub machine.

    http://freedomforce.com/8626/former-us-attorney-hillary-will-be-indicted/

    Rush was talking about this too – and he has good sources about such things.

    • malthuss January 8, 2016 at 1:21 pm #

      And her hubby was impeached.

      Slap on the wrist. Right?

  153. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 3:26 am #

    “RE | “Demand is actually growing…”-f.

    I’m keen to see what you have that supports that!” == MD

    In 2014 the total volume of global consumption of oil (and oil products) amounted to about 88 million barrels per day. In 2015, the figure rose to 95 million barrels, and in 2016 is projected to rise to 96.7 million barrels per day. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “consumption growth will come from China, the US, India and Europe.”

    IEA: Demand/Supply balance:

    https://www.iea.org/media/omrreports/2015/1215/1215image3.png

  154. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 5:06 am #

    European society in spite of all its problems still stands on a very high stage of development – and it is absolutely capable to effectively resist the migrants from the less advanced countries.

    I’m pretty confident that after a while the pain threshold will be reached and the Europeans will solve the migrant problem in their customary intolerant way: how many times they have already solved similar problems over and over again throughout its turbulent history.

    Western high technology will not help Europe in the protection of their civilization from the hordes of unfriendly migrants, as the advanced Soviet technology did not help the USSR from invasion of “democracy” and liberalism. The problem of migrants can be solved not by chipisation of passports and placement of video cameras on every corner, but only by coordinated work of state and society.

    “Pampered Europeans” in 2016-2017 will prove that they are quite able to protect themselves against hostile takeovers.

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  155. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 5:58 am #

    Obama’s Financial Control (FinControl) is new independent wing of Global Financial Oligarchy

    In the United States formed a new independent center of power, it is the class of the American bureaucracy with the NSA at its center, and how it easily and quietly dealt with the former head of the IMF, Strauss Kahn and built super-giant project of total global surveillance indicates that the US bureaucracy takes power over money and banksters by control of all information in the world, where money is, in principle, just the most protected form of information.

  156. BackRowHeckler January 8, 2016 at 7:12 am #

    Big trouble in Libya, too! Big trouble!

    … as illustrated 2 days ago when a bomb detonated, killing 52 police officers, and somebody lit oil storage tanks afire, probably ISIS militia, containing 2 million barrels of oil. The fire is raging right now, an environmental disaster! You probably didn’t read anything about it because your local news organization was busy reporting on the $700 million power ball lottery. (“You can’t win if you don’t play”)

    Somebody should bring up the issue to the esteemed President, perhaps at one of his gun control ‘town meetings’. I know, I know, they’re not contrived and scripted, they’re spontaneous and genuine.

    Q., you might be mistaken about the Quinnipiac Poll. Its well respected and pretty even handed IMO, also widely quoted in the media. Wasn’t Quinnipiac strictly a women’s college at one point? They recently opened a medical school, and currently have the #1 NCAA hockey team in the USA. One more thing, the president of the place earns $1 million per, placing him right at the top of the pay scale pyramid.

    brh

    • Q. Shtik January 8, 2016 at 11:14 am #

      You’re right about Q-piac. It IS a well respected school and so is its poll. Polling is an inherently difficult science/art. It is nearly impossible to create polling questions free of bias. Q-piac’s proximity to Yale’s liberalism tends to rub off.

      And yes, I believe Q-piac was exclusively a women’s college up to and during my brief era (1970-71) in those parts.

      • Q. Shtik January 8, 2016 at 11:29 am #

        I’m wrong, the school’s on-line history doesn’t mention it ever having been exclusively a women’s college.

    • wpa_ccc January 8, 2016 at 11:54 am #

      You are right about it not being scripted. If you had personally visited the parents of the 21 first graders, as Obama did, even you might have a genuine emotional response.

    • Buck Stud January 8, 2016 at 6:45 pm #

      Actually, that polling firm leans right wing big time. And it’s not all that ‘respected’ . I believe Nate Silver gives it a “C”.

  157. fodase January 8, 2016 at 11:36 am #

    i love it when the feminist pig protectors of women stand up for the women and girl raping muslim filth

    – it wasn’t actual rape, just ‘bad behaviour’
    – the women need to adhere to a code of conduct, i.e. it’s their fault
    – it’s just as bad by christian white guys, ya know
    – it “doesn’t matter where they come from” [the rapists]
    – naming the muslim filth perpetrators is “marginalising” them
    – no response from hillary, who is *running* on this very issue

    yes, we get it, feminist pigs. you’d sell a woman to isis for gang rape
    and stoning to move your control agenda along

    your time is ending, your suicidal policies have come home to roost

    so, muslim filth gang rapes in helsinki, cologne, hamburg, berlin, followed by news today that a syrian ‘refugee’ let into the US by obama – surely following rigorous vetting, just like the filth fiance in san bernadino – has been arrested for planning terrorist attacks.

    i love muslims, they enrich our society, we need to take away guns from all people so everyone’s safe, i welcome the rainbow multicultural society

  158. fodase January 8, 2016 at 11:39 am #

    Reuters is reporting that two Middle Eastern men who came to America as refugees were arrested in California and Texas on federal terrorism charges. One of the refugees is charged with aiding ISIS. Most importantly, although time again we have been assured and reassured by the White House and DC Media that the refugee screening process is near-perfect, both refugees are charged with providing false information about their ties to terror groups.

    Here’s the kicker: one of the men, 23 year-old Aws Mohammed Younis, is a refugee from Syria who came to America in 2012.

    If you recall, after the bloody and brutal terror attack in Paris late last year, Republicans demanded a pause in the Syrian refugee program. At least one the Paris terrorists used the refugee program to get into Europe.

    Next year alone, President Obama is eager to re-settle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees here in America, on top of the hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees he plans to bring in from all over. ISIS has vowed to seed Syrian refugees with terrorists, and the country itself has no database infrastructure to screen anyone and is awash in forged documents.

    Nevertheless, for demanding a pause in refugees, Democrats and the DC Media attacked Republicans as bigots. “Meet the Press” spent a full hour comparing the GOP to Nazis. CNN’s Chris Cuomo compared those in favor of the pause to anti-Semites who turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

    The other man arrested, Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, is a refugee from Iraq.

    As you might expect, in its report of this extremely disturbing news, Reuters and the Obama Administration bend over backwards to reassure us that neither man was “planning acts of terrorism in this country,” as though that’s a distinction with a difference when it comes to providing “material support” to ISIS.

    One refugee from Syria, the other from Iraq, both Muslims, both charged with plotting with the very same Islamic savages who rape women, behead everyone, and are determined to kill as many Americans as possible.

    And our government allowed them into our country.

    And our media smears anyone who opposes that program as Nazis.

    The female jihadist responsible for 14 murders in San Bernardino last month made her way into America after lying on her visa application.

    Donald Trump wants to halt Muslim immigration until we figure out what’s going on…

    And he’s the one the DC Media is calling crazy.

    Now stand back and prepare yourselves for the biggest media cover-up in years.

    • wpa_ccc January 8, 2016 at 12:10 pm #

      In other words, no actual terrorist, no actual attack involving a Syrian refugee, just someone “charged” (a ham sandwich can be charged) … and not charged with violence, just “material support” … How scary!

      Obama wants to let in 10,000 refugees? Obama is wrong. We should take in a million Syrian refugees, or more … We should allow more immigrants into our rainbow multicultural society and celebrate our diversity which makes us strong.

      Thank those thousands of Muslims in the armed forces for their service.

    • malthuss January 8, 2016 at 8:12 pm #

      Donald Trump wants to halt Muslim immigration until we figure out what’s going on…

      Haha. I know whats going on.
      End immigration.

      Alex Jones was on late nite radio saying ‘half million chinese anchor brats a year.’

      I was unable to confirm his stat.

  159. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 12:08 pm #

    What could Obama and Putin secretly agreed upon?

    It is easier of course to answer the question – what topic is much more important for the leaders of the “free world” other than Syria and ISIS?

    And to be frank, the ISIS horror story was spread by western intelligence services for the sake of this topic. Just imagine the first in the history of humankind terrorist group, which operates with hundreds of millions of cash dollars that were carefully deposited for them in the banks of Mosul to be captured by former Saddam generals who grew beards.

    There also specifically for them was driven almost all equipment left in Iraq after the withdrawal of US troops.

    But this is not enough – ISIS is now has hundreds of millions in bank holdings by dumping oil exports. And the West supposedly has no leverage over any oil ports, or over banks to prevent all this.

    Shakespeare is spinning in his grave from deliberately theatrical productions, including executions of hostages drawn in computer using all latest Hollywood special effects.

    It turns out that the exaggeration of a virtual horror stories under the black flag of ISIL was necessary to establish a tight global financial control over all banks in the world, that is, total control over electronic money. (See UN Security Council resolution 2253, sponsored by the United States and the Russian Federation).

    If you think of other similar horror story about black regime of Kim Jong-un in N.Korea that is supported by US intelligence agencies, together with their North Korean counterparts, not without the same intention, such as deployment of a global missile defense system, and for the sake of absolute disinformation, sorry, of information that Pyongyang got original plates for printing indistinguishable from the real American 100-dollar bills.

    This means that there is a reason to check for counterfeit any amounts of cash dollars being imported into the United States or Europe – the other side of the global financial control.

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  160. nsa January 8, 2016 at 12:21 pm #

    You will note that in 2016 PC USA, us “racists” are actually considered worse than being complicitous in mass murder. Asoka’s hero, red bernie, supported bush and the murder of at least a million iraqis. The clinton hag and her muzzie leader hussein demolished libya with the killing still going on…..armed the joohadis in syria where the killing continues unabated…..and still murdering afghans for no reason except to flood europe with heroin and muzzies. What about all those iraqi kids killed by the clinton sanction induced epidemics…worthy of a nobel peace prize? Us “racists” prefer to leave them be over there….safely quarantined and enjoying their advanced culture and religion of peace. Same for the invasion of illiterate defectives from the south……seal off the border. The freeloading afros here should be granted home rule so they can also enjoy their high cultural attainments without interference from us “racist” whites…….

  161. fodase January 8, 2016 at 12:31 pm #

    another muslim attack in the US, on a police officer

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/08/philly-police-shooting-suspect-claims-it-was-execution-in-the-name-of-islam/

    video stills confirm

    round up, deport, wiretap, infiltrate, exterminate

    it’s past time for talking

    time for grown up men to take charge

    open and concealed carry women more than welcome to join in

  162. wpa_ccc January 8, 2016 at 1:35 pm #

    “another muslim attack in the US, on a police officer” — fodase

    In the first week of 2016 there were 170 gun-related deaths in the USA. These killings were committed by non-Muslim Americans engaging in open and concealed carry. Your hypocrisy is only exceeded by your racist bigotry.

  163. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 1:44 pm #

    STEPHEN KINZER: Iran is the more logical partner for US than Saudis

    The reasons are simple: Iran’s security interests are closer to ours than Saudi Arabia’s are.

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/saudi-arabia-iran-213504

    Besides, we owe sheikhs a shitload of money…

  164. Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2016 at 2:04 pm #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/eritrean-refugee-moves-in-with-swedish-family-slashes-7-year-old-girls-throat/

    Imagine if this was your daughter, little sister, or neighbor. Now adjust your attitudes accordingly. Stop supporting the savages – and the Liberal filth who enable them.

