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It ought to be a foregone conclusion that Mr. Obama’s replacement starting January 20, 2017 will preside over conditions of disorder in everyday life and economy never seen before. For the supposedly thinking class in America, the end of reality-optional politics will come as the surprise of their lives.

Where has that hypothetical thinking class been, by the way, the past eight years? Don’t look for it in what used to be called “the newspapers.” The New York Times has become so reality-averse that the editors traded in their blue pencils for Federal Reserve cheerleader pompoms after the Lehman incident of 2008. Every information-dispensing organ has followed their lede: The Recovery Continues! It’s a sturdy plank for promoting the impaired asset known as Hillary.

Don’t look for the thinking class in the universities. They’ve surrendered their traditional duties to a new hybrid persecution campaign that is equal parts Mao Zedong, the Witches of Loudon, and the Asylum at Charenton. For instance the President of Princeton, Mr. Eisgruber, was confronted with a list of demands that included 1) erasure of arch-segregationist Woodrow Wilson’s name from everything on campus, and 2) creation of a new all-black (i.e. segregated) student center. He didn’t blink. Note: nobody in the media asked him about this apparent contradiction. That’s how we roll these days.

Don’t look for the thinking class in business. The C-suites are jammed with people still busy buying back stock in their own companies at outlandish prices with borrowed money. Why? To artificially boost share price and thus their salaries and bonuses. Does it do anything for the fitness of enterprise? No, in fact it makes future failure more likely. Why is there no governance of their insane behavior? Because they’ve also bought and paid for boards of directors composed of a rotating cast of praetorian shills, with fresh recruits entering the scene weekly through the fabled “revolving door” between business and government regulators.

Oh, and then there’s government. Anyone viewing the boasting-and-defamation contests that the cable TV networks call “debates” knows that these spectacles are based on the opposite of thinking. They are not only reality-optional, they’re thought-optional. Hence, it appears for now that America is fixing to elect either a primal screamer or a road-tested grifter to preside over the epochal collapse of our hobbled, exhausted, way of life.

The recent carnage in the stock markets will probably see a retracement after the President’s Day hiatus. They’re bouncing up in other parts of the world today, the triumph of hope over all the available evidence that something fatal has happened out there in Tom Friedman’s supposedly permanent global economy. Some observers suspect that it has something to do with the price of oil, because the oil futures market and the stock indexes seem to go up and down in tandem. But they don’t really get it.

How hard is it to understand A) that something adverse happens to oil companies when it costs them $70-a-barrel to hoist the product out of the ground and then sell it for $30-a-barrel? And B) that all of the infrastructure of techno-industrial civilization was designed to run on oil under $30-a-barrel and founders when the price goes higher? That’s how it is. That’s your basic reality.

We’ve been trying to work around this vexing problem — the non-linear manifestation of the supposedly bygone predicament called “peak oil” — since the early part of this century. Mainly, we worked around it by borrowing money that wasn’t there. Having created this matrix of borrowed money, we’ve also created an expectation in market obligations that it must be paid back. In fact, the process of paying back money owed is the only thing that supports confidence in a system based on that essential trust — even if that expectation was unreal to begin with. When it is violated, terrible things happen in markets and economies.

Those terrible things are underway. We’re going to be a much-distressed and poorer so-called republic when this year is done with us. The markets will crack and the trade relations that comprise globalism will fall apart as nations and regions of nations struggle to survive. We’ll move inexorably to a very possibly disastrous election. We’ll face the basic choices, as distressed societies always do, of freaking-and-acting-out (usually in the form of war), or opting for a reunion with reality and its mandates. So far, it’s not looking good for the better option.

If you are a thinking person, the months ahead might be your last chance to protect whatever wealth you have and to move to some part of the country where, at least, you can grow some of your own food and become a useful part of a social and economic network that might be called a community.

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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.

524 Responses to “Repricing Reality”

  1. Neon Vincent February 15, 2016 at 9:32 am #

    “How hard is it to understand that A) that something adverse happens to oil companies when it costs them $70-a-barrel to hoist the product out of the ground and then sell it for $30-a-barrel? And B) that all of the infrastructure of techno-industrial civilization was designed to run on oil under $30-a-barrel and founders when the price goes higher?”

    Upton Sinclair’s famous line, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it,” applies here. None of the people you mentioned will take peak oil seriously because of that. Current conditions aren’t helping when the news reports $1 gas is possible in the Midwest.

    The American people may not understand peak oil either, but they know something is wrong. That manifested itself in the New Hampshire primary results, when Vermin Supreme got twice as many votes in the Democratic Primary than Jim Gilmore got in the Republican Primary. More people preferred the obvious joke candidate to the supposedly serious candidate who didn’t know he was a joke.

    • seawolf77 February 15, 2016 at 10:02 am #

      Fundamentally Kunstler was wrong about Peak Oil. The reason is that oil production is debt based. That debt must be serviced. So even while oil companies are going broke, they are servicing their debts. They are paying the banks money. The oil is brought to market no matter what the price. Hence you have a supply glut. All these companies were designed to go broke, but bring oil to the market while they were doing it. Does it make any sense? Of course not. When you can print all the money you want, it’s all an illusion.

      • James Howard Kunstler February 15, 2016 at 10:19 am #

        Seawolf, I well-understand the connection between debt and oil production — or the production of all goods in our current system. You are merely asserting that I am “wrong” without demonstrating how or why in any way. I said in “The Long Emergency” that the oil price would become increasingly volatile going forward, and we’ve seen exactly that.

        • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:49 am #

          With 7 billion ‘oilers’ and another billion each 12 years [up until now] I see ‘peak everything.’

        • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 12:03 pm #

          ‘It ought to be a foregone conclusion that Mr. Obama’s replacement starting January 20, 2017 will preside over conditions of disorder in everyday life and economy never seen before’

          In the last 50 years or our lifetimes, perhaps. Not in the USAs history.
          We had 2 big wars here, long ago.

        • Sandero February 16, 2016 at 9:50 am #

          What is THE cost of a barrel of oil out of the ground? Isn’t it a variable? How are the exploration, and oil rig costs figured in to the cost? They too are huge variables. And so is the cost of delivery from source to refinery.

          If oil companies use debt financing… all they can do to service their debt is sell product. Presumably at some point they will have retired the debt? They can’t be profitable unless the debt service and expenses are below the product sold. What to do? Refinance debt payments… extend into future at revenue drops. No?

      • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 10:20 am #

        Seawolf, I don’t think that you are all that far from JHK. That is, your posts are consistent with one another, other than your first sentence.

        • seawolf77 February 15, 2016 at 1:36 pm #

          Agreed. But I never thought banks would loan these oil companies money, or underwrite their bonds, or however you want to say it. But they did. They knew oil would flood the market and drive the price of oil down, and it did. They knew all these companies would be in trouble when that happened and they are. Yet the money was still spent and the oil is here. All a central bank has to do is to aim the money spigot at the problem. This holds true for as long as the dollar is king. How else can they bring $70 oil from the ground and sell it for $30? It makes no economic sense, yet it is happening. Neither Kunstler or I foresaw this. Who could? I was a peak oiler, but now I see that it is really peak money. Is peak money happening now? That is the question. When will the world say no more dollars?

          • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 3:09 pm #

            Peak money? No, I don’t think so. It is simply a matter of the biggest suppliers deciding on a long term solution.

            That long term solution, it seems to me, is to open up a supply demand gap that can never be closed. The longer prices remain depressed, the lower investment goes. That means shortages in 3 or 5 years, and out into the foreseeable future.

            By the time current demand meets current supply, supply will be in permanent decline, because, whether or not the oil is there, it takes time to get it out of the ground (new exploration and drilling), and more time to get it to market (new infrastructure). During that time, demand will have risen further and existing production will have declined further.

            Equibus paribus – assuming no new energy breakthroughs and no banking disasters.

          • RocketDoc February 15, 2016 at 3:34 pm #

            The term “peak oil” is a misnomer based upon every data series I have seen. They all continue to go up. Just looking at the blizzard of charts from the EIA shows all kinds of series from 2000-65 mbd to 79-mbd. Others show Yr2000-77.7mbd toYr 2015-93.5mbd. There are some very minor declines but the trend is up, even for this year. I agree with the concept but it is a case of production plateau not peak and it is conceivable that it could be a ‘bumpy’ peak for several more years. As for the magic money generating all this activity, I think of it as the Midas Effect, monetize everything and know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

          • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 4:04 pm #

            ‘Peak oil’ is real enough. What clouds the issue is that other liquids are now being counted as crude oil. Just like ‘unemployment rate’ does not count the unemployed, just those who are receiving benefits.

            As I understand it, nearly 25% of everything being counted as crude is something else, invariably with a lower energy density.

            As for your point about production being the quantity that matters, I could not agree more. Too often the ignorami talk about reserves; I ask them whether a man with $1B in the bank who can only withdraw $10 a day, is rich.

          • outsider February 16, 2016 at 9:37 am #

            With the price of gas going down, down, down, and our motor-happy empire running on Black Gold, where is the deflation? If our economy was truly based on supply-demand why is the cost of everything else still going up?

          • zaphod42 February 16, 2016 at 9:47 am #

            Seawolf, have you considered that the banks have been taught that if their loans go bad, the Fed has their back? What happened in 2008 will happen again… the banks are too big to fail. The fix is in. The Fed will buy up all those bad loans, bury them with the bad housing loans they covered up, and try to continue BAU.

            Craig

      • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 10:47 am #

        Seawolf77 – Drive hundreds of miles into a barren wasteland, and when your truck runs out of gas just find some pieces of paper and start drawing on them to make them look like money, problem solved?? Illusions only work briefly, they are not a long term strategy. People living on a finite planet can print money all day long, but in the end, it’s the actual available resources that matter.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:59 pm #

      Nothing to say on the Black segregationists? From the beginning, Blacks have had no intention of fitting into America. They must either rule it or destroy it. We would be wise to execute a judo throw and give them their own desire: cut them loose by giving them a chunk and then watch the fun.

      • SpeedyBB February 15, 2016 at 10:11 pm #

        Too bad it didn’t happen during and after Reconstruction. Would have been a logical progression.

        Yes, I am a Know-Nothing.

      • newworld February 16, 2016 at 5:52 pm #

        You know Janos carping about blacks is pretty much an useless gesture, it is basically common knowledge.

        I can have some sympathy for them in general but if I had to describe blacks in America and of course over generalize I would have to say that word would be “asshole.” When I see a black coming my way it is safe to say that person will probably be an ass, if I see a black person on the stupid vision I would be safe to say that person will be an ass, actually more so because they make it into the media because they are asses to people, its a job.

        As for the “anti-racist” scolds and virtue signalers I simply don’t take you at face value, I do believe you project and you yourself are not that “pure” “anti-racist” you pretend is your sainthood.

        And they are the face of the Democratic Party, how rich, asses for the party of the ass.

    • abbybwood February 16, 2016 at 3:40 pm #

      Well, I see where the genius, Larry Summers, wants to “kill the $100 bill” cause of the underground economy and criminals etc.:

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/its-time-to-kill-the-100-bill/

      Anybody else notice how the meme of a “cashless society” is making the rounds on the internets?

      Looks like they really are preparing us for “The Long Emergency” where those with gold and silver coins will become “the bank”.

      If if comes down to making a “law” to take hundreds out of circulation I think there will be a giant howl heard from coast to coast. People like their cash.

      • chuckyzfr1 February 20, 2016 at 9:15 pm #

        I let out an involuntary litany of cursing when I heard about this on the radio last week, on my way to buy 6 gallons of high octane race fuel and 20 gallons of ethanol-infused “premium” gas, as I’ve taken to removing the ethanol from the latter and adding the former to it to raise the octane back up to where it needs to be. But that’s another story. These sons of bitches want to do away with the $100 bill more to control people operating outside the normal approved economy where everything is regulated and taxed – it has very little to do with criminals and the drug trade, that’s just subterfuge.

        It infuriates me when the powers that be use the excuse of drug trade/abuse/crime to deprive us of effective medicines (i.e. Cracking down on pseudoephedrine or pain medication because of abuse/misuse, or this ridiculous proposal to eliminate the $100 bill). What are people who love just outside the world of cubicles and law offices supposed to do when it comes to transacting business such as buying a used car, or equipment for their landscaping company, or making receiving payments for services of more than some paltry amount? Carry around duffel bags full of $20’s? It’s a goddamned crock of shit, to put it bluntly.

      • Being There February 21, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

        Yes, the banks want a cashless society because they are destroying any ability for people to own wealth. But as usual, they have no idea how they would protect anyone from organized crime. They never think about the downside of any of their technocratic schemes, only the side that works for them.

  2. Walter B February 15, 2016 at 9:32 am #

    There are many human beings, especially those of us who serve in the government, who plan for not only our futures but for the future lives of others as well. There are many humans that do not plan at all and do not even like the idea of planning and maybe even deny the need for it by themselves or at the hands of others. Planners seem to be Conspiracy Theory types and non-planners tend to be Coincidence Theorists. While it is interesting to have both sides of the coin covered, does it really matter, in the big picture, which if any is playing out as time unfolds? I think not.

    Up until a few decades ago, humankind competed for it’s very survival against the elements, the creatures of the Earth and each other simply to stay alive. While we can all argue the positive as well as the negative aspects of man’s struggle against each other, the very act of competing and natural selection kept the strong at the front of the race to thrive. Though abuse of this strength is well documented and has caused much suffering and death over time, strength itself is NOT evil and IS be beneficial to our species and has been put to good use as well as bad.

    In the current state of development the “leading” societies on our planet, strength has not only been replaced by corruption, but it has become a detriment to those who hold the reigns of power, those who sit atop the pile today. Strength, especially strength of character, is frightening to the scum at the top for it allows those who have it to not only see the deception, but can, if properly applied, bring about change that would not fit in with the ruling classes plans to maintain their rule.

    So the question becomes, doe the recent onslaught of violent primitives from destitute environs into “advanced” affluent societies represent a conspiracy by those who rule to maintain their positions of affluence? Or is it simply a case of Stone Age survivors attempting to compete in the only way they know how?

    Does it really matter? Looks like competition is back on the menu boys! And I really don’t think there are enough trophies to go around to everyone in this game folks, do you?

    • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 10:28 am #

      I would put it more strongly, Walter. I think that strength of mind or character is a detriment to the possessor as well as to the kleptocrats. That is, Evolutionary Pressure is against intelligence and integrity.

      • Greg Knepp February 15, 2016 at 11:10 am #

        “…Evolutionary Pressure is against intelligence and integrity.”

        Especially in the civilized context. Civilization tends to support worker-ant populations and sociopathic leadership models. The broad-based creativity and natural democratic machinations that are necessary to the survival of smaller human social models – tribes – are but a hindrance to the hyper-civilized framework, where class stratification and conformity of the masses are demanded.

        In order for the civilized society to survive, it must expand. As this happens, said society becomes increasingly more complex, and segments therein become more specialized. In this context Natural Selection favors the docile and hard-working drone. Creative types are weeded out as criminals, lunatics or members of the so-called ‘Creative Class’ where they are coddled, but kept impoverished, and therefore discouraged from reproducing.

        As society becomes more elaborate, the gene pool stagnates.

        • Walter B February 16, 2016 at 12:34 am #

          Yes you guys are right, civilization may need us to get started, but has no place for us once the foothold has been established. We must move on to another challenge, another frontier or become a problem to be dealt with. That is why so many of us withdraw to the fringes you know.

          • outsider February 16, 2016 at 9:51 am #

            I read just yesterday that native Germans are only having one child per woman. No country can long endure when it is halving its population every generation. Seems to me that this advanced society has been committing demographic suicide since the end of WWII. Now, thanks to the childless mother Merkel, millions of Third World Muslims have arrived to fill in the void. Unless she flees the rotting country (or converts to Islam), why would any German woman even want to breed now?

  3. Sunflower February 15, 2016 at 9:33 am #

    JIm, What about those of us who see all this but cannot get that piece of land to grow our own food? People like me. Ooops! I guess I know what my future is! It won’t be much! 🙁

    • Sunflower February 15, 2016 at 9:35 am #

      I can’t afford to stock up on gold either.

      • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 10:48 am #

        @Sunflower: That’s another way of saying you have no wealth, since the point of buying gold is to preserve wealth that you already have by withdrawing it from the financial system. That’s not a criticism: hundreds of millions of Americans are in the same boat. The thing is, JHK is really only speaking for the haves, people like himself who have something they want to preserve. Regarding the have-nots, he’s never had much to say.

      • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:55 am #

        On you tube I saw rice that was edible. Guy said ‘I have stored itr for 2 decades.’
        However if its not stored right it will mold. I found out.

      • OHealihy February 15, 2016 at 12:23 pm #

        No problem. To prepare for a catastrophic long emergency, stock up on whiskey, tobacco, and toilet paper; the gold will come.

      • monkey_flower February 15, 2016 at 7:20 pm #

        Hi Sunflower. I suggest you try your hand at guerilla gardening. That is my specialty. Or take up hunting or fishing maybe. Any skills are better than none. Trust me, you will be way ahead of the average American.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 10:54 pm #

          What’s that? Growing low maintenance crops in empty lots or out in the woods? Besides Mary Jane, what else?

    • Walter B February 15, 2016 at 9:45 am #

      Not necessarily true. Those who prepare may be able to stockpile goods, but there will always be a need for good people to help with the new workload. Finding ways to seek out such havens will be the difficult part, but it is not impossible.

      • Hands4u February 15, 2016 at 1:05 pm #

        W.B.- You and others might be interested in trying to add this resiliency tool; recently my wife and I started working with others using and sharing Peter Burke’s book “Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening” In the long term it’s about finding and or creating local resources in the present for seeds, appropriate size containers, soil and water. I took us a total of 2 half-hearted weeks before we had our first full crop. With starting the new behaviors in our daily processes we now enough regular crops that every meal can be supported/supplemented with good nutrition; and if we expanded space to more than one window shelf or window we could potentially supplant one if not two meals a day, everyday.

        • Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 3:39 pm #

          Those must be some BIG friggin window sills!

        • Walter B February 16, 2016 at 12:36 am #

          Thank you my friend, I am going to look that up. I am a hunter, not a farmer, but your suggestion may very well fill a weakness in my well-roundedness, thank you.

    • sooty February 15, 2016 at 12:50 pm #

      @Sunflower–do you live in a city and/or apartment? get yourself a decent Urban Permaculture book or look for free info online. You can grow a lot of food on an apartment balcony or in your windowsill.

      As for people stealing whatever you grow, one of the great things about permaculture is a lot of the preferred plants, being edible perennials, don’t look like food to the average Hot-Pocket American.

      • Sunflower is absolutely not going to be able to feed herself from a box planter. If she wants a career in agriculture, support Trump, kick the illegals out, and then diversify the agricultural system from a handful of mega-farms using migrant labor.

        In case of TSHTF, there will be militarization of food distribution and agriculture. North America is so full of food that we destroy current production, future production, give the stuff away (USDA food stamps) and can’t ship it out of the country fast enough.

        Think bigger, people. Permaculture is a stupid joke unless you are living in the outback. Repeat: a stupid joke. I own the manual, go screw yourself. It is a dumb fantasy.

        People who grow their own food plus surpluses organize their activities on a scale that make “Gardening” look like the stupid hobby it is. A waste of time and energy from start to finish for physically and intellectually lazy people who really believe their own BS… but generally benign in an ecological sense, hell I’d prefer them to garden rather than take up 4-wheeling. Real downside is the visual blight of amateur gardening efforts everywhere.

        • Hands4u February 15, 2016 at 1:07 pm #

          Truthfully, you might be thinking too-big.

          • I think that most people really don’t have a good concept of what it takes. I mean 2000 calories a day minimum means 730,000 kcal must be produced and/or preserved for a whole year.

            “Thinking too-big” is the first reaction that people have to the requirements of reality. My opinion is that it is not helpful to encourage people to labor worthlessly in false confidence. It can be done. Not with permaculture hobby or box planters.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:21 pm #

          Yes, a better option for women to consider is their potential as a wife. Can you cook? Clean? Attractive? Eager to please or good at faking it? If so, maybe you can become a farmer’s wife.

          • We need to start thinking beyond the nuclear family unit; marriage is a zombie institution. The stats are in; nearly everyone in marriage is faking it. What people should be looking at is cooperative living and enterprise. Big families are over; what we should be doing is grouping smaller families into groups with a common purpose.

            Integrated farming requires many hands to make light work and increase efficiency. Raising crops and children are both more efficient this way. One adult to watch over and instruct many children; many adults freed to be productive.

            Current regime: single parents, multiple kids, no work, no produce.

  4. Greg Knepp February 15, 2016 at 9:49 am #

    “…boasting-and-defamation contests…”

    Yep, so much so that the debates are almost painful to watch.

    The only exceptional participant in the rat fight is John Kasich; all-in-all he’s kept his cool. True, the Governor is mediocre – even by Ohio standards – but, in my opinion, he’s not running for President. Kasich is going for the VP spot on the ticket, and he’s positioning himself nicely for this purpose.

    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 10:03 am #

      Kasich has also said he’d like to “punch Putin in the nose.” He may not be bombs-away little Marco, but I still don’t like where that’s going. BTW, would he agree to be Trump’s VP?

      • Greg Knepp February 16, 2016 at 11:29 am #

        Yes, I think so; that’s why he’s pretty much opted out of the Trump-bashing frenzy.

  5. Htruth February 15, 2016 at 9:51 am #

    Come to Michigan! Our government provides us with mineral enriched water! Pure Michigan! https://youtu.be/__i8SnIYm8w

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    • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:56 am #

      Land of AA—

      Flint, Michigan, it was a black AA hire who decided to pipe the lead-filled water into people’s homes.

      He still has a huge AA job.

      Of course, the best part is that when you Google “Flint water crisis” NO PICTURE of that black idiot will appear under “images”.
      Google and Wikipedia are obfuscating the blame, of course.

      http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/01/why-is-the-man-most-to-blame-for-the-flintwatercrisis-darnell-earley-still-the-emergency-manager-of-detroit-schools.html

      • Lead was leached from the pipes by increased acidity of the river water AFAIK.

      • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 1:22 pm #

        @malthuss:

        About 15 years ago, there was an outbreak of E. coli in Walkerton, Ontario because of contamination of the town’s water supply. Half the town was sickened and five people died. This happened after the provincial government cut resources for water management and downloaded its responsibility to local municipalities.

        Two brothers, Stan Koebel and Frank Koebel, who both had three decades of experience at the local water utility, served jail time. Neither one had any specific training in water treatment or dealing with E.coli contamination when the senior level of government dumped the responsibility on them.

        Would you make an issue out of the fact that both men are white? Of course not. It remains to be seen whether Darnell Earley, Rick Snyder or anyone not actually local to Flint will pay any price at all. Jail for both would be appropriate, in my opinion. Just like Stan and Frank Koebel.

  6. seawolf77 February 15, 2016 at 9:56 am #

    I think the biggest news was Donald Trump setting the record straight about George W Bush. 9/11 happened on his watch. By definition he did not keep us straight. He then invaded a country who had done nothing to us based on a reason that was later found out to be a complete and utter fabrication i.e. a bald faced lie. Say what you want about Trump, He knows there’s a lot of people who are sick of parroting lies, and they are Republicans too.

    • DrTomSchmidt February 15, 2016 at 10:02 am #

      Exactly. When Trump mentioned that we had spent 4Trillion destroying Iraq and Afghanistan, and how much better off we would have been if we had spent that money on infrastructure here in the USA, I figured he was going for broke. Sanders has toned down his anti-immigrant rhetoric (see interview with Ezra Klein), but Trump continues to aim rhetorical barbs at the DC bloat. He will get himself killed if he doesn’t watch out.

      • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:58 am #

        The 4 T was money we dont have.
        Infrastructure, why?
        To move goods from Asia and Mexico?
        Ever read the TPP?

        We pay to keep the sea lanes open. Why?

        Why fix the roads?

        • DrTomSchmidt February 15, 2016 at 1:43 pm #

          JHK used to complain that we had a railroad system that made Bulgaria look good, that would have been a good use of, oh, 2 trillion bucks.

          • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 3:46 pm #

            To make Buffett richer? He bought it and Obama helped him get richer.

    • hmuller February 15, 2016 at 10:36 am #

      It was almost embarrassing to watch Jeb Bush whining like a tearful 7 year old playground sissy about Trump saying bad things about his family. You come from a morally repugnant crime family, Jeb! And explain please how your maid was crushed and killed between a brick wall and her own driver-less car.

    • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 10:52 am #

      The truest words Donald Trump spoke that night in South Carolina were the ones that got him booed the loudest.

      He claims the audience was stacked against him:

      http://gawker.com/donald-trump-wasnt-wrong-when-he-accused-the-rnc-of-sta-1759177193

      • outsider February 16, 2016 at 10:08 am #

        It was.

    • baird February 15, 2016 at 7:30 pm #

      Yes, and if the big D is not just blowing smoke, one never knows, I an old lefty may sign up. Imho our worse than disastrous foreign policy including our unwillingness to meaningfully engage Putin are the most immediate threats to our survival, yes even more than Climate change which is no laughing matter either.

  7. DrTomSchmidt February 15, 2016 at 9:59 am #

    We’ll face the basic choices, as distressed societies always do, of freaking-and-acting-out (usually in the form of war), or opting for a reunion with reality and its mandates. So far, it’s not looking good for the better option.

    For all the writers who talk about the immanent war: when you look at the Europe that fought world wars 1 and 2, you see that they had plenty of young men to send to slaughter. No country in Europe today has that surplus. Turkey might; Saudi Arabia might; China does for a short while; India does; Afghanistan does. The leaders of these countries have to know these facts, as must the US Government. In that light, I expect that the demographically weaker countries will not launch any wars, while those with excess people will launch an invasion. You might even say that that has started.

    • Lawfish February 15, 2016 at 10:13 am #

      According to my calculations, the world has a “surplus” of about 6 billion people. Those people will have to die somehow. War is probably insufficient to eradicate that surplus.

      • Ishabaka February 15, 2016 at 10:35 am #

        As always, the answer to that is: kill yourself.

        • Lawfish February 15, 2016 at 11:15 am #

          I don’t think so, Ishabaka. I plan to survive, along with my progeny, so that my DNA continues through the coming bottleneck. I am the ant. The grasshoppers will die, not the ants.

          • Sorry Lawfish, no loophole for you. Molecular genetics fact-check:

            None of your genes are special, and even if your particular arrangement is (which it is not), and the arrangement will not be preserved.

            Every one of your genes are as redundant as you and yours.

            This morning’s NYT business features Alpha male CEO and mentions he is descended from “so-and-so, the Conquerer”. I’m thinking, if you understand genetics, like I do, you realize he has exactly zero genes from the Conqueror given the number of generations hence.

            Its like Genetics isn’t a science and is there simply to serve everyone’s ego.

          • Lawfish February 15, 2016 at 1:43 pm #

            Thanks for that lesson in genetics, Lil’ Deb. My DNA will be passed on because I’m prepared to survive the coming bottleneck, not because it’s special.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 4:09 pm #

            Deb, people who think they’re special will fight hard to survive. Look at the Jews, then and now. In contrast, looking at the Western Europeans bending over and bowing down to their new masters. They have been broken by generations of Globalist propaganda about the equality of man – as if the Rape Monkeys of Islam are equal? But they think they are superior and the White slaves are eager for masters – everyone is better than them in their own minds.

            Objectivity is getting in your way here. Psychological truth also plays a part in survival. As Spengler said, questions of moral justification only come in when the life force is weak. And only a very weak people would ever give themselves away like White Euro-Americans have.

        • Frankiti February 15, 2016 at 4:34 pm #

          Our universe, perhaps one in a multiverse, has a galaxy within hundreds of billions of galaxies with a planet among 1E24 planets with a infinitesimally brief situation involving a spike in a rather toxic primate population on a planet with at least 9 million living species at present time on a same planet that has shrugged off over 5 billion species in its similarly brief existence. In short, there’s no need for anyone to kill themselves. We’re already dead.
          Perspective is the best cure for myopia.

      • DrTomSchmidt February 15, 2016 at 1:52 pm #

        Got a link to those calculations?

        Young, poor lands can afford to send many men to their deaths to secure land and wealth. Old, rich lands need the young to pay for Social Security. The fact that the earth is straining to hold all those people, does not undermine the basics of that argument.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 10:56 pm #

          The Browns, be they Muslim or Mexican, take far more than they give. Even if there’s anything left, why would they pay for old Whites?

        • Lawfish February 16, 2016 at 8:41 am #

          Those calculations are just my experiential estimate. Prior to the “green revolution,” in which we turned agriculture into the practice of converting petroleum into food, the planet supported about 1 billion people. When the oil runs out, we’ll be headed back to that number. How we get there is the big question.

          We are simply a macrocosm of Easter Island. We just haven’t cut down the last tree yet. The day will come, though, whether we like it or not.

    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 10:19 am #

      DrTom – Agreed. That’s one of the reasons (among many others) why I dread the thought of a war between the US and Russia. It will be the end of the reign of the White Man. Our progeny will then find out if the world is better off without us. BTW, after being continuously at war since at least the Soviet incursion, is it possible that Afghanistan still has a surplus of young men?

  8. bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 10:04 am #

    “Myth of the self sufficient homestead.”
    Looking back to the early American homesteaders, we find that they were really modified hunter / gatherers. They grew a small kitchen garden, but hunted and gathered wild plants.
    Growing your own food in an era of overpopulation and ruined natural resource base without chemical fertilizers and oil powered machines may not be possible, especially by people who have not been trained for a lifetime in the infinite complexities of perma-culture style farming.
    As GWB said, “this sucker is going down.”

    • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 10:16 am #

      Also, assume you can grow your own food, then assume you are surrounded by starving special snowflakes that can’t help but see you working away all day, every day on your food garden. Imagine now the terrible odds of you being able to successfully defend your garden 24/7. If this collapse happens quickly, I’d wager most folks will die rather quickly. If collapse happens slowly the strong and smart might have a chance, but the rest will slowly slide off into oblivion.

      • K-Dog February 15, 2016 at 10:47 am #

        I’m picturing a dour line of supplicants lined up with rinsed out polyethylene containers behind what looks like an old rusty water truck. They are muddy from gardens they have been working in all day, they pause only to stand in line long enough to make it to the front of the line before returning to their toils.

        At the front of the line the plastic containers are taken and filled with daily allotments of high fructose corn syrup. Supplemental calories to make up for what unpolished skills in agriculture can’t provide. The lucky few who can provide enough for their own needs use their allotment to enrich their soil.

        Unused oil tankers might be rinsed out and sent out to cities with cargoes of syrup to feed local saps. Their are more of them than water trucks.

        • K-Dog February 15, 2016 at 10:50 am #

          Should be: There are more of them than water trucks.

          My fingers on my keyboard are not doing so well today so it is back to my life for me.

          • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 11:19 am #

            Wow, you have a keyboard!! I’m struggling along on a iPad Mini. Keeps my posts short and to the point though.

        • xxzzy999 February 15, 2016 at 11:46 am #

          K-Dog… good response.

          High Fructose Corn Syrup is the equivalent of Soylent Green.

          • Beryl of Oyl February 15, 2016 at 12:57 pm #

            They’ve changed the name that appears on the label, so now it won’t be bad for you.

    • “Looking back to the early American homesteaders, we find that they were really modified hunter / gatherers. They grew a small kitchen garden, but hunted and gathered wild plants.”

      The truth value of your comment is heavily dependent on set and setting and when exactly you mean by “Early American”.

      Again with the “permaculture”… please cease and desist your credulous promotion of a truly specious idea “meme”. There is no permaculture farms producing surplus food anywhere but plenty of “normal” Organic farms producing real surpluses with sustainable practices. In the face of climate change those farms will survive for a while, maybe not generations.

      • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 4:15 pm #

        “…Since the early 1990s, an urban agriculture movement has swept through Cuba, putting this capital city of 2.2 million on a path toward sustainability.
        A small group of Australians assisted in this grass-roots effort, coming to this Caribbean island nation in 1993 to teach permaculture, a system based on sustainable agriculture which uses far less energy…”

        http://www.resilience.org/stories/2006-02-25/power-community-how-cuba-survived-peak-oil

        • monkey_flower February 15, 2016 at 8:06 pm #

          I think many people just don’t understand the vast quantities of food that can be produced outside of the American Midwest. Look at the Coachella Valley in California. It can supply the entire country with dates it is so productive. How about the pecan farms in Alabama. All they have to do is scoop them up at harvest time. My home state of New Hampshire could very easily produce 100 times as much maple syrup as it does presently. I am not kidding.

          • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 11:21 pm #

            You are delusional. People who can’t grow a house plant to save their life say silly things like that.

        • Thats nice however the article reeks of distortions. For example, “Nelson Aguila, an engineer-turned-farmer, raises food for the neighborhood on his integrated rooftop farm. On just a few hundred square feet he has rabbits and hens and many large pots of plants. Running free on the floor are gerbils, which eat the waste from the rabbits, and become an important protein source themselves. ”

          1st, if you really think about how much can be produced from a rooftop, even an “integrated” system (whatever that might mean) it is not going to “feed a neighborhood” on a few 100 sq. ft. Even with rabbits and hens, and of course, gerbils. Forget it. Engineers are creative; people who post and repost anecdotes on the Internet are less so.

          It will not be possible to convince the DOH, USDA, FDA or local authorities anywhere in America that you should be able to raise chickens, rabbits, and gerbils on each others’ feces and then feed the resulting meat to human beings, nor should anyone attempt such a thing unless starvation is imminent and there is no alternative.

          Cubans _barely_ made it on their compromised agriculture, which was, to a vast extent, conventional. You reach for permaculture when you are desperate and there are no alternatives.

          I have Bill Mollison’s manual and have read it. It has a lot of great ideas, and those ideas are worth spreading (like a TED virus) but permaculture is adjunct to farming, and more like ecological terra-forming, with microclimate design, all important in marginal environments like the Australian outback. People misunderstand the difference between hobby and vocation when it comes to growing mass amounts of food. They tend to believe, as techno-culturalists, that clever elegant hacks are the solution to the problems. That somehow clever arrangement of things will magically make work unnecessary.

          I’ve been to permaculture “farms” whose primary source of income is classes, not food. They are filled with a mixture of the ugly, inelegant, ill-conceived, alongside the clever and resourceful, but more often there is sense of self-righteousness in the belief that these systems somehow reconcile the contradiction between imposing penalties on earth systems (consumption) with efficient production. It doesn’t fly. The students arrive in BMWs and observe myriad technological gizmos made of PVC and powered by electric pumps and everybody feels better.

          I am offering zero solutions at this point. Even regular agriculture doesn’t address the contradiction. Human agriculture feeds populations that degrade the environment. A negative feedback loop. But in terms of feeding oneself or others, permaculture promises that, eventually, you will get more out of a system than you put in, which, according to CFN principles is a species of the “get something for nothing” fantasizing.

          Permaculture at best is about setting up systems (sometimes complicated, energy intensive systems) to gain marginal production that only pay off after decades. It is also extremely easy to do it badly and injure productivity. In which case you never recoup your investment or losses. You have to be an expert to apply these concepts with exceptional understanding. Hobbyists will never achieve this level of sophistication.

          • bobinboiseid February 17, 2016 at 11:18 am #

            Perma-culture is about working with nature, recycling everything, creating systems that nature normally creates, and living in a way that is sustainable over the long run. If any system has a chance at “saving civilization” it is perma-culture.

    • SvrzoH February 16, 2016 at 1:42 am #

      Based on blogs or posts, lot of “nouveau” homesteaders and farmers had that weird idea that they will be sitting on their white picket fence, nibble on organic carrots and watch outside world sorting itself out in the future collapse.
      Even worse, their farm in some cases is not about farming at all.
      “Cognitive Dissonance Guy” in one of his blogs on ZH, for example, writes how his “farm” is the place where his daughter is not to become a healthy farm girl (using her skirt as a colander for milk), but, mind you, to create music!
      I remember Jim talking in one of his interviews how he “easily see himself as a local newspaper publisher”. Could not help envisioning him walking around in monster buckle shoes, knee length pants, puffed sleeves shirt and round rim glasses.
      “Automatic Earth Chick” is plane hopping and promoting some Eco village in NZ with pricey homes and lot of “art” going around.
      While ago read an article that in England, just about every picturesque village is swarmed with recently (early) retired financiers, walking around in rubber boots but not really doing a heavy lifting of farm work. For that they have a local stiffs.
      My intent is not to be overly critical but to point rather, once urbanite always urbanite.

  9. shotho February 15, 2016 at 10:06 am #

    I wonder what “thinking” people in the 1930’s must have “thought”, with the financial world collapsing around them, the dust bowl gathering and the rest of the world descending into fascism and communism – war looming? It was not a pretty prospect, but here we are, filled with angst that that the dollar may not hold and we may run out of gas on the way to WalMart. Yes, the strong may prevail, but the meek will inherit the earth and people will still make their adaptations. Hoard your gold and till your garden if you must, but the wise will not forget that the world will go on and we still need each other to be good and kind.

    • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 10:34 am #

      The world will go on, but the vast majority of humans may not go on. Nearly everyone on the planet is totally dependent on the insanely complex system fueled by oil and finance, and the few that aren’t will likely be overrun by the starving hoards.
      There may be a tiny glimmer of hope, but the greatest likelihood is that most everyone will cease to exist in a relatively short time. Richard Hienberg wrote a while back that the most likely outcome of resource depletion will be nuclear war. A small nuclear missile exchange would create a nuclear winter that would cause crop failures for years.
      Being hopeful right now is plain stupid. We need to be afraid or we will surely see the end of civilization and a return to short, brutal lives for a lucky few.

      • Ishabaka February 15, 2016 at 10:37 am #

        Sometimes the gloom porn in these comments is a little over the top.

        • Doug February 15, 2016 at 10:45 am #

          Understand your comment, but if the financial system fails, pretty much everything else fails too. World trade came to a halt in 2008 when banks didn’t trust other banks. World trade is slowing dramatically again. 2008 may be a warm-up act to something much bigger and damaging.

          Survival might be an issue for 100s of millions of people. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

        • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 10:56 am #

          I’ve been reading Peak Oil books for 12 years, and trying to grow my own food all that time, so being cheery about our prospects is a tad difficult. I’ve got myself set up better than anyone I know, but feel it isn’t near enough to deal with what is likely coming our way.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 2:54 pm #

        Does this mean you are against more immigration?

      • Frankiti February 15, 2016 at 4:40 pm #

        Why should there be this reflexive belief in “hope” when it comes to the longevity of our species? The only hope lies in our replacement or successor species cleaning up the mess we have made. We are not the end-product. Evolution does not stop, snd certainly does not stop with homo sapiens.

        • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 11:24 pm #

          I am hoping there is more than cockroaches and ants left to clean up our mess…

    • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 2:53 pm #

      Yes the Meek will inherit the Earth – as serfs. Those who beat their swords into ploughshares will plough – what else could the do? And they will plough for those who didn’t so beat, those who still have swords.

      Western Civilization transcended this for a time, but Liberals didn’t value it, always damning it for not being perfect. The glass was always half empty for them at best. And many said it was completely empty. Well the will get their wish now. Only a strong, isolated, proud America could have withstood what is coming. Both Liberals and faux Conservatives did their utmost to destroy that nation.

    • seawolf77 February 15, 2016 at 3:32 pm #

      I think the term Great Depression did not come into widespread usage until 1952 after a Truman speech, although that is debatable. Newspaper searches prove this suspect. There was a book entitled “The Great Depression.” I guess what I am saying is while they were going through it, it wasn’t called that. Is that true today? Could we be in a depression?

      • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 5:33 pm #

        We are now worse than the “Great Depression.”
        The true unemployment now is the same as it was then, but back then 20% of people lived on a farm, now it is 2%. Back then energy and resources were plentiful, now they are becoming scarce. Last time it was localized, this time it is global. There is no where to run.

  10. Frankiti February 15, 2016 at 10:10 am #

    Throw in the death of Scalia, and a governing system with only the thinnest shroud of a structured, lawful, and constitutional pretense is thrown into the shredder. This next year will prove what many of us have always known; the United States has been ground down to nothing more than an illegitimate power structure controlled by elites solely for the maintenance, betterment, and consolidation of control and power of those elites.
    The super-delegates and DNC doing all within their power to prop up Clinton, the GOP leadership and establishment at all out war against Trump. The supposed media-of-record, owned and controlled by the monied interests, exposing their activist inclinations and their powers of control (debates) as the fourth branch as never before.
    In November, the will of the people will once again be reined in by those in the wheelhouse. It will be more blatant and obvious than anytime previously. The media that protects them will be even less equipped or able to produce the necessary lies. But when it’s over you can be rest assured, that come that cold January morning it won’t be Sanders or Trump taking that pledge. We will not be allowed this chance to freak-out or act-out. It’s not our choice to make.

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    • Doug February 15, 2016 at 10:40 am #

      Lack of an independent, skeptical, investigative media puts this country at risk. That we don’t have one now is just one more cut in a country dying of a 1000 cuts.

    • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 12:25 pm #

      Yes, I too have been wondering what happens when Obama nominates Satan as a compromise.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 2:56 pm #

      Yes, any protests will be confined to free speech areas miles away or if nearer, free speech cages.

      • bobinboiseid February 15, 2016 at 5:36 pm #

        …or free speech solitary confinement.

    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 10:48 am #

      I’m not a betting man, but, if I was forced to choose, I’d still bet on HRC v Bush III in the general. In spite of tens of millions of voters in opposition, those pulling the strings will get what they want. Between those two, it doesn’t matter to our oligarchs who wins.

  11. K-Dog February 15, 2016 at 10:10 am #

    “We’ll face the basic choices, as distressed societies always do, of freaking-and-acting-out (usually in the form of war), or opting for a reunion with reality and its mandates. So far, it’s not looking good for the better option.”

    I don’t know if history can even offer up a case of any distressed society not freaking out and learning how to to better with less. Since all Americans want to do is partay. If a society was smart enough to know how to do better with less they’d not get distressed in the first place.

    Rain was hard and cold this weekend so my garden did not get any work done on it. I have collected all I need to build a good rabbit fence to encircle it and I was able to get seed potatoes at Home Depot (of all places) this year for the potato box. I hope to plant them next weekend. The fence will be two feet high and made of chicken wire over a wood frame.

    I’m currently living with peak rabbits but I saw a bobcat a couple of months ago in the area. Perhaps by the time the new inmate of the White House presides over a “much-distressed and poorer so-called republic” my local rabbit population will also be having hard times. If so perhaps unlike us it won’t because they don’t have enough to eat. Unlike Americans, my rabbits may be experiencing real terrorism and not the faux terrorism we get over our faux news.

    • DanandMary February 15, 2016 at 11:04 am #

      The latest of a few examples of a country ‘not freaking out while learning to do with less’ would be the break-up of the Soviet Union. While their stint in Afganistan contributed to the economic decline, the contracting population gardened and foraged to survive. If memory serves, they didn’t start a world war to prop up their crashing economy. The able bodied survived and the rest either drank themselves to death or murdered each other. Mayhem for sure… but well within their own borders. By the way, have you ever tried rabbit stew?

      • K-Dog February 15, 2016 at 4:54 pm #

        The problem with the Soviet Union example is that they were already growing; and someone can correct me if I’m wrong, 20% of their produce from private garden plots before the Soviet Union even collapsed. The expertise was already in place with plenty of skilled gardeners to show the clueless what to do. In America we have more hoes on street corners than we have hoes hanging in garages waiting to be used. Hoes on street corners in general have no clue on how to garden and have a completely non-transferable skill set. Hoes in garages in contrast are made for gardening but they can’t do it alone.

        Our destiny will be more like the stubborn and genetically predisposed to be violent hothead European Vikings of the Middle Ages. The group who settled Greenland had been basically kicked out of Iceland and had to go somewhere else. Had they not been constitutionally stubborn and unable to get along with other people they might have learned skills from the Inuit who actually arrived in Greenland after they did when the going got tough. Instead they starved and froze to death becoming extinct.

        • MisterDarling February 15, 2016 at 7:00 pm #

          Hello K-Dog,

          “Instead they starved and froze to death becoming extinct.”

          I’m glad that you re-introduced this topic. The case of the Greenland Viking colony is poignantly instructive. It was one of those historic junctures when *e v e r y t h i n g* about the historic timeline would be different – if not for mindset. They snatched defeat from the jaws of long-term & soul-satisfying prosperity.

          I’ll be getting back to this farther down-thread…

          Cheers!

          • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 7:26 pm #

            They were doing alright until the climate changed. Then as the ice got thicker, the Inuit came down and butchered them. The men anyway. The women may have gone over to the winning side voluntarily.

          • K-Dog February 15, 2016 at 10:17 pm #

            Janos, as usual you misrepresent.

            “When the Vikings arrived on Greenland it was uninhabited, though they described finding house ruins, and other remnants of the people archeologists later identified as the Dorset – whom disappeared or abandoned Greenland in the 11th or 12th century. The Inuit did not arrive on the scene until the Vikings were well established. The Inuit migrated across Northern Canada and the Arctic Ocean following prey animals entering Greenland circa 1200 AD. From first contact Vikings established poor relations with their Inuit neighbors. One account describes how hunters encountered skraelings whom when “stabbed with a nonfatal wound, their wounds turn white, and they don’t bleed, but when mortally wounded, they bleed incessantly.”i It is also worthy to note that in their first contact with the peoples of Vineland (North America), the Vikings killed 8 of the 9 “skraelings” whom they first saw. The same account later describes the Inuit role in perhaps the final blow to the Western settlement. In 1379 the skraelings attacked the Greenlanders’ Western settlement, killing 18 men and capturing 2 boys and a woman. The Inuit survive to this day in Greenland, while the Vikings disappeared.”

            The document I took this from came from Perdue University. I already knew of the account from other sources.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 11:01 pm #

            So the “document” talks about something the Vikings did in North America, then conflates the Skraelings there with the Inuit in an attempt to excuse the Inuit for killing off the Vikings.

            The desperation to always have Whites in the wrong is palpable. As ever you are easily fooled, the damnable part is that you wish to be.

          • mercpl February 16, 2016 at 3:12 am #

            Funny thing is that Archeologists raking through the old Viking settlements in Greenland could not find any evidence that they ate fish or seal. It seemed that those settlers were so determined to live off their cows that they either forgot how to fish or refused to do so.

            A bit like the early Australian explorers Burke and Wills who starved to death while well-fed natives looked on.

          • Sticks-of-TNT February 16, 2016 at 3:43 am #

            K-Dog,

            My alma mater is Purdue University. Perdue is the chicken guy. -Sticks

        • jloughrey February 16, 2016 at 3:44 am #

          In the new world order, skilled gardeners will become more valuable than doctors or lawyers. As a lifelong gardener, I’m counting on it.

    • Lawfish February 15, 2016 at 11:08 am #

      Seed potatoes at Home Depot? I get mine from Ace. I was going to plant them this weekend, but ended up finishing my second chicken coop and repairing an undermount sink (don’t ever get one of those if you actually cook in your kitchen). But I did get all the chicken poop/hay spread where I plan to plant the potatoes.

      Peak rabbits? They’re very good eating.

      • Farmer McGregor February 15, 2016 at 2:31 pm #

        K-Dog, I’m with Lawfish on this one: wild bunnies are free protein. Very easy to skin and gut, what you can’t eat is easily composted. Throw in some of your spuds and some carrots — stew! You could even get in some practice tanning hides…

        Go get’em, boy! Fetch!

    • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 2:57 pm #

      Are you still a doubter of Muslim rape terror in Europe? Still a supporter of bringing loads of “Syrian Refugees” into America?

  12. llamawalker February 15, 2016 at 10:12 am #

    In watching the Republican debate Saturday I did hear something very telling from Dr. Ben ( in the few minutes he was given to talk). The question, I believe, was “What do you feel is the biggest threat to our national security?”. His response was our debt. He went on to say that we are on the verge of “economic collapse”. The two numbers he provided to illustrate his belief were 1) the 19 trillion dollar debt/deficit and 2) the 200 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. The remainder of 2016 with the Presidential election and 2017 should prove interesting.

    • Bro Jobe February 15, 2016 at 10:32 am #

      It may be the only area where I agree with Dr. Carson. Has any modern civilization sustained such levels of debt before? It makes money even more “notional” in JHK’s parlance.

    • pequiste February 15, 2016 at 12:17 pm #

      And that, I believe, is exactly the point of Jim’s missive:

      “What do you feel…….?” has become the question and answer, in the West, of how we deal with reality.

      Rational thought is OUT. Feelings rule and usually with disasterous consequences.

      The true owners of Wall Street and Washington D.C. do think rationally for their own selfish interests ( and for being demonically possessed that is.)

      The Russians and CHinese (and Israelis too) – not at all; they engender the paradigmatic Realpolitik players. Thinking about consequences can be so stress inducing.

      For the Yzlamik world – only secular dictators dealt with Realpolitik and genuine ratiocination; the rest of them let their Theocratic basis and bias cloud any rational thinking.

      Our “advanced” civilization wants to leave the thinking to expert systems, machines, or worse, use what Borges called Pataphysics: the science of imaginary solutions. Tom Friedman, Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Merkel are leading exponents of this methodology. Most other politicians, are happy it can be used with the constituents, for TV “debates” and on their respective websites.

      This is what happens with entire cultures raised on mass media (controlled by a very small evil inner-clique) that wants both to control the masses and sell them shit.

  13. BackRowHeckler February 15, 2016 at 10:23 am #

    This is where The Police come in, Jim; they’ll be called upon more and more to clamp down on Civil Disorder — and provide the illusion that order and civilization still exists.

    brh

    • Bro Jobe February 15, 2016 at 10:30 am #

      A former student, proudly wearing a Falange pin, reminded me “today I cannot park my nice car outside, or the Anarchists damage it. But in Franco’s day, they would have been taken into a back room and…”

      He punctuated that sentence with a “chop chop” motion, one hand striking the other palm.

      I was not bourgeoisie then. Now, like many who own property, I’d say “better the police than anarchy.” I hate saying that. But in Spain’s dictatorship, there was order. You just shut up and do what you are told.

      • outsider February 16, 2016 at 11:05 am #

        Bro Jobe (I assume you took your avatar from JHK’s intriguing post-collapse series, no?). But I digress. You could say the same of Saddam’s Iraq or Khadafi’s Libya. Keep your head down and you were safe. And weren’t the people in those countries so much better off then than now. Just another gift from Uncle Sam.

        • SpeedyBB February 19, 2016 at 9:40 am #

          Ditto for Suharto’s Indonesia. I came in 1988 and witnessed the final 10 years of the “iron fist in the velvet glove” regime. It ended with the Soros-triggered Asian Financial Crisis of 1998. Today there is relative prosperity but only as a result of the structures put in place during the dictatorship.

          Worse you have faux-Arab Islamism, church-burnings and many more abuses unimaginable during the era of the ‘Smiling General’. Looking at this very coldly, this culture deserves another strong centralized leadership.

          You won’t see bearded gangsters in bedsheets threatening folks then. In these times party-based money-driven parliamentary democracy is mostly irrelevant. Sad to say.

    • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 10:39 am #

      Absolutely agree. And don’t forget the deep state to direct their predations. Those people are smart enough to take care of themselves, at least for a while. Joining them would be a good survival strategy, perhaps the only survival strategy.

    • MisterDarling February 15, 2016 at 7:05 pm #

      Hello BRH,

      The problem is that as things fall apart (not just here, but for all of recorded history) law enforcers go rogue. It starts with low-level corruption & using excess force and proceeds through extra-judicial executions to completely degenerating into another group of criminals.

  14. Bro Jobe February 15, 2016 at 10:27 am #

    Normally I find some solace reading CFN. I figure “Oh, it can get THAT bad.” Now we are set to have a Constitutional Crisis, even if Obama does what Reagan and Bush the First did: make a recess appointment to the Supreme Court.

    The Party of Evil will block it, and its worst elements will even call for violence. The Party of Lesser Evil with dither as always, and its worst elements (my peers in academia) will say something like:

    “This reifies the phallogocentric hegemonic urge, a ghost-dance of whiteness in the death throes of late-stage capitalism, atop the Cartesian-cum-Nietschean will to power, as ineluctably as white privilege is again (re)inscribed as a sort of monological palimpsest upon generations of genocide upon dark-skinned and queer bodies.”

    Free beer to whomever finds a really strong active verb in there. Thus, American in decline.

    • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 10:47 am #

      I claim it. One meaning of “to reify” is to make something real. Can’t get much stronger than that. Just ask He Who May Not Be Named (by some).

      Grant you, it’s uncommon. But it is strong and active.

      • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 11:04 am #

        I think you mean, make something real by acting as if it’s real. Stable institutions crucially depend on people “reifying” them, i.e. respecting the rules that create those institutions and accepting governance by those rules.

        When people lose respect for institutions, bad things happen. For example, the Republican party deciding to ignore the constitution and declare unilaterally that the sitting, elected president doesn’t have the power that he does, in fact, have to appoint Scalia’s successor. The center cannot hold.

        • sauerkraut February 15, 2016 at 12:20 pm #

          I think that you are right. Thank you.

        • Bro Jobe February 15, 2016 at 2:38 pm #

          I had not thought of that nuance, in making up the BS I typed. It is based on actual academic “prose style.”

          Money is notional now, and the monthly statements from our banks and credit-card companies “reify” it for us, because we act as if all that notional “money” is real.

          It’s a convenient fiction, for now. I could go down the survivalist rathole of stockpiling gold and ammo. I have a bit of each, but in the end, if “the sucker goes down,” JHK is right. You need community, even if your politics today are different. Most reasonable citizens in small towns and hamlets would band together for self-protection and take down the thugs.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:02 pm #

          You forget the Senate has the right to block any such appointment. Obviously Obama has appointed two unqualified Communists to the Court. Why let him do more damage?

          • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 3:34 pm #

            “Two unqualified Communists”: assumes facts not in evidence. Make your case that Kagan and Sotomayor are unqualified. ‘Communists’ in your mouth is a term of abuse, content-free.

            “Why let him do more damage?” Because Article II Section 2 of the United States Constitution affords him the authority to do so. As the duly elected president of the United States, he must and can faithfully execute the laws.

            It was obvious that you would side with the rejectionists. I’m curious to see whether your rejectionism will be limited to denying Obama’s mandate (some birtherist garbage) or if you’re prepared to publicly repudiate the Constitution.

          • CancelMyCard February 15, 2016 at 3:34 pm #

            Just wait . . . . Obama will wait until congress goes away for the holidays, and then do a “recess appointment”.

            It’s been done before, Regan and Bush I come to mind.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:54 pm #

            They may well be qualified as Communists, but that disqualifies them to be on the Supreme Court. Kagan was a nobody, but very big on Jewish and Gay issues. That’s her “qualification”. Sotor is a Latino Supremacist as her statement of how a “wise Latina” is more qualified than some old White guy.

            Your ethnic masochism is showing.

    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 11:15 am #

      Bro Jobe, if Obama is forced into it, he NEEDS to make a recess appointment. I never thought that McConnell had any brains, but it was still incredibly stupid of him to telegraph that the Senate would not even consider any Obama nominee, and to not even bother sending one up. Obama holds the upper hand here, and I look forward to him using it with vigor.

  15. George February 15, 2016 at 10:33 am #

    “We’ll face the basic choices, as distressed societies always do, of freaking-and-acting-out (usually in the form of war), or opting for a reunion with reality and its mandates. So far, it’s not looking good for the better option.”

    One might assume that the “better option” would involve that reunion with reality, but there’s the way it ought to be and then there’s the way it is, mainly that which has been steeped in a toxic tea brewed by the defense establishment for over half a century. In addition to war, or more likely wars, the context will no doubt include a delightful mix of civil war and revolution. And for better or worse, that will be our reality.

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  16. FincaInTheMountains February 15, 2016 at 10:45 am #

    Donald Trump has already earned his Nobel Peace Prize by breaking the Hillary Clinton system of political correctness that does not allow even discussing the possibility that Russia and the US can be allies in the Middle East, and so called “moderate” terrorists who enjoy the US support and whose funerals are paid for by Russians can not and should not be an obstacle to the Russian and US co-operation, and that the overthrow of Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein was a mistake which is worse than a crime, and that if Russia helps the US in Afghanistan and Kurdistan , Russia has every right to expect the United States’ help in Ukraine.

    Things reached the point that Republican candidate number 2 Governor Kasich, who recently very cheerfully wanted to strike Putin in the nose, during last televised debate was forced to modestly downcast his eyes, explaining this expression in the sense that it was due to NATO article 5 in case of Russian invasion of the Baltic states, and generally repeated after Trump his politically incorrect opinions.

    And it is possible that now he was more sincere than he was just two months ago, this view was completely politically incorrect.

    And this situation has changed all due to Trump.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/notes-from-the-locked-ward/#comment-261093

    Telephone conversation with President of the United States Barack Obama

    At the USA’s initiative, Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the United States Barack Obama.

    Resolving the Syrian crisis was the main focus of the two leaders’ exchange of views. Both sides gave a positive assessment of the outcome of the International Syria Support Group’s meeting in Munich on February 11–12, which reaffirmed the principles and provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 with regard to humanitarian matters, working out the modalities for a ceasefire, and facilitating the launch of a genuine political process.

    Mr Putin and Mr Obama also discussed the situation in Ukraine, particularly in the context of implementing the Package of Measures approved in Minsk on February 12, 2015. Mr Putin expressed the hope that the authorities in Kiev would finally start taking practical steps towards carrying out their obligations rapidly, including establishing direct dialogue with the Donbass region, holding an amnesty, carrying out constitutional reform, consultations with representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk, and entry into force of legal amendments giving these two regions special status.

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/51312

    • Beryl of Oyl February 15, 2016 at 1:07 pm #

      Thank you. At first I was only looking at The Donald reluctantly, as the only candidate who could smash through the government/media imposed PC censorship, but now, in his willingness to offend absolutely anyone, he’s saying a lot of things that need to be said. I think that’s a good thing.

    • ozone February 15, 2016 at 1:12 pm #

      Meanwhile, in news of the non-speculative, events are in charge and talk is [still] cheap:

      https://www.rt.com/business/332466-ukraine-bans-russian-trucks/

      Finca, although I appreciate your reportage of “positive events”, you sometimes stray into the area of wishful thinking.

  17. Doug February 15, 2016 at 10:55 am #

    I think James may be right about a collapse coming. We may have reached the end of the road. All the debt, which is acknowledged to “bring forward” consumption from the future worked. The problem? The future is here! The end of debt’s marginal utility, peak “cheap” oil, the end of 30 yrs of falling interest rates, desperation of central bankers all point to a potential for collapse.

    http://gulfcoastcommentary.blogspot.com/2015/08/fast-collapse-or-slow-i-think-fast.html

    The collapse might be quick and James may be right that it’s this year. It’s as if all the stars are lined-up socially, politically, financially for disaster.

    • seawolf77 February 15, 2016 at 1:44 pm #

      We shall see.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:14 pm #

      It has always been said that Cthulu will rise when the stars are right. And he will teach men new ways to celebrate, to shout, and to kill that they might be free as He is free.

  18. malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:50 am #

    Breaking News –one armed Bandit,

    It’s just like that common core math equation.
    If Zachary has two arms, but loses one in a failed robbery attempt, what color is Zachary?

    Any one else see the story about the guy who ran over the dindu thief who robbed him at gunpoint? The dindu lost his arm after the car ran him over.

    In commie NYC, the driver is now charged with attempted murder, rather than given a medal for taking out the trash. The dindu is being discussed as a boy and shown sympathetically by the media.

    But remember the black woman who ran over 40 people a few weeks ago, allegedly after muttering something about their privilege? It’s now memory holed. No one talks about it. Fewer even remember it…and that’s not an accident.

    and the same ol same ol

    http://www.bfnn.co.uk/storm-names-criticised-for-being-too-white/#

    • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:06 pm #

      Yeah the story is changing. Originally, the kid tried to shoot him but his gun jammed. Now they’re putting it all on the driver. Also the best part of the original story: the kid rand down the street holding his own arm like a ghoul.

  19. malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:51 am #

    and at home,
    Siemens Corporation has been firing a lot of white engineers.

    http://www.fiercemedicaldevices.com/story/siemens-announces-4500-more-layoffs-recent-cuts-top-10000/2015-05-07

    This is the black head of human resources at Siemens corporation, Janine Kugel.

    https://twitter.com/janinakugel?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

    She has a passion for “diversity and inclusion”, you know, white genocide.

    In this interview, in Spiegel, she is asked why Siemens is training refugees to take Siemens jobs, why she demands increased immigration to Germany, when there are 2.8 million unemployed Germans.

    http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-138273622.html

    She answers “there are not enough Germans, we need immigration”.

    The reporter did NOT point out that Siemens is firing Germans and REPLACING them with refugees. So, she is lying that there “are not enough Germans”.

    Siemens is hiring blacks as fast as they can in the USA.

    http://www.usa.siemens.com/en/jobs_careers/diversity_inclusion.htm?stop_mobi=yes

    “Black Collegian magazine calls them a Top Employer”

    The blacks Siemens is hiring can rarely perform engineering tasks. They eat up budgets.

    If you own Siemens stock, your CEO is not trying to increase shareholder value, he is pushing Cultural Marxism at your expense.

  20. malthuss February 15, 2016 at 11:53 am #

    While UK and EU face Sharia and becoming a satrap of middle east, this happens, sssh, dont notice,

    Not eating Israeli feta cheese [available at Costco] is equal to robbery,

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/israel-boycott-local-councils-public-bodies-and-student-unions-to-be-banned-from-shunning-israeli-a6874006.html

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    • S M Tenneshaw February 15, 2016 at 4:18 pm #

      As they see Middle East hordes overrunning everything in sight, when are the Stormfront KKKlowns on this site and elsewhere going to snap out of it and grok that Jew hate is not the cure, it’s the main cause?

      • malthuss February 15, 2016 at 5:41 pm #

        I dont see what a law in UK has to do with ‘jew hate.’

        • S M Tenneshaw February 19, 2016 at 2:50 am #

          Such a law is most likely a response to the Jew hate coming from the Islamic influx. A much better response would be to shut/boot the “refugees” out.,

      • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 7:33 pm #

        Main cause of what? Europe is full of Jews ecstatic about the fall of White Western Europe. And yes, other Jews, perhaps less elite, know that they may have to leave now. Bibi warned them to get out of France a few years ago.

        Gates of Vienna is a great Anti-Muslim site run by Jews pretending to be White. At least Pam Gellar is honest about who she is. And she did great work in stopping the World Trade Center Mosque. The Muslims almost got it – what a coup it would have been for them.

        • James Howard Kunstler February 16, 2016 at 8:26 am #

          That’s a stupid, scurrilous remark, Janos.
          –JHK

        • S M Tenneshaw February 18, 2016 at 1:08 am #

          “Europe is full of Jews”

          Wrong, genius. Europe had about 1.4 million Jews as of 2014. Somehow I suspect the number hasn’t increased since then.

          “ecstatic about the fall of White Western Europe.”

          I doubt that too, Ace. Any Jew with half a brain knows that turning over Europe’s weaponry to a shambling Mideast mob is not conducive to a long life for anyone.

          “Jews pretending to be White.”

          No pretense involved, Gomer. Pam Geller, to name juist one of millions, is white by any normal person’ reckoning.

          Even for a cable TV vampire, you’re slipping.

  21. EvelynV February 15, 2016 at 11:53 am #

    “Why is their no governance of their insane behavior”

    Please fix, it savages your credibility when I try to pass the article on.

  22. malthuss February 15, 2016 at 12:06 pm #

    JHK—The recent carnage in the stock markets will probably see a retracement after the President’s Day hiatus.

    Going from 18300 to 15500 is NOT ‘carnage.’

    Even at Dow 5000 the Dow would be inflated.

    Retracement, I guess. The democrats want the next flunkie to be from their party.

    • chipshot February 15, 2016 at 4:50 pm #

      As with climate change, its all about scale.
      The time frame for that size drop makes it carnage-like.

  23. Newton Finn February 15, 2016 at 12:36 pm #

    Doom and gloom gets old. If we’re going down as a species, that’s on us and no use pissing and moaning about it.

    On the other hand, maybe, just maybe, global survival issues will bring out something in the human spirit that so-called civilization has suppressed: self-interested cooperation and coordination that might lead, who knows, to a broader sense of brotherhood and sisterhood.

    Truth is, ain’t any of us got a clear fix on what the future holds.

    • Beryl of Oyl February 15, 2016 at 1:14 pm #

      True. It was looking a lot like a Hillary/Heb matchup there for awhile, which isn’t really a choice. Nobody predicted Bernie and Donald.
      BTW, I wish I’d bet money when I kept insisting that Bernie had more support than we were being told in the MSM.

      • chipshot February 15, 2016 at 4:46 pm #

        As recently as June you could get 60-1.
        Now its 5-1.

    • The idea of worldwide cooperation has never been accomplished and never will be. The “human spirit” isn’t even an a priori real thing but a literary device.

      Self-interested cooperation and coordination are possible, but as always “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

      It is possible, but we’ve eroded common good with immigration and globalization. North America’s unreasonable include a large proportion of people from all walks of life, unfortunately. It is a scale issue and to some extent a brains issue. Ignorant people just can’t think properly. They’d need values to anchor those rational thoughts anyway and their values are all garbage: from existential religion to techno-narcissism to urban corporatism. They are more likely to go down fighting for these empty placeholders than they are to change their minds.