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  165. fodase January 8, 2016 at 2:09 pm #

    170 gun deaths is statistically insignificant in a nation of 315 million.

    isn’t that the line we get with the muslim fanatics?

    i’m not against any one race, i am against the fanatical death cult that rapes and kills women systematically throughout the world and plots
    the death and destruction – as part of its driving belief – of Western civilization.

    call it what *you* will, commonsense folks know full well to look for trouble anywhere you find your throwback friends.

    once again, i stand with all my black, white, brown, muslim brothers and sisters who are against this fanatical islamic invasion and onslaught against enlightened Western Hellenic value and institutions.

    that puts me, and them, squarely against you and your kind that knowingly import and abet the destruction of the united states, its citizenry and republican (as in a Republic) institutions.

  166. Pucker January 8, 2016 at 3:15 pm #

    I think that Young People should be inspired by Kim Jong Un as a positive role model. It shows the power of believing in yourself and Positive Thinking! That Kim Jong Un has been able to develop the hydrogen bomb and submarine missile launch vehicles to deliver it off the coast of California even as the Korea people are malnourished just shows that if a bloke has the vision, tenacity, self-confidence and commitment that he can achieve his dreams. Live’n the Dream—That’s my motto! Good Job Kim!

    • pequiste January 8, 2016 at 8:44 pm #

      Pucker,

      Do not forget those fabulous “Juche” parties, that ‘lil Kim Jong Un (like his Dad also used to have) to raise the spirit of even the most stalwart running -dog lackey or dour apparatchik:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwoSFQb5HVk

  167. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 3:30 pm #

    A.Brodsky: Remembering the future

    US media remembered the history and are trying to find in it either support or a reference point is the storm that is now shaking the ship of the United States.

    Unfortunately, they do not realize that they are looking for guidance not in history but in the old propaganda and not worried that, because of differences with the history, this propaganda will get them stranded.

    In particular, horrified by Trump plans to consolidate the true, not propaganda hate of Americans against Islamists who arranged 911, the hatred that unfortunately due to the ignorance of American majority applies to all Sunni Muslims, they are trying to put before Trump example of George W. Bush, who immediately after the 911 went through all the mosques, praying in them to show that US is not at war with Islam.

    And now they are trying to put in front of Putin example of Andropov, who, knowing the weakness of the Soviet Union, did not throw the new reserves into Afghanistan to support the Afghan Communists and pulled Gorbachev to the surface of the CPSU Central Committee.

    http://news.yahoo.com/yuri-andropov-drop-assad-hot-233317869.html

    Well, I do not know about Putin, but I do remember how they showed George W. Bush, running around the mosques:

    In mosque one is supposed to remove his shoes, and in the course of reaching out to Muslims US President revealed that he’s got holes in his socks. And all the American channels for a week just rambled in orgasm, showing close up the hole on the right toe, from which stuck the thumb of the US President.

  168. Pucker January 8, 2016 at 4:10 pm #

    So George W. Bush, Jr., the Andover prep school boy, Yale and Harvard Business School graduate, failed Texas oilman, alcoholic, self-professed evangelical Christian, and puppet of the pro-Israel neo-Marxist, Straussian Neocons went around praying in mosques post-911 to show that he wasn’t anti-Islam? OK…Please pass the pulled pork barbeque….

  169. fodase January 8, 2016 at 5:04 pm #

    Disclosure: Another 41 Foreign-Born Individuals Snagged On Terror Charges
    Obama administration withholds details as more attacks occur

    This is his legacy, letting in people – muslims- who wish to kill Americans.

    Not vetting them.

    Trump will undo this starting day 1.

    Thank God there are still Men left.

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  170. Pucker January 8, 2016 at 5:35 pm #

    In the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the mental patients voluntarily commit themselves to the mental hospital for the security and comfort of being taken care of, having a place in society, and being “equal”—Communism. Black Lives Matter!

    • Buck Stud January 8, 2016 at 6:37 pm #

      Puck your memory is nearly as weak as Janos–and that’s saying something.

      Actually, it was the white guys who were playing it safe. “Chief”, on the other hand, was a free man through and through:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Dz6FOE_Gk

      • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2016 at 7:29 pm #

        Chief was depressed unto death, almost catatonic until Jack Nicholson’s character gave him strength. How could you get it so wrong? Because of racial masochism, a strategy of moral superiority which you think accrues to you when you throw your people under the bus. Guess what? It doesn’t make you morally superior but morally inferior.

        • wpa_ccc January 8, 2016 at 10:00 pm #

          “How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty.” –John Ruskin

          • Buck Stud January 8, 2016 at 10:25 pm #

            With all due respect to the great John Ruskin, “Chief” looked magnificent running free–or at least to my eyes.

            And speaking of great men how about this:

            “You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you’ve limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you’ve made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.”

            Robert Henri

          • Q. Shtik January 8, 2016 at 11:22 pm #

            Sounds like something taught to slaves on the auction block.

        • Buck Stud January 8, 2016 at 10:33 pm #

          LOL. I have to hand it you Janos, you are one consistent dude. Astrologically speaking, probably a Taurus or an earth sign for sure. Usually Gemini’s find earth signs dull as dirt but you’re an exception, I will admit.

          • Janos Skorenzy January 8, 2016 at 11:33 pm #

            Ah, Gemini – the Twins. Is it not as I said? Your cycle is both short and extreme. You “flip over” and become someone else on a weekly or biweekly basis, having little memory of your previous self.

            There’s a tribe in the Amazon that speak a simple language, but deny that any outsider can actually speak it to them even as it is happening. They change their names often, saying that they are completely different people. Their IQ’s are below 60, making them far dumber than almost anybody on the planet.

            I’m not saying you are like them in this respect, but only in your extreme mutability. I though you might find a people even more mutable than yourself interesting.

          • malthuss January 9, 2016 at 9:26 pm #

            In which astrological system? Sidereal? Chinese? Tibetan? Vedic?
            You are what in which system?

  171. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 5:42 pm #

    Trump wants to protect American industry by introducing selective tariffs on Chinese goods.

    Yahoo mixes him with dirt, publishing article:

    Donald Trump wants you to pay more for smartphones, TVs and a lot else

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-wants-to-raise-the-price-of-smartphones–tvs-and-many-other-things-you-buy-165549546.html

    [They say] if you had not had the Protective Tariff things would be a little cheaper. Well, whether a thing is cheap or dear depends upon what we can earn by our daily labor. Free trade cheapens the product by cheapening the producer. Protection cheapens the product by elevating the producer. Under free trade the trader is the master and the producer the slave. Protection is but the law of nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-development, of securing the highest and best destiny of the race of man.

    President William McKinley

  172. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 10:53 pm #

    The Abaya Collection: The Allure of the Middle East

    The influx of refugees from Asia and Africa to Europe not only brings excesses – such as harassment and attacks on women by migrants in the German cities.

    The appearance on the streets of European cities of large numbers of new Muslims prompted the famous couturiers Dolce & Gabbana to create an entire collection of clothes for women.

    http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160107170843-dolce-gabbana-hijab-abaya-2-super-169.jpg

    http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160107174102-dolce-gabbana-hijab-abaya-13-super-169.jpg

  173. FincaInTheMountains January 8, 2016 at 11:03 pm #

    Frozen Russian Irtysh River

    https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/535084_200076917006729_3247055221654929578_n.jpg?oh=f31018f86516919ed5d22f4c40dd720d&oe=57078E83

    Does it remind you of something?

    Edvard Munch, “The Scream”.

    http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/7/0/4/447407.jpg

  174. Q. Shtik January 8, 2016 at 11:08 pm #

    “You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you’ve limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you’ve made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.” – Buck quoting Robert Henri

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

    The above sounds like something taught in the first week of Sculpting 101.

    On the first night of Finance in my MBA program I learned that the secret of wealth is to “spend less than you earn.” The rest of the 4 year program was just details.

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    • Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 10:13 am #

      Q,

      I do believe you missed the point which was in response to WPA, And why would you think that quote was something they taught in Sculpture 101, or in any way related to budgetary pragmatism?

      Last week, I read read one of those never ending platitudes on FB and now think of you and BRH recollecting it:

      ” I wasn’t born to just work, pay bills and die!”

      You’re a good man Q and it reads like your family is lucky to have such a devoted father/husband/brother: indeed a man who lifts his own out of debt. In many ways, isn’t that the true essence of Christianity, sacrificing one’s self for another?

      Of course, where the common man only senses the visceral connection of immediate family and ethnicity, the true sage realizes the universal connection of human beings in general : Van Gogh giving away his preachers salary to forlorn and suffering coal miners, for example.

      But anyway, is that what you want for your children you love so much, to embrace a mentality of just working, paying bills, and then dying? Of course not! For those you love, you would never allow such a thing. But for yourself, there is no question you would deny happiness and excess.

      As you weep for your children your “Father” weeps for you. Enter the human predicament. How to marry “Heaven” and Earth” ?

      • Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 10:18 am #

        Robert Henri, author of “The Art Spirit”:

        “I am always sorry for the Puritan, for he guided his life against desire and against nature. He found what he thought was comfort, for he believed the spirit’s safety was in negation, but he has never given the world one minute’s joy or produced one symbol of the beautiful order of nature. He sought peace in bondage and his spirit became a prisoner.”

      • Q. Shtik January 9, 2016 at 2:25 pm #

        And why would you think that quote was something they taught in Sculpture 101, – Buck

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

        Once you’ve cut that groove, that rut, you can’t take it back.

        I was likening ^that^ to my first class in Finance where the obvious, yet profound, statement was made: the secret to wealth is to “spend less than you earn.”

      • Q. Shtik January 9, 2016 at 2:32 pm #

        But for yourself, there is no question you would deny happiness and excess.

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

        Au contrarie. Q’s art will soon be revealed.

  175. Q. Shtik January 9, 2016 at 12:52 am #

    They change their names often, saying that they are completely different people. – Janos

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

    This must be wpa’s tribe.

  176. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 1:02 am #

    About current regime of Global Financial Control

    To prevent the collapse of current unreliable financial pyramid, it was necessary to encroach on the sacred – actually inhibit free trade and free financial speculation within the developed and now developing economies.

    Financial control over compliance with the new rules of the global elite has become a major instrument of the policy of self-preservation of this very elite.

    Thus, all that is happening in the world has its reason in the most important fact and turn in global politics – the actual end of global capitalism while maintaining its external ideological and political forms that are being filled with the opposite “central planning” content.

    With regard to technology, it is possible to note only one thing – like before World War II when in scientific journals has sharply worsened the quality of publications on nuclear physics, today there is deliberate simplification and flattening of the publications and all scientific debate in the field of psychology.

    Civilian laboratories and universities receive grants and work on deliberately shallow topics or proving false theses of “Darwinian fundamentalism”, as if the mentality of people does not qualitatively differ from the psyche of higher animals.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 6:31 am #

      In practice it means strict limitations on all financial transactions exceeding certain parameters.

      Good example: buying Caribbean property with money transfer.

  177. wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 2:13 am #

    Trump is no true conservative. He’s not even a reactionary in the best sense of the word. He’s a self-aggrandizing opportunist. His policies go no further than his catchphrase, “you’re fired.” Listening to his first television ad is like a preview for a bad movie — an empty supercut of the highlights (or lowlights) without the plot being revealed because it’s so thin.

    Trump is no everyman. He built his empire with $100 million from his wealthy father. Far from born into working or middle class, Trump never struggled a day in his life except by his own failings in business and the resulting repeated bankruptcies. His privileged background enabled him to make money off money — not exactly high on the hierarchy of middle-class values.

    As for being incorruptible, Trump gave big to politicians. He admitted that was meant to buy favors. His policy positions are similarly ephemeral — he supported the Big Government policies of Democrats and slippery values of the Clintons when it suited him. Steadfast, he is not.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 6:08 am #

      “Trump is no everyman. He built his empire with $100 million from his wealthy father”

      Hey, wpa, most of us would take that 100 mil and blow it up on girls and coke. 4 billion – the estimated net worth of Trump – is 40 times more than the original investment.

      Not so bad.

  178. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 6:04 am #

    Mass murder with intention to rob

    Hillary Emails Reveal True Motive for Libya Intervention

    Though the French-proposed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 claimed the no-fly zone implemented over Libya was to protect civilians, an April 2011 email sent to Hillary with the subject line “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold” tells of less noble ambitions.

    The email identifies French President Nicholas Sarkozy as leading the attack on Libya with five specific purposes in mind: to obtain Libyan oil, ensure French influence in the region, increase Sarkozy’s reputation domestically, assert French military power, and to prevent Gaddafi’s influence in what is considered “Francophone Africa.”

    Most astounding is the lengthy section delineating the huge threat that Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves, estimated at “143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver,” posed to the French franc (CFA) circulating as a prime African currency. In place of the noble sounding “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine fed to the public, there is this “confidential” explanation of what was really driving the war [emphasis mine]:

    This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA).

    http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/

  179. Reagan January 9, 2016 at 6:53 am #

    Trump = Hitler? More leftist inflammatory rhetoric from Mr. Kunstler, who should know better but hasn’t grown up yet. He and so many other minions already voted twice to put he-who-would-be-king in office and watch him trash the Constitution and tear up the Bill of Rights, all with the failure if a gutless Congress to stand up. Trump is standing up – something not seen in a long time.

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    • Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 10:53 am #

      Trump is “standing up” now but will he slink back down into the “throne” after the election and let the same old “insiders” run the actual, day-to-day show?

      Paul Craig Roberts seems to think so:

      http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/12/21/donald-trump-an-evaluation-paul-craig-roberts/

      • FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 11:37 am #

        If Trump wins the White House in November, will he combine the Constitutional power of the President with the power of formal head of independent branch of financial oligarchy – FinControl?

        I don’t really know the answer to that question.

        But if he does, he might have sufficient sovereignty to conduct his “protectionist”, patriotic to America policies.

        After all, Obama managed on his second term to rid Treasury and FED from alumnus of Goldman Sachs and J.P.Morgan – first time in 30 years.

        His latest success was blocking Larry Sanders, a known kleptoman who is still famous in Russia for receiving suitcases with cash from Russian oligarchs from taking the FED chair position.

        • Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 2:59 pm #

          Fincal,

          Did you mean a financial oversight branch independent of the financial oligarchy? Which would be a good thing, IMO. But I have not heard Trump suggesting this? Not to say he hasn’t but I simply have not read/heard any rumblings of that sort.

          To be fair, only Bernie Sanders is yelling it loud and far: ‘If a bank is “too big to fail” they are “too big to exist”. Sanders calls for breaking up the big banks and he’s absolutely right on that count. And to be even more fair, he is joined by libertarians and some on the right.

      • FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 11:46 am #

        You could think of the FinControl as a road Police, regulating all intersections of Financial roads and highways – a necessary evil that everybody hates, but at the same time prefer to have it rather than sitting in huge traffic jams or worse, giant car pileups as a result of unregulated traffic.

  180. BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 7:16 am #

    Look at this, new ‘Dress Code’ being announced for German Woman in Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, don’t know yet if Hijab and Burkha will become mandatory; goal is to not unduly entice honored Muslim male guests from NAfrica, Central Asia and the ME. Also, German girls warned not to leave their homes unaccompanied; it is unsafe and risky to do so.

    Strange days, German feminists taking side of Muslim rapists. What happened to the vaunted ‘Sisterhood?’

    In a more heroic day German men would step up to protect their daughters, wives and sisters against assault in their own country. But these are not heroic days. These are the Days of the Hyena.

    Whitey, you can hide out at that hotel there while these locusts devour your country. Your safety cannot be guaranteed, however, the rates are cheap, bargain basement in fact. We call it Hotel Rwanda for lack of a better name.

    brh

  181. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 7:32 am #

    There were three main circuits of money circulation in the Soviet Union:

    1. Bank Money – money on deposit of various enterprises that could be used for inter-enterprise payments for equipment supplies, etc.

    2. Cash Money – money that generally could be spent on personal consumption

    3. Foreign exchange money – money that could be used as payments with foreign entities

    (In reality, it was even more complicated than that, because there were different circuits of money between the countries of the Warsaw Pact and Western countries)

    There were very strict and defined rules, enforced by various laws and State bureaucratic agencies specifying the movement of money between the circuits. For example moving money from “Bank Money” to “Cash Money” was mostly done through a controlled payroll system, attempts to “Cash Money” using ghost workers were intercepted and punished by prison terms.

    I believe that something very similar to that in principle, however different in details, is being built by Obama’s FinControl in the United States and by Global FinControl (US + Russia plus other countries) on the global level.

    Reason – impossibility to maintain current overblown dollar pyramid using “normal” market mechanism and a real threat that irresponsible actions of certain speculators could bring down the house of cards uncontrollably, e.g. starting a panic.

    The non-stop terror coverage on mass media is a psychological precursive for introducing new rules of the game.

    So don’t expect that ISIS will be defeated shortly.

  182. fodase January 9, 2016 at 8:09 am #

    Islamic taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are refusing passengers carrying alcohol and blind folks with seeing-eye dogs because the animals’ saliva is sacrilege according to Sharia law.

    perhaps ambulances should refuse to serve them?

  183. BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 8:33 am #

    ‘Pretend to the Bitter End’ …

    Hillary Clinton is showing up on the ‘Ellen’ program this week, evidently the appearance will have a ‘Gay’ theme, with Matt Lauer appearing in a pair of high heels. Passes being made, lots of camp and sexual innuendo, you know the drill. Are these serious times, or aren’t they? $5 trillion was wiped out of the stock market last week. NKorea exploded a hydrogen bomb. KSA and Iran are on the brink of war. This woman might become President of the United States. Question, are these TV shows available to Putin, Mullahs in Iran, ISIS Militia Commanders, the Chinese Prime Minister? What must they think when they see this stuff?

    brh

  184. Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 10:41 am #

    “I’m not saying you are like them in this respect, but only in your extreme mutability. I though you might find a people even more mutable than yourself interesting.”–Janos

    I have never been that interested in “Third World” culture. I rarely read about it or even think about. Of course, like all awake individuals, I sense that a third world dynamic is manifesting itself in the USA. For example, the burgeoning populace who work forty hours a week and still can’t afford a bare subsistence existence: they have been priced out of the towns they work in and commute long distances before and after work to the USA equivalent of “Shantytown”.

    My love is for derivative European culture, especially architecture and the arts in general. You, on the other hand. seem obsessed with Third World culture and it’s inhabitants. You love to hate “them” more than you love actual European culture, witness your dearth of posts actually celebrating European culture.

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    • BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 2:11 pm #

      I don’t know how much ‘European Culture’ is going to be left standing once the Muzzies gain ascendancy in countries like Holland, France and Germany. Most of it is likely to be blown up, like what happened to those Roman ruins at the World Historical Site in Palmyra, Syria, by ISIS. Can you imagine the field day ‘Soldiers of Islam’ will have in the City of Light, Paris, let loose on everything not respectful of the Prophet? I notice the Muzzies are humble and accommodating when they are in the minority, but when they get the majority, watch out! Mosques are springing up like mushrooms thru out Europe, but how many churches are being built in the Middle East, Africa or Central Asia? If you built a Catholic Church in Iran right now, how long would it last?

      Buck, enjoy the museums and classic sculpture in Paris, Nice, Rome, Amsterdam, Brussels and London while you still can, which might not be much longer …

      Because the Day of the Hyena is upon us.

      brh

      • BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 2:19 pm #

        Incidentally, ISIS is threatening to take out Vatican City, and just may have the soldiers on station right now to get the job done. It won’t be a delicate operation IMO, with an eye to protecting priceless Christian and classic Roman relics, no, it might be rather clumsy and done with extreme prejudice, and all those beautiful Roman Statues that have survived these 2000 years might not make it thru.

        brh

        • Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 3:34 pm #

          BRH,

          Islam has traditionally rejected figurative works

          “The Islamic resistance to the representation of living beings ultimately stems from the belief that the creation of living forms is unique to God, and it is for this reason that the role of images and image makers has been controversial. ”

          http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/figs/hd_figs.htm

          Ornamentation, though, is revered and highly developed in the great Islamic Mosques:

          https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Cordoba_Mosque_09.jpg

          Bottom line: There is “religious” justification for destroying figurative works of art. IOW, more evidence of the essentially irrational nature of religion in general.

    • Janos Skorenzy January 9, 2016 at 7:49 pm #

      How strange since you don’t value the actual people who created these things. Thus you want the effect without the cause, and the scent without the flower. You always try to take the moral high ground without realizing that it’s just a fetid swamp.

      And of course your statement isn’t true anyway since you’ve often lauded Blacks and Mexicans. But that must be the other Buck I guess.

  185. Being There January 9, 2016 at 12:11 pm #

    Wonderful Post and prediction JHK.
    Thanks as always……

    Here’s something I think people of all stripes will find quite interesting.

    I like to call this the theory of everything and it’s about the “oil-igarchy” as James Corbett so aptly puts it.

    Guns and Butter couldn’t have had a more interesting interview which has another 15 min + another one next week.

    What can bring everything together in the global monopoly model better than this from education to genetic engineering and the monoculture model used in finance as well as all other monopoly endeavors—why the oil-igarchy even started the Univ. of Chicago!

    The last part (about 15 min. goes back to following the money on 9/11. I think this guy may be a libertarian, but he’s done extensive research for 10 years and lives in Japan.

    He sure knows the history of the Rockefellers down to the original criminal snake oil salesman.
    It brings all the FIRE sector players into one vision…
    Also check out his site. : http://www.corbettreport.com

    https://soundcloud.com/guns-and-butter-1/oil-and-911-crossroads-of-corruption-and-criminality-james-corbett-337

    • ozone January 10, 2016 at 9:10 am #

      Thanks, BT; I’ll give it a listen. (Fascinating guests on that show, in general, and I’ll not allergic to anything. 😉 )

    • Sandero January 10, 2016 at 3:11 pm #

      And lots of what Corbett says is wrong… But it sounds right and so he fools the lame thinkers… easy peasy. Trust but verify… RR said it but even an actor can mouth true statements.

  186. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:21 pm #

    [part 1 of 5]

    Hello Finca in the Mountains!

    First, I’d like to thank you for initiating a conversation with something more substantial than ideology and strong feelings. It is appreciated. Secondly, I want you to know that I do not allow myself to become attached to ideas and pet theories, nor do I allow any idea to survive if it stands in the way of an accurate and actionable understanding of a situation. I will slaughter each and every one of my ideas (no matter how near and dear) in a heartbeat if the facts do not support them. I do not call myself ‘Mister Darling’ because I ‘need pretty things’ after all.

    RE | “In 2014 the total volume of global consumption of oil (and oil products) amounted to about 88 million barrels per day. In 2015, the figure rose to 95 million barrels, and in 2016 is projected to rise to 96.7 million barrels per day. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “consumption growth will come from China, the US, India and Europe.””-f.

    The graph that you’re referencing dates from 2014 and is produced by a energy industry group (the IEA) which – much like the FRED data you indicated earlier – is far from unbiased and can be relied upon to present the prettiest picture where the future of their interests are concerned.