      • ozone February 15, 2016 at 1:31 pm #

        L’il Deb,
        That’s a very ‘reasonable’ explanation of why we are where we are. (And no pun intended.)

      • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:09 pm #

        Tell Zone about the value of and need for ethnic homogeneity. He wont hear it from me. Such homogeneity is natural and promotes strength – no wonder the revolutionary Elite who overthrew Old America are so against it.

      • MisterDarling February 15, 2016 at 7:34 pm #

        Hello Lil’ Deb,

        “They are more likely to go down fighting for these empty placeholders than they are to change their minds.”

        Eloquently put, and also true. However, from a strategic standpoint defenders of “empty placeholders” are ‘No-Shows’ on the stage of History, so they have low relevance in any discussion about The Future and what to do about it.

        My advice – fwiw – is that we budget our time and attention accordingly, on CFN and elsewhere.

  24. amb February 15, 2016 at 12:41 pm #

    It is very difficult to predict the future. Especially when many of the current dynamics and components of our society, and our “global society”, did not exist in our past. It is hard to draw historical parallels.

    Look how long Japan has managed to continue forward despite their demographic and deflationary problems and illogical fiscal and monetary policies. Their debt to GDP ratio is a LOT higher than the USA’s.

    There is still plenty of room for unusual and illogical solutions, “pretend and extend”, minor resets and reforms, etc. that will keep the ship afloat.

    History has shown us that empires die a slow and protracted death. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Rome didn’t collapse in a day. It may turn out that current, middle-aged Americans don’t experience any significant collapse in their lifetime; although they’ll most likely experience inconvenience, deprivation and hard times to some degree (which will vary based on their wealth levels, health and personal situations).

    • Beryl of Oyl February 15, 2016 at 1:16 pm #

      The ones who lived through the Great Depression are dying off.

      • CancelMyCard February 15, 2016 at 3:42 pm #

        On a long enough timeline,
        the survival rate for everyone falls to zero.

        — ZH

        • Frankiti February 15, 2016 at 4:47 pm #

          Ugh… ZH. Where every other post shows some snapshot of a trading graph with “implodes” or the tagline, “the end of the world in one graph” BS. Then more charts, repeat for years, add more charts… on a long enough timeline they may also get something right over there.

    • chipshot February 15, 2016 at 4:44 pm #

      Great comment, amb, although I wouldn’t bet on “There is still plenty of room for unusual and illogical solutions, “pretend and extend”, minor resets and reforms, etc. that will keep the ship afloat.”

      We have become master procrastinators and managed to keep an unsustainable ship afloat for years longer than many thought possible.
      The longer that continues, the more likely a crash landing-or falling off the cliff-is.

    • MisterDarling February 15, 2016 at 7:44 pm #

      @ amb:

      RE | “History has shown us that empires die a slow and protracted death. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Rome didn’t collapse in a day.”

      I like to use the decline of the Western Roman Empire as well – for structural & strategic comparison. Timescales though are another matter, as well as the steepness of Collapse. The idea that ‘something took a long time to build up so it will take a long time to fall apart’ is false.

      You’re assuming that only Time and Resources factor into a Growth/Decline curve, while leaving out the disintegration of underlying Infrastructure necessary to stick it all together in the first place. This concept is something that scales from Civilization modeling all the way down to personal relationships…

      Cheers!

      😉

  25. wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 1:08 pm #

    “How hard is it to understand that A) that something adverse happens to oil companies when it costs them $70-a-barrel to hoist the product out of the ground and then sell it for $30-a-barrel?” –JHK

    OK, let’s reprice reality.

    The reality is that the large multinational oil companies get billions of dollars in profits from us through inflated prices.

    Whenever possible they make us pay the price for their environmental liability, avoiding responsibility for spill cleanups by passing the costs to the taxpayers.

    Further, we, the taxpayers, pay the price for tax breaks and subsidies to keep oil multinationals profitable. It’s not like they are being hurt by a temporary price drop.

    Case in point: ExxonMobil recently reported earnings of $1.01 a share outperforming the 89 cents expected. How much is $29 a barrel oil hurting them?

    Does anyone think they are going to take their ball and go home because of a drop in the price of oil? Are they going to suddenly declare bankruptcy because “it costs them $70-a-barrel to hoist the product out of the ground and then sell it for $30-a-barrel”?

    No. They will simply diversify, e.g., shift to natural gas or renewables. They will continue to chug along, taking up oil again once if/when oil prices go back up.

    The price of oil is becoming more and more irrelevant as the world transitions away from fossil fuels to zero-emission sustainable forms of energy. That is the pricing reality CFN ignores.

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    • Beryl of Oyl February 15, 2016 at 1:17 pm #

      Remember the bp spill where the oil suddenly went away?

      • wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 1:23 pm #

        Oil giant BP said it plans to offset the entire cost of its [2010] Gulf of Mexico oil spill against its tax bill, reducing future contributions to U.S. tax coffers by almost $10 billion.

        BP took a pretax provision of $32.2 billion in its accounts for the period, for the cost of capping the well, cleaning up the spill, compensating victims and paying government fines.

        However, the net impact on BP’s bottom line will only be $22 billion, with the company recording a $10 billion tax credit, most of which will be borne by the U.S. taxpayer, a spokesman said.

        BP’s UK tax bill will also be reduced, BP added.

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

        The oil multinationals have recorded obscene profits for decades by gouging us. The price of oil going down (JHK’s $70/$30) is just a blip, not even a speed bump, in their continuing rape of the environment and the taxpayers.

        • Doug February 15, 2016 at 2:52 pm #

          “BP took a pretax provision of $32.2 billion in its accounts for the period, for the cost of capping the well, cleaning up the spill, compensating victims and paying government fines.”

          Fines and penalties paid to the government are never tax-deductible.

          The rest of it shouldn’t be, but is.

    • ExxonMobil is diversified, along with Shell and others. It is the state producers and OPEC that are hurting more.

      “The price of oil is becoming more and more irrelevant as the world transitions away from fossil fuels to zero-emission sustainable forms of energy. That is the pricing reality CFN ignores.”

      What exactly is your pricing reality? When oil is cheap, alternatives get hammered. Total primary energy demand for fossil fuels is rising faster than “zero-emissions”, including wind, actually, much faster. I leave out biofuels because they are not zero emissions.

      Low oil prices damage smaller businesses faster than larger businesses and many “zero-emissions” businesses are smaller.

      Tax credits set to dry up too. Like your arguments.

  26. ozone February 15, 2016 at 1:25 pm #

    The Pestilence once again attempts blowing powdered unicorn horn up our backsides.

    Reality really must be painful (not to mention, inconvenient) if you’re in the business of keeping the fraud wagon fueled and rolling. We apologize in advance for the discomfort…

    http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/02/renewables-next-fracking.html

    • wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 1:58 pm #

      “…the more likely that person is to buy into the sort of green cornucopianism that insists that sun, wind, and other renewable resources can provide everyone on the planet with a middle class American lifestyle.” — ArchDruid

      Straw man. Middle class American lifestyle is not sustainable. Most people know that. Green cornucopianism does not “insist” on that.

      The ArchDruid is clearly misrepresenting the case, as are you, Ozone, by propagating that misrepresentation. For 60 years Green cornucopianism has been saying: “Live simply that others may simply live.” That has prepared them for if/when there is a collapse. My first introduction was through Scott Nearing’s book “Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World” in 1954. As a result many moved off the grid, and are far from population centers.

      Green cornucopians have already contracted, decentralized, developed a local community for support… and installed renewables … with a lifestyle more reminiscent of 1870 than 2015, i.e., an improvement in the quality of life.

      There is no more “driving your Chevrolet to see the USA”…. However, renewables play an important role in making life a bit more comfortable than 1870.

      More and more countries are moving to renewables. China was the biggest renewables market in the world with 433 gigawatts of generating capacity at the end of 2014. Not to “provide a middle class America lifestyle” … it just makes sense to become less dependent on fossil fuels. Some countries will find it easier to be able to subsist post-collapse because they have embraced renewables for decades now.

      Ozone, your unicorns/rainbows schtick is getting old. Get real. Some of us have been real since 1954. Maybe you should read Scott Nearing’s book.

      • Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 4:33 pm #

        Unless you were lying in the past about your age, you couldn’t even read in 1954.

        • wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 5:39 pm #

          I don’t recall ever mentioning my age.

          • Q. Shtik February 16, 2016 at 12:11 am #

            It doesn’t matter, it was all lies anyway…..being Black…..the mud hut….etc.

  27. Beryl of Oyl February 15, 2016 at 1:29 pm #

    It looks to me like our economy has been running on immigrants for quite awhile now, and not the illegal ones. I’m not supposed to say that because then I’m being a racist xenophobe, see how that works?
    I was wondering what was going to happen to the sub-prime car loan racket, which has been propping up the auto industry via the importation of new customers, when the glut of leased cars (Americans can’t afford the new vehicle prices on their low incomes) hit the used-car market. That would have to cause a die-off in new car sales, right? Just in time, the price of gas has dropped so dramatically that I keep hearing from people who are going to go out and get that new truck or SUV they’ve really been wanting. The coincidence is interesting.
    The people who revile Bernie’s supporters because he supports socialism, fail to acknowledge that what we have in our auto industry is socialism now.

    • Hands4u February 15, 2016 at 1:46 pm #

      Maybe that’s why people are afraid of socialism; they feel it’s another word for survival; and of course most people don’t want to just survive.

    • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 3:20 pm #

      @Beryl: “It looks to me like our economy has been running on immigrants for quite awhile now, and not the illegal ones.”

      The U.S. could have had effective control of its southern border decades ago, if there hadn’t been a powerful constituency in favour of turning a blind eye to its porousness. That constituency was small and big businesses, Chamber of Commerce types and wealthy individuals who stood to gain from having a pool of helots eager to work long hours in return for shitty pay and minimal rights. Together with the war against unions that Reagan ratified with his refusal to enforce federal labour laws (the signal being the air traffic controllers strike), illegal immigrants were a prime weapon in halting and then reversing the growth of the middle class in favour of the 1% — who, having created the problem, used those same immigrants to drum up hysteria in the Republican voting base to their further benefit.

      People on this site think of me as some doctrinaire lefty, but I sympathize with ordinary people going nuts over this issue. Compared to what the U.S. has historically dealt with, illegal immigration here in Canada hardly registers. As the economic situation worsens, though, I won’t be surprised to see more desperate United Statesians try and cross over to “le Nord”. Maybe Vlad will be my gardener and poolboy one day.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:50 pm #

        Sure, what’s your address? It will be a battle of wills and of spirit. In the end, I’ll be the one sitting like effendi while you serve me, to quote from a famous Israeli Rabbi about the Palestinians.

        Don’t put it all on the Republicans. The Left has had a huge role too. People are so beaten down now that they think it’s our duty to let anyone and everyone come here – even if there are no jobs for them at all. Reparations for being White and part of Western Culture. But that part makes sense to you and you believe it passionately. It’s your religion so to speak.

        You have very poor taste in Religion I might add….

        • Buck Stud February 15, 2016 at 9:43 pm #

          If Vlad is going to be your gardener and poolboy he’ll need a place to park his 1978 motor home. And there better be a bingo hall in town otherwise you’re going have one unhappy weed puller on your property.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 2:07 am #

            That was unkind, untrue, and unfunny. But very ignorant. So at least you got one positive in there.

    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 11:42 am #

      Beryl, it’s typical of low-information Americans to loudly decry public funding for mass transit, yet have no problem with the billions of tax dollars wasted on highways, especially new ones. Hey, get a car or stay home, that’s the American Way.

  28. Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 3:10 pm #

    Wow, you have a keyboard!! I’m struggling along on a iPad Mini. – bobinboise

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

    Doesn’t [an] iPad Mini have the voice activated text entry feature?

  29. outsider February 15, 2016 at 3:11 pm #

    I like Trump for one basic reason. He is the only one running who has articulated what a HUGE mistake it was for Bush/Cheney to lie this country into war with Iraq over WMD’s that did not exist. He is also the only one who does not talk shit on Russia’s great statesman, (and I believe that) Vladimir Putin. There is no logical reason why the US and Russia should not be friends. We have a shared need to keep Radical Islam in check. But all other candidates are offering only increased enmity toward the Russian Bear – and the likely possibility of WWIII.

    However, I do believe it likely that those pulling the strings, will do whatever it takes to ensure that Trump does not implode their party. For now, it appears that Trump may have a ceiling of 35-40% of the primary vote. All they have to do is make sure that all the other candidates, save one, are out of the race before Super Tuesday. Interest in sweaty, robotic boy Rubio is fading fast, Cruz was never their guy, and Kasich may not be enough of a war-first neocon for them. That leave Bush Number Three, the guy with all the campaign contributions and the guy they wanted in the first place, to dispose of Trump in a two man no-holds-barred ugly slugfest. I think that Trump senses this, which is why he came after Jeb so hard (and perhaps foolishly) in Saturday’s poor excuse for a debate shouting match.

    So, unless HRC gets indicted, (if it’s gonna happen let it be soon!), odds are we are looking at a Clinton-Bush sad spectacle after all in November. Just what the Establishments of both parties wanted. All the rest may wind up being sound and fury, signifying nothing.

    • seawolf77 February 15, 2016 at 3:39 pm #

      Good analysis and regrettably probably true.

    • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 3:41 pm #

      I don’t like Trump, for fairly obvious reasons, but I’ll give him his due: he’s free to point at the Emperor’s dangly bits and laugh. Now that he and Sanders are speaking the truths that aren’t supposed to be spoken aloud, it’s clear that an era is coming to an end.

    • chipshot February 15, 2016 at 4:36 pm #

      “I like Trump for one basic reason. He is the only one running who has articulated what a HUGE mistake it was for Bush/Cheney to lie this country into war with Iraq over WMD’s that did not exist.”

      Has Bernie Sanders not articulated the same thing, starting back in 2003 before the war even started?

      • wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 4:59 pm #

        Indeed, Bernie is the ONLY one seeking the presidency who actually cast a vote against the war. Sanders voted against the resolutions authorizing the use of force against Iraq in 1991 and 2002.

        Trump has no political experience and has never had to cast a vote for or against war.

        • Doug February 15, 2016 at 9:54 pm #

          Yeah, yeah, Bernie the Peacenik.

          It’s a fraud. It’s true that he voted against the AUMF for the invasion of Iraq. It’s also true that he has consistently voted with and for the MIC, our adventurism, our punitive sanctions (acts of war), and our wars of aggression much more often than not.

          Some examples:

          = = = = =

          Bernie on War & Peace, mostly from VoteSmart, with frequent reference to congress.gov:

          1993, HR 2446 – Military Construction Fiscal Year 1994 Appropriations Bill, providing $3.63 billion for military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1993, S J Res 45 – Authorization for Use of US Armed Forces in Somalia. Sanders: Yea

          1994, HR 4453 – Military Construction FY95 Appropriations bill, providing $2.52 billion for military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1995, H Res 247 – Bosnia Troop Deployment Resolution, a non-binding House resolution indicating the intent of the not to use ground forces Bosnia and Herzegovina and to require Congressional approval for deployment of such forces. Sanders: Yea (This would be a “good thing” IMHO — if it actually meant anything and if Sanders had a consistent position on the war(s) in the former Yugoslavia.)

          1996, HR 3107 – Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, imposing “sanctions on persons exporting certain goods or technology that would enhance Iran’s ability to explore for, extract, refine, or transport by pipeline petroleum resources, and for other purposes.” Sanders: Yea

          1997, HR 2159 – Foreign Operations FY98 Appropriations bill, including $3 billion for Israel, ($1.8 billion in military assistance & $1.2 billion in economic assistance); $2.12 billion for Egypt, ($1.3 billion in military assistance & $815 million in economic assistance); $770 million to former Soviet Republics; and $215 million for “international narcotics control and law enforcement.” Sanders: Yea

          1998, HR 4059 – Military Construction FY99 Appropriations bill — $2.82 billion for general military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1998, HR 4655, the Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998, “Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.” Sanders: Yea (Bush the Lesser used this act to help push the Authorization for use of Military Force Against Iraq in October 2002, and it is cited in that AUMF.)

          1999, HR 2465, $4 billion for military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1999, HR 3196, providing $2.16 billion for military and economic assistance to Israel; $760 million for military and economic assistance to Egypt; $535 million for Eastern European and the Baltic States, including $150 million for assistance to Kosovo; $300 million for military and economic assistance to Jordan; and $285 million for international narcotics control. Sanders: Yea

          2001, HR 1954, extending the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996. Sanders: Yea

          2001, H J Res 64 – “Authorizes the President to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations, or persons.

          “States that this Act is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of the War Powers Resolution.” Sanders: Yea (Only Barbara Lee voted Nay.)

          2002, H J Res 114, Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. Sanders: Nay (along with 126 Democrats and 6 Republicans)

          2003, HR 5010, providing $355.1 billion in appropriations for the Defense Department for FY
          2003 ; $71.6 billion for procurement of aircraft, missiles, weapons, combat vehicles and shipbuilding; $7.4 billion for ballistic missile defense; and $58.4 , million for foreign aid, including humanitarian assistance, foreign disaster relief & de-mining programs. Sanders: Yea

          2003, HR 2800 – Foreign Operations Appropriations, FY 2004, providing, among other things, $1.8 billion in military and economic assistance to Egypt and $2.2 billion to Israel for military assistance. Sanders: Yea

          2004, HR 4613, providing $25 billion for emergency defense spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $77.4 billion new weapons procurement. Sanders: Yea

          2005, HR 2863 – Defense Department FY2006 Appropriations Bill, allocating $50 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sanders: Yea

          2006, HR 5631, providing $70 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sanders: Yea

          2007, HR 1585 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, providing $187.14 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations. Sanders: Yea

          2009, HR 2647, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, providing, among many other things, $309 million for research and evaluation, procurement, or deployment of an alternative Missile Defense System in Europe, authorizing the Secretary of Defense to increase the active-duty number for the US Army to a number greater than otherwise allowed by law up to the 2010 baseline plus 30,000 troops. Sanders: Yea

          2009, Sanders votes to deny funding to close Guantanamo. Glenn and others argue that it’s not that he didn’t want to close the torture camp, he just didn’t want to let that happen without knowing exactly what Obama was going to do with the prisoners. I’m sure most here are convinced by this explanation.

          2011, S. Res. 85, co-sponsored by Sanders, urging the UN Security Council to take action to protect civilians in Libya from attack, including establishing a no-fly zone over Libya. Sanders: Yea

          2014, Sanders calls for punitive economic sanctions against Russia: “The entire world has got to stand up to Putin,” he said. “We’ve got to deal with sanctions.”

          2014, Sanders permits S. Res. 498, effectively endorsing Israel’s months-long vicious military assault against Gaza to pass by unanimous consent.

          = = = = =

          I have plenty more, for anyone who wants to argue.

          • Doug February 15, 2016 at 10:00 pm #

            I originally prepared this for the Berniebots at Glenn Greenwald’s site, so that’s the Glenn and the groupies referenced above.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 1:55 am #

            Indeed the man is a hardcore Zionist and Neo Con when it comes to foreign policy. Is Jill Stein running again on the Green Party ticket? Then again there is that problematic last name. Do we know for sure that she wouldn’t vote the same way?

            These people tend to stick together, almost like they have a common interest, one not in common with other Americans.

          • outsider February 16, 2016 at 11:50 am #

            Thanks for backing me up, Doug. I knew there was something duplicitous about Bernie. No doubt even Bernie does not believe the economic pie-in-the-sky nonsense that we can have a minimum wage of $15/hr. Unless you’re happy with run away inflation.

    • Majella February 15, 2016 at 7:08 pm #

      Interesting analysis…the Republican primary process is more of a ‘bread & circuses’ exercise to keep the Great Unwashed deluded into thinking they have some genuine say in it all. Bush may well come through if Trump continues to melt-down and espouse (in his stream-of-consciousness speechifying) a broad range of ‘librul’ positions.

      However, I’m not so sure that Hillary is actually as inevitable as you surmise. Sanders (like Trump in his own inimitable way) has tapped into a rich vein of disappointment & discontent, the difference being that Bernie offers substantive solutions and calls for unity in the face of adversity. 1932 much? His policies are no more ‘socialist’ than FDR’s, and that whole meme will not be sufficient to halt his progress.

      We shall see.

  30. Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 3:25 pm #

    Chuck Schumer condemned any attempt by the lame duck George Bush to make a Supreme Court appointment. His speech was met by wild applause by Democrats.

    Democrats and Liberals are only interested in the Constitution when it favors them. What utter hypocrisy for them to condemn Republicans from wanting to stop Obama now.

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    • Elrond Hubbard February 15, 2016 at 3:52 pm #

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurmond_Rule

      There is a law on the books (the highest law) saying the president appoints Supreme Court justices, and that the advice and consent of the Senate is required. There is no law, written or unwritten, specifying when in his mandate he can make such an appointment. There’s only a guideline promulgated by a segregationist (a hero of yours, presumably) to suit his political ends, and used by others for their political ends since. Even if Thurmond’s rule were observed Obama’s mandate ends in January 2017, so there’s no basis for this objection before July. Those are facts.

      In brief: The law is on my side, so I pound on the law. The facts are also on my side, so I pound on the facts too. You have neither the law nor the facts on your side, so you can pound on the table all you want.

      • Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 5:16 pm #

        and that the advice and consent of the Senate is required. – Elrond

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

        Why does no one address the obvious question: what does “the advice and consent of the Senate” mean? Especially “consent.” Has the Senate ever failed to give their consent? Wasn’t Robert ‘borked?’

      • Majella February 15, 2016 at 6:36 pm #

        Yes – anyone else seen the clips of Mitch McConnell dismissing the “Thurmond Rule” as not real – the polar opposite of his current position?
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPSj0jgF-_w

        The hypocrisy& cognitive dissonance of the Washington Bubble Dwellers is beyond belief.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 7:46 pm #

        Only the present exists? Democrats never play fast and loose with the Law – which they think is “Alive” and thus whatever they say it is? A Democracy opposed to a Republic. Scalia was a rock against this tyranny. America was supposed to be a Republic.

        Segregation? All of nature separates itself into species and clans, with their respective ecosystem and territories within them. Why should Man be different? In your book, he is just another animal, right?

        As a believer in the Great Chain of Being, I can be on both sides and thus integrate them properly. Yes, Man has higher capacities and needs. But he also has an animal nature and animal needs. In your quasi-gnostic quest for Perfection, you have forgotten about Man’s lower needs. Thus you open us to conquest by more virile races who have by no means forgotten. Survival is the first morality as Jefferson said. This correlates well with Hindu Chakra theory and the four stages of life as well as with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Kohlberg’s levels of morality, and most of sound Humanist Psychology. If they would only read their own books! And if only environmentalists would take a walk in the park and really look at things again. But alas, both groups are thoroughly politicized and wedded to Democratic degeneracy.

    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 9:19 am #

      One hears the term “lame duck” thrown around all the time, but what is its original meaning? Per a few dictionary definitions I looked up, it just applies to that interval after an election in which the incumbent will no longer be in office (be he defeated/retired/or term limited), but before his successor is sworn it. In Obama’s case that would be the short period from the day after the general election in Nov. and the date his replacement is sworn in Jan ’17. Otherwise, he would be a lame duck in his entire second 4 year term.

      Which brings me to this blatant political foolishness from the GOP that Obama should not even name a successor to Scalia (it is, after all, his Constitutional duty). If he doesn’t, and a replacement is not confirmed, it will be well over a year before a new justice is seated. Others of our octogenarian justices could well die (or finally decide to hang it up) before then. (Pardon me, but Bader-Ginsburg has looked half-dead for years). I despise both of our decrepit monopoly parties, but, if the human turtle Mitch McConnell follows through with his threat, I trust that the Dems will keep hitting these Troglodytes over the head until Nov. Much as I dread the thought of HRC as POTUS, these third-rate imposters need to be taught a serious lesson and thrown into the waste basket.

  31. alphie February 15, 2016 at 3:47 pm #

    The ” road-tested grifter ” is all but breast feeding President Obama. Hillary: the consummate politician.

    http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-does-not-deserve-black-peoples-votes/

  32. Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 4:45 pm #

    Equibus paribus – assuming no new energy breakthroughs and no banking disasters. – sauerkraut

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

    Ceteris paribus?

    • sauerkraut February 16, 2016 at 12:21 pm #

      Thank you, Q. Two mistakes in one day.

  33. FincaInTheMountains February 15, 2016 at 5:06 pm #

    “Finca, although I appreciate your reportage of “positive events”, you sometimes stray into the area of wishful thinking.” — Ozone

    Wishful thinking? You bet! I am wishing for cooperation between the US and Russia based on the principles of mutual respect and negotiations to solve inevitable differences.

    I wish that we never have to go through events of summer of 2014 where we were closer to mutual annihilation than during the Cuban Missile crisis.

    I wish that American public would finally break through the smoke screen of Politically Correct “Issues” and look at what really matters.

    What are you wishing for?

    • ozone February 16, 2016 at 8:45 am #

      “What are you wishing for?”

      I’m *wishing* for the same, but I’m not investing much *hope* that things will shake out that way. 😉

      (I’m saving that nugget of ‘hope’ for this year’s seed-to-crop cycle, and that the Indian Point plant doesn’t melt down. So, with those 2 small things in mind, I could be “done” already…)

  34. Majella February 15, 2016 at 5:07 pm #

    JHK – you state “…it appears for now that America is fixing to elect either a primal screamer or a road-tested grifter to preside over the epochal collapse of our hobbled, exhausted, way of life.”

    So, it appears you still believe Bernie Sanders has no chance. I’d appreciate knowing your reasoning on this, given the groundswell of progressive sentiment, arising primarily and finally because they have an actual real, thinking, consistent and compassionate person to support. Don’t write him off.

    A President Sanders may not save us from the looming crisis, but at least he would have a better shot than anyone else at leading us out of the shit-storm.

    • chipshot February 15, 2016 at 5:43 pm #

      Like you Majella, I am flabbergasted by JHK’s Bernie denial.
      He rightfully bashes Hillary, while the republicans offer no reasonable option (Kasich is reasonable only in that the rest are so far out there), but barely recognizes Bernie’s existence. Or viability.

      We face a world of sh*t no matter who we elect, but Sanders is probably the most genuine, authentic candidate we’ve had in decades (perhaps ever) who also has his priorities straight. Yet, crickets from JHK. That Bernie is a NY jew of basically the same age makes it all that much more confounding.

      P.S. Nothing derogatory intended by that last statement.
      Simply a recognition of the similarity of demographics.

      • wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 6:25 pm #

        Kacich is really a wolf in moderate Republican clothing:

        The latest budget Kasich signed in June cut more than $84 million from public schools.

        Kasich championed legislation that would have limited the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public workers, including teachers, police and firefighters.

        On immigration: “Finish the wall” (what a waste of taxpayer money!)

        Kasich wants to move toward a regressive flat tax system with a single rate and eliminate all exemptions.

        Kasich also opposes increasing the minimum wage.

        Kasich opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother, and he took steps to limit abortion access in Ohio. The state budget he signed into law in 2013 also effectively cut off federal family-planning funds for Planned Parenthood clinics.

        He opposes the nuclear deal with Iran, even though that might mean Iran gets a nuclear weapon.

        Kasich wants U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS (though presumably not sending anyone in his family, just other families’ kids).

        Kasich said we should dispatch the U.S. aircraft group to the South China Sea to “send…a little message” to the Chinese about building artificial islands in disputed waters.

        Like Trump, Kasich has never voted against the war in Iraq although he now says it was a mistake. But in a speech in 2002 Kasich said: “We should go to war with Iraq.” Only Bernie has voted against that war.

        Beware of Kasich!

        • wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 6:33 pm #

          Kasich is really a ^hawk^ in moderate Republican clothing:

        • Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 8:47 pm #

          There are many good positions here except they don’t go far enough. For example, Kasich opposes increasing the minimum wage. I oppose the EXISTENCE of the minimum wage.

          • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 1:14 am #

            There is no procrustean candidate for you.

        • Doug February 15, 2016 at 10:02 pm #

          “Only Bernie has voted against that war.”

          And then voted repeatedly to fund it.

          See above.

          • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 1:03 am #

            One thing is to vote to prevent troops being sent in harm’s way.

            Another thing is to vote to support the troops once they have been committed to a theater of conflict against your wishes.

            Bernie Sanders did the latter. Yours is not a valid criticism, Doug. There is no contradiction in Bernie’s votes.

      • Majella February 15, 2016 at 7:31 pm #

        From a comment on The Nation website around the McConnell “Thurmond Rule” bullshit, which I find ominously accurate:

        William Cash says:
        February 15, 2016 at 12:10 pm
        The republicans are relying on gerrymandering and voter suppresion. If they can just this once get every lever of government, then they can destroy it as the Kochs wish and seize power permanently.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 6:51 pm #

          Nah, they’re just trying to hold their own. Mass minority immigration has doomed them to infamy in the long run – and it wont be very long now. They fully supported this for short term economic gain. The Democrats played the long game for political power and their time is here soon if not right now. The Republicans are trying to rebrand themselves, but by definition, they can’t give away as much as the Democrats and still serve Big Business. They don’t factor in the White base at all. They can’t stand even looking at them or thinking about them. The only chance regular Whites have is to secede.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2016 at 7:50 pm #

        Maybe it’s something personal. Perhaps Mr Kunstler was at the same Contra Dance as Bernie and they wanted the same girl. Contra Dance can bring out the beast in men. I’ve been and I know.

        • CancelMyCard February 16, 2016 at 7:42 am #

          Did you drive to the Contra Dances in your 1978 motorhome?

          Before or after the bingo game?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 6:52 pm #

            Yeah and I used to bring girls back into it. Who knows? I might be your father.

      • outsider February 16, 2016 at 1:01 pm #

        Wow, chipshot! Are you implying that JHK should support Sanders because they are “NY Jew(s) of basically the same age?” Isn’t that the same logic that “500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth it” Madeline Albright used when she said “there is a special place in hell” for those women who do not support Hillary?

  35. dweebus February 15, 2016 at 5:39 pm #

    Elrond wrote : “Regarding the have-nots, he’s never had much to say.”

    Actually, he’s said quite a bit. He uses terms like heat, friction, disorder. Yep, that’s pretty much it. As the level of misery amongst the lower classes ramps up, as more and more formerly middle class join their ranks, you get more and more friction and disorder. This explains Trump in great measure. As to a response from this group, they will muddle through, with great loss, as they always have. Unless, of course, they blow the lid off the pot. The urban poor are pretty well fucked, by all accounts.

    So , seawolf asks, are we in a depression? I think it is very remisicent of the Long Depression of 1873-1900.

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    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 4:29 am #

      If Elrond was the real Elrond, he would open the gates to the Orcs, give the Ring to Sauron, and marry his daughter off to Saruman.

      • Elrond Hubbard February 16, 2016 at 1:26 pm #

        If Janos were the real Elrond, he would seize all the Rings of Power for himself. Learning from Ar-Pharazôn’s mistake, he would kill Sauron, occupy the Dark Tower, and declare it the manifest destiny of the Ñoldor to rule from Gundabad to the Mouths of Anduin, from the Ered Luin to the Last Desert. He would declare mortal races inferior and demand that they self-deport to Far Harad.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 6:45 pm #

          Well played! But Tolkien’s Middle Earth IS hierarchical, just study the notes at the end. The Elves are by far the highest Race. And within the Elfdom, there are higher and lower sub-races. Men are below Elves, with only the highest race of Men fit to associate with Elves at all in any capacity. The Dwarves were created prematurely and are somewhat botched or dwarfed in nature, certainly very narrow. The god who created them lifted his hammer to destroy them, but his heart was softened by their pleas for mercy and he relented. The Orcs were created by crossing long imprisoned and tormented Elves with Goblins.

          The Elves were too godlike to exploit the other races. I wish I could say Whites had behaved like that, but obviously we did not. Nor did other races when they were in power.

          What can I say? I win again. Should I apologize? As Trump says, we’re going to get very tired of winning under the reign of King Donald the First.

          • Elrond Hubbard February 19, 2016 at 10:55 am #

            Yes, Tolkien’s racialism is one of his least attractive qualities. It disappointed me once I was old enough to recognize it for what it was. He was born in South Africa, one can imagine what influences he was subjected to in his youth. Mix that with his conservative Catholic worldview and your description is sadly accurate. What can one say? But he was far too humane and large-souled a person for it to translate into vulgar racial triumphalism.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 2:58 pm #

            Kind of wrong. I don’t know what he though about Blacks, but he recognized the Jewish threat to England and joined an early version of the National Front.