    But let’s set all that aside for a moment and ask ourselves that if this information were true, what would we expect to see in the market of tangible goods and services? We would see steadily increasing prices in raw materials indicating strong demand for them, strong and rising transport utilization, rising wages, a steady decrease in joblessness and very strong retail sales due to increased discretionary income. In point of fact we see none of these things. We see the opposite.

    First off, this is the actual BLS Chart from which the Federal Reserve derives their chart. This is their data in ‘real-time’:

    http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

    You’ll notice that this not a short-term, one-time occurrence.

    Employment has been trending down not just for the past 8 years, but the past 2 decades. Some of this is due to automation – as you pointed out – and some is due to offshoring. But at this point, the rising factor behind job destruction is demand destruction caused in large part by loss of income from… Job destruction. An unfortunate side-effect of decision-makers misinterpreting what Schumpeter communicated.

    By the way, the tendency of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to publish actual data (albeit it late and in obscurity) has put them in line for a budget reduction. The feeling in White House is that less news is good news.

    To Be Continued!

    [part 1 of 5]

  187. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:30 pm #

    @ FitM:

    [part 2 of 5]

    Consider also that incomes are downwardly mobile and have been for a long time:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/peak-income/

    http://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-americans-reached-peak-income-more-than-15-years-ago/

  188. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:37 pm #

    @ FitM:

    [part 3 of 5]

    The Retail/CapEx environment is in such bad shape that even the giants are starving. It doesn’t matter which market segment you look at (ex auto sales)…

    McDonald’s revenue collapse:

    http://www.eater.com/2015/6/18/8803639/mcdonalds-downsizing-cutting-locations

    IBM’s revenue collapse:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-20/ibm-revenue-collapse-now-worse-during-peak-financial-crisis

  189. wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 2:39 pm #

    “if this information were true, what would we expect to see?” –MD

    Answer: Exactly what we are seeing.

    The latest jobs report is out and the economy added 292,000 jobs in December — the strongest two years of job creation since 1998-2000. The jobs added since June of 2009 are also mostly full time.

    President Obama tweeted, “The December jobs report shows big gains in employment and higher wages for American workers.”

    December’s jobs report bears more bad news for Republicans and more good news for the people. “The economy added 292,000 jobs in December, marking the strongest two years of job creation since 1998-2000,” Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers concluded.

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    • Being There January 9, 2016 at 2:42 pm #

      Is there any data that can check these claims? Maybe Shadow Stats will be the place to check the veracity of the claims.

      • MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:53 pm #

        [ahem]

        *Being There*, with all due respect you are responding to someone/thing that does not respond to Reason…

        Just sayin’,

        Cheers!

        • Being There January 9, 2016 at 5:33 pm #

          I mentioned that as a possibility without knowing that anything is off about them. I was saying I wouldn’t know how to go about checking real data that isn’t skewed to a particular outcome. That said certainly if David Stockman has crunched some numbers around, use him as a reasonable model…or Paul Craig Roberts.

          I made an assumption that others go to shadow stats for their numbers…..could be wrong, though.

      • wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 3:28 pm #

        Shadow Stats is in the business of charging for bad data. Williams charged $175 for a subscription. data are proprietary, and he generally charges for access to them. I’ll be damned if I’m paying for faulty data just to prove how wrong they are. Luckily, Williams has allowed use of his data in the inflation calculator at http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html, so I’ve derived his data and can use this tool to prove the point.

        The tool delivers cumulative inflation data based on beginning and end dates. Here are three comparison periods using CPI-U, the widely-used measure produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and ShadowStats’ Alternate:

        For 2005-2010, CPI-U says cumulative inflation was 13.4%, ShadowStats claims it was 60%.

        For 2000-2010, CPI-U says 28.7%, Williams says 144.7%.

        For 1990-2010, CPI-U says 73%, Williams says 378.9%.

        So lets go back 10 years. CPI-U indicates that what cost $100 in 2010 cost $77.71 in 2000. According to ShadowStats, what cost $100 last year cost just $40.86 in 2000.

        Pretty dramatic difference. At least one of these figures is way off.

        Here’s where each person’s recollections come in (I haven’t bothered with an analysis of sample data since this giggle test is pretty damning). BLS says the price level’s increased by 29% since 2000, while Williams claims inflation of 145%. In 2000, was today’s $4 gallon of milk closer to $3.10 or $1.65? Was today’s $30,000 car closer to $23,300 or $12,250? Aside from gasoline and perhaps a house, there’s not much that’s debatable here.

        Now let’s go back further. Changing the target to 1990, BLS says inflation over the last 20 years has been 73%. ShadowStats claims prices have increased 379%. John Williams apparently believes the price level is almost 5 times higher today than in 1990.

        Can you think of anything that costs five times more today than it did in 1990? Examples:

        Did a gallon of milk cost $0.80?
        Did a pint of Ben & Jerry’s cost less than a dollar?
        Did a 12-pack of Coke cost less than a dollar?
        Did a case of Budweiser cost $5?
        Could you get your shirts washed for a quarter?
        Did Levi’s cost less than $10?
        Was a Big Mac, fries, and a drink on the dollar menu – combined?
        Did decent running shoes cost $20?
        Did an entry-level Lexus cost less than $10,000?
        Not even gas, housing, or college tuition comes close.

        Meanwhile, the BLS equivalents seem to be in the ballpark. Especially compared to ShadowStats.

        Williams’ incentive to continue generating a bogus data set is clear: he sells his data to a self-selecting audience who might not pay if reality were reflected accurately.

        BeingThere, to mention Shadow Stats on CFN as a source to take seriously, when his data are so obviously and significantly removed from reality, is not reasonable.

      • ffkling January 11, 2016 at 1:27 am #

        So typical…….since the statistics do not support your anti-Obama agenda, question the source regardless of history and integrity.

    • Q. Shtik January 9, 2016 at 3:07 pm #

      The latest jobs report is out and the economy added 292,000 jobs in December – as noted by the gullible wpa

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

      “Here’s a newsflash that CNBC didn’t mention. According to the BLS, the US economy generated a miniscule 11,000 jobs in the month of December.

      But on the apparent theory that December is colder than November, and notwithstanding that almost nobody works outside anymore, the BLS fiction writers added 281,000 to their headline number to cover the “seasonal adjustment.” – DS

      For the rest of the story go to David Stockman’s Contra Corner. – Q.

    • wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 3:12 pm #

      Our businesses have now added 14.1 million jobs over 70 straight months, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that private employment rose by 275,000 jobs in December, while private employment growth in October and November was revised up by a combined 51,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.0 percent in December while the labor force participation rate edged up to 62.6 percent. Average hourly earnings for all private employees have now risen 2.5 percent over the past year, the fastest pace since the recovery began. Overall, our businesses have added 5.6 million jobs over the past twenty-four months—the most in any two-year period since 1997-1999.

  190. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:41 pm #

    @ FitM:

    [part 4 of 5]

    If Demand for fuel was increasing we would expect to see inventories shrinking, not “bursting at the seams” (Bloomberg) so unprecedentedly that VLCC oil-tankers were being used for storage – 2M barrels/vessel…

    Inventories:

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/crude-oil-prices-fell-due-113250389.html

    The Situation at the Port of Galveston:

    http://www.seatrade-maritime.com/news/americas/busy-days-at-galveston-as-anchorages-fill-up.html

  191. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:46 pm #

    @ FitM:

    [part 5 of 5]

    Most interestingly, the energy companies themselves are projecting lower prices going forward. This jibes with Exxon-Mobil’s recent cancellation of their Arctic Drilling Project – which they spent $7B and the better part of ten years lobbying for. They stated the reason was negative Net Present Value.

    Oil industry Demand Projections:

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/08/oil-producers-prepare-prices-halve-20-barrel

  192. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 2:51 pm #

    @ CFN:

    It’s fascinating to imagine what the ‘free market’ would look like if subsidies played no part. Oil companies et al would be in big trouble for instance:

    Fossil fuel subsidies

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/18/fossil-fuel-companies-getting-10m-a-minute-in-subsidies-says-imf

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fossil-fuel-subsidies-cost-5-trillion-annually-and-worsen-pollution/

    I had this information in mind while reading Mister Swmnguy’s sentence about oil being mispriced from the beginning…

    Cheers Everyone!

    😉

  193. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 3:53 pm #

    MisterDarling,

    1. We are getting into serious conversation here which would require substantial research and time.

    2. Let’s concentrate on the energy market, in particular oil, and see what objective, trustworthy data we could come across.

    3. Regarding the subsidies and “free market” (which, in my humble opinion never existed anyway) – I never said that subsidies do not play major role, especially in projects like shale oil, and, personally, since it is strategic direction for the Nation, I do not see any harm in it.

    And kudos to US that it has resources and common sense to “subsidize” (I would rather call it strategic investment) into physical growth of oil production, even if it is currently “loosing money”.

    Here is another chart from IEA public web site (for now I do not intent to spend money subscribing to their premier services) regarding oil demand in 2013 – 2016 – judge for yourself:

    https://www.iea.org/oilmarketreport/omrpublic/

  194. wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 3:59 pm #

    In November 2015 median household income finally recovered from the Bush Recession.

    Obama, through his actions, has debunked the Republican talking point that Obamacare would be a job killer. Also, once again, Obamacare didn’t turn the country into a “part-time nation!

    Total nonfarm employment in the U.S. is roughly 138 million, seasonally adjusted. What if, for the last 70 months, we had continued to lose 700,000 jobs a month? Under the Republican Bush administration we were losing 700,000 a month. For 70 months that would be a total loss of 49,000,000 jobs, instead of adding 13.5 million as Obama has done.

    The big box stores would have shut down, the parking lots would be empty, people would not even have cars because they wouldn’t be able to afford gas and insurance. Look around. Are the highways empty? Has traffic ceased to be a problem? What do your eyes tell you? Are you going to believe what you see or are you going to believe Shadow Stats (only $175 for subscription)?

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    • nsa January 9, 2016 at 4:15 pm #

      With lefty social parasites like asoka…..politics is everything…..and for good reason. Without forced wealth distribution, the freeloading asoka half of the population would starve to death…..

  195. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 4:16 pm #

    “Fincal,

    Did you mean a financial oversight branch independent of the financial oligarchy? Which would be a good thing, IMO. But I have not heard Trump suggesting this? Not to say he hasn’t but I simply have not read/heard any rumblings of that sort.” == Buck

    Buck, I mean a fully independent brand new player in financial oligarchy, according to my little theory (which is not mine, but lets assume that for the sake of conversation), third in rank after The Pirates (Rockefellers) and Money Changers (Rothchilds), but with the full blocking vote (it controls the FED).

    It consists of various US spook agency with NSA at the helm, intelligence agencies and financial bureaucracy, with the powerful park of supercomputers and special software that is tracking every financial transaction in USA (and I believe in the world if it is in US dollars)

    Things gone pretty bad and without the Road Police – which the FinControl is – controlling all financial traffic we would see a major car pileups on the financial highways and, possibly, a full blown panic.

    Nobody is declaring it in public, it operates under various anti-terrorist laws and regulations, as well as the FATCA law (The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act).

  196. sauerkraut January 9, 2016 at 4:18 pm #

    MD, I responded to your comment of Jan 7, 8:32 above. I would be interested in your views.

    • MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 9:18 pm #

      Hello!

      My reply is down-thread. I’m interested in moving replies to the end of the thread – so as to maintain the flow and ‘momentum’ of the comment-stream in general.

      Cheers!