            To the extent the Left has been egalitarian, it’s has been a colossal failure. It’s many successes lie in accepting hierarchy and getting the best people in charge.

            During the Cultural Revolution, they put learned and distinguished old men out in the fields to pick crops. You realize how crazy that is, right? Just as crazy as taking away iron ploughs that had been in families for decades in order to meet an iron quota on a five year plan.

  36. peakfuture February 15, 2016 at 5:47 pm #

    As far as being part of a community, if you can’t be a part of a community that grows food, be part of one that does real-world things, and look to make yourself more resilient. Charles Hugh Smith and Dmitry Orlov have written extensively on this stuff. Even the Archdruid has made the wry comment, “Greet the barbarians with beer!”
    One of my votes,if you are trying to ‘shelter in place’ is find a maker community, and learn real-world skills.

    https://peakfuture.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/the-importance-of-maker-spaces/

    Make beer, cabinets, clothing; fix machines, learn to build a boat. Yeah, there are some issues with them, but any sort of group effort is going to be better than going it alone.

  37. chipshot February 15, 2016 at 5:52 pm #

    Does all this mean Jeb! won’t be able to bring back 4% growth?
    Bummer.

  38. wpa_ccc February 15, 2016 at 6:02 pm #

    WASHINGTON — Five of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans in the 2016 elections say they do not think the Senate should vote on a Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Barack Obama in the wake of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

    Political pressure and mass demonstrations outside the houses of those five senators could lead to the Republicans losing control of the senate. One death has changed everything. President Sanders will have support for his proposals.

    Ask not for whom the bell tolls…

  39. Pucker February 15, 2016 at 6:25 pm #

    “Pucker–

    Every year on Valentine’s Day I can’t help but think back to my first date with Barack.

    I had been reluctant to go out with him, but he was persistent, and I eventually said yes.

    We took a walk through the gardens at the Art Institute in Chicago, saw “Do the Right Thing,” and went out for ice cream (he was really trying to impress me).

    It took some convincing, Pucker, but I’m so glad I went on that date.

    I simply cannot imagine my life without the unwavering love and support that has defined our marriage, and I’m so glad that we have finally achieved marriage equality, affirming, as Barack put it in his inaugural address, that “if we are truly created equal, then the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”

    But the fact is that too many people in the LGBT community still face harassment and discrimination because of who they are or whom they love.

    That’s unacceptable. It’s simply not who we are as Americans.

    OFA is one of the groups fighting for full equality for all Americans — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Add your name to say you’ll join the fight.

    I’m going to keep speaking out against discrimination because LGBT Americans deserve the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

    I hope you’ll stand with me and OFA in continuing this mission — add your name today:

    https://my.barackobama.com/Fight-Against-Discrimination

    With love,

    Michelle Obama”

  40. tucsonspur February 15, 2016 at 7:28 pm #

    Great stuff Jim. For the most part, the nail head remains white hot.
    I can address the preeminent issues no better than you, so I’ll just fling some tidbits.

    On top of all the other absurdities, we now have Payton Manning’s
    testicles and rectum on the face of one Dr. Naughright, drawing attention again to the NFL and its outlandish excesses. Capitalism at its best or worst?

    Three cheers for Trump withstanding the heavy fire. I think it was Rich Lowry a few weeks back who opined that Carly Fiorina cut Trump’s balls off. How could she have, without a chainsaw?

    Van Jones was bashing Trump this morning on CNN. Yeah, from the man who said we must drop the radical pose, to achieve the radical ends. He’s back on the stove, and not wanting whitey to do the cooking. The friction between blacks and whites remains never ending.

    A Clinton Parousia would be absolutely nauseating. Four men died, and Hillary lied.

    For the next debate, I’d like to see Trump wearing brass knuckles and a night stick, not that he needs them.

    As for Bush, how dare the people not want him? Force feeding a nation! Wow!

    Looks like the bright, articulate, sharpshooter Rubio just got off the potty trainer, into the sandbox, and into the major leagues. He needs Christie to keep him honest.

    Let me be the last to wish everyone a great New Year!

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  41. stelmosfire February 15, 2016 at 8:26 pm #

    The sap was runnin’ big time last week. Way before the scheduled start. Mother Nature bats last. This week, -20 F. Go figure. The trees don’t know what to do. Neither do I. I still have gallons of syrup from 2010, bumper year, before the Halloween storm in 2011 crushed my trees. People talk about growing their own food. If an asteroid strike or a Nuclear Winter occurred all bets are off. Read, “The Road”, or see the movie. No sunlight, no life.

    • BackRowHeckler February 15, 2016 at 10:12 pm #

      Rip, the only ‘Road’ you need to worry about tonite is US 10, frozen solid from 3 days of sub 0 temps, now blanketed by snow, sleet and rain. It has to be like a skating rink. I drove into Hartford this evening at 15 mph. 4WD doesn’t help.

      brh

      • malthuss February 16, 2016 at 1:32 am #

        Yes, that is an extreme weather event.

    • monkey_flower February 18, 2016 at 12:15 am #

      You tap maples ? Not bad. Let me share this story with you. I read it in a local newspaper. A farmstead in Vermont. Sometime in the late 1800’s. The people were dirt poor. None of them had full-time jobs. They were just subsistence farmers. Anyway…there was a hurricane. The farmhouse was mostly destroyed. Here is the surprising part. This family was more concerned for the sugarbush than their own house ! Many of their sugar maples were wiped out.

      Can you imagine anyone in America today placing more value on a patch of trees than the house that they live in ?

  42. Q. Shtik February 15, 2016 at 8:31 pm #

    At the tail end of last week’s thread wpa said:

    Buck Stud, for what it’s worth, my preference for the SCOTUS position is Judge Sri Srinivasan of the D.C. Circuit. My second choice would be California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

    =========

    Of course wpa knows no more about these individuals than I do except what he learned in 5 minutes in an article in the NY Times titled Potential Nominees Obama May Consider to Fill Scalia’s Seat.

    Info and pictures on the six potentials was provided. It is immediately apparent why Harris and Srinivasan are favored. Sri is Indian American born in India. Kamala Harris is a treasure trove of anything-but-white-male: a Black and Indian American woman [American born of Asian heritage] . She could only have been better if she had also been a gay multiple amputee.

    Those not favored by wpa were respectively, White (man), Hispanic (man), White (woman) and African American (man).

    • BackRowHeckler February 15, 2016 at 10:16 pm #

      Yeah, forget about Whitey from here on in.

      Whitey will be lucky if he’s appointed local Dog Catcher, never mind to the Supreme Court. (unless of course he’s Gay, which will put him near the top of the list)

      brh

      • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 12:04 am #

        Well said BRH. You touch the hem of White Nationalism. And you are not alone. Many in the Patriot Community have come over as well as to the basic basics, namely that we have been singled out and are under attack. There’s more to know, but that must wait. This much will have to suffice and indeed it is enough and more than enough.

        Did our arguments convince them? A few years ago all we heard was “Get lost racist scum”, but now such voices are silent. More likely it was the argument of reality and events, our voices merely helping to clarify. After all, no man ever convinces another. At best he is a midwife to a man’s own understanding as Socrates said long ago.

        Civil War?
        By Michael Hill

        America in 2016 is a tinderbox waiting for a spark. The two sides have divided up nicely and there seems no room for compromise. The inevitable conflict, which draws closer with each passing day, will not be a strictly regional one as we had in the 1860s.

        While there will be a regional element to it – meaning, for instance, that the South, the rural Midwest, and the mountain West will be allies – the conflict will be based more on worldview and race/ethnicity predicated largely on a rural-urban divide. One might do just as well to call it a general traditional-progressive divide.

        On the urban/progressive side you have most of the basic American institutions, including nearly every level of government, especially the federal; all of the mainline and even some of the evangelical churches; the academy; the elite media; big business; the foundations; minority groups (especially Jews and blacks); and a host of anti-white whites. The strength of this faction lies in the large urban areas and other centers of education and government. They control the current “system” that runs the USA regime.

        On the rural/traditionalist side are a scattering of government officials and personnel (including military and law enforcement), particularly on the State and local levels; the old-line Protestant churches, many of the Orthodox churches, and renegade pre-Vatican Two Roman Catholics; homeschooling families; right-wing internet news sources; small business owners; and what we call “normal” white people whose ancestors were counted among America’s founding stock. The geographic strength of this faction lies in the rural and some “conservative” suburban areas. This group is currently out of power but still controls a large amount of wealth, including skills and productive real estate. This group is also more religious, self sufficient, and has a tradition of gun ownership and military service.

        There are a large and growing number of divisions upon which compromise is neither possible nor desirable: immigration, abortion, homosexual and trans-gender “rights;” gun control; crime and punishment; the minority question; foreign policy and war; Christianity in the public square; among many others. Urban progressives want to use the US regime to force their worldview upon their opponents and curtail dissent and opposition to the enactment of their worldview. Heretofore, rural traditionalists were content merely to be “left alone” to pursue what they defined as the “good life” – an unfettered pursuit of the “American Dream” of freedom and prosperity for themselves and their posterity.

        But when one side – the urban progressive, who slowly gained control of the institutions of power and influence – began using the force of law and government to dispossess the other, that “other” – the rural traditionalist – began slowly to rouse itself as an act of survival. This process has gradually played itself out over the last half century, from the mid-1960s to the present.

        At the heart of the urban progressive arsenal were three primary weapons: political correctness (aka cultural Marxism); non-white immigration (beginning with the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act); and the civil rights movement, largely writ to include feminists and homosexuals. All were designed first and foremost to foster that paralyzing and diabolical monster called “white guilt.” Indeed, white guilt has served as an effective retardant to traditional whites organizing for their own self defense over the past fifty years. Now, however, the evil spell is being broken as the urban progressives can no longer disguise their intentions. Even politically disinterested whites are beginning to see the proverbial hand writing on the wall.

        So here at the beginning of 2016, another presidential election year but one that is shaping up to be anything but normal, we stand on the verge of open conflict, awaiting only a match (or as I used to hear old men say, a “lucifer”–quite an appropriate name!) to set it off. Both sides have stored up sufficient anger and hatred for the other. When the conflagration does come, it will be, I believe, hellish . . . and thorough. Much too much has been written, said, and done on both sides to expect much mercy either way.

        Those who allow this genie out of the bottle had best be sure of their course, for once she’s out she will stay out until the task is completed. One side wins and one loses. No quarter asked and none given. The black flag flies. When the dust settles and the carrion crows have picked the last bones clean, America’s future will have been decided: She will be in the hands of those descended from the founding stock or she will be in control of an alien power. My question to the urban progressives is this: are you ready to unleash this hell and take the consequences?

        I have been accused before by those on the left of “wanting a race war.” I want neither a race war nor a civil war; I would prefer a peaceful separation, a divorce of the contending parties, secession. Our goal in The League of the South for the past two decades has been a free and independent South. We have stated many times our sincere hope this can be accomplished peacefully. But I am a realist; if war comes, we will be ready to fight for our people and our lands.

        In my opinion, the urban progressives will start this conflict. Why? Because as one of their heroes, V.I. Lenin, once insisted, all avenues are open if they advance the “revolution.” This includes lies, deceit, theft, and murder. In other words, the left has no moral compunction against doing whatever is necessary to destroy their enemies and enact their objectives.

        We on the side of the rural traditionalists are bound by a moral code and the concept of “just war.” However, our reluctance to start a conflict ought not be mistaken for our inability to finish one. As the great Jackson said, once my sword is drawn, I throw away the scabbard.

        My advice to the leaders of the urban progressive faction is simple: back off and do not start this conflict. Your leftist utopia is not worth the cost in blood, destruction, and human misery. Let’s have a peaceful “divorce” and be done with each other.

        Your guess is as good as mine as to what might provide the actual spark for this American tinderbox. But in a presidential election year with major candidates (Trump, Sanders, and Hillary the Unindicted) far outside the mainstream of “normal” electoral politics and a persistent threat to destroy “politics as usual,” who knows?

        Keep your eyes open and your powder dry.

        Michael Hill
        January 19, 2016

        • Elrond Hubbard February 19, 2016 at 1:08 pm #

          “You touch the hem of White Nationalism.”

          *facepalm*

    • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 12:53 am #

      Why you be hatin’ on me, Q.?

  43. MisterDarling February 15, 2016 at 10:24 pm #

    A SENSE OF URGENCY is helpful when the topic is the end of existence as we’ve come to know and expect it. Accordingly;

    “If you are a thinking person, the months ahead might be your last chance to protect whatever wealth you have and to move to some part of the country where, at least, you can grow some of your own food and become a useful part of a social and economic network that might be called a community.”-J H K.

    Notice that Mr. Kunstler says “some of your own food”. That seems like an achievable goal – the road to sustainable sufficiency [*] is not a short one. It takes training, time and some getting used to. Mostly though, it requires dealing with life as it IS not as it should/could/would be. For the better-off and complacent portion of the world’s population, that’s going to be the highest hurdle.

    Riding down-thread I came across this question from Sunflower:

    “JIm, What about those of us who see all this but cannot get that piece of land to grow our own food? People like me. Ooops! I guess I know what my future is! It won’t be much!”-s.

    This seems like a great question because this is where any CFN ‘prepper’ will be if/when their ‘Plan B’ falls through and they can’t make it to their preferred refuge, and that is not unlikely.

    One of the best scenes in Cormac McCarthy’s __The Road__ is the last good meal The Man & The Boy have, after they discover a treasure trove of supplies in an unused bomb-shelter.

    But that begs the question: why was the shelter intact when people are hunting each other for food? Because the owner of that little get-away never got to it. Very likely they wound up one of the myriad carcasses whose “crozzled hearts” remained “ensepulchred” in a torched car for all eternity.

    So, in the event of a faster (but non-nuclear) collapse scenario what might be a good ‘Plan C’? Here’s a quick-n-dirty tentative plan based on one I’ve already seen work elsewhere in the world:

    1) Get to where you CAN go – ahead of the crowd. $50 at the current rate can potentially get you quite a long way: http://howmuch.net/articles/the-$50-american-road-Trip

    2) When you find a place that looks like it might work for you, stop, take a long look around and ‘improvise’ land ownership. This might entail ‘looking after’ some vacation property of a relative, friend or acquaintance, renting a place with useable land or (in a more ‘fluid’ situation) simply moving into abandoned property.

    3) Take stock: what do you have in the way of arable land, possible grazing land, stands of timber/brushwood, water sources and access to it?

    4) Get to work. In a bad-case scenario you arrive at your new ‘homestead’ with snow still on the ground, a child in the house and no-one and nothing else to help you.

    Assuming that: “There is sod. You have a shovel, some seeds and not much else. What to do? Garden like the Native Americans taught us when we first arrived in North America. Don’t even consider growing any demanding vegetables. You’ll grow the easy stuff: winter squash, corn, sunflowers, zucchini, melons, kale, large-framed late-maturing cabbages, indeterminate tomatoes, Swiss chard.” A garden that will prevent starvation can be started with little more than that – and the knowledge of how to do so. [**]

    5) Get a dog if you haven’t already. Dogs sleep lighter than we do. Chances are you won’t get much shut-eye without one, so get it done. Dogs have been with us for 15,000+ years. There’s a reason. [***]

    6) Arm yourself if you haven’t already.

    7) Once that chore is done move to your next task: scout and forage your surrounding area. No doubt you noticed some promising opportunities when you were finding the place your staying. Develop those and find more. Connect with sane neighbors.

    8) Once you’ve done the aforementioned you’ll be in a better position to know what’s ‘up for grabs’ and what isn’t. Next step: ‘acquire’ more land by guerilla-gardening it. This is a time-honored and profitable method that’s in widespread use across America’s rural outback. It isn’t talked about much of course – because that would defeat the effort…

    😉

    9) Get more help holding down your homestead. In this vulnerable bad-case scenario (one adult, one child, one dog) time is of the essence.

    Regarding recruiting your own people or fellow-travelers: if you’re already doing your plan – and you look like you could do > 60% of the rest of it yourself – people will listen to you. It is possible to screw that up of course. A complete misanthrope will always find a way to be at the business-end of a pitchfork, no matter how much moxie they have.

    Three adults is a resilient setup – that way there’s always someone ‘holding down the fort’ while the other two are foraging/hunting/gardening/trading. More than ten might be too many people on the homestead. Time to think about diversifying and spinning people off.

    10) Diversify: get goats, get egg-laying hens. By now you might have a small surplus of food and saleable items accumulated from foraging. As one poster mentioned – if you stock up on hard-liquor & tobacco, “the gold will come”. Post-Collapse we’ll still have the same vices we had before, and in all probability a far keener appetite for them. Why not turn those figurative ‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’?

    Opening up a drinking & eating establishment offers a number of survival advantages, it fits the cultural context and the new economic reality, nucleates a community, stimulates the local economy and acts as a clearinghouse for local news and gossip. Best of all: In the absence of zoning-laws it’s a low-first and -fixed cost, relatively high-margin business (whatever the medium of exchange is).

    Best of all, you don’t have to run the inn/saloon/cantina – just set it up and supply it. If you’ve got a crew of friends and helpers with you by this time, that will be do-able. By seizing the initiative and setting up the first watering-hole/inn you’ll have established yourself as a ‘community leader’. Avoid offending other local notables and you’ll be well on your way to getting ‘legitimized’. Given that you have children, that’s something you’ll want for their sake.

    11) Diversify into transportation. Your inn will bring in travelers and travel news, and your inn will need supplies to sell. Getting into the ‘drayage’ business – however that’s being conducted – is a natural fit. While you’re building that business you’ll find yourself drawn into the ‘3rd-World’ small-foundry/mechanical salvage & repair business as well. Before you know it, the rudiments of civilization will be in place.

    As I mentioned, I’ve already seen this plan work elsewhere in the world. Feel free to modify and apply. I’m not proposing this as a one-size-fits-all solution, merely an alternative to learned helplessness.

    — — —

    [*] notice that I write “sufficiency” with “self-” detached. Staying fed is not something that a loner can do long-term, in the absence of modern First World convenience, social stability and physical security.

    [**] __Gardening When it Counts__ by Steve Solomon.

    [***] A mid-sized dog does not need a lot of food to remain loyal. Dogs will stick with you for shared meals, water, a place to lay down and some kindness. They just want to ‘belong’ somewhere.

    [****] Refer to __The Knowledge__ by Lewis Dartnell for an overview of appropriate-technology business ideas.

    • Doug February 15, 2016 at 11:07 pm #

      Actually a very good summary of advice, MD.

      I would add that none of this is possible without an adequate supply of water and, in much of the west, adequate water supply has been, is now, and likely always will be an iffy proposition. Less true in the northwest than other places west of 100 degrees W. longitude, but a very serious consideration.

      When the bureaucracy, infrastructure and logistics that currently keep the complex and fragile storage distribution systems more or less working, and with the likelihood of periods of extended drought, it’s probably going to get worse, and it’s already bad.

      So, “Go East, young man.”

      For some of us, older, without wealth or community, dependent upon fancy medication and medical technology that simply won’t be available for long once descent gets going in earnest, there is, of course, no reason to do any of this. We’ll just eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow . . .

      • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 3:09 am #

        “dependent upon fancy medication and medical technology” –Doug

        If you are dependent on medication or medical technology, you are already in grave danger. Look at the iatrogenic statistics.

        http://www.ourcivilisation.com/medicine/usamed/deaths.htm

        So, yeah, eat, drink, and be merry… memento mori.

        • Doug February 16, 2016 at 9:38 pm #

          The real numbers are probably much worse than your reference indicates. The latest relevant research, dealing only with preventable in-hospital errors, is here:

          = = = = =

          Journal of Patient Safety:
          September 2013 – Volume 9 – Issue 3 – p 122–128
          doi: 10.1097/PTS.0b013e3182948a69

          Review Article

          A New, Evidence-based Estimate of Patient Harms Associated with Hospital Care

          James, John T. PhD

          Free Access

          From the Patient Safety America, Houston, Texas.

          Correspondence: John T. James, PhD, Patient Safety America, 14503 Windy Ridge Lane, Suite 200, Houston, TX 77062 (email: john.t.james@earthlink.net).

          The author discloses no conflict of interest.

          Sources of support: none.

          Abstract:

          Objectives: Based on 1984 data developed from reviews of medical records of patients treated in New York hospitals, the Institute of Medicine estimated that up to 98,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. The basis of this estimate is nearly 3 decades old; herein, an updated estimate is developed from modern studies published from 2008 to 2011.

          Methods: A literature review identified 4 limited studies that used primarily the Global Trigger Tool to flag specific evidence in medical records, such as medication stop orders or abnormal laboratory results, which point to an adverse event that may have harmed a patient. Ultimately, a physician must concur on the findings of an adverse event and then classify the severity of patient harm.

          Results: Using a weighted average of the 4 studies, a lower limit of 210,000 deaths per year was associated with preventable harm in hospitals. Given limitations in the search capability of the Global Trigger Tool and the incompleteness of medical records on which the Tool depends, the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients was estimated at more than 400,000 per year. Serious harm seems to be 10- to 20-fold more common than lethal harm.

          Conclusions: The epidemic of patient harm in hospitals must be taken more seriously if it is to be curtailed. Fully engaging patients and their advocates during hospital care, systematically seeking the patients’ voice in identifying harms, transparent accountability for harm, and intentional correction of root causes of harm will be necessary to accomplish this goal.

          = = = = =

          Of course, if you think you’re not dependent on medication or medical technology, (a) that may or may not be true and you probably don’t really know whether it is (how frequent and thorough are your routine exams?); and (b) the odds are overwhelming that, sooner or later, you will be so dependent, and life expectancies (yours and all others) will decline sharply and significantly as the support becomes less available.

  44. BackRowHeckler February 15, 2016 at 11:10 pm #

    Good advice all around, MD. A lot of thought went into that.

    1) in ‘The Road’, did we ever find out what caused such a cataclysm? Did Cormac McCarthy ever reveal it?

    2) You’re advice to open an eating establishment brought back fond memories of travelling around the Caribbean during my Navy years (ostensibly looking for Russian submarines, but mostly just having a good time) In Jamaica, Martinique, Virgin Islands, even Haiti, going off the beaten path, away from the tourist sites and commercial areas, every house or hut it seemed had a little bar where you could sit in a shady spot, run by a family, order a cold beer and a fish & chips served on wax paper, just enjoy yourself, no inspectors issuing permits and licenses or tax collectors kicking down the door looking for government swag.

    I think there might be some pleasant aspects to peak oil collapse. Back in the day in our little Connecticut village we didn’t have much as far as money went, but had a lot of fun fishing and boating on the river, hunting in the woods with our .22s, and playing sandlot baseball. In fact I’ve never found anything since to equal those days.

    brh

    • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 1:20 am #

      “…during my Navy years (ostensibly looking for Russian submarines, but mostly just having a good time)” –brh

      Dept. of Defense is the biggest wasteful goldbricking welfare scheme on earth.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 11:38 pm #

      Mumford spoke of that class of men whose best days are in their childhood, others in their teens. He thought it a kind of human failure, but it is far from uncommon, with many distinguished men sharing your malady if malady it is. Mark Twain was fixated on his childhood too.

      I read The Road. No cause is ever given. Some say the relationship between the Father and Son is an allegory for those two persons of the Blessed Trinity.

  45. wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 1:17 am #

    “Only Bernie has voted against that war.” And then voted repeatedly to fund it.” –Doug

    A vote against an illegal and immoral war is a humane vote, to prevent soldiers from being slaughtered unnecessarily.

    A vote to fund an ongoing war, to provide protection to soldiers already committed to a conflict you voted against, is also a humane vote.

    Nice try, Doug.

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    • outsider February 16, 2016 at 12:27 pm #

      No, wpa. A vote to stop funding an ongoing war means the soldiers must come home. But it need not be all at once as they do need protection on the way out.

    • Doug February 16, 2016 at 9:27 pm #

      “A vote to fund an ongoing war, to provide protection to soldiers already committed to a conflict you voted against, is also a humane vote.”

      Not even close to a nice try, WPA — rather, a feeble attempt at excusing the fraud and hypocrisy of your candidate, who has innocent blood on his hands, just like all the others.

      Here’s how you protect soldiers committed to an unnecessary, illegal, immoral and hopeless war of aggression to enrich the 0.1%:

      = = = = =

      If you love your Uncle Sam
      Bring them home, bring them home
      Support our boys in Vietnam
      Bring them home, bring them home

  46. wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 3:15 am #

    For K-Dog: what is Hillary saying?

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/15/politics/hillary-clinton-barks-like-a-dog-gop/index.html

    • K-Dog February 16, 2016 at 11:03 am #

      I went to the link but I could not bring myself to play the video. I find Hillary too painful to experience.

      I’d wind up growling – demoniacally !

  47. wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 3:22 am #

    Repricing Reality

    Asian stocks were mostly higher early Tuesday, after huge gains Monday, as oil gained and the European Central Bank reiterated its readiness to fight deflation. Uh-oh! Collapse delayed again. Bad news for doomsters.

    • James Howard Kunstler February 16, 2016 at 9:02 am #

      I guess you didn’t read what I wrote:
      “The recent carnage in the stock markets will probably see a retracement after the President’s Day hiatus.’
      -JHK

      • llamawalker February 16, 2016 at 9:57 am #

        http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/16/danger-signs-flashing-for-global-economy-years-after-crisis.html

        This little ray of impending doom made it through the censor this morning! I can’t believe someone actually said that “growth” might be slowing down! 🙂

      • malthuss February 16, 2016 at 12:07 pm #

        Year 2016 –Will The Dow stay levitated?

        I think even at 5000, it is over valued.

      • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 5:32 pm #

        Time will tell whether we are seeing retracement or reversal. There is a difference.

        • Doug February 16, 2016 at 9:18 pm #

          Yeah, there is a difference. Are you a betting human?

  48. FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 5:02 am #

    Interesting. American-Russian philosophical differences in building jet fighters.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpPSPQq7oas

  49. mercpl February 16, 2016 at 6:01 am #

    According to this list by the NRC there are just over 100 nuclear power plants in the USA. That’s 100 potential Fukishimas or Chernobyls if they are not looked after.

    So when it all comes crashing down and you do go looking for a quiet little bunker to grow some veggies just make sure that you’re not downwind of one of thise things.

    Here’s the map
    http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/

    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:07 pm #

      Hello Mercpl!

      Thanks for this. It is appreciated.

      Cheers!

      🙂

  50. stelmosfire February 16, 2016 at 7:39 am #

    Hey WPA, your man Bernie is carpet bombing us with ads here in MA. The TV news is on in the background and the Bern has had three ads since 6:30 am. I have not seen another political ad besides his. All the kids I talk to seem to love him, of course most of them don’t pay shit for taxes. Their thinking goes like this,” More free stuff for me!.”

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    • stelmosfire February 16, 2016 at 11:13 am #

      by kids I mean anyone under 30 yo.

      • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 6:39 pm #

        The kids might love Bernie, but if they don’t actually show up to vote. Love is not enough; it has to be accompanied by political action.

  51. VCS February 16, 2016 at 8:06 am #

    Dr. Tom Schmidt says Trump “will get himself killed if he doesn’t watch out.” I was thinking the same thing. Especially now that he’s messing with Cheney’s (false narrative) “legacy.” Cheney and his circle are very protective of that—

  52. FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 8:18 am #

    “Diversify: get goats, get egg-laying hens” — MD

    So, what’s the best advice to get a chicken-feed, assuming you can’t get it at a Wall Mart paying with useless FedReserve notes?

    • ozone February 16, 2016 at 9:40 am #

      I kind of doubt you really are interested and your query was just a rhetorical jest, but just in case…

      http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/07/eliminate-the-cost-of-chicken-feed/

      (Yes, peeps, this type of info is all over duh net if you want to find it.)

      • FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 10:27 am #

        Thanks, I could really use one of those methods on my farm. Just need to find best seeds to grow in Caribbean climate.

        • Doug February 16, 2016 at 9:16 pm #

          Finca: Take a look at some of the Chenopodium species.

          I’d be willing to bet that white goosefoot and quinoa, or some of the similar species would work for you.

          Chickens (and other birds) love the seeds, and the greens, seeds and oil are pretty good human food, also.

  53. ozone February 16, 2016 at 9:31 am #

    For those who wish to place their faith and trust in the shining machinery of The Great Democratic Selection Process, it’s time to lay that bullshit down and get busy with other “concerns”.

    “In Europe, America’s Democratic Party would be a far-right party. The Republican Party would be extremist. There is no liberal—much less left or progressive—organized political class in the United States. The growth of protofascists will be halted only when a movement on the left embraces an unequivocal militancy to defend the rights of workers and move toward the destruction of corporate power. As long as the left keeps surrendering to a Democratic Party that mouths liberal values while serving corporate interests, it will destroy itself and the values it claims to represent. It will stoke the justifiable rage of the underclass, especially the white underclass, and empower the most racist and retrograde political forces in the country. Fascism thrives not only on despair, betrayal and anger but a bankrupt liberalism.

    The political system, as many Sanders supporters are about to discover, is immune to reform. The only effective resistance will be achieved through acts of sustained, mass civil disobedience. The Democrats, like the Republicans, have no intention of halting the assault on our civil liberties, the expansion of imperial wars, the coddling of Wall Street, the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry and the impoverishment of workings. As long as the Democrats and the Republicans remain in power we are doomed.”
    — Chris Hedges

    JHK and MD (and a few others) have attempted to provide a sketch of what might be called, mitigation strategies, and the side-tracking began *immediately*. If you truly believe that the current political machinery or its handlers are going serve and preserve you, you’re already dragging a broken limb and an unfocused mind. Leaving that forlorn hope behind might be the best way to start on the rocky path to providing something of value for those who may follow after.

    I’m in agreement with Mr. Hedges; there’s only the right-wing and the batshit-crazy right-wing in this country. (Keep on flapping about “lefties” though; it’s a good waste of energy and a sure-fire way to ensure you become enslaved to/dependent on the state that you’ve supported with your precious and meaningful vote.)

    • Elrond Hubbard February 16, 2016 at 12:08 pm #

      Preach it! 🙂

    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 12:42 pm #

      Yet many countries in Europe have huge far right parties threatening to gain power in the near future. Yet they themselves reject the concept and call themselves Nationalist, Fascist, or Third Way.

      Conservatives (so called) say Trump is not one of them – and for good reason.

      Did you ever, even for a split second, consider that just maybe, your concept of Left/Right was inadequate to describe reality? That some systems aren’t on that flat line of death? If you go far enough Left you get to the Right after all. How can you not see that? Ok, think of a stick. Got it? Now look at your visualization: does it have only one end or does it have two? Now bend your stick (it’s a sapling) into a circle, bringing the two ends together. That’s a far better image of reality than you flat and entirely imaginary line.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 2:08 pm #

        Obama and his kind are the mainstream of the Democratic Party. That’s not Left? I shudder to hear what your ideal of Ideological Purity is. Trotsky? Mao?

        When he ran, one of the Communist Parties didn’t bother to put forward a candidate – he sufficed. In other words, even within your flat line tunnel reality you’ve got it wrong.

        And of course Hillary was not only a student of Alinsky, but went on to become a personal friend. Of course such things are kept quiet. The Democrats don’t advertise that they believe in a murderous philosophy like Communism. Is that your issue? Have you been duped along with the rest of America? Or is it that you don’t understand the work of Gramsci and Adorno anent the long march through the Institutions? You disagree with this method? It has worked spectacularly. Perhaps you lack the patience for Communism 2.0? That is most unfortunate, comrade. It seems like the personal and ideological are all swirled together with you – leaving you in a state of fermented confusion and dissatisfaction. The road is long. One must endure to the end. Fear not! Your desire to haul manure up the mountain to fulfill Mao’s Dream will come true, be it in this world or the next.

        • malthuss February 16, 2016 at 3:29 pm #

          In Europe, America’s Democratic Party would be a far-right party.

          Open borders in both areas.

          Who gives a F— what the Europeans think? They cut their own throats.

        • Elrond Hubbard February 19, 2016 at 11:06 am #

          Vlad, keep going too far with way too little actual information and you’ll end up so far up your own ass you’ll go ‘pop’ and disappear.

          Ideology? Purity? It seems to be an article of faith on the far right that socialism, Communism and totalitarianism are synonyms, just different names for one and the same thing. If you want to know what my position actually is, I’m with Orwell, who wrote in 1946: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” Against totalitarianism, for democratic socialism. Here’s the full essay if you want to check:

          http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw

          Socialism may not square with your value system, but it’s perfectly compatible with democracy. Compatible, not inevitable. I despise the Communist dictatorships as much as anyone.

    • Doug February 16, 2016 at 9:07 pm #

      ” If you truly believe that the current political machinery or its handlers are going serve and preserve you, you’re already dragging a broken limb and an unfocused mind.”