  197. wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 4:20 pm #

    When Obama took office, in January 2009, 115,818,000 people were working full-time. 6,057,000 full-time jobs had been lost before Obama took one step into the Oval Office. The number of people working full-time dropped to 110,559,000 at the “trough” of the recession in December 2010, a loss of another 5.2 million full-time workers after Obama’s inauguration. Altogether, 11,316,000 full-time workers were lost during the recession. We have regained about 13.5 million of those full-time positions, thanks to President Obama, instead of losing 49,000,000 more jobs (almost half the labor force).

    People who don’t believe BLS or ADP statistics need to come up with something more credible, instead of sniping from the sidelines and claiming legitimate kills.

    • elysianfield January 10, 2016 at 6:25 pm #

      Wpac,
      Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics….

      In the 7 years you reference, 16.8 MILLION citizens entered the work force…I don’t see them accounted for in your…”offering”.

    • ffkling January 11, 2016 at 1:33 am #

      When the statistical results do not conform with an obvious anti-Democratic agenda, than question the veracity of the source, despite the fact that the BLS is used by Republicans and Democrats, although the whining tends to be directly proportional to the presidents political affiliation.

      Keep-up the good work!!!!!!!!!

  198. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 4:26 pm #

    Again, the problem (according to same little theory) is 20 to 30 trillion dollars printed during dot-com boom that threaten to get out of control, form a tsunami wave and drown (uncontrollably) the world financial system.

    Nobody wants that, and the older wings of Financial oligarchy even more so, because they’d loose control completely.

    Thus, all that is happening in the world has its reason in the most important fact and turn in global politics – the actual end of global capitalism while maintaining its external ideological and political forms that are being filled with the opposite “central planning” content.

  199. wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 4:28 pm #

    “If KSA descends into chaos, oil will either hit the ceiling on its way through, or our civilization will end.” –sauerkraut

    Hmmm, you cannot conceive of a third option? Therein lies our plight… too many drama queens who can only think inside the box.

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    • sauerkraut January 9, 2016 at 10:02 pm #

      Well wpa, what is your third option? Electric cars? Not without a trillion in infrastructure. And that already in place when required.

      That’s the problem, wpa. We live in a very efficient economy, and the other side of that coin is a very fragile economy. So, if something major happens, the alternative has to be in place already to avoid dislocation. Something like energy requires a lead-time of years to decades, and we are not planning for it.

      So, what do you think the third option is?

  200. FincaInTheMountains January 9, 2016 at 5:04 pm #

    “Hillary Emails Reveal True Motive for Libya Intervention” == me

    If this is true, and Sid Blumenthal did send such letter, and Hillary has forwarded it to someone, in the present circumstances, it means her end as a political figure, but the fact of the declassification of these materials signifies that Obama has taken a decision not only to expose Hillary, but also her policies as Secretary of State (i.e. the US policies at the time), and all its supporting group, that is, most of the Democratic Party establishment and a significant part of the establishment of the Republican Party, such as McCain, Cheney and the Speaker of House Paul Ryan.

    Hillary’s Death Squads

    http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/

  201. Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 7:56 pm #

    “Once you’ve cut that groove, that rut, you can’t take it back.

    I was likening ^that^ to my first class in Finance where the obvious, yet profound, statement was made: the secret to wealth is to “spend less than you earn.”–Q

    I’m no financial expert/pro such as yourself, but spending less than you earn strikes me more as debt prevention as opposed to wealth accumulation. IOW, wealth accumulation is more a result of large influxes of money. For example, a very poor person can live very frugally–not spend more than they earn–and never accumulate wealth.

    In fact, your ‘profound statement’ can be very subtle weapon with which to blame those in society who are at the whim of forces larger than themselves: economic determinism, as opposed to ‘free will” –‘spending more or less than they earn’ a matter of choice. In fact, the poor are much more likely to go into debt via credit cards etc, because they might, for example need to put the new car transmission on the credit card in order to commute to work.

    And yet, your profound statement is true

  202. Janos Skorenzy January 9, 2016 at 8:07 pm #

    John Quincy Adams on the true nature of Islam. His understanding is superior to 99% of what’s out there now.

    In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.

    Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extinction of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man. While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. It is, indeed, amongst the mysterious dealings of God, that this delusion should have been suffered for so many ages, and during so many generations of human kind, to prevail over the doctrines of the meek and peaceful and benevolent Jesus (Blunt, 1830, 29:269, capitals in orig.).

    Observe that Adams not only documents the violent nature of Islam, in contrast with the peaceful and benevolent thrust of Christianity, he further exposes the mistreatment of women inherent in Islamic doctrine, including the degrading practice of polygamy.

    A few pages later, Adams again spotlights the coercive, violent nature of Islam, as well as the Muslim’s right to lie and deceive to advance Islam:

    The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force (Blunt, 29:274).

    No Christian would deny that many Christians in history have violated the precepts of Christ by mistreating others and even committing atrocities in the name of Christ. However, Adams rightly observes that one must go against Christian doctrine to do so. Not so with Islam—since violence is sanctioned:

    The fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion, is the extirpation of hatred from the human heart. It forbids the exercise of it, even towards enemies. There is no denomination of Christians, which denies or misunderstands this doctrine. All understand it alike—all acknowledge its obligations; and however imperfectly, in the purposes of Divine Providence, its efficacy has been shown in the practice of Christians, it has not been wholly inoperative upon them. Its effect has been upon the manners of nations. It has mitigated the horrors of war—it has softened the features of slavery—it has humanized the intercourse of social life. The unqualified acknowledgement of a duty does not, indeed, suffice to insure its performance. Hatred is yet a passion, but too powerful upon the hearts of Christians. Yet they cannot indulge it, except by the sacrifice of their principles, and the conscious violation of their duties. No state paper from a Christian hand, could, without trampling the precepts of its Lord and Master, have commenced by an open proclamation of hatred to any portion of the human race. The Ottoman lays it down as the foundation of his discourse (Blunt, 29:300, emp. added).

    The Founders were forthright in their assessment of the nature and teachings of Islam and the Quran. Americans and their political leaders would do well to take a sober look at history. To fail to do so will be catastrophic.

    REFERENCES

    Blunt, Joseph (1830), The American Annual Register for the Years 1827-8-9 (New York: E. & G.W. Blunt), 29:267-402, [On-line], URL: http://www.archive.org/stream/p1americanannual29blunuoft.

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    • BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 9:13 pm #

      Janos, were you listening to our esteemed President when he gave his ass kissing, grovelling speech in Cairo and said “The future does not belong to those who insult the prophet”? I don’t think you were listening.

      Anyway, what’s John Adams know? I heard Chris Matthews say Obama was the smartest man to ever hold the Presidency.

      brh

      • malthuss January 9, 2016 at 9:35 pm #

        Which future? ‘The’ is vague.
        My future?
        The worlds future?

        There is a youtube clip that has Obamas half brother funneling the money to Isis.

        obamas half bro

        https://www.youtube.co

        ——— watch?v=SeA7C0OdIPE

        • elysianfield January 10, 2016 at 6:28 pm #

          In many venues, those who insult the Prophet (peace be unto him!) have, often, no future at all….

    • wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 11:19 pm #

      “Hatred is yet a passion, but too powerful upon the hearts of Christians.”

      Jesus was a peaceful prophet of God, as recognized by Islam, a religion of peace. Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to reject violence, to love your neighbor, to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Jesus did not preach segregation. Jesus did not preach apartheid. Jesus did not condone Jim Crow.

      Christian values are not reflected in the uncivilized, racist, and violent expressions towards Muslims on this forum. A Christian nation would embrace nonviolence. A true Christian nation would follow the example of Costa Rica and abolish its military.

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 10, 2016 at 11:57 pm #

      Janos,

      This is a phenomenal post!

      -Sticks

  203. BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 9:08 pm #

    Question is, if Big Oil Companies start going belly up, and the Dow drops down 4 or 5 thousand more points, who’s Bernie Sanders gonna have left to kick around in his campaign speeches? His whole platform is pulled out from under him. Well, there’s always the old reliable trope, ‘free college tuition’, and ‘cancel student loan debt’, pulls in the 18-25 year olds every time! But is that enough to win?

    –BRH

    • wpa_ccc January 9, 2016 at 11:21 pm #

      Yes, Bernie is going to be our next president.

  204. MisterDarling January 9, 2016 at 9:14 pm #

    @ Sauerkraut:

    Hello! Thanks for bringing up the Ghawar Field issue – and all that it implies. If it’s one thing that we’ve learned it’s that the existing ‘powers that be’ have all been lying, and that when caught simply turn around and say “so what – thus finalizing any residual sense that there was any point in taking them seriously. Why should it surprise us that KSA’s ruling family via Aramco et al. is exactly the same? They’ve been supported by the same people, after all.

    RE | “Since that’s a bit of a mouthful, and not exhaustive, easier to say “crush shale”. That leaves the reader to work out the other similar consequences, as you seem to have done, by inferring that the sole goal of “crush US shale” is insufficient.”-s.

    I think that we and every other rational observer at least sense that there’s more involved than simply going for a competitor’s throat by dumping – especially when there’s no _concrete_ evidence that demand is increasing or will in the near-to-mid-future. [*]

    & | “Demand continues it’s year on year increase, according to the International Energy Agency. It forecasts the usual increase in 2016. . . So, brace yourself for a massive price increase in a year or two. Just my take – no inside knowledge or even good memory.”-s.

    If prices are increased – in stark disagreement with the oil vendors themselves (see above) – then it will only deepen the collapse of demand. Where will the demand come from? Will the US Navy put every vessel to sea and have them do laps around the world’s oceans? [**]

    We’re in a global deflationary down-spiral where even Monsanto is laying off:

    http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-01-06/monsanto-swings-to-1q-loss-amid-lower-seed-sales

    Food is the most basic and tangible product there is, and Monsanto is a titan in that market. If there’s any money to be made, or growth to be skimmed, Monsanto would be getting the lion’s share of it. Petroleum products are a critical input at every stage of their business process. So, what does this tell you?

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] ie., facts that can’t be ‘fudged’ by decree – like each and every announcement from the White House. Thus my many citations of stats that can’t be fudged like shipping stats, etc.

    [**] The US DoD and the (US Navy in particular) are the biggest single consumers of fossil fuel in the world… That’s an illuminating fact, is it not?

    😉

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    • sauerkraut January 9, 2016 at 9:53 pm #

      But contrariwise, MD, is there any concrete evidence that demand is decreasing? Note that a marginal increase in India offsets a significant decrease in the West. I accept that demand is an elusive quantity, but healthy sales of big pick-ups puts an unhealthy upward pressure on demand; etc.

      I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on China’s current malaise – their stock markets went up way too far and way too fast – and finance is, in any case, tied even less to the real economy there. It may not have any serious effects on oil consumption. Ending the building boom might, but the whole issue is too complex for me to predict.

      As for Monsanto, I think that many factors are in play. I don’t quite see the relationship between Monsanto and oil prices – I think that natural forces such as AGW are more important to food production than oil price.

      • ozone January 10, 2016 at 10:16 am #

        MD, Finca, sauerkraut,
        What you’re having an actual discussion about is of great interest (to me). I see it as a large portion of the shape of what will become “the bitter end”, and perforce, sound the death knell of the “pretending”. That’s when the gnashing of teeth really begins and the tearing apart of no-longer-of-use alliances proceeds. (Perhaps we will finally learn the difference between chaos and anarchy, but with the word-twisters and hired killers wonderfully effective work of the past years, I highly doubt it will be given even a passing thought.)

        Oh well, it’s going to make for strange bedfellows in the struggle for undeserved power, wealth and control. Strangely enough, it’s the oligarchs who are going to have to be the most cautious when it comes to choosing “friends”. Beware of saviors and cargo-cultists; they’re in the miracle business, not the creative work-arounds it takes to face predicaments.

    • BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 10:40 pm #

      “Where will demand come from? Will the US Navy put every vessel to sea and have them do laps around the world’s oceans?” –MD

      MD, at the peak of the Iraq and Afghan wars the US Armed Forces burned thru about 300,000 bpd of petroleum. At the time US demand was about 20 million bpd, give or take a few. I imagine demand is lower now, military and civilian.

      brh

    • BackRowHeckler January 9, 2016 at 10:45 pm #

      Also, blame it on Winston Churchill. He’s the one who converted Royal Navy ships from coal burning to oil burning around 1910, the first in the world to do so. At the time it was revolutionary and gave the British Navy a real advantage over the German Navy, their main adversary at the time.

      brh

  205. Pucker January 9, 2016 at 9:21 pm #

    [The Problem of Freedom]

    The Brady Bunch cast generally didn’t end well. Many of them ended up alcoholics and drug abusers (Marsha, Greg, Peter). The Father (Mike) became a Homo. Little Cindy Brady became a porn actress. They probably would have fared better in a Communist to,,,tal,,Iyar,,,,Ian society where they were told want to do and had a clear place and role in society and were “equal”. Black Lives Matter!

  206. Q. Shtik January 9, 2016 at 9:43 pm #

    In which astrological system? Sidereal? Chinese? Tibetan? Vedic? – Malthuss

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

    It doesn’t matter, Malth, it’s all a crock.

    • malthuss January 10, 2016 at 1:59 pm #

      The future does not belong to those who slander the prophets.

  207. Buck Stud January 9, 2016 at 9:59 pm #

    “And of course your statement isn’t true anyway since you’ve often lauded Blacks and Mexicans. But that must be the other Buck I guess.”–Janos

    Are you serious? Blacks and Mexicans can’t manifest or produce works of art in the European vein worth admiring? What an utterly foolish statement.

    I’m afraid you’re out of your league on this subject Jan. Now sit down and admire this Francisco Zuniga sculpture:

    https://lamodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Zuniga079-1.jpg

    • malthuss January 10, 2016 at 2:00 pm #

      Janos is right, as judged by your link.

    • Sticks-of-TNT January 11, 2016 at 12:08 am #

      Is it a urinal?

  208. wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 4:00 am #

    “Hatred is yet a passion, but too powerful upon the hearts of Christians.” –via quote sent by janos, the white separatist

    Jesus was a peaceful prophet of God, as recognized by Islam, a religion of peace. Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to reject violence, to love your neighbor, to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Jesus did not preach segregation. Jesus did not preach apartheid. Jesus did not condone Jim Crow.

    Christian values are not reflected in the uncivilized, racist, and violent expressions towards Muslims on this forum. A Christian nation would embrace nonviolence. A true Christian nation would follow the example of Costa Rica and abolish its military.

  209. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 7:54 am #

    Members of the Afghan Parliament believe that the ISIS radio station “Voice of Sharia” is at the American military base in Nangarhar province

    According to the deputies and local residents, radio is perfectly audible in all parts of the province. The broadcast starts each day at 18.00 and after the ringing of swords and gun shots calls to join ISIS.

    Americans say that can’t find the source of the broadcast. However, the Afghans believe that it is complete nonsense, and if desired it could be brought to an end.

    The USA can’t track the source of the broadcast, yeah, lost technology of the last century, apparently as the engines with which they flew to the Moon.

    http://mianews.ru/en/2016/01/10/radio-stations-of-isis-are-on-the-us-military-base/

    Hillary’s Emails revealing true motives for Libya Intervention are going to completely destroy what remains of US credibility in international space.

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    • Being There January 10, 2016 at 8:02 am #

      Yup, let the shadowboxing be revealed. This model that’s used in everything we do, is about playing it from both sides and vociferously claiming we’re about one thing when we are always duplicitous.

      There’s so much we could turn around, but gain through destruction is so much easier. Things will continue in this model till there are no winners. Then and only then will we see a change.

      That’s both sad and funny that the Afghanis got our number.

      Here’s a fun one, Clinton, Rubio, Cruz Receive Foreign Policy Advice From Same Consulting Firm.

      Lee Fang
      Dec. 18 2015, 12:46 p.m.

      https://theintercept.com/2015/12/18/beacon-global-strategies/

  210. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 8:49 am #

    “If prices are increased – in stark disagreement with the oil vendors themselves (see above) – then it will only deepen the collapse of demand.” == MD

    I think everybody’s problem is that they are still in usual “free market” and “supply and demand” paradigm, while the whole world is at war for redistribution of most delicious parts of trade and financial streams.

    “Winner takes all” is the mentality of the day and nobody saving the shells and bullets, even if they are “loosing money”.

    You are suppose to loose money during the war.

  211. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 8:56 am #

    “Jesus was a peaceful prophet of God, as recognized by Islam, a religion of peace. Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to reject violence, to love your neighbor, to love your enemies”

    That is not entirely correct. According to Orthodox interpretation, Jesus did call on people to forgive their personal enemies, but he never called to extend that forgiveness to the Enemies of the Nation.

    Protect his Nation and State is a sacred duty of any Orthodox Christian.

    • Reagan January 10, 2016 at 10:37 am #

      I doubt anyone understands or knows Jesus. I doubt he was “peaceful” in the sense of being a wimpy preacher like today’s dolts. I think of him as a tough guy, straight to point, in your face, without having to smoke and booze it up. He admonished everyone every day without fail. He was “innocent” in that he was incorruptible, but not innocent like a little boy, who is relatively innocent but can be corrupted. I also don’t think he preached for people to “forgive” in the sense that God can judge and forgive; instead, be an observer and see what is right and wrong. Stand up to the wrong without hate, which is “love” but not the feel good emotional love. Lastly, he was the only “begotten” son – the unique one, and not just a “prophet” mixed in with other wanna-be prophets who espouse a fake religion of some sort so they can have 10 wives and find people to make it a law or make it a church law just to not feel guilty and make it legitimate.

    • wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 10:49 am #

      Jesus did call on people to forgive their personal enemies, but he never called to extend that forgiveness to the Enemies of the Nation. –Finca

      Really, Finca? So government created life, and government can order life to be destroyed? Then Jesus should have said:

      “Even as you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto me, except in the case of national defense when you can kill thine enemies, who will be defined for you by the government currently in power”

  212. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 9:46 am #

    Today all commentators shout about “unprecedented collapse” – and nobody somehow call them “alarmists”. Sometimes I do not really understand who is writing about the economy and why…

    Well, with George Soros is more or less clear. The main world’s speculator has taken a short position that is set to make money on the fall. Clearly, he must, using a previously created publicity, try to move the market in the “right” direction. The main thing here – do not trust him too much. As for all other commentators, their behavior is a big surprise.

    The fact is that just a month ago; they explained how everything was good. And today, quite actively began to talk that all is bad. And that with the same fundamentals as they were then and the stock market remains overheated as it was a month ago.

    This does not mean that the market will not collapse at all. In the end, many experts believed that the collapse must have taken place in 2015. But, as experience shows, to make a diagnosis is a lot easier than to pinpoint the day of the patient’s death.

    And even if the diagnosis is obvious – sometimes the patient lives much longer than the doctors think. But of course, not forever.

  213. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 9:54 am #

    Unbelievable Bus Shelter

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go9rf9GmYpM

    Well, someone still has money for hi-tech pranks.

  214. wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 11:16 am #

    who espouse a fake religion of some sort so they can have 10 wives –Reagan

    Isn’t christianity also a “fake religion” to control people by promising eternal life (and threatening eternal damnation)?

    Lastly, he was the only “begotten” son

    “Only begotten son” … really, reagan?

    The New Testament Greek words translated as ‘son’ are ‘pias’ and ‘paida’ which mean ‘servant,’ or ‘son in the sense of servant.’ So, Jesus was merely saying that he is God’s servant. Nothing unique about that.

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  215. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 11:50 am #

    “So government created life, and government can order life to be destroyed?” == wpa

    Well, we’re talking differences of two civilizations here – the Russian/Orthodox and the Anglo-Saxon. I know that in your view the State is just a mediator, enforcer of the common laws that collects its fees in form of taxes.

    It is very different in Orthodox culture, were the State is a Sacred Entity that derives its right to rule not from the people, but directly from the God.

    I am not saying who’s right or wrong here, the ongoing competition will show.

    • FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 12:00 pm #

      To start to understand the differences. you have to listen closely to the lyrics of the Great Patriotic War (WWII), still hugely popular in Russia:

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

      Refrain:

      Let our noble wrath
      Seethe like waves
      The national war is going
      The Sacred War

  216. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 12:34 pm #

    We should clarify the concept of “center of power” that there is no conspiratorial illusion that somewhere behind the scenes there are some secret rooms, in which few dedicated “masters” are planning their intrigues against the world. That such gathering, clubs and even rituals to compare notes and exchange of views are possible, but they do not determine the action.

    For example, “Rothschild” wing of the financial oligarchy is determined not by the fact that some of the descendant of the first Rothschild poses as a “godfather” for all families.

    No, just there is a technology of market control and concentration of financial resources through the exchange of currencies, gold and other such assets. And this technology requires the maintenance of certain external policy environment, support for some state and related geopolitical technologies and practices.

    So, the political leader of “Rothschild” wing is not a banker, but the Lord Mayor of the City of London and the wider elite community, including generals, secret services, industrialists, diplomats, heads of the mass media, which is financed by the resources the City has as their leader the British monarch.

    Similarly, the “Rockefeller” wing, based on the technology of issuing of global reserve currency, has as its leader the mayor of New York, and a wider range of elite is united around the President of the United States.

  217. MisterDarling January 10, 2016 at 1:22 pm #

    @ Sauerkraut & Ozone:

    “But contrariwise, MD, is there any concrete evidence that demand is decreasing?”-s.

    Yes there is: everything that I’ve cited. Demand for physical petroleum products to use as fuel or as a raw material in manufacturing is about as concrete as it gets. You never seemed to miss the connection between supply and demand before, so I find this sudden incomprehension ‘interesting’. Price drops indicate lack of demand, likewise inventory buildups.

    For the benefit of others: When a good or service is unwanted people do not pay money for it and that ‘good’ or the people providing a ‘service’ get sidelined somewhere – that is what inventory increases indicate, meanwhile the price drops.

    Right now there’s a global fire-sale happening – and the coordinated efforts of central banks (via the BIS) _have and are_ doing everything they can to stop it from happening. The problem is: markets are __supposed__ to reset prices lower when demand drops, and then clear the market at an appropriately lower price – which can go all the way down to ‘free’ (plus shipping and handling, o/c).

    What the forces of central banking are doing (via rate manipulation, coordinated speculation and political persuasion) is trying to keep the market from operating normally, so that the asset valuations set ridiculously high during the previously created bubble are never reset. Which makes their entire program incredibly perverse: they want the market to work – in their favor – while keeping that same market from working. This is not a lot unlike someone demanding sexual satisfaction from you – while disallowing physical contact… Sure, you can *call* it sex if you want, but…

    LOL!

    In either case something’s gotta give. And now it is.

    “As for Monsanto, I think that many factors are in play. I don’t quite see the relationship between Monsanto and oil prices – I think that natural forces such as AGW are more important to food production than oil price.”-sau.

    The Monsanto example is interesting because it points to something deeper than lack of demand for fuel and discretionary consumer goods and services. It indicates a drop in overall basic consumption.