      Hear, hear!

  54. FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 11:52 am #

    Something nice to have in a post-apocalyptic world:

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

    No roads, no bridges…

    • FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

      Its self-inflating from engine exhaust tires that provide for SUV buoyancy. Reasonably priced at $50,000 (at today’s ruble exchange rate)

      Simple and reliable as AK-47.

      • stelmosfire February 16, 2016 at 12:26 pm #

        Nothing new there Fin, I’ve got a 6×6 in the barn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWK_MCljQTA converted from 8 hp Briggs to 26 hp Kohler engine. I paid $150 USD for it. A far cry from $50,000.00 . It has a trailer hitch and with the gearing will pull quite a load. a little smaller but she’ll go in water, mud, snow and brimstone.

        • FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 12:39 pm #

          R u shitting me? Look at two videos hit count – it’s 1000 times more. If we multiply $150 X 1000 we get $150,000 – so it goes with a $100,000 discount.

      • Doug February 16, 2016 at 10:48 pm #

        “Its self-inflating from engine exhaust. . .”

        Umm . . . engine exhaust? That would be nice to have in a post-apocalyptic world, too.

        But you won’t.

    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:13 pm #

      Hey FitM,

      For the record: I like this ATV. I was sold on the idea as soon as I saw it ‘tearing it up’ all over that 1/2-frozen lake.

      Cheers!

  55. FincaInTheMountains February 16, 2016 at 1:38 pm #

    YouTube is 11 years old today

    The capitalist model of goods-money relations will never be able to fully describe reality, but always tried to do that.

    Over the years it became more complicated, supplemented with new theories and even spawned few pseudosciences. Mad attempts to drive a reality into the framework of the market system led to the appearance of a totally mad concept from the perspective of classical economics mechanism, in which the person who pays for the service is not the one who gets it, but the one whose advertising he is forced to consume along with the service.

    To this mechanism, as though purposely invented by some hater of capitalism, we owe the appearance of a huge amount of new services and wealth, which is constantly growing.

    Internet, as regulated and wicked as it may be in its various manifestations, began a crusade for the freedom of information from the very beginning of its existence.

    YouTube has become a huge platform for communication and self-expression. In today’s world many of the roles former performed by the books and only books, more and more are moving under the power of video. Thanks to the Internet and YouTube, the inhabitants of Omsk and Mogadishu can equally join to view the best experts on many issues, broaden their horizons and see life as it is seen by people in every corner of the planet.

    And to do it literally on the same day when the views or opinions have been published.

    Materials from http://regnum.ru/news/economy/2078086.html

    Admit it, you gonna miss YouTube in the Post Apocalypse world.

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    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:15 pm #

      FitM:

      I admit it. I am going to miss YouTube.

      😉

  56. volodya February 16, 2016 at 2:55 pm #

    Ozone,

    Americans tend towards optimism and I think it’s a testament to the optimism and forbearance of 100 million plus people that DO vote. Having said that, it’s no wonder that participation in these – ahem – “elections” is so low. Don’t you think?

    Guys that think they’re really, really smart like, for example, Joe Klein, sneer at what Klein calls “low information voters”. By this he means people that go to Trump rallies. As opposed to people that do what exactly? Go to Shillary rallies? Are these people deemed HIGH information voters?

    Klein says that that things aren’t so bad and thinks that these Trump supporters need some perspective. Um, seriously?

    Does anyone really believe that Bill and Hillary raked in 150 mil for the mere act of giving speeches? Who pays that kind of money for jawboning? Are we supposed to switch off our critical faculties? Are we expected to be so naive?

    So I hate to differ with people that are so much smarter than me but au contraire, these “low information” voters are actually very HIGH information especially about their own situation and their diminishing prospects. Sez Joe, low information, not paying attention, their anger is self indulgent, things aren’t so bad here. The hell. Mister and Missus Low Info can see what’s happening.

    Having certain intellectual gifts like for language and the ability to dissociate what’s clearly visible under their noses from the official cant from Washington and Wall Street, guys like Mr Hedges and JHK frame things better than us mere mortals.

    But Hedges seems to imply that mass civil disobedience is in the future and I think that Mr Hedges is incorrect in thinking this. That is, if this is really what he meant. The candidacy of guys like Trump and Bernie, low voter participation, the existence of “proto-fascists” as Hedges calls them, tells me otherwise. IMO this is a stew that been bubbling for a while.

    It’s not a coincidence that we have this surveillance state. It sure ain’t there to keep an eye on Muslims. The oligarch class ruthlessly fucked people over, turned wide areas of the country into a scrap heap and now they’ve appropriated public assets to protect their own asses.

    • ozone February 16, 2016 at 6:43 pm #

      “But Hedges seems to imply that mass civil disobedience is in the future and I think that Mr Hedges is incorrect in thinking this. That is, if this is really what he meant.”

      V.,
      I think he’s suggesting that would be a *desired* course of events as the first step toward a new political paradigm. (…And I agree; ain’t gonna happen…. especially when you consider who will be owning the food and access thereto.) Heading political collapse off at the pass through the mass withdrawal of consent?

      I simply thought that his opinion would be of interest because he’s [what I would consider] a hopeful guy and he’s seen firsthand what happens when things get ugly and decidedly “uncivil”.

      Debbie Wasserman Schultz (“I see nothing that I don’t want to see.”) seems to have the same respect for us peons as does Joe Klein.
      But let’s take a look at why they sneer:

      (Got credibility? I think not.)
      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-15/american-democracy-money-super-delegates-hacked-voting-machines

      Be assured; there is no one to vote for that’s going to change the current order. Although we may think there is *now*, try another look after the conventions have “deliberated”.

    • ozone February 16, 2016 at 6:51 pm #

      Ps. Here’s a link to the entire article. There are some non-PC ideas contained in it, so make sure the kids are not in the room. 😉

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44214.htm

    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:19 pm #

      @ Volodya;

      “… and now they’ve appropriated public assets to protect their own asses.”

      Three problems with that: 1) too little too late, 2) wrong equipment and training & 3) they forgot to take care of the protectors (and their families)… BIG mistake.

      Cheers!

    • Being There February 21, 2016 at 3:09 pm #

      LIKE

  57. flyover country February 16, 2016 at 3:51 pm #

    Praetorian Shiills. Brilliant! Maybe Trump is Nero and Sanders is Nerva.
    .SPQR!

  58. BackRowHeckler February 16, 2016 at 4:34 pm #

    The problem I see with Sanders, if he gets in, and he has a chance, where’s the dough going to come from to pay for all these promises for free stuff he’s making? There’s a $20 trillion rolling deficit right now, $125 trillion accumulated liabilities. This will never be paid; there’s not enough money in the entire world to pay this off. How much is ‘free’ medical care going to cost? ‘Free’ tuition? And if he can’t pull it off the people who voted for free stuff are going to be pissed. I’m thinking of the ‘trust fund kids’ up at Dartmouth College, who wear wooly hats even in the summer, out protesting Wall Street, backing Sanders, indignant that this months trust fund check didn’t arrive from the Wall Street brokerage house because President Sanders dismantled Wall Street just like he promised in his speeches, and you cheered on.

    brh

    • Buck Stud February 16, 2016 at 5:06 pm #

      Sanders has a chance I do agree but that chance hovers slightly above zero.

      Sanders provides plenty of ammo for the opposition. He was a conscientious objector for one; how will that sell in Florida, Ohio, Virginia during the general election and after the GOP gets done with him? And there are whispers that Sanders’ wife has a loan fraud issue. In another month or so the Sanders campaign may be folding up the tent.

      • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 7:06 pm #

        ” In another month or so the Sanders campaign may be folding up the tent.” — Buck Stud

        I hope so. Bernie has served the country as an independent for decades. Soon he will be 75 years old. If he does not get the nomination of the Democratic Party he has opposed all his life, no big deal. He should retire and enjoy life in tranquil Vermont.

        Leave the fighting to the young Hillary who seems to relish a fight.

        Sanders has already won in my book … by moving Hillary to the left on TPP, criminal justice reform, wealth inequality, etc. and she has moved to the left of Sanders on pro-gun-control.

        She is still too hawkish on foreign policy, but as the Rolling Stones said: you can’t always get what you want.

        Sanders is victorious in my eyes and will always have my gratitude for taking on Clinton and forcing her to change.

        • Doug February 16, 2016 at 9:05 pm #

          “If he does not get the nomination of the Democratic Party he has opposed all his life, no big deal.”

          Ha. Ha. And hah!

          You really, really don’t have the tiniest clue what you’re talking about.

          In the 90’s when Bernie was in the House, a survey of respective voting records found that he had voted more consistently with the Democratic Caucus than Dick Gephardt, who was then leader of the Dems in the House.

          And former Democratic National Committee chair, Howard Dean told Meet the Press:

          “He is basically a liberal Democrat, and he is a Democrat at that–he runs as an Independent because he doesn’t like the structure and money that gets involved…The bottom line is that Bernie Sanders votes with the Democrats 98 percent of the time.”

          So, stop being silly.

          • wpa_ccc February 16, 2016 at 10:11 pm #

            Voting with, or caucusing with, is not the same as being a Democrat.

            If Bernie is a Democrat, then why are elected Democratic officials flocking to Clinton?

            If Bernie is a Democrat, why is establishment Democratic money going to Hillary?

            If Bernie is a Democrat, why are the Democratic super delegates all going to Hillary?

            You can’t have it both ways, Doug. The truth is Democratic Party officials are determined to have a Clinton coronation. They don’t really recognize Bernie as a Democrat, because he isn’t.

            In past congressional elections Bernie has run as an independent candidate against both Republican and Democratic candidates. Bernie defeated both parties. He wasn’t the Democratic candidate. He was the independent who defeated the Democratic candidate.

            No presidential candidate in modern history has performed as well as Sanders and received so little support from the Democratic Party leadership. You brought up Howard Dean. Dean led many polls in 2003 against a large and divided Democratic field. On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, his national support was at just 19 percent — far less than Sanders’s current mark of 37 percent. Nevertheless Dean managed to obtain pre-Iowa endorsements from thirty-four Democratic congresspeople, two senators, and former Vice President Al Gore.

            Even far weaker challengers like Bill Bradley in 2000 (who trailed Gore by 44 points in January) and Bill Richardson in 2008 (who never broke the 5 percent barrier nationally) each cobbled together a modest squadron of Capitol Hill endorsements: eleven for Bradley and seven for Richardson.

            The elite freeze-out of Bernie Sanders is without parallel in modern party history.

            You seem to be clueless, Doug.

          • Doug February 16, 2016 at 10:37 pm #

            “Voting with, or caucusing with, is not the same as being a Democrat.”

            Have you ever heard the expression, “a distinction without a difference?”

            If Sanders went out tomorrow and used a machine gun to mow down a few dozen pre-schoolers at a playground, you and your fellow benighted Berniebots would be desperately spinning excuses and explanations.

            What will you do when he fades into insignificance and urges his followers to support Killary?

  59. Q. Shtik February 16, 2016 at 4:36 pm #

    Maybe Trump is Nero and Sanders is Nerva. – flyover

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

    Being unfamiliar with Nerva, I Googled and up came some pictures of a bust of the gentleman. Below those pics was some info including:

    Born: 30AD
    Died: 98AD (hmm, almost made his 3 score and 10)

    Below this were pictures of the busts of 5 others from that general era:

    Trajan
    Domitian
    Hadrian
    Titus
    Vespasian

    As you are all probably aware, Trajan, Nerva’s son, was the inventor of the condom 😉

    • elysianfield February 16, 2016 at 8:47 pm #

      “As you are all probably aware, Trajan, Nerva’s son, was the inventor of the condom”

      Then…his “friend in Rome”, Biggus Dickus, invented the Magnum Condom? (Credit, of course, to Monty Python’s FC)

      • flyover country February 16, 2016 at 9:16 pm #

        “He had a wife, you know?, Incontinetia, Incontinetia Buttucks”. Who cares?. Those who ar ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. I think some famous smart big wig said that once?

      • Q. Shtik February 16, 2016 at 9:18 pm #

        Then, for a Christmas present, Nerva gave his son a colt which grew up to become a Trajan Horse.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 10:50 pm #

        You have a lot of Nerva.

      • Q. Shtik February 17, 2016 at 1:09 pm #

        Surely it can not be long until Trump builds an edifice on the Florida Gold Coast called the Magnum CONDOMinium.

  60. Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 10:53 pm #

    Canadians love to meddle in American politics, both as candidates and as commentators. Meanwhile their own “country” (no longer a nation, their flag having been replaced by a corporate logo) accelerates into anti-White, politically correct Tyranny.

    http://www.dailystormer.com/orwellian-anti-racism-directorate-established-in-ontario-canada/

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  61. Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 11:03 pm #

    In other northern news, Kdog admits that Vikings were the original people of Greenland, at least of that time and place (Greenland is huge). But he still defends the Inuit invasion, dispossession, and even massacre. His reasoning is specious: the Vikings were hot headed, refused to learn fishing from their Inuit betters, had hurt Indians in America or soon would, etc.

    In other words, he refused to allow them the sacred title of “Indigenous People”. Whites are never indigenous, not then and not now. Not even in Europe apparently according to other pundits of this school. Thus they deconstruct the British people saying that there were so many invasions and movements that there is no British people at all. Thus any mass influx by Nigerians or Pakistanis is just one more movement of people. Truly they strain the gnat when it comes to Whites in order to swallow the camel of mass colored immigration.

    Greenland was so huge and the Viking settlement so small – two small ones on the west coast if memory serves. So why didn’t the Inuit just leave them alone? Blondes of course. Non-White Male kryptonite.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 11:52 pm #

      Or maybe they were fascinated by their swords or metal in general. Or maybe they just wanted the pleasure of destruction, like dolphins have been known to do to purpoises. This disagrees with Doug’s pastel vision of Nature, but that’s patently false to anyone who cares to look.

  62. Doug February 16, 2016 at 11:42 pm #

    Holy shit!

    = = = = =

    America’s biggest banks present a “nuclear” threat to the US economy and should be broken up, a Federal Reserve policymaker and architect of the 2008 banking bailout said Tuesday.

    Neel Kashkari, the head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, said the US’s biggest banks were still “too big too fail” and Congress should consider “bold transformational solutions to solve this problem once and for all”.

    “I believe the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy,” Kashkari said in his first public speech since becoming a Fed policymaker in January. “A very crude analogy is that of a nuclear reactor. The cost to society of letting a reactor melt down is astronomical. Given that cost, governments will do whatever they can to stabilize the reactor before they lose control.”

    More

    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2016 at 11:58 pm #

      How about the Media conglomerates? Are we going to trust a few Jewish Billionaires show us their Wasserman-Schultz version of the World and then be nice enough to interpret it for us as well? Failing the nice stuff, could the Rico Act could be applied here?

    • pequiste February 17, 2016 at 12:06 am #

      Neel Kashkari ( only in America could we have Central Bankers with that sort of moniker – cashncarry) as one of the key architects of the infamous Hank Paulson’s 2008 $700 billion bailout of America’s too-big- to-fail banks, some still unknown European banks, and untold Wall Street and D.C. parasite types, should be tarred and feathered and then stuffed down a coal mine shaft to dig anthracite for the rest of his life.

      But after all he is an appendage of the vampire squid from hell (Sachs-of-GoldMan), was Hank Paulson’s protege there and at the Secretary of the Treasury, and now, for being a very good money myrmidon, is the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

      Now he has the gall, balls and chutzpah to turn on the very institutions that put him where he is – in the belly of the Fed beast system – and say such things?

      He is just asking to be defenestrated.

  63. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 6:10 am #

    By February 17 the battle for Aleppo continues to develop very successfully for Assad’s troops. If in the south after the success of November and December the front is quite stable, in the north of Aleppo, the army has achieved complete success by cutting supply lines Aleppo group of jihadists. If you look at a map, it is not difficult to understand that the operations of Syrian Army against the “Warriors of Light” to the north of the city are close to completion, unless Erdogan dares to send troops to protect the losing jihadists.

    At the moment, the Kurds troops are on the outskirts of Azaz and continue to simultaneously occupy the territory to the south of the city, where insurgents are fleeing north to the border, so as not to fall into the cauldron, which became real threat after losing Tal Rifat.

    Turkey meanwhile continues to make controversial statements, but does not move to take decisive action. The troops of the 2nd Turkish Army has long been deployed along the Syrian-Turkish border, the supply of militant groups to the north of Aleppo, Latakia and Idlib continues, new groups of mercenaries are thrown in, but it’s half-measures that could not change the negative developments for the jihadists in Syria, the threat of complete military defeat to the north of Aleppo continues to grow.

    Russia and Turkey continue to quarrel in the diplomatic and media field, but so far things are going well at the fronts, such a course of the conflict is certainly more beneficial for Russia and Co than to the Turks.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbXLC8CWcAAdk_W.jpg:large

    Materials taken from: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/

  64. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 6:15 am #

    “America’s biggest banks present a “nuclear” threat to the US economy and should be broken up, a Federal Reserve policymaker and architect of the 2008 banking bailout said Tuesday.” — Doug

    Turning USPS into a state-run mega-bank would bring a real solution to the problem that would make american taxpayers money, not loose it.

    But of course it contradicts your beloved little theory of the “invisible hand of the market” in your pocket and all over your wallet.

    • Doug February 17, 2016 at 10:28 am #

      That certainly isn’t my theory, Finca.

      I don’t even believe that there is any such thing as “the market” — economics is politics and the invisible hand is that of the powers that create and enforce the rules for their own benefit.

      • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:32 pm #

        Doug,

        RE | “I don’t even believe that there is any such thing as “the market””-d.

        Certainly no such thing as a ‘free market’ under a central banker’s sway. If they’re free to manipulate the LIBOR rate (which underlies everything else) then it’s all gamed. And they have, they were caught and they continue doing that.

        Likewise COMEX. How is possible that demand on precious metals skyrockets and prices remain the same – while “someone” dumps billions/month in gold futures early every North American morning?

        Well, that’s okay… The Indians, Chinese and Russians are *l o v i n g* these low prices. Since 2012 they have never stopped buying up gold – regardless of oil prices or any other issue.

        They’ve seen the future, and they *know* how they’re going to afford it.

        • Doug February 17, 2016 at 11:15 pm #

          All right on, MD.

          However, I really mean it when I argue that “the market” is not some sort of natural phenomenon, a thing that exists beyond or outside of human construction. This is a fantasy accepted and promulgated by most economists and accepted, unthinkingly, by most others.

          Economics is politics, not science, and markets exist only in the form of agreements among the participants, or in acceptance of — or submission to — the rules made by those powerful enough to enforce them.

          The hands manipulating, e.g., the LIBOR, visible or not, are the only kind of hands involved in “the market.”

          • Elrond Hubbard February 19, 2016 at 2:23 pm #

            Adam Smith gets both too much and too little credit, in my view. Too little because he was one of the first to point out what nowadays goes by the name of “self-organizing behaviour” in systems, an idea widely applicable beyond economics. Too much in the sense of the kind of market fundamentalism that identifies economic freedom with, you know, freedom (the kind not qualified by any adjective).

            The market is a fine mechanism, as far as it goes, for leveraging human decision-making to achieve higher-order goals, but it’s full of pitfalls. Sophisticated actors can, and obviously do, game the system in all kinds of ways to grant themselves meritless rewards even before we get into central bank shenanigans, gaming of interest rates, etc.

            Since at least the fifties, and especially in the past 40 years or so, it has been beyond the pale even to question the system or point out that it has shortcomings, as well as merits, as a system. This presidential cycle, we are finally seeing the ice break. That to me is nothing but a good thing.

  65. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 6:25 am #

    The dead witch bouncing

    This is hardly the first time it has looked as if Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential ambitions were on the ropes, and each time she has found a way to bounce back. But as she heads into critical Democratic primary contests in Nevada and South Carolina, the former Secretary of State’s campaign seems to be reeling.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/clinton-campaign-having-panic-attack-205100764.html

    According to New York rumors there is a growing panic in Hillary Clinton’s camp due to the fact that she has exposed her continuing role in running the State Department (Kerry in Geneva the day after the TV debates voiced public demands of Hillary Clinton to bring the ceasefire in Syria since otherwise by March 1 ISIS problem will be solved by military means), for the weekend to find out that the result of these Herculean effort will be that a military solution to the problem of ISIS, which was supposed to be realized in two weeks, will now be carried just in one.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/notes-from-the-locked-ward/#comment-261093

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  66. BackRowHeckler February 17, 2016 at 8:07 am #

    Janos, to pick up an earlier thread …

    Its nice good to see Lewis Mumford cited here; he’s a sort of earlier version of JHK. (Mumford lived until 1990, in Amenia, NY. Not far from Jim, I wonder if Jim knew Mumford personally) ‘Too Much Magic’ can almost be seen as an updated version of Mumford’s ‘The Myth of the Machine’ (1970). Also, many of the same concerns about suburbia and the automobile are covered by both authors.

    Mumford’s work is relevant even today. Many of the predictions he made in in 50s and 60s have come true today, to all our detriment.

    brh

    • Janos Skorenzy February 17, 2016 at 10:08 pm #

      Yes, he prepares one for Mr Kunstler quite well. He was concerned about the arrogant minorities and the supine response to them from the Establishment. I don’t recall any hints of his being Jew wise though.

      I’ve had a yen to reopen Mumford lately and read what he said about the invention of time via the invention of clocks. The organic rhythms of night and day, the seasons and the year is one thing, but the little moving hand is something quite else again. Man now has a mechanical slave master far more arduous than ever before. And ultimately, he will be replaced by the machine because he cannot be as good a machine as a machine is. Mumford saw this very clearly, before almost anyone else.

  67. BackRowHeckler February 17, 2016 at 8:35 am #

    More BLM craziness, this time at Providence College. Here’s how it went:

    1) BLM thugs occupy President’s Office.

    2) A ‘List of Demands’ is announced. They need not be recounted here, they’re the same on every campus.

    3) The President and Admin, amidst a flurry of craven apologies, mea culpas and groveling, quickly cave in and agree to all demands.

    One things seems clear, when you become a college administrator, one requirement, maybe the only one, is to check your balls at the door, if you had any to start with.

    brh

    • Elrond Hubbard February 19, 2016 at 2:52 pm #

      This bears repeating: Whether you like their methods or not, the Black Lives Matter movement has a real grievance. Black people don’t enjoy equal protection under the law, and police routinely get away with unprovoked harassment, violence and homicide. Selling loosies on the sidewalk was enough to bring half a dozen cops down on Eric Garner and choke the life out of him. That’s far worse than anything BLM has done in protest. So they disrupted business? Boo hoo. Everyone left alive.

      Sadly, this forum is infested with people who consider the denial of full humanity to tens of millions of Americans a matter of pride, not shame. And once again, they’ll claim I’m blaming Whitey when I’m arguing for the American ideal that all men are created equal.

  68. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 10:03 am #

    Operation SOPHIA: WikiLeaks Reveals Secret EU Military Op Against Refugees

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/699924127222730752

  69. fodase February 17, 2016 at 12:12 pm #

    Religion is a facet of culture which itself is a reflection of race. Islam is a manifestation of the Arab soul, vicious and cruel, which accounts for its appeal to other similarly vicious and cruel people.

    no way….

  70. wpa_ccc February 17, 2016 at 12:16 pm #

    APPLE SENDS MESSAGE TO CUSTOMERS

    “The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.”

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    • Being There February 21, 2016 at 3:10 pm #

      I thought they already did that.

  71. volodya February 17, 2016 at 12:45 pm #

    Ozone, I agree with Hedges, given who really calls the shots, party labels are pretty much meaningless.

    The rhetoric is the only difference, Republicans representing themselves as true, God fearin’, gun slingin’ rugged individualists – unlike those degenerates in the other party, with the Democrats, for their part, all enlightened and progressive and intellectual and all that shit – unlike the mouth-breathing opposition.

    And both parties play to their galleries with finely tuned dog whistles, the Democrats, for example, portraying themselves as the party of “inclusion” and “tolerance”. This while their shills in the press define opponents as “white”, “rural”, “older”, “less educated” and “fearful”, all of which are synonyms for obese, stupid and racist, you know, people who cling to guns and religion, unlike Democrats, as Obama condescendingly and disparagingly noted.

    The Republicans, no less guilty, employ their own: is Obama Muslim – as if they give a shit – and where was Obama REALLY born – as if they really mean “where was Obama really born”. What they REALLY mean is the self evident unacceptability of a black President in the White House, least of all a product of miscegenation, something that in right-thinking societies should never happen, especially, God forbid, between a black Muslim man and a white Christian woman.

    But neither Democrats nor Republicans are serious about national or tribal identity. These are just cynical divide and conquer tactics. Or smokescreens to obscure the real agenda. So both sides keep throwing out red meat and keep pushing hot buttons to keep those knees jerking while the real business of ransacking the country continues unobstructed – which is what modern day politics is REALLY about.

    • wpa_ccc February 17, 2016 at 2:30 pm #

      “But neither Democrats nor Republicans are serious about national or tribal identity. These are just cynical divide and conquer tactics.” –volodya

      Are you old enough to remember the 20th century, volodya? National identity accounted for 100 million deaths in the 20th century. National and tribal identity creates division and conflict. When you identify with one tribe (Christian, Muslim, USA, ISIS, etc.) you are setting yourself up to be loyal to that tribe and begin to see the OTHER as a threat. Hence, war, mass slaughter, and genocide.

      Instead of being “serious about national or tribal identity” all such identities should be abandoned. We all inhabit the same planet. Instead of labeling the OTHER and killing them, let us share the planet as simple human beings, some of whom breathe through the nose, and some of whom breathe through the mouth, none of whom deserve to be murdered.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 17, 2016 at 3:37 pm #

      Well said and true. But you’re talking as if you’re above the fray, like some omniscient narrator dwelling in gnostic perfection. Although I hope I’m wrong, you sound like you really believe Democratic propaganda that a nation could and should be universal; that a nation should be open to the world – and thus not a nation at all except in name. Because things are what they are because they’re not something else.

      A universal nation is by definition, impossible in the same sense as a square triangle or the son of a barren woman. One can say “square triangle” but one can not imagine it because it’s contradictory. In other words, not only is it not, it never can be – unlike say a pink elephant whose ears are giant wings. One can imagine that at least. Maybe such a creature lives somewhere or may do so someday.

      Btw, most rank and file Republicans make a great effort not to be racist in the sense of being prejudiced. So you’re wrong on that part. Maybe they don’t hate themselves enough for you, thus not passing the test you apply to Whites and no one else? They would vote for someone like Clarence Thomas. Thus, they may well come closer to your MLK’s ideal of character over color than you and your tribe do.

  72. BackRowHeckler February 17, 2016 at 1:28 pm #

    Zero Hedge reports massive car bomb detonating at an army barracks in Ankara.

    This can’t be good.

    brh

  73. BackRowHeckler February 17, 2016 at 1:46 pm #

    Should be an interesting summer, huh? Summer 2016, one for the ages, like 1914 or 1939, a major war breaking out in west Asia, Turkey on one side, Iran, Russia and Syria on the other, with the Kurds, Iraqis, ISIS, SArabia, UAE, China, NATO, the US, France, Great Britain, Israel, Yemen thrown in as wildcards, in the midst of a US Presidential election and constitutional crises over SCOTUS appts., maybe more than one, who knows? To top it off BLM thugs threatening to tear down the campus, and burn down the cities across the USA.

    Turkey has one of the world’s largest and most modern air forces, and its anti-aircraft hardware is NATOs best.

    So much for ‘The Legacy”!

    I think I’ll just disappear this summer with my canoe and fishing gear in those Army Corps of Engineering lakes up by Ozones spread, stocked with both trout & SALMON.

    BRH

    • wpa_ccc February 17, 2016 at 2:33 pm #

      brh, thanks for reinforcing my point to volodya about national identity and war. You laid it out beautifully.

    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:39 pm #

      BRH;

      “Turkey has one of the world’s largest and most modern air forces, and its anti-aircraft hardware is NATOs best.”

      “NATO’s best” is not cutting it, if an unspecialized SU-24 can switch off all instrumentation on a USN destroyer “like switching off a light” (re: incident, Black Sea, 2014).

      Besides, do we really think that Erdogan is willing to get in the ring with Putin’s people? Is that likely?

  74. wpa_ccc February 17, 2016 at 3:35 pm #

    Trump is sounding more like Sarah Palin every day. He rarely expresses a coherent paragraph and words come out jumbled. For example, this Trump CNN exchange on Ted Cruz:

    “He was born in Canada, lived there for years, and then under that period … you know, you take a look at this.” Trump said, “When you talk about a natural born citizen, according to many great lawyers, I’ve been looking at very strongly over the last week.”

  75. volodya February 17, 2016 at 3:37 pm #

    BRH, yep, here we go again, another left-over bit of the Turkish empire trying to sort itself out, this time with the added spice of the world’s oldest civil war, that being Sunni vs Shia. Oh, and let’s not forget the age-old imperial ambitions of the locals. How many times over the last 3 thousand years have we seen this same old movie?

    It would be comical to watch if the consequences weren’t life and death. Russia staggering around the ring like some over-aged, over-fat, punch-drunk pug, back from retirement, a make-believe attempt at being a contender. Too bad there isn’t a ref in the ring to stop the sorry display. Someone should tell Putin time’s up, Russia is an alcoholized shadow of its formerly vigorous self, depleted and ruined and in no condition for this.

    You cringe at such a spectacle yet I don’t think it’s the worst there. Nope, it’s the sight of heinously corrupt, gangster-run holes like Saudi Arabia and Iran and the Persian Gulf kleptocracies where incompetence and cluelessness are the order of the day, trying to act like actual nation states. These places, with one foot in the grave, the other on a banana peel waiting for some minimally armed contingent to roll in on pick-up trucks to give them a last firm shove into the hole, just who are they trying to kid?

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    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:45 pm #

      Volodya;

      “Someone should tell Putin time’s up, Russia is an alcoholized shadow of its formerly vigorous self, depleted and ruined and in no condition for this.”-v.

      I don’t agree. Russia is running a tight campaign, on-time and on-budget – this is not a personal opinion, it’s the opinion of the Pentagon’s researchers. Russia looked over the edge of the Abyss in the 1990’s, didn’t like what it saw and did something about it. The USA on the other had…

  76. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 5:11 pm #

    Hillary has finally lost aura of invincibility and turned into All-American ridicule, and not as a result of the intrigues of her enemies, but as a result of her own unbounded pride and intervention from above, something that no politician has managed to survive.

    Here she shows the dog that trained to bark each time its rivals lie:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58rLBBpCE2M

  77. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm #

    21:00 – Jeb Bush rolls out a question to Trump about the need for an alliance between Russia and the United States in the war against Islamist state, packaging the issue with the assertion that it is impossible to protect, that George W. Bush was right to invade Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction. And Trump brilliantly kicks the ball back, causing his popularity in southern states to jump by 4 points to 39%.

    By the way when Hillary Clinton now attacks George W. Bush over Iraq, which until recently had been her favorite excuse of the charges in the creation of Islamic State, she automatically puts more points into the Trump’s shopping cart.

    Moreover in spite of liberal propaganda that insists otherwise, this episode clearly shows that the issue of cooperation and even alliance between Russia and the United States is becoming the central issue of this election campaign.

    Information blockade around Russia has been breached!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG2CCG8R2Yg

  78. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 5:44 pm #

    “Russia staggering around the ring like some over-aged, over-fat, punch-drunk pug, back from retirement, a make-believe attempt at being a contender. “ == Volodya

    Volodya with his numerous mentioning of the third world “piss-holes” and “shit-holes” exposed himself as a card-carrying member of the Western Black Project, whose exorbitant pride in being a part of the “golden billion” must hurt enormously by looking at how Russia with just one Air Force regiment and few months of fighting accomplished what Exceptionalistan has failed to do over the last 15 years.

  79. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 5:55 pm #

    Turks and Saudis are behaving a bit erratically due to erratic nature of current election campaign in the United States, which at times gives them false hope that the forces of militarism and imperialism (and eventually, Apocalypse) could still come to power in Washington.

    As soon as those hopes are gone, they’ll change their behavior in a hurry. Feel the Bern!!

  80. FincaInTheMountains February 17, 2016 at 6:04 pm #

    ” civil war, that being Sunni vs Shia” — Volodya

    Sunni vs Shiites has nothing to do with what’s going in ME, but rather with this:

    Unfortunately it soon became clear that the situation is reminiscent of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War, when the armies of mercenaries ravaged the whole of Europe, consistently killing civilians and only their physical extermination by the Swedes, laid the foundation for the Peace of Westphalia.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/notes-from-the-locked-ward/#comment-260943

    Exactly, armies of mercenaries that happens to be mostly Sunni due to convenience of propaganda.