    If a business needs fuel to do business, but then sees demand for it’s business collapse regardless of how cheap fuel has become, that’s telling us that the rug is getting yanked out from under the market as a whole in an even more fundamental way. In Monsanto’s case farmers and farming corporations must be substituting products – or cutting back food production altogether. Since this is _food_ this indicates Monsanto’s pricing and product portfolio are badly out of whack with market reality.

    All of this does not bode well for Monsanto and similar businesses. This is why the very idea of “self-cancelling debt” and ‘QE-Infinity’ was DOA.

    “Beware of saviors and cargo-cultists; they’re in the miracle business, not the creative work-arounds it takes to face predicaments.”-oz.

    Hello Oz’! But “saviors and cargo-cultists” are all the rage these days! They tell the outgoing regime what they want to hear and cover their retreat to the lifeboats when it’s too late to fake it. You must give them their due: they serve a purpose.

    /s

    Cheers!

  218. MisterDarling January 10, 2016 at 2:00 pm #

    @ FitM:

    “I think everybody’s problem is that they are still in usual “free market” and “supply and demand” paradigm, while the whole world is at war for redistribution of most delicious parts of trade and financial streams.”-f.

    I propose that using the language of ‘supply and demand’ is still appropriate because we’re still in the midst of Second Stage (Commercial Sector) Collapse. At this point it’s no longer useful to discuss the economic situation using the language of the previous stage’s terms (high finance) – because it’s irrelevant – but it’s still too early to discuss economic issues with the language we’ll be using when we’re done falling through the current stage.

    When we get to Third Stage Collapse (Political Collapse) talking about who has what, *where* and how much military force they can muster to hold and exploit it will completely appropriate. At that time it will no longer make sense to talk about things in terms of ‘supply and demand’ on a global level because it will (at that time) have become nonsensical in that context.

    As I see it, we’re not quite there yet. But based on current events and the way that ‘Mein Kampf’ is flying off the bookshelves in Germany, it could be right around the corner! [*]

    All it will take for NATO and the EU to fold is for one of the bigger members to leave. That would start a rush for the exit of either or both organization. Without that the US loses political traction in Eurasia… Not that the BOE and their managing government will care – they’ve already hedged their bets.

    “It is very different in Orthodox culture, were the State is a Sacred Entity that derives its right to rule not from the people, but directly from the God.”-FitM…

    To ‘western’ ears this sounds a lot the Chinese ‘Mandate of Heaven’ cultural trope, but you’re the Russian so I’ll leave that to you. Other observers think that there’s a more relevant polarization:

    || “The key front though is the Russian economy; sooner or later there’s got to be a purge of the Russian Central Bank and the Finance Ministry, but Putin will only act when he has surefire internal support, and that’s far from given.

    The fight to the death in Moscow’s inner circles is really between the Eurasianists and the so-called Atlantic integrationists, a.k.a. the Western fifth column. The crux of the battle is arguably the Russian Central Bank and the Finance Ministry – where some key liberal-con monetarist players are remote-controlled by the usual suspects, the Masters of the Universe.”-pepe escobar… ||

    What do make of this?

    • MisterDarling January 10, 2016 at 2:06 pm #

      [*] = Remember that I warned about a German Backlash and that whatever the Germans get into, they get into “200%”… Farther back – early last year before the current deluge – warned about anti-assimilationist Muslims provoking a Purge. Well, thanks to the ill-considered actions of some idiot yahoos providing an emotional/symbolic catalyst, we might get to see what that looks like.

  219. sauerkraut January 10, 2016 at 2:00 pm #

    MD, just to finish our discussion about oil, I would like to point out that there seems to be a very small margin (on the order of 1%) of production over demand. After a year of this, a huge inventory has built; but while the inventory is huge in absolute terms, it is quite small in relative terms – it is only a few days’ supply.

    That huge inventory makes it possible for the Saudi’s or the Russians or OPEC to set an artificially low price by selling large amounts at a low price. But similarly, once production dips a little, that inventory will begin to diminish, and normal depletion will soon accomplish that.

    As you report, investment in oil is significantly reduced as of 2015, and going lower. Since it takes years to make productive investments in energy, once investment in oil is sufficiently reduced, the normal process of depletion requires that production will always lag demand. It will become impossible for production to ever meet demand again.

    Then, with or without OPEC, it will be easy for Russia or KSA to set whatever price they deem fitting. If a chastened OPEC comes to heel, it will only happen a little sooner.

    Just the thoughts of a casual observer. No inside knowledge here.

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    • MisterDarling January 10, 2016 at 2:18 pm #

      @ Sauerkraut:

      Fine points, all.

      RE | “Since it takes years to make productive investments in energy, once investment in oil is sufficiently reduced, the normal process of depletion requires that production will always lag demand. It will become impossible for production to ever meet demand again.”-s.

      Exxon-Mobil’s (E-M’s) Arctic Exploration Debacle really nuked any hope of a CapEx ramp-up in the sector. Statoil and BP were rumored to be waiting to see how things panned out for E-M. Without a ‘win’ in the Arctic after all the expense, and bearing in mind that E-M’s project wasn’t scheduled to be fully up and running until 2030, what we’re looking at is a long-term CapEx collapse in the sector, and by extension…

      😉

      Cheers!

  220. sauerkraut January 10, 2016 at 2:31 pm #

    MD, you write, “But “saviors and cargo-cultists” are all the rage these days! They … cover their (outgoing regime’s) retreat to the lifeboats …”

    I’ll have to quote that.

  221. FincaInTheMountains January 10, 2016 at 3:04 pm #

    “When we get to Third Stage Collapse (Political Collapse) ” == MD

    I didn’t see a single Russian researcher who would consider applying Mr.Orlov “Collapse model” to describing the events in Russia in 1980-1990s.

    Sometimes they reprint with pleasure his rants regarding “coming collapse” of the USA, but not a single time I’ve seen explanation of USSR disintegration that even remotely correlates to Mr.Orlov story.

    Since he does not have any other experimental verification of that little theory of his, I just don’t see how we could apply it to US.

    • wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 4:46 pm #

      Orlov is a capitalist opportunist who is also a has been… now repeating and repeating the same story. I agree with you Finca in your criticism of Orlov. He doesn’t even follow his own advice. To praise him and rely upon him as some CFNers do is actually pretty hilarious! LOL!

  222. wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 3:25 pm #

    “In either case something’s gotta give. And now it is.” –fodase

    You seem to be confusing demand for petroleum with demand for energy. Looking at demand for petroleum does not reflect demand for energy. Some countries are well on their way in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable, sustainable, zero emission forms of energy.

    Strange how CFN rarely discusses the Great Transition. I suppose so many years of an “oil is king” mentality has led to poor peripheral vision and a belief that demand is decreasing… based on shipping data, which completely misses the transition in progress. LOL!

    “The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way.

    As oil insecurity deepens, the extraction risks of fossil fuels rise, and concerns about climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old economy, fueled by oil, natural gas, and coal is being replaced with one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

    “The Great Transition details the accelerating pace of this global energy revolution. As many countries become less enamored with coal and nuclear power, they are embracing an array of clean, renewable energies. Whereas solar energy projects were once small-scale, largely designed for residential use, energy investors are now building utility-scale solar projects. Strides are being made: some of the huge wind farm complexes under construction in China will each produce as much electricity as several nuclear power plants, and an electrified transport system supplemented by the use of bicycles could reshape the way we think about mobility.” –The Great Transition by Lester Brown

  223. wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 3:31 pm #

    CORRECTION

    “In either case something’s gotta give. And now it is.” –Mr. Darling

    That demand for fossil fuels is decreasing is a GOOD THING! The sooner it goes to zero, the better for our survival as a species. The only responsible thing to do now is demand the fossil fuels stay in the ground (or under the sea), and are never extracted… to burn it all would doom us. Thankfully the great transition to other energy sources that are renewable, sustainable, and zero emissions is well underway.

  224. Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2016 at 7:10 pm #

    White Nationalism is going mainstream. All of you are ahead of the curve in understand due to my preaching. Thus you are in my debt….
    Don’t worry, there is no interest. That would be usury. But you will repay me, one way or another, know it or not, whether you would or not. As Cotton Mather said, the wheels of Divine Justice grind exceedingly slow but exceedingly fine. And I have all the time in the universe as do you.

    http://www.dailystormer.com/happening-hungarian-academic-talks-about-race-war-and-white-genocide-on-national-tv/

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    • wpa_ccc January 10, 2016 at 7:40 pm #

      Seems like it has been yugas of your preaching.

  225. MisterDarling January 10, 2016 at 7:41 pm #

    @ FitM:

    RE | “Since he does not have any other experimental verification of that little theory of his, I just don’t see how we could apply it to US.”-f.

    So you don’t respect Mr. Orlov, his opinions or his ‘five stages’ model of collapse? Oh, that’s too bad… /S… I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree about that.

    Regarding the Five Stages model; I accept and use it on the strength of his book ‘The Five Stages of Collapse’ which explains and supports the model well. In practice I’ve found it handy. Read it sometime, you might like it. He says some interesting about the cultural revolution that Mr. Putin was an integral part of.

    Regarding ‘conceptual models’ in general; we need them to organize our observations and thinking . Whether there are 3 or 24 ‘stages’ of system collapse matters less than how useful it as at *tool* for explaining and planning. There isn’t an instrument for measuring and verifying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in the same way that __energy valences__ can be established in chemistry, after all. But Maslow’s model is still useful.

    Regarding the relevance of collapse-modeling; It pays to consider the collapse of the Western Roman Empire as a case-study. Ancient Rome ran largely on draft-animal and slave labor. It didn’t collapse because humans and animals ran out. It collapsed because Rome’s __ability__ to harness draft-animals and slaves ran out. For now, I’ll continue to refer to Orlov’s model until a better on comes along.

    • ozone January 10, 2016 at 8:36 pm #

      I find Orlov’s model to be informative and a useful tool in gauging how near key tipping points and supply chain anomalies happen to be in my little corner of the empire. …Of course, doing nothing would likely be the safest and best option; after all, they’ll think of something. 😉

  226. MisterDarling January 10, 2016 at 7:53 pm #

    BY NOW you’ve all no-doubt learned about the Mexican Drug-lord ‘El Chapo’ Joaquin Guzman being recaptured, returned to prison he escaped from – pending extradition to the USA, etc.

    Unfortunately, Sean Penn met with El Chapo some months ago, and even less fortunately the American MSM has decided in it’s infinite anti-wisdom to wideband the story that this was how the Mexican authorities tracked El Chapo down:

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/01/10/el-chapo-sean-penn-interview-joaquin-guzman-mexico/78587470/

    Whatever you think about Mr. Penn personally, his opinions, or his politics the guy does have children and a lot of high-profile family members that had nothing to do with this fiasco. Let’s hope that they remain safe.

    Cheers!

  227. ozone January 10, 2016 at 8:26 pm #

    Wellsir, here it is, a Sunday end-o’-week and what treasured meme has reliably reared its sniffing, seeking, blind and bloated head?

    That’s correct Friends and Neighbors: “Pretend to the Bitter End”!
    (Kewpie dolls to the usual suspects; may we never have to be forced to share in their worldview in the actual light of day.)

  228. nsa January 10, 2016 at 9:15 pm #

    Headline News From Our Colony To The North: Drive By Shooting Canadian Style. A white male, riding a bicycle, pepper sprayed some newly imported muzzies outside the Hongcouver…er Vancouver….muzzie center. The mayor and mounties have vowed to track down the miscreant and treat this dastardly deed as a “hate crime”……
    Question: did the “hater” hold the rattle can sideways gangsta style?

    • Janos Skorenzy January 10, 2016 at 11:14 pm #

      Shall we pretend to mourn so that we can meet Ozone’s Neo-Puritan “moral” standards?