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  81. Frankiti February 17, 2016 at 6:32 pm #

    “If you are a thinking person, the months ahead might be your last chance to protect whatever wealth you have and to move to some part of the country where, at least, you can grow some of your own food and become a useful part of a social and economic network that might be called a community.”

    With the caveat that it should not a part of the country less than a few hours drive from a megacity metro area of 20 plus million. Unless of course, you don’t mind being a serf on your own land for a Russian or Chinese feudal lord cornering the market on local produce. I find it painfully ironic that a coterie of end-timers and doomsday suitors have so much wishful thinking. Honest days farming the back 40 followed by a pipe, brandy, and a few rounds of chess with the town tobacconist by the fire? Y’all need to wake the f*** up. Shit ain’t going to just crumble, it’s going to be torn the f*** down.

    • MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 7:53 pm #

      Frankiti,

      RE | “Honest days farming the back 40 followed by a pipe, brandy, and a few rounds of chess with the town tobacconist by the fire? Y’all need to wake the f*** up. Shit ain’t going to just crumble, it’s going to be torn the f*** down.”-f.

      I whole-heartedly agree. But, having met and taken the measure of undeveloped and failed ‘states’ on their own terms, putting a couple-hundred klicks between you and the raging masses is an effective strategy. And whoever *does* make it out that far to bother you might be worth working with anyway.

      Cheers!

  82. Frankiti February 17, 2016 at 6:48 pm #

    Looks like Haley, a swarthy republican with tits AKA the new face of the party, endorsed the Ruboto so as to erase any doubt to him being the heir, or in Jeb’s estimation, the pretender, to the GOP throne.

    • wpa_ccc February 17, 2016 at 8:01 pm #

      Her name is Nimrata Nikki Randhawa. She was born into a Sikh family. Sikhs are great! Then she was born again as a Christian. Christians are great!

      • Janos Skorenzy February 17, 2016 at 9:57 pm #

        Christians are great – as long as they’re Brown and converted for socio-political purposes.

  83. fodase February 17, 2016 at 7:04 pm #

    Thus, they may well come closer to your MLK’s ideal of character over color than you and your tribe do.

    …..except their tribe doesn’t value MLK’s color of your character at all. MLK would be ashamed to be black today. Appalled at it.

    Trump is sounding more like Sarah Palin every day. He rarely expresses a coherent paragraph and words come out jumbled. For example, this Trump CNN exchange on Ted Cruz:
    “He was born in Canada, lived there for years, and then under that period … you know, you take a look at this.” Trump said, “When you talk about a natural born citizen, according to many great lawyers, I’ve been looking at very strongly over the last week.”

    That’s how people speak, thoughts interrupting thoughts. Don’t worry wpa_ccc, we understand him just fine and well and can interpret for you if you’re having difficulty.

    I admit he’s not as polished and nuanced as erudite Obama, who speaks wonderfully coherently and in complete sentences as he destroys the United States’ borders, incites racial hatred, actively imports homicidal islamic maniacs and does other community building works.

  84. MisterDarling February 17, 2016 at 8:50 pm #

    @ BackRowHeckler & Doug:

    “1) in ‘The Road’, did we ever find out what caused such a cataclysm? Did Cormac McCarthy ever reveal it?”-brh.

    Yes he did. In the beginning of the novel he refers to a series of flashes of light on the horizon. Later he refers to long lines of torched cars caught at the moment the heat of the blast overtook them. He talks about The Man using a map to skirt around the blasted ruins of cities so that they avoid getting sick. When they’re hiking down the coastline they find a sailboat with a mast “sheared off” at deck-level, adrift (probably from across the Atlantic) still full of spare clothing, edible food and potable water. . . So, the cataclysm was nuclear war, which in turn caused a nuclear Winter & global starvation. Cormac is extremely dark, but never implausible.

    On the other hand, *Nobody* writes a cautionary tale like Cormac can… **Nobody**.

    “2) Your advice to open an eating establishment brought back fond memories of travelling around the Caribbean during my Navy years … off the beaten path, away from the tourist sites and commercial areas, every house or hut it seemed had a little bar where you could sit in a shady spot, run by a family, order a cold beer and a fish & chips served on wax paper, just enjoy yourself, no inspectors issuing permits and licenses or tax collectors kicking down the door looking for government swag.”-brh.

    In Belize they call those little mom-n-pop places “chills”… I suggested a food/drink business because they are easy to set up [*], are needed, provide a number of advantages to the owner/operators as well as the public, and segue into other useful endeavors. In the small nations local restaurants with 30″/year rainfall isohyets fade away. Water scarcity is one of the defining differences between east or west of the Rockies. What the West *does* have though is _far fewer_ nuclear-waste and power sites. What good does having abundant rainfall make if it’s contaminated?

    If it was me, I’d be more interested in the quadrant of North America north of the Great Lakes and east of the Cascades/Canadian Rocky Mountains confluence… The Peace River Valley for instance. Plentiful water, rich soil, ‘warming’ climate, and no nukes up-stream or up-wind.

    Just a thought…

    😉

  85. Doug February 17, 2016 at 9:20 pm #

    I agree with most everything said in Mr. Kunstler’s post. There are so many things wrong. But the most immediate thing that is part and causing world trade to collapse in 2016 is the disappearing “Eurodollar” leverage — shrinking like it did in 2007/2008. No one understands it therefore no fix is coming. Meanwhile global trade is collapsing like 2008 again! As wholesale finance sinks, the economy sinks. This is the big crisis. If finance fails, everything else falls apart.

    The shrinking “Eurodollar” market is the common denominator of falling oil, sinking China, falling stock markets, collapsing emerging markets, etc. Economists at the Federal Reserve know nothing of finance and wholesale world finance. They don’t get it. It’s their Achilles Heel. Here’s a write-up to try to explain the problem:

    “They Don’t Know What They Are Doing.” at:
    http://gulfcoastcommentary.blogspot.com/2016/02/they-dont-know-what-they-are-doing.html

    Thanks.

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  86. Pucker February 17, 2016 at 9:26 pm #

    Bernie Sanders looks like Woody Allen.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/02/bernie-sanders-a-bum-who-didnt-earn-his-first-paycheck-until-age-40/

    • Buck Stud February 17, 2016 at 11:18 pm #

      The is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the Bernie narrative should he become the nominee.

      65 grand in credit card debt on a annual U.S. Senator’s salary of roughly 190 grand per yer? Somebody is not living within their means.

      Maybe Sanders needs to attend an Asoka “How To Live On One Thousand Dollar A Month Social Security Check” seminar?

  87. wpa_ccc February 17, 2016 at 9:58 pm #

    “this is not a personal opinion, it’s the opinion of the Pentagon’s researchers.” –Mister Darling

    LOL! A truly objective source. Not.

    Russia is a threat … we need more money for “defense”!

  88. Janos Skorenzy February 17, 2016 at 11:04 pm #

    He does have a great mind. He’s like a radio that receives the signal properly but just doesn’t have good sound. His word choice is sometimes hackneyed and often repetitive as it is here.

    He’s very concerned about the possible murder of Scalia.

    http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/2016/02/was-scalia-murdered/

    Some reports have Scalia with a pillow over his head. Why would the murderer leave the pillow like that? Perhaps to throw over investigators if poison had been used. Or perhaps as a sign of contempt.

    • Buck Stud February 17, 2016 at 11:21 pm #

      You’re barking up the wrong tree–again. You should be asking why Scalia was where he was at the time of his death and what pay back was possibly occurring.

      Hint, Columbo: look up “Nepotism” in the dictionnary

      • Janos Skorenzy February 18, 2016 at 12:46 am #

        You already said you were happy about his death. Many of your tribe have expressed their joy in more positive and ghastly forms.

        Still supporting the Crone? You know if you gave her 100,00 dollars, she might let you rub cold cream into her creases for five minutes.

  89. Janos Skorenzy February 18, 2016 at 12:57 am #

    That’s bizarre. Why not get night shades for your eyes – or even a shade for the window? Or maybe let the cat lie on your face to block out the light.

    As for the lamp? Turn it off.

    Is some convoluted attack on Neeno? Read the article and do Savage’s thought experiment: Imagine if Ruth Ginsberg died like this. How do you think the press would react? The Tribe? Their gentile zombies, like Buck?

  90. Janos Skorenzy February 18, 2016 at 1:40 am #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/glorious-leader-says-hes-neutral-on-the-israel-vs-palestine-conflict/

    Trump is beholden to none and charitable to all – one of the greatest living Americans. If he makes it, he will be the first real President in living memory.

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    • wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 2:01 am #

      Imagine the glory! The first week he will have the wall built. The second week he will have the check for payment in full from Mexico. The third week he will deport 12 million “illegals” and to close out the month he will rebuild the military to its former legendary size and strength. The fifth week he will annihilate ISIS. The sixth week Trump will negotiate favorable trade agreements with China. By the seventh week of Trump’s presidency we will have peace, propsperity, and racial purity. America will be great again.

      Seriously, I ask myself how many months will have to pass before people realize Trump cannot do even one of the things he is promising to do, and whether or not he will be impeached in the second year of his presidency.

      • elysianfield February 18, 2016 at 11:12 am #

        “By the seventh week of Trump’s presidency we will have peace, propsperity, and racial purity. America will be great again.”

        No, you silly goose…on the seventh week he rested….

      • JimInFlorida February 20, 2016 at 12:20 pm #

        Campaign promises are more a barometer of ideology rather than proposing what’s feasible.

        In the case of Trump, he is RIGHT for alluding that White America has the right to live as White America. I’d rather see him make the open demand for it! We haven’t seen a sound and healthy White America since the 1950’s. It’s the exact same rationale that a gardener uses when pulling weeds away from valuable flowers and picking army worms off of leafy vegetables. White America has THE RIGHT to live and THE RIGHT to conditions that make it possible for this legacy group to grow and prosper!

        Trumps justifiable reaction to decades of uncontrolled 3rd world immigration makes for good campaign noise but, that noise must still be a reliable indicator of what he will try to accomplish in the fetid fever swamps of Washington.

        What Trump OUGHT to do now is acknowledge the non-feasibility of a mass deportation of 12 million illegals and make the following adjustment. Rather than a mass operation like Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback (which was only possible before LBJ and decades of anti-White judicial activism), Trump should do a DEPORTATION BY ATTRITION approach. As people are caught and charged with various crimes, their status can be quickly determined. If they are of a known troublemaking demographic i.e. Muslims, then IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION to their home country!

        Trump should declare that the process of awarding citizenship was fatally flawed for the past 50 years. The Anchor Baby loophole, mysteriously “found” in the 14th Amendment, MUST BE CLOSED. As for the 1965 Immigration Reform Act (and all such successive Acts), it would be impossible to force a total repeal. Again, ATTRITION is the weapon of choice. President Trump should issue a steady stream of Executive Orders that shoot holes into the 3rd world immigration matrix, and vetoes in the gears, until it can barely function.

        As for Mexican immigration, here’s how to fix that. Trump should give the NLRB and Dept. of Labor all the power they need to unionize Mexican immigrant labor and get the cost of that labor up to $15/hr + benefits. ALL OF A SUDDEN, the beaten-down and defeated legacy American work force will look very cost-effective in comparison and real Americans will get hired on instead. To keep such justice from being bypassed, a general 15% import tariff should be levied to keep employers motivated to stay here. A FDR-style excise tax on corporations that try to pass off the costs onto the consumer will motivate CEO’s to eat the cost themselves. After 34 years of unabated Reaganomics, they can afford it.

  91. FincaInTheMountains February 18, 2016 at 2:50 am #

    The terrorist attack in Ankara: Turkey is pushed to enter Syrian war

    At least 28 people were killed and more than 60 were injured of varying severity in a suicide attack in the capital, Ankara, Turkey.

    The explosion occurred at 18:30 in the city center 300 meters from the Turkish General Staff.

    It is reported that the explosion occurred as a result of activation of the explosive device planted in a car. It is noted that the car exploded at a time when at the intersection on a red light stopped trucks carrying military personnel of the General Staff of Turkey.

    Whatever option is chosen by Erdogan, he certainly will not be able to avoid blood. Considering how many enemies Erdogan has accumulated and how many weapons are now in Syria and Iraq, it is not difficult to understand that the consequences of a failed policy of Sultan of Turkey will be very deplorable – Turkish policy in Syria comes home to roost.

    Also an explosion occurred at the Turkish Cultural Centre in Stockholm. According to preliminary data there were no casualties

    The Turks said that they will go to Syria only with the Americans and only under the UN Security Council resolution – and if they suddenly change their mind and go to an independent military operation, it will mean that they go against Washington’s wishes.

    With no support from the United States (at least not from the White House), military action against the Kurds will be regarded by Moscow and Washington as a stab in the back of anti-DAESH coalition.

    Erdogan simply can not afford to throw a challenge to the two great powers.

    • JimInFlorida February 20, 2016 at 12:34 pm #

      The “terrorist” attack in Ankara was a barely camouflaged False Flag attack. The Caliphate wanna-be Erdogan is under incredible pressure to rescue the real terror insurgents in Syria. The global Shylocks and banksters are under the gun to steal eastern Syria in order to get that oil-gas pipeline through so they can skim revenues from it. Their existing economic rent collecting rackets are drying up and an even bigger 2008-style collapse looms large.

      The world would do better to launch a global war against the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and their peers. THERE is where the world’s stolen wealth is hiding! $500+ TRILLION…, torn from their hands with justifiable violence…, can retire a lot of debt and do a lot of good in the world.

  92. Janos Skorenzy February 18, 2016 at 5:02 am #

    In the case of unusual or suspicious death, autopsy is required by Texas Law. The local Judge ruled it was a natural death by phone, without even seeing the body.

    http://freedomoutpost.com/2016/02/a-nurses-perspective-justice-scalias-death-in-texas-is-the-21st-century-version-of-the-assassination-of-jfk/

  93. fodase February 18, 2016 at 7:17 am #

    Seriously, I ask myself how many months will have to pass before people realize Trump cannot do even one of the things he is promising to do, and whether or not he will be impeached in the second year of his presidency.

    ….glad you are acquiescing to the inevitable, your acceptance of President Trump can easily be sensed here.

    ….self-loathing White haters are welcome on the side of Our Great Leader, you will gradually recover, no worries, many years from now you will smilingly look back and say ‘was I really that crazy?’, and chuckle together with other recovered mudhutters.

  94. BackRowHeckler February 18, 2016 at 7:52 am #

    Well, I guess I was wrong.

    Perceiving how unstable the ME and CAsia is right now, I thought the explosion in Ankara could be the catalyst that kicked off a larger conflict, like the Arch Duke assassination in Serbia in June, 1914. It still might be, who knows. Things are still being sorted out over there, I’m sure.

    Last night during dinner NBC news was on in the background; the detonation was never mentioned. The big story seemed to be this guy in SF whose dog died. The dog meant a lot to him, and the dog liked to play with tennis balls on the beach, so if you send him a letter or E mail and tell him about your own dog he will send you a free tennis ball.

    All, apparently is well when the Big Story is about dogs, not WW3. That’s the message.

    BBC however did give the story extensive coverage.

    brh

  95. volodya February 18, 2016 at 12:40 pm #

    Mister Darling,

    Time will tell as to what happens with Russia. But I say what I say because the Russia of today looks to my eyes to be in very bad shape, an oligarch eaten carcass, and nothing like the old, formerly-feared USSR.

    To my eyes the only thing modern day Russia had going for it was 100 buck oil. But with oil at around 30 bucks and Iran coming on-stream, there’s some big questions. Does it have the resilience to reform its corrupt ways and make a go of it? Will Russians mend their ways to take advantage of their immense territory with its immensity of resources? Will it become a country of laws, predictable and fair and impartial? Or will it stay on the road it’s on now, a regime of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs and for the oligarchs?

    A nation or kingdom has to offer some benefit to the average citizen, a compelling vision, something to take pride in. Right now Putin, with his little adventures in Syria and Crimea and Ukraine, is riding a wave of popularity. But that’s pretty common and it isn’t saying much, so was Leopoldo Galtieri for a time after his seizure of the Falklands.

    The big question in my mind is will Ivan fight for Mother Russia? How long before Ivan starts to question, am I proud to be Russian? Is the Russian state something that helps people like me?

    Because if the answer to the foregoing is “no”, if Ivan thinks he’s being played for a sucker, as we’ve seen a multitude of times throughout history, people start making alternate arrangements. A nation can’t just be all about death and suffering and sacrifice. Death and sacrifice for what? To what end? For whose benefit?

    From my perch, both the USA and Russia are, as civilizations go, well past their prime and on the way out. Both societies suffer a variety of ills, but in the main, both are succumbing to the predations of their own respective elites and, the way it looks to me, neither will survive the experience.

    As far as Pentagon assessments go, the US has shmucked up pretty much everything it touched in the past 60 years. So, are the Pentagon analysts right about Russian efficacy? But let’s be generous and say they’re right.

    Because, even if they’re right, compared to the 20th century conflagrations, this Middle East thing is exceedingly pissant. But pissant as it is, it’s still well beyond the capability of the USA for one.

    America has made multiple demonstrations of its weakness. It couldn’t subdue a small desert country, made zero headway against donkey-riding illiterates in Afghanistan, got its ass beat 50 years ago by small brown men in a place that didn’t matter and probably never will.

    So then what about Russia? Kudos to the Russians for staying on time and on budget. But will Russia have staying power? Or are they as weak as I think? Will this in the end just be a further demonstration of civilizational senility?

    As far as the Russian defense of Assad goes, as the Taliban used to say, you have the watches but we have the time. In Syria, the clock ticks…

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    • MisterDarling February 18, 2016 at 1:56 pm #

      @ Volodya;

      “As far as Pentagon assessments go, the US has shmucked up pretty much everything it touched in the past 60 years. So, are the Pentagon analysts right about Russian efficacy? But let’s be generous and say they’re right.”-v.

      I quoted the US military b/c they are the most antagonistic and dismissive (publically) of Russian capabilities. We already know what the rest of the world thinks: pro-Russian. Putin has massive street cred right now – especially after the US/NATO debacles in Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014). Both were deeply embarrassing for the US. Volodya, I must admit I’m a little surprised at you. You seemed a little closer to the ground than this?

      “As far as the Russian defense of Assad goes, as the Taliban used to say, you have the watches but we have the time. In Syria, the clock ticks…”-v.

      Every move the US Military made in Afghanistan has been over-determined: by the defense industry (who want to milk the job for as long as possible) and by their political muppets (who want to posture for domestic stakeholders)… If it had been up to the rank-and-file, the whole thing would have been wrapped up in 2002 – save for a small stay-behind force.

      Cheers!

      • MisterDarling February 18, 2016 at 2:13 pm #

        RE | “As far as the Russian defense of Assad goes, as the Taliban used to say, you have the watches but we have the time. In Syria, the clock ticks…”-v.

        All R+6 objectives have been taken on-time so far. It’s happening exactly as I said it would at the start. First the ‘moderate’ rebel groups need to go (Al-Qaeda, backed by Turkey, Qatar, KSA and various other American neocon cat’s paws) & then it’s ISIS’s turn to taste the dirt.

        The only thing that can slow down the cleansing is a massive conventional ground invasion… But that would fail and be costly. The alternative is to threaten a nuclear intervention – but Russia has more than enough ‘threat’ of it’s own to block that.

        At this point – like it or not – the only true ‘moderates’ are the multi-ethnic and ecumenical forces commanded by Assad, Russia, Iran and their allies. If you value sanity and a controlled demolition/renegotiation of the old status quo, you’ll be pleased with the Assad Option.

  96. volodya February 18, 2016 at 1:15 pm #

    Another example of the manifest unfitness to govern displayed by Republicans is this business over Scalia’s replacement.

    But before we go on full deplore-mode, do you remember Ted Kennedy’s demagoguery over the Robert Bork nomination?

    • Doug February 18, 2016 at 9:19 pm #

      “. . . do you remember Ted Kennedy’s demagoguery over the Robert Bork nomination?”

      Gosh, I’ve always thought that, as is the case with libel, the truth is sufficient defense to charges of demagoguery. ;^)

      Teddy:

      “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.”

      If demagoguery is an appeal to emotion, here was a perfectly appropriate resort to the same.

      And when you add the inconvenient truth that Nixon seems to have promised Bork the appointment for his shameful role in the Saturday Night Massacre (Bork was the toady who ultimately fired Cox), the case for Teddy’s outrage is even stronger.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 3:02 pm #

        Yes you crucified Bork just as you crucified Clarence Thomas. Liberals are thugs who only care about winning, no matter at what cost. But from your point of view, non-Liberals aren’t human and really have no rights anyway.

        • Doug February 19, 2016 at 10:18 pm #

          I love it it that you imagine you know what I think or what my point of view is. Your imagination is going to keep you off balance and scrambling to catch up, probably forever.

          And the most remarkable piece of that reality is that you mostly won’t even notice. ;^)

          Now, you and Clarence run along and watch Long Dong Silver reruns. Mr. Justice Oreo is going to need something to take his mind off the developing crisis of not having Nino to guide his voting.

  97. volodya February 18, 2016 at 3:41 pm #

    Mister Darling,

    back to the question of time. How much time are the Russians budgeting for this venture in the Middle East? Even if they’re on schedule with their objectives, I doubt this thing will be over any time soon.

    It’s been 1400 hundred years and counting for the Sunni-Shia disagreement and it shows no sign of going away. It took 15 years of fighting for the Lebanese civil war to simmer down. And is it even over? How much would it take to re-ignite? The sectarian divisions that started it haven’t gone away after all.

    The point is that this thing looks like a bottomless pit to me. Even if they managed to shoosh the rebels out of Syria, are they going to chase them out of Iraq too? Because if they don’t, then this thing could look like Afghanistan with the Pushtun refuge on the Pakistani side of the border.

    Even if they make the insurgency disappear for a while, my understanding is that this thing is mostly indigenous. It’s also not just impoverished, angry young men, there’s a lot of diversity in terms of age and economic class, not to mention both men and women, at least according to one account I heard.

    The point is that even if the Russkis and the Iranians etc get the upper hand for a while the rebel fighters can melt back into the local population and then re-form after the various foreign parties, Russian, US etc have had their fill and go home to tally the ruinous cost to their treasuries.

    The point is that this could be a very difficult cockroach to kill off. How much is it worth to the Russians to have Assad in power and that port on the Syrian coast?

    As for Putin’s “street cred”, it may be massive but IMO it could also be massively over-inflated. What has he done after all to earn this cred? That bit of turf he grabbed from Ukraine? This business in the Middle East. I don’t know, this to me looks like awfully thin gruel, as I said in a past post, more a demonstration of weakness than power.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 18, 2016 at 3:59 pm #

      The brilliant special operation in the Crimea that has resulted in shock and awe not only to the elites of the neighboring countries, marked a new level of quality management and cooperation of all special units, as well as involvement of civic militia.

      Obviously, all the mistakes of generally successful special operations in Chechnya, South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been taken into account.

      Now the art of special operations in the fight against radical insurgents is being perfected in Syria.

    • MisterDarling February 18, 2016 at 4:53 pm #

      Mister Volodya;

      RE | “It’s been 1400 hundred years and counting for the Sunni-Shia disagreement and it shows no sign of going away. It took 15 years of fighting for the Lebanese civil war to simmer down. And is it even over? How much would it take to re-ignite? The sectarian divisions that started it haven’t gone away after all.”-v.

      Putin’s involvement in Syria has nothing to do with ‘fixing’ sectarian divisions. Why would you think that? Neither he or his subordinates have ever claimed that they were there to solve Muslim problems.

      This is a limited-objective, closed-ended operation that’s why it’s possible to track it. In no way shape or form is it comparable to the loosy-goosey way that American invasions start with one objective and that objective turns into another, and another, etc. ad nauseum. The reason that happens is that there various interest groups have been using conflict for ‘wealth-creation’.

      I think that you’re equating SCO-style foreign policy with Atlanticist/Neocon policy. The Russians and the Chinese are NOT out to solve the world’s problems or tell nations how to do business where they’re not directly impacted. They’re interested in doing deals (& defending themselves if necessary) as sovereign nations dealing with other sovereign nations. Internal politics is not their concern. To be very blunt: they don’t give a *f u c k* about that.

      “The point is that even if the Russkis and the Iranians etc get the upper hand for a while the rebel fighters can melt back into the local population and then re-form after the various foreign parties, Russian, US etc have had their fill and go home to tally the ruinous cost to their treasuries.”-v.

      The rebels are not primarily indigenous. For the most part, they’re foreign-born & bred Gulf-state mercenaries – which is just another layer of farce caked on top of this travesty. “Melting back” is not an option for them – although I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would love to have them try that.

      The Syrian situation is not analogous to Afghanistan or Iraq where there was or are dedicated popularly supported insurgencies. The Syrians have repeatedly referred to what’s happening to their nation as a “series of foreign invasions” – with ISIS and the ‘rebel’ factions being the worst of the invaders.

      The job is simple: eradicate them and pull back. Mr. Assad will then have a lot of work to do negotiating a safe peace for himself and his administration. But that’s a different story and he’ll have the backing of Russia and China – UN Security Council heavyweights – making sure he doesn’t get bum-rushed.

      Cheers!

      • ozone February 18, 2016 at 5:58 pm #

        “This is a limited-objective, closed-ended operation that’s why it’s possible to track it. In no way shape or form is it comparable to the loosy-goosey way that American invasions start with one objective and that objective turns into another, and another, etc. ad nauseum. The reason that happens is that there various interest groups have been using conflict for ‘wealth-creation’. ”

        ^This^ is what Americans do not understand, and would probably be horrified to hear. *BUT*, if they did hear and understand/internalize it, this kind of shit would [probably] stop in a big hurry due to a substantial lack of support. It was simply this lack of understanding that allowed Bush the Lesser to order his mercenaries into the militarily known swamp of Afghanistan and Iraq. (Well, shit, his “Deddy” too.)

        (I say “probably” because there seems to be an increasing slice of dumbfuckery in the population that likes to see “folks” blown up and asses kicked/obliterated. Yessir, overt barbarism has come to, and is on casual display in, the U.S. of A. Halle-fuckin-lujah!)

        I think the Russkies, as hard-headed pragmatists, see these *requested* interventions as parallel to their security (nay, even *existential*) interests. We should try and remember just who instigated all this raging insanity in the first instance…

        • ozone February 18, 2016 at 6:03 pm #

          (Don’t forget, Obama declared that America is THE “indispensable nation”. What, thereby, does that make every *other* nation, hmm? Ohhh, the shit is more than neck-deep now…)

  98. FincaInTheMountains February 18, 2016 at 3:50 pm #

    Stalinist model of Soviet Industrialization to the rescue of globalized economy

    Today there is a revolution, a change in the center of the financial superstructure of the globalized economy. As during the Great Depression to help Western bankers again comes the central planner’s elite of the “second world”, not only providing the investment sites and transit corridors, but also planned, on the basis of international agreements, future minimum yields on long-term investments.

    For these purposes is primarily aimed the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (ABII), created to save the dollar as the world currency, to be able to invest dollar reserves of all countries except the United States.

    However, the US will receive their dividend in the form of maintaining the liquidity and the value of the external dollar and therefore eliminating the need in alternative scenarios of radical rescue of themselves at the expense of others.

    To some extent the relationship of Chinese central planners with Western financiers has developed just under such scheme – the reinvestment of the dollar reserves in major infrastructure projects in China.

    But it’s almost all built up, and there is no understanding how and when it will turn a ROI, especially if global and Chinese economy will sharply slow pace. That is why Chinese themselves need to go to the global expanses, receive a guarantees in all of the Old World on the yield of long-term investments, and for this to involve the entire Old World in large-scale enterprise projects.

    And for the same reason ABII and all the BRICS and the SCO system is based on examples of Chinese planned interaction with Western financiers, which one way or another goes back to the Stalinist model of Soviet Industrialization.

    http://oohoo.livejournal.com/199138.html

  99. MisterDarling February 18, 2016 at 4:25 pm #

    According to the O E C D:

    https://twitter.com/OECD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

    Global growth is “flat-lined”

    Hmmm… “flat-lined”… There’s that phrase again.

    Look, don’t get irritated at me if I’m ahead of the curve within operationally useful timeframes. That’s what I do. Instead of hating, come back to the table, *join* the discussion and work constructively with others.

    I don’t care about your ideological ‘convictions’ or even if you’re a paid shill. Whatever you __thought__ you were doing bears scrutiny & reconsideration. Nobody’s going to tend your (figurative) bacon like you can. It’s up to you. Just to be very clear; this is an olive-branch.

    Cheers!

    😉

    • wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 5:00 pm #

      “Global growth is “flat-lined” –Mr. Darling

      “Global growth, currently estimated at 3.1 percent in 2015, is projected at 3.4 percent in 2016 and 3.6 percent in 2017.” –IMF

      “The Conference Board’s Global Economic Outlook for 2016. Global GDP growth is now projected at 2.5 percent” — The Conference Board

      “World gross product (WGP) projected to grow by 3.1 and 3.3 per cent in 2015 and 2016, respectively.” –United Nations

      “Growth is projected to reach 2.9 percent in 2016, as a modest recovery in advanced economies continues and activity stabilizes among major commodity exporters, according to the World Bank’s January 2016 Global Economic Prospects.” — World Bank

      “…projecting 2% growth in 2016, down from its previous 2.5% estimate, and 2.2% in 2017, down from 2.4%.” –OECD

      Mister Darling, you seem to have some kind of prejudice against a “flat-lined global economy” which does not allow you to see anything positive about flat-lining.

      Not to mention that you only reference data from the OECD, ignoring the projections of the IMF, The World Bank, United Nations, and The Conference Board. All five global organizations have different projections. Economics is not a science.

      Yet you focus on the most negative projection and assume the worst while not speaking of any of the positive aspects of a flat-lined global economy.

      Your outlook is not balanced. Your perspective is not objective. You do not consider all the data. You report false data like the Baltic Dry article in Hedges, which falsely said all world traffic had stopped. You cherry-pick and report what seems to support your preconceived notions instead of objectively considering a variety of data sources.

      Of course, if a data source does not conform to your expectations, you simply discredit it completely… as you have done with BLS employment data (unemployment now at 4.9%) and ADP payroll data.

      For those reasons further dialogue with you would be fruitless.

    • ozone February 18, 2016 at 6:20 pm #

      MD,
      I accept the proffered olive-branch, and it’s my very nature to always reassess my options and procedures. (IOW, I ain’t easily scared by change. It happens to be the way of the world.)

      Ironclad Statists will have to trust in their collective delusions; there is no help, there are no recommendations that will drag them from their febrile attempts to sustain the unsustainable. Privation is the uncaring taskmaster and teacher of the human race.

      • elysianfield February 18, 2016 at 11:20 pm #

        ” Privation is the uncaring taskmaster and teacher of the human race.”

        Yes, indeed. There will be no paucity of provisions, however, when we sit down to our banquet of consequences….the table will be groaning, and the assembled…sated and weeping.

  100. wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 4:25 pm #

    “I respect the pope and I love the pope in many ways. I love what he stands for and I like his attitude.” — Donald Trump on “Breitbart News Daily” Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016

    N. B. (nota bene)
    Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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  101. wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 5:11 pm #

    JHK was correct about the retracement. Good call, JHK!

  102. wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 5:48 pm #

    Latest CNN/ORC Nevada poll:

    Clinton 48%
    Sanders 47%

    Bernie Sanders was 40 points down in Nevada not too long ago and is now in a statistical tie… in the “diverse” state where Sanders was not supposed to be competitive with Hillary.

  103. malthuss February 18, 2016 at 5:52 pm #

    How can I make money from it?

    • Doug February 19, 2016 at 10:09 pm #

      “How can I make money from it?”

      Probably not by betting on the outcome based upon the polls. The big-time pollsters don’t usually even try with Nevada — too dense, unpredictable and intentionally obfuscated.

      Check with the bookies. All the ones I’ve popped in on are going with Killary.

  104. Frankiti February 18, 2016 at 5:56 pm #

    The leader of Pederasty International, an organization of angry closeted gay men and pedophiles, that preys on the poorest and weakest through proselytizing and tithing, and is further dedicated to keeping women in the bondage of pregnancy and child rearing, has called out Trump for being anti-christian.

    Now that’s a godsend of an endorsement.

    • wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 10:04 pm #

      Pederasty International? No such organization exists, does it? Do you have a credible endorsement source citation?

  105. Frankiti February 18, 2016 at 6:05 pm #

    Listened to a talk with the otherwise senile and cogent Martin Rees, (he’s probably a lord as is anyone over there who can their photo in a tabloid) and he really lost me when he spoke of people addressing a need to confront and/or curb human overpopulation as environmental “extremists”. Academia really has lost courage.