  229. BackRowHeckler January 10, 2016 at 11:18 pm #

    Chicago, Jan.1 – Jan. 10, 2016

    Shot & killed: 19

    Shot & wounded: 98

    Total shot: 117

    Total homicides: 19

    — from Heyjackass.com/

    Asian markets are down another 2% this morning, which doesn’t bode well for Wall Street tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.

    brh

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  230. FincaInTheMountains January 11, 2016 at 12:40 am #

    A.Brodsky: The false start of World War Four

    Most Americans are set categorically against Sunni Muslims, because they believe they are the main organizers of the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

    Also quite a significant portion of Americans understand the difference between traditional Sunni Islam and Islamic fundamentalism, also known as Salafism, which has a special case of Wahhabism, the state religion of Saudi Arabia.

    And they are set categorically against Wahhabis because they believe they are the main organizers of the attack on the US on Sept. 11, 2001. But it is impossible to explain the subtlety to the first group of Americans who have never been to the Middle East and do not specialize in these issues in an academic career.

    Therefore two groups are experiencing the same feelings toward Saudi Arabia and its customers, but have different attitudes to the words of Donald Trump calling to restrict and put under the strict control the entry of Muslims to the United States, as they put different meaning in the word “Muslim”.

    Nevertheless, in the coming war they will have the same attitude to Saudi Arabia, as when the cannons speak, the Muses, including Muses of semantics, fell silent.

    These two groups practically coincide with the Western White Project, with some elements of the Red.

    In contrast to these two groups, a significant part of the US elite does not just sympathize with Muslim fundamentalists, Salafis in general and the Wahhabis in particular, but also are under their control, not only because of business interests, but also because of ideological power and theological appeal of Wahhabism, as Wahhabism ideologically is very close to such forms of Protestantism as Calvinism, Baptism and Lutherans.

    This group represents the Western Black Project.

    The Fourth World War will start as a war of civilizations between the Indo-Europeans (Iran) and the Semites (Saudi Arabia), and in this sense it is a continuation of the Second World War, only this time the Semites act as carriers of the Nazi ideology and the Indo-Europeans of the Fascist.

    (The biggest mistake of the historians as they mixed together the Fascism with Nazism and the difference is as the difference between Hitler who killed Jews and Mussolini, who saved them)

    And the Western White Project (with elements of the Red) supports in this conflict Indo-European civilization, and the Black Project supports Semitic civilization, so the coming world war will be also a war of White and Red projects against the Black, as Wahhabism and the aforementioned forms of Protestantism are theologically and ideologically close to the Nazis, who now is the most complete expression of the spirit and letter of the Black Project.

    The Fourth World War is always trying to pull on the religious clothing, and if the religious factor goes into a forefront, Russia will be in the crosshairs of all the belligerents.

    The Black Project after World War II turned the US and Saudi Arabia into its carriers, but the defeat of the US in Korea and Vietnam allowed the US to some extent to free itself from the power of the Black Project.

    And the election campaign in the United States that we are witnessing today is undoubtedly global in nature, being the point of application of truly geopolitical forces.

    And if the Black Project loses this election, the basis of Black Project will be the axis of Riyadh – Berlin, in which Saudi Arabia will play a dominant role.

    Saudi Arabia due to its geographic and economic situation all the time is trying to portray itself as a defender of Sunni Islam, and thus transfer their geopolitical ambitions into the religious plane. And if it succeeds, Russia will be in a truly terrible situation, because a significant portion of its citizens are Sunni Muslims.

    Wahhabism was originally designed for the destruction of the Sunni Islam in the Ottoman Empire, and not by chance that Sunni Islam was the first victim of Wahhabism in the Greater Middle East, and in Russia too.

    Therefore, the main task of Russia at the beginning of the Fourth World War is the suppression of attempts to replace the Sunni Islam with Saudi Wahhabism and portraying Saudis as defender of Sunni Islam.

    If the Americans who understand the danger of Wahhabism will convey their attitude toward Islam to the rest, the Western Black Project will suffer a defeat comparable in its geopolitical significance to May of 1945, and will be in a sense, the true end of World War II. This makes that group in the United States the main ally of the Russian civilization.

    And then the World War Three will again become “cold”, that is not real, and the World War Four will move away from immediate to uncertain future.

  231. FincaInTheMountains January 11, 2016 at 6:09 am #

    After China’s foreign exchange reserves in the past month fell by more than $100 billion, and the pressure on the Yuan has only intensified, the Chinese Central Bank decided that they needed to do something, because otherwise the provision will not last long. If they burn reserves to slow the pace of devaluation of the Yuan, the 3 trillion in reserves – is nothing.

    Well, here’s the result in the picture. Interbank lending rate in Yuan in Hong Kong shot up to 14%

    http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/crimsonalter/13842643/98605/98605_900.png

    Shot up just short interbank rates of loans in offshore RMB (HIBOR) – and this is more indicative of the fact that the Chinese Central Bank “strongly suggested” Hong Kong banks not to lend short-term Yuan to speculators, so they could immediately exchanged them for dollars.

    Chinese have pretty difficult situation. On the one hand it is necessary to lower the Yuan for objective reasons, on the other hand too many of the Chinese elite and the middle class are pulling money out of the country literally at any price (that is exacerbated by the “reset” on January 1, of the annual limit on the transferring out of 50 thousand dollars per person per year).

    If you do not stop the “bleeding of capital”, it will be bad, and soon. The first reports about the hype in exchanges – a bad sign and an indicator of destabilizing of situation through the media.

    http://crimsonalter.livejournal.com/84815.html

  232. FincaInTheMountains January 11, 2016 at 6:20 am #

    Cheniere Energy’s shipment turns US into gas exporter

    Momentous step for US energy industry that is marred by poor LNG pricing amid oil rout.

    The Energy Atlantic, a 290-metre tanker steaming slowly through the Gulf of Mexico, is about to make history. It is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas plant on the coast of Louisiana, to be loaded with the first cargo of LNG to be exported from the “lower 48” contiguous states of the US.

    The shipment is a momentous event for energy markets, marking the arrival of the US as a gas supplier to the world.

    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f1773832-b5ee-11e5-b147-e5e5bba42e51.html#axzz3wvx2S7Cv

  233. saharasergei January 12, 2016 at 2:47 am #

    Thanks for at least MENTIONING AND ACKNOWLEDGING Martin O’Malley, Jim – a lot of folks don’t! I predict that your once-premature prediction from 2002 that the Democrats would go the way of the Whigs will come true if Hillary is their presidential nominee. She’ll be Winfield Scott to the GOP nominee’s Franklin Pierce, though 2016 seems to be shaping up to have more in common with 1860 than with 1852.

  234. Cavepainter January 14, 2016 at 10:21 am #

    OK, one more time, but mostly for wpa_ccc.

    Your rosy outlook is akin to the warriors at Wounded Knee who embraced the reassurance of their spiritual guide who distributed white shirts to them with claim that wearing the shirt made them invincible to the soldiers’ bullets. Both, yours and that of the shaman, illustrate how the human psyche puts up barrier against objective reality which informs that the vast forces of nature are indifferent to us meager humans. Viola,…thence our outsized neo-cortex serves up concepts of all manner of super natural/mystical forces that can be cajoled to intervene on our behalf. That is, religious beliefs — or, as with today’s Left, belief in secular utopianisms.

    This human trait of side-stepping empirical evidence allowed a tiny minority of our specie line to survive over evolutionary time, but double edged as are all specie traits it has taken the greater majority into oblivion not different from the fateful outcome of those ‘invincible’ warriors at Wounded Knee.

    We are the only specie that apprehends reality by digesting sensory input into concepts (reality a concept too, residing in the matrix of concepts that constitute language). Unless we adopt recognition that nature runs a cruel numbers game and not try to trump the ‘house’ with a limp hand of ‘booga-booga’ – Vegas style – then survival outcome for even a small portion of humanity will be lost.

    The ‘trait’ evolved to prevent our over-sized, gas hog brain (consumes vast amount of calories) from driving metabolism at “peddle to the metal” anxiety rate, causing caloric burn rate to be greater than affordable calories during evolutionary time.

    So,…..likelihood of survival for just a small proportion of today’s human population will be pissed away if we as a specie don’t come to terms with our innate proclivity to momentary ‘feel-good’ fantasies that deny that earth’s carry capacity has been exceeded.

    NOTE: Those hands in the air, ‘speaking in tongues”, foot stomping, endorphin charged ‘coming to Jesus’ moments familiar from tent revival meetings aren’t different from crowd response to Obama’s platitudes.

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  235. brothermartin January 28, 2016 at 4:04 pm #

    Jim, I haven’t checked in with you lately, and while some of your analysis is spot-on, I’m surprised at other parts of it, specifically the shallowness of your understanding of Bernie Sanders and your grumpy old white guy take on the racial situation in this country. (Disclosure: while I am sympathetic with Sanders, I am not an active supporter, for reasons irrelevant to this comment. Also, there are those who see me as a grumpy old white guy.)

    Sanders is not a “big government” advocate–the Democratic Socialism that made his reputation in Vermont was the kind that features participatory democracy, not government control. He is remembered in Burlington for establishing occupant-controlled housing co-ops and worker- and customer-controlled businesses, all of which have flourished. His emphasis on empowering individuals is what made him popular with Democrats and Republicans alike, and what kept the corporatist Democratic and Republican political machines busy trying, futilely, to replace him.

    I am also disturbed by your characterization (I could almost say “dismissal”) of Black Lives Matter, etc. as “oppositional culture.” African-Americans are in this country because our ancestors kidnapped, sold, and bought their ancestors. (Yes, my father’s family owned slaves and fought for the South.) The mere ending of slavery did nothing to change their status as Untouchables in America’s subtle caste system. We all know that poop rolls downhill. These days there is a lot of poop flying, and many whites are doing their honest best to dump what they get on their black brothers, who, of course, are, in increasing numbers, refusing to stand for such treatment. I am disappointed by the way you framed, for example, the Trayvon Martin case. George Zimmerman picked a fight with him and would have lost if not for the pistol in his pocket. What a bully and a coward he is!

    And yes, there are African Americans involved in the system of police repression. It’s one of the only decent-paying jobs they can get. During the Nazi years, some Jews got better treatment and deferred termination by acting as officials for their oppressors. And maybe some of those black folks joined the PD determined to treat people better, only to find that one thing leads to another….

    Anyway, good to check in with you again. Our mutual friend Albert Bates said I should read this particular column. Thanks for caring!

  236. advhtg August 21, 2016 at 5:08 pm #

    James: a society … based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up.

    There’s no debt that can’t be paid back – that’s an impossible suggestion advanced by many, including Paul Grignon in his films “Money as Debt”, and all are mistaken.

    It’s so simple. Every debt has an equal and opposite credit. The creditor and debtor will reduce the capital outstanding by all kinds of means, ranging from the normal 100% repayment of the loan, or by jubilee/ amnesty, or indeed any variant in between.

    If we allow the disinformational meme of “unpayable debt” to persist, it diverts attention away from the creditors who bear equal responsibility for all contracts. Try spending a month in which every time you read or hear the phrases “debt problem”, “debt crisis” etc you substitute “credit problem”, “credit crisis” etc.

    It soon becomes clear how to solve debt problems.

    (If you still think there is such a thing as unresolvable debt, as the “Money as Debt” films falsely illustrate – try modelling it in a spreadsheet. It soon transpires that you’re looking at an illogical proposition. It cannot exist.)

    George

  237. mangun January 23, 2017 at 5:48 pm #

    Interesting how virtually every prediction was incorrect………

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