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    • ozone February 18, 2016 at 6:27 pm #

      Frankiti,
      Perhaps it’s not so much that they’ve lost their courage, but that they’ve decided to experiment with embracing the patently insane. 😉

  106. wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 7:03 pm #

    Scientists Are Floored by What’s Happening in the Arctic Right Now

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/18/scientists-are-floored-by-whats-happening-in-the-arctic-right-now/

  107. wpa_ccc February 18, 2016 at 7:48 pm #

    Bill Maher mocked Trump in early 2013 by saying he would donate $5 million to a charity of Trump’s choice (the Hair Club for Men was Maher’s suggestion) if the real estate tycoon could prove he was not the “spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”

    Trump published his birth certificate (short form) and then filed a lawsuit against Maher. Maher won the legal battle when Trump withdrew the lawsuit. Trump has never made his long form birth certificate available, so doubt remains about whether his mother had sex with an orangutan.

    Maher could have sued Trump for malicious prosecution. Malicious prosecution actions are generally disfavored by courts, but so are rich idiots who think the law is a toy to play with.

    • BackRowHeckler February 19, 2016 at 7:09 am #

      Far out!!!

      All Power to the People!!! (fist raised in the air)

      “Free Huey, Free Huey, Free Huey”!!!

      brh

      • elysianfield February 21, 2016 at 11:49 am #

        BRH,
        You do know that Huey be dead? Killed in a drug buy that went bad…a street-level drug buy. In Oakland.

        I can hear him now…his last words…” I’ll SUCK YO DICK for some crack….”

        Of course, mine is a scurrilous attack, probably without accuracy…true to form, instead of honorably offering goods or “services” for the crack, he attempted to “jack” the dealer.

        To be fair and balanced…I did not think much of him….

  108. Buck Stud February 18, 2016 at 10:08 pm #

    “Still supporting the Crone? You know if you gave her 100,00 dollars, she might let you rub cold cream into her creases for five minutes.’–Janos

    Very revealing. It just occurred to me that you have never learned how to appreciate/admire/desire elderly females.

    What a shame. And what a sin against and aberration of Nature. We are designed to be life long appreciators of the opposite sex, even as we age

    Poor fella–maybe you need a transfusion or red-blooded virility or an evening with Susan Sarandon.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 12:45 am #

      Yes Buck, roses are red, the sky is blue, dogs bark (so does Hillary), and women become less attractive as they get older. You are in denial about even the most basic elements of our common existence.

      A Woman’s beauty is her wealth and a Man’s wealth is his beauty. Thus men age better – even when they don’t.

      • elysianfield February 21, 2016 at 11:35 am #

        “A Woman’s beauty is her wealth and a Man’s wealth is his beauty. Thus men age better – even when they don’t”

        Janos,
        That, to my mind, is the most profound comment of yours I have seen…a basic truth many men, at any age, fail to understand.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 3:11 pm #

      An evening with Susan Sarandon? So so so very Gay.

  109. FincaInTheMountains February 19, 2016 at 2:23 am #

    Oops… Of the 28 people who died in the terrorist attack in Ankara on 17 February, 22 were pilots of the Turkish Air Force

    This was reported by the Azerbaijani news agency APA quoting the Turkish television channel Ulke TV.

    TV channel in Turkey has demanded to declare mourning over the death of the pilots. Officially, this information is not confirmed.

    On February 17 in the center of Ankara, close to the headquarters of the armed forces, the parliament and government buildings, the explosion occurred. As a result, 28 people died (26 of them – soldiers), 61 people were injured. The explosion of the car bomb occurred at a crossroads at the moment when trucks carrying military personnel stopped at a red light of the General Staff of Turkey. As part of the investigation nine people were detained.

    http://warfiles.ru/show-109248-terakt-oblomal-plany-erdogana-o-vozdushnom-vtorzhenii-v-siriyu-ubity-22-pilota-tureckih-vvs.html

    Now the art of special operations in the fight against radical insurgents is being perfected in Syria http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/repricing-reality/#comment-261487

    • FincaInTheMountains February 19, 2016 at 2:40 am #

      That’s what I call involvement of mystical-meteorological factor in current world events. It seems it would be a little hard for Sultan Erdogan to start his little adventure into Syria without people to man his F-16s.

      http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/enter-jeb-and-hil/#comment-240749

      • BackRowHeckler February 19, 2016 at 7:38 am #

        This explosion is already forgotten. Nothing about it on the news here. Big news is what Donald Trump said to the Pope, and what the Pope said to Donald Trump. Also Kanye West is broke.

        Fincain, sounds like you’re happy with the turn of events in Ankara. Is this the case?

        brh

  110. FincaInTheMountains February 19, 2016 at 3:50 am #

    The center of humanity’s moral and physical tension has shifted to Syria and to the United States and the Nazi march across the planet (or rather the march of the Black Project) that has bogged down in the Ukrainian mud after the Battle of Debaltseve is experiencing twitching of frog legs in infamous Volt’s experiment.

    And now we could say the same about Syria and about the election campaign in the United States, which of course does not mean that we are about to reach “peace-on-Earth” point, but if you take the analogy with WWII, we now happen to be not at the Stalingrad, or even at the battle of Kursk, but at the Seelow Heights.

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

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    • Doug February 19, 2016 at 10:01 pm #

      “Nazi march across the planet (or rather the march of the Black Project) that has bogged down in the Ukrainian mud after the Battle of Debaltseve . . .”

      Well, in the context of historic marches, that particular little Nazi romp wasn’t exactly an heroic one, or even very long.

      “Into the cauldron marched the eager cannon fodder, proudly waving their wolfsangel banners and sneering arrogantly about ‘koloradi’ . . . oops!”

  111. Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 4:11 am #

    Eighteen year study finds the exact same thing as Robert Putnam outlined in “Bowling Alone” a generation ago: Ethnic diversity leads to isolation and great suffering. This will be ignored by the Elite just as Putnam’s work was ignored. They are far too committed now to ever turn back. Putnam himself delayed publishing his results because he feared it would strengthen the anti-immigrant movement. Think about how bizarre that is: Censor your own results. No need for Big Brother because he’s inside you.

    http://www.amren.com/news/2016/02/study-increased-ethnic-diversity-making-brits-miserable/

  112. BackRowHeckler February 19, 2016 at 8:13 am #

    Speaking of the Pope, its about time he took that wall down surrounding Vatican City. ISIS wants in; its one of their stated goals. It seems un- Christian to keep them out.

    brh

    • pequiste February 21, 2016 at 6:21 pm #

      Yes to that and also take away those nasty firearms from those Swiss Guards people. Gun control works!

      How about some incentive to get those nice Yzlamik State folks over to the Vatican — say free admission to the Vatican Museums after prayers on Friday, or a special on Turban Tuesdays; for a bit of ….mmm…cough cough ……Yzlamik over- exuberance.

  113. BackRowHeckler February 19, 2016 at 11:57 am #

    Up at Middlebury College, when Muffin’s Monthly Trust Fund Check stops rolling in, and season’s passes at the local slopes can no longer be paid for because President Sanders shut down the Wall Street Brokerage Bank using “extraordinary revolutionary measures sanctioned by ‘The People’ ”, then what? There’s gonna be trouble, that’s what. Muffin thought she was ‘The People’ when she was making calls on Bernies’ behalf, signing illegals up to vote, and handing out flyers on the street. She’s still feeling ‘The Bern’ a little, but now she has to get a job, but every SJW jobs have been taken, and all that’s left is washing dishes in that Vegan restaurant in Brattleboro. And it doesn’t pay much.

    brh

    • Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 3:23 pm #

      What would you do or pay to avoid having to attend “An evening with Susan Sarandon”?

      Desperate men are capable of desperate measures. What would Mumford have done?

    • pequiste February 21, 2016 at 6:25 pm #

      You guys crack me up.

      Seriously, funny comments both BRH and Janos (even though you Janos pissed off Jim this week – naughty naughty.)

  114. volodya February 19, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

    Mister Darling,

    I never meant to imply that Putin’s involvement was to “fix” sectarian divisions. The way I see it his interest is to keep Russian access to that naval base. And, according to one source, get paid for weapons that Russians sold to Assad’s regime.

    The thing is this, what is the nature of the insurgency as far as who’s doing the fighting? Our “facts” differ in this regard. If your facts are correct, that it’s an insurgency manned mostly by foreigners, then you’re right, there’s no “melting” into the surrounding population. Or, at least, “melting” will be very difficult.

    So the Russians have limited aims. The Russians, unlike the big thinkers in the US, seem to be learning from history. Good for them. I understand what you’re saying w.r.t. time limited and closed ended. If only such a thing were possible. But I have severe doubts that this can be done. We’ll see how it works out, but the way I see it, the Russians are going to have to maintain a prolonged and expensive armed presence to keep Assad’s faction in power.

    Russian aims look straight forward to me. But given the animosities, IMO attaining those objectives won’t be. If Assad’s regime collapses, is there anyone else there that Russia can cultivate and still achieve its aims? If not, then it’s Assad and his coalition. By necessity therefore the Russians are embroiled in local politics because, as you said, Assad will have to do a lot of work and will need Russian and Chinese “backing”. And therein lies the peril ie the bottomless pit. What form will the backing take? Will it be just talk at the UN and other councils of the mighty? Because talk is cheap. Or will it be money, guns, ships and fighter jets and – worst of all – Russian boots?

    My bringing up 1400 year time lines was to illustrate the historical depths of the place. Even in the United States, after the Confederacy threw in the towel, the conflict never stopped. At least in my opinion it didn’t. What you see in Washington, day after day, week after week, year after year, are politicians exploiting those still existing national fault lines. And the United States is a new country, mere centuries old unlike the Middle East whose civilizational layers and antagonisms go back millennia. So I’m not so sure that the job – eradicate them and pull back – is so simple.

    In any case, my original contention was that Russia is a depleted version of its former self. At one point it seemed to have such promise, an up and coming industrial power, a modernizing nation. But it was destroyed in the 20th Century by wars and revolutions and purges, wrecked by communist despots and modern-day oligarchs, weakened by alcoholism. It needs to rebuild itself, clean out the Augean stables of corruption, deal with its drinking problem. Whether it goes down the democratic path with clean multi-party elections or not – and I think not – is beside the point. Not every society’s path is the same.

    Putin’s engagement in the Middle East at this point in Russian history IOW and IMO is a huge mistake. Someone should tell Putin, let the Mediterranean port go. The Russians have bigger problems to deal with.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 19, 2016 at 1:57 pm #

      I happen to know just the right remedy for the Russian “drinking problem” – to fly a combat jet aircraft – you get “high” enough without vodka.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVOUlNCJK2Y

      • Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 2:59 pm #

        Yeah and playing Mozart’s Sonatas on the Piano is a great cure for depression.

  115. AHtheHumanity February 19, 2016 at 1:11 pm #

    This is the place to think…about…how one relates to the world at large and in their own communities…and a lot of that has to do with how much money you have in the bank or in assets. Most people used to be “middle class” and were fine being that. Now that class system is evaporated and the WWII folks are dying off with their pensions and their charity foundations, and WHITE people aren’t happy being LOWER middle class because they can’t afford the latest smart phone or tablet or SUV or inherited wealth from WWII mom and dad. Every other ethnicity that isn’t living in a major city where they can pull in 40K a year from the “trickle down effect” is doing what they always do; living in a socialist system of SSI/Disability/Stamps/Vouchers/ER/Charity Utopia. Religion reared it’s ugly head this week regarding how one relates to others as a “Christian”; we should not protect ourselves and be constantly flogged and stripped of our dignity.

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  116. FincaInTheMountains February 19, 2016 at 1:36 pm #

    Alexander Zapolskis: America, of course, is a great country, but does not want to get punched in the nose

    The situation in Russian-American relations is beginning to take an overtly comedic turn. For the past nearly two years, the US keeps defeating Russia. Washington has repeatedly said that the economic sanctions have torn raw material Russian economy into shreds, and the US military are not just the best in the world, they are in fact the Atlases carrying the safety of the world on their shoulders.

    Not surprisingly, the request of the Russian army command to point out “where not to bomb in Syria to avoid hitting the US military,” a long time in Washington met a sincere surprise. Well, really, how can that be, that the best army in the world needs to coordinate with some backward Asiatic Papuans? Above us – only the stars!

    But it looks like with this thing the United States, say diplomatically, got a very unpleasant surprise the kind you find in child’s pampers. Russian aircraft in Syria so quickly, accurately, methodically, efficiently and steadily eliminates the radical Islamic terrorists masquerading as “democratic opposition”, that the American trainers’ getting in the way of a 500-pound airborne surprise from a purely theoretical probability very quickly approached the stage of inevitable.

    And the Pentagon finally realized that making loud heroic statements in front of the cameras in the press room is one thing, and the sky over Syria is another. Whatever Barack Obama said on a TV show, US Air Force can not provide cover for its soldiers from the air. Russians will not retreat, and the war, which inevitably descents into a global, for America completely unnecessary.

    Actually, it was clear for a long time, but then still have a lot of uncertainties, allowing Americans to successfully bluff. Unfortunately for them, this time the bluff is not working.

    And the United States are faced with a very difficult and unpleasant prospect. If you do not tell the Russians, then during the liquidation of another target in Syria, together with training camp of “moderate opposition terrorists” the instructors from the US Special Forces will be eliminated, and they will have nothing to accuse the Russians with.

    They did not really know. Moreover, for almost six months they asked American command to show “where not to bomb “. It was unrequited. It turns out that American soldiers will die, and the responsibility for it will not be imposed on anyone. But if such an incident will go without consequences, it will allow Russian planes to continue to bomb the US military insolently.

    In general, there is no good solution. In the end, the problem even reached the American high military command and political leadership. They stepped on the throat of their own pride and finally sent to Russians notification about the places where the American Special Forces are positioned in Syria. This was stated by General Charles Brown of the US Central Air Forces Command.

    And most interesting is the fact that the US is the coordinator of the placement of all foreign Special Forces of all other countries of the international coalition against terrorism in Syria.

    Thus, the Americans have handed over not only their own asses; they passed to the Russians positions of all Western Special Forces.

    America, of course, is a great country, but does not want to get punched in the nose

    • wpa_ccc February 19, 2016 at 4:11 pm #

      Russia/Putin is being played by NATO/EU/USA and doesn’t even know it. Of course, Putin is also distracting attention from what volodya called Russia’s: “bigger problems to deal with.”

      • Doug February 19, 2016 at 9:51 pm #

        “Russia/Putin is being played by NATO/EU/USA and doesn’t even know it.”

        I think I’m going to give that the Clueless Star of the Week Award.

  117. barbisbest February 19, 2016 at 1:37 pm #

    “white people aren’t happy because they can’t afford the latest smart phone or tablet.” Yah, those smartphones – children mine for minerals in other countries, a real nasty business, in order to manufacture those phones that make everyone so important. They don’t seem so cool to me now!!! but, who cares about children, collateral damage.

    “you have to move to some part of the country where, at least, you can grow some of your own food and be a useful part of a social and economic network that may be called a community.” JK Pretty powerful paragraph pilgrim.

    I’m not sure about patronae, may I buy your garden for 5 K. Oooooo, was that my out loud writing?

    • Janos Skorenzy February 19, 2016 at 2:56 pm #

      Yeah and only Whites use cell phones. The other races are far too sensitive to the needs of others to ever do such a thing.

      You’re one of the good ones, Barb. The Saved. The Elect. One of the few Whites who will be allowed to live in the Rainbow Nation – or allowed to live at all.

  118. tucsonspur February 19, 2016 at 4:09 pm #

    Trump just showed us not only how to rope-a-pope, but how to rope-a-dope-of-a pope. Did you see it? His mitre turned into a dunce cap.
    I know that he tries to be a good man. Plus he’s infallible.

    Beware of Cruz. Stephen King, the sultan of scare, thinks that he’s the scariest candidate out there. The slimy, slithering, saponaceous, snake!
    He’ll take your own words, build a coffin out of them, and put you in it with his tongue. Forked, that is.

    Where is Prescott, I haven’t seen him yet with the Bush ensemble?
    So what if he’s dead? Just disinter the dude and prop him up. Could get Jeb points for being daring. Well, maybe not, with all that Nazi stuff going around.

    Guess who? “Whitelady gets 650K speaking fee for telling black Americans that she’s down with their struggle”

  119. FincaInTheMountains February 19, 2016 at 5:43 pm #

    The terrorist attack in Ankara killed 21 Turkish Top Gun F16 pilots (which Turkey has no more than 50 altogether), who came to the Turkish General Staff in order to get the final briefing before the start of hostilities, inevitably suggests that it was not a terrorist attack, but a commando action – preventive strike of the Red Project based on intelligence obtained from the White Project, despite the fact that, until recently, White Project was an ally of the Black.

    http://www.newsfoxes.com/2016/02/fiends-behind-todays-deadly-terror-attacks-revealed-this-was-unexpected/

  120. Buck Stud February 19, 2016 at 10:33 pm #

    Wow, my brow is furrowed. Bernie Sanders agreeing with virulently anti -Immigrant crusader Lou Dobbs:

    SANDERS: Well, you raise a good point, in that this whole immigration guest worker program is the other side of the trade issue. On one hand you have large multinationals trying to shut down plants in the America, move to China and on the other hand you have the service industry bringing in low wage workers from abroad. The result is the same — middle class gets shrunken and wages go down.

    http://www.vox.com/2016/2/12/10981234/bernie-sanders-lou-dobbs

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  121. MisterDarling February 19, 2016 at 10:56 pm #

    @ Volodya;

    It really can’t be your fault if you have the sides and the stakes switched around regarding Syria. The MSM has so outdone itself by working the State Department’s message that it has become an open secret (and joke):

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/18/the-media-are-misleading-public-syria/8YB75otYirPzUCnlwaVtcK/story.html

    “So the Russians have limited aims. The Russians, unlike the big thinkers in the US, seem to be learning from history. Good for them. I understand what you’re saying w.r.t. time limited and closed ended. If only such a thing were possible. But I have severe doubts that this can be done. We’ll see how it works out, but the way I see it, the Russians are going to have to maintain a prolonged and expensive armed presence to keep Assad’s faction in power.”-v.

    Based on statements made by Putin’s people, he seems to be okay with or *without* Assad running the show. His process (as always) seems solidly pragmatic and cost/benefit based – y’know, the way that serious professionals in any high-stakes job process their decisions.

    Secondly, the Russians have been maintaining a military presence in Syria for decades now so… *no major policy changes there*. . . It was time for their facilities to get upgraded anyway. Oh, and now they’ve got airstrip and port privileges on Cyprus (with it’s fantastic weather & scenery) so that’s a nice backup. Actually, there are a lot of silver linings showing for them right now.

    The lesson to learn from all of this is that it’s LOT cheaper in terms of lives, cash and political fallout if you fight a war to win it instead of prolong it… This news will fall of deaf ears in America of course, but future players are taking notes and planning accordingly, looking forward to the day when the dead-wood’s finally cleared away.

    “My bringing up 1400 year time lines was to illustrate the historical depths of the place. Even in the United States, after the Confederacy threw in the towel, the conflict never stopped. At least in my opinion it didn’t. What you see in Washington, day after day, week after week, year after year, are politicians exploiting those still existing national fault lines. And the United States is a new country, mere centuries old unlike the Middle East whose civilizational layers and antagonisms go back millennia. So I’m not so sure that the job – eradicate them and pull back – is so simple.”
    -v.

    Again, why would any of the Middle East’s internal struggles matter to a foreign power that just wanted to safety, stability and access to resources vital to its economy? The only reason that we (the USA and all nations in its sphere of influence) have become accustomed to thinking about the ‘heartrending melodrama’ in the Middle East was because it was useful for generating excuses to meddle and invade.

    Prior to US involvement the Middle East was relatively stable – not *nice* – but stable at a nation-to-nation level. Then the newly formed CIA destabilized and replaced the _freely elected_ PM Mossadegh in Iran back in the early 1950’s, and things got on a roll and stayed that way. Iran/’Persia’ exerted a powerful dampening effect against all the Wahhabi-Wack-Jobiness emanating from the Arabia Peninsula and it’s near neighbors, but that changed when the Pahlevi’s claim to the throne was unearthed a Shah was propped into place. The rest became history… That’s what happens when you destabilize a region – there are oscillations, actions and reactions, and shit gets out of hand.

    Now, of course there were certain parties and nations that profited enormously from the ensuing chaos, but that party is over as of last year. Figuratively speaking, the bong’s been slapped out of hand and the water’s all over the rug, somebody shattered the glass coffee-table, ripped the stereo’s power-plug out of the wall, maced the host in the face and delivered a swift, vigorous kick to the scrotum-sac of the first person that talked smack.

    And the rest of the world is feeling very okay with it.

    Cheers!

    • ozone February 20, 2016 at 9:28 am #

      MD,
      All this time it was about raking in the blood-soaked Benjamins? (I’m shocked and horrified… yet again.)

      Here’s a guy who says yes, yes, and yes.

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44227.htm

      The M.O. of the military-industrial-terrorism complex.
      We should be aware that those who support and argue for the all-powerful state are condoning this behavior, because it is always the end result of a concentration of greed and power. Barbaric lawlessness made legal by cabals of psychopaths.

  122. MisterDarling February 20, 2016 at 12:56 am #

    @ Ozone;

    RE | “^This^ is what Americans do not understand, and would probably be horrified to hear. *BUT*, if they did hear and understand/internalize it, this kind of shit would [probably] stop in a big hurry due to a substantial lack of support.”

    This is where there is strong evidence that the Joe & Jill Shmoe understand at some level what a con the post-WW2 wars are and were: The war-effort participation rate of eligible adults during WW2 was 12.5%, for Korea & Vietnam it hovered around 5.5%. Post-9/11 it’s only 0.5% of the military-service eligible population. Somehow people understand that there’s more downside for themselves and the nation, than there is upside – even in a blizzard of complete nonsense…

    “Yessir, overt barbarism has come to, and is on casual display in, the U.S. of A. Halle-fuckin-lujah!)”-oz.

    The upside is that because it is so blatant – systematic kidnapping, indefinite detention without charge, torture, extrajudicial killings, mass warrantless surveillance & seizure – it’s so easy to see who is F.o.S. I don’t take anyone seriously who thinks – knowing that all of the above are going on – ‘the system’ that does these things can correct itself, or has any respect for the lives and dignity of its citizens.

    Normalcy Bias is a hideous thing.

    Cheers!

    • ozone February 20, 2016 at 9:30 am #

      Yep. (That’s all I got… 😉 )

  123. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 2:05 am #

    Census of the suckers

    On Facebook goes official census of the suckers, as well as religious fanatics of Prophet of Apple and creative capitalism Steve Jobs. The Vicegerent of Steve Jobs on Earth, the patriarch of Apple-fans, Tim Cook addressed the congregation with a letter, the congregation came into ecstasy and showered the letter with “likes”, “shares” and enthusiastic comments.

    In a letter to Tim Cook colorfully describes how his company is struggling with the requirements of the evil FBI, which strongly urges the innocent and pure in heart Apple programmers to include “back-doors” into iPhones, MacBooks and such that will allow the US security officials to spy on users.

    The funny thing is that there are people who really believe in the fact that the American company Apple denies the US government the right and the opportunity to spy on users of Apple devices.

    I think that now somewhere Edward Snowden is crying bitterly of boredom and hopelessness. He washes down his tears with strong good vodka, and his lovely companion wipes his tears and says, “Eddie, well, there are idiots in the world, you can’t help it.”

    To seriously accept Apple’s statements that it protects personal data is about the same as to listen to a lecture on good behavior from a well-known hooker.

    And in fact, that puzzle has easy solution. Apple’s sales fell for the first time. This happened in the 4th quarter of last year, which caused discomfort in the management and shareholders of Apple sect. Apple had no idea that their product has become too expensive and not sufficiently attractive. No! It is impossible by definition.

    They seem to have decided that the case is in the image and arranged a primitive PR together with their friends and colleges from the FBI. Everybody is happy. Naive lovers of apples are foaming at the mouth praising courageous and incorruptible Apple.

    I’m really looking forward to when Apple will follow the example of Microsoft, and also declares that no one ever spies on their users. That’s when you can really be dying with laughter.

    http://ruslanostashko.livejournal.com/22338.html

  124. wpa_ccc February 20, 2016 at 2:18 am #

    wpa: “Russia/Putin is being played by NATO/EU/USA and doesn’t even know it.”

    Doug: “I think I’m going to give that the Clueless Star of the Week Award.”

    Doug, please consider that Russia’s socioeconomic well-being and development are highly dependent on oil and gas prices. Its ineffective state apparatus hinders the development and modernization of the Russian economy, while the lack of a developed civil society and free media prevents the modernization of the Russian state’s administrative system. Moreover, without cooperation with the West, modernizing the Russian economy is problematic. Putin’s military adventurism only provokes the West… while wasting resources Russia cannot afford to waste.

    Russia apparently is not a rising superpower but rather a state whose relative economic weight will continue to wane in both the medium and long terms thanks to Putin’s mismanagement, confrontational style, and military misadventures. I refuse to accept the Clueless Star of the Week Award.

    • Doug February 20, 2016 at 11:45 am #

      wpa:

      * “Modernization” of economies is highly overrated and has poor prospects for the future.

      * Just look at the wonderful benefits a fully-developed civil society have brought to us here in the US “homeland”: a highly technologized police state, a rigged economy, phony elections . . .

      * The days of superpowers are starkly numbered, and Russia doesn’t really aspire to being one; it just wants to make it clear that the time of fucking with it in its natural sphere of influence are coming to an end.

      * To speak of Russian military “misadventures” is merely to earn points for next week’s award.

  125. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 2:56 am #

    Russian scientists have declared the revolution in the creation of processors with thousands of cores

    Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology experimentally proved that nanophotonic components based on copper can successfully work in photonic devices on a par with the components on the basis of gold and silver and copper components will soon become the basis for optoelectronic processors with thousands of cores.

    Nanophotonics – area of research to replace the existing computing device components that are using elements of light – photons – instead of electrons.

    Nanoscale Photonic components are created on the basis of the so-called metal-dielectric nanostructures, and was previously thought that only two metals can be used to create effective nanostructures – gold and silver.

    However, in practice, creation of components based on gold and silver is very difficult because both metals practically do not enter into chemical reactions, and hence the process of creating nanostructures is expensive, long, and sometimes even unfeasible.

    Revolutionary discovery in photonics for future super computers was made by researchers from the laboratory of nano-optics and plasmonics center of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). It was the first to make nanophotonic components based on copper, which by their characteristics are not inferior to counterparts from gold.

    http://www.vz.ru/news/2016/2/18/795076.html

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  126. Buck Stud February 20, 2016 at 7:36 am #

    “Yes you crucified Bork just as you crucified Clarence Thomas. Liberals are thugs who only care about winning, no matter at what cost. But from your point of view, non-Liberals aren’t human and really have no rights anyway.”–Janos

    No, the “liberals” care about winning because they care about preserving human decency/social/economic justice.

    I know, BRH, will ridicule the above as just more pie-in-the-sky platitudes when the end result would certainly be heavy bags of leaky vegan restaurant trash for society to lift.

    Regarding “non -human”: Socrates and Thrasymachus had a discussion 2396 years ago about this very subject, By all accounts Socrates eviscerated the logic of Thrasymachus who was basically arguing for the modern day GOP equivalent of “Dog-Eat-Dog”.

    And yet, after all these years The Animals persist: spitting, snarly demagoguery,Trump in full view; Cruz, couched in diabolical strategery,sneakily cackling from oblique profiles as if human beings can’t distinguish a hyena when they see one.

    When the barbarians and philistines seek to rip humanity limb from bloody limb in order to satiate their never ending avarice and gluttony, what else can a human being do, if not fight to win?

    Sit down by my knee, Janos. Perhaps there is hope for you yet.

    • BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 8:36 am #

      Far out, Brother! I dig it!

      For lunch is a sort of Vegan Stew. I have a well worn copy of Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ in my hip pocket, and a ‘Che’ T Shirt on my back.

      “All Power to the People”!

      Right On! (Fist, once again and always, in the air)

      And still, The Hyena’s are circling, circling in the gathering darkness.

      Incidentally Buck, I see how human decency/economic justice is engendered by lefties-in-charge in places like Oakland, Chicago, E St. Louis and Detroit (to name just a few. Next week there will be a summing up of human decency in Chicago for the first two months of 2016, and perhaps take a side look at lefty paradises Baltimore and Birmingham, Al. Preview: the bloodshed is record setting)

      Yours in Solidarity,

      BRH, Comrade

      • Buck Stud February 20, 2016 at 10:43 am #

        Spoken like a true “Oligarch loving, establishment worshiping, one-percent Wall Street” apologist clamoring for that same old “rigged economy, income inequality status quo”. Very well regurgitated, Son of Steyn!

        Goldman Sacks and Lloyd Blankfein send their regards.

        • BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 11:14 am #

          Just picking up on the Sanders retro 60s vibe, my brotha. Its all around me. Can you dig it?

          Incidentally, this summer solstice, win or lose, ‘Gathering of the Tribes’ in Burlington, VT to celebrate Sanders quixotic presidential quest.

          Be sure to wear flowers in your hair.

          Oh, it’ll be so fine, so fine
          on that Vermont Main Line
          Freaks and Beats
          Pranksters and Panthers
          Weathermen too
          Worshipping Gaia
          Come on Baby light my Faia
          Day Glo Paint and tie dye shirts
          rolling around in the dirt
          ‘Friend of the Devil’, on the radio
          Come up and celebrate the hippies last thro.

          brh

      • Janos Skorenzy February 20, 2016 at 4:12 pm #

        The 60’s must have been hell for a total square like you. Did you even ever try pot?

        I want to be there the first time you get high. I’ll try and score a little in Santa Fe when I come for a visit at your ranchero.

        Dude, you can’t understand 60’s music until you’ve changed your brain. Maybe the general loosening of the underpinnings of the mind will help you become a real Nationalist as well. Remember Buddha’s teachings to the young musicians: if your strings are too loose, the sound will be off. If too tight, also off in a more subtle way perhaps – and liable to snap.

        • elysianfield February 20, 2016 at 5:34 pm #

          ” Did you even ever try pot? ”

          Janos,
          There may be few in the readership of any age who has not tried pot…I’m one of them. One question, professor…”Will I go Schizo” if I try it?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 20, 2016 at 8:26 pm #

            Not seriously, though it might help to be with an experienced and trusted friend. It took me awhile to get high – I had to learn to let go. I didn’t keep on with it because after a few months it was just making me feel dull and kind of groggy. Some people metabolize it much better than other. Now they’re supposedly strains that wont do that. I might try again just for fun – it’s been more than 15 years since I last partook. And it’s legal up here in WA.

            I emphasize: smoke not eat. Eating can lead to serious freak outs since you can easily and rapidly ingest a lot. Apparently some pot shops have eatables with beginner doses. All my bad experiences were with eating.

        • BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 7:59 pm #

          I was just a grubby little kid in the 60s.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 20, 2016 at 8:29 pm #

            But you’re not now. You have no excuse. If your parents had been hippies, I could understand rebelling against that to become a square. The circle is endless and indicative of immortality. The square is the earth and leads to death.

        • BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 10:56 pm #

          “total square” I haven’t heard that phrase in a long time. Sometimes you say some pretty funny things Vlad, in spite of yourself.

          I’m reminded of Uma Thurmond in the ‘Kill Bill’ movie, describing someone as a ‘square’, and making a square with her hands in the air. It was pretty charming.

          I was never ‘Hip’, I’ll admit. How about you?

          brh

          • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 1:29 am #

            Oh yeah kind of and kind of not. But I’ve come to respect the Earth too – and that means squares as well since they are the Men of the Earth. After all, the Apollo Mission was a triumph for Squares of the World, guys with tube socks trailing their better halves back on Earth. And the guys behind the astronaut jocks were the guys with pocket protectors, slide rules, and thick rimmed glasses.

            Without guys like you, we’ll never get to smoke pot on other planets. And the global village will just become a giant stinking sewage filled slum – the New Orleans Superdome during Katrina.

          • capt spaulding February 21, 2016 at 11:47 am #

            At this point, he may be more properly addressed as “Vlad the Inhaler”.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 20, 2016 at 3:09 pm #

      In other words, because we believe in Natural Law, things like borders, competition, gender difference – we are scum who need to be crushed, re-educated, and/or destroyed. And since it’s war to the death, lies and all other kinds of dirty tricks are perfectly acceptable.

      Your Ideal? Everyone gets a prize. Every little kid on the team get a trophy so big he can hardly carry it. Everyone passes. But kids still feel bad about doing so poorly. So you further fix it so everyone gets an A. Thus the whole world becomes the Special Olympics. And after a few more evenings with Susan Sarandon, you going to wake up wearing her night gown.

      And of course the savagery of the Corporations, the Warmongers and their followers just feeds your fire. One extreme invokes the other as I Ching states. Stop being part of the problem: modify your pendulum swing please.

  127. BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 9:06 am #

    Fanny Mae is running out of $$$ again!

    Might be needing another massive bailout.

    (the $450 billion it got in 2009 has been blown, evidently)

    brh, Comrade

  128. Q. Shtik February 20, 2016 at 11:25 am #

    the logic of Thrasymachus who was basically arguing for the modern day GOP equivalent of “Dog-Eat-Dog”. – Buck

    ===========

    The thing is, Buck, Thrasy need not argue the logic of “Dog-Eat-Dog,” all one needs to do is stand back and observe that it is so.

  129. volodya February 20, 2016 at 11:40 am #

    Mr Darling,

    Yeah, I agree, MSM is a festering pile of bullshit, official government agencies provide lies, damned lies and statistics. And nobody, in my estimation, is as full of shit as an “expert”. Especially in the various ” ‘ologies” – those being social – ahem – “sciences”.

    Why do I say so? Because, what I’ve seen (and maybe you’ve seen it too) are ‘ologists that act more as advocates for one political or economic interest or another rather than as dispassionate scholars whose life work it is to enlighten and increase understanding.

    But the various pseudo-science ” ‘ologies” are beside the point. Is there an ‘ology that encapsulates the field of foreign affairs? Does foreign affairs qualify as a social “science”? Regardless, in my opinion any “expert” in that field is full of shit too and for the same reasons. Am I being unreasonable? Probably.

    But the article said those magic words: “Washington Consensus”. As full of shit as things get. I’ve said much the same in various past posts. Washington “Think Tanks”? Good grief, I wipe my ass with them, a contradiction in terms.

    Not much in the way of “thinking” going on in these “think tanks” in my humble opinion because, in the end, I judge by the record. In the case of the USA, since WW2, the record is one of fubar and debacle, one after another.

    So I’m afraid that, in these matters, people like us on the other side of the ocean are on our own to suss things out. We “know”, or we think we know, that there’s various actors in the Middle East, some local, some foreign (and we can argue about the relative proportions) violently contending for advantage in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and maybe a widening circle of countries (we’ll have to stay tuned to find out). And we can maybe even name them.

    But where does this leave us? Nowhere really. Unless you’re an insider in the various governing councils of the various actors, both state and non-state, we don’t know what their thinking is. Maybe we know what they say in public. Can we trust what they say? I wouldn’t, would you?

    So, what do we know? I think we can agree that: 1) there’s a deluge of refugees trying to get out of the Middle East into Europe and 2) much of Syria and Iraq have been reduced to rubble, with 1) a natural consequence of 2).

    So, who are the bad guys and who are the good guys? I have no earthly idea. Do you? If you say that Assad is the least worst of all the evils in that place, then that’s fine by me. After all, Khadaffy was derided and then in our great wisdom we aided in his ouster. But is anyone, especially Libyans, happy with the results?

    Why are they fighting? I don’t know but why do people normally fight? Land, resources, money, power, women, personal and collective aggrandizement. Let’s assume they’re fighting for all of the foregoing. What’s at stake for us in our own neck of the woods? Not much that I can see.

    But this discussion started because of my characterization of Russia. Can the Russians bend the arc of events there, at reasonable cost to themselves, to serve their own national interests? You apparently have more faith in their competence in these matters than I do. Maybe you’re right. It ain’t over yet. I suppose time will tell.

    • MisterDarling February 20, 2016 at 1:24 pm #

      Mr. Volodya;\

      “So, who are the bad guys and who are the good guys? I have no earthly idea. Do you? If you say that Assad is the least worst of all the evils in that place, then that’s fine by me. After all, Khadaffy was derided and then in our great wisdom we aided in his ouster. But is anyone, especially Libyans, happy with the results? “-v.

      I do have an idea who the competent and incompetent actors – based on education, training, eyewitness observation and face-to-face interaction – and know what productive and counter-productive activities are. Regime change in Iraq and Libya were only ‘necessary’ from the idiotic standpoint of political prostitutes working for disconnected plutocrats. In terms of responsible foreign policy, it was nothing but rubbish from the start.

      These plans and actions were widely recognized and condemned, but the balance of power was on the side of *internal barbarians* and now the damage is done, the results are in and we all have to deal with and mitigate it.

      There isn’t a lot of ‘magic and mystery’ to any of this, V. The information is out there, *struggling* to be heard generally, and there are journalists and policy-makers who try like hell to do the right thing (for a number of reasons) even when the cost they paid was steep… So there is that. The upside for them is that as the Collapse Process progresses, they face fewer obstacles and any ‘penalties’ imposed are more psychological than tangible (the ‘farm-animals’ haven’t figured out that the ‘barn-door’ is wide open).

      “But this discussion started because of my characterization of Russia. Can the Russians bend the arc of events there, at reasonable cost to themselves, to serve their own national interests? You apparently have more faith in their competence in these matters than I do. Maybe you’re right. It ain’t over yet. I suppose time will tell.”-v.

      I have solid reasons to place more faith in the efficacy of Russian activity than US/NATO’s, and it’s not a matter of “time” unless you mean ‘real-time, it’s just basic forecasting.

      For instance, back in 2014 there was this silly claim by the person in the White House that US/NATO troops would be completely out of Afghanistan by the end of the year. It was easy to see – based on the numbers available for the stuff and personnel to be removed, and what had actually been removed – that they were already badly behind schedule before the Spring had ended, and that based on how badly they were tracking they had already overshot their deadline (SPI was >0.60 by March 2014). The end result is what everyone who knows the US track-record expected: they moved the goals and eventually called it off…. FAILURE in other words. This is how the administration ‘keeps it’s word’.

      On the other hand Russian efforts are characterized by under-promising and over-delivering on manageable, easily-containable projects. How do they do it? Well it has to do with relative levels of Corruption.

      While it is true that the Russians are still saddled with a pack of corrupt Atlanticist oligarchs (who wouldn’t be there without the aid and succor of western plutocrats) their impact is primarily financial, it hasn’t contaminated the military and security-forces. In other words, Putin – who represents the resurgence of national sovereignty – actually has the power to get things done without it all going sideways as soon as the words come out of his mouth, unlike the denizens of 1600 Pennsylvania past, present and future. Theirs is a harvest of futility and sorrow.

      Cheers!

      • Doug February 20, 2016 at 6:36 pm #

        MD: “While it is true that the Russians are still saddled with a pack of corrupt Atlanticist oligarchs (who wouldn’t be there without the aid and succor of western plutocrats). . .”

        Yup, and the “able” assistance of toady Boris Yeltsin.

        “. . . their impact is primarily financial, it hasn’t contaminated the military and security-forces.”

        Yes. Putin has permitted them to retain a certain (significant) amount of power and influence but has made it clear where the limits are and that he has both the will and the capability of enforcing them.

        “In other words, Putin – who represents the resurgence of national sovereignty – actually has the power to get things done without it all going sideways as soon as the words come out of his mouth,. . .”

        Exactly correct, and the Russian people love it. They are experiencing a sense of the restoration of their dignity and gravitas in world affairs — an experience that matches objective reality rather closely.

        “. . . unlike the denizens of 1600 Pennsylvania past, present and future. Theirs is a harvest of futility and sorrow.”

        Well, they get really cool perks and the the band plays “Hail to the Chief,” but their impotence and minimal relevance is becoming ever more obvious.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 1:21 am #

          Yes, and Trump is or putative Putin – so vote for him. We need a man who is simultaneously both a reformer and a war chief for the American People.

          • Doug February 21, 2016 at 12:41 pm #

            Don’t be silly. Herr Trumpf is a bombastic “reality show” player.

            And the last thing America needs is yet another war chief. We’ve killed and maimed more than enough humans, from all sides and of all colors and religions, in our endless wars of expansion, aggression and for profit.

            Do you really think Lockheed Martin needs more business, when the cost is dead or disabled or mind-fucked young Americans and brown mother and babies blown to bloody bits around the globe?

            Yeah, you probably do.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

            Dug, Trump’s a war chief for America against the Elite. How can you not see that? Even our host has wished for his assassination – and he’s very far from being the only one.

  130. MisterDarling February 20, 2016 at 12:42 pm #

    @ Doug:

    EDIT: There’s a misallocated block of text missing from a reply to you. Let me know if you have questions as to the substance.

    😉

    Cheers!

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    • Doug February 20, 2016 at 6:39 pm #

      MD: There’s a misallocated block of text missing from a reply to you. Let me know if you have questions as to the substance.

      I’m afraid I’ve lost it in the turbulent flow of posts here.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 1:17 am #

        It’s been misunderallocated.

  131. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 1:18 pm #

    ISIL militants got surrounded in the cauldron in the eastern part of Aleppo

    Government forces surrounded the militants of the terrorist group “Islamic State” in the east of the Aleppo province. This is reported by local media.

    It is also noted that the division of the Syrian special forces “Tigers”, with the support of allied forces took control of Aleppo Power Station.

    However, official confirmation of this information is not available.

    http://cassad.cdnvideo.ru/uploads/posts/2016-02/medium/1455978805_snimok-ekrana-2016-02-20-v-17.36.16.png

  132. BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 1:38 pm #

    Hey, the Saudis claim to have a nuke, courtesy of the Pakis. Question is, what will they do with that nuke?

    That’s what I never understood about Iran; why do they need to build nuclear weapons when they could just buy a few from their friends in NKorea?

    This is really getting interesting now.

    Hey Buck, the Gentlemen you mention above, Mr. Goldman, Mr. Sachs and Mr. Blankfein, they don’t know me, I don’t know them. But never having harmed me in any way, I bear them no ill will. ‘Live and let live’, that’s my motto.

    brh

    • MisterDarling February 20, 2016 at 1:51 pm #

      @ BRH:

      “This is really getting interesting now.”

      Yes, it is.

      😉

      Actually, I hope they have one, and that they try to use it. It’s time for an object lesson.

      Cheers!

      • Janos Skorenzy February 20, 2016 at 5:02 pm #

        Why? France’s military will be Muslim in another generation. And they have a number of bombs. You people really haven’t thought it thru. Or to be more exact: your bosses have and just failed to inform you.

        Something tells me that Lieutenant Major Henry Darling will not be on the side of angels when the shit hits the fan in America.

        • elysianfield February 20, 2016 at 5:51 pm #

          “Lieutenant Major Henry Darling”

          Janos,
          Obviously, you’ve never been in, nor spent any time around, the military….

          • Doug February 21, 2016 at 12:44 pm #

            Lt. Major may be a rank in the US auxiliary of the Azov Battalion.

    • Being There February 20, 2016 at 4:34 pm #

      Well, Buck, don’t know that you’ll take Iran at its word, but their explanation is that they wanted to sell their oil, so they wanted nuclear energy for national consumption.

      Like I said—that’s what they say.

      Also—ever notice that those who have the nuc don’t get shock and awe?

  133. MisterDarling February 20, 2016 at 1:49 pm #

    @ Ozone:

    “We should be aware that those who support and argue for the all-powerful state are condoning this behavior, because it is always the end result of a concentration of greed and power. Barbaric lawlessness made legal by cabals of psychopaths.”-oz.

    The structural problem with various forms of democracy is that it arises from inefficient oligarchy and tends to slide back into it. It’s fairly easy for an electorate to be conned into *ostensibly* giving themselves more money and power which *actually* winds up in the pockets of a few new oligarchs. The __organizational mechanism__ for this process tends to be military spending – generally the weakest link.

    This is how Cleon the armor-maker and his defense contractor allies bribed, cajoled and harangued Athens into invading what is now Sicily – a full-spectrum disaster. And this is how the famed Arsenal of Venice fell apart.

    Lastly, this is how the autonomous city-states of Northern Italy lost the ability to fight actual wars – because of their reliance on mercenaries (defense contractors) who had every financial reason in the world to _game the fuck_ out of the whole war-fighting process. The result was that France (!France!) led by their ‘lame’ (though clear-headed and pragmatic) king called their fake ‘war-fighting’ bluff one day and punked them from one end of the Italian Peninsula to the other. How did France do it? Well they had been fighting real wars against England for a hundred years, so they had an actual ‘grip’ on fighting to win, not to profit, and they had war-fighting equipment that actually mattered (mobile artillery). [*]

    I’m using the Renaissance Italian example because it applies to the modern US/NATO situation. The West has made itself ridiculous on the battlefield – and it’s entirely due to an over-reliance on the profit-motive. Certain activities should not be profit driven.

    — — —

    [*] There are a number of straight-forward present-day parallels.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 20, 2016 at 4:15 pm #

      Yes, as Machiavelli said, citizens will fight to the death but mercs will run when the going gets bad. It is foolishness to depend on such.

      • malthuss February 20, 2016 at 9:56 pm #

        Up here on the High Plains of Kansas we have a town named Nicodemus that is a monument to failed attempts to turn Black folks into dark-skinned White people.

        White do-gooders created a Watts-like prairie community out of an empty field next to the Solomon River. Nicodemus had social clubs and bandstands and other amenities that none of the surrounding communities could afford.

        Yes, yes, it was a regular wonderland for those poor downtrodden people. The population shot right up to over 600 people; a big place for the time and region.

        It boomed right along for four years until the Cracker benefactors backed away so that those good citizens of Nicodemus could take over and run their own affairs.

        Within a couple of years the town was back down to a population of fifty and a lot of those people were surviving on Whitey donations from churches in surrounding towns.

        To be fair, a lot of little White towns have sprouted, then withered on the Great Plains, but none of them have a National Monument maintained by tax dollars to remind us of yet another, completely predictable, episode of Black failure.

        Look Nicodemus, Kansas up and read between the lines as you take in all of the kind words about the brave Black pioneers who met with unavoidable tragedy.

        • BackRowHeckler February 20, 2016 at 10:42 pm #

          Same thing happened in Liberia, except on a larger scale.

          brh

        • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 1:16 am #

          Thanks. I’ll look into that. Where was that place where Blacks were said to be doing so good until Whites got jealous and burned down their side of the town?

        • Doug February 21, 2016 at 5:03 pm #

          “White do-gooders created a Watts-like prairie community . . .”

          This is a lie and your entire rant is nothing more than a vile racist distortion of history and reality.

          It will really be a shame for Jim if his tolerance of neo-Nazi and white supremacist domination of these threads attracts the attention of organizations that monitor hate groups and sites.

  134. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 3:36 pm #

    Turkey has promised not to carry out a ground operation in Syria without the approval of the UN Security Council

    Moscow. February 20th. INTERFAX.RU – Turkey is not going to carry out a ground operation in Syria without the decision of the international coalition or the UN Security Council, said Turkey’s permanent representative to the UN Halit Cevik.

    “Turkey acts strictly under international law. Without a decision of the international coalition or the UN Security Council will not be involved in ground operations in Syria “, – said Cevik, who was quoted in the Turkish media on Saturday.

    https://news.mail.ru/politics/24906063/?frommail=1

    Untimely demise of 40% of Turkish Top Gun F16 pilots seem to have returned some senses into Turkish political leadership.

  135. wpa_ccc February 20, 2016 at 4:40 pm #

    “Also—ever notice that those who have the nuc don’t get shock and awe?” –Being There

    Yes, it’s called self-defense, which most of CFN claims to believe in… except in the case of Iran. Hypocrites.

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  136. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 5:39 pm #

    A little history relevant to current events. Part 1.

    The Cold War began as a result of a pro-Nazi Truman/ McCarthy coup, which occurred in the United States, when certain military and political circles became aware of the creation of the atomic bomb.

    The prospect of nuclear power has spanned their heads and made them essentially to abandon the alliance with the Soviet Union, and conclude on May 8 a separate peace with the “moderate opposition to Hitler.”

    The main demand of the conspirators was the US rejection of the Yalta agreements, negotiated between Roosevelt and Stalin, and it was plainly put in front of Stalin by Truman and Attlee in Potsdam.

    These demands were supported by bombing of Dresden, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war against the Greek Communists partisans that was started by the British with the support of the Americans, as well as the formation of the Nazi army in Schleswig-Holstein for a joint war against the USSR.

    Stalin replied to these with demarches in Israel, Poland, Korea and China, but the specific triggers of World War III (The Cold War) were the events in Greece in 1945.

    After Truman miserably lost the war in Korea, Eisenhower made a counter coup and pro-Nazi revolt in the United States was overturned. Unfortunately, the Cold War did not end there, because almost simultaneously in the USSR there was a pro-Nazi coup by Khrushchev and nobody left in USSR to negotiate with.

    Then began the Cold War with varying success, alternating between pro-Nazi / anti-Nazi upheavals in the Soviet Union and the United States, until Mikhail Gorbachev signed the act of surrender in December 8, 1987 in Reykjavik.

  137. Q. Shtik February 20, 2016 at 5:57 pm #

    Below are two famous quotes. Which candidate for President epitomizes these quotes?(hint: orange hair) With which CFN commenter do you associate these two quotes? (hint: mud hut). Why does the latter hate the former?

    “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

    “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” – Walt Whitman

    • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 3:32 am #

      If student driver goes too far left, you tell him to move back right. If he goes too far right, you tell him to move left – back to the center.

      Do you see contradiction here? Btw, neither of these inspired gentlemen were technical philosophers. Both believed in unchanging principles above the flux of life.

  138. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 6:54 pm #

    “Certain activities should not be profit driven.” — MD

    Mercenaries are not suitable for war. In fact, always in the history the mercenaries performed only auxiliary functions on the secondary directions. Organize protection, teach new recruits to carry out some special operations – that’s the limit of the dogs of war capabilities.

    An attack on the machine guns against the regular army is not for them. The dead do not need money, and mercenaries are there only for the money.

    This old saying has once again been proved true by the leading American private military company the “Blackwater”. As reflected by its leadership by signing the contract, “they hoped” to fight in Yemen with the children, but instead got as the opponents organized army, which is fighting for their beliefs.

    Therefore, referring to the set of formal details, the company is preparing to evacuate from the area of combat operations a third group of its mercenaries, numbering 500 people.

  139. FincaInTheMountains February 20, 2016 at 7:57 pm #

    Looks like Hillary has won Nevada.

    We should expect worsening in the ME situation.

    Good news: Trump takes SC.

  140. wpa_ccc February 20, 2016 at 11:31 pm #

    “Good news: Trump takes SC.” –Finca

    Let’s reprice reality. One presidential candidate wants to get rid of loopholes that help the “very rich” and “special interests.” He’s against foreign “sweatshops” that steal American jobs. He backs “prevailing wages” for U.S. positions filled by foreigners with special H-1B visas. And he says he’s the guy to rebuild America’s infrastructure, a job that could cost hundreds of billions of tax dollars. He’s backed a proposal to create a national health-care system similar to one offered to federal employees that is government run.

    Bernie Sanders? Nah. Try Donald Trump.

    Trump is an old-style populist with ideas long tied to the political left.
    Donald Trump is a liberal with New York values.

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    • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 1:13 am #

      Well and exactly said. Trump is a National Socialist. Like the Puritans of old, he envisions a “commonwealth”, a tide that actually lifts all boats, both big and small. What Reagan offered, Trump will deliver (hopefully).

      And needless to say, this includes Capitalism both big and small. The proviso being that the big must play ball with the nation. To whom much has been given (by the Creator not the State), much is asked. Thus a National Socialist will never say, “You didn’t build that” and imply the State should take the credit. But it is true that no one can build without the help of others, either directly or indirectly. National Socialism remembers the true side of Obama’s philosophy as well. And in some cases, the State does give a lot – and should definitely get a lot in return.

  141. wpa_ccc February 21, 2016 at 12:33 am #

    wpa–ccc,

    We should be very proud of what we accomplished today in Nevada. Just last month, the Clinton campaign said they were leading by 25 points in their internal polls. And the entrance polls show we won the Latino vote in Nevada by 8 points. We’ll leave Nevada just a few delegates behind. That’s huge momentum.

    The wind is at our backs. And in the next month, there are 26 primaries and caucuses.

    Our campaign is funded by more than 4 million individual contributions — a tremendous number of working people giving small amounts of money to take on a campaign and super PACs funded by millionaires, billionaires, hedge funds, and Wall Street.

    Bernie said from the beginning that people should not underestimate us. That is true now more than ever.

    Thank you for standing with Bernie.

    In solidarity,

    Jeff Weaver
    Campaign Manager
    Bernie 2016

  142. FincaInTheMountains February 21, 2016 at 1:44 am #

    Stephen Cohen: Not This Many Troops on Russia’s Border Since Hitler Attacked USSR

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld5zAedatYo

    Stephen Cohen answers some of Volodya’s questions what Russia is doing in Syria.

  143. FincaInTheMountains February 21, 2016 at 2:45 am #

    “Trump is a National Socialist.” – Janos

    There are no reasons to accuse Donald Trump of belonging to the Black Project. If anything, he’s Western White Project with some Red stripes.

    He never suggested that residents of the United States should be treated separately according to some ethnic, religious or race factors. However, the Nation State has all rights to protect the interests of its legal residents from those who may present a security threat by either being member of terrorist organization, been brainwashed by terror-related propaganda(such as Wahhabi), or those who would not report terrorist threat to the authorities.

    And US Congress and US Government have direct responsibility and obligations before its legal residents to request its intelligence agencies to establish reliable protocols for sorting emigrants based on security threat they may represent. In view of lack of such protocols, US Government has Constitutional power and obligation to stop emigration from certain regions altogether.

    If anybody, Hillary Clinton belongs to the Black Project and wants to import as many salafists form the ME on the pretext of their “humanitarian rights” to have a mercenary force inside US she could rely on for maintaining her dictatorial rule.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 3:37 am #

      I didn’t say “Nazi” – a Jewish pejorative. I said National Socialist. Under Fascist theory, each Nation will have its own unique form of National Socialism as per its unique traditions and circumstances. Obviously ours will be more Capitalist than most or probably any for that matter.

  144. FincaInTheMountains February 21, 2016 at 3:02 am #

    “And he says he’s the guy to rebuild America’s infrastructure, a job that could cost hundreds of billions of tax dollars.” == wpa

    American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that it would be necessary to invest 3.6 trillion dollars by 2020 into crumbling infrastructure.

    Studies have indicated that for every $1 billion of government infrastructure spending, between 4,000 and 18,000 jobs are created.

    This is why President Obama’s Jobs Council called infrastructure investment a “two-fer,” meaning it results in job creation in the short term and greater economic competitiveness over the long term.

    https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ProgressiveGrowthSECTION2CHAPTER5.pdf

    • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 3:40 am #

      Yet Obama didn’t institute a massive program to upgrade the infrastructure – a public works program that could have eased the unemployment problem and given hope to millions of young people just as FDR’s did. In fact, he had to restrain his laughter when someone reminded him about his promise of shovel ready jobs. He’s a demon even as your Lenin.

      • malthuss February 21, 2016 at 10:31 am #

        I have mentioned the pointlessness of going into further debt for ‘infrastructure.’

        Why bother?

        Baltic Dry Index at an all time low.
        1 in 3 or 4 Mexicans is already here.
        ‘The Dream Act’ and Obamas statement about them.

        With ‘Free Trade’ why have infrastructure?

        USA keeps sea lanes safe but China benefits from that.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 3:06 pm #

          Why? Because the spice must flow. Goods must get to markets. Hungry mouths yearn for Doritos and Beer – and hungry cash register gape open to be fed.

        • Being There February 21, 2016 at 3:16 pm #

          All for banking and the CEO class. That’s your leadership.

  145. FincaInTheMountains February 21, 2016 at 7:18 am #

    A little history relevant to current events. Part 2: Détente and MIRV technology

    The MIRV technology (Multiple independent reentry vehicles) allows the United States to set up to 16 independently targetable warheads per sea-based missile Trident-II.

    These missiles are deployed on submarine of type Ohio and Vanguard with the flight time of about 5 minutes allowing NATO to increase the number of targets by about 10 times, and reasonably hope to disarm the Soviet Union, destroying with the first sudden blow up to 90% of the USSR strategic nuclear forces.

    This opportunity became clear to the War Party in the United States, which of course is genetically linked to the pro-Nazi party, around 1972 causing them to topple President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, as the latter doubted this technology and has just had a hard time making peace with USSR after the dreadful defeat in Vietnam, and did not want to risk the SALT-1 treaty.

    And the Commission of Rodino could not show any evidence of Nixon’s connection with Watergate break-in, but a young attorney working for Commission Hillary Clinton locked herself with Nixon and blackmailed him with 18 minutes of erased magnetic tape, which by law records all the orders and conversations of the President Nixon, and managed to extract his resignation.

    Rodino subsequently acknowledged that the questioning of the President in the absence of his attorneys was completely illegal, but the winners are not judged, and Hillary provided an invaluable service to the powerful War Party in the United States, removing President from office, who did not give the green light to sabotage of the SALT-1.

    As a result, the Détente and peaceful coexistence of the two systems was transformed into regrouping for preparation of preemptive attack on the USSR.

    The introduction of MIRV technology allowed NATO to point a nuclear gun to USSR’s temple and intensified covert operations against the Soviet Union, which led Gorbachev to power, in conjunction with the policy of stifling of the Anaconda Ring, causing concern of strikes to the Soviet Union on the periphery.

    All that did not allowed Russia to use historical fruits of its victory in Korea and Vietnam, its increasing cultural influence in the world, including in Europe and in the United States and take its rightful place in the international division of labor.

    And the main role in that played the wounds inflicted by Khrushchev, who virtually destroyed the small and medium private business (cooperatives) and private farming, as well as destroyed the relationship of Soviet culture to the culture of the Orthodox Russian Empire, with his senseless attack against the Church and the intelligentsia.

    As a result, Brezhnev was unable to implement reforms quickly enough, which could provide the intellectual, cultural and economic support in the case of the inevitable failure of the guiding role of Communist ideology.

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  146. Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 4:28 pm #

    “This destiny does not tire, nor can it be broken,
    and its mantle of strength descends upon those in its service.”
    – Francis Parker Yockey, IMPERIUM

  147. Janos Skorenzy February 21, 2016 at 6:22 pm #

    http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/students-in-south-africa-set-white-devils-books-on-fire-dance-around-burning-art-paintings/4172/23

    Thugs? Retards? Street kids? No, students. STUDENTS. They are rejecting the culture of the country they took over. Who could have predicted such a thing!

  148. FincaInTheMountains February 21, 2016 at 7:31 pm #

    800 ISIS terrorists found themselves encircled for the first time in this war

    The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) is falling apart in the east Aleppo countryside after weeks of fending off the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies from taking the strategic Aleppo Thermal Power Plant.

    https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/tiger-forces-complete-the-east-aleppo-encirclement-800-isis-fighters-trapped

    From some other sites, the cauldron with 800 ISIS fighters has been liquidated already.

  149. wpa_ccc February 21, 2016 at 8:24 pm #

    “Looks like the bright, articulate, sharpshooter Rubio just got off the potty trainer, into the sandbox, and into the major leagues.” –Tucsonspur

    WHY RUBIO DOES NOT MEET PRESIDENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS

    Mario and Oriales Rubio became naturalized U.S. citizens on Nov. 5, 1975, four years after Marco Rubio was born. That’s really all you have to know. That simple fact — one not in dispute — disqualifies him legally, barring an amendment to the Constitution or a complete and deliberate misinterpretation of the Constitution, from being president or vice president. Those are the only two offices in the U.S. that have such a requirement.

    The definition of natural-born citizen approved by the first U.S. Congress can be seen in the Naturalization Act of 1790, which regarded it as a child born of two American parents. The law, specifying that a natural-born citizen need not be born on U.S. soil, stated: “The children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States.”

    Significantly, when the U.S. Senate resolved in 2008 that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican presidential nominee, was a natural-born citizen, it specified that his parents were American citizens. Rubio’s parents were NOT American citizens when Rubio was born.

  150. wpa_ccc February 21, 2016 at 8:57 pm #

    Jury is still out on retracement. It may be early days, but the Year of the Monkey has already brought a sense of calm—and even hope—to China’s battered stock markets. Chinese stocks have staged a quiet recovery, with the Shanghai Composite up 4.5% so far this month. The US markets have also gone up in the last week, the major indexes posted their best weekly performances this year, with the Nasdaq tallying its strongest week since July.

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  151. Buck Stud February 21, 2016 at 9:57 pm #

    Speaking of “Repricing Reality” the future GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has no what he meant:

    “Well, what I mean by that is it almost shouldn’t have been done. And you know, I really don’t even know what I mean, because that was a long time ago, and who knows what was in my head. I think that it wasn’t done correctly. In retrospect, it [the Iraq War] shouldn’t have been done at all.”

    • Buck Stud February 21, 2016 at 9:57 pm #

      *no idea*

  152. Buck Stud February 21, 2016 at 10:08 pm #

    Meanwhile, out in the “real world”–a world obscured by the hyenas of BRH’s frightened imagination–private colleges believe there is something to Bernie Sanders “free tuition” plan, And indeed, they are putting money their money where there mouth is:

    http://www.occupydemocrats.com/2016/02/21/stanford-is-now-tuition-free-for-all-students-from-low-income-families/

    • Q. Shtik February 21, 2016 at 10:36 pm #

      Stanford Is Now Tuition-Free For All Students From Low Income Families – Buck’s link

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

      “Low income families”……… let the cooking of the books begin.

      • BackRowHeckler February 22, 2016 at 12:19 am #

        Q, what you seem to be say is that Muffin, up at ski crazy Middlebury College, in the heart of Vermont, all at the same time, can collect her Trust Fund Check, disparage Wall Street where the Trust Fund Check comes from, and get free tuition too?

        What a sweet deal!

        Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure how 4 years of college, or 4 years anywhere, can be ‘free’. Somebody has to be paying for it.

        brh

        • Q. Shtik February 22, 2016 at 12:40 am #

          Yeah, the cleverest number crunching paper shufflers will get the bulk of the free money ……….. similar to medicaid.

    • BackRowHeckler February 21, 2016 at 10:42 pm #

      Frightened imagination?

      Here’s a list of CFN Bogeymen:

      Wall Street
      CIA
      Oligarchs
      Military Industrial complex
      Neo-Cons
      Republicans
      FBI
      Goldman Sachs
      John McCain
      Koch Brothers
      Walmart
      Big Oil
      Morgan Stanley
      US Armed Forces

      … to name just a few

      brh

  153. MisterDarling February 21, 2016 at 10:39 pm #

    @ FitM;

    RE | “Untimely demise of 40% of Turkish Top Gun F16 pilots seem to have returned some senses into Turkish political leadership.”-f.

    That was an efficient way to get the message across. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that NATO told Erdogan that they won’t have his back if goes up against Russia:

    http://trkad.com/nato-says-it-will-not-back-turkey-if-they-choose-to-go-to-war-with-russia/

  154. BackRowHeckler February 21, 2016 at 10:46 pm #

    Let us not forget “The Banksters”. or ‘Imperialists’ (left over from 1968)

    brh

    • MisterDarling February 22, 2016 at 1:01 am #

      Back Row;

      Interesting list… Why did you leave out the right-wing boogeymen: “liberals”, “libtards”, “democrats”, “feminists”, “blacks” & that old chestnut of the far-right, “jews”?

      If you going to make a boogeyman roster, you might as go full-spectrum, right?

      😉

      • BackRowHeckler February 22, 2016 at 3:11 am #

        MD, I was offering a partial list of CFN bogeymen, not Salon or Huffington Post bogeymen.

        brh

  155. sprawlcapital February 21, 2016 at 11:10 pm #

    February 21 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Verdun, considered by many competent historians to have been the most destructive battle in any war to date.

    As Yeats observed soon after the war, “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed . . .”

    I have been absent from these comments due to technical difficulties: am not able to log in on our good computer, the one with Windows XP, and this new Dell laptop suffers from jumping cursor syndrome. It’s almost unusable,

    Things fall apart .

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  156. officerripley February 27, 2016 at 11:49 pm #

    Mr. Kunstler said: “If you are a thinking person, the months ahead might be your last chance to protect whatever wealth you have and to move to some part of the country where, at least, you can grow some of your own food and become a useful part of a social and economic network that might be called a community.”

    Ah, but don’t forget about all the waste from nuclear storage plants–waste which stays deadly (not just dangerous, mind you, but deadly, for at least 10,000 yrs–which, if I’m not mistaken, is stored on every continent except Antarctica. So move to where you can grow all the crops & support a simpler lifestyle if you wish; but if the power grid–which is used extensively to maintain the mostly highly-technical nuclear waste facilities–goes down & if the population is reduced–so not enough workers to run those facilities–what life (human & otherwise) is left will be spending its time throwing up & watching its hair fall out while dying from radiation poisoning, a rough way to go. (A nuclear waste storage facility in Utah is leaking radiation from one of its tanks as we speak.) So I doubt anyone would live long enough to harvest very many crops. Just sayin’.

